Madonna‘s new single is out-”lyric” videos have surfaced on YouTube. And it’s worse than you can imagine. Madonna rehashes 1984 Cyndi Lauper with this lyrics: “Girls they just wanttto have fun.” It’s a recurring line from her new song, “Girls Gone Wild.” Porn instigator Joe Francis is already angry that Madonna has chosen his trademark line for the title of the song. But now the lyrics show that the best Madonna can come up with is a rip off of Cyndi Lauper from three decades ago.
The astonishing thing about this is that Lauper has always been the Madonna also ran–a real musician and composer who’s been overshadowed by her rival since they each started their careers. Madonna is in the Rock Hall; Lauper is not. Lauper writes her own music and has released some of the most underappreciated albums of the last 20 years without a lot of money behind her.
Madonna, who’s made millions and had the record company support, has now stooped to “quoting” Lauper’s signature hit in a lame effort to put out a new song. And this is Madonna’s second single from her unreleased MDNA album in less than a month. This is not a good sign for the new record deal she got with Interscope. Really? Is she really going to sing “Girls, they just want to have some fun?” What’s next? “99 Balloons”?

One Academy Award winner from Sunday night did not bother himself with the Oscar show. Woody Allen, who last appeared on the Oscars in 2002 to bolster New York after the World Trade Center tragedies, hasn’t bothered with it since. Even though he won Best Original Screenplay for “Midnight in Paris” on Sunday night, his TV was not turned to ABC. His producer sister Letty Aronson told me he was busy watching the NBA All Star Game instead. “He may switch over if I call him before they announce his category,” she said. But otherwise, Woody was was probably more concerned that the East lost to the West. Aronson was denied the chance to accept Woody’s award because it was simply announced from the stage that he wasn’t there and and that was it. Allen last won the Screenplay award in 1987 for “Hannah and her Sisters,” although pretty much of all his screenplays should have Oscars, including “Match Point,” “Bullets over Broadway,” and “Vicki Cristina Barcelona.” His next film, “Nero Fiddles,” set in Rome, should open the Venice Film Festival. I’m told he’s workong on a new screenplay that may be set in New York again. Hallelujah!

A year ago no one knew anything about a French film called “The Artist” made in Los Angeles by French people for $15 million. No American knew the names of Jean DuJardin and Michel Hazanavicius or Berenice Bejo. Then in May, producer Thomas Langmann showed Harvey Weinstein this silent black and white movie about the end of the silent film era. And the rest is history.

Now DuJardin, a French TV star, told me at 4am Pacific, “I am shocked.” At a late late after party around the pool at the Chateau Marmont, cast and crew celebrated. Some jumped in the pool fully clothed. Almost everyone spoke French. DuJardin gripped his gold Oscar statue with a death grip. “Have you met my new friend?” he asked people as he showed off his prize. “I still cannot believe it.” His wife said that her emails from France were overwhelming. “They are so proud at home.”

Move up Move down  “The Artist” and the Medium-Agnostic Appeal of Old Tech  Allen St. John Contributor   The Most Controversial Dress At Oscars 2012  Jane Lee Forbes Staff  A little later, the cast and crew moved over to the Four Seasons Hotel for a live interview with Ann Curry on The Today Show. Harvey Weinstein accompanied them. Altogether he picked up 9 of the 16 Oscars for which his company was nominated including getting Meryl Streep her first Oscar in 29 years, and another for the documentary, “Undefeated.” For Weinstein, it was his second Best Picture in a row. Last year it was “The King’s Speech. ” Add these to “ Chicago,” “The English Patient,” and “Shakespeare in Love” — all Best Picture winners, plus dozens and dozens of nominees from “Pulp Fiction” to “The Cider House Rules” to “The Aviator”–Weinstein is the single most winning studio head in history.

Streep’s win is particularly poignant. She has two Oscars, from 1979 and 1982, yet with 17 nominations, the public perceived her as having many more statues. She’s come close with “Doubt,” “The Devil Wears Prada,” “Music of My Heart,” “Bridges of Madison County”–and so many more. Winning at last after 29 years meant beating her friend Viola Davis. But Streep is human and can only stand so much. The Academy obviously agreed.

