I’m still holding out hope that I’ll discover a last-minute invite for Britney’s big 27th B-day bash at Tenjune tonight. I mean, I went out and got a new top hat just for the occasion! But just in case my name doesn’t show up on the guest list, I’ve already imagined how the festivities might go down — and if she’s really serious about restoring her health and image, she might consider partying like it’s 1999 again.
Oh, how we love to remember the 20th-century Britney. She was so young, so fit and, as far as we know, sober. If she intends on maintaining that hot bod she showed off today during her “Good Morning America” performance, she might consider laying off the liquor and sticking to her pre-millennium party mixers of choice: soda and juice.
We remember those crazy carbonated days because she allowed MTV News to shoot a slumber party she staged a few nights before the 1999 Grammys with girl group Innosense — another Lou Perlman pop creation that Brit was briefly a member of before she became famous on her own. In what was probably an attempt to get her former bandmates some extra MTV exposure, the not-yet-legal ladies slipped into their PJ’s, tore open a few bags of Cheetos and talked about how hot Paul Walker was. Sadly, Innosense were never heard from again.
MTV Shows
Happy 27th, Britney! Here’s to you sticking to your new healthy ways. And what a difference a year makes! You rang in your 26th birthday with two people you’ve since cut out of your life: ex-”manager” Sam Lutfi and former personal assistant and self-proclaimed cousin Alli Sims. Hopefully, those circus days are over.
Britney Spears gets a birthday wish from Good Morning America and a crowd of thousands, in between her live performances (also posted here) on the ABC morning show. Britney debuted two new songs from her new CD, "Circus," but stopped long enough to allow Diane Sawyer and Robin Roberts gush over her and present her with a Circus birthday cake that took 60 hours to make. Happy Birthday Britney! You Go Girl!
Police charged the estranged brother-in-law of Oscar-winning actress Jennifer Hudson with the murders of her mother, brother and nephew, expressing confidence on Tuesday the evidence was sufficient to convict.
"You can never always know how a jury will decide a case but I'm confident the evidence is there and I'm confident we'll be successful," Chicago Police Superintendent Jody Weis said.
Police said they had the murder weapon and physical evidence as well as testimony that would convict William Balfour, 27, the estranged husband of Jennifer Hudson's elder sister, Julia.
The motive for the October 24 murders involved a dispute between the two, police said.
Found dead from gunshots were Hudson's mother Darnell Donerson, 57, and brother, Jason Hudson, 29, in the family's South Side home. The body of Julian King, Julia's son, was found four days later, with the gun used in the slayings found nearby.
In addition to the slayings Balfour was charged with home invasion.
Balfour's mother Michele Balfour protested her son's innocence to reporters, saying police relied on the word of one of his girlfriends who was facing a drug charge.
"They got a botched-up investigation," she said, adding Balfour loved Hudson's mother, Donerson, more than he loved her. "But I'm still his mother."
Weis said no deals were made in exchange for witness statements implicating Balfour, who has been held on a parole violation since the slayings.
"We had citizens standing up and doing the right thing," he said.
Hudson got her start in 2005 competing on the U.S. television show "American Idol" although she failed to reach the final. She later won the role of Effie White in the 2006 musical "Dreamgirls" and earned a best supporting actress Oscar for her performance.
MIAMI - Was that the look of love Madonna and Alex Rodriguez were beaming at each other Wednesday night?
It sure looked like it to some folks at Madge's Sticky & Sweet concert at Dolphin Stadium in Miami.
As A-Rod sat in a front row between Rod Stewart and his amour's manager, Guy Oseary, Madge fixed her gaze on him and sang, "You Must Love Me."
He smiled at her, and the Material Girl got all teary-eyed.
Many in the crowd nodded knowingly when, before her rendition of "I'm So Far Away," she told fans, "I'm sure you can relate about a long-distance love affair."
In a couple of hotter moments, Madge gyrated in A-Rod's direction while winking at him and later went pneumatic on a speaker while staring his way.
Through it all A-Rod smiled, applauded and even rose to his feet when Madge - apparently in need of more crowd participation - shouted, "C'mon you mother-------, stand up and stop trying to look bored. Put your hands in the air and smell your armpits."
Apparently nothing Madge can do offends her fans or A-Rod.
She began her show two hours late because she got caught in traffic, never apologized for the delay and didn't even wish the crowd a happy Thanksgiving.
Still, they cheered like crazy.
Sources close to A-Rod confirmed Wednesday night that he's spending Thanksgiving with his soon-to-be ex-wife and her family in Miami.
"He has been planning on attending dinner with Cynthia, their daughters and her family for some time now," the source told the Daily News.
The report that A-Rod will be breaking bread with his estranged wife's family comes amid rumors that he was going to ditch dinner with his two young daughters, Natasha, 4, and Ella, 1, to host a get-together in New York for Madonna and her kids.
Say what you like about Britney, she's no shirker. While her fellow Mickey Mouse club alumni Justin Timberlake and Christina Aguilera knock out an album every three or four years, hats off to Britney for seeming to increase her work rate during a sequence of events - mental meltdown, disastrous awards-show appearances, lost custody battles, liaisons with dubious Brummie paparazzi - that would have imploded most careers.
In the thick of her public meltdown last year she somehow made time to record Blackout. A disembodied, Auto-Tuned Britney was perfectly suited to the febrile electronic sound world assembled for her by her producer-writers Nate “Danja” Hills and Bloodshy & Avant. At that moment it seemed as if the only people who cared about Britney Spears were those writing her songs.
Trumpeting her swift resurrection, Blackout's successor is clearly the record designed to win back all the people who felt that there was enough weirdness in Britney's life without listening to her weird music. It's not a bad album by any means. For the sweet languor of its chorus, Out From Under glimpses a world in which Stevie Nicks might have been enlisted to help write a few tunes for High School Musical. There's something pleasingly discombobulating too about the queasy pitch at which the recent single Womanizer unfolds.
