Washington D.C. reverberated to the sounds of partying for a second consecutive evening last night as Lady Gaga headlined a spectacular private event for thousands of Obama staffers.
The singer, who wore a jaw-dropping white Versace dress, sang ‘The Lady Is A Tramp’ with renowned crooner Tony Bennett at the Washington Convention Center to the delight of those who had campaigned for the President’s re-election.
Although no media were allowed into the event, many in attendance took to social media and Instagram to share pictures. Guests revealed they also burst into song by serenading President Obama with an impromptu performance of campaign favourite ‘Signed, Sealed, Delivered’ as he took the stage.
Before Gaga’s breathtaking performance, the President and the First Lady Michelle Obama thanked supporters for their hard work, saying that the thousands of guests at the staff ball represented his ‘deepest hopes for America.’ Read more
Kim Dotcom, the larger-than-life personality accused by the U.S. of operating a website used to pirate half a billion dollars in entertainment, introduced a new version of his controversial file-storage service on Sunday. Mega, as his new service is known, features a technology that won’t necessarily shield the company or its users from liability in copyright infringements but may make it harder for copyright holders to identify illegal content.
Mr. Dotcom’s Megaupload site was shut down a year ago by the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation during its largest-ever criminal copyright enforcement. The FBI alleged Megaupload was used to pirate entertainment content.
The launch of a similar site may antagonize the U.S., since the Justice Department has labored in court for a year to have the 39-year-old, originally from Germany, extradited to the U.S. to stand trial. Read more
Fox’s American Idol returned Wednesday night to its lowest-rated and least-watched regular-season premiere telecast ever (the first season aired during the summer and generally isn’t counted). Idol delivered 17.9 million viewers and a 6.0 adults 18-49 demo rating. That’s down 19 percent from last year’s opener, which was the previous lowest-ever record-holder.
The numbers also mean last night’s Idol premiere will not be the most-watched entertainment show this week — Tuesday’s NCIS had 22.9 million viewers. This is the first time another series was seen by more viewers than Idol during its regular season premiere week.
Fox was braced for worse. Last year Idol was down an unprecedented 24 percent after the network launched The X Factor in the fall. This fall had both X Factor and NBC’s powerful The Voice, so competition show burnout by the time Idol opened seemed likely. Idol still managed to rank as the top-rated singing show premiere this season. Read more
Taylor Swift burst on the scene as a 15 year old singing country songs. Fast forward a couple of years, she finds herself singing contemporary pop that are sandwiched between Nicki Minaj and Ke$ha. Although her latest album landed on top of the charts, some critics and fans questioned her authenticity as an artist.
Now, Taylor Swift’s serial celebrity dating is turning off some fans.
She was the butt of a joke at Sunday’s Golden Globes when Tina Fey teased that the recently single star stay away from Michael J. Fox’s young son because she “needed some me time” after her split from One Direction’s Harry Styles.
Then when Swift lost the award for Best Original Theme Song to Adele, cameras caught the country cutie looking anything but pleased, and the Twitterverse took note with an explosion of negative comments about the 22-year-old superstar.
So have the tables turned on America’s sweetheart? Could her serial celebrity dating be turning off her fan base?
“Taylor Swift has totally taken a hit in terms of reputation because of her tumultuous love life. It’s out there. It plays out in the public and it’s very soap opera-esque,” pop culture watcher David Caplan told FOX411’s In the Zone. Read more here
Going to rock concerts has always meant dealing with a bunch of unruly people, many of them very drunk – but it seems like lately things have been worse than ever. Attention spans are at an all-time low, and the ubiquity of smartphones has resulted in a huge percentage of the audience at any given show barely paying attention to the action onstage. Here are the 10 most annoying behaviors at rock concerts.
1. Taking pictures the entire freaking show.
I get it. You want to show all your friends on Facebook and Twitter that you saw a cool concert. Fine. Take a photo. Take five if you want! But please, don’t take 77. You always manage to hold your camera right in my line of sight. You don’t even look like you’re enjoying the show while you’re doing this. All your attention is on the photos. And you know what? Those photos are all going to look like sh#!. Every single one of them. You’re too far away. You’ll probably never even look at them. Also, you see those guys right in front of the stage with the giant cameras? They’re taking great professional pictures. There’s really no need for yours. Read more