\'Jekyll and Hyde\' Musical May Become a Movie

LOS ANGELES â€" Every few years, a film musical puts the genre back in the spotlight. This year, it is “Les Misérables.” In 2008, it was “Mamma Mia!” In 2015, with some luck, it might be “Jekyll and Hyde.”

Mike Medavoy, a prolific film producer whose most musical venture to date was “Black Swan,” and Rick Nicita, a former agent who just started a production company, RP Media, have teamed up to buy film rights to “Jekyll and Hyde.”

The musical, with a book and lyrics by Leslie Bricusse and music by Frank Wildhorn, has been on national tour since its revival last year, and returns to Broadway at the Marquis Theater this spring. It was first performed in Houston 23 years ago, and in 1997 opened in New York, where it played for more than three and a half years.

But Hollywood had not picked up the film rights.

“The film musical is a very strange animal,” said Mr. Bricusse, who joined Mr. Wildhorn, Mr. Nicita and Mr. Medavoy in an interview by phone on Friday. â€They can bite you in the back, or they can do very well for you.”

“Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde,” a 19th century novella by Robert Louis Stevenson, has inspired its share of films through the years. One starred Spencer Tracy and was nominated for three Oscars in 1942. Another, “Dr. Jekyll and Ms. Hyde,” starred Sean Young and was nominated for three Razzies, which rate Hollywood’s worst offerings, in 1996.

Neither film won an award. But the next version will be poised to try again.

“They’re consistently hits if they’re made well,” Mr. Nicita said of film musicals. For “Jekyll and Hyde,” Mr. Nicita and Mr. Medavoy said the immediate plan is to recruit a director. The producers will then turn to the matter of cast, hoping to get a film on screens in two years.

Casting will be under the watchful eyes of Mr. Bricusse and Mr. Wildhorn, who said they were not simply interested in actors who sing, but rather in first-rate actors who are also first-r! ate singers.

“That is not a long list,” said Mr. Bricusse.

An App to Sift Through Books

How do you find out what books friends and family are reading and loving

One answer is a conversation face to face â€" but that is so old-fashioned. Another is to join social media sites devoted to books, like Goodreads.com or Shelfari.com â€" but that takes time and commitment. You could follow book recommendations from friends on Facebook â€" but you would have to dig through other preferences.

Random House says these options are fine, but not enough. On Tuesday, the publisher’s digital unit will release an app called BookScout that lets users share favorite books with friends and then receive reading recommendations based on their own preferences. (It was released to Random House employees last week.)

The sharing takes place on Facebook but is focused just on books, and it is stripped of the social network’s extras, like chat groups.

The app features selections from all publishers, not just those ofRandom House, which are available to buy using links to major retailers.

The app is the culmination of months of work by Random House’s digital marketplace development group.

For new users, the app’s recommendation algorithm looks at your Facebook timeline for any previous “likes” of books or general interest pages (“history” or “romance,” for example) to gather information about books you might enjoy. If you have not liked any books or general interests, the app will offer best sellers until it learns your preferences. If you see books you do not like, you can also mark “not interested.”

To install the app, just visit apps.facebook.com/bookscout.

Condoleezza Rice Becomes CBS News Contributor

CBS News announced Sunday that it had hired Condoleezza Rice, the former Secretary of State, to become a regular contributor.

The appointment was made by the CBS News chairman, Jeff Fager, and the president, David Rhodes.

Ms. Rice, who was Secretary of State under President George W. Bush from 2005 to 2009, and National Security Advisor from 2001 to 2005, is expected to comment regularly on national and international issues, CBS said.

Other figures from the Bush administration have been hired as television commentators, including Karl Rove, the former deputy chief of staff, and the former UN ambassador, John Bolton, both at Fox News.

Since leaving office, Ms. Rice has worked as professor of political economy and political science at Stanford University, and is a founding partner of a business consulting firm, RiceHadleyGates.

Condoleezza Rice Becomes CBS News Contributor

CBS News announced Sunday that it had hired Condoleezza Rice, the former Secretary of State, to become a regular contributor.