On an album on which outright thrills are infrequent, such equivocal pleasures become magnified. It's understood that Britney wasn't given a record deal to deliver critic-titillating, metatextual future-pop, seemingly inspired by the hell of being a mentally fragile superstar in Los Angeles. It's just that she's really good at it. Co-written by Nate Hills and Marcella Araica - who wrote much of Blackout - Kill the Lights covers similar ground to that album's Piece of Me, a declaration of war on the paparazzi who provided the world with an hourly account of her breakdown. “Mr Photographer,” she hisses, ire no doubt stoked by her ill-advised affair with the Brummie snapper Adnan Ghalib, “I think I'm ready for my close-up tonight.”
Also bearing Hills and Araica's hallmarks is the gorgeous Blur, a sleepy collision of beats and warped keyboards that has Britney sounding not all that unhappy about her inability to remember what she did last night. Helping to shade in a rich purple patch in the middle of Circus, Unusual You will find a home with anyone whose love of melancholy Europop is fatal enough to take in Limahl's Never Ending Story.
Thereafter, it all gets a bit baffling really. Flouting the current convention for front-loading big albums with potential singles, the brilliant closer Amnesia - which sees big digitised Spector beats tied to a killer chorus and Britney multitracked to sound like Gwen Stefani - ends Circus on a high. Without deployment of your skip button though, you'll need to sit through one previously released song (Radar also appeared on Blackout) and some utter stinkers. The helium come-hithers of Mmm Papi couldn't be less sexy if Christine Hamilton were singing them, while the drippy Disney dreck of My Baby formalises Britney's return to pearlescent-white on-message pop.
Is this how it's going to be from now on? The Mickey Mouse Club days must seem several lifetimes ago. Why on earth would she want to go back there? (SONY, TS £12.99)
Sarah Palin pardons a turkey in Wasilla in anticipation of Thansgiving. But this turkey pardon with Palin turned out to be a very interesting event. You truly have to see this video of Palin and the turkey to believe it!
This is gruesome but also sickly humorous. After Sarah Palin pardons the turkey, she goes on to do an interview with a local news station… but during the interview turkeys are being slaughtered right there in the background.
Watch the video of Palin and the turkey pardon below:
Watch the video of Palin and the turkey pardon below:
First Angelina Jolie played Christine Collins and took on an entire corrupt police force in Changeling. Now Brad Pitt and Plan B are gearing up to take on a fake cop.
Brad and Plan B are working with a team of writers to develop a biopic based on the true story of Linda Trest, a journalist in Missouri who exposed a phony cop who was supposedly cleaning up a small town’s drug problems - except that he was no longer a member of law enforcement by then.
The story sounds like it could be interesting - there’s always something fun about watching a regular parson beat the system!
It’s still very much in pre-production so at the moment there’s certainly no word on casting. For some reason I immediately pictured Julia Roberts but it might be a little too much like Erin Brokovich in that case. Time will tell!
Madonna and Guy Ritchie's divorce has been finalized following a hearing in London on Friday.
The British filmmaker and the Material Girl, who announced their separation last month, were granted a decree nisi by a judge at the clinical Principal Registry of the Family Division of the High Court in High Holburn, London.
The couple will reportedly share joint custody of their sons, Rocco, 8, and David, 3, who they adopted from Malawi in 2006. The boys will split their time between Madonna in the U.S. and Ritchie in the U.K.
Madonna's daughter Lourdes, 12, will live with her mother, because she is the singer's daughter from a previous relationship with Carlos Leon.
Madonna and Ritchie wed at Skibo Castle in the Highlands of Scotland in 2000. The marriage will be officially dissolved in six weeks time when they will be granted a decree absolute.
Is the New York Times on Team Aniston? It would seem so, judging from this article that examines Angelina Jolie's crafty ways with the media.
The story explores how Angie manipulates crucial media moments in order to portray herself more favorably—all without the help of a publicist. This may seem pretty obvious to even the most casual tabloid reader, but we'll give the Times room to make their case.
For example, remember when she was a crazy blood-vial-necklace enthusiast who had sex with husband Billy Bob Thornton in the limo on the way to a red carpet event and then told reporters all about it? Well, after she decided she was done with that and the couple divorced, Us asked for an interview. She declined, but reportedly did offer a time and place where she would be hanging out with Maddox in public, so the mag could snap a few pictures of her looking like a single, young mom who was struggling to enjoy some private time with her son.
Or how about that time she fell in love with Brad Pitt while he was married to Jen?
Yeah, that was a mess, but it was also the perfect time for Angie to visit Pakistan for a tour of Afghan refugee camps and Brad to visit Kashmir to bring attention to the earthquake victims.
Angie's philanthropic adviser Trevor Neilson dismisses any connection between those two events, telling the Times, "People don't realize the complexity of what Angie is doing. A lot of her charity work is done quietly and not in front of the media."
Right on for charity work, but when she is in front of the media, the timing is definitely convenient.
As far as the baby-picture selling goes, the Jolie-Pitts seem to be very involved in the editorial process. In order to win the privilege of paying $14 million for pictures of the twins this past August, People reportedly had to submit an "editorial plan" for the layout, promise to never use the moniker Brangelina and guarantee positive coverage would be positive forever. Breaking any of these rules is punishable by, er, death?
Anyone surprised? Yeah, didn't think so. It's more surprising the Times cares so much, but they have to keep it fresh over there. In other Team Aniston news, the Daily Beast just came out as a supporter, so once again we're going to have to give Jen the win this week.
In an interview with Fiona, Jolie admitted her hesitations on marrying Brad: "I don't know it's not that", the Changeling star confessed. "We jumped into being a family first, and that just seems like the biggest commitment you could possibly make anyway. So, it doesn't feel like anything is lacking."
