Search Results for: Not My Weekend

Madonna’s no beautiful stranger to spy films – she’s acted up a storm as Breathless Mahoney in 1990’s “Dick Tracy” and contributed one song to the 1999 spy spoof “Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me.” Now she’s going for the real thing – shaken, not stirred – with the title track to the 20th James Bond film, “Die Another Day.” “We are thrilled that Madonna, who is recognized as the world’s most exciting songwriter and performer, has agreed to compose and sing the song for the first James Bond movie of the new millennium,” said the film’s team of… Read more »

Virgin Records was negligent in chartering a small plane in which singer-actress Aaliyah and eight other people died last year, according to wrongful death lawsuits filed Wednesday on behalf of two victims’ families. The survivors of Aaliyah, who was among Wednesday night’s Grammy Award nominees and the star of last weekend’s top-grossing film, “Queen of the Damned,” were not among the plaintiffs. Family members of Los Angeles-based hair stylists Eric Forman, 29, and Anthony Dodd, 34, filed their respective lawsuits in Los Angeles Superior Court against Virgin Records America, affiliated music and video production units, the plane’s owner and the… Read more »

Pop band Hear’Say were at the center of a stitch-up row Wednesday amid accusations that they selected one of their own dancers as a new band member. New recruit Johnny Shentall, 23, was apparently plucked from thousands of hopefuls who had traveled to London from all over Britain last weekend to queue for auditions. But in a front-page splash the Sun said even though the chart-topping band said they had never met Shentall before, he was in fact one of 14 dancers on stage with the band at the Top of the Pops awards last November. “Johnny already knows the… Read more »

The Stone Pony, a mecca for fans of Jersey shore rock ‘n’ roll, appears to have survived a brush with destruction, officials said on Thursday. The dilapidated nightclub, a musical home to such legends as Bruce Springsteen and Patti Smith, will be incorporated into a tentative plan to help revitalize the decayed beachfront of Asbury Park, New Jersey, they said. Original plans called for the Stone Pony – the best-known place to catch an impromptu Springsteen appearance – to be demolished or moved, but a rollicking campaign by devoted patrons ensued to preserve the squat, grimy building now sitting amid… Read more »

Can bad-boy rapper Eminem succeed where Mariah Carey spectacularly failed last year – score a hit record to revive the down-and-out music industry? That is the burning question on the lips of music business honchos converging on Midem, the industry’s annual get-together on the French Riviera this weekend. Executives will be praying for fortune to smile on a line-up of superstar releases including Eminem, Christina Aguilera and the King, Elvis Presley, to resuscitate an industry reeling from 2001, the worst year on record. Depending on their success, the $40 billion global music industry could shrink another three percent this year… Read more »

Fresh from his blockbuster performance before U.S. military forces stationed at Ramstein Air Base in Germany, Lava/Atlantic recording artist Kid Rock has just scored RIAA platinum with his new album, “COCKY.” The announcement comes less than one month after the release of the Kid Rock-produced collection, which includes the current hit single, “Forever.” Recent weeks have seen Kid Rock continuing to demonstrate his support of American military personnel, including a very special appearance at San Diego’s Naval Base Coronado, where he signed autographs and posed for pictures with thousands of U.S. sailors. In early December, Kid Rock and his Twisted… Read more »

Sam Phillips demurs when it’s suggested that rock ‘n’ roll was invented at his Sun Records label during the 1950s. But he does acknowledge there was a whole lotta shakin’ going on in Memphis thanks to the music he created there with the likes of Elvis Presley, Johnny Cash, Jerry Lee Lewis, Carl Perkins, Roy Orbison and others. “I do know this – it changed the world and it opened up a lot of doors,” Phillips said in a recent interview. “I’m happy we were able to contribute, at least in my opinion, to what music has done and is… Read more »

VH1 has removed a Mariah Carey-mocking segment of its My Music Awards rebroadcast. According to the network, the editing decision was made because of re-airing time constraints, but the show’s producer and the segment’s writer cite pressure from Carey’s representatives as the reason. The awards show – which took place Sunday, December 2nd, at Los Angeles’ Shrine Auditorium – included writer/comedian (and former Daily Show correspondent) Brian Unger’s “Music 2001: What The Hell Was That?” interludes, in which he lampooned Carey, as well as Michael Jackson, Marlon Brando, Wayne Newton and others. Unger’s Carey cracks targeted a July 19, 2001… Read more »

Five artistic legends sat alongside President Bush in Washington’s top theater on Sunday night, and were starry-eyed themselves as political and Hollywood heavyweights paid tribute to their glittering careers. Actress Julie Andrews, pianist Van Cliburn, music maestro Quincy Jones, actor Jack Nicholson and opera singer Luciano Pavarotti received the Kennedy Center Honors for their contributions to American culture. “The recipients for 2001 make quite a collection…. As one newspaper put it in the headline, this year’s honorees can carry a tune and then there’s Jack,” Bush told them at a White House reception before the gala. “Perhaps it’s a nice… Read more »