Mary Wilson is the hardest working woman in show business after more than 50 years. Yes, Mary, 68, and looking like a million bucks, has managed to outlast her Motown curse. The original Supreme, she hung in there after the dismissal of Florence Ballard, the departure of Diana Ross, and countless fights to keep her name. Now Mary is still cooking hot. This summer, and even now, she’s touring with former Rolling Stone Bill Wyman and his big band across Europe. She’s recorded her a new single, available on iTunes, and has a jazz album out that contains her stunning versions of Sting’s “Fields of Gold” and Joni Mitchell’s “Both Sides Now”–a smash in her live show.

This week, Mary was featured in the New York Times for her traveling show of Supremes costumes. It’s gone to Philadelphia for an exhibit. http://runway.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/10/12/reliving-the-glamour-of-the-supremes/?ref=style

And, Mary is also filming her first movie, in her hometown of Detroit. It’s an indie called “Golden Shoes,” with a typically eclectic cast including Eric Roberts, Vivica A. Fox, and Montell Williams. “It’s only a small part, a couple of lines, really,” Mary told me before a sold out show she performed in Fairfield, Connecticut. “But it’s a beginning. This way I can see how it’s all done.”

Unflagging optimism has kept her going through tough times. She has a big family, but lost a son in a car accident years ago. He’s always on her mind. But she’s practical, and a survivor. It helps that her voice has gotten richer and deeper over the years. She just found out about the death of Frank Wilson, (no relation) the Motown songwriter who saw her through the post-Ross days with hit singles like “Nathan Jones” and “Up the Ladder to the Roof.” Frank Wilson gave the group a chance to shine without Ross.

In concert, she performs “Someday We’ll Be Together”–the song that Diana Ross recorded as the Supremes, but Wilson or Cindy Birdsong– it was Ross’s surprise farewell from the group. It’s a poignant reminder of what was and what could have been.

Justin Bieber’s fifteen minutes of fame are coming to an end.

In a move of utter desperation, Bieber’s management– according to several entertainment sites–supposedly created a hoax this week to promote his new video. Bieber tweeted that his computer and camera had been stolen. Next, a lewd, nude picture of purportedly him turned up on TMZ. Then a new official video came out, and it turned out that the picture wasn’t of him, and that the video was the supposed material that had been stolen.

http://www.eonline.com/news/353581/justin-bieber-stolen-laptop-a-hoax-singer-releases-nicki-minaj-music-video-thanks-alleged-thief

The net-net: the song, “Beauty and a Beat,” has not caused much of a stir on iTunes, where downloads put it at around number 50. On YouTube, there have been over 5 million free viewings for the very expensive looking video, but– and this might be important– only 255,000 times have fans “liked” it. And 22,000 haven’t “liked” it.  “Beauty and a Beat,” disposable pop featuring Nicki Minaj (who has to be paid), is clearly a loss leader for the tour.

Bieber’s album, “Believe,” has not been much of a hit. Another single, “As Long as You Love Me,” has been a very modest hit.

And the tour: Bieber has started his tour with Carly Rae Jepsen in Canada, his birthplace. There, the ticket sales look ok. But in the US, it’s a different story. The secondary ticket market is flooded. Hundreds and thousands of tickets are available on Stubhub.com depending on the sizes of the venues. At Madison Square Garden, it’s a buyer’s market, that’s for sure.

And that’s interesting for everyone because a recent report out of Nashville suggest that Bieber’s management is scalping its own seats to make more money.

http://www.newschannel5.com/story/19616981/documents-show-bieber-is-scalping-his-own-tickets

Phil Williams, reporting out of Newschannel 5 in Nashville, uncovered a cache of documents that show how Bieber’s team is allegedly ripping off fans. According to Williams, Bieber’s management hasn’t responded to the accusations. It’s a must-read story, however, and explains why there are so many tickets on Stubhub. Of course, the irony will be that the marked up tickets don’t sell. The Bieber team could go to the cleaners.

Scooter Braun, Bieber’s manager, has been incredibly clever meantime about diversifying. He clearly has “45 rpm” ears. He picked up Carly Rae Jepsen’s single, “Call Me Maybe,” and turned it into the event of the summer. The album isn’t really selling, and she’s likely done. But Braun likely made a tidy sum from the single. By next year at this time he’ll be saying “Call me, maybe” to Jepsen.

Braun also picked up a novelty single from Korea, called “Gangnam Style.” It’s in the top 3 this week. It’s the “Mambo No. 5” of 2012. No Bieber single has ever sold like “Call Me Maybe” or “Gangnam.” By the time Braun is done, he’ll be living in several mansions. The artists will be trivia questions. It’s the long tradition of the music business.

But with the allegations of scalping, the hoax with the nude picture and the stolen computer stuff, Braun–and his partners, which include Usher– have no doubt seen the darkness at the end of the tunnel. If I were Justin Bieber, and I owned that $100,000 silver car he drives around, I’d be selling it and putting the money into treasury notes right now. That is, if he actually owns it. Or anything.

Imagine that when the Rolling Stones first hit it big in 1964, two years into their career, they were considered avant garde. They were the messed up, smudged answer to the Beatles’ pop perfection. The Stones brought American blues and soul back to these shores, reinterpeted. They were considered a sexual threat. They took on politics, social issues, flouted basic tenets. They were naughy boys and people loved them for it.

Now the Stones have released a fun but challenging single, more interesting than anything on iTunes or radio now. And in 48 hours it has barely made a dent in sales. It’s still hovering between number 70 and 75. The Stones were never huge chart toppers. But they had number 1s starting with “(I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction” through “Brown Sugar,” “Wild Horses,” and “Tumbling Dice.” They had two big singles in 1981– “Start Me Up” and “Waiting on a Friend.” That was 31 years ago.

There have been some minor hits from the post- “Tattoo You” albums like “Rock and a Hard Place” and their excellent cover of “Harlem Shuffle.” The new one, “Doom and Gloom,” comes after six stagnant years. The lyrics are pithy and the music rocks. There’s a great chorus. But it doesn’t fit on radio, as no rock station will play new music by old acts. And for the iTunes generation addicted to bubblegum pop, but the words “fracking,” “sump,” and “horde” may be too much for today’s dimwitted buyers.

Also, the sound of “Doom and Gloom” is not the amped-up reverb-soaked homogenized dreck that passes as pop linooleum. Don Was and the boys have scratched up all the polished wood for an authentic feel. The video is in our player  on the home page. The lyrics follow. Why didn’t they call this song “Baby Won’t You Dance With Me?”

I had a dream last night that I was piloting a plane
And all the passengers were drunk and insane
I crash landed in a Louisiana swamp
Shot up a horde of zombies
But I come out on top
What’s it all about?
Guess it just reflects my mood
Sitting in the dirt
Feeling kind of hurt
All I hear is doom and gloom
And all is darkness in my room
Through the light, your face I see
Baby take a chance
Baby won’t you dance with meLost all that treasure in an overseas war
It just goes to show you don’t get what you paid for
Bowing to the rich and worrying about the poor
Put my feet up on the couch and lock all the doors
Hear a funky noise
That’s the tightening of the screws
Feeling kind of hurt
Sitting in the dirt
All I hear is doom and gloom
But when those drums go boom boom boom
Through the night, your face I see
Baby take a chance
Baby won’t you dance with me
Yeah!
Baby won’t you dance with me
Ah yeah