No more belting out tinny disco covers (with three other Idol contestants) for Ricki-Lee Coulter. Australia's own netball loving Beyonce has decided to leave The Young Divas and focus solely on her own music career.

The 21-year-old former Oz Karaoke contender, who'll be exercising her windpipe at the Girlfriend Model Search at Westfield Carindale tomorrow, says it simply all became too much.

The Gold Coaster says between the effort of relaunching her solo career and planning her upcoming wedding to fiance Jamie Babbington, she just didn't have the time or energy to meet her Divas commitments.

"I will not be appearing any more with the Young Divas," Ricki-Lee told Qconfidential.

"I just couldn't do it all - I really had to get back to doing what I love doing, and that's my solo career."

The confirmation follows months of speculation about Ricki-Lee's future with the quartet - egged on by her two-month escape to the US to record album No.2 and talks of infighting and diva-like (not in a good sense) behaviour within the group.

So that's that then. But surely the amazing posse of fabulous bitches didn't lose an integral member without some knifing going on, both in the literal and back-stabbing sense?

Despite the rumours of discord, however, Ricki-Lee says the final split was more than amicable with the girls having a good heart-to-heart a couple of months ago to thrash out the details.

"The girl's have been great, they understand completely. They know where I'm coming from," she says.

And they are probably busy stitching up Coulter-esque voodoo dolls as we speak.

We still hope this means Ricki-Lee's new stylist can work some magic with The Young Divas though.

... AKA Bands/Artists You Should Be Listening To Right Now, Please.

The following are links to folks who we feel need your love and attention, ear-wise. Some are already hugely popular and we are not proffering up anything revolutionary, but others you may not be familiar with. We think (hope?) you'll like 'em, unless you are a big fan of Scandinavian death metal, in which case you'll probably be disappointed

· Wilco
· Spoon
· Downhills Home
· Stephen Cummings
· Judee Sill (get a free mp3 of the amazing Jesus Was A Crossmaker here)
· Lilith Lane
· Vespers
· Sneeze
· Wons Phreely (the sublime Rules Of Nature available as a free download)

So there you go.
·

Operating Thetan Level VIII x a million Tom Cruise is apparently planning on purchasing Los Angeles soccer/football (we are trying to make everyone happy here, goddamn it) ensemble LA Galaxy, which just happens to be BFF David Beckham's new team.

Tom Cruise is reportedly launching a $100 million takeover bid of friend David Beckham's new soccer club. The Hollywood actor is a huge soccer fan and wants to give his financial backing to the Los Angeles Galaxy.

A source said: "To have Tom's backing would be amazing - there's no way Galaxy bosses would turn down that opportunity." Beckham signed for Galaxy this January on a reported $350 million five-year deal although he doesn't start playing for them until next month. Cruise watched Beckham at Real Madrid's home ground the Bernabeu on Sunday to see the Spanish team win the league title.

We are sure Tom will take a "hands on" management approach should his purchasing bid wind up being successful, and we've no doubt the team will be thrilled about the inclusion of regular e-metering during training sessions.

It's not often that YouTube videos get their own FaceBook group dedicated to appreciating its magnificence. So when we discovered that the following clip has begun to become an internet phenomenon, we knew we had to bring it to your attention.

Firstly, from the FaceBook group's introductory blurb.

It has come to our attention that the Internet can now retire. This five second video of the Dramatic Chipmunk is the funniest thing ever in the history of anything. As a citizen of Earth, you are duty-bound to spread this hilarity to all you know. It is also a handy email reply to all manner of situations:

"Will you be coming to dinner tonight?" (As asked by someone you really don't want to have dinner with.)

You can say: "Well, I would love to, but who knows how things might turn out? (insert Dramatic Chipmunk)."

"Hey, did you see the Sopranos finale yet?"

You can say: "Yes! But this has more suspense and release than the entire 68 hours of the Sopranos. Don't you think? (insert Dramatic Chipmunk.)"

"So, get those test results back yet?"

You can so: "No, and thanks to you I feel like this: (insert Dramatic Chipmunk.)"*

etc.

*possibly ill advised.

And now? The clip itself.

Thank you for the heads up, Elmo.

Natalie Umbrella-ella ella eh eh eh Imbruglia, it would seem.

