NEW YORK – Cellist Yo-Yo Ma and singers James Taylor and Paul Simon are among those participating in the Sept. 11 anniversary commemoration at the World Trade Center site.
Ma has performed a piece by Bach, while Taylor has sung "You Can Close Your Eyes" and Simon has performed "The Sound of Silence."
Other musical elements in the commemoration include the Brooklyn Youth Chorus and bagpipers from the fire department, police department and the port authority.
LOS ANGELES (TheWrap.com) – Crime doesn't pay on Simon Cowell's most recent game show. At least, not anymore, it doesn't.
British network ITV, which broadcasts the Cowell-developed series "Red or Black?" confirmed to TheWrap that it has dropped three contestants, after it was discovered that the show's first big winner had served time for assaulting a man.
Nathan Hageman, who won 1 million British pounds (roughly $1.6 million) on the series September 3, served 2 1/2 years for assaulting another man, British newspaper the Sun reports.
Hageman claims that the man he assaulted, an associate of an ex-girlfriend, had first threatened to beat him up in front of his mother and young niece. Out of frustration, Hageman says, he broke into the man's house and beat him up.
"I was an idiot for doing it, I know," Hageman admitted to the paper.
Hageman was allowed to keep his winnings, but in response to the publicity generated by Hagemen's story, ITV has taken a second look at the current contestants' background checks.
Apparently, ITV didn't like what it found, because the network chose to have three competitors taken out of the game.
"ITV has reviewed the background checks on remaining contestants from 'Red or Black?'" an ITV spokesperson said in a statement provided to TheWrap. "As a result of this we have asked producers to remove three contestants from this week's shows. 'Red or Black?' will continue on these two occasions with seven, rather than eight, contestants."
The casino-style game show, which premiered on September 3 and airs twice nightly, features contestants going through a series of rounds, guessing between red and black in order to advance to the next round. The final round features a giant roulette wheel that's divided into red and black sections.
Despite the theme, it doesn't sound like ITV is willing to gamble anymore when it comes to where they pull their contestants from.
NEW YORK (Reuters) – "American Idol" creator Simon Fuller is among parties in the final stages of bidding for Los Angeles music publisher Bug Music, according to three people familiar with the process.
Bug, which is owned by private equity firm Spectrum Equity Investors, is expected to fetch bids starting in the high $200 millions to $300 million range, according to two of the people.
Fuller's XIX Entertainment, BMG Music and Ole Music are among second-round bidders for the publisher whose 250,000-strong catalog of songs includes Iggy Pop's "Lust for Life" and the Drifters hit "Under the Boardwalk."
Final bids are due by Friday.
XIX was set up by Fuller when he left CKX last year and was valued around 100 million pounds ($157 million). The company manages soccer star David Beckham, Formula One race driver Lewis Hamilton and singer Jennifer Lopez, among others. Fuller sold his former company 19 Entertainment to CKX in 2005.
Fuller, 51, is best known for creating TV music shows and managing the Spice Girls. He started his career in music publishing in the 80's, signing Madonna's hit song "Holiday" when he was 23.
Even as global recorded music sales have tumbled in recent years, song catalogs have kept or increased their value because they can earn revenue from a wider variety of licensing sources than record sales.
Financial investors like pension funds and private equity firms have been attracted by publishers' relatively stable cash flows.
Earlier this year, Russian-born billionaire Len Blavatnik paid $3.3 billion to take control of Warner Music Group, whose assets include the music publisher Warner/Chappell.
Blavatnik is now among bidders for EMI Music's recording and publishing assets with final bids due by the end of this month, according to several sources.
Sony/ATV, a joint venture between Sony Corp and the estate of late pop star Michael Jackson, is also focused on EMI and is no longer chasing Bug.
XIX, BMG, Ole Music and Bug Music representatives declined to comment.
(Editing by Robert MacMillan)
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – Big, brash and confident as ever, Simon Cowell said on Friday that his upcoming "The X Factor" would thrash the competition on U.S. television and topple "American Idol" as the nation's most-watched show.
