thedrifter
05-14-06, 09:30 AM
Posted on Sun, May. 14, 2006
Godsmack takes flak
George Rush and Joanna Molloy Star Talk
The rocker with the country's No. 1 album just got ambushed over selling his songs to the military.
Sully Erna, lead singer and lyricist of Godsmack, whose CD "IV" tops the Billboard charts this week, got defensive when confronted by editor Jay Babcock in the current issue of Arthur magazine. Babcock asked about the use of "Awake" and "Sick of Life" for U.S. Navy recruiting commercials.
"You're proud of recruiting your fans into the military?" Babcock asked, to which Erna replied, "Well, no. I actually sympathize with a lot of the soldiers, and the military in general, that are trained to go out and protect us." But he added, "I don't tell people to go join the military."
Babcock pressed, "You don't think using... the power of your music has an effect on people?"
Erna, a native of working-class Lawrence, Mass., who practices the Wicca religion, countered: "Oh, man, are you like one of those guys that agrees with some kid that tied a noose around his neck because Judas Priest lyrics told him to?
"It's energetic music. People feel that they get an adrenaline rush out of it. But I doubt very seriously that a kid is going to join the Marines or the U.S. Navy because he heard Godsmack in the commercial.
"They're gonna go and join the Navy because they want to jump out of helicopters and... shoot people! Or protect the country or whatever it is, and look at the cool infrared goggles."
Neither a Universal Records spokesman nor the Navy recruiting spokesman could tell us how much Godsmack made for the licensing of the songs.
Erna concluded: "An opportunity came up, they wanted to use some music for a recruit commercial. What are we gonna say -- no?"
Clinton fundraiser|
It seems like only yesterday that Rupert Murdoch's New York Post was gnawing on the leg of Hillary Clinton as she ran for the U.S. Senate in 2000. But just to show you that pigs sometimes fly, Murdoch is now planning to hold a July fundraiser for Madam Senator.
Clinton once denounced the "vast right-wing conspiracy" that used Murdoch's Fox News as a transmitter. But more recently, she toasted him at the network's anniversary party. "Murdoch will be for the Republicans, but he is also smart enough to know that the Republicans might not win," one source told Britain's Financial Times.
On Tuesday, co-hosting a Manufacturing Caucus round table with Sen. Lindsey Graham. R-S.C., Clinton joked, "Lindsey and I are also chairs of the strange-bedfellows committee."
A reporter joked that Murdoch would be that committee's finance chairman, prompting Hillary to say, "He's my constituent, and I'm very gratified that he thinks I'm doing a good job."
The New York Daily News' Michael McAuliff tells us that when asked about the feelings of constituents who don't like Murdoch's brand of news-gathering, Clinton said: "I'm not going to comment on that."
P.S. Murdoch's son, Lachlan, has another soldier in his rumored battle with Murdoch's third wife, Wendi, over whose children will one day control the family empire. Lachlan's wife, Sarah, just gave birth to Aidan Patrick Murdoch, who joins his 18-month-old brother, Kalan.
Surveillance|
• Indiana Pacers legend Reggie Miller came to play at Vegas' Mirage Hotel on Monday. Getting into the spirit of the Jet Lounge's Cheat on Your Boyfriend Night, Miller spent most of the evening guarding the exquisite body of "Kill Bill" actress (and former 50 Cent flame) Vivica A. Fox.
• Jordan's Queen Rania had lunch on Monday with Paul Newman, who filled her in on his Hole in the Wall Camp charity. Her foxy majesty later headed to the Metropolitan Museum of Art, where she introduced Katie Couric, Harvey Weinstein, Elizabeth Vargas and Deborah Norville to "Ben & Izzy," animated stars of a Jordanian TV series that teaches tolerance. The queen sat next to emcee Barbara Walters, who couldn't rise unless the queen did.
• Aidan Quinn and Lorraine Bracco huddled with "Sopranos" casting czarina Georgianne Walken at the benefit for The New York Foundling and The Felix Organization at Lucia Giudice's Puccio Galleries. Lorraine's sister, Elizabeth, who's married to Aidan, plays Marie Spatafore (wife of gay wiseguy Vito) on the mob show.
