UK tabloid News of the World discovers plot against “Posh Spice” Victoria Beckham: Police arrested five people Saturday for allegedly plotting to kidnap Spice Girl Victoria Beckham, Scotland Yard said. Police said officers had arrested four men and one woman they believed were part of the conspiracy to kidnap Beckham …

A defense witness appeared to have ulterior motives, but a video tape reputed to show Winona Ryder cutting sensor tags off merchandise never materialized in Friday’s testimony: “I don’t think so, I feel pretty good where we’re at right now,” defense attorney Mark Geragos said when asked if he planned …

Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly of Federal District Court in Washington handed Microsoft a virtual victory: a federal judge yesterday approved the company’s antitrust settlement with the Justice Department and rejected virtually all of the stiffer sanctions sought by a coalition of state attorneys general. The ruling brought at least a temporary …

Alan Jackson favored for Entertainer of the Year: The 36th Annual CMA Awards show will be televised Nov. 6 from the Grand Ole Opry. Hosting will be Vince Gill, who is the all-time leading CMA award winner with 18 trophies. When Alan Jackson, the lanky pride of Newnan, Georgia, first …

New documentary on the big smelly guy on Discovery in January: For decades, a small but loyal legion of Bigfoot hunters has spent countless weekends prowling forests in nearly every state, piling up evidence such as alleged footprints and hair samples that now has a handful of animal experts willing …

Frank Rich profiles Eminem in some great detail in this Sunday’s NY Times Magazine: Flashback: It is the year 2000, and Public Cultural Enemy No. 1 is a rapper named Eminem (aka Marshall Mathers III), who has ascended from America’s closest approximation of hell (aka his hometown, Detroit). His abundant …

Old habits die hard: Russian deputies on Friday approved tough new media curbs during “anti-terrorist” operations, giving authorities greater control over coverage of crises such as last week’s Moscow theater siege. The measures, brought to the State Duma lower house of parliament long before last week’s mass hostage-taking by Chechen …

Those of you who are regular readers know I have not courted (political) controversy on this site, especially compared with my writing on my old site. But if the fight comes to me, I’ll certainly never turn the other cheek. I’m the other kind of Christian. In a post on …

The production players are the same: Fox, Simon Fuller’s 19 Entertainment, the Idol format; but this time I may actually have some interest in actually seeing the performers, who already have some cultural heft to throw around: Fox Broadcasting Co. and Simon Fuller’s 19 Entertainment are working on a variation …

A software engineer says weak copyright will destroy fair use: A debate has gathered over the importance of copyright protection in developing nations. That debate was recently stoked by the Commission on Intellectual Property Rights (CIPR), a UK organization which concentrates on the integration of intellectual property rights into development …