Fan Fare

Miley slips from teen idol perch — but does it matter?

Miley Cyrus’s status as a teen idol has taken a knock in a poll of teens and tweens, reflecting the tough time many celebrities have making the transition from child star to a young woman. But is she really the worst celebrity influence — on tweens — of the year?

The poll of 9-15 year olds on the web site JSYK.com seemed to suggest that Miley’s star might be fading after a roller-coaster three-year reign as one of the most popular teens in the world.

In some unsettling results, Miley was deemed to have a worse influence on her younger fans than the likes of Kanye West — who was almost universally condemned for hijacking Taylor Swift’s moment of glory at the MTV Video Music Awards in September — and Britney Spears — a sad example of the price of huge fame at an early age.

But Miley’s standings in the role model stakes don’t seem to be hurting her popularity. Her “Hannah Montana” show is still bringing in bumper ratings for Disney Channel and her latest single “Party in the USA” (the one that caused the fuss about pole dancing) is currently No.2 on the iTunes download charts.

So can Miley be seen as a bad influence but still retain her global popularity, or has she been overtaken by Taylor Swift?

And why do you think she has slipped so far in the opinion of the young fans who helped to rocket her to fame?

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?

Kanye West’s arena tour with Lady Gaga killed off

If Taylor Swift had any intentions of catching Kanye West on the rapper’s North American concert tour with Lady Gaga, she will now have to make other plans. The trek is off, according to a terse statement issued Thursday afternoon by concert promoter Live Nation.

“Live Nation announced today that the Kanye West and Lady Gaga ‘Fame Kills’ tour has been cancelled. Refunds are available at the point of purchase. Tickets purchased online and via phone will be refunded automatically.”

A spokesman for Live Nation declined to elaborate. Publicists for West and Lady Gaga could not be reached. The arena tour was supposed to begin on Nov. 10 in Phoenix, and wrap on Jan. 24 in Dallas.

Details of the tour were announced amid the worldwide furor that greeted West’s outburst at the MTV Video Music Awards last month, when the controversial star interrupted Swift’s acceptance speech to say that her prize should have gone to Beyonce instead. An apologetic West told comedian Jay Leno the following day that he planned to take some time off and “just analyze how I’m going to make it through the rest of this life, how I’m going to improve. Because I am a celebrity, and that’s something I have to deal with.”

Lady Gaga had eagerly discussed the tour, which would have been a stylish coming out for the biggest new star of 2009. Her album “The Fame” ranks as the best-selling debut album of the year in the United States with 1.3 million copies sold, according to Nielsen SoundScan, and has yielded two No. 1 singles: “Just Dance” and “Poker Face.” It’s also the fifth-biggest-selling album of the year overall in the U.S.

Kanye West and Taylor Swift — the backlash begins

When rap artist Kanye West took the microphone from country singer Taylor Swift at the MTV Video Music Awards on Sunday night and  told viewers that Beyonce should have won her award instead, he was not likely to win many friends.

And sure enough, celebrities have taken to the Web to denounce Kanye’s actions faster than viral video of the incident, which you can view here.

Pop star Kelly Clarkson wrote a kind of open letter to West in a profanity-laden blog post, “I was actually nominated in the same category that Taylor won and I was excited for her … so why can’t you be?? … I just pity you because you’re a sad human being.”

“I Kissed a Girl” singer Katy Perry wrote a crude insult to West on her Twitter page, and then had this summation to describe the rap star’s actions, “It’s like U stepped on a kitten.”

And this year’s “American Idol” runner-up Adam Lambert wrote on his Twitter page, “Kanye needs to chill. He freaks out every year. It ain’t that deep man.”

What did West himself have to say about the whole brouhaha that got him kicked out of the VMAs?

Soon after the incident, he posted an apology to the 19 year-old Swift on his blog. But he has since taken it down.  Celebrity website TMZ reported that West passed through a New York airport on Monday morning, but he had nothing to say about the incident to the paparazzi on hand.

O’Jays set to be honored at BET Awards in Los Angeles

The “Love Train” is chugging to the BET Awards in Los Angeles on Sunday, when legendary soul trio the O’Jays will receive a lifetime achievement honor during the ninth annual celebration of black musicians, actors and athletes. 

The trio, which rose to fame in the 1970s with such Gamble & Huff-produced tunes as “Back Stabbers,” “For the Love of Money” and the chart-topping “Love Train,” will perform at the Shrine Auditorium event. Their award will be presented by Tyrese, Trey Songz and Johnny Gill. 

The ceremony will air live for East Coast viewers of the BET cable network at 8 p.m. EDT, with a three-hour tape delay for those on the West Coast.

