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Michael Jackson Wrote Song on New Album for… Hanson!

Roger Friedman
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38
Michael Jackson Wrote Song on New Album for… Hanson!

Yes, it ’tis true.

Try and recall 1999. Hanson was the ruling pop group, sort of three Biebers, if you will.

Michael Jackson was writing songs slowly for the album that became “Invincible.”

Now I’m told by a source who knows such things that Jackson wrote a song for Hanson. He simply never gave it to them. And the demo went into a drawer.

“I Like The Way You Love Me” turns up for real, for the first time, on the “Michael” album coming out on Tuesday. A prior version had floated around among Jackson fans, but the new one was produced and remixed for the new album.

Michael, according to my source, had the idea for Hanson. He wrote the song but never got around to sending it to them, I am told. Maybe they can record it now.

Here’s the existing version, until the new one is released:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a_vUldQMIp4

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a_vUldQMIp4

Jimmy Fallon Gets to Sing with Paul McCartney

Roger Friedman
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0
Jimmy Fallon Gets to Sing with Paul McCartney

Last night, Jimmy Fallon got to sing with another Beatle. He had Ringo Starr on this summer, and now Paul McCartney.

Since McCartney is going to be on “Saturday Night Live” this weekend, he couldn’t do a regular performance. So Jimmy brilliantly thought up a funny bit: he and McCartney would sing “Yesterday” with its original “Scrambled Eggs” lyrics. Only, there were no lyrics — just those words — so Fallon and team came up with hilarious verses.

Jimmy’s on a roll–his New York magazine cover was great, and the Bruce Springsteen and Neil Young duet was also genius

Congrats Jimmy–well done!

http://tinyurl.com/2a8svaz

Mel Gibson Stops Mass Services at his $60 Mil Private Church

Roger Friedman
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7
Mel Gibson Stops Mass Services at his $60 Mil Private Church

This is rich: Mel Gibson has ceased having Mass and other services at his private church in Agoura Hills, California (adjacent to Malibu).

Every year, as this column has exclusively reported,  Mel plops $10 million into his tax exempt AP Reilly Foundation. The money is supposed to be for running the church, which is not recognized by any archdiocese. Holy Family is for Mel’s religion. it has about 70 member families. It also can’t cost more than $500,000 a year. What’s all that money for, one wonders?

According to Federal Tax Filings, AP Reilly now has assets of $59.1 million. Remember, on the famous tapes, he told babymama Oksana he was broke? Not exactly.

Anyway, one of Mel’s parishioners decided to sell him out. They took a picture of him and illegitimate daughter Lucia at the church. The picture is all over the place, on the web etc.

So, just like Jesus, Mel has been sold out by a follower. His punishment? No more Mass or other regular services according to TMZ.com.

Here’s the question, then: when is a church not a church? If they’re not going to have their religious services, does Holy Family still qualify for non profit tax exemptions? That may be an answer only God can give us.

Howard Stern Gets Sirius; MUSE Awards Honor NY Super Ladies

Roger Friedman
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2
Howard Stern Gets Sirius; MUSE Awards Honor NY Super Ladies

Howard Stern–surprise! (not)–is staying at Sirius XM Radio. He’s signed a five year deal. It wasn’t possible he was going back to regular radio. Sirius has thrived with him, and he’s thrived with them. So it’s a win-win. Now Howard will be heard on mobile devices, too. His last contract was for $500 million. Sirius, meantime, has grown massively to 20 million subscribers since it merged with XM. It’s must have in the car because–especially in New York–radio is so incredibly awful….

…Our pal Cindi Berger, who runs powerhouse PR firm PMK-BNC, was honored yesterday with a MUSE Award from New York Women in Film and Television. The other honorees were Vanessa Williams, Pat Kaufman–who runs the New York State film office, Abbe Raven of A&E Television. Marsha Hunt, who’s 93, received a lifetime humanitarian award. (She’s not the Marsha Hunt from the Mick Jagger days–whatever happened to her?) Cindi started as the receptionist at PMK in the days of Lois Smith and Pat Kingsley and worked her way up with integrity and determination. She also is famous for handling all the divas, from Barbara Walters to Mariah Carey and Rosie O’Donnell. They all love her! And Pat Kaufman is the pixie from North Carolina who gets things done. She’s the reason so many films shoot in New York state and not in Canada. Congrats to them all!

