Wild Writings April 2004 News:
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Pink Ready For Janis Joplin Film Challenge
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Pink tells the Herald Sun she's determined to do justice to Janis Joplin's talent starring in the biopic about the singer. "It's kind of bizarre that this role brings my life full circle," she said. Pink also professed other ambitions. "I want to be a bar tender, I really do," she said. "And I want to study psychology so I can figure out why my mind is so fu**ed up – and raise my dogs."
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Halle Berry & Orlando Bloom have the "best noses"
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Halle Berry has been picked as the female star with the nicest nose. Kylie Minogue came second, with Nicole Kidman, Gwyneth Paltrow and Cameron Diaz trailing behind.

British actor Orlando Bloom, who plays Legolas in the Lord of the Rings trilogy, was voted the male celebrity with the best nose, according to the survey from Waitrose. He beat Brad Pitt and David Beckham in the poll of 2,500 people.
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Backstreet Boys Want "One Sweet Day"-Like Duet
MariahInc.cjb.net
Backstreet Boys star Kevin Richardson tells Details Magazine the group would like to work with Christina Aguilera on their upcoming album. "There is a song we all co-wrote together." A ballad, which Kevin describes as "reminiscent of Mariah Carey's 'One Sweet Day.'"

"We have everything ready but we need a female vocalist to record the verses. Our hopes are set on Christina Aguilera, so we hope she can do it.
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Christina & Missy new spokes people for MAC cosmetics
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MAC cosmetics has introduced five new spokespeople - including Christina Aguilera and Missy Elliott - for Viva Glam products that will benefit the MAC Aids Fund.

All proceeds from Viva Glam V Lipstick and Lipglass will go to the fund, which provides money to organisations that give care and daily essentials to those with HIV/Aids and that offer education, awareness and prevention programmes.

Aguilera, Elliott, supermodel Linda Evangelista, Chloe Sevigny and Boy George were introduced at a press conference on Wednesday. MAC President John Demsey said they were asked to join the project because they represent the many faces of Aids patients - 'all ages, all races, all sexes.'
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Lil' Kim Pleads Not Guilty, Released On $500,000 Bail
MTV
Lil' Kim pleaded not guilty at her arraignment hearing Wednesday, hours after she was indicted for perjury and obstruction of justice, charges that could put her away for more than 30 years.

Accompanied by her attorney Mel Sachs, Kim (real name: Kimberly Jones) entered the plea before U.S. Magistrate Judge Debra C. Freeman in U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, according to a spokesperson for the U.S attorney's office. She was released on $500,000 bail.

"Kim has been unfairly targeted ... and unjustly charged because of who she is in the music industry," Sachs told reporters as he and Kim left the courthouse. "I'm confident that her case will be completely dismissed." Kim was demurely dressed in a black trench coat and wore dark aviator sunglasses despite overcast skies and intermittent drizzle. She ignored reporters as she headed into the car.

The charges stem from her alleged involvement in a February 2001 shooting outside the offices of New York radio station Hot 97. Prosecutors claim she lied to investigators and a grand jury by telling them she wasn't present at the time of the shooting and that she didn't know at least one of the suspects involved in the incident.

A pretrial hearing between Sachs and federal prosecutors is scheduled for Friday. 
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B2K Get Down With The FBI
MTV
LOS ANGELES — There's a hip-hop group that wants the FBI watching its every move.

Except in this case, "FBI" stands for "Fizz and Boog Inc."

"We're starting our own rap label called FBI," B2K's Lil Fizz said as he and J-Boog walked the orange carpet at the recent Kid's Choice Awards. "We've got our first rap group coming out, called 4 Deep." (Not to be confused with a 1990s hip-hop group bearing the same name.)

"We ran into them at one of our shows," Boog added. "And they performed for us on the spot. We was like, 'Man, we respect that.' They was tight, and [we said], 'We gonna sign y'all.' Give some other people a chance to do their thing, make dreams [come true]."

Fizz and Boog said they plan to oversee every aspect of 4 Deep's career, including working in the studio on their album. "This is our first project, we gotta treat it like our baby," Fizz said.

