Mr. Pop Culture Report

This Week In News, Pop Culture, Tech, Music, Entertainment, TV Guide & Trends History. A Complete Look At The Week Of March 22, 2011.

Saturday, April 2nd, 2011 | 2011 And This Week In News And Pop History | No Comments

This Week In News & Pop Culture History.

The Week Of March 22, 2011

Compiled By Gary West @ www.mrpopculture.com @  www.mrpophistory.com

In The News –

A U.S. fighter jet crashed in Libya after an apparent equipment malfunction but both crewmembers were able to eject and were back in American hands with only minor injuries, U.S. officials said Tuesday (March22) The F-15E Strike Eagle jet was conducting a mission Monday night against Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi’s air defenses when it crashed at 2130 GMT (5:30 p.m. EDT), said Lt. Cmdr. Karin Burzynski, a spokeswoman for the U.S. Africa Command.

Fidel Castro’s surprise announcement that he stepped down as head of the Communist Party five years ago — despite widespread belief he remained in charge — marks the bizarre end of an era for a nation, and a man, whose fates have been intertwined for more than half a century. The 84-year-old revolutionary icon made the revelation Tuesday — with word of the resignation thrown in as an aside halfway through an opinion piece that otherwise focused on President Barack Obama.

President Barack Obama is leaving Central America earlier than scheduled, cutting short a tour dominated by the U.S.-led military action in Libya. The president eliminated a visit to Mayan ruins from his itinerary Wednesday, permitting him to leave a few hours earlier. Aides have taken pains to portray Obama as fully engaged in the deployment of missiles and warplanes in North Africa even as he devoted his public time to bridge-building with Latin American leaders.

Germany stands alone among the world’s leading industrialized nations in its determination to abandon nuclear energy for good because of the technology’s inherent risks. Europe’s biggest economy is betting billions on expanding the use of renewable energy to meet its power demands instead. The transition was supposed to happen slowly over the next 25 years, but now it is being accelerated in the wake of Japan’s Fukushima nuclear plant disaster.

Palestinian militants in Gaza fired a new wave of rockets that landed deep inside Israel Thursday, defying Israeli retaliatory attacks and threats. As the violence threatened to escalate the day after a deadly Jerusalem bombing, Israel got a boost from the visiting U.S. defense chief, who said no country could tolerate the “repugnant” attacks on its soil.

A prominent Syrian rights activist says protesters in the coastal town of Latakia have set fire to offices of the ruling Baath party. Ammar Qurabi, who heads the National Organization for Human Rights, says dozens of people staged an anti-government protest in the town Saturday. He said four people were killed when armed forces fired on protesters Friday. Qurabi, who moved to Egypt after Syria’s unrest began a week ago, is in close touch with activists in Latakia and other Syrian cities. His account could not immediately be independently confirmed.

U.S. naval barges loaded with freshwater sped toward Japan’s overheated nuclear plant on Saturday to help workers struggling to stem a worrying rise in radioactivity and remove dangerously contaminated water from the facility. Workers at the stricken Fukushima Dai-ichi plant have been using seawater in a frantic bid to stabilize reactors overheating since a tsunami knocked out the complex’s crucial cooling system March 11, but fears are mounting about the corrosive nature of the salt in the water.

With 50,000 troops stationed in Japan, the U.S. military responded quickly to the tsunami that devastated the northeast coast. Just one year after tensions over the U.S. bases forced out a Japanese prime minister, the relief mission is showing a new and welcome face of U.S. troops the Japanese have hosted — sometimes grudgingly — for decades. Roughly 20,000 U.S. troops have been mobilized in “Operation Tomodachi,” or “Friend.” It is the biggest bilateral humanitarian mission the U.S. has conducted in Japan, its most important ally in Asia, and it is ramping up fast.

Mounting problems, including badly miscalculated radiation figures and inadequate storage tanks for huge amounts of contaminated water, stymied emergency workers Sunday as they struggled to nudge Japan’s stricken nuclear complex back from the edge of disaster.  Workers are attempting to remove the radioactive water from the tsunami-ravaged nuclear compound and restart the regular cooling systems for the dangerously hot fuel.

Just down the hill from where New York’s leaders are wrestling with a $10 billion deficit, a tiny variety store in downtown Albany was abuzz Saturday with talk of a financial windfall. The winning ticket for Friday night’s $319 million Mega Millions lottery jackpot was sold at Coulson’s News Center, just blocks from the New York Capitol building, a lottery official announced. The phone rang non-stop Saturday morning, and a steady stream of customers passed through the newsstand and magazine shop to get coffee, the daily paper and, of course, lottery tickets, as word spread that the store sold the fifth-largest jackpot in Mega Millions history.

President Barack Obama is striving to explain why the U.S. is at war again — on a third front — as he resolutely defends the military campaign in Libya. His message in a speech to the nation Monday night(March28): U.S. involvement this time is shrinking and isn’t a precedent for further action as violence flows across the Middle East.

Pirates in two skiffs fired rocket-propelled grenades and guns at an oil tanker off East Africa before boarding the vessel and hijacking it, naval officials said Monday. The United Arab Emirates-flagged Zirku was traveling from Sudan to Singapore when it was hijacked by pirates in the Gulf of Aden on Monday, the EU Naval Force said. The ship has a crew of 29. There was no information on their status.

Japan’s prime minister insisted Tuesday that the country was on “maximum alert” to bring its nuclear crisis under control, but the spread of radiation raised concerns about the ability of experts to stabilize the crippled reactor complex. Prime Minister Naoto Kan told parliament that Japan was grappling with its worst problems since World War II. “This quake, tsunami and the nuclear accident are the biggest crises for Japan” in decades, said the wan but resolute Kan, dressed in one of the blue work jackets that have become ubiquitous among bureaucrats since the tsunami. He said the crises remained unpredictable, but added: “We will continue to handle it in a state of maximum alert.”

Syria’s Cabinet resigned Tuesday to help quell a wave of popular fury that erupted more than a week ago and is now threatening President Bashar Assad’s 11-year rule in one of the most authoritarian and closed-off nations in the Middle East. Assad, whose family has controlled Syria for four decades, is trying to calm the growing dissent with a string of concessions. He is expected to address the nation in the next 24 hours to lift emergency laws in place since 1963 and moving to annul other harsh restrictions on civil liberties and political freedoms.

Libyan rebels fled in headlong retreat from the superior arms and tactics of Muammar Gaddafi’s troops on Wednesday(March30), exposing the insurgents’ weakness without Western air strikes to tip the scales in their favor. It had taken more than five days of allied bombardment to destroy government tanks and artillery in the strategic town of Ajdabiyah before rebels rushed in and chased Gaddafi’s troops 300 km (200 miles) west in a two-day dash along the coast.

Bill Gates schemed to take shares in Microsoft Corp. from his co-founder during the early days of the software company following his partner’s treatment for cancer, according to a new memoir by the billionaire co-founder, Paul Allen. The allegation is part of a critical portrait in the book of Mr. Gates, with whom Mr. Allen formed a friendship in grade school that evolved into one of the iconic partnerships of American business. The book, “Idea Man: A Memoir by the Co-founder of Microsoft,” is scheduled to go on sale on April 17. A draft of the memoir was viewed by The Wall Street Journal. An excerpt of the book appeared on Vanity Fair’s website early Wednesday. The book gives a revisionist take on some details of Microsoft’s history and the relationship between Mr. Gates and his former partner, the two of whom have long been viewed as cordial if not close friends. The book has created a rift between Messrs. Gates and Allen, say people who know both men. In the book’s acknowledgments section, Mr. Allen thanks Mr. Gates along with 17 other people for “general and logistical assistance.”

