'Idol' finalists ignite Elton John classics

Elton John

LOS ANGELES (AP) -- James Durbin literally lit up the "American Idol" stage.

The flashy 22-year-old rocker from Santa Cruz, Calif., was accompanied by a flaming piano for "Saturday Night's Alright for Fighting" during an evening of Elton John classics on the Fox talent competition Wednesday. Jennifer Lopez told Durbin that she forgot it was a contest while he was wailing atop the red piano before it was set ablaze.

"The one thing I was worried about was having a Pepsi moment," a hairsprayed Durbin revealed afterward, referencing Michael Jackson's noggin infamously catching on fire during the filming of a 1984 Pepsi commercial.

Casey Abrams, the 20-year-old film camp counselor from Idyllwild, Calif., who was saved from elimination by the panel last week, impressed the judges with a tender rendition of "Your Song." Lopez told Abrams that she didn't lose any sleep over voting to use the one-time-only power to overturn viewers' votes, forcing two singers to be dismissed this week.

"You sing different every time, and I love that about you because that shows you're a true artist," Steven Tyler said.

A pair of singers gratified with their signature growls. Randy Jackson declared Scotty McCreery, the 17-year-old high school student from Garner, N.C., was "in the zone" following "Country Comfort," and proclaimed Haley Reinhart, the 20-year-old college student from Wheeling, Ill., had the night's best performance after closing with "Bennie and the Jets."

"You sing sexy," Tyler told Reinhart.

Jacob Lusk, the 23-year-old spa concierge from Compton, Calif., and Pia Toscano, the 22-year-old make-up artist from Howard Beach, N.Y., both received positive feedback from the judges despite respectively turning in yet another slow-tempo routine. Lusk gleamed with "Sorry Seems to Be the Hardest Word," and Toscano shined on "Don't Let the Sun Go Down on Me."

"The notes take us to an otherworldly place," Lopez told Toscano.

Naima Adedapo, the funky 26-year-old dance instructor from Milwaukee, didn't have Lopez or Jackson on her side for her reggae rendition of "I'm Still Standing." Lopez said she wasn't sure if that was the right song for Adeapo, while Jackson was more blunt in his assessment: He called it "kinda corny." Adedapo didn't seem fazed by their criticism.

"What's for you is for you, and what's for me is for me," Adedapo responded.

Jackson also wasn't raving about 16-year-old high school student Thia Megia of Mountain House, Calif., or 26-year-old singer-songwriter Paul McDonald of Nashville, Tenn. He proclaimed Megia's take on "Daniel" was "once again very safe," and cautioned McDonald to "allow yourself to go all the way" after the smiley singer performed a mellow "Rocket Man."

Stefano Langone, the 21-year-old crooner from Kent, Wash., earned praise from the panel for connecting with the crowd on "Tiny Dancer," though Tyler noted that Langone often comes off as "Broadway." The Aerosmith frontman was kinder to Lauren Alaina, the 16-year-old high school student from Rossville, Ga., who was on fire with "Candle in the Wind."

"You keep singing like that, and you'll be able to afford the rest of that dress," Tyler teased Alaina, who was sporting a glamorous cut-off gown.

Two of the 11 finalists are scheduled to be eliminated Thursday.

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Online:

http://www.americanidol.com

Taylor Swift celebrates 20 million sales in London

Taylor Swift

LONDON (AP) -- Taylor Swift ended her European tour on a celebratory note: Not only did she perform in front of thousands of fans, she got an honor for reaching the 20 million mark in worldwide album sales.

A giddy Swift was given a plaque commemorating the milestone before her sold-out concert Wednesday night at the O2 Arena.

"It's just sort of beyond my comprehension to get a plaque like that, and the fact the fans have done that much for me in such a short period of time is unreal, and I'm so excited and so thankful," she told The Associated Press after the presentation.

The 21-year-old Grammy-winner released her latest multiplatinum effort, "Speak Now," last fall. It's just the third album of her young career.