The Hollywood star added her family helps her stay grounded even if it means getting peed on! Talking about times when her fame and family life cross paths, Jolie said, "The only time it ever collides is if, you know, we're trying to get ready for some event where we have to walk a carpet and somebody gets peed on, and figures, 'Oh well, I guess we'll be wearing that this evening!'"
London The nearly eight-year marriage of Madonna and Guy Ritchie was ended in minutes yesterday in a London court.
What began with a wedding at Skibo Castle in the Highlands came to an abrupt end in a “quickie divorce” at the Principal Registry of the Family Division in High Holburn, London. The case - Ciccone M. L. v Ritchie G. S. – was listed with 16 others before District Judge Caroline Reid “for pronouncement of decree or order under the special procedure rule”. The couple did not attend. In a sworn statement, Madonna petitioned for divorce on the ground of Ritchie’s unreasonable behaviour, which she said was “continuing”.
In another document released by the court, Senior District Judge Philip Waller, who gave the go-ahead for the divorce, said he was satisfied that the court need not exercise its powers under the Children Act nor give any directions under the Matrimonial Causes Act. This would indicate that the couple reached a settlement over assets and the children before the divorce. It is understood that they agreed not to demand a financial settlement from each other and to share custody of their boys, Rocco, 8, and the adopted David Banda, 3.
What with Changeling being released in the UK on November 26th, Angelina Jolie has been hard at work to promote the film. While still in London, she did an interview for GM TV to discuss the movie and the chaos of excitement that follows her and Brad Pitt everywhere they go.
Stephanie Meyer's teen vampire romance book "Twilight" makes it to the big screen this weekend starring Robert pattinson as Edward and Kristen Stewart as Bella. There's no doubt that "Twilight" will make tons of cash, but will it satisfy fans an non-fans of the book alike? Eric Melin of www.scene-stealers.com and guest co-host Whitney Mathews (www.whitneymathews.com) review "Twilight" from the perspective of someone who has and someone who hasn't read the book. Is the Catherine Hardwicke-directed vampire romance fantasy just for teenagers? Find out in this on-camera movie review of "Twilight."
Three of the stars from the new movie, "Twilight", Rachelle Lefe'vre, Edi Gathegi and Taylor Lautner were at Mall of America in Minneapolis/St. Paul, MN. Click the link for video of the cast performing Miley Cyrus for Lena Svenson from KDWB's Dave Ryan in the Morning show.
Just one month after announcing their split, Madonna and Guy Ritchie were granted a preliminary "quickie divorce" Friday in the High Court of London.
According to a document released by the court, 50-year-old Madonna – the petitioner – said in a sworn statement that she is divorcing Ritchie for his "unreasonable behavior."
In a court proceeding that took all of one minute, the judge issued a decree nisi – the first step in the U.K.'s two-stage divorce process – to "Ciccone ML" and "Ritchie GS" and 16 other (non-celebrity) couples.
Neither Madonna or her director ex attended the hearing. In fact, even their attorneys skipped the courtroom.
It's known as "quickie divorce" because if there are no disputes in the next six weeks and one day, the couple's split will become decree absolute.
Guy Speaks Out
Ritchie, 40, who has been working in London on the set of his new movie Sherlock Holmes, seemed relieved by the speedy resolution.
He reportedly told the Daily Mirror late on Thursday, "It was never about money – never about her bloody art collection. I just wanted to settle it and move on."
He added to the paper, "I didn't raise any objections at any stage until she insisted the children lived permanently in New York." (According to British press reports, the settlement calls for sons Rocco, 8, and David, 3, to split time between the U.S. and London. Madonna's 12-year-old daughter Lourdes – whose father is the New York-based Carlos Leon – will live with her mother.)
The movie version of "Twilight" is a considerable improvement over the windy bestseller on which it's based. The first half of Stephenie Meyer's vampire romance is a heaving sea of puppy-love gush. After a couple hundred pages of plucky Bella Swan and her super-cute bloodsucker boyfriend, Edward Cullen, endlessly expressing their mutual adoration ("His beauty lit up the kitchen," "Just give me a minute to restart my heart"), I was sure I felt a coma coming on. Fortunately, Meyer does get down to narrative action in the second half, and it's not bad, as these things go. But it's a long book, and a long slog.
To convert this woozy tale into a movie, screenwriter Melissa Rosenberg (who also works on the excellent "Dexter" TV series) wisely approached the novel with a machete, whacking out several acres of god-awful lovebird jabber and moving the cool stuff -- mainly a trio of vicious Canadian vampire interlopers -- to the fore. This allowed the director, Catherine Hardwicke ("Thirteen"), and her editor, Nancy Richardson, to step in and give the story a desperately needed kick in its saggy pants. Unfortunately, all the snappy pacing and swooping camera movement in the world can't finesse the novel's sillier conceits; and bringing some of them into the light only makes them seem a lot sillier.
The movie, like the book, has the approximate structure of a 1950s rock-a-teen B-movie, the kind in which a good girl falls for the leader of a bad motorcycle gang to the horror of her family and friends, who just don't understand how sweet he really is. Here, the good girl is Bella (Kristen Stewart), who's moved to the rainy little town of Forks, Washington, to live with her divorced dad, Charlie (Billy Burke), the local police chief. In the cafeteria at her new high school one day, she sees a table full of weird siblings who all look like they've had their faces pushed into a flour bin. These are the Cullens, and one of them, the strange-but-yummy Edward (Robert Pattinson), is staring at Bella from beneath his big, gel-stiffened pompadour with a look of wild alarm. What is his problem?
