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For The Record: Quick News On Beyonce, Game, Kristin Cavallari, Lil Jon, Green Day, Snoop Dogg & More

Beyonce wants second LP out this summer; Game sets release date for LP; Cavallari's show on hiatus.

Beyoncé -- who worked on Destiny's Child's last album while shooting "The Pink Panther" -- says she won't be pulling double duty with "Dreamgirls." "I've put mostly everything aside," she said. "Usually I'm writing an album and performing and touring and doing all these crazy things at the same time, and for the first time I've committed six whole months [to do nothing but the movie]. It's very scary, because performing, singing and writing, that's my comfort zone, so I had to have confidence in myself with the acting and tell myself, 'I know I can do this.' " Beyoncé plans to start her second solo album after the movie and release it this summer, "which means I have six weeks to record, but I've done that just about every album," so it shouldn't be a problem meeting the deadline, she said ...

Game's sophomore LP, The Dr.'s Advocate, will drop June 6, according to the rapper's camp. Dre, Kanye West, Just Blaze, Scott Storch and Timbaland are said to have beats on the LP. ... The party appears to be over: Kristin Cavallari's new show "Get This Party Started" has gone on hiatus after only two episodes. A UPN spokesperson said the show, which debuted February 7, will return, but no date has been set. Cavallari's acting debut has also been bumped -- her guest-star stint on "Veronica Mars," scheduled to air February 15, has been delayed until March 15. ... Lil Jon, currently touring in Australia with 50 Cent, is nearly finished with his fourth album, Crunk Rock, which will feature E-40 on the first single, "Snap Yo Fingers." Jon will release the record later this year on TVT Records after settling a royalties dispute with the label. "TVT cut the check and now it's time for me to get back to work," the rapper said in a statement. Jon is also producing for two new TVT acts, rapper Chyna Whyte and R&B singer Oobie. ... Green Day will be among the recipients of the San Francisco chapter of the Recording Academy Honors Award, celebrating those who have "improved the environment for the creative community." Jazz artists George Duke and Dave Brubeck are also being honored at the gala, to be held March 19 at Westin St. Francis.

Snoop Dogg tackled pee-wee football, and now he's got another league of his own. The hip-hop superstar will serve as the commissioner for the recently announced Hip-Hop Gaming League, which will have top athletes and musicians including NBA forward Carmelo Anthony, NFL wide receiver Chad Johnson, Method Man and Paul Wall battling it out on the Xbox 360. ... The Killers are being sued by their former manager Braden Merrick for $16 million for breach of contract. The lawsuit -- which also includes the band's current manager Robert Reynolds, who Merrick claims "intentionally interfered with the contractual relations" between him and the band -- was filed late Tuesday in the band's hometown of Las Vegas. According to court papers, Merrick -- who discovered the rock quartet in 2002 and "guided them to stardom," he claims -- says he was kicked to "the nose-bleed seats" by the Killers as soon as they put out their debut LP, Hot Fuss. Merrick says the Killers' 2003 contract labeled him as the band's sole personal manager, but that agreement was terminated by the band (through Reynolds) in May 2005. ... Shakira and Daddy Yankee will heat up the stage for the 18th annual Premio Lo Nuestro awards, airing Thursday on Univision. The gyrating songstress and reggaetón king will join fellow performers Juanes, Laura Pausini and others at the ceremony honoring Latin-American music. ...

"Blood of a Champion," a gritty urban drama produced by Wu-Tang Clan's RZA and starring Bokeem Woodbine ("Dead Presidents") and R&B singer/actress Deborah Cox, will hit stores March 7. The film, which also includes original music composed by RZA, follows an ex-con just released from prison who enters the world of underground street fighting. ... Death Cab for Cutie, Ben Harper and Gomez will headline A Sounds Eclectic Evening, the annual benefit concert for influential Los Angeles public-radio station KCRW. This year's show, scheduled for March 25 at the Gibson Amphitheatre in Universal City, California, will also include Lewis Taylor, Feist, Goldspot and more artists to be announced. ... Three months after Sony BMG Music came under fire for rootkit software that left millions of PCs vulnerable to hackers and viruses, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security wants to introduce legislation that would make it illegal for companies to sell products that install susceptible software on a computer without the owner's knowledge. "The recent Sony experience shows us that we need to be thinking about how we ensure that consumers are not surprised by what their software programs can do," said Jonathan Frenkel, director of law enforcement policy for Homeland Security. Sony recalled the discs in November but still faces lawsuits and criticism -- which should be a warning to other companies putting out similar software, Frenkel added. ... Voivod have settled on Katorz as the title of their forthcoming 13th album, which will hit stores this spring. The band recently finished mixing the effort with producer Glen Robinson (Annihilator, Gwar) and are now mastering the album in New York. Katorz will be Voivod's first record that the band did not record alongside Denis "Piggy" D'Amour, who died in late August from complications of advanced colon cancer. ... (Hed) p.e. will issue their sixth album, Back to Base X, May 16. The album will include 13 tracks, including "Lock and Load," "White Collars" and "Bewaredowego."

