« June 2007 | Main | August 2007 »
Posted on July 31, 2007 at 01:51 PM
This is quite a shame, actually. Somewhere along the line, legendary bassist Peter Hook and his New Order mates Bernard Sumner and Stephen Morris began to grate on each other. A lot. So Hook left the band, assuming that would mean the end of New Order. But then Sumner and Morris announced they would continue. Peter Hook is not happy. At all. The whole thing is reminiscent of when Roger Waters left Pink Floyd in 1985. He could not fathom David Gilmour and Nick Mason (to say nothing of Rick Wright) going on without him. Waters assumed incorrectly, and the result was a bitter lawsuit and two further "Pink Floyd" tours without him. But back to Peter Hook - apparently, he left New Order due to his recently achieved sobriety. (And if you have a chance, listen to Hook's 90s-era side project Monaco - it is excellent.) Here's what he wrote on his myspace (via Billboard):
"This group has SPLIT UP! You are no more New Order than I am!" Hook said in the post. "You may have two-thirds but don't assume you have the right to do anything New Order-y cos (sic) you don't. I've still got a third! But am open to negotiation."
Hook also stated that he hasn't had much of a personal relationship with the other members for some time. "Whenever you contact me it's through the management," he said. "You all knew what was happening re: the split! In February! Using Cannes and Mojo as some excuse to at last get your own back is wrong." The message concludes with the less-than-cryptic message, "See you in court!"
Tagged as: Music
Read Comments (0) | Add Comment | Permalink
Posted on July 31, 2007 at 01:24 PM

Britney Spears and Kevin Federline represented the Camelot of Generation Laundromat. They were the Kurt and Courtney of their generation, the Brad and Jennifer, the dumb and dumber of the oughts. But now, after myriad separations, a plethora of P.R. nightmares, a failed PopoZao and a shaved head, they are no more. Brit and K-Fed, we knew ye way too well. From the WaPo:
The alimony agreement will not be made public unless there is an enforcement issue, Wasser said.
"Most of that tracks the prenup," the attorney said, without elaborating.
The child custody order was tentatively sealed, pending an Aug. 14 hearing.
"The best interests of the children could be harmed" if the arrangement were not sealed, Gordon said.
Tagged as: Britney Spears
Read Comments (0) | Add Comment | Permalink
Posted on July 26, 2007 at 09:36 AM
Please don't put this on YouTube, pleaded Beyonce to the thousands of Orlando fans who watched helplessly as Lady Hova tumbled down a flight of stage stairs that resembled the steps in the Emperor's chamber in Return Of The Jedi. What did her loyal fans do? They put it on YouTube, of course. Begin watching closely around the 30 second mark.
Tagged as: Music
Read Comments (2) | Add Comment | Permalink
Posted on July 25, 2007 at 09:54 AM

Coming at the same time as Lindsay Lohan's public unraveling comes news from a bizarre and fascinating day in the life of Britney Spears. Apparently, Brit rang up OK! Magazine and offered herself up as an interview and photo subject. Gawker says that according to this site, the whole dog-poopin', grease-stainin' day could not have gone any worse. Most amazing? This Friday OK! Magazine, at great risk to their future relationship with Britney, will be running pics from and the story of the whole mesmerizing episode. Some wig-raising, alleged, details:
Britney was three hours late.
She was wasted.
Her untrained puppy pooped everywhere.
Britney cleaned up the poop with a Chanel dress.
She spoke like a baby (literally).
She peed with the door open.
She fondled her own breasts.
She left after feeling she was being ridiculed.
Oh and on top of all this, she might be pregnant.
Tagged as: Britney Spears
Read Comments (0) | Add Comment | Permalink
Posted on July 24, 2007 at 12:15 PM
Kelly Clarkson has had a rough year - her album was delayed, she parted ways with her management, she took heat for egotistical statements and, most prominently, she publicly feuded with legendary music industry man Clive Davis. It was a monumental matchup - the upstart megastar versus the entrenched establishment. Or, more specifically, the self-centered new star versus the self-important bigwig blowhard. Clive Davis, that new Whitney Houston album better be good.