Side dish|
• Rosie O'Donnell thinks she has the cure for what ails her former "crush" Tom Cruise. "He needs to go to celebrity detox," the comedian said at Monday's annual Madeline Kahn benefit for the Ovarian Cancer Research Fund at Carolines on Broadway. "Other celebrities will help him submerge into the real world. We'll take him to the mall, to the movie theater, make him stand on lines. No assistants or cell phones allowed. He'll breathe. Just breathe." It worked for Rosie.
• Could Rhode Island Rep. Patrick Kennedy have turned to painkillers to dull the ache of a wounded heart? The Camelot heir has been yearning for the company of ex-girlfriend Tatiana Platt, even though she's now married to New York architect Campion Platt, reports the Boston Herald. Kennedy's office had no immediate comment.
• Could Mark Wahlberg and his entourage have stopped the 9/11 hijackers? The actor says he and some buddies booked seats on one of the flights from Boston to L.A. that tragic day, but later decided to depart from Toronto. "We certainly would have tried to do something (to fight)," the brawny "Invincible" star tells Webster Hall's Baird Jones. "I've had probably over 50 dreams about it."
• Paris Hilton, who recently dumped Stavros Niarchos for USC quarterback Matt Leinart, stayed with girlfriends in the $25,000-a-night, 7,000-square-foot Sky Villa at Vegas' new Palms Fantasy Tower.
• Mike Myers ambushed improv-lovers at the Magnet Theater with shagedelic new material. He also hung out to play Hacky Sack with them.
• Condi Rice had to scratch her lunch date Monday at Michael's, but the West 55th Street power trough was still humming with Katie Couric, Rudy and Judith Giuliani, Vernon Jordan, Mike Medavoy and prosecutor-turned-novelist Linda Fairstein (celebrating her birthday with Faye Wattleton, Judge Kimba Wood and Lynn Sherr).
• Sens. Frank Lautenberg and Lincoln Chafee talked about the Endangered Species Act last week with Brie Larson and Eric Phillips, stars of Walden Media's "Hoot."
Ellie
Godsmack takes flak
George Rush and Joanna Molloy Star Talk
The rocker with the country's No. 1 album just got ambushed over selling his songs to the military.
Sully Erna, lead singer and lyricist of Godsmack, whose CD "IV" tops the Billboard charts this week, got defensive when confronted by editor Jay Babcock in the current issue of Arthur magazine. Babcock asked about the use of "Awake" and "Sick of Life" for U.S. Navy recruiting commercials.
"You're proud of recruiting your fans into the military?" Babcock asked, to which Erna replied, "Well, no. I actually sympathize with a lot of the soldiers, and the military in general, that are trained to go out and protect us." But he added, "I don't tell people to go join the military."
Babcock pressed, "You don't think using... the power of your music has an effect on people?"
Erna, a native of working-class Lawrence, Mass., who practices the Wicca religion, countered: "Oh, man, are you like one of those guys that agrees with some kid that tied a noose around his neck because Judas Priest lyrics told him to?
"It's energetic music. People feel that they get an adrenaline rush out of it. But I doubt very seriously that a kid is going to join the Marines or the U.S. Navy because he heard Godsmack in the commercial.
"They're gonna go and join the Navy because they want to jump out of helicopters and... shoot people! Or protect the country or whatever it is, and look at the cool infrared goggles."
Neither a Universal Records spokesman nor the Navy recruiting spokesman could tell us how much Godsmack made for the licensing of the songs.
Erna concluded: "An opportunity came up, they wanted to use some music for a recruit commercial. What are we gonna say -- no?"
Clinton fundraiser|
It seems like only yesterday that Rupert Murdoch's New York Post was gnawing on the leg of Hillary Clinton as she ran for the U.S. Senate in 2000. But just to show you that pigs sometimes fly, Murdoch is now planning to hold a July fundraiser for Madam Senator.
Clinton once denounced the "vast right-wing conspiracy" that used Murdoch's Fox News as a transmitter. But more recently, she toasted him at the network's anniversary party. "Murdoch will be for the Republicans, but he is also smart enough to know that the Republicans might not win," one source told Britain's Financial Times.
