Amy Winehouse, the troubled British soul singer with the darkly self-referential hit “Rehab,” failed to attend Sunday’s 50th annual Grammy Awards in person, but she proved a dominating figure nonetheless, picking up five trophies as voters kept her in a tight competition with the rap star Kanye West.

Both of them, however, were left on the sidelines for the night’s final prize, album of the year, which went to the jazz mainstay Herbie Hancock.

Ms. Winehouse won awards in two of the three most prestigious categories, for the writing and recording of the single “Rehab,” about her refusal to seek treatment for substance abuse. She performed on the program via satellite from London, where her tabloid-ready lifestyle recently prompted her to enter a rehabilitation center.

Looking stunned and strangely sad as she learned she had won for record of the year, she thanked her record label, her parents and “my Blake, my Blake incarcerated,” referring to Blake Fielder-Civil, her husband, who has been jailed for his involvement in a pub brawl.

Ms. Winehouse also won for best new artist, best female pop vocal performance for “Rehab” and best pop vocal album for her CD “Back to Black.”

Ms. Winehouse, who earned acclaim for her retro-tinged musical style, found herself facing a challenge for the top awards from Mr. West, the innovative Chicago rapper who had twice before been nominated for album of the year and told viewers he considered the Grammy Awards his “new place of residence.” Mr. West ended up with four awards.

Even the typically confident Mr. West, whose “Graduation” was named best rap album, offered a nod to the uncertainty when he took the stage for the award, telling Ms. Winehouse’s producer, Mark Ronson, that if she won for album of the year: “You deserve it just as much as me. I deserve it too.”

But both of them were upstaged in the album of the year category by Mr. Hancock, who appeared surprised as he accepted the award for his tribute to Joni Mitchell, “River: The Joni Letters,” which featured artists including Corinne Bailey Rae and Norah Jones offering gentle renditions of Ms. Mitchell’s songs. The album’s unexpected victory represents the first time in 43 years that a jazz album has won the album of the year prize. “What a beautiful day this is in Los Angeles!” Mr. Hancock, a favorite of the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences who had won 10 Grammy trophies before Sunday, said as he took the stage.

Though the choice of Mr. Hancock may stoke criticism that Grammy voters are out of step with pop music’s cutting edge, the decision was defended backstage. Vince Gill, the country superstar who lost out to Mr. Hancock in the album of the year field, said Mr. Hancock was “hands-down a better musician than all of us put together.” Neil Portnow, the president of the academy, which bestows the awards, disputed characterizations of Mr. Hancock as irrelevant, saying the competition is based on excellence, not sales. And Mr. Hancock himself asked: “What’s conservative about me? I mean, the way I dress?”

For her part, Ms. Winehouse staked her claim to Grammy glory with a lively performance — an unusually unpredictable moment in the heavily scripted Grammy program — that was beamed in from London. Ms. Winehouse, who left a rehabilitation center to rehearse, appeared in a short black dress and her signature beehive. She coyly looked into the camera and shook her hips as she performed two songs that seemed unfortunately apt, “You Know I’m No Good” and “Rehab,” which drew explosive applause from her audience.

But her virtual appearance wasn’t the only one that seemed slightly haunted. The live broadcast began with a spectral duet that found the R&B queen Alicia Keys trading verses with Frank Sinatra, shown on a screen above the stage, on Sinatra’s 1955 hit “Learnin’ the Blues.” The performance, which evoked Natalie Cole’s duet with a video of her father, Nat King Cole, on the 1992 Grammy telecast, set the tone for a show that tried to unite profoundly disparate eras and musical talents while squeezing in the modern stars who draw television ratings.

Even Prince, who knows a few things about showy entrances, took note of the unusual pairing: “Frank Sinatra looked pretty good for 150, didn’t he?” Prince asked an appreciative audience as he presented the evening’s first trophy, for best female R&B performance, to Ms. Keys, for her single “No One.”

