Kristin Cavallari, who will guest star on UPN's "Veronica Mars" Wednesday (her own series, "Get This Party Started," is currently on hiatus), admits in Blender magazine's April issue that she has it bad for Johnny Depp. "Maybe I'll go stalk him in Paris," she said. "He's an amazing actor and that's really sexy." Who else does the "Laguna Beach" bad girl find sexy? Musicians. "I've never been attracted to jocks," she explained. "Musicians are more down-to-earth. They just have more to talk about." And if "Laguna" left you thinking Cavallari was all body and no brains, think again. "I did, like, really well in high school. I got a 3.6 GPA." ...

Ashanti, Fabolous and Ice Cube were among the celebrities who attended a party Wednesday to celebrate the launch of Nelly, Daddy Yankee, Mike Jones and Lupe Fiasco's respective shoe lines with Reebok. Nick Cannon, Diana DeGarmo and Mario were also on hand to hear DJ Whoo Kid spin. ... Kelis has set a June 13 release date for her fourth album, which she recently retitled Kelis Was Here (originally it was The Puppeteer). Husband Nas and Too Short guest on the album, and Will.I.Am, Linda Perry, Scott Storch, Raphael Saadiq and Max Martin lend a hand in production. ...

My Chemical Romance and recently reformed New Jersey screamo legends Lifetime will play a free concert for the Shirts for a Cure Project at next week's South by Southwest festival in Austin, Texas. At the show -- scheduled for March 17 at Emo's -- three very limited T-shirts will be on sale, with all proceeds going to Shirts for a Cure, which provides support to underprivileged women battling breast cancer. Other acts on the bill include Head Automatica and the Loved Ones. ... Everyone's favorite wizard Harry Potter has apparently cast a spell on consumers, with "Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire" having racked up the highest first-day sales total so far for the series -- 5 million -- when the DVD hit stores Tuesday. So far "Goblet" has pulled in more than $288 million in U.S. box-office sales and more than $600 million internationally since it was released in November. ...

While Three 6 Mafia were busy celebrating their history-making honor Sunday night for taking home the best-song Oscar for "It's Hard Out Here for a Pimp," their former comrade Robert Cooper (a.k.a. Koopsta Knicca) found himself behind bars at a Memphis, Tennessee, jail, according to The Commercial Appeal, a newspaper based out of the Southern hip-hoppers' hometown. The rapper, who left Mafia in 2000 and has had his share of legal troubles over the years, was slated to appear in court Thursday on charges of aggravated robbery and aggravated assault, stemming from a recent incident where he allegedly broke into a home and robbed three people at gunpoint of more than $7,000 and other personal belongings. ... On Thursday the Recording Industry Association of America announced the grand-jury indictments of two men on charges of violating copyright laws by posting songs from the Ryan Adams & the Cardinals album Jacksonville City Nights to a Web site before the album's official release. The men, from Milwaukee and -- coincidentally enough -- Jacksonville, Florida, were busted under a provision of the copyright law passed as part of the Family Entertainment Copyright Act in April 2005 intended to prosecute pre-release music piracy. The indictments are believed to be the first under the pre-release provision of the act, and if convicted on all counts, each faces up to 11 years in prison. ...

Staind will be back on the road in late April, with support acts Three Days Grace and Hurt in tow. Just 11 dates have been finalized for the trek so far -- the first, April 20 in McAllen, Texas, and the last, May 6 in Jackson, Mississippi. ... Before entering the studio to record the forthcoming IV, Godsmack came up with around 40 fresh tunes, 18 of which were put to tape. When the album hits stores April 25, it'll contain between 11 and 13 tracks. So what will happen to that leftover material? Some of the unrecorded tunes will surface in time -- but won't feature singer Sully Erna's pipes. Godsmack drummer Shannon Larkin, bassist Robbie Merrill and guitarist Tony Rombola have formed a side project called Another Animal, through which the cuts will live. And they've recruited Ugly Kid Joe frontman Whitfield Crane to front the act. Another Animal plan to record the songs later this year. ...

Sparta will enter a Los Angeles recording studio March 21 with producer Dave Bassett (Lisa Loeb, the Troys) to begin tracking their forthcoming, yet-untitled third album. It'll be the band's first studio offering with new guitarist Keeley Davis, formerly of Engine Down. "After one meeting with Dave, we knew we had found our guy," said drummer Tony Hajjar. "Dave wants to approach this record by concentrating on every aspect, from every drum hit to every word, to make each song stand on its own. That is exactly what we wanted to do with this record. We've written 27 songs and can't wait to get started." The disc is slated for a September 26 release. ... On March 21 the Black Crowes will release their first-ever concert DVD, "Freak 'N' Roll ... Into the Fog: The Black Crowes All Join Hands - The Fillmore, San Francisco" which was filmed over the course of the band's five-night stand at the historic venue in August. The DVD features 19 tracks plus behind-the-scenes footage ...

New York dance-punk rockers the Rapture are midway through recording their yet-untitled sophomore album. The quartet has already roped in Bloc Party collaborator Paul Epworth and Chemical Brothers producer Ewan Pearson to produce tracks. The band is also heading out to L.A. in April to work with Gorillaz producer Danger Mouse, according to management. The first single is expected in August, with the album to follow. ... Regina Spektor will hit the road April 8 in Montreal to hype her upcoming album, Begins to Hope. The jaunt winds down May 16 in Los Angeles, and the album is due June 13.

03.09.2006

Bo Bice will return to "American Idol" Thursday (March 9) to perform his single "The Real Thing." The final 12 contenders will be determined during the show. ...

