Dance-Floor Focus Group

Test audiences are a longtime staple of movie marketing. Now, a pop music star has borrowed the technique. Madonna has chosen songs for her next album, "Confessions on a Dancefloor," after trying them out on unsuspecting British night clubbers, The Sunday Telegraph reported. Stuart Price, 28, a D.J. and producer who is collaborating on the CD, said in an interview for the singer's Web site that the tunes, minus her vocals, were played in clubs in Liverpool, Ibiza and elsewhere in June, with the reaction of the crowds filmed for the singer. "You can work on a song for 12 hours," Mr. Price said, "but I guarantee you'll know within just 10 seconds of putting it on at a club whether it works or not. So these songs were tested on unwitting subjects throughout Europe." A spokesman for Madonna, 47, declined to comment. The album, from Warner Brothers Records, is scheduled for a November release.

Ozzfest Dust-Up

It was a raucous performance on a raucous tour, but the commotion wasn't the band's doing. When Iron Maiden took the stage for its last appearance on the Ozzfest tour, this month in Devore, Calif., the group's sound was cut off several times. Last week, the tour's organizer, Sharon Osbourne, admitted she was responsible, Billboard.com reported. In a statement that took the form of an open letter to Iron Maiden's manager, Rod Smallwood, Ms. Osbourne said her action came in response to derogatory remarks she said the group's singer, Bruce Dickinson, had made onstage about the tour and Black Sabbath, the group led by her husband, Ozzy Osbourne. "Was Dickinson so naïve to think that I was going to let him get away with" comments about her family, she asked in the statement. She signed the letter as the "real Iron Maiden." Mr. Smallwood said this week that he had "never seen anything anywhere near as disgusting and unprofessional as what went on that night."

Garfunkel and the Law

The singer Art Garfunkel is facing another charge of marijuana possession, again in upstate New York. The Daily Freeman of Kingston, N.Y., reported Tuesday that Mr. Garfunkel, 63, of Manhattan had been pulled over in Woodstock for failing to stop his car at a stop sign, and a trooper who smelled an odor had found a joint in his car ashtray. He was issued a ticket and is due back in Woodstock Town Court on Sept. 22. In January 2004, the singer was charged with marijuana possession after the state police stopped his limousine for speeding in the Ulster County town of Hurley and found a small amount of pot in his jacket. He pleaded guilty to that charge and paid $200 in fines.

'Monk' Leads So Far

"Monk" ended its fourth season on Friday, and according to Nielsen estimates, 5.28 million viewers watched the finale on USA. Among 25-to-54-year-olds, "Monk," starring Tony Shalhoub, was the No. 1 scripted series on cable this summer, though the second-place "Closer" on TNT has a chance to surpass it, as it is still broadcasting new episodes. On pay cable, HBO's "Rome" drew an audience of 3.8 million for the Sunday debut of the 12-episode series. Those ratings represented HBO's best premiere since "Six Feet Under" began its fourth season in June 2004. On the network side, Fox's "Prison Break" kicked off the beginning of the new television season on Monday night. Its two-hour broadcast, in which a man (Wentworth Miller) goes to prison to break out his brother, brought in 10.5 million viewers. Those strong numbers put Fox in first place among viewers and 18-to-49-year-olds, and in a tie with CBS in households. KATE AURTHUR

Forget the Show

Another performance would not make up for a canceled Las Vegas concert that is at the heart of a dispute between Rod Stewart and Harrah's Entertainment, the company's head testified on Monday, The Associated Press reported. At a federal court in Las Vegas where the breach-of-contract suit was being heard, Gary Loveman, the chairman and chief executive of Harrah's, said the show, scheduled for New Year's Eve 2000 in the company's Rio hotel, was meant to celebrate the millennium and thus was expected to be a big draw. Mr. Loveman also said Mr. Stewart had refused at the last minute to perform a New Year's Eve 1999 show unless he was also hired for the 2000 date and paid $2 million in advance. Mr. Stewart's lawyer, Louis Miller, has said that the show was canceled because of the singer's operation for thyroid cancer in May 2000 and that Mr. Stewart offered to play a makeup date. The company is seeking the return of the $2 million.

Composers With Cash

Mozart famously died penniless. But it's less well known which composers were the wealthiest. A classical music station in Britain set out to estimate the earnings, adjusted for inflation, accrued in a composer's lifetime and came up with a list led by George Gershwin, The Guardian reported on Monday. Gershwin earned millions of dollars from "Rhapsody in Blue," "Summertime" and many other compositions, ranking him ahead of Johann Strauss, who charged more than $50,000 an appearance. Verdi was third on the list; his take included a commissioning fee of nearly $300,000 for "Aida." Rounding out the Top 10 in order were Rossini (who received more than $5,000 a lesson), Handel, Haydn, Rachmaninoff, Puccini, Paganini and Tchaikovsky.

Theater Notes

With "The Phantom of the Opera" on track to surpass "Cats" in January as the longest-running show in Broadway history, the Phantom who has logged the most stage time in the role on the Great White Way is returning to the show. Howard McGillin, who has played the masked one more than 1,200 times, will take over on Oct. 3 for Hugh Panaro, who has played the part more than 1,000 times. On Jan. 9 the show will break the longevity record with performance No. 7,486. ... "The Producers" will welcome back an original cast member. On Tuesday, Gary Beach, who left in 2003, returns to play Roger De Bris, the role for which he won a Tony Award. It's possible he could be on stage and screen in the same role at the same time: he also plays Roger De Bris in "The Producers" movie, scheduled for release in December. ... Though little is known about a Twyla Tharp show based on Bob Dylan songs, one mystery has been cleared up. The title will be "The Times They Are A-Changin'," Broadway.com reported yesterday. It is set to play the Old Globe Theater in San Diego early next year.

A Loan Criticized

In 2001, the British prime minister, Tony Blair, lent a bronze bust of Winston Churchill to President Bush, a fan of the wartime leader, but the little-known gesture of friendship is drawing a great deal of attention now. The Observer in London reported on Sunday that the work, created in 1946 by Jacob Epstein after six sittings with his subject, is owned by the public British Government Art Collection, which is allowed to lend its holdings for display only on property owned by Britain. The collection has come under scrutiny for its handling of art worth millions of pounds, and the bust's move is being examined in a radio documentary to be broadcast on the BBC tomorrow. "This is usually a well-run collection, but they should stick to their rules," Gill Hedley of the Contemporary Art Society told The Observer.