Mr. Pop Culture Report – November 4 … Taylor’s Swift Rise To #1… Facebook Coupons… New High For Cable’s AMC… Wii Still Love Pac-Man…
Wednesday, November 3rd, 2010 | Pop Culture | No Comments
Taylor Swift fans have spoken — more than a million times. The country-pop superstar sold more than 1 million copies of her new album “Speak Now” to debut at the top of the Billboard album chart this week. Billboard.com said Wednesday that it’s the biggest debut since 50 Cent’s “The Massacre” five years ago.
Facebook begins offering coupons from various retailers, including a promotion from Gap which will give away 10,000 pairs of jeans. Mobile users can access the partner deals on their smartphones, go to the store and show the virtual coupon to the clerk. Facebook said it is launching a test version of the feature, called Deals, with more than 20 companies, including the Gap, McDonalds, 24 Hour Fitness, American Eagle Outfitters and Alamo Drafthouse Cinema, a chain of movie theaters that serves food and drinks.
AMC’s new zombie drama The Walking Dead debuted to 5.3 million viewers, the largest audience for any original series on the network.
Leading video game publisher and developer NAMCO BANDAI Games America Inc. announces that PAC-MAN Party has gone gold for Wii. Set in a birthday party theme, PAC-MAN stars in this new venture packed with dozens of mini-games, challenges and surprises. Utilizing the Wii Remote, the game’s easy to pick-up-and-play controls will have players using their skills and reflexes to compete against one another as they move about unique virtual game boards.
Mr. Pop Culture Report – August 28… Busy Week For Paris… Interesting Facebook Suit… Glenn Beck Has All The Attention…
Saturday, August 28th, 2010 | Hot Pop Culture | No Comments
Two Los Angeles County teenagers are suing Facebook, claiming the social network effectively sold their names and images to advertisers without parental per ission. The lawsuit challenges a Facebook feature that allows members to note that they like an advertised service or product. Facebook broadcasts those endorsements to the user’s friends. The lawsuit also claims minors unwittingly endorse Facebook when people typing their names in a search engine are steered to a Facebook sign-up page. The plaintiffs say Palo Alto-based Facebook is violating a California law that requires parental consent for children to make commercial endorsements. The teens seek unspecified damages. Facebook spokesman Andrew Noyes says the lawsuit is meritless. He notes Facebook doesn’t allow users under 18 to let their profiles appear on public search engines.
More Paris – The socialite was arrested on the Las Vegas Strip late Friday after police saw a cloud of what they suspected was marijuana smoke wafting from the windows of a black Cadillac Escalade driven by her boyfriend, then found a small amount of cocaine in her possession. Lt. Wayne Holman said. The 29-year-old socialite and Las Vegas nightclub mogul Cy Waits were booked into the Clark County jail, police said. Hilton was released early Saturday morning without bail.
Remember – Earlier This Week – Socialite Paris Hilton called police on Tuesday after seeing a man wielding two large knives and banging on her windows, apparently trying to break into her Los Angeles home. “So Scary, just got woken up to a guy trying to break into my house holding 2 big knifes. Cops are here arresting him,” Hilton said in a Twitter message.
Syndicated radio host and Fox news’ Glenn Beck … and what many consider his boldest move yet: Saturday’s “Restoring Hour” rally (August 28) in Washington, D.C., which is drawing around 500,000 conservatives. Not only has Beck courted controversy by scheduling this ostensibly “non-political” rally on the anniversary of Martin Luther King Jr.’s 1963 “I Have A Dream” speech, he’s booked the same location: The Lincoln Memorial. Here’s a concise guide to the goings-on:
Mr. Pop Culture Report – May 24
Monday, May 24th, 2010 | Uncategorized | No Comments
Paula Is Back – As Simon Cowell leaves the reality-show judge’s chair, his old foil, Paula Abdul, is coming back. CBS said Monday that Abdul will be a judge on “Got to Dance,” a competition expected to make it on the air sometime next season. She’ll also be an executive producer for the series, which is based on a successful competition that airs in Britain.
