Naomi Campbell Pleads Guilty
Naomi Campbell Pleads Guilty
She’s a dream on the fashion show runway but a nightmare when it comes to her temper. And earlier today (Friday June 20th) Naomi Campbell pled guilty to assaulting two police officers in London’s Heathrow Airport.
The charges she copped to, stemming from an incident this past April, were two counts of assaulting a police constable, one count of using threatening, abusive words or behavior to cabin crew, and one count of using insulting, abusive, threatening behavior or disorderly conduct likely to cause harassment, alarm, or distress.
Crown Prosecution Service director Nazir Afzal said in his statement, “Ms. Campbell was aggressive, hostile and violent to people who were simply trying to do their jobs. Her behavior fell far short of what is acceptable.”
And talk about swift justice, Campbell may discover her fate by day’s end. A source told press, “The magistrate has asked for a report from the probation service prior to sentencing. It is expected that she will be sentenced this afternoon.”
Naomi could face six months jail and a $10,000 fine for each assault charge.
AI OD: A farewell to Michael Johns
As much as Michael Johns’ elimination from American Idol was a shocker, at the same time it really wasn’t. Sure, I expected the likes of Syesha and Kristy Lee Cook to go before him, but if you really think about it, what kind of impact has he had on you? I’m not going to say the man wasn’t an amazing vocalist, but he wasn’t a consistently amazing vocalist. In sifting through the archives of his past performances, there were several weeks where he wasn’t very good at all.
Michael Johns is an incredibly talented vocalist. I even think I remember hearing him on the radio several years back when he was lead vocalist for The Rising. But for some reason, when it came to American Idol, he had at least as many off weeks as he did on. In Michael Johns’ exit interview, AOL reports that Michael felt that his past three weeks had been his strongest and that he fully didn’t expect to be eliminated.
We’ve reached that magically strange part of the competition where each year popularity seems to overtake talent for awhile, and I think Michael may have fallen victim to that. He certainly didn’t help himself throughout his run with several less than inspiring performances and virtually no compelling personality traits save the fact that he’s handsome. Show some charisma and give the fans something besides your singing to remember and like you for.
As with many past contestants, Michael’s encore performance of “Dream On” was far better than his initial performance, which was pretty good on its own. I think it’s fair to say, based on the live audience reaction and the faces of almost everyone in attendance, that this was the most unexpected elimination of the season so far. If the Davids go next, the FOX network might just crack in half:
Here’s his Top 8 performance of “Dream On”:
Top 9 “It’s All Wrong, But It’s All Right”:
Michael seemed to have better nights when he was performing Queen, as here on Top 10 week with “We Will Rock You/We Are the Champions”:
I wasn’t too impressed with Michael’s second foray into The Beatles during Top 11 week with “A Day in the Life”:
It was a wonky arrangement but it showed tremendous range and was an improvement for the Aussie by my book. Top 12 “Across the Universe”:
Top 16 “Don’t You (Forget About Me)”:
Top 20 “Go Your Own Way”:
Top 24 “Light My Fire”:
Unfortunately for Michael, in the eyes of many he peaked here in Hollywood week with “Bohemian Rhapsody.” I won’t go that far, but I will say that this performance absolutely blew me away:
The beautiful soulful singer we were treated to in his initial audition never really and fully resurfaced after Hollywood week ended. I’m not sure what kind of a singer Michael wanted to portray on the show, but this guy here was pretty damned special:
Before he got up on the Idol stage, Michael Johns went by the moniker Michael (Mike) Lee and was front man for a band called The Rising. They released an album under the Maverick label and even got a bit of national air play. You can catch samples from their album at The Rising’s MySpace page. And it looks like you can pick up The Rising’s Future Unknown CD for rock bottom prices at Amazon right now! Here’s their video for “Cradle” where you can check out Michael with long hair!:
Back when Michael was a true unknown, he was with an outfit named Film. This is them with “Q”:
And again performing “Get Away”:
Michael’s gotten calls of support from the likes of fellow Aussies Keith Urban and Nicole Kidman, and has even received word that his own Idol Dolly Parton was disappointed he’d been eliminated. More importantly, she indicated she’d love to write for him and even do a duet with him. That doesn’t sound like someone who’s on the fast path to obscurity. So Michael is set to make a go of this whole singing career thing. And if the responses I’ve seen here are any indication, he already has a passionate built-in audience to help him be a success.
IDOL SEASON 7 FAREWELLS
#9 - Ramiele Malubay
#10 - Chikezie
#11 - Amanda Overmyer
#12 - David Hernandez
#13 - Danny Noriega
#14 - Asia’h Epperson
#15 - Luke Menard
#16 - Kady Malloy
#17 - Robbie Carrico
#18 - Alaina Whitaker
#19 - Alexandrea Lushington
#20 - Jason Yeager
#21 - Colton Berry
#22 - Joanne Borgella
#23 - Amy Davis
#24 - Garrett Haley
Alexander Payne to Executive Produce and Direct New HBO Series Hung
Yeah, like that. Director/Moviegoer Upper Alexander Payne (Sideways, Election) will take a dip into TV to direct HBO’s new dark comedy series, Hung. Variety reports that Payne is also expected to hop on as an executive producer. Personally, another show, even a good one, examining the psyche of a middle-aged American man, a former high school sports star and father at that, risks treading a well-worn road, but the hook to Hung is that the guy’s dick is huge. And apparently, he’ll learn to use this to his advantage. So, that’s different. The show was created by husband/wife team Dimitry Lipkin and Colette Burson (The Riches) and Burson had this to say…
“Think of him like Spider-Man. He’s an average guy who gets in touch with his innate superpowers.”
What, no Dream On comparison? This really cool news arrives on the heels of vague news about a future HBO series based on the doc Cocaine Cowboys from Jerry Bruckheimer and Michael Bay, so it looks like new HBO Entertainment prexy, Sue Naegle, is making very high profile and provocative moves. More on this/these shows as it develops…
Heidi Montag Wants “A Lot Of Kids”
Heidi Montag Wants “A Lot Of Kids”
If you happened to be in the Pacific Palisades yesterday you may have seen a certain “peroxide pair” grabbing lunch at Café Vida… Heidi Montag and Spencer Pratt.
Heidi was wearing a blue sweater and some distressed jeans topped off with a Christian Dior scarf, while Spencer sported a beat up black zip-up hoodie and some ripped jeans as he text messaged on his way inside.
And there’s new doubt as to the future of these two. Recently, Montag told press, “I want to have a lot of kids,” despite Spencer’s lack of desire to become a father.
Pratt told press, “Heidi woke up the other morning and goes, ‘I had the best dream. We had four kids and I was pregnant also.’ I was like, [in a sarcastic tone] ‘oh really. That’s a great dream.’”
On another note, make sure you check iTunes on February 5th for Heidi’s new single “Higher” accompanied by a Pratt-produced music video.