August 30, 2008

Ambassador for Latin pop music, Shakira, has reportedly revealed that she is now in the recording room to get her new song done. An Arabic-American singer named Dania Youssef is chosen to be her partner in the not-yet-titled song.

The song, that is still in the work, is written in half English and half Arabic lyrics, which will see Arab world from a positive point of view. Furthermore, an Egyptian composer Mohamed Saad is reportedly writing the Arabic portion of the song, as well as the music.

Australian pop singer-turned-"X Factor" host, Dannii Minogue, is up for another feature film role. According to Ananova, the younger sister of famed songstress Kylie Minogue has been signed in to star as Rio Ruse, an MI6 agent who is also a lab technician in British spy thriller entitled "Vauxhall Crossed".

Though her role is reportedly a small one, it will still have some significant effects to the plot as Ruse is set to save fellow agent played by Hugo Speer in a shoot-out. This part won't be Minogue's first experience starring in a movie as she has minor role in Jan Wentz's 2004 "The Porter". Minogue will be joining the cast that include also Ewen MacIntosh and Sarah Jayne Dunn.

Hot female group The Pussycat Dolls have just released a second single from their upcoming second album through their official website. The song is called "Whatcha Think About That" and confirmed to appear on their upcoming sophomore album "Doll Domination".

The tune, which carries Missy Elliott's vocals, talks about getting rid of a boyfriend, who is not good enough to be with. Some of Missy's verses say, "Up in that club it's just me and my girls, play like Katy Perry kissing on girls."

Having been married for six years, LeAnn Rimes and her husband Dean Sheremet reportedly are planning to renew their wedding vows. It remains sketchy on why the couple decided to do so. Yet, it's been reported that they will do it this weekend.

In Touch Weekly broke the news, claiming in a report on its site that Rimes and Dean are going to wed again on Saturday, August 30 at the Calistoga Ranch in the Napa Valley, California. The couple have yet confirmed the report and there have yet words on the people who are going to be invited to attend the event.

Pink is on full throttle to promote her upcoming effort which will be titled "Funhouse". Beside being scheduled to sing "So What" at 2008 MTV Video Music Awards in Los Angeles on September 7, she will also play the same song in Australia. The singer has been lined-up as one of the performers at this year's ARIA Music Awards.

The Australian annual awards show will be held on October 19 at Sydney's Olympic Park and the nominees will be announced on September 10, the same day tickets for general public will go on sale. The performance is only one part of her promotional appearances in Australia. She will return to the country in April 2009 for a supporting tour.

R'n'B superstar Usher is lending his voice in the kickoff celebration for the new NFL season. The 29-year-old performer has been set to perform at a concert held at Columbus Circle in New York on Thursday, September 4 alongside other big name musicians, including Natasha Bedingfield and Keith Urban.

Confirming his appearance in the special event, Usher confessed that his participation is his way to be the halftime entertainment at the 2009 Super Bowl. "I'm hoping that this leads, definitely, to that," he said. "This whole process is basically you scratch my back, I'll scratch yours." In the concert, he will be accompanied by Black Eyed Peas' will.i.am and performing three songs, "Here I Stand", "Changing Places" and "What's Your Name".

Taylor Swift has exclusively revealed the artwork for her upcoming sophomore effort "Fearless", which will hit the stores on November 11 via Big Machine Records. Eleven tracks in the album are all either written or co-written by Taylor herself. She even goes into the production table with Nathan Chapman for her first single "Love Story", which will reportedly arrive on radios in early September.

As part of the promotion project, Taylor provides fans with three pre-order options on her official website. At the top level, the CD will come out in a limited edition collector box which includes a leather bracelet, T-shirt, photo book, "Taylor Nation" sticker, and locker poster. Besides that, one lucky fan who purchases the $75 package, will also have a chance to win an "Ultimate Taylor Swift Fan Experience", that includes an autographed guitar and two airplane tickets for her meet-and-greet show.

A slew of new pictures from the upcoming horror thriller flick "Saw V" has been unearthed. Exposed via a video footage sent by 'Burst' to Bloody-Disgusting, the newly outed photos share the first look into Tobin Bell's Jigsaw in the fifth installment of the horror franchise as well as give out hints on the possible story as they reveal where some of the victims are kept and some of the traps.

Continuing the popular "Saw" franchise, "Saw V" is said to be following Hoffman, who looks like to be the last person alive to carry on Jigsaw legacy on making others grateful of their lives by putting them in lethal traps. But when his secret is threatened, Hoffman is forced to go on the hunt to eliminate all loose ends.

Everyone is catching the fever of the Olympic Games and Oprah Winfrey is no exception. With the United States bringing home a total of 36 gold medals, the talk show queen is planning to celebrate the achievement in style. She's inviting the sports event's gold medalists into her show, "The Oprah Winfrey Show", for the premiere of its 23rd season.

Michael Phelps, who has become talk of the town for winning 14 career Olympic gold medals, the most by any Olympian, is one of the athletes who's set to appear on the show. He will be joined by the likes of Nastia Liukin, Kobe Bryant and 150 other U.S. Olympic team members.

Velvet Revolver have gone into a mediation room with recording company Universal Music. The band's single called "Dirty Little Things" is claimed to be copied from the melody and guitar riff of "Cyber Babe", a song belongs to one of the company's artists, named Tony Newton.

Tony says during a recent interview, "A couple of years back a mate of mine in LA called me to say he'd heard what he thought was my song on the radio, and that he had been a bit shocked when he realized it was Velvet Revolver. When I checked it out myself, ... it was basically the same riff." Tony has then called his label to seek information and then decided to leave the matter to the recording company. "I called my publishers to check whether they knew anything - which of course they didn't - and then basically left it with them," Tony explains.