From Kelly's official site:
A lot has been made in the press about my relationship with Clive. Much of this has been blown way out of proportion and taken out of context. Contrary to recent characterizations in the press, I'm well aware that Clive is one of the great record men of all time. He has been a key advisor and has been an important force in my success to date. He has also given me respect by releasing my new album when he was not obligated to do so.
I really regret how this has turned out and I apologize to those whom I have done disservice. I would never intentionally hurt anyone. I love music, and I love the people I am blessed to work with.
Read Comments (0) | Add Comment | Permalink
Posted on July 24, 2007 at 10:36 AM
This is ridiculous. Early this morning, at approximately 1:30am PDT, 21 year-old starlet Lindsay Lohan was arrested and charged with drunk driving as well as possession of a controlled substance (a "white powder"). As of right now, she is still sitting in a Santa Monica jail, awaiting bail payment (Chico's Bail Bonds?) Perfect timing, too: Lindsay's latest flick, I Know Who Killed Me, is in theatres this Friday. Al press is good press, blah blah blah. From the Cable News Network:
When taken to the police station, the 21-year-old actress registered 0.12 and 0.13 in another test for alcohol levels, the spokeswoman said.
Officers also found a white powdery substance in Lohan's possession which tested positive for opiates, Lindsey said.
Lohan, whose film "I Know Who Killed Me" releases Friday, was charged with two counts of driving under the influence, possession of a controlled substance, bringing a controlled substance into a jail facility, and driving on a suspended license, according to Lindsey.
Tagged as: Celebs
Read Comments (0) | Add Comment | Permalink
Posted on July 23, 2007 at 11:44 AM
It was quite a week for that wonderful pastime, celebrity arrest-watching. Here's some of what we know:
Ja Rule and Lil' Wayne were arrested last night (Sunday) following Lil Wayne's show at the Beacon Theatre in Manhattan. Lil Wayne was spotted smoking some hoocha near his tour bus and was arrested for possession of marijuana as well as possession of a weapon. About an hour earlier, Ja Rule had been arrested, also near the Beacon, after his speeding car was pulled over and HIS weapon was found. The name of the new Ja Rule/Lil Wayne single? Uh-Oh.
Also, country singer Mindy McCready was arrested early Saturday morning and charged with battery and resisting arrest. You'll recall that in 2004 McCready was rrested for fraudulently obtaining painkillers, and in 2005 was arrested for driving under the influence. Is mainstream country music evil?
Tagged as: Celebs
Read Comments (1) | Add Comment | Permalink
Posted on July 23, 2007 at 11:02 AM

An interesting, and seemingly more common, move from Ticketmaster in Australia has Police fans down under up in arms. In a bid (pun intended) to take business away from scalpers and put it in the hands of the artist (and, erm, themselves), Ticketmaster is auctioning off the best seats to the Police's Australian dates to the highest bidder. The Police claim the extra profit will go to the band's charity Wateraid. Aussie fans are upset. What do you think? From Australia's National Nine News:
The move has angered fans like Maria O'Connor.
"I think they've done it to make sure the money goes where it should go, back to the act instead of third party hands," Ms O'Connor said.
"It sounds like they're being scalpers by not giving everyone the same opportunity.
"They're just facilitating this continual push in pricing now.''
NSW Fair Trading Minister Linda Bernie warned that such selling methods were inevitable, even though tickets in Sydney and Brisbane were not up for auction.
"Online selling is the way things are moving,'' she said.
A spokesperson for promoter The Frontier Touring Company said the band had asked for tickets to be auctioned, so that profits could go to them and not to scalpers.
The Police said any extra profit from the sale of tickets would go to the band's charity Wateraid.
Tagged as: Music
Read Comments (0) | Add Comment | Permalink
Posted on July 18, 2007 at 12:00 PM

Have you heard of a series of books about a young wizard named Harry Potter? It is a very popular series. It is so popular that people are acting like lunatics this week. For instance, several Chinese sites posted what appear to be photographs of the final seven pages of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, apparently spread on p2p sites. They were quickly removed. Also, the British supermarket chain Asda got in hot water for accusing UK publisher Bloomsbury of profiteering. Asda later rescinded that statement. The whole world has gone haywire. Potter leaks in China, from the Int'l Herald Trib.:
A spokeswoman for Potter's British publisher Bloomsbury said earlier this week: "There is a lot of fan fiction and a lot of dreamers on the Internet, and people are very clever about what they put together ... We are amazed people want to spoil it."
