Afternoon Briefing:
The Bill and Dan show: Bill Clinton will go on "60 Minutes" June 20 to talk about his memoir, "My Life," with Dan Rather. The book will be released by Knopf two days later. People are taking bets on the final length of the book, which was a hefty 957 pages on delivery. (Poynter Forums)
Madonna's rakin' it in: The most material girl is at it again, with her Reinvention Tour expected to make a cool $120 million when all is sung and done. The 120-city tour is sold out and fans will get to hear some of the great old stuff this time, since the playlist will include "Like a Prayer" and "Deeper and Deeper" as well as the timely war imagery she debuted during last year's tour. (NME)
Bono will be rakin' it in, too: But for a different cause. The U2 frontman and political activist at large will hold Live Aid II, 20 years after the first one. The date of the concert will be announced later this week, but the lineup will probably include Robbie Williams, Oasis, Coldplay, Paul McCartney and the first Live Aid organizer Bob Geldof. The proceeds will go to relieving third-world debt. The original Live Aid raised approximately $110 million. (AFP)
Is that vodka between your legs or are you just glad to see me? Remember the blond hunk (Jason Lewis) who played Samantha's young lover Smith Jerrod in "Sex and the City"? Remember how he posed for an Absolut Vodka ad, holding a bottle of the booze in a strategic position? Now Lewis claims Absolut is exploiting that image on the Internet to promote its product. He's filed a lawsuit and is awaiting a reply. (IMDB)
Too much trouble: While China is telling Britney Spears to behave (see Morning Briefing below) if she wants to play in China, the Rolling Stones are saying "never mind." The Chinese government asked the Stones to omit a few songs from their roster ("Brown Sugar," "Honky Tonk Woman" and "Let's Spend the Night Together" being a few) so Mick et al. said they'd take a rain check and stop by Beijing some other time. (BBC)
You can look but you'd better not touch: Kwame Jackson (the winning contestant on "The Apprentice") was fired the other day as a judge in the Miss Universe contest in Ecuador after The Donald (who runs the pageant) found Jackson had been "mingling" with some of the contestants at their hotel. (TV Guide)
Martha offers to help women clean up: Martha Stewart, anxious to avoid time in a poorly decorated cell, has offered to help teach women how to start their own businesses in exchange for leniency. She has already developed a curriculum on "the art and science of cleaning" that she hopes to teach at the Women's Venture Fund, a nonprofit group in New York. Stewart is scheduled for sentencing June 17. (AFP)
-- Karen Croft
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Turn On:
The second season of "Queer Eye for the Straight Guy"(10 p.m. ET; Bravo) begins Tuesday night; the Fab Five return in all their glorious subtlety, making over a pair of Greco-Roman wrestling-obsessed twins from Queens. A premiere of a different sort: Trio is airing the original pilot of "Cop Rock"(8 p.m. ET; Trio), Steven Bocho's legendary, short-lived 1990 musical cop drama.
-- Scott Lamb
Morning Briefing:
Pretty babies: Actress Julia Roberts and her husband, Danny Moder, are expecting twins. The 36-year-old superstar and her husband of two years will celebrate the double births early next year, her spokeswoman, Marcy Engelman, told People magazine. The babies will be Roberts' first children. A friend told the Sun, ">
The smell of money: It was only a matter of time before ubiquitous socialite Paris Hilton consummated a fragrance deal. As reported by WWD on May 5, the hotel heiress had signed a letter of intent in early May with Fort Lauderdale, Fla.-based Parlux Fragrances to develop, manufacture and distribute prestige fragrances and related beauty products under her name. The first fruits of Hilton's labor are expected to be out by the end of the year.(WWD.com)
"Shrek 2" still No 1: "Shrek 2" shattered box office records over the Memorial Day weekend. The animated sequel took in a record $92.2 million and helped fuel Hollywood's best Memorial Day weekend ever. The long-weekend take of "Shrek 2" beat the previous record holder, "The Lost World: Jurassic Park," which made $90.2 million over the 1997 Memorial Day weekend. "Shrek 2" has made $257 million since opening May 19, sparking speculation it could eventually beat the $340 million mark for an animated film set by "Finding Nemo." (News Wire Services, via N.Y. Daily News)
Babs pays out:After months of wrangling, Barbra Streisand met a court-imposed deadline Friday and coughed up $177,000 in legal fees to her opponents in a lawsuit battle over Web photos of her Malibu compound. Streisand sued photographer Kenneth Adelman in May 2003 for $10 million, alleging invasion of privacy after Adelman snapped aerial shots of Streisand's posh property for California Coastal Records Project (californiacoastline.org), his online effort devoted to documenting the Golden State's oceanfront land. The complaint was dismissed last December, with the privacy-obsessed diva ordered to comp the former defendants' legal fees. The photo can be found in a couple of places on Adelman's site, including in the ever-expanding section devoted to the lawsuit filings. Its caption: "The photo Barbra Streisand is complaining about." (E!Online)
Beijing warns Britney: China welcomes sexually charged entertainer Britney Spears -- as long as she only shows off her vocal talents and does not engage in Janet Jackson-style nipple baring, state media said on Tuesday. Spears is scheduled to give five concerts in China next year, including in Beijing and Shanghai, but the country's cultural officials have demanded that they get to check her clothes first, the China News Service reported. "Every aspect of her tour will have to undergo examination and approval," the agency said. "That especially goes for the clothes she'll be wearing. The requirement is that they don't show too much." (Independent Online)
-- Corrie Pikul
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