She launched an international tour this year that took her to Asia and Europe. It wrapped up with her London concert. She called the trek a "life-changing experience."

"I couldn't think of a more perfect way to end this European run. I've gotten to experience just parts of the world I never thought I'd get to see, nonetheless play shows in and have the crowds singing the words back to me," she said.

She spent much of her downtime sight-seeing - and shopping.

"I got so much stuff; I don't know how I'm going to get it home with me," she said of one of her London antique shopping sprees.

Swift is due to start her North American tour in Omaha, Neb., on May 27. She'll be in Las Vegas on Sunday for the Academy of Country Music awards, where she's set to perform. She's also up for four awards, including entertainer of the year.

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Online:

http://www.taylorswift.com

NBA probing Jay-Z's visit to Kentucky locker room

Jay-Z

NEW YORK (AP) -- An NBA spokesman confirms that the league is investigating Jay-Z's presence in Kentucky's locker room after the Wildcats clinched a Final Four berth.

The rapper visited the players after their victory over North Carolina on Sunday at the Prudential Center in Newark, N.J, home of the Nets. Jay-Z is a part-owner of the team and attended the Nets' 120-116 loss at New York on Wednesday.

NBA rules prohibit team personnel from having contact with players who are not yet draft eligible, and spokesman Tim Frank told the Associated Press the league is looking into it.

The investigation was first reported by CBSSports.com.

Judge Judy hospitalized for undisclosed ailment

Judge Judy

LOS ANGELES (AP) -- TV's "Judge Judy" is hospitalized in Los Angeles for an undisclosed condition. A spokesman for 68-year-old Judy Sheindlin says the judge is "feeling much better" after being taken from her show taping by ambulance to Cedars-Sinai Medical Center on Wednesday.

Publicist Gary Rosen says Sheindlin will be released from the hospital on Thursday.

Los Angeles Fire Department spokesman Erik Scott confirmed that a female patient was taken from Sunset Bronson Studios to a local hospital after dispatchers received a 911 call about a medical emergency. She was admitted in serious condition.

Sheindlin presides over small-claims cases on her syndicated show, "Judge Judy."

Rosen says she will return to taping her show as scheduled on April 12.

'Star Wars' creator Lucas says 3-D will rule films

Star Wars

LAS VEGAS (AP) -- "Star Wars" creator George Lucas predicts 3-D filmmaking eventually will take over at the movies the way color replaced black and white.

But Lucas and fellow technology pioneers James Cameron, the maker of "Avatar," and DreamWorks Animation boss Jeffrey Katzenberg said Wednesday that digital filmmaking is only in its infancy and will bring vast improvements to how movies are made and seen.

Digital technology in general is revolutionizing filmmaking the way sound did in the 1920s, Lucas said. The new digital 3-D craze has had hits and misses but should one day become the big-screen standard over 2-D presentation, he said.

"So now when you're watching a movie and it's not in 3-D, it's like watching in black and white," Lucas told a crowd of theater owners at their CinemaCon convention. "It's a better way of looking at a film. ... I totally believe now that 3-D will completely take over just like color did."

Lucas spoke at a digital-film panel alongside Cameron and Katzenberg. The hour-long discussion touched on new filmmaking tools, enhancements to theater sound, and how badly presented 3-D movies can sour audiences on digital 3-D films in general.

Such bad 3-D experiences generally have resulted when studios took movies shot in only two dimensions and did hasty conversions to give them the illusion of depth so they could charge the extra few dollars that 3-D tickets cost.

"You disappoint our audiences once, OK, great we fooled them. Do it twice, shame on us," said Katzenberg, who decided years ago that all DreamWorks Animation movies, such as last year's "How to Train Your Dragon" and this summer's "Kung Fu Panda 2," would be in 3-D.

Cameron, who shot "Avatar" in 3-D and plans to do its two sequels that way also, is converting his blockbuster "Titanic" to 3-D for release next year. Lucas is doing the same with all six of his "Star Wars" films.