Rock singer Bret Michaels finally had a reason to celebrate on Sunday after a string of medical emergencies — winning the reality TV show “The Celebrity Apprentice.” The show’s host Donald Trump told Michaels he was “hired” in Sunday’s finale, winning $250,000 for his nominated charity, the American Diabetes Association. In second place was actress Holly Robinson Peete with $250,000 also to go to her chosen charity, her own HollyRod Foundation that supports families facing a serious illness.
Simon Cowell tells Oprah Winfrey he’s leaving “Idol” because, he’s bored… “After a while, you start to go on automatic pilot,” Cowell “And there were too many times, Oprah, where I was sitting there bored, and I thought, ‘The end of the day, the audience doesn’t tune in to watch me being bored. They deserve more than that.’ But I can’t hide it when I’m bored. I just can’t fake it.”
Technology – “Tech Guy” Leo LePorte – who does a popular weekend radio show on the tech industry – is at war of sorts with Facebook – and has pulled his page. And lately – the social Internet giant has come under fire for how it operates and how it shares information. Now buffeted by those privacy snafus and the lingering fallout from a damning, years-old instant messaging thread, Facebook chief exec Mark Zuckerberg switched into full-on damage control Monday, confessing that the sprawling social network had “missed the mark” when it comes to its complex privacy controls — and pledging to do better. The company this week releases these bullet points – to set the record straight…
Here are the principles under which Facebook operates:
You have control over how your information is shared.
We do not share your personal information with people or services you don’t want.
We do not give advertisers access to your personal information.
We do not and never will sell any of your information to anyone.
We will always keep Facebook a free service for everyone.
Hot albums this week in 2010 –
My World 2.0 – Justin Bieber
Iron Man 2 – soundtrack
Need You Now – Lady Antebellum
Sea of Cowards – The Dead Weather
Live at the Troubadour – Carole King & James Taylor
Charice – Charice
Raymond V Raymond – Usher
The Oracle – Godsmack
Powerless Rise – As I Lay Dying
Court Yard Hounds – Court Yard Hounds
Mr. Pop Culture Report – April 19
Monday, April 19th, 2010 | Hot Pop Culture, Today In Pop Culture | No Comments
All news on radio Station WINS (1010 WINS) NY is 45 years old. It was Monday, April 19, 1965 that WINS became all-news, switching from top-40 music (see below – this week in 1965)
At the 46th Annual Country Music Awards – Lady Antebellum leads with five wins at the 45th ACMs, while Carrie Underwood makes history by becoming the first woman to win entertainer of the year twice. Other winners include Miranda Lambert, Brad Paisley, Luke Bryan and Brooks & Dunn.
Christina Hendricks has been named America’s best-looking woman in an Esquire Cover article, but there’s more than meets the eye with this one. For starters, though the article appears in a men’s magazine, the fiery “Mad Men” star won the best-looking title from a poll of over 10,000 women. Hendricks nabbed 30 percent of the votes that were cast, beating out the likes of Megan Fox, who got 14 percent of the votes, and Victoria’s Secret model Adriana Lima who got 17 percent. Fox was last year’s title-holder in Esquire‘s annual issue dedicated to the fairer sex.
Facebook – the social networking giant – with 400 million users worldwide – will push its “like” feature onto other Web sites, enabling users to share preferences for news stories, Web sites and products more easily. Currently, Facebook users click the “like” button on Facebook.com to alert their online friends that they find a certain status update, photo or other Facebook item interesting. The reported change would put that functionality on many other Web sites, too, linking a person’s preferences for all kinds of things into the Facebook social network.
This Week In 1965 From The Mr. Pop Culture Archives -
Mr. Pop Culture Report – March 30…
Tuesday, March 30th, 2010 | Today In Pop Culture | No Comments
Sour Strawberry – Four-time World Series champion Darryl Strawberry quit Celebrity Apprentice , becoming the third person in Apprentice‘s nine-season history to quit the competition. The retired MLB player, 48, says he only quit because of exhaustion due to a long year and a busy schedule. “I just hit a point where I was totally exhausted. I was running around and I just had nothing left in the tank,” Strawberry said. “It wasn’t anything personal. It wasn’t about quitting.”
