Gossip Girl’s two hottest ladies, Blake Lively and Leighton Meester, look even hotter than normal as they take the cover of Rolling Stone Magazine.
Blake and Leighton who play Serena Van Der Woodsen and Blair Waldorf on the TV show share an ice cream and a twizzler together, they then hold hands and in another photograph Leighton even sucks on Blake’s thumb.
The pair then hop into bed with the rest of the Gossip Girl cast, who Lively says they all “live within a five-block radius of one another.”
I admit that I watch Gossip Girl and I love it, but I love this photoshoot with Blake Lively and Leighton Meester even more.
The gang at Rolling Stone has come up with a list of the “100 Greatest Guitar Songs of All Time.” But who’s got time for that in the fast-page Internet age? Here’s their top 10 — the other 90 suck in comparison, right?
1. “Johnny B. Goode” Chuck Berry (1958)
“If you want to play rock & roll,” Joe Perry told Rolling Stone in 2004, “you have to start here.” Recorded 50 years ago, on January 6th, 1958, at the Chess Records studio in Chicago, Berry’s “Johnny B. Goode” was the first great record about the joys and rewards of playing rock & roll guitar. It also has the single greatest rock & roll intro: a thrilling blast of high twang driven by Berry’s spearing notes, followed by a rhythm part that translates a boogie-woogie piano riff for the guitar. “He could play the guitar just like a-ringing a bell,” Berry sings in the first verse — a perfect description of his sound and the reverberations still running through every style of rock guitar, from the Beatles and the Stones on down. “It was beautiful, effortless, and his timing was perfection,” Keith Richards has said of Berry’s playing. “He is rhythm man supreme.” Berry wrote often about rock & roll and why it’s good for you — “Roll Over Beethoven” in 1956, “Rock and Roll Music” in ‘57 — but never better than in “Johnny B. Goode,” a true story about how playing music on a guitar can change your life forever.
2. “Purple Haze” The Jimi Hendrix Experience (1967)
The riff is pure blues — the same kind of guitar figure Hendrix played nightly back on the R&B-club grind, as a sideman for Little Richard and the Isley Brothers. But in “Purple Haze,” Hendrix’s second British single and the first track on the U.S. version of his debut album, he declared himself a free man — “‘Scuse me while I kiss the sky” — and unveiled a new guitar language charged with spiritual hunger and the poetry possible in electricity and studio technology. “Guitar — you can play it or transcend it,” said Neil Young when he inducted Hendrix into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 1992. “Jimi showed me that. I heard it, felt it and wanted to do it.” Hendrix wrote “Purple Haze” backstage at a London nightclub in December 1966 and recorded basic tracks with his band, the Experience, two weeks later. But the galactic travel came in overdubs recorded on February 3rd, 1967: Hendrix’s solos, swimming in echo and sparkling with harmonics, were put through an octave-boosting effect and played back at twice the speed. In less than three minutes, Hendrix opened a new age of expression on his instrument.
3. “Crossroads” Cream (1968)
Eric Clapton once described Cream’s music as “blues ancient and modern.” This track is what he meant. He was not yet 23 when he played this high-velocity version of the Robert Johnson song at San Francisco’s Winterland on March 10th, 1968. Everything in Clapton’s solos is grounded in the blues vocabulary but pointed to the future. “When Clapton soloed, he wrote wonderful symphonies from classic blues licks in that fantastic tone,” Little Steven Van Zandt told Rolling Stone in 2004. “You could sing his solos like songs in themselves.”
4. “You Really Got Me” The Kinks (1964)
It was, at first, “a jazz-type tune,” said Kinks singer Ray Davies, and the two-chord figure driving it was a sax line. “That’s what I liked at the time.” Then his brother Dave played it on guitar through an amp speaker he had poked with needles and shredded with a razor blade. (”It was a Gillette single-sided blade,” said Dave.) Dave’s solo — a tangle of zigzags and viciously bent notes — heralded the birth of Sixties garage and punk-rock guitar in one fell swoop. “I said I’d never write another song like it,” said Ray. “And I haven’t.”
5. “Brown Sugar” The Rolling Stones (1971)
“Satisfaction” may be the Rolling Stones’ most recognizable riff, but this Sticky Fingers hit — based on a gutbucket guitar part devised by Mick Jagger — is the band’s raunchy guitar pinnacle. Keith Richards’ secret weapon: He’s playing a guitar that’s missing its lowest string.
6. “Eruption” Van Halen (1978)
Eddie Van Halen’s 102-second mission statement was a piece he invented onstage: a solo showcase for his mastery of tone and technique, notably the rush of notes he produced with his fretboard tapping. An army of teens would try to duplicate it, emerging years later in every metal band of the Eighties.
7. “While My Guitar Gently Weeps” The Beatles (1968)
This is a tale of two guitar giants at an empathic peak: George Harrison, who wrote this song on acoustic guitar in India, and Eric Clapton, who amplifies Harrison’s vocal dismay with a waterfall of blues fills. It’s the finest examaple of his jagged, late-Sixties tone.