In the United States, media has reported photographs circulating on the Internet of every page of "Deathly Hallows", although publishers declined to say whether any were genuine.
This week Scholastic initiated court action against one Web site, www.gaiaonline.com, to persuade it to take down Harry Potter material it had posted, the Los Angeles Times reported.
Potter fans reacted angrily to recent leaks.
"I hate it when people ruin things like this for everyone else who wants to enjoy it the right way," one contributor wrote on the Mugglenet site. "I think that's just the most awful thing ever. Especially when there's spoilers where you least suspect it. People are jerks."
Read Comments (0) | Add Comment | Permalink
Posted on July 17, 2007 at 11:31 AM

The music industry is in tatters. The traditional model for economic viability has crumbled due to neglect and naivete. No one buys music anymore. To a degree, all true, but there is a niche market that shows little sign of slowing - back catalog sales. An article in the AP runs some interesting numbers, revealing much of what artists have staying power. Big sellers? Albums like Back In Black by AC/DC, Appetite For Destruction by Guns n' Roses and Metallica's Black Album. Stinkers? Crap like boy bands. Interesting notes from the article:
AC/DC's Back In Black sold 440,000 copies last year.
Michael Jackson's Thriller sold 60,000 copies last year.
Boy bands don't fare so well.
Ah boy bands. Millenium by the Backstreet Boys sold a paltry 9,000 copies last year. Nariah Carey's debut? Five thousand. But the news is good for indie classics - Radiohead's OK Computer (94,000), Nirvana's Nevermind (143,000) and The Soft Bulletin by the Flaming Lips (38,000) all did well last year. The music industry model may be morphing, but people will always buy the classics.
Tagged as: Music
Read Comments (0) | Add Comment | Permalink
Posted on July 16, 2007 at 10:14 AM
Another Monday, another disturbing Lindsay Lohan update. The latest involves Ms. L leaving rehab (yay!), partying sober (yay!) wearing an alcohol-detecting ankle bracelet to prove she stays sober (that's good, I guess) and having nude photos of her taken from her laptop (that's bad). According to Fox News:
She will voluntarily wear an alcohol-detecting ankle bracelet as part of an intensive outpatient program, said her publicist, Leslie Sloane Zelnik, in a statement.
On Saturday, Lohan was reportedly seen partying at Pure Nightclub in Las Vegas with several friends.
"In part she is wearing the bracelet so there are no questions about her sobriety if she chooses to go dancing or dining in a place where alcohol is served," Zelnik said.
All well and good, but the stress of knowing nude photos of herself are out there can't be good. That's right, some nimble fingered eroto-thief hacked into Lindsay's hard (ha) drive and swiped photos of her in her 21st birthday suit. She's pissed.
The 'Mean Girls' actress has been left fuming after a computer hacker stole racy pictures taken of her by on/off lover Calum Best.
Lindsay wrote on her internet message board: "All I know is that someone broke into my computer and left a file on my desktop saying they had the pictures Calum took of me naked. My lawyer knows about it.
"If I ever found out who broke into my computer, he is in big s**t."
Tagged as: Celebs
Read Comments (1) | Add Comment | Permalink
Posted on July 12, 2007 at 09:37 AM

A stupendously brief timeline of Lou Pearlman:
1. Creates the Backstreet Boys, then N'Sync, in the 90s.
2. Becomes a millionaire.
3. Invests in other industries, including a celeb charter plane company.
4. Defrauds bank of millions.
5. Plummets down an ignonimous trajectory of evasion and flight.
6. Appears on fuseblog.
The infamous boy band fat man is no longer on the lam, and is, in fact, in the can. Lou Pearlman was arrested in Bali, extradited to Florida, brought before a judge and denied bail. Our long, national nightmare is... oh, never mind. From the AP:
The 53-year-old music mogul, dressed in a blue jumpsuit and handcuffed and shackled at the waist, said little in a court appearance Wednesday.
The U.S. Attorney's office opposed bail for Pearlman saying he was a "serious flight risk." A detention hearing for Pearlman has not been scheduled, the Orlando Sentinel reported.