Technology –

Google expects to continue its acquisition spree this year, according to comments by one of its corporate development execs. At a panel discussion at the Global Technology Symposium in Silicon Valley today, Google M&A representative Neeraj Arora said that the company expects to increase its acquisition pace from the 40 it made last year.

Previous oil tankers hijacked by pirates were carrying oil valued in the range of $150 million. There was no immediate information released on how many barrels of oil the tanker was carrying.

Sports –

The teenage girl at the center of the sex-crimes case against football great Lawrence Taylor made a surprise appearance at his sentencing Tuesday, eager to declare that he should be behind bars. She was denied the chance to speak in court, and Taylor was sentenced to six years’ probation, as agreed when he pleaded guilty in January to sexual misconduct and patronizing an underage prostitute. The former New York Giants linebacker must register as a sex offender, but a hearing on exactly how that will affect him was postponed to April 12.

An NBA spokesman confirms that the league is investigating Jay-Z’s presence in Kentucky’s locker room after the Wildcats clinched a Final Four berth. The rapper visited the players after their victory over North Carolina on Sunday at the Prudential Center in Newark, N.J, home of the Nets. Jay-Z is a part-owner of the team and attended the Nets’ 120-116 loss at New York on Wednesday. NBA rules prohibit team personnel from having contact with players who are not yet draft eligible, and spokesman Tim Frank told the Associated Press the league is looking into it.

Technology –

Research In Motion says its tablet computer, the BlackBerry PlayBook, will start selling in the U.S. and Canada on April 19 for $499 to $699. RIM said Tuesday that customers can start pre-ordering the gadgets — its answer to Apple Inc.’s popular iPad devices — through Best Buy. The PlayBook has a 7-inch screen, smaller than the iPad. It runs BlackBerry software and can connect to a phone, acting as a bigger screen for it. Research In Motion Ltd. calls it the first “professional-grade tablet.”

Google has updated its Latitude app for the iPhone, adding checkins and bringing the app up to date with the Android version, which received that same feature in February 2011. In addition to seeing where your Latitude buddies currently are on a map and sharing your location with them, you can now use the iPhone Latitude app [iTunes link] to check into places. The app requires iOS 4 and above to work; iPhone 3GS, iPhone 4, iPod Touch and iPad are supported. Latitude will also automatically check you out when you leave if you set it to continuously update your location, but that feature doesn’t work with the iPod Touch.

Long lines were reported in Berlin, London, Sydney and other cities as the iPad 2, the newest version of Apple’s popular touchscreen tablet, went on sale Friday afternoon in 25 countries. By midafternoon on Friday, hundreds of people were lined up in bright sunshine outside Apple’s London flagship store on Regent’s Street. Those at the front of the line had been waiting for more than 33 hours by the time they got their hands on the device. Some spent the night in sleeping bags on the street.

Google’s announcement that it’s adding a “+1 button” to incorporate user recommendations into its search results raised a lot of questions not addressed in the company’s official announcement. The +1 button, Google’s answer to Facebook’s Like button, will appear soon beside links in Google search results. By clicking the button, users will be able to recommend links to their list of Gmail contacts.

Google plans to introduce a mobile application that would allow users to snap pictures of people’s faces in order to access their personal information, a director for the project said this week. In order to be identified by the software, people would have to check a box agreeing to give Google permission to access their pictures and profile information, said Hartmut Neven, the Google engineering director for image-recognition development.Profiles might include a name, phone number and e-mail address.

Storing Your Music On Other Computers – hmmm…. Cloud Music. Amazon wants to go cloud with music…

What’s better about cloud music? It’s convenient. Today, most digital music options, like Apple’s iTunes system, force users to store their music on their own hard drives. Some audiophiles amass music collections that take up tens or hundreds of gigabytes of storage space, which slows their computers down. If that drive crashes, the music is gone. Plus, that music is stuck in one place. You can sync iTunes music, to keep that example going, with Apple’s portable devices. But you have to connect your iPhone or iPod to the computer in order to do so. You can’t access that music easily from other computers; and it’s difficult to store it on multiple devices. In a consumer-centric world, music lovers could put all of their music files in the cloud and then access them from anywhere.  Here’s Amazon’s Bill Car: “Our customers have told us they don’t want to download music to their work computers or phones because they find it hard to move music around to different devices. Now, whether at work, home, or on the go, customers can buy music from Amazon MP3, store it in the cloud and play it anywhere.”

A website that sold Beatles songs online for 25 cents apiece before they became legally available has agreed to pay record companies nearly $1 million to settle a federal lawsuit. U.S. District Judge Josephine Staton Tucker signed off on the settlement between BlueBeat.com and music companies EMI Group PLC, Capitol Records and Virgin Records America on Friday. The judge ruled in December that the site violated the music labels’ copyrights and presented unfair competition.

Radio news –

Passing – Stephen Labunski, who held many top positions in broadcasting, died March 21 of natural causes in New York. He was 86. Labunski worked as an executive for the Todd Storz organization and later became the general manager of WMCA, New York’s first Top 40 radio station, beginning in 1958. There, he helped begin the “Good Guys” radio format of having distinct radio personalities and was a major influence in the early days of pop radio.  While at WMCA, he organized groups of radio actors to perform shows at veterans hospitals. He later became president of NBC Radio and was executive director of the Intl. Radio and Television Society. He was also a founder of the Broadcasting and Cable Hall of Fame.

Howard Stern, who seems to be in a perpetual fight with his bosses, is at it again. The production company for the radio personality is suing Sirius XM, claiming the satellite radio company has refused to pay stock awards it owes to him based on subscriber targets in Stern’s contract. The lawsuit also says Sirius owes money to Stern’s agent under a consulting agreement.“World-renowned radio personality Howard Stem (“Stem”) put Sirius on the map,” the lawsuit says. “But, with the exception of a stock award that Sirius paid for the initial year of Stem’s contract, Sirius has refused to pay One Twelve [the production  company for Stern's show] the additional performance-based stock awards to which One Twelve is entitled.”

Radio host Mike Catherwood is the first celebrity voted off the new season of “Dancing with the Stars.”

Entertainment news –

Passing –

Screen legend Elizabeth Taylor, the violet-eyed film goddess whose sultry screen life was often upstaged by her stormy personal life, died Wednesday at age 79. She died of congestive heart failure at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, where she had been hospitalized for about six weeks, publicist Sally Morrison said. “All her children were with her,” Morrison said. Taylor had extraordinary grace, fame and wealth, and won three Oscars, including a special one for her humanitarian work. But she was tortured by ill health, failed romances and personal tragedy.

Hollywood legend Elizabeth Taylor was given a small private funeral service attended by family and close friends in the Los Angeles area on Thursday, a day after she died of congestive heart failure. The Oscar-winning actress, 79, was laid to rest at the Forest Lawn cemetery in Glendale, outside Los Angeles — the same place where her close friend, singer Michael Jackson, was buried in 2009.

