Nick Cave, Shane McGowan and ... yes ... Johnny Depp "Put A Spell on You"

Although there's certainly no way this will raise more money for Haiti than the new "We Are the World" confab, I'm just as sure the folks who turned out for that didn't have nearly as much fun as these guys (and gal) did.

Now, when you're talking about a party convened by drunkard's saint Shane MacGowan, things could have certainly gone South very quickly. As you'll see from the video below, his view-askew all-star gathering of sorts to croon Screamin' Jay Hawkins' "I Put a Spell on You" actually turned out something remarkably listenable - and even bordering on good.

As you'll see, the vocals are handled by sometime Pogue MacGowan, Nick Cave, Chrissie Hynde of the Pretenders and Bobby Gillespie of Primal Scream, and if you stick around to the end, you'll find none other Johnny Depp contributes a passable guitar solo too.

And all this madness is meant to benefit the Dublin-based charity World Concern as it works to help rebuild Haiti, so if you like the song, consider buying it when it goes on sale later this month.

A Saturday cache of clips: Is there really hope for "Cop Out"?

This surely isn't terribly exciting to the rest of the world, but it's thrilling to me that I have actually managed to enter the mid-90s or so and am - for the first time - typing this on my fancy new laptop while enjoying a strong cup of java at Jittery Joe's. It might be also because of the large Brazilian brew I'm downing, but it makes me seriously giddy.

And you know, ever since I heard that Kevin Smith was making a rather routine-sounding buddy cop movie as his next flick - and one he didn't even write himself - I just assumed that "Cop Out" was one I would skip altogether.

But, as you can see from the red band clip below, he does have one definite strength in his corner, the indefatigably crude Tracy Morgan. If you love watching him on "30 Rock" - and when the Emmys are perennially showered on the show, I really can't understand why he isn't at least nominated - you know he's at his best when he appears to be just spouting whatever comes into his head. And from this seriously crude clip - be warned, it contains both talk of monkey sex and a 10-year-old getting punched in the nards - you can see that Kevin Smith understood that he should at least let Tracy Morgan be Tracy Morgan, which will be enough to sucker me into buying a ticket when this comes out Feb. 26. Enjoy.



Next up comes the teaser trailer for a new Luc Besson movie, which though it really doesn't reveal much at all, is still reason to celebrate. The movie is called "The Adventures of Adele Blanc Sec," and from what little I know about it so far, it's based on the comic books by Jacques Tati about a young novelist who gets into all kinds of Indiana Jones-style adventures in the early 20th century. Though this is listed as coming out in April in France and July in Japan, I can't yet find a U.S. release date, but one is sure to come soon. Enjoy.



Even if Avril Lavigne's new theme song for Tim Burton's "Alice in Wonderland" is nothing but a disaster, I'm still almost entirely convinced that the movie itself will rock when it finally comes out in the first week of March. In this clip featuring interviews with both Johnny Depp and Anne Hathaway, I got the sense for the first time that this is going to be "Alice"-meets-"Chronicles of Narnia," with, near the end of this clip, young Mia Wasikowska donning armor to go into battle for the White Queen. And if I can digress about her for a second, she's part of the seriously great ensemble cast of "That Evening Sun" - the best Southern movie I've seen in many years. Go see that one if you can.



There's no shortage of artistic efforts to aid Haiti, and there can really never be too many. Lionel Richie's reconstitution of "We Are the World" surely will have more star power, but I'll take this project over that one any day. As you'll see from this British TV clip, Pogues poet and drunkard extraordinaire Shane MacGowan has convened Nick Cave, Chrissie Hynde, Glen Matlock of the Sex Pistols. Mick Jones of the Clash and - though he doesn't appear in this clip - even Johnny Depp too, among others, to record a version of Screamin' Jay Hawkins' great "You Put a Spell on Me," with all proceeds going to help Haiti rebuild. You don't get to hear any of the new track in this behind-the-scenes clip, but it's still fun to watch (not the least so you can try and decipher just what in the world MacGowan is saying), and keep your eyes out for the single release at the end of this month. Enjoy.



And finally, in a definite case of saving the worst for last, here's an "Entertainment Tonight" visit to the set of "Burlesque," which gets my early vote for the biggest disaster of 2010. You do get to see Christina Aguilera, Kristen Bell and other very attractive young ladies cavorting around in their burlesque outfits, but this clip mostly just left me with this burning question: Just how in the world did Bell, Stanley Tucci and even Alan Cumming end up in what appears to be a "Showgirls" sequel of sorts with Cher as the matron? Sheesh. Anyways, enjoy the clip, have a great weekend and please, if you have the chance, do go see "That Evening Sun," which features a performance from Hal Holbrook that's even better than the one in "Into the Wild" that should have won him an Oscar. Peace out.



P.S.: The Blogger spell check is once again not working, so please forgive any egregious spelling errors. Thanks.