The 30 Best John Lennon Songs– Send In Your Choices

Roger Friedman
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6
The 30 Best John Lennon Songs– Send In Your Choices

Thirty years? It’s gone by in a blink. Here are my 30 favorite John Lennon songs–for today. The list always changes. The songs are actually all equal. I was 23 the year John Lennon was killed. The year before brought the death of my other hero of my youth, Thurman Munson. Nowadays, heroes are harder and harder to find.

1. Imagine

2. Real Love

3. Across the Universe

4. In My Life

5. Julia

6. Come Together

7. Help!

8. In My Life

9. Instant Karma

10. #9 Dream

11. A Day in the Life

12. I’m So Tired

13. Norwegian Wood

14. No Reply

15. Jealous Guy

16. Happy Xmas (War Is Over)

17. Watching the Wheels

18. Strawberry Fields Forever

19. I Am the Walrus

20. Revolution

21. Crippled Inside

22. Strawberry Fields Forever

23. Happiness is a Warm Gun

24. Whatever Gets You Thru the Night

25. Oh Yoko!

26. Woman

27. Nobody Told Me

28. You’ve Got to Hide Your Love Away

29. I Want You (She’s So Heavy)

30. Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rH81uwLbqys

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qb9mkEkkCTw

Lauren Bacall Still Rocking; CSI Star Hill Harper Plans Thursday Toy Drive in Hollywood

Roger Friedman
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1
Lauren Bacall Still Rocking; CSI Star Hill Harper Plans Thursday Toy Drive in Hollywood

NEW YORK: the Manhattan School for Children had a grand opening for its Greenhouse, built on the school’s roof. This a public school on Manhattan’s West Side. CBS’s Russ Mitchell officiated, there were local council people, and Broadway star Brian D’Arcy James of “Times Stand Still” and “Shrek.” Sam Robards--son of Lauren Bacall and Jason Robards–and his beautiful wife Sidsel were among those who helped raise around $800,000 over the last few years.  Lauren Bacall, held court and met everyone. Bacall is just finishing her rehab from a fractured hip, but she’s walking like a pro and throwing around bon mots like crazy. You can’t keep a Hollywood legend down! PS We had a long fruitful chat with a 5 year old kindergartener-scientist named Lucas who told us all about Pest Control. Already, the Greenhouse is a success!

…How ridiculous: there are now two Gansevoort Hotels in New York. One in the meatpacking district, on Gansevoort Street. The other is on Park Avenue South and 29th St. At the former, the staff is uncooperative. At the nightclub around the back, called Provocateur, they’re just rude. When I arrived at the other Gansevoort, a helpful staffer explained that it’s now a chain of hotels, that it started in Europe, and that Gansevoort is a European word. Too funny. Anyway, better to stay away from these monolithic hip hotels. And PS it’s a Dutch word, the “chain” is just on Gansevoort Street, and they should change the name of the one on Park Avenue.

...NO FOOL ON THIS HILL: I just got this message: “CSI: New York” star Hill Harper is putting a together a “Toys for Tots” drive tonight in Hollywood. Harper and Nate Parker, from “The Great Debaters,” are tossing the event at Teddy’s in the Roosevelt Hotel from 7 to 11pm. Harper, a formerclassmate of Barack Obama’s at Harvard Law School, also runs his own charity, called Manifest Your Destiny (www.manifestyourdestiny.org)…

Ronni Chasen Update: Police Come Up With Unbelievable Theory

Roger Friedman
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9
Ronni Chasen Update: Police Come Up With Unbelievable Theory

The Beverly Hills Police have come up with their theory about how Ronni Chasen was murdered. It’s a doozy.

