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Is Paul McCartney secretly a Dittohead? The 60,000 fans attending a recent concert at FedExField in Baltimore must have thought so. The former Beatle dedicated the performance of the song he co-wrote with John Lennon, “Michelle,” to the first lady of the United States, Michelle Obama. “I love you, I love you, I love you. That's all I want to say,” McCartney crooned following his dedication. Long before the McCartney fawning, though, while her husband was still a candidate radio talk show host extraordinaire Rush Limbaugh gave Mrs. Obama the moniker “Michelle, My Belle,” a take off on the Fab...

He's already painted himself as the most avant garde Beatle, now in what seems like another attempt to rewrite history, Sir Paul McCartney claims he was responsible for radicalising their their political views In a statement that forces us to read Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da as a commentary on American neo-colonialism, Sir Paul has said that it is he who turned the Beatles on to politics, introducing John, Paul and Ringo to the evils of the Vietnam war. Whereas John Lennon is widely considered the "political one", penning songs like Revolution and Give Peace a Chance, sweet Sir Paul is now presenting...

Former Beatle Sir Paul McCartney has played his first gig in Israel in front of an estimated 40,000 cheering fans. The 66-year-old singer kicked off the historic concert with the familiar Beatles' song Hello, Goodbye at Tel Aviv's Yarkon Park. Some fans turned up wearing "I love Paul" and Beatles T-shirts. Earlier the star said he was "not nervous, but excited" ahead of the gig, which comes 43 years after The Beatles were banned from performing in Israel. Back in 1965 The Beatles were scheduled to perform, but were prevented taking the stage because of fears they could "corrupt the...

A Muslim terrorist leader based in Lebanon has threatened to send suicide bombers to kill former Beatle and international music icon Paul McCartney when he performs in Israel later this month. McCartney will perform in Tel Aviv as part of ongoing celebrations marking the 60th anniversary of Israel's modern rebirth. In remarks carried by British tabloid Sunday Express, Sheikh Omar Bakri said that makes McCartney the enemy of all Muslims. Bakri, a Syrian national who once resided in London, warned McCartney that if he will be targeted if he comes to Israel. "Paul McCartney is the enemy of every Muslim....

How The West Was Won The rapid and unexpected decline of the Sunni insurgency in Iraq was officially recognized this week, when Maj. Gen. John Kelly, commanding the Marine Expeditionary Force, turned operational control of Anbar Province over to the Iraqi army and police. Anbar, a vast expanse of desert the size of North Carolina, had been the stronghold of the Sunni insurgency. For years, foreign fighters loyal to al-Qaida had sneaked across Iraq's northwestern border with Syria, into Anbar and down a "rat line" of safe houses in Haditha, Ramadi and Hit. From Fallujah, the arch terrorist Zarqawi...

Israel Says She Loves You To Beatles Paul McCartney By Joel Leyden Israel News Agency Jerusalem, Israel --- August 31, 2008 ..... Life is certainly a magical mystery tour. And for those of us who live in Israel, the long and winding road just became a bit more scenic. With the surprise announcement by Beatles singer and composer Sir Paul McCartney that he will be performing in Tel Aviv next month, the Jewish nation has taken a smiling leap back 40 years in time. From car radios, open market CD players and inside elegant, modern stores, the warm, loving, magical...

The "Musicians Who Turn 50", "Musicians Who Turn 60", "Favorite Drummer" and "Favorite Guitarist" were such hit threads on FR, I've decided to do this one. Who is your favorite SONGWRITING DUO? We all know that Lennon-McCartney were amazing together and possibly the best songwriting duo ever. They might be mentioned several times on this thread. If you choose John & Paul, be specific about which song and lyric(s).

Given the bad blood flowing through such a high-profile domestic it was quite a restrained gesture, really. There could have been shouting or even fisticuffs. But Heather Mills restricted herself to throwing a glass of water over the immaculately coiffed hair of Sir Paul McCartney’s lawyer before emerging from the High Court yesterday to profess herself profoundly satisfied with the result. The £24.3 million divorce award, that is, not the wrecking of a tidy legal hairdo. Fiona Shackleton, solicitor for the former Beatle, walked from court looking a little damp but not unduly discomfited. She had, after all, just saved...