Lindsay Lohan’s father was arrested by the L.A. Sheriff’s Department after he allegedly got into an altercation with his girlfriend. The incident occurred Monday night at Santa Monica and San Vicente boulevards in West Hollywood. Michael Lohan, who has appeared in court to support his daughter as she faces felony theft charges, is to appear on the reality TV show  “Celebrity Rehab with Dr. Drew.” The Sheriff’s Department did not immediately release details. Sgt. John Ratto was quoted by the Associated Press, City News Service and People magazine as saying that Lohan allegedly held his girlfriend against her will and prevented her from calling authorities. She suffered minor injuries.

Actress Lindsay Lohan has opted for a full-scale trial on a jewelry theft charge rather than accepting a deal from prosecutors to plead guilty, which would have put her behind bars for several months.

Lohan’s lawyer told Los Angeles prosecutors on Wednesday that there would be no court hearing on Friday in the case, prosecutors said, meaning the actress’s not guilty plea will stand and that she had turned down the plea bargain offer.

Lindsay Lohan is dropping her famous last name, the actress’ mom Dina Lohan confirmed.”Lindsay is dropping the Lohan and just going by Lindsay,” Dina, 48, explained, adding, “Plus, me and [younger daughter] Ali will be officially changing our last names back to my maiden name, Sullivan.”

Last year Bret Michaels nearly died of a brain hemorrhage, and now the singer is claiming the life-threatening condition resulted from an injury during his 2009 performance at the Tony Awards. On Friday, Michaels, 48, filed a law-suit in L.A. County Superior Court against Tony Award Productions, CBS, and others for unspecified damages. In the complaint the Rock of Love star says producers did not instruct him how to properly exit the stage and he was “smacked” in the head by a piece of the set.

Marries – Reese Witherspoon and Jim Tothearly Saturday evening at her 6-acre ranch in Ojai, Calif.

Passing – Actor Farley Granger (85).

With his years as governor behind him, Arnold Schwarzenegger will soon return to his acting career with a new animated TV series. The planned action-comedy cartoon is called “The Governator,” according to A Squared Entertainment, a partner in the venture. It will focus on a superhero living a double life as an ordinary family man. Schwarzenegger will provide the voice of the title character.

Britney Spears is being sued for more than $10 million by a licensing firm that helped the pop singer launch a fragrance line marketed by Elizabeth Arden Inc. According to the complaint, Brand Sense brokered Spears’ deal with Elizabeth Arden in 2004, and stood to receive a 35 percent commission on any resulting Spears-branded fragrances. The cosmetics manufacturer duly rolled out a line of Spears-related products under such brand names as “Radiance,” “Midnight Fantasy” and “Curious.”

Music news – Rapper and actor Ja Rule admitted Tuesday that he failed to pay taxes on more than $3 million in income, pleading guilty to tax evasion in federal court in New Jersey. The platinum-selling rapper earned the money between 2004 and 2006 while he lived in Saddle River, an upscale community in northern New Jersey. As part of a plea agreement, the government dismissed two counts against him for unpaid taxes on income earned in 2007 and 2008. Ja Rule, whose real name is Jeffrey Atkins, is expected to be sentenced on the tax evasion charges in June. He faces up to one year in prison and $100,000 in fines on each count..

In Pittsburgh – Elton John Pays Tribute To His Friend, Elizabeth Taylor. The singer is also active in AIDS awareness and said during Wednesday night’s concert that it was “a sad day because today I lost a friend and you lost a hero.” In Live Nation video, John says Taylor “stood up when no one was prepared to stand up and be counted against AIDS.” John played “Don’t Let The Sun Go Down On Me” after saying, “God bless you, Elizabeth. God knows how we’re going to replace you. This is for you and your beautiful memory and for all of the people you helped and saved.”

Rapper Snoop Dogg is promoting a new, fruit-flavored alcoholic drink that has triggered calls for its ban even before it goes on sale next month. The drink, called Blast by Colt 45, is manufactured by Pabst Brewing Company and scheduled for release on April 5. A promotional video features Snoop Dogg posing with scantily clad young women at a photo shoot.

Gwyneth Paltrow performed at the Country Music Awards, Rihanna is poised to do the same at the Academy of Country Music Awards next month and Lady Gaga has decided to take her pop anthem, “Born This Way,” and throw a little country in it.

In a sexy leather bodysuit, Britney Spears thrilled more than a thousand fans with a surprise mini-concert at the Rain Nightclub in the Palms Las Vegas Friday night. With back-up dancers clad in army fatigues, Spears, 29, debuted songs from her upcoming Femme Fatale album including “Hold it Against Me,” “Till the World Ends,” and “Big Fat Bass.” It was the first live show for the mother of two since her 2009 Circus Tour.

As Britney Spears prepares to launch her seventh studio album “Femme Fatale” on Tuesday, the pop star faces keen competition from Lady Gaga, Katie Perry and Rihanna, who reign atop Billboard’s Hot 100 singles ranking. Her younger rivals’ dominance this week may be coincidental — indeed, Spears also topped the ranking recently with “Hold It Against Me.” — but the chart is a reminder of how crowded the pop diva market has become since Spears rose to fame as a teenager. There is little doubt her fans will ensure brisk sales — Spears has sold nearly 70 million albums, according to label Jive Record — and her music is making headlines again instead of personal meltdowns, a custody battle and rehab stints. Spears kicked off a string of promotions for the album on Friday with a performance at a Las Vegas nightclub. On Sunday in San Francisco she will record a sold-out mini-concert to be aired on ABC’s “Good Morning America” TV show on Tuesday.

Beyonce will no longer be managed by her father, Mathew Knowles, her publicist said Monday. The Grammy-winning singer and her father have parted ways “on a business level.” “I am grateful for everything he has taught me,” Beyonce said in the statement. “I grew up watching both he and my mother manage and own their own businesses. They were hardworking entrepreneurs and I will continue to follow in their footsteps.

Rapper Rick Ross was arrested and booked with possession of marijuana in Louisiana after being caught with one gram of the drug in a hotel room, police said on Monday(March 28) Ross, 35, whose real name is William Roberts but adopted a stage name inspired by former Los Angeles drug dealer Ricky Ross, was caught with marijuana on Friday at the Hilton Hotel in Shreveport, Louisiana, police spokesman Bill Goodin said.

On Monday night’s episode of BET’s ’106 & Park,’ hosts Rocsi and Terrence J. remembered the late radio and TV personality DJ Megatron, who was shot to death early Sunday morning near his Staten Island home. (March 27)

Taylor Swift ends her European tour performing in front of thousands of fans in London after receiving a plaque for reaching the 20 million mark in worldwide album sales. (March 30)

Television news –

Auditions for Simon Cowell’’s new singing competition, The X Factor, kick off March 27 in Los Angeles, paving the way for the Fox series’ fall 2011 premiere. While continuing the search for his co-hosts and third judge (to join him and Island Def Jam music producer Antonio Reid), the charmer spoke to TV Guide Magazine from across the pond.

