Entertainment

A kind-hearted Gypsy girl, Esmerelda, offers compassion and friendship to Quasimodo in "The Hunchback."

Have a ball with the Indians

It's got Tom Cruise, it's got high-tech gadgets, it's got the familiar theme music from "Mission Impossible." But this fast-paced commercial isn't selling the new movie. It's plugging the Apple Power Book - the computer Cruise's character uses in the movie. Welcome to the new and improved world of product placement in the movies. Normally used to conspicuously plant small consumer items such as potato chips or fast-food meals, companies now are placing big-ticket items in prominent places - and sometimes even using the movies to advertise the product as well.

Burnin' Chicago plays Thudpucker's on Sunday.

Steven (Matthew Broderick, left) and the Cable Guy (Jim Carrey) strike up a questionable friendship when Steven gets cable installed.

Authors Dorothy Dahlgren and Simone Kincaid will sign copies of the new edition of their book, "In All the West No Place Like This: A Pictorial History of the Coeur d'Alene Region," from 2 to 4 p.m. Saturday at the Book and Game Co. in Coeur d'Alene's Silver Lake Mall. For information, call (208) 664-3448.

If you're not doing anything else at 9:30 a.m. all through this summer, you might want to take in some free movies at the Garland Dollar Theater. The discount movie house, located at the corner of Monroe and Garland, is offering a series of morning movies that begins on Monday with the Oscar-nominated feature "Babe" and continues through Aug. 30.

Like everyone else in Hollywood, the producers of "The Cable Guy" expect the movie to open big today. Real big. With any luck at all, box-office receipts next weekend should more than cover Jim Carrey's precedent-setting $20 million salary. Despite the barbs of outraged critics, Carrey's recent pictures - two "Ace Ventura" features, the aptly titled "Dumb and Dumber," "The Mask" and "Batman Forever" - have delivered more than $600 million in domestic revenues alone.

Matt Frewer protrays the computer genius Jobe in "Lawnmower Man 2." Photo by Robert Zuckerman/New Line Cenema

During a recent visit to San Francisco, I ate at the highly hyped bastion of upscale vegetarian cuisine called Greens. It's been featured in Gourmet magazine and is the subject of a successful cookbook. You must call weeks ahead to get a reservation. But here's the shocker: I much preferred the creative offerings at Spokane's first gourmet vegetarian restaurant, Mizuna.

Four Piece Suit will bring its surf-jazz sound to the Mars Hotel tonight. Photo by Brian Corbett/John Mahoney

"Babe" will open the Garland Theater's free-movie program.

Jess Hawk Oakenstar is a musical sponge who has absorbed a diverse assortment of styles. She plays country. She plays folk. She plays rock. She plays world music. And the singer-guitarist often employs all of those in just one song. Oakenstar plays Espresso Delizioso tonight from 8:30 to 10:30.

Now here's some chamber music you can really get pumped for: The Imeldas, an oboe, horn and piano trio, will join the Spokane String Quartet for the final concert of the quartet's regular season, tonight at The Met. The Imeldas will perform a Reinecke Trio, possibly pairing that with a lighter transcription. Each instrument will also be featured with the strings to perform Mozart's Oboe Quartet, the Shostakovich Piano Quintet in G minor and Cherubini's Sonata No. 2 for Horn and String Quartet.

Nicolas Cage and Elizabeth Shue star in "Leaving Las Vegas."

As a fitting end to Spokane's Gay Pride Week, the annual Gay Pride Parade will be held at noon Sunday in downtown Spokane. Parade participants should gather in the parking lot of the Spokane Civic Theatre at 11 a.m. The march will end in Riverfront Park.

Wealthy adventuress Diana Palmer (Kristy Swanson) is rescued by The Phantom (Billy Zane) in the action adventure "The Phantom."

Republic's Prospector Days celebration today through Sunday will mark the Ferry County centennial and the 40th anniversary of the community festival. Activities get started tonight at 7 with a rodeo. Then, about 8 p.m., the highway through downtown will be closed for a community dance. On Saturday there's a logging show, but the festival primarily commemorates Republic's century-old mining heritage. Even the foot race at 9 a.m. Saturday is called the Gold Rush Run. Runners will have their choice: 2.3 miles or 10 kilometers. Those who choose the 2.3-mile course might be back in time to do some drilling, mucking, steeling or spike driving in the mining competition at 9:30.

Hanna Ippisch, author of "Sky, a True Story of Resistance During World War II," will read from her book at 1 p.m. Saturday at the Children's Corner Bookshop, 714 W. Main (on the Skywalk level). Ippisch, who runs a bed and breakfast in Missoula, was just 17 when she joined the Dutch Resistance to fight against German occupation. Her book reads like a young girl's diary, complete with photos of family and friends.