Avril Lavigne's "Sk8er Boi" was named Favorite Song at Nickelodeon's Kid's Choice Awards on Saturday in Santa Monica, California. B2K (Favorite Music Group), No Doubt (Favorite Band), Ashanti (Favorite Female Singer) and Nelly (Favorite Male Singer) won the other music prizes, while Adam Sandler was the only multiple winner, for Favorite Movie Actor and Favorite Voice from an Animated Movie. ...

Fans who want to get the inside track on Mariah Carey can now join her Internet-based fan club Honey B. Fly. For $35 a year ($45 overseas), members will receive access to pre-sale concert tickets, music and video exclusives, a faux-autographed photo and T-shirt, and an exclusive membership card that can be flashed for special access to retail and concert events. ... R. Kelly appeared in a Chicago court on Monday (April 14) to ask permission to leave the jurisdiction to shoot his next video. The R&B singer -- free on bond since being indicted on child pornography charges last June -- has to get the court's consent to leave the state of Illinois. Permission was granted for Kelly to go to Barstow, California, for 12 days for the shoot, but the judge increased his bond by $250,000. Meanwhile, the prosecution finally finished discovery. Kelly is due back in court May 29. ...

Lightning may not strike twice in nature, but it does in hip-hop. Four years after going platinum with a guest appearance on Mobb Deep's street anthem "Quiet Storm (remix)," Lil' Kim has recruited the Queensbridge duo for the newly recorded remix of her current hit, "The Jump Off." ... Hip-hop trailblazers will come out to perform and celebrate the birthday for Cold Crush Brothers member Grandmaster Caz on April 19 at Amazura in the Jamaica section of Queens, New York. Big Daddy Kane, Doug E. Fresh and Kurtis Blow have been advertised as performers, with DJ Kool Herc, Grand Wizard Theodore and Raheim of the Furious Five as special guests at the event being called the Old School Jumpoff. Roxanne Shanté has been tapped to host. ...

Eminem's "Lose Yourself" won Oustanding National Single on Friday at the annual Detroit Music Awards. The Grammy-winning soundtrack to "Standing in the Shadows of Motown," the documentary about the Funk Brothers, won Outstanding National Album, while local singer/songwriter Liz Larin took home trophies in six of the 10 categories in which she was nominated. ... Publishing company Minder Music Ltd., which claims to hold the copyright to a song sampled in "Let's Get High," hasn't forgotten about Dre or his cohort Eminem. Originally filed in July 2000, the complaint requesting damages in excess of $3.5 million was amended last week. The suit alleges that "Let's Get High," from Dr. Dre's 1999 LP 2001, illegally culls from the 1980 song called "Backstrokin'." Attorneys for both sides will have a chance to respond to the newly amended complaint before a court date is set. ...

A spokesperson for the Broadway musical "Aida" says that it is Toni Braxton and not Destiny Child's Michelle Williams who is going to be the next actress to play the lead role. Braxton starts a four-month run on June 30. The play's rep says that Williams has expressed interest, but that there have been no negotiations as of yet for her to be a part of the production. ... Veteran punk band MxPx are releasing their 11th album, tentatively titled Before Everything and After. Dave Jerden (Alice in Chains, the Offspring) produced the record, due June 24. ...

Superjoint Ritual, the side project of Pantera frontman Philip Anselmo, will release the follow-up to their debut album, Use Once and Destroy, in July. The band launches a tour on April 30 in Austin, Texas, which runs through May 24 in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. ... The Japan extravaganza Summer Sonic Festival, happening August 2 and 3 in Tokyo and Osaka, Japan, will feature a wide variety of alternative and rock acts including Blink-182, the Strokes, Radiohead, the Jon Spencer Blues Explosion, Puddle of Mudd, Blur, New Found Glory and Travis. The bill also includes classic rock acts like the Doors, Cheap Trick and Blondie. ...

Lou Reed's latest project on Edgar Allan Poe started as a play before being released as a double CD. So it was inevitable that The Raven would make it back to the stage this summer. Reed will kick off a tour with two New York shows April 21 and 22, then hit Europe before returning Stateside June 4 in Vienna, Virginia. Dates run through June 29 in Seattle. ... The man accused of selling tickets to a phony Björk show in San Diego claimed he was guilty of no such thing in court Wednesday. Alex Conate denied charges of grand theft for allegedly selling $14,000 worth of tickets to a January 15 concert that was never booked. After collecting money from the roughly 350 tickets sold, the 25-year-old man took off for Hawaii, where he was arrested. ...