Cowell, both executive producer and acid-tongued judge on the U.S. version of "The X Factor" called the singing contest a "game changer" and said it was "completely different" in style and content from his old vehicle "American Idol".
Asked whether he thought "X Factor", with its unprecedented $5 million cash prize for the winner, would beat "Idol" in the TV ratings when it debuts on Fox in September, Cowell told television journalists.
"If I didn't think we could -- and its not just 'Idol', it's any show -- we don't enter something for the silver medal. You do it because you want to be number one, and for the next few months we are going to throw everything at this to try and make it the best show on TV," the British producer said.
"I wouldn't have made the show unless I thought it would be different...we see this as a game changer," he added.
Fox, which broadcasts both talent shows, said it believed "X Factor" would reverse the network's historically "patchy" ratings in the fall TV season.
"If 'X Factor' can do half of what we hope it will do in the fall, Fox is going to be really difficult for the other guys to reckon with," Fox entertainment president Kevin Reilly said.
"X Factor" marks the return of the abrasive but popular Cowell to U.S. television after quitting "American Idol" in 2010 following 10 years in the judges' seat, and reunites him with his old "Idol" sparring partner Paula Abdul.
The new show debuts in a now-crowded market for TV talent contests that includes the surprise success of NBC newcomer "The Voice" earlier this year, and established favorites like "America's Got Talent" and a capella contest "The Sing-Off", as well as a revamped and resurgent "Idol" which airs from January-May.
"X Factor" welcomes contestants 13 years-old and up, as well as singing groups. It turns the judges into competing mentors and has contestants auditioning before vast stadium audiences.
"We will show the good bits, the bad bits, the ugly bits -- and there are a lot of ugly bits," Cowell said, saying there was room for more than two or three hit TV singing shows,
While the revamped "American Idol", with new judges Jennifer Lopez and Steven Tyler, increased audiences last season with a softer and kinder attitude toward its aspiring young stars, Cowell has clearly abandoned none of the sarcasm and biting wit that helped make him a star on U.S. TV.
Asked how it felt to be working again with Cowell, Abdul told reporters, "It's nice to be back in a demented relationship. It's like home."
"I think its more like 'The Exorcist 2'," retorted Cowell.
But he confessed that he had met his match in some of the younger contestants auditioning for a spot on the show.
"We have had to say to some of the 14-year-olds 'please be kind to me'...I was quite traumatized after some of the auditions." Cowell said that one young rapper had "absolutely chewed me apart. But I quite like that."
"The X Factor" arrives on Fox on September 21 with a two-hour premiere, and ends with a two-part finale on Dec 21 and 22, where a winner will be chosen by public vote and scoop up a $5 million cash prize, as well as a recording contract with Cowell's Sony Music-owned record label SyCo.
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – Simon Fuller, the British creator of hit TV show "American Idol," received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame on Monday surrounded by some of the real-life stars he has helped to create.
"Whenever I see that star, I won't see my name, I'll see all names of the people I've worked (with) and all those amazing artists and people that have helped me achieve this stuff," Fuller said as his star was unveiled.
Over a 25-year career, Fuller has managed singers Annie Lennox, The Spice Girls and Amy Winehouse, English soccer player David Beckham, tennis player Andy Murray, racing driver Lewis Hamilton and a trio of "American Idol" champions, Kelly Clarkson, Carrie Underwood and David Cook.
Former "Spice Girl" Victoria Beckham, "Idol" judges Jennifer Lopez and Randy Jackson, Underwood, Clarkson and the current "American Idol" finalists all joined Fuller for the ceremony.
Fuller recalled that when he and entrepreneur Simon Cowell first tried to sell "American Idol" in the United States, "we had that show turned down by every single network" with the exception of Fox, on which the ratings juggernaut airs.
Created first in Britain as "Pop Idol" in 2001, the format has since been sold to more than 120 other countries and created a multi-billion-dollar global recording, TV and merchandising franchise.
