There’s improvement regarding R Kelly’s kiddie porn trial. As of Tuesday night, eight jurors have been chosen with eight more to go. Three of those jurors were chosen on Monday with the remaining five being appointed on Tuesday. Of the selected jurors thus far, five are men and three are women. Four are African Americans and four are white. There was even one chosen who was studying criminal justice and commented on wanting to become a police officer. I hope they finish jury selection soon so they can start on the R&B singer. The sooner he goes to jail, the better.

Forget Ozzfest as you know it because the annual summer heavy-metal rock concert is changing things up this year by no longer touring the country and performing nonstop. Instead, they will be making Ozzfest a one-day mega event. It will take place in Dallas at the Pizza Hut Park on Saturday, August 9th with headliners Metallica and Ozzy Osbourne. Manager Sharon Osbourne commented on the change saying “Ozzy just finished an 11-month world tour, so I think he deserves a summer off. We’re going to be a stadium destination festival for now — we have gone past doing the sheds every summer. We’ve given everyone else the blueprint and we have to keep evolving Ozzfest.”

Neil Young is the inspiration behind the name of a newly discovered species of spider. Myrmekiaphila neilyoungi is a trapdoor spider, named this week by biologist Jason Bond.

Well that’s different. I can’t say I’ve always dreamed of having an insect named after me. Stars, planets, streets maybe…but not spiders.

In a statement, Bond said, “I really enjoy his music and have had a great appreciation of him as an activist for peace and justice.”

The biologist from East Carolina University discovered the spider in Jefferson County, Alabama last year. There is then a procedure for given a species a name but Bond followed protocol and worked Neil Young into its name.

Spider species are identified by their genitalia. It was unknown at press time if Neil had to be examined for comparisons as well.

Mick Hucknall says that ‘ginger’ jibes are as bad as racism. The flame-haired singer has hit out at “bullies” who mock people born with the vibrant hair colour.

He said: “When it comes to name calling for being ginger or for the way you talk, then that’s simple bullying. It worries me to think how seven year-olds running around a playground could get bullied just for the colour of their hair. It’s like racism, not the same but the principle is similar. It has become acceptable to mock people for the colour of their hair. But at the end of the day, you’ve just got to ignore the jibes and get on with things.”

Hucknall - who has dated a string of beautiful women including Catherine Zeta Jones and Martine McCutcheon - claims people only insult him because they are jealous.

He added: “The truth is if you’re successful, you’ve sold a load of albums and slept with a load of women - and all the rest of it is just pure envy.”

While it was questionable that American Idol featured him as a mentor, Neil Diamond is proving that he’s back in a big way. According to Billboard, the singer is on his way to securing the #1 album spot next week with his new release ‘Home Before Dark’. It would be funny if it’s true because he will be dethroning Madonna and her ‘Hard Candy’. Another interesting tidbit, it will be his first #1 in the over 40 years of his in the biz. Billboard makes it a point to say that it’s Mother’s Day weekend and Neil’s music is totally mommy music.

Even Paul McCartney is getting in with the trends as he has announced that he’s going to give away his current studio album ‘Memory Almost Full’ in the May 18th edition of the UK’s Daily Mail. It’s not new though, it’s already been out for months! So why give it away for free now? The release has sold 100,000 copies but if he gives it away, it has the potential to reach 2 million homes. The paper’s managing director commented on the deal with Sir Paul saying “If you look at how he came to do the Starbucks’ album deal, it was a result of feeling unhappy with the music industry and looking at alternative ways of distribution. I can’t think of anyone else who has come up with the right alternative distribution than us.”

Meat Loaf will never play live in any cold countries.

The rocker admits he hates chilly climates and was left stunned after his now-sacked management team told him they had booked him shows in Canada during February 2007.

The 60-year-old singer told Canada’s Globe and Mail newspaper: “I said, ‘Do not, under any circumstances, book me anywhere cold in the winter.’ And so they came back to me and said, ‘We’re going to book you in Canada in February.’ I said, ‘Well, why don’t we just play for penguins?’ ”

Meat Loaf – born Marvin Lee Aday – developed a bad sinus infection by the end of last year’s Canadian tour, leading him to describe his last performance in Ottawa as ‘atrocious’. He said of the concert: ‘I just wanted to bury my head in the sand… Or bury my head in the snow, I should say.”

Leon Hendrix, Jimi’s younger brother, has issued a statement claiming that the recently revealed sex tape of the guitar hero was a fake.

“The person in that film is not Jimi from what I have heard,” said Leon. “Yes, he had many female fans during that time and some may have been filmed. But this one is not Jimi Hendrix.”

Experience Hendrix, who control rights to Jimi Hendrix’s music and likeness, also questioned the tape’s authenticity, “We view the release as nothing more than a callous attempt to trade on the image and reputation of a deceased artist who is unable to defend himself against such an outrageous and baseless assertion.”

It looks like performing at the Grammy Awards earlier this year was all it required to inspire Tina Turner to get back to work. The Queen of R&B will start her first post-retirement tour in Kansas City in October.

Tina will make the official announcement for the tour this week on Oprah, but the show to air May 12 was recorded last week in Las Vegas. The show was shot in front of an audience of 4,000 so the news is not really a secret.

