Fri:14-11-2008

- News Ticker - The Weekly Roundup

Tasty Tidbits On Vanilla Ice, Evermore, Boyzone And More...

- The boys have been behaving badly! We're guessing there will be no Boyzone and Rihanna colabs on the horizon with the news the Irish lads got in a booze-fueled beef with Rihanna's peoples in a Sydney club a few days ago.  Why? Because the ageing popstars tried some dodgy chat up lines on Ri's entorage!   Band member Stephen Gately tells Britain's Daily Mirror, "Well, we did get in to a fight - certainly more than a difference of opinion. We are keeping up that fine image of Irish and too much booze.  It was over a girlfriend of one of Rihanna's band members. We just wanted to chat and be friendly and this guy tries to rough us up. It was his girl and then all the other guys from the band start getting fresh with us - so it was on there and then." A source adds, "Her boyfriend took offence and all hell broke loose with fists flying everywhere. The boys held their own despite being unsteady on their feet. Security came to break it all up. They got a stern talking to."

- In other Boyzone news, the Irish boys have made history as the first boy band to feature a gay couple in their music video.  In their latest single 'Better', singer Stephen Gately gets up close and intimate with a male actor, while the other band mates get cosy with the sheilas.  Stephen told Newsbeat: "For me, it's just me being me and I don't think there should be a real big issue about the whole thing anyway.  I just think it's just a beautiful video and I think it works superbly for the song. I'm hoping this video will have a good, positive, all-round reaction" Stephen, who is openly gay, mentions that the decision to include a gay couple in the video was a joint one by the whole band, "The lads were saying, 'You've got to do this'. They were pushing saying, 'This would be fantastic'. It's the first of its kind. That's why I went for it."

- New Zealand pop rockers Evermore are very kindly sharing the love! The three brothers have released a new single 'Between The Lines', and because their mumma brought them up right, they are offering it as a free download from www.evermoreband.com.  Jon Hume, lead singer from Evermore said the song was inspired from being "on a stopover in Thailand on the way to London, when I had taken both a Sydney paper and a local paper from the plane. They were both touting stories of the APEC and the G8 summit, but displaying almost everyone in a very different shade of colour. Policies, quotes, promises were different. It was charming editorialism at it's best.  That was when I realised that if you don't make up your own mind, someone's gonna make it up for you. Therein was the theme of looking between the lines."

-- Who said Vanilla Ice was naught but a one hit wonder? Well, everyone... But if the has-been rapper manages to spawn a hit off his new album, we might have to eat our words.   According to PerezHilton.com, Vanilla Ice will be releasing an album called 'Vanilla Ice is Back! Hip Hop Classics'.  The release will offer 13 tracks, 1 of which is Vanilla's hit 'Ice Ice Baby', and three more which are remixes of 'Ice Ice Baby'.  Way to flogg a dead horse Ice! For the rest of the album, the rapper is resurrecting rap and hip-hop songs from the 90's.  It might work, in a 'David Hasselhoff Is Still Cool kinda-way! 

A former 'American Idol' contenstant who has been stalking for Paula Abdul since 2006 was found dead a few doors down from Paula's home in Los Angeles.   "The victim was found dead in a car, yards from Paula's L.A. home. Cause of death may have been a drug overdose," reports TMZ.  When the girls parents discovered she was missing they called the police department and asked that they check Paula's home because they knew she "had an unnatural obsession" with Paula Abdul.   Despite being ridiculed during her audition, Paula Goodspeed maintained her infatuation with judge Paula Abdul, and the American Idol judge has had to call the police on several occasions to deal with her.   On her MySpace.com page, Goodspeed posted a photo of Abdul, with the words, "My secret crush, shhhhhhh!!!!!!!!!" Reuters reported that prescription pills, along with CDs and pictures of Abdul, were found in the car.   In a statement Wednesday to ABCNews.com, Abdul said: "I am deeply shocked and saddened at what transpired yesterday. My heart and prayers go out to her family."

By Penelope Quinn

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