News In Briefs

Whitney bin Laden?!?

According to Woman's Day, Osama bin laden thinks Whitney Houston is the most beautiful woman he has ever seen. This little gem came from his former "sex-slave" Kola Boof, who says that bin Laden carried pictures of Houston in his suitcase, wanted to lavish her with his riches, and have Bobby Brown killed off. And who wouldn't want to be with the junkie star of 'The Bodyguard'. Maybe it's her tattoo he finds particularly appealing, or the tracks on her arms. Either way, we now know bin Laden's one weakness: TRASHY EARLY NINETIES R&B POP. And Dr Pepper. He loves the taste.

Everyone, you can stop panicking! Tom Cruise has found a financier for his films. Paramount dropped him last week for getting too many 'crazy flakes' for breakfast, but one of the owners of the Washington Redskins just can't get enough of his world class acting. I'm curious as to why the Church of Scientology didn't back Cruise up. Maybe they didn't think he was bankable either.

SpiralFrog, a new music download service, on Tuesday said it would make Vivendi's Universal Music Group's catalogue available for free legal downloading in the United States and Canada.
The new advertising-supported service, due to launch later this year, joins the ranks of rivals battling for a piece of the digital music market in the shadow of Apple Computer's dominant iTunes music store.
New York-based SpiralFrog said it would offer users of its free, web-based service the ability to legally download music of Universal's roster, which includes U2, Gwen Stefani and The Roots.
"Offering young consumers an easy-to-use alternative to pirated music sites will be compelling," SpiralFrog Chief Executive Robin Kent said in a statement.
Kent said SpiralFrog's business model is based on sharing income from advertising with content partners like Universal.
The company's research revealed that consumers are willing to "pay" for their content by watching non-intrusive, contextually-relevant, targeted advertising, Kent said.
According to SpiralFrog's website, Kent is a former chairman and CEO of media communications agency Universal McCann Worldwide.
SpiralFrog said its target audience is people between the ages of 13 and 34.
Reuters

posted by Steve @ Wednesday, August 30, 2006