Year in Review 2011 (Part 2): Royal Weddings, Scandal & The Worlds Most Wanted Man

Posted by Jeff in Opinion

Year in review 2011 (part 2): More incredible stories from the second quarter of 2011 emerge.

Year in Review 2011: April

April was all about a Royal Wedding between Prince William and commoner Kate Middleton. She apparently had posters of Prince William on her wall when she was younger, we don’t know if that is true or not but it goes nicely with the dream Princess story. Although some may say she was upstaged by her sister, Pippa Middleton, who had a facebook page dedicated to her derrière.

Sony faced one of the biggest problems in its history when the playstation network was hacked and millions of users details stolen.

Barcelona and Real Madrid seemed to be playing each other every week at this point in the year with Mourninho turning up the heat.

We lost the controversial Indian spiritual leader Sai Baba in this month and also on the controversial front, did we finally see proof of Aliens at Roswell crash? I’ll leave you to decide.

We also took a look at some cool iPhone apps and at a show jumping cow…. yes we did.

Year in Review 2011: May

This month Microsoft took the plunge and bought Skype for $8.5 billion and Google launched the Chromebook, while over on Twitter Lady Gaga made history by reaching 10 million followers.

Both Barcelona and Sebastian Vettel carried on winning everything while Sepp Blatter started to feel the heat over some dubious goings on over at FIFA.

We looked at whether cell phones were dangerous and we were promised that the world would end on the 21st May. That didn’t happen, unless I am now living in a parallel universe (well you never know), my guess is we might see a few more of those predictions in 2012.

We saw Ratko Mladic finally arrested in Serbia after years in hiding and the then IMF chief Dominique Strauss-Kahn arrested over sexual assault, charges that were later dropped.

Charlie Sheen went a bit, shall we say ‘off kilter’, and was replaced on ‘two and a half men‘ by Ashton Kutcher.

Golfing legend Seve Ballesteros passed away and President Obama announced that Osama Bin Laden was killed when US forces stormed his hiding place right under the noses of the Pakistan police.

Barcelona took the Spanish La Liga trophy and the Champions League while Manchester United sealed the English Premiership title. Chelsea sack their manager (again) and Azerbaijan won the Eurovision Song Contest.

It was a very busy month of May.

Year in Review 2011: June

While Apple unveiled their iCloud service, Nintendo announced the Wii U in Los Angeles. MySpace was off loaded by News Corp for a fraction of what they paid for it.

Rafael Nadal was winning the French Tennis Open and Li Na made history as the first Chinese winner of a Grand Slam. Later in the month Wimbledon got underway and Germany prepared for the Womens World Cup. Chelsea also got their new manager, Andre Villas-Boas.

There were all sorts of goings on at the X Factor USA as Cheryl Cole was effectively sacked as a judge and replaced by Nicole Scherzinger. Beyonce closed Glastonbury in style but not before U2 and Coldplay had rocked the stage.

The Lunar eclipse seemed to foretell the up and down lunacy of the markets as Greece came close to defaulting on its debts while child vaccination got a massive boost in the arm by GAVI and the Gay Marriage Rights Bill was passed in New York.

There was Weinergate and JK Rowling teased us with the pottermore website. A Picasso painting fetched $20 million, Marilyn Monroe’s white dress sold for $4.6 million and a rare Billy the Kid portrait reached $2.3 million.

Read more in Year in Review 2011 (Part 3) here.

X Factor USA: Nicole Scherzinger Replaces Cheryl Cole on X Factor Judges Panel

Posted by Jo in Entertainment, TV

X Factor USA have confirmed Nicole Scherzinger’s move to the X Factor judges panel, replacing Cheryl Cole.

A statement on the FOX website about the X Factor judges move said,

FOX, FREMANTLEMEDIA NORTH AMERICA AND SYCO TV today confirm Nicole Scherzinger will be replacing Cheryl Cole on the judging panel of THE X FACTOR. Nicole will join Simon Cowell, L.A. Reid and Paula Abdul on their search across America to find the next global superstar or group to win the life-changing $5 million dollar recording deal. Nicole has previously joined Simon Cowell as a guest judge on The X Factor for the UK version of the show in 2010. Steve Jones will act as sole host of THE X FACTOR.

The X Factor USA made no mention of why the changes were implemented, the blogosphere has been gossiping about problems on the X Factor USA show for weeks; citing Cheryl’s homesickness, problems contestants had understanding her accent or a subdued personality.

