>>>news >>>news archive >>>April 2007

April 30, 2007 simon cowell: "i taunt paula abdul during auditions" Music mogul Simon Cowell has explained why he talks to his American Idol co-judge Paula Abdul during wannabes' performances - he taunts her feedback style. Acid-tongued Cowell is often criticized for not paying contestants the courtesy of his undivided attention during their auditions. But he tells chat show host Ellen DeGeneres, in an interview airing on US TV tonight (30Apr07), "I'm taunting Paula throughout the performance. I'm saying to her, 'Try to say something interesting, try not to use the words mountain and lakes in your critiques because it's always, 'You'll climb mountains, you'll swim lakes, whatever.'" But Cowell insists he still has time to listen to the auditions properly. He adds, "I'll tell you a secret. I watch the dress run so I actually hear much, much easier what they really do sound like." » Posted by Igor at 12:00 AM | Discuss April 19, 2007 paula - no sympathy for sanjaya (TMZ.com)--Now that he's been booted from "American ldol," Paula Abdul couldn't care less about Sanjaya Malakar. TMZ caught the loopy "Idol" judge outside Mr. Chow last night, where she went to chow down after the results show, in which the Sanjaya the Ponyhawked Wonder got the ax. When asked her feelings on his exile, Abdul wasn't exactly sympathetic, brushing off the question with a "Oh he'll be fine," and proceeded to sign photos for waiting autograph hounds. With Sanjaya's media attention and lightweight vocals gone, Paula added, "The competition's gonna start getting heavy." » Posted by Igor at 12:00 AM | Discuss April 18, 2007 paula abdul "diva" antics not welcomed at airport American Idol judge Paula Abdul reportedly threw a "diva-like" tantrum while boarding an airplane recently (Apr07), telling fellow passengers she was "too famous" to queue. Abdul was boarding a Southwest Airlines flight from San Jose to Burbank, California, when she reportedly demanded to be given special treatment and board the aircraft first. Eyewitnesses claim the star pushed her way to the front of a queue of waiting passengers as one disgruntled commuter shouted, "You're no Sanjaya (American Idol contestant popular for his lack of talent)! You have to board like everyone else." A source tells The Scoop, "She pulled a major diva trip. The other passengers were not amused. She asked to be let on the plane and seated first." Abdul's spokesman has refused to comment. » Posted by Igor at 12:00 AM | Discuss April 17, 2007 "greatest hits: straight up!" cd promo Click >>>here to see promo copy of "Greatest Hits: Straight Up!" CD which Virgin/EMI sent to media to review it. This item not for sale! "Greatest Hits: Straight Up!" to be released May 8 by Virgin/EMI. » Posted by Igor at 2:38 AM | Discuss April 13, 2007 bravo announces 'hey paula!' to debut this summer (Reality TV World)--Bravo has announced that Hey Paula!, a new docu-reality series that will give viewers a look at American Idol judge Paula Abdul's professional and personal life, will air as part of the network's summer programming lineup. Originally announced by the network in early January, Hey Paula! will follow the former Los Angeles Laker Girl and Grammy Award winner as she films the sixth installment of Idol; works on her new Bratz: The Movie project; develops her own line of perfumes and cosmetics; expands her originally-designed jewelry line; markets her clothing line; and fits personal appearances into her demanding schedule. "It's a hectic time in my life right now with several projects in television, film and fashion," said the 44-year-old Idol judge/recording artist/choreographer/business woman/producer. "I'm excited to open the doors to Bravo and have all my fans see the other sides to me, beyond what they see on American Idol." Although it won't premiere until this summer, Hey Paula! has already generated controversy for the frequently embattled Idol judge. In February, Pilgrim Films and Television, a television production company, filed a lawsuit that claimed Abdul tried to cheat them out of the reality series based on her life. According to Pilgrim, the company met with Abdul and her producing partner David Russo in 2004 and discussed the creation a talk show that would feature her. However after several "false starts," the lawsuit states the concept evolved into a reality show titled Hey Paula!, which would be based on Abdul's "wacky life." The project apparently "fell apart" after Abdul demanded final editorial control over the product and Pilgrim alleged Abdul told them "she had secretly taken" the production company's Hey Paula! project to Bravo. The lawsuit filed by Pilgrim claims Abdul never mentioned Russo was allegedly "in on" selling the show to Bravo, and also asks for compensatory and punitive damages, in addition to an injunction "prohibiting anyone from airing Hey Paula!. In addition to Hey Paula!, Bravo has announced that Kathy Griffin: My Life on the D-List's third season and the third season of Top Chef will also air this summer. Noticeably absent from Bravo's summer programming schedule will be Project Runway's fourth season, which won't premiere until late 2007. » Posted by