In the flesh, however, came a series of performances that reflected the overt nostalgia of the academy but added the flash of current stars. Rihanna appeared, seeming at ease as she fronted a version of the Time, the 1980s funk act that formed and disintegrated before she was born, in a flashy run-through of her hits “Umbrella” and “Don’t Stop the Music.” Beyoncé teamed with Tina Turner, who wore a silver bustier and pantsuit that partially concealed her famous legs, for a duet of “Proud Mary.”

And in an elaborate tribute to the Beatles, the acrobatic cast of the Cirque du Soleil production “Love” performed “A Day in the Life” before the performers from the Julie Taymor-directed film musical “Across the Universe” sang “Let It Be” on a full stage under glowing circular peace signs. Minutes later, when “Love” won the Grammy for best compilation soundtrack album, Ringo Starr, accepting the award with the Beatles’ musical partner George Martin, described Cirque du Soleil’s surreal interpretations of the band’s music as “a beautiful dream.”

But the reverent feel of the evening was disrupted by the electrifying arrival of Mr. West, who emerged on a darkened stage, backed by a row of pink flames and standing at the base of a metallic pyramid — a clue that dance music fans instantly recognized as the stage production of Daft Punk, the French electronic duo whose music was sampled in Mr. West’s hit song “Stronger.” Mr. West, wearing glasses that appeared to glow in the dark, prowled a runway toward the crowd as he raced through the song, then shifted gears for a mostly a cappella performance of “Hey Mama,” a song from his second album, in honor of his mother, who died last November after undergoing a cosmetic procedure.

Later, when Mr. West won the best rap album award for “Graduation,” he talked about the album as a sign of hip-hop’s continuing vitality and, addressing his mother, said, “I know you’re really proud of me right now, and I know you wouldn’t want me to stop.”

Other winners included the country star Vince Gill, who won for best country album, a trophy he received from the hands of Mr. Starr. Noting that he had been given an award by a Beatle, Mr. Gill asked, “Have you had that happen yet, Kanye?”

The rock stalwarts the Foo Fighters won two awards, for best rock album for their sixth studio album, “Echoes, Silence, Patience & Grace,” and best hard rock performance for their hit song “The Pretender,” which they performed live on an outdoor stage next the Staples Center, accompanied by an orchestra that featured winners of a contest on YouTube.

Bruce Springsteen, whose album “Magic” had been considered a contender for album of the year but was not nominated in that category, won three awards in lower-profile categories before the telecast. Justin Timberlake, who has continued to score hits with singles from an album that competed in last year’s ceremony, won two awards. Carrie Underwood’s song “Before He Cheats” also picked up two awards: one for its songwriters, Josh Kear and Chris Tompkins, and one for Ms. Underwood for best female country vocal.

The academy distributed trophies in 110 categories, though only 11 were given out during the CBS broadcast. (This year’s voting covered recordings released from Oct. 1, 2006, to Sept. 30, 2007.) The rest were handed out at a separate three-hour event in the convention center next to the Staples Center immediately before the telecast.

There Barack Obama, in a contest that offered bragging rights but no delegates, defeated Bill Clinton in the category of Best Spoken Word Album with his audiobook “The Audacity of Hope.” (Alex Conant, a Republican Party spokesman, said in a statement that “glowing Hollywood endorsements and awards won’t translate into votes this fall.”)

The producers of the Grammy Awards had hoped that the show’s lineup of stars and an unusually comprehensive marketing campaign would build on a turnaround in ratings that began last year, when the show improved 18 percent over what had been a record low the year before.

But the weeks leading up to this year’s show, in which Mr. West was up for a leading eight nominations, mainly cast a spotlight on the industry’s deep troubles. Last week the top seller on the Billboard 200 album chart, Ms. Keys’s “As I Am,” sold just 61,000 copies, barely above the record low for a No. 1 album.
[source]

Roy Scheider, the jagged-nosed actor who brought complexity to tough-guy roles in such films as "The French Connection," "Jaws" and "All That Jazz," and was also known for political activism off the set, died Sunday afternoon at a hospital in Little Rock, Ark. He was believed to be 75, and had been battling a form of blood cancer for three years.

