ANOTHER PROFESSIONAL IDOL SINGER

i did not like Carly Smith, the American Idol who had already a record deal before she joined the reality TV season 7.

This Season 8, they sent Joanna Pacitti to Hollywood when she passed the audition despite the fact that she was already singing professionally with a record deal to boot.

Here is the news from New York Post.

AMERICAN Idol" has be come second-chance "Idol" for Season 8's Joanna Pacitti - and it's got some of the show's fans up-in-arms.

Like Carly Smithson, whose record deal with MCA when she was just a teenager caused a firestorm of controversy last season, Pacitti is using "Idol" to jump-start a dead career - but is meeting even more resistance from "Idol" fans than Smithson.

Pacitti first made national headlines in 1996 when, at the age of 12, she was fired from the cast of "Annie" before the show hit Broadway. Her parents sued and settled for an undisclosed sum.

Later, A&M signed her to a record contract, keeping her under development for five years. At first, she cut songs for several movie soundtracks, including "Legally Blonde" (2001) and "Bratz: Motion Picture Soundtrack" (2007).

Eventually, she released an album, "This Crazy Life," that, according to Billboard's Jaded Insider, has sold 15,000 copies since its 2006 release. Pacitti "was a big priority" at the label, according to Billboard insiders.

By comparison, Smithson's MCA album "Ultimate High," from 2001, sold only around 6,000 copies.

If Smithson was an "Idol" plant - a term coined by the irreverent "Idol" site, Vote for the Worst - Pacitti is a veritable sequoia.

And there's more.

If Pacitti's background in theater and music wasn't enough professional experience, she also starred in a reality show, "MTV's First Year," which followed her attempts at a music career.

The Basis of the John Travolta Case Extortion

The Senator of Bahamas had resigned over the alleged extortion she made to the Travolta Family and another person is in jail. The extortion was in relation to the death of Jett Travolta, the only son of John Travolta. The basis of extortion was never published.

TMZ has a news about it.

We've now gotten to the bottom of the mystery document that was the basis for the alleged extortion plot in the John Travolta case.

Sources connected with the investigation tell us John Travolta told EMT workers he wanted to fly his son to Florida rather than drive by ambulance to the hospital....which was 45 minutes away.

There was a disagreement over which course would be better. John felt initially it might take the same amount of time to get his son to Florida where he might get better care.

The document at issue would have released emergency services from any liability if Travolta elected the Florida route.

In the end John realized the hospital was Jett's best hope.

MICHALE JACKSON SUED AGAIN

It seems that Michael JAckson would never shake his being a magnet for lawsuits.
After moving to Los Angeles, he was sued by Hollywood film director John Landis for non-payment of his share in the video Thriller.

Here is the news.

Michael Jackson, who recently moved back to Los Angeles to be near "where the action is", has been slapped with a breach-of-contract lawsuit by the veteran Hollywood film director John Landis, who says he has not been paid his share of the profits from the iconic “Thriller” video for at least four years.



The suit was filed in Los Angeles Superior Court last week.


It is not exactly the warm welcome Jackson had in mind for his return to southern California, and it raises new questions about his disastrous personal finances, which have generated almost as much gossip in recent years as his multiple plastic surgeries, his freakshow public appearances and his fondness for the company of pubescent boys.



In the absence of any readily identifiable attorney representing Jackson – none has emerged after six days -- the legal action also shines a light on the mysterious Los Angeles physician, Tohme Tohme, who appears to have taken charge of the singer's business and legal affairs.

Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie's Malibu mansion up for sale

Last year, Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie bought a manor in France. Now they're selling their Malibu for sale. The family has been travelling and staying in different places.
Could it be that they prefer to live abroad when they're not making films?


Here is the news from MSNBC.

At Newsweek’s Oscar roundtable Brad Pitt mentioned that he and Angelina Jolie are putting their Malibu house up for sale. (Robert Downey Jr., citing his “pretty good year,” seemed interested in buying it.)

The bigger story: The Jolie-Pitts might not just be decamping from Hollywood, but they might go abroad to get away from the publicity machine.

“The publicity machine is out of control. It's everything we didn't sign up for,” Pitt told Newsweek. “There's this whole other entity that you get sucked into. You have to go and sell your wares. It's something I never made my peace with. Somehow you're not supporting your film if you don't get on a show and talk about your personal life.

Bahamas Senator on Extortion Charge by the Travolta Family

I do not know what drove a lady senator in her alleged extortion of Travolta Family regarding the death of the son early part of this year.

This is the news from MSNBC.

NASSAU, Bahamas - A Bahamas senator accused of trying to extort money from actor John Travolta after his son’s death resigned on Saturday and vowed to prove her innocence.