Following in the footsteps of prior cover girls Lindsay Lohan and Mischa Barton, 19-year-old teen queen Amanda Bynes is gracing the April cover of Elle Girl magazine -- as a brunette. [article id="1525759"](Check out pics right here.)[/article] She told the magazine how she's managed to sidestep the tabloids and avoid the mishaps that have plagued her colleagues. "I don't feel like I belong to that world," Bynes told the mag of the Hollywood scene. "The truth is I'm happy in my little life." Instead of party-hopping and making her rounds on the nightclub scene, Bynes said she'd rather stay home with her sister and grandmother, and as far as dating goes, actors need not apply. "There is nothing less attractive than a guy who is a jerk and has an ego," the actress explained. "And if a guy isn't into me, then I'll move on. I'm not wasting my time on that!" ... System of a Down have canceled their annual Souls concert, scheduled for April 23. No reason was given. ... The Black Eyed Peas will release an eight-track EP called Renegotiations: The Remixes March 21 on iTunes and a week later in Best Buy stores. Erick Sermon, DJ Premier, Jazzy Jeff and Pete Rock are among those who remixed Monkey Business tracks for the release. Meanwhile, the Peas' "My Humps" has passed the 2 million mark for sales of master tones (a ring tone taken from the master recording). ...

Beastie Boys will show their new concert film "Awesome, I F---in' Shot That!" on 200 screens across the country on March 23. Information on participating theaters is available at AwesomeIShotThat.com/March23. The screenings will also feature "A Day in the Life of Nathanial Hörnblowér," a 30-minute short created specifically for the event. ... Metallica frontman James Hetfield will be honored with the Stevie Ray Vaughan Award for his devotion to helping other addicts at the second annual MusiCares MAP Fund benefit concert May 12 at the Music Box @ Fonda in Hollywood. Promoter and manager Bill Silva is also being recognized at the event, which will raise funds to allow members of the music community access to addiction-recovery treatment. ... P.O.D.'s forthcoming Warriors Tour 2: Guilty by Association will kick off April 20 in Philadelphia, and so far 24 dates have been lined up. Pillar, the Chariot and Maylene and the Sons of Disaster have been tapped as the support acts on the trek, which is expected to wind down May 21 in Seattle. ...

The list of music icons who've been given the action-figure treatment increased by one this week, with the introduction of the forthcoming Diabolical Biz Markie beat-boxing doll. A mere 1,000 figures will be produced and sold for $70 apiece, and each one comes outfitted in a mesh jersey, hand-tailored jeans, the Biz's trademark old-school kicks, a hat and a Biz ring, as well as a detachable microphone and "booger-pickin' finger." Push his plush belly and sit back as the beat-boxing takes hold of you. ... Two more bands have been added to the Bamboozle bill. AFI and Alexisonfire will take the stage when the festival hits the Meadowlands Sports Complex in East Rutherford, New Jersey, May 6 and May 7. ... Bruce Springsteen has been added to the lineup for this year's New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival, which will be held April 28-30 and May 5-7. Springsteen will perform with the Seeger Sessions Band, who play on his April 25 release of Pete Seeger covers, We Shall Overcome: The Seeger Sessions. Among the hundreds of acts also slated to perform are the Dave Matthews Band, Bob Dylan, Doug E. Fresh, Slick Rick and Robert Randolph & the Family Band. ...

Ghostface, Guster and the Dresden Dolls are among the variety of acts scheduled to perform at the inaugural Green Apple Music & Arts Festival April 20-23 in New York. Slick Rick, Mike Doughty and Blues Traveler are also slated for the show, the biggest Earth Day festival in the U.S. ... Scott Storch, who voiced his frustration with not being nominated for the producer of the year Grammy, is finally being honored by the Recording Academy -- the Philadelphia Chapter, at least. He will receive an Honors award at an April 10 dinner. ... Chris Cornell and wife Vicky opened a restaurant, Black Calavados (BC), in Paris last week with a launch party attended by Pink and several models and designers. Alexandre de Betak, best known for designing the annual Victoria's Secret Fashion Show, designed the restaurant. Cornell, meanwhile, has signed on as the new face of John Varvatos menswear and will perform at the designer's fourth Annual Stuart House Benefit in Beverly Hills, California. ...

Bad Boy Records rapper Black Rob (born Robert Ross) was in court on Wednesday. He agreed to waive extradition to New York to face charges of skipping bail after failing to turn himself in on January 24 to begin a two-to-six-year prison sentence for felony possession of stolen property. A Manhattan district attorney's office spokesperson said the rapper should be arriving in New York before the end of the week after being picked up on a fugitive warrant on February 24. It's possible he could face additional jail time. ... The second annual Intonation Music Festival will take place June 24 and 25 at Chicago's Union Park. Curated by Vice Records, announced headliners for the event include Bloc Party and the Streets. Tickets go on sale Monday. Last year's Intonation was curated by Pitchforkmedia.com. ... Psych-folk rockers Animal Collective are releasing the DVD/EP Grass March 28. The EP contains two new songs, "Must Be Treeman" and "Fickle Cycle," while the DVD features three videos, including ones for "Who Could Win a Rabbit?" and the title track. ... Silverstein drummer Paul Koehler made a recent trip to Capitol Hill to speak out about teen suicide. He joined Congressman Patrick J. Kennedy (D-RI) and Congresswoman Grace Napolitano (D-CA) to request government funding for the Garrett Lee Smith Memorial Act and the Paul Wellstone Mental Health Equitable Treatment Act. Silverstein are part of three tours this year: Warped, Taste of Chaos and Take Action! ...