The Music City Minute...
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Carrie Underwood will be playing the iconic Maria Von Trapp in NBC’s live broadcast of The Sound of Music. Julie Andrews played the legendary role in the famous 1965 film…and she’s someone Carrie has idolized since she was a little girl. The three-hour live remake of The Sound of Music will air later this year.
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Brantley Gilbert just kicked off the second leg of his Hell On Wheels Tour and he’s learning during his meet-and-greets that his music is touching his fans’ lives.
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Luke Bryan’s career is on fire. After selling out the first leg of his Dirt Road Diaries Tour, he garnered his first ACM Entertainer of the Year nomination. Luke has paid his dues through the years, serving as an opener for acts like Tim McGraw and Jason Aldean – but he’s always thought about what it would be like to be on top.
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How cool is it that “Merry Go Round” singer and songwriter Kacey Musgraves can count Eric Church as one of her biggest fans?!?! It sounds like Kacey has Eric’s stamp-of-approval for the release of her debut album, Same Trailer, Different Park – which hits stores March 19th.
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Tim McGraw found out this week that he won’t have to worry about going back to court to face his former label, Curb Records. The Tennessee Supreme Court has refused to hear Curb’s appeal of a lower court’s ruling that Tim was free to sign with another label and continue his recording career. Tim is now signed to Big Machine Records and just released his Two Lanes of Freedom album under his new label.
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Easton Corbin recently did a show to help fans celebrate Mardi Gras and he was warned about how crazy things might get!
Celeb Stuff...
This Year's Oscar Bizarre Swag Bag: $120 Maple Syrup, Circus Training & More
(Photo: Acadamy of Awards)
This year’s Oscar losers shouldn’t be too upset when Anne Hathaway and Daniel Day-Lewis waltz off with the coveted trophies. Turns out every one’s a winner: They’re all going home with copies of Leeza Gibbons’s memoir.
Yes, the former talk show host and QVC maven’s new book, Take 2: Your Guide to Happy Endings and New Beginnings, is among the increasingly strange contents that stock this year’s Oscar swag bag.
Presumptuously titled the “Everyone Wins at the Oscars Nominee Gift Bag,” the freebies going home with all of this year’s nominees is valued at a whopping $45,000. Included are the glamorous luxuries one would presume Hollywood’s A-list would covet: $10,000 trips to Australia
Also, there are condoms.
Mixed in with all of the high-end swag are a slew of utterly bizarre knick-knacks, services, and even cleaning products. Among the weirdest:
-Take 2: Your Guide to Happy Endings and New Beginnings by Leeza Gibbons, a book about “starting over; taking inventory, and getting smarter, stronger, and sexier with no apologies, no regrets and no turning back.” ($24.00)
-A six-pack box of Naked brand condoms ($20.00)
-Maple syrup, from Rouge Maple Gourmet Products ($120.00)
-Portion-control dinnerware by Slimware: “Portion consciousness is disguised in the design.” $59.00
-A Vampire Facelift, a cosmetic procedure that involves re-injecting gel-like substances from the patient’s blood back into the skin of their face to treat wrinkles. ($5,000.00)
-Tickets to the circus, to see “North America
-Hair ties. But they double as bracelets! ($80.00)
-A lint roller by Gleener, called The Ultimate Fuzz Remover ($19.99)
-Windex touch-up cleaner ($3.99)
That’s not to mention the swanky sweatshirts, emblazoned with the Oscar logo, the contenders were all handed at this year’s Nominees Luncheon.
In recent years, the Oscar nominees have had an evolving relationship with the swag bag. The goodie packages have been put together by marketing firm Distinctive Assets for 11 years. The opulence of the gifts is legendary, and it used to be that the presenters and performers at the ceremony also received them. They used to be worth upwards of $100,000, and were a major reason why celebrities jumped at the chance to open an envelope on the Oscar stage.
But in 2006, the IRS deemed the loot taxable, and suddenly the bags weren’t so appealing. Many celebrities opted to donate their wares to charity, and the extravagance—and value—of the bags have gone down over the years. The days of six-figure’s worth of swag are long gone. Last year’s bag was worth $62,023.26, and this year’s is down nearly $20,000 from that.
In other words, the bags have become more creative, to say the least. So at least when Sally Field loses Best Supporting Actress on Sunday night, she can at least take solace in the fact that she’s saved herself a trip to Target for a new bottle of Windex.
AMERICA'S GOT TALENT: Melanie 'Scary Spice' Brown Replaces Sharon Osbourne
(Photo: NBC)
America's Got Talent has replaced one English judge with another! Spice Girl Melanie Brown will be replacing Sharon Osbourne on the NBC live competition show.
Entertainment Weekly reports that 37-year-old Mel B (aka Scary Spice) will join Howard Stern and Howie Mandel on the judging panel for Season 8. Brown has had previous experience working on reality competition shows. She starred with Ronan Keating, Guy Sebastian and Natalie Bassingthwaighte on the Australian version of The X Factor in 2011, and acted as co-host of the Australian version of Dancing With the Stars in February 2012.
"I've known Melanie since she did Dancing with the Stars, and I've known her as a performer in The Spice Girls before that," Paul Telegdy, NBC president of alternative programming, told Entertainment Weekly. "To know her is to know a very frank, strong, enduring entertainer. Someone who has a very strong point of view. We needed somebody who was qualified for the job. She's an amazing singer, dancer and a huge personality. The contestants will get a lot of constructive feedback from her and I can't wait to see her chemistry with Howard and Howie."
Osbourne, 60, quit the show in August 2012 amid controversy: she claimed that NBC fired her son Jack from a reality series following his multiple sclerosis diagnosis earlier. "I just can't be fake," Osbourne told the Post. "It's discrimination, and it was badly handled."
And The Talk co-host accepted the penalty of leaving the series early while being under contract, explaining, "All they can do is stop me from being a judge on another network for five years."
