By Sue Zeidler 46 minutes ago

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - "Queen of Soul" Aretha Franklin added another jewel to her illustrious musical crown on Friday night when she was honored at the annual MusiCares dinner, a Grammy-related event that raises money for musicians in need.

"There may be a debate about who is the president, but there is no debate on who is the queen," said civil rights leader Al Sharpton, one of many luminaries on hand to pay tribute to the 65-year-old Franklin.

The singer, who has garnered 17 Grammy Awards and the Presidential Medal of Freedom in a career spanning four decades, will perform this Sunday at the Grammy Awards, where she is also nominated for best gospel performance for a duet with Mary J. Blige.

"Aretha Franklin, you're a true national treasure," said former U.S. President Bill Clinton, who weighed in on Friday in a video message.

Also on hand to celebrate and perform at the Los Angeles Convention Center on Friday were BeBe & CeCe Winans, Fantasia, John Legend, Patti Austen and Herbie Hancock.

Born in Memphis and raised primarily in Detroit, Franklin began singing in a choir helmed by her father, the Rev. C.L. Franklin, first attracting attention at 14, when she recorded a live version of "Precious Lord."

But it was her collaboration with record label executive and producer Jerry Wexler in 1967 that put Franklin on the map, paving the way for her hit album, "I Never Loved a Man (The Way I Love You)," which combined her gospel roots with R&B and featured her hit rendition of Otis Redding's "Respect," which was hailed as a social and political anthem.

Thanking her guests and noting that she needed many tissues throughout the evening, Franklin, who is well-known for her fear of flying, joked she might even be ready to be airborne.

"It took 6 days to get here from Detroit. If I ever wanted to fly again, it's now," she said and then took to the stage to belt out her hit, "Chain of Fools."

One of Franklin's most memorable Grammy achievements was during the awards show in 1998, when she was suddenly asked to fill in for an ill Luciano Pavarotti without any rehearsing.

(Reporting by Sue Zeidler, Editing by Sandra Maler)

By Mike Collett-White 26 minutes ago

BERLIN (Reuters) - Patti Smith hates labels, but if you had to choose a phrase to describe the U.S. singer, poet, political activist and painter, it might be Renaissance woman.

An intimate documentary about her life and work made over 12 years shows the 61-year-old veer from reflective commentator who ruminates on politics, family and death, to intense performer who sheds tears and spits with rage on stage.

Made by Steven Sebring, the mostly black-and-white "Patti Smith: Dream of Life" gets unusually close to its subject. Experimental camerawork and editing makes for a fittingly unconventional portrait of one of the pioneers of punk music.

"It's not a rock'n'roll film, it's not a concert film, it's a humanistic film," Smith told reporters on Saturday after the movie was screened at the Berlin Film Festival.

Sebring, who became a close friend of Smith's over the long filming period, said recording her became "like a drug." He amassed so much footage that editing took over a year.

"It was a hard film to tame," he said.

Smith was asked whether she liked being labeled as a punk rocker by the media.

"I have, since my first record, said right on the record that I was beyond labels, beyond gender, independent, and I don't like to be called any label.

"Every time you see a journalist that calls me a punk rocker, it's because they don't have the imagination or the professional intelligence or the curiosity or see the full breadth of what I've done."

DEATH LOOMS LARGE

Sebring captures a touching visit to her parents, concert footage old and new, Smith at protest rallies and on trips to Japan and Jerusalem, backstage preparations, reflections alone in her chaotic apartment and visits to friends' graves.

Death looms throughout the one hour, 50-minute film, but with little trace of morbidity. At one point Smith pours the ashes of a friend into her palm and at another speaks movingly about her brother and how his death affected her.

"I regularly visit graves," Smith told reporters. "Tomorrow, I'm going to visit Bertolt Brecht's grave. I like going to visit people's graves — I find it comforting. I know so many people who are gone, I like the proximity of something of them there."

Smith was born in Chicago in 1946 and in the late 60s moved to New York where she frequented fashionable nightclubs and befriended musicians and photographers.

