Search Results for: 2003

A photographer doesn’t feel so beautiful after allegedly taking a beating from Christina Aguilera’s bodyguard last year. Now, said shutterbug, David Keeler, is suing the singer, her bodyguard and her Three Wishes Tour Inc. over the May 21, 2003 incident outside a Hollywood nightclub. According to the lawsuit filed Tuesday in Los Angeles Superior Court, Keeler was staked out at the entrance of the nightspot Nacional around 2 a.m. to capture Xtina and other celebrities coming out of club. Keeler says in court documents that the “Dirrty” singer “appeared to be intoxicated and needed assistance walking to the car.” Keeler… Read more »

After you’ve disrobed Janet Jackson at the Super Bowl, and presumably disrobed Cameron Diaz someplace, can you really go back to being just one of the boys? For Justin Timberlake, the answer is no, per a report in the new People magazine. Timberlake “doesn’t want any part” of a planned ‘N Sync reunion, a source says in People. “Justin said he’s not in the mood and doesn’t think it will work,” the spy tells the magazine. ‘N Sync, with the Backstreet Boys, the leading boy band of the teen-pop explosion of the late 1990s/early 2000s, has been on hiatus since… Read more »

The success of the Black Eyed Peas flies in the face of the conventional wisdom that the music business sacrifices long-term artist development in favor of quick hits and short-term corporate profits. Signed to Interscope Records more than six years ago by chairman Jimmy Iovine, the progressive hip-hop group’s first two albums, “Behind the Front” in 1998 and “Bridging the Gap” in 2000 earned rave reviews but failed to go gold (shipments of 500,000 copies). The first album peaked at No. 139 on the Billboard 200 with sales of 197,000 units, according Nielsen SoundScan, while the sophomore set stalled at… Read more »

It was short and sweet, but it’s something that ‘NSYNC fans had been anticipating for well over a year. All five members of the boy band reunited over the weekend to sing the national anthem at what’s become both a charitable and star-studded tradition: the group’s annual Challenge for the Children basketball tournament. The performance marked the group’s first since its Bee Gees tribute at the 45th annual Grammy Awards in February 2003. “It was good to hear them all together again,” Usher said after the performance. “Not anyone can sing the national anthem,” Good Charlotte’s Benji Madden said. “It… Read more »

‘N Sync haven’t completely gone “Bye, Bye, Bye.” The boy-band pop group will perform together for the first time since the 2003 Grammy Awards as part of a benefit for their charity, the Challenge for the Children Foundation. The event will be held July 23-25 in Miami. The five ‘N Sync members, including Justin Timberlake, will sing the national anthem before a charity basketball game. Celebrities expected to attend include actress Shannon Elizabeth, Jamie-Lynn DiScala of “The Sopranos” and rapper Jermaine Dupri. Challenge for the Children Foundation was created by ‘N Sync in 1999 to raise money for children’s programs… Read more »

The Dead Kennedys have finally buried the hatchet. Jello Biafra, the former frontman for the ’80s punk outfit, has decided to drop his final complaint in a lawsuit against the other three members over control of the group’s legacy. Biafra and the other Dead Kennedys have been feuding since May 2000, when a San Francisco jury ruled the singer and his record owed onetime mates East Bay Ray, Klaus Fouride and D.H. Peligro $220,000 in a breach-of-contract suit. Biafra appealed the verdict, but a state appeals court eventually ruled against him. In an opinion rendered in June 2003, the three-judge… Read more »

Apple Computers’ iTunes Music Stores in the United Kingdom, France and Germany have lost little sales momentum in their second week of operations. The services have registered more than 1.5 million combined download sales since launching June 15, the computer giant claims. Apple has not released details on the best-selling titles in the markets. The European download services made a big splash in their debut week, shifting 800,000 songs in total. Comparatively, it took Apple just seven days to sell 1 million songs in the United States when it introduced the iTunes Music Store for Macintosh computers there in April… Read more »

Computer audio equipment maker Creative Technology Ltd and online music service Soundbuzz.Com launched an alliance on Tuesday aimed at capturing Asia’s infant fee-based online music market. The two companies are setting up online music stores in Singapore, Hong Kong and India – regions where knock-off CDs burned by sophisticated piracy syndicates or downloaded off the Internet for free are hammering sales of recorded music. Soundbuzz.Com and Creative launched the first of their online stores in Singapore on Tuesday, offering 250,000 songs at $1.16 each in a format designed for quick downloading into Creative’s digital music players. “We’ve all been through… Read more »

US box office takings passed the $1bn ( £545m) mark for the first time in June, led by the success of the third Harry Potter film, a survey indicated. The North American box office took $1.03bn ( £562m) during June, Hollywood Reporter found – a 14% increase on June 2003’s previous monthly record. Takings were boosted by blockbusters including Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban and Shrek 2. Spider-Man 2, which opened in the US on 1 July, also boosted monthly takings. New releases The third Harry Potter film topped the North American box office for the month by… Read more »

There’s plenty of spin about what happened at the Bellagio’s Light nightclub when former Motley Crue drummer Tommy Lee was spinning the tunes. Sean Christie, the club’s director of marketing, said Lee had to be removed by security officers, but Lee’s manager said the 41-year-old drummer walked out of Sunday’s show. Lee was there for a disc-jockey gig during a Father’s Day party, Christie told the Las Vegas Sun in Tuesday’s editions. “He was playing lousy music,” Christie said. “We told him to wrap up his set and make a graceful exit. When he refused, we said we would just… Read more »