More later this afternoon from my visits to the Elton John and Vanity Fair parties, all star studded…

read us all at www.forbes.com

Here’s the one person in the Whitney Houston story whose name you have not heard, and who has remained a mystery: a Dutch man from Amsterdam who goes by the name of Raffles van Exel. He is also known – in court records—as Raffles Dawson and Raffles Benson. He was on the fourth floor of the Beverly Hilton Hotel in one of Houston’s suites when she died. He appeared downstairs in the lobby shortly thereafter, wearing aviator sunglasses, sobbing.

As usual, he had an entourage in tow, including Quinton Aaron, the actor who played the football player in “The Blind Side.” Raffles, in one of his many PR Newswire releases, recently announced that he’s producing movies with Aaron. It’s just one of many ventures he announces regularly. For someone who has no obvious means of support, he is a regular on PR Newswire and You Tube. On the latter, you can find him interviewing friends of Michael Jackson. It is assumed that he sells stories to tabloids. He regularly includes names of tabloid reporters like Kevin Frazier of “The Insider” on his Tweets.

Despite the shock of Whitney’s death, Raffles still made it downstairs to Clive Davis’s party. He was dressed in formal wear, had Whitney’s tickets in his hand, and intended  to sit at her table. Just inside the ballroom he was comforted by celebrities to whom he related his story—“I found Whitney.”  Gayle King hugged him. Quincy Jones listened patiently to his story. A security guard told me later, “Well, he was up there.” He was also hanging around with Houston all week prior to her death. On Tuesday when she emerged from a nightclub, looking disheveled, Raffles appears in a photograph on TMZ like a deer in headlights. He is standing right behind her in a powder blue suit. On Twitter, he wrote: “STOP reading the stupid blogs.. Whitney had a great time, she looked amazing. Nothing was wrong, it was just DAMN hot in that club.”

But who is Raffles van Exel? He’s one of Hollywood’s mysteries. I first met him in 2005 hanging around the Jackson family during Michael Jackson’s child molestation trial. After Michael went abroad, Raffles was often seen with Michael’s father, Joseph Jackson. He trades on being an “insider” when there’s a scandal. No one really knows him, but he’s always where there’s action and celebrities. On the internet he claims to own a number of companies including Raffles Entertainment. He’s also been sued a couple of times, once by a partner in something called Max Records, Inc., and once by a private aviation company in Los Angeles. I spoke to the plane company and they said they can’t comment because the situation is ongoing. On Twitter he claims to be managing “my girl,” Chaka Khan. There are plenty of pictures of Raffles on the internet with celebrities. You can see him with everyone from Magic Johnson to Sandra Bullock. If ever there was a real life Zelig, he is it.

It’s  not a surprise that Raffles has turned up in Whitney Houston’s story. Last October, he and Whitney and others traveled to North Carolina with Whitney’s sister in law Patricia Houston for something called a Teen Summit. It was billed as part of The Patricia Houston Foundation, an organization for which there is no official 501 c3  registration. Pat Houston, married to Whitney’s brother Gary, has been Whitney’s manager for years.  (Whitney’s own foundation for children ceased functioning years ago.) She also owns a consignment shop in North Carolina, and a candle company called Marion P. Candles, with Whitney.

In the old days he used to wear a yellow jacket full of black question marks—like The Riddler. On Saturday night, as he pulled in various guests to Clive Davis’s party past the velvet ropes, he was wearing a Michael Jackson-like tuxedo. He lives in West Hollywood now, but his official domicile—and where he’s been sued—is Chicago. He has not responded to countless emails and phone messages.

UPDATE: Raffles indeed attended the funeral, riding with Pat Houston in a family car. Insiders are docked and concerned that he’s still hanging around. At the funeral he made a beeline up the aisle at the church at the end of the service, to have his picture taken with Cissy Houston. Security rebuffed him. I’ve since learned also that his family may be Dutch, but he is from Suriname in South America. More to come, both here and at Forbes.com