The UK terrestrial premiere of ATTACK OF THE CLONES on ITV1 was
interesting- with a screening of the DVD release with the
longer "I'm a Jedi" dialogue between Anakin/Padme in the Lars
homestead garage. It also had the Jango head butt scene which wasn't
shown in either the UK theatrical release or in the UK DVD release,
which was great to see. Sadly, ratings wise, it didn't get the 5
million viewers I'd at least hoped it would-it got 3.5 million
(which the recent Saturday evening screening this year of PHANTOM
got as well), with the BBC premiere screening of the ROME series
stealing away it's thunder-6.5 milion watched the BBC/HBO series
(and to be honest with you-having seen it later-I thought it was
pretty over-hyped. I CLAUDIUS it ain't!!). ITV's cutting the film in
two segments (one part between nine pm and ten thirty pm, the
second, from eleven pm until twelve twenty pm) probably didn't help
matters, either.

Some other sad news, the excellent actor John Hollis, who played
Lobot in EMPIRE (as well as other science fiction appearances that
included DR WHO, BLAKE'S SEVEN and the movie FLASH GORDON) died this
week-adding to the list of STAR WARS actors who are no longer with
us this year. We're really losing a lot of good people. Lets hope
that any future EMPIRE DVD has the lost scenes of Lobot on Cloud
City put back in. Our best wishes and condolences to his family.



SCOTT