Tuesday 31 May 2011

Country King Alan Jackson Flips Out in Franklin

SELLER: Alan and Denise Jackson
LOCATION: Franklin, TN
PRICE: $3,995,000
SIZE: 14,040 square feet, 8 bedrooms, 8 full and 2 half bathrooms

YOUR MAMAS NOTES: The Nashville, TN real estate community was electrified last year with mustachioed country music king Alan Jackson and his Christian book-writing wife Denise sold Sweetbriar, their super-luxe 135-acre estate with its 19,000 square foot mansion in rural Franklin, TN, to Willis and Reba Johnson for a teeth-chattering and record-busting $28,000,000. Mister Willis may not be a household name for most folks but he's a wildly wealthy man who made his three and some hundred million dollar fortune thanks to a publicly traded company called Copart that auctions wrecked cars for insurance companies.

According to Your Mama's southern real estate sources, specifically a gal we'll call Frankie N. Franklin, we've learned that when Mister and Missus Jackson decamped Sweetbriar they settled into another large but slightly smaller mansion in Franklin that property records reveal was acquired in June 2010 for $3,675,000. The towering three-story faux-Tuscan mansion was purchased through a business entity that links back to the same Brentwood, TN address where Mister Jackson's production company Real World Tours is located. Mister and Missus Jackson recently flipped their mansion back on the market less than one year after buying the damn thing with an asking price of $3,995,000.

Mister and Missus Jackson's new digs sit high on a rise in the 600-ish acre guard-gated community of LaurelBrooke about 12 miles south of downtown Nashville. The upscale enclave offers rich residents a 4,000 square foot clubhouse with fitness center and media room, a swimming pavilion with two heated pools (one for adults, one for toddlers), tennis facilities, basketball court, multi-purpose play field, miles of hiking and biking trails and several ponds stocked with fish.

Listing information shows Mister and Missus Jackson's mini-estate spans 2.05 rolling acres and includes a 14,040 square foot "villa" with 8 bedrooms, 8 full and 2 half bathrooms and garaging for six cars plus an attached workshop. According to Miz Franklin, the house was built on spec just prior to the recent economic slump in 2007 by a well-known local builder and sat vacant until Mister and Missus Jackson came along and snatched it up as a very temporary crib.

Electronic gates open to a stone-paved driveway that curves and climbs up the gentle slope to the front of the imposing stone-built house that rises three daunting stories with staircases and terraces lined with tightly-set stone balustrades. The front door is, technically, on the second level but a ground floor entrance makes it easy for the lazy to enter the house on the lowest level where they can ascend to the upper levels by way of an elevator.

The voluminous piazza-esque entry has stone floors, double-height ceiling, a dramatic curved floating staircase that any diva or divo would love to glide down. A glittery chandelier gives the grand but all-beige space a smidgen of necessary sparkle. The primary public spaces include a formal dining room and formal living room with massive carved stone fireplace, double-height ceiling and a second floor gallery that wraps around the earth tone bathed space.

More family friendly areas of the mansion include a colossal chef-equipped kitchen with wood-beamed ceiling and a lot of carved detailing on the cabinets. An adjacent breakfast room opens to a family room with fireplace. A series of tall windows and French doors open out to a loggia that stretches along the back of the house and a heated and cooled veranda with fireplace, outdoor kitchen and swimming pool facilities. The loggia and veranda both connect the house to the wide flagstone terrace that surrounds the salt water swimming pool and spa. The tree-ringed back yard also has a nice patch of perfectly-groomed lawn that Your Mama and the Dr. Cooter's long-bodied bitches Linda and Beverly would love to get their paws on.

The humongous house also includes a large lower-level games room with built-in bar, a fitness room full of state-of-art body torture equipment, a wine cellar and a home theater with leather recliners and tiered seating for optimal viewing.

We're not quite sure where Mister and Missus Jackson will move when they leave their short-term villa in Franklin but somewhere along the way Your Mama recalls we were told by someone?we don't recall who?that the real estate size queens only settled her in this tall Tuscan in Franklin while they completed building another no doubt gigantic house. Now kids, we have no direct knowledge of or details about this house the Jacksons are allegedly building so for now that is just a bit of rumor and gossip. Got that?

What is not rumor and gossip is that Mister and Missus Jackson have been on a bit of a real estate roll lately. Not only did they sell Sweetbriar in 2010 and buy the Franklin mansion they now have on the market they also listed their four bedroom Key West-style cottage on the Intracoastal Waterway in Tequesta, FL with an asking price of $1,275,000, just five thousand more than property records show they paid for the place in June of 2004. The property remains on the market without a reduction in the asking price.

The Jacksons continue to own an ocean front estate at the southern tip of Jupiter Island, FL. The property was originally purchased in 2002 for about $3,500,000 and several years later the Jacksons razed the existing house to make way for an 8,724 square foot Mediterranean mansion with 7 bedrooms and 6.5 bathrooms.

Your Mama would like the children to note that while all this celebrity real estate bizness is fun and games, devastating floods have ravaged dozens of communities and cities along the Mississippi River and its tributaries, including Nashville and the surrounding suburbs. Your Mama urges concerned citizen-children to donate a few pennies to the Red Cross relief efforts. Visit www.redcross.org or call 1-800-RED-CROSS; you can also text the word "REDCROSS" to 90999 to make a $10 donation. Contributions may also be sent to local American Red Cross chapters or to the American Red Cross, P.O. Box 37243, Washington, D.C. 20013.

listing photos: Sotheby?s International Realty / Lipman Group

Source: http://realestalker.blogspot.com/2011/05/country-king-alan-jackson-flips-out-in_13.html

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Seasick Steve live in 360 degrees

The blues singer played a gig in aid of homeless charity The Connection at St Martin's ? now watch it from every angle


On Thursday 26 May, Seasick Steve headlined the annual Streets of London Concert for Homelessness at the Electric Ballroom in Camden. All proceeds went to The Connection at St Martin's, a specialist centre that provides support to more than 200 homeless people each day. Below you can watch a stream of the show, filmed using Mativision 360-degree technology allowing you to select camera angles, pan across the stage (and crowd) or just leave static to enjoy an intimate set from Seasick Steve, including tracks from his new album, You Can't Teach An Old Dog New Tricks. Enjoy!

? For more information about Streets of London and how you can help the homeless, please click here. You can make a �2 donation by simply texting 'GIVE00 �2' to 70070. Alternatively, you can make the donation online.


