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Are they or aren’t they? Jennifer Lopez and Ben Affleck won’t say, but it sure looks like they’re engaged. The couple, who’ve been photographed kissing everywhere over the past few months, have been coy about whether they’re getting married. People magazine, quoting friends and sources, reports in its Nov. 18 issue that they plan to tie the knot on Valentine’s Day. The marriage would be the third for Lopez, 32, and the first for Affleck, 30. Lopez’s publicist, Alan Nierob, declined to comment on the report Thursday. Affleck’s publicist didn’t immediately return a phone call. The singer-actress has been wearing… Read more »

The Eminem show was everywhere this week as two albums by the rapper commanded top spots on the U.S. sales charts ahead of the Friday opening of his highly anticipated debut movie. The newly released soundtrack to his film “8 Mile” – which features music by Eminem as well as other rappers such as Jay-Z, Nas and D-12 – debuted at No. 1 on the charts, selling an estimated 702,000 units in the week ended Nov. 3, according to music tracker Nielsen SoundScan. The album features three new solo songs by Eminem, who has the starring role in the movie… Read more »

The technology built into some CDs to stop people copying them is futile, according to a computer scientist who has put today’s antipiracy systems under the microscope. He believes the continual software and hardware upgrades issued by the makers of computer CD drives and audio CD players render copy protection systems pointless in the long run. John Halderman, a computer scientist from Princeton University in New Jersey, plans to show delegates at a digital copyright conference in Washington DC next week that the idea of CD copy-prevention is “fundamentally misguided”. In 2001, Princeton University scientists debunked the technology the music… Read more »

Faced with adverse publicity to copy protection on CDs, a year ago Bertelsmann Music Group bravely gave in and promised to replace a clutch of Natalie Imbruglia CDs which were protected by Midbar’s Cactus Data Shield. But a year is a long time, BMG is at it again, this time apparently set on applying copy protection to all its music products. Not, of course, that this should be surprising. The music companies are absolutely intent on copy-proofing their products, and although they’ll maybe retreat a little when irate consumers pelt them with ordure, they’ll be right back just as soon… Read more »

“The last time we were here,” declared Deryck Whibley from the stage, “two girls came up and made out.” The pronouncement by Sum 41’s singer/guitarist Tuesday at CBGB was met with screams and raised hands, an indication that several fans were willing to participate in a reenactment. “This time we have to top it,” the adorable, spiky shorn frontman added, and approached bassist Cone McCaslin, tilted his head and parted his lips. Psych! Both pulled away at the last second. “No way!” they said in unison. The fourth stop on the band’s Sum On Your Face club tour wasn’t filled… Read more »

Until recently, it seemed only kids – and music critics – could love Eminem. Politicians condemned his obscenity-laced and violent lyrics. Gay and women’s groups blasted him as a homophobe and misogynist. The Grammy-winning Detroit rapper had millions in album sales, but little love from mainstream America. Well, he’s still not America’s sweetheart. But some of the vitriol directed at Eminem has diminished – replaced not just by grudging respect, but by downright enthusiasm from some unlikely quarters. “The guy is funny, smart, and sometimes shocking,” author Stephen King gushed on his Web site. “Those are all things I look… Read more »

As one of the forefathers of rap, with a history of social activism, Run-DMC’s Jam Master Jay was an unlikely target for the kind of violence that killed rappers Tupac Shakur or the Notorious B.I.G. He was married with three kids, and a fixture in the Queens neighborhood where he grew up. Yet authorities were searching Thursday for the gunman who killed the 37-year-old disc jockey with a gunshot to the head inside his recording studio. “Jam Master Jay was a longtime family man and one of the founders of the group that knocked down all the doors for hip-hop,… Read more »

Rapper/disc jockey Angie Martinez discovered she wasn’t tough enough to be an “American Idol” judge. Martinez, who was to join original judges Simon Cowell, Paula Abdul (news) and Randy Jackson for the Fox talent-search show’s second season, quit after the first few auditions. It became “too uncomfortable for me to tell someone else to give up on their dream, especially when I realized that many of them have supported my musical career,” Martinez said in a statement. Fox will stick with a trio of judges and not fill Martinez’s slot, a spokeswoman said Wednesday. The first edition of “American Idol,”… Read more »

Former Beatle Sir Paul McCartney (news) said on Sunday he would postpone the final and biggest concert of his current world tour in Melbourne out of respect for the victims of the Bali bomb blasts. The only Australian show on November 23 in front of over 30,000 fans was to be McCartney’s first date Down Under in more than a decade, but the singer’s spokesman said a nationwide tour was now under consideration for 2003. “As a mark of respect to both the families who have lost loved ones and to the families of the injured, I have decided to… Read more »

The seminal album of British punk rock celebrates its 25th birthday on Monday and shows no sign of growing old gracefully. On October 28, 1977, the Sex Pistols unleashed their debut album, “Never Mind the Bollocks, Here’s the Sex Pistols,” on an unsuspecting world. It shot straight to the top of the album charts and stayed there for an astonishing 47 weeks. Everything about the album was designed to shock, from its provocative title, its 12 short, explosive songs and its garish pink and yellow pop art album cover. The names of the tracks were printed on the album sleeve… Read more »