Just in case you were wondering: U2’s The Edge (aka Dave Evans) says the Broadway musical  “Spider-Man: Turn Off The Dark” is on.

The $45 million musical has been in limbo for a while as new financing was found to replace old.

But Edge says a meeting took place yesterday with all the principals, including director Julie Taymor. New producer Michael Cohl is getting everything in place. The wheels are turning.

Says Edge: “It will open before the end of the year.”

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Friday night: Rock and Roll Hall of Fame show at Madison Square Garden ended at 11:30 p.m., two hours earlier than it did the previous night. Mick Jagger substituted for Eric Clapton’s missing star power. Annie Lennox and Lenny Kravitz joined Aretha Franklin onstage. Other acts included U2 and Metallica, Patti Smith, Lou Reed and Ray Davies of the Kinks. Bruce Springsteen showed up again to play with Ozzy Osbourne.

Mick sang with Bono. Tom Hanks made a speech. David Geffen — who’s getting inducted into the Rock Hall next spring whether people like it or not because Jann Wenner says so — made an appearance. Wenner’s making everyone sign some kind of commemorative book. “It’s very important to him,” says a source. Whatever. Celebs: Harvey Weinstein, Lorraine Bracco, Robbie Robertson, Michael J. Fox again, Vivi Nevo, Jimmy Buffett’s wife, Daniel Craig, who came over after “A Steady Rain” finished. Most of the celebs were packed into Jann Wenner’s private box, along with his wife, Jane Wenner, and his lover, Matt Nye…It’s a modern world: Wenner has three kids with each of them…(Now that’s a reality series!)…

On Thursday night, Blondie played a set in Brooklyn for the rock photo exhibit at the Brooklyn Museum. Hey — isn’t this what the Rock Hall is supposed to be about?…

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The much anticipated, magnificently expensive Julie Taymor-directed musical of “Spider-Man,” with music by U2, may have its financial backers.

Sources say that Jim Stern, of Endgame Productions, may fill in the $10 million gap left behind when another Chicago investor, David Garfinkle, had financial trouble a few weeks ago. “Spider-Man: Turn off the Dark” may cost as much as $45 million in the end.

At the same time, another name in the mix, with Stern, is Norton Herrick, the New Jersey real estate mogul who recently made and distributed the Renee Zellweger film. “My One and Only.”

Herrick has acknowledged that he may be involved. Stern declines to comment.

Stern, who I think is 52 but looks 16, has had a short brilliant run as a Broadway investor after making millions on Wall Street investing in hedge funds. He’s been behind both “The Producers” and “Hairspray,” to name a few. He’s also releasing a great movie this Friday through Sony Pictures Classics. “An Education.” starring Carey Mulligan and Peter Sarsgaard, is a cinch for many Oscar nominations including acting, directing, script, and Best Picture.

Herrick has also been a recent Broadway angel. In the last year, he’s had positions in “Hair,” “Desire Under the Elms,” “9 to 5,” and “Exit the King.”

Stern is an unusual guy. He co-directed the documentary about “A Chorus Line,” called “Every Little Step,” which could also be up for an Oscar this season. In the business, Stern is still an enigma. But expect all that to change soon.

“Spider-Man: Turn off the Dark” stars Evan Rachel Wood (pictured) and Alan Cumming. Sources also tell that Peter Parker has been cast, but not announced. In the musical, only Peter will sing. Spider Man himself will be represented by five different blue and red wall crawlers and flyers. And he will not carry a tune, just a web, and maybe Mary Jane (Wood).

A pop star fishes a 12-year-old boy out of the audience during his concert, runs around the stage with him, holds his hand, before returning him to his parents. Later, a group of volunteers holding candles fan out along the ramp encircling the stage.

Is it Michael Jackson? Sure sounds like it. No, it’s Bono. And the show was last night at Giants Stadium, where U2 put on an extravaganza that only Jackson and Liberace could have imagined.

This is U2’s 360 tour, the follow-up to last spring’s album release, “No Line on the Horizon.” Here’s the problem, which was unforeseen: “No Line” was not a hit, and yielded no singles except for the grating “Get on Your Boots.”  It was the first-ever mistake in the U2 catalog, and should have been rethought. Instead, “No Line” and its turgid, mostly tuneless songs was foisted on the public. Months later, they are still unsingable and unmemorable.