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Source: http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/musicblog/2011/may/31/seasick-steve-live-3d

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Nicki Minaj's 'Did It On 'Em' Video Reveals Backstage High Jinks

Video director DJ Scoob Doo tells MTV News he wanted fans to see another side of Pink Friday star in brand-new clip.
By D.L. Chandler


Nicki Minaj
Photo: Jason LaVeris/ Getty Images

Nicki Minaj's blistering track "Did It On 'Em" gets the video treatment in a guerilla-style clip highlighting some of the diva's backstage exploits and performances during the I Am Still Music Tour alongside Young Money honcho Lil Wayne earlier this year. MTV News caught up with the director of the brand-new clip, DJ Scoob Doo.

A hip-hop renaissance man, Scoob Doo has brushed elbows with some of rap's elite for some time now as a longtime fixture on the mixtape scene, gaining a name on the DVD scene, as well. Scoob's latest gives Minaj fans an intimate look into the superstar's life on the road. Scoob revealed quite a bit during a quick phone chat and gave the lowdown on how the video came to fruition.

"She's family to me and I'm family to her, but this is the first time us working together was a priority on both of our lists. So we just had to dig in and put everything to the side and really work on something ... [and] we had no idea that it would turn out as good as it did. It was a great experience," the video director told us.

Scoob also revealed that the plan all along was to shoot the clip in the rugged style seen in the clip. "It took me about a good two weeks to put all of the ideas that we had together. The good thing about the video is that we went in knowing we were gonna shoot the video onstage a few times. I was actually able to get my camera crew onstage," Scoob shared.

Although the style of video isn't like many of the other starlet's big-budget affairs, Scoob Doo shared why Nicki Minaj agreed to go with the more underground feel this time around: "Did It On 'Em" was the #1 song in the country without a video and only dropped a few spots when Nicki's glossy "Super Bass" video was released. After a brief convo and an agreement between Scoob and Nicki, they pieced together the video in two weeks in an effort to bump up interest and chart position for the still popular but dwindling "Did It On 'Em" single.

DJ Scoob Doo is already working on other projects and says he's "stepping it up" as a director. His goal is to bring quality music videos back to the forefront.

Still riding high off the success of her debut album, Pink Friday, Nicki is set to join pop diva Britney Spears on tour this summer.

What do you hope to see from Nicki's "Did It On 'Em" video? Tell us in the comments!

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Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/MTVNewsLatest/~3/7KUtB8s2hdI/nicki-minaj-did-it-on-em.jhtml

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Denise Welch: 'I chose to start drinking again'

Filed under:

Denise Welch drinkingPA

Denise Welch spent years battling addiction to drink and drugs but in recent weeks the 52-year-old seems to have fallen back into old habits.

Now the Loose Women star has admitted to enjoying the odd drink again but insists she made a conscious decision to do so.

Welch confessed that at one stage, her boozing and drug-taking got so bad that her Corrie co-star Kevin Kennedy took her to Alcoholics Anonymous.

She told Woman magazine: "I stopped drinking completely but I chose to start drinking again. I didn't fall off the wagon, I stepped off it.

"I drink at parties, I drink at awards dos, I drink when I am out with my mates and that's when you get all the pap snaps of drunk Denise."

We know Denise... we've seen the results.

Ms Welch insisted she's (almost) never late for work and said: "I am my own worst enemy because I play up to the image, but people make assumptions about me that are so totally off the mark."

However, Denise admitted that she might need to tone her behaviour down a bit in future.

"I want to get some discipline in my life," she went on. "I don't want to be the old drunk staggering round Soho House in 10 years' time...

"After a night out, my first thought in the morning is: 'Oh God, Denise what did you do?' I am mortified when I see pictures of me flashing my knickers...

"It embarrasses my kids. I am an embarrassment."

And there we have it... straight from the horse's mouth.

What do you think of Denise's 'decision' to start drinking again? Leave a comment below...

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We're far from prudes here at Eleven. If you've got it, flaunt it we say - but there are certain celebs who are such blatant repeat flaunters that - to be honest - we just feel like saying "put it away love"...

 

 

Source: http://celebrity.aol.co.uk/2011/05/31/denise-welch-drinking/

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Cook along with Steve Albini

The producer has launched a food blog, sharing dishes he prepares for his wife. But he's not the only indie gastro geek ...

Blog: Comment Is Free cook up some other rock star recipes

Steve Albini, founder of Big Black and Shellac, producer of PJ Harvey and Nirvana, has a food blog. It's a good one, based around whatever he's recently cooked for his wife. As with his work as a musician and producer, it's a serious affair ? but not without humour. For example, it's called mariobatalivoice, after the impression he does of the noted Italian-American chef when plonking his latest dish on the dinner table.

Recently interviewed about the blog by LA Weekly, Albini said he regarded American food shows as populated by "frathouse cocksuckers with gimmick hairdos", which is much the same way he felt about mainstream US rock in the 90s. It is all the more fitting that a producer so committed to fuss-free recording also appreciates our own Fergus Henderson's equally forthright, no-frills approach to cooking.

Albini's blog is the latest crossover between the worlds of food and indie rock, discussed by the Guardian's indie professor a few months ago. And there is even more where that came from. Foals kebyoard player Edwin Congreave has opted for the Alex Kapranos route, detailing the band's on-the-road eating habits via Tour Bar Blues. Congreave becomes particularly enthusiastic when the itinerary reaches the Mecca of indie foodies: Portland, Oregon. It's a place where you will find former Shins drummer Jesse Sandoval hawking Mexican meals from one of the many food trucks for which the city is famous.

We now live in a world where the drummer from Grizzly Bear makes his own pasta and indie musicians are as likely to be interviewed by excellent food website Eater as Spin magazine. And if you want to go to extremes, there's always "dishes inspired by indie-rock albums" of Eating the Beats. As for anyone thinking this is getting silly ? you'll be pleased to know that the satirical Portlandia is a step or three ahead of you.

As the indie professor pointed out, both worlds share an interest in "authenticity". Though I'd argue that, as with music, indie foodies sometimes prize dogma over more important ideas, such as deliciousness. An overpriced, poorly executed "artisan" meal purchased in Portland, Williamsburg, or even London's Dalston, being the equivalent of an album you download because it was rated 8.3 on Pitchfork but never play because, on reflection, it's rubbish.