Scheider, who lived in Sag Harbor, N.Y., died at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences hospital, which specializes in the treatment of multiple myeloma, a form of cancer that affects blood cells. He died of complications from the disease, said Leslie Taylor, a university spokeswoman.

Taylor said Scheider had been receiving treatments at the hospital's Myeloma Institute for Research and Therapy in recent years. On its website, the institute says that it has kept patients alive for six to seven years after diagnosis, about twice the national average.

In a career spanning four decades, Scheider appeared in more than 60 films, as well as in numerous roles on stage and television. But his most acclaimed roles came in a span of eight years in the 1970s, beginning with "The French Connection" in 1971.

He probably will be best remembered for his role as Martin Brody, the water-shy police chief in "Jaws" (1975) who uttered the immortal line: "You're gonna need a bigger boat," after seeing the size of the shark. He once lamented that the role "will be on my tombstone."

His favorite role, he said, was playing choreographer Joe Gideon, a thinly disguised stand-in for Broadway choreographer Bob Fosse, in "All That Jazz" (1979) -- a role for which the former boxer had to learn to dance. "That will always be my favorite film," he told the San Jose Mercury News in 1999. "But I never worked harder in my life. I felt I had to prove myself to the dance company. I didn't want to misrepresent them. . . . I was in relatively good shape. But at the end of the day, I'd return to the Holiday Inn with my Tiger Balm."

That role earned Scheider some of his best reviews. Pauline Kael would later write in the New Yorker that Scheider "made you feel you were watching Fosse himself. It wasn't an impersonation; it was as if Fosse had taken over his body, from the inside. That's the only role in which Scheider had an exciting presence, and it wasn't his; we seemed to be looking right through him to Fosse."

And then-Times critic Charles Champlin wrote that Scheider "is a wonderment, a dancing dynamo whose portrayal of this life-splurging, death-obsessed man poses the Academy voters another mind-boggling decision."

It was not a decision that came down in his favor -- Scheider never won an Oscar. He was nominated as best actor for "All That Jazz," but lost to Dustin Hoffman in "Kramer vs. Kramer." His only other nomination was for best supporting actor in "The French Connection," the movie that launched him as a star.

Scheider played Det. Eddie Russo, the abrasive, street-smart partner of "Popeye" Doyle, played by Gene Hackman. The two New York narcotics cops were on the trail of an international drug gang that has been shipping heroin from Marseille, France, to New York. In later years, Scheider delighted in telling the story of how he got the part by sheer luck while auditioning for a stage role in New York. The stage part called for an actor who was at least 6 feet tall.

"Every time I started reading, the director sitting out there in the dark in the theater would interrupt and ask me how tall I was," Scheider recalled in a 2001 interview with the Philadelphia Inquirer. "I told him I was 5-foot-10, but he asked me to stand back-to-back with another actor. I lost it, and flung the script into the darkness. It so happened the casting director for 'The French Connection' was sitting in on the auditions and watching. He told me later he knew he had found Popeye's partner."

Scheider was reportedly born Nov. 10, 1932, in Orange, N.J., although in some interviews he indicated he was born in 1935. He grew up in the New Jersey suburbs outside New York City. He was, by his own account, a sickly, pudgy child, and spent a good deal of time bedridden. Among his greatest delights as a child, he once said, was going to the Saturday matinees at the movie theater in Irvington, N.J., eating popcorn and watching movies.

From the age of 8, he said, he worked weekends pumping gas at his father's service station, a job he loathed. "It's true that I had more pocket money than my friends, but I also had more responsibilities," he said in a 1975 interview with The Times. "I was driving cars around that place when I was 11. But what I really wanted to do was go swimming with the other kids."

His health improved in his late teens, and when he was about 17 he began boxing at the local YMCA. Under the tutelage of a retired welterweight, Scheider entered the Golden Gloves competition in Elizabeth, N.J. He won one fight and lost the next. In the process, he got his nose broken, creating the slightly off-kilter profile that lent him authenticity in his later tough-guy roles.

After a stint in the Air Force, Scheider began acting at Franklin and Marshall College in Lancaster, Pa., and by the time he graduated, he knew he wanted to be an actor. He spent the next seven or eight years doing classical theater.