She sang in a band and enjoyed a cult following that was reinforced by her first album "Horses," released in 1975, which subsequently inspired many big names in rock.

"Patti Smith: Dream of Life," named after the 1988 album "Dream of Life," joins Smith in the late 1990s as she prepares to return to the stage to tour with idol Bob Dylan after 16 years out of the limelight.

Early reviews of the film have been glowing.

"She's writing for young poets who years from now may be inspired by this beautiful record of her life's work," wrote the Hollywood Reporter.

(Editing by Matthew Jones)

(To read more about our entertainment news, visit our blog "Fan Fare" online at http://blogs.reuters.com/fanfare/ )

1 hour, 1 minute ago

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - The father of troubled singer Britney Spears has strengthened control over her affairs with an order to fire her business manager and a demand that he turn over her personal records, a court document showed on Friday.

The document, which was posted on celebrity news Web site TMZ.com, said that Howard Grossman was notified of a court order granting Jamie Spears the right to fire him as the singer's business manager and require Grossman "turn over all documents, records, and assets relating to Britney Spears."

The move follows charges by Spear's mother Lynne in court documents made public earlier this week that the pop star's self-style manager, Sam Lufti, had drugged her to take control of her home, life and finances.

Late last week the 26 year-old, who rose to stardom as a Disney child star and became a teenage pop singing sensation, was admitted to a Los Angeles hospital and placed under psychiatric evaluation.

Her father was given temporary control over her affairs by a Los Angeles court.

By Wednesday, Spears had left the UCLA Medical Center and one day later, Jamie Spears was back in court in a closed-door hearing to strengthen his conservatorship over her assets.

Spears' life has spun out of control since her divorce from ex-husband Kevin Federline in 2006. She has spent time in rehab, been photographed in public wearing no underwear and exhibited bizarre behavior such as wearing pink wings and talking in a British accent despite being from Louisiana.

She has battled Federline for custody of their two young sons, and in another public disclosure on Friday, Spears' current Los Angeles attorneys in that case, the firm Trope and Trope, have filed court papers asking to be dropped from the case, according to TMZ.com.

(Reporting by Bob Tourtellotte; Editing by Sandra Maler)

By Evie Nagy 33 minutes ago

NEW YORK (Billboard) - In the animated video for They Might Be Giants' song "One Everything," a singing globe helps a little boy deal with his overwhelmingly messy room by invoking the unity of the omniverse: "If you go out and count up everything, it all adds up to one."

The song is from TMBG's new children's release, "Here Come the 123s," but it plays with the kind of braininess that has attracted loyal adult fans — many now parents — to the duo of John Flansburgh and John Linnell throughout their 25-year alternative-rock career.

The Disney Sound CD/DVD, released February 5, is a follow-up to 2005's "Here Come the ABCs," which has sold 110,000 copies in the United States, according to Nielsen SoundScan, and reached No. 6 on Billboard's Top Kid Audio chart. That project was backed by Disney after the unexpected success of 2002's "No!," TMBG's first children's effort and a No. 1 entry on the Top Kid Audio list. U.S. sales for that effort total 144,000.

"The first kids' record seemed like such an incidental thing at the time. We were working on all these other projects," Linnell says, adding that "No!" jumped between labels for several years before Rounder agreed to distribute it on the band's own imprint, Idlewild. "Then it completely outsold our adult work of that year, and that got everyone's attention."

Success in the kids' market, however, has fed rather than replaced the band's adult music output, and Linnell says he and Flansburgh take a nearly identical musical approach for both audiences. "A lot of parents want their kids to like the same thing they like, so they're pushing this stuff on the kid and the kids are going along with it," he says.

CROSS-GENERATIONAL APPEAL

According to Walt Disney Records executive VP/Disney Music Group general manager David Agnew, it's TMBG's unique simultaneous appeal to kids and adults that inspired him to executive-produce both Disney projects with the band.

