Steven Tyler and Cee-Lo Thought 'Idol' Feud Is Fake

Two celebrities have agreed that the feud between Mariah Carey and Nicki Minaj on "American Idol" audition was actually staged. Steven Tyler, who used to judge the show with Randy Jackson and Jennifer Lopez for two seasons, called it a BS, so did "The Voice" coach Cee-Lo.

TMZ caught up with Tyler outside a restaurant on Friday, October 5 night, asking him whether he thought the fighting was not real. " 'Course, are you kidding?" he told the reporter, adding that he would never go back to the show. Tyler quit last season to pursue new projects with Aerosmith.

Meanwhile, Cee-Lo commented, "This is Hollywood, California. Hardly anything's legit."

Host Ryan Seacrest himself has admitted that the feud was good for the ratings. "We want that! We want them to be on this panel together. This is a good team, a great team, to go out and look for the next American Idol ... the feedback that they give is very good," he said on his morning radio show earlier this week.

source: aceshowbiz.com

Henry Rollins, Pete Yorn, Priscilla Presley Pay Tribute to Johnny Ramone in L.A.

Johnny Ramone was remembered Sunday by a crowd of friends and punk rock contemporaries that X guitarist Billy Zoom called "a class reunion" at the annual tribute to the Ramones guitarist at Hollywood Forever Cemetery. Hundreds of fans lined up for autographs from the likes of Henry Rollins, Sex Pistol Steve Jones and Rock 'n' High School actress P.J. Soles.

"For a cemetery it's very pleasant. Johnny would have loved this," said Tommy Ramone (né Erdelyi), the last surviving original member of the band. Every year, he attends tributes to both Johnny and Joey Ramone.

"We were innovative," he told Rolling Stone. "What we did was very unique and very original. Also, there was nothing like these guys. They were so different and so unusual. It was one of a kind."

Nearby was a large statue of the Ramones guitarist and leader, frozen in mid-riff and surrounded by a red velvet rope, standing among tombstones of ancient Hollywood stars and bandmate Dee Dee Ramone. Jones joked that he planned to build his own pyramid at the cemetery.

It was the ninth event in Johnny's honor since the unveiling of the statue in 2005, just months after his death. Among the guests were Soundgarden singer Chris Cornell, actress Rose McGowan, artist Shepard Fairey, model Dita Von Teese, Stray Cats drummer Slim Jim Phantom, Rock 'n' Roll High School co-writer Richard Whitley and Priscilla Presley (who was there to introduce a screening of Elvis Presley's favorite film, King Creole, which closed the night). It is organized annually by the guitarist's widow, Linda Ramone.

"Linda is cool. She is such a character," said singer-songwriter Pete Yorn, who first met the guitarist and his wife after recording "I Wanna Be Your Boyfriend" for the 2003 tribute album We're a Happy Family, which was executive produced by Johnny Ramone. "She reminds me of Johnny so much. She's like a bridge to him in a weird way. Her persona's very similar. She has a strong Queens accent. I feel like his spirit is surrounding her all the time."

Waiting in line for autographs, fans young and old carried copies of Johnny's posthumously published autobiography, Commando, along with vintage albums and guitars. Soles, whose career enjoyed a run of popular and cult movies, including Stripes with Bill Murray and the horror classics Halloween and Carrie – still hears from fans about her role as No. 1 Ramones fan Riff Randell in Rock 'n' Roll High School. It wasn't a hit at the time.

"It took a long time, and it's the same kind of thing with the Ramones' career – and it's lasted and lasted," she said. "If the Ramones were not in that movie, I don't think Rock 'n' Roll High School would have lasted. It was a perfect blending. It's brought a lot of joy to a lot of people."

Mingling with his family in the VIP section was Cornell, who first met Johnny Ramone while on tour in Australia. The guitarist had heard Soundgarden's cover of the Ramones' "I Can't Give You Anything," a version "that he actually liked, which apparently was rare," Cornell told Rolling Stone. "We were friends ever since."

The two bands also toured together as part of Lollapalooza in 1996. Their friendship was especially meaningful for Cornell, who first discovered the Ramones when he was 16, years before the band was recognized as an essential influence on the generations that came after.

"Some things are ahead of their time. The greats are always eventually understood to be that," Cornell said. "I went from AC/DC to them. Before that it was prog-rock. It was AC/DC that led me to understand what good music was, and then it was the Ramones. It changed my life."

source: rollingstone.com

Fiona Apple Balances Intensity, Wit at the Hollywood Palladium

Fiona Apple is a lover and a fighter who doesn't differentiate much between a strike and a kiss. The stormy dynamics of her romantic relationships, excavated in many of her songs, carried through on stage at the Hollywood Palladium Sunday, where she gripped her face, pulled on her hair and lashed her voice until it frayed. It was Apple's way of wooing a devoted hometown crowd full of fans who sang along and screamed "I love you!"

