Britney Spears and her security staff denied knowledge this week of the pellet-gun shooting of a photographer who was staking out a private baby shower for the singer in Malibu. Paparazzi photographer Brad Diaz said he was struck in the thigh by a pellet on Saturday outside the mansion where the pregnant star was visiting and enjoying a party thrown for her.
A new Rolling Stones' song titled Sweet Neo Con appears to take a swipe at so-called US neo-conservatives, many of whom are well known supporters of US President George W. Bush.
An excerpt from the song was published by Newsweek magazine this week, the magazine describes the Stones' hard-hitting lyrics as "political."
PHOTO: AFP
US Vice President Dick Cheney, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice are three well-known members of Bush's inner circle considered by political analysts to be leading lights of the neo-conservative movement.
"You call yourself a Christian, I call you a hypocrite/You call yourself a pat-riot, well I think you're full of shit," the song says, according to Newsweek.
Stones' frontman Sir Mick Jagger told Newsweek with a laugh, "It is direct."
PHOTO: REUTERS
Jagger also took a dig at fellow band member Keith Richards, who lives in the US.
"Keith said, `It's not really metaphorical.' I think he's a bit worried because he lives in the US," Jagger reportedly joked.
The song is being released on the Stones' new album, A Bigger Bang which is due out in early September.
Pop-rock group The Magic Numbers, riding high in the charts in Britain this summer, is boycotting Top of The Pops after a presenter remarked in rehearsals how beefy its members are.
The half-male, half-female quartet from west London were looking forward to performing their hit Love Me Like You on this week's edition of the venerable BBC TV chart show, the Guardiannewspaper reported Wedesday.
But they changed their minds after Top of the Pops host Richard Bacon said the band -- who have no interest in shedding their scruffy looks or body fat -- had been put in "a fat melting pot of talent" during rehearsals.
"Due to derogatory, unfunny remarks made during the guest presenter's introduction to our performance, we had to make a stand and leave," the band said in an uncharacteristic angry statement.
"It was an important day for us and should have been special. We didn't take this lightly, but we stand by it."
A spokesman for the BBC said Bacon never intended to suggest The Magic Numbers were overweight, and only used the word "fat" as "a figure of speech re-ferring to the band's status."
The Magic Numbers won over fans with their performance at the Glastonbury festival in June, when their debut album entered the charts at number seven, and this week they feature on the cover of the New Musical Express weekly.
A cartoon which was banned from the BBC for its depiction of the pope as an immature brat is set to cause new controversy after it was confirmed it will be released on DVD in Britain.
Popetown, which features the voices of comedienne Ruby Wax as the pontiff and model Jerry Hall as a fame-hungry nun, was commissioned for digital TV channel BBC Three, but deemed too offensive for broadcast last year.
The 10-part animation, commissioned in 2002 before the death of Pope John Paul II, also features corrupt cardinals, plotlines about bestiality and an elderly pope bouncing around the Vatican on a pogo stick.
Roman Catholic groups campaigned against the US$3.6 million show. They said attempts to belittle the spiritual leader of the worldwide Roman Catholic Church would be unacceptable to vast numbers of the viewing public in Britain, where 6 million people adhere to
Catholicism. Joseph Devine, the Bishop of Motherwell, southeast of Glasgow in Scotland, said, "Many Catholics view this as an irreverent, gratuitous and publicly funded attack on their faith."
"It is impossible to imagine a similar irreverent approach being taken to Islam or Judaism."
Rapper 50 Cent's autobiography is a modern-day version of living the American Dream -- get your start by selling crack cocaine, make your escape through hip-hop music, and once you've made it big, peddle sneakers.
His book "From Pieces to Weight: Once Upon A Time in Southside Queens hit the shelves on Tuesday, and fans were lining up at a New York record store for autographed copies from the 30-year-old whose 2003 debut album Get Rich or Die Tryin has sold more than 12 million copies.
In the March 9 edition of the Taipei Times a piece by Ninon Godefroy ran with the headine “The quiet, gentle rhythm of Taiwan.” It started with the line “Taiwan is a small, humble place. There is no Eiffel Tower, no pyramids — no singular attraction that draws the world’s attention.” I laughed out loud at that. This was out of no disrespect for the author or the piece, which made some interesting analogies and good points about how both Din Tai Fung’s and Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co’s (TSMC, 台積電) meticulous attention to detail and quality are not quite up to
April 21 to April 27 Hsieh Er’s (謝娥) political fortunes were rising fast after she got out of jail and joined the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) in December 1945. Not only did she hold key positions in various committees, she was elected the only woman on the Taipei City Council and headed to Nanjing in 1946 as the sole Taiwanese female representative to the National Constituent Assembly. With the support of first lady Soong May-ling (宋美齡), she started the Taipei Women’s Association and Taiwan Provincial Women’s Association, where she
Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairman Eric Chu (朱立倫) hatched a bold plan to charge forward and seize the initiative when he held a protest in front of the Taipei City Prosecutors’ Office. Though risky, because illegal, its success would help tackle at least six problems facing both himself and the KMT. What he did not see coming was Taipei Mayor Chiang Wan-an (將萬安) tripping him up out of the gate. In spite of Chu being the most consequential and successful KMT chairman since the early 2010s — arguably saving the party from financial ruin and restoring its electoral viability —
It is one of the more remarkable facts of Taiwan history that it was never occupied or claimed by any of the numerous kingdoms of southern China — Han or otherwise — that lay just across the water from it. None of their brilliant ministers ever discovered that Taiwan was a “core interest” of the state whose annexation was “inevitable.” As Paul Kua notes in an excellent monograph laying out how the Portuguese gave Taiwan the name “Formosa,” the first Europeans to express an interest in occupying Taiwan were the Spanish. Tonio Andrade in his seminal work, How Taiwan Became Chinese,
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