News: Kevin Rudd, Jesus, Christian Siriano, Patrick McHenry, Mariah

Clinton advisor Mickey Kantor statement on Indianans unearthed: "Look at Indiana...it doesn't matter if we win. Those people are shit. How would you like to be a worthless white ni**er?" Kantor denies... UPDATE: Director Pennebaker says clip doctored...

Barack Obama pledges to stop fighting between Lauren and Heidi on The Hills.

Christian Siriano hosting virtual prom.

Australian PM Kevin Rudd signals that he may block a move by the nation's capital to legalize civil unions: "The Prime Minister warned today that he would never agree to gay marriage, which would require amendments to the Marriage Act. The act expressly states that marriage is a union between a man and a woman. While the ACT government, led by chief minister Jon Stanhope, argues its civil partnerships are different to gay marriage, the Government is concerned it too closely mimics marriage. Mr Rudd now holds the power to disallow any ACT laws that he deems to replicate marriage, just as the Howard Government did during its final term. Despite previously arguing it was a matter for the states, the Prime Minister said today that no other state was proposing laws similar to the ACT."

Mariah Carey marries Nick Cannon in the Bahamas.

Banksy, who has curated an underground graffiti exhibition in London in a tunnel which opens tonight, tells Reuters: Creating graffiti "better than sex, better than drugs."

Tom Ford makes debut as costume designer for Santa Fe opera The Letter.

Massachusetts publishes 120-page anti-bullying guide for schools. Public Health Commissioner John Auerbach: "Our kids deserve to grow up in an environment that is free from harassment and violence. The consequences of bullying can last a lifetime, but all too often it is treated as a rite of passage."

Brazilian gymnast takes his talent to the street.

Never has a shirt on: Lipstick Jungle's Robert Buckley is the new Matthew McConaughey.

Jesus is coming in 2015, look busy.

North Carolina congressman Patrick McHenry behaving conservatively.

Man charged in killing of Florida gay activist Scott Graham: "A man has been charged with murdering West Palm Beach, Fla., gay rights activist Scott Graham, who was found dead in his home on April 16, The Palm Beach Post reported Wednesday. Ricardo David Fuenes-Valle, 20, was arrested on Tuesday near Tampa by Hillsborough County deputies and U.S. marshals. He is being charged with first-degree murder. Investigators found the suspect on Tuesday after they were told that Fuenes-Valle was planning to rob Graham or burglarize his home to steal jewelry and money, West Palm Beach police captain Pat Maney told the Post. Witnesses said Graham was last seen on April 14 with Fuenes-Valle. 'We don't really have a motive at this point,' Maney said in the article. 'We are working under that assumption.'"

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Empire State Building to 'Glitter' for Mariah Carey

Hey New Yorkers, if you look up at the Empire State Building this weekend and wonder why it's lit in pink, lavender, and white, it's because the largest phallus in New York state is honoring...Mariah Carey.

According to a press release, that's apparently the color 'motif' of the new album E=MC² and she's going to be at a ceremony tomorrow at 1 pm at the building where she's going to flip the switch on a scale model of the building that I guess will light up and, I don't know, play Touch My Body or something.

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Music News: Sam Sparro Is Not Related To Chaka Khan, Plus Fleetwood Mac, Sheryl Crow, Danity Kane, Madonna, Marilyn Manson

Robbie Daw presents a weekly pop music update here on Towleroad! Robbie runs his own site called Chart Rigger.

This week saw Australian-born, Los Angeles-based Sam Sparro crack the U.K. Top 40 with his electro number, "Black And Gold." On his MySpace, Sam describes his music as sounding like "ice melting and ass smacking." You can be the judge of that -- below is the vid for "Black And Gold," which, hmmmm, gave this viewer a bit of a opportunistic flashback.

Sparro, signed to Universal, is currently in England doing promotion for "Black And Gold" and his forthcoming self-titled album -- including tour dates with retro chanteuse, Adele. Interestingly, there seem to be a number of reports linking Sam to Chaka Khan, of all people.

The 24-year-old singer comically notes this on blog: "I had an interview a few weeks ago where someone had heard that Chaka Khan was my godmother! Now it has been reported that Chaka Kahn [sic] 'kick-started' my career. Thanks Chaka - I'm sure that's news to us both. I've actually only ever met her twice...when I was 12 years old. A friend of my family's was her musical director and married to her sister. Someone had suggested to her that she might record a particular gospel track on her on next record and I was the only one in the room who knew all the words - so I busted out singing it with piano accompaniment. She said 'Damn! That white boy can sing!' That was pretty much it. I wonder what other 'creative writing' will crop up in the future????"

Oh, Sam. I feel for you. There's also a behind-the-scenes clip of his photo shoot with U.K. gay mag Attitude on his site.

Fleetwood Mac to return next year with new material and Sheryl Crow in tow? Says Lindsey Buckingham: "I think we were all a little surprised (Crow) was announcing that to the world with such certainty. We have talked about the possibility of bringing another woman into the scene to kind of give Stevie a sort of foil and shake it up a little bit. (Crow) was certainly a name that has come up. We'll have to see." Buckingham released Live At The Bass Performance Hall, a new concert DVD, yesterday.

Michael Musto describes one DJ and Madonna fan's dislike of her new single and album cover, pointing out that the indifferent singer will no doubt be laughing "all the way to the nearest Barclays Bank (where she can pick up her accent again, if not her weirdly absent husband)."