Pearlman has been globe-trotting, though not in luxury, since his arrest in Indonesia last month. He was expelled from Bali after the FBI contacted authorities there, then transferred to U.S. custody and flown to Guam, and later to Los Angeles.
Photo via.
Tagged as: Music
Read Comments (0) | Add Comment | Permalink
Posted on July 11, 2007 at 11:24 AM
Yes, perhaps, if you believe what singer M. Shadow had to say recently to Billboard. Apparently, the crazed adrenaline of City Of Evil has been toned down in favor of layered guitar textures and a gospel choir. Should a gospel choir really be performing with a band called Avenged Sevenfold? Has the cancer of irony now spread to gospel choirs?
Old-school hard rockers Avenged Sevenfold reached the top 30 of The Billboard 200 with their 2005 major-label debut, "City of Evil," and they're presently holed up in a Burbank, Calif., studio trying to top it. The as-yet-untitled effort is expected in October via Warner Bros.
"It's very groove-oriented," frontman M. Shadow says of the new sound. "On 'City of Evil' we had so much going on-the drums were going a million miles an hour and everything was [at level] 10 at all times with really crazy arrangements."
This time around, a greater concern was placed on creating a melody rather than ultra-heavy music that lashes out all over the place. One track that exemplifies this departure Shadow describes as a "Hotel California"-type of song layered with various guitar textures and backed by a gospel choir. Elsewhere, "Scream" is a headbanger filled with an "AC/DC swagger" and chromatic scale loops, and the working-titled "Gun Slinger" begins with an acoustic slide guitar before erupting into a heavy thrasher.
Tagged as: Music
Read Comments (0) | Add Comment | Permalink
Posted on July 10, 2007 at 10:04 AM
Plagiarism in songwriting has been around since songs have been written. Melodies, musical phrases, beats (to say nothing of style and marketing sense) - they've been nicked, borrowed and mangled for centuries. Which is why it's no surprise to hear that Candian pop tart (oops, SERIOUS ARTIST) Avril Lavigne has been accused of stealing significant bits of a 1970s song by the Rubinoos called I Wanna Be Your Girlfriend. Avril says the songs share 5 words and the same sense of longing. The plaintiffs claim the songs share "identical lyrics, meter and rhythm." The truth probably lies somewhere in the middle. If you will:
1. Girls have long wanted to be girlfriends.
2. Songwriters have long written about this subject.
3. The existence of more than one song on this subject is no surprise.
4. It is highly unlikely that Avril knowingly stole this song.
HOWEVER! Avril this week has also been accused of plagiarism by fellow Canadian songwriter Chantal Kreviazuk, who claims that she co-wrote The Best Damn Thing, a song on Avril's latest longplayer, and received no credit for it. Kreviazuk is a respected artist who, unsurprisingly, is receiving no sympathy on Avril-friendly boards.
When radio-friendly artists hit the studios to produce music that is intended to be a force on the charts, all the stops are pulled. Outside songwriters, producers, collaborators - they all contribute, often over a months-long period. If Kreviazuk is right and Avril neglected to credit Kreviazuk, that is lazy and illegal. As for the Girlfriend dustup, a court due to convene next month in Oakland will deliver a verdict. Why does it all have to be so Complicated?
Canadian pop star Avril Lavigne has denied copying a song by 1970s rock band The Rubinoos.
Songwriters Tommy Dunbar and James Gangwer allege Lavigne's recent hit single Girlfriend was lifted from their 1979 song I Wanna Be Your Boyfriend.
But Lavigne said she has "never in my life heard of" the band and says her song has "no musical similarities".
"Their claim is based on five words," she wrote on her website. "All songs share similar lyrics and emotions."
Dunbar and Gangwer launched a legal case against Lavigne in a US District Court in San Francisco last week.
They alleged that "the lyric, the meter, the rhythm" of the Canadian star's song were "identical" to their tune.
But Lavigne reacted angrily to the claims in a message headed "to my dear media, friends, and fans".
"Simply put, I have been falsely accused of ripping their song off," she said.
AP Photo via.
