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The Dixie Chicks are partners in name only - the multi-platinum- selling trio is all but broken up, according to a source close to the group.Natalie Maines and sisters Martie Maguire and Emily Robison made just a handful of appearances together in 2007 - and now they rarely even talk, the source reveals. "The girls have gone their separate ways," the source close to the Texas-raised country musicians told The ENQUIRER. "They were not getting along when they toured together during 2006, but they managed to stay civil. Now when they're not forced to be together, the girls don't even...

Stars who spout 'pseudo-science should check their facts first'By FIONA MACRAE - More by this author » Last updated at 23:29pm on 2nd January 2008  Nicole Kidman: Criticised for promoting a computer brain workout programme   When your name's Nicole Kidman or Gwyneth Paltrow, everyone wants to hear what you have to say. But before holding forth on their favourite remedy, celebrities should get their facts straight, experts say. The two Hollywood actresses, along with the TV presenter Gillian McKeith and fashion designer Stella McCartney, are singled out by a charity founded to increase the public's understanding of scientific...

NEW YORK (AP) -- Billy Joel has released a new pop single, the anti-war "Christmas in Fallujah." Just don't expect to hear his voice on it. Billy Joel gave his newest song, "Christmas in Fallujah," to 21-year-old Cass Dillon. At 58, Joel felt he was too old to sing the song, which was inspired by letters the Piano Man received from soldiers in Iraq. So he gave it to Cass Dillon, a 21-year-old singer-songwriter from Long Island. "I thought it should be somebody young, about a soldier's age," Joel said in a statement on his Web site. "I wanted to...

The Dixie Chicks have a new controversy on their hands. Lead singer Natalie Maines is urging people to contribute money to a defense fund for three Arkansas men that she (and many others) believe were wrongly convicted of killing three children in 1993. Maines writes her plea on the Dixie Chicks Web site, which has already been answered by several celebrities including, I am told, Johnny Depp, Winona Ryder, Eddie Vedder, Jack Black and Henry Rollins. "I'm writing this letter today because I believe that three men have spent the past 13 years in prison for crimes they didn't commit,"...

Liberal Democrat Presidential Candidate John Edwards, in between $400 haircuts and a busy schedule of chasing Ambulances around two different Americas made an appearance at a John Mellencamp concert in Iowa and was booed off the stage. The Politico: Mellencamp, standing alone on stage with his guitar, then launched into Tough It Out and Be the Best You Can followed by Jesus Can You Give Me a Ride Back Home? and another song about youth and love. The crowd erupted as he started Small Town and sang the lyrics as though Wells Fargo Arena were one of those sing-along piano...

Mellencamp, standing alone on stage with his guitar, then launched into Tough It Out and Be the Best You Can followed by Jesus Can You Give Me a Ride Back Home? and another song about youth and love. The crowd erupted as he started Small Town and sang the lyrics as though Wells Fargo Arena were one of those sing-along piano bars. It's at this point Mellencamp gestures and John Edwards walks on stage. After a few cheers boos overtake the hall. "I've been in your small towns," Edwards said as Mellencamp stepped aside to give Edwards a place behind...

Big Paychecks for U2 Millionaires Oct. 26, 2007 The Associated Press U2 Ltd., the Irish band's music publishing company, raked in $30 million-plus last year — and $25.8 million of it went to five unidentified "employees," according to documents obtained Friday by The Associated Press. Those "employees" are suspected to be the band members and their longtime manager, Paul McGuinness. But U2's public relations firms in Dublin and London refused to confirm that. While Bono has won accolades worldwide for raising awareness of Third World poverty, he has been criticized for moving U2's corporate offices out of Ireland to avoid...

On his new album, "Magic," Springsteen jumps right into the fray again. In a dramatic new REM-ish anthem called "Last to Die," he sings: "Who'll be the last to die for a mistake/The last to die for a mistake/Whose blood will spill, whose heart will break/Who'll be the last to die for a mistake." The mistake is clearly the Iraq war. "We don't measure the blood we've drawn anymore," he sings. "We just stack the bodies outside the door."

The Oct 18 and 20 concert dates with Dixie Chicks/Eagles at Nokia Theatre LA Live were sold out in a few minutes.

Joni Mitchell is back after nine years, and she’s on the attack. In the title track to her new album, “Shine,” Mitchell takes a nice swipe at the Catholic Church by name. “Shine on the Catholic Church/And the prisons that it owns,” she sings. “Shine on all the Churches/that love less and less.” Mitchell was never one to mince words, but in her triumphant return on Starbucks’ Hear Records, she doesn’t give an inch. In “Shine,” she continues: “Shine on lousy leadership/Licensed to kill/Shine on dying soldiers/In patriotic pain/Shine on mass destruction/In some God's name!” Mitchell’s album will be...