Marilyn Manson's (pictured right) former bandmate Madonna Wayne Gacy suing for misuse of $20 million of the band's money: "Unauthorized purchases Gacy claims Manson made with group funds include the full skeleton of a four-year-old Chinese girl, various pieces of Nazi propaganda and a $150,000 engagement ring (money not so well spent, in retrospect) for ex-wife Dita Von Teese. He also claims in court papers that Manson paid for his entire wedding to Von Teese with the group's money as well as financed a drug habit."

Diddy's gyrating, Making The Band-concocted girl group Danity Kane score the week's #1 album on Billboard's Top 200 Albums chart. Welcome To The Dollhouse posts the second-biggest sales week of the year, behind Jack Johnson's Sleep Through The Static.

The New York Times offers a dissection of Britney's TV comeback.

MTV revisits John Norris' 2004 interview with John McCain, where the Arizona senator was asked if he'd consider another run for the White House: "I think it's very unlikely. ... We had a kind of magical moment [in 2000]. A lot of things came together that I think would be very difficult to do again. And one thing I would hate to be is somebody who goes back in and would lose. ... It's a long time away, but I doubt it. [Smiling.] I'm not gettin' any younger!"

Pop Trash Addicts is just "your typical, Gen Y internet user" with a penchant for washed-up divas and La Toya Jackson.

THE WEEK'S NEW RELEASES:

Battle of the legendary super talents: new singles from Madonna featuring Justin Timberlake ("4 Minutes"), Mariah Carey ("Touch My Body") and Heidi Montag ("No More").

Funplex, the first album of new material from the B-52's in 16 years.

Morrissey's latest Greatest Hits, compiled mostly of material from his past two albums and a minor smattering of his classics. Contains new songs "That's How People Grow Up" and "All You Need Is Me."

Temposhark's debut, The Invisible Line. Previously the British electronic duo had provided remixes for M.I.A., Kate Havnevik and Hellogoodbye.

Counting Crows' half rock, half country concept record Saturday Nights & Sunday Mornings.

The Raconteurs' Consolers Of The Lonely, which, as mentioned last week, was literally completed at the beginning of the month.

Pretty. Odd., the sophomore set from Vegas emo act Panic At The Disco.

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Music News: Oprah Fêtes Leona Lewis And Journos Sum Up SXSW, Plus The Raconteurs, ABBA, The Feeling, Amy Winehouse, Groove Armada

Robbie Daw presents a weekly pop music update here on Towleroad! Robbie runs his own site called Chart Rigger.

Yesterday, Oprah had Simon Cowell and 22-year-old British singer Leona Lewis on her show. Lewis performed her single, "Bleeding Love," which was already a smash in the U.K. last fall. A showcase on Oprah is rarely one that fails to deliver; "Bleeding Love" is now the top download on iTunes.

Touted as both "the next Mariah Carey" and "the next Whitney Houston" -- often by none other than her own high-profile music biz handlers, Simon Cowell and Clive Davis -- Lewis previously won the 2006 season of Brit show The X Factor, which was created by Cowell. Now if only Clive would offer a U.S. deal to the equally vocally talented (and eye-pleasing) Shayne Ward, who won X Factor's first season.

Below are clips of the Next Mariah Carey from Oprah, and the Previous Mariah Carey with T-Pain, from this past weekend's SNL:

Leona Lewis' full album, Spirit, will be released on April 8.

This year's South By Southwest (SXSW) festival: Jim Derogatis of the Chicago Sun-Times notes the great indie spirit, but laments the "sad decline to arena-rock mediocrity" of R.E.M. for the past 15 years. Meanwhile, Ross Simonini of the Seattle Post Intelligencer has to leave the festival ("Five people vomited within arm's length [of me].") to find decent bands, and the Los Angeles Times' Todd Martens leaves Perez Hilton's party unimpressed with Robyn and the insults hurtled at him.

The Jack White school of making an album: finish it one week and put it out two weeks later. On the literally just-finished new album from The Raconteurs (pictured right), Consolers (due out next week): "We wanted to get this record to fans, the press, radio, etc., all at the EXACT SAME TIME so that no one has an upper hand on anyone else regarding it's availability, reception or perception."

Ola Brunkert, believed to be the only session musician to play on all of ABBA's recordings, found dead after a freak accident at his home.

The Feeling's Dan Gillespie Sells urges fellow pop stars to come out of the closet: "The world would be a healthier place if people were more honest about their sexuality and the entertainment industry would be healthier if people were more honest full stop. The more of us who come out, the easier it is for others. My advice for anyone considering coming out would be to do it for themselves. It's not fun living a lie."

Giorgio Armani enlists George Clooney and Julia Roberts to help get Amy Winehouse to perform at his celebrity bash.

And if you thought the album cover for Hard Candy was just a one-time look...

THE WEEK'S NEW RELEASES:

Almost a year after its U.K. release, Groove Armada's Soundboy Rock, the dance duo's seventh studio album, arrives in the U.S. It contains "Song 4 Mutya (Out Of Control,)" the pair's 2007 international hit featuring ex-Sugababes member Mutya Buena on vocals.

The Kills' Midnight Boom. The duo's "Cheap And Cheerful" is also iTunes' free download single of the week.