His film debut was in Del Tenney's "Curse of the Living Corpse" (1964). He won attention for his role in "Klute" in 1971, followed months later by "The French Connection." Among other notable films, he appeared in "Marathon Man" (1976), "Sorcerer" (1977), "Jaws 2" (1978), "Still of the Night" (1982), "2010" (1984) and "The Russia House" (1990).

For decades, Scheider had been active politically, participating in protests against the Vietnam and Iraq wars and for environmental issues on Long Island. In 2003, he was among a group of protesters who laid down on a Long Island highway in a symbolic reference to the casualties of war.

In December 2004, while seeing a doctor for a routine examination, he was diagnosed with multiple myeloma. Ten months later, speaking about the experience on "The Today Show," he said he considered himself lucky. "Every single day, it's a miracle," he said.

Scheider's first marriage, which ended in divorce, was to film editor Cynthia Scheider. He is survived by his second wife, documentary filmmaker Brenda King, and three children, Maximillia Scheider, Molly Scheider and Christian Verrier Scheider.
[source]

Authorities say Angelina Jolie returned from Baghdad empty-handed last week after learning how unaffordable Iraqi orphans are with the weak U.S. dollar. Sources close to the actress said with Hollywood at a virtual standstill because of the writer’s strike Jolie has been forced to scale back on her collecting and was considering acquiring new babies via e-Bay, craigslist, and even her own uterus. Orphans around the world expressed optimism that the writers would ratify their contract so “that pretty lady with the fleshy lips can take me to live with Maddox.”
[source]

Barack Obama topped a Clinton in another contest on Sunday -- the Grammys.

The presidential candidate beat both former Presidents Bill Clinton and Jimmy Carter to win best spoken word album for his audio version of his book "The Audacity Of Hope: Thoughts On Reclaiming The American Dream."

Clinton was nominated for his book "Giving: How Each of Us Can Change the World" and Carter for "Sunday Mornings in Plains: Bringing Peace to a Changing World." Also nominated was Maya Angelou and Alan Alda.

Sens. Obama and Hillary Rodham Clinton are battling for the Democratic nomination for president; both have won key states, though Obama has the most recent wins, capturing the Louisiana primary and caucuses in Nebraska and Washington state on Saturday.

Though Clinton and Carter lost, they both have won the category before (Clinton, twice). And Hillary Rodham Clinton took home a Grammy in 1996 for her audio version of the book, "It Takes A Village."
[source]

While Victoria Beckham was checking out all the latest in fashion at New York Fashion Week, across the country plenty of women were checking out her husband, David Beckham, during Jermaine Dupri's pre-Grammy party at Hollywood's Club Central.

"Beckham rolled in at about 1 a.m.," a fellow party-goer tells PEOPLE. "He looked like he was having a great time hanging with Jermaine and talking to Janet [Jackson]."

While Beckham played it cool with the party's hosts, it's safe to say he was heating things up among the women at the party. In fact, when one young female fan approached the soccer star and got a quick kiss on the cheek, she literally went weak in the knees – and fainted!

Beckham's reaction: "He looked like it was an ordinary everyday thing," an observer tells PEOPLE. "He just said 'Get her some water. She'll be ok.'"
[source]

1. Batmobile (Batman 1966-68)

About it: The '55 Lincoln Futura debuted at the Chicago Auto Show in 1955, and like hundreds of concept cars, it never made it to a dealer near you. But it caught the eye of the show's producers 11 years later and George Barris, known as the "King of the Kustomizers" worked his magic.

Love it: Sure, what ultimately kept the streets of Gotham safe was the street smarts of the Caped Crusader, the Boy Wonder and, let's be honest, Alfred. But we got fired up every time we saw the Batmobile scorch out of the Batcave to "POW!" The Penguin.

See it: The series isn't on DVD, but rent the comically brilliant 1966 flick Batman - The Movie (gotta love the Shark Repellent!).

2. The General Lee (The Dukes of Hazzard 1979-85)

About it: If you miss the bright orange paint on the '69 Dodge Charger, or the Confederate flag on its roof, you'll definitely yield to its Dixie horn.

