Well, you can all breathe easy now. After all the hubbub over whether the entire cast of Disney's remarkably successful High School Musical franchise would return for the third film in the series, all the main cast has finally signed on to come back one more time. Variety reports that all six leads -- Zac Efron, Vanessa Anne Hudgens, Ashley Tisdale, Lucas Grabeel, Corbin Bleu and Monique Coleman -- have signed on to return for High School Musical 3, which will hit a theater near you on October 24.

There was concern over whether Vanessa Anne Hudgens, who plays female lead Gabriella, would be back for the third film after some nudie pics she sent to boyfriend (and High School Musical heartthrob) Zac Efron leaked out onto the internet. Then there was concern over whether Disney would fork over enough cash to entice Efron himself to return (and sorry, but you just cannot have High School Musical 3 without Efron asTroy -- the tween girlies of America would unite against that in a hurry), given all the big screen success he's enjoying as a result of his High School Musical fame. Efron had a decent turn as Link Larkin in Hairspray (where he finally got to sing all on his own) and has been in talks on several projects, including upcoming pic Seventeen, (kind of a reverse of Big, one of my favorite movies ever -- remember how young and cute Tom Hanks was in that?) in which he will play a man who returns to being a high school student.

I don't know about you, but I'll sleep easier at night knowing the continuing adventures of the Wildcats gang are coming this fall. I can't think of a better way to come down off the headiness of all those serious films at Telluride and Toronto than to hit a screening of High School Musical 3, and find out what happens when Troy and Gabriella head to different colleges. Oh, boy! The possibilities (and opportunities to randomly break out into song-and-dance numbers) are practically endless. If you've got a tween in your life, you'd better start practicing your cool dance moves, and get ready to have more annoyingly-perky-yet-catchy tunes stuck in your head.

Remember the '80s? Ah, those long-ago days when MTV actually showed music videos and had the occasional black screen when someone was changing a videotape, and the five original VJs (can you name them all without Googling it?) ruled our lives, spinning videos that were, in the beginning at least, mostly concert footage outtakes or whatever else they could get their hands on.

In 1983, MTV was two years old, a toddler tottering around on unsteady feet, but just starting to get the hang of it. I was a freshman in high school, and Joe Eszterhaus and Paul Verhoeven were still 12 years away from unleashing Showgirls on the world. We'd been inspired by Fame just three years earlier, the world was ripe for another dance musical -- and a film called Flashdance -- an unlikely Cinderella story about a blue collar girl who works as a welder by day and an exotic dancer (the kind who doesn't take her clothes off) by night, while dreaming of a better life as a ballerina -- took the world by storm.

So there's this young actress named Ashley Tisdale. You might recognize her from a number of television stints, blips in films like Donnie Darko, or from her time as Maddie Fitzpatrick in The Suite Life of Zack and Cody -- or better yet, her co-starring turn with Zac Efron and Vanessa Anne Hudgens in High School Musical and its sequel. Tisdale doesn't have a big starring track record, but she's had solid parts in ensemble pieces, so I'm surprised to share that The Hollywood Reporter has posted that her latest film -- a teen flick called Picture This -- is heading straight for DVD.

Tisdale will star as Mandy, a high school girl who is noticed by the most popular boy in school. He's throwing a party and invites her, but -- oh no! -- she's grounded. Oh, the turmoil of adolescence! Sure, it sounds like an incredibly simple movie, but it doesn't sound too much different than other teen fare to me. I'm not sure why it's not getting some bigger treatment, and why she would choose to act in a direct-to-DVD flick as her Musical follow-up.

The movie, which begins shooting in Montreal next week, will be directed by Stephen Herek, the man behind flicks like Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure and Don't Tell Mom the Babysitter's Dead. And, according to IMDb, he's also currently filming another DVD flick -- a Dead Like Me sequel. (Ugh, no!) The script for Picture This is coming from Temple Matthews, whose last script was the amazing, box office smash, Aloha, Scooby-Doo. Maybe Tisdale will rock the socks off MGM and get a big-screen starring role after this, but either way, she's got a sweet High School Musical career to keep her busy.

You may think High School Musical 2 is unmitigated dreck, but enough kids (or their adults on their behalf) bought the film's CD over the weekend to push the soundtrack to the top of the pop charts, sayeth AOL News. The made-for-cable film's premiere last Friday scored 17.24 million viewers, according to Nielsen Media Research, making it the highest-watched basic cable telecast ever.

Meanwhile, as Disney, understandably, seeks to continue riding the remarkable wave of success it's found with the hit movie series, MSNBC reports trouble may be brewing in the talks for High School Musical 3 (working title, according to IMDb: High School Musical 3: Gradu-Dancin' -- groan). The third installment of the series -- aimed at the big screen, not cable -- may have hit a speed bump, as reports surfaced Wednesday that the series' stars Zac Efron and Vanessa Anne Hudgens are holding out for more money. Efron, who has already moved on to bigger (and presumably higher-paying) big-screen roles with Hairspray and the upcoming Footloose, is sizzling-hot property these days, and his on-screen charisma is a huge draw for the tween set at which the film is targeted, so it wouldn't really be surprising if the kid held out for more cash.