A week ahead of its physical CD availability, Gnarls Barkley's The Odd Couple hits iTunes.

If you were totally jazzed with Flo Rida's 10-week stint at the top of the Billboard Hot 100 with "Low," then why not check out his full length album, Mail On Sunday?

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News: Helen Keller, Gay Music, Rosie O'Donnell, NY Marriage

"Pro-family" groups urge parents to keep their children out of school on April 25's "Day of Silence", a day of raising awareness about tolerance and anti-gay bullying. They also accuse GLSEN of exploiting the murder of Lawrence King.

Website names The 50 Gayest Songs of All Time.

Say it isn't so. Lance Bass declares himself single, rips boyfriend from MySpace "top friends" list.

Maryland weighs new approach on same-sex unions: "Concerned that they won't be able to muster the votes for a comprehensive bill on same-sex unions this year, state lawmakers are considering a tactical shift toward legislation that would grant a number of rights to gay and lesbian couples but stop short of full-fledged marriage or civil unions."

Fort Lauderdale magazine flushes anti-gay Mayor Jim Naugle's latest column about gay restroom sex. City Commissioner Cindi Hutchinson: "I just want all this nonsense to stop. I don't want to talk about the bathroom thing again.''

Rosie O'Donnell: the junk food portrait.

New York's legal posturing on Same-sex marriage examined: "Last week in Manhattan, a State Supreme Court justice, ruling in a divorce proceeding, recognized the Canadian marriage of two New York City women, known publicly as Beth R. and Donna M. — or Mom and Mommy to the two young children they had been raising together. Less than two years after New York’s highest court refused to legalize gay marriage, leaving it up to a divided Legislature, courts in Rochester and Manhattan, as well as state and local officials, have begun to carry out what some say is the de facto legalization of gay marriage — and gay divorce — in New York for the price of, say, a ticket to Toronto."

Matthew McConaughey launches line of surf attire called Just Keep Livin'.

Provincetown arsonist strikes again: "In a little more than 10 minutes, flames destroyed a wooden shed belonging to artist Arthur Cohen at his property near Allerton Street. The blaze is at least the 16th arson fire in Provincetown since Oct. 17, Jennifer Mieth, a spokeswoman for the state fire marshal, said yesterday. No one was injured in the fire and Cohen, who was in New York at the time, was expected to arrive yesterday in Provincetown, according to a family member. Cohen declined to comment about the fire yesterday when reached by phone. On Monday, a landlord's report of a 2-foot square of burned shingles at a framing shop at 288 Bradford St. — little more than one-tenth of a mile from the Cohen property — was added to the list of arson fires, Mieth said."

Will & Grace creator Max Mutchnick said his own "internal oppression" held him back from making bigger statements with regard to gays on that show.

120-year-old photo of Helen Keller and Anne Sullivan on Cape Cod discovered: "The photograph, shot in July 1888 in Brewster, shows an 8-year-old Helen sitting outside in a light-colored dress, holding Sullivan's hand and cradling one of her beloved dolls. Experts on Keller's life believe it could be the earliest photo of the two women together and the only one showing the blind and deaf child with a doll — the first word Sullivan spelled for Keller after they met in 1887 — according to the New England Historic Genealogical Society, which now has the photo."

USA Today talks to Anne and Christopher Rice about their new books. Christopher: "She has created her own myth-ology. There's no following in those footsteps. So I keep my work a lot smaller and more focused. I would go insane comparing myself to her."

Jackson steals Mariah Carey's look.

Mississippi lawmakers propose bill banning unwed couples living together from adopting in attempt to stop gays from doing the same.

HIV+ British bareback porn actor speaks out: "'They told me that most of the work would be bareback, and that they would normally check certificates from GUM clinics.' On the various shoots he took part in during his short on-screen career he noticed laxity in the ad hoc system of checking the HIV status of performers. 'I presented a certificate about half the time. They would normally take your word for it. At my local clinic you have to pay £25 to get a certificate.' He was told everyone else was HIV negative, but never saw anyone else's certificates. Clyde has been in two or three bareback DVDs and other scenes that went online. 'We did not work under the best conditions most of the time, it was quite low budget and cramped. For most of the time I was getting paid £100 per scene.'

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News: Sinead O'Connor, Chris Dodd, Kickboxing, William F. Buckley

American conservative standard-bearer William F. Buckley, Jr. is dead at 82.

Yesterday, Robbie showed us a snippet of Mariah Carey's new "Touch My Body" video. Here's the whole thing.

Madonna names new record Hard Candy: "She loves candy. It's about the juxtaposition of tough and sweetness, or as Madonna so eloquently expressed: 'I'm gonna kick your ass, but it's going to make you feel good.'"

UK hit by 5.2 earthquake, biggest since 1984: "Student David Bates, 19, suffered a suspected broken pelvis when he was hit by a falling piece of chimney in his attic bedroom in Wombwell, South Yorkshire, his father, Paul, said. Paul Bates said he was woken by a deep rumble which was followed by shouts from his son upstairs. He said David was hit by a piece of masonry about 2ft square, which had fallen from the chimney stack. 'This massive piece of stone had landed on his hip and he was just shouting that he thought it was broken and I called an ambulance,' he said. 'You just don't expect it. Of all the things that can happen - an earthquake.'"

