Fan Fare

A kiss — just a kiss? Or a scandal?

Back in the 1940s and the “Casablanca” era,  a kiss was famously “just a kiss”

Not any more.

It’s been seven years since Britney Spears and Madonna notoriously  locked lips in a live MTV Music Video Awards show. But women kissing women (or just pretending to) is still making front page news, whether it’s Miley Cyrus on a “Britain’s Got Talent” performance last week, or Sandra Bullock at the MTV Movie Awards show this weekend.

(And let’s not even revisit the Adam Lambert male-on-male kiss furor last November)

But while Bullock’s apparently rehearsed smooch with Scarlett Johansson was mostly seen as just good fun, Miley Cyrus’ kiss (that she now protests wasn’t really a kiss although it may have looked like it)  with a female dancer has not gone down so well, especially with fans of the Disney teen star.

Cyrus, 17, has found herself making plenty of headlines in the past few weeks as she tries to carve a new, more grown-up image  since finishing shooting the final series of Disney Channel’s tween hit series “Hannah Montana.”

What would Madonna do (WWMD) on “Glee”?

Tuesday night’s much-hyped homage to “the most powerful woman ever to walk the face of the earth” on Fox’s breakout hit show, Glee, was all about asking, “What would Madonna do?”

(Acerbic cheerleading coach Sue Sylvester’s response: “Well, the answer to that question would normally be: date a younger man.”)

The episode highlighted nearly three decades of the Material Girl’s music, looks and influence on pop culture and was filled with the show’s traditional one-line zingers. Actor Corey Monteith (Finn Hudson) tweeted that the rumor was that Madonna herself watched the episode with creator, Ryan Murphy.

The theme was all about empowerment and what better role model than Madonna for everything from women’s equality (a slick “Express Yourself” number by the girls) to self-image (a frame-by-frame Sue Sylvester (Jane Lynch) tribute to the 1990 video “Vogue”).

It also featured a triple storyline on being touched for the very first time (need we spell out which song that was set to?).  As Cheerios Brittany explained, “The way to get a man to follow you forever? Take his virginity. Madonna wrote a song about it.”

Glee fans go wild for Sue’s “Vogue” video. But did it work?

“Glee” s scheming cheerleading coach  Sue Sylvester’s parody of a 1990 Madonna music video got its much anticipated premiere on Tuesday night. But did it live up to its billing?

Reactions to the black-and-white remake of Madonna’s  “Vogue” video have been mixed, with some fans (especially those too young to remember the 1990 original)  saying they were confused as to whether it was supposed to be funny, while others raved about the subtle homage to one of the world’s most influential pop stars. The video, which will be featured again as part of next week’s Madonna-themed “Glee” episode. But here it is for those who can’t wait that long.

According to Fox,  it is part of a subplot that sees choir members Kurt and Mercedes give Sue a makeover in an episode that sees all the girls embrace their strength and independence.

Entertainment Weekly asked if Sue  (played by actress Jane Lynch) “put enough of herself in ‘Vogue.’?

One “Glee” fan called it a “big missed opportunity to be funnier or nastier”. On Twitter, where “Glee” was among the top 5 trending topics on Wednesday, one fan said “oh GLEE, i don’t watch you but after seeing jane’s vogue. i think i should start.” Fox said a record 13.7 million audience tuned-in to “Glee” on Tuesday, almost double the previous average. Such was the volume of traffic to the official www.gleeforum.com that the site crashed on Wednesday.

But there were no doubts about the adulation for actress Jane Lynch,  whose snarky character and cutting put-downs are fast becoming one of the biggest attractions of “Glee”. “What can I say, she has charisma, uniqueness, nerve and talent….I LOVE HER!” wrote one fan on Hulu.com of Lynch.

Getting Glee -ful with Madonna, Vogue and Sue Sylvester

Musical TV comedy “Glee” might be centered on a group of high school misfits, but devious cheerleading coach Sue  Sylvester  is likely to be stealing the show for the next couple of weeks with her “Vogue”  mini video homage to Madonna.