Igor at 3:14 AM | Discuss April 12, 2007 paula at qvc show Tune in to QVC for Paula Abdul Jewelry, Friday, April 27, 2007 from 9 – 10 a.m. ET If you don't have the channel, you can try watching it live over here » Posted by Igor at 1:05 AM | Discuss April 8, 2007 apple and emi: music is the winner By Mike Himowitz Baltimore Sun Announcing the landmark agreement between iTunes and EMI, Steve Jobs said he expected other record labels to follow suit, and he predicted that half of iTunes' 5,000,000-track inventory would be available in unprotected format within a year. That would be an amazing turnaround for an industry that has fanatically resisted selling music that can be easily copied. When Steve Jobs, Apple's (Nasdaq: AAPL) CEO-for-life, shocked the music industry in February by calling for an end to sales of copy-protected music, the cynics smiled. I was among them. Here was a guy who had made hundreds of millions peddling copy-protected songs and the gadgets that play them. Was this just another case of the master showman blowing smoke to keep critics and regulators at bay? Not this time. Jobs backed up his rhetoric with action this week, announcing a groundbreaking deal with London-based EMI Group, one of the four large conglomerates that dominate the recording industry. Starting in May, Apple's iTunes store will sell almost all of EMI's music online without copy protection -- if customers are willing to pay a 30 percent premium. That means most music fans who have digital players other than Apple's iPod will be able to play EMI tracks they download from iTunes -- without going through an awkward, two-step conversion process. Alienated by DRM It's hard to overestimate the importance of this deal. Since the advent of powerful computers, CD-burners and portable music players made it possible for users to create and trade digital copies of songs, the industry has been at war with its best customers. For years, the studios refused to sell music online altogether -- while users traded billion of files illegally. Only when they realized that filing lawsuits against 12-year-olds who share their libraries might not be the only way to deal with piracy did the music producers agree to put their catalogs online. However, they insisted on digital rights management (DRM). That's a euphemism for copy-protection schemes that make it difficult, though not impossible, to duplicate their music. The result has been a mishmash of incompatible copy-protection schemes, online music services and players -- and a customer base that's increasingly disenchanted. Sweet Sound The Apple-EMI deal is interesting because it adds a sweetener. For the extra money they pay for unprotected music (US$1.29 a tune versus 99 cents for protected tracks), customers will get files with twice the audio density -- 256 kilobits of data per second of sound, versus 128 kbps in the protected format. This is good news for audiophiles who have long complained that digital music sold online lacks depth and detail. If you use your iPod, or any other player, while you're jogging, riding the subway or driving your car, the ambient noise will wash out most of the improvements, but it's nice to have higher fidelity for indoor listening. As an added break, unprotected albums will cost the same as their protected counterparts, usually $9.99. If you've already purchased protected EMI songs from iTunes over the years, you can upgrade them to the new unprotected format for 30 cents a pop. Still No Fab Four All things considered, this is a reasonable deal. Consumers get what they want -- unprotected music -- if they're willing to pay more. However, no one will end up short on the rent because he's downloading tunes. If customers don't like the deal, they can continue to buy protected tracks for 99 cents. The industry also gets what it wants -- a chance to increase moribund sales and book a lot more revenue. When you're selling hundreds of millions of tracks, an extra 30 cents a pop is real money -- with no added production or distribution cost. For the time being, the EMI deal won't include one of the company's biggest assets -- the rights to the Beatles. Their business arm, Apple Corps, has refused to sell online to anyone, although millions of Beatles tracks have been traded illegally over the years. Now that Apple (the computer company) and Apple Corps (the Beatles) have worked out a long-standing dispute over the Apple trademark, most observers expect a deal. Even without the Beatles, EMI has plenty of variety in its catalog, with artists as diverse as Norah Jones, David Bowie, Garth Brooks, Deep Purple, The Rolling Stones, Blur, Radiohead, Boys Like Girls, Kenny Rogers and Paula Abdul. One Year From Now Announcing the agreement on Monday, Jobs said he expects other record labels to follow suit and predicted that half of iTunes' 5,000,000-track inventory will be available in unprotected format within a year. That would be an amazing turnaround for an industry that has fanatically resisted selling music that can be easily copied. It would be an even more amazing turnaround for Jobs. After all, it was copy protection that turned Jobs from the chief of a niche computer company that was going nowhere