Best American Idol This Week – According To Many – After 30 million votes, the results for American Idol‘s Motown week are in.  The results were indeed shocking, leading to perhaps the wildest 10 minutes of reality TV in a long time. The opening number certainly had its share of surprises. The group number, “Ain’t No Mountain High Enough,” was sung almost entirely live (at least to my ears) and was pretty good, except for a bum high note from Jacob Lusk at the end. The surprises keep rolling as, after the number ends, Stevie Wonder appears on stage for a rousing rendition of “Signed, Sealed, Delivered, I’m Yours.” And to top it all off, Stevie then launches into a chorus of “Happy Birthday” for judge Steven Tyler, as the Top 11 present Steven with a portrait and a giant cake. Nice.

The final episode of Oprah Winfrey Show is set to air May. The talk maven announced she would end the long-running syndicated talk show after 25 years. Though Oprah has been in repeats recently, Winfrey tweeted Thursday that she was “hard at work planning the final shows.” Winfrey currently runs OWN network, which launched on Jan. 1.

When Rosie O’Donnell makes her return to daytime television this fall, her surroundings will look somewhat familiar. For her new talk show on The Oprah Winfrey Network(OWN), O’Donnell will take up residence in the same Harpo Studios location where Winfrey broadcast her own show for the last 25 years.

Top movies this week –

Diary of a Wimpy Kid 2: Rodrick Rules (1^st week $23.7 million)

Sucker Punch (1^st week $19 million)

Limitless

The Lincoln Lawyer

Rango

Paul

Battle: Los Angeles

Red Riding Hood

The Adjustment Bureau

Mars Needs Moms

Beastly

Hall Pass

Top albums this week in 2011:

Endgame – Rise Against

21 – Adele

Lasers – Lupe Fiasco

Sigh No More – Mumford & Sons

Glee: The Music –   Season Two

Goodbye Lullaby – Avil Lavigne

Never Say Never: The Remixes – Justin Bieber

NOW 37

Heritage – Celtic Thunder

Late Nights & Early Mornings – Marsha Ambrosius

Give The Drummer Some – Travis Barker

Pink Friday  Nicki Minaj

Greatest Hits… So far!! – P!nk

Loud – Rihanna

My World 2.0 – Justin Bieber

Stronger – Sara Evans

Doo-Wops & Hooligans – Bruno Mars

Nothing Like This – Rascal Flats

Recovery – Eminem

My Kinda Party – Jason Aldean

You Get What You Give – Zac Brown Band

Teenage Dream – Katy Perry

Callapse Into Now – R.E.M.

Until The Whole World Hears – Casting Crowns

Need You Now – Lady Antebellum

The Love Of God – Kenny Rogers

Speak Now – Taylor Swift

The Beginning – The Black Eyed Peas

Going Out In Style – Dropkick Murphys

Hip Friday Night TV (TV Squad)

7PM

CBS: ‘NCAA Basketball’
The Hub: ‘Family Game Night’

7:30

Cartoon Network: ‘Ben 10: Ultimate Alien’

After the jump, the rest of the schedule and the late-night talk shows.

8:00

ABC: ‘Shark Tank’
NBC: ‘Who Do You Think You Are’
FOX: ‘Kitchen Nightmares’
PBS: ‘Washington Week’
Syfy: ‘WWE Friday Night Smackdown!’
Cartoon Network: ‘Generator Rex’

8:30

PBS: ‘The McLaughlin Group’

9:00

NBC: ‘Dateline’ (two episodes)
FOX: ‘Fringe’
BBC America: ‘Law & Order: UK’
TLC: ‘Say Yes to the Dress’
Teen Nick: ‘Degrassi’
National Geographic: ‘Beast Hunter’
HBO: ‘The Ricky Gervais Show’

9:30

Teen Nick: ‘Gigantic’

10:00

ABC: ’20/20′
Syfy: ‘Merlin’
E!: ‘The Soup’
TLC: ‘DC Cupcakes’
Discovery: ‘American Loggers’
IFC: ‘Onion News Network’
Current: ‘Bar Karma’
HBO: ‘Real Time with Bill Maher’

10:30

E!: ‘Fashion Police’

11:00

Comedy Central: ‘Comedy Central Presents’
TruTV: ‘Forensic Files’

Late-Night Talk Shows

11:00

PBS: ‘Charlie Rose’: Matt Stone, Trey Parker, and Catherine Deneuve
E!: ‘Chelsea Lately’: Brittany Snow and Jim Norton

11:35

ABC: ‘Nightline’: TBA
CBS: ‘The Late Show With David Letterman’: Donald Trump, Vanessa Hudgens, and Oh Land (repeat)
NBC: ‘The Tonight Show’: Jennifer Hudson and William H. Macy

Midnight

ABC: ‘Jimmy Kimmel Live: Liv Tyler, Charlie Sheen, Mark Cuban, and Brett Deneen (repeat)
PBS: ‘Tavis Smiley’: T.C. Boyle and Anne Heche

12:35

CBS: ‘The Late, Late Show With Craig Ferguson’: Topher Grace and Catherine Deneuve (repeat)
NBC: ‘Late Night With Jimmy Fallon’: Billy Crudup, Martha Plimpton, Reggie Fils-Aime, and Cut Copy

1:35

NBC: ‘Last Call With Carson Daly’: LL Cool J, David Fricke, DJ Z Trip, Stacey Wilhelm, and Mona the Knux

Tags: 2011 In Review, Blackberry Playbook soon to sell, Britney Spears sued over cosmetics, cloud music storage, Diary of a Wimpy Kid #1 this week, Elizabeth Taylor passes, Endgame-Rise Against, Fidel Castro, Governator animated series, Japan troubles, Latitude app Google, Libya fighting, Lindsay Lohan, Mega Millions Winner in Albany NY, Mike Catherwood Dancing with the stars, Paul Allen book, Pirates sieze oil ship, Snoop Dogg Blast drink, Week Of March 22

More This Week In History. News, Pop Culture, Trends. A Complete Look At The Week Of February 8, 2011.

Sunday, February 20th, 2011 | 2011 And This Week In News And Pop History | No Comments

The Week Of February 8, 2011 In News, Pop Culture, Entertainment, Technology, Trends.

Compiled By GaryWest @ www.mrpopculture.com  and  www.mrpophistory.com

In The News –

President Barack Obama is calling for a six-year, $53 billion investment in high-speed rail, as he seeks to use infrastructure spending to jumpstart job creation. An initial $8 billion investment will be part of the budget plan Obama is set to release Monday. If Congress approves the plan, the money would go toward developing or improving trains that travel up to 250 miles per hour, and connecting existing rail lines to new projects. The White House wouldn’t say where the money for the rest of the program would come from, though it’s likely Obama would seek funding in future budgets or transportation bills.

A young leader of Egypt’s anti-government protesters, newly released from detention, joined a massive crowd of hundreds of thousands in Cairo’s Tahrir Square for the first time Tuesday, greeted by cheers, whistling and thunderous applause when he declared: “We will not abandon our demand and that is the departure of the regime.” Wael Ghonim, the 30-year-old Google Inc. marketing manager who was a key organizer of the online campaign that sparked the first protest on Jan. 25 to demand the ouster of President Hosni Mubarak. Straight from his release from 12 days of detention, Ghonim gave an emotionally charged television interview Monday night where he sobbed over those who have been killed in two weeks of clashes.

