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Call him the “dark horse,” the “Come-From-Behind Kid,” the humble crooner. Call him whatever you like. But from now on you also need to call Kris Allen your “American Idol.” After a historic tally of nearly 100 million votes, the shy 23-year-old singer from Conway, Arkansas, pulled off one of the most surprising wins in the show’s nearly decade-long history by taking the crown from the theatrical season-long frontrunner, Adam Lambert. After nearly two hours of anticipation, when the time came for host Ryan Seacrest to announce the results, Allen and Lambert stood arm-in-arm, their friendship looking much more like… Read more »

MIAMI — The little girls who made the New Kids on the Block a boy band sensation in the late 1980s and early 1990s are all grown up, and now they’ve got disposable income. So what better way to show their love for Jordan, Jonathan, Joey, Donnie and Danny than spending three days with them on a Caribbean cruise? About 2,100 women, most in their 20s and 30s, paid more $1,000 each for a sold-out, three-day Carnival Cruise Lines trip that left Miami for the Bahamas on Friday. The voyage kicks off the band’s summer concert tour, when they’ll dust… Read more »

Germany has a new minister of economic affairs. Mr. von und zu Guttenberg is descended from an old and noble lineage, so his official name is very long: Karl Theodor Maria Nikolaus Johann Jacob Philipp Franz Joseph Sylvester Freiherr von und zu Guttenberg. When first there were rumors that he would be appointed to the post, someone changed his Wikipedia entry and added the name ‘Wilhelm,’ so Wikipedia stated his full name as: Karl Theodor Maria Nikolaus Johann Jacob Philipp Wilhelm Franz Joseph Sylvester Freiherr von und zu Guttenberg. What resulted from this edit points up a big problem for… Read more »

Fergie and Josh Duhamel were married Saturday (January 10) at the Church Estate Vineyards in Malibu, California on Saturday, People.com reports. Guests at the wedding included Fergie’s fellow Black Eyed Peas, Kid Rock, Guns N’ Roses guitarist Slash, Kate Hudson (Fergie’s co-star in her upcoming movie “Nine”), Rebecca Romijn and Jerry O’Connell, Mario Lopez, Stacy Keibler, along with Duhamel’s Las Vegas co-stars James Caan, Molly Sims and Vanessa Marcil, according to the site. The Black Eyed Peas singer (whose real name is Stacy Ann Ferguson), 33, and the actor, 36, confirmed their engagement in December of 2007. According to People,… Read more »

Velvet Revolver bass player Duff McKagan has denied a report that former Spacehog frontman Royston Langdon is in line to become the band’s new singer. McKagan told Billboard.com that Velvet Revolver did play with Langdon, and that he’s “he’s f–king awesome,” but “at this point I’d have to say no” on him replacing ousted singer Scott Weiland. “We just have to make sure it’s the right guy,” he said. “Karmically, we deserve the right guy. It’s a tough thing, man. We make a pretty big noise.” Entertainment Weekly reported this week that Langdon, the estranged husband of actress Liv Tyler,… Read more »

Ola Brunkert, a former drummer for ABBA and one of only two musicians to play on all the Swedish pop superstars’ albums, died in a freak accident at his home on the Spanish island of Mallorca. According to authorities, Brunkert fell into a glass door in his dining room and slashed his throat. He apparently attempted to stanch the blood flow with a towel and apparently went outside to call neighbors for help. But he lost consciousness and collapsed. According to published reports, a neighbor discovered Brunkert ‘s body, in a pool of blood, in the garden outside the musician’s… Read more »

Record label EMI, bought by private equity firm Terra Firma last year, is set to announce on Monday plans to cut as much as one third of its 6,000 staff, slash marketing costs and drop artists as part of a restructuring, the Wall Street Journal reported. Most of the job cuts are expected to come from EMI’s recorded-music operations, as opposed to its music-publishing business, the paper said, citing unidentified people familiar with the plans. The plans come as the music industry has struggled to return to profitability — and indeed to prove itself viable in the long term, the… Read more »

The other high-heel shoe has dropped. With no end in sight for the Hollywood writers’ strike, the 34th annual People’s Choice Awards will slash its red carpet, it was confirmed Wednesday. Organizers, meanwhile, announced a “reinvention” of the telecast as a pretaped, “magazine-style format” show: Think two-hour special, rather than Christine Lahti-caught-in-the-bathroom live TV. People’s Choice spokeswoman Jeannie Tharrington said the show requested, and was denied, a waiver from the Writers Guild of America that would have allowed union writers to work on the Jan. 8 CBS telecast. Later, WGA spokesman Greg Mitchell said the union had taken no action… Read more »

Japan’s probably feeling a little psychic right about now. The week after Velvet Revolver announced the Japanese leg of its tour was off because the Asian nation had “tak[en] exception with the backgrounds of various band members,” lead singer Scott Weiland was busted for DUI. The Nov. 21 arrest, the latest for the oft-arrested, oft-rehabbed rocker, was uncovered Monday by TMZ.com. Weiland, 40, is due in a Los Angeles court Dec. 13 to answer to the misdemeanor charge. It was on Nov. 16 that Weiland’s band announced it had been denied visas for four scheduled Japan dates, Nov. 26-30. “The… Read more »

With an emphasis on the visual over the audio, MTV from its inception has never been “about the music.” But after seeing interest in its signature trophy show wane in recent years, the network put the spotlight where it belongs for a music awards show: on the concert stage. The result of this brainstorm, and a few other format changes to its Video Music Awards? The most watchable show in many a Moon Man outing. Even if that isn’t saying much. And this despite opening with an onstage career suicide by Britney Spears. More on that later. The 2007 VMAs… Read more »