Tagged as: Music
Read Comments (5) | Add Comment | Permalink
Posted on July 9, 2007 at 11:02 AM
It's been a long time since St. Anger. For proof, check out James Hetfield's new beard - he's been waiting a long time for Metallica to finish their new album. That beard, however, got James into some temporary trouble as the singer arrived at London's decidedly un-rockstar Luton Airport. As Hetfield and the rest of the Metallica entourage attempted to head out into the Bedfordshire countryside, Hetfield was stopped and questioned by airport officials, all because of his "Taliban-like" beard. Who would have thought that boring old Metallica would make rock n' roll dangerous again?
James Hetfield, frontman of US metal rockers Metallica, was detained at a British Airport before his appearance at London's Live Earth gig on Saturday.
According to British newspaper The Times, the rocker jetted into Luton airport ahead of Saturday's Live Earth concert at Wembley Stadium - where his legendary rock band was due to perform - but was halted by officials before he could leave the terminal.
The legendary frontman was then subjected to a brief line of questioning, after which security-conscious officials were left red-faced when Hetfield explained he was a member of a world-famous rock band.
The Times claims Hetfield's friends blame his "Taliban-like beard" for the interrogation.
Metallica formed in 1981 and have become one of the most successful heavy metal bands selling 90 million records worldwide.
The band, currently touring the UK with their Sick of the Studio tour, will release a new album towards the end of this year.
Tagged as: Music
Read Comments (3) | Add Comment | Permalink
Posted on July 9, 2007 at 10:22 AM
Clay Aiken, the kinda beloved, sorta acclaimed American Idol runner-up, had a bit of a dust-up high above the Dust Bowl over the weekend. According to anyone that will talk, a female passenger was furious with Aiken when he deigned to put his foot on the passenger's armrest. Dude should know that armrests are sacred territory. Perhaps this is a celebrity sense of entitlement, but the rumor has always been that Aiken is one of the more rude cats out there. Flight attendants were able to resolve the situation, unfortunately.
Singer Clay Aiken apparently got into a dispute with a woman during a flight to Tulsa, drawing some scrutiny from FBI agents but no charges, a newspaper reported.
The 2003 "American Idol" runner-up was on the Saturday morning Continental Airlines flight for a evening show, and concertgoers said afterward that Aiken joked on-stage about being beaten up by a girl earlier in the day.
FBI Special Agent Gary Johnson told the Tulsa World there was a dispute between a male passenger and a woman on the flight. He said the man was a former "American Idol" contestant but did not give his name.
Johnson said the dispute was over the male passenger's foot resting on the woman's armrest. He said there was an allegation the woman gave the male passenger a "minor shove" during the argument.
"At that point the flight crew was able to resolve the situation," Johnson said.
Tulsa Airport Authority spokeswoman Alexis Higgins said the passengers were held until FBI agents arrived to interview them.
No injuries were reported and the disturbance did not interfere with the flight of the aircraft, Johnson said. The U.S. Attorney's Office declined to file charges, he said.
Tagged as: Celebs
Read Comments (0) | Add Comment | Permalink
Posted on July 6, 2007 at 09:55 AM
Huge, celebrity-studded, stadium-set, charity rock concerts are as rock n' roll as Bono and corporate awareness campaigns. Meaning it's easy to be a bit cynical about it all, but at the end of the day, why not? Take, for example, tomorrow's Live Earth extravaganza. Major shows in eight cities across the globe, plus an intimate set from scientists stationed in Antarctica (seriously). The whole shebang is meant to raise some money and a lot of awareness for the growing global warming problem. And before anyone chirps in about mankind's real (likely) or not (less likely) contribution to global warming, the problem is getting worse, whether it's human-induced, or a planetary cycle. And we need to start figuring out what to do. Which is why it's so ironic that, personally, I would like to see just about every performer on the Live Earth lineup get shot into space. Does anyone need to see the Red Hot Chili Peppers anymore? Can they please go away? We'll keep the Police. Madonna, too. Al Gore, the man with the most boring music collection in Foggy Bottom.
Live Earth will send proceeds to the Alliance for Climate Protection, a nonprofit organization chaired by Gore (tickets for the U.S. concert range from $83 to $348). Wall was originally inspired to put on Live Earth after seeing "An Inconvenient Truth," the Academy Award-winning documentary on Gore's global warming slideshow.