Santa Clara, California Board of Supervisors votes to formally oppose FDA ban on gay blood donation.

Openly gay kickboxer Rod Llaneza discusses his champion status: "Llaneza is passionate when conversation turns to kickboxing, no doubt rekindling the desire that helped him defend the USA Amateur Champion belt from the Professional Karate Commission, a sanctioning body for kickboxing and karate, for four years until he retired in 2004 with a 19-2 record. When talk is of kickboxing, Llaneza displays a confident, passionate and even cocky side that served him well in the ring for kickboxing or boxing, where he captured a Golden Gloves title for Georgia. 'I love to perform and go out into the ring. I don’t really care about winning and losing. It’s all about the performing. I pride myself on being sharp. You’ll never be bored watching my fight,' he says."

Serve: Larry Craig looking for summer interns.

Senator Chris Dodd endorses Obama.

Sinead O'Connor unleashes on Kylie Minogue: "I know Australian fans might want to shoot me for saying this, but that would be a far better option than to listen to one of her albums."

Straight Australian Idol Guy Sebastian dogged by anti-gay taunts: "In September 2006, the original Australian Idol winner revealed he was on the verge of quitting the industry after his Palm Beach house was pelted with eggs and the word 'faggot' spray-painted on his car. But Sebastian, who recently became engaged to his long-term girlfriend Julie Egan, believes he has finally built up the necessary tolerance to handle the slander. 'I used to think it was just a part of being in the public eye, but really that kind of behaviour is just not on - that line shouldn't be crossed,' he said."

Gay grandson of Al Capone speaks.

British scientists explain how world will end: "The sun will slowly expand into a red giant, pushing the Earth farther out into space, but not far enough. Our home planet will be snagged by the sun's outer atmosphere, gradually plunging to its doom inside the fiery stellar furnace."

Christian foster parents in the UK denied application to parent because of their views on homosexuality: " The devastated couple withdrew an application to their council to continue as foster carers after being told they must condone homosexuality to adhere to gay rights laws. The Equality Act (Sexual Orientation), which came into force last April, makes it illegal for any business or organisation providing a public service to discriminate against anyone because of their sexuality. The council says its fostering panel felt it would not be following the regulations if it placed a child with a couple who could not comply with the Act."

Justin Timberlake begins work on Open Road movie.

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Music News: Exclusive Robyn Podcast Interview, Plus Perez Hilton, Goldfrapp, Mariah Carey, Janet Jackson

Robbie Daw presents a weekly pop music update here on Towleroad! Robbie runs his own pop music site called Chart Rigger.

Today Andy and I have something a bit different for you in the form of an audio interview with Robyn. Speaking with the Swedish pop singer, who was in Stockholm when she called, was just as I expected it to be: amusing, informative and even a bit surreal; as you'll hear, her godchildren were in the background playing the entire time, and at one point Robyn breaks from our conversation to yell at them in Swedish when they begin fighting! She also goes into great detail on how forming Konichiwa Records three years ago -- her own label to distribute her latest album -- led to the kind of success she never predicted.

The past twelve months alone have seen Robyn blow up online. Here in the States, for instance, she did three shows earlier this month and was taken aback at how her audiences knew all the words to the songs. (Robyn's self-titled album isn't out here till April 29. It'll be her first U.S. release since 1997's Robyn Is Here.)

Currently you can grab Robyn's digital single "With Every Heartbeat" and The Rakamonie EP. As well, she's featured on the "Fyre Department Remix" of Snoop Dogg's current hit, "Sexual Eruption."

As a bit of a side note, toward the end of the interview, I asked Robyn about two particular songs on her forthcoming album. It may seem like like she's being contradictory, since for the first song, "Be Mine!", she says she doesn't write about personal things that happen in her everyday life and for the second, "Bum Like You," she mentions that it was inspired by a relationship she'd had -- but with "Be Mine!" she was referring to a specific scenario in the song's bridge being fictional.

Robbie Daw Interviews Robyn

Maybe the geeks truly shall inherit! Here's a 45-second clip of Mariah Carey's "Touch My Body" video, which co-stars 30 Rock's Jack McBrayer and was directed by Brett Ratner.

Slide over, Clive. Proving that Perez Hilton (aka, Mario Lavandeira) just might be the queen of all media after all, the New York Times reports the following: "Mr. Lavandeira has been negotiating a deal that would provide him with his own imprint at Warner Brothers Records, a division of the music giant Warner Music Group, he said. This was confirmed by several other people associated with the talks who spoke on condition of anonymity because no deal has been made. The talks are preliminary, and an agreement is not certain, but Mr. Lavandeira could receive $100,000 a year as an advance against 50 percent of any profits generated by artists he discovers and releases through Warner Brothers, these people said."

TODAY'S NEW RELEASES:

Discipline, the tenth studio album from Janet Jackson, and her first since joining the Island Def Jam label after a string of low-selling releases with Virgin.

Seventh Tree from Goldfrapp. It's a bit of a departure from their past up-tempo, dancier releases. Also available on iTunes is a remix EP for the album's first single, "A&E."

Dolly Parton's Backwoods Barbie, the title track of which is set to be used in the score for next year's 9 To 5 Broadway musical.

Erykah Badu's New Amerykah, which hopefully isn't overshadowed by the brouhaha over her latest hairstyle.