8. “Stairway to Heaven” Led Zeppelin (1971)
“Stairway,” Jimmy Page told RS in 1975, “crystallized the essence of the band.” It’s a masterpiece of dramatic ascension: Page’s acoustic picking rising into chiming chords, which introduce the solo, a brilliant succession of phrases that steadily move toward rock & roll ecstasy.
9. “Statesboro Blues” The Allman Brothers Band (1971)
In 1968, Gregg Allman went to visit his older brother, Duane, on his 22nd birthday. Duane was sick in bed, so Gregg brought along a bottle of Coricidin pills for his fever and the debut album by guitarist Taj Mahal as a gift. “About two hours after I left, my phone rang,” Gregg remembers. ” ‘Baby brother, baby brother, get over here now!’ ” When Gregg got there, Duane had poured the pills out of the bottle, washed off the label and was using it as a slide to play “Statesboro Blues,” the old Blind Willie McTell song that Taj Mahal covered. Duane had never played slide before, says Gregg, but “he just picked it up and started burnin’. He was a natural.”
The song quickly became a part of the Allman Brothers Band’s repertoire, and Duane’s slide guitar became crucial to their sound. “Statesboro Blues” was the opening track on their legendary 1971 live double album, At Fillmore East, and ever since, the moaning and squealing opening licks have given fans chills at live shows. “It wasn’t something that Duane would play the same way every night,” says current Allmans guitarist Warren Haynes, one of many guitarists who have filled Duane’s shoes since he died in late 1971. “But in all of our heads, that’s the way it goes.”
There’s one thing the current band doesn’t try to replicate from the Fillmore East performance: At the end of Duane’s sublime “Statesboro” solo, the guitarist hits an off-key note that Gregg calls the “note from hell.” “He left it in because he knew I hated it,” says Gregg, claiming that the mistake only adds to the song’s legend. “It was live. It was something that happened.” EVAN SERPICK
10. “Smells Like Teen Spirit” Nirvana (1991)
Most of “Teen Spirit” came easy — Nirvana nailed it in three takes — but that crucial Kurt Cobain guitar intro required an overdub (”That pissed him off,” said producer Butch Vig). It was worth the effort: That riff, along with the band’s loud-quiet-loud dynamics, defined Nineties rock.
It’s a pretty lame list, if you ask me. “Johnny B. Goode” and “Purple Haze” are certainly top 10 material but most of the others aren’t. A lot of them aren’t event particularly good guitar songs.
Certainly, almost any AC/DC song you’ve ever heard of is better than “Stairway to Heaven” as a guitar jam. Indeed, so are quite a few Zeppelin songs, notably “Rock and Roll.” And where’s Lynyrd Skynrd’s “Freebird”? That’s gotta be in the top 10.
Source: “The 100 Greatest Guitar Songs of All Time” [Rolling Stone]
The question I’ve been asking since New York governor Eliot Spitzer got caught with a $5000 an hour hooker has been, What in the hell could a woman do in an hour that’d be worth $5000? And how hot would she have to be?
Well, it’s now been revealed that high price whore “Kristen” is really Ashley Youmans, aka Ashley Alexandra Dupré. Here are some photos from her MySpace page:
Would I hit it? Sure. For $500 an hour? Let alone $5000? Hell no.
Background info:
She left a broken home on the Jersey Shore at 17 and came to New York City to work the nightclubs as a rhythm and blues singer. Now, at 22, she is the unwitting, and as yet unseen, star of the seamy drama that is the downfall of Gov. Eliot Spitzer of New York.
Kristen, the prostitute described in a federal affidavit as having had a rendezvous with Mr. Spitzer on Feb. 13 at the Mayflower Hotel in Washington, has spent the last few days in her ninth-floor apartment in the Flatiron district of Manhattan. On Monday, she made a brief appearance in federal court, where a lawyer was appointed to represent her. She is expected to be a witness in the case against four people charged with operating a prostitution ring called the Emperor’s Club V.I.P.
In a series of telephone interviews on Tuesday night, she said she had slept very little over the past week, with all the stress of the case. “I just don’t want to be thought of as a monster,” the woman said as she told the tiniest tidbits of her story.
Born Ashley Youmans but now known as Ashley Alexandra Dupré, she spoke softly and with good humor as she added with significant understatement: “This has been a very difficult time. It is complicated.”
She has not been charged. The lawyer appointed to represent her, Don D. Buchwald, told a magistrate judge in court on Monday that she had been subpoenaed to testify in a grand jury investigation. Asked to swear that she had accurately filled out and signed a financial affidavit, she responded affirmatively.
A person with knowledge of the Emperor’s Club operation confirmed that the woman interviewed by The New York Times was the woman identified as Kristen in the affidavit. Mr. Buchwald confirmed various details of Ms. Dupré’s background but would not discuss the contents of the affidavit.