Bella and Edward butt heads for about a minute before he saves her life a few times with some very mysterious abilities; then she starts looking at him in a new way. Adding up his endearing oddities -- extreme goth-guy pallor, serious hypothermia -- she realizes that he's a vampire. But she doesn't care. "I'm not afraid of you," she tells him. "I'm only afraid of losing you." Before long, they're off to the woods, where they coo in the trees and nuzzle in the grass amid fat, dewy mushrooms and dreamy acoustic-guitar noodlings on the soundtrack. Edward takes Bella home, out in the middle of nowhere, to meet the family. His dad (Peter Facinelli) has a sort of dead-Liberace vibe, but he's real nice, and with the exception of one sister, Rosalie (Nikki Reed), who has an obvious anger-management problem, the whole clan is very ... well, warm isn't the word, but they like Bella a lot. Her dad isn't quite so enthusiastic, but hey -- kids: what're you gonna do? He gives his okay for Edward to take Bella to the prom. They have a swell time. But then the Canadian vampires swoop back in and try to wreck everything. They're still trying at the movie's fadeout, which is the producers' gentle way of saying "sequel."
The phenomenal popularity of "Twilight," the novel, is no mystery. It doesn't simply update the vampire genre for the modern teen market -- Lord knows, that's been done. What it does is strip vampires of their murky erotic threat and present them as chaste, untroubling love objects for young teen girls. (Bella and Edward are supposed to be 17, but they don't act that way: Bella's never even had a date.) There's not a whisper of sex in the book, and none in the movie -- which is problematic. Pattinson, such an appealing presence in the Harry Potter films, has been directed here to smolder in such an outlandishly sultry manner that you wonder why he never displays any carnal interest in Bella. Is he gay? (That might have been interesting, actually.) And it doesn't help that he and his vampire brothers have been so heavily caked with face powder and overloaded with hair product that they look like a troupe of unusually fey mimes. (At the screening I attended, the young girls in the audience erupted in squeals of delight when Pattinson's name came up in the opening credits, but downshifted into what sounded like uneasy giggles when he put in his first actual appearance.)
It's the pretty Stewart who holds the movie together, bracing the largely passive character of Bella with glimmers of spirit and determination. She's solidly matched by Reed (who cowrote and starred in "Thirteen") and by Ashley Greene, who plays Edward's other sister, the clairvoyant Alice, as a cheery punkette. And I kind of wish the movie had more of Jackson Rathbone, who plays Edward's brother, Jasper, with a weird, demented intensity.
Certain elements of "Twilight" were doomed to fail on film. Vampire baseball, for instance, was already a tough sell in the novel; here, with all its leaping and zooming around, it looks like a special-ed Quidditch match. And one of Meyer's more curious inventions -- vampires who don't shrivel in the sun, but sparkle instead -- is a bizarre thing to actually see. When Edward soaks up some rays and goes all glittery, he looks like he just stumbled home from an all-night rave.
These attempted additions to the vampire canon seem all the more lusterless in light of the many genre staples that have been cast aside: no coffins, no bat transformations or crucifix panics, no silver-phobia. There's a very brief dream scene in which we see Edward bent over Bella's neck and then rising up with the traditional rivulet of blood running down his chin. It's a sudden reminder of how much dumb fun is missing from this oddly neutered neo-horror movie, and how little is being offered in its place. In "Twilight," the only characters drained dry are the vampires themselves.
It’s been just over three weeks since Obama’s presidential win sent Sarah Palin back to Alaska, but that doesn’t mean the defeated VP hopeful has sunk back under the radar and into virtual anonymity. Far from it — Palin has been seen and heard more post-election than she ever was during the campaign, and frankly, I’m a little relieved. Like her or not, you can’t deny the woman’s charisma…and knack for providing media fodder like no one else has since, well, since Monica Lewinsky and her infamous blue dress. There’s just something about women, politics, and clothes, isn’t there? After the jump, 8 things we’ve learned about Sarah Palin since the elections, including, yes, exactly how she spent that $150,000 clothing allowance.
1. It was actually $152,335 What she could have bought with that $150K+
Vanity Fair has a full list of every item the dream wardrobe the Republican party purchased could have purchased for Sarah Palin during the campaign, including a Chanel suit for $11,755, the Valentino jacket that Palin wore at the 2008 Republican National Convention for $4,990, a pair of Christian Louboutin croc pumps for $4,300, and a Dior Leather trim jacket, which at $2,385 was just enough to push her spending spree to a cool $152,335. They went slightly over budget though, in their spree, spending $152,335. Since the election, Palin has returned everything she did buy and resumed dressing in her own clothes.
2. She cooks a mean salmon and halibut casserole
One of Sarah Palin’s post-election interviews was with “Today’s” Matt Lauer, whom she invited to her home in Wasilla and served a salmon and halibut casserole to. Lauer reportedly enjoyed it.
3. She thinks high heels are appropriate footwear for a 7-year-old
Also at that same home-base portion of her interview with Matt Lauer, Palin was joined by some members of her family, including 7-year-old daughter, Piper, who was wearing a pair of very high heels. They were probably her mom’s (let’s hope!), but still.
4. She likes wrist corsages
At the 50th anniversary bash for Alaska a few days ago, Governor Palin sported a rosy wrist corsage to complement her hot pink jacket. I didn’t know people were still wearing those. Maybe it’s an Alaskan thing?
5. She may be worth a $7 million book deal
Their looks may not be the only thing Sarah Palin and Tina Fey have in common. Palin is reportedly close to signing a book deal, which some insiders estimate could be for a cool $7 million. One can only hope she’ll name the book “I Can See Russia From my House…And Other Reasons I Love My Life.”
6. She hates the bloggers
In an interview with Fox News’ Greta van Susteren, Palin said with great contempt that regarding the many rumors surrounding her during the campaign, the “media’ shouldn’t have “gone on some blogger — probably sittin’ there in their parent’s basement in their underwear — bloggin’ some gossip or lie.” Well, that’s mainstream media for you — always goin’ on some blogger who’s justa gossipin’ and lyin’. For the record, the feeling seems to be mutual.
7. She’s a PC girl
In a photo taken poolside in Miami during a break from the Republican Governor’s Conference, Palin is pictured with a Dell on her lap, which settles this biggest debate since the whole chicken and egg question, I’m sure.
