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For The Record: Quick News On Paris Hilton, Shakira, Black Eyed Peas, Beyonce, Mary J. Blige, Foxy Brown & More

Hilton charged with DUI; Shakira, Peas vying for Latin Grammys; Knowles, Blige performing at American Music Awards.

Paris Hilton has been formally charged for driving under the influence, The Associated Press reports. The heiress is scheduled to be arraigned Thursday in Los Angeles Superior Court but is not required to appear, a spokesperson for city prosecutors told AP. Hilton was arrested September 7 for DUI and was said to have a 0.08 percent blood-alcohol level at the time. ...

With five nods, Shakira leads the list of nominees for the seventh annual Latin Grammy Awards, which were announced Tuesday (September 26) in New York. The Black Eyed Peas, Daddy Yankee, Don Omar and Rick Rubin will also vie for trophies at the November 2 ceremony at New York's Madison Square Garden. ... Beyoncé, Mary J. Blige, Carrie Underwood and Josh Groban are the first performers announced for the 2006 American Music Awards. Jimmy Kimmel will host for the second consecutive year. ... Snoop Dogg, Too Short, Tyrese, Bone Thugs-N-Harmony and MC Lyte are among those scheduled to attend the Los Angeles Hip-Hop Summit on Saturday at the University of Southern California. Sponsored by Chrysler Financial, the summit will serve to educate students and members of the community about financial literacy. ...

A former Foxy Brown associate dropped two charges against the rapper in municipal court in Jersey City, New Jersey, on Tuesday in exchange for unspecified items to be returned from Foxy, AP reports. The rapper, who was present in court, and Rasheeda Ellis also agreed not to have contact with each other or discuss the case in the media. ... Joseph Barrino, Fantasia's father, filed a $10 million libel lawsuit against Simon & Schuster on Tuesday, claiming "false, exaggerated, sensational, intentional and malicious untruths" in the book "Fantasia: Life Is Not a Fairy Tale," which was made into a Lifetime movie in August. Fantasia is not listed as a defendant and the suit contends the singer's grandmother, Addie Collins, was the ghost writer. The suit, filed Tuesday in U.S. District Court in Manhattan, New York, disputes such claims in the book as Joseph asks his daughter for money when she visits, according to AP. ... Babyshambles singer Pete Doherty's off-and-on girlfriend, model Kate Moss, arrived at a Berlin nightclub with the singer Monday and sang along with him onstage, according to AP. Doherty, who avoided a jail sentence on drug charges earlier this month when a London judge ordered him to continue rehabilitation, checked himself out of a clinic last week. ...

Don Omar will launch his first U.S. headlining tour next month in Atlanta, with popular Latin acts Aventura and Rakim y Ken-Y in tow. The tour will be in support of his latest album, King of Kings, which recently notched its 15th consecutive week atop Billboard's Top Latin Albums chart and earned Don Omar an American Music Award nomination for Favorite Latin Music Artist. The tour is scheduled to conclude with a two-night set in San Juan, Puerto Rico. ... Rock Star: Supernova, the band featuring Mötley Crüe's Tommy Lee, Voivod's Jason Newsted, ex-Guns N' Roses guitarist Gilby Clarke and singer Lukas Rossi, will shoot a video in Los Angeles on October 4 for "It's All Love." The band, which was born of the CBS reality series of the same name, will launch a 28-city North American tour with the Panic Channel -- featuring series co-host Dave Navarro -- in Las Vegas on New Year's Eve. The group's debut LP hits stores November 21....

The "Jackass" gang have the #1 movie in the country, but it wasn't easy getting to the top. "Man, if only I could be induced into a coma and still do all this stuff and be woken up at the premiere," Steve-O said to MTV News. "I hated filming that movie. I really hated it." The daredevil also said that there is a treasure trove of great footage that didn't make the "Jackass: Number Two" cut. "We have 40 minutes of deleted scenes that are better than anything from the first movie," he revealed. "I was bedridden for a portion, like I had a really bad injury, and it didn't even make the movie. ... I was launched down multiple flights of stairs in a bellhop cart. Kind of anticlimactic, I landed on my back on a bellhop cart, and it wasn't even in the movie. That's how good the movie is." ... Another day, another batch of Guns N' Roses dates. Over the last month or so, the Axl Rose-fronted rockers have been rolling out more information about their North American tour -- the first few dates of which were recently postponed -- with news on gigs trickling out every other day or so. The run, which now launches in San Diego on October 5 and runs through January 13 in Reno, Nevada -- has been beefed up by three U.S. shows: Huntington, West Virginia (November 3); Everett, Washington (December 10); and Portland, Oregon (December 11). ...