Ms. Dupré said by telephone Tuesday night that she was worried about how she would pay her rent since the man she was living with “walked out on me” after she discovered he had fathered two children. She said she was considering working at a friend’s restaurant or, once her apartment lease expires, moving back with her family in New Jersey “to relax.”
She did not say when she had started working for the Emperor’s Club, or how often she had liaisons arranged through the ring. Asked when she met Governor Spitzer and how many times they had seen each other, Ms. Dupré said she had no comment.
As of Wednesday morning, Ms. Dupré’s MySpace page recounted her “odyssey to New York from New Jersey through North Carolina, Miami, D.C., Virginia and Austin, Texas;” public records show that she lived in Monmouth County, N.J., in 2001, and in North Carolina in 2003. She owns a company, created in 2005, called Pasche New York, which her lawyer said was an entertainment business designed to further her singing career.
Music is her first love, and on the MySpace page, Ms. Dupré mentions Patsy Cline, Frank Sinatra, Christina Aguilera and Lauryn Hill among a long list of influences, including her brother, Kyle. (She also lists Whitney Houston, Madonna, Mary J. Blige and Amy Winehouse as her top MySpace friends.) In the interview, she said she saw the Rolling Stones perform at Radio City Music Hall on their last tour after a friend gave her two tickets. “They were amazing,” she said.
On MySpace, her page says: “I am all about my music and my music is all about me. It flows from what I’ve been through, what I’ve seen and how I feel.” She left “a broken family” at age 17, having been abused, according to the MySpace page, and has used drugs and “been broke and homeless.” “Learned what it was like to have everything and lose it, again and again,” she writes. “Learned what it was like to wake up one day and have the people you care about most gone. “But I made it,” she continues. “I’m still here and I love who I am. If I never went through the hard times, I would not be able to appreciate the good ones. Cliché, yes, but I know it’s true.”
Ms. Dupré’s mother, Carolyn Capalbo, 46, said that after her daughter finished sophomore year in high school, Ms. Dupré moved to North Carolina. “She was a young kid with typical teenage rebellion issues, but we are extremely close now,” Ms. Capalbo said in a telephone interview Wednesday.
In 2006, Ms. Dupré changed her legal name, according to records in Monmouth County Superior Court, from Ashley R. Youmans to Ashley Rae Maika DiPietro, taking her stepfather’s surname since she regarded him as “the only father I have known.” But in the interview, she referred to herself as Ashley Alexandra Dupré, which is how she is known on MySpace.
On the Web page is a recording of what she describes as her latest track, “What We Want,” a hip-hop-inflected rhythm-and-blues tune that asks, “Can you handle me, boy?” and uses some dated slang, calling someone her “boo.”
“I know what you want, you got what I want,” she sings in the chorus. “I know what you need. Can you handle me?”
Her MySpace biography says she started singing professionally after a musician she was living with heard her singing the Aretha Franklin hit “Respect” in the shower and burst into the bathroom with his lead guitarist. She says she toured and recorded with them, then moved to Manhattan in 2004 and “spent the first two years getting to know the music scene, networking in clubs and connecting with the industry. “Now it’s all about my music, it’s all about expressing me.”
In the affidavit, the woman the Emperor’s Club called Kristen is described as “an American, petite, very pretty brunette, 5 feet 5 inches, and 105 pounds.” She apparently was booked at about $1,000 an hour, placing her in the middle of the seven-diamond scale by which the prostitutes were paid up to $4,300 an hour.
Ms. Capalbo said that she was “shell-shocked” when her daughter called in the middle of last week and told her she had been working as an escort and was now in trouble with the law. She said she was not sure that Ms. Dupré realized who Mr. Spitzer was when he was her client.
“She is a very bright girl who can handle someone like the governor,” Ms. Capalbo said. “But she also is a 22-year-old, not a 32-year-old or a 42-year-old, and she obviously got involved in something much larger than her.”
Yeah, no joke.
Source: For an Aspiring Singer, a Harsher Spotlight [NYT]
Rolling Stones guitarist and rock n’ roll bad boy Keith Richards has become the new public face of Louis Vuitton.
Alrighty then.
Rolling Stones guitarist and rock-and-roll bad boy Keith Richards is to become the new public face of Louis Vuitton, the French luxury fashion house said on Tuesday.
For his first ever ad campaign, the 64-year-old Richards — who has a rocky history of drug use — is seen cradling his guitar on a hotel-room bed, the lights part obscured by skull-print black drapes.
“Some journeys cannot be put into words. New York. 3 am. Blues in C,” runs the slogal of the ad, shot by US photographer Annie Leibovitz and due to appear in the magazine press next month.
Richards plans to donate the fee for the ad to the Climate Project, launched by Nobel-winning former US vice-president Al Gore and backed by Louis Vuitton.
Famous faces stars to have represented Vuitton in the past include former Russian leader Mikhail Gorbachev, French screen icon Catherine Deneuve, and US actresses Scarlett Johansson and Uma Thurman.