Employers posted fewer job openings in December, the second straight month of declines. That’s a sign hiring is still weak even as the economy is gaining strength. The Labor Department said Tuesday that employers advertised nearly 3.1 million jobs that month, a drop of almost 140,000 from November. That’s the lowest total since September.

Passing – J. Paul Getty III, the troubled grandson of one of the world’s richest men who lost an ear in a grisly kidnapping as a teenager and suffered a devastating stroke as a young man, has died. He was 54. His son, actor Balthazar Getty, confirmed that his father had died last Saturday at his Buckinghamshire estate northwest of London surrounded by his family. The cause of death was not disclosed, but Getty had been gravely ill for some time.

A second powerful blizzard in a week roared through parts of the nation’s midsection on Wednesday, bringing biting winds and dumping a foot of snow on areas still digging out from last week’s major storm.The storm that rolled into Oklahoma on Tuesday had dropped about a foot of snow by Wednesday morning in Bartlesville, about 50 miles north of Tulsa, and another 9 inches across the state line in Siloam Springs, Ark., said Michael Lacy, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Tulsa. He said strong winds created blizzard conditions that limited visibility and made travel hazardous. Heavy snow was reported in parts of Kansas and Texas.

A natural gas explosion rocked a downtown (Allentown, PA) neighborhood overnight, leveling two houses and spawning fires that burned for hours through an entire row of neighboring homes. One person was killed, and at least five others were unaccounted for Thursday.

President Barack Obama wants nearly all Americans to have access to speedy wireless services. He’s promoting that plan in a small city in Michigan that’s becoming a model for how the Internet can bring prosperity to far-flung places. Obama on Thursday heads to Marquette, Mich., a university and tourism town of 20,000 overlooking Lake Superior that cherishes both its geographical remoteness and technological savvy.

Egypt’s powerful military tried to defuse outrage over President Hosni Mubarak’s refusal to step down, assuring it would guarantee promised reforms. But hundreds of thousands only grew angrier, deluging squares in at least three major cities Friday and marching on presidential palaces and the state TV building, key symbols of the authoritarian regime. A day after handing most of his powers to his vice president, Mubarak flew to the Sinai resort of Sham el-Sheikh, some 250 miles away from the turmoil. He has a palace there where he often lives and works during the winter.

Fireworks burst over Tahrir Square and Egypt exploded with joy and tears of relief after pro-democracy protesters brought down President Hosni Mubarak with a momentous march on his palaces and state TV. Mubarak, who until the end seemed unable to grasp the depth of resentment over his three decades of authoritarian rule, finally resigned Friday and handed power to the military.

House Republicans called for cuts in hundreds of programs across the face of government Friday night in a $61 billion savings package toughened at the last minute at the demand of tea party-backed conservatives. From education to job training, the environment and nutrition, few domestic programs were left untouched — and some were eliminated — in the measure, which is expected to reach the floor for a vote next week.

More Egypt – The ruling military pledged Saturday (Feb.12) to eventually hand power to an elected civilian government and reassured allies that Egypt will abide by its peace treaty with Israel after the ouster of President Hosni Mubarak, as it outlined the first cautious steps in a promised transition to greater democracy.

A man accused of going on a bloody 28-hour rampage through New York City was expected to appear in court Sunday, a day after he was tackled on a subway train by police.Maksim Gelman, 23, was to be arraigned in Brooklyn Criminal Court in the deaths of four people, including his stepfather, a female acquaintance and her mother, and a complete stranger he ran over with a car, prosecutors said. The violent spree started just after 5 a.m. Friday, when police say Gelman snapped during an argument over the use of his mother’s Lexus sedan. His stepfather, Aleksandr Kuznetsov, intervened and was stabbed to death at their apartment in Brooklyn. Police found the 54-year-old’s body in his home. His mother was uninjured. Later that morning, Gelman turned up at the home of a 20-year-old acquaintance, Yelena Bulchenko, and stabbed to death her mother, 56-year-old Anna Bulchenko. When Yelena arrived home at about 4 p.m., she found her mother dead in a pool of blood and called 911. But Gelman was waiting for her there, chased her outside and stabbed her 11 times, authorities said.

Thousands of Algerians defied a government ban on protests and a massive deployment of riot police to march in the capital Saturday, demanding democratic reforms a day after similar protests toppled Egypt’s authoritarian leader. Heavily armed police tried to seal off Algiers, blocking streets, lining up along the march route and setting up barricades outside the city to try to stop busloads of demonstrators from reaching the capital.

Salvador Dali’s “Portrait de Paul Eluard” set a world record at Sotheby’s auction house in London Thursday when it was sold for more than 13 million pounds (21.6 million dollars, 15.8 million euros). An anonymous bidder paid 13.4 million pounds for the 1929 masterpiece, the most ever for a Surrealist work at auction, breaking a record set in London only last night for a Dali piece at auction.

Clothing prices are expected to rise about 10 percent in coming months, with the biggest increases coming in the second half of the year, said Burt Flickinger III president of Strategic Resource Group. Cotton has more than doubled in price over the past year, hitting all-time highs. The price of other synthetic fabrics has jumped roughly 50 percent as demand for alternatives and blends  has risen.

President Barack Obama sent Congress a $3.73 trillion budget Monday (Feb.14) that holds out the prospect of eventually bringing deficits under control through spending cuts and tax increases. But the fiscal blueprint largely ignores his own deficit commission’s view that the nation is imperiled unless huge entitlement programs like Social Security and Medicare are slashed. Obama called his new budget one of “tough choices and sacrifices,” but most of those cuts would be held off until after the next presidential election. Overall, Obama proposed trimming the deficits by $1.1 trillion over a decade. The administration is projecting that the deficit will hit an all-time high of $1.65 trillion this year and then drop sharply to $1.1 trillion

Sports –

Alexei Ramirex would love nothing more than to spend the rest of his career with the Chicago White Sox. Consider this a big step. The shortstop and the team finalized a new contract that adds $32.5 million over four years through 2015. Chicago exercised Ramirez’s $2.75 million option for 2011 in December. The agreement announced Thursday adds salaries of $5 million in 2012, $7 million in 2013, $9.5 million in 2014 and $10 million in 2015. The White Sox have a $10 million option for 2016 with a $1 million buyout.

After repeated clashes with star point guard Deron Williams, Jerry Sloan steps down immediately after 23 seasons leading the Utah Jazz.

Losing Streak Snapped – Nearly two months after it started innocently, the Cavaliers stopped their NBA-record skid at 26 games Friday night with a 126-119 win in overtime against the Los Angeles Clippers, who did all they could to extend Cleveland’s winter misery

Technology –

Goodbye Guitar Hero! – The company behind “Guitar Hero” said Wednesday (Feb. 9) that it is pulling the plug on one of the most influential video game titles of the new century. Activision Blizzard Inc., which also produces the “Call of Duty” series, is ending the “Guitar Hero” franchise after a run of more than five years. The move follows Viacom Inc.’s decision in November to sell its money-losing unit behind the “Rock Band” video games. Harmonix was sold to an investment firm for an undisclosed sum. Harmonix, incidentally, was behind the first “Guitar Hero” game. Game industry analysts have long lamented the “weakness in the music genre,” as they call it — that is, the inability of game makers to drum up demand for the products after an initial surge in popularity in the mid-2000s. Music games are often more expensive than your typical shoot-’em-up game because they require guitars, microphones and other musical equipment. While extra songs can be purchased for download, this hasn’t been enough to keep the games profitable.

