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Strait, R.E.M. Run Over Charts

After two weeks of Diddy-shepherded made-for-TV bands topping the charts, a couple of old hands took their turn.

George Strait once again shot to the top of the charts, while the comeback-minded R.E.M. showed a return to form, finishing 1-2 on the latest album countdown.

The two giants in their respective genres dominated music sales, as the country kingpin scored his fourth No. 1 with Troubadour and the alt-rock godfathers' Accelerate opened at No. 2, their best showing in more than a decade.

Featuring the lead single "I Saw God Today," currently at No. 2 on the Hot Country Songs chart, Troubadour hummed along with 166,000 in sales for the week ended Sunday, per Nielsen SoundScan.

R.E.M.'s return to a rocking sound helped propel Accelerate to 115,000 in sales and marked the Hall of Fame band's highest chart position since 1996's New Adventures in Hi-Fi, which also debuted at No. 2.

Meanwhile, Day26's eponymous debut slipped from the top spot down to No. 4, while Making the Band cohorts Danity Kane dropped three spots to No. 7 with Welcome to the Dollhouse.

Riding momentum from the film's DVD release, the Alvin & the Chipmunks soundtrack jumped 11 spots to No. 5. Miami rapper Trina followed at No. 6 with her first career Top 10 bow, Still Da Baddest, selling a not-so-bad 47,000 copies.

Van Morrison landed the final Top 10 bow--the first of his decades-long career--with Keep It Simple selling 37,000 copies at No. 10. Morrison previously peaked at No. 15 with 1972's Saint Dominic's Preview. Elsewhere in the Billboard 200:

* Jack Johnson's Sleep Through the Static fell from the top 10 for the first time in nearly two months, landing at No. 13, though the album did pass the million-copy sales mark this week. * More than 30 new titles cracked the Billboard 200. Aside from the top 10 entries, the Rolling Stones' Shine a Light soundtrack checked in at No. 11, followed by the Black Keys' Attack and Release at No. 14. * Other noteworthy debuts included Sevendust's Chapter VII: Hope and Sorrow at No. 19, George Michael's hits collection Twentyfive at 23 and Moby's Last Night at 27.

Overall, sales were down nearly 4 percent from last week and more than 24 percent compared to the same period in 2007.

Next week, British sensation Leona Lewis will make a run for the top spot with her debut disc, Spirit. If successful, she'll become the first solo female Brit ever to top the Billboard 200.

A recap of the Top 10:

1. Troubadour, George Strait

2. Accelerate, R.E.M.

3. Now That's What I Call Music! 27, various

4. Day26, Day26

5. Alvin & the Chipmunks soundtrack, various

6. Still Da Baddest, Trina

7. Welcome to the Dollhouse, Danity Kane

8. Saturday Nights & Sunday Mornings, Counting Crows

9. Trilla, Rick Ross

10. Keep It Simple, Van Morrison

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Oprah Winfrey: The Wizardess of Oz

Dr. Oz's next big project--Him: On a Talk Show.

Like another TV doc before him, the man dubbed "America's Doctor" by no less an authority than Oprah Winfrey is following the yellow-brick road from the daytime diva's airwaves to his own chatfest.

According to Broadcasting and Cable, Winfrey's Harpo Productions is in the process of developing a show for Dr. Mehmet Oz, with an expected launch date of fall 2009.

While Winfrey and her golden-touch production team, which has spawned the likes of Dr. Phil, Rachael Ray and soon a Kirstie Alley program, already met with potential distributors in Chicago last month, it's unclear what format the new show will take or what will make up the bulk of its content, though it's safe to assume health and medicine will take center stage.

The 47-year-old Oz is professionally and publicly credentialed, serving as the vice chair and professor of surgery at Columbia University and director of the Cardiovascular Institute at New York Presbyterian Hospital, as well as cowriting the bestselling tomes You: An Owner's Manual, You: On a Diet and You: Staying Strong.

Word of the new show is hardly shocking news, as Oz has long been seemingly groomed by Winfrey for a platform of his own.

Last year, in a highly touted Oprah Winfrey Show first, Winfrey handed over the talk-show reins to Oz, leaving him to host an episode on his own with an audience full of men asking their most pressing, and TV-appropriate-embarrassing, medical questions.

In addition to his increasingly frequent appearances on Winfrey's show, Oz also regularly turns up on Oprah and Friends, the boss lady's XM Satellite Radio channel. He also hosts the Discovery Health program Second Opinion with Dr. Oz, a relationship that may already have lent itself nicely to his new gig.

Earlier this year, it was announced that Harpo and Discovery Health had teamed up to relaunch the cable network as OWN: The Oprah Winfrey Network in 2009.

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Radcliffe to make B'way debut in fall

Harry Potter is headed to The Great White Way.

Daniel Radcliffe, the star of the "Harry Potter" movies, will make his Broadway debut on Sept. 5, playing the disturbed stable boy in a revival of Peter Shaffer's play, "Equus," it was announced Tuesday.

Radcliffe, 18, earned rave reviews for his performance in the London production of the Tony Award-winning play. He also received loads of media attention for appearing naked onstage -- a departure from his wholesome image as the bespectacled boy wizard in the big-screen adaptations of J.K. Rowling's best-selling fantasy novels.

"Equus" begins previews Sept. 5 for a limited 22-week run at the Broadhurst Theatre. The play opens Sept. 25-Feb. 8, 2009. Thea Sharrock directs.

Richard Griffiths, who portrays Harry's mean Uncle Vernon in the "Potter" movies, reprises his London role as the psychiatrist who treats the stable boy, who has blinded six horses.

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Olympic torch protest draws international icons to San Francisco

Internationally renowned figures including Hollywood icon Richard Gere and Archbishop Desmond Tutu gathered in San Francisco Tuesday as the city geared up for its leg of the Beijing Olympic torch relay.

A myriad of rights groups and activists have descended on this famously liberal California city for Wednesday's event, after anti-China protests marred previous legs of the flame's global odyssey earlier this week.

"This really is an epic moment," Gere, chairman of the International Campaign for Tibet, told a candlelight vigil attended by some 2,000 people in downtown San Francisco late Tuesday.

"The harmonious society (Chinese president) Hu Jintao talks about is a fraud. There can be no harmony without freedom of religion and culture."

Gere shared with demonstrators a letter from the Dalai Lama urging nonviolence. In it, the Tibetan spiritual leader said it was "futile and not helpful to create hate in the hearts of Chinese people."

"I have a dream that Chinese leaders wake up one day, blink their eyes as if coming out of a daze and say 'Oh my god, what have we done?', then look at each other at the same time and say, 'let's go talk to the Dalai Lama,'" Gere said.

Tutu lauded the protestors for outpourings of support for human rights and called on US President George W. Bush and the leaders of other nations not to go to Beijing for the Games.

"For God's sake, for the sake of our children, for the sake of their children, for the sake of the beautiful people of Tibet -- don't go," Tutu said in his message to heads of states.

"Tell your counterparts in Beijing you wanted to come but looked at your schedule and realized you have something else to do."

The vigil concluded a day of largely peaceful demonstrations that started with a rally at the city's United Nations Plaza and later saw some 800 protestors marching to the Chinese consulate.

An earlier report that Irish rock star Bono attended one of the protests and spoke to AFP was wrong, as the singer was not in the city, a spokesman said.

Around 7,000 protesters are expected to turn out as the torch makes its way through the city Wednesday under an unprecedented security blanket designed to prevent a repeat of the chaotic scenes in Paris on Monday, when the torch flames were snuffed out several times before the event was cut short.

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