Perhaps we will never know, Simon Cowell is never one to leave a contractual loose end and it might be feasible that Cheryl will keep quiet about why she was dropped from the X Factor judges panel.

With Nicole Scherzinger joining the X Factor judges panel it leaves Steve Jones as the sole host, we thought it was a curious decision to split the hosting and in hindsight it does appear that Nicole was always a backup plan, even if she wasn’t aware of it.

X Factor Judges Panel

We wish Simon, Nicole and Cheryl good luck with the X Factor USA and let’s face it, Cheryl is not going to be short of offers.

Photo: Leo Lavish

X Factor USA News Nicole Scherzinger and Steve Jones to Host Show

Posted by Tracy in Entertainment, TV

More X Factor USA news has emerged as Nicole Scherzinger and Steve Jones have been confirmed as the hosts for the new show.

Nicole Scherzinger will be instantly recognisable to US audiences and recently did a stint on the UK version of the X factor, as a guest judge, while Danni Minogue took maternity leave from the show.

As the lead singer of the Pussycat Dolls Nicole has sold millions of records throughout the world and has the ability to dance as well as sing. She can say that she has ‘been there and done it’ to the contestants.

Steve Jones will be someone who is not recognisable to US audiences, much like judge Cheryl Cole. The Welshman could also have similar problems being understood too, he has quite a strong Welsh accent and a particular sense of humour that may or may not translate over to America.

He certainly has alot of presenting experience however, hosting some of the UK biggest shows and events although it was as a fashion model that marked his first steps into his career.

With 2 English judges and a Welshman hosting the show it looks like it will be a very trans-atlantic affair, will US audiences take to them or will they prefer the home grown style of American Idol. Time will tell.

I’ll leave the last word to Simon Cowell,

“These two are going to be great together, I have always wanted Steve to work with us; I think he is a real star. Nicole is fantastic. I loved working with her on the UK X Factor last year. She is gorgeous and super-talented.”

Photo: Leo Lavish

Cheryl Cole (Tweedy) Biography

Posted by Sam in Biographies, Celebrity

Cheryl Cole was born 30th June 1983 as Cheryl Ann Tweedy in Newcastle, North East England. Here is a short biography of her life so far.

One of 5 children, Cheryl Cole always seemed to know that she wanted to be in showbiz, from an early age she was involved in dancing schools, commercials and modelling competitions.

She left school at 16 with little in the way of academic qualifications but as with earlier in her life, it was obvious that her priorities were in a different place.

Blessed with model looks, as well as the ability to dance and sing, she auditioned for the UK pop reality show ‘Popstars – The Rivals’. The programme was the pre-curser to the American Idol and X Factor shows that we have today.

In this version ten girls and ten boys were selected as finalists, Cheryl Cole (Cheryl Tweedy as she was back then) being one of them, and then they would sing live every Saturday night and wait for the public to vote. The one with the fewest votes was eliminated.

They were voted down to 4 girls and 4 guys, a girl group called Girls Aloud and a rival boy band were formed. Both would release singles at the same time and go head to head. Girls Aloud released ‘Sound of the Underground’ and the die was cast. We never heard of the boy band again.

Girls Aloud, Cheryl Cole, Nadine Coyle, Sarah Harding, Kimberley Walsh and Nicola Roberts, went on to have 20 top ten singles and 4 UK number 1′s. Their 5 albums all went platinum and they received 5 BRIT award nominations to date. In 2009 they all decided to take a year long break to concentrate on their other interests. That year has since extended to two years and beyond.

During her Girls Aloud career, she met and fell in love with the Chelsea and England footballer Ashley Cole in 2004. They were married in a lavish ceremony in 2006 in London, but news of Ashley’s extramarital affairs were to dog their marriage until they finally divorced in 2010 after more lurid reports of his dalliances were reported in UK newspapers.

In 2008 she was given the job of replacing the X Factor judge Sharon Osbourne after Sharon walked off the show, mainly because of repeated bust up’s with fellow judge Danni Minogue.

Cheryl was given control of the girls in her first series by producers of the show and subsequently came out on top after Alexandra Burke was crowned the X Factor winner.

She also took the crown in the following year, 2009 when her charge, Joe McElderry became the sixth winner of the title and record contract with Simon Cowell.

She also took the opportunity in 2009 of working on and releasing her first solo album, ’3 Words’, using her X Factor high profile to push the album to the number one spot.

In 2011 she was confirmed as the judge on Simon Cowells new American version of the X Factor. It is unclear at the time of writing whether this will mean that she follows Simon away from the UK version or if it is possible that she will maintain both shows.

