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THE BUZZ

Rafer Guzman; Robert Kahn; Verne Gay

October 29, 2006

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American idiot? Not so fast there, buddy

First it was Dixie Chicks versus Toby Keith. Now it's Green Day versus The Killers.

In an interview with the British music magazine Word, Killers singer Brandon Flowers revealed a patriotic streak when he slammed Green Day for encouraging "negative" attitudes toward America in its concert DVD, "Bullet in a Bible."

"You have Green Day and 'American Idiot,'" Flowers said. "Where do they film their DVD? In England. A bunch of kids screaming, 'I don't want to be an American idiot.' I saw it as a very negative thing toward Americans. It really lit a fire in me."

On the DVD, Billie Joe Armstrong yells to the crowd: "I want you to sing so loud that every -- redneck in America can hear you!"

"I just thought it was really cheap," Flowers said. "To go to a place like England or Germany and sing that song - those kids aren't taking it the same way that he meant it. And he knew it."

Flowers' attack recalls the fallout around Dixie Chicks singer Natalie Maines, who in 2003 told a London audience, "we're ashamed the president of the United States is from Texas." Soon after, country singer Toby Keith began showing doctored photos of Maines embracing Osama bin Laden at his concerts. (The Killers didn't pull any such stunts at their Tuesday show at the Theater at Madison Square Garden.)

Flowers apparently feels that his new album, "Sam's Town" (Island) offers a kinder, gentler picture of the USA. "People need to see that, really, there are the nicest people in the world here," he said in the interview. "I don't know if our album makes you realize that. But I hope it's from a more positive place."

- RAFER GUZMÁN

Mother-daughter 'Chorus Line’

When they sing "And now life really begins" in the revival of "A Chorus Line," they aren't kidding. At least one of the current stars of the musical playing at the Gerald Schoenfeld Theatre made her extremely unbilled and anonymous debut when the original production of the Michael Bennett musical played on Broadway the first time around.

Alisan Porter, who plays ballerina Bebe in the new "Chorus Line," is the daughter of Lauren Klein-Weiner, who had the same role in the First National Tour of "A Chorus Line" more than two decades ago.

Klein-Weiner was pregnant with Alisan when she performed in the musical's record-breaking 3,389th performance on Sept. 29, 1983 at the Shubert Theatre. That's the night "A Chorus Line" surpassed "Grease" to become the longest-running musical in Broadway history. Mother Klein-Weiner had never appeared on Broadway, but, for the record-breaker, producers invited all the casts from around the country, past and present, to perform.

- ROBERT KAHN

I’m Mel Gibson and you’re not

He is not, to be sure, the guy we all remember. Foremost, the age: Chevy Chase just turned 63, and his hair is quite gray. He was a big star once, but has been AWOL (it seems) for most of this century. That's why this Friday's turn on "Law & Order" (10 p.m., NBC/4) is - hands down - one of the most intriguing cameos of the season.

Chase will be playing a character loosely - OK, directly modeled - on Mel Gibson and his tequila-fueled night-of-a-thousand slurs last July, when he was pulled over by a Malibu cop and launched into a rant against Jews.

Executive producer Nicholas Wootton declined to offer many details about Chase's role, but said: "Yes, it's about a celebrity outburst, and [involves] anti-Semitism, and a traffic stop, and - yes - a body will be found. Yes indeed, though in a slighty untraditional way. "

So, how did a guy like Chase find his way to a show like this? Wootton explains that the booking came about "in a fairly banal way. His representatives called Matt Penn and said he was interested in doing an episode, which is how a lot of this happens. " A script based on the Gibson incident had just been written, and when Penn called Wootton to get his thoughts on Chase, he replied: "'Go for it. Go for it right now.... '"

Chase plays a sitcom actor whose hit series was canceled two years earlier, and has not been adjusting well.

Wootton says Chase "has that quality that he had on 'SNL.'... There's a certain something about stars that takes and holds it."

- VERNE GAY

QUOTABLE

'Part of me wants to shake up people's perception of me, just shove me in a blender.'- "Harry Potter" star DANIEL RADCLIFFE, 17, in Newsweek on why he will do a nude scene in a West End production of "Equus"