Fizz will introduce 4 Deep on his upcoming solo album, Outspoken, due later in the spring. Kanye West and DJ Quik are also on the album.

"I'm leaking one track right now on the radio, it's called 'La La La,' so we'll see how it does," Fizz said about the single, which was produced by J. Brown (Cassidy, Swizz Beatz). "Rufus Blaq [Marques Houston, Angie Stone] helped me executive-produce the album."

Fizz and Boog said plans are still coming together for a B2K summer tour. Like Raz-B, they seemed optimistic that Omarion might return to the group.
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Britney Spears Takes Another Cue From Madonna, Shops Reality Series
MTV
Hide the bottles — Britney Spears is making her own "Truth or Dare."

The singer is shopping a reality series that will document her backstage life similar to Madonna's classic 1991 documentary, which famously included a scene of the pop superstar using a bottle to demonstrate a risqué act.

The show is being pitched under the title "OnTourage," according to a spokesperson for Spears.

Footage from the six-week European leg of her Onyx Hotel Tour, which begins April 26 in London, would be compiled into six episodes selling for about $1 million apiece, much more than most reality programs. Britney would narrate and shoot some of her own adventures with her dancers and handlers herself. The show could be finished as early as summer.

The Onyx Hotel Tour, which kicked off March 2 in San Diego and wraps up its first leg Wednesday in Auburn Hills, Michigan, has filled about 85 percent of the venues' capacities, compared to 84 percent for the Ladies First Tour with Beyoncé, Alicia Keys and Missy Elliott, and 90 percent for Clay Aiken and Kelly Clarkson's Independent Tour, according to Billboard figures.

Spears has just released "Everytime," the third single and video from In the Zone.
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Third 'Kill Bill' on the Way!
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Kill Bill: Vol. 2 isn't even in theaters yet, but Quentin Tarantino says he's already planning volume three. "Oh yeah, initially I was thinking this would be my 'Dollars' trilogy. I was going to do a new one every 10 years. But I need at least 15 years before I do this again," the director tells Entertainment Weekly magazine in its April 16 issue. Tarantino says Uma Thurman, who plays a bride out for revenge in the series that began last year, won't be the star.

"The star will be Vernita Green's (Vivica A. Fox's) daughter, Nikki (Ambrosia Kelley). I've already got the whole mythology: Sofie Fatale (Julie Dreyfus) will get all of Bill's money. She'll raise Nikki, who'll take on The Bride," he says. "Nikki deserves her revenge every bit as much as The Bride deserved hers. I might even shoot a couple of scenes for it now so I can get the actresses while they're this age." "Kill Bill: Vol. 2," co-starring David Carradine, Michael Madsen and Daryl Hannah, opens in theaters April 16.
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Jessica Simpson #1 on Maxim's Hot 100 List!
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First, she was a pop princess. Then, a "Newlywed." And now, Jessica Simpson is the hottest thing around – so says Maxim magazine. Jessica tops the mag's Hot 100 list of 2004 beating out Beyonce (No. 2), Christina (No. 3) and Britney (No. 36). "It's nice to get the stamp of approval from the boys," Simpson was quoted as saying. "It's way better than being No. 101."
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Usher Remains At #1; Janet Jackson's A Bridesmaid
MTV
Despite a well-publicized "wardrobe malfunction" and a media blitz that included morning shows, the late-night circuit and everything in between, Janet Jackson won't unseat Usher from the top spot on next week's Billboard albums chart.

Miss Jackson continues her sex streak on her eighth album, Damita Jo, though unlike on her past two risqué records, 2001's All for You and 1997's The Velvet Rope, she'll make her debut in a different position: #2. The more than 381,000 copies of Damita Jo that sold last week, however, just about splits the difference between the first-week totals of her previous #1 debuts, which amounted to 605,000 and 202,000, respectively.

