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The Michael Jackson media wars continue, with Fox agreeing to air outtakes the singer selected from his controversial interview with a British journalist. A two-hour special, tentatively titled “Michael Jackson, Take Two: The Interview They Wouldn’t Show You,” is scheduled to air Feb. 20. The Jackson spectacle is fodder for hungry television networks, particularly in a hotly contested ratings sweeps month. ABC’s airing of Jackson’s interview with Martin Bashir was last week’s most popular show, seen by 27.1 million people. Angered by how Bashir portrayed him – as an odd man-child who says he sometimes innocently lets children sleep in… Read more »

When you think music and New Jersey, one name comes quickly to mind: Bruce Springsteen. Yet few people inside or outside New Jersey are making better music or rocking out more these days than local boys Bon Jovi. The only 80s hair band to not only survive but thrive in the new millennium, Bon Jovi showed a continuing maturity and veteran stage presence as they brought their “Bounce” tour to Continental Airlines Arena on Monday. The show, the second stop on the tour, opened with three huge satellite dishes rotating onstage as the band – lead singer Jon Bon Jovi,… Read more »

Online music service pressplay has reached deals to distribute music from several leading independent record labels, including Sub Pop and DreamWorks. The deal Monday brings a host of well-known artists to pressplay, such as Nirvana and Frank Zappa, and expands the selections from the subscription music service to more than 250,000 songs. Pressplay also reached a deal to distribute music for the independent labels Palm, Ubiquity, Rykodisc/Ryko Label Group, important additions to the service already heavy with a mainstay of popular music, said pressplay CEO Mike Bebel. “We focus very much on what we perceive to be the most relevant… Read more »

Online subscription music service pressplay said on Monday it has reached agreements with a number of independent record labels that will add artists like Frank Zappa, Nirvana and Nelly Furtado to its catalog. Pressplay, a joint venture of the music arms of Japan’s Sony Corp. and France’s Vivendi Universal, said it signed deals with DreamWorks, Palm, Ubiquity, Rykodisc/Ryko Label Group and Sub Pop, bringing its total available songs to about 250,000. The company also said that, starting with the Feb. 14 launch of version 2.5 of its service, it will add interactive features to its radio service allowing users to… Read more »

With nary a Hells Angels member or flying pool cue in sight, the Rolling Stones played their first free concert in 33 years on Thursday, as a celebrity crowd headed by former U.S. President Bill Clinton looked on. The event at the Staples Center was a considerably more sedate affair than their last free show, at the Altamont Speedway near San Francisco in 1969. Then, security was handled by the local Hells Angels chapter, who clubbed fans with pool cues while the band looked on helplessly. A teenager was stabbed to death as he appeared to point a gun at… Read more »

Madonna has complained to Britain’s press watchdog about a magazine article claiming she was pregnant, the Press Complaints Commission said Wednesday. A commission spokeswoman said the singer-actress had contacted the organization to say a report in celebrity magazine Heat was “inaccurate.” Heat reported in its latest issue that Madonna, 44, had visited a birth specialist in London at the end of last year. The magazine noted her baggy clothes and that she’d stopped dying her hair, which some pregnant women choose to do. Madonna’s spokeswoman, Liz Rosenberg, was quoted by the British Broadcasting Corp. as saying there was no truth… Read more »

Michael Jackson said Thursday he felt betrayed by a “terrible and unfair” TV documentary about his life, in which the King of Pop revealed he sometimes lets children sleep in his bed. In a statement issued Thursday by his London representative, Jackson said British journalist Martin Bashir broke the trust placed in him, and added he felt “more betrayed than perhaps ever before.” Bashir spent eight months making the 90-minute program, which was to be shown in the United States at 8 p.m. EST Thursday on ABC’s “20/20.” “I trusted Martin Bashir to come into my life and that of… Read more »

Phil Spector, the legendary record producer whose “wall of sound” helped change the sound of pop music in the 1960s, was arrested Monday for allegedly shooting a woman to death at his suburban mansion. Spector, 62, was seized at the castle-like estate around 5 a.m. after someone in the home called authorities. He was released shortly after 7 p.m. after posting $1 million bond, said Los Angeles County sheriff’s Deputy Rich Pena. Attorney Robert Shapiro, whose clients have included O.J. Simpson, was representing Spector. “I don’t know answers to any of this,” Shapiro said by telephone from the Alhambra Police… Read more »

Michael Jackson is a “disturbing individual” with a love of multi-million-dollar shopping sprees and a desire to live forever, according to a journalist granted unrivalled access to the pop star. Martin Bashir, who spent eight months making a documentary on the normally reclusive singer, said 44-year-old Jackson truly is the Peter Pan of pop who is obsessed by the idea of childhood being frozen in time. Plastic surgery, child abuse allegations and his father’s cruelty all feature in a warts-and-all British television documentary being aired in Britain Monday evening. The ITV program is the result of the unprecedented access Jackson… Read more »

Motown Records veteran William “Mickey” Stevenson, one of label founder Berry Gordy Jr.’s top lieutenants at Hitsville USA, has launched his own diversified entertainment firm. Los Angeles-based Stevenson Intl. Entertainment Group will have interests in artist management, music publishing, recording, sampling and live-show production, a statement issued on Friday said. Among the developing acts represented by the firm’s B&W Management division are R&B singer Novel, whose debut album will be released by MCA Records later this year, and his unsigned 14-year-old sister Amber. They are two of soul icon Solomon Burke’s grandchildren. Stevenson’s Mikim Music division boasts a database that… Read more »