She arrived apologizing for being half an hour late, blaming her nerves. But for all her human emotions, Apple also seems to think of herself as a machine who can survive, even thrive, when pushed to extremes. She hovered on the brink of breakdown during "Criminal," standing at the microphone with her gaunt frame folded into itself as she tore into the self-flagellating lyrics. Apple kept her eyes shut, as if she didn't want to witness her own thrashing.

Fortunately, Apple balances the intensity with theatrical wit. That combination has never been more mesmerizing than on her new album, "The Idler Wheel." Influenced by her Broadway veteran parents and cabaret-singing sister Maude Maggart, Apple sometimes seems like Edith Piaf if she'd grown up watching Girls. While her backing band re-created the churn and clatter of "Anything We Want," Apple sang the song's most playful line in a quavering voice: "Let's pretend like we're eight years old playing hooky/ I'll draw on the wall and you can play UFC rookie."

The small group of musicians on stage with Apple, including guitarist Blake Mills (who opened the evening with an intriguing set of country-tinged porch music), took two tacks in supporting their little sparrow. Their playing was muscular and bruising in "On the Bound," all the better for Apple to rush to her piano and plunk out a few chords.

Other times they hewed close to the bare percussive settings of "Idler Wheel." Though the audience gamely followed either course, the more bluesy treatments of Apple's older songs sometimes made them feel out of date. For "Sleep to Dream," Mills finished the song with a blast of guitar soloing that felt more appropriate for a honky-tonk dive. It seemed like the guitar was intended as the instrumental copy of Apple's feral but controlled vocals, but the song sounded fresher when it was stripped back.

For "Daredevil," the band's muscle seamlessly meshed with the song's minimal rhythms. Drummer Amy Wood raced along with Apple, who by the end of the song had found her way to her own pair of mallets, bringing them down for the last beat. It was one of the few moments when Apple seemed a little more loose, her body not wired to explode. Throughout the evening, her tension simultaneously connected her to the crowd and kept her at some distance.

But her focus was always dazzling, as were the limber tones of her voice, from supple conversation to hoarse despair. With her low moan drawing out the chorus of "Shadowboxer," her defensive posturing seemed more convincing than ever. Apple was only 18 when the song came out in 1996 and already hip to love's tricks. But now at age 34, she's smart enough to know that spotting the dangers doesn't offer any real protection from getting ensnared all over again.

Skipping the formalities of the encore with a funny little speech about it, Apple launched into a lovely cover of Conway Twitty's "It's Only Make Believe," which she delivered with the conviction of someone who intimately knows that fantasies can keep us going through the darkest hours.

source: rollingstone.com

Cruise Doubts He Could Sell Rock Star Act In Film

MANILA, Philippines --- Hollywood superstar Tom Cruise once thought he wouldn’t be able to convince the public of his portrayal of fictional rock star Stacee Jaxx in the film version of “Rock of Ages.”

During the early days of filming, Cruise confided to director Adam Shankman that if he could not sing the part, he wouldn’t be up for it.

Recalled Shankman, “There was a moment when we were looking at each other and Tom said, ‘Well, what if I can’t sell this? Because I won’t do it if it’s not me singing.’ With everything he does, from stunts to performing in front of an audience, it has to be him doing it.

“He believes his audience has come to expect that, and why bother doing it otherwise? But this is what he loves. He loves making movies and he wants to be really good, so he works harder than anybody at it.”

But Cruise went to great lengths to pull the rock star stunt. Instead of concentrating on cuts of his muscles, which he usually does in his action films, Cruise zeroed in on his vocal capacity. He would later realize that he can in fact sing very well. Yes, even that belting part, Cruise did well, all by himself, in “Rock of Ages.”

“From the moment he signed on, Tom started training his voice with an incredible vocal coach, Ron Anderson,” said Shankman.

“I remember the first time we heard him sing. He’s got this outrageous, four-octave range – turns out he has opera singers in his ancestry, so he’s probably genetically predisposed to sing, but no one’s ever asked him to before. I’m just the lucky recipient of this revelation, I suppose.”

The filmmaker confessed to feeling of relief when he found out Cruise could really pipe out songs because he had always wanted a Hollywood biggie to play Stacee Jaxx. “The joy at having discovered that he can sing was a huge relief.” Shankman admitted.

