Tim Mcgraw

TIM MCGRAW may have Faith at home, but he's lost Faith in his record company. They're releasing another McGraw greatest-hits package even though Tim has made only one album since the last one. Billboard.com reports that the abundance, or should we say, redundance, of hits has McGraw apologizing to his fans. "I am saddened and disappointed that my label chose to put out another hits album instead of new music," McGraw said in a statement. "I've only had one studio album since my last hits package.

Tim McGraw is such a genial, good-natured entertainer, such a professional when it comes to playing host to a packed arena of hootin' and hollerin' fans, that you can almost forgive him his sins of soft-rock banality, crass commercialism and shameless pandering. Almost. On Saturday night at the First Union Spectrum, McGraw and his eight-piece band the Dancehall Doctors played a generously spirited 2 1/2-hour show. The highlights and lowlights included several covers of rock hits from the 1970s (including Steve Miller's "The Joker" and Elton John's "Tiny Dancer")

What Ozzy Osbourne is to devil metal, what Jimmy Buffet is to parrot pop - throw in, too, Jerry Bruckheimer's testosterone-filled flicks and the networks' second-tier talent shows - that's what showy country crooners Faith Hill and Tim McGraw seem ready to become: summertime perennials. The handsomely married couple's Soul2Soul tours, the production-heavy likes of which sold out Wachovia Center on Saturday, are quickly becoming annual events, even when there are no new recordings ready to hawk.

As he strolls into his dressing room several hours before showtime at the Westbury Music Fair, Tim McGraw looks like anything but the red-hot country star that he is. For starters, he's got no attitude and no entourage. What's the sense in having a multi-platinum album, Not a Moment Too Soon, with a couple of gold singles, "Indian Outlaw" and "Don't Take the Girl," if you're not going to get yourself an entourage to boss around? But a major star, he is. Not a Moment, his follow-up to a lackluster debut, hung on to the top country-album slot for six months, only recently dropping to its current number-three position.

They should stock extra-absorbent tissues at the concessions stand for The Blind Side , an engaging if transparent tearjerker of the first water. Adapted from Michael Lewis' 2006 nonfiction book, it tells the story of Leigh Anne and Sean Tuohy (Sandra Bullock and country music star Tim McGraw), an affluent white couple in Memphis who take Michael Oher (Quinton Aaron), a destitute black teenager, into their home and family. A refugee from the foster care system, Oher is a withdrawn, mumbly young man carrying a sadness so deep it can't fit even his immense body.

8 tonight CHANNEL 6 Highlights of the annual four-day event in Nashville, Tenn., are scheduled to include performers Tim McGraw (right), Trace Adkins, Jason Aldean, Alan Jackson, and Reba McEntire, among others.

Backstage in his dressing room at the Saginaw Civic Center, Tim McGraw opened a bottle of beer and asked: "How far is South Bend from here?" Wearing a wide-brimmed, black cowboy hat and boots with toes sharp enough to be lethal weapons, McGraw had just wrapped up a concert date in front of a packed house and posed for pictures with a delegation of teenaged fans. One of the hottest new names out of Nashville - his "Not a Moment Too Soon" is the top-selling country album in America, highlighted by the controversial hit single "Indian Outlaw" - McGraw was scheduled to climb back on the bus and head to South Bend, Ind., for an appearance at Notre Dame.

Friday Night Lights is already being ranked among Rudy, The Longest Yard, and Remember the Titans as one of the best football films of all time. The gridiron drama is now blitzing living rooms on DVD, and it's a winner. Based on the best-selling book by H.G. Bissinger, Lights looks at the real town of Odessa, Texas, where football is everything. High school football talk radio chatters in almost every scene, players get interviewed on TV in the preseason, and the coach makes more money than the principal.

Canadian crossover queen Shania Twain won Entertainer of the Year honors, and the Dixie Chicks and Tim McGraw were also multiple winners in the 33d annual Country Music Association awards show, broadcast last night from the Grand Ole Opry house in Nashville. "I'm so embarrassed that I'm crying," a weeping Twain - whose 1998 album, Come On Over, has sold more than 10 million copies - said after accepting the award from Reba McEntire. The bleached-blond Chicks, Natalie Maines, Emily Robison and Martie Seidel, won vocal-group honors and the best single and video awards for "Wide Open Spaces.

Tim McGraw Once Tim McGraw puts on his stage armor - weathered black hat and lived-in jeans - it's party time. One of country's best showmen brings his loaded "Southern Voice" tour to the Susquehanna Friday, a finely calibrated mix of the rowdy ("Real Good Man," "I Like It, I Love It") and the heart-tugging ("Blank Sheet of Paper," "If You're Reading This"). He's even been known to break out a cover of Elton John's "Tiny Dancer. " It takes a confident performer to bring along a hot opening act, and McGraw has Lady Antebellum, a band you can't touch without oven mitts.

