Three more stars join DiCaprio film & other: June 2008

Kerry Katona Blasts Amy Winehouse's "Scummy" Husband

Kerry Katona has launched a scathing attack on Amy Winehouse's husband for filming the troubled singer while she was high on drugs.

A video of the Rehab hitmaker singing racist chants was recently posted on the internet. It was filmed by Blake -- even though he promises Amy that the camera isn't on.

Former Atomic Kitten star Kerry, 27, says she's disgusted that Blake -- who's currently locked up in London's Pentonville prison on assault and conspiracy charges -- took advantage of the star's confused state.

"Amy Winehouse�s racist chant was shocking," Kerry says.

"But what is more shocking is that rat of a disgusting husband of hers!

"She shouldn't have sung that song but her scummy husband was filming it after he swore on her life that he wasn't."

Amy, 24, was admitted into a private clinic in Marylebone, London on Monday (16Jun08) after she collapsed in her home in the British capital. She is undergoing treatment and doctors will soon decide whether she is fit to honor her upcoming performance commitments - including an appearance at legendary British music festival Glastonbury at the end of the month.

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Strike-vote question looms for Hollywood actors

LOS ANGELES (Hollywood Reporter) - As the Screen Actors Guild inches closer to the June 30 expiration date of its TV/film contract, two questions come to the fore.

Will SAG extend the contract, enabling its members to keep working while negotiators keep bargaining?

And, will the guild ask its members to vote to authorize a strike -- assuming they can't reach a deal in the next two weeks with the studios and networks?

The answers are not so clear.

The decision on whether to call for a strike-authorization vote is up to SAG's 13-member negotiating committee, which consists of members from Hollywood, New York and other regions; the Hollywood members have a clear the majority.

The strike-authorization voting process would likely take at least two weeks, as it did in 2007 for the Writers Guild of America. In that case, the WGA sent strike-authorization materials to members at the beginning of October, with ballots due October 18. The results of the vote were announced October 20.

The WGA rank-and-file was unified on the strike front, but that does not appear to be the case with SAG. Many industry insiders believe it would be a risky move for the guild to take a vote because it would be next to impossible to get the 75 percent strike authorization vote it needs. Members' reluctance to vote for a strike is in part a reaction to the financial toll of the three-month writers' strike, which ended in February. Other factors are Hollywood's overall weariness with labor strife and the divisiveness within SAG's ranks, which surfaced after its leadership urged members of its fellow actors' union, the American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (AFTRA), to reject their tentative agreement.

If SAG were to vote to give its leadership the go-ahead to call a walkout, it could give its negotiators more leverage with the AMPTP. Conversely, the failure of a strike vote would tip the scales in the other direction.

Mike and Rich

Artist: Mike and Rich

   Genre(s):
Electronic
   Electronic

Discography:

Expert Knob Twiddlers

Year: 1996
Tracks: 10

Mickey Hart Band drums up US tour

Grateful Dead drummer/percussionist Mickey Hart [ tickets ] has plans to take his band out for a 20-city spin this summer.The musicians will start early next month with festival performances in Santa Rosa, CA, and Lawrence, KS, and then move into July, when they'll play a host of US theaters and festivals across the East Coast and Midwest. Details are listed below.The Mickey Hart Band features guitarist Steve Kimock, bassist George Porter Jr., vocalist Jen Durkin, drummer Walfredo Reyes Jr. and talking-drum master Sikiru Adepoju. On the road, the group will perform the Robert Hunter-penned songs debuted by the Rhythm Devils in 2006--including "Fountains of Wood," "The Center" and "Your House"--in addition to Grateful Dead staples such as "New Speedway Boogie" and "Fire on The Mountain," according to a press release.The outing comes just as the Rhythm Devils, co-founded by Hart and fellow Grateful Dead drummer Bill Kreutzmann, are getting ready to drop a two-disc DVD collection, "Rhythm Devils Concert Experience." The set was filmed in Chicago during the band's 2006 tour and includes interviews and behind-the-scenes footage.Last year, Hart reunited with Adepoju, Indian tabla virtuoso Zakir Hussain and conga player Giovanni Hidalgo to record "Global Drum Project," a follow-up to 1991's "Planet Drum," which won the first-ever Grammy for Best World Music Album. Other performers on the October release include Taufiq Qureshi (percussion/vocals), Niladari Kumar (sitar) and Dilshad Khan (sarangi). Sampled vocals are provided by the late West African percussionist Olatunji, who also played on "Planet Drum."In March and April, the Shout! Factory label reissued a series of titles from Hart's catalog, including "Planet Drum," "At The Edge," "Diga Rhythm Band," "Superlingua" and "Mystery Box." The albums are also available as digital downloads for the first time.