Another massively successful week for Usher boosts the total sales of Confessions above the 1.5 million mark. With "Yeah!" continuing its prevalence on airwaves, the R&B singer sold more than 485,000 copies of his fifth album last week.
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Avril Hurts Hand during Video Shoot
www.popdirt.com
While shooting her video 'Don't Tell Me', Avril Lavigne accidentally hurt her hand. It started bleeding after she broke the mirror on the wall - the punch was so strong that she actually hit the wall. The director was worried that maybe she wouldn't be able to continue shooting the video but Avril replied with a smile and fished the shooting
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No Delay For 'SNL,' Despite Host Janet Jackson 
www.popdirt.com
The Associated Press reports NBC won't delay 'Saturday Night Live' when Janet Jackson hosts this weekend despite other networks employing a delay for her appearances after her Super Bowl breast flash. The network is publicizing Jackson's appearance (11:30 p.m. EDT) joking, "Anything could happen, as long as it meets FCC guidelines."
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Paris & Nicole Hit The Road For 'The Simple Life 2'
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American socialites Paris Hilton and Nicole Richie are going back to The Simple Life - and this time they're hitting the road.

The Hilton Hotel heiress and Lionel Richie's wildchild daughter turned the first series of their down-on-the-farm reality show into a ratings winner and now they're planning a second trip to rural America.

This time, the girls will travel cross-country in a Winnebago.
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OutKast break Bee Gees record
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Rap duo Outkast are more popular than any other act in America - they've notched up an amazing seven weeks at number one and two on the Billboard Hot 100 chart.

No one can budge the pair's hits Hey Ya! and The Way You Move from the top two spots on the chart, and that feat has earned them a place in the record books.

Only the Bee Gees can come close to matching them - the brothers spent five weeks at the top with Stayin' Alive and Night Fever in 1978.
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Beyonce tapped to play Lois Lane in new 'Superman' movie
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Texan singer Beyonce Knowles is being tipped to star opposite Oscar-nominee Johnny Depp (as Lex Luthor) in the forthcoming Superman movie.

The Crazy in Love hitmaker, 22, is in discussions with Warner Brothers bosses about the possibility of taking the role of Clark Kent's journalist girlfriend Lois Lane.

The Pirates of the Caribbean star is favourite to play baddie Lex Luthor, while relative British unknown Henry Cavill will play the caped crusader in Superman: the Last Son of Krypton.

Beyonce caught the eye of producers after her sexy performance in Austin Powers in Goldmember and more recently The Fighting Temptations. A studio source says, "Beyonce is perfect to play Lois. She's feisty and sexy."
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Usher Makes Record-Breaking Debut Atop Albums Chart
MTV
Having sold nearly 1.1 million copies of his new album, Confessions, in its first week, Usher will rise to the top of next week's Billboard albums chart, leaving a stream of broken records in his wake.

With those numbers, the star has the highest opening-week sales of any album released this year, and the seventh best of the SoundScan era, behind 'NSYNC's No Strings Attached (2.3 million) and Celebrity (1.8 million), Eminem's The Marshall Mathers LP (1.7 million), Backstreet Boys' Black & Blue (1.5 million), Britney Spears' Oops! ... I Did It Again (1.3 million) and Backstreet Boys' Millennium (1.1 million).

But the accolades for the smooth-crooning ladies' man don't stop there.

Usher wins the distinction of having the highest first-week total of any R&B artist in SoundScan's 13-year history — his sales numbers crush those of R. Kelly, who sold more than 543,000 copies of TP-2.com in 2000, and Destiny Child's Survivor, which moved 663,000 in May 2001. It's also the best one-week total of any male artist since Eminem released The Marshall Mathers LP in 2000.

Usher's follow-up to 2001's 8701 also has the highest first-week figure of any album released by Arista Records, trumping the total of the Notorious B.I.G.'s posthumously released Life After Death in 1997, which sold more than 689,000 copies. Confessions also betters one-week sales of the Arista-released soundtrack to Whitney Houston's "The Bodyguard," which sold more than 1 million copies in December 1992.

The success arrives a week after the 30-year-old label dissolved into Jive Records.

"To see that this album has sold a million in one week is history," Usher said. "I'm happy, I'm privileged. It says a lot for what R&B is capable of. I don't think that everybody could do it. It's not something that is very easy to do. I can't say that it has happened based off of just this one album. All of the albums in the past, all of the support of the people who have been with me through this journey, and the new people I am introducing myself to, have made it possible."
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