Val Kilmer

From a baby's harrowing ride down the River Nile to a parting of the Red Sea that would make even Cecil B. DeMille smile, DreamWorks' "The Prince of Egypt" is that rarest of film creatures: a biblical epic that does both its subject and its medium proud.That its medium is animation makes the feat even more impressive. Seven decades of talking critters and lovers who live happily ever after has made animation largely a kids' domain. True, adults helped make "Snow White" and her successors classics, but it's the non-threatening nature of animated films that has made them staples, films that generations of parents and even the youngest children could enjoy together.

SUN SCORE : * Alexander the Great still conquers the known world of antiquity in Oliver Stone's Alexander, but, dramatically, absolutely nothing seems to happen. This nearly-three-hour feature plays like the most extravagant educational filmstrip ever made. The imagery merely illustrates the running - make that stumbling - commentary of the narrator, Alexander's one-time supporter Ptolemy (Anthony Hopkins), who relates the Greek king's story 40 years after the monarch's death. Alexander (Colin Farrell)

ATLANTA -- Shirl Jennings doesn't look people in the eye when he talks to them, which is disconcerting. But he isn't being rude or shy. He can see, all right. He just hasn't gotten used to making eye contact during a conversation. He forgets to look down, too, for curbs and chairs and other obstacles below eye level. When he was blind, as he was for most of his 58 years, he never had to worry about such things. "I'm so used to looking straight ahead," said the resident of Conyers, Ga. "Being blind was more easy sometimes."

Director Joel Schumacher surveyed the expectant faces of reporters gathered around him and pledged to clear up all the rumors about why Michael Keaton left "Batman Forever.""The inside story?" Mr. Schumacher asked, then paused. "I had Tonya Harding break Michael's leg."Mr. Schumacher can be forgiven such kidding.When he signed on to direct the third "Batman" -- Tim Burton helmed the first two -- he knew he would come under scrutiny. But he had no idea how intense it would be, or how many casting crises would wrack his production.

ON AND OFF THE AIR:* Last year it was kind of the All-American Boy story at the U.S. Open Tennis Tournament, as upright Pete Sampras knocked off bad boy Andre Agassi for the title, in the first all-American final in 11 years.It will be a couple weeks before we know whether the 20-year-old Sampras can defend the title, but early round matches are getting under way today in Flushing Meadow, N.Y., and coverage is available on cable and broadcast television.Basic cable's USA service has games daily at 11 a.m. and again at 7:30 p.m. CBS has nightly highlights after the late news.

Some longtime friends long absent from the screen are returning this fall, which should make for some happy reunions in the nation's movie theaters. Among those actors who'll be offering their work up for public inspection after especially long absences are Jodie Foster, off screen since 2002's Panic Room; Annette Bening, off screen since 2000's What Planet Are You From? and even Barbra Streisand, AWOL since 1996's The Mirror Has Two Faces. Babs get the award for returning in the unlikeliest place; she'll be playing Ben Stiller's mother in Meet the Fockers (Dec.

Robert R. Granville, 89, an FBI agent in New York who headed the team that arrested Julius and Ethel Rosenberg in a sensational Cold War espionage case, died April 12 in Tampa, Fla., two weeks after suffering a stroke. Mr. Granville began working for the FBI in 1940 and was promoted to field supervisor of Soviet espionage in the New York office six years later. On July 17, 1950, he and fellow agents arrested Julius Rosenberg in his apartment on the Lower East Side of Manhattan. Mr. Rosenberg was charged with giving atomic secrets to the Soviet Union.

Clintons to join Bloomberg in ringing in the new year Tonight, Sen. Hillary Clinton and former President Bill Clinton will be in Times Square, helping New York Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg lower the glittery New Year's Eve ball. The Clintons will lead hundreds of thousands of revelers in the final 60-second countdown and push the ceremonial button that lowers the ball. Up to a million people are expected tonight to wait for the clock to strike midnight, with the forecast calling for snow and temperatures in the low 30s. Portions of the event will be televised live on ABC and other networks.

TEENAGE MUTANT NINJA TURTLES II: THE SECRET OF 0) THE OOZEOriginal Soundtrack (SBK 96204)Vanilla Ice may have an on-screen role in the movie itself, but when it comes to the soundtrack for "Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles II: The Secret of the Ooze," he's strictly a bit player. Not that his "Ninja Rap" is an especially shoddy piece of work; it's actually pretty catchy, even if its "Go ninja, go ninja, go!" chorus sounds awfully similar to an M. C. Hammer routine. But the truth is, Ice is frozen out by the album's other contributors, particularly Cathy Dennis and David Morales' searing "Find the Key to Your Life," Spunkadelic's feisty "Creatures of Habit" and Dan Hartman's soulful "(That's Your)

Nicole Kidman pushes Chanel No. 5. Val Kilmer points a Coolpix 2000 digital camera. Robert De Niro, wandering the mean streets of his New York, rhapsodizes over American Express. Not quite Oscar-worthy roles, but they've all made it to the big screen. Commercials, once considered a rude interruption, have emerged as a multimillion-dollar cash cow for theater chains across the nation. Though many viewers find the ads annoying, it's Hollywood's younger ticket buyers, ages 14 to 34, who are generating the demand to produce more such spots.