Josh Grossberg Fri Mar 21, 5:17 AM ET

Los Angeles (E! Online) - Is this love? From the looks of it, maybe not.

The late Bob Marley's heirs are jamming the Weinstein Company from licensing the music of the reggae icon for an upcoming movie about his life and career that his widow, Rita Marley, is executive producing.

The reason for the snub, per the Hollywood Reporter: The clan's Tuff Gong Pictures is backing another project—a documentary by Martin Scorsese about Marley.

The family had already agreed to license the musician's hit-laden catalog for the Scorcese film—the first time the estate has granted such blanket rights—and is concerned that the Weinstein's biopic, set to unspool in late 2009, would conflict with the documentary's release in February 2010 around Marley's birthday.

"Martin Scorsese doesn't want to go out with a competing project, and [producer] Steven Bing has made deals with companies [that are now compromised]," Blue Mountain Music head Chris Blackwell told the Reporter. "The Weinstein project has put the documentary into jeopardy."

Blackwell founded Island Records, the label responsible for bringing Bob Marley and the Wailers as well as reggae in general to the masses, and now runs Blue Mountain Music, the "Stir It Up" singer's music publisher.

Marley's son, Ziggy, an executive producer on the untitled Scorsese expose, added that he and other family members' main priority is protecting his father's legacy.

"All our efforts and support are currently directed toward the documentary," Ziggy, a reggae star in his own right, told the trade. "We believe that this project is the best way to represent our father's life from his perspective, and any other film project pertaining to our father will be empty without his music to support it."

The problem for moguls Harvey and Bob Weinstein is that they apparently were willing to get up, stand up for the story, but failed to get music rights.

"When I sold the film rights to my book [to the Weinsteins], the contract did not include any rights to use my husband's music," said Rita Marley.

Neither a rep for Tuff Gong Pictures nor the London-based Blackwell was available for comment.

Marley family attorney Terri Dipalo told the Reporter the clan categorically rejects any suggestions that they were holding back the tunes to get a better deal out of the Weinsteins. At the same time, she didn't rule out his songs from eventually being licensed for the drama, noting "anything's possible."

Weinstein Company spokesman Matthew Frankel indicated that the brothers believe everything will work out in the end.

"We have great respect for the Marley family and Chris Blackwell and are in discussions to look at ways to mutually benefit both projects," he said.

Blackwell, who's reportedly pushing for the company to postpone the biopic until at least 2015, had a phone conversation with Harvey Weinstein earlier this month in which the two discussed the potential conflict, but so far had not settled the issue. One idea the former is bandying about is possibly having the Weinsteins receive a stake in the Scorsese doc in exchange for delaying the Rita Marley-produced flick.

A source close to that project however insisted to E! Online that the 2009 date for the biopic was never set in stone in the first place because the film does not even have a script yet and remains in development so all the talk regarding a possible collision is premature.

Or good PR. 

4 minutes ago

LOS ANGELES - Two former members of the Beach Boys settled a five-year legal dispute over use of the band’s name, a lawyer said. document.write('’);

Al Jardine and Mike Love reached an agreement after a two-day conference in Superior Court, attorney Lawrence Noble, who represents Jardine, said Thursday. Details of the settlement were not disclosed.

“Mr. Jardine feels very happy and feels that this is a friendly settlement that allows them to focus on the talent and future of this American iconic band,” Noble said.

Love sued Jardine in 2003, claiming he fronted a group that used various versions of the Beach Boys name. The lawsuit said Love was the sole licensee to perform under the name, and that Jardine was denied use because he did not agree to abide by terms of a proposed license.

Love was seeking $2 million in court costs and $1 million he said Jardine collected from using the name.

A judge ruled in January that the case could go to trial. It was set to begin April 14.

The Beach Boys were founded in 1961 by brothers Brian, Carl and Dennis Wilson, their cousin Love and Brian Wilson’s friend Jardine.

Dennis Wilson died in 1983 and Carl Wilson died in 1998.

By Gregg Goldstein 16 minutes ago

NEW YORK (Hollywood Reporter) - The family of Bob Marley has refused to license any of his music for an upcoming Weinstein Co. film drama about the late reggae star even though his widow, Rita Marley, is its executive producer.

The reason? There is a competing Martin Scorsese documentary being produced by the Marley family-owned Tuff Gong Pictures and Steven Bing's Shangri La production banner, the first theatrical documentary to license Marley songs.

The family members involved in the Scorsese documentary say they were unaware that the Weinstein project would be unveiled so soon and believe that its projected late-2009 release date would interfere with their film's February 2010 opening, which is timed to coincide with Marley's birthday.

"Martin Scorsese doesn't want to go out with a competing project, and Steven Bing has made deals with companies" that are now compromised, Blue Mountain Music president Chris Blackwell said. "The Weinstein project has put the documentary into jeopardy."

Blue Mountain Music is Marley's music publisher.

"All our efforts and support are currently directed toward the documentary," said the reggae legend's son, Ziggy Marley, who is executive producer of the untitled Scorsese film. "We believe that this project is the best way to represent our father's life from his perspective, and any other film project pertaining to our father will be empty without his music to support it."