Heather Mills torn to shreds by Sir Paul McCartney divorce judge By Caroline Gammell and Gordon Rayner Last Updated: 8:26pm GMT 18/03/2008 Heather Mills has seen her reputation left in tatters after the High Court judge presiding over her divorce from Sir Paul McCartney tore into her character, accusing her of "make-belief", inconsistency and inaccuracy. Mr Justice Bennett said she was a "less than impressive witness" during the six-day hearing last month who "wholly exaggerated" the extent of her wealth before she met her now ex-husband. Telegraph TV: Heather Mills spent 11 minutes outside court attacking the legal system Miss...

During another typically bizarre day for Heather Mills, the former model yesterday urged people to try drinking milk from rats and dogs to help save the planet. Media-shy Heather started off by storming out of a radio interview with London's LBC station. She then drove a gas-guzzling Mercedes 4x4 to Speakers' Corner in Hyde Park to speak about ecological matters - and kept the engine running for part of the morning. Once there she proceeded to launch into an extraordinary ecological rant and exhorted the assembled crowds to try drinking rat's milk instead of cow's milk in a bid to...

DUBLIN, Ireland (Nov. 21) - Heather Mills McCartney, who is reportedly seeking millions of dollars in her breakup with Paul McCartney , denounced the world's rich as misers and snobs Wednesday. Mills McCartney delivered the critical comments during her 90-minute speech to the debating society of Trinity College Dublin. Former model Mills McCartney, 39, married the 65-year-old music legend in 2002 and gave birth to the couple's only child, Beatrice, a year later. But the couple separated last year, and McCartney filed for divorce alleging "unreasonable behavior" by his wife. Mills McCartney said she was reluctantly obliged to befriend the...

I like sizzling meat on the grill. Wild, huh? Anybody? Now, we all know ol' Nuge isn't by any stretch of the imagination a weirdo when it comes to an omnivorous diet. Especially here in the great Republic of Texas, a smiling, drooling preference for succulent, protein-rich, nutritious backstrap over aromatic mesquite coals is as American and natural and right as Mom, apple pie and the flag. It's beautiful, really. But a culture war rages against such universal, self-evident truths. It would be laughable if it were not so deranged. Some weirdos actually are on a crusade to outlaw the...

A controversial new public relations campaign by animal-rights group PETA proclaims Jesus Christ to have been a vegetarian, and portrays the Last Supper ? complete with 12 "disciples" including Beatle Paul McCartney and lesbian country-music singer k.d. lang ? as a spectacle meant to inspire mankind to forsake eating meat. The outreach has been built into a 28-foot 1955 Silver Streak Airstream trailer wherein the "Last Supper" is re-created, surrounding Jesus with famous vegetarians, officials of People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals told WND. Dallas artist Greg Metz's work first was displayed in his hometown, then in Columbia, S.C.,...

The estranged wife of Paul McCartney will be "Dancing with the Stars" when the ABC competition returns next month. On "Good Morning America" on Feb. 21, talk show host and former "Dancing With the Stars" cast member Jerry Springer announced the men and women who would be on the hit show's new season. Heather Mills will be the first contestant with an artificial limb. She lost a leg in a motorcycle accident in 1993. Springer told ABC that Mills may be the sentimental favorite -- even though her favorability ratings from some Beatles fans may put her on a par...

We had an extended debate at the office today....what was the best "MTv Unplugged" performance? Me? Hands down....Alice in Chains! Before any reasons are discussed ..... I was curious as to anyone else's opinions or preferences on the topic?

Sir Paul McCartney has hit back at the claims made by his estranged wife Heather Mills that he repeatedly attacked her. In a statement issued by his lawyers, the Beatles pop star said: "Since the breakdown of his marriage Sir Paul McCartney has maintained his silence in not commenting on the media stories believing that it was best for all concerned, particularly his children, for there to be some dignity in what is a private matter. "Our client would very much like to respond in public and in detail to the allegations made recently against him by his wife and...

HAD Sir Paul McCartney and Heather Mills sat down at the kitchen table and made a pact to strip Charles and Diana of the prize for messiest divorce since the reign of Henry VIII, they could not have contrived so much unpleasantness. Last week the couple, who passed the buck for their break-up to the media, were doing their utmost to ensure breaking stories about the intercepting of royal phone messages and the uncovering of a plot to wage terror on a scale exceeding 9/11 did not oust their misery from the news pages. And what lengths they had to...

LIFE STYLE EXTRA (UK) - Sir Paul McCartney has fired seven people from his New York offices - because he allegedly wants to cut all ties with estranged wife Heather Mills. According to America's New York Post newspaper, the former Beatle decided to dismiss the staff from MPL Communications, his lucrative music publishing house, this week in an unexpected cull. Paul's spokespeople have so far refused to comment on the sackings, but speculation is rife he made the tough decision because of their connections to Heather, who reportedly had a hand in the majority of his business affairs. Earlier this...

