Babies, prizes, and a Missy MP3

A few quickies from Belfast, then:

Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes's baby is real, after all. Vanity Fair has the first pictures and the main impression you get is: that has to be a wig!

Seriously, how much hair can a three-month-old have? Suri is either the most virile baby girl ever produced or Cruise has taken his newborn child to see the stylist who does his hairplugs.

I honestly can't decide which of those two scenarios is more disturbing. (More pics at Just Jared)

The Mercury Prize judges have given their ten grand cheque to the Arctic Monkeys. It's exactly what we expected them to do, which - given the awards' past history - is exactly what we didn't expect them to do. The classic double bluff. Dick Dastardly, speaking on behalf of the bookmakers William Hill, said "Drat! and Double drat!"

In more unsurprising awards news, Girls Aloud won the Popjustice £20 Music Prize - making it their third win in four years. The winning song, Biology , was also runner-up in the Discopop Directory Totally Unbiased Top Ten Singles of 2005 (coming second to Amerie's One Thing). It's nice to have my opinions backed up by a proper blog.

Over on popjustice's messageboards, Rhythm Native has unveiled Biology's heretofore unknown commentary on the US slave trade. It is worthy of reprinting here:

I got one Alababama return
Alabama was a Confederate State in the US civil war, these states wanted slavery of black people to remain in place.

That'll take me far away from you
Of course, it won't, becuase it is a return ticket, so poor old Nadine will go right back to working on the plantations whether she likes it or not

Cause when you take me in your arms I turn to Slave, I can't be saved
Basically reaffirming the above point. Even though she wants to leave 'Alabama' (i.e. the slavery of her love) she can't.

Then the song turns into nonsensical lyrical fabulousness, becuase of course the Aloud don't want to push it when it comes to revealing their in-depth knowledge of US history. No one likes a smarty pants.

In other exciting popjustice / Girls Aloud news, Mr PJ himself has heard the new Girls Aloud single and says it is "very good". I literally can't wait.

If you're in a record shop this week, the overwhelming number of Beyoncé CDs and displays may distract you from the other releases. But you should push past Ms Knowles omnipresence and search out Missy Elliott's greatest hits album, Respect M.E. (do you see what she did there?).

It is jam-packed with classic hip-hop singles from the most innovative female MC of all time. It also has a picture of Missy Elliott on a horse. She looks good in jodphurs, folks.

If you're not convinced, download this MP3: Sock It To Me (featuring Da Brat). The rest of the album is as good as that, I promise. If only there was a DVD to go with it - I'm dying to get my hands on her stunningly freakish videos. Not in a pervy way, you understand. In the meantime, I have to make do with Youtube:

Tweet