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Shopping At The Mall Of Mariah

Robbie Daw presents a weekly pop music update here on Towleroad! Robbie runs his own pop music site called Chart Rigger.

Last week I purchased my first Mariah Carey album. Granted, it was her Greatest Hits, and nothing adventurous like Butterfly or avant garde like Charmbracelet. But nonetheless, it was a personal turning point.

Chalk it up to Mariah's new single, "Touch My Body," spreading like the plague after premiering on radio last Tuesday. Hell, even before that, MP3 blogs were posting the slinky tune before being shut down. Fans uploaded it to YouTube. DJs played it ahead of schedule. Everyone at work seemed to be blaring it in unison over and over and over again. Clearly this woman wanted her body touched, and with a shaky hand, I reached for iTunes and gave in to temptation. But since the sexy jam isn't yet available for purchase, shelling out 17 bucks for all Mariah's hits seemed like a wise alternative.

Now, at one point in your life you catch on that some of our brothers-in-arms seem to pay exceptional attention to iconic female singers with names like -- and I'll just pull these out of nowhere -- Madonna or Diana or Whitney or Britney. Myself, while I lean more to the Minogue side of things, I lose interest quickly if the songs aren't up to scratch. (Body Language? Kylie, how could you?!) For every "I Wanna Dance With Somebody," there is a "Heartbreak Hotel." For every "Into The Groove" there's a "Hanky Panky" and for every "Pleasure Principle" there lies a "Black Cat" in wait. And so I realized early on that the "intense diva worship" gene seemed to have passed me by, or at least lies muted somewhere deep within.

I first viewed Mariah from askance. At age 16, I got a job working at National Record Mart. It's a curious thing, if not slightly befuddling, to have insight into the country's popular music taste, albeit from the perspective of a Western Pennsylvania mall. And in the late summer and fall of 1990, America had an insatiable appetite for Wilson Phillips, Mariah Carey and The Righteous Brothers' chestnut, "Unchained Melody" (thanks to Ghost).

I can appreciate the contributions of each now, but at the time it was unfathomable to the teenage mind that safe, bland compositions like "Vision Of Love" and "Love Takes Time" were topping the charts while acts like Deee-Lite and Black Box barely scraped into the Top 10. Hell, even Pebbles seemed radically edgy by comparison.

Soon the whistle-registering Carey would take over the world, and, even more worrisome, every radio format within earshot. Her first five singles went to #1, and the 20-year-old chanteuse was off and running. Around the time of her 1993 Music Box album, I giddily read a review in Entertainment Weekly referring to her as "a human shopping mall," as if she had become a giant, consumer-friendly entity.

As the years went by, Mariah did serve up some undeniably classic pop songs; "Someday," "Can't Let Go" and "Emotions" come to mind. By the time I was 21 and far less narrow-minded -- and hitting the local gay clubs --"Fantasy" was out, and musically, Mariah and I had "become friendly."

Jumping into the new millenium, mind you, while in my book Glitter was a fascinating achievement in comedy, clearly, the rest of the world didn't think so. Mariah was wheeling her ice cream cart onto TRL and smashing her dishes against the fireplace. On the surface Carey seemed to be suffering from a much-publicized breakdown, but something else was happening: she was becoming more human and less shopping mall.

Here was a divorcee who, after a previously-spotless track record, made a few bad decisions on the job. A couple of flops ensued, but when she started referring to herself as "Mimi" and being photographed twirling around on tropical beaches drinking Veuve Clicquot in a bikini and stiletto heels, the world readily welcomed back a slightly nuttier Mariah.

Even my own mother mellowed to the superstar. Three years back she informed me she "just loves that 'We Belong Together'" after seeing Mariah on Oprah. I finally came clean myself, and confided that I'd been harboring secret "like" for Mariah for some time, myself.

And now, 18 years after "Vision Of Love," here I sit with the songbird's entire catalogue of hits at the click of a mouse. Naturally, some of these are easily skipped over (read: any duet with 98° or composition with the word "believe" in the title). For the most part, though, after listening and having certain memories flood back, I'm grasping just how omnipresent her music really was these past two decades. I get strange pangs upon hearing "Touch My Body" randomly during the day, the kind not felt since the radio just happened to play your favorite song at the perfect time when you were a kid.

Who knows? Maybe, you and me, Mariah, we really do belong together.

TODAY'S NEW RELEASES:

StrangeFolk, Brit band Kula Shaker's first new studio album in nine years.

Allison Moorer's set of covers, Mockingbird.

The Raveonettes' Lust, Lust, Lust, featuring two bonus tracks not available on the international version.

Fischerspooner's The Best Revenge digital remix EP.

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Music News: This Is Thriller, Plus Sophie Ellis-Bextor, Ferras, Rob Halford, Mariah Carey, British Sea Power, The Wiz

Robbie Daw presents a weekly pop music update here on Towleroad! Robbie runs his own pop music site called Chart Rigger.

The slightly askew piano in Journey's "Don't Stop Believing," the thick synth intro to Van Halen's "Jump," and, well, pretty much every note on Michael Jackson's Thriller album...for those of a certain age in the 1980s, these were a few of the decade's inescapable and typically oversized pop productions. It was a time when business was booming and a few larger-than-life anthems or one hit album was all it took to pad a record label's finances for a year.