"I've been a fan of the Giants since the '80s and have always thought of their music as being smart and fun — both prerequisites for good kids' music," Agnew says. "The Giants can play a sold-out concert at noon in a beautiful theater to a thousand kids with their parents singing along to songs about letters and numbers, then later that night play in a sweaty club to a thousand teens and adults."

Indeed, along with planned family events tied to "Here Come the 123s," the band will maintain a heavy touring schedule this spring to support its 2007 adult release, "The Else."

A key promotional element for "Here Come the 123s" is TMBG's Friday Night Family Video Podcast, a free weekly download launched in January that features videos from the "123s" and "ABCs" DVDs, hosted by Linnell and Flansburgh puppets. A selection of the videos, created by independent artists and animators in collaboration with the band, will also be in rotation on the Disney Channel.

But beyond promotion, TMBG's success in the kids' market has a lot to do with a singular musical identity, built with dozens of releases and TV themes, that has evolved into a brand. Linnell says that with Agnew's guidance, the band has leveraged that brand into a series of products that kids and parents recognize and anticipate — next up is an album of songs related to science, which Agnew says could be released as early as next year.

"There's a way that stuff gets marketed that I have to say, I was kind of ignorant of," Linnell says. "But it's become incredibly clear to me that creating a franchise is important. It's something that we did without thinking in those terms in the first place with They Might Be Giants, which is that we just made lots and lots of records."

Reuters/Billboard

By Ann Donahue 42 minutes ago

LOS ANGELES (Billboard) - Fox's "American Idol" is about to move from the cross-country audition rounds toward the meat of the show — the Hollywood elimination episodes that whittle down the contestants to the top 24. But one up-and-comer won't have to worry about getting an awkward consolation hug from Paula Abdul.

Capitol Records artist Ferras, a 25-year-old singer/songwriter/pianist, provides the "farewell song" that plays as the "Idol" contestants are dismissed from the Hollywood tryouts. It makes its first appearance on the show February 12.

The song, "Hollywood's Not America," is from Ferras' new album, "Aliens & Rainbows," scheduled for release April 1. It's a hooky Elton John-esque ballad that shows off Ferras' impressive vocal range, and was co-written with the Matrix's Lauren Christy.

"I was sitting down writing one night with Lauren, drinking wine and talking about Hollywood — how people come here to achieve dreams, and you realize at one point that it's never going to be enough," Ferras says. "When you get to that point, you realize, 'I love myself, I love who I am, I don't need all these things.' I don't want to be preachy in the song — it's just an observation. People ask me, 'Do you even like L.A.?' And yes, I love it."

For the past eight years, Ferras found himself in the agonizingly familiar pattern of almost-maybe-not-quite-getting-a-break. He eventually found an ally in Limp Bizkit frontman Fred Durst, who introduced him to Capitol Music Group chairman/CEO Jason Flom.

In March, Ferras will begin a monthlong North American tour with A Fine Frenzy.

But beyond his performance chops and vocal prowess, Ferras has the kind of back story that makes even the most jaded industry type do a double take. "My dad kidnapped me when I was 5," he says. "He says we were going to Disneyland, and we got on a plane to Jordan."

En route to the airport, Ferras and his father stopped at a toy store, where he picked up a mini-keyboard to play with during the flight. While in Jordan, as his parents battled over custody, Ferras wrote his first song and played it over the phone to his mother, who was still in the United States. "I think that sort of marked my ability," he says. "I associated any kind of emotional exchange — the highs and the lows — to writing music."

With the help of the U.S. Embassy in Jordan, Ferras' mother eventually was able to get him out of the country by sneaking him out of his father's house in the middle of the night and concealing him under blankets in the back seat of a car.

So, all this making-it-in-Hollywood stuff? For Ferras, it's a snap. "It's a whirlwind … but I couldn't be more excited," he says. "I'm ready."

Reuters/Billboard

By ERIN CARLSON, Associated Press Writer 24 minutes ago

NEW YORK - No one ever accused Simon Cowell of being compassionate — until this year.