Fuller also created the Fox dance contest series, "So You Think You Can Dance".
Fuller received his star on the eve of the two-part finale in Los Angeles of the 10th season of "American Idol", which has been the most-watched show on U.S. television for seven consecutive years.
(Reporting by Jill Serjeant, editing by Chris Michaud)
NEW YORK (Reuters) – Fox Broadcasting is calling on the hitmaking power of Simon Cowell and Steven Spielberg to sustain its standing with younger viewers, with one offering up another splashy talent show and the other bringing a prehistoric world to network TV.
Fox will also add four new comedies, two animated and two live action, along with another two dramas to its 2011-12 prime-time TV schedule, already anchored by hits such as "American Idol" and "Bones."
Network executives, in unveiling their new schedule on Monday, said Cowell's "The X Factor" would run this fall on Wednesday and Thursday nights, mirroring the midseason strategy is uses for "American Idol."
"We feel we have the gold standard in both 'Idol' and 'X Factor,'" Fox Networks Group Chairman Peter Rice said on a conference call. "In Simon Cowell we have the absolute star of the genre at the pinnacle of his game."
Based on the British hit, "The X Factor" is yet another in the growing list of talent shows that are spread across broadcast television. It will comprise a judging panel of Cowell, British singer Cheryl Cole, record producer Antonio "L.A." Reid and Paula Abdul, who quit "Idol" two years ago in a contract dispute.
Fox's other new tentpole show -- the sort that, when successful, can get entire families to gather around the television set -- is a far cry from Fox's talent shows.
Called "Terra Nova," the Spielberg-produced drama is an account of a family that travels back 85 million years, confronting dinosaurs and assorted bad guys. The show, which was previewed for advertisers a year ago, will debut on Mondays this fall ahead of the medical drama "House."
Broadcast television struggled last season in introducing big, broad dramas, almost all of which failed to win audiences, and the costly "Terra Nova" will be under pressure to perform.
In discussing the show, Kevin Reilly, who heads up entertainment at Fox, called it "one of the most ambitious undertakings we've been involved in" and "unlike anything you've seen before."
Fox, a division of Rupert Murdoch's News Corp, will introduce its new lineup to advertisers later Monday. Comcast Corp's NBC, Walt Disney Co's ABC and CBS, owned by CBS Corp, are also taking the wraps off their 2011-12 schedules this week.
The industry then will get down to the business of negotiating the bulk of the advertising time for the season, an annual event known as the upfront market.
Fox comes to the negotiating table with a prime-time lineup that is already tops with younger viewers -- those most prized by advertisers -- and with few holes to fill in its schedule.
Other than its "The X Factor" and "Terra Nova," Fox will roll out four new comedies in 2011-12, including two animated series: "Allen Gregory," featuring a precocious 7-year-old, and "Napoleon Dynamite," based on the popular movie.
Its other comedies include "New Girl," starring Zooey Deschanel, who has appeared in movies such as "500 Days of Summer," and a comedy about single moms called "I Hate My Teenage Daughter."
At midseason, Fox will introduce the "The Finder," a crime drama about a former military cop with a special power, and "Alcatraz," from producer J.J. Abrams, the executive behind "Lost" and "Star Trek."
(Reporting by Paul Thomasch. Editing by Robert MacMillan)
LOS ANGELES (Hollywood Reporter) – Simon Cowell blames attorneys for the fact that Paula Abdul's deal to serve as a judge on Cowell's "The X Factor" closed at the eleventh hour Sunday -- just as the judges' rounds of auditions were about to start.
He even said there was talk of using a guest judge, but he ultimately would have called off Sunday's auditions if Abdul's deal hadn't closed.
"I would've canceled today (if deal hadn't gone through)," Cowell told The Hollywood Reporter on Sunday at the University of Southern California's Gaten Center before the judges auditions began.