Icelandic oddities Sigur Rós are planning to release the soundtrack to "Hlemmur," the documentary film they sold on their last U.S. tour, though it's unknown whether the LP will be available domestically or exclusively as an import. Hlemmur is the second soundtrack for Sigur Rós, following 2000's collaboration with Hilmar Orn Hilmarsson, "Englar Alheimsins (Angeles of the Universe)." The band is planning to return Stateside in October for a collaboration with Radiohead. ...

04.11.03

Sean "P. Diddy" Combs has been tapped to star as Robert Johnson in "Love in Vain," an HBO Films biopic based on the life of the blues legend, according to The Hollywood Reporter. The film, which will start production in the fall, will feature Diddy in his most prominent role yet; he made smaller contributions to "Monster's Ball" and "Made." ...

Incubus and Sony Music have a reason to feel "stellar" -- the band has settled a lawsuit with its record label for a reported $8 million, according to the Los Angeles Times. The group had sued the company on February 6 for not releasing them from their recording contract. A week later, Sony filed a countersuit to keep the band with the company for another four records. ...

Judge Vincent Gaughan granted a continuance in the case against R. Kelly, who was scheduled to appear in court Friday (April 11). Due to a scheduling conflict, the hearing will now take place on Monday, at which point the prosecution is expected to finish with discovery. ... Hip-hop's Queen Bee is giving a sting to the animated sci-fi flick "Those Who Walk in Darkness," which was spawned from an animated Web series of the same name. Lil' Kim, who also lent her voice to the upcoming animated comedy "Lil' Pimp," plays a cop named Soleda who battles superhuman villains sometime in Los Angeles' distant future. ...

Tommy Lee's wrongful death trial took a break on Thursday so that the rocker could appear in a Malibu court for a probation progress report related to his 1998 conviction on charges of attacking then-wife Pamela Anderson. The rocker has completed half of his court-ordered community service but was trying to get credit for attending charity benefits. ... Also in Wednesday's testimony in the wrongful death trial in Santa Monica, California, a detective called to the stand dismissed claims by the drowned boy's parents that the party had been alcohol-fueled. Judge Richard Neidorf hasn't ruled if Anderson would be allowed to testify for the plaintiffs. If she did, it's likely to be next week. ...

According to the bankruptcy court filing, Britney Spears' failed New York restaurant Nyla owes money to more than two dozen creditors, to the tune of nearly $400,000. ... Blackstreet will perform on April 19 in Petersburg, Virginia, at the Fort Lee Army base for an expected audience of 9,000 soldiers and their family members. This free concert will be the R&B quartet's first Stateside performance to promote their latest album, Level II. ...

When faced with an alien invasion, who would you rather have on your side: a couple buddies from the local Starbucks, or a few of Staten Island's finest hip-hop street soldiers? Well, if you ask the Hollywood folks behind the upcoming movie "Scary Movie 3," the answer is a resounding "Shaolin!" Yes, according to a Wu-Tang Clan source, the third installment of the popular horror comedy is likely to include a scene in which Method Man, RZA, Ghostface Killah and Raekwon battle extraterrestrial invaders in a parody of the Mel Gibson film "Signs." ...

Singer Eva Narcissus Boyd, better known as Little Eva, died on Thursday at age 59 after a long battle with cervical cancer, according to Reuters. She is best known for performing the song "Loco-motion," which became a #1 hit in 1962. ... 311 have set a July 22 release date for their seventh studio album, Evolver. Ron Saint Germain (Creed, Soundgarden) is producing the LP, which will include such new tracks as "Creatures for a While," "Seems Uncertain," "Beyond the Gray Sky" and "Crack the Code," along with enhanced footage of interviews and a mini-documentary on the making of the album cover. 311 will promote the release with a U.S. tour kicking off July 15. ...

Blues Traveler's John Popper was popped Sunday with possession of marijuana in Sweetwater, Texas. He was released on bond the following day and charged with a misdemeanor for holding less than two ounces. ... To celebrate its 30th anniversary, Virgin Records will re-release David Bowie's Aladdin Sane, the classic LP that features "The Jean Genie" and "Watch That Man," on June 24. The expanded, digitally remastered reissue of the 1973 LP, Bowie's final studio recording with his group the Spiders From Mars, will include an additional CD of bonus tracks, new photos and expanded liner notes. ...

Long Island rockers Glassjaw had to cancel their current European tour due to singer Daryl Palumbo's ongoing battle with Crohn's Disease. No rescheduled dates have been announced. ... The Presidents of the United States of America are recording a new album, their first in two-and-a-half years, at the same studio where their breakthrough eponymous debut was tracked. Speaking of which, the LP that featured the hits "Lump" and "Peaches" will be reissued this summer. ...