As jury deliberations continue in Santa Maria on the fate of Michael Jackson, the erstwhile King of Pop, who if convicted on any of the ten felony counts against him would likely end up eating lunch with Charles Manson and Juan Corona in the Protective Housing Unit of California’s Corcoran …

Three films highlighting African-American cinema between 1929 and 1954 will be screened by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences on June 17 and 18 at the William G. McGowan Theater at the National Archives in Washington, DC. Presented in conjunction with the Academy’s touring exhibition “Close Up in …

Rush guitarist Alex Lifeson (Zivojinovich), his son Justin, and daughter-in-law Michelle are seeking unspecified monetary damages in a federal suit against the Naples, Florida Ritz-Carlton, its security director and three sheriff’s deputies for injuries, pain and suffering, mental anguish and the costs of his defence in the criminal case that …

Simon “Si” Waronker, the patriarch of the famous musical Waronker clan — son Lenny (producer, pres of Warner and DreamWorks Records), granddaughter Anna (that dog, co-founder Five Foot Two Records), grandson Steve Berman (head of sales & marketing at Interscope/Geffen/A&M) — died in his sleep Tuesday in Los Angeles at …

Shrugging off concerns that Tom Cruise is a deranged Scientologist whose proclamations of cataclysmic love for young Katie Holmes on Oprah and elsewhere were either unhinged or improbable, new Paramount Pictures Chairman and CEO Brad Grey announced yesterday that Mission: Impossible 3, starring the aforementioned toothy star and Ving Rhames, …

It wasn’t National Treasure, but a stunning moment nonetheless for Michael Maul, a researcher with the Leipzig Bach Archive, when he found a completely unknown composition by Johann Sebastian Bach in a crate full of birthday greetings to a German duke at the Anna Amalia Library in Weimar, Germany last …

Fresh on the heels of Carl’s Jr.’s latest TV ad campaign featuring a soaped-up, hamburger-loving Paris Hilton (ad here), HUM Recordings today announced plans to release a full-length version of the song accompanying the ad, Cole Porter’s classic “I Love Paris” as sung by indie rocker Eleni Mandell. The song …

Update on “Xingolati, (pronounced Zîng-gō-läh-ti) – Groove Cruise of the Pacific,” headlined by the tuneful and mysterious Flaming Lips, fresh off their piratical SpongeBob soundtrack appearance. In addition to performing live on the boat in one of their few scheduled performances for the year, the Flaming Lips will screen their …

Clearing up some misconceptions with rather convincing facts, figures and finality, Wammo, of Austin’s Asylum Street Spankers, says Cowboy Troy is a hick-hopper come lately: “Some media publications are claiming that the artist Cowboy Troy has invented a new genre of music infusing rap and country called “hick hop.” That …

The Chinese government Ministry of Information Industry (MII) has announced that all websites — including blogs, forums and chat rooms — located within its borders have to register with the government by June 30 or be shut down. Commercial sites face fines of up to one million yuan ($120,000) if …