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Three original members of the Doors will be together again in December.

No, drummer John Densmore has not dropped his lawsuit against keyboardist Ray Manzarek and guitarist Robby Krieger to get them to stop touring as the Doors 21st Century.

Rather, Manzarek and Krieger will be taking their show to Paris, where on Dec. 8 they will mark the 60th anniversary of the birth of singer Jim Morrison by visiting his grave at the Pere Lachaise cemetery. The next night they'll perform their first-ever concert in the City of Light, where Morrison died in 1971.

And in the show at Le Zenith, the group, which features former Cult singer Ian Astbury handling the vocals, will do something it never had the chance to with Morrison: perform the original Doors' final album, "L.A. Woman," a collection that produced such FM radio mainstays as the title song, "Love Her Madly" and "Riders on the Storm."

"The Doors never played Paris, even with Jim," says the ever-ebullient Manzarek. "This is the first official French gig. We'll go see Jim on the 8th, have a little happy birthday for him, and then the 9th is 'L.A. Woman' in Paris."

The "L.A. Woman" performance will actually be premiered Aug. 24 in a concert at Jones Beach on Long Island, a show that will be shot for a DVD release, and will be the centerpiece of other coming concerts.

We'll be doing 'L.A. Woman' from top to bottom in honor of Jim's 60th birthday," Manzarek says. "We never got to play it live. We recorded it, then Jim went to Paris and never came back. But now we get to do the tour that never happened."

Densmore, who believes it was inappropriate for the fellow survivors to hire a new singer and use the Doors name, is no more supportive of the Paris plans.

"I feel kind of like the French felt toward us when we bombed Iraq about the pseudo-Doors playing Paris and traipsing around Jim's grave for publicity," the drummer says.

While Densmore failed to get an injunction to stop the group from using the Doors as part of its name immediately, his actions did result in a court ruling requiring the group to be clearly billed as "the Doors of the 21st century," and his suit against them is still pending.

Manzarek says that he and Krieger have been writing new songs with various lyricists, including Astbury and poets Michael McClure and Jim Carroll, and have been talking to both Henry Rollins and X's John Doe about contributing as well, with plans to record an album after finishing the European tour.

"We'll keep Jim's poet tradition alive," Manzarek says. "This is not a tribute band. We are playing 20th century Doors songs now, but there will be 21st century Doors music coming."

Densmore, who has a jazz album due in the fall called "Tribaljazz," is happy to hear about the new music but not the old appellation.

"I've known they might write new stuff," he says. "I don't care, except I'm trying to get the word 'Doors' eliminated."

(thanks, Felicia)

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