Love it:A generation of boys never meanin' no harm grew up dreaming of skimming across the hood of their car and rescuing leggy Daisy Duke by launching their car over Sheriff Roscoe P. Coltrane's always-doomed cruiser.

See it:The series is on DVD, or you can create your own YouTube version with the $275 General Lee decal kit from www.buildagenerallee.com.

3. Magnum's Ferrari (Magnum, P.I. 1980-88)

About it: The '79 Ferrari 308 GTS was designed by Italian car design firm Pininfarina, and driven cross-country by writer P.J. O'Rourke before the series began.

Love it: Forget that big number on the gas station signs these days - Ferrari is synony-mous with the ultimate luxury in sports cars. And who wouldn't want Magnum's life? Living in a plush guest house, drinking beer, romancing the ladies? And all on someone else's dime.

See it: The show airs daily on the Sleuth Channel, but catch the real thing at the Cars of the Stars Motor Museum in Great Britain or on the Universal Studios' Studio Tour in Hollywood.

4. KITT (Knight Rider 1982-86)

About it:Knight Industries Two Thousand, a '82 Pontiac Trans-Am T-top, was designed by Michael Scheffe.

Love it:If you commute the streets of Tampa every day, you want - dare we say, need - Turbo Boost, flame-throwers and automatic pilot.

See it: On DVD. The updated series, starring Justin Bruening, debuts on NBC at 9 p.m. Sunday.

5. Corvette (Route 66 1960-64)

About it:Its colors (first powder blue, later beige) were chosen to show up better in the black & white we saw it as.

Love it:"Nothing flashy, no gimmicks, and certainly no Hollywood effects!," says Times reader Roger Allen, 60, of Spring Hill. "Just one of the greatest cars ever mass-produced right here in the good old USA!"

See it: The first season and classic episodes are available on DVD, or check out James Rosin's book, Route 66 The Television Series 1960-64.

6. Crockett's Ferrari Daytona Spyder (Miami Vice 1984-89)

About it: Enzo Ferrari, and many Times readers, have been quick to remind viewers that the '72 Daytona Spyder 365 Don Johnson zoomed around in was really an '80 Corvette C3 sporting Ferrari body panels.

Love it: We get to grow cool stubble, wear flashy clothes, nab the bad guys - and make enough money to drive a Ferrari?!? Sign us up for vice cop work. (Good thing we had guidance counselors to tell us the truth.)

See it:Daily on the Sleuth Channel. Or buy it at www.miamivicecar.com for $37,500.

7. Koach (The Munsters 1964-66)

About it: Another George Barris classic, it was built from Model T bodies for $18,000.

Love it:Best of both worlds - an old-school car hot-rodded for the future.

See it:8 a.m. Sundays on TV Land.

8. Starsky's Ford Grand Torino (Starsky & Hutch 1975-79)

About it: The red, V8-powered two-door with a white stripe was chosen over the Chevrolet Camaro creator William Blinn preferred.

Love it: Admit it. You'd much rather get pulled over by a car that looks like a striped tomato, especially if your passenger is named "Huggy."

See it: On DVD, or in the 2004 big-screen remake.

9. Nash's Plymouth Barracuda (Nash Bridges 1996-2001)

About it: The '71 electric yellow ragtop is a true muscle car.

Love it: When America rediscovered its love affair with convertibles, what better one to tool around in on the curvy streets of San Fran?

See it:Daily on WGN.

10. Clampett family jalopy (The Beverly Hillbillies 1962-71)

About it: The '21 Oldsmobile Roadster also came from the hands of George Barris.

Love it: Finally, we have a car on this list that looks closer to what we park in the driveway every night.

[source]

The writers strike that began Nov. 5 wrung $2 billion from the local economy, as much as four times more than the 1988 strike that lasted six weeks longer.

Most of the pain, experts say, was felt by independent contractors, small-business owners and others that have courted TV production crews as favored customers.

