Stuart Townsend shrugs off a report that his girlfriend, Charlize Theron, was disappointed over one of the parts in his "Battle in Seattle" film going to Michelle Rodriguez instead of her.

"I think it was fabricated," says the Irish-actor-cum-filmmaker. Charlize, he notes, "was the first person to ever read the script. She was like, 'I hope I like this. If I don't, I may have to leave this guy.' But she read it and was blown away. She said, 'How did you do this? I want to be part of this story.'" He adds that he always had Theron in mind for the role she did end up playing — that of cop Woody Harrelson's pregnant wife, who has one of the "most harrowing moments in the film. It had to be played by someone who could really bring that off. She has that in spades."

"Battle in Seattle" widens its release today (9/26), and will go wider still on Oct. 3. Townsend finds it ironic that his labor of passion is hitting screens at the same time as headlines are announcing the dismal news from Wall Street. The film interweaves the stories of characters involved in the violence-drenched 1999 Seattle protests against the World Trade Organization.

"In Seattle in 1999, 50,000 Americans shed a spotlight on an unjust economic system and environmental rights," says Townsend, whose film also has Ray Liotta, Andre Benjamin, Joshua Jackson, Connie Nielsen and Channing Tatum among its cast. "These were the issues they were fighting for. Now it's come full circle, and we're really in crisis."

He admits the economic situation might not bode well for his film, that "People might be going to the cinema for escape because the news is bad enough." And as far as the movie making audiences feel outrage, Townsend says, "I think if people were going to get outraged, they would have gotten outraged over what's been happening this week — giving $700 billion of our money to the guys who f——d the thing up in the first place. Where is the outrage on that?"

A NEW DAY: Heavy D is retiring from the genre that made him a star. The artist born Dwight Myers was a pioneer in hip-hop music. Now, he tells us, those days are behind him.

"I've had a wonderful career, and I've seen a lot of great moments, but creatively I felt like as far as hip-hop goes I've done the best I can do with it. To do anything less would dishonor the culture and craft," he claims

"My best days as an MC are behind me. I can give you a hot 16 bars, but I can't give you a hot album, so I don't want to do that anymore."

However, he's not done with music by any means. He's got a reggae album called "Vibes" hitting iTunes Tuesday (9/30), which will be released everywhere in December. "I'm really excited about it," he says. "It's totally different from what you might expect. It's not a dance album. It's more in the realm of Bob Marley or UB40. It will put you on your heels for a minute, but you'll embrace it afterward," he says.

So why the change of genres? "I'm Jamaican by birth, so all of my music has been influenced by that throughout my whole career," he responds. "I've always had one foot in reggae anyway. It was just time."

THE INDUSTRY EYE: A mid-October production start has been set for Tom Selleck's next Jesse Stone CBS TV movie, "No Remorse." Selleck not only stars but has exec producer and writer credits on the production, which will location in Halifax. It'll be his sixth telepic featuring the laconic, booze-bedeviled small Massachusetts town police chief invented by mystery writer Robert B. Parker. (The fifth, "Thin Ice," is awaiting an air date.) As long as the ratings remain strong, they'll probably keep making more. As Selleck tells us, "I just love playing the guy. He's so flawed."

SIGNS OF THE TIMES: Hollywood producers looking to capture the zeitgeist of today have some mighty thought-provoking projects on the way. For instance, we have French Stewart as "Henry Warner," a film about a guy who loses his job and has conflict with his wife and the debt collector on his case. It's a comedy, according to casting notices, "in the tone of 'Little Miss Sunshine,'" having to do with "the institution of debt." It shoots in Michigan in mid-November with Valerie Landsberg directing.

Samuel Jackson starts shooting "Unthinkable," next month — playing a professional torturer assigned to extract information from a Muslim-American suspect about three nuclear bombs said to be planted in U.S. cities. Underpinning the drama are questions about whether the torture and death of an individual are justified in an effort to potentially save millions of lives.

Then we have Larry Levinson's forthcoming "Megastorm" mini-series, which just might give conspiracy theory types something new to ponder. It's about a secret government project to control the weather. It goes all wrong, of course, causing hurricanes, tsunamis and other trouble.

With reports by Emily Feimster.

To find out more about Marilyn Beck and Stacy Jenel Smith and read their past columns, visit the Creators Syndicate Web page at www.creators.com.

COPYRIGHT 2008 MARILYN BECK AND STACY JENEL SMITH

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