"When I sold the film rights to my book (for the Weinstein film)," Rita Marley told The Reporter, "the contract did not include any rights to use my husband's music."

The Marley family's lawyer, Terri Dipalo, denied the latest move was a negotiating ploy to compel the Weinsteins to buy Marley music rights or to up the price for those rights. She did suggest that "anything's possible" when asked if Marley's songs might end up in the Weinstein feature.

Music publisher Blackwell would like to see the Weinstein biopic delayed until at least 2015 to avoid the two projects colliding. He said he talked with Harvey Weinstein on March 13 about the issue, but so far nothing has been resolved.

Blackwell told The Reporter that he expects a deal to be reached soon whereby the Weinstein Co. would take a stake in the Scorsese documentary and agree to postpone its drama.

Weinstein Co. spokesman Matthew Frankel responded, "We have great respect for the Marley family and Chris Blackwell and are in discussions to look at ways to mutually benefit both projects."

Reuters/Hollywood Reporter

28 minutes ago

LOS ANGELES (Billboard) - English progressive rock act Yes will celebrate its 40th anniversary with a 26-date North American amphitheater and arena tour, beginning July 12 at Canada's Quebec City Festival and wrapping August 22 at the Gibson Amphitheatre in Los Angeles.

Tickets for the "Close to the Edge and Back" summer trek will go on sale March 29 via LiveNation.com. Along with the upcoming jaunt, Yes will commemorate its 40 years with a live album. Details are still being worked out, but the album could be released this summer, according to a spokesperson.

The trek brings Yes back into the touring fold for the first time in four years. The band's current lineup includes founding vocalist Jon Anderson and bass player Chris Squire. Joining them are Steve Howe, Alan White and Oliver Wakeman, who is the son of former Yes keyboard player Rick Wakeman.

Reuters/Billboard

By Jonathan Cohen 25 minutes ago

NEW YORK (Billboard) - Nearly 50 rare Supremes tracks will see the light of day on a new double-disc set, "Let the Music Play: Supreme Rarities 1960-1969."

The project is due April 29 via Motown/Hip-O-Select.com.

"Play" sports a wealth of alternate versions or vocals on favorites such as "You Can't Hurry Love," "Back in My Arms Again," "Someday We'll Be Together" and "I'll Set You Free," plus extended or alternate mixes of "Uptight," "I Can't Help Myself (Sugar Pie, Honey Bunch)" and "Don't Let True Love Die."

Perhaps of most interest to fans will be an array of covers, ranging from Tom Jones' "It's Not Unusual" to the Rolling Stones' "(I Can't Get No) Satisfaction," a spin on the Beatles' "I Saw Her Standing There" renamed "I Saw Him Standing There" and "MacArthur Park."

Motown previously opened its vaults for "Lost & Found" collections from the Four Tops, the Temptations, Marvin Gaye, the Miracles and Martha Reeves & the Vandellas.

Reuters/Billboard

courtesy of NME.com Thu Mar 20, 11:00 AM ET

R.E.M. frontman Michael Stipe recently said that he believes it is important for public figures to be open about their sexuality.

The 48-year-old singer has long been candid about being gay, having been named in Out magazine's "Out 100" list of gay celebrities in 1995, and describing himself as a queer artist in a 2001 interview with Time magazine.

In a recent interview with Spin, the singer revisited the topic, saying that he was always honest about his sexuality with those close to him, and now recognizes that it is important for people in the public eye to be open about such matters.

"I was totally open with the band and my family and my friends and certainly the people I was sleeping with. I thought it was pretty obvious," Stipe said.

"Now I recognize that to have public figures be very open about their sexuality helps some kid somewhere out there."

R.E.M. are due to release their 14th studio album, Accelerate, on April 1.

For more on R.E.M., check out their NME.com page.

Gina Serpe Thu Mar 20, 10:41 AM ET

Los Angeles (E! Online) - Good Friday came a day early for T.I.

The rapper, who's been under house arrest for the better part of five months, got some great news Thursday as a federal judge approved his request to leave his locked-down premises and attend Easter services this weekend.

The 27-year-old emcee, whose real name is Clifford Harris, has court clearance to attend mass and realated religious revelry at an event sponsored by his local house of worship, the New Birth Missionary Baptist Church, between the hours of 8:30 a.m. and 2 p.m. Sunday.

T.I. won't be able to make the holy excursion on his own, however, as the judge approved the request on the grounds that the chart-topper be escorted to the services, to be held at the Georgia Dome, by at least one of his attorneys and an as yet unspecified court monitor.

A similar get-out-of-jail request was made by T.I., and promptly rejected by the judge at the behest of prosecutors, last November, when the rapper sought permission to host a family Thanksgiving dinner at his Atlanta-area home.

The rapper was arrested back on Oct. 13, just a few blocks away and hours before he was set to headline the BET Hip-Hop Awards in his hometown. He was busted in a parking lot after allegedly getting caught trying to buy a slew of unregistered machine guns and silencers.

A bad enough offense on its own, T.I.'s indiscretion was made even worse because he was already a convicted felon and therefore not allowed to be in possession of any firearms, let alone unregistered ones.