8. She may not have known what countries are part of NAFTA or that Africa was continent
Immediately following the election, Fox News Chief Political Correspondent Carl Cameron, reported that “there was great concern within the McCain campaign that Palin lacked ‘a degree of knowledgeability necessary to be a running mate, a vice president, a heartbeat away from the presidency,’ in part because she didn’t know which countries were in NAFTA, and she ‘didn’t understand that Africa was a continent, rather than a series, a country just in itself.’” This information, it should be noted, originated from Palin’s own camp and not from a blogger “in their parent’s basement in their underwear.” Still, Palin denied the accuracy of this juicy tidbit and claimed the people who leaked it are just mean-spirited jerks.
The love of Paris Hilton's life didn't last very long.
The celebrity party gal and Good Charlotte rocker Benji Madden have split up, and Prince William might be the cause, report celebrity news sources.
The couple was together for nine months, just long enough to bring a baby to full term -- something they didn't do, unlike Madden's twin brother Joel Madden, who has a baby with Hilton's former BFF Nicole Richie.
Rumors are flying and fingers are pointing regarding who broke up with whom and why. One account claims that Madden, 29, isn't pleased with the attention that Prince William, 26, has been paying Hilton, 27, ever since they started hanging out on the set of "Paris Hilton's My New BFF" show in London. Although security concerns prevent confirmation, it's rumored that the Royal will attend a New Year's Eve bash with Hilton in Australia to launch a social networking site.
Another account claims that Hilton has been seeking attention elsewhere and was even photographed getting cosy with her ex Stavros Niarchos in Miami. Many have blamed Madden's controlling ways, supposedly the reason why his engagement to "Date Movie" actress Sophie Monk was broken before he began dating Hilton.
Or, perhaps nine months far exceeded the shelf life for a relationship between two such unlikely parties.
The Bahraini prince accusing Michael Jackson of reneging on a multi-million-dollar contract took the stand in London's High Court today to be cross-examined by the King of Pop's legal team, whose client is expected to testify Monday.
Sheik Abdullah bin Hamad Al Khalifa, 33, answered questions about his relationship and business dealings with Jackson, 50, on day three of the hearing, which could last up to 12 days.
Meanwhile, Jackson was summoned to appear in the London High Court next week, although his lawyers had argued that he was too ill to attend the proceedings and hoped he could testify via video link from Los Angeles.
But the prince's lawyers protested the claim, saying that the medical evidence was insufficient. And, in court today, Jackson's lawyer, Robert Englehart, said that Jackson was medically cleared to travel to London.
Jackson is expected to take the stand Monday at 2 p.m. local time. Cameras are banned in the courts of Britain.
The prince is suing Jackson to the tune of $7 million for what he alleges was Jackson's backing out of an agreement that was to have included work on an album, a screenplay and an autobiography.
Jackson's lawyer repeatedly pressed the prince about the pop star's mental condition at the time of their talks, asking if he believed Jackson was "emotionally vulnerable." Bin Hamad Al Khalifa disagreed, saying that Jackson was "composed" and "with it."
"Michael is very switched on," he said, also describing Jackson as a "fantastic businessman" and an intellectual.
Early questioning also surrounded the prince's relationship with Jackson's brother, Jermaine. Bin Hamad Al Khalifa said that Jermaine Jackson "was interested in doing music" and that the two were "planning to do a record."
Bin Hamad Al Khalifa's lawyers declined to speak to ABCNews, saying they could not comment during the hearings. The judge also made it clear that bin Hamad Al Khalifa was not permitted to speak to the media while the case is ongoing.
Bin Hamad Al Khalifa's dealings with Jermaine Jackson took place between late 2004 and early 2005, according to today's testimony. The prince reportedly paid for Jermaine Jackson's travel to and from Bahrain and purchased a Rolls Royce car for him in California. These expenses tallied nearly $450,000, and the prince acknowledged today that he never expected the money to be paid back.
But while the prince had hopes of going into business with Michael's older brother, the four songs he recorded with Jermaine Jackson were never released, he testified. He said that Jermaine Jackson also began to get sidetracked with other business interests.
During testimony on his relationship with Michael Jackson, the prince said that he and Jackson began by speaking on the phone. When the prince became interested in bringing Michael Jackson to his record label, 2 Seas Records, Jackson made his terms clear.
Recounting the conversation, the prince said, "If any brother or [Jackson] family member worked there [the record label], I'm not going to do the deal," referring to Jackson's comments.
Jackson and bin Hamad Al Khalifa had what was described in court today as "very involved" conversations about a potential musical collaboration, which doesn't amount to a binding agreement, Jackson's lawyers are arguing. These conversations took place while Jackson was facing trial on child molestation charges in 2005.
The prince constructed a recording studio after Jackson had "expressed interest in coming back into music," bin Hamad Al Khalifa said.
Bin Hamad Al Khalifa also provided $1 million to the King of Pop through Jackson's personal assistant, Grace Rwaramba, which Jackson understood to be a gift, according to testimony. But the prince thought otherwise.
"To me it was never seen as a gift," bin Hamad Al Khalifa told the High Court. "These payments were seen as helping Michael, and numerous times he told me he would pay me back."
Sarah Palin in an older photo featured on the cover of her 2009 calendar. Credit: Fame
In what would have to be the biggest pay out for a seven week memoir, Sarah Palin is rumored to have been offered $7million to write her biography. I know that Sarah is 44 years old, but we’re really only interested in how she handled the scrutiny of the campaign.
Literary agents were queuing up to sign Palin to a book deal that could earn her up to $US7 million, The Times reported.
The recent election campaign was sure to result in hundreds of books by journalists and politicians, but “Palin’s personal account of her tumultuous introduction to national politics” would be the most lucrative story, it said.
“Every publisher and a lot of literary agents have been going after her,” said Jeff Klein of Folio Literary management.
