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Celebrity Sizzle by Mark Stone

Susan Boyle's CD is out today, and should outsell her 3 big competitors (photo contributed)

Four big music CDs are being released today: an extension of The Fame called The Fame Monster (with eight new songs) by Lady GaGa, American Music Award highlight Adam Lambert’s debut For Your Entertainment, Rihanna’s latest Rated R, and the first official CD release from Scottish singing sensation Susan Boyle called I Dreamed a Dream. I haven’t had a chance to listen to all four in their entirety but I’ve previewed each song from all four CDs. If you have iTunes you can preview all the tracks as well, or if you don’t Billboard has free previews of all the CDs with the exception of Susan Boyle’s.

When the Billboard album chart tracking sales comes out next week, it is expected that Susan Boyle will outsell the other three big names – and likely by a wide margin. Boyle’s CD is still #1 on Amazon and is unlikely to be dethroned for a while. On the Canadian iTunes chart (as of 10 am this morning) Lady GaGa was #1, Rihanna #2, Susan Boyle #4 and Adam Lambert #6. The US iTunes chart also has GaGa at #1, Boyle at #2, Rihanna at #3 and Lambert at #6.

Judging solely from the previews, Lambert’s CD is the best one. It’s slightly bloated at 16 tracks with some excess songs that could have been discarded, but if his AMA performance didn’t turn you off his debut CD is a good buy. I still can’t get into Rihanna’s CD; the songs aren’t really doing it for me (although the remixes for Russian Roulette are sweet and all dance music fans should get their hands on them). If you like Lady GaGa you’ll probably love The Fame Monster. It continues where she left off and most of the eight songs are solid. Susan Boyle’s voice sounds incredible as always on her new CD, and does a great job covering some of the classic pop hits. If you love hearing a beautiful voice, you can’t go wrong with SuBo.

What do you think? If you could only buy one CD this week which one would it be?

Fallout from Lambert’s performance already happening

Staying with Lambert for a second, we now have news that his appearance scheduled for tomorrow on ABC’s Good Morning America has been cancelled. A spokesperson for ABC, the network that also aired the AMAs, said, “Given his controversial American Music Awards performance, we were concerned about airing a similar concert so early in the morning.”

Is the network being too cautious? Probably not. ABC said more than 1,500 people complained, what it termed a “moderate” response, and the Parents Television Council also said it had heard from upset members. “They’re outraged,” said Timothy Winters, president of the Parents Television Council. “They just can’t believe the nature of the content, the explicit nature, and how much graphic content there was.”

Does this mean Lambert has to pull a Kanye and lay low for a while? He can’t afford to, he’s got a new CD to promote. Good: he’s getting great press from the performance. Bad: people are complaining and it may be turning them off. All I can say is, either Lambert blew it, or people are blowing this out of proportion.

Cougar Town back in business, never stopped

Cougar Town is one of the best new shows on network TV this year, and we always look forward to Wednesday nights to watch it (along with the slightly superior Modern Family and Glee). Late last week it was reported that the show was going to be shut down due to a family matter that needed attending to by the show’s star Courteney Cox.

However, a tweet sent out on Twitter by Cox’s co-star Busy Philipps advised fans that the ABC comedy was taking only one day off (Friday, Nov. 20) and that shooting will resume after Thanksgiving.

A show insider confirms the report and says that the hiatus was always scheduled for this week. Cast and crew were informed of their unexpected day off last Thursday afternoon, though the details of Cox’s personal matter were not disclosed.

I bring this up to point out how often the media will jump on a report without checking multiple sources. When I saw the story on a competing website last week, I checked with trades that would have certainly been all over the story and couldn’t find anything. With Celebrity Sizzle, I will always do my best to ensure that everything I report is as reliable as possible, and if something is a rumour or not likely be true I will say so.

Who is buying Sarah Palin’s book?

Sarah Palin’s book Going Rogue is #1 on Amazon and is selling like crazy. I’m sure that a lot of those sales are from those who are curious, but you really have to wonder what kind of people are forking out their hard-earned cash to support her by buying her book.

I think it’s a reasonable assumption that a good majority of those buying her book support her political ideals and would step up to the plate if the failed VP candidate were to run for president in 2012.

So who is buying her book? These people - shown in this very informative video. Got eight minutes to spare? I promise you’ll learn something about how the Palin-loving American public has their fingers on the pulse of politics.

Scary stuff, kiddies. Owwww, owwwwww. *in my best Count Floyd voice*

http://www.youtube.com/mKKKgua7wQk

Behind the scenes of Avatar

Looking forward to James Cameron’s latest blockbuster Avatar? The film opens December 18^th, and 60 Minutes did a long piece on the movie and took us behind the scenes of what will either be a huge success or a massive failure.

Is it just me, or does this movie look like it could be really bad? The acting seems suspect and the trailers haven’t done anything to make me say, “Yeah, I have got to see this!” Actually, as I write this, I realize that it’s not just me. I just did some research and came up with this piece from Hollywood website Defamer, that posts The Mounting Evidence That Avatar Will Suck – Part 1.

Cool.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4IEPFiA299k

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mdb17ChTSu4&feature=related

Heidi Montag continues to believe she can sing

Mrs. Spencer Pratt refuses to accept reality with this horrific new song. Apologies in advance to your ears.

Paula Abdul thinks she’d make a good talk show host

Oh boy. Despite having the reputation of being the blabbering, incoherent judge on American Idol, Paula Abdul apparently believes she can be a “really good” talk show host.

Speaking about doing a talk show now that Oprah will be leaving the game, Abdul told Extra yesterday “I have really great ideas. It would be fun and quirky and it would be insightful. It would be fun to jam with the band and have amazing guests and introduce amazing different formats on the show.”

She continues: “I feel I would be really good at it. I have the ability to connect with people on a level. I’ve proven to pierce the heartstrings, but also to be celebratory and bring out the best in people.”

Paula, welcome to Delusional City. Population: Yourself, Sarah Palin and her supporters, Heidi Montag and Kate Gosselin (you’ll find out why next).

Gosselin trainwreck pulls into the station for its final stop

And last but least today is the news that we’ve been waiting for: Jon and Kate Plus 8 has come to an end. TLC aired the final episode last night and I’d be surprised if anyone bothered to watch.

I’ll assume you didn’t see it, and let you know why Kate belongs in Delusional City with Paula, Heidi, and Sarah. Kate actually believes that her kids don’t know anything about their father’s scumbag ways. “They don’t know about the girlfriends at all,” she told the cameras last night. “That’s just too warped for them, too unhealthy for them to know. They’re learning at this age by watching us what it’s like to be an adult, but that’s the last thing I want them to know.”

Then she went on to sulk about the show ending too soon. “I never had a clear picture of how it would end. It’s too soon.” The conclusion of the series, she said, is “useless, pointless, totally avoidable.”

Thanks, Kate. You just described how most of America now feel about you and especially your ex-husband.

Tags: Adam Lambert, Avatar, Cougar Town, Going Rogue, Heidi Montag, Jon and Kate Plus 8, Kate Gosselin, Lady GaGa, Paula Abdul, Rihanna, Sarah Palin, Susan Boyle

This entry was posted on Tuesday, November 24th, 2009 at 11:00 am and is filed under Celebrity Sizzle, Entertainment, Kelowna Entertainment. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.