It's also worth paying attention to David Chang, Pavement geek and Michelin-starred chef behind New York's Momofuku, who points out that one of these professions is more like a proper job than the other. Traits required for success in the food world ? Herculean work ethic, punctuality, discipline ? are not necessarily those celebrated in musicians. So it would be a bad idea to put the newly incarcerated Pete Doherty to work in the prison kitchen ...


guardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2011 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds

Source: http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/musicblog/2011/may/27/steve-albini-food-blog

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Simon: 'Cheryl's had it with me'

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Simon Cowell is reported to be worried that Cheryl Cole will never speak to him again after her humiliation over the US version of The X Factor.

The talent show supremo is claimed by The Sun to have sold a source: "She's had it with me."
The Sun's source said: "He was saying, 'She's had it with me. I've hurt her and she won't forgive me for this'.

"He is really worried that she won't speak to him ever again."

We told today how Cheryl has refused to return to the UK version of The X Factor, apparently leaving Cowell's calls unanswered.

And Cowell had to endure a ribbing from Geordie Britain's Got Talent host Dec Donnelly, who asked: "Can you understand my accent?"

The crowd at the audition for BGT are claimed to have booed him when he appeared - giving him a hard time over his treatment of Cheryl.

What do you think? Is Simon Cowell really the villain here? Comment below...

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Let's hope things don't get physical between Simon and Cheryl, we don't want another celeb fight on our hands...

 

 

Source: http://celebrity.aol.co.uk/2011/05/31/simon-cowell-cheryl-cole/

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Elizabeth Taylor's Long Time Crib Officially Listed


Last week Your Mama briefly mentioned that recently deceased Dame Elizabeth Taylor's long-time Los Angeles mansion?in a particularly posh section of Bel Air?had been hoisted on the market with an asking price of $8,600,000.

At that time an interweb listing for the approximately 7,000 square foot two-story ranch was not available. Now it is.

Listing information for the 1.27 acre estate reveals that the gated driveway sweeps past a guard house?manned by Israeli security personnel according to an article in the June 2011 issue of Vanity Fair?to a stone-paved motor court where, in one of the listing photos, the late Miz Taylor's big ol' Maybach can be see parked in front of the front-facing garage.

Inside the large but architecturally modest mansion violet-eyed Miz Taylor lived in cozy but billionaire-style splendor surrounded by antique Aubusson rugs, a lifetime of showbiz memorabilia and a blue chip art collection that includes works by impressionist mac-daddies like Van Gogh, Modigliani, Pissarro and Manet. Miz Taylor's family?a hodgepodge quartet of children from three of her seven husbands, 10 grandchildren and a handful of great-grandchildren?oft gathered for holidays and family events at the sprawling manse that includes a living room with fireplace and beamed ceiling, dining room, and additional sitting room, a galley-style country kitchen and home office converted from what was once a screening room.

There are two family bedrooms with garden access on the main floor, plus a master suite and staff quarters. The second floor has two more smaller family bedrooms plus Miz Taylor's private boo-dwar, comprised of bedroom with sitting area wrapped in lavender fabric, a private bathroom and an adjacent dressing room/beauty salon where Miz Taylor's devoted cadre of mostly gay minions would do her up pretty for her increasingly rare public appearances and occasional trips to gay watering holes like The Abbey in West Hollywood.

The perfectly groomed grounds and terraced gardens include a sparkly mosaic tile-lined swimming pool, small greenhouse for orchid cultivation, rose gardens, more gardens filled with gardenias, lilies of the valley and birds of paradise, a koi pod with waterfall and a secret bamboo jungle.

listing photos: Teles Properties

Source: http://realestalker.blogspot.com/2011/05/elizabeth-taylors-long-time-crib.html

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Readers recommend: songs about birthdays

Apparently, some bloke called Bob turned 70 this week. In honour, tell us your best songs about the passing of another year

I had considered asking for "Bob Dylan songs" this week because, as you may have noticed, it was the great man's birthday on Tuesday. But after Richard Williams beat me to it, I plumped instead for birthdays.

Birthdays are great when you're a kid. Even better than Christmas, in some ways. You get to be a year older! When you're actually old, less so. My great-grandmother lived until she was 103, which must have been interesting for her, but all her peers were long gone. So birthdays can be bittersweet.

What do songwriters make of it? Birthday parties provide work for plenty of musicians, but what about songs themselves?

Leave your suggestions below.

The toolbox:

* Listen to others' suggestions and add yours to a collaborative Spotify playlist.
* Previously on Readers Recommend.
* Guide to "donds", "zedded" and other strange words used by some of the RR regulars (courtesy of the Marconium).
* The Marconium (blog containing a wealth of data on RR, including the songs that are "zedded").
* The 'Spill (blog for the RR community).

Please do:

* Post your nominations before midday on Tuesday if you wish them to be considered.
* Write a few lines advocating the merits of your choices.

But please don't:

* Post more than one third of the lyrics of any song.
* Dump lists of nominations. If you must post more than two or three at once, please attempt to justify your choices.


guardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2011 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds

Source: http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/musicblog/2011/may/27/readers-recommend-birthday-songs

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Kafka's Monkey ? review

Young Vic, London

If Kathryn Hunter's performance as ape-turned-variety-performer Red Peter were merely physically impressive, it would be startling enough. From the moment she lopes on to the stage, every muscle works to convey a creature trapped between two states of being. Her eyebrows scrunch, her arms twist uncomfortably, her toes turn in. When she flexes her crooked fingers to shake hands with a member of the audience, the flickering movement is suggestive of flick knives and magic tricks. When she shuffles across the stage in gasp-inducing splits, it's clear she isn't built like you or I.

But Hunter is as agile intellectually as she is physically, her quick wits proving useful early in the show when the audience grow strangely obstreperous ? arguing audibly, mobile phones firing off ? allowing her to continue unfazed. Colin Teevan's crisp rendering of Kafka's short story A Report to an Academy, subtly layers comedy, satire and direct censure of human nature, and Hunter dances between them so nimbly that the audience is caught off-guard by the violence that emerges from the midst of laughter. Buried beneath the amusing burlesque of theatre life is an allegory of colonialism that is profoundly disturbing.

With every detail, Hunter's narration of Red Peter's capture, imprisonment and slow acquisition of humanity becomes a stronger indictment of our savagery, selfishness and careless disregard for the value of life. And her performance is rich with echoes of indictments past. Gazing at a sailor drinking rum, she is like Oliver Twist, helplessly innocent; garbling her way to language, she recalls Frankenstein's monster.