Concerts are scheduled for Giants Stadium in East Rutherford, N.J.; London; Johannesburg, South Africa; Rio de Janeiro, Brazil; Shanghai, China; Tokyo; Sydney, Australia; and Hamburg, Germany. A band of scientists will also perform in Antarctica, stretching Live Earth across seven continents.
More than 150 artists will perform, including Madonna, the Police, the Red Hot Chili Peppers and Alicia Keys. Sixty short films and 30 public service announcements have been produced, which will be broadcast between performances.
Also planned are more than 6,000 parties -- including home viewings and museum festivals -- in 119 countries. The concerts will be broadcast in the United States on NBC, Telemundo, the Sundance Channel, Bravo, MSNBC and Universal HD. They will also be broadcast online at LiveEarth.MSN.com and on XM satellite radio.
Live Earth has been organized mindful of lessons learned from Live 8, which was planned just weeks in advance by Bob Geldof to rally support for Africa. Envisioned as a sequel to 1985's Live Aid (which benefited famine in Ethiopia), Live 8 didn't charge for tickets and generally kept to a vague message urging help for Africa.
Photo of Crowded House (an actual GOOD band) in Sydney via.
Tagged as: Music
Read Comments (0) | Add Comment | Permalink
Posted on July 6, 2007 at 09:36 AM
This one is fascinating. Nicole Richie, Simple Life star, daughter of Lionel Richie and... and... well, that's pretty much it. Anyway, Nicole Richie and boyfriend Joel Madden, singer of Good Charlotte, Maryland native and... and... well, he's got a lot of tattoos. Anyway, Nicole Richie and Joel Madden are not only a couple, and are not only going to get married but are also expecting a little rocker! According to Us Magazine and other publications, Nicole is three months pregnant. Also, word is that Benji Madden has been assisting Joel on his wedding ring-purchase outings. Hate to sound an obvious echo here, but maybe this will make Nicole eat?
Despite her scarily thin frame, the news is shocking because of recent rumors surrounding the starlet. One week it was reported that she was suffering from anorexia and checking into rehab, the next week claims surfaced that she had a drug addiction. In reality, the star drove the wrong way down a Los Angeles highway and admitted to taking vicodin and smoking marijuana.
Unlike most mothers-to-be, Nicole will face court during her second trimester and argue her case about staying out of prison because of her DUI charge. The December 2006 incident is a second offense for "The Simple Life" star.
Nicole joins other Hollywood girls who have welcomed motherhood at a young age. Britney Spears, Reese Witherspoon and Nelly Furtado have all become mothers in their early twenties.
A source told Us Weekly, "She is extremely excited right now."
Nicole and her boyfriend Joel Madden will reportedly make their relationship even more official with a wedding - the Good Charlotte front man just has to buy the engagement ring first. The magazine reported that Joel recently took his twin brother Benji shopping for the rock.
Nicole, 25, has been engaged before - to celebrity spinner DJ AM. Both Madden boys are settling down. Joel ended his two-year relationship with 19-year-old Hilary Duff before hooking up with Nicole in late 2006 and Benji is preparing a wedding with Australian actress Sophie Monk.
Photo via.
Tagged as: Celebs
Read Comments (1) | Add Comment | Permalink
Posted on July 5, 2007 at 11:14 AM

I love the Kwik-E-Mart! In what is an unusual, and rather cool, marketing move, several 7-Eleven's throughout the country (OK and Canada, too) are remodeling and presenting themselves as Kwik-E-Marts, the animated, fictional convenience store frequented by Homer (for slushies), Bart and Milhouse (for slushies) and Nelson (for shoplifting). Very intriguing is the fact that The Simpsons ddid not have to pay for this - 7-Eleven is doing the campaign for nothing. It's all to promote the upcoming Simpsons full length film, out later this month. Thank you come again, etc.
There's a fine line where business meets pleasure and reality meets fiction. And one North American chain has managed to bridge both gaps. By now you know that after almost 20 years on TV, the folks behind The Simpsons are finally coming out with a feature length movie. And you've likely also heard that 7-Eleven, the convenience store chain located right across the continent, has decided to convert a dozen of its stores into the cartoon's "Kwik-E-Mart," run by Apu Nahasapeemapetilon.
