“Breaking” News
Yesterday afternoon, Rage Against the Machine frontman Zack De La Rocha announced that he has left the band.
Essentially, this is the end of Rage as we know it.
According to MTV.com, De La Rocha is splitting because the band is no longer able to effectively work together as a group. In a statement, De La Rocha said, “I feel that it is now necessary to leave Rage because our decision-making process has completely failed.”
This announced breakup comes on the coattails of a fairly turbulent recent past for the band, including several concert cancellations.
But it seems the final straw may have come during last month’s MTV Video Music Awards, when drunk bassist Tim Commerford climbed atop a stage prop during the show and was forced out of the venue by security.
De La Rocha is currently working on a solo project with several hip-hop artists.
Give Me Just One Lawsuit
98 Degrees is getting a revelation of their own.
Last week, the management company Top 40 Entertainment filed a $25 million dollar lawsuit against the pop group, which recently released its second album, Revelation. Apparently, the boys backed out of their contract.
According to Top 40, its principal officer, Paris D’Jon, is responsible for having transformed four regular guys into the international phenomenons that they are today. But the company is royally pissed, because 98 degrees abandoned the agreement in 1999, with still two years left before it was set to expire.
The group’s lawyer, however, denies these claims, saying that the band “had more than ample grounds to terminate Mr. D’Jon and Top 40 as their manager,” according to Entertainment Weekly online.
With all these legal woes, I’m surprised the boys aren’t running a fever.
Who Can’t Be a Millionaire?
Apparently no one who works for CBS or NBC.
Both networks have discouraged their stars from appearing on the extremely popular game show, Who Wants to Be a Millionaire, which airs on competing network ABC
Producers from Millionaire have reportedly attempted to recruit NBC talk-show host Conan O’Brien and West Wing star Martin Sheen to appear on the show for celebrity week, which is set to air during November sweeps.
But both stars faced immediate pressure from their home network, and thus declined the invitations.
The celebrity editions of Millionaire were the highest-rated episodes during last season. And obviously, NBC and CBS don’t wish to add any of their own fuel to Regis Philbin’s fire this year.
It’s no wonder there are so many wars in this world. TV networks can’t even get along.
Entertainment Briefs
Last week’s Miss America competition received the lowest ratings in its history. The annual pageant was hosted by talk show duo, Donny and Marie Osmond … Barbara Streisand has agreed to be interviewed by Barbara Walters on ABC’s 20/20 under one condition: that she be allowed to announce her support for Vice-president Al Gore during the show … Madonna has won the rights to www.madonna.com, which was formerly a porn site.
Quote of the Week
“If you’re looking to save the whales, call Oprah. If you’re sleeping with a whale, call us.”
— Richard Dominick, executive producer of The Jerry Springer Show concerning the show’s guest selection process.
Archived article by David Kaplan