Sideshow: Cee Lo says song '[Blank] You' is art

August 31, 2010|By Tirdad Derakhshani, Inquirer Staff Writer
Image 1 of 2
  • Singer Cee Lo says his new song challenges the status quo. It does so 16 times.
  • Singer Cee Lo says his new song challenges the status quo. It does so 16 times.
  • Christina Applegate , fiance Martyn Lenoble this month. She says were it not for a news leak, her condition wouldn't have been known for a while.

Cee Lo (Thomas DeCarlo Callaway), whose stage name is perhaps derived from the dice game Cee-lo, says his copious use of expletives in his new song "[Bleep] You" isn't gratuitous and insulting, as critics say, but a case of a great artist doing his art.

"What I've tried to accomplish, like, is making art products," Cee Lo says, "so I still believe that [the tune] can be classified as art because . . . the edge and alternative is there, and the integrity is intact." The Associated Press says Mr. Lo drops 16 [bleeps] "in just 3½ minutes over a sweet-sounding, retro groove."

(At least the groove's sweet.)

Parents Television Council rep Dan Isett says the song "is just the latest example of an entertainment industry bent on racing to the bottom of the barrel." Mr. Lo says his art challenges the status quo. "The system does not, you know, advocate art so to speak," he says, adding that he never has sales in mind when he writes his songs.

Yo, use yer muscles, not lawyers!

Irvine, Calif., RV dealership owner Brent McMahon, 47, who is being sued by Taylor Lautner over a customized vehicle, suggested Monday that he and the Twilight cutie resolve their disputes in a push-ups challenge. Forget the lawyers, says McMahon, who urges the actor to take him on in a manly, one-on-one competition.

Lautner, 18, filed a breach-of-contract lawsuit on Aug. 23, claiming that McMahon didn't deliver a $300,000 RV on time. The heartthrob actor planned to use it as a dressing room on the set of his latest film.

The RV dude says if he won the challenge, he'd donate the settlement cash to a nearby children's hospital. Lautner's attorney, Robert Barta, declined comment.

The week in drug busts

Paris Hilton, who was arrested Friday after being pulled over while driving with bf Cy Waits in Sin City, was charged Monday with felony possession of a controlled substance, CNN says.

But don't worry! Paris, due to be arraigned Oct. 27 in Clark County District Court, has an airtight defense: The dog ate her homework. Wait, wrong excuse.

Paris told police the purse in which the drugs were found wasn't hers. See, she borrowed it. Yeah, that's right, it's totally not hers, ergo the coke couldn't be hers.

Paris, 29, did admit that lip balm and asthma medication also found in the bag were hers. If convicted, she faces up to four years in jail and a $5,000 fine. Her lawyer on Monday said the public shouldn't "rush to judgment." Too late for that!

Applegate: Not an announcer

1 | 2 | Next »
|
|
|
|
|