into the titan of online music sales. His iTunes store has delivered 2.5 billion tracks since it opened in 2004, and the iPod has captured 75 percent of the digital music player business -- more than 90 million sold. Sales of players and music now account for half of Apple's revenue. Conceding the Loopholes One reason for Apple's hegemony is a copy-protection system called "FairPlay" that Jobs has refused to license to other vendors. That means you can't play a digital track you buy from iTunes on anything but an iPod, or use an iPod to play music you purchase from Rhapsody or another store that uses a competing copy-protection scheme from Microsoft (Nasdaq: MSFT) . There's a way to get around this problem, as Jobs conceded Monday when he announced the EMI deal. Writing any copy-protected track to an audio CD removes the protection. You can then use iTunes or any other music player to "rip" the track back into a universally playable, unprotected MP3 file. As it turns out, not that many people are willing to go through the hassle -- or suffer the slight loss of sound quality it produces. However, this loophole -- well-known to the recording industry -- convinced me that there were executives out there with common sense. Now it appears that at least some in the industry are ready to go the rest of the way. How this will play out in the future is hard to say. Marketing experts say that by increasing the audio quality of its music, Apple is muddying the waters. Are users paying extra for the unprotected files, better sound or both? From a consumer's standpoint, it doesn't matter. The other recording giants, Warner, Sony (NYSE: SNE) BMG, and Vivendi-Universal, will eventually go along, too. That's good news for all of us. » Posted by Igor at 8:01 AM | Discuss April 3, 2007 sanjaya malakar dances with paula abdul (Reality TV Magazine)--For the American Idol Top Nine performance show, the finalists were mentored by Tony Bennett. Blake Lewis performed “Mack The Knife.” Randy Jackson said “That was very good way to start off the evening.” Paula Abdul said “Tonight, you personified pizzazz.” Simon Cowell said “I give you seven out of ten, I’ll give the band eight out of then though.” Phil Stacey performed “Night & Day.” Randy Jackson said “I just didn’t feel any real connection.” Paula Abdul said “The good news is you’re reminiscent of a young Frank Sinatra, I think so, but the constructive criticism is I still need you to just have more joy.” Simon Cowell said “I think it had all the joy of somebody singing in a funeral parlor.” Melinda Doolittle performed “I’ve Got Rhythm.” Randy Jackson said “You come out here every week and you give everyone here a lesson in singing.” Paula Abdul said “You’re like a master class for everyone else to watch.” Simon Cowell said “I don’t think we’re ever going to be able to criticize you. This is a problem.” When Ryan Seacrest asked why that was a problem, Simon Cowell replied “Because we like being mean to people occasionally.” Chris Richardson performed “Don’t Get Around Much Anymore.” Randy Jackson said “I think this is one of your best performances of the whole season.” Paula Abdul said “You made it so hip and so cool.” Simon Cowell said “I thought that was very good actually, Chris.” Jordin Sparks performed “On A Clear Day.” Randy Jackson said “You’re like a pro, and you’re seventeen.” Paula Abdul said “You really are this magnet of joy.” Simon Cowell said “I just think you sang a song very well, but it was very old fashioned, very traditional.” Gina Glocksen performed “Smile.” Randy Jackson said “That was a very nice, controlled performance for the rocker girl.” Paula Abdul said “That was a flawless performance, understated, beautiful, and sentimental.” Simon Cowell said “I can’t rave about the vocals, sorry Gina.” Sanjaya said “My goal this week is to make America see that I actually can sing.” Sanjaya Malakar performed “Cheek to Cheek.” Sanjaya had his hair slicked back and danced with Paula Abdul during his performance. Randy Jackson said “What I like about you now is you’ve turned into a great entertainer.” Paula Abdul said “I get why people love you.” Simon Cowell said “Let’s try a different tactic this week. Incredible.” Haley Scarnato performed “Ain’t Misbehavin’.” Randy Jackson said “What do you think Paula?” Paula Abdul said “Did I mention green’s a good color for you?” Simon Cowell said “I think you’ve got great legs. Actually, I thought I agree with Randy, it was a good style of music for you. It was a little bit pageanty I thought.” Lakisha Jones performed “Stormy Weather.” Randy Jackson said “I loved this, this was the perfect song for you.” Paula Abdul said “You sound beautiful, it proves that we all Tony Bennett.” Simon Cowell said “Back on form, Lakisha, that was a sassy, great performance.” Who will be the next finalist to be eliminated from the competition? Well, the judges sent a pretty clear message about what they thought of Phil Stacey’s performance. It will be difficult for him to overcome both performing early in the show as well as being heavily criticized by the judges. We predict that Phil Stacey will be the next finalist to go home. Reality TV Magazine is your source for American