Fan Fare
Entertainment behind the scenes
Jason Segel sings for love, or a one-night stand — whatever works
In an age when celebrities guard their privacy like gold, Jason Segel goes a different route. On Wednesday night, the “How I Met Your Mother” star stopped by a Swell Season show in Los Angeles, where he gave an impromptu performance and sang out what he said was his phone number, proclaiming that he wanted to use his “celebrity status to make love to a Swell Season fan tonight.”
Click here to see a video of the comedic performance, complete with Swell Season pianist/singer Marketa Irglova holding up a placard with Segel’s supposed number, with its Syracuse, New York, area code. Segel’s song featured lyrics that asked concertgoers to call him for a hook-up, but only if they’re “disease free,” and he made liberal reference to his full frontal nude scene in last year’s “Forgetting Sarah Marshall,” which he said involved “no special effects.”
Before the song, Swell Season singer Glen Hansard introduced Segel by saying that he had bumped into the actor at a hotel bar, along with Paul Rudd, Segel’s co-star from the movie “I Love You, Man.” Hansard, who himself starred in a movie, the 2007 film “Once,” in which he and Irglova played struggling musicians trying to make one great album, said at the concert that he, Segel and Rudd had engaged in a bout of drinking, and things got “properly hairy.” Supposedly, the Segel performance resulted from that.
For the record, this is not Segel’s first musical foray, check out this link to him performing a comic serenade on Craig Ferguson’s late night talk show. 
Britney Spears lip-synching! What’s new?
Britney Spears? Lip-synching? “Whateverrrr” as the pop princess might put it herself.
Britney has been lip-synching her way through her “comeback” world tour for the past six months, so it’s a bit of a mystery why it’s caused such a fuss in Australia.
Natalie Cole performs comeback show after kidney transplant
Singer Natalie Cole on Wednesday night gave her first show since her kidney transplant, in a Los Angeles performance backed by an orchestra.
“I never thought I’d be standing here healthy, whole and 100 percent again,” Cole told the crowd, the Los Angeles Times reported.
Madonna booed in Bucharest over Gypsy remarks
Pop star Madonna was booed during a concert in Bucharest, Romania, on Wednesday night when she urged the Eastern European crowd to be tolerant of Roma, otherwise known as the Gypsy population.
The Roma have recently been the victims of targeted killings in Hungary, and they face discrimination in many parts of Europe.
Leonard Cohen returning to U.S. tour circuit in fall
Hallelujah, indeed. Leonard Cohen, in all his sartorial splendor, will kick off the second and final leg of his North American tour in Ft. Lauderdale, Fla., on Oct. 17.
The 74-year-old Canadian singer/songwriter has scheduled 15 dates through Nov. 13 in San Jose, Calif. It was not immediately clear if there would be any additional stops.
Britney Spears takes it home “one more time”
Fresh off her announcement that she would tour Australia for the first time ever, Britney Spears on Wednesday revealed that she will also come back to North America for an
extension of her “The Circus” tour.
Spears will play arenas in 20 cities, starting with an Aug. 20 show in Hamilton, Ontario, and ending on Sept. 27 in Las Vegas. In between, Spears and company will touch down in Atlanta, Chicago, New York, Boston, Philadelphia, Miami and Los Angeles, amid other stops.
Aerosmith takes flight in June after being grounded in 2008
Summer’s almost here, and the time is right for Aerosmith’s first North American shows in almost two years.
America’s rock ‘n’ roll bad boys, sidelined last year by singer Steven Tyler’s rehab stint and guitarist Joe Perry’s bad knee, said Monday they would begin a three-month amphitheater tour in St. Louis on June 10.
The trek will take the band to 33 cities, including Washington on June 21, Houston on July 17, Chicago on Aug. 28, Toronto on Sept. 3, and finally Detroit on Sept. 16. Opening act ZZ Top will join the tour on June 16, when Aerosmith play to a hometown crowd in Boston.
Canadian smokers drive Britney Spears from stage
Britney Spears walked off the stage early during her concert in Vancouver on Wednesday, leaving stunned fans to boo and chant for half an hour while her handlers dealt with what they later delicately described as “a ventilation issue.” Translation: some of her crew members were reportedly sickened by the cigarette – or perhaps another sort of – smoke.
According to the Vancouver Sun review, the pop princess sang a few songs after taking to the stage at GM Place a little after 8:17 p.m. local time. But soon the stage mysteriously went dark, inspiring a few outbursts from impatient fans. A voice eventually came over the loudspeaker: “It’s become uncomfortable and unsafe for the performers, including Ms. Spears,” according to the report. “The show will resume as soon as the air around the stage is clear.”
Is Jacko really set to thrill again?
Will Jacko really do it this time? And after almost four years as a virtual recluse, will the self-styled “King of Pop” prove worthy of his crown?
News that Michael Jackson is flying to London this week to make a “special announcement” on Thursday sparked a flurry of expectations that he is planning a series of comeback concerts in the British capital later this year.
Jessica Simpson leaves some fans feeling cheated
Singer Jessica Simpson has left some concert goers feeling like they paid good money for a bummer of a show, after she told an audience in Grand Rapids, Michigan, on Thursday that she felt like walking off stage. An entertainment editor at the Grand Rapids Press reported that Simpson took a swig from a water bottle while her backup singers took over lead vocals on one song, and that she had the band start over on another tune.
Simpson’s poorly received performance at the show, where she opened for country band Rascal Flatts, comes as the pop star recovers from last week’s media storm over photos that gave the impression she had gained weight. Even though stars like the curvaceous Kim Kardashian came to her defense, it was a rough week for Simpson.