Behind Hunter is projected a large-scale photograph of an ape whose expression is eloquent with curiosity and compassion. In the silent moment when Hunter gazes at her face, you appreciate how much Red Peter has lost by assimilating with men.

Rating: 4/5


guardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2011 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds


Source: http://www.guardian.co.uk/stage/2011/may/31/kafka-monkey-young-vic-review

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Ellen Degeneres Confirms Rumors, Lists Beverly Hills Compound


SELLERS: Ellen Degeneres and Portia de Rossi-Degeneres
LOCATION: Beverly Hills, CA
PRICE: Rumored to be $49,000,000 and $60,000,000
SIZE: Big

YOUR MAMAS NOTES:

Way back in mid-February 2011 Your Mama relayed the brewing real estate rumor that comedienne and chat show tycoon Ellen Degeneres and her equestrian-minded wife Portia de Rossi-Degeneres wanted to unload the Beverly Hills, CA compound they spent years and many tens of millions putting together and customizing. In the summer of 2008 the a-list scissor sisters hitched their lesbian wagons in a small but perfectly orchestrated ceremony in the backyard of this here house.

By the end of April 2011, the whispers and rumors of Miz Degeneres's desire to unload her large estate in Bev Hills became deafening and just now, at the end of May, the property was semi-officially put on the open market. A listing does not (as of today) appear in the MLS or an any of the other real estate listing aggregators like Redfin and Trulia but one did pop up on the website of listing agent Kurt Rappaport of the illustrious Westside Estate Agency. That listing shows the price for Miz D's digs as "available upon request."

Several sources have shimmied (alleged) asking prices our way over the last few months but one particularly well-placed informant snitched and swears to Your Mama that the asking price(s) being bandied about Beverly Hills are $49,000,000 for the the main house?plus separate guest and staff quarters and extensive grounds?and $60,000,000 for the entire kit and caboodle that includes the main house?plus separate guest and staff quarters and extensive grounds?and the two additional houses on adjacent parcels that Miz Degeneres and Missus de Rossi-Degeneres also purchased to further secure and preserve their privacy.

The center piece of the compound, which she bought in early 2007 from Will & Grace co-creator Max Mutchnick for $29,000,000, includes an approximately 9,000 square foot main house with extensive outdoor living areas plus a detached guest house. Your Mama understands from several little birdies who have visited the property for one reason or another that the main house includes a kick-ass master suite with extensive dressing area and three more guest/family bedrooms each with en suite facility and private nudity-encouraging sunbathing terrace plus a kick-ass master suite.

The detached guest house has two en suite bedrooms plus living/dining and kitchen. Additional space under the swimming pool?yes, children, under the swimming pool?includes high-tech fitness/body torture chamber, a well-appointed one-bedroom staff suite and underground garage space for 8 or 10 of Miz Degeneres's many Porsches, as opposed to her lone Portia who, we imagine, parks in the house and not the garage. Access to the areas under the swimming pool are by way of an all but hidden staircase behind the all-wood pool cabana.

The following January (2008), the privacy-seeking pair paid Beverly Hills real estate �ber-agent Jade Mills $8,500,000 for an undistinguished house just across a cramped and shared driveway. Miz Mills owned buy did not occupy the premises. Soon after closing on Miz Mill's rental residence, Miz Degeneres got behind the wheel of a bulldozer herself and knocked the damn house down to make way for expanded grounds now done up like an honest-to-goodness private park with meandering pond and soothing canyon views.

In June of 2008 the property mad pair paid another $5,000,000 to purchase a third contiguous property, this one with a down-at-the-heels 1 bedroom and 3 bathroom house with canyon views. One month later they splashed out another $5,500,000 to acquire yet another adjacent property, this one a 4 bedroom and 4 bathroom house perched on a hillside at the back of the house. Apparently, we've been told, the residents had some sort of visual access to the property that irked Miz Degeneres and Missus de Rossi-Degeneres to the tune of five and a half million George Washingtons.

If Your Mama works the beads on our bejeweled abacus and add up all the many above-mentioned purchase prices we conclude that Miz Degeneres and her wife spent $48,000,000 (or thereabouts) to create their own private Idaho in the heart of Beverly Hills only to decide a few years later that they no longer want to live there. How y'all like them apples? Such, as we well know, are the fickle real estate ways of rich and famous folks.

The recent sale of high society matron Iris Cantor's La Belle Vie in Bel Air for forty million?in cash?and the rumored $35,000,000+ allegedly-soon-to-be-sale of Jennifer Aniston's Ohana?her contemporary mansion in Beverly Hills listed at $42,000,0000?surely have Miz Degeneres and Missus de Rossi-Degeneres salivating with real estate hope and desire. But, let's be honest, mon freres. The forty million clams Miz Cantor hoovered up is a long way from the 49 and 60 million Miz Degeneres is widely whispered to want for her super-luxe and carefully-crafted estate.

Although plagued by a famous and incurable case of The Real Estate Fickle, it must also soothe Miz Degeneres's nervous pocketbook to recognize that she has a fairly good and profitable track record of buying and selling high-priced and high-maintenance houses. She bought and sold several ranches in the Santa Ynez Valley at tidy profits and in early 2006 she paid $15,750,000 for an historic house in Montecito, CA that she turned around and sold in November 2007 to Google CEO Eric Schmidt for $20,000,000.

Anyone care to wager their real estate reputation on what amount the property might actually sell? Your Mama will attempt no such folly, but those of the children who might should know that according the Bev Hills real estate insiders the property has attracted a fair amount of attention amongst the sort of folks who can afford and might be willing to cough up considerable cookies for a substantial estate in one of the better zip codes in Los Angeles.

In addition to their maxi-posh but no-longer-wanted compound in Beverly Hills Miz Degeneres and Missus de Rossi-Degeneres also own a small apartment in Beverly Hills?acquired in late 2010 for $835,000, presumably for staff or family?and an extensive equestrian complex in the scenic boondocks outside Westlake Village, CA they snatched up in late 2009 for about ten million buckaroonies.

listing photos: Westside Estate Agency

Source: http://realestalker.blogspot.com/2011/05/ellen-degeneres-confirms-rumors-lists.html

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Are Dannii and Kris on the rocks?