N.L. premier, ex-Beatle to spar on seal-hunt on Larry KingCBC News March 3, 2006 The premier of Newfoundland and Labrador will be on Larry King Live on Friday night to oppose the anti-seal-hunt views of rock legend Paul McCartney. Danny Williams's appearance on the CNN talk show was to be taped in advance. He was to defend the hunt, which McCartney and his wife, Heather, have been protesting this week during a visit to Prince Edward Island. McCartney, who visited seal pups in the Gulf of St. Lawrence, claimed Thursday that 95 per cent of the seals killed in Canada...

I love the Beatles' music. My respect for individual members of the legendary band end there. Paul McCartney has spent a lifetime making incredible music while uttering pure gibberish on issues that matter. It seems that if he can’t put a rhyme and a tune to it, his brain turns to mush.

IT'S no secret that Paul McCartney and John Lennon's widow Yoko Ono are not good friends. The pair have been rowing on and off since they first met when McCartney's fellow Beatle fell for Ono in the late 1960s. But in recent weeks their failure to reach common ground has escalated, with a string of veiled - and not so veiled - swipes from both camps. Last month, when McCartney played at Madison Square Garden, he included Too Many People, a song which reportedly contains a sour message for Ono. The track - which was written by Macca in 1971...

WASHINGTON, November 10 (RIA Novosti) - Former Beatle Sir Paul McCartney will perform live for the crew of the International Space Station November 13, NASA's press service said Thursday. U.S. astronaut William McArthur and Russian cosmonaut Valery Tokarev will wake up this Sunday to McCartney serenading them live from Anaheim, California. He is scheduled to sing two songs, God Day Sunshine from The Beatles' Revolver album and English Tea from his last album, Chaos And Creation In The Backyard. It is the first time that a live concert will be transmitted to a spacecraft. Good Day Sunshine was used to...

The International Space Station crew, 220 miles above Earth, will receive a special live musical wakeup call from Paul McCartney Sunday during a first-ever concert linkup. The wakeup will come from McCartney's "US" Tour performance at the Anaheim, Calif., Arrowhead Pond. McCartney plans to play two songs, "Good Day Sunshine" and "English Tea," for NASA Astronaut Bill McArthur and Russian Cosmonaut Valery Tokarev. This is the first time a live concert will be linked to a U.S. spacecraft. The call will take place at 12:55 a.m. EST, Sunday, Nov. 13 (9:55 p.m. PST, Nov. 12) as the concert is nearing...

<p>All those troubles may have seemed so far away. But now it looks as though they're here to stay--and Paul McCartney thinks we bloody well ought to be doing something about it. As an interviewer for Britain's Independent put it to the man himself, what we have with "the war in Afghanistan is the first conflict supported by a Beatle." Just to clarify, what the Independent means here is a conflict in which the Beatles are pulling for the Western side. Not that Mr. McCartney--Sir Paul these days--minces any words. "Normally you're a pacifist and you don't want any kind of war at all, but occasionally something so atrocious happens there's gotta be some kind of response," he told the Independent's Gavin Martin. "I'd like to see the bombing stop, but what are you gonna do, turn the other cheek?" Sir Paul goes on to say that in analyzing his new thoughts, it took him "back to conversations we used to have in the Sixties," where everyone agreed that if there was a war, "we'd be pacifist."</p>

Paul Mcartney opened his US tour last night in Miami. I was there and I would heartily recommend it to my fellow Freepers, particularly those in my age range (I am 52). The show opened dubiously with a ten-minute video hagiography that should have embarrassed McCartney as much as it did the audience. Let's face it the man is obviously enamored with himself - playing with his dyed hair far more than a man should, waving to the crowd in phony humility after each song etc. etc. Having said all that I have to say that the show was SPECTACULAR!...

Sir Paul McCartney landed the headline spot at Live 8 after threatening not to perform at all. The 62-year-old former Beatle told organisers he wanted to open Saturday's Hyde Park concert and close it or he would 'think seriously' about taking part. They have bowed to his demand and Sir Paul will start the show with a version of Sergeant Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band - reworded to honour the achievements of Bob Geldof - and round it off eight hours later with The Long and Winding Road.