Jamie Foxx will both host and perform. Other artists scheduled to take the stage include Beyonce, Jay-Z, Kanye West, Keri Hilson, Keyshia Cole, Mary Mary, Maxwell, Ne-Yo, Queen Latifah, Soulja Boy, T-Pain, and Young Jeezy.

Foxx, Ne-Yo and T-Pain are among the nominees for best male R&B artist; the female category includes Beyonce, Hilson and Cole. The race for best male hip-hop artist includes West and Young Jeezy. While there are five nominees in each of those categories, just three made the cut for best female hip-hop artist: Lil Mama, M.I.A. and Trina.

Kanye West feels “murdered” by South Park swipe

Kanye West said on Thursday his ego was a little bruised by his less than flattering depiction on ”South Park,” which portrayed the rapper as, well, egocentric.

West wrote on his blog in his customary all-caps style that the long-running animated satire  “murdered” him, but that it was funny.

“It hurts my feelings, but what can you expect from ’South Park’!” he wrote. “I actually have been working on my ego though.”

“… I just wanna be a doper person, which starts with me not always telling people how dope I think I am,” West wrote. “I just need to get past myself, drop the bravado and just make dope product.”  

What prompted this burst of humility from an artist who has previously called himself “the face of the Grammys” and said he wants to be better than Elvis Presley?

On Wednesday night’s show, “South Park” portrayed West as a man who could not understand a joke about “gay fish.” His animated character’s response: “Hey, man. I’m a genius. I’m the most talented musician in the world. If I was a homosexual or a fish, I would know.”  By the end of the show, the makers of “South Park” had brought West back to the screen as (what else?) a gay fish. The show from Trey Parker and Matt Stone is a staple of cable channel Comedy Central.

And by the way, no one should expect West to start another rap war. In his blog, he described rapper Lil Wayne as “the nicest guy,” implying that the New Orleans-born Wayne is someone to emulate.

No love lost between Kanye West and paparazzi

There’s not much love lost between off-duty celebrities and the paparazzi, but Kanye West really, really doesn’t like them.

The rapper was briefly arrested in northern England on Thursday night after an apparent altercation with a photographer outside a night club in the city of Newcastle.

Photographer Tony Blackburn claimed West lashed out as he was leaving the club with some female company, shoving the camera into the snapper’s face and causing a small cut on his nose.

British police didn’t think the incident merited a charge against West after questioning him about it. But it all sounded reminiscent of a scuffle West had in September at Los Angeles International airport with a photographer and a TV camerman that ended with a broken camera.

West wasn’t charged in that case either.

Tearful Oprah pledges “whatever it takes” to elect Obama

It’s no surprise talk show host Oprah Winfrey was wowed by Sen. Barack Obama’s speech in Denver. After all, she endorsed him last year and may have swayed early primary voters in Obama’s direction.

But O went beyond just being enthused by Obama’s speech on Thursday, as the presidential candidate accepted the Democratic Party nomination. “Just seeing him on stage, I cried my eyelashes off,” Winfrey told a reporter with the TV show Entertainment Tonight.

Rapper Kanye West, 31, who was with Winfrey, was also effusive about the speech. “It changed my life,” West told ET. In reaction to West, Winfrey went on to say it changed her life, too. “We have to do whatever it takes to get him in office,” she said.

The Democratic National Convention in Denver was a virtual who’s who of celebrity backers with actors Ben Affleck and Jennifer Garner, who are married, showing up. There were director Steven Spielberg, actor Forest Whitaker and singer Jennifer Lopez, and that’s not even counting the stars — including Stevie Wonder — who performed on-stage at the DNC.

Obama’s rival in the run for the White House, Republican Senator John McCain, has attacked Obama as little more than a celebrity himself in a campaign advertisement.

But McCain also has his own stable of celebrity backers. Actor Dean Cain, 42, who played Superman on the 1990s television show “Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman,” spoke of his support for McCain to Larry King on cable network CNN following Obama’s speech.

McCain also has the support of Latin singer Daddy Yankee and reality star Heidi Montag. Stay tuned — as they say in television — to see what kind of star power turns out for the Republican National Convention, which starts on Monday.

“Who are you calling angry?” demands Kanye West

Rapper Kanye West is not pleased. He is fed up with media rumours. Having just denied that he has a painting of himself as an angel up in his house, he is now using his blog to deny he has anger management issues.

“Now the media is saying I’m going to anger management something or ‘nother. I have never had any conversations about anger management. If anything, I need anger enhancement!! lol! I get off the plane in Hawaii today and the world is saying my management team said blah blah blah… SIIIIIIGGGHHHH! I told the media you can’t make up lies about me because I have a media outlet myself. Oh and sidebar I don’t know if everyone has realized this yet but I don’t do interviews if there’s anything I wanna say I’ll say right here on my own blog,” writes West.