Style and class meets snorting blow off a hooker’s ass… nice. Only one thing comes to mind though….
source: Stones guitarist is new frontman for Louis Vuitton [yahoo news]
A storm saved the life of the Rolling Stone‘s front man…and he may not even know it. A British documentary centering around the FBI revealed that a group of Hells Angels tried to murder Mick Jagger. After he refused to use the gang as bouncers for a concert in 1969, they decided that Mick would pay with his life for the snub.
The Hells Angels had been present at a previous concert for the Stones. Sadly, the gang’s overzealous methods of controlling the crowd resulted in the death of an 18 year old fan. After Mick blacklisted the group they attempted to kill him.
Tom Mangold said the plan was disclosed during an interview with Mark Young, a former FBI officer, for the BBC’s “The FBI at 100″ documentary. Mangold said the men tried to reach Jagger by sea. “The boat was hit by a storm and all of the men were thrown overboard,” he was quoted as saying. They all survived but made no other attempt on his life.
WTF? They tried to storm his house by sea? Isn’t that a bit out of their element? Just in case there are any members still around….have I mentioned lately how en vogue shiny metal helmets and leather chaps are?
Source: Hells Angels Plotted to Kill Mick Jagger [Huffington Post]
10. Rascal Flatts ($41.6 million)
9. Christina Aguilera ($48.1 million)
8. Tim McGraw/Faith Hill ($52.3 million)
7. Roger Waters ($53.2 million)
6. Cirque Du Soleil’s Delirium ($59.4 million)
5. Rod Stewart ($70 million)
4. Kenny Chesney ($71.2 million)
3. Justin Timberlake ($126.8 million)
2. Genesis ($129 million)
1. The Police ($212 million)
What… Britney Spears‘ ‘House of Blues‘ tour didn’t make the list? Stop, stop…I jest!
The Police reunion trek led all tours in 2007 with a gross that has passed $212 million and is still climbing. The global tour few thought would ever happen moved more than 1.8 million tickets, according to Billboard Boxscore, prior to the Boxscore cutoff date of Nov. 13.
The Police tour was produced by TNA International and RZO Productions, and played stadiums, arenas and festivals.
Another heavy-hitting international arena/stadium outing was Genesis’ Turn It on Again tour, produced by Michael Cohl’s CPI. Selling out stadiums in Europe and arenas in the United States, Genesis’ 46 shows grossed $129 million.
Third for the year was Justin Timberlake’s FutureSex LoveShow tour, promoted primarily by AEG Live, which took in $126.8 million and drew more than 1.6 million people worldwide.
The top 10 is rounded out by Kenny Chesney ($71.2 million), Rod Stewart ($70 million), Cirque Du Soleil’s Delirium ($59.4 million), Roger Waters ($53.2 million), Tim McGraw/Faith Hill ($52.3 million), Christina Aguilera ($48.1 million) and Rascal Flatts ($41.6 million).
Prince’s 21 sellouts at the O2 in London was the top Boxscore at more than $22 million. Madison Square Garden in New York was once again the top-grossing arena in the world at $76.6 million in box office, and Red Rocks Amphitheatre near Denver was the top amphitheater at $18.6 million.
Overall, North American concert dollars and attendance are down double digits this year, after a record year in 2006 with the Rolling Stones, Madonna, U2, Barbra Streisand and other big ticket tours on the road. North American gross concert dollars for 2007 are down 10.2% to $2.6 billion, and concert attendance is down 19.2% to 51 million.
“Yes, a 19.2% decrease in attendance is very disturbing, since it reflects that the consumers are not really supporting breaking and mid-level talent,” AEG Live president/ CEO Randy Phillips says. “If this trend continues, who will be the headliners of tomorrow?”
For industry-leading Live Nation, 2007 “was a lighter touring year than 2006,” according to Jason Garner, president of North American Music. “We saw fewer artists on the road, especially in our global touring unit. We had some great artists out; there were just less of them than past years.”
source: Top 10 Producing Concert Tours of 2007 [billboard]
Maybe Depends should sponsor the next Black Eyed Peas tour. The day after a San Diego concert, the ‘Net was packed with pics of Fergie with a huge wet spot on her crotch.
After her publicist claimed the stain was just “sweat,” Fergie confessed she’d had a few drinks and “didn’t think to go to the bathroom” before the show.
“We were jumping around … it was all very rock ‘n’ roll. And my bladder just started … you know.”
2. Out of Sync
Milli Vanilli were busted on a 1989 tour when the tape jammed as they mouthed ‘Girl You Know It’s True.’ The public later learned that the duo hadn’t sung its vocals in the studio, either. More recently, Ashlee Simpson (left) was exposed on ‘SNL’ when the wrong recording of her vocals was triggered. Milli Vanilli responded by running offstage. Simpson fled, but tried to stomp out her embarrassment with a hoedown.
