Sorry, all. I was at ComicCon with an author friend last weekend (her books totally rock, btw, you should read them!) and I got way behind on everything. (If you are interested, my report, such as it is, is in my personal journal.)

Anyway! Back now. Tired, but back. So here’s a quick round-up of news items:

• Speaking of ComicCon, here’s a report on Open Season from the Sony presentation at the con.
• I can’t believe that people are still asking this question (scroll to the bottom), which I have been answering (and answering… and answering) since 1996.
• There are lots of pictures from the July 22 Rockin’ for the Troops concert at the Operation Support Our Troops Illinois web site.
• A brief item about Gary’s USO activities during the CSI:NY hiatus.
• A roundup on Riverfest (in Ottawa, IL) where the LDB will be performing on August 5… and a featured article on Gary, related to Riverfest.

And I think… we’re pretty much caught up. I hope you are all staying cool, wherever you are!

This doesn’t apply to most of us yet (including me) but here’s a review of something we can hopefully look foward to — Apollo 13 on HD-DVD.

We haven’t heard much yet about Open Season, the animated feature scheduled to open this fall. Here’s an article about the film from The Malaysia Star. In addition to Gary, other actors featured in the film include Martin Lawrence, Debra Messing and Ashton Kutcher.

The AFI show was interesting — some of it was great — Sidney Poitier, Steven Spielberg, and of course Gary! Not only talking about his own films, but classics like Lawrence of Arabia. Awesome.

Some of it, though — seriously, does anyone really have a burning desire to know why Jessica Alba finds The Sound of Music inspiring? But even with some quibbles about the broadcast and what was chosen and left out, it’s a pretty impressive list overall, and it gave me some ideas for my Netflix queue.

In case you didn’t make it through all three hours, Gary had two films on the list — Apollo 13 at no. 12 and Forrest Gump at no. 37. You can find the complete list at the AFI site.

…albino alligator? Well okay then! We never doubted for a moment, really.

Also, a (vaguely annoying) article about the 10th anniversary of Bubba Gump restaurants.

Two of Gary’s older projects will be released on DVD soon — That Championship Season and Jack the Bear. Recent release The Forgotten will also be out soon. Pre-order links below:

The Forgotten (release January 18, 2005)

That Championship Season (release February 8, 2005)

Jack the Bear (release December 14, 2004)

Gary will be doing some national press in the next few days, presumably to support CSI: New York and The Forgotten. Tonight he will be on the Late Show with David Letterman, and tomorrow on CBS’s The Early Show. Check your local listings!

Gary is also profiled this week at AskMen.com.

CSI: NY is reviewed by SignOnSanDiego.Com and Newsday. Both have nice things to say about Gary.

There are several clips from The Forgotten at this French-language site.

Here’s a short piece about The Forgotten from Sci-Fi Wire.

Gary’s fall movie, The Forgotten, is set for release on September 24 in the U.S.

We are still anticipating an October 31 wide release for The Human Stain. The Big Bounce is currently scheduled for a January release.