Tonight the talent-show saga “American Idol” launches its seventh season, and even before the first off-key note has been issued, the Fox network and the show’s producers must be wondering: Is the Fat Lady already singing?

NEW YORK | It’s often called the “game within the game” — the ads that compete with each other for viewers’ attention during the Super Bowl. The great brands go head to head: Coke and Pepsi; GM and Audi; Hershey and Planters.

“No Country for Old Men” and “There Will Be Blood” led with eight Academy Awards nominations each Tuesday, among them best picture and acting honors for Daniel Day-Lewis and Javier Bardem - but it remained in doubt whether any stars would cross striking writers’ picket lines to attend the ceremony.

Financial planners will tell you that the proposed federal tax rebates, amounting to hundreds, even thousands of dollars per family, shouldn’t be squandered. For those willing to splurge a little or a lot, here’s another proposal: Make your rebate a “me-bate” for the arts. Treat yourself, but spread it around in ways that will make actors, musicians, dancers, authors and artists at least as happy as they make you.

So you haven’t seen all the films up for an Oscar this year? Save time and watch “The Nominated,” every 2007 Best Picture nominee mashed-up into one time-saving trailer.

On the movies front, SAG trophies go to Academy Award frontrunners, with some surprises, too. From the TV angle, ‘Sopranos’ and ‘30 Rock’ win big however SAG labors mightily in the academy award’s shadow.

Turns out there’s life after the Grand Emporium after all … When Kansas City’s legendary oasis of rhythm and blues near 39th and Main took a bullet a few years back, the Cowtown’s rep as a top blues town suffered mightily.

T his is one of the freakiest Februarys in memory, and that business about 29 days is the least of it. The orbits of Super Tuesday and Super Sunday are so close that Fox is handing over three hours of pre-game coverage today to noted sportscaster Shepard Smith.

The top five movies now showing, according to Star movie editor Robert W. Butler: •“Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street”

Visitors to Atkins Auditorium at the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art will notice a striking change, courtesy of the museum’s American department.