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From staff and wire reports

'Aaliyah' No. 1 on Billboard

NEW YORK -- It's a sad success.

Aaliyah's self-titled third album tops Billboard's Hot 100 charts this week, thanks to brisk sales following her death in a plane crash on August 25.

The album sold 306,000 copies in the week after her death, according to Soundscan, which monitors record sales nationwide. It had sold only 62,000 copies in the week before she died, Soundscan said.

Aaliyah, 22, was one of nine people to die in the Bahamas crash. She was returning from the Bahamas after filming a video there.

Lennon artwork on display

LONDON, England -- A new exhibition featuring the artwork of John Lennon has gone on display at Harbour Yard in London, according to The Associated Press.

Part of the exhibition features thirteen drawings that have never been on public display before.

The sketches, on loan by Lennon's widow, Yoko Ono, are part of a larger display at a London gallery of 150 images created by Lennon between 1968 and 1980.

"The pictures show John's love for his family and attitude toward everyday life," said exhibition organizer Jonathan Poole. "They are amusing. They are meant to be funny and they shouldn't be taken too seriously."

Some sketches apparently show Lennon and Ono's famous "bed-in" when they spent a week in bed in 1969 in a public appeal for world harmony.

Some of the prints are for sale at prices ranging from $653 to $5,800, according to the AP.

Kinnear to take Bob Crane role

HOLLYWOOD, California -- Greg Kinnear, who got his break in light comedy on E!'s "Talk Soup," has agreed to take on a dark role.

Kinnear will play late "Hogan's Heroes" star Bob Crane in a movie depicting the comic actor's gruesome murder, according to Variety.

The film, titled "Autofocus" and based on the Robert Graysmith book "The Murder of Bob Crane," will begin shooting at the end of November in New York and Arizona, where Crane died. While Crane starred in a sitcom that made light of World War II, his real life was marred by a habit of taping his one-night stands in hotels. Willem Dafoe will play video tech Johnny Carpenter, who helped Crane tape his exploits.

Crane was found murdered in an Arizona hotel in 1978, his skull crushed with a camera tripod. Carpenter was accused of the crime, but was acquitted after an eight-week trial.

Kinnear's feature credits include "The Gift," "Nurse Betty," and "As Good As It Gets."

MTV eyeing 'Making the Band'

HOLLYWOOD, California -- MTV might pick up where ABC left off.

According to Variety, the network is currently considering picking up "Making the Band," a reality show that followed the creation and success of boy-band O-Town. ABC recently decided not to review for a third season.

Series executive producer Jon Murray said he hasn't heard any final word from MTV execs about a pickup, but that such a deal would be "a natural." MTV and Murray's Bunim-Murray Productions are both producers of the show, and MTV has aired several weekend marathons of "Making the Band."

"We would love to do it," Murray said, according to Variety. "The show was very successful with viewers 12-24, and that's MTV's target audience. It's a natural idea that it would come over to MTV."

Variety reports that MTV is still balking at the cost for the show.