HOT: Jesus Christ, Bad Idea
Somehow someone thought that a production of a 44-year-old hippie Rock musical starring a member of ’N Sync not named Timberlake, a singer from Destiny’s Child not named Beyoncé, an elderly Johnny Rotten, a British TV talent show winner and the singer from Incubus would not only make for a great touring theatrical show — they also thought it would fill arenas. Alas, in news surprising to no one, the 54-city tour of Jesus Christ Superstar (which was to hit Cincinnati’s U.S. Bank Arena) was canceled about a week before it was to begin. The reason (as if you had to ask): poor ticket sales.
WARM: White Walks It Back
Jack White never really had a reputation for slamming other artists until TMZ published court records from his divorce in which he badmouthed The Black Keys. But his latest lashing-out was not so inadvertent, as a candid White opened up about his issues with the Keys in a Rolling Stone cover story, calling them a “watered-down version of the original” (meaning The White Stripes, not, say, Robert Johnson). Perhaps sensing the uncouth nature of his remarks, White issued what appears to be a sincere apology, not just to the Keys, but also to ex-bandmate/wife Meg White, whom he had said is “one of those people who won’t high-five me when I get the touchdown.” In the apology, White didn’t deny anything he said in the RS interview but did blame “tabloid journalism” for blowing his comments out of proportion.
COLD: X Offender
Exene Cervenka, an American Punk icon as co-frontperson for the band X, confused and angered a lot of her fans recently when the media pointed out some odd tweets she posted after the mass murder spree in Santa Barbara, Calif., last month. Along with a YouTube site full of paranoid conspiracy videos, Cervenka’s Twitter feed is full of similar idiocy, including the claim that the Santa Barbara shootings were a hoax, ostensibly designed to bolster arguments for stricter gun control. Cervenka soon sorta-apologized, saying her main point was that we should all use critical thinking more often when it comes to what the media feeds us. I’m sure the families of those killed in Santa Barbara appreciate her using them to make such an enlightened point.