The now 68-year-old Tina Turner retired after her last tour in 2000. The Queen went out of top with the highest grossing tour of that year.

Tina originally made her name with former husband Ike in the Ike and Tina Turner Revue. They scored global hits with ‘Nutbush City Limits’ and a soul version of Credence Clearwater Revivals ‘Proud Mary’.

After suffering beatings from her husband, the couple divorced in 1978.

In 1984, Tina revived her career as a solo artist with the massive hit ‘Private Dancer’. She won Record of the Year for ‘What’s Love Got To Do With It’ at the Grammy Awards the following year.

The 80s placed Tina in the superstar category. The hits that flowed included ‘Let’s Stay Together’, ‘We Don’t Need Another Hero’, ‘Show Some Respect’, ‘Better Be Good To Me’ and ‘Steamy Windows’.

Tina recorded duets with David Bowie, Rod Stewart, Bryan Adams and Australia, Jimmy Barnes. With Barnes, she re-recorded her classic ‘The Best’ for a TV commercial for football.

A DNA test was recently done by James Brown’s widow to show that the late music legend is the father of little James Brown II. The DNA test confirms the paternity of a son of a woman who claims to be the singer’s widow. The attorney for the little tyke said that the 6-year old boy was tested in April, before a paternity test was ordered by a judge. While the results of the court-ordered test has yet to be released, Robert Archer, PhD, director of Genetic Identity labs of Eugene, Oregon says that “If that was James Brown’s bone we tested, that’s James Brown’s kid.” The report the lab did dated April 18, 2008 says “The alleged father (James Brown) cannot be excluded as the biological father of the child since they share genetic markers” and that “the probability of paternity is 99.999975.”

Madonna has revealed she and Justin Timberlake drank tequila and vodka after her New York show.

The ‘4 Minutes’ singer - who stunned crowds at the free Manhattan concert when she welcomed Justin on stage - revealed she was feeling slightly hung-over after partying on Wednesday night.

She said: “We had to celebrate. We decided we both work too hard and have to have fun. I had a shot of tequila. I may have had a lemon drop, too! We ‘tied one on’, as they say.”

The 49-year-old singer and her 27-year-old collaborator went to New York’s exclusive nightclub The Box where they danced and drank with friends including Josh Duhamel, fashion designer Alexander McQueen and R.E.M frontman Michael Stipe.

Madonna also revealed she thinks Justin is the perfect pop star, adding: “He’s ambitious but not in an offensive way. He’s incredibly responsible and he’s good at what he does and I think he has a long future in front of him. He understands the insanity of being a pop star.”

Meanwhile, mother-of-three Madonna said despite leaving her “brat” side behind her, she still likes displaying her “cheeky side” in her music. She told US TV show ‘Entertainment Tonight’: “I think I’m many things. I think I’m a lady, I think I’m a brat, I think I’m a nerd, I think I’m a pimp, I think I’m a mother, I think I’m a kid. I can’t be a brat forever! But that was fun, it was fun being a brat. I’ve still got my cheeky side.”

People may be saying that Whitney Houston is more than ready for a comeback but maybe that’s strictly for the recording studio. The recovering crack-head performed for 30 minutes for a reported $3 million to a sold out crowd at the Plymouth Jazz Festival on Sunday. According to BV Buzz, her voice was anything but ok and that it became raspy by the third song. She was also unable to hit the big finish for ‘I Will Always Love You’. To add to that, she has no sense of geography as she kept shouting to the crowd “I love you Trinidad!” The thing is, she was in Tobago.

And you thought sex tapes only got popular because of Paris Hilton. First, there was a Marilyn Monroe sex tape and now, there’s a 40-year old sex tape featuring rock legend Jimi Hendrix getting it on with two brunettes making the rounds on the net. This was shot decades before sex tapes became the rage. The tape is up close and personal and really raunchy. It’s being said that a rock ‘n’ roll memorabilia collector found the tape and sold it to Vivid Entertainment. I find it a little bit funny that Jimi apparently loses all his clothes during the threesome but he never took off his iconic headband.

If you thought that Richie Sambora’s recent DUI arrest was his biggest problem, think again. The Bon Jovi guitarist is now getting the fallen American Idol treatment as he is not doing gigs at condominiums. The rocker recently appeared at the Las Olas River House in Fort Lauderdale, Florida using his downtime between Bon Jovi gigs, as they are currently on tour, to play the gig. I guess there were no mall openings or ground breakings that day. Who would have thought that this iconic rock star would ever experience such a shameful day? Those fallen idols must be laughing so hard right now.

The Godfather of Soul James Brown may have been dead for quite a while but his trustees still aren’t letting him rest in peace. According to a new report, the said trustees of his estate are questioning the paternity of James Brown II, the son of Brown’s widow Tomi Rae Hynie. A South Carolina judge has just ordered a paternity test for the supposed youngest son of the late musician to bring closure to the issue. The lawyer representing Tomi Rae said that she’s never objected to a paternity test even saying that “She’s said that she was in favor and would do the test, provided that the other children also took the test. She didn’t feel like her son should be singled out.” It’s war of the spawns!