Posts By Kate Spencer

From Kanye to Kelly, from the Chilis to the Foos – the big-ass summer rock event is shaping up to be the Live Earth bash, an Al Gore-organized, hands-across-the-water dealio that hops from Jersey to Wembley.  It’s an inclusive list of performers. Classique rockers like the Police, country stars like Faith Hill & Tim McGraw, MCs like Kanye and Luda, and newcomers like Corrine and Keane are all on board. All the $$$ goes to keeping the planet at a tolorable temperature. Where will you be on July 7?

Which of the participants is going to steal the show?

As if the granny-suing, example-making, American idolatry-foisting music industry needed any more bad press, now it seems the RIAA is going after websites that have posted tracks from the forthcoming Nine Inch Nails record, Year Zero. On par, that seems like the sort of thing that the RIAA should be doing. Except, of course, when you consider that the band leaked those tracks intentionally. Speaking to Billboard, an inside source said, ?These f*cking idiots are going after a campaign the label signed off on.? To be fair, Trent Reznor?s newest album does feature an intense guerilla marketing campaign. Then again, so did Snakes on a Plane, and that proved to be less than convincing.

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Photos: Nine Inch Nails

Justin Timberlake?s mad as hell and he?s not going to take it anymore. The fair-haired golden child of the pop charts told Details that he despises the tabloids. Quoth Mr. SexyBack, ?They create soap operas out of people?s lives. [Britney and I] had our thing, and it?s over. They edit that stuff like MTV edits reality shows. It?s a spin game, and I choose not to take part in it.? While we applaud Justin?s attempts to keep his private life private, we?re also forced to wonder how that?s going to work in America?s new yellow-journalism culture. Would you want your pop stars respectable? And if so, what would happen to US Weekly?

Call it the battle of the super-producers. Beat-whiz Timbaland (most recently of Justin Timberlake fame) has dissed Scott Storch (whose name is whispered enticingly at the start of one of those Paris Hilton songs). The New York Post reports that Timbaland was partying at New York club Marquee when the bad business went down. Apparently, Timba announced to the crowd, ?Scott Storch is a bitch!? He?s more eloquent on his song ?Give It to Me,? which has lyrics that go a little something like: "I get a half a mil for my beats/You get a couple grand. Never gonna see the day that I ain’t got the upper hand." But does he? Or is that sort of smack-talk the pre-emptive strike of an insecure Timbaland?

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Photos: Timbaland

Sometime Police frontman Sting suffered a rather large diss last Wednesday at the hands of Paul Weller, the former frontman of the Jam and a person who is obviously suffering from irritable bowel syndrome. Weller was playing a gig at Royal Albert Hall in London when he spotted a picture of Sting playing the venue in 2000. The sight so incensed Weller that he spat on the photograph and was overheard saying, ?F*cking tw*t? as he walked away. Way to call it like you see it, Paul. Mr. Cranky Pants has a long history of insulting musicians. Here are a few recent hits:

On James Blunt: ?"I’d rather eat my own sh*t than duet with James Blunt.?

On Freddie Mercury: "He said he wanted to bring ballet to the working classes. What a c*nt."

Also on Sting: ?F*cking horrible man. Not my cup of tea at all. F*cking rubbish. No edge, no attitude, no nothing."

Paul Weller: More or less entertaining than a sock filled with cream cheese?

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Photos: Sting

Last night?s White House Correspondents’ Dinner was a hootin?, hollerin? affair. President Bush warmed up the crowd with a few funnyisms, like when he joked about Senator Barack Obama?s ?sleek, hairless pecs.? Fun, right? Even funner: When the baby-faced Darth Vader of the current Administration, Karl Rove, one of the president?s most trusted advisors and the man who has frequently been called ?Bush?s brain,? got up on stage and rapped. He dubbed himself MC Rove and augmented his impromptu freestyling with some hippity-hoppity footwork – picture a cross between Lord of the Dance and what might happen were you to suddenly realize you were sitting in a pile of dogsh*t. [Continued after the jump.]

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Nirvana was always threatening to go highbrow, and now Seattle?s Spectrum Dance Theater is taking them there. Called Nevermind, the theater?s new contemporary dance show debuts March 31st. Based on the 1991 record that changed everything forever, the production will feature the band?s music and dancers playing roles that represent Kurt Cobain and Courtney Love. The complicated choreography – how, exactly, do you block interpretive steps for addiction, being shredded by the press and suicide? – is by Donald Byrd, who has worked for Broadway (The Color Purple).

"It?s about how the sense of unconditional love, that someone loves you, is what makes the difference between life and death," he told The Seattle Times. Here?s the million-dollar question (literally): Does this show do more to honor Cobain?s memory than Courtney Love licensing Nirvana songs for use in CSI: Miami? Serious question, people. Think about it.

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Photos: Nirvana

Video: Nirvana

Eminem and his ex Kim Mathers agreed in court on Monday to stop insulting each other publicly for the sake of their daughter, Hailie. Em filed a motion earlier this month to quash Kim’s trash talking — in February during a radio interview, for example, she called Em a "horrible person," joked about the size (or lack thereof) of his penis and implied that he couldn’t sexually perform without Viagra. Up until then, Em felt free to drag Kim’s name through the dirt via the media and his music — he went as far as to address Hailie directly in the Kim murder fantasy "’97 Bonnie and Clyde" ("Da Da made a nice bed for Mommy at the bottom of the lake /
Here, you wanna help Da Da tie a rope around this rock?"). Apparently, Eminem draws the line at the disclosure of secrets about his wang. What a guy. And there’s no place like court to reaffirm manhood, right, Em?

With this new ban on talking smack about Kim in place, don’t you get the feeling that Em’s upcoming album will need to be downsized to an EP? [AP/Yahoo!]

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Photos: Eminem

This weekend, Britney Spears‘ mouth went from inflicting pain on the ears of discerning music fans to inflicting pain on its owner. After Brit rushed to the hospital Sunday, her publicist was quick to shoot down rumbling that the hospital visit was the result of a post-rehab Brit revisiting her pre-rehab ways. "They’re all wrong, she just went to the dentist," snapped the rep. "She had a toothache, I have no more details." It’s almost worth believing, as it makes her Coke-not-coke habit seem more plausible (all that soda has to take its toll, right?). And, really, who doesn’t want to believe that Britney is a giant Coke-head?

Meanwhile, this means that she did not attend the weekend birthday festivities of her estranged hubby Kevin Federline. Another ex of his, Shar Jackson, however, did, as K-Fed chatted on his phone and texted his way through the celebration. If you needed further proof that Shar is the poor Kev’s Britney, well, there you go. [TMZ.com]

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Box Set: Britney Spears

The buzz about Michael Jackson‘s possible long-term, nightly concert series at a Las Vegas casino has been building for months, but it just became a little more exciting: Mike’s residency may coincide with the construction of a 50-foot robotic replica of himself. Yes, that’s right — Michael Jackson’s face will be immortalized in metal, not its usual plastic.  A consultant reports that the robot would shoot lasers (!) and be the first thing those flying into Vegas would see. Because nothing says, "Welcome to Vegas!" better than a giant version of MJ’s face. It’ll be the perfect preview for the impending freak show that is any Vegas vacation.

Really, this is exactly what MJ needs to top Celine Dion as the city’s resident spectacle. I hope RoboJacko ends up fighting crime or Mothra or something. Your move, creep. [New York Daily News]

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Video: Michael Jackson