Verizon and Apple stores across the country opened their doors at 7 a.m (Feb.10) local time to sell the iPhone 4, which for the first time is available on a U.S. wireless network not named AT&T). In contrast to the lines of thousands that turned out in June in June for the iPhone 4′s release, the Verizon iPhone got off to a quieter start. The line of waiting buyers held just eight people 15 minutes before it went on sale at Apple’s flagship New York City store near Central Park.

TouchTab Tablet Debuts (iPad competitor) – Hewlett-Packard showed the fruits of its acquisition of Palm on Wednesday. The technology giant demonstrated a new tablet device and two new smartphones, as well as disclosing plans to bring its webOS software to computers and printers. All three gadgets run a new version of webOS, the software that Palm began developing five years ago. HP is designing these products to work wirelessly together.

At a cell phone show in Barcelona – Alcatel-Lucent will be demonstrating its “LightRadio cube,” a cellular antenna about the size and shape of a Rubik’s cube, vastly smaller than the ironing-board-sized antennas that now decorate cell towers. The cube was developed at the famous Bell Labs in New Jersey, birthplace of many other inventions when it was AT&T’s research center. The small antennas are designed to make big cell towers go away. The cube, Sweldens said, can make the notion of a conventional cell tower “go away.” Alcatel-Lucent will start trials of the cube with carriers in September. The company hopes to make it commercially available next year. For cell phone companies, the benefits of dividing their networks into smaller “cells,” each one served by something like the cube antenna, go far beyond esthetics. Smaller cells mean vastly higher capacity for calls and data traffic. Instead of having all phones within a mile or two connect to the same cell tower, the traffic could be divided between several smaller cells, so there’s less competition for the cell tower’s attention.

Entertainment news –

$5 million! – Why did Simon Cowell and the producers of Fox’s The X Factor decide to offer contestants the biggest grand prize on television? To make everybody a little nervous, Cowell says. By putting up that kind of prize money, it’s a massive, massive risk. But it’s also an incredible incentive,” Cowell told reporters Monday of the decision to offer the winning X Factor act a $5 million recording contract. “I think it puts everybody, rightly, under an enormous amount of pressure. I didn’t want to go into this show without a feeling a certain amount of pressure, because with pressure, you’ve got to find a star.

Michael Moore has crunched the numbers and concluded he is owed millions of dollars more for his film “Fahrenheit 9/11.” The documentary filmmaker sued financiers Bob Weinstein and Harvey Weinstein in Los Angeles on Monday, claiming the brothers have used creative accounting to keep Moore from receiving more than $2.7 million for the 2004 documentary.

Lindsay Lohan arrives at the Los Angeles International Airport Superior Court on Wednesday (Feb. 9)  afternoon, where she is expected to enter her plea to a charge of felony grand theft over an alleged stolen necklace.

Update – Lindsay Lohan pleaded not guilty to felony grand theft at the Los Angeles International Airport Superior Court on Wednesday afternoon. The actress’ attorney, Shawn Chapman Holley, entered her plea of not guilty on the star’s behalf. The prosecutor in the case asked for $20,000 bail, and asked for her current probation (in connection with her 2007 DUI misdemeanor case) to be revoked and set bail for that incident, also in the amount of $20,000, which Judge Keith L. Schwartz approved. Following the hearing, Lohan posted bail and left the courthouse without being captured on camera.

Prince throws Kim Kardashian off-stage during a performance. Howard Stern didn’t like it at all. Apparently, the much-talked-about event got Stern so worked up that he resorted to calling Prince “f—– in the head,” “an arrogant a–hole” and, yes, “a scumbag” over the “humiliating” incident. “She doesn’t know what to do. Apparently she’s supposed to dance like a stripper for him and she just stood there not knowing what to do. He throws her off the stage because she can’t read f—— Prince’s mind. He’s a bull—- artist. I’m done with him.” Fortunately, co-host Robin Quivers offers a Kardashian reality check. “She shows up to things and leaves after 10 minutes after she’s put on camera,” she interjected.

Former figure skating champion Tonya Harding and her husband, Joseph Price, are expecting a son. The 40-year-old, best known for conspiring an attack on skating nemesis Nancy Kerrigan, said she is “super excited” about her first child. Harding later took up boxing and was also a regular commentator on truTV’s The Smoking Gun Presents: World Dumbest.

Charlie Sheen and Brook Mueller Divorce Settlement – state that the pair get joint custody of 1-year-old twins Bob and Max with Mueller scoring primary physical custody. As stipulated, “Under no circumstances shall the child support paid by Charlie for Bob and Max be less than the child support paid by Charlie to Denise Richards for Sam and Lola.” That sum would be $55,000 per month, amounting to a combined $110K in child support toward Richards and Mueller. As for Mueller, she waived her right to spousal support. But she does get a takeaway prize of $757,698.70 in addition to a $1 million share of the family home, valued at $6.4 million, that Sheen is keeping. Meanwhile, Mueller gets the Mercedes, their home in the Los Angeles neighborhood Los Feliz and $45,000 in moving expenses. Sheen gets their Four Seasons Club timeshare, which Mueller has permission to use one week out of each year.

Oscar-winning actress Elizabeth Taylor has been admitted to a Los Angeles hospital to treat congestive heart failure, the latest in a long history of serious medical problems. Taylor, 78, was admitted to Cedars-Sinai Medical Center earlier this week for what her publicist said on Friday was “an ongoing condition.”

Passing - Betty Garrett, a comedic actress who had good times and bad in Hollywood in a 65-year show biz career, has died. She was 91.

Music news –

She Messed Up – One of the biggest fumbles came before Super Bowl XLV — from Christina Aguilera’s performance of the national anthem. The Grammy winner, 30, botched the lyrics, mistakenly singing “what so proudly we watched, at the twilight’s last reaming” instead of “o’er the ramparts we watched, were so gallantly streaming.” The flub immediately caught the attention of viewers across the country and was a big topic on Twitter throughout the game.

Barbra Streisand has been tapped to perform at the 53^rd annual Grammy Awards. Mike Jagger will make his first appearance as well. Also look for Arcade Fire, Eminem, Lady Antebellum, Lady gaga, Katy Perry, Miranda Lambert and Muse. Other performances include collaborations by Justin Bieber, Usher and Jaden Smith, Bruno Mars, Janelle Mone, B.o.B., Cee Lo Green and Wyneth Paltrow.

Some of music industry’s biggest names — including Paul Simon, Bette Midler, John Legend and Elton John are slated to present at the 2011 Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony on March 14 in NYC. The event will be televised on Fuse on Sunday, March 20 at 9 p.m. EST. Rod Zombie, The Doors’ John Densmore and Lloyd Price will also be on hand to induct this year’s honorees. The eight artists being inducted are Alice Cooper, Neil Diamond, Dr. John, Darlene Love, Tom Waits, Jac Holzman, Art Rupe and Leon Russell.

