It’s music to Carey’s ears

Cleveland Cleveland still rocks for hometown star Drew Carey.

“The Drew Carey Show” commissioned the Cleveland Pops Orchestra to record new arrangements for three of its theme songs.

The Pops and conductor Carl Topilow recorded “Cleveland Rocks,” “Moon Over Parma” and “Five O’Clock World” in arrangements by Pops trombonist Paul Ferguson in an Agora theater session Thursday night.

Nine bands in different genres from around the country were invited to record for the show. The Pops was the only group to record all three songs.

The ABC sitcom, which is set in Cleveland, will alternate recordings from the various groups throughout the new season beginning Monday.

North touts book on the road

Nashville, Tenn. What do Iran-Contra figure Oliver North and country music star Dolly Parton have in common?

A touring bus.

North is riding a bus once used by Parton to promote his new political thriller, “Mission Compromised.” He’ll visit 58 cities in 30 days.

“It’s a very effective moving billboard,” said Duane Ward, president of Premier Speakers Bureau, which books North for speaking engagements.

North, who was signing books Friday in Virginia Beach and Glen Allen, Va., wouldn’t say what his advance was for the novel, published by Broadman & Holman, a Nashville-based publisher that specializes in religious books.

Budget cuts prompt resignation

Des Moines, Iowa The man who brought films to Iowa including “Field of Dreams,” “The Bridges of Madison County” and “Twister” is resigning because his office’s budget has been cut in half.

Wendol Jarvis, who created the Iowa Film Office in 1984, said the budget was being reduced to $140,000 and he would be losing two assistants.

“Budget cuts throughout state government didn’t give me the tools I needed,” he said.

Jarvis brought 54 films and hundreds of smaller TV and commercial projects to the state. He is leaving Tuesday to become a franchise owner of Papa Murphy’s pizza in Kansas, City, Mo.

Brown talks America to Brits

London Tina Brown, former editor of Talk, The New Yorker and Vanity Fair magazines, has been hired by The Times newspaper as a weekly columnist, beginning later this month.

Based in New York, Brown will write on a wide range of subjects about America, the newspaper said Friday.

Times editor Robert Thomson said he was delighted to have Brown as columnist.

“The column will be typically and uniquely Tina, who has always been the alchemist of buzz. She is about the best-connected person in the world,” he said.

Talk magazine shut down this year after its February issue, less than three years after a much-hyped launch.