Fan Fare

from UK News:

Raging against the X Factor machine

Simon Cowell says the Internet campaign to keep X factor winner Joe McElderry from the coveted Christmas No. I  spot is aimed at him rather than the type of music the show produces.

He calls the campaign stupid.

But critics of the show loathe what they call the "karaoke" of X Factor and thousands have backed the push to get an anti-establishment track by American rockers Rage Against the Machine up into the top slot next week.

The band's guitarist Tom Morello told the BBC: "I think people are just fed-up of being spoonfed some overblown sugary ballad that sits on top of the charts. It’s a little dose of anarchy for the holidays, it’s good for the soul.”

It's good for Sony too, analysts have noted, since both records are on its label.

Critics of the Internet campaign note that record numbers of viewers watched last weekend's X Factor final and millions voted for McElderry. If so many people like him, why should he not be No. I they ask.

What do you think?

Kanye West death hoax hits the Web

Kanye West is alive and well, despite an Internet hoax suggesting that the rap star died in a Los Angeles car crash on Tuesday.

A fake story was circulated via e-mail and on social networking websites saying that West was killed in a collision that left a second person injured, a third arrested for  manslaughter and a fourth person detained by police.

None of it was true. The rap star’s girlfriend, Amber Rose, posted a message on Twitter denying the story. “This ‘RIP Kanye West’ topic is not funny and it’s NOT TRUE!” she wrote, according to news website MTV.com. Her Twitter post has since been taken down.

By Wednesday afternoon, the Kanye death hoax was replaced on Twitter by the following popular wisecrack, repeated by several posters, “Whoever started the RIP Kanye West hoax, Imma let you finish, but Balloon Boy had the best hoax of all time!”

West, of course, interrupted singer Taylor Swift’s victory speech last month the MTV Video Music Awards with the words, “Yo Taylor, I’m really happy for you, I’ll let you finish, but Beyonce has one of the best videos of all time.”

West, who pulled out this month of a planned tour with singer Lady Gaga, isn’t the first celebrity to be the subject of a fake death report. But could it be the MTV incident that led the hoaxers to choose West as their target this time? If not,  why have the mystery hoaxers got it in for Kanye?

Gwyneth tells us: “Make your life good”

Gwyneth Paltrow might be wishing she had never ventured into the world of online lifestyle advice.

Her new site, goop.com, has irritated commentators on both sides of the Atlantic who say that the pearls of wisdom she shares with us are, at best, rather general, and at worst downright smug.

“My life is good because I am not passive about it,” writes the Hollywood star in her mission statement. “I want to nourish what is real, and I want to do it without wasting time.”

Elizabeth Renzetti wrote in the Globe and Mail: ”Why is it called Goop? Perhaps ‘Any Old Load of Rubbish’ and ‘Learn From Me, Ungrateful Peasant’ were both taken.

“In essence, Gwyneth would like to reach down from her aerie in north London and show you how to live, and shop, meaningfully,” she continues. ”Except that the point is completely moot: You and I will never be six-foot tall blonde goddesses constructed entirely of lentils and self-righteousness.”

Maria Russo of the Los Angeles Times criticizes not only the content, but the format of the new site, which is on the web in preview form. Click on the six sections (make, go, get, do, be, see) and you get the same statement from Ms. Paltrow.

“It’s not just that apparently no one wants to take life direction from the girl who has it all,” writes Russo. “There are also some more basic technical problems, starting with the layout of the two-page site. It’s not clear why she bothered to put it up with so little content. It feels like something that won an award for Web design in 1998.”