Idol news. For other great American Idol news, please also check out SirLinksALot: American Idol or SirLinksALot: Sanjaya Malakar. » Posted by Igor at 12:00 AM | Discuss hey, hey, Paulas (ConnectSavannah.com)--Who out there dares to take her rightful place on the dais next to none other than Paula Wallace and Paula Deen, the two hardest working denizens of Savannah’s Paula-dom. By Jane FIshman I’m going out on a limb here. I’m not the sharpest blade in the drawer when it comes to making social predictions. By this time I thought we would all be driving smaller cars, living reduced life styles, taking care of one another. Silly me. (Although at least one friend of mine claims I was the first to trendspot the cupcake craze; cupcake shops, she now sees, are popping up on every street corner. One woman I know is eschewing the traditional wedding cake for... individual cupcakes). But if most things come in threes - and I believe they do, starting with that most famous of triumvirates in this upcoming Christian holiday - I’m waiting for the Next Great Paula to hit Savannah. Will the Lowcountry’s latest Paula please step forth! We need to fill the third spot. With the popularity wave Savannah is riding, finding and anointing the Third Paula could be the country’s next great reality show. I’m only serious. Any takers? Who out there dares to take her rightful place on the dais next to none other than Paula Wallace and Paula Deen, the two hardest working denizens of Savannah’s Paula-dom. I’m not about to say who among our two Paulas is No. 1 or No. 2. I’ll let them duke it out. (And I’ll let the ubiquitous Savannah College of Art and Design box office sell the tickets. They seem to sell tickets to everything around town, including church fundraisers). But at this point I’d have to say it’s neck and neck. Though to be fair Paula Wallace did get there first when she and her then husband Richard Rowan, who is now way out of the picture (Richard who?), and Paula’s parents, Paul Poetter and May Poetter, had a vision, took it to the historic district and in1978 started the Savannah College of Art and Design. But a decade later, nearly to the day and month, later we have the early stirrings of another Paula, the now indomitable, invincible and seemingly unconquerable Paula Deen, cook, restauranteur, writer, tv personality and all-around ambassador for Savannah and the good life. Every time an article appears on Paula Deen, which is frequent, I get a call and at least one copy of the article in the mail. Last month it was, “Did you see the cover feature story about Paula Deen in the New York Times? The one where she uses Saltines, mayonnaise, cream of mushroom soup and, oh yeah, butter, lots of butter?” My latest favorite gift with Savannah as the theme is Paula’s book. Even in the dentist’s office, where a flat-screened TV meets my eyes as I lay back in the chair for more torture, I see Paula Deen. Last time it was the staff Christmas party where she gave her husband a trip to Paris. For years, when I would tell people I was from Savannah, the first comment out of their mouths would be about SCAD. How someone spoke at their school or sent their high school age child information about SCAD and then kept sending them information about SCAD. Or how their niece or nephew goes to SCAD and that’s how they visited the town and what a great time they had and how lucky I was to live here. Whatever else you can say about the school, how large it has become, how quickly the graduates are able to get a job, how brilliant it was to make historic preservation an early major, what incredible people it gets to speak at graduation, how the art school has transformed the real estate market and revived and breathed new life into the old buildings (most, at least) in historic Savannah, I’m here to tell you the school has got the marketing thing down. Jesus, Joseph and Mary - oops, that threesome again - have they got the marketing thing down. We will too once we complete the Paula triumvirate. We got the school part covered. And the food angle. Now we should get on the band wagon and go for the celebrity. We need to find a Third Paula who can swing with the times, come with a good idea and be able to spread the magic of Savannah. I’m open to suggestions but after much thought I’ve come up with my nomination: Paula Abdul. Not unlike Paulas No. 1, this Paula, a consummate marketer, has her finger on the pulse. From her start as a cheerleader for the Los Angeles Lakers to her stint as a choreographer just when MTV hit its stride to a No. 1 album in the late ‘80s to a dance video to becoming a spokesman for eating disorders, which she experienced and overcame, to - ta da! - a seat as a judge on the mightiest reality show of all, American Idol. And she’s Jewish. No, really. Not like Sammy Davis Jr., was Jewish, but Jewish Jewish. At least that’s what Wikipedia, our quick and easy source for all things in question, says. Although she is commonly mistaken as being part-black and bears an Arabic-sounding surname, Abdul is Jewish and of Sephardic and Ashkenazi descent. Now all we have to do is convince Abdul that everything is better with butter. » Posted by Igor at 12:00 AM | Discuss