"The issue was that these conversations had gone on long enough. It's not like I sprung this on somebody. I just thought it's time for everyone to do their job and get the deal done. I couldn't have sat in front of you lot and said (Paula) wanted to do the deal and we couldn't."
Cowell added that it was important for Abdul -- who served as a judge alongside Cowell on Fox's "American Idol" -- to be a part of "X Factor," which debuts on Fox in September.
"I could just sense that the public would've been disappointed without Paula," Cowell said. "You see how we are; we get on really well."
One issue, according to sources, was an option that CBS had on Abdul based on a deal for her to participate in its short-lived competition show "Live to Dance." That deal, according to two sources close to "X Factor," contained language that could have prevented Abdul from joining the new show.
Said Cowell: "She's Paula Abdul. Nothing's ever easy, but I'm used to it."
Abdul serves as a judge alongside Cowell, Antonio "L.A." Reid and Cheryl Cole.
LOS ANGELES – Simon Cowell and Paula Abdul are back together again, hoping to recapture their TV chemistry for a new Fox talent show.
The network announced Sunday that the two former "American Idol" judges have reunited to assess would-be singing stars on Cowell's "The X Factor," debuting this fall.
The Associated Press reported Saturday that Abdul had signed to be part of the panel, which taped its first judging session Sunday. Fox and the show's producers sought maximum drama by keeping Abdul's status under wraps until she appeared for the taping.
Glammed up in a shoulder-baring purple dress and purple stilettos, Abdul greeted Cowell with a hug outside the University of Southern California auditorium where contestants were set to audition.
Besides the longtime TV sparring partners, the judges include British pop star Cheryl Cole and Grammy-winning producer Antonio "L.A." Reid.
"This show would never have been the same without Paula and I can't believe I am saying this: I have missed her a lot, and I am thrilled she's on the show," Cowell said in a written statement.
"I am excited beyond words to be a part of `The X Factor,'" Abdul added. "I'm also delighted and grateful to be sitting next to Simon again ... but you might want to check back with me in a week or two!"
The 48-year-old singer, dancer and choreographer reigned on "Idol" as the nice if sometimes dizzy-seeming judge who often clashed colorfully with Cowell in his role as resident bully. She left "Idol" in 2009, after eight seasons, in a contract dispute.
Abdul and Cowell, seated together at Sunday's taping as they typically were on "Idol," quickly slipped into their familiar, bickering ways. But Abdul also proved willing to stand up to Cowell, who's now her boss as well as fellow judge: He is an executive producer of the Fox version of the hit British show he created.
Announcement of Abdul's involvement in the new show was held up as negotiations continued until the eve of the first taping, according to a person familiar with the talks. The person spoke on the condition of anonymity Saturday because Fox and the show's producers had not authorized public comment.
One obstacle was removed by CBS, which featured Abdul on "Live to Dance" earlier this year. She was released earlier this week by the network from any further obligations, a person at CBS said Saturday, speaking on condition of anonymity because the network hadn't authorized public comment on the matter.
"Live to Dance" was a talent competition series starring Abdul that premiered on CBS in January. It was a ratings flop.
Late Saturday, Fox confirmed that co-hosts of "The X Factor" will be Steve Jones and Nicole Scherzinger. Jones is a popular TV host in Britain. Scherzinger is a former member of the girl group the Pussycat Dolls who has appeared on the British version of "The X Factor."
The competition is open to solo singers and vocal groups age 12 and up. The winner will get a $5 million record contract.
___
AP Entertainment Writers Frazier Moore and Christy Lemire contributed to this report.
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Online:
http://www.fox.com/theXfactor
LOS ANGELES (Hollywood Reporter) – Simon Cowell blames attorneys for the fact that Paula Abdul's deal to serve as a judge on Cowell's "The X Factor" closed at the eleventh hour Sunday -- just as the judges' rounds of auditions were about to start.
He even said there was talk of using a guest judge, but he ultimately would have called off Sunday's auditions if Abdul's deal hadn't closed.
