Emmerdale set for kidnap storyline & other: May 2008

Youtube Says Viacom Threatens The Web

Viacom's $1-billion lawsuit against YouTube threatens the very foundation of
online sharing, Google, YouTube's owners, claimed in a court filing on Friday,
reported by the Associated Press today (Tuesday). In court documents, Google
said that the lawsuit "threatens the way hundreds of millions of people
legitimately exchange information, news, entertainment and political and
artistic expression" over the Internet. Responding to Viacom's claim that the
site has done "little or nothing" to stop copyright infringement, Google said
that it actually "goes far beyond its legal obligations in assisting content
owners to protect their works" by removing clips at the request of content
owners.

27/05/2008

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Idol's David Cook tops iTunes download charts

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Newly crowned "American Idol" David Cook, already topping the iTunes music download charts, said on Friday he hopes to put out a rock album that will "make the hair on your neck stand up."

Cook, 25, a Missouri guitarist who was tending bar before auditioning for the most watched show on U.S. television, also said his best musical advice came from Frank Sinatra.

Cook won the seventh season of the singing competition and a recording contract on Wednesday, beating 17-year-old crooner David Archuleta by a 12 million-vote margin in the record 97.5 million votes cast by viewers by telephone and text message.

Cook's first single "The Time of My Life" and the three songs he sang in this week's "American Idol" finale were the top four downloads on Apple Inc's iTunes music store on Friday.

Cook said he would not be putting out an album of standards even though he won fans on the show, which is broadcast on the Fox network, a unit of News Corp, with alternative versions of pop classics such as "Billie Jean" and Lionel Richie's "Hello."

"I think it's going to be a mixture of my writing and hopefully writing with other people. I just want to come out of the gate with a solid record," he told reporters in a telephone conference call.

"It'll probably be a rock record. I just want to make a record that's going to make the hair on your neck stand up ... Even if it doesn't do well commercially, as long as I can put out a record I am proud of -- that's the goal right now. And hopefully the success will follow."

Cook is not likely to start work on the first album until the Top 10 Idols finish a three-month U.S. tour starting in July.

Reports: Jay-Z closing $150M business deal with Live Nation

LOS ANGELES - Jay-Z is close to reaching a $150 million deal with Live Nation Inc. that will give the concert promoter a stake in virtually every aspect of the rapper and entrepreneur’s career, according to news reports.

The contract covers Jay-Z’s music and music-related businesses for the next 10 years, the New York Times [NYT] and Wall Street Journal reported on their Web sites late Wednesday, citing sources familiar with the agreement.

An after-hours call to a Live Nation spokesman seeking comment was not immediately returned late Wednesday.

As part of the arrangement, Jay-Z would get a $25 million upfront payment, plus advance payments of $10 million per album for a minimum of three albums and $25 million toward concert tours. The company would also pay $20 million in exchange for publishing, licensing and other rights.

Live Nation was also expected to commit $50 million to finance Jay-Z’s investments and his entertainment venture, to be called Roc Nation, which is expected to include his own record label, music publishing, talent consulting and managing projects.

"I’ve turned into the Rolling Stones of hip-hop," Jay-Z told the Times.

Jay-Z, whose real name is Shawn Carter, plans to leave Def Jam for the deal, but he still owes his longtime record label one more studio album.

He was president of Def Jam for three years but stepped down in December because he and the label’s corporate parent, Universal Music Group, could not agree on a new contract.

Live Nation also struck recent deals with Madonna and U2.

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Babyshambles - Doherty Refunds Drunk Fan

BABYSHAMBLES frontman PETE DOHERTY has taken pity on a fan who was denied entry to one of his solo concerts in Scotland - he's refunded the cost of the ticket.

Fan Wesley Shearer was banned from attending the British rocker's recent Glasgow gig after security decided he was too inebriated to gain entry.

But kindhearted Doherty sympathised with Shearer and compensated him for his loss.

Shearer says, "Me and my mates decided to have a drink before the gig but the stewards refused me entry.

"I saw a cab pull up at the stage door and realised it was Pete arriving for the gig. I shouted his name and he looked round, so I told him I couldn't get into the gig.

"He shook my hand and when I opened it there was a GBP20 note in it. It made my night."

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Beyonce Knowles & Jay-Z's Honeymoon

Beyonce Knowles and Jay-Z followed their hush hush wedding with a secret honeymoon at a luxury resort in the Arizona desert, claim reports.

Having escaped the media circus surrounding their wedding at the start of last month, the secretive couple managed to getaway from work commitments a week after tying the knot to spend some time together as man and wife.

OK! magazine claims the pair escaped to the Sanctuary Camelback Mountain resort to relax and unwind.

A source at the resort, where a two-night stay costs $8,000 (£4,000), says: "Beyonce looked stunning, even thought she was wearing no make-up. They looked so in love and so happy."

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Model Bruni marries French president

Former international model Carla Bruni married French president Nicolas Sarkozy on Saturday in Paris.
The couple walked down the aisle at the presidential Elysee Palace, less than three months after they reportedly first met.
In a short statement, the couple said that they "were married... in the presence of their families in the strictest privacy."
The official who had performed the ceremony, Francois Lebel, mayor of Paris' eighth arrondissement said, "The bride wore white; she was ravishing, as usual and the groom wasn't bad either."
53-years-old Sarkozy married Bruni, thirteen years his junior, in the presence of 20 close family and friends, Lebel said.
He called the ceremony "a moment of family intimacy for the young newlyweds, of great simplicity and apparently a lot of affection between the spouses."
"I wished them a lot of happiness," he said.
At a news conference in January, Sarkozy revealed that the relationship was "serious" and hinted that wedding plans were in the works.
However he refused to reveal the date for a wedding, saying only that France might learn about the nuptials once they had already taken place.

Muse begin work on fifth album

Muse have begun writing songs for the follow-up to their 2006 album 'Black Holes And Revelations'.

The Devon trio say they took a break after dates on their world tour - which they will wrap up offically at V Festival this August - but have recently got back to work.

Dom Howard drummed for Andy Burrows when the Razorlight man played a solo show last night in London, but told NME.COM his main band were active again.

"We've just started writing songs for the new album, whatever it's going to be, you know?" he said. "It's going great, we just started. We're right at the tip at the moment and I think the point is that we've been on the road for so long... It's really about getting back together and getting the ball rolling again and seeing whether it'll roll."

However Frontman Matt Bellamy has told NME.COM he is not yet sure yet what form the record will take - and it may not appear as a conventional album.

"What will come out of that is impossible to say," he declared. "It may just be albums, but it may be a stream of singles, or it may just be one 50-minute symphony, do you know what I mean? Who knows?"

May 29, 2008 at Whelans, Dublin -
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