LONDON (Reuters) – Troubled soul singer Amy Winehouse was arrested on Tuesday as part of an investigation into perverting the course of justice, London police and her publicist said. The 24-year-old, whose husband Blake Fielder-Civil is being held on remand accused of inflicting grievous bodily harm and conspiracy to pervert the course of justice, went to a London police station to be arrested in agreement with police. “It was voluntary and pre-arranged,” a representative at her publicity agency said, asking not to be quoted by name. In a statement, the Metropolitan Police said: “A 24-year-old woman has been arrested by […]
DIRT BOMB: The John Edwards ‘Love Child’ Blues
THE NATION: If the story is true, John Edwards is finished as a contender for the 2008 Democratic presidential nomination. The story is the National Enquirer cover piece — which will go on the racks at the supermarkets and drug stores of Iowa, New Hampshire and the other 48 states Wednesday morning — that claims the former senator from North Carolina is the father of a soon-to-be-born “love child.”The article claims Edwards, who has long burnished an image as the consummate family man and whose wife Elizabeth is a key player in his campaign, had an 18-month affair with female […]
IN THE FAST LANE: Corporate Media Will Eat Itself
BY AMY Z. QUINN Talk about buzzkill. This time yesterday, I sat down to write one of my snarky open letter thingies to Alycia Lane. Something about how it’s never OK to punch a cop, even a bitchy female one who’s getting in your face, but that if Lane was trying to exert her journalistic rights in taking pictures of an altercation, then maybe — just maybe — she’d be able to save her $700,000 a-year job. I mean, around the time of Rich Eisen-gate, I started to really believe someone up in NYC (a frenemy from Ronkonkoma still upset […]
NPR FOR THE DEAF: We Hear It Even When You Can’t
FRESH AIR Frank Morgan, a bebop-jazz sax player who modeled his playing style after Charlie Parker’s, died Dec. 14 at age 73. After some early successes, Morgan succumbed to heroin addiction, which led to 30 years of crime and imprisonment — and an absence from the stage. But while he was in jail, Morgan did play with other inmates; most famously, he and Art Pepper formed a small ensemble at San Quentin. The Washington Post reports: “Once asked why so many jazz musicians became addicts, [Morgan] replied: ‘It’s about being hip. Jazz musicians would rather be dead than not be […]
HOT DOC: Six Degrees Of Kevin Bacon
Dear jonathan, Last weekend, I was proud to travel through Iowa with John Edwards during his “Main Street Express” bus tour as he met with caucus goers and discussed his specific ideas for providing universal health care, ending the war in Iraq, stopping global warming, and taking back our government from the powerful corporations and special interests who run it. Now, I am happy to help him kick off his final push before the caucuses. Today, John’s campaign is launching a great new video you really should check out. It’s a movie trailer, actually — a preview of all that […]
RIP: Producer Joel Dorn Dead At 65
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – Veteran record producer Joel Dorn, who worked with such artists as Roberta Flack, Max Roach and the Neville Brothers, died of a heart attack on Monday in New York. He was 65. Dorn, a one-time disc-jockey at a Philadelphia jazz radio station, was perhaps best known for his work with Atlantic Records’ prestigious jazz stable between 1967 and 1974. Working alongside the label’s jazz chief, Nesuhi Ertegun, he brought a pop sensibility to works by musicians such as Roach, Herbie Mann, Les McCann and Eddie Harris, Mose Allison and Rahsaan Roland Kirk.Dorn once said his two […]
WORTH REPEATING: It’s The First Amendment, Stupid
Despite all our Vento-bashing, let us be clear: Joey Vento has a constitutional right to hang whatever asshole sign he wants on his cheese steak casino shack. That is the price of free speech: Sometimes people say things you don’t want to hear. Sure, it makes him look like a tone-deaf xenophobic bully in the best case scenario and a paranoid ignoramus deeply mistrustful of anyone a shade darker than Caucasian in the worst case scenario. And it reflects poorly on the city, VERY poorly. But barring some proof of denial-of-service based on racial discrimination — and to date there […]
KILLADELPHIA: 4-Year-Old Shot Dead
NBC10: The shooting was reported prior to 5 p.m. inside a house on the 1900 block of South Salford Street.The child was rushed to Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia in critical condition but soon pronounced dead, police said.Chopper 10 over the scene showed police and fire department activity on the street outside the home.Police said they are questioning people but reported no arrests, and they were not immediately commenting on the circumstances of the shooting.
NPR 4 THE DEAF: Giving Public Radio Edge Since 2006
FRESH AIR Bettye LaVette recorded her first hit, “My Man — He’s a Lovin’ Man,” at the age of 16. She toured with Ben E. King, Barbara Lynn, and Otis Redding. And now she’s being crowned the Comeback Queen for her recent albums, I’ve Got My Own Hell to Raise, which came out in 2005, and her latest The Scene of the Crime. LaVette recorded The Scene of the Crime at FAME Studios in Muscle Shoals, Ala., with the Southern rock band Drive-By Truckers and the legendary session musician and songwriter Spooner Oldham. (He played on Wilson Pickett’s “Mustang Sally” […]
BREAKING: Gwen Stefani Sex Tape Is A Hoax!
The guys over at Rock Town Hall were gloating over this ‘exclusive’ earlier today, and now they have egg all over their face. I mean, c’mon, that is so obviously NOT Gavin Rossdale. And nobody does it doggie style anymore. That is so last year.
NEWS CLUES: It’s Like Adderall For Your Eyeballs
MONSTER: Father Stomps Mother To Death In Front Of 7-Year-Old Son Ferman said the youngest son told police his father became angry Saturday night over a takeout food order and began “punching his mother in the mouth.” The boy tried to call for help, but his father ripped out the phone cord, locked the front door, and continued beating his wife. “The boy related that his mother then said to him, ‘I’m going to die. I love you,’” the criminal complaint said. The boy told police his father left the kitchen and put on a pair of shoes, “returned to […]
DAN FOGELBERG: Longer Than
Soporific sire of soft-rock, dead at 56.
CINEMA: Shank Of The Evening
STARTING OUT IN THE EVENING (2007, directed by Andrew Wagner, 111 minutes, U.S.) BY DAN BUSKIRK FILM CRITIC The actor Frank Langella’s name is always afforded the greatest respect by serious watchers of theater, although the genius he has shown on stage has seldom been visible in his film work. Langella made his big screen splash in 1979, recreating his stage role in John Badham’s Dracula (poorly-received it was quickly dubbed “Disco Dracula” by wags because Badham previously directed Saturday Night Fever and from then on, you’d be hard pressed to find an actor of his reputation who has appeared […]