Blondie are getting mashed up with the Doors for the upcoming career retrospective Blondie: Greatest Hits -- Sound & Vision. The collection includes 20 tracks and 16 video clips, including classics "Heart of Glass," "Atomic" and "Call Me," and previously unreleased remixes of "In the Flesh" and "Good Boys." The set also features "Rapture Riders," a mash up of "Rapture" with the Doors' "Riders on the Storm" -- with a video to match. "This is a tremendous honor for us," frontwoman Debbie Harry said. "Ain't technology great?" Doors keyboardist Ray Manzarek asked. "I've always had salacious dreams about Debbie Harry, and now it's a reality: the Doors and Blondie in a deep passionate embrace." Blondie will be inducted in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame on March 13. ... "New York Doll," the 2005 Sundance Film Festival Grand Jury Prize nominee chronicling the recent reunion of influential glam-rock pioneers the New York Dolls -- and bassist Arthur "Killer" Kane's Mormon lifestyle -- will be released on DVD April 4. Bonus features include a 20-minute interview with Morrissey and video of David Johansen singing a Mormon hymn. ... Belle and Sebastian's Isobel Campbell will release Ballad of the Broken Seas with Mark Lanegan (Queens of the Stone Age, Screaming Trees) on March 7, with a second album to follow later this year. Campbell is also hitting the road for her first-ever tour as a solo artist; the North American leg kicks off March 4 in Toronto and wraps March 15 in Brooklyn, New York. ...

02.21.2006

Kevin Federline recently revealed that he doesn't care whether or not people are mocking his music -- so long as they're buying it. And he said he believes they will, based on the interest in his first single, "PopoZão," which scored 2 million hits on his Web site. "If my album has even half that attention, watch out," K-Fed told Newsweek. "That means everybody out there who loves me still loves me, and everybody out there who hates me -- well, they're secretly buying it, too." Count the press among those who haven't joined the Federline fan club just yet. "They've already said so much sh-- about me. ... 'He hates his children, he treats his wife like dirt, he gets high all day.' If I was that bad, you think anyone, let alone Britney, would put up with it?" Federline says the scrutiny is only getting worse with the birth of Sean Preston. "It felt like they put a ransom on my child. OK, they didn't take my child, but they did put a price tag on his head." ...

Lindsay Lohan is still eating her words -- at least those she claims were misquoted in a recent issue of Vanity Fair (the magazine reported that Lohan admitted being bulimic). In the March issue of Allure, the singer/actress clarifies that she had a "phase." "I lost weight when I was in the hospital, and then I wanted to keep it off," she tells the mag. "Sometimes being that thin doesn't look healthy. I kind of didn't realize that. It was an attention thing, too. But you start to wonder if your friends are your friends because you look a certain way." ... The impending divorce of Jessica Simpson and Nick Lachey has hit an early snag. In court papers submitted Friday, responding to Simpson's December 16 divorce filing, Lachey said he's reserving the right to seek spousal support from his ex despite her request that the court would not award him any. According to The Associated Press, Lachey also wants the court to determine whether "miscellaneous jewelry and other personal effects," as well as his earnings from after the date of separation and other unspecified assets, are separate property. The papers filed by Lachey also pinpoint the date the couple separated as December 13; Simpson maintains the split happened on November 23. ... It looks like DMX's Here We Go Again will never see the light of day. Instead he'll be putting out Year of the Dog, which will encompass new material as well as some of the songs that were supposed to be on Here We Go Again. Year of the Dog is scheduled to come out sometime this summer; X is shooting the video for his new single, "We in Here," with photographer Jonathan Manion this week in Houston. ...

Radiohead are digging deep into the vaults for their new album. According to a post by frontman Thom Yorke on the band's studio blog, they've resurrected the song "Nude" (also known as "Big Ideas") for album number seven. The tune -- which dates back to the 1996 sessions that birthed the band's OK Computer album -- was featured on the band's 1999 tour documentary, "Meeting People Is Easy." Radiohead's still-untitled album (their first with producer Mark "Spike" Stent) is due this year. ... The fifth annual Sasquatch! Music Festival will hit Washington's Gorge Amphitheatre Memorial Day weekend. Nine Inch Nails, Beck, Death Cab for Cutie, the Flaming Lips, Queens of the Stone Age and the Shins are among the 40 bands set for the three-day festival's lineup. Tickets for the May 26-28 event go on sale Saturday, March 4, at Ticketmaster.com and Hob.com. For more information see the festival's Web site at SasquatchFestival.com . ... Juicy J, DJ Paul and Crunchy Black of the Memphis rap sextet Three 6 Mafia will be making history March 5 with the first rap song to be performed at the Academy Awards. Oscar-nominated songwriters Juicy J, DJ Paul and Frayser Boy will perform their "Hustle & Flow" anthem "It's Hard Out Here for a Pimp" along with Crunchy Black and actress Taraji P. Henson, who starred in the film opposite Best Actor nominee Terrence Howard. ...

