March 17, 2007

In juggling between her teen fans and the grown up ones, Hilary Duff came wise in next album "Dignity". Unlike the previous album which was in rock/pop genre, she lets this album to have dance/pop vibe. That is something that she explained as 'didn't mean to go that way'.

Duff is even involved in the writing of the songs. She co-wrote the entire songs with Kara DioGuardi who has written songs for Gwen Stefani and Christina Aguilera. "I knew I couldn't do it myself, but working with Kara allowed me to talk about things on my mind. It was one big therapy session," she said in a statement.

Already have two, John Travolta and his wife Kelly Preston would like to have more, another child. The parents of Jett Travolta (14) and Ella Bleu Travolta (7) are planning to expand their family.

"There's a thought of this summer maybe trying for a third but that depends on Kelly's schedule," Travolta told People, adding "I leave it up to her."

A tour is held to celebrate the reunion of Dinosaur Jr. The band will rock its fans this summer on 19 stages within 10 cities across America. Dubbed "Reunion Tour", it will present the band's original members Lou Barlow, J Mascis, and Murph.

The tour begins on May 11 at Troubadour in West Hollywood, California and ends on June 7 at Irving Plaza in NY. There will be a one-off performance that will feature J Mascis and Friends on May 10 at Casbah in San Diego. The concert is meant for 21 years old and above.

Despite persistent controversy occurs concerning her new South African school, the "Oprah Winfrey's Leadership Academy for Girls," which is claimed as 'too strict,' Oprah Winfrey opened her second school.

Oprah has on Friday March 16th opened her second school for poor South African youth, Seven Fountains Primary School. Claimed as one innovative, environmentally friendly institution, the talk show host hopes the school will be a model for public education.

Hard rock band Queens of the Stone Age is ready for the release of its new album, "Era Vulgaris" on June. The album will be released via Interscope and the previews of nine tracks are already available in Billboard.com.

Featured in the track "River in the Road" is the band's third vocalist Mark Lanegan, who has also become the band's occasional vocalist. There has been a rumor that Nine Inch Nails' Trent Reznor and The Strokes' Julian Casablancas will also appear in this record.

Canadian Grammy-nominated singer Tamia is pregnant with her second child with husband Grant Hill.

The R&B recording artist is four months pregnant and revealed the happy news on her MySpace.com .

Definitely a huge comeback from The Smashing Pumpkin as the alternative band offers a new album and a number of festivals this year. First album after breakups in 2000, "Zeitgeist" is due July 2007 and Pinkpop Festival marks its first headlining gig.

In February 2007, vocalist Billy Corgan posted a MySpace bulletin indicating that "Zeitgeist", will be released exactly at 7:07 a.m. on July 7, which means 07-07-07. Highly anticipated, the album is promoted through several festivals. Pinkpop festival starts on May 28 in Netherlands then stops at several other countries such as Germany, Portugal, and Italy before finishes on June 17 at Interlaken, Switzerland.

Created big surprise when receiving praise for his film debut "Finding Forrester" despite being never studied acting before, Rob Brown now is set to bring more through his new role.

The Harlem-born actor has successfully landed deals to play lead character Ernie Davis in "The Express", a biographical feature of the man who became the first black player to win the Heisman Trophy yet never got to play professionally due to leukemia. Dennis Quaid has already come onboard to portray Davis' hard-nosed coach and father figure, Ben Schwartzwalder.

When it comes to lose more weight and stay thin, best pals Paris Hilton and Nicole Richie are the experts. Considering such fact, the two socialites have been tapped for a new task, which is counseling overweight campers on the fifth season of "The Simple Life."

"They are going to be camp counselors at one camp in the Southern California Mountains," an E! spokesperson said. "The camp has five different themes. Each week will be a different theme. And yes, one week is a weight loss/fitness camp. It's not a fat camp."

Blues prodigy B.B. King, gospel singer Al Green and R&B songster Etta James are the threesome that will give blues fans in America the shake-up they have been dying for.

The three of them will appear in the event that is called "B.B. King Blues Festival". A total of 14 cities will be visited, beginning at Seminole Hard Rock Hotel & Casino in Miami on July 24 and ending at Kautz Ironstone Vineyards Theatre in Murphys, Calif on September 9. Other venues include Atlanta, New York, Detroit, Baltimore, San Francisco, Minneapolis, Dallas and Denver.