The appointment was made by the CBS News chairman, Jeff Fager, and the president, David Rhodes.

Ms. Rice, who was Secretary of State under President George W. Bush from 2005 to 2009, and National Security Advisor from 2001 to 2005, is expected to comment regularly on national and international issues, CBS said.

Other figures from the Bush administration have been hired as television commentators, including Karl Rove, the former deputy chief of staff, and the former UN ambassador, John Bolton, both at Fox News.

Since leaving office, Ms. Rice has worked as professor of political economy and political science at Stanford University, and is a founding partner of a business consulting firm, RiceHadleyGates.

To Usher in Second Term, News Outlets Go to Capital

If he squints hard enough, President Obama will be able to see CNN from his perch on the inaugural podium on Monday.

The cable news channel has set up an elaborate studio on the National Mall â€" one of the four locations where its anchors will be leading coverage of Mr. Obama’s second inaugural celebration.

“The goal is to put our anchors in the middle of all the activity,” said Sam Feist, CNN’s Washington bureau chief. So in the morning, Wolf Blitzer will start out by the Capitol building and Anderson Cooper by the Mall, moving to new spots along the parade route in the afternoon. Other anchors will be at the inaugural balls at night.

The coverage might seem more subdued on other major television networks, reflecting the fact that there is generally less enthusiasm for presidential inaugurations the second time around. Still, the ceremony ad the spectacle that accompanies it will take over the networks and news channels beginning with their morning shows, some of which are relocating to Washington for the day.

CBS has built a studio on the Mall beside CNN’s. Its one-year-old morning show, “CBS This Morning,” will be broadcast from there and expand to three hours for the day. NBC’s “Today” show will have all of its hosts in Washington, as well.

ABC’s “Good Morning America” is doing it a bit differently, sending George Stephanopoulos and Josh Elliott to Washington and having the show’s other hosts stay in New York.

The bulk of the festivities will be anchored by the same correspondents who handled election night for their networks. There has been a last-minute change at PBS, though: Judy Woodruff is away from Washington because of a family illness, a spokeswoman said, so the senior correspondent Jeffrey Brown will anchor with Gwen Ifill, instead.

Most Americans will watch the inauguration on te! levision, just as they did in 2009, the first time Mr. Obama was inaugurated. But there will also be a panoply of Web sites live-streaming the event, including that of the Presidential Inauguration Committee.

Katie Couric to Interview Manti Te\'o

Katie Couric has landed the first television interview with Manti Te’o, the Notre Dame football star who said he was tricked into believing first that he had a girlfriend and then that the girlfriend died of leukemia. The girlfriend never existed.

The oddity of the preceding sentences explain why Mr. Te’o has received so much attention in recent days, and why the first interview of him has been so hotly pursued.

The ESPN reporter Jeremy Schaap interviewed Mr. Te’o for two and a half hours on Friday night, but Mr. Te’o's representatives insisted that it take place off-camera. Now, it seems, they are ready for him to go on-camera.

Ms. Couric’s interview will be televised on Thursday on “Katie,” the syndicated talk show she began hosting last fall, a spokeswoman for the show said Sunday. Excerpts from the interview will be broadcast beforehand on “Good Morning America” and other ABC News programs.

Mr. Te’o will be joined by his parents Brian and Ottilia for the intrview. Mr. Te’o apparently misled his father about the girlfriend, claiming at one point that he’d met her in Hawaii.

Mr. Te’o told Mr. Schaap on Friday that he was the victim of an elaborate hoax. “I wasn’t faking it,” he said. That possibility was brought up three days earlier when the Web site Deadspin published an investigation into his claims about the girlfriend.

Ms. Couric and her staff beat out a number of other interviewers who tried to score a sit-down with Mr. Te’o, including Oprah Winfrey. Ms. Winfrey’s much-anticipated interview with Lance Armstrong was televised last Thursday and Friday on her cable channel OWN.