It would surprise me if she still continued with her UK X Factor work, it appears that she would like to move her career onto bigger and better things and that means the US market. To win over the US market it is likely that there will be no time for anything else.

Photo: rustyallie

US X Factor Judge Cheryl Cole Confirmed by Simon Cowell

Posted by Sam in Entertainment, TV

Simon Cowell has finally confirmed that Cheryl Cole has landed one of the positions on the judging panel of the US version of his show X Factor.

After speculation stretching back into 2010 the popular UK X Factor judge has finally got what she was desperate for, that coveted place on the US X Factor judging panel.

She joins the other confirmed judges, Simon Cowell and LA Reid, alongside an as yet un-named 4th judge With filming scheduled to begin tomorrow it looks like we won’t have to wait long to find out who that 4th judge is.

Tens of thousands of people have applied to take part in the auditions of one of the biggest TV launches of the year. While the American Idol programme has been getting on with things without it’s former judge, there is no doubting Simon Cowells star quality and pulling power for TV audiences.

Cheryl Cole also has that star quality, she has been a big success on the UK X Factor and is herself a successful talent show contestant. Her very successful girl group, Girls Aloud, were put together in 2002 on a UK TV talent show called ‘Popstars -  The Rivals’.

The downside perhaps for American TV execs is that she has a strong accent thanks to her upbringing in Newcastle in the North of England. Will she be able to be understood in America where the accent is not known and therefore not easy to understand? Will she have to tone it down or change it? Time will tell.

Photo: rustyallie

Simon Cowell Leaving UK X Factor for US X Factor

Posted by Tracy in Entertainment, TV

In a widely anticipated move the TV mogul Simon Cowell has finally announced that he will not be a judge on the UK version of X Factor, preferring to concentrate on the 1st season on the US X Factor.

This could spell bad news for the UK version of the show where Simon Cowell is the linchpin of the program and extremely popular with viewers.

It was the program that really took his career to another level and has picked from obscurity artists who are now multi-million selling artists.

Leona Lewis is probably the most successful to come out of the program with No. 1 albums in both the US and Europe. Many other acts from the show have gone on to achieve success in Europe such as JLS and Alexandra Burke.

It also looks likely that another of the UK X Factor judges will also make the same move away from the UK to the US version.

Cheryl Cole (who herself found fame on the pre-curser to the X Factor, Pop Stars – The Rivals) is rumoured to be heading across the Atlantic to be a judge on US X Factor, but it remains unconfirmed at the moment.

The only confirmed judges so far on US X Factor are Simon Cowell and the former CEO of Def Jam records LA Reid.

The US X Factor will show in September and the UK X Factor will be in August.

Simon talks about why he picked LA Reid to be his 1st judge.

Photo: Wiki_edit_Jonny

Brit Awards 2011 Nominees Announced

Posted by Sam in Entertainment, Music

The nominees for the Brit awards 2011 have been announced in London today for the awards ceremony.

The Rapper Tinie Tempah leads the way with 4 nominations. The 22 year old from South London is nominated for British male solo artist, British breakthrough act as well as single and album of the year.

Jessie J has already been confirmed as the winner of the critics choice award and is currently in the UK chart with her single ‘Do It Like a Dude’. She will perform at the launch event to be broadcast on Friday and said

“The expectation of me at the moment is so high, but I thrive on knowing people have that expectation.”

Photo: Rob Stemple

X factor – Simon Cowell gets annoyed

Posted by Sam in Entertainment

An allegedly furious Simon Cowell is defending the X factor saying that it is not fixed. The controversy of this series of the UK’s version of the American Idol talent show just keeps getting bigger and bigger.

Much of it seems to revolve around Cheryl Cole, it started when she didn’t put the obviously talented Gamu through in the the finals, even though 2 of the girls she did put through both had serious problems at the same auditions.

Then last week she refused to vote when both her girls were up for elimination and then the host Dermot O’Leary refused to take into account her vote as she changed her mind after the others had voted.

If he had then the decision of who should go would have fallen to the person who had the fewest votes in the public phone in. Allegedly this would have been Katie, who eventually stayed to fight it out next time.

All this has left a sour taste in X factor fans mouths and Ofcom, the TV regulator, has received over a thousand complaints so far.

Seemingly now more of a soap opera than a talent show, it just begs the question, “What will happen this week?!”

Photo by Wiki_edit_Jonny