America's Sweethearts is just the kind of romantic froth that makes for pleasant viewing on a lazy, rainy day. While Julia Roberts, John Cusack and Catherine Zeta-Jones offer high-wattage marquee value, co-star and co-writer Billy Crystal reworks Singin' in the Rain for latter-day Hollywood, where estranged superstars Gwen (Zeta-Jones) and Eddie (Cusack) reluctantly promote their latest movie by pretending their messily disputed relationship is still going strong. The studio chief (Stanley Tucci) is desperate for a hit, so he hires a seasoned publicist (Crystal) to orchestrate a press junket that will cast everyone in a profitable light. The catch: The director (Christopher Walken) has abducted his own film in an act of artistic extortion, and Gwen's sister and long-time assistant Kiki (Roberts) is the true object of Eddie's desire. Chaos ensues at the luxury hotel where the junket is scheduled, and America's Sweethearts pokes easy fun at the cynical machinery that keeps Hollywood running. Quotable quips are delivered in abundance and while Zeta-Jones is readily convincing as a bitchy narcissist, Roberts effortlessly steals the show with her trademark charms. All of which makes America's Sweethearts lightly entertaining, even though it never rises (like Roberts's earlier Notting Hill) to the level of classic romantic comedy, hampered by a script that too often substitutes easy laughs for ripe satirical invention, flashing a phoney grin when it should be baring its fangs. --Jeff Shannon, Amazon.com

On the DVD: American Sweetheart's disc transfer is polished and presented in anamorphic 2.35:1 ratio, but the image quality is nothing special, and because the soundtrack doesn't feature any particularly spectacular moments (most of the audio is set pieces between two or three actors) there is little to make it stand out. The extras are also limited; filmographies of the principal players, a couple of trailers for other films staring America's Sweetheart's two leading ladies and five deleted scenes with commentary from director Joe Roth. Overall disappointing considering the wealth of Hollywood "A" List talent in the film. Interviews, outtakes and making of features would have improved the content considerably. --Kristen Bowditch END

Gwen (Catherine Zeta-Jones) and Eddie (John Cusack) are AMERICA'S SWEETHEARTS, two wildly popular celebrities who share their love on and off the screen in this farcical romantic comedy.

Tribute albums and concerts come and go, but America: A Tribute to Heroes may well stand the test of time. Recorded just 10 days after the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, this two-hour US TV telethon has an appropriately sombre tone; it's also refreshingly unpretentious and ego-free, with no audience and no onscreen identification--of the musical artists or the actors and others who speak between songs. There are some passionate and moving performances by Bruce Springsteen, Stevie Wonder, Limp Bizkit and friends, Neil Young (the much-praised "Imagine") and several more, easily eclipsing the couple of outright turkeys (the overwrought theatrics of Enrique Iglesias and Mariah Carey). To watch the programme after the horror may have started to fade is to be reminded of the extraordinary emotions the tragic events aroused; and while pop music may be superfluous in the big picture, its power to inspire and perhaps even heal is something to behold.--Sam Graham, Amazon.com