“She’s poised to make a ton of money,” public relations expert Howard Rubenstein said.
A spokesman for publisher Random House told the New York Post: “There are several of our imprints who are eager to talk to Governor Palin. She clearly has a constituency and we know books by conservatively-centred politicos usually sell very, very well.”
Canberra Times
While it is true that Sarah came into the spotlight relatively unknown, and we’re all kind of curious about her credentials and background, what I’d really like to read is a book written by those people within the republican party who snitched on her in the days following the election. The ‘she doesn’t know what Africa is’ guy, and the one who blabbed that her clothing and make-up budget was actually higher than the $20,000+ a week she spent. I definitely want to see all those clothes!
The Times suggests that she is following in Obama’s footsteps, whose Audacity of Hope book was what they call his springboard to the presidency. Letting us know about herself, and gaining some sympathy for being a working mother, and showing some sort of intelligence, could easily lead into a ticket at the next presidential election.
It is also suggested that talk shows and other opportunities have been offered to Sarah Palin. They say the book deal will be finalized by the end of the month.
Note by Celebitchy: Apparently the “Palin doesn’t know Africa is a continent” story was planted by an outsider operative and wasn’t one of the stories leaked by the Republican camp that worked with her.
Photos are from the Sarah Palin 2009 calendar, thanks to Fame. Photo update: more pictures added.
• "I Am… Sasha Fierce is ultimately a more focused and less schizophrenic ride than the hype might lead you to believe, especially on the shorter standard version. And if you don’t really feel like you know this distant superstar any better when you’re done, at least it’s enjoyable spending time an hour with her, in any and all of her personas." [Chicago Sun-Times]
Michael Jackson might be too sick to travel to London to testify in a suit claiming he owes an Arab sheikh $7 million, the pop star's attorney said Tuesday.
Jackon is seeking to give his testimony by video link from the United States.
"It would be unwise for him to travel, given what's he's got now," lawyer Robert Englehart said, declining to elaborate "for the obvious reasons."
Al Khalifa's lawyer, Bankim Thanki, said the medical evidence presented by Jackson's legal team was "very unsatisfactory" and Jackson's illness could be treated with a bandage "if the diagnosis is positive."
"It's not the first time a sick note has been presented by Mr. Jackson," Thanki said, also without elaborating.
Jackson has often been seen wearing a surgical mask in public. In one infamous 2002 court appearance in California, he appeared to have a bandage hanging from his hollowed-out nose.
Despite much speculation about his radically changed appearance over the years, he has denied having had any alterations to his face other than two operations on his nose to help him breathe better to hit higher notes.
The judge in the current case, Nigel Sweeney, said he would decide the question of Jackson's travel on Thursday to allow time for medical experts on both legal teams to talk.
Sheikh Abdulla bin Hamad Al Khalifa, the second son of the king of Bahrain, claims that Jackson reneged on a contract for an album, a candid autobiography and a stage play, after accepting millions from the sheikh.
Al Khalifa was in court Tuesday for the second day of arguments and testimony.
The case is being tried in London by mutual agreement, Al Khalifa's representatives have said. It is due to wrap up by the end of the month.
Al Khalifa felt betrayed when the pop star pulled out of the deal, Thanki said.
After Jackson left Bahrain, never to return, his publicist later called Al Khalifa to say Jackson no longer wanted any part of the contract. Thanki said.
"It's fair to say my client felt a considerable sense of betrayal by someone he thought was a close friend," Thanki said, adding that the sheikh, an amateur songwriter, also felt "a sense of professional failure."
Thanki said Al Khalifa and Jackson were planning to establish a joint venture to put out a new Michael Jackson album, an autobiography, and a stage play.
They hoped to make millions from the project — Jackson's autobiography, intended to be "a frank and personal account" of the singer's life, was alone expected to rack up $24 million, Thanki said. In the meanwhile, Al Khalifa gave Jackson millions of dollars to help shore up his finances and subsidize Jackson's lifestyle in the small Gulf state.
Thanki said Al Khalifa considered the money an advance on the profits Jackson would reap from their pop music project, but Englehart said the money was a gift.
"Sheikh Abdulla, fortunately for himself, had the resources to be so generous," Englehart said.
Englehart argued that Jackson wasn't bound by the deal he struck because the contract was technically signed on behalf of 2 Seas Records, a venture which never got off the ground.
"This (contract) was one brick in the building that was never built," Englehart said.
It's Britney Spears like you have never seen her before, as the pop star turns comedienne to deliver what appears to be a dead-on impression of her cell phone-addicted pop, Jamie, in between takes of her recent video for "Womanizer" (hence her being costumed as a sexy secretary).
This candid moment comes from Britney: For the Record, a documentary airing Sunday, Nov. 30, at 10 pm/ET, exclusively on MTV.
The 90- minute, all-access look at Spears' world includes behind-the-scenes looks at Britney recording her new album, Circus, preparing for her appearance at this year's MTV Video Music Awards, and much more.
Madonna has reportedly been dishing out advice on men and marriage to her biggest fan Britney Spears.
The pop princess - whose relationship history makes Jennifer Aniston's love life look successful - was apparently eager to hear Madonna's thoughts on the subject.
A source tells AbsoluteNow.com, "Britney asked Madonna if she will ever marry again after her split from Guy.
"Madonna not only said she wouldn't but told Britney to forget about marriage. She said it just doesn't work for girls like them.
"Madonna clearly sees a lot of herself in Britney because she seems very eager to help her."
Mmm, we're not sure whether soon-to-be divorced Madge is best person to be taking relationship advice from right now...
