Friday distractionfest

Here's a round-up of things you may have missed, overlooked or ignored from the last week. It's almost as if this is a real blog, or something.

:: Gasp! Bruce Wayne is dead. Who will be the new Batman??

:: Actually, if this Rolling Stone photoshoot is anything to go by, Britney's already got her audition tape ready. Someone call Chris Nolan!



:: Leona Lewis goes all Blair Witch in the video for Run.



:: Remember the (literal) cliff-hanger from the end of the Italian Job? Well, here's Michael Caine to explain what happened next.

:: Here's what happened when I telephoned former X Factor contestants Same Difference. Sarah said something about pushing people down the stairs when she was in the X Factor house, but the recording mysteriously cut out at that point when I played it back. Spooky.

:: US 3G network Sprint has put together a webpage full of widgets telling you everything that is happening right now - from the number of babies being born, to your share of debt and the number of emails being sent worldwide. But the best bit is this:



:: Oooh, oooh, oooh! A Camp, the side project of Cardigans' singer Nina Persson, have a new single in the Swedish charts. It's called Stronger Than Jesus and it's almost as good as their awesome country-tinged ballad, I Can Buy You, which is a permanent fixture in the Discopop Directory all-time Top Ten. You can stream it here. The album, Colonia is out in February, fact fans.

:: "Reviewing Chinese Democracy is not like reviewing music. It's more like reviewing a unicorn. Should I primarily be blown away that it exists at all? Am I supposed to compare it to conventional horses? To a rhinoceros?" The most entertaining 1,000 words you will read about the new Guns N' Roses' album.

:: In case you missed it, here's Nicole Kidman's achingly awkward interview on David Letterman's US Chat Show on Tuesday. It's hard to decide whose fault it was (lots of the questions only elicited "yes" or "no" answers), but one thing's for sure: Kidman would have looked furious if her paralysed face was capable of expressing emtion.



:: Sad news: Annie has left Island Records, which means we'll never get to hear her touched-by-genius Don't Stop album.

:: And, finally, a new internet "craze" to keep us entertained for three (maybe four) minutes - static non-powered objects with faces. EG A bin



Have a super-dooper weekend!
Mrdiscopop

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Britney: For The Record Trailer

Here are just some of the piercing insights you will discover in the trailer to Britney's MTV reveal-u-mentary, For The Record, which airs this Sunday (Sky One on Monday if you're in the UK).

:: bEING FAMIS IZ hard
:: i AM A prisoner in MY OWN HOME, like Ang San Suu Kyi
:: "I;M a SMART person"

Astonishing!



Okay, so those were cheap shots. Britney's life actually looks kinda miserable. I can understand why you might go crazy with teh drugs if you had to put up with all that nonsense.

Her flat looks nice, though.

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Reality TV costs young, innocent lives

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Eeeek! Joss Stone gets political

Remember when everyone said Joss Stone was recording a campaign song for Barack Obama? There was a lot of carping about the whole idea: she's not American, she's not black, she's mainly shit. That sort of thing.

Anyway, nothing ever came of it - either because the rumour wasn't true or because everyone involved realised they could be doing something better with their time. Like whipping disabled babies with licorice strips made in Chinese sweatshops from the sex glands of panda bears.

But now that election has been and gone, Joss has come out with a song called Governmentalist - which some people reckon is that forgotten campaign anthem.

Except, if you listen to the lyrics, it's all about politicians sending children to die in Iraq while they stick thirty bags of bouncing powder up their noses. I'm not sure Obama would be keen to have it played at the inauguration ball…

Here's Joss to explain where the song really came from.



Anyway, it turns out that Governmentalist is a little return to form - Joss has ditched the hip-hop nonsense that ruined her last album and served up a sleazy, ghetto-fantastic jam that brings to mind Issac Hayes and Grover Washington Jr. There's a free download on her official website. Along with a "smashing" (terrible) essay about the evils of war.

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Sexy is back (again!)

File this one under "songs to make out to".

:: Chocolate High - India Arie and Musiq Soulchild

It's rumoured to be the first release from the former Mrs André 3000's fourth album, which is confusingly named Testimony: Vol. 2, Love & Politics. Both are due out in the new year.

Forgive me for the brevity of this post, but I have to go. There is a a hot bubble bath to be run, and some silk sheets to lay upon the bed. There will also be scented oils.

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Alesha Dixon covers Kings of Leon

In case you hadn't seen the TV adverts or massive billboards, Alesha Dixon's brilliantly-titled new album, The Alesha Show, came out yesterday.

It's not bad - maybe a bit long - and it gets one star automatically deducted for having a Diane Warren ballad (it's not 1992 any more, you know). But a solid 6.5/10, nonetheless.

Anyway, Ms Dixon has been promoting the heck out of the record with appearances on Strictly Come Dancing, Never Mind The Buzzcocks, Soccer AM and Birmingham town centre (woooo!)

Last week, however, she ventured into Radio One's Live Lounge for a fully mamboed-up version of her single, The Boy Does Nothing, which she followed with a luscious, sultry take on Kings Of Leon's Sex On Fire. During the latter performance, thousands of young boys will have experienced a strange stirring they can't quite describe.

Videos are available on the Radio One's website, and you can get MP3s from the links below.



:: Alesha Dixon - The Boy Does Nothing (live lounge)
:: Alesha Dixon - Sex On Fire (live lounge)

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