Sen. Pleasant Bridgewater, an attorney from Grand Bahama, said she plans to fight “untrue and unfair charges” stemming from actions she took as a lawyer.

“How these innocent actions can be so misconstrued, so perversely twisted to mean something other than it was, is a mystery,” she said without providing more details.

Oscar Nominees 2009

Oscars 2009: The nominees

Here is the complete shortlist for the 81st Academy Awards, which are being held at the Kodak Theatre in Los Angeles on 22 February.

Best picture
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
Frost/Nixon
Milk
The Reader
Slumdog Millionaire

Best director
Danny Boyle - Slumdog Millionaire
Stephen Daldry - The Reader
David Fincher - The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
Ron Howard - Frost/Nixon
Gus Van Sant - Milk

Best actor
Richard Jenkins - The Visitor
Frank Langella - Frost/Nixon
Sean Penn - Milk
Brad Pitt - The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
Mickey Rourke - The Wrestler

Best actress
Anne Hathaway - Rachel Getting Married
Angelina Jolie - Changeling
Melissa Leo - Frozen River
Meryl Streep - Doubt
Kate Winslet - The Reader

Best supporting actress
Amy Adams - Doubt
Penelope Cruz - Vicky Cristina Barcelona
Viola Davis - Doubt
Taraji P Henson - The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
Marisa Tomei - The Wrestler

Best supporting actor
Josh Brolin - Milk
Robert Downey Jr - Tropic Thunder
Philip Seymour Hoffman - Doubt Heath Ledger - The Dark Knight Michael Shannon - Revolutionary Road

Best foreign language film
Revanche - Austria
The Class - France
The Baader Meinhof Complex - Germany
Departures - Japan
Waltz With Bashir - Israel

Best animated feature film
Bolt
Kung Fu Panda
Wall-E

Best adapted screenplay
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
Doubt
Frost/Nixon
The Reader
Slumdog Millionaire

Best original screenplay
Happy-Go-Lucky
Milk
Wall-E
In Bruges
Frozen River

Best original score
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
Defiance
Milk
Slumdog Millionaire
Wall-E

Best original song
Down To Earth - Wall-E
Jai Ho - Slumdog Millionaire
O Saya - Slumdog Millionaire

Art direction
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
Changeling
The Dark Knight
The Duchess
Revolutionary Road

Cinematography
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
Changeling
The Dark Knight
Slumdog Millionaire
The Reader

Costume design
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
Australia
Milk
The Duchess
Revolutionary Road

Best documentary feature
The Betrayal
Encounters at the End of the World
The Garden
Man on Wire
Trouble The Water

Best documentary short subject
The Conscience of Nhem En
The Final Inch
Smile Pinki
The Witness - From the Balcony of Room 306

Film editing
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
The Dark Knight
Frost/Nixon
Milk
Slumdog Millionaire

Make-up
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
The Dark Knight
Hellboy II: The Golden Army

Best live action short film
Auf der Strecke (On The Line)
Manon on the Asphalt
New Boy
The Pig
Spielzeugland (Toyland)

Best animated short film
La Maison en Petits Cubes
Lavatory - Lovestory
Oktapodi
Presto
This Way Up

Sound editing
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
Iron Man
Wanted
Slumdog Millionaire
Wall-E

Sound mixing
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
The Dark Knight
Wanted
Slumdog Millionaire
Wall-E

Visual effects
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
The Dark Knight
Iron Man

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The Celebrities in Obama's Inauguration

Here are the celebrities who will perform in President-Elect Barack Obama's inauguration.


Beyonce, Bono and Bruce Springsteen are on the list.

Other musical performers include Mary J. Blige, Garth Brooks, Sheryl Crow, Renee Fleming, Josh Groban, Herbie Hancock, Heather Headley, John Legend, Jennifer Nettles, John Mellencamp, Usher Raymond IV, Shakira, James Taylor, will.i.am, and Stevie Wonder.

In addition, Jamie Foxx, Martin Luther King III, Queen Latifah and Denzel Washington will take the stage to deliver historical readings. More performers will likely be named.

Executive Producer George Stevens Jr. said the intention is "to root the event in history, celebrating the moments when our nation has united to face great challenges and prevail." See how inaugurations have changed over the years »


Don Mischer, who directed the opening ceremony of the 1996 Olympics and ` recent Super Bowl half-time shows, is directing this event.

"We will have the statue of Abraham Lincoln looking down on our stage and a crowd of hundreds of thousands of people lining the mall -- a tableau any director would relish," Mischer said.

Admission will be free, but security will be tight. Check out an interactive map of Washington

Five gates leading into the area, including one around the Reflecting Pool at the base of the Lincoln Memorial, open at 8 a.m. ET Sunday. Performances start at 2:30 p.m.