So it's with some irony that, as the music industry is floundering after its worst year of business on record, Thriller, "the world's biggest selling album of all time," arrives this week in a special 25th anniversary edition. And so many things about it seem alien a quarter of a century later.

Popping in the newly amped-up Thriller for probably my first full-length listen since 1984 seemed like an innocent enough task. But from the opening, staggered shuffle-beats of "Wanna Be Startin' Somethin'," one thing became clear: they don't make 'em like this anymore.

And really, they don't. Thriller originally only had nine tracks, but did anyone ever notice? The majority of the songs are so vastly different in genre, listening to them is like sifting through a long-lost mix tape, or at the very least, one artist's far-spanning greatest hits.

Remember the big duet-crossover hat trick pulled by Michael and Paul McCartney, where they split "The Girl Is Mine" and "Say Say Say" between their respective albums out at the time? It was a feat not repeated that successfully until 15 years later, with Brandy and Monica's pseudo-homage, "The Boy Is Mine." In retrospect, Paul got the better deal; hearing "The Girl Is Mine" again is like pinpointing the very moment when elevator music became almost tolerable. But as it ends, the mood changes instantly with the set's title track -- and just for the record, what is "Thriller"? How do you even categorize it. If you really break it down, it's probably the world's most famous novelty song. Recorded by anyone else, the ghoulish "Thriller" probably would have gone the way of Rockwell's "Somebody's Watching Me" to become a one-hit-wonder.

The album's centerpiece (and master stroke) is the one-two punch of "Beat It" and "Billie Jean" -- two brilliant pop achievements that sound as cinematic today as Jackson probably initially imagined them and then brought to life with their videos. Half these emo boy bands should be grabbed by the scruff, sat down and scolded with Eddie Van Halen's guitar solo from "Beat It" over and over again. Some of today's radio-friendly young poppets would also do well to toss out their cookie cutter ballads and use "Human Nature" as a template, the complicated layers of which I'm realizing initially escaped me at age nine.

Whether he grasped that it was going to happen or not, Michael Jackson caught lightning in a bottle with Thriller in the early '80s. In a time before the mountain of career-destroying weirdness consumed him, he stepped through the pop culture window opened by E.T. and Pac Man and sent millions of suburban kids off dreaming. While I wanna think, Never say never, it's pretty much safe to assume a mega-selling phenomenon like that record could never happen again.

As for the included remixes and updates of the classic singles on the 25th anniversary edition, with guest appearances by Fergie, Kanye West and Akon -- utterly pointless, and mostly unlistenable. Even re-releasing the album doesn't seem that necessary. Undoubtedly, Sony and Michael likely felt they had to throw on the extras to lure in a new generation and give fans a reason to get their wallets out.

At the very least, Thriller 25 makes the original songs a nice place to re-visit. There's also a DVD inside containing Jackson's performance of "Billie Jean" from the Motown 25: Yesterday, Today And Forever special. But I haven't watched it. I'm still stuck on "Beat It."

Yesterday Andy mentioned 25-year-old singer Ferras, whose piano ballad "Hollwood's Not America" was chosen to be the song played on American Idol this season when a contestant gets booted each week. Yesterday Ferras performed the song live on The Today Show:

Ferras counts old-school David Bowie as one of his influences, which is a bit more evident in his tune "Aliens And Rainbows." His album by the same name is due out April 1.

Out headbanger Rob Halford of Judas Priest in a new interview with Metal Edge: "It was no big surprise to me to find that there were other gay metalheads, it’s an absolute fact. I would get some of the coolest emails, especially from younger metalheads struggling with their sexual identity, saying ‘because you did what you did, I was able to tell my friends at school, or tell my family, or whatever, and they’ve accepted me.’"

Sophie Ellis-Bextor to gay up nightlife in London?

Mariah Carey wants to be touched, but not pillaged. MP3 blog KeviPod Music was shut down by Blogger after apparently receiving several warnings from the host site. The final straw was when Madrid-based Kevin posted Carey's new single, "Touch My Body" before its release.

He whipped up a new blog (with a slightly altered title) immediately, and his statement on the incident evidenced the mindset online toward music and MP3 distribution, legal or illegal: "'Kevipod Music' recieved sometimes complains via emails from Blogger.com - i guess at request from the labels - about copyright songs. There were some songs i posted and i guess the labels saw them and contacted blogger to contact me to please remove them. They did warned that several complains would mean in a delete of the blog. And yesterday seems i got one more complain and so Blogger deleted the blog. I think i only recieved like 5 complains, and i don't think that's several, and I really didn't think Blogger would actually do it but what's done it's done you know. This day would come someday and i knew it. Every music blog is destined to this i guess someday. When you get popular, labels have the EYE more on you and complain the more and stuff."

He then re-posted the MP3 of "Touch My Body."

THIS WEEK'S NEW RELEASES:

Brighton, England-based British Sea Power's third studio album, Do You Like Rock Music, gets a domestic release.

11i, from L.A. electronic duo The Supreme Beings Of Leisure.

British girl trio The Puppini Sisters' The Rise And Fall Of Ruby Woo.

New singles from Celine Dion and Josh Groban ("The Prayer") and Adele ("Hometown Glory"), as well as EPs from OneRepublic ("Stop And Stare") and Joshua Radin ("Unclear Sky").