Those stores were finally unveiled over the weekend, and feature huge cut-outs of Bart and Milhouse sitting on top of the building with a sign that mimics the chain's trademark colour scheme but reads "Kwik-E-Mart". Other characters are represented inside. And products from the show, ranging from Squishees and Buzz Colas to Krusty-O's, are on sale even in outlets not taking part in the conversion.
All of which is putting smiles on the movie marketers' faces - they're not paying a cent for the promotion which is being borne completely by 7-Eleven. Company officials estimate they're shelling out "millions" for the makeshift renovations. But the chain believes it's worth the money. "We thought if you really want to do something different, the idea of actually changing stores into Kwik-E-Marts was over the top but a natural," explains Bobbi Merkel of FreshWorks, which handles advertising for the convenience stores. "It shows they get the joke."
Tagged as: Television
Read Comments (1) | Add Comment | Permalink
Posted on July 3, 2007 at 08:39 AM
Just when you thought that no more garbage could be piled onto the whole Paris Hilton mess, along comes this story. Apparently, a website called hollywoodstartrash.com recently auctioned off some priceless items found in the ex-jailbird's rubbish. Por ejemplo, an empty can of gourmet dog food fetched $305. A spent can of coke? That went for $51. But there is no amount of money in the world that can buy back the dignity of all involved in this sordid, putrid affair.
An empty gourmet dog food can taken from Paris Hilton's trash went for $305 US in an eBay auction.
The bidding that ended yesterday had reached $1.5 million but some of the bids were retracted or cancelled because the wrong amount was entered or they were not legitimate, the eBay website said.
The sellers were from the website HollywoodStarTrash.com, which also listed several other Hilton items for sale on eBay, including a used toothbrush that also sold for $305; two envelopes sent to her while she was in jail that sold for $510 and a Coke can for $51.
Photo via.
Tagged as: Paris Hilton
Read Comments (0) | Add Comment | Permalink
Posted on July 2, 2007 at 02:07 PM
No huge blowout in Vegas, no big photo opportunity, no random hooking up or random drug use, just some relatively quiet partying and a new iPhone. That's what you get for getting busted for drunk driving and drug possession a month before your 21st birthday.
Lindsay Lohan is set to ring in her 21st birthday today, but she'll be toasting the occasion with water rather than champagne.
The Mean Girls star, who yesterday left the Promises rehab clinic for an afternoon of shopping, is planning a low-key celebration with her family.
The star had previously decided to cancel her 21st birthday party, which was set to be sponsored by a vodka company.
Kate Turner, a spokesperson for PURE, the Las Vegas venue originally chosen for the party, said: "Due to the unique circumstances, as Lindsay's birthday party at PURE Nightclub has been cancelled. We think the world of her and look forward to working with her in the future."
She added: "We support Lindsay and wish her the best as she is taking care of personal matters at this time."
Her mother Dina Lohan says the actress is "doing great" at the facility.
Tagged as: Celebs
Read Comments (0) | Add Comment | Permalink
Posted on July 2, 2007 at 11:57 AM

Though the last album may have been disappointing, despite the raucous fun of the Beverly Hills video (if not the music), talk of a new Weezer album is still grounds for some excitement. The band took a bit of a break after Rivers Cuomo went back to college to get his degree (B.A. in English from Harvard) but now it seems like they are back. Please make something as good as the Green Album. Or the Blue one. Or Pinkerton.
After more than a year's worth of inactivity while frontman Rivers Cuomo finished an English degree at Harvard, Weezer has come back to life.
The group "is just polishing up a batch of songs for a recording session that is going to start at the beginning of July," according to a post from Cuomo on the Weezer Web site. "This will be the final recording session for our sixth album, which we aim to put out in the first half of 2008."
One Cuomo demo, titled "Pig," began making the rounds online in April but it is unknown if it will appear on the new album.
The as-yet-untitled set will be the follow-up to the 2005 Geffen release "Make Believe." A live DVD shot during a Japanese tour was planned to tide fans over last year, but it never saw the light of day and has apparently been shelved until further notice.
Tagged as: Music
Read Comments (0) | Add Comment | Permalink
Awsome band!