15. Stuck in a Moment You Literally Can’t Get Out Of
It was a travesty of a mockery of a sham when U2, the world’s most earnest band, went ironic for its mega-sized 1997 Popmart tour. Metaphorically speaking, it doesn’t get much more precious than the incident in Oslo when the band’s 40-foot lemon-shaped pod malfunctioned, trapping the band inside. All they could do was laugh, the Edge later admitted.
14. His Name Was Mud
At Woodstock ‘94, those incorrigible boys in Green Day took the fabled festival’s legendary history of muddy conditions to the punk-rock extreme, starting an epic mud-fight with the audience. With the stage filled with muck-covered fans, bassist Mike Dirnt was mistaken for a trespasser by a security guard, who leveled the musician, knocking out several teeth.
13. A Lot of Hot Air
Blow-up props, from Pink Floyd’s pigs to Limp Bizkit’s penis, are sure sources of amusement. In 1977, Fleetwood Mac celebrated their status as the world’s biggest band by incorporating a 70-foot penguin into their act. The problem with this particular inflatable was that it was always flaccid. “It would never fully inflate,” recalled Lindsey Buckingham. “This thing was limping and floundering at the back of the stage.”
12. Moon Shot
From shards of Pete Townshend’s guitars to black eyes from Roger Daltrey’s windmilling microphones, the Who have always been one of rock’s most accident-prone bands. But Keith Moon’s piece de resistance was the explosion he rigged during a 1967 television appearance. More powerful than planned, it propelled the drum kit and Daltrey airborne, and may have even triggered Townshend’s hearing troubles.
11. What’s My Line?
Singers forget lyrics all the time, but preferably not in front of the President. During a Kennedy Center tribute to Dolly Parton, Jessica Simpson (left) abruptly stopped in the middle ‘9 to 5.’ “Dolly, that made me so nervous,” she blurted before running offstage. Some 45 years earlier, Ella Fitzgerald blanked on ‘Mack the Knife’: “Oh, what’s the next chorus/To this song now?,” she sang. Ella laughed it off, and it won her a Grammy.
10. What a Dump!
Shock rocker Alice Cooper “retired” the huge snake used in his show for decades after an incident in Los Angeles during which the snake pooped, and pooped some more. “I never expected there to be eight piles the size of a Doberman pinscher,” Cooper later told Rolling Stone. “My whole stage costume was covered, and it smelled so bad I was gagging.” Even Johnny Rotten, who was in the audience, was impressed.
9. Thin White Stick
David Bowie has dodged his share of roses and beer cans in concert, but he surely never anticipated what would force him to leave the stage 20 minutes into a 2004 Oslo show. The Thin White Duke was hit with the thin white stick from a lollipop, hurled by a fan, which lodged inside his left eyelid. It was the same eye that he injured in a schoolboy fight with a classmate, a trauma that left the eye permanently dilated.
8. Butterflies Are Free?
The Rolling Stones’ massive 1969 concert in London’s Hyde Park became an impromptu tribute to their fallen mate Brian Jones, who was discovered at the bottom of his swimming pool two days before the gig. Mick Jagger, dressed in white, read from Shelley’s elegiac ‘Adonais’ before releasing thousands of butterflies — most of which were already dead
7. Everybody Nose
The spread for the Band’s 1976 farewell concert was a who’s who of guests (Dylan, Clapton, Neil Diamond), a feast for performers and audience alike, and, by all accounts, a schmorgasbord of illicit substances. During Neil Young’s appearance, the oblivious singer had a gob of cocaine clearly lodged in a nostril. Robbie Robertson and Martin Scorsese later had to edit the residue out of their concert film.
6. Sorry, Wrong Genre
Some rock-rap crossovers are better left unexplored. Sean “Diddy” Combs tried to pull a page from the grunge playbook when he attempted a stage dive at a tony nightclub in Ibiza, Spain, in 2005. Instead of catching the rapper and hip-hop impresario, fans moved away, and Diddy slammed to the floor. Gamely, he hobbled back onstage.
5. Meat and Greet
Invariably identified as the nutcase who bit the head off a bat, Ozzy Osbourne was on the receiving end of a somewhat less fondly remembered stunt on his ‘Diary of a Madman’ tour. A giant catapult designed to look like a hand was set up to fling raw calves’ livers and pig intestines into the audience in a kind of ritual baptism-by-butcher’s-offal. At one gig, the slaughter fell far short of its destination, landing on … Ozzy’s head.
4. A Little Birdie Told Me
Onstage in Mansfield, Massachusetts, in 2004, Cyndi Lauper threw her head back to hit a high note — and took a direct hit from a defecating bird flying overhead. The singer wiped her mouth on her sleeve and soldiered on. Later, she denied reports that the poop had landed in her mouth: “It went on my lower lip. I could not taste it … I actually considered it a good-luck sign.”
3. Basshead
Nirvana’s Kurt Cobain may have had a self-destructive streak a mile wide, but it was bandmate Krist Novoselic who put himself in harm’s way during the 1992 taping of the MTV VMAs. Near the end of the song ‘Lithium,’ Novoselic tossed his bass in the air. The guitar hit him squarely on his head, and the dazed musician stumbled offstage as his mates trashed their own instruments and taunted their nemesis Axl Rose.
