JIMMY PAGE has been made an honorary citizen of Rio de Janeiro for his work with underprivileged kids in the Brazilian city. Run by the British charity Task Brasil, Casa Jimmy offers medical and psychological support for street kids and pregnant teenagers as well as food, clothing and help in job training. Think Jim is in the market for a stairway?
THE MUSIC OF NEW ORLEANS: An aural history posted at aurgasm is killing music, but has some great selections.
BOB MOULD talks to the A.V. Club about playing the Husker Du catalog with a full band again. He has some choice words for Grant and Greg, too.
NIRVANA: Courtney Love found stuff not already scraped from the bottom of the coffin for the holidays.
NEIL YOUNG was stomping mad over a Chicago Tribune article suggesting that contributed only 28 percent of its revenues to farmers last year. Farm Aid officials claim the charity spent 76 percent of its budget on its mission of helping farmers.
PAUL McCARTNEY is fixing a hole.
PETE DOHERTY-KATE MOSS UPDATE: Burberry and Chanel ditch Moss as police start an investigation of newspaper reports that supermodel Kate Moss took illegal drugs. Babyshambles kicked off their UK tour, with Doherty claiming it's his first time in years he's toured not being a heroin addict. Morrisey fears for Doherty and slams the music press: “It's all very giggle-worthy for NME to report two hours after a gig that he's in a crack house in Glasgow but I don't find that amusing.”
KANYE WEST owes Dame Shirley Bassey some Benjamins.
KRISTIN HERSH has a must-read post on filesharing up on her blog. It involves chimpanzees.
BRIAN JONESTOWN MASSACRE and Mahogany had their gear stolen in NYC. Pitchfork is on the verge of issuing a fatwa.
TEN TO WATCH IN 2006: Rolling Stone has a national list. New City Chicago covers my neighborhood. The latter gets extra points for reviewing last year's list.
WILLIE HUTCH, an R&B artist who also produced hits for Michael Jackson, Marvin Gaye, Diana Ross and many more is dead at 59.
CHARLIZE THERON GONE WILD: During the taping of Premiere magazine's annual Women in Film ceremony (airing on AMC later this month), Charlize jumped offstage to literally kiss Shirley MacLaine's rear, declared that she wanted to get drunk with MacLaine, loved being a woman, and extolled the virtues of having breasts. Did I mention that Theron was high on painkillers? Charlize did!
BRITNEY SPEARS may collect two million bucks for pics of her baby.
THE STATE OF HOLLYWOOD: At the Emmy Award afterparties, celebs seem to prefer working in television over movies. This doesn't surprise me, as imho, the serial nature of TV and its relative budget constraints force more focus on writing and acting relative to art direction and special effects. It's a little surprising that actors were so open about it, but they were at parties… ALSO: In PC magazine, John Dvorak is predicitng the death of movies as we know them.
FROM THE FILES OF THE FBI: Celebs caught canoodling.
BRADGELINA UPDATE: Pitt fired a pregnant employee from his production company who spoke out on behalf of Jennifer Aniston. Jolie attended the premiere of the conscience raising film Peace one Day wearing some lipstick. Sadly, the picture doesn't capture just how clown-red it was.
TOM-KAT UPDATE: Page Six reports that Steven Spielberg is still steamed at Cruise for his anti-Ritalin rants during what were supposed to be promotional appearances for War of the Worlds. BTW, Spielberg is denying reports of wanting to be called “Maestro” on the set of his new film — a request that would be right out of Seinfeld.
SIN CITY interactive ad banned in London for scenes of violence.
WARREN BEATTY is mulling a run for governor of California, and thinks he could do a better job than Arnold Schwarzenegger.
THAT'S WHEN I REACH FOR MY KABBALAH: Guy Ritchie's new movie Revolver has been getting terrible reviews. London's Evening Standard reports that Madge and Guy's obsession with Kabbalah may have contributed to the film's muddled impenetrability.
SIENNA MILLER lays down the law, lays down with Law.
CAT STEVENS, a/k/a YUSUF ISLAM, says British foreign policy played a role in motivating the July 7th London bombings and that schools should teach young Muslims the true meaning of Islam to keep them away from extremist ideas. No one asked Yusuf if the true meaning of Islam includes setting Salman Rushdie on fire for writing a book Islamists deemed blasphemous. Note that the Rushdie comments were reaffirmed after Yusuf issued a carefully worded statement on the matter.
ISLAMIST VIOLENCE is destroying the economy of southern Thailand, as terrosists threaten to kill or cut off the ears of anyone who works on Fridays. No doubt British (or U.S.) foreign policy is to blame.
IRAQ: Bill Roggio looks at Operation Sayaid, which is designed to bolster the U.S. and Iraqi presence in the western Anbar region from Qaim to Haditha, how the operation fits into the larger U.S. military strategy and what it says about the state of Iraqi forces. Andi's World speculates that Zarqawi may have recruiting problems. At Iraq the Model, Omar notes that Zarqawi's threat is political, not religious, while Mohammed surveys the confused state of the Iraqi political landscape ahead of the referendum on the draft constitution.
ACTING GERMAN CHANCELLOR GERHARD SCHROEDER has a Howard Dean moment on a TV talk show, alienating the Free Democratic Party, which Scroeder's party was courting to form a coalition government.
FRANCE doesn't care about black people? What would Kanye West say?
HURRICANES: The World Meteorological Organization may run out of regular names for the 'canes this year, forcing a switch to greek letters. Why not Hurricane Apple?
GOODNESS! GRACIOUS! You know the tune.
MEN ALSO FROM VENUS? Not quite, but a new study suggests that men and women are more similar in personality, communication, cognitive ability and leadership than is generally believed. But the study also found large gender differences in throwing distance, masturbation behaviour and attitudes about casual sex, and a moderate difference in aggression. And those differences are what you would expect.
THE CDC SEX STUDY noted here last Friday had widely reported findings on lesbianism and teen oral sex. At Slate, William Saletan notes that the media avoided reporting on the other end of the digestive tract, despite the greater health risk involved. What would Howard Stern say?
EMORY UNIVERSITY STUDENT GOVT president Amrit P. Dhir announced he was abolishing the legislative branch and replacing it with himself as “supreme leader” as a prelude to declaring “war” on Washington University in St. Louis.
GLOBAL WARMING: The globe in question is Mars, providing fresh evidence that Martians are driving SUVs in their vast underground cities.
GIANT PINK BUNNY spotted in northern Italy's Piedmont region.
HAMSTERS can be turned into fighting machines.
DOLPHINS swept to sea by Hurricane Katrina have been rescued by marine biologists.
…AND THERE WERE SNAKES all over the autobahn…