He was subsequently released on $3 million bond, but remains under house arrest. If convicted on the two felony charges, to which he has pleaded not guilty, he faces up to 10 years in prison and a $250,000 fine for each count.

The next hearing is scheduled to take place April 4.

By Gary Graff 18 minutes ago

AUSTIN, Texas (Billboard) - With a live DVD, a new album and some touring on the docket, ZZ Top is revving up for a busy year.

While he was hanging out at this year's South by Southwest Music + Media Conference in Austin, Texas — where he performed at Rachael Ray's Feedback party and psychedelic rocker Roky Erickson's annual Ice Cream Social — the band's guitarist, Billy Gibbons, told Billboard.com that bandmates Dusty Hill and Frank Beard were back in Dallas "in the studio, preparing a new series of sessions of new material" for ZZ Top's first studio set since 2003's "Mescalero."

Gibbons said the band hopes to finish the album before the summer. "The challenge of the studio is much different than live appearances," Gibbons said. "The live experience is hundreds of distracting events. The studio is one microphone. It's one event, so it raises our level of attention to a place where we can really come together as the band we started off as. It's almost a small club environment, so it's really fun."

Before the album, however, ZZ Top plans to release a concert DVD taped November 1, 2007, at the Nokia Theater in Grand Prairie, Texas, near Dallas. No date or title has been determined yet for the Eagle Rock release, which Gibbons characterized as "untouched. It's full of mistakes, and that's the way we like it."

The band is starting to line up its 2008 road schedule. "Hopefully we'll be able to return to the road as early as June — even, if we can pull it off, into May," said Gibbons, who recently taped a guest appearance on the May 16 season finale for the Fox TV series "Bones."

"I thought I was gonna be the blind date or the boyfriend. But, no, I have to be the dad," he lamented.

Reuters/Billboard

By Jonathan Cohen 29 minutes ago

NEW YORK (Billboard) - After playing just two shows in 2007, Pearl Jam will return to the road this summer for a 10-date tour beginning June 11 in West Palm Beach, Florida.

The dates are in conjunction with the group's previously announced co-headlining appearance at Tennessee's Bonnaroo Festival in mid-June.

"I'm looking forward to Bonnaroo," bassist Jeff Ament told Billboard. "The thing that's probably the most exciting to me is that we've been a band for 17 or 18 years and there's still things like this that we haven't done."

The trek includes a June 24-25 stand at New York's Madison Square Garden, which has hosted some of the band's most memorable shows. Kings of Leon will provide support June 11-17, and Ted Leo and the Pharmacists will open the other dates.

Earlier this year, band members got together for eight days to begin kicking around ideas for the next Pearl Jam album, Ament said, cautioning that "it doesn't mean there'll be a record out next month, but it's the start of the process. Sometimes it takes six months and sometimes it takes two years."

"It's just fun to play," he continued. "We've actually gotten really good at jamming with each other, so it's fun to get together and crank up the amps. We'll have (drummer) Matt (Cameron) throw a beat at us and try to come up with something. There's some new, different kind of things coming out of people."

According to guitarist Stone Gossard, "We're just getting into it, which is so exciting. We have no idea where it's going, but we have a lot of great little starts."

Band members have plenty on their individual plates as well. Gossard is working on his second solo album with longtime collaborator Pete Droge, and guitarist Mike McCready is preparing for his annual benefit show for the Northwest Chapter of the Crohn's & Colitis Foundation of America, set for May 3 at Seattle's Showbox.

Meanwhile, frontman Eddie Vedder's first solo tour, a short West Coast run, will get under way April 2 in Vancouver. "He's going to do great," Ament said. "He's been warming up for this his whole life, but especially the last seven or eight years, playing a song or two himself before our shows."

Here are Pearl Jam's tour dates:

June 11: West Palm Beach, Fla. (Cruzan Amphitheatre)

June 12: Tampa, Fla. (St. Pete Times Forum)

June 13-15: Manchester, Tenn. (Bonnaroo Festival)

June 16: Columbia, S.C. (Colonial Center)

June 17: Virginia Beach, Va. (Verizon Wireless Center)

June 19: Camden, N.J. (Susquehanna Bank Center)

June 22: Washington, D.C. (Verizon Center)

June 24-25: New York (Madison Square Garden)

June 27: Hartford, Conn. (Dodge Music Center)

June 30: Mansfield, Mass. (Tweeter Center)

Reuters/Billboard

By Jonathan Cohen 14 minutes ago

NEW YORK (Billboard) - Elvis Costello's next solo studio album, curiously dubbed "Momofuku," will arrive April 22, and plans are for the set to be released only on vinyl, with a digital download code included in the package.

No other details are available about the Lost Highway release, which follows 2004's "The Delivery Man," Costello's debut on the label with his band the Imposters.

Since then, Costello recorded "The River in Reverse" with pianist Allen Toussaint and supervised the first wave of his back-catalog reissues through Universal. The most recent of those, "This Year's Model," arrived March 4.

Costello will open the Police's summer North American tour, beginning May 10 in Chicago. He also has headlining dates on tap beforehand, starting April 22 in Memphis.

Reuters/Billboard