Lauren "LC" Conrad -- who's moved from "Laguna Beach" to "The Hills" -- says she didn't really help Stephen Colletti two-time Kristin Cavallari, despite her rival's recent claims. LC tells Jane magazine in an interview for the March issue that that Stephen and Kristin were actually "broken up for, like, three months" before she started doing anything with him. Plus she felt justified. "She had cheated on him -- several times -- with one of my friends," LC claims. Conrad says she's now much happier with her boyfriend, Jason Wahler, and says she "could see myself marrying him," even though he did some two-timing of his own with Jessica Smith. "When they turned off the camera, I really yelled at him," LC says. "When he watched it, he was really upset. I made him watch it 10 times, too." If only every couple were lucky enough to have all their indiscretions caught on camera. ...U2 frontman Bono will auction off one of his guitars this week following the band's spate of gigs at São Paulo's Morumbi soccer stadium, The Associated Press reports. The proceeds from the auction will be donated to Brazil's Zero Hunger campaign, which has taken on the mission of ensuring all Brazilians have three meals a day by the close of President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva's presidency at the end of this year. Bono sat down with Silva over the weekend to discuss the government's fight against hunger and its program to develop renewable-energy sources. Last year Lenny Kravitz donated one of his axes to Zero Hunger, and it fetched $132,000 at auction. ...

Korn bassist Reginald "Fieldy" Arvizu will exchange vows with his longtime girlfriend Deena Beber on May 13, when the couple wed at the St. Regis Monarch Beach Resort in Dana Point, California. It will be Fieldy's second marriage and Beber's first. ... A guitar that was once owned by late Nirvana frontman Kurt Cobain will be on display during the Heritage Auction Galleries' Signature Music and Entertainment auction, which will be held in Dallas on April 14 and 15. "This instrument is unusual in a couple of ways," reads the auction catalog. "First, it is the only known example of a Mark V style [1960s] Mosrite Gospel model. While Kurt owned and smashed many cheaper (usually Univox) copies of Mosrite guitars during his career, this was one of only two actual Mosrites he owned. It was also one of his favorite guitars, which saved it from the usual fate of the instruments he used for live performances." ... Elton John and Celine Dion performed together for the first time Monday night, joining forces on two duets at a benefit for Harrah's Entertainment, Inc. workers affected by Hurricanes Katrina and Rita. Dion and John teamed up with comedian Jerry Seinfeld at Caesars Palace in Las Vegas to raise $2.1 million for 8,000 casino employees in the Gulf Coast region. "I've played in Biloxi many times," John said, according to The Associated Press. "I'm just glad we can do a little something, for those people's lives that will never be the same again for many, many years." ... Rainer Maria will release their fifth studio album, Catastrophe Keeps Us Together, April 4. The LP will include 11 new songs, nine of which were produced by Malcolm Burn, the man behind Shawn Colvin's hit "Sunny Came Home." The band plans to hit the road in March with Black Heart Procession and Scout Niblett. ...

Finch have announced that they're going on an indefinite hiatus. "Through much thought and deliberation, the five of us have decided to take an indefinite break from Finch," the band said in a statement posted to its Web site. "Amongst the many reasons for our decision, our priorities just lie in different places." ... The Buzzcocks will issue their first studio LP in almost three years, Flat-Pack Philosophy, March 7. The disc will feature 14 new cuts from the British punk legends, including "Sell You Everything," "God, What Have I Done?" and "Between Heaven and Hell." ... Dallas rockers the Toadies will reunite March 11 to headline a St Patrick's Day Parade concert. The band, responsible for the infectious 1995 hit "Possum Kingdom," broke up in late 2001. The March gig will feature two of the group's founding members: frontman Vaden Todd Lewis and drummer Mark "Rez" Reznicek. ... A start date of March 2 has been set for the trial of Gary Glitter, who was arrested by Vietnamese authorities back in late November and charged with committing obscene acts with two underage girls. According to The Associated Press, the trial is expected to last two days. Glitter is accused of fondling two girls, ages 10 and 11, at his rental home in Vung Tau last year. He could receive between three and seven years in prison if convicted. The trial will be held in closed court at the behest of the victims' families. Prosecutors had considered charging Glitter with child rape, which is punishable by death, but investigators couldn't find enough evidence to support that charge. Glitter, who has been in Vietnamese police custody since his arrest, served two months behind bars in England in 1999 after being convicted of possessing child pornography.

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