Filed under:

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It's been a rough couple of weeks for Dannii Minogue - not only has she been ousted from quit The X Factor but now there are rumours that her relationship is on the rocks.

Dannii and boyfriend Kris Smith recently hinted that all was not well in a series of tweets and friends of the couple say they have been rowing of late.

Last week Dannii tweeted: "Never chase love. If it isn't given freely by another person, it's not worth having."

She later added: "Forgiving someone does not mean forgetting what they did. It simply means letting go of the hurt."

Meanwhile 32-year-old Kris only added to speculation that there's trouble in paradise, writing: "You don't know what you've got til it's gone."

Hmm... doesn't sound good, does it? Still, the pair later removed the tweets and moved on to discussing baby Ethan's first birthday plans.

But a friend of the couple told the News of the World that Dannii's "heavy workload" is at the root of their problems and that Kris has put pressure on her to spend more time at home.

A source told the paper: "Dannii is not happy about having to choose between work and family, and they have been arguing about this recently."

Happily, Kris just might get his wish because the friend added: "She has made a decision to put the relationship first by refusing to commute between Australia and Britain for The X Factor."

Much as we'll miss Dannii on this year's talent show, there are some things more important than reality TV.

What do you think? Was Dannii's decision to leave The X Factor the right one? Leave a comment below...

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We hope Kris and Dannii succeed where these celeb couples failed...

 

 

Source: http://celebrity.aol.co.uk/2011/05/29/dannii-minogue-marriage-troubles/

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Monday 30 May 2011

Why Adam Ant is not the first pop star who likes to be beside the seaside

Adam Ant's decision to tour Britain's coastal towns marks a welcome revival of a historic pop tradition

In June, Adam Ant will embark on a five-date tour of seaside towns ? and revive a long lost tradition in the process. As an astute observer of pop culture, the Antman must know that British coastal towns provide the quintessential homegrown music experience, what with the fading Victoriana and the licence for blustery fun and ? even better ? anarchy.

The big cities might think they're at the cutting edge, but it's the seaside where British pop first thrived ? from postwar gigs to seaside brawls between mods and rockers. The mix of showbiz, cheap pills and even cheaper thrills combined to forge an English pop vision far more vivid than that created by art schools.

Growing up in Blackpool, I felt cut off from the epicentre of pop action. But if I had been a teenager in the 60s I could have seen endless Beatles gigs, watched Jethro Tull, or witness Jimi Hendrix set fire to his guitar on stage (one of only two occasions this actually happened).

The 60s was the last decade that Blackpool could be considered the second city of showbiz; even Frank Sinatra would think nothing of playing there. A few decades earlier, George Formby, the UK's biggest homegrown star, would happily live in Blackpool and perform there for months on end. He even recorded songs about the place, such as the lascivious and censor-baffling Little Stick of Blackpool Rock.

Back then, seaside towns captivated the public imagination. The Beatles would dress up for pantomime pictures on the beach in Margate and play residencies in coastal townssuch as Bournemouth. It was a huge part of the pop conveyer belt and probably a cheap thrill in the days before LSD and touring America. The Beatles never left behind the inspiration of the seaside, though. Paul McCartney is believed to have thought up Magical Mystery Tour while looking at one of Blackpool's illumination trams.

Unfortunately, by the time the Specials fell apart on their own seaside tour, the tradition was dying along with the towns themselves. Perhaps they were too old fashioned for the amphetamine-driven cynicism of the era. Morrissey, of course, wrote one of his best songs, Everyday Is Like Sunday, about a visit to Borth in Wales.

Since then, Brighton has become a hip enclave and Blackpool has bravely soldiered on as a piss-up paradise. Elsewhere, other seaside towns have become fascinating curios ignored by the showbiz and entertainment culture that was once part of their DNA. Maybe Adam Ant's jaunt will revive this tradition and more artists will feel the need to be beside the seaside.


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Source: http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/musicblog/2011/may/30/adam-ant-british-seaside-gigs

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Dannii and Kris deny split rumours

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Dannii Minogue split rumoursPA

Dannii Minogue and boyfriend Kris Smith have denied rumours that their relationship is on the rocks.

Last week a series of tweets from the pair sparked speculation that they were about to part company and the tabloids were alive with rumours that Dannii's "heavy workload" was at the root of the couple's problems.

Meanwhile Aussie DJ and Dannii's fellow Australia's Got Talent judge, Kyle Sandilands, accidentally appeared to confirm the news on his breakfast show and was forced to backpedal sharpish.

But despite today's Mirror newspaper reporting that Kris and Dannii have agreed to a "trial split", the pair have denied there's any trouble in paradise.

According to the Sydney Morning Herald, the couple are happily living (together) in Melbourne and released a statement which read: "Thanks for your concern.

"We're happy to be back at home in Melbourne together as a family. We are committed to our relationship and Ethan as always."

We're pleased to hear it.

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Dannii and Kris may still be happy together but these celebrity couples have reached the end of the line...

 

 

Source: http://celebrity.aol.co.uk/2011/05/30/dannii-minogue-split-rumours/

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At Last! The 1981 Show ? review

Royal Festival Hall, London

When photographs of David Cameron's new kitchen were publicised last week, the eagle-eyed identified a Michael McIntyre DVD on the PM's shelves. But standup comedy wasn't always so cosy with the mainstream. At Last! The 1981 Show, curated by Stewart Lee as part of his Austerity Binge mini-festival, marks 30 years since the alternative comedy generation stuck a firework up the backside of British entertainment. This was comedy's punk moment, and tonight, a populous bill of ageing comics intermittently revived its iconoclastic thrill.

Youthful iconoclasm, of course, is hard to reanimate at three decades' distance. But neither are these comics inclined to reminisce and self-congratulate. So the show sometimes fell between stools, with several acts neither recalling nor recreating what first made them great. Nigel Planer, reprising his Young Ones hippy Neil, sings two ropey songs on acoustic guitar, but not his 1984 hit Hole in My Shoe. (Planer is funnier as his thespian alter ego, Nicholas Craig.) And co-host Alexei Sayle, when he is not sending up the show's celebratory agenda ("A lot has changed since I invented alternative comedy"), refuses to perform standup at all.

