Ticket Sales Scuttle Clarkson Summer Tour

DeGeneres talks Cowell, Paula Abdul as American Idol returns

(NEWSER) - Ellen DeGeneres makes her debut as the newest American Idol judge on Tuesday, and she talks Simon Cowell (he’s “smart,” but “mean” and “insensitive”) and more with the Wall Street Journal :

• Paula Abdul: “I don't know if I'll be as nurturing as she is. I'll probably try to be somewhat encouraging. But I'll be honest. I don't think it helps anybody to be encouraged and not told the truth.”

Clarkson explains fiasco, didn't mean to copy Knowles

(NEWSER) - Kelly Clarkson is battling her record label again, this time for releasing a song that appears to copy the Beyoncé single “Halo,” the New York Post reports. When Clarkson realized that the backing track songwriter Ryan Tedder had given her for “Already Gone” was the same as the one on “Halo,” she “fought and fought” to stop her version from being released, she told Canada’s CBC radio network—but to no avail. More»

Madonna 'devastated' by news

(NEWSER) - The collapse of a stage where Madonna was to perform this weekend has claimed a second victim. A 32-year-old British citizen has died, CNN reports. The first casualty was a 53-year-old Frenchman who died yesterday; three more are in the hospital in Marseille, and seven were treated and released, says a hospital spokesperson. Madonna was “devastated” at the news, she said in a statement yesterday. More»

Yes, Kelly Clarkson made the top five

(NEWSER) - Now that 2009 is more than halfway over, James Montgomery runs down the best albums of the year—so far—on MTV:

• Animal Collective, Merriweather Post Pavilion: The No. 1 pick is “the only thing I can remember that has actually lived up to the hype, if not exceeded it.”
• Phoenix, Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix: “Retro pop hyper-focused on a futuristic re-imagination of post-modernism and neo-classicism as proletarian touchstones? That you can dance to?” earns album No. 2 spot.

But nowadays, all he needs is 'American Idol'

(NEWSER) - Steven Tyler graces two magazine covers this week, waxing nostalgic about "snorting everything" a few years back in Rolling Stone while telling People how he gets high nowadays, even without drugs. When Aerosmith tried to record a new album a couple years ago, Tyler and Joe Perry did drugs together for the first time in 17 years—and it did not bode well for recording. "Joe was high and he couldn't play," says Tyler. "I couldn't sing, really, because I was snorting everything, and it f***s up your throat. It was the wrong time." More»