Guess who has an early bird copy of Britney Spears’ “Circus,” not due in stores until December 2nd? Me! I can’t tell you how I got it, but it was leaked on the internet this week, so, if you were a fan of pirated music, you could tots find it yourself. Anyway, I’ve been listening to the record on repeat all morning/afternoon and am prepared to give it a grade. A+! All the details of its’ awesomeness, after the jump…
1. The song “If You Seek Amy” has a hidden meaning! Just say it really fast. Hee, hee. Oh Britney, you’re so crazy.
2. “Mmm Papi” is reportedly about on and off flame Adnan Ghalib. Okay, so does she call him “Papi” in the Spanish for “Daddy” way, or in the short for “Paparazzi” way? “When things get crazy/You sure do wanna save me/With this fast car/I can really get far/And don’t break my heart/Let’s make out.” Sure does sound like the early days of their relationship, when Britney would drive around Hollywood, leading the paparazzi on a wild goose chase, often with Adnan by her side.
3. “Out From Under” is a ballad that definitely seems to hint at Britney’s regrets about her failed relationship with K. Fed. To which I reply, “Girl, get over it. Plenty of hotter, better clothed, less trashy fish in the sea.”
4. There is the required lullabies for the kiddies on “Circus”, including “My Baby,” which is all about the time she spent not having custody of her kids. It’s a teary moment.
5. “Radar,” which was on her last album, “Blackout,” is on “Circus.” Why? I mean, it was one of my faves, don’t get me wrong, but I don’t need it twice.
6. “Phonography” seems to be about exchanging dirty texts and phone calls with, probably, Adnan. Using Bluetooth, needing her hands free and whatnot. What do you think her mobile of choice is? Blackberry? iPhone? Sidekick?
7. My favorite on the record has to be “Amnesia.” I have no clue who she’s talking about—because obviously I assume all of Britney’s lyrics are about real life—but I love the lyrics. “I forgot my name/I forgot my telephone number/If he wanna see me/He don’t even know it/I forgot my address/Damsel in distress/I forgot my boyfriend/Was the one that had bought me this bra.”
8. Looking to add some new music to your stripper playlist? “Womanizer," “Kill The Lights,” and “Rock Me In” will get your booty shakin’.
9. Every Britney Spears’ album needs an “empowered woman” track and, besides the single “Womanizer,” ”Circus” is it. “There’s only two types of guys out there/Ones that can handle me/And the mamma boys are too scared/But if I brought one down to my lair/He’d never wanna leave, just sit and stare.”
10. “Circus” is filled with plenty of references to Britney’s, um, lost year, on “Blur" especially. “Can’t remember what I did last night/Maybe I shouldn’t have given in/But I just couldn’t fight/Hope I didn’t but I think I might’ve/Everything, everything is still a blur/Can’t remember what I did last night/Everything, everything is still a blur.”
What? You didn't bother to watch 'Saturday Night Live' last week because the presidential election is over and there's no more Tina Fey's hilarious dead-on impersonation of Sarah Palin?
Then you missed seeing Justin Timberlake in a high-cut leotard and high heels.
He played one of "the dancers" in Beyonce's Single Ladies (Put a ring on it) music video. OK, it's a one-joke skit.
But Justin does have great gams. And he's got the Beyonce hippy-jiggle down pat. What do you think of JT's gams?
The son of an Arab monarch took the King of Pop to court Monday, charging that Michael Jackson took $7 million as an advance on an album and an autobiography that he never produced.
Lawyers for Sheikh Abdulla bin Hamad Al Khalifa of Bahrain say the money was given to Jackson as an advance on the book and joint recording project with the sheikh, who is an amateur songwriter. Jackson claims the money was a gift.
Jackson and Al Khalifa were not at London's Royal Courts of Justice as the trial opened. Jackson's lawyers said he would seek permission to testify by video link from the United States.
Bankim Thanki, a lawyer for Al Khalifa, said the royal first spoke to Jackson by telephone while the singer was on trial in California on charges of child molestation.
Al Khalifa wanted to work with Jackson on rebuilding his career, Thanki said. To that end, the sheikh spent millions paying Jackson's legal fees, moving him to Bahrain and supporting Jackson, his family and entourage.
The expenses included $350,000 for a European vacation for Jackson and his associates, Thanki said.
"The cost even included the expenses of bringing out Mr. Jackson's hairdresser," Thanki said. "It's not a conventional commercial dispute."
The lawyer said Jackson and the sheikh became close and at one time both were living in a palace in Abu Dhabi owned by Al Khalifa's father, Sheikh Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa, the king of the oil-rich country. The singer stayed nearly a full year in Bahrain as a guest of the son, who serves as the governor of the country's Southern Province.
Thanki acknowledged that Al Khalifa gave some gifts to Jackson but said that most of what Jackson received was part of a business deal.
The gifts, he said, "were essentially personal effects — watches, jewelry."
Jackson's finances fell apart after he was arrested in 2003 over allegations he molested a 13-year-old boy at his ranch. A jury cleared him of all the charges.
Last week he was forced to give up the deed on Neverland, a 2,500-acre (1,000 hectare) miniature amusement park in California named for the mythical land of Peter Pan.
London, Nov 13 (PTI) Hollywood actress Lindsay Lohan used the derogatory word 'coloured' while talking about president-elect Barack Obama in an interview.
"It's an amazing feeling. It's our first coloured president, so I'm thrilled to be a part of the country while that's going on," Lohan said in an interview while discussing her excitement over Obama's victory in US presidential elections, the Mirror reported. The 'Mean Girls' star was talking about her role in 'Ugly Betty'. The star said she was at a friend's house in Los Angeles on the election night but rushed back home with her girlfriend DJ Samantha Ronson to watch the results. Though the 22-year-old actress has supported Obama in an election rally but she also favoured his rival John McCain. "I got chills during Obama's speech," she said, "And McCain' s too. I thought they were both great." the actress said. PTI.
Just returned back to London folowing a one-night trip to Paris, Lindsay Lohan and Samantha Ronson were spotted leaving their hotel for a gig on Saturday night (November 15). According to an onlooker, the “Mean Girls” starlet and her deejay girlfriend “headed over to Cafe de Paris, where Sam was booked to perform a set on the turntables.”