Riddle me this: What do Madonna, Bono, President Bush and Prime Minister Blair all have in common? They want to help poor Africans, that's what. But how to do that is the rub. Madonna has signed up for the latest Bob Geldorf concert series to heighten "awareness" of the dire African situation. She will join Paul McCartney and other pop stars in a series of shows next month. This is a nice, if somewhat fuzzy, idea. The last time Geldorf swam into these waters, in 1985, his "Live Aid" project raised about $150 million dollars for Ethiopian famine victims. The...

Love it or hate it, you have to admit: A mullet hairstyle is distinctive There are two kinds of people in this country, and forget that blue-state, red-state thing. You're either for a mullet or against a mullet. What's a mullet? Do not mock us. Yes, a mullet is a spiny-finned, feeble-toothed fish, but we all know it's so much more. A mullet is a hairstyle characterized by the hair cut short in front and on the sides but kept long down the back. It's not a cutting-edge style. But recently, the mullet has re-emerged as a pop culture object...

NEW YORK (AP) Hip-hop impresario Russell Simmons is joining other celebrities and activists in a call for boycotts against Kentucky Fried Chicken. He called slaughter practices used by the fast-food chain’s suppliers “grossly inhumane” and has filmed a commercial “showing some of the very worst abuses chickens undergo” before they are served to customers, the Daily News reported Sunday. Simmons, who is chairman of Def Jam Records said he has talked to officials of Yum! Brands, the parent company of KFC, and said he will release the ad and start a boycott if the company does not reform its practices....

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Paul McCartney will be the featured performer in the next Super Bowl halftime show and organizers promised there won't be any breast baring this time. Last February's broadcast on CBS in which Janet Jackson's breast was bared during a duet with pop star Justin Timberlake spurred hundreds of thousands of complaints to federal regulators. Jackson blamed the incident on a "wardrobe malfunction." National Football League spokesman Brian McCarthy told Reuters on Sunday there won't be any such malfunctions during the 12-minute performance, which will air on the Fox network. He said the Feb. 6 show will...

AT THE very height of Beatlemania, the Fab Four played to an astonishing 500,000 people during a 1964 whirlwind tour of the US. Today, 40 years on, Sir Paul McCartney will be seen by more than 700,000 fans in a 13-date European tour. Not bad for a man who turns 62 this month. But even though he is in numerical terms a bigger draw than the Beatles ever were, he is not about to play down the debt he owes to his years in the biggest pop group of all time. In his most revealing interview ever, McCartney has talked...

McCartney speaks out against war Sir Paul wrote a song, Freedom, after the 11 September attacks Former Beatle Sir Paul McCartney has criticised the UK government for being too hasty in going to war in Iraq. "Maybe our government went in too fast with the Americans," he told the weekly Portuguese magazine Visao on Thursday. "It would have been better if the UN had been together," the 61-year-old singer continued. "Now it's become very bloody with Iraq, it's very difficult." The singer, who is currently touring Europe, opens the Rock in Rio music festival in Lisbon on Friday. Sir Paul...

Sept. 15 — This Thursday, the A & E Network will air “Paul McCartney in Red Square,” a 90-minute concert film covering McCartney’s first-ever visit to Russia last May. The documentary explores the role that Beatles’ music played in helping to erode communism and includes interviews with President Vladimir Putin, former President Mikhail Gorbachev and many Russians whose lives were changed by the band.

What do you think of George W. Bush? There’s a certain disenchantment from what I see, particularly with young people. But he did a good job post-9/11. I was there [in the United States]. I can remember the week after, some American saying, ‘And we’ve got this banana-head as president.’ And I said, ‘Stop right there. You’ve got a president. Right now, don’t do that, don’t go there. He’s on our side. We love him. He’s going to lead us.’ I wonder if we’re past that now. I do see funny signs like you’d see in the ‘60s: ‘Screw...

Sir Paul McCartney, 61, who had a hit with Band on the Run, was out in London.

<p>PHILADELPHIA — Four teenagers charged with beating a 16-year-old boy to death plotted the killing for weeks and listened to the Beatles song "Helter Skelter" (search) several dozen times before the murder, according to an alleged confession read in court.</p>

Sir Paul McCartney has revealed to the Sunday Herald that he will no longer seek to have the famous Lennon-McCartney songwriting credits reversed in his favour, which he did on his last album. The musician, who caused outrage last year when he reversed the credits on the 19 Beatles' songs on his Back In The US Live 2002 album, changing it from Lennon-McCartney to Paul McCartney and John Lennon, said he has changed his mind and is now happy to keep the original order of the 'rock'n'roll trademark'. At the time, the action prompted a furious response from Lennon's widow,...

