Online Petition Launched to Get Rocker to Retire

We were beginning to have doubts about Bono's continued ability to unite people from all walks of life, but then we got wind of an impassioned new internet campaign inspired by the singer's work -- in a sense. Organizers have launched an online petition aimed at getting Bono to retire in order to "stop [his] leading misguided counter-productive philanthropy efforts."

Aaron With, the brains behind the effort, goes into extensive detail about the U2 frontman's shortcomings as a force for social change in a screed posted online, where he also solicits donations that he promises will go to charity -- if the sunglass-sporting singer actually hangs up his white flag once and for all. If he soldiers on? We'd imagine the cash could go to buying enough grain alcohol to start a Bono bonfire and fuel one heck of a cocktail party to go along with it.

Queen, Led Zeppelin Rock Aussie Funerals

"Rage, rage against the dying of the light," as Dylan Thomas famously wrote. Apparently the poet's words are still heeded in Australia, where people are throwing ragers at their own funerals: They're cranking 'Stairway to Heaven' and 'Highway to Hell.

'Centennial Park, a Down Under memorial-service provider, has released the Top 10 most played and ten most unusual funeral songs chosen by Aussies. The most-requested list includes some mortal locks, including Sinatra's 'My Way,' Louis Armstrong's 'Wonderful World' and Nat King Cole's 'Unforgettable.

'More amusingly, the most-unusual list features Led Zeppelin, AC/DC, two songs by Queen ('Another One Bites the Dust' and 'The Show Must Go On') and Monty Python's 'Always Look on the Bright Side of Life.' The service even reports incidents of soon-to-be stiffs instructing funeral directors to play 'Ding Dong the Witch Is Dead' at their after-parties.Maybe laughter really is the best medicine. Even when you're incurable

Taylor Swift's Fearless Factor

08/08/2008 6:00 AM, E! Online

David Jenison

Taylor Swift just secured her high school diploma. Come this fall, expect her to be matriculating to the top of the charts.

The 18-year-old country wunderkind, whose eponymous debut is the Energizer Bunny of the Billboard 200, announced today that her follow-up album, Fearless, will drop Nov. 11.

Swift wrote or cowrote all of Fearless' 13 tracks, including the Colbie Caillat collaboration "Breathe," the coming-of-age scorcher "Fifteen" (first heard at the Country Music Hall of Fame last fall) and "Change," which will be in heavy rotation the next couple weeks—Team USA and NBC selected it for use in the daily Summer Olympics highlight reels.

"Change" made its iTunes debut today, with all proceeds benefiting Team USA. Swift's first radio single, which has yet to be unveiled, will hit the airwaves early next month.

Swift is also set to launch a Stephen Colbert-esque new site, called TheTaylorNation.com. Beginning Aug. 22, fans will be able to preorder Fearless and become eligible to get their mugs on the album cover.

The first 10,000 fans to order a limited box-set edition can upload their photos for a mosaic image to be featured on the artwork and CD. The deluxe set includes the Fearless CD, a leather bracelet, T-shirt, picture book and a Taylor Nation decal, all shipped in special packaging.

After releasing her debut album at age 17, Swift became the first female solo artist to score five top-10 country hits from a rookie release. With the irresistibly poppy "Our Song," she also became the youngest person to write and sing a No. 1 country hit on her own, and she's country music's first solo female artist to write or cowrite every song on a platinum-certified debut.

The self-titled release currently ranks at No. 13 in its 93rd week on the Billboard 200 and has sold nearly 3.3 million copies. (Her recent Wal-Mart exclusive EP, Beautiful Eyes, currently sits at No. 16, giving her two current top 20 albums.)
Swift's debut album wasn't just the No. 9 bestselling album of last year, it's currently No. 6 for 2008, ahead of Leona Lewis and Usher.

On top of all this, Swift won the CMA Horizon Award, the ACM Top New Female Vocalist award, a trio of CMT Music Awards trophies, including Video of the Year, and just scored the Teen Choice Award for Breakout Artist. Last February, she was nominated for the Best New Artist Grammy.

And if she does decide to go to college, that'll make for one heck of an application.
(E! Online articles will no longer appear on Yahoo! after Fri., Aug. 15, but you can always find them at

'American Idol' crooner Clay Aiken now a father

08/08/2008 3:00 PM, AP

The Associated Press

Former "American Idol" runner-up Clay Aiken is a father.

The 29-year-old crooner from Raleigh announced the birth of Parker Foster Aiken on his Web site's blog Friday.

"No hyphens. One first name," he wrote. "One middle name. One last name."

Clay Aiken's mother, Faye, told Raleigh TV station WRAL the child was born in North Carolina.

Aiken was a favorite of fans during the second season of "American Idol," where he finished second to Ruben Studdard. His album "Measure of a Man" went double platinum in 2003, and he made his Broadway debut this spring in "Monty Python's Spamalot."

The baby's mother is Jaymes Foster, Aiken's friend and record producer whom he met while performing on "American Idol." Their son was born at 8:08 a.m. Friday, and weighed 6 pounds, 2 ounces and was 19 inches long, according to the statement on the Web site.

"The little man is healthy, happy, and as loud as his daddy," Aiken wrote. "Mama Jaymes is doing quite well also."
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On the Net:
http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/ap/ap_en_mu/storytext/people_clay_aiken/28522118/SIG=10qd9m8bp/*http://www.clayaiken.com

Sugarland Founder Not Feeling Love on the Inside

With great success can come great spoils. And, perhaps, the ire of the person who's missing out on the spoils.
Kristen Hall, one of the founding members of Sugarland, the country duo whose latest effort, Love on the Inside, currently boasts the No. 1 spot on the Billboard 200, has sued her former bandmates for what she says is her fair share of the money they've been raking in since she left the group in 2005.

According to a lawsuit filed July 29 in U.S. District Court in Atlanta, Hall and fellow Atlanta musicmakers Kristian Bush and Jennifer Nettles had an agreement entitling each to an equal stake in Sugarland's profits and losses—but the checks stopped coming once she decided to pursue a solo career.

The trio "jointly endeavored to make the band Sugarland a creative and commercial success, and Hall contributed significant time, effort, energy and passion toward the creative and commercial success of Sugarland," the complaint states.

Per the suit, Hall rerecorded the version of the band's breakthrough single, "Baby Girl," that became one of the longest-charting debut singles in country music history and wrote or cowrote every track on their double-platinum 2004 album Twice the Speed of Life.
Also in 2005, while Hall was still with them, Sugarland was named Breakthrough Favorite New Artist at the American Music Awards.

By excluding her from their profit-sharing agreement pertaining to the albums they put out as a trio, Nettles and Bush "have acted in bad faith, have been stubbornly litigious and have caused [Hall] unnecessary trouble and expense," the suit continues.

Hall is asking for at least $1.5 million and a "formal accounting of all partnership affairs and businesses."

A rep for Sugarland referred a request for comment to the band's Los Angeles attorney, Gary Gilbert, whose office said he is currently out of town, per the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
After Hall left, Sugarland scored another multiplatinum hit with 2006's Enjoy the Ride and has picked up an armload of CMT and Academy of Country Music awards, including two ACMAs earlier this year for the song "Stay."