The Los Angeles Economic Development Corp. estimates that while $733 million in production spending has been lost, another $1.3 billion came from the pockets of the caterers, florists, valets, hotel operators, restaurant workers, costume-house employees and others.

And when production staff gets back to work, they might find themselves dealing with vendors who have stripped their own staffs to a minimum and others that aren't yet back in business.

"No one is saying, 'I'm outta here for good,' but when they do come back, they'll be operating differently," said Mark Deo, executive director of the Small Business Advisory Network.

Deo said businesses learned the hard way that they need a diverse set of customers if they wish to thrive and that depending on the health of a few TV productions just won't cut it.

One husband and wife catering team, for example, shut their business down during the strike and returned to previous careers. They intend on reopening their catering business and broadening their customer base, but decisions haven't been made on how many employees will get rehired.

"You could talk to a hundred other people with a similar story," Deo said.

LAEDC chief economist Jack Kyser said that initially, the strike had little impact on the economy, with state employment data suggesting few, if any, entertainment industry employees were going without a paycheck in November and December. That differs dramatically from the 1988 strike, when 6,000 workers were jobless the first month, not including the striking writers.

Economists figure the 1988 walkout cost Los Angeles $500 million, though Kyser cautions that data back then is sketchy because it lacks detail, especially where collateral damage is concerned.

That the strike was costlier this time around was to be expected, given that there were only three broadcast networks and no cable productions to speak of 20 years ago.

For the past 14 weeks, dramatic television took the biggest hit, according to Todd Lindgren, a vp at FilmL.A.

Forty-six primetime dramas for broadcast and cable TV were shooting, or set to shoot, in Los Angeles during the strike, but the number trailed off through December, then fell off a cliff in the new year. The last casualty was ABC's "October Road."

Since each episode of each of the 46 shows costs an average $3 million, the absence of dramatic, one-hour TV shows has been sucking $138 million per week in direct production costs from the Los Angeles economy this year.

Plus, according to FilmL.A., each show employed 200 workers, causing up to 10,000 people to be jobless.

There also were 17 half-hour primetime comedies set to shoot during the strike, at a cost of $1.5 million per episode. FilmL.A. figures that shuttering them put 1,500 people out of work and has cost the city's economy $25.5 million per week this year.

When combining a fairly normal November and December with a horrible January and February, permits to shoot dramas in Los Angeles fell 65% during the 14 weeks, from 263 to 91, compared with the same period last year, when there was no strike. Sitcom permits fell 69%, from 59 to 18.

Meanwhile, permits for shooting reality TV shows has increased 8% from 153 to 165, so reality's positive impact has been a mere blip, FilmL.A. said.

Feature films were also up a bit, from 211 to 238, as some studios rushed productions forward in anticipation of work stoppages not only from striking WGA members but also from directors and actors who might also have walked.

But a few more films and reality TV shows didn't come close to making up for the absence of comedy and drama TV which, when added together, has been draining $160 million in direct production spending out of the Los Angeles economy per week since the start of the new year.

"That's a pretty bomb-proof number. Employees are not getting paid," Lindgren said. "But it does not take into account the trickle down effect."

One particularly hard-hit industry in that "trickle down" category is limousines. Experts estimate there are about 1,200 limo companies and 6,000 drivers in Los Angeles.

Alan Shanedling, president of the Greater California Livery Assn., confirms that November and December weren't a problem, but the new year "has been devastating."

Shanedling's own company, Fleetwood Limousine, lost $200,000 in revenue in January alone, and his 34 drivers missed out on $30,000 in tips, money they couldn't spend elsewhere and the cause of more trickle-down pain.

Because of the stripped-down Golden Globes ceremony, for example, several limo companies that were to supply 800 cars saw that business disappear along with 6,400 hours of work for drivers.

The cancellation of the weekslong Television Critics' Assn. press tour might have been an even bigger blow to the limo industry. Shanedling said a single client canceled 180 cars in one day. "Imagine 21 days of that," he said.

And some predict the January TCA press tour might never return.