SHE failed to save John McCain from presidential election doom, but Sarah Palin, the losing Republican senator's controversial running mate, may yet emerge as an unlikely saviour of the US publishing industry.
Literary agents are queueing to sign Ms Palin to a book deal that could earn her up to $US7 million ($10.8 million), The Australian reports.
With Barack Obama's election victory expected to generate dozens of books from politicians, strategists and journalists - and with another shelfload of memoirs expected from outgoing members of President George W. Bush's administration - Ms Palin's personal account of her tumultuous introduction to US politics is widely regarded as the tale most likely to repay a multi-million-dollar advance.
"She's poised to make a ton of money," said Howard Rubenstein, New York's best-known public relations adviser.
And Jeff Klein of Folio Literary management said: "Every publisher and a lot of literary agents have been going after her."
Ms Palin's profile shows no sign of diminishing, despite Senator McCain's defeat and embittered Republicans making her the scapegoat for the party's collapse.
She is now in a position similar to Mr Obama's in 2004, when the then relatively unknown Chicago politician delivered a mesmerising speech to the Democratic convention, was elected to the Senate and swiftly wrote a bestselling book The Audacity of Hope which proved to be the springboard for his presidential launch.
Like Mr Obama, Ms Palin has come from obscurity - in her case Wasilla in Alaska.
She is considered a likely candidate to move to Washington as Alaska's senator if one of the state's two seats falls vacant next year.
Undaunted by her poll defeat, Ms Palin was in fighting form last week, inviting cameras into her home, serving visiting interviewers home-cooked moose chilli, and haddock and salmon casserole.
She scoffed at claims that she thought Africa was a country and did not know the members of the North American Free Trade Agreement.
THE 2008 presidential campaign may be over, but Sarah Palin's moment in the spotlight has yet to run its course.
In a media marathon last week, the Republican Party's vice presidential nominee sat down for interviews with CNN's Larry King and Wolf Blitzer; had Matt Lauer of the "Today" show up to Wasilla for a family dinner; and told Fox News's Greta Van Susteren about getting the call from John McCain on her cellphone while she was admiring the local produce at the Alaska State Fair. She disdained the Republican "jerks" who spread anonymous rumors painting her as geographically illiterate, and vehemently denied the accusation that she had milked the campaign for a $150,000 wardrobe for herself and her family.
All that was a prelude to her star turn at the Republican Governors Association meeting in Miami, where she met reporters at a press conference, drew standing ovations from several hundred GOP donors, and humorously updated her fellow governors on what she'd been doing since last year's meeting.
"I had a baby," she told them. "I did some traveling; I very briefly expanded my wardrobe; I made a few speeches; I met a few VIPs, including those who really impact society, like Tina Fey."
Of course she was asked whether she plans to run for president in 2012, and of course she deflected the question. "The future is not that 2012 presidential race; it's next year and our next budgets," she said. But there can't be much doubt that Palin has become the brightest star in the GOP firmament. A whopping 91 percent of Republicans have a favorable view of her, according to a recent Rasmussen poll, and she is the runaway favorite when they are asked to rank possible contenders for the party's 2012 presidential nominee.
Elsewhere, however, the savaging of Palin continues. In The New York Times, Maureen Dowd devotes yet another column to bashing Alaska's governor ("a shopaholic whack-job diva"). The popular Washington blog Wonkette, characteristically crude, pronounces her "human garbage." At TheAtlantic.com, an obsessed Andrew Sullivan calls her "deluded and delusional . . . clinically unhinged" and describes her as a nitwit with "the educational level of a high school dropout" who "regards ignorance as some kind of achievement."
Not everyone on the left is in a gibbering rage over Palin. The feminist social critic Camille Paglia, a pro-choice Democrat, is appalled by the Democrats' anti-Palin debauch, especially their attacks on her intelligence. "As a career classroom teacher, I can see how smart she is," Paglia writes, "and, quite frankly, I think the people who don't see it are the stupid ones, wrapped in the fuzzy mummy-gauze of their own worn-out partisan dogma."
After witnessing the poise, energy, and panache with which John McCain's 44-year-old running mate handled herself on the national stage, can the backbiters working overtime to trash her intellect really believe she is nothing but a vain and ignorant airhead? Well, maybe; partisans and ideologues are good at seeing only what they want to see. But they might want to recall that the last Republican to inspire such ardor and admiration among the party faithful - Ronald Reagan - was also derided as a dim bulb. Diplomat Clark Clifford called Reagan an "amiable dunce." The New Republic's Robert Wright viewed him as "virtually brain dead." Nicholas von Hoffman lamented that it was "humiliating to think of this unlettered, self-assured bumpkin being our president." That "bumpkin" became one of the greatest presidents of the 20th century.
I suspect that the loathing of Palin by so much of the opinion elite is driven not by contempt for her brainpower but by fear of her political potential. She is cheerful and charismatic, an unabashed and likable conservative who generates extraordinary grassroots enthusiasm. Tens of thousands of voters showed up at her campaign rallies, and even now, when she appears on TV, record-breaking numbers of viewers tune in. "Her politics aren't my politics," said Lorne Michaels, the creator and executive producer of "Saturday Night Live," after Palin's appearance on the show. But "I watched the way she connected with people, and she's powerful."
Whether Palin has the skill and stamina it would take to win a presidential nomination, let alone capture the White House, it is way too early to tell. But the smart money says she is a force to be reckoned with. That may be just what her critics are afraid of.
I’m still holding out hope that I’ll discover a last-minute invite for Britney’s big 27th B-day bash at Tenjune tonight. I mean, I went out and got a new top hat just for the occasion! But just in case my name doesn’t show up on the guest list, I’ve already imagined how the festivities might go down — and if she’s really serious about restoring her health and image, she might consider partying like it’s 1999 again. 
