Mel Gibson has decided it would be a good idea to make a movie about the last 12 hours of the life of Jesus Christ, in Latin and Aramaic, without subtitles: The directing job is Gibson’s first since winning multiple Oscars with Braveheart in 1995. Gibson will not appear in …

The Guardian speaks to American Idol’s acerbic judge, Simon Cowell: It should have been a good week. Simon Cowell had just received the latest set of demos from songwriter Andreas Carlsson. Cowell, at the time BMG’s chief executive of A&R, listened to them on his way home and decided that …

The charming and ever-modest Emmanuelle posted the below excerpts of her interview with Beck in the comments section of Kenan Hebert’s review of Beck’s Sea Change, in which he turns a corner into ’60s introspective acoustic pop-rock. Her work always belongs on the front page: Sorry for the delay transcribing …

I’ve been blogging fiercely since February, so I know a troll when I see one: you know, someone who provokes and outrages to get attention. I just got a press release from a radio troll. Take note of this: Nationally syndicated radio columnist Andy Martin will host a special worldwide …

Very nice job by a swarm of geeks and Janis: 1) How much? by evilviper What percentage do you make of the sticker-price of your CDs? Janis: As the artist/singer, that’s a tough one, because it depends on the contract, and also the sticker price. For instance, contractually I make …

Composer Mike Batt pays the Cage estate “six-figures” for the use of silence: British composer Mike Batt found himself the subject of a plagiarism action for including the song, “A One Minute Silence,” on an album for his classical rock band The Planets. He was accused of copying it from …

As you may know we have been following the American Idol contestant contract situation. I received this quote from the 19 office in the UK today, one week after my story on the contract appeared in Salon: “American Idol is a competition, entered in order to win a significant prize, …

Mostly overlooked for eight seasons, a resurgent “Friends” walked away with its first comedy series Emmy Award, while voters heaped more Emmy gold on “The West Wing.” Jennifer Aniston of NBC’s “Friends” earned lead comedy actress honors for playing the pregnant Rachel after having previously competed in the supporting category. …

It can be a nightmare for the legal online music companies to track down copyrights and negotiate permission for songs: When the world’s major media companies gave in to the idea of selling music over the Internet, it seemed to herald a sonic paradise, where every song ever recorded would …

Stanford professor seeks repeal of copyright extension on constitutional grounds.