Dr. Dre and Eminem are reuniting: The duo plans to perform together at Sunday’s Grammy Awards. Dre, who’s nominated as a producer for Eminem’s’s album Recovery, hasn’t performed on live television in more than 10 years. The announcement comes on the heels of the rapper’s first studio album since 1999, Detox, set to drop this spring.

Good news for Carrie Underwood – she’s about to save a whole lot of money on international calls! Carrie’s professional hockey player hubby, Mike Fisher, was traded on Thursday from the Ottawa Senators to the Nashville Predators – nice and close to where Carrie currently lives in Tennessee!

Justin Bieber Seems To Be Everywhere – Now, Justin Bieber’s likeness gets place on the cover of MAD Magazine. From the latest Best Buy Super Bowl ad with Ozzy Osbourne to the film ” Justin Bieber: Never Say Never” to hit singles online, on the air and everywhere else, the so-called Beliebers have elevated the mop-topped Canadian to dizzying heights of stardom. Now, he’s about to come back to Earth: MAD magazine’s longtime public face, Alfred E. Neuman — with his big ears and goofy grin — sports a Bieberesque bowl of hair on the cover of the Feb. 16 issue. The headlines: Justin Bieber: “HIS STUPID HAIR!” “HIS DUMB BOOK!” “HIS TERRIBLE MOVIE!” “HIS AWFUL MUSIC!” Bieber has already been on the cover of Vanity Fair, certainly no easy accomplishment.

New single for the Lady – Lady Gaga has returned… and she’s “on the right track baby!” The singer has dropped her highly anticipated new single, “Born This Way,” which was co-produced by Gaga, Fernando Garibay and DJ White Shadow. The song, which sounds vaguely similar to Madonna’s “Express Yourself,” was previously described by Elton John as the “new gay anthem.”

Los Angeles – Stevie Wonder, Tony Bennett and a trio of “Glee” stars led Barbra Streisand on a musical journey through her nearly 50-year career. They joined Faith Hill, Barry Manilow and Seal in launching Grammy weekend by honoring the Oscar-winning singer and actress as MusiCares Person of the Year. Streisand, who turns 69 in April, was singled out for her musical achievements and philanthropic work.

Grammy Awards Held This Week – Some Winners:

Album Of The Year

The Suburbs — Arcade Fire

Record Of The Year

Need You Now — Lady Antebellum

Best Rap Album

Recovery — Eminem

Best New Artist

Esperanza Spalding

Song Of The Year

Need You Now — Dave Haywood, Josh Kear, Charles Kelley & Hillary Scott, songwriters (Lady Antebellum)

Best Country Album

Need You Now — Lady Antebellum

Best Pop Vocal Album

The Fame Monster — Lady Gaga

Best Rock Album

The Resistance — Muse

Best Pop Performance By A Duo Or Group With Vocals

Hey, Soul Sister (Live) — Train

Best Female Country Vocal Performance

The House That Built Me — Miranda Lambert

Best Rap Song

Empire State Of Mind — Shawn Carter, Angela Hunte, Burt Keyes, Alicia Keys, Jane’t “Jnay” Sewell-Ulepic & Alexander Shuckburgh, songwriters (Sylvia Robinson, songwriter) (Jay-Z & Alicia Keys)

Best Rap Solo Performance

Not Afraid — Eminem

Best Rap Performance By A Duo Or Group

On To The Next One — Jay-Z & Swizz Beatz

Best Rap/Sung Collaboration

Empire State Of Mind” — Jay-Z & Alicia Keys

Top albums this week –

Pink Friday – Nicki Minaj

Musica + Alma + Sexo – Ricky Martin

Until We Have Faces – red

Doo-Wops & Hooligans – Bruno Mars

Kidz Bop 19 – Kidz Bop Kids

Loud – Rihanna

My Kinda Party – Jason Aldean

Greatest Hits… So Far!!! – P!nk

Speak Now – Taylor Swift

Recovery – Eminem

Barton Hollow – The Civil Wars

Sigh No More – Mumford & Sons

Teenage Dream – Katy Perry

Live Forever: September 23 – Bob Marley And the Wailers

Best Night Of My Life – Jamie Foxx

2011 Grammy Nominees – Various

Love Letter – R. Kelly

My World 2.0 – Justin Bieber

The King Is Dead – The Decemberists

The Beginning – The Black Eyed Peas

My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fame – Kanye West

Need You Now – Lady Antebellum

Brothers – The Black Keys

I Am Not A Human Being – Lil Wayne

Mission Bell – Amos Lee

Television News –

First Lady Michele Obama stops by the Regis and Kelly Show as part of her visit to New York marking the first anniversary of her Let’s Move! Campaign to fight childhood obesity.

Keith Olberman lands a show on Current TV.

Miley Cyrus to host “Saturday Night Live” on March 5!

Tuesday night television (TV Squad)

8 PM

ABC: ‘No Ordinary Family’
CBS: ‘NCIS’
NBC: ‘The Biggest Loser’
FOX: ‘Glee’
The CW: ‘One Tree Hill’
PBS: ‘Pioneers of Television’
MyTV: ‘Are You Smarter Than a Fifth Grader?’ (two episodes)
HGTV: ‘My First Place’

8:30

Cooking Channel: ‘FoodCrafters’

9:00

ABC: ‘V’
CBS: ‘NCIS: Los Angeles’
FOX: ‘Raising Hope’
The CW: ‘Hellcats’
Lifetime: ‘Seriously Funny Kids’ (two episodes)
Food Network: ‘Cupcake Wars’
Travel Channel: ‘Bizarre Foods With Andrew Zimmern’
History Channel: ‘Only in America With Larry the Cable Guy’
BBC America: ‘Ramsay’s Best Restaurant’
Discovery: ‘Dirty Jobs’
TLC: ‘What Not To Wear’

9:30

FOX: ‘Traffic Light’ (series premiere)
Cooking Channel: ‘United Tastes of America’

10:00

ABC: ‘Detroit 1-8-7′
CBS: ‘The Good Wife’
NBC: ‘Parenthood’
TNT: ‘Southland’
USA: ‘White Collar’
FX: ‘Lights Out’
Lifetime: ‘One Born Every Minute’
Bravo: ‘The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills’
Comedy Central: ‘Tosh.0′
BBC America: ‘Cherry Goes Dating’
TLC: ‘Fabulous Cakes’
MTV: ‘Teen Mom 2′
Spike: ‘1000 Ways To Die’
WE: ‘A Stand-Up Mother’
BET: ‘The Game’

10:30

Comedy Central: ‘Onion SportsDome’
Spike: ‘Three Sheets’
BET: ‘Let’s Stay Together’

Late-Night Talk Shows

11:00

PBS: ‘Charlie Rose’: Bill Gates
TBS: ‘Conan’: Craig Ferguson, Kevin Hart and Red
Comedy Central: ‘The Daily Show’: T. Boone Pickens (repeat)
E!: ‘Chelsea Lately’: Minka Kelly
BET: ‘The Mo’Nique Show’: Tyler James Williams, Stephen Stafford, Khalil with Lil Twist

11:30

Comedy Central: ‘The Colbert Report’: Brian Greene (repeat)

11:35

ABC: ‘Nightline’: TBA
CBS: ‘The Late Show With David Letterman’: Adam Sandler, Chris Colfer, Ty Burrell and Gang of Four
NBC: ‘The Tonight Show’: Javier Bardem, Paula Abdul and Merle Haggard