Meryl Streep - Streep Adopts Dancing Queen As Her Song

MERYL STREEP has found a new personal anthem after starring in ABBA movie musical MAMMA MIA!

The actress insists the 1970s supergroup's Dancing Queen is one of the best tunes ever written, and now she sings it whenever she's feeling low.

She says, "It's like the iconic, great song. It's just impossible to maintain your gloom when you hear it."

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Fallen Angels

Artist: Fallen Angels

   Genre(s):
Drum & Bass

Discography:

R:IQ (R:IQ004)

Year: 2005
Tracks: 2

Britney Spears - Changes Made To Spearsfederline Custody Agreement

LATEST: BRITNEY SPEARS has been given permission to spend the night with her two sons, after a new custody hearing in Los Angeles.

Spears and ex-husband Kevin Federline returned to court on Tuesday (24Jun08) to review the custody status of Sean Preston, two, and one year old Jayden James.

The singer was previously only allowed three monitored visits with the children per week, after she was committed to a psychiatric facility to treat an alleged bi-polar disorder. These did not include overnight visitation.

Superior Court spokesman Allan Parachini admits the three-hour closed-court hearing went well for Spears.

No details of the changes have been released, but TMZ.com claims Spears has been awarded overnight visitation rights.

Parachini says, "There was a change in (Spears's) visitation status that was ordered.

"Britney's demeanour in court was businesslike. I think anyjudge is pleased to see progress being made by parties in a case."

The next hearing is set for 15 July (08).

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Sharon Osbourne - Osbourne Hits Out At Reality Tv Phenomenon

Rock matriarch SHARON OSBOURNE has slammed America's obsession with reality TV - insisting the new wave of shows are "train wrecks".

The former reality TV star is convinced television has taken a turn for the worse, despite her ongoing role as judge on hit U.S. series America's Got Talent - claiming newer shows have become havens for talentless celebrities.

Osbourne - who became a household name after appearing in MTV's The Osbournes - says, "They are all train wrecks. All it is now is a lot of lower-rung celebrities that they've turned into bad actors. None of it is real."

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B. Ashra

Artist: B. Ashra

   Genre(s):
New Age

Discography:

Atomic World

Year: 2002
Tracks: 12

Label to STP: We've Got You by the Stones

Scott Weiland wants out of his contract with Atlantic Records, but the label's telling the STP frontman not so fast.

Atlantic Records is suing Weiland and STP drummer Eric Kretz in Manhattan District Court, claiming that the pair have tried to put a contractual gun to their heads, threatening to walk out of their contract unless the label makes changes to it. Atlantic says that they're owed at least one more album, and have an option for two more.

Weiland, who just spent ten hours in jail for DUI last month, and Kretz didn't have any immediate comment. The Pilots got back together last month for their first national tour in eight years.

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Guadalajara to host VMAs Latin America

Ceremony will be 15th in the region

MEXICO CITY -- MTV has selected Guadalajara, Mexico's mariachi and tequila capital, to host the seventh edition of the Video Music Awards Latin America.
The awards ceremony, which commemorates MTV's 15th anniversary in the region, will take place Oct. 16 at the Telmex Auditorium. It will air live on MTV Latin America and MTV Tres in the U.S.
Talent and nominees will be announced later.

Arcane Device

Artist: Arcane Device

   Genre(s):
Industrial

Discography:

Also Sprach Zarathustra

Year: 2000
Tracks: 1

Calling himself Arcane Device later his recorded experiments became popular enough to warrant a cite, David Myers' exploration into manipulated feedback resulted in several album and cassette-only releases get-go in 1987 and close in 1994, when he felt the experimentation had run its course.

