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Madonna Compares McCain to Hitler, Obama to Gandhi Photo of Noel Sheppard. By Noel Sheppard (Bio | Archive) August 24, 2008 - 11:00 ET In case you missed it with the Olympics going on, Russia invading Georgia, and the campaign for president in full swing, pop star Madonna started her much-awaited tour in Wales Saturday. Amidst the requisite autoerotic writhing and gyrating, Madonna managed to bash John McCain -- actually equating him to Adolf Hitler and Robert Mugabe! -- while comparing Barack Obama to Mahatma Gandhi. I kid you not. As reported by the Associated Press Saturday (emphasis added, photo...

Toby Keith: Obama's 'Best Democratic Candidate We've Had Since Bill Clinton' Toby Keith Praises Obama Tuesday, August 19, 2008 By Ryan Pearson, Associated Press Los Angeles - Barack Obama is getting praise from Nashville, courtesy of one big, patriotic country star. Toby Keith, perhaps best known to non-country audiences for his post-Sept. 11 song "Courtesy of the Red, White and Blue," says he's a Democrat, and was impressed by the senator from Illinois.

TAMPA, Fla. - The Super Bowl might be six months away from coming to town, but the celebrity rumors already are running rampant. The New York Post's Page Six reported on Tuesday that Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band will perform live at the Super Bowl halftime show on Feb. 1 at Raymond James Stadium. Amanda Holt, the director of communications for the local Super Bowl Committee, said this is the first she has heard of it.

Canadian singer-songwriter Neil Young was interviewed on PBS's Charlie Rose show. The show, almost a complete hour, can be watched at this link. (Thanks to Jay for the tip.) If you can get past some of the political baggage, and you like Neil Young, it's an entertaining interview, where Young comes across funny, sincere and kind of sweetly naïve. With regard to the politics and his Let's Impeach the President phase, Young certainly is giving the distinct impression of having second thoughts. Some of what he says when Charlie prods him on the war: I look at it Charlie as...

Sorry if this is old news but this is the first time I've seen this movie. In "Shut Up And Sing" Natalie Maines names FR as the blog that started all thier probelems. WAY TO GO FR! Still watching on the Encore Drama channel.

This is the most graceless stunt I’ve seen a while. Leon Fleisher, the conductor and pianist, received a Kennedy Center honor. As part of the weekend of festivities associated with this prestigious award, Fleisher was invited to attend a White House reception along with the four other honorees (Brian Wilson, Steve Martin, Diana Ross, and Martin Scorcese). This caused the conductor to wrestle with his conscience. In the past seven years, Bush administration policies have amounted to a systematic shredding of our nation's Constitution — the illegal war it initiated and perpetuates; the torturing of prisoners; the espousing of "values"...

On the eve of the New York Philharmonic's departure on an Asian tour that will include a visit to Pyongyang, its music director, Lorin Maazel, suggested that Americans are not in a position to criticize the North Korean regime, because America's own record on human rights is flawed. "People who live in glass houses shouldn't throw bricks, should they?" Mr. Maazel told the Associated Press. "Is our standing as a country — the United States — is our reputation all that clean when it comes to prisoners and the way they are treated? Have we set an example that should...

Finally, after nearly a year we get to the bottom of the story. Last spring, you were held up as a parody of environmental correctness when you proposed restricting the use of toilet paper to one square per bathroom visit. What was that about? I think it’s a fantastic and eye-opening example of how the media is operated by political figures, of how Karl Rove was humiliated in the media and how, within 24 hours, he was able to humiliate me and take any sort of credibility away from me. What are you saying? You think Karl Rove leaked the...

The Dixie Chicks are partners in name only - the multi-platinum- selling trio is all but broken up, according to a source close to the group.Natalie Maines and sisters Martie Maguire and Emily Robison made just a handful of appearances together in 2007 - and now they rarely even talk, the source reveals. "The girls have gone their separate ways," the source close to the Texas-raised country musicians told The ENQUIRER. "They were not getting along when they toured together during 2006, but they managed to stay civil. Now when they're not forced to be together, the girls don't even...

Stars who spout 'pseudo-science should check their facts first'By FIONA MACRAE - More by this author » Last updated at 23:29pm on 2nd January 2008  Nicole Kidman: Criticised for promoting a computer brain workout programme   When your name's Nicole Kidman or Gwyneth Paltrow, everyone wants to hear what you have to say. But before holding forth on their favourite remedy, celebrities should get their facts straight, experts say. The two Hollywood actresses, along with the TV presenter Gillian McKeith and fashion designer Stella McCartney, are singled out by a charity founded to increase the public's understanding of scientific...