More Facebook Changes - Facebook is about to change the way it asks its users to connect to brands and celebrities on the site. Rather than ask people to “become a fan” of say, Starbucks or Lady Gaga, Facebook will instead let users click that they “like” the subject. Facebook already lets people show that they like comments or pictures posted on the site, and it says users click that term almost twice as much as they click “become a fan.” Facebook says changing the button will make users more comfortable with linking up with a brand and will streamline the site.
A Smashing Record - The world’s largest atom smasher set a record for high-energy collisions by crashing proton beams into each other at three times more force than ever before. In a milestone in the $10 billion Large Hadron Collider’s ambitious bid to reveal details about theoretical particles and microforces, scientists at the European Organization for Nuclear Research, or CERN, collided the beams and took measurements at a combined energy level of 7 trillion electron volts.
No Postal - The U.S. Postal Service would cut Saturday mail delivery starting in the first half of 2011 under a plan the agency will give its regulator tomorrow. The Postal Service, which forecasts a $238 billion budget deficit by 2020, says it would save about $3.3 billion in the first year from eliminating deliveries on one day and $5.1 billion a year by 2020.
Mr. Pop Culture Report – March 19…
Friday, March 19th, 2010 | This Week In Pop Culture History, Today In Pop Culture | No Comments
Password scam on Facebook – “There’s another spoofed email going around that claims to be from Facebook and asks you to open an attachment to receive a new password,” read a post on the Facebook Security page. “This email is fake. Delete it from your inbox, and warn your friends.” Facebook will never send users a new password in an attachment, the post says. The messages claim to be from Facebook, with a return address that looks legitimate.
The Lady Is A Gaga - Music producer Rob Fusari filed the $30.5 million lawsuit in Manhattan against Lady Gaga (Stefani Germanota) – the Grammy Award-winning performer. He said his protege and former girlfriend ditched him as her career soared. The suit says they co-wrote songs such as “Paparazzi” and “Beautiful, Dirty, Rich.” Fusari also says he came up with her stage name and helped get her record deal. Gaga won two Grammys in January: best dance recording, for “Poker Face,” and best electronic/dance album, for “The Fame.”
Gaga For Beyonce’s new perfume – After just one month on the shelves, the 28-year-old singer’s first fragrance, Heat, has earned $3 million in sales! Last year – the average celebrity fragrance earned roughly $2.5 million over the entire year according to a NY paper.
Days Gets More Lives – “Days of Our Lives” – has been renewed for a 45th season, which will run on NBC through 2011. “The producers, cast and crew have worked tirelessly to make Days the ratings success it is today,” Bruce Evans, NBC’s senior vice president of drama programming, said in a statement. “Today’s renewal is a true testament to all of their hard work. We could not be more delighted for them and for the multiple generations of fiercely loyal Days of Our Lives fans.” This in light of the recent CBS cancellation of “As The World Turns” – TV’s longest running soap opera.
Mr. Pop Archives – This Week In 2004 –
Music news –
Janet Jackson will give her first post breast-bearing TV interview – as she is set to appear on the David Letterman show March 29.
The FCC rules that rock star Bono’s use of a sexual expletive during the 2003 Golden Globe Awards was “indecent and profane.”
Also on Letterman (this week) – Courtney Love jumps up on Letterman’s desk and pulled up her skirt and exposed herself to him (back toward camera of course).
New trend – as Starbucks begins its “Hear Music” coffeehouse. You can make custom CD’s while sipping coffee. In selected areas.
Passing – J.J. Jackson – One of the original MTV VJ’s and a legendary album rock DJ in Los Angeles. He was 62.
Wow – Berklee College now offers “Turntable Technique” classes – for the hip-hop DJ in you.
Courtney Love is arrested on third-degree assault charges after throwing a microphone stand into the audience during a NY performance – and injuring a guy.
Don’t miss Prince’s Musicology Tour… School’s In!
Britney Spears – The Onyx Hotel Tour!
Britney Spears signs with Elizabeth Arden to develop and market her own line of perfume.
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