Myers came of age during the era of the Beatles and formed a rock and roll grouping like hundreds of other teenagers during that prison term. However, Myers establish himself drawn more than toward the feedback possibilities of rock medicine and the various personal effects boxes associated with electronic music (in the purest sense of the term). After later being influenced by Robert Fripp's Frippertronics and Brian Eno's ambient medicine, he eventually came circle to construction a system that would produce feedback to be manipulated by legion dials, knobs, and buttons, all Frankensteined unitedly from respective personal effects boxes and reshaped. The results sound zippo like feedback as we have come to know it -- depending on Myers' treatments, the sounds produced feel like synthesizers, calendar method of birth control boxes, industrial randomness, and ambient drones.

In 1987, Myers sent a magnetic tape of his number one experiments to Chris Cutler, late penis of Henry Cow and legion other medicine projects, and head of Recommended Records, wHO so put stunned the tape as 1988's Engines of Myth. Myers spent the next septenary geezerhood zippy from apart label to unknown label, though Staalplaat now takes care of the CD reissues as does Myers' have homegrown label Pulsewidth. AD's sound evolved and shifted, from near-unbearable noise (1992's Diabolis Ex Machina) to ambient (1994's Envoi in Cumin), though never in a running fashion. Myers did non keep his Arcane Device projects studio-bound -- the unpredictable nature of the electronics in his apparatus light-emitting diode to several live appearances and improvisations. Myers' besides collaborated with other experimental artists, including PGR on 1990's Juju (more a shared CD than a coaction) and Asmus Tietchens (1993's DBL_FDBK and 1996's Speiseleitung). In 1994 Myers took a break from recording, only returned in 1998 with several new projects under his own distinguish.

Labor Day Music Fest, Revelation Generation, Partners With Pillar of Fire Ministries and Top NJ Radio Station, Star99, to Aid in Promotion Efforts

Serrat y Sabina

Artist: Serrat y Sabina

   Genre(s):
Other

Discography:

Dos pajaros de un tiro (cd1)

Year: 2007
Tracks: 14

Ledger styled The Joker on Johnny Rotten

Zalex

Artist: Zalex

   Genre(s):
Indie

Discography:

Hope Of Unknown

Year: 2000
Tracks: 12

Harry Potter - Grint Attends Murdered Co-stars Funeral

HARRY POTTER star RUPERT GRINT was among the mourners at the funeral of his murdered co-star ROBERT KNOX at an emotional service in England on Wednesday (25Jun08).

Grint, who plays Potter's sidekick Ron Weasley in the wizard franchise, paid his respects to the aspiring actor who died from multiple stab wounds following an altercation in Kent, England last month (May08).

Knox appears as Marcus Belby in the forthcoming film Harry Potter And The Half-Blood Prince, and "looked up to" the Harry Potter stars, according to his father John Knox.

The service was attended by hundreds of friends and family in the Knox's hometown of Sidcup, where the murder took place.

Actor Daniel Radcliffe was unable to attend the service due to work commitments in the U.S.

A man has been charged with Knox's murder.

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Mark Wahlberg - Wahlbergs Daughter Not Happy With Another Brother

Actor MARK WAHLBERG and his longtime girlfriend RHEA DURHAM are delighted they are expecting a baby boy - but the couple's four-year-old daughter is not so impressed.

Durham is due to give birth this autumn (08) to the couple's third child and they have just found out the sex of the unborn tot.

But Wahlberg admits not everyone in their household is happy at the news - because young Ella wanted a baby sister to dress up.

He tells Usmagazine.com, "My daughter was extremely disappointed when she found out that we were having a boy - she wanted a little sister.

"She already had all these plans of dressing a little sister up in clothes. But I told her, 'Honey, that means you'll be more spoiled than the boys.' She goes, 'Oh, daddy, I didn't think of that!'"

Wahlberg and Durham also have a two-year-old son together, named Michael.

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