Search Results for: lit

Forget Michael Jordan or Kobe Bryant, a sure bet to impress audiences at next month’s NBA All-Star weekend is Britney Spears. The pop star will be shooting out lyrics – not basketballs – when she performs during a television special organized by the National Basketball Association to promote literacy, according to Spears’ spokesperson. Spears and other artists to be announced will perform at the Pennsylvania Convention Center on February 9 for the “The NBA All-Star Read to Achieve Celebration.” NBC, TNT, Nickelodeon, BET, NBA.comTV and Canada’s MuchMusic will broadcast the special live simultaneously at 11 a.m. ET. (MTV’s parent company,… Read more »

It was the year when “King of Pop” Michael Jackson cried at the Oxford Union, pop teen queen Britney Spears performed on stage with a snake and Icelandic singer Bjork turned up at the Oscars dressed as a swan. British showbiz writers searched for tittle-tattle on Robbie Williams’ love life and speculated endlessly about the demise of the hit girl band The Spice Girls. But the story that grabbed the most headlines in 2001 involved a Hollywood power couple who out of the blue announced they were ending what many considered was a rock-solid marriage. The divorce of Tom Cruise… Read more »

When Jean-Marie Messier, the deal-hungry chief of media giant Vivendi Universal, snapped up Seagram and its vast array of entertainment assets last year, the cynics came out in force. How would Messier, a former French banker and civil servant with no experience in the cut-throat and idiosyncratic world of Hollywood, succeed where outsiders had always failed before? And how would the Franco-American conglomerate, with no distribution outlets in the United States to speak of, match the profit potential of rivals like AOL Time Warner Inc., Walt Disney Co. and Viacom Inc. In recent days, Messier has made an ambitious attempt… Read more »

Eminem’s movie has gone from having a generic “Project” title to one that encapsulates the projects. The former “Untitled Detroit Project” is now “8 Mile,” a Universal Pictures spokesperson said Tuesday. “8 Mile” is the nickname for Detroit’s 8 Mile Road, which is considered to be the dividing line between the black and white communities in Eminem’s home city. “8 Mile” will wrap production in January and is scheduled to hit theaters in July, according to the spokesperson. The film, which is loosely based on Eminem’s life story, stars the rapper as Jimmy, a young man who learns to express… Read more »

Radio One, Inc. today announced it is bringing Urban programming, much of it formerly unavailable in thousands of U.S. cities, to every corner of the contiguous 48 states, with the national launch of XM Satellite Radio. Radio One, as a third party XM Radio partner, is providing five channels of programming targeted at the African-American and Urban listener. These formats include African- American Talk, Gospel, Urban Mixes, Hip-Hop and Mainstream Urban. In many places of the country, especially outside of large metropolitan areas, African-American targeted programming is limited or non-existent. Radio One is committed to providing a totally unique radio… Read more »

The 12th season of MTV’s reality series, which is scheduled to go into production in January, will be shot in Las Vegas, and air in July. The 11th season of the “Real World,” which recently wrapped production in Chicago, is set to premiere in January. At a time when broadcast networks are backing down on their commitment to reality programming, MTV continues to have confidence in the genre. The music cable network will in February begin production on the 11th season of “Road Rules,” which will tape throughout the South. It will also air in July. MTV had been planning… Read more »

XM Satellite Radio, the first U.S. digital satellite radio service, will bring music to the New York City Marathon at 10 locations along the 26-mile course, featuring a variety of XM’s 100 channels, which it calls “Radio to the Power of X.” Working with retail partner Best Buy and the New York City Roadrunners Club, XM will broadcast great digital music representative of its 71 music channels – ranging from rock to jazz, hip-hop to country, blues to classical – to help the marathoners as they make their way through the five boroughs of New York. “XM will bring the… Read more »

Limp Bizkit and guitarist Wes Borland have split, according to a message posted Friday (October 12) on the band’s official website. The move comes less than a year after Borland released Duke Lion Fights The Terror by his side-project Big Dumb Face. The guitarist also toured to support the release. “Limp Bizkit and Wes Borland have amicably decided to part ways,” reads the message on limpbizkit.com. “Both Limp Bizkit and Borland will continue to pursue their respective musical careers. Both wish each other the best of luck in all future endeavors.” Limp Bizkit frontman Fred Durst and Borland were last… Read more »

In anticipation of their forthcoming release “Atomic,” Lit have lined up a slew of TV performances and other promotional activities surrounding its October 16 CD release date. “Atomic” is the follow-up to their platinum-plus “A Place In The Sun,” which garnered the hit singles “Miserable,” “Zip-Lock,” and the #1 Billboard Modern Rock song of 1999, “My Own Worst Enemy.” Earlier this summer fans got a taste of “Atomic” with the song “The Last Time Again” when it was featured in the #1 smash comedy movie “American Pie 2.” The official first single, “Lipstick and Bruises,” is currently #11 on Billboard’s… Read more »

With its current club tour limiting the stage show that it can present, Lit can only fantasize about the full-blown production it would like to bring to its fans in support of its upcoming album, Atomic, due October 16 from Dirty Martini/RCA. Guitarist Jeremy Popoff tells LAUNCH that there’s no shortage of concepts possible for their big rock show. “We have ideas for days, like ramps and things,” he says. “You know, at some point we want to buy the Bon Jovi swing that he went over the audience with, and the elevator that he comes up out of the… Read more »