But, even as compere, Sayle's dissenting spirit is satisfyingly to the fore. He is not alone, either: Pauline Melville's Edie the Radical Housewife contributes some good old-fashioned Tory-bashing, and cabaret troupe the Greatest Show on Legs ? one of the show's anarchic high points ? perform their butt-naked balloon dance. Elsewhere on an eccentric bill (which has no place for Lee's bete noire Ben Elton), Andrew Bailey as Lenin rants about muesli and Kevin McAleer reaps minimalist deadpan comedy from a photograph of four owls.

Despite the show's refusal to get sentimental, nostalgia remains part of its appeal ? at least to those of us reared on The Young Ones and Saturday Live. They may generate more smiles than big laughs, but it is a pleasure to see acts such as the latterday vaudevillians The Oblivion Boys (Stephen Frost and Mark Arden) reunited, and Norman Lovett meander through a delightfully droopy 10 minutes of non-sequitur comedy. The finale sees Kazuko Hohki's art-pop collective Frank Chickens crowd the stage with dancing Japanese women and one tall Irishman. It is funny by dint of its chutzpah and sheer improbability. It is also unlikely ever to feature in the PM's DVD collection, which is entirely to its credit.

Rating: 3/5


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Source: http://www.guardian.co.uk/stage/2011/may/30/at-last-the-1981-show-review

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Amber Rose Tweets Off at ?Vibe? Magazine?s ?Untrue & Ridiculous? Story

Amber Rose is not a fan of a story printed in Vibe magazine ? particularly, her own interview for the cover story ? and she’s letting the magazine know it via Twitter. OK! GALLERY: KANYE WEST SHARES STEAMY SMOOCH WITH MYSTERY BLONDE ON BALCONY IN CANNES “Just read ‘my’ interview in @VibeMagazine half of the [...]

Source: http://www.okmagazine.com/2011/05/amber-rose-tweets-off-at-vibe-magazines-untrue-ridiculous-story/

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'I didn't want any wobbling': how to dance naked

What's it like to dance naked on stage? And how does it feel if the audience walk out? Seasoned nude performers talk to Judith Mackrell

When Sally Marie was told she had to strip off in the name of contemporary dance, she was happy to oblige ? in theory, anyway. The British dancer had been cast in Dear Body, a 2009 work by Luca Silvestrini that satirised the hard dieting, gym-bound madness of body beautiful obsessives. Marie approved of the work's politics, which she felt applied to her own profession, too. "I'd been arguing for ages that we needed a greater variety of bodies and ages in dance," says Marie, who readily admits to being a stone heavier and a decade older than most of the other dancers. "It felt like an important statement to be on stage showing my tits."

But in practice, when it came to getting naked, Marie was petrified. "When you're in a sauna, it feels completely natural. But on stage, you're really exposed." Ironically, by the time she came to perform Dear Body, she was much slimmer. "I'd been too frightened to eat."

Javier de Frutos, the Venezuelan-born choreo-grapher, understands her terror. In the 1990s, his own compact buttocks and bobbing penis became a familiar sight to audiences, in works such as the solo Gypsy and the trio Grass. Yet at first, De Frutos found crossing over into nudity traumatic. "When I was young, I was the guy at the gym who had to wait until the changing room was empty before I could take off my clothes." His mentor, the US dancer and choreo-grapher Sara Rudnor, persuaded him to change. "Sarah told me I needed to explore as many emotions as possible on stage. She told me to do what I feared most. For me, that was being naked."

De Frutos and Marie may feel some sympathy with the cast of Un Peu de Tendresse Bordel de Merde!, which arrives in Britain this week. A Little Tenderness for Crying Out Loud!, in its English translation, was created by Canadian choreographer Dave St-Pierre. It's a work exploring the fears and fantasies of 22 characters as they search for love in a brutal world. But it's also a work in which the dancers have to perform naked for much of the time; in fact, even more exposingly, they have to bring their nakedness right down into the auditorium, clambering over the stalls and fighting in the aisles ? with their breasts, genitals and buttocks in wobblingly close proximity to the audience.

What's the justification for such aggressive nudity? St-Pierre, who is fascinated by taboos and the breaking of them, is trying to create a raw physical intimacy between dancer and audience, and he wants to make us laugh, too. Michael Watts, one of his dancers, says most people find the naked scenes funny. But, he adds, "we're being very childlike ? we're behaving like six-year-old boys, and we get a lot of taps on the bottom from old ladies". They do occasionally encounter angry resistance, though. "One woman just hid her face completely," recalls Watts. "She put her jacket over her face. Another man got up and tried to run away. And a few dancers have got hit or pushed."

Choreographers may have many serious motives for nudity ? be they political, aesthetic or psychological ? but what some people find beautiful and expressive, others will inevitably find titillating or arousing, and others embarrassing or disgusting. What is certain, though, is that the issue of how much flesh a dancer shows has always been controversial. In 1725, when ballerina Marie Camargo shortened her skirts to ankle length to gain extra freedom of movement, there were many who went to the Paris Opera not to applaud her virtuosity but to catch a flash of calf or thigh. Camargo was credited with inventing an early form of knickers to preserve some modesty as she danced.

For Isadora Duncan, the American who began performing her radiant, radical dance recitals around 1900, the body was sacred. When she abandoned corsets, danced barefoot and occasionally let a bare breast spill out of her loosely draped tunic, Duncan wasn't simply serving the cause of dance, she was celebrating the human spirit. And her inspiration, as well as her notoriety, led to more dancers stripping off in the name of high art. Canadian Maud Allan became a superstar of Edwardian Britain thanks her near-naked Salom� routine, and Josephine Baker was dubbed the Ebony Venus when she danced in Paris wearing nothing but a belt of pink feathers or a tiny skirt of fake bananas.

When stage censorship laws were relaxed during the 1960s, however, even a coy veil could be dispensed with. The cast of musicals such as Oh! Calcutta! paraded their bodies with joy, while avant-garde choreographers began to explore the gamut of what nudity could signify. Yvonne Rainer, in 1970s New York, danced naked in front of a US flag to protest against the Vietnam war. And veteran British dancer Diana Payne-Myers developed an entire second career when choreo-graphers such as Lloyd Newson started to explore the potential of putting a much older, naked dancer on stage.

Since the late 1990s, Payne-Myers's tiny, wrinkled, supple form has evoked images of survival, defenselessness and even the joy of supposedly inappropriate elderly behaviour.

For De Frutos, as he explored the feelings of vulnerability created by dancing naked, other issues arose. He became fascinated by his audiences' natural voyeurism and by the ways he could deflect it. "I wanted to take their attention away from my genitalia to all the small muscles in the body, and show how eloquent they are. There is something irreplaceable about the sensual reality of skin, and the beauty of light falling on skin. I was always thinking how that could best be achieved."

