plus 4, PW Talks with Gabrielle Zevin - Publishers Weekly

PW Talks with Gabrielle Zevin - Publishers Weekly
France Ponders Right-To-Forget Law - All Things Digital
Lady Gaga: Fame monster - Oakland Press
BRITNEY SPEARS VIDEOS - Contactmusic.com
Britney's lover caught out - Straits Times

PW Talks with Gabrielle Zevin - Publishers Weekly

Posted: 10 Jan 2010 11:09 PM PST

Credit card debt plagues a modern American family in Gabrielle Zevin's The Hole We're In, a witty, frightening look at how we spend now.

The issues of the Pomeroy family go way beyond owing too much money to too many banks. What exactly is the "hole" they're in?

It's debt, yes, but even more, it's what the debt does to the family—all the holes that are created in their relationships to each other and even to their country and their gods. The hole is always in the process of transforming itself into something else, and when the characters fill one, they usually end up creating another.

Daughter Patsy joins the army when there's no money left for education. Are you playing with a connection between the economy and the army?

If you put a lot of people in debt—because of record unemployment, the mortgage crisis, etc.—and make it so that student loans are increasingly difficult to come by, what do you think happens? People sign up for the military. And this is true, by the way. Enlistment levels are up. There's an economic draft.

The adult children in the book fight to escape the legacy of their parents. Do you see this as a universal problem?

In America, birth is destiny. There are exceptions to this, but I'm not sure they aren't just the rule-proving kind. Educated adults have educated children. Poor adults have poor children. I am a writer because I lived in a house where books were valued. On the other hand, I do find that some people—and these people are the rare birds—live in opposition to their parents.

You've written two young adult novels and two books aimed for an older audience. Is your creative process different for each genre?

For a long time, I said there was no difference, but that was a lie, born from a futile desire to convince people that writing for youth wasn't something I did when my brain was on vacation. Essentially though, when I am writing for children, I feel a certain responsibility toward them and the kinds of stories I find myself wanting to tell them likely reflect that. When I'm writing for adults, the characters are old and seem to curse a lot.

Britney Spears's "Oops I Did It Again" is the musical refrain of the book, haunting the characters throughout. What's the theme song of today's national ills?

I'm going with "It Ain't Gonna Save Me" by Jay Reatard. I think a lot of people thought that if we managed to get Obama elected, everything would just get solved; we'd done our parts. But it's not up to him to save us. He's not Jesus, and we need to keep being loud.

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France Ponders Right-To-Forget Law - All Things Digital

Posted: 11 Jan 2010 12:06 AM PST

From Britney Spears's musings to the Tiger Woods scandal, information can take a life of its own once it hits the world wide web.

B-list celebs and brand-names bustling for public attention can be particularly vulnerable to people with a gripe against them.

Alberic Guigou from online reputation management firm Reputation Squad said many people were becoming public figures on the internet.

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Tagged: Internet, Voices, digital, entertainment, media, social networking, BBC Click, David Reid, France, privacy, Tiger Woods | permalink

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Lady Gaga: Fame monster - Oakland Press

Posted: 10 Jan 2010 10:26 PM PST

By GARY GRAFF
Of The Oakland Press

Click to enlarge

Lady Gaga performs at 7:30 p.m. Tuesday and Wednesday at Joe Louis Arena in Detroit. AP Photo

Lady Gaga has some advice for the millions of fans who have glommed on to her rocket of a career.

Pay attention.

"It's almost like I grow more rapidly as an artist than people can keep up with, if that makes any sense," says the 23-year-old pop provocateur. "So by the time you're reading an interview or you're watching a television performance, I'm already, like, years beyond, creatively, in the world somewhere.

"That can be confusing for people, I think. There can be a slight disconnect from what I proclaim about my music and what people are hearing and seeing. But that's OK; I'd rather be ahead than behind, and people seem to be keeping up, which I'm very grateful for."

There's no question Gaga — who ranked No. 3 on Billboard's list of top artists for 2009 — has been in the front car of a nonstop thrill ride for the past year-and-a-half.

Her debut album, "The Fame," has sold more than 8 million copies worldwide — just more than 2 million of those in the U.S. — since its August 2008 release and launched a pair of No. 1 singles, "Just Dance" and "Poker Face." The latter was the most downloaded song in Great Britain since the Official UK Charts Company began measuring five years ago. Meanwhile, Gaga's "The Fame Monster," a re-release of "The Fame" with eight new tracks, debuted at No. 5 on the Billboard 200 chart in November.

She won three MTV Video Music Awards in September, including Best New Artist, received a Rising Star prize from Billboard and was among Barbara Walters' "10 Most Fascinating People of 2009." And though blanked at the American Music Awards, Gaga is nominated for five Grammys, including Album, Record and Song of the Year.

She also recently signed on as creative director for a speciality product line with Polaroid Imaging.

The success makes her feel "a little bit like a pop music miracle," but Gaga isn't necessarily shocked that things have gone so well. "I'm very, very grateful," she notes, "but I'm not surprised, 'cause it's a good album."

The Gaga phenomenon is about more than just the music, however.

Her notoriety comes from both what she does and how she does it. Like Madonna and other chameleonesque pop culture heroes before her, Gaga specializes in creating mystery and sensation, with a parameter-pushing fashion sensibility (which landed her on People magazine's Best and Worst Dressed lists) and an avant garde performing style.

Gaga — who was born Stefani Joanne Angelina Germanotta in New York and started playing piano when she was 4 years old — studied theater and music but was really educated in the club scene on New York's Lower East Side, where she made a name for herself with self-designed hot pants, bikini tops and face paint, lit hairspray cans on fire and rode on disco balls hanging from club ceilings.