NEW YORK (AP) -- Billy Joel has released a new pop single, the anti-war "Christmas in Fallujah." Just don't expect to hear his voice on it. Billy Joel gave his newest song, "Christmas in Fallujah," to 21-year-old Cass Dillon. At 58, Joel felt he was too old to sing the song, which was inspired by letters the Piano Man received from soldiers in Iraq. So he gave it to Cass Dillon, a 21-year-old singer-songwriter from Long Island. "I thought it should be somebody young, about a soldier's age," Joel said in a statement on his Web site. "I wanted to...

The Dixie Chicks have a new controversy on their hands. Lead singer Natalie Maines is urging people to contribute money to a defense fund for three Arkansas men that she (and many others) believe were wrongly convicted of killing three children in 1993. Maines writes her plea on the Dixie Chicks Web site, which has already been answered by several celebrities including, I am told, Johnny Depp, Winona Ryder, Eddie Vedder, Jack Black and Henry Rollins. "I'm writing this letter today because I believe that three men have spent the past 13 years in prison for crimes they didn't commit,"...

Liberal Democrat Presidential Candidate John Edwards, in between $400 haircuts and a busy schedule of chasing Ambulances around two different Americas made an appearance at a John Mellencamp concert in Iowa and was booed off the stage. The Politico: Mellencamp, standing alone on stage with his guitar, then launched into Tough It Out and Be the Best You Can followed by Jesus Can You Give Me a Ride Back Home? and another song about youth and love. The crowd erupted as he started Small Town and sang the lyrics as though Wells Fargo Arena were one of those sing-along piano...

Mellencamp, standing alone on stage with his guitar, then launched into Tough It Out and Be the Best You Can followed by Jesus Can You Give Me a Ride Back Home? and another song about youth and love. The crowd erupted as he started Small Town and sang the lyrics as though Wells Fargo Arena were one of those sing-along piano bars. It's at this point Mellencamp gestures and John Edwards walks on stage. After a few cheers boos overtake the hall. "I've been in your small towns," Edwards said as Mellencamp stepped aside to give Edwards a place behind...

Big Paychecks for U2 Millionaires Oct. 26, 2007 The Associated Press U2 Ltd., the Irish band's music publishing company, raked in $30 million-plus last year — and $25.8 million of it went to five unidentified "employees," according to documents obtained Friday by The Associated Press. Those "employees" are suspected to be the band members and their longtime manager, Paul McGuinness. But U2's public relations firms in Dublin and London refused to confirm that. While Bono has won accolades worldwide for raising awareness of Third World poverty, he has been criticized for moving U2's corporate offices out of Ireland to avoid...

On his new album, "Magic," Springsteen jumps right into the fray again. In a dramatic new REM-ish anthem called "Last to Die," he sings: "Who'll be the last to die for a mistake/The last to die for a mistake/Whose blood will spill, whose heart will break/Who'll be the last to die for a mistake." The mistake is clearly the Iraq war. "We don't measure the blood we've drawn anymore," he sings. "We just stack the bodies outside the door."

The Oct 18 and 20 concert dates with Dixie Chicks/Eagles at Nokia Theatre LA Live were sold out in a few minutes.

Joni Mitchell is back after nine years, and she’s on the attack. In the title track to her new album, “Shine,” Mitchell takes a nice swipe at the Catholic Church by name. “Shine on the Catholic Church/And the prisons that it owns,” she sings. “Shine on all the Churches/that love less and less.” Mitchell was never one to mince words, but in her triumphant return on Starbucks’ Hear Records, she doesn’t give an inch. In “Shine,” she continues: “Shine on lousy leadership/Licensed to kill/Shine on dying soldiers/In patriotic pain/Shine on mass destruction/In some God's name!” Mitchell’s album will be...

Actress Kathy Griffin's rant at the Emmy awards in which she told Jesus to "suck it" has triggered a petition campaign intended to tell Hollywood "Enough is Enough!" Griffin, the star of the Bravo show "My Life on the D-List," was being honored for the Outstanding Reality Program, overtaking ABC's "Extreme Makeover: Home Edition" after multiple attempts, when she launched into the tirade.

Producers of Sunday's Emmy telecast bleeped drama actress winner Sally Field in the midst of a controversial acceptance speech attacking U.S. involvement in Iraq. "If mothers ruled the world, there wouldn't be any god -" she said when the sound went dead and the camera suddenly turned away from the stage so viewers would be distracted. Chopped off were the words "goddamn wars in the first place." (The phrase was not censored in the Canadian telecast.) "This belongs to all the mothers of the world -- may they be seen and valued," she added when she won for outstanding actress...