Posted May 16, 200619 yr Will and Grace star Megan Mullally realised she was destined to become a TV talk show host when she interviewed Madonna for music channel VH-1. The star, who plays Martini-swilling Karen Walker in the hit series, will host her own daytime talk show in September, after the sitcom finishes. Mullally says, 'It was a weird revelation. It was like I wanted to be a cattle rancher or astronaut, it was so out of left field.' The actress isn't daunted by the many talk show hosts who have failed in the past. She adds, 'I don't think that way. I'm a cockeyed optimist. I believe there's room for everybody if you have the right intent and you're passionate.'
May 16, 200619 yr Author US President George Bush is the most popular person online, new statistics reveal. According to data from American website The POP List, Mr Bush appears on a staggering 315 million web pages. Microsoft boss Bill Gates in second on the list, followed by former US Presidents George Washington and John F. Kennedy in third and fourth respectively. Pop queen Madonna is the most popular female on the list at number five. She appears on 66 million internet pages. Former US President Bill Clinton, rapper Eminem and singer Britney Spears also make the top ten. In other surveys, the US is the most popular country online, while Cancer is the top star-sign. But despite Mr Bush's amazing presence online his popularity with the American public is at an all time low. Bush's approval rating fell to a lowly 31 per cent in a USA Today/Gallup Poll released on May 8. According to the survey, a staggering 65 per cent disapprove with the job he is doing, while 4 per cent had no opinion. The Iraq war and rising fuel prices were the two main reasons for his low approval rating. The top ten: 1. George W. Bush: 315 million (number of web pages) 2. Bill Gates: 117 million 3. George Washington: 97 million 4. John F. Kennedy: 82 million 5. Madonna: 66 million 6. Bill Clinton: 60 million 7. Eminem: 55 million 8. Ronald Reagan: 54 million 9. Britney Spears: 53 million 10. Thomas Jefferson: 47 million
May 18, 200619 yr Author "It's a mutual admiration society between those two" This is how a representative for Madonna has hit back at the claims that the singer was unhappy with the costumes French designer Jean Paul Gaultier created for her upcoming "Confessions Tour" - Wenn reports. Gaultier has previously designed costumes for the star's tours and she appears in the June issue of "W" magazine modelling some of his creations.
May 24, 200619 yr ROBBIE AND MADONNA HELP PAULA GET BACK ON HER FEET Champion distance runner Paula Radcliffe has been getting ready to compete again with the help of Robbie Williams and Madonna, she revealed today. The 32-year-old, who was forced to miss the Commonwealth Games and the London Marathon because of a foot injury, said listening to their music on her iPod had got her through the tough times in recent weeks when she had to limit her workouts to using an exercise bike. Radcliffe said she was "much happier" this week now she was able to go on short runs again, and expected to be back to full training in about 10 days. She said she would probably be ready to race again in five or six weeks, but did not know yet when she would next compete. However, she added that she was more likely to run the 10,000 metres than the marathon in August's European Championships in Gothenburg. Radcliffe named Williams' Let Me Entertain You and Rock DJ and Madonna's new song Jump as the tracks that got her most pumped up. Tina Turner and Whitney Houston were other motivational favourites. "It's really helped because with my foot I have just been cross-training twice a day every day, so my iPod as been getting me through that and the boring times on the bike," she said. "I was joking that Robbie and Madonna and people like that helped me get through those bike sessions." Radcliffe had an operation last month to remove a neuroma, or enlarged nerve. "It was frustrating to begin with but now that I'm running twice a day it's fast from here," she said. "I'm quite lucky that I'm already qualified for the Europeans so I don't have to rush." Radcliffe added: "I'm just so much happier this week than I was two or three weeks ago when I was just on the bike every day." She said she would race again when she was ready. "That might be in a couple of weeks but it's more likely it'll probably be in five or six weeks." The three-time winner of the London Marathon also gave some tips to champion cyclist Lance Armstrong, who is training to run the 26-mile race in New York. "A mistake that a lot of people make is just not spending the time that they're going to spend in the marathon actually running," she said. "Just get out there and make sure that you've done the time goal that you're aiming for on your feet." Speaking at the launch of a new device connecting iPods with Nike running shoes, she added: "I've watched the Tour de France, and you don't get a sandwich bag [in the marathon] so you can run along eating sandwiches."
June 2, 200619 yr Author Last week Madonna was named as the most popular celebrity on Russia's most popular national music channel Muz-TV - second was Russian national mega-star singer Alla Pugacheva and third was Brad Pitt.
July 2, 200619 yr Author The Virgin music retailer in France has been fined 600,000 euros (756,000 dollars) for illegally downloading a Madonna song to resell it on its own pay-per-tune site. A Paris industrial court imposed the penalty on the company's VirginMega.fr subsidiary after finding it ignored an exclusive contract between Warner Music France and France Telecom and its mobile unit Orange by copying Madonna's song Hung Up and retailing itself in October last year. France Telecom and Orange had bought sole rights to sell the song online for a week in France from Warner for 500,000 euros, according to the court's ruling given last Friday. The verdict ordered VirginMega to pay 100,000 euros to Warner, and 250,000 euros each to France Telecom and Orange. Warner Music France welcomed the result, saying it had succeeded in "having its rights and those of its artist respected". Virgin France, though, argued that the judgement "confirmed the need to do everything to help build a balanced market for legal downloads". It and another major French music retailer, FNAC, have criticised recent moves by recording companies to farm out top selling singles to Internet and mobile operators first under exclusive contracts. Virgin France was bought from Britain's Virgin Group in 2001 by the French conglomerate Lagardere.
