Archive for News U.S.A
Lady Gaga Announces Launch Of Born This Way Foundation
John Mitchell
MTV
Lady Gaga’s Born This Way Foundation will launch February 29 with a fete at Harvard University, the singer and her mother and co-founder, Cynthia Germanotta, announced in a statement on Thursday (January 19). BTWF was created to promote youth empowerment and equality by encouraging self-confidence and well-being and bringing bullying to an end.
Joining the pop star at Sanders Theatre will be her partners in the endeavor: Harvard’s Berkman Center for Internet and Society, the MacArthur Foundation and the California Endowment.
Gaga has long been a staunch supporter of anti-bullying legislation, reportedly meeting with President Obama to discuss the topic in September and visiting the White House in early December to discuss the issue with administration officials. She dedicated her performance of “Hair” at the iHeartRadio Festival in Las Vegas to Jamey Rodemeyer, a 14-year-old fan who took his own life after years of anti-gay harassment. And last year, Gaga toppedDoSomething.org’s list of the most charitable celebrities, in part for her work on behalf of gay rights causes.
“My daughter’s foundation was born out of her passion to create a better world where people are kinder and nicer to one another and are accepted for who they are, regardless of how different they may be,” Germanotta said. “She has experienced many of the struggles that our youth encounter today, and identifies with the lasting effects they can have without proper support. Together, we look forward to creating a new movement that will engage and empower youth and accept them as valuable members of our society.”
The Mother Monster’s commitment to the gay community was again recognized Thursday (January 19) with a nomination for Outstanding Music Artist at the GLAAD Media Awards.The awards recognize fair, accurate and inclusive representations of the LGBT community across all media. In December, the diva was recognized with the Hero Award by the Trevor Project, a nonprofit organization that offers suicide-prevention services to LGBT youth.
During acceptance speech at Trevor Project Live, Gaga touched on her wishes to someday make bullying a hate crime. “I hope that we can acknowledge all together that where this needs to begin is in the schools,” Gaga said. “I want my fans and people all over the world to know that there’s always somebody that’s listening. But I want them to know they’re listening before it gets too late.”
source: mtv.com
Katy Perry Thanks Fans For Five People’s Choice Wins
Jocelyn Vena
MTV
Katy Perry may not have been in the house for the 2012 People’s Choice Awards on Wednesday night, but the five-time winner certainly appreciated all the trophies from afar.
Perry had been up for seven awards and managed to take home five of them at the fan-voted awards show, hosted by “The Big Bang Theory” leading lady Kaley Cuoco. So, what did Perry win? She nabbed Favorite TV Guest Star for her cameo on “How I Met Your Mother,” Favorite Female Artist, Favorite Song of the Year for “E.T” featuring Kanye West, Favorite Music Video for “Last Friday Night (T.G.I.F.)” and Favorite Tour Headliner.
“THANK U to every1 who voted for me for the @peopleschoice tonight! We won so many!” she tweeted. “Now I need to get more books 2 successfully display them!”
After her split from Russell Brand had been confirmed, Perry later revealed that she’d skip the awards show. She has been lying low since the New Year’s announcement that she and her husband of one year would be divorcing.
But she wasn’t the only absent winner excited for all the love from her fans.Taylor Swift was home in Music Town when she nabbed the prize for Favorite Country Artist. “Thank you so much for my People’s Choice Award! Favorite Country Artist! PARTY!!!” she tweeted from her home in Nashville. “Seriously- thank you for voting.”
Other big winners of the night included Emma Stone, “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Part 2″ and Demi Lovato, who not only took home the trophy for Favorite Pop Artist but also performed her song “Give Your Heart a Break” during the show.
Source: mtv.com
Beyoncé’s Blue Ivy Showered with $1.5M in Gifts
The arrival of hip-hop princess Blue Ivy has caused quite a stir in Hollywood. The firstborn child of Beyoncé and Jay-Z has been lavished with more than $1.5 million in gifts — from a rocking horse made of gold to a “fantasy” crib fit for royalty.
According to the NY Post, Blue Ivy’s dad purchased a handmade horse from Japanese Jeweler Ginza Tanaka for a staggering $600K.
For naptime, Blue will rest her sleepy head inside her $20K crib from PoshTots, and for mealtime, the tiny diva will eat from her $15K highchair decorated with Swarovski crystals.
These are just a few of the ultra-chic baby gifts Beyoncé and Jay-Z have splurged on for their little one — which totals $1.5 million.
Blue was whisked away from Lenox Hill Hospital to her home on Tuesday, after a weekend filled with top-notch security, military-like precision to keep the family away from paparazzi, and annoyed parents in the hospital’s maternity ward.
Source: warnerbros.com
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Blink-182′s Travis Barker Get Questioned by LAPD for twitter outburst
Anne Erickson
Audio Ink Radio
Blink-182 drummer takes to Twitter to rant about driving violation
Even rock stars get pulled over by the cops. Just ask Travis Barker. The drummer for Blink-182 has been called in by the Los Angeles Police Department for questioning over a traffic violation, reports TMZ.