A fainting spell didn’t get Marie Osmond voted off “Dancing with the Stars” — but a weird little doll dress did!
Marie Osmond says she was “surprised” by the judges’ negative reactions to her bizarre doll dress performance on Monday night’s Dancing With the Stars finale.
Osmond, 48, awkwardly took the stage dressed as a rosy-cheeked doll who came to life to the Rolling Stones classic, “Start Me Up.” (She said it was a tribute to her career as a doll-maker and her doll-collecting fans.)
Judge Bruno Tonioli called her performance a cross between “Baby Jane and the bride of Chucky.”
She and her partner Jonathan Roberts received two 7s and an 8 — the lowest scores of the night.
“I’m sorry they didn’t like it, but I really didn’t do it for them,” Osmond told Usmagazine.com backstage. “I did it for all the people who have been voting for us, and I have a massive doll base and that’s who I did it for.” She went on, “I could’ve come out [in] something slinky and sexy, but it’s a family show. I know my audience, so it was really a thank you to them.”
Osmond is brushing off any negativity. “I think it shows how far I’ve come over the 10 weeks,” she said. “There’s no way I could’ve done that 10 weeks ago! It would’ve been nice to [hear], ‘You’re all … Wow!’ But I’m having fun, so who cares?”
Not me, that’s for sure. And, while that’s a weird dress for an old woman to wear, those are some great legs for someone older than Britney Spears’ or Lindsay Lohan’s moms!
Source: Marie Osmond on Dancing With the Stars Doll Dress Disaster: “I’m Sorry Judges Didn’t Like It” (US Magazine)
Ronnie Wood of the Rolling Stones has written an autobiography, and even though you thought stories about Keith Richards couldn’t get any crazier (snorting your dad’s ashes, anyone?), they just might.
What’s weird about this story is that Keith was mad at Ronnie for doing drugs. Apparently freebasing was just a step too far.
Ronnie recalls:
“After a row with Keith one day, he stormed off to get his gun. I warned everyone to ‘clear the decks’. Keith came back with his Derringer gun, pointed it at me and yelled, ‘You f***ing b*****d Woody!’.
“But I had my own gun, a .44 Magnum. I didn’t have any bullets for it but I calmly pulled it out. And that was the last time Keith pulled a gun on me - until the next time.”
Keith may have been right about Ronnie’s drug use though. Ronnie admits that he became so addicted to coke he once banned his kids from eating meringues in the house after he mistook a white crumb for a chunk of the drug and tried to smoke it.
And still, the band has no plans to retire. Mick Jagger said recently,
“I’m sure the Rolling Stones will do more things and more records and more tours. We’ve got no plans to stop any of that really. As far as I’m concerned I’m sure we’ll continue.”
It’s amazing that these guys are still alive - maybe cocaine is the fountain of youth. It’s just a matter of whether you want to be coherent in your old age.
Source: “Rolling Stones In Gun Fight” [Celebitchy]
Keith Richards was not happy with a bad review after a show in Sweden earlier this month, and then traveled to London where he ate a cigarette on stage in protest of a smoking ban being put in place.
In a Swedish newspaper the Rolling Stones got two stars and Keith was given a personal zero stars with the quote “Keith was very drunk.” Richards responded with,
“This is a first! Never before have I risen to the bait of a bad review. But this time… I have to stand up for our incredible Gothenburg audience and for fans all over Sweden…to say that you owe them, and us, an apology,” Richards said in a statement released to the newspaper.
“You have a duty to wield the power of the press with honesty and integrity. There were 56,000 people in Ullevi stadium who bought a ticket to our concert - and experienced a completely different show than the one you “reviewed”. How dare you cheapen the experience for them - and for the hundreds of thousands of other people across Sweden who weren’t at Ullevi and only have your “review” to go on. Write the truth. It was a good show.”
The Rolling Stones then gave a show in London on August 26th where Richards proceeded to eat a cigarette in protest of a previous smoking ban put in place. That show ended a two year tour and is rumored to be the band’s last-ever -so Keith will have to find other ways to entertain us.
Source: “Keith Richards lashes out at Swedish tabloids” [thelocal]
Jade Jagger has become quite the nudist. She decided to leave the swimwear behind while visiting her local beach.
With only suntan lotion to cover her skin, the daughter of Rolling Stone Mick Jagger and former model Bianca, spent the afternoon in the buff as she topped up her tan at Cala Pluma beach near her home in Ibiza.
The 35-year-old jewellery designer obviously isn’t a fan of ‘white bits’ - as she’s been photographed nude by the sea twice before.
I have to admit, if I looked this good nude, I’d be more apt to sunbathe that way too.
source: Jade Jagger leaves the bikini at home and gets to the naked truth [daily mail]
Keith Richards is getting paid big bucks to write his memoir - $7.3 million to be exact. Little, Brown, and Company will publish it in 2010. That’s a lot of money for someone who falls out of coconut trees and snorts their father’s ashes.