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$100,000 — one hundred thousand dollars — that’s what the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame is soliciting from big names, VIPs and rock stars for their big Madison Square Garden shows on Oct. 29 and 30. The shows — billed as the 25th Anniversary Concerts for the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame Foundation, not the I.M.Pei-designed Museum in Cleveland — feature Bruce Springsteen, U2, Metallica, Simon and/or Garfunkel, Eric Clapton, Crosby Stills Nash & Friends and, in a nod to soul music, Stevie Wonder and Aretha Franklin.

The Rock Hall is offering four VIP packages priced at $100,000, $50,000, $25,000 and $5,000.

This is all “to support the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Foundation” in New York, run by Rolling Stone magazine publisher Jann Wenner. There is no mention on the solicitation of the Museum in Cleveland, except to include one-year memberships as part of all the packages.

The $100,000 package is the best. It includes 10 premium seats for each night located either on the floor or in the loge — no guarantees, though. Just best seats available. But it also buys an invitation to Wenner’s private dinner on Oct. 28, another pre-concert dinner for VIPs, and rehearsal tickets. The best thing in the package: “Exclusive gift items and collectible laminates.” The total deductible amount is $84,750.

That the Rock Hall has become big business is no secret to readers of this column. The Foundation lists $14 million in assets already, and pays its chief staffer, Joel Peresman, a former exec at Madison Square Garden, more than $350,000 a year in salary.

But the foundation has come under fire in recent years for who it inducts into the Hall of Fame and who has been left out. That’s a list that begins with Chubby Checker, inventor of the the Twist, to artists like Neil Diamond, the Hollies, Neil Sedaka, Rufus & Carla Thomas, Donovan, Carole King, Chicago, Dionne Warwick, Hall & Oates, the late Billy Preston, Linda Ronstadt, Carly Simon, the Moody Blues, Cliff Richard & the Shadows, and dozens more who for some reason Wenner and his nominating committee don’t consider “hip.” Two years ago the Foundation was embroiled in a voting scandal when Wenner ripped up a ballot inducting the Dave Clark Five so he could include Grandmaster Flash instead.

For years, the Rock Hall also paid close attention to rock’s roots, mostly because of the presence of Atlantic Records founder Ahmet Ertegun. But insiders agree that since Ertegun’s death in December 2006, Wenner is working without anyone to modify his behavior. Most of the nominating committee consists of rock writers who have either worked for him in the past for work for him now. It’s funny to think that the original 1986 committee included ’60s deejay Norm N. Nite and the blues musician John Hammond, giving it ties to rock’s origins. That notion must seem quaint now.

I told readers of my old column back in March that the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame was planning its 25th anniversary for the fall of 2009 at Madison Square Garden.

Now I can tell you that the Rock Hall folks, not exactly my favorite for various reasons, have booked Oct. 29 and 30 for a two-day extravaganza at the Garden.

Tentatively scheduled for the Thursday show are Bruce Springsteen, Simon & Garfunkel, Paul Simon as a solo act, Stevie Wonder, and the whole posse that includes Crosby, Stills, Nash, Young and friends.

Then on Friday: Aretha Franklin headlines, with U2, Metallica, and Eric Clapton. Those are the names I’ve heard so far, but we won’t be surprised if Paul McCartney, Sting, the Rolling Stones and a few other big names like Bob Dylan. I’d like to see some more black acts– like Earth, Wind & Fire, Al Green, Sam Moore, Gladys Knight and Smokey Robinson, and Mavis Staples.

Of course, there are all the great acts who have never been inducted into the Hall of Fame, almost too many to name including Hall  & Oates, Linda Ronstadt, Chicago, Moody Blues, Carly Simon, Todd Rundgren, etc.

As I wrote last spring, Jann Wenner let this past year’s induction ceremony take place in Cleveland at the Rock Hall Museum because he knew he had this event coming up, Very clever, no? The question is, will the proceeds from these shows go to the Cleveland museum or into the Hall of Fame’s $14 million war chest for distribution by Wenner at his will. Maybe ticket buyers should specify that their donations — you know the ticket prices will be very high — go to the Museum itself.

Still unknown: whether the shows will be broadcast on Fuse TV, which has a three year contract with the Rock Hall. Fuse TV and the Garden are each owned by Cablevision.