More recently, Gaga titillated by bringing Kermit the Frog as her "date" to the Video Music Awards and performing a medley of "Poker Face" and "Papparazi" that culminated in a faux "suicide scene" complete with fake blood dripping from her ribcage.

"What I've learned is that you really don't need to be a celebrity or have money or have the papparazzi following you around to be famous — you just declare your own fame and go with it," explains Gaga, who wrote songs for Britney Spears, Fergie, the Pussycat Dolls and New Kids on the Block before releasing "The Fame."

"I think that's always what drew people to me. I think what made it difficult for people to get and still makes it difficult for people to get is the theatrical nature of the work and the fact that, truthfully, my music doesn't exist without the performance art element — and performance art is notoriously nerdy and uncomfortable, but it makes people pay attention."

She doesn't deny her sources in that regard, either.

"It's always been a result of people around me saying, 'Oh, that's so very (David) Bowie of you. That's very Queen of you. That's very Warhol of you. That's quite Madonna of you,' " acknowledges Gaga, who's also parried away a slew of rumors, including one that she's a hermaphrodite. "Then I say, 'Ah, Warhol ... ' and I go into my Warhol file and I do research and then I make more music and I design more shows.

"It's like a constantly feeding your brain kind of thing and using that to get new ideas."

Gaga's current "Monster Ball Tour" is a culmination of that process. Built after her planned "Fame Kills" tour with Kanye West was canceled after the rapper bailed out, the 90-minute show features five segments with different costumes — designed by her own Haus of Gaga studio — video interludes and choreography and includes the suicide sequence, a "rebirth" during the song "Eh, Eh (Nothing Else I Can Say)" and a finale, "Bad Romance," that Gaga sings from inside a giant gyroscope dubbed The Orbit.

She calls it "the first ever pop electro opera" but quickly adds that her ambition is to take things even beyond this point in the future.

"I look at music-making and becoming an artist the same way an infant becomes a toddler," Gaga explains. "A baby learns to refine its abilities and get older and mature, and so does an artist.

"And at some point, I thought that the smartest way to think about writing music and designing a stage show is to say to myself a) What do I want to listen to? and, second, What would I go out and see or hear that would make me really jealous if I didn't think of it first? Those are the two paramount questions that I follow."

The future is on Gaga's mind these days, too. She's been writing songs for the next album — "It's not smart to wait until the world is hovering with breath that is bated and you feel the pressure," she says — but there are ventures beyond music that are commanding her attention, too.

"I would move into directing at some point, and more fashion design," says Gaga, who now resides in Los Angeles because "the music industry's dead in New York. I know that Hollywood was the place where I could really move mountains." But the mountains will stay in place for the time being.

"I'm really focused on this (tour) right now," Gaga says. "But I'm always thinking of things and hatching crazy ideas, so I'm sure I'll come up with something that pushes the envelope again. You can count on it."

If you go

Lady Gaga, Jason Derulo and Semi Precious Weapons perform at 7:30 p.m. Tuesday and Wednesday at Joe Louis Arena, 600 Civic Center Drive, Detroit. Tickets are $35 and $45. Tickets for the Fox Theatre shows will not be honored and must be exchanged for new tickets at the point of purchase. Call (313) 983-6606 or visit www.livenation.com.

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BRITNEY SPEARS VIDEOS - Contactmusic.com

Posted: 11 Jan 2010 12:06 AM PST

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Britney Spears, 3 - Video

Britney Spears, Kill The Lights - Video

Britney Spears

SPEARS BAFFLED BY SEX SYMBOL STATUS

BRITNEY SPEARS doubts she'll ever be content with her body image - because she is never happy with her figure.
The 28-year-old mum-of-two regularly tops lists of Hollywood's most beautiful women but she insists her perfectionist nature means she's rarely satisfied with what she sees in the mirror.
Spears tells Look magazine, "I'm such a perfectionist, which means I'm never satisfied. I always strive for things to be better. I think you can be happy with the person on the inside but on the outside you're always striving for more.
"But that's how you end up driving yourself crazy."
And the Toxic singer is baffled as to why she's seen as a sex symbol, adding, "I don't see myself like that at all. I don't know why. To me, someone who is sexy is someone with confidence, who carries themselves properly and is comfortable in their own skin. It's very flattering but at the same time I think it's sexier when you don't try and you're just yourself. We all like to feel sexy."

11 January 2010 08:09

Tags: Britney Spears

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Britney's lover caught out - Straits Times

Posted: 10 Jan 2010 11:30 PM PST

LOS ANGELES - TROUBLED star Britney Spears is reportedly single again after breaking up with boyfriend Jason Trawick after she caught him with two other women, reported entertainment media on Monday.

According to Hollyscoop.com Spears was 'distraught' after she discovered Trawick had been flirting with two women at Los Angeles' bar Roger Room and is now refusing to take his calls.

Ella Davis, who was at the bar at the time, told the Daily Mirror newspaper: 'Jason left the bar with two bottles of water - and a stunning blonde who looked like Britney. He had his arms around her and they looked very much like they were together for the night.'

Trawick's friends say they're shocked by his behaviour because he's been very 'loyal' to Britney so far.

Another source said: 'Jason's a great guy and super loyal. This behaviour is really out of character. But Los Angeles is a small town and word soon got back to Britney he'd had a wild one.

'When she heard he'd been caught cozying up two girls in The Roger Room, it was the last straw. Jason's really not like this and quickly tried to calm Britney down and rectify the situation. He explained the girls were just friends and there was nothing in it but they still had a massive row. Everyone is assuming it's over - for the time being anyway.'