HBO paid for exclusive rights to televise Sunday's show, but its feed will be free to all cable and satellite viewers from 7 p.m. to 9 p.m. ET. It cannot be seen through local broadcast television stations.

The Disney Channel will carry Monday night's big event -- "Kids' Inaugural: We Are The Future" -- from 8 p.m. to 9:30 p.m. ET. Those who don't have cable will be able to hear it live on Radio Disney or watch it online later at Disney.com.

Musical performers will include the Jonas Brothers, Miley Cyrus, Demi Lovato and Bow Wow.

Singer-actress Keke Palmer -- star of Nickelodeon's "True Jackson, VP" -- is one of the hosts for the show, which will be staged in Washington's Verizon Center.

Palmer, 15, hopes to meet Obama's daughters Sasha, 7, and Malia, 10, backstage Monday night.



There should be plenty of celebrity sightings at the swearing-in ceremony at noon ET Tuesday or in the parade starting at 2:30 p.m. Viewers will have no trouble finding a television broadcast of those events.

While inaugural ball tickets are tough to get, one of the 10 balls Tuesday evening will be shown live on ABC television from 8 to 10 p.m. ET. "The Neighborhood Ball: An Inauguration Celebration" is billed by planners as "the premier event of the inauguration evening."

Beyonce, Mary J. Blige, Mariah Carey, Faith Hill, Jay-Z, Alicia Keys, Shakira, Stevie Wonder and others yet to be announced will perform live at the ball.

American Idol goes to David Cook's Country

Audition in Kansas City, the Season Seven champ David Cook's "country" did not disappoint the judges for promising American Idol wannabes.

The audition yielded more than tw odoezens of people worthy of going to Hollywood.
Included among them were:

1. A mother of three who lost her house in a tornado. She has the confidence and her singing style is a mixture of Mary J. Blige and Stevie Wonder.

2. Danny Gokey lost his wife four weeks prior to his audition. He was given a yes vote by the judges.

3. Matt Breitzke,s a a 27-year-old married dad who is a welder. The lady judges gave him a yes while Randy thumbed him down Simon Cowell sent him to Hollywood when he agreed with the girls.

There are not so lucky because they really can not sing like the guy who wore the medal he got when he was in the elementary. Even his mother did not believe he can sing.

Andrew Lang even brought his own cheerleaders. Unluckily they went home with nothing to cheer but the contestant.


One of the successful hopeful is Jason Castro's brother Michael who plays a ukelele.

RICARDO MONTALBAN Died at 88

One of those old movie stars that I can not forgetbecause of the Fantasy Island. Ricardo Montalban died at age 88.

This is the news.

Actor Ricardo Montalban, star of the hit TV series "Fantasy Island," died Wednesday in Los Angeles, a family spokesman said.
Ricardo Montalban attends the opening of a theater named for him in 2004 in Hollywood, California.

Ricardo Montalban attends the opening of a theater named for him in 2004 in Hollywood, California.

Montalban, 88, was in deteriorating health over the past several days but "died peacefully" at 6:30 a.m. at his home, son-in-law Gilbert Smith said.

He understood "it was his time," Smith said. The cause of death was not given.

Montalban rose to prominence as one of the most visible Hispanic actors in post-war Hollywood in the 1950s and 1960s. But his star grew as he took on television roles as the mysterious host Mr. Roarke on the hit drama "Fantasy Island" and as Captain Kirk's archnemesis Khan Noonien Singh in "Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan."

Born in Mexico City, Mexico, on November 25, 1920, Montalban knew at an early age that he wanted to be an actor. He moved to Hollywood as a teenager, and his first big break came when he was cast in a small part in a 1941 play, Tallulah Bankhead's "Her Cardboard Lover."

After starring in 13 Spanish-language films in Mexico, Montalban made his American feature film debut in 1947 in "Fiesta."

AMERICAN IDOL IS BACK

American Idol is back with four judges. Joining the SIMON COWELL, PAULA ABDUL AND RANDY JACKSON IS KARA DIOGUARDI.

DioGuardi brings is more than a pretty face — she’s an accomplished singer and songwriter (she penned hits for Celine Dion, Ashlee Simpson, Kylie Minogue, Pink and Christina Aguilera, among others)

Will it still be a pop culture phenomenon watched by millions every week for four months?

From the 100,000 American Idol wannabes from auditions made in East Rutherford, NJ, Jacksonville, FL, Kansas City, MO, Louisville, KY, Phoenix, AZ, Salt Lake City, UT, San Francisco, CA and San Juan, Puerto Rico , the number is reduced to just a small fraction.