Midnight

ABC: ‘Jimmy Kimmel Live’: Matthew Perry, Morena Baccarin and Pitbull
PBS: ‘Tavis Smiley’: Helena Bonham Carter and Hailee Steinfeld
TBS: ‘Lopez Tonight’: Channing Tatum, Margaret Cho and 50 Cent

12:35

CBS: ‘The Late, Late Show With Craig Ferguson’: Emily Blunt and Dr. Kara Cooney
NBC: ‘Late Night With Jimmy Fallon’: Kevin Nealon, Timothy Olyphant and Little Big Town

1:35

NBC: ‘Last Call With Carson Daly’: Thomas Lennon, Makeba Riddick and Jimmy Eat World

Top TV –

1.	Super Bowl: Pittsburgh vs. Green Bay	FOX
2.	Super Bowl Post Game	FOX
3.	Glee” special	FOX
4.	American Idol, Wednesday	FOX
5.	NCIS	CBS
6.	American Idol, Thursday	FOX
7.	NCIS: Los Angeles	CBS
8.	The Mentalist	CBS
9.	CSI: Crime Scene Investigation	CBS
10.	The Big Bang Theory	CBS
11.	The Good Wife	CBS
12.	Blue Bloods	CBS
13.	Two and a Half Men	CBS
14.	Grey’s Anatomy	ABC
15.	Harry’s Law	NBC
16.	S— My Dad Says	CBS
17.	Bones	FOX
18.	The Bachelor	ABC
19.	Criminal Minds	CBS
20.	Super Bowl Great Commercials	CBS

Tags: Alexei Ramirex contract, bad weather, Barbra Steisand Grammy appearance, Charlie Sheen and Brook Mueller divorce settled, Christian Aguilara messes up, Egypt protests, Grammy Winners, Guitar Hero dies, J. Paul Getty III dies, Jerry Sloan steps down, Kim Kardashian thrown offstage by prince, LightRadio cell technology, Lindsay Lohan, Liz Taylor in hospital, Michael Morre, Michele Obama on Regis and Kelly, pleads not guilty, Ricky Martin, riots in Algeria, rising prices, Simon Cowell, Top albums this week - Nick Minaj, Touch Tap Apple, week of february 8 2011. high speed rail proposed by Obama

Mr. Pop Culture Report – August 2… The Keys To Marriage… He Hated Rock N Roll… Get Out Of Jail And Collect $200… His Anger Needs Management…

Monday, August 2nd, 2010 | Hot Pop Culture, Today In Pop Culture | No Comments

Alicia Keys marries wed Swizz Beatz. The singer, 29, who is pregnant, and the producer, 31, exchanged vows in front of close family and friends in a private home on the Mediterranean Sea. Dr. Deepak Chopra presided over the intimate ceremony, and Queen Latifah and Bono were reportedly among the guests in attendance.

Music Passing – Mitch Miller the goateed orchestra leader who asked Americans to “Sing Along With Mitch” on television and records and produced hits for Tony Bennett, Patti Page and other performers, has died at age 99. His daughter, Margaret Miller Reuther, said Monday that Miller died Saturday in Lenox Hill Hospital after a short illness. Miller was a key record executive at Columbia Records in the pre-rock ‘n’ roll era, making hits with singers Bennett, Page, Rosemary Clooney and Johnny Mathis. As a producer and arranger, Miller had misses, too, famously striking out on projects with Frank Sinatra and a young Aretha Franklin and in general scorning the rise of rock.

Lindsay Lohan gets released from jail after serving 14 days of a 90-day sentence for violating her probation in a 2007 drug case. The Mean Girls star must now start a three-month rehabilitation programme, as stipulated by her sentence.Lohan, 24, was sentenced last month after she missed a string of alcohol education classes she was ordered to attend under the terms of her probation on a 2007 drink-driving charge.

Charlie Sheen pleaded guilty Monday to assault in a Christmas Day argument with his wife in exchange for the withdrawal of more serious charges. Sheen, star of “Two and a Half Men” on CBS, was sentenced to 30 days in a rehabilitation center, 30 days of probation and 36 hours of anger management. He has 30 days to report to the Promises Treatment Center in California.

Tags: Alicia Keys, Charlie Sheen, Lindsay Lohan, Mitch Miller

Mr. Pop Culture Report – July 6… … Lohan Feeling Lo… Liza Minnelli Got Her Groove… Oil Seeps Into New Orleans…

Tuesday, July 6th, 2010 | Hot Pop Culture, This Week In Pop Culture History, Today In Pop Culture | No Comments

Lindsay Lohan gets sentenced to three months in jail and a rehab program after she violated the terms of her probation in a 2007 drug case. The actress immediately burst into tears after the ruling. Superior Court Judge Marsha Revel issued the sentence after listening to testimony from employees of a court-mandated alcohol treatment program.Lohan missed numerous classes — seven since last December — which led to the judge’s harsh rebuke of Lohan moments after the former Disney star offered a tearful apology.

For the first time since the accident, oil from the ruptured well is seeping into giant Lake Pontchartrain (New Orleans), threatening another environmental disaster for the huge body of water that was rescued from pollution in 1990s to become, once more, a bountiful fishing ground and a popular spot for boating and swimming.

Liza on Home Shopping – Liza Minnelli joined HSN for two hours Wednesday to debut her new clothing line, The Liza Collection. Minnelli seemed to enjoy herself, chatting with callers, directing the models and informing viewers that her clothes don’t need selling, “It sells you.”

Radio news – Passing – Howard The Cab Driver – comedic sidekick heard on NY radio during the 1980′s and 1990′s.

Tags: Lindsay Lohan, Liza Minelli, New Orleans

Mr. Pop Culture Report – April 20

Thursday, May 20th, 2010 | Hot Pop Culture, Today In Pop Culture | No Comments

Search For TV – Saying it will “change the future of television,” Google on Thursday rolled out Google TV — the internet giant’s venture into web-TV integration. The application, run by Google’s Android operating system, lets users search for content from their television, DVR and the web.The platform will let users search for content, from the name of a TV show to the name of a network, in much the same way a Google search works. They’ll get results from TV and the web and be able to watch either on their TV screen. It also will have voice recognition, letting users speak the name of a show or other content and have it pop up on their screens.

Vanessa Williams – the “Ugly Betty” (her show which wrapped up in April) veteran has joined the cast of ABC’s “Desperate Housewives.”

A Los Angeles Superior Court issued a bench warrant for Lindsay Lohan’s arrest. The bail was set at $100,000. Lohan, 23, failed to appear in court Thursday, claiming she was stranded without her passport at the Cannes Film Festival in the South of France. The troubled actress later made bail.

Google kicked off its annual developers’ conference this week by introducing tools to help people build web-based applications, while making a strong push for HTML5, the next generation of the code on which the web is built. In a wide-ranging keynote, Google engineers and guest speakers emphasized the potential of the web as an open-source platform for developers to build apps and reduce the dependence on plug-ins — small external programs, such as the Flash media player, that can make browsers more useful.

Tags: Android, Desperate Housewives, Google, Lindsay Lohan, Vanessa Williams