Michael Jackson won't be releasing his next album on the Two Seas record label after all. According to BBC News, Jackson has parted ways with the Bahrain record label founded by Abdulla Hamad Al-Khalifa, a member of the Bahraini royal family. Two Seas was scheduled to put out Jackson's first album of new material since 2001's Invincible. Jackson has now formed the Michael Jackson Company, which will look after his business affairs, and may act as a recording label for his next record, due next year. ... While other peer-to-peer file-sharing networks have cut multimillion-dollar settlements with the Recording Industry Association of America and either gone legit or just quit, LimeWire is fighting back. In a countersuit filed on Monday against the major labels, the file-sharing site alleges antitrust violations, fraud and conspiracy. "This case is but one part of a much larger modern conspiracy to destroy all innovation that content owners cannot control and that disrupts their historic business models," the countersuit alleges. In demanding a jury trial, LimeWire claims that the recording industry, after losing its "strangle hold" on the means of distributing music thanks to the Internet and the advent of MP3s, got together with the goal to "destroy any online music distribution service they did not own or control, or force such services to do business with them." The suit also alleges that the labels attempted to engage in price fixing and anticompetitive practices through their legitimate download services, Pressplay and MusicNet. LimeWire is seeking damages and attorneys fees in the suit. ...

Two men have been charged in connection with the Friday morning shooting following a Jim Jones concert in Virginia Beach, Virginia, that left one person dead and several wounded, NBC News affiliate WAVY reports. Verlon Romain, 27, was charged with one count of malicious assault, possession of a firearm by a convicted felon and other weapons charges, while Andre Roberts, 29, was charged with possession of a firearm by a convicted felon. Police are still searching for a third suspect, identified as 19-year-old Ciara Vander, who has a warrant out for her arrest. ... Wolfmother have ended their current world tour six days before schedule after bassist/keyboardist Chris Ross' son entered the world one month early. The band's show at the Hollywood Palladium, originally set for Thursday, has been rescheduled for December 12. Shows planned for Friday in San Diego and Saturday in San Francisco have been canceled. Wolfmother are taking October off to "allow Chris some family time," according to a statement on their Web site. The band plans to make up the missed shows by early 2007. ... If you want to check out the debut single from Damon Albarn's (Blur, Gorillaz) new band, you have to be quick. According to the Web site for the Good, the Bad and the Queen, the group's single, "Herculean," will be available on CD and 7-inch for just one day in the U.K. -- October 30. The artwork for the limited-edition single was designed by group member Paul Simonon, the former bass player for the Clash. The band -- which also features former Verve guitarist Simon Tong and Fela Kuti drummer Tony Allen -- will make their live debut October 26 as part of the Electric Proms events at the Roundhouse in Camden, England.

09.25.2006

Almost a decade after the unsolved murder of Notorious B.I.G. the Los Angeles City Council voted on Friday to reinstate a $50,000 reward for information leading to the arrest and conviction of whomever was responsible for his drive-by-shooting death. According to KNBC-TV in Los Angeles, the move came as a judge prepares to hear arguments scheduled for February 27 in a wrongful-death civil case brought by B.I.G.'s family against the city that claims rogue LAPD officers were involved in the killing. ...

Guns N' Roses have postponed five dates on their U.S. tour -- shows originally booked for September 27 through October 5 -- according to Ticketmaster. Four of those five have been rescheduled: The band will be playing Fresno, California, on December 13 instead of Wednesday; Bakersfield, California, on January 11 instead of Friday. Saturday's show set for Reno, Nevada, has been bumped to January 13, and the Sacramento, California, gig scheduled for October 2 will now take place January 10. The band's October 5 performance in San Diego has not been rescheduled yet. Guns N' Roses have booked two additional tour stops, with shows set for the Gibson Amphitheatre at Universal CityWalk in Universal City, California, on December 17 and December 19. ... Aerosmith singer Steven Tyler told "Access Hollywood" on Monday that for three years he's secretly been battling Hepatitis C, a viral infection of the blood that can lead to chronic liver disease. After a year of interferon treatments, which "about killed me," Tyler said, the infection is now nonexistent in his bloodstream. ...

Nine Inch Nails will be releasing a high-definition live DVD early next year titled "Nine Inch Nails Live: Beside You in Time." A teaser for the effort has been posted to the band's Web site. The DVD will feature live footage captured during Nine Inch Nails' 2006 trek. ... Boost Mobile had something for everyone when they rewarded their volunteering fans with a concert Saturday in New York. The Rock Corps concert at Radio City Music Hall featured big names like T.I., Taking Back Sunday, Young Jeezy, Nelly and Panic! at the Disco. Nas was a special guest performer with his wife Kelis, and Paul Wall made a surprise visit onstage with Nelly. After the show, T.I. had a birthday party at the Maritime Hotel in Manhattan. Jeezy, Maino, B.G. and Zab Judah all showed up to wish Tip a happy 26th. ...

Backpackers rejoice! First underground-rap stalwarts Talib Kweli and Mos Def announced that they'll each release new material this fall, and now their frequent collaborator Hi-Tek is set to drop his sophomore album, Hi-Teknology 2, October 17 on Babygrande Records. The sequel to his 2001 debut will feature tracks with Nas, Busta Rhymes and the Game, as well as Hi-Tek's former Rawkus labelmates, Mos and Kweli. Hi-Tek, who has a production deal with Dr. Dre's Aftermath Entertainment, will produce the entire project himself. ... In addition to the band's previously announced tour dates, which were set to run through November 26 in San Francisco, the reunited surviving members of Alice in Chains announced over the weekend that they'll be playing the Wiltern Theater in Los Angeles on November 27. The band's Web site will offer a presale for the concert on Thursday. ...