Beatles were a breath of fresh air: Russia's Putin MOSCOW (AFP) - The world's most famous surviving ex-Beatle was back in what is no longer the USSR on Saturday -- and President Vladimir Putin (news - web sites) told him that the once-banned group had been "a breath of fresh air" in Soviet times. The Russian leader had a brief meeting with Paul McCartney in the Kremlin shortly before the former Beatle was due to play in Moscow's Red Square before an expected audience of some 20,000. The two men apparently glossed over a slight difference of interpretation on the...

McCartney Says He Won't Quit Even When He's 64 BERLIN (Reuters) - Paul McCartney (news) has no plans to quit even "When I'm 64" -- and said on Sunday he'll keep singing in small-town taverns if that's the only place anyone will have him once his concert-playing days are over. "And if the day comes when they even throw me out of the pubs, I'll keep on singing outside the door," McCartney said in an interview in Germany's Bild am Sonntag newspaper. "I'm always going to be a musician." "It's strange -- I'm approaching the age when people officially go...

{snip} At a conservative estimate, the lad from a Liverpool council estate who left school at the first opportunity is worth £700million. Last year, when his US tour grossed £70million, no other performer earned more than him. And it is something he is immensely proud of. When I read about things like that I think, that's not me. [My wife] said to me this morning, 'I don't think of you as rich, you know.' And I said, 'I don't either.' But I am. And the best thing about it is being able to help friends and relatives with health...

Filed at 6:45 p.m. ET LONDON (Reuters) - Paul McCartney is to release a Beatles track unheard for 35 years as the soundtrack to a film montage of his late wife Linda's photographs, The Sunday Times said. The 14-minute ``Carnival of Light,'' first recorded by the Beatles when they were making their Sgt. Pepper Album, had last been played at a London avant-garde festival in 1967. Beatles producer George Martin was quoted by the paper as saying: ``It was one of those weird things. It was a kind of uncomposed, free-for-all melange of sound that went on. ``It was not...

(1) Celine Dion will launch a perfume with Coty. (2) Britney gives fans the finger. Most attractive. (3) Diane Sawyer's interview with one of the Pennsylvania coal miners for Good Morning America deeply annoyed Katie Couric (Today), who thought she was getting the interview. Come now, girls -- play nice. According to USA Today, Sawyer's team may have won the all-important interview because a producer from the show spent many hours with the worried family of the lost miner who was eventually rescued and then interviewed. Spent many hours? Lining up a talk with the potential widow, too, maybe? If...

McCartney Returns to U.S. for More Concerts LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Paul McCartney, whose first U.S. tour in nine years was the top-grossing road show in the first half, will return in September for 22 shows, his publicist said on Tuesday. The former Beatle, who turned 60 last month, will kick off his "Back in the USA" tour of indoor arenas in Milwaukee on Sept. 21. The tour will end Oct. 29 in Phoenix. He will mostly play markets he did not play the first time around, although he will return to Chicago, Cleveland, Boston, Las Vegas and the California...

Castle is romantic setting for McCartney wedding 06/11/2002 Associated Press GLASLOUGH, Ireland - As Castle Leslie bustled with last minute preparations for the wedding of Sir Paul McCartney and Heather Mills, family, friends and a select group of celebrities were making their way to the remote Irish estate Tuesday for the lavish ceremony. Media interest reached a fever pitch as newspapers speculated about every detail, from the guest list to reports of a sumptuous Indian-themed vegetarian menu. A brief appearance by the former Beatle and his fiancee outside the heavily guarded gates of the castle in County Monaghan briefly...

GLASLOUGH, Ireland (Reuters) - Last-minute preparations were under way on Tuesday as celebrity guests flew into flew into Ireland for the wedding of ex-Beatle Sir Paul McCartney to former model Heather Mills. Beatles drummer Ringo Starr, guitarist Eric Clapton and former U.S. President Bill Clinton were expected to be among the 300 guests attending the lavish lakeside nuptials at the 17th century Castle Leslie in the Irish border county of Monaghan. McCartney, 59, and former model Mills, 34, will tie the knot in a ceremony at St. Salvator's church in the grounds of the castle's 1,000-acre estate at around...

<p>The Telegraph of London reports that Paul McCartney's been invited by Fidel Castro to play in Havana. "We know all about the invitation, and we're looking at when we can do it," McCartney's spokesman told the newspaper. "We're getting all kinds of requests at the moment. The Chinese have just asked him to play in Tiananmen Square."</p>