In the plot, “Stacee Jaxx is the rock god that every guy wants to be and that every woman wants to bed. The lead singer of Arsenal, Stacee is at a turning point in his career, and in his life. He’s about to go solo, and his final show with the band is at The Bourbon Room.

It’s a homecoming of sorts, as he played his first gig there back in the day. But fame and fortune may have come too easily to the front man who, after years of indulgence, has become boozed up and blasé to the point of bored, and less than reliable when it comes to showing up for his own shows.”

Shankman looked back at how his casting dream became a reality: “I was thinking to myself, ‘Wouldn’t it be cool if we got one of the biggest movie stars in the world to play one of the biggest rock stars in the world?’ As luck would have it, I ran into Tom Cruise, told him I was directing this movie, that it was a musical, and that I was going to offer him this part. He said, ‘Are you serious?’ I said I was. Then I described Stacee to him and he laughed really hard. The next thing I knew, he was in, and I was making a musical with Tom Cruise.”

Luckily for the “Hairspray” director, Cruise exceeded expectations: “Tom is a rock god because he brings all of the star power that comes along with being Tom Cruise, and he’s found a character that audiences have never seen before.”

However, Cruise is not the only A-lister lending star power to the film, Alec Baldwin and Catherine Zeta-Jones are also on board as well as Russell Brand, Paul Giamati an Malin Akerman.

The New Line Cinema production distributed by Warner Bros. Pictures opens June 14.

source: mb.com.ph

Def Leppard and Poison Take Over Hollywood for 'Rock of Ages' Premiere

The Eighties-themed musical Rock of Ages had its star-studded premiere in Hollywood last night, bringing out cast members like Tom Cruise, Alec Baldwin, Catherine Zeta-Jones and Russell Brand as well as a wide array of Eighties rockers, from REO Speedwagon's Kevin Cronin to Lita Ford.

Those veterans of the Sunset Strip music scene were right at home. "It's not 2012 tonight," MC Riki Rachtman told the star-studded crowd, taking everyone back to the days of big hair and big hooks. And for one night it was 1987 again as the makeshift "Bourbon Club," the fictional venue that serves as the center of the movie, delivered pyrotechnic-laden sets from a "fired-up" Bret Michaels with Poison and Def Leppard.

"To be here with Catherine, Tom and everyone and having a party, that’s an awesome day," Bret Michaels told Rolling Stone. "And the fact that it’s with Def Leppard, my friends, I’m in my natural environment."

Def Leppard also felt comfortable, though guitarist Phil Collen noted that some musicians get nervous at this kind of high-profile gig. "They go, 'Oh my god, look who’s over there,'" he said. As for Collen, he loves being the center of attention. "I’m really cool with it. In fact when we’ve had like Jimmy Page on the side of the stage, we’ve had everybody come down, I kind of ham it up and actually it works in my favor," he said. "[And] tonight, because we met Tom and he’s so super cool, I think it’s gonna be a blast."

"We were there when Tom sung his bits for 'Pour Some Sugar On Me,'" Joe Elliott added. "It was in Fort Lauderdale about a year ago. We just played West Palm Beach and they invited us to come and see him shoot it, that was very cool." Count Elliott among the many impressed with Cruise's transformation into a rock star. "He was great," Elliott said. "He got really kind of in deep with the project."

For many attendees, last night was also just a celebration of the era. "Hollywood Boulevard, Sunset Boulevard, Santa Monica Boulevard, we were all one big family," Lita Ford said. And it was also a chance to maybe get some vindication. After all, the Eighties hard rock scene has often been regarded as the bastard step-child of the time, maligned in the same way disco was lambasted in the Seventies.

But a big Hollywood film and hit Broadway musical based on the songs of the time gives the tunes more credibility. "I think right now we have empirical proof that this music is infinitely more enduring than people gave it credit for back then," director Adam Shankman told Rolling Stone.

That is music to the ears of some of those who have not been treated kindly by critics over the years. "When you see the longevity of it, it does kind of make people kind of go, 'You know what? REO Speedwagon didn’t suck as much as I thought they did,'" Kevin Cronin said. "'They still suck, but not as much as I thought.'”

Elliott believes that those who give the music a chance will find some gems. "We don’t need a film to vindicate the fact that the Eighties had its moments," he said. "So many people knock it, Lou Reed fans and Loudon Wainwright fans, whatever, they have a go at the Sunset Strip and say, 'Oh, it’s awful.' There is some good stuff. For people brave enough to be honest, you’ll find there’s a lot of great music in the Eighties."

source: rollingstone.com