The hero of the animat-ed Kung Fu Panda2, opening Thurs-day, is a pandanamed Po but he

may as well be called JackBlack and White since thereis no mistaking the distinctivesensibility of the comic actorwhose rapid-fire yet casuallyoffhand riffs have addedhey-dude humor to such filmsas High Fidelity and Trop-ic Thunder, and carried suchstarring vehicles as ShallowHal and The School ofRock.Black, 41, born in Santa

Monica, Calif., and raised inHermosa Beach, began hiscareer at 13, in TV commer-cials for such products as theAtari video game Pitfall.Roles in the TV-movie OurShining Moment (1991) andTim Robbins political satireBob Roberts (1992) led tosteady bit-part and characterwork until his breakthroughas John Cusacks wild record-store employee in High Fidel-ity (2000). Hes also foundsuccess with his and KyleGlass rock duo Tenacious D.Black spoke with Newsday

contributor Frank Lovece byphone from the Cannes FilmFestival.

Animation directors do record-ing sessions in different ways.Usually actors all record sepa-rately, but not always. Howdid it work for you here?The only thing I did withanother actor was the scenewhen I first meet [the antag-onist] Shen, the albino pea-cock. Me and Gary Oldmandid bust that out togetherbecause they were unable toget the magic with us sepa-rately.

Why, do you think?I dont know. There was justsomething about the intensityof the scene where we meetand were kind of laughing ateach other and slowly ramp-ing it up. It needed to happenlive.

Did the director, JenniferYuh Nelson, ever say, asthey sometimes do withanimation, OK, we got thescript version, you want toimprov anything?No, she never gave me thego-ahead like that, but some-times I would just take it.Sometimes I would just say,Hey, wait, let me do onemore, and then I would sur-prise them with a riff.

Any particular one youd liketo share?I cant remember off the topof my head, and Im noteven sure if they used them.All I know is that I alwaysthrow in my own take oncertain scenes.

In the first Kung Fu Panda,Po dreams of joining themovies team of heroes.Now, here, hes a member,he can hold his own, but hesalso the one who clownsaround and makes the otherslaugh. Anything you canpersonally relate to there?All through my 20s I wasvery much like Po, just sortof struggling to get by andnot really being one of thecomedic actors who wereestablished. I didnt reallyhave a consistent money-making career, like I can getmy own apartment, until I

was, like, 30 years old.Before that, I

would get parts here andthere and I would go get anapartment and live there fora while, and then I wouldrun out of money and goback and live with my mom.So, yeah, when Im trying toget in the Po mode, I thinkback on those times, to myhumble days when I was inawe of the comedy gods.

And those would be . . . ?Obviously John Belushi, hewas a big influence on me,but also later on, Chris Far-ley. Those are obvious ones,just because we portly come-dians got to stick together.But Im also a huge fan ofJim Carrey and his style. Itsnot really about the subtletyso much as it is about goingto the absolute limit.

Tropic Thunder is thesequel going to happen?Dont think so. I have notheard anything about [theproposed] Arctic Light-ning.

Your hard-core fans areclamoring to see your andOwen Wilsons 1999 sci-fi/comedy TV pilot, HeatVision and Jack, releasedlegitimately, instead of justbeing on bootleg video andunauthorized websites. Evergoing to happen?I dont think so. Thats a You-Tuber. Thats the way it has tobe, unfortunately.

What are you doing next?Ive got a bird-watchingmovie coming out withSteve Martin and OwenWilson in October, and thenI did Bernie with [director]Rick Linklater that comesout I dont know when.

Wait, Owen Wilson, whodid the voice of the talkingmotorcycle in Heat Vision?Thats right! We meet again.

Heat Vision and Birds.Thats right! [Laughs]

/movies

See a trailer forKung Fu Panda 2

As Season 10 of Ameri-can Idol draws to aclose, the insultscontinue, although this timetheyre aimed at viewers.Recently, Idol executive

producerNigel Lythgoe tookto his Twitter account tostrike back at, well, who?Lythgoe tweeted, Thanksfor all the personal abusefrom the usual morons outthere inTwitter-land.On

Tuesday,whenMTVasked Lythgoe whom thecomment was aimed at, hesaid, The ones that believewemanipulate everything.. . . I always end up havingto go, Youmorons outthere . . . and realize thatIm arguing with 7- or 8-year-olds fromWisconsin.Apparently, its also not a

good idea to question Lyth-goe about the shows perfor-mance order. After uncharac-teristically being assignedthe opening spot general-ly considered the death slot twoweeks in a row, rock-er JamesDurbin, whomanythought might win, waseliminatedMay 12.Lythgoes response: James

opened theweek before. Heopened it again [last] week. . . thenwe changed him tothe last [for the second song],so it was fairer. SowhenStandards and Practices saidto us, Why is he openingtwice?, well, hes openingtwice because . . . hes theup-tempo one. You dontwant to open the showwith aballad. . . . Thatwas all itwas. God forbid logic comesinto amegalomaniac fan thatjustwants theirNo. 1 towinand everything else is: Theworlds against them!

RONNIE GILL

Nigel Lythgoe is Twitteringaway too much of his time.

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Nigels bittertweet taste

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