They increased the number of semi-finalists from 24 to 36 and brought back the WILD CARD feature where the contestants who were voted off were given a chance to come back in the competition just like Clay Aiken.

The competition begun with the weird looking costumes, underdressed and overdressed contestants, the usual trying hard wanna be singers and the stories that can squeeze your hearts for pity.

Golden Globes Red Carpet

Kyra Sedgwick


Eva Longoria


Debra Messing


Christina Applegate


Anne Hathaway


America Ferrera with her gray cocktail dress

Brad Pitt defended himself and Angelina Jolie over the Love Triangle issue

Brad Pitt corrected the misinterpretation about Angelina's Jolie that they became an item when they were filming Mr. and Ms. Smith.

The statement of Angelina led to the heated response of Jennifer Aniston of being
"uncool" since Brad and she were still married at that time.

Here is the news:

LOS ANGELES - Brad Pitt is extracting himself from the tabloid love triangle: The actor says his relationship with current flame Angelina Jolie began sometime after splitting from Jennifer Aniston.

In October, Jolie revealed that she and Pitt fell in love while making the 2005 film “Mr. & Mrs. Smith.” In November, Aniston called Jolie’s comments “really uncool,” because she was married to Pitt while the movie was in production.

Pitt sets the record straight in a story posted on W magazine’s Web site Wednesday, defending both women and insisting that his relationship with Jolie didn’t begin until after he and ex-wife Aniston split in 2005.

“What people don’t understand is that we filmed (‘Mr. & Mrs. Smith’) for a year. We were still filming after Jen and I split up,” he continues. “Even then it doesn’t mean that there was some kind of dastardly affair. There wasn’t. I’m very proud of the way that it was handled. It was respectful.”

Pitt says he and Aniston “still check in with each other.”

Lisa Marie Presley defends John Travolta and Kelly Preston on the death of their son

I did not know that Lisa Marie Presley is also a Scientologist .She wrote a blog that defends John Travolta and Kelly Preston who were being critized by some on the tragic death of their son and the Scientology .

Here is the news:

Lisa Marie Presley, friend to John Travolta and Kelly Preston and fellow Scientologist, has taken to her MySpace page to defend the couple after the tragic death of their teenage son Jett, clear up perceived misunderstandings about Scientology and relay how much the Travoltas gave to their son.

A new mom, Presley has been out of the spotlight for months since having twins in early October.

On the blog she writes in part:

Two of my very good friends, (John and Kelly Travolta ) the sweetest people in the world have just encountered the worst possible tragedy a parent could be forced to endure, the death of their son Jett.
My heart is crying and bleeding for them.
I personally would not have it in me to bury my own child.
I am writing this because I have noticed that for the most part, people and the media have been very sympathetic and respectful, but there are those certain ones that want to use this horrible tragedy as an opportunity to once again, blame and or attack Scientology?
Folks, as popular as it has been to discriminate and ridicule Scientology and Scientologist's in the recent past , Now is NOT the time...
It is not true that Scientologist's "Don't believe in " medical care , medicine or medical Doctors and that may have something to do with this terrible tragedy.
Just like anyone else, If one is sick , they go to the doctor, If a medication will make it better then they take it.
If they don't then they are an idiot and you can't blame their religion.
Whatever medical and or physical condition Jett had , I can tell you first hand that his parents were on a tireless, never ending quest to get and provide him with the absolute best care anyone could ever ask for and need, Medically, physically, emotionally, medicinally and spiritually.
I am not writing this to preach my beliefs, I am here to protect my friends.

John Travolta's Son Died

Jett Travolta, John's only son is dead. Instead of celebrating the holidays, the Travoltas are grieving on the loss of their 16-year old son.

Excerpt of the news:

It is a tragic beginning for the Travoltas. Jett Travolta, John


"At this point, we know that John Travolta and Kelly Preston's only son, Jett, had a seizure at around 10 a.m. this morning," attorney Michael Ossi said. "All attempts to revive him were unsuccessful."

The cause of death is not known, Ossi said. An autopsy will be conducted Monday. His body will be transferred to Ocala, Florida, for burial, he said.

Jett's death "was completely out of the blue," he said. "John and Kelly are happy when their children are happy. This is the worst day of John's life."

The Travoltas also have a daughter, Ella, 8.

Bahamian police said a caretaker at the West End resort where the Travoltas were vacationing found the teenager unconcious in the bathroom. Jett Travolta was taken by ambulance to Rand Memorial Hospital in Freeport and was pronounced dead on arrival, police said.
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Jett Travolta had a developmental disability that his parents, John Travolta and Kelly Preston, have linked to Kawasaki disease, an inflammatory disorder of the artery walls that most commonly occurs in young children and can lead to heart disease.