Visually, De Frutos was inspired by none other than Caravaggio and El Greco. But in real life, the human body can be an unruly beast: it gets rashes and bruises, it's subject to weight gain, hairiness and menstrual cycles ? as well as other kinds of normally private activity. De Frutos swears he never worried about getting an erection on stage when performing with other nude dancers: "Dancing naked," he says, "is the least sexy thing I've ever done." And Sally Marie was convinced that all the men in Dear Body were "very anxious. During contact, everyone was trying to keep a distance between their pelvises. It was very funny. "

For Arthur Pita, the London-based choreographer of the pastoral comedy Camp, the issue was simply his own vanity. He hadn't expected to dance in Camp, but when he had to take over from an injured cast member he went straight into an intensive regime of "squats and press-ups" to prepare for his naked scene. "I really didn't want anything to be wobbling for the audience."

Pita envies the lack of self conscious-ness shown by Payne-Meyers, with whom he has worked. "She knows full well she is an 83-year-old woman, but she is completely committed to her art and completely unembarrassed. Her body is amazing to look at. It's only skin and bone and muscle, but it's very old skin and bone and muscle. I admire that healthy, honest approach; it's something all dancers should be inspired by."

Tendresse comes with a guidance rating of 18, and all its publicity contains warnings of "explicit adult material". What's more, Michael Watts is keen to point out that if anyone in the audience obviously hates what the dancers are doing, they won't get picked on. "We can usually tell how people are feeling," he says. "They won't actually have a hairy man in a wig clambering over them."

No photocalls: top tips for dancing naked

Sally Marie

Try to avoid being naked in a photocall. Otherwise you will find pictures of yourself all over the national press and the internet. And they never go away. At run-throughs, keep your T-shirt on. It's amazing how many extra "techs" show up when they think there may be some tits on show.

Javier de Frutos

You need to know the reason why you are dancing naked. And when you have found that reason, forget that you are dancing naked.

Arthur Pita

Do whatever you have to do ? work out, whatever ? so that you can actually enjoy the experience. And make sure you have a good lighting designer. It can make all the difference.


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Source: http://www.guardian.co.uk/stage/2011/may/30/dancing-naked-peu-tendresse-bordel

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Maybe Americans are just not that into Cheryl Cole | Lindy West

The notion that Cole's accent caused her to be dropped from the US X Factor overplays the importance Americans attach to regional speech

Hello, friends. It has been brought to my attention that something called "Cheryl Cole" has been dismissed from the American version of something called "The X Factor" and replaced with something called "Nicole Scherzinger". I gather that this dismissal is of interest to humans, because when my editor pitched this story to me he referred to it as the "Cheryl Cole situation" and assured me, rather conspiratorially, that he knew I would have "plenty to say." Moreover, it has been suggested, it was Cole's heavy northern accent that got her summarily kicked out of America forever ? and could I please comment on that? How do Americans feel about various regional British accents, and which vowel combinations should savvy Brits choose in order to avoid deportation in the future?

Well, do not fret. I can answer these questions, although I was not up to speed on Cherylgate, because I mostly just watch shows about animal attacks and paternity tests (my apologies). But I have since done extensive internet research on Cole's hair (puffy) and speech patterns (adorable). I have also done tens of minutes of deep American soul-searching on the topic of non-American accents. I am pleased to present my findings to you.

1. Americans love British accents. All of them. For confirmation, feel free to interview the underpants ? or as you so economically call them, "pants" ? of any British person who has ever visited the United States. That is, if you can find said pants, as they have most likely been stolen and chewed to bits in a fit of untamed American carnality. Seriously, my friend British Paul (we call him British Paul because he's British and his name is Paul) will not shut up about it. He has to buy new pants once a week. It's gross, actually.

2. Cole's accent is striking, but I doubt you could find many Americans who could articulate why. You might find a few, however, who think that she really doesn't do a very good British accent, and she ought take some lessons from Natalie Portman or Madonna. Sigh.

3. Most Americans have no idea that regional British accents exist. There's mainly just British (you) and not-British (us). Canadians exist too, but we do not speak of them. Honestly, we are not entirely sure that you are not Australian (and if you say the word "kangaroo" we're sunk). During college I studied abroad in Brighton, and it took me the entire term to figure out why everyone was making fun of the northern kids. The differences in speech just weren't noticeable to me. Not to mention the fact that you have specific accents for specific villages that are 20 feet apart, and the whole thing is a part of a broader symbolic language that has implications about class and history and values? Believe me, America has no grasp of any of that. Our number one favourite British person is Dick van Dyke. We can maybe tell the difference between the world's poshest duchess and the world's Cockney-ist chimney sweep, but that's about it.

4. What I'm trying to say is that maybe? just maybe? they fired Cheryl Cole because she is kind of? how to put this kindly? an idiot? An adorable idiot, definitely, but we have no shortage of those. That would be like Mexico importing tacos, or Russia importing vaguely menacing dudes in tracksuits. I'm sorry, Cheryl ? really, I am. I do think you're adorable. But on the upside: if they ever let you back into the country, you can definitely get laid here. Bring extra pants.


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Source: http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/cifamerica/2011/may/30/cheryl-cole-x-factor

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Tonight's TV highlights

Horrible Histories | Alexander Armstrong's Big Ask | Funny or Die Presents | Four in a Bed | Come Dine With Me | Egypt's Lost Cities | All Watched Over by Machines of Loving Grace

Horrible Histories
5.15pm, CBBC

A new series for the superb historical show, which romped off with the best sketch show prize at this year's British Comedy Awards. It's an educational Blackadder for kids, and wonderfully written for a grown-up show, never mind juveniles. It has also spawned a spin-off quiz show, Gory Games, presented by Dave Lamb and a puppet rat. He even keeps score with an abacus. No bleepy, flashy nonsense here. Just historical questions and Crystal Maze-style games. It would have enthralled 20 years ago and is all the better for it. Hooray. Julia Raeside

Alexander Armstrong's Big Ask
10pm, Dave

Quiz show producers looking to make cuts: why not do away with researchers altogether? Alexander Armstrong invites Robert Webb, Katy Brand and Griff Rhys Jones to not only answer some QI-style questions, but to come up with their own questions too. As Webb, grabbing the hand that feeds and munching it like a corncob, says: "We all know where we are. This channel isn't called David." If the pilot doesn't grab your attention, the tossed-together studio set might: a derangement of union flag coffee table and skyline glimpsed through American chatshow blinds. Ali Catterall