The Helen of Troy in the epic movie "Troy", Helen Kruger, has become the first female actor joining the varied cast ensemble of "Inglourious Basterds". For the World War II action drama, the 32-year-old has been tapped to tackle the prominent role of German actress Bridget Von Hammersmark.

Revealing the fact at the 2008 Venice International Film Festival, she gushed, "I just received a call from Quentin Tarantino, asking me to be in his next movie. I don't want to give too much away, but I'll play a German movie star." The role of Hammersmark has earlier been linked to other German actress Nastassja Kinski.

Becoming the subject of media coverage concerning her short-lived romance with ladies' man John Mayer, Jennifer Aniston is bouncing back with another report that has something to do with her professional career as an actress. Following days of chatter and speculation, it's finally confirmed that she's heading back to the silver screen, joining the cast of NBC's "30 Rock" for an upcoming episode.

And while the TV network is unable to confirm her starring role in the comedy series, Aniston's publicist Stephen Huvane has said Friday, August 29 that the beauty "is shooting now." Stephen, nevertheless, didn't specify about her character. It's not yet confirmed too on when the episode will be aired.

Teen band sensation Jonas Brothers have just released "Band in a Bus", the first episode of a video blog series. The video allows their fans to have a closer look at the making of the brand new Jonas album "A Little Bit Longer", which has been available for purchase since August 12.

The band have been followed by cameras inside and outside the bus, and accompanied by a bunch of crew, including their music producer, John Fields and music director John Taylor. On a statement, Kevin Jonas says that the idea to record their new songs on a bus is brilliant considering their busy schedule. "Recording our new album on a bus is totally a great idea," Kevin says to the camera.

Though the 'She-Devil with a Sword' feature film, "Red Sonja", is still way off its theatrical release, a sequel talk has come out. Sharing his thought on the possible second "Red Sonja" movie, director Douglas Aarniokoski gave out clues that the movie's franchise is on the horizon.

To MTV Splash Page, the second unit director of "Resident Evil: Extinction" hinted on the possibility, but restraining himself from letting out more. He briefly said, "I mean, if we start to talk about that, I start to give away the third act. Yes, let's just say yes. It's definitely got franchise written all over it."

The Cure's thirteenth studio album will be named "4:13 Dream" and will be released on October 14 in U.S. No explanation given for the title's meaning, but the Geffen album has been circling on the number thirteen, releasing its singles in the past four months on every date 13.

Prior to the album's street date, an EP containing remixes of all the four spawned singles from the set will be put in the market first on September 13. The EP, which is called "Hypnagogic States" features the remixes by Jared Leto of 30 Seconds to Mars, Jade Pudget of AFI, My Chemical Romance's Gerard Way and Fall Out Boy's Pete Wentz and Patrick Stump. Artist royalties from the EP sale will go to The International Red Cross.

Bob Erhard Duff, the father of actress-singer Hilary Duff, is a prisoner no more. He has been released from prison just one day after a judge sentenced him to 10 days behind bars for violating an injunction against selling assets without court's approval concerning his current divorce battle with ex-wife and mother of his daughters, Susan Colleen Cobb. Bob was released from jail on Thursday, August 28.

A representative for Bob told US Weekly that he said "Hallelujah!" upon his release from prison. No words on the reason for Bob's early prison release.

Awaited by many, the first trailer of "X-Men Origins: Wolverine" reportedly won't be attached to any upcoming movies. Instead, it has a big possibility to be debuted on DVD. Recently, Superhero Flix made notes that the Australian Classification Board have approved a 2 minute "Wolverine" video for a forthcoming DVD.

Aside from letting out the fact that the ratification has been made, it was not mentioned to what DVD the video is going to be released or what is the type of the footage will be used. However, if the footage is indeed put on a DVD, it could mean that 20th Century Fox are taking the same route they were using in presenting the behind the scenes featurette for "X-Men: The Last Stand" which appears on the "Fantastic Four" DVD.

This week's addition of Kara DioGuardi in the judging panel of talent TV show "American Idol" have left some speculations, one of which says that the show will change their judge line-up. A source even claims that the show's producer is hiring a new younger female judge to ditch Paula Abdul.

Paula has recently showed her concern over the new judge and says that she is worried about the audience's acceptance. According to Us Magazine, Abdul has told Phoenix's KISS-FM, "I am concerned about the audience and acceptance. Time will tell. We'll see."

Speculation has been mounting that Nick Jonas is dating Selena Gomez while brother Joe Jonas is romancing Taylor Swift. Talks of that matter are heating up, but none of them has admitted that they're dating. They, instead, deny the romance rumors, persisting they're only friends. The foursome, however, display an evidence to the contrary as they were seen having double date at Tao in N.Y.C.

All of them were caught on camera, leaving New York City hotspot Tao late Thursday night, August 28. Oldest brother Kevin Jonas was also seen joining them. An onlooker who witnessed the stars said, "Everyone looked really chummy."

Making his feature film debut through teenage comedy "College", former "American Idol" finalist Kevin Covais will bare more than just his acting skills. The fifth season contestant who was nicknamed 'Chicken Little' has confessed that he will be seen taking off his clothes in one of the movie's scenes.

"I strip down to my underwear in the movie," the 19-year-old told MTV. He further joked about the appeal of his daring performance suggesting that it should be used for the promotional of the Deb Hagan-directed film. "Seriously, they should put that on the poster," he said. "See me stripped down to my tightie whities - how can people not go?"