“It will be his life’s story,” Little, Brown publisher Michael Pietsch said Tuesday. “For nearly 50 years, he has been at the very center of the vortex of stardom and of entertainment as a cultural force. He’s a thread running through the whole thing.”
Richards’ life and work have fascinated millions, but his is hardly an untold story. Richards, 63, has been interviewed countless times, speaking candidly about his music, heroin addiction, love life and battles with Jagger. He is quoted extensively in “According to the Rolling Stones,” an authorized oral history published in 2003.
“All those interviews have been scattered over decades,” Pietsch says. “To have the story of his own life in one book, there’s no experience like that. And there will be stories he has never uttered before.”
The book will probably be interesting, but who knows if any of it will be true. They’d be better off interviewing some groupies. Their memory has got to be a little better.
In the latest issue of GQ men’s magazine, Sir Richard Branson talks about joining the mile-high club and taking cocaine, ectasy, and Viagra.
The British entrepreneur said “It was “every man’s dream”, adding that he had to wipe handprints off the toilet mirror following the high-flying high jinks.
“I was sitting in economy on a Freddie Laker flight, next to this very attractive lady, as we headed to Los Angeles,” said the boss of Virgin Atlantic.
“We got chatting and it went a bit further. And it was every man’s dream, to be honest. I was about 19,” the tycoon boasted.
“I remember getting off the plane and she turned to me and said, ‘Look, it’s slightly embarrassing but I am meeting my husband at arrivals, would you mind holding back a bit’. But it was a memorable flight.
Regarding the drugs:
“(With Viagra) I had to tie something around my trousers for the rest of the next day to make sure nothing showed.”
He admitted: “I took ecstasy once… but it didn’t have a massive effect on me.”
Of cocaine, he added: “I suspect I’ve tried it, yes.”
And he said Keith Richards, the hell-raising Rolling Stones guitarist, was the “first person to teach me how to roll a joint”.
“I haven’t tried skunk (a strong variety of cannabis); I have smoked cannabis, though. I went with my son on his gap year, for God’s sake. We learnt to surf and had some nights where we laughed our heads off for eight hours.”
Take note Lindsay Lohan, if you do these things, just don’t get caught.
Avril Lavigne responded to the accusations of song stealing with a letter. Apparently we’re crazy to think there are any similarities between ‘Girlfriend’ and ‘I Want to Be Your Boyfriend’.
To my dear media, friends, and fans,
You may have heard some news that two guys who wrote for some band from the 1970s I have never in my life heard of called the “Rubinoos” are trying to sue me. They have a song called “I Want To Be Your Boyfriend” that has no musical similarities to the song “Girlfriend” that Luke Gottwald and I wrote together. They claim that a small part of the lyrics are the same and are saying that I took these from them. I had never heard this song in my life and their claim is based on 5 words! All songs share similar lyrics and emotions. As humans we speak one language.
Off the top of my head, two other songs that I can immediately think of with this type of lyric are “Hey, hey, you, you get off of my cloud” by the Rolling Stones and “Hey little girl I want to be your boyfriend” by the Ramones. Simply put, I have been falsely accused of ripping their song off. Luke and I have done nothing wrong and there is no merit to their claim.
So there are two more artists that might take issue with the song, too? Good move, Avril.
Forbes Magazine has compiled a list of the 10 Most Expensive Celebrity Divorces.
Forbes’ list of the 10 Most Expensive Celebrity Divorces examined only divorces during the last 25 years. Reporters scoured press reports, interview transcripts and, whenever possible, court documents to verify settlements. Figures are not adjusted for inflation. Some celebrity divorces with allegedly high settlements were excluded when information was unavailable or unreliable.
#10. Mick Jagger & Jerry Hall
Estimated settlement: $15 to $25 million
The Rolling Stones rocker and Texas supermodel met in 1977 and had two children together before marrying in a traditional Hindi wedding ceremony in Bali, Indonesia, in 1990. Hall filed for divorce in 1999 after learning that Jagger had fathered another woman’s child. Jagger, worth an estimated $325 million at the time, successfully challenged the legality of the Balinese wedding and received an annulment. Hall walked away with between $15 and $25 million, a fraction of Jagger’s estate.
#9. Lionel & Diane Richie
Estimated settlement: $20 million
Richie, then 36 and married, met the 18-year-old backup dancer at the 1984 Olympics in Los Angeles. Richie, divorced from his first wife in 1993, married Diane by 1996. The Richies became tabloid favorites when Diane filed for divorce in 2004 and detailed their lavish lifestyle in her alimony petition. Among her claims: a monthly clothing allowance of $15,000; $50,000 a month for manicures, massages and other personal services; and a plastic surgery budget of $20,000 a year.