On Tuesday, co-hosting a Manufacturing Caucus round table with Sen. Lindsey Graham. R-S.C., Clinton joked, "Lindsey and I are also chairs of the strange-bedfellows committee."
A reporter joked that Murdoch would be that committee's finance chairman, prompting Hillary to say, "He's my constituent, and I'm very gratified that he thinks I'm doing a good job."
The New York Daily News' Michael McAuliff tells us that when asked about the feelings of constituents who don't like Murdoch's brand of news-gathering, Clinton said: "I'm not going to comment on that."
P.S. Murdoch's son, Lachlan, has another soldier in his rumored battle with Murdoch's third wife, Wendi, over whose children will one day control the family empire. Lachlan's wife, Sarah, just gave birth to Aidan Patrick Murdoch, who joins his 18-month-old brother, Kalan.
Surveillance|
• Indiana Pacers legend Reggie Miller came to play at Vegas' Mirage Hotel on Monday. Getting into the spirit of the Jet Lounge's Cheat on Your Boyfriend Night, Miller spent most of the evening guarding the exquisite body of "Kill Bill" actress (and former 50 Cent flame) Vivica A. Fox.
• Jordan's Queen Rania had lunch on Monday with Paul Newman, who filled her in on his Hole in the Wall Camp charity. Her foxy majesty later headed to the Metropolitan Museum of Art, where she introduced Katie Couric, Harvey Weinstein, Elizabeth Vargas and Deborah Norville to "Ben & Izzy," animated stars of a Jordanian TV series that teaches tolerance. The queen sat next to emcee Barbara Walters, who couldn't rise unless the queen did.
• Aidan Quinn and Lorraine Bracco huddled with "Sopranos" casting czarina Georgianne Walken at the benefit for The New York Foundling and The Felix Organization at Lucia Giudice's Puccio Galleries. Lorraine's sister, Elizabeth, who's married to Aidan, plays Marie Spatafore (wife of gay wiseguy Vito) on the mob show.
Side dish|
• Rosie O'Donnell thinks she has the cure for what ails her former "crush" Tom Cruise. "He needs to go to celebrity detox," the comedian said at Monday's annual Madeline Kahn benefit for the Ovarian Cancer Research Fund at Carolines on Broadway. "Other celebrities will help him submerge into the real world. We'll take him to the mall, to the movie theater, make him stand on lines. No assistants or cell phones allowed. He'll breathe. Just breathe." It worked for Rosie.
• Could Rhode Island Rep. Patrick Kennedy have turned to painkillers to dull the ache of a wounded heart? The Camelot heir has been yearning for the company of ex-girlfriend Tatiana Platt, even though she's now married to New York architect Campion Platt, reports the Boston Herald. Kennedy's office had no immediate comment.
• Could Mark Wahlberg and his entourage have stopped the 9/11 hijackers? The actor says he and some buddies booked seats on one of the flights from Boston to L.A. that tragic day, but later decided to depart from Toronto. "We certainly would have tried to do something (to fight)," the brawny "Invincible" star tells Webster Hall's Baird Jones. "I've had probably over 50 dreams about it."
• Paris Hilton, who recently dumped Stavros Niarchos for USC quarterback Matt Leinart, stayed with girlfriends in the $25,000-a-night, 7,000-square-foot Sky Villa at Vegas' new Palms Fantasy Tower.
• Mike Myers ambushed improv-lovers at the Magnet Theater with shagedelic new material. He also hung out to play Hacky Sack with them.
• Condi Rice had to scratch her lunch date Monday at Michael's, but the West 55th Street power trough was still humming with Katie Couric, Rudy and Judith Giuliani, Vernon Jordan, Mike Medavoy and prosecutor-turned-novelist Linda Fairstein (celebrating her birthday with Faye Wattleton, Judge Kimba Wood and Lynn Sherr).
• Sens. Frank Lautenberg and Lincoln Chafee talked about the Endangered Species Act last week with Brie Larson and Eric Phillips, stars of Walden Media's "Hoot."
Ellie