Top Story
It’s all about Madonna. The Material Girl was voted the greatest woman in music history in a recent VH1 poll–and it’s not surprising. Madonna is the most successful female chart act of all time with worldwide sales of more than 140 million records. VH1 also reports that Madonna‘s title track to the upcoming James Bond pic Die Another Day will debut Oct. 7. The video for the tune, which was shot in Los Angeles earlier this month, features the 44-year-old pop diva in death-defying situations, including being strapped into an electric chair and having her head held underwater by double agents. Madonna also has deadly bowler hats flung at her by the nephew of Harold Sakata–the Oddjob character from Goldfinger. The soundtrack to the film, which features seminal house DJ Paul Oakenfold, will be released Nov. 12. Die Another Day, starring Pierce Brosnan and Halle Berry, hits theaters Nov. 22.
Celebs
Jurasssic Park author Michael Crichton and his 13-year-old daughter were bound and robbed by two masked men who broke into their Santa Monica home at about 5 a.m. Monday, Reuters reports. Crichton and his daughter were able to untie themselves and call police once the gunmen left. A spokesman for the writer said Crichton and his daughter were unharmed by the armed men, who stole undisclosed personal items.
Movies
Freddy Got Fingered producer Lauren Lloyd has joined Columbia Pictures’ Easy Rider A.D., the sequel to the 1969 classic starring Peter Fonda, Dennis Hopper and Jack Nicholson. According to Variety, the sequel picks up with Wyatt “Captain America” Earp in prison, falsely accused of the murder of George Hanson. A new charcter sets out to prove his innocence. Shooting is set to begin next spring.
Tube
Bob Geldof and his production company Castaway Productions, Ltd., which owns the worldwide rights to Survivor, are suing the makers of a TV show that stranded B-list celebrities in the Australian bush, claiming they stole the idea from the hit CBS show, The Associated Press reports. Legal proceedings began yesterday against Granada and London Weekend Television, the makers of I’m a Celebrity … Get Me Out of Here! The show stranded eight celebs in the Australian jungle, where they survived on rice and water as viewers voted them off one by one.
Minnie Driver is going to have a U.S. TV series built around her next year, Reuters reports. NBC Entertainment President Jeff Zuckersaid Thursday the series is set for the 2003-2004 season, but neither the network nor the actress has a firm concept for the series yet.
Music
One of the most legendary unreleased tracks in rock history surfaced on the nation’s airwaves this week. Nirvana‘s “You Know You’re Right,” recorded in January 1994–three months before singer Kurt Cobain killed himself–was finally aired after a long fight between surviving Nirvana members Dave Grohl, Krist Novoselic and Cobain‘s widow Courtney Love over the band’s legacy. It remains unclear how the song finally aired, but several radio stations said they obtained it when first surfaced on the Internet, Reuters reports.
A deal could be reached as early as today in the breach of contract case between Courtney Love and Universal Music. The case is set to go to trial next week, but sources told Reuters negotiations had concluded and the deal was just waiting to be signed by both sides. The case goes back to December 1999 when Love decided to stop recording for Geffen, the Universal Music label named in the suit. Geffen/Universal sued Love for five undelivered albums in 2001 and Love countersued the same year.
A judge has decided that a former personal assistant who wrote a tell-all book about John Lennon was bound by a confidentiality agreement, AP reports. The ruling, according Yoko Ono‘s lawyer, will prevent Frederic Seaman “from future exploitation of the Lennon family.” Ono sued Seaman–who pleaded guilty to second-degree larceny in 1983 for stealing Lennon‘s diaries–in 1999, claiming he exploited the musician’s death by stealing priceless family photos and selling them to collectors.