"I don't know a lot about the details of the strike," Shanedling said. "But I blame both sides. Nobody wins during a strike. History keeps proving that."
[source]

Music's heavy hitters turned out for the Grammy Awards' 50th anniversary ceremony Sunday in celebratory and respectful outfits. The fringe outfits were left to up-and-comers or those looking for some paparazzi shots.

Fergie wore a simple and chic yellow strapless gown from the Calvin Klein Collection, while Rihanna went for a bright blue cocktail dress with an unfinished hem with feathers underneath by Zac Posen that was both youthful and fashionable.

Beyonce was the belle of the ball in a strapless number with a silver top and a powder-blue ballgown bottom reminiscent of Cinderella. Even her hair looked lighter.

Alicia Keys wore a dark navy blue gown by Giorgio Armani Prive that recalled old Hollywood with its high halter neck and full train. Her hair was done in a tight updo with curls piled on top of her head and bright hot pink lips, which matched her hot pink crocodile clutch bag.

Shiny and bright certainly were popular themes with Miley Cyrus in a short silver dress — and a lot of silver eye shadow — and Colbie Caillat in a sunny yellow strapless minidress with a flower in her hair.

With springlike temperatures outside the Staples Center in Los Angeles, Carrie Underwood went for a floral gown with a plunging V-neck top and jeweled waistband.

Meanwhile, Natasha Bedingfield and Taylor Swift — both in purple strapless dresses — tapped into two trends fresh from the fall runways at New York Fashion Week. (Bedingfield was indeed front and center at fashion shows.)

A blond Nelly Furtado wore an electric-blue draped strapless dress by fellow Canadian Arthur Mendonca, accessorized with a space-age gold necklace.

Cyndi Lauper wore her now-blond hair in a loose curly updo, and her gown was black with lace around the bust. She also wore long black leather gloves.

Faith Hill played it safe in a one-shoulder black gown and then jazzed it up with oversized earrings, and Natalie Cole chose a flattering draped metallic dress with twisted-fabric straps.

Not everyone took that route, though. Perhaps Adrienne Lau thought her silver slip-style micromini would capture the paparazzi's attention, while Paramore's Hayley Williams might have thought all up-and-coming rock stars wear shocking red hair, a mostly sheer dress and ankle socks.

"I think anything goes in the music industry," said Evanescence's Amy Lee of Grammy fashions. Her own outfit was a black gown with roping on the bodice and a slit up the front that had a bit of a Goth vibe.

"Whatever you want to wear is going to work," Lee added. "There's women in full formal dresses and you see guys in jeans."

There were indeed some men in jeans but there were plenty of full-fledged tuxedos. Jay-Z wore a traditional tux, complete with bow tie, by Tom Ford, and Ne-Yo topped his tailored Ferragamo suit with a brown suede fedora. He — like so many others — wore aviator sunglasses, but he was happy to tell E! that his were from Banana Republic instead of a bank-breaking designer.

Seal wore a white suit by Yves Saint Laurent and a skinny black tie, and Chris Daughtry was in all black — suit, shirt and tie. Akon had on a fur-trimmed jacket despite the warm and sunny weather.

Dierks Bentley wore a dapper taupe suit by Dsquared that he complemented with a black tie and black pocket square, while Ludacris added a white pocket square to his black jacket by Armani.

Armani also dressed John Legend. He wore a shawl-collar tuxedo with velvet lapels and a high-neck shirt — and another pocket square.
[source]

Siegfried & Roy announced Saturday they will come out of retirement next year to perform at the "Keep Memory Alive" Alzheimer's fundraiser.

It would be their first stage appearance in 41/2 years, since Roy Horn was attacked by a white tiger and nearly died on Oct. 3, 2003, at The Mirage.

They made the surprise announcement Saturday at the 12th annual Alzheimer's benefit for the Lou Ruvo Brain Institute during the gala at the MGM Grand Garden.

They had hinted at coming out of retirement during an exclusive interview with Vegas Confidential.

They had hinted at coming out of retirement during an exclusive interview with Vegas Confidential.

"Act surprised," Horn said at the time.

Asked if the show will include their white lions and tigers, Siegfried Fischbacher said it "will be the signature of Siegfried and Roy."
[source]