Done properly, 2-D movies converted to 3-D can look fantastic, Cameron and Lucas said.

Lucas drew hearty applause several times from theater owners when he told them that home systems or portable video devices will never replace the moviehouse as the best place to see films.

"We have our third generation now of kids who are under 12 years old who have never seen 'Star Wars' on the big screen," Lucas said. "And I am betting a lot of people will go see a movie that they have seen on television a million times and they have the video at home, and they will go and see it because they want to see it in the theater in a social experience."

Cameron waited for years to make "Avatar" until digital technology had caught up to the ideas in his head for the sci-fi epic about a struggle between greedy humans and noble aliens on a distant world.

Now that the tools are there, filmmakers are confined only by their imaginations, Cameron said.

"We're really at a point where if we can imagine it, we can create it," Cameron said. "There are no limitations now."

Belmondo to be honored at Cannes

Jean-Paul Belmondo

PARIS (AP) -- The Cannes Film Festival says it will hold a special tribute this year for Jean-Paul Belmondo, the one-time bad-boy of French New Wave cinema.

Festival organizers said Wednesday the 77-year-old actor will attend the May 17 premiere of a documentary by Vincent Perrot and Jeff Domenech - "Belmondo, The Career" - followed by a dinner and party.

Belmondo's breakthrough role came in Jean-Luc Godard's 1959 film "Breathless," in which he played a debonaire young crook fleeing the police. He went on to become one of France's most popular leading actors, starring in dozens of films and plays.

The festival runs May 11-22 on the French Riviera.

Britney Spears sued for $10M over fragrance deal

Britney Spears

LOS ANGELES (AP) -- A brand marketing company that brokered a deal for Britney Spears' fragrance line sued the singer and her father Wednesday, claiming the pair secured a new deal that stinks to the tune of more than $10 million.

Brand Sense Partners LLC's lawsuit claims the pair renegotiated a royalties deal with cosmetics company Elizabeth Arden last year that cut them out of their 35 percent commission on the fragrance line.

According to the lawsuit, the company first began working with the singer in 2003 and brokered the perfume deal in 2004.

The lawsuit claims Spears and her father, Jamie, negotiated a new deal last year for the singer's newest perfume scent called Radiance. The lawsuit states the agreement directly between the singer and cosmetics company directly violates the original deal with Brand Sense.

The marketing company is seeking more than $10 million and punitive damages and is asking a judge to rule that it is entitled to a 35 percent commission on all lines of Spears' perfumes created by Elizabeth Arden.

Spears' publicist, Jeff Raymond, did not immediately return an email message seeking comment.

The lawsuit was first reported Wednesday by celebrity website RadarOnline.com.

Jamie Spears controls his daughter's financial affairs along with an attorney as part of a court-ordered conservatorship established in 2008 after a series of high-profile incidents of erratic behavior and hospitalizations.

The conservatorship has generally granted Spears a form of legal immunity. Although she's been sued by former bodyguards and an ex-manager, a judge has so-far ruled that she cannot be deposed or ordered to testify.

It has been a rocky week for Spears, who debuted her seventh studio album, "Femme Fatale," on Tuesday. She also announced a tour with Latin singer Enrique Iglesias, who said later on that he would be performing with the "Hold It Against Me" singer.

Britney Spears sued for $10M over fragrance deal

Britney Spears

LOS ANGELES (AP) -- A brand marketing company that brokered a deal for Britney Spears' fragrance line sued the singer and her father Wednesday, claiming the pair secured a new deal that stinks to the tune of more than $10 million.

Brand Sense Partners LLC's lawsuit claims the pair renegotiated a royalties deal with cosmetics company Elizabeth Arden last year that cut them out of their 35 percent commission on the fragrance line.

According to the lawsuit, the company first began working with the singer in 2003 and brokered the perfume deal in 2004.

