IGGY DOES MADONNA:  The highlight of the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame induction ceremony?  Rather than perform herself. Madge had fellow Motown natives Iggy Pop and the Stooges (plus SteveMcKay on sax) wail through her "Ray of Light."  This is what the HoF lamesters get for not voting the Stooges in already.

RADIOHEAD is taking over the BBC on April Fools Day.

SxSW:  You can stream three artists to watch at NPR, which has also posted a schedule of streaming concerts, both from NPR and its various affliates.  Tonight's headliner is R.E.M. at Stubbs.  WOXY has also posted a schedule of its Lounge Act sessions from the music fest.

PITCHFORK FEST:  Promoters announced a partial list of acts for this year's installment on July 18-20, including hip-hop legends Public Enemy performing their classic album "It Takes a Nation of Millions to Hold Us Back."  Others already scheduled include Animal Collective, Spiritualized, !!!, M. Ward, Boris, Vampire Weekend, Dizzee Rascal, No Age, Atlas Sound, Fleet Foxes, Extra Golden and El Guincho.  Tickets go on sale today at noon CDT.

THURSTON MOORE stopped by the KEXP studios for an interview and mini-set you can stream (together or "just the music") via NPR.

THE BRUNETTES:  The kiwi indie-popsters have their own board game in the video for "B-A-B-Y," but it seems eerily reminiscent of Mystery Date.

THE END of A&R?  Popmatters suggests the death of the "talent scout" may spread beyond EMI.

SHE & HIM:  Zooey Deschanel and M Ward, who started working together over a cover of Richard and Linda Thompson's "When I Get to the Border," are "breaking" at Rolling Stone.  Video at the link.

KEITH RICHARDS, LORD of the UNDEAD, has been reading the Bible, but is finding it boring.

NICOLE ATKINS talks to Houstonist about her influences, her side metal band and more.

BRITNEY SPEARS was laughing on the set of the CBS sitcom How I Met Your Mother, but crying after Adnan Ghalib was banned from her home by her dad-conservator.  And the pop wreck's TV cameo caused Alicia Silverstone to flee that sitcom.  Her next video will be animated, thus eliminating the need for her to have her act together.

LINDSAY LOHAN is trying very hard to stay on the straight and narrow and revamp her image, but some friends are worried about a new crop of "bad influences."

KATE HUDSON:  Police arrested three men near her New York City home yesterday; one of the suspects had a toy rifle.

OWEN WILSON has been cozying up to new co-star Jennifer Aniston in Miami, according to the super-reliable Star magazine.

GENE SMIMONS, of KISS and Celebrity Apprentice, is bald.  Pics at the link.

MARY ANN!  A surprise birthday party for Dawn Wells, the actress who played Mary Ann on "Gilligan's Island," ended with a nearly three-hour tour of the Teton County sheriff's office and jail when the 69-year-old was caught with marijuana in her vehicle while driving home.

SAMANTHA MORTON, the 30-year-old Oscar-nominated actress who recently appeared in Elizabeth: The Golden Age and the Ian Curtis biopic Control, says she suffered a stroke in 2006 so severe she had to learn to walk again.  And a childhood acquaintance began stalking her by sending her sinister love notes.

HUGH LAURIE admits he attempted to get closer to the character he portrays on House - by experimenting with Vicodin, the strong painkiller to which Dr. Gregory House is addicted.

SUPERMAN RETURNS... AGAIN:  Director Bryan Singer confirms that work is under way on the film that some said would never happen because the first was perceived as a flop: "That movie made $400 million!" Singer says incredulously. "I don't know what constitutes under-performing these days..."

HEIDI FLEISS, former Hollywood madam, talks to Radar magazine about the case of NY Gov. Elliot Spitzer.

FOOD COURT MUSICAL:  The latest video from ImprovEverywhere.

IRAN is blocking UN nuclear watchdogs from speaking to Iranian scientists who were central figures in a secret nuclear research program that operated as recently as 2003.  New evidence purportss to show advanced research into a variety of nuclear-related technologies, including uranium ore processing, warhead modification and the precision-firing of high explosives of the type used to detonate a nuclear device.  However, worldwide support for strong international action against Iran because of its uranium enrichment program has dropped over the past year and a half, according to a BBC study.  Meanwhile, a new stamp to commemorate Hezbollah's slain military chief, Imad Mughniyeh, will go on sale in Iran this week. A Los Angeles court jailed an American of Iranian origin for three years and five months Monday for trying to buy up to 100000 submachine guns and sell them to Iran.  And Tehran's police chief has been arrested after he was found nude in a local brothel with six naked prostitutes.  Before he was arrested, he was in charge of the program for the "moralization of the city," arresting hundreds of young people for not respecting the Islamic code of behavior.

IRAQ:  In the town of Zambraniyah, local sheikhs and tribal leaders were given prime spots to watch "a celebratory cleansing" of an AQI torture chamber and operational headquarters. Three thousand pounds of bombs costing more than $100,000 dropped from a B-1 bomber obliterated the building.  Video at the link.  Bill Roggio blogs the construction of new combat outposts and security walls in Mosul.  Iraq has made "limited but important" political, diplomatic and economic gains in the last three months, but improvements in security remain "fragile," the Pentagon reported Tuesday.  Despite increased counterterrorism efforts by Damascus, as much as 90 percent of the foreign fighters in Iraq cross the border from Syria, according the Pentagon report, which also says Iran's support for Shiite militants is hurting efforts to improve Iraq security.

VICTORIA, an Italian greyhound, repeated as the winner of San Diego's 13th annual "Ugly Dog Contest."  Pics and video at the link.  Plus, a slideshow.

PHILLIPPE Giant Schnauzer was night named Best in Show at Crufts 2008, on his third attempt.

KITTY survived a month after being sealed in a crate and shipped thousands of miles across the Pacific Ocean and North America.

THOUSANDS of STARFISH photographed washed up on the beach at Pegwell Bay near Sandwich, Kent.  Cue Terry Jacks.