AS IF THE EARTH'S resources aren't shrinking quickly enough, another Kardashian spawn is on the way to suck up more of the planet's life force. Kourtney Kardashian and her still-not-married boyfriend, Scott Disick , say they are expecting their second child together. "Entertainment Tonight" said a wedding is imminent. The two have a son, Mason , who is nearly 2 years old and probably soon to get his own reality show on Noggin. Kourtney, 32, told Us Weekly that she's nine weeks pregnant.

What happens on a subatomic level when one is crowned People's sexiest man in the universe? How did homeboy Bradley Cooper feel when he found out he had been thus anointed? What did he say? "My mother is going to be so happy," Cooper, 36, said, according to People. The mag says it chose the Hangover star not for looks alone, but also because he's smart (he conquered Germantown Academy, then Georgetown University), he's an amateur chef who can throw down a mean homemade pasta dish, he's fluent in French, and he rides motorcycles.

Former first daughter Chelsea Clinton , who throughout her young life has assiduously ducked reporters and cameras, has signed on as a special correspondent with NBC. Clinton, 31, is expected to contribute to NBC Nightly News and to Rock Center With Brian Williams , focusing primarily on how volunteers make an impact in this country and others. "I have long been impressed that Brian and his team at NBC place consistent importance on sharing stories of empowerment that in turn, help empower other people and families," said Clinton.

Amy Winehouse , who was found dead in her bed in her London home on July 23 at age 27, died of alcohol poisoning, a British coroner ruled Wednesday. Suzanne Greenaway said Winehouse had a blood alcohol level of 0.4 percent, more than five times the British drunken-driving threshold. Winehouse is thought to have resumed drinking after weeks of sobriety. Her bedroom was littered with empty vodka bottles. "The unintended consequence of such potentially fatal levels [of alcohol]

CASINOS BOBBY BE GOOD Of all the Philly guys who hit it big in pop music during the late-1950s and early '60s, it's hard to argue that Bobby Rydell didn't lap the field when it came to all-around talent. Although he became one of the era's biggest teen idols through such lightweight fare as "Swingin' School," "Wild One" and "Wildwood Days," Rydell has always been in a league with Frank Sinatra and Bobby Darin when it came to swinging his way through the pre-rock pop catalog.

In Concert N. Walnut St., Kennett Square; 610-444-1416. ansonbnixonpark.org. Ben Arnold. 7/27. 7-9 pm. 251 Beach Ave., Cape May; 888-944-1816. www.congresshall.com . Darin MacDonald. 7/23. 8 pm. Erik Simonsen. 7/24. 8 pm. Gregg Carpenter Band. 7/25. 8 pm. Ann Oswald Duo. 7/26. 8 pm. Matt Santry. 7/27. 8 pm. Darin MacDonald. 7/28. 8 pm. 1853 Wrightstown Rd., Washington Crossing; 215-493-6500. www.crossingvineyards.com . Cool Jazz Indoors.

Ralph Macchio , sore as a blister after being dismissed Tuesday night from Dancing With the Stars , is talking smack about the DWTS judges. The TV audience hardly had time to make it to the refrigerator before the Karate Kid star was complaining about "rude and disrespectful" comments from Carrie Ann Inaba , Len Goodman , and Bruno Tonioli about Monday's performance. Tonioli was even bleeped. Macchio, 49, and partner Karina Smirnoff got the lowest scores of the night.

The Ellen DeGeneres Show (3 p.m., NBC10) - Actors Justin Timberlake and Mila Kunis; Lady Gaga performs. The Oprah Winfrey Show (4 p.m., 6ABC) - Actor Rob Lowe discusses his autobiography, Stories I Only Tell My Friends . The Big Bang Theory (8 p.m., CBS3) - As Priya reviews Sheldon and Leonard's roommate agreement, the girls take Sheldon dancing. Community (8 p.m., NBC10) - Shirley goes into labor as the class gathers for the anthropology final. The Making of a Royal Wedding (8 p.m., TLC)

THE DVD BIN is dominated this week by "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 1," informally known as "Harry Cuts Class. " You can't blame him - Voldemort and his allies have taken over Hogwarts, so if Harry shows up, he's pretty much dead. That being the case, Harry, Ron and Hermoine spend most of the movie roaming a Samuel Beckett-like wasteland, mulling existential predicaments and looking for a magic sword that might one day kill Voldemort. Their wandering makes for a very languid movie - some say heroically uneventful for a tentpole franchise, some say merely dull.

Country Long - correction, Country Strong - is a backstage romantic quadrangle set at the fork of the roads to redemption and ruin. It stars Gwyneth Paltrow as Kelly Canter, Nashville canary trapped in fame's gilded cage. Like some country ballads, Shana Feste's musical melodrama is as emotionally potent as it is narratively inconsistent. Initially, Kelly loves her husband/manager, James (Tim McGraw), who has eyes for a young thrush, Chiles (Leighton Meester), who has a yen for singer/songwriter Beau (Garrett Hedlund)