Sideshow: Director to work his WOW

Sam Raimi, director of the Spider-Man movies, has signed with Warner Bros. to make a movie version of the crazy-popular video game World of Warcraft, reports Variety mag. This is huge news in the colossal video-game universe. WOW is what's known as - all together now - a "massively multi-player online role-playing game," or MMORPG. At its center is a struggle for world dominance between the Horde and the Alliance. Blizzard Entertainment first brought WOW out in 1994, and with 11.5 million monthly subscribers, making 16 million-plus quests each day, it holds more than 60 percent of the entire MMORPG market. Wowee. Raimi's three Spidey flicks are all in the top 20 U.S. grossers of all time, with the original at number 8, having led more than $403 mils into its jaws. Before he can get to WOW, Raimi must spin out Spider-Man 4, scheduled to begin shooting early next year and star Spidey lovey-poohs Kirsten Dunst and Tobey Maguire.

Springsteen to play Spectrum for year
Not really, but it's getting to seem that way. In what is becoming the longest goodbye since the last 15 minutes of Lord of the Rings: Return of the King, Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band will play two more shows to help close the Spectrum. Bruce and band already are playing Oct. 13 and Oct. 14. Tickets went on sale yesterday. Now they'll also play Oct. 19 and Oct. 20. Tix to the added shows go on sale Thursday at 10 a.m. through ComcastTIX.com. Call 1-800-298-4200, show up at the Wachovia box office or selected Acme Markets, or go to LiveNation.com.

Is that it? Is that the last last last? Nope. Comcast-Spectacor and Live Nation are adding shows until Pearl Jam performs the very last, final ones at the end of October.

Travolta to leave Scientology?
According to Gatecrasher, gossip blog for the Daily News, rumor is John Travolta may be leaving Scientology, shaken by the January death of son Jett. Rick Ross, a lecturer on Scientology, thinks that if so, Scientology's failure to help Jett may have led Travolta "to question his faith." Travolta has been a member of the church for 34 years.

Kate 2.0 and Jon zero point zero
The ever-poetic Hollywood news corps has coined a delicious nickname for former Star reporter Kate Major, chosen squeeze of Jon Gosselin. (Or is she? Jon told reporters Saturday he still loved Hailey Glassman.) They're calling her Kate 2.0, in reference to Kate Gosselin, Jon's why (because she's not yet his ex). Jon, costar of Jon & Kate Plus 8, says, "I care about Kate Major. (He cares about something! There's your headline.) Kate 2.0, for her part, revealed to TMZ that "I just want everyone to know that I am a nice and genuine person." Ex-cept that the Daily News reports she's nicely and genuinely shopping her Gosselin story to tabloids, looking to get paid.

'Bachelorette' finale
Center City's Reid Rosenthal, who was sent packing two weeks ago on ABC's The Bachelorette, showed up in Hawaii on last night's season finale to propose to Jillian Harris, a designer from Vancouver. But alas, Rosenthal, a Rittenhouse Square Realtor, was rebuffed as Harris selected Ed Swiderski, a technology consultant from Chicago.

Woman with one name skeds album
Madonna has announced she's releasing a greatest-hits collection Sept. 29 titled Celebration. Track list? . . . Naah, ya gotta wait. But you will dance: Tracks such as "Everybody," "Express Yourself," and "Vogue" (frame your face!) are all but certain, as are some guests. Among rumored guests: Lil Wayne.

Hewitt writes; post-literate era begins
The history of literature is in for a shake-up - at least, if Jennifer Love Hewitt has anything to say about it. ET Online reports that JLH has penned a comics series. Jennifer Love Hewitt's The Music Box will hit stores in November. Topic? Possessed music box. What happens when you get near it. Same old, same old. Hewitt calls the 10-part series a "horror/thriller" and says, a trifle confusingly, that the experience of literary creation has been "like a very fun nightmare come true."

Able to leap McCain in a single bound
This is the summer of Barack Obama in comics, BTW. Devils Due Publishing has come out with Drafted, in which Obama leads a postapocalyptic Chicago, and DDP has begun a series titled Barack the Barbarian, in which the loinclothed prez battles Hilaria (wonder who that is) and Red Sarah (whoever could that be?). And in President Evil (hilarious title) by Antarctic Press, the presidential plane crashes into - it had to happen - zombie-infested Washington! Our question: How will Obama know the difference?

Squeezies past, present and future
American sweetie-pie Dakota Fanning, 15, and English teenthrob Freddie Highmore, 17, were seen having a date (the outing, not the fruit) in Beverly Hills Saturday night. Both have nice resumes, Dakota in films such as Man on Fire (she's also in New Moon, the sequel to Twilight), and Highmore in Finding Neverland and Willie Wonka and the Chocolate Factory. So cute - and so young they get carded for milkshakes. Add them up and they'd still be younger than Stone Age types such as Anna Friel (Pushing Daisies), 33, or Leo DiCaprio (DOA at 34), or just-about-corpses like Hugh Jackman (40). . . .

Speaking of squeezie-pies, there's always Robert Pattinson and Kristen Stewart, whose lip-lock in Twilight turned millions on, and may well be repeated in New Moon. The two arrived at Comic Con San Diego over the weekend in separate cars, but limo'd back to LaLa afterward. That's a solid three-hour snuggle, if you're counting. . . . So distraught is Nick Lachey at not being with Vanessa Minnillo or Jessica Simpson anymore that in Atlantic City he was with Kristin Cavallari of The Hills, and in LaLaLand with an un-I.D.'d blonde . . . Meantime, Joe Jonas, middlebro of the Jonas Brothers, has ceased to be a thang with Camilla Belle (10,000 BC - the movie, not her birth year - that would be 1986, making her almost three years older than Joe).

Source: http://www.philly.com/