According to the report, police want to speak to Barker after he went to social networking site Twitter to rant about an officer who stopped him for a driving violation. The event occurred on Sunday (Nov. 27), when Barker was stopped by police and given a ticket for allegedly driving with no license plate and illegally tinted windows.
Blowing off some steam on Twitter, Barker exclaimed, “’Find some bank robbers or do something productive 2 do with your time. I know high school was hard 4 u.” Later, he also stated, “Pullin me over and interrogating me & acting like u did over tinted windows till u scared the piss out of my kids was uncalled 4. Job well done man.” After those tweets went out, the police came knocking. According to TMZ, LAPD Sgt. Riggs has asked Barker to settle the tiff, stating, “I’d like to invite Travis to speak with me about the incident and possibly discuss the incident with the officers involved.”
Blink-182 released their sixth studio album, Neighborhoods, in September, and the album’s current single, “After Midnight,” is currently No. 16 on the alternative rock radio chart. The punk-pop trio got back together in 2009 for a major reunion tour, but it wasn’t until this year that they popped out new material. Watch Blink-182’s party-happy video for, “Up All Night,” on the artist page.
Source: audioinkradio.com
Jennifer Lopez Breaks Down in Tears Over Break Up
Jennifer Lopez began crying on stage during a concert in Connecticut Saturday night … breaking down while introducing the song “If You Had My Love” … and telling the crowd, “A lot has changed since then.”
Lopez was performing at the Mohegan Sun casino … when things became emotional and the singer — who recently split from hubby #3 Marc Anthony — began to tear up in front of the crowd.
FYI — “If You Had My Love” was released in 1999 … right around the time Lopez was dating Diddy … who was still going by the name Puff Daddy at the time.
After Lopez rocked out an acoustic version of the song, she told the crowd, “I took a trip down memory lane.”
Lopez announced her split with Anthony back in July — they have 2 children together.
Source: tmz.com
John Lennon’s tooth up for auction
Chris Kokenes
CNN
New York (CNN) — No one knows whether the tooth fairy will be in attendance, but a tooth belonging to former Beatle John Lennon will go on auction in England on November 5.
American comedians have long derided the English about their teeth, but is anyone going to spend thousands of dollars on what could be one of the more unusual pieces of Beatles memorabilia?
Karen Fairweather, the owner of Omega Auction house, chuckled when asked why anyone would want to buy the molar and noted that some have expressed interest, while others think it’s gross.
“We get a lot of people buying memorabilia as investments,” Fairweather said. “Or it could just be a fan that really, really wants a part of John Lennon.”
The molar, which has some discoloration and a cavity — probably why it was removed by a dentist — will be available with a reserve bidding price of just under $16,000.
Lennon gave the tooth to Dorothy “Dot” Jarlett when she worked as his housekeeper at his Kenwood home in Weybridge, Surrey, according to her son Barry. Jarlett, who was employed between 1964 and 1968, developed a warm relationship with Lennon, her son said.
“She was very close with John, and one day whilst chatting in the kitchen, John gave my mother the tooth (he had been to the dentist to have it removed that day) and suggested giving it to my sister as a souvenir, as she was a huge Beatles fan,” he said. “It has been in the family ever since.”
With the exception of the last two years, the tooth has been in Canada for 40 years after Dot Jarlett’s daughter married a Canadian.
Barry Jarlett, who said his mother is now 90 years old, said it was the right time to pass it on rather than to risk the tooth getting lost.
Fairweather said that the tooth is too fragile to conduct a DNA test but that she has no doubt about its authenticity. “Because it’s coming directly from Dot, we don’t doubt the provenance of the item,” she said.
Some fans will sink their teeth into anything if they feel it’s worth plunking down thousands to get closer to their idols. A clump of hair believed to have been trimmed from Elvis Presley’s head when he joined the Army in 1958 sold for $18,300 in 2009 at Chicago’s Leslie Hindman auctioneers.
Jarlett said Lennon gave his family many gifts over the years. He plans to keep a leather wallet, and his mother still has a pearl necklace Lennon gave her when he returned from Japan.
Source: cnn.com
Alleged celebrity email hacker apologizes
A Florida man who allegedly hacked into the personal email accounts of Hollywood celebrities, including Scarlett Johannson and Christina Aguilera, apologized and said he was ready to face the consequences.
Christopher Chaney told Action News of Jacksonville, Fla., on Wednesday that the scheme “started as curiousity and it turned to just being addictive.”
Chaney, 35, of Jacksonville, was named in a criminal indictment Wednesday by the FBI in Los Angeles.
“What did you do with the info you found in those emails?” Chaney was asked in the interview.
“Nothing, it was almost like a completely uncensored blog,” Chaney said. “I wasn’t saving the emails to blackmail someone.”
“So, why did you do it?” he was asked.
“It started as curiosity and it turned to just being addictive,” answered Chaney. “Seeing the behind-the-scenes of what’s going on with the people you see on the big screen.”
Mining details of the stars’ personal lives in celebrity magazines and websites as well as Twitter and Facebook posts, Chaney looked for potential passwords that would give him access to their accounts, the FBI said.