Steven Seagal is tough outside, yet light inside. The Hollywood action man, who is well known for his aikido in the big screen movies, is launching a charity which aims to distribute guitars to needy kids.

The initiative reportedly will be administered by Ciro's Pizza Pomodoro. On his new project, the actor commented, "Music is the language of the gods that can bring all people together. What better starting point than learning to play the guitar."

Finally, the building process of the city is about to begin soon. Talking with worldwide press members in Second Life about "300" Friday, March 16, author/director Frank Miller spilled the beans that he has talked to co-director Robert Rodriguez about "Sin City 2" and intended to make preparations on it in the next six weeks for a June production start.

In related news, the project's star Rosario Dawson also confirmed to IESB.net at this year's ShoWest that filming on the movie would be commenced in June while adding that it indeed would be based on "A Dame to Kill For", the second compilation of the original comic book series. The actress, however, preferred to keep her mouth tightly shut about who may play the lead role of Ava Lord though the beauty did say she had an idea who was wanted for it.

As a tribute to the late jazz singer Ella Fitzgerald, artists such as Michael Buble, KD Lang and Diana Krall have joined forces to make an album covering Ella's classics. The compilation will contain 13 tracks and is titled "We All Love Ella: Celebrating The First Lady Of Song."

Scheduled to release on June 5 via Verve, the album will also feature Natalie Cole, Gladys Knight, Queen Latifah, Hank Jones, Ledesi, Dianne Reeves, Linda Ronstadt, Etta James and Lizz Wright.

The arrival of her new adopted son to the family has changed everything. Now that Angelina Jolie officially adopts the Vietnamese boy, Pax Thien Jolie, the actress is planning to put her acting career on hold to focus more on her growing family.

"I will stay at home to help Pax adjust to his new life," Jolie told the Ho Chi Minh City Law newspaper. "I have four children and caring for them is the most important thing for me at the moment. I'm very proud and happy to be their mother."

English rock band The Who is finding a difficult time managing the tour schedule that is running currently. The date for Mexico City will not be kept like the schedule. Confirmation on further dates within the tour will also be announced later after vocalist Roger Daltrey's health recovers.

On March 13, Daltrey walked off the stage in Tampa, Fla suddenly before even delivering the first song. Bassist Pete Townshend then proceeded to the back stage and reappeared to apologize. "I just talked to Roger and he can barely speak," he explained. "I tried to get him to come out here, but he's really, really sick." Thus, the gig was cancelled.

Michael Bay once again is going for the future after "The Island." TMZ.com has noted that the action filmmaker is on board to produce "2012: The War for Souls", an adaptation of sci-fi author Whitley Strieber's upcoming novel of the same title, with a possibility to direct.

Not much is known about the project, but the site has revealed that it will be set up at Warner Bros. Pictures and also produced by Alex Kurtzman and Roberto Orci who may pen the screenplay as well. The duo previously was appointed to write for Paramount Pictures' "Star Trek", which has been said to be a re-imagining of the popular franchise rather than a prequel.

They want it quickly. Nicole Richie and her boyfriend Joel Madden reportedly are engaged to be married.

The couple had previously planned to get hitched in Las Vegas on February 17th. Nevertheless, they changed their mind as they want to get Nicole's adoptive dad Lionel Richie's approval first.

Forming lavish pact with producer Lionel Wigram, Warner Bros. Pictures is set to develop "Sherlock Holmes", a big screen adaptation of the man's upcoming comic book of the same title, Variety has reported.

Wigram's vision on the famed fictional detective, created by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, is said to have him lost some of his Victorian stuffiness and got more adventurous, including playing up his skills as a bare-knuckle boxer and expert swordsman as he goes about solving crimes.

Recognizing the worldwide phenomenon either the book series or the film franchise has created up to this time, French postal service La Poste has designed a collection of stamps featuring principal characters from "Harry Potter", the company itself has revealed.

The stamps set reportedly presents the images of Potter also his close friends Ron Weasley and Hermione Granger in drawings as portrayed by Daniel Radcliffe, Rupert Grint, and Emma Watson, respectively, in the movie series.