"I would've canceled today (if deal hadn't gone through)," Cowell told The Hollywood Reporter on Sunday at the University of Southern California's Gaten Center before the judges auditions began.
"The issue was that these conversations had gone on long enough. It's not like I sprung this on somebody. I just thought it's time for everyone to do their job and get the deal done. I couldn't have sat in front of you lot and said (Paula) wanted to do the deal and we couldn't."
Cowell added that it was important for Abdul -- who served as a judge alongside Cowell on Fox's "American Idol" -- to be a part of "X Factor," which debuts on Fox in September.
"I could just sense that the public would've been disappointed without Paula," Cowell said. "You see how we are; we get on really well."
One issue, according to sources, was an option that CBS had on Abdul based on a deal for her to participate in its short-lived competition show "Live to Dance." That deal, according to two sources close to "X Factor," contained language that could have prevented Abdul from joining the new show.
Said Cowell: "She's Paula Abdul. Nothing's ever easy, but I'm used to it."
Abdul serves as a judge alongside Cowell, Antonio "L.A." Reid and Cheryl Cole.
LONDON (Reuters) – "The X Factor" and former "American Idol" judge Simon Cowell jumped to number 6 in the British music rich list in 2011 after his fortune hit 200 million pounds ($330 million), Britain's Sunday Times newspaper said on Thursday.
That was a 35 million pound rise on 2010, when he was 11th in the annual rankings published by the newspaper, and took him above Elton John and Mick Jagger whose fortunes were estimated at 195 million and 190 million pounds respectively.
Cowell, also a music producer with an entertainment company called Syco, has signed a new deal with Britain's ITV channel and is preparing to launch "The X Factor" in the United States. But he was still some way behind his arch-rival Simon Fuller, creator of the talent TV "Idol" franchise, who ranked 5th in 2011 with personal wealth of 375 million pounds.
British-based record executive Clive Calder, who sold Zomba Records in 2002, took over at the top of the music rich list with 1.3 billion pounds, unchanged on the amount in 2010.
He regained his position at number one after Warner Music boss Edgar Bronfman moved back to New York from his temporary home in London.
Musical composer and theater owner Andrew Lloyd Webber was second with a fortune of 680 million pounds, musical producer Cameron Mackintosh was third (675 million) and ex-Beatle Paul McCartney fourth (495 million).
In the Irish music rich list, U2 boosted their wealth to 455 million pounds from 429 million in 2010 to remain comfortably on top, followed by dancer Michael Flatley with 214 million pounds.
Following is a list of the top 10 British music millionaires. (all figures in pounds)
1. Clive Calder (1.3 billion)
2. Andrew Lloyd Webber (680 million)
3. Cameron Mackintosh (675 million)
4. Paul McCartney (495 million)
5. Simon Fuller (375 million)
6. Simon Cowell (200 million)
7. Elton John (195 million)
8. Mick Jagger (190 million)
9. Sting (180 million)
10. Keith Richards (175 million)
(Reporting by Mike Collett-White; Editing by Jill Serjeant)
For all of those nasty folk who like to imagine that Simon Cowell was hatched rather than born, the high-waisted one has been on the telly this week talking about how much he loves his mum and misses his dad. Simon was a guest on Piers Morgan’s CNN show on Tuesday discussing all sorts of touching personal issues about his parents. Dad Eric died of a heart attack in 1999 and, Simon said, "I can't lie, it was the worst day of my life. A horrible horrible time."
Luckily Simon still has his doting mum Julie, 84, around to keep him in line and appreciate his success. If we had a son who was worth as much as that we’d expect to be eating sushi at Nobu every day, but it seems things work a little differently in Casa Cowell. Simon said,
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Simon Cowell might act like he’s the most terrifying man in showbiz, but when he’s in the company of his mum Julie, Simon reverts back to being a sulky 12-year-old. His words, not ours.
Simon gave the bratty insight during an interview on Piers Morgan Tonight, where he also revealed he likes to demand his mum cooks him lunch.
Describing a recent fight, Simon said,
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