Funny Or Die Presents
10pm, Sky Atlantic

After a promising pilot, Funny or Die Presents hits its sophomore slump with an excruciatingly unfunny episode. The show's blend of frat pack ebullience and Adult Swim experimentation can be genuinely amusing when on song, but here it comes off as underdeveloped and inane. Again and again, the germ of a good sketch (a pair of sociopathic stiltwalkers, a bleep censor operator failing to keep up with a foul-mouthed family) takes a predictable turn or gets stretched out to tedious lengths. Disappointing. Gwilym Mumford

Four In A Bed; Come Dine With Me
5pm; 5.30pm, Channel 4

The best teatime comfort television comes the same way as the food equivalent: with a second helping. Come Dine With Me is back for another series of its original daily incarnation, and it's preceded by a new series of Four In A Bed, which kicks off with a particularly good episode, featuring Charlotte Church's parents and brilliant lines like "One thing they had at the Savoy was a bronze head of Hitler, but that was before he went really nasty." Caroline Corcoran

Egypt's Lost Cities
8.30pm, BBC1

Anyone with a layman's understanding of Egypt's archaeological treasures would assume that the most famous finds were made by Howard Carter and team. Space archaeologist Dr Sarah Parcak, however, is on a mission to prove how it's possible that only 1% of ancient Egypt's wonders have been discovered. Parcak uses satellites to probe beneath the sands to unearth lost cities, temples and pyramids. The tricky part? Heading to Egypt with a BBC crew for a hands-on expedition to see if she can dig out the evidence. Nosheen Iqbal

All Watched Over By Machines Of Loving Grace
9pm, BBC2

Adam Curtis is superb at dismantling the great myths of our time, as this series shows. Tonight, he examines the rise of the notion of the ecosystem and Jay Forrester's ideas of feedback loops, and exposes the crucial fallacy in the idea of self-sustaining machines. It turns out these are not viable alternatives to existing power structures, despite optimism about Twitter-organised revolutions and suchlike. Brilliant, closely argued stuff with excellent use of stock footage. David Stubbs


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Source: http://www.guardian.co.uk/tv-and-radio/2011/may/30/tonights-tv-highlights-horrible-histories

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Behind the music: Will record labels and streaming services ever agree?

Former BPI chariman Tony Wadsworth discusses the difficulties involved in securing streaming rights from major labels

In a recent report for Music Tank, Tony Wadsworth challenged the myth that record labels are dinosaurs. At the Great Escape conference in Brighton, the BPI chairman and former CEO of EMI made the case for labels, pointing out that they are now leaner, more diversified and still, by far, the biggest investors in new music.

"They haven't been displaced by other entrants," he says. "Many have tried and many have failed. Investing in artists is empty unless it comes bundled with skills. Live Nation, for example, [struck a $150m deal with Jay-Z] ? yet they didn't manage to establish a new business model." The managers Wadsworth spoke to said they appreciate the work a record-company team does, and that it gives them much more momentum and increases the likelihood of success.

Even Radiohead licensed their In Rainbows album, noted for its pay-what-you-like release, to a number of record labels around the world. Maybe this explains why, in a recent survey by ReverbNation, over 75% of independent artists (including 81% of hip-hop artists and 63% of alternative artists) still aspire to get signed to a record label. The survey also showed that major labels made up the top 10 on the wish lists for artists in every music category.

But how do record labels fare when it comes to licensing new music services? UK labels fare better than labels anywhere else in the world, as they've so far licensed 72 digital music services, according to the BPI. Yet a source involved in many digital music licensing negotiations complained of labels raising their rates in recent negotiations. He also asked what new music services have been launched in the UK in the past two years, apart from mflow. I put the question to Wadsworth. "You've put me on the spot there," he replied. "I'm sure there must have been [some]." He adds that his perception is that rates have actually declined. "I don't want to call [the source] a liar ? maybe it was just the deals he was involved in. There was a time when labels wanted equity in almost every service they licensed. That, I'm assured, has moved on and is less the case now. The labels know that it's in their interest to enable new services, and they do ? but without putting everything on the table and saying 'take what you want'."

A publisher recently told me they had a deal in place with Google's cloud service, which subsequently launched without licenses in place, but suggested that record labels posed a problem. "So what Google are saying is that everybody was fine apart from the people who own the recordings ? that they were being really awkward?" Wadsworth retorts. "What's the alternative [to putting up a fight]? Do you just say: 'Whatever you want to do is great, because you do no evil, we believe.' Nobody's telling me that Google can't afford to pay for music at the right rate, and I don't believe that the record labels are asking for an unreasonable rate from Google. What we can tell by the way it's often articulated by Google, and the way it's sometimes articulated by people in government who are close to Google, is that Google see licensing of creative content ? and I include books in that ? as being an inconvenience. So of course Google thinks the labels are being difficult. You can actually say the same, winding the clock back, about Napster ? they just didn't want to pay."

Wadsworth believes the reason negotiations for Virgin Media's proposed music service have stalled is not due to the amount of money the record labels asked for, but the anti-piracy measures the labels wanted the ISP to implement. This brings us to the Digital Economy Act (DEA). "A lot of people in our industry have been saying that the DEA is a lame duck, and I wish they wouldn't. That's one of the reasons I did this report, because a lot of people are talking our industry down."

Among the people "talking the music industry down" and criticising the DEA are Featured Artist Coalition members Billy Bragg and Radiohead's Ed O'Brien (though, after a meeting at Air studios in 2009, the coalition voted to support what was then the Digital Economy Bill, with the added provision that consumers who were proven to repeatedly download illegally would have their internet connection temporarily throttled instead of temporarily suspended). Wadsworth calls them selfish. "These are people who are right in the glory days of their careers, where they have all the cream. They obviously seem unwilling to share it with anybody. It's wrong. They should be thinking about younger artists and writers. Where do writers stand in all this? They aren't selling T-shirts, are they? These people need to grow up a little bit, because it's not standing up and showing leadership ? it's playing to the gallery, still. If you call an organisation a coalition, you can be strong enough to not have to play to the gallery."


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Source: http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/musicblog/2011/may/27/record-labels-streaming-services-google

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