Prince to Give It Away in the U.K.

Prince to Give Away Album: Prince’s new album, Planet Earth, will be given away for free in British newspapers this summer, angering British music retailers, who had hoped to sell the album in exchange for British money, which is called “pounds� instead of “dollars.� [Pitchfork]

Matchbox 20 Recording New Songs: Rob Thomas band Matchbox 20 announces cleverly titled upcoming compilation, Exile on Mainstream, which will include six new crappy songs in addition to eleven previous crappy hits. [Billboard]

Apted Reelected by DGA: With contract talks looming, Michael Apted is reelected president of the Directors’ Guild for a third consecutive two-year term. Director of upcoming The Chronicles of Narnia: The Voyage of the Dawn Treader has been architect of guild negotiation strategy as 2008 strike deadline looms. [Variety]

Richmond Novel to Film: Newmarket Films acquires rights to The Year of Fog, novel about lost child by Michelle Richmond. Semi Challas will write; Variety lists her credits as including “The Life Before This, a dramatic thriller starring Catherine O’Hara, Stephen Rea and Sarah Polley.� Um, that sounds good. Can we watch that? [Variety]

Audra Gets a Hit, Finally: Beloved Broadway vet Audra McDonald is cast in surefire hit Grey’s Anatomy spinoff Private Practice on ABC. So she’ll just have to win all her Tonys during hiatus, we guess. [Variety]

RSC to Stage Shakespeare’s History Cycle: The Royal Shakespeare Company announces plans to stage Shakespeare’s complete eight-play history cycle, from Henry IV Part I to Richard III. Shows will play London’s Roundhouse Theater in repertory in spring 2008, allowing audiences to watch all eight in sequence, if audiences are crazy. [Playbill]

PM Brown Writing Books: Newly installed British Prime Minister Gordon Brown has written Courage: Eight Portraits, cunningly retitled take on John F. Kennedy’s Profiles in Courage. Bloomsbury will publish in U.K. this month; Weinstein Books will publish in U.S. in the spring. [PW]

Without Random House There Is No Paradise: Publisher Random House signs deal with Colombian publishers whose novel was the source of telenovela Sin Tetas No Hay Paraiso. With NBC bringing English-language version to screen, Random House will publish novel, bringing the gospel of Sin Tetas to the reading masses, gracias al Dios! [PW]