Bob Dylan Trove Set for Release

More than two dozen previously unreleased Bob Dylan tracks will be in the stores on Aug. 30, when the double-disc set "No Direction Home: The Soundtrack" is released. The album is a companion to the Martin Scorsese documentary "Bob Dylan: No Direction Home," scheduled to have its premiere on PBS on Sept. 26, Reuters reported. The two-disc set, part of Columbia/Legacy's "Bootleg Series," begins with what is believed to be the first original song recorded by Mr. Dylan, "When I Got Troubles," taped by a high school friend in Minnesota in 1959. Also included are a live version of Woody Guthrie's "This Land Is Your Land" and alternate takes of "Mr. Tambourine Man," "It's All Over Now, Baby Blue," and "She Belongs to Me." Aug. 30 will also open an 18-day period of exclusivity at Starbucks for another album, "Bob Dylan: Live at the Gaslight 1962," featuring recordings from Mr. Dylan's early performances in New York.

Martha Stewart's New Book Is Strictly Business

Martha Stewart fans hoping for details of her recent prison stint will have to keep waiting. Ms. Stewart has instead signed a $2 million deal with Rodale to publish "Martha's Rules" in October, shortly after finishing her current sentence of house arrest. Steve Murphy, president and chief executive of Rodale, which specializes in lifestyle books and is the company behind "The South Beach Diet" books, said "Martha's Rules" "is not a Jack Welch or a Lou Gerstner type of book," referring to the former leaders of General Electric and I.B.M., who wrote best-selling business memoirs. "This is a straight-ahead business primer for the entrepreneur," particularly fans of Ms. Stewart who have been inspired by her how-to books to start their own small businesses. EDWARD WYATT

Polanski Sues Via Video

Roman Polanski, avoiding the risk of arrest and extradition to the United States, is to testify from Paris via a video link next week in his British libel suit against Vanity Fair, Reuters reported. Mr. Polanski, who won the Oscar for best director for "The Pianist" in 2003, is suing the British publishers of Vanity Fair for a July 2002 article he says defamed him. He sought to testify by video because Britain has an extradition treaty with the United States, where he pleaded guilty in 1978 to having sex with a 13-year-old girl and fled before his sentencing.

Brats Hike to Popularity

ABC has traded in dancing for delinquents. Its summer success "Dancing With the Stars" ended last week, so its Wednesday lineup is now anchored by "Brat Camp," in which troubled teenagers are rehabilitated through enforced hiking. The results in Nielsen's estimates were the same as on recent Wednesdays: ABC easily won the night in all key ratings measures, as the two-hour series premiere of "Brat Camp" brought in 10.28 million viewers and won every half-hour among the 18-to-49 demographic. At 10 p.m., however, "Lost" drew less than half of that, with an audience of 5.03 million. The Emmy-nominated series was beaten by reruns of NBC's "Law & Order" (8.86 million) and CBS's "CSI: NY" (7.68 million). Despite the success of "Lost" and ABC's other first-year hit, "Desperate Housewives," during the regular season, repeats of these shows are performing poorly in the summer ratings. KATE AURTHUR

Pitt Has Meningitis

Brad Pitt is out of the hospital and reported to be "doing well" in recovering from what his publicity representative's office described as "a mild case of viral meningitis," Reuters reported. Suffering from what was described as a flulike illness a week after returning from a trip to Ethiopia with Angelina Jolie, his co-star in "Mr. and Mrs. Smith," he was admitted on Monday to Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles. ... Angela Lansbury, the star of television's "Murder, She Wrote," and a four-time Tony Award-winner for Broadway musicals like "Mame," "Gypsy," "Dear World" and "Sweeney Todd," was scheduled for knee replacement surgery yesterday. "Her knee is so painful from years of dancing," said her daughter, Deirdre Battarra.

Tribute to London Victims

The BBC Proms concerts, the annual summer extravaganza at the Royal Albert Hall in London, open tonight and will be dedicated to the victims of the terror bombings last week, said Nicholas Kenyon, the festival's director. "The whole mood here is very positive," he said in an e-mail message. "Life goes on, and we want to be as upbeat as possible." The festival offers 74 concerts and runs through Sept. 10. Opening night will be televised on a giant screen in Trafalgar Square and elsewhere in Britain. Two of the works in that program, scheduled before the bombings, turn out be apt, Mr. Kenyon noted: Michael Tippett's oratorio "A Child of Our Time," dealing with man's inhumanity to man, and Elgar's concert overture "Cockaigne," celebrating the indomitable spirit of London. DANIEL J. WAKIN

Here Comes the Frog

In May, a bouncy electronic pop song credited to a cartoon frog became a No. 1 hit in Britain, outselling the new single by Coldplay by four to one. Now that frog is coming to America. The song, by Crazy Frog, is a remake of the 1980's instrumental hit "Axel F," began as a cellphone ringtone and spent four weeks at the top of the British singles chart. It will be released here in September on the Universal label, Billboard reported. An album, "Crazy Hits," will be released in Britain on July 25, and a new Crazy Frog song, a remake of the 1972 hit "Popcorn," is to be released on Aug. 25. BEN SISARIO

In the Next Season of American Ballet Theater

The world premiere of a work by Peter Quanz, as well as company premieres of Jerome Robbins's "Afternoon of a Faun" and "The Green Table" by Kurt Jooss will highlight American Ballet Theater's 2005 season at City Center, from Oct. 19 through Nov. 6. Revivals include Agnes de Mille's "Rodeo," Balanchine's "Apollo," Twyla Tharp's "In the Upper Room" and Antony Tudor's "Dark Elegies."

Footnotes

Illness has prompted the withdrawal of the pianist Till Fellner from the closing night concert of the Mostly Mozart Festival, on Aug. 27 at Avery Fisher Hall, Lincoln Center announced yesterday. He will be replaced by Jonathan Biss as soloist in Mozart's Piano Concerto No. 20. ... Drawing upon the 30 years of Tom Waits's catalog of music, a new play, imported from Australia and titled "Belly of a Drunken Piano," will be performed by its writer, Stewart D'Arrietta, backed by three other musicians, beginning on Aug. 17 at the SoHo Playhouse. ... Judith Light has been cast in the lead role of Laura Wade's "Colder Than Here," an import from London that will open MCC Theater's 20th anniversary season, beginning on Sept. 7. She will play a perfect homemaker who turns her attention to organizing her impending funeral. Lily Rabe, fresh from the Broadway revival of "Steel Magnolias," will portray her daughter. ... With a book by Douglas Carter Beane ("As Bees in Honey Drown") and music and lyrics by Douglas J. Cohen ("The Opposite of Sex"), the Drama Dept. production of the musical comedy "The Big Time," will open a 10-performance run at the New York Musical Theater Festival on Sept. 16 at the Lion Theater on Theater Row.