The lawsuit claims Spears and her father, Jamie, negotiated a new deal last year for the singer's newest perfume scent called Radiance. The lawsuit states the agreement directly between the singer and cosmetics company directly violates the original deal with Brand Sense.

The marketing company is seeking more than $10 million and punitive damages and is asking a judge to rule that it is entitled to a 35 percent commission on all lines of Spears' perfumes created by Elizabeth Arden.

Spears' publicist, Jeff Raymond, did not immediately return an email message seeking comment.

The lawsuit was first reported Wednesday by celebrity website RadarOnline.com.

Jamie Spears controls his daughter's financial affairs along with an attorney as part of a court-ordered conservatorship established in 2008 after a series of high-profile incidents of erratic behavior and hospitalizations.

The conservatorship has generally granted Spears a form of legal immunity. Although she's been sued by former bodyguards and an ex-manager, a judge has so-far ruled that she cannot be deposed or ordered to testify.

It has been a rocky week for Spears, who debuted her seventh studio album, "Femme Fatale," on Tuesday. She also announced a tour with Latin singer Enrique Iglesias, who said later on that he would be performing with the "Hold It Against Me" singer.

Enrique Iglesias won't join Britney Spears on tour

Enrique Iglesias

NEW YORK (AP) -- Enrique Iglesias won't be joining Britney Spears on an upcoming tour despite her announcement that he would.

Spears said Tuesday morning on ABC's "Good Morning America" that the pair would be hitting the road together.


Iglesias representative Gary Mantoosh said later in a statement to The Associated Press his client and Spears won't tour "despite initial reports based on formal discussions of the possible run."

The statement says Iglesias "is very sorry for the confusion this might have caused to anyone." It says the Latin singer respects Spears and is a fan of her work.

Britney Spears

Igelesias is on tour in Europe.

Spears on Tuesday released her seventh album, "Femme Fatale." Her U.S. tour kicks off June 17 in Sacramento, Calif.

A representative for the pop singer hasn't returned an email seeking comment.

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Online:

http://www.enriqueiglesias.com

http://www.britneyspears.com/

First celebrity bounced from ABC's 'Dancing'

LOS ANGELES (AP) -- Radio host Mike Catherwood is the first celebrity voted off the new season of "Dancing with the Stars."

Catherwood drew the lowest score when the audience vote was combined with the judges' tally on the hit ABC series, which launched its 12th season last week.

His exit Tuesday leaves 10 contestants, including a high-scoring Ralph Macchio of "Karate Kid" fame. Others in the field are Kirstie Alley, talk-show host Wendy Williams, actress Chelsea Kane, singer Romeo, reality star Kendra Wilkinson, model Petra Nemcova and athletes Sugar Ray Leonard, Hines Ward and Chris Jericho.

"Loveline" radio show co-host Catherwood was teased by "Dancing" host Tom Bergeron for joining the ranks of other past competitors, including David Hasselhoff, who were first out the door.

"It puts me on the Mount Rushmore of terrible dancers," responded a good-natured Catherwood, who was paired with dancer Lacey Schwimmer. He said being on the show was "nothing but a pleasurable experience."

Guest star Chris Brown sang during the results show, which followed an hourlong recap of the contestants' dances. Brown's performance of "Yeah 3X" from his new album "F.A.M.E." and the song "Forever" were drama-free, despite comments about him from Bergeron and dancer Cheryl Burke.

In an interview Monday on Ryan Seacrest's radio show, Bergeron said that if he were asked by producers of "Dancing" to interview Brown he wouldn't agree to avoid any issues - an apparent reference to Brown's visit last week to ABC's "Good Morning America."

The singer threw a destructive tantrum in his dressing room after he was asked on-air by the morning show's Robin Roberts about his beating of then-girlfriend Rihanna in 2009. He later apologized, saying he got upset and needed to "let out steam."

Burke, who's paired this season with Jericho, told "Extra" she disagreed with the decision to invite Brown but the matter was out of her hands.

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Online:

http://abc.go.com/shows/dancing-with-the-stars