#8. Michael & Diandra Douglas
Estimated settlement: $45 million
Douglas met 19-year-old Georgetown co-ed Diandra Luker in 1977 at a Jimmy Carter inauguration party. They married six weeks later. During the course of the marriage, Douglas became one of Hollywood’s top earning actors, starring in classics like Fatal Attraction, Wall Street and Basic Instinct. Amid rumors of the actor’s infidelities and alcohol abuse, the couple split in 1998. Diandra was awarded an estimated $45 million, plus homes in Beverly Hills and Majorca.
#7. James Cameron & Linda Hamilton
Estimated settlement: $50 million
The Titanic director married the Terminator actress in July 1997. They had one daughter together before the marriage tanked 18 months later. Cameron received some $100 million from Paramount for Titanic (which grossed $1.8 billion). Hamilton received half of that, an estimated $50 million, in the divorce settlement.
#6. Paul McCartney & Heather Mills
Settlement pending: Possibly more than $60 million
In 2002, the former Beatle wed Mills, a model-activist 30 years his junior. McCartney reportedly shunned Mills’ offer of a prenuptial agreement. By 2006, the pair, who have one child together, split acrimoniously. She accused him of assault; he locked her out of their London home. Rumors of a settlement suggest Mills may get in excess of $60 million–McCartney’s worth is an estimated $700 million.
#5. Kevin Costner & Cindy Silva
Estimated settlement: $80 million
The pair, who met at California State University, wed in 1978. During their 16-year marriage, Costner became one of Hollywood’s highest-paid actors, scoring seven Oscars for Dances with Wolves and starring in iconic films like Bull Durham and Field of Dreams. Costner pocketed $50 million in 1991 alone. Because Silva was married to Costner during his peak earning years, she was awarded $80 million, a substantial piece of his net worth.
#4. Harrison Ford & Melissa Mathison
Estimated settlement: $85 million
The couple met in 1977 at a dinner with casting director Fred Roos (American Graffiti) and wed in 1983. Six years later, Ford became one of Hollywood’s highest-paid actors when he banked $7 million for Presumed Innocent. By 1995, he was making $20 million a film. The couple divorced in 2004. In addition to her divorce settlement, Mathison negotiated a piece of Ford’s future earnings from films he made while married, including DVD sales of the Indiana Jones trilogy and The Fugitive.
#3. Steven Spielberg & Amy Irving
Estimated settlement: $100 million
The couple met when Irving auditioned for Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977). They married in 1985, after Spielberg had already struck it big with his first Indiana Jones flick and ET. They divorced after nearly four years of marriage. Irving successfully contested their prenuptial agreement (reportedly scribbled on a napkin) because she did not have legal representation and was awarded $100 million, roughly half of Spielberg’s fortune at the time. Today, he is worth $3 billion.
#2. Neil Diamond & Marcia Murphey
Estimated settlement: $150 million
The crooner married Murphey, a television production assistant, in 1969, before he released his first gold record, Touching You, Touching Me. By the late ’70s, Diamond was one of the most successful musicians in showbiz, grossing upward of $14 million annually. After 25 years of marriage, Murphey filed for divorce in 1994, citing irreconcilable differences. She walked away with half of Diamond’s fortune–she’s “worth every penny,” he later said.
#1. Michael & Juanita Jordan
Settlement pending: Possibly more than $150 million
The legendary basketball star married Juanita Vanoy, a Chicago bank officer, in 1989. He had already signed an eight-year, $25 million contract with the Chicago Bulls. He also was earning another $30 million a year from Nike and other endorsement deals. She filed for divorce last year. Over the course of the marriage, Jordan earned more than $350 million. Should Juanita press for half of his assets, she could get more than $150 million in the settlement, making the Jordan divorce the most expensive in entertainment history.
Wowsers. At least they were married a long time. Getting $15 million for a few months of marriage is just ridiculous. And, frankly, if she didn’t even change her name, she probably wasn’t in it for the long haul anyway.
P.S.: If you’re worth several hundred million dollars more than your beloved, you simply must insist on a prenup. No, it’s not romantic. Too bad.
She left a broken home on the Jersey Shore at 17 and came to New York City to work the nightclubs as a rhythm and blues singer. Now, at 22, she is the unwitting, and as yet unseen, star of the seamy drama that is the downfall of Gov. Eliot Spitzer of New York.
Rolling Stones guitarist and rock-and-roll bad boy Keith Richards is to become the new public face of Louis Vuitton, the French luxury fashion house said on Tuesday.
The Police tour was produced by TNA International and RZO Productions, and played stadiums, arenas and festivals.
“This is a first! Never before have I risen to the bait of a bad review. But this time… I have to stand up for our incredible Gothenburg audience and for fans all over Sweden…to say that you owe them, and us, an apology,” Richards said in a statement released to the newspaper.
With only suntan lotion to cover her skin, the daughter of Rolling Stone Mick Jagger and former model Bianca, spent the afternoon in the buff as she topped up her tan at Cala Pluma beach near her home in Ibiza.