Sylvester, played by actress Jane Lynch, stars in the three-minute video in the highly-anticipated April 20 episode devoted to cover versions of Madonna hits. But fans will get a sneak preview on Tuesday night when “Glee” returns to U.S. TV screens after a four month absence.

The “Vogue” video focuses on the snarky Sylvester getting a Madonna-like makeover from Glee club students Kurt and Mercedes. It is  described by Fox as a shot-by-shot recreation of Madonna’s own black and white  music video for her 1990 hit single.

The original Madonna video recalled the look of 1930 Hollywood glamor and was voted No.5  in a 2006 MTV list of the “Top 100 Videos That Broke The Rules”.

All in all it’s been a fun-packed few days for Lynch.  The 49 year-old actress this week  confirmed reports that she was engaged to her longtime girlfriend, psychologist Lara Embry.

“I’m thrilled. Great, it’s really great. I never thought that this is something I wanted,” Lynch told People magazine. “It’s just the greatest thrill in the world to find somebody that you want to be with every day.”

Madonna, Ellen DeGeneres are related, say genealogists

What do Madonna and Ellen DeGeneres have in common? Relatives, if the genealogy researchers at Ancestry.com are right. The family history experts at Ancestry.com have found that Madonna and DeGeneres are related through a common 10th great-grandfather — a Frenchman called Martin Aucoin — so they are 11th cousins.

“In the early 1600s, Aucoin’s daughters Jeanne and Michele left their native country of France to settle in Nova Scotia, where  both Madonna and Ellen’s families remained for several generations,” according to a statement from Ancestry.com.

DeGeneres’ family left Canada in the late 1700s when her 5th great-grandfather Joseph Martin relocated to Louisiana and in the late 1870s Madonna’s 2nd great-grandmother Emilie Daniel left Quebec for Michigan, which the singer calls home.

“It’s not every day you discover two celebrity icons are related, but it’s their similarities that make the connection so extraordinary,” said Anastasia Tyler, a genealogist at Ancestry.com. “They were born the same year, have both written books and been on tour, are known for their impressive dance moves – and with Ellen’s latest gig on ‘American Idol’ – are both legendary figures on the music scene.”

The new-found family connection between DeGeneres and Madonna is one of many interesting discoveries uncovered by Ancestry.com. In 2009, the family history Web site connected financier Warren Buffett to President Obama and also revealed that Emma Watson, who plays Hermione in the “Harry Potter” movie series, is related to a 16th-century woman accused of witchcraft.

Lindsay Lohan = Oprah, Madonna?

Umm. No. — at least according to a poll by celebrity market researcher E-Poll.

Lohan — former Disney child star, turned member of the “Mean Girls,” then media sensation, before plunging into alcohol and drug abuse and going to rehab, from which she emerged to a troubled acting career and then flopped in the world of fashion, all before she turns 24 years old this year  — has sued E*Trade Financial Corp, seeking $100 million for an advertisement that Lohan claims wrongly uses her “likeness, name, characterization, and personality” without permission, violating her right of privacy. The ad involves toddlers. Read that story here.

Importantly, the ad uses only a first name, Lindsay, and of course there are millions of Lindsay’s in the world. Still, a lawyer for Lohan told the New York Post that the Hollywood actress has the same “single-name” recognition as celebrities like Oprah Winfrey and Madonna. Really?

E-Poll, which makes a business out of asking questions like these and selling that information to companies looking for details about celebrity and pop culture, has come up with some different results. E-Poll recently asked a similar question of people and here’s what it found. In the name awareness category, Lindsay Lohan had a 77 percent rating to Oprah Winfrey’s 89 percent and Madonna’s 91 percent. Not bad, Lindsay LOHAN, but not quite the same — and not on a single name. E-Poll, by the way, is in no way affiliated with E*Trade. The two companies just share a first letter. (Hey, maybe they should sue each other).

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.