Mario made an appearance at Fergie's album-release party on Thursday and talked a bit about his own upcoming LP, Mario Barrett - Effortless, due November 28. "The album is very important to me," he told MTV News. "It's a very intense album, really passionate and much more upbeat than my last project. My personality gets shown a lot in this project, in terms of the song titles, and in terms of the subject matter that I am talking about." ... Lacuna Coil have been added to Glen Danzig's forthcoming Blackest of the Black tour, scheduled to kick off with a string of West Coast shows in November -- no official dates have been released yet. Danzig will serve as the tour's headliner, and Marduk will also be on the bill, which is still being finalized. ...

The Pogues, who reissued several albums last week, are coming to the West Coast for the first time with the original lineup in 15 years. The trek begins October 9 through 12 in San Francisco and ends October 18 through 20 in Los Angeles. ... Our Lady Peace have set a November 21 release date for their greatest-hits collection, A Decade. The album will also feature two previously unreleased songs from the band's 2005 Healthy in Paranoid Times sessions. ...

Looks like Elijah Wood has interesting taste in music. The first act signed to "The Lord of the Rings" star's Simian Records is modern psychedelic popsters the Apples in Stereo. On February 7, the band will release its first album in five years together, New Magnetic Wonder, which features 14 new songs and 12 musical interludes, as well as contributions from reclusive Neutral Milk Hotel leader Jeff Mangum, who is credited with adding drums, backing vocals, handclaps and "cow object." Apparently Apples leader Robert Schneider has been busy during the layoff, inventing a new music scale he calls the "Non-Pythagorean Scale," which will be explored on an enhanced portion of the CD that includes a video explanation of the scale by Schneider and digital MIDI files that can be manipulated by users. ... That didn't last long. Just a week after he proposed to former Playboy Playmate Kari Ann Peniche onstage in Las Vegas, Aaron Carter has changed his mind about marrying older brother Nick's ex. Us Weekly reported Sunday that Carter, 18, told the magazine, "I got caught up in the moment and proposed. I then realized it was a hasty thing to do and I am not ready for marriage quite yet." The Carter family is the subject of a reality series on E! Entertainment Television that debuts next week. ...

Twenty years after they first hit the U.S. charts with "West End Girls," Pet Shop Boys are launching a 22-date tour in support of their latest album, Fundamental and the best-of collection, PopArt, due October 3. The run kicks off October 10 in Montreal and hits cities including Boston, New York, Atlanta, Denver, San Francisco and Los Angeles before wrapping up with a November 16 show in Monterrey, Mexico. Pet Shop Boys' book retrospective "Catalogue," featuring photos spanning the duo's 20-year career, is due next month. ... Straylight Run will preview new material from their just-finished second album (due in the spring) on a fall tour kicking off November 1 in New Haven, Connecticut. The trek, which will also feature Kevin Devine, Matt Pond PA and Street to Nowhere, wraps up December 5 in Philadelphia. ...

Cat Stevens, the 1970s folk singer who converted to Islam and changed his name to Yusuf Islam in 1977, weighed in Sunday on the controversy surrounding recent comments by Pope Benedict XVI about Islam. According to a report, in an interview with the British Broadcasting Corporation, former Catholic-schoolboy Islam said that, "At one point, I used to believe that the pope was infallible." But now, said Islam, the pope, "should have looked elsewhere if he wanted to quote but we respect the pope and his position." The singer was reacting to a recent speech in Germany, in which the pope quoted the words of a Byzantine emperor that characterized some of the teachings of the Prophet Muhammad as "evil and inhuman." Islam is slated to release his first pop album in 28 years this November. ...

Musician Danny Flores, who played saxophone and shouted "tequila" in the 1958 Champs hit "Tequila!" died Tuesday in Huntington Beach, California, from complications of pneumonia, The Associated Press reports. He was 77. Flores' wife Sharee said her husband was pleased when a new generation of fans latched on to the song after it was featured in 1985's "Pee-Wee's Big Adventure." "I can honestly tell you he never got tired of playing that song," she told the AP. ... Influential blues guitarist Etta Baker died Saturday in Fairfax, Virginia, the AP reports. She was 93. Baker, a North Carolina native who influenced the folk revival with her 1956 recordings of "Railroad Bill" and "One-Dime Blues," balanced music with a day job for 26 years and finally quit the textile mill at age 60 to pursue music full time. She toured into her 80s, and recently focused on banjo playing when the guitar proved to taxing to her strength. A banjo collection from Baker is due next year, and she is also featured on guitarist Kenny Wayne Shepherd's upcoming album, due in November. "Like B.B. King and single-string blues, anybody who has picked up acoustic finger-style guitar has been influenced by Etta whether they know it or not," friend and colleague Tim Duffy said.

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