Three weeks into the new season, the resident “American Idol” grinch has been sugarcoating critiques of mediocre and helplessly tone-deaf wannabes.

“He’s nice for three weeks, and then suddenly he’ll flip and he’ll turn out being (a) bloody horror again,” said “Idol” executive producer Ken Warwick. “Wait until we get into this next batch, you know, the top 12.”

A prime example of Cowell’s benevolence was when he gave the thumbs-up to a sweet young mother who had a new lease on life after a terrible car accident, but no real shot at cracking the finalists’ ranks. It was an uncharacteristic move for the blunt record exec famous for his brutal, dream-crushing honesty.

Then again, any act of Cowell kindness would seem significant following the outrage he provoked during tryouts last season with vicious attacks an assortment of earnest, defenseless contestants, even comparing one singer to a “bush baby.”

That’s not to say Cowell doesn’t still have moments of stinging criticism on Fox’s top-rated talent circus. He spared few brave souls — including camera hams and teens with delusions of grandeur — from the cold hard truth, but seemed to fully return to form on Wednesday’s final audition show.

After 25-year-old Joshua Moreland serenaded Paula Abdul with a love song he’d written, Cowell sniped: “It was a horribly over-the-top, corny, revolting audition.” Moreland looked as if he’d been slapped in the face.

He was equally mean to an unassuming woman who claimed her voice was a gift from God, asking: “Does He have a return policy?”

Cowell seemed to delight in needling targets such as an abstinence-promoting high school cheerleader (whom he sent through to Hollywood, ostensibly in the interest of good TV). But he joined Abdul and Randy Jackson in consoling 16-year-old Temptress Brown after telling her __ in the kindest, most gentle way — that she’s “not a great singer.”

“If there’s anybody that comes in that he can honestly see does have a problem — a genuine problem — then he will be nice to them,” Warwick said. “He gets nothing to gain out of beating up on kids who are disadvantaged, genuinely having a real tough time with their life. All they need is to walk into that room and have them absolutely murder them.”

So why send someone who’s far from fair game into that room in the first place?

“We have to show a fair slice of the talent or not that turns up in that town,” Warwick said. “And that’s the only answer I can give to you.”

“American Idol” has had a slight ratings dip this year, premiering to 33 million viewers and slipping below 30 million per episode in the last two weeks (it still remains the most-watched show on TV). Last season the show premiered to 37 million viewers and only dipped below 30 million for one audition episode.

The show has dug deeply into contestants’ back stories to foster a stronger connection with viewers. Producers said “Idol” suffered last year by giving too much air time to celebrity mentors who had personal projects and concert tours to promote.

True to its word, the show upped the ante in introducing new hopefuls. It also upped the melodrama with profiles of single twentysomething moms (with one or two kids in tow) and an 18-year-old guy with who lives in his car (and sings with a faux British accent).

“Idol” watcher Jessica Shaw said it was backstory overkill.

“They’re swinging a little too far in the other direction and we’re learning a little bit too much about people that it turns out can’t carry a tune,” said Shaw, who writes for Entertainment Weekly magazine.

“It’s like, `I don’t care about you if you grew up on a farm and you’re a single mother and, you know, you wear … horrible acid-trip clothing if you can’t carry a tune.’ Because ultimately that’s what the show is about.”

Shaw gleefully mused that “all the claws are gonna come out once they hit Hollywood.” She considered Cowell’s unpredictably hot/cold behavior a part of his “genius.”

“He can sort of tweak his persona and change it up a little bit,” she said. “It’s only gonna make the show more interesting to watch.”

Next week, 164 hopefuls will take part in the anxiety-soaked Hollywood phase of the contest.

Host Ryan Seacrest promised ever more drama and said “the judges will be RUTHLESS on the contestants.”

The auditions are over. Let the real games begin.

___

Fox is owned by News Corp.

___

On the Net:

Fox:

http://www.americanidol.com/