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The pre-Island catalog of early Bob Marley (’67-’72) has been purchased by Universal. Royalties will now be paid on the material to Marley’s heirs, apparently for the first time. Marley, the Jimi Hendrix of reggae when it comes to musical exhumation, is an industry unto himself: The rights to 211 …

I have grown weary of announcing every one of these seminars, gatherings, confabs, conventions, and coffee klatches dealing with the various aspects of the digital future: there are just too many of them and they go over and over the same ground. But this one is different: some of the …

Dean flips his wig.

I guess we know what’s in store for this week. American Idol runs three times this week – tonight, Tuesday and Wednesday – for a total of five hours of audition footage, two hours more than last season: The fun, of course, is in the hunt. The audition segments have …

The saga of the duplicitous Cleveland imam continues. After imam Fawaz Damra of the Islamic Center of Cleveland was charged with federal terror-related crimes on Tuesday morning, his mosque voted to retain him Tuesday night: But the meeting was rancorous, according to sources, and some mosque members are urging their …

2003 was the Year of the Blues and a whole lot of good bluesy things happened, most notably Martin Scorsese Presents the Blues TV series and companion CDs. But although the series got into some lesser-known artists like J.B. Lenoir and Bobby Rush, it mostly focused on the central canon …

We reported last week that monologist-actor-author Spalding Gray was declared missing last Monday. He hasn’t turned up yet: Before he disappeared last week, Spalding Gray had been performing early versions of a new work that had long bedeviled him – a monologue about a car wreck more than two years …

The Return of the King is now considered the leading contender for the best film Oscar after taking the top prize from the Producers Guild of America: The Return of the King took the Darryl F Zanuck award for best picture, adding to a string of major honours. Ten of …

Robert Kilroy-Silk has resigned from his talk show on the BBC after it suspended him for writing a controversial column: Mr Kilroy-Silk had hosted the BBC One morning chat show for 17 years. The BBC suspended the programme after the presenter’s contentious column in the newspaper on 4 January. The …

Michael Jackson pleaded not guilty yesterday in a media circus worthy of Ringling Bros: The pop superstar was surrounded by cheering fans as he left the courtroom after the initial hearing in Santa Maria, California. “I love my fans,” he shouted to reporters as his bodyguards guided him through the …