With Destiny's Child splitting after its fall tour, Beyonce has begun lining up new film roles. The artist will star alongside Jamie Foxx and Eddie Murphy in DreamWorks Pictures' "Dreamgirls," the film adaptation of the Tony Award-winning musical. Bill Condon ("Kinsey," "Gods and Monsters") will direct.

Beyonce will star as a member of the up-and-coming vocal trio the Dreamettes, the backing group for Murphy's James "Thunder" Early. The Dreamettes eventually strike out on their own as the Dreams, battling Murphy's character for the spotlight.

As previously reported, Beyonce also stars in the Steve Martin-led remake of "The Pink Panther," which was recently bumped from its planned summer release to early 2006.

-- Jonathan Cohen, N.Y.

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Eminem will make a rare small venue appearance July 9 in Atlantic City, N.J., in the midst of the opening weekend events at the new House of Blues venue at the Showboat Casino. Tickets go on sale to the public Saturday (June 18) via Ticketmaster, while HOB.com members will have access to a pre-sale beginning Thursday at noon ET at HOB.com/eminem.

The show, a brief break from the Anger Management 3 tour with 50 Cent, Lil Jon & the East Side Boyz and others, comes sandwiched between House of Blues grand opening shows featuring the Counting Crows (July 8) and the Blues Brothers featuring Dan Aykroyd and Jim Belushi with special guest Buddy Guy (July 10).

-- Barry A. Jeckell, N.Y.

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Influential artist Roky Erickson will make a rare concert appearance at the fourth annual Austin City Limits Music Festival, set for Sept. 23-25 in the Texas capital's Zilker Park. At times a recluse who has battled mental instability for years, Erickson will be backed by the reunited Explosives, with whom he worked in the early 1980s.

In March, Erickson performed with the Explosives at the South By Southwest Music Festival (SXSW), also in Austin, which saw the premiere of the documentary, "You're Gonna Miss Me." The film is titled after one of the artist's best-known songs, a hit for his band the 13th Floor Elevators in the mid-'60s. Also in March, Shout Factory released the career-spanning compilation, "I Have Always Been Here Before: The Roky Erickson Anthology."

-- Barry A. Jeckell, N.Y.