The name of a dog. A favorite movie. An old address. A sibling’s nickname.
Once he cracked the password, officials charged, he hit a gold mine, gaining access to the stars’ address books as well as any photos and other files saved in their email folders.
He used an email forwarding program that automatically duplicated any messages the stars received into his account. So even when the celebrities changed their passwords, he would know about it, officials said.
Chaney, who officials said appears to have been unemployed, was arrested this week in Jacksonville on various hacking charges and faces up 121 years in prison if found guilty on all counts.
Chaney says his thrill for celebrities turned into such a strong addiction he says he didn’t know how to stop.
“I was almost relieved when they came in and took the computers inside,” he told the TV station.
“I deeply apologize,” Chaney said. “I know what I did was probably the worst invasion of privacy someone could experience. I’m not trying to escape what I did. It was wrong. And I have to just face that and go forward.”
Source: latimes.com
Snoop Dogg Gets NBC Sitcom Deal
Gil Kaufman
Mtv
He started out as a Long Beach hustler, made his bones as a breakout rap star and has played everything from a loveable stoner to Huggy Bear and an undead gangster in the 2001 horror flick “Bones.”
But is America ready for Snoop Dogg family sitcom star? According to Deadline Hollywood the d-o-double g’s family comedy project has landed at NBC with a script in the works from veteran comedy writer Don Reo (“Blossom,” “Everybody Hates Chris,” “My Wife and Kids”).
Snoop, the family man who has managed to strike a balance between lascivious rhyme dropper and pee-wee football coach, will play a dad in the show, which he will also produce. Snoop has already worked with Reo on the Fox sitcom “Brothers,” a show about a former NFL player on which he played the role of cousin Kenny the Lawyer.
He’s already done a dry run as the man of the house in his E! reality show “Snoop Dogg’s Father Hood,” which followed his home life with his wife and three kids over two seasons. Snoop has seesawed between music and movies for years and was recently cast in the title role of the biopic “The Legend of Fillmore Slim,” the story of the 1970s San Francisco blues guitarist and pimp who was often referred to as the “West Coast Godfather of the Game.”
Deadline noted that NBC has had mixed success with rapper sitcoms, ranging from the hit 1990s run by Will Smith in “The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air” to the notoriously awful 2001 pilot starring “Thong Song” star Sisqo and comedy icon Bob Newhart.
Source: mtv.com
Prosecutors focus on drugs in Jackson’s home
Anthony McCartney
Today.com
LOS ANGELES — Prosecutors will focus Thursday on the multitude of drugs found in Michael Jackson’s home — propofol, lidocaine, lorazepam and others — as they try to convince a jury that Dr. Conrad Murray is guilty of involuntary manslaughter in the pop singer’s death.
The Houston-based cardiologist insists he is not.
Prosecutors will begin explaining the interaction between the drugs to the jury of seven men and five women and how they led to the pop superstar’s death. Deputy District Attorney David Walgren has said he is calling a toxicology expert and a coroner’s investigator to testify.
It took Walgren more than an hour Wednesday to explain the bottles of medicine with the help of a coroner’s investigator. The drug display came hours after Walgren played a more than four-minute recording of a rambling, slurring Jackson found on Murray’s cell phone just six weeks before the singer died in June 2009.
In the call, Jackson is heard telling Murray he planned to use proceeds from his comeback concerts to build a world-class children’s hospital. After saying he hoped the patients would be spared some of the pain of his own life, Jackson’s voice is heard at the end of the recording, mumbling ominously, “I am asleep.”
Authorities contend a combination of the drugs, the anesthetic propofol and other sedatives, killed Jackson after Murray administered them. Defense attorneys have an alternate theory — the King of Pop gave himself the fatal dose when the cardiologist left the singer’s bedroom.
Many of the medications were found on the third search of Jackson’s mansion, two days after Murray spoke with detectives about the treatments of propofol and other medications to try to help the entertainer sleep. Coroner’s investigator Elissa Fleak catalogued the items, including an empty vial of propofol found on the initial search of Jackson’s bedroom, and her testimony Wednesday led to a drug lineup.
It was a visual display of what jurors had been told for days — in the weeks before Jackson’s death, Murray had been receiving shipments of medications in California, where his only patient was the singer.
Prosecutors appear to be in the final stages of their case, calling the investigators who pieced together the timeline of Murray’s actions on Jackson’s final day. Some of the remaining witnesses will explain how that happened; others will be brought in to explain exactly how Jackson died and try to support the prosecution assertion that Murray was reckless and distracted while giving Jackson propofol, an anesthetic intended for use in hospital settings.
Walgren played a portion of the May 10, 2009 recording of an impaired Jackson speaking with Murray during opening statements last week. The segment focused on the singer’s ambition to top all other entertainers, but the audio played Wednesday revealed both the singer’s plans for the future and his past pain.
“That will be remembered more than my performances,” he says. “My performances will be up there helping my children and always be my dream. I love them. I love them because I didn’t have a childhood … I feel their pain. I feel their hurt. I can deal with it.”
Source: today.com