According to the BHPD, Harold Smith–the man who committed suicide last week–was riding a bike ten miles from his hotel in the middle of Beverly Hills at 12:30am. The police figure Smith, riding the bike, attempted to rob Chasen by somehow approaching her while she driving a big Mercedes. He then, from his bike, or on foot, I guess, standing in the middle of Sunset Boulevard, in a suburban, non commercial area, shot her five times in the chest.

If other reports are to be believed, he did this with hollow bullets, then cleaned up the shell casings before he left. I supposed he biked back to Hollywood, where he’d been staying at a run down hotel.

According to Google Maps, this would be at least a 45 minute bike ride for Smith.

Maybe the police are right. But if you were going to rob someone, wouldn’t you go into a more urban area, where people are walking (at least to and from cars)? The spot where Ronni was shot on Sunset has no pedestrian traffic at that hour (or any hour). And if you were driving and saw someone on a bike coming toward you, you’d get away from them fast. Five clean shots? Harold Smith must have been quite the marksman.

That simple? Or a rush to find a solution? We may never know the answer. And if that area is so vulnerable to such crimes, then there’s a really big problem in Beverly Hills.

Blue Valentine Not So Blue After All

Roger Friedman
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1
Blue Valentine Not So Blue After All

“Blue Valentine” turns out not to be so blue after all.

In a unanimous decision, the MPAA ratings committee decided to revoke their NC-17 designation for Derek Cianfrance‘s Oscar buzzed drama. They gave the movie a more palatable R.

Harvey Weinstein spoke and made a compelling argument, I’m told. Part of the new decision may have been based on another current film, “Black Swan,” having similar sexual situations and only getting an R in the first place.

It’s hoped that all the controversy will have raised the profile of  “Blue Valentine” among Oscar voters. There’s certainly no dispute that Ryan Gosling and Michelle Williams deserve nominations. Watch that bridge scene, voters! It’s key to how good the film is…

…

Aretha Franklin: Have A Little RESPECT–She’s OK

Roger Friedman
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5
Aretha Franklin: Have A Little RESPECT–She’s OK

Reports of Aretha Franklin‘s demise are a little premature.

The rampant rumor that she might have pancreatic cancer is just a rumor. It hasn’t been confirmed.

I spoke to someone with Aretha at the hospital today. She’s resting comfortably, and “improving” since her surgery.

When I spoke to Franklin the day before Thanksgiving she was upbeat and positive.

Aretha is a fighter. She’s survived the deaths of her two beloved sisters, her brother, friends like Wilson Pickett, Levi Stubbs, Eddie Kendricks and David Ruffin of the Temptations.

Never ever count her out.

I had lunch with Miss Franklin this summer in East Hampton. She and her sister-in-law made us Aretha’s Special Chile, and we dined on corn bread they’d found at one of the fancy markets in town. We spent the afternoon listening to tracks she’d recently recorded for a new album. They were wonderful. When I spoke to her before Thanksgiving, Aretha was enthusiastic about her prognosis and surgery, and looked forward to working this winter.

Again, don’t rumors become fact. Let’s have a little R-E-S-P-E-C-T for America’s great treasure of a performer.

Music Biz: Sony and UMG Trading Execs–Doug Morris Going to Sony

Roger Friedman
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1
Music Biz: Sony and UMG Trading Execs–Doug Morris Going to Sony

Reported elsewhere, but I’ve done a little confirming of my own:

If he can get out of his remaining contract at Universal Music Group, Doug Morris will become the head of Sony Music. Yes, he’s 72. He’s fit as a fiddle and wants the job, says my knowledgeable source.

Morris will then have run all the major companies–from Atlantic, to Universal to Columbia. Not bad.

L.A. Reid will stay at UMG and run his own label, I am told. He will exit Island Def Jam. He will stay under the corporate umbrella, and perhaps join “American Idol.”

Barry Weiss, of course, leaves Sony (really RCA) and becomes the head of New York operations for UMG.

Whew!

Morris is the perfect fit at Sony, and very close to Clive Davis, who’s had a bunch of hits this month with the likes of Rod Stewart and Santana. And Morris can figure out how to revive moribund (but not dead) Epic Records. They’re about to have a big hit with Michael Jackson‘s album. Maybe it will re-ignite the label.

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