And finally, speaking of Michael Jackson -- The Wiz: 30th Anniversary Edition DVD, containing a bonus CD of the soundtrack.

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News: Ferras, Facebook, Mariah Carey, The Nation, Polaroid

I had forgotten that AfterElton was doing a "Gay People's Choice Awards" contest but was extremely pleased to wake up this morning and find out that Towleroad won an award for favorite blog. Thanks to all of you who put in our name for this. It's much appreciated! Check out all the other winners HERE!

Sweet Jesus! Lightning strikes Christ the Redeemer in Rio.

Hillary Clinton 2008 bid hinging on Ohio and Texas. Superdelegate: "She has to win both Ohio and Texas comfortably, or she’s out. The campaign is starting to come to terms with that."

Mariah Carey names new album E=MC².

Facebook is the Hotel California. You can check out any time, but you can never leave. "Even if users terminate their membership, pictures of them posted by others remain online. But users can't really quit, anyway. Like guests at the Hotel California, people who check out of Facebook have a hard time leaving. Profiles of former members are preserved in case people want to reactivate their accounts. And all users' digital selves can outlive their creators. As the company's "terms of use" explain, profiles of deceased members are kept "active under a special memorialized status for a period of time determined by us to allow other users to post and view comments."

First all-Black production of Cat on a Hot Tin Roof hits Broadway.

Victory Fund intern is nation's youngest Superdelegate!

If you aren't aware of Ferras yet, you will be soon. His single "Hollywood is Not America" has been licensed by American Idol as the song that's played when the losers hit the road after they're voted off the show. "Bad Day" made Daniel Powter a household name when he was a relative unknown. NewNowNext interviews Ferras about his expectations for the future, and, of course, his love of the gays.

SPOILERS: Wentworth Miller gets wet.

Florent files suit over extending restaurant lease. Judge: "I know this restaurant–Florent is a great place."

Can sugar substitutes make you fat? "Animals fed with artificially sweetened yogurt over a two-week period consumed more calories and gained more weight — mostly in the form of fat — than animals eating yogurt flavored with glucose, a natural, high-calorie sweetener."

Dolce & Gabbana's yummy new entree.

Digital Age: Polaroid exits film business. "Polaroid chief operating officer Tom Beaudoin said the company is interested in licensing its technology to an outside firm that could manufacture film for faithful Polaroid customers. If that doesn't happen, Polaroid users would have to find an alternative photo technology, as the company plans to make only enough film to last into next year. Polaroid has already quietly halted production of instant cameras. "We stopped making commercial-type cameras about 18 to 24 months ago, and we stopped making consumer cameras about a year ago," said Beaudoin."

John Barrowman's parents put him in a trash bin to shut him up.

The Nation endorses Barack Obama: "This magazine has been critical of the senator from Illinois for his closeness to Wall Street; his unwillingness to lay out an ambitious progressive agenda on health care, housing and other domestic policy issues; and for post partisan rhetoric that seems to ignore the manifest failure of conservatism over these past seven years. But as Christopher Hayes argued in our cover story last week, Obama has also exhibited a more humane and wise approach to foreign policy, opposing the Iraq War while Hillary Clinton voted for it, and has been a reliable progressive ally over the course of his career. While his rhetoric about "unity" can be troubling, it also embodies a savvy strategy to redefine the center of American politics and build a coalition by reaching out to independent and Republican voters disgruntled and disgusted with what the Bush era has wrought."

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Music News: It's Once Again, Plus Natasha Bedingfield, Yaz, Franz Ferdinand, Mariah Carey, Cat Power

Robbie Daw presents a weekly pop music update here on Towleroad! Robbie runs his own pop music site called Chart Rigger.

Thank you, Motion Picture Academy, for not forgetting about last spring's Once when it came time for nominations in the Best Original Song category for this year's Oscars! Once, which grew into being a modest indie hit last year, is an Irish film starring real-life rocker Glen Hansard as "Guy," a street musician -- or, a busker -- who meets Czech immigrant "Girl" (played by Markéta Irglová, also a musician) and enlists her to cut what he hopes will be a career-making demo.

The two wrote the majority flick's songs, including the just-nominated "Falling Slowly". In addition to the music, part of the appeal of Once is that Glen and Markéta enter into what has to be the most chaste coupling since Bill Murray and Scarlett Johansson in Lost In Translation.

"Falling Slowly" is up against three songs from partly-animated fantasy film Enchanted, as well as one from August Rush. But the real fairy tale will be if comparatively unknown Hansard and Irglová end up triumphing over the mighty Disney with their duet from Once, a movie whose budget was $160,000.

Here's "Falling Slowly".

In November I had some fun noting the similarities between the cover art for Alicia Keys' As I Am and current U.K. sensation Leona Lewis' Spirit. Maybe London-based Natasha Bedingfield is hoping some of that success will pay off for her, as well? Her Pocketful Of Sunshine is out today.

Bedingfield released her sophomore album N.B. outside of the U.S last May. For whatever reason, Sony retitled the record Pocketful Of Sunshine, had her cut seven new songs for it and waited till now to put it in the States. (Six of the original tracks from N.B. remain intact, though gone is the U.K. single "I Wanna Have Your Babies.") The tactic seems to have worked so far, as her current single featuring Sean Kingston, "Love Like This", hit #17 on Billboard's Hot 100 and was recently certified gold.