In an effort to bring attention to that, Madonna took a break from performing during her concert in Bucharest to say, “I’ve been paying attention to news reports, and it’s been brought to my attention that there’s a lot of discrimination against Romanies and Gypsies in general in Eastern Europe, and that makes me feel very sad,” she said. “Because we don’t believe in discrimination against anyone, we believe in freedom and equal rights for everyone, right?”

In reaction, Madonna got boos from the crowd, although some fans also showed support for her comments by applauding. Many Roma in Eastern Europe live below the poverty line, and in parts of Eastern Europe it has been common for some to show their hatred of the Roma by displaying the swastika and other Nazi symbols. Many Eastern Europeans have also bristled at any criticism of the way the Roma are treated in their countries, especially if it comes from someone who is not from that part of the world. As a visitor on tour  from the United States, Madonna no doubt ran into that obstacle with the crowd in Bucharest.

See the reaction from a member of the audience with a handheld camera, in the video link below.

Madonna’s biceps become a controversy

So, Madonna penned an article about Jewish mysticism for an Israeli newspaper, and that made some headlines on Wednesday.

But the online world was still buzzing about a photo of the Material Girl that a pair of British newspapers put on their websites on Tuesday, showing Madonna’s arms looking veiny and bulging, like the guns an arm wrestling champion might sport, or a veteran seaman.

The photo was shown here on the website of British publication The Daily Mirror, and here at the Telegraph. (The photos shown on this blog page are from Reuters, and neither one is the photo in question of Madonna, which appears to have been taken on the street in London)

Liz Rosenberg, a spokeswoman for Madonna, said in an email to Reuters that the “4 Minutes” singer has been the victim of some strong-armed photo altering.

“Madonna’s arms do not look like the photo that has been shown this past week in papers and the photograph was obviously altered or photoshopped in some way,” Rosenberg said. “Like Michelle Obama, Madonna has beautiful and very impressive arms.”

Michelle Obama, the U.S. first lady, was the subject of endless media reports earlier this year, after she posed sleeveless in a White House portrait.

The Mirror and the Telegraph continued showing the picture on their websites on Wednesday. MatrixPhotos, which is credited in the Telegraph piece as the agency that took the photo, did not return an email from Reuters seeking comment.

Should Madonna be allowed to adopt again?

Madonna has won her appeal for the right to adopt a second child from Malawi, after a court overturned an earlier ruling blocking the bid, and the 50-year-old queen of pop is likely to face further criticism for her actions.

Local rights groups in Malawi have complained that Madonna has been given special treatment by the judicial system because of her status and wealth, and many people question whether taking a child from its native environment is necessarily a good thing.

Her divorce last year from Guy Ritchie, which has brought with it decisions over custody of their children, appears not to have concerned Malawi’s supreme court unduly. The Madonna brood already comprises daughter Lourdes, born in 1996, Ritchie’s son Rocco, born in 2000, and David Banda, a boy adopted from Malawi. Malawian Mercy James would make it four.

On Friday, Chief Justice Lovemore Munlo said Madonna had shown an interest in helping Malawi orphans and that four-year-old Mercy would have a better life with the star. Madonna has set up a charity called Raising Malawi which plans to build a school for girls in Chikhota village.

Do you think Malawi’s supreme court was right to overturn the earlier decision, thus allowing the adoption to go ahead?

Madonna releases picture with Malawian girl Mercy

For U.S. pop star Madonna, a photo speaks a thousand words.

She released a picture through Reuters on Monday of her holding a sleeping four-year-old Malawian girl named Mercy James, whom she still hopes to adopt despite a court ruling in the southern African country preventing her from doing so.

The photo was first published in Malawi’s Nation on Sunday newspaper. Madonna has lodged an appeal against a High Court decision earlier this month that said she could not adopt Mercy because she was not a resident of Malawi.

Malawi’s government came under fire after Madonna adopted a 13-month-old David Banda in 2006, with critics accusing it of giving the star special treatment by skirting laws that ban non-residents from adopting children.

“I want to provide Mercy with a home, a loving family environment and the best education and healthcare possible. And it’s my hope that she like David, will one day return to Malawi and help the people of their country,” Madonna told the Nation on Sunday newspaper.