Actress Kathy Griffin's rant at the Emmy awards in which she told Jesus to "suck it" has triggered a petition campaign intended to tell Hollywood "Enough is Enough!" Griffin, the star of the Bravo show "My Life on the D-List," was being honored for the Outstanding Reality Program, overtaking ABC's "Extreme Makeover: Home Edition" after multiple attempts, when she launched into the tirade.

Producers of Sunday's Emmy telecast bleeped drama actress winner Sally Field in the midst of a controversial acceptance speech attacking U.S. involvement in Iraq. "If mothers ruled the world, there wouldn't be any god -" she said when the sound went dead and the camera suddenly turned away from the stage so viewers would be distracted. Chopped off were the words "goddamn wars in the first place." (The phrase was not censored in the Canadian telecast.) "This belongs to all the mothers of the world -- may they be seen and valued," she added when she won for outstanding actress...

Pop singer Barry Manilow, a major Democratic fundraiser, said on Monday he has scrapped plans to appear on the television talk show "The View," because he did not want to be interviewed by its conservative co-host. Manilow was scheduled to appear on the ABC morning show Tuesday, the same day his new album, "The Greatest Songs of the Seventies" hits stores. But those plans fell through because of his issues with Elisabeth Hasselbeck, an abortion opponent and supporter of the Iraq war. "I had made a request that I be interviewed by (co-hosts) Joy (Behar), Barbara (Walters) or Whoopi (Goldberg),...

If only it was the beginning of a media trend. Studio execs know that people from both sides of the political spectrum watch their shows. Considering the statistics, two-thirds of the country doesn't pay attention to politics, ever, so your actors are more likely to lose you money and advertisers when they spout off, then attract any net gain, (unless bad publicity is considered a gain). Just blacking out their inappropriate remarks helps keep attention on the actual show, not some self-important actors latest pet project. If the actor has a problem with that, go on the news and talk...

"Valley of Elah," Lions for Lambs", "Redacted"...Sheesh. Doesn't anybody make movies anymore?

WASHINGTON - One of the many bands that passed through the Live Earth stages around the world Saturday put it best. “It’s not really important what goes on here tonight, but what happens in the future,” said Pete Wentz of the band Fall Out Boy, who appeared in the New York concert. For many who participated - as performers or spectators at the massive global music event - it was an inspiring night, perhaps the biggest concert broadcast in history, all dedicated to confronting what organizer Al Gore has called “the greatest threat mankind has ever faced.” Saturday’s musicians were...

PARIS - Barbra Streisand performed her first-ever concert in France this week — and was rewarded with a medal of the Legion of Honor. French President Nicolas Sarkozy awarded the medal to Streisand in a ceremony Thursday, the first time he has bestowed the honor since taking over from Jacques Chirac last month. "You are the America that we love," said Sarkozy, who is seen as more U.S.-friendly than Chirac. "Women like you ... do a lot to bring our two peoples together." Onlookers included French crooner Charles Aznavour and actor Alain Delon. Sarkozy's wife, Cecilia, went to Streisand's sole...

Thousands of sunburnt fans roared in unison and pumped their fists in the desert air Sunday night as reunited political rockers Rage Against the Machine took the stage at the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival. [SNIP] Stomping, shouting into his microphone, grabbing his curly hair and inciting the audience to "keep fighting," de la Rocha powered through songs ranging from the bass heavy "Bulls on Parade" to the anthem "Killing in the Name." He also railed against the war in Iraq and likened Bush administration officials to Nazi war criminals. "This current administration is no exception. They should be...

Dish Network offered the Dixie Chicks' movie "Shut up and sing" as a $3.99 pay-per-view. While I was reluctant to send the money to the subversive organization, I decided I would do it in the name understanding the enemy. It is clear from the movie that the DC know that screwed up and screwed up badly with their comment about George Bush while on tour in England. They know they screwed up but that are not taking any responsibility for their screw up. They are deeply into blaming FreeRepublic.com for their troubles. They say that FR is a well organized...

The Dixie Chicks have a movie, Shut Up & Sing, coming out today, and, to keep things lively, they're staging a grudge match with the worst site on the Internet, political-rhetoric division. "The fat chick will only drive traffic to this site," writes one poster to the site. "The Frenchy Chix can't get a gig in a gay bar in Ithaca," writes another. Others chime in with more corruptions: Chubby Chicks, Ditsy Twits, Vichy Chicks. "Yep typical liberals," says someone else. "No character." This is Free Republic, an exercise in political extremism that, despite being and something of an anthropological...