Grammy-nominated Amy Winehouse: crack perhaps not so wack?

I'm not sure anyone could have predicted this one; 25 years after Santa Claus got me the "Don't Go" 12" for Christmas, Alison Moyet and Vince Clarke (pictured right), better known as Yaz -- or Yazoo in Europe -- are back together for the four-disc box set In Your Room (due in May) and the Yazoo Reconnected: Live tour.

Mariah Carey set to be That Chick on April Fool's Day, while Franz Ferdinand are getting down and dirty with Russian synthesizers for their summer release.

If you can't beat controversy, why not embrace it? Morrissey, perhaps in a nose-thumbing nod to the NME, includes "The National Front Disco" in the set for his latest London gig.

TODAY'S NEW RELEASES:

Jukebox, the eighth album from Cat Power. It's all cover versions, as the title alludes to, save for the lone original, "Song For Bobby."

Lisa Loeb's The Purple Tape, a set of her original demos not to be confused with the same-titled original 17-track demo recorded by the Pixies 21 years ago.

A re-recording of Michael Jackson's "Wanna Be Startin' Something" featuring Akon, from the forthcoming special anniversary edition of Thriller.

Rooney's "I Should've Been After You" digital EP.

Hey Venus!, the first studio album from Welsh band Super Furry Animals in 12 years, gets an expanded edition added to iTunes after its initial August release date.

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News: New Mexico, Tom Cruise, MRSA, Jesus Kidnap, Mariah Carey

Domestic partners bill revived in New Mexico.

Zac Efron treats paparazzi to unique version of 'Blue Moon'.

Anti-gay marriage speakers meet with resistance from Vermont audience after proclaiming "Marriage can be the union between man and woman or it can be the union of any two people. Vermont cannot have both." Audience member: "It's nonsensical that marriage can't have multiple meanings. That's simply scare tactics." Outright Vermont launches statewide outreach effort: "A rainbow-colored bumper sticker, a "queer-mobile" that travels to remote and rural areas, paid spots on the radio, an online resource and a monthly newsletter are all strategies for a queer youth visibility campaign launched Thursday in Burlington. Outright Vermont, the state's largest 'queer' organization in its 20th year that works specifically with youths, wants to make Vermont the most "queer-friendly" state in the country – one person at a time."

Tom Cruise producing partner Paula Wagner speaks out about Scientology video leaks: "I am not a Scientologist, nor are most of the people Tom and I work with, but that doesn't mean I can sit by silently while he is attacked for his religious beliefs. As a film-maker and an American, I feel strongly that an individual's religion should have no bearing on their professional life."

Actress Suzanne Pleshette dies at 70.

Michigan neighborhood kidnaps devout dachshund owner's Jesus statuette: "We are holding Jesus ransom until you clean up the poopie from your wieners and trust us we see you take your wieners for long walks w/out picking up their poopie in our yards. This has upset us dearly so please clean up all the weiner poopie, if you want to see Jesus unharmed."

Gay porn Marine Matt Sanchez paranoid that a "gay jihadist" stalker/crank caller is out to defame him!

NYT on how the MRSA staph 'superbug' story went viral: "On Monday, a team of researchers led by doctors from the University of California at San Francisco announced that gay men were “many times more likely than others” to acquire a new strain of drug-resistant staphylococcus, a nasty, fast-spreading and potential lethal bacteria known as MRSA USA300. And sure enough, the study, published online in the Annals of Internal Medicine, was quickly picked up by reporters round the world and across the Internet, including a London tabloid which dubbed the disease 'the new H.I.V.' But for gay men in the Castro neighborhood here, which was an early epicenter for the AIDS epidemic and a current hot spot for MRSA, the report also seemed to cast an unfair, and all too familiar, stigma on their sexuality."

High school principal apologizes for inviting anti-gay pastor Ken Hutcherson to give lecture to students on civil rights.

Paula Abdul wants you to dance like there's not tomorrow.

Could volcanoes be facilitating the melt of the Antarctic glaciers? "In an article published Sunday on the Web site of the journal Nature Geoscience, Hugh Corr and David Vaughan of the British Antarctic Survey report the identification of a layer of volcanic ash and glass shards frozen within an ice sheet in western Antarctica. 'This is the first time we have seen a volcano beneath the ice sheet punch a hole through the ice sheet' in Antarctica, Vaughan said."

That chick Mariah Carey dishes out new album cover.

Spencer Livermore: the most powerful gay man in British politics.

LOGO to screen Brother Outsider: The Life of Bayard Rustin all week.

Indiana wingnuts irate at lawmaker's refusal to hear proposed constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriage: "Rep. Scott Pelath, D-Michigan City, who is chairman of the House Rules and Legislative Procedure Committee, said today that the most urgent issue facing the state is property taxes, not same-sex marriage, which already is banned by Indiana law. 'I’m not planning on having a hearing,' Pelath said. 'The short session (of the legislature) was designed to deal with emergencies. We have a very serious problem with the property tax system, and we don’t have any gay marriages in Indiana.' The Senate committee plans to debate the amendment Thursday, but Eric Miller, who has pushed for passage of the amendment as founder of the conservative group Advance America, called that 'disingenuous.' The legislature, he said, is dealing with plenty of issues besides property tax reform and has the time to debate and vote on this amendment before its March 14 deadline."

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