According to news.com.au...

Kimberley Stewart reportedly argued with Bob Marley's sons in a London club on Monday night.

Kimberley was at her sister Ruby's 20th birthday with singer Natalie Imbruglia when Damian, Ziggy and Julian Marley tried to take their table. A source told the Daily Mirror: "It was chaotic. Natalie wasn't having them at their table and tried to shove them and their bodyguard out of the VIP section. Ruby was in tears and the crown she was wearing went flying in the melee, and several glasses on the table were shattered. Kimberley was ... saying, 'What the f**k is up with you? We were here first.'" -

Hmmm. Still not seeing any evidence that Imbruglia successfully broke up a fight, despite the link on the side of the news.com.au page pointing to the article with the teaser "Singer Natalie Imbruglia breaks up an A-list fight at a London pub". It does sound like she got her hands dirty though, and we quite enjoy the idea of her glassing a couple of Bob Marley's kids in an effort to help the spawn of Rod Stewart party comfortably into the wee hours of the morning.

It feels like only yesterday that Paris Hilton was re-jailed after one magical night of luxuriating in the freedom of home-imprisonment, but the moment when she finally emerges from an unjust incarceration and shines as a Mandelaesque beacon of hope to all of those affected by Los Angeles County's oppressive system of celebutardtheid is nigh. And when Hilton exits the Century Regional Detention Facility sometime next week, she will need to be greeted by a television camera and a friendly face to ease her transition into her new role as Goodwill Ambassador for Stuff She Cares About Now.

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If Lindsay Lohan's recent Rock-Bottom Memorial Day Weekend Spectacular could be crystallised into one image, it would likely be a photograph taken of the actress the night after her drug-related arrest: It featured the starlet being carted off unconscious from Teddy's, eyes closed, mouth agape, and in possession of a pale, violet-tinged complexion that suggested the earliest stages of rigor mortis had begun to set in. In other words, it looked like your average American Apparel ad, and the fact that she just happened to be wearing one of the hipster sportswear company's hoodies at the time made it a near no-brainer for inclusion in their recent marketing efforts. From the NY Times:

After photographs appeared on tabloid covers across the country, American Apparel employees concluded that Ms. Lohan was wearing one of the company's designs. And while this is not the sort of product placement many fashion companies would consider positive, American Apparel, which markets its casual sportswear with self-consciously randy imagery, operates antithetically to industry norms.

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When we read Jerry Seinfeld's pre-Bee Movie screening comments about the insects' "perfect society" ("Other insects are just kind of crawling around. They don't have the sophistication of the bee. They have no crime, they have no drugs, they have no rape. A little rape, but it's not that bad.") in today's Rush & Molloy column this morning, we paused, wondered if the joke might result in the kind of controversy that reliably follows any spontaneous attempt at rape-related humor, then decided that the words would probably pass unprotested, for bee-rape advocacy groups are notoriously disorganised. Unfortunately for Seinfeld, other organizations are more vigiliant. Radar collects a smattering of speedy admonishments:

Karen Baker, director of the National Sexual Violence Resource Center, says she has trouble understanding why Seinfeld would make such a joke, particularly in the context of a film for children. "It surprised me, frankly, because I've always been a Jerry Seinfeld fan," she says. "With what I hear about every single day, I don't find anything at all funny about rape, and I don't like it being made light of. I understand he's a comedian and he's inclined to find humor in everything, but it was offensive."

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Feeling, perhaps, that a single, lesbian-authored petition that lumped him in the same ABC discard pile as Star Jones would hardly be sufficient to clear his good name, Isaiah Washington has finally taken the business of salvaging his reputation into his own hands - and in the process, shed some light on what exactly it was he was referring to in his now-legendary, post-axing battle cry, "I'm mad as hell and not going to take anymore." In an interview yesterday with the Houston Chronicle, Washington outlined his side of the story, describing the actions of an ambitious young actor, who leaped upon an offensive word regrettably uttered during a set dispute and rode the six-letter missile to new heights of stardom:

"I have to clear my name," a determined Washington told the Houston Chronicle in a telephone interview from the set of his new movie, The Least of These. "I'll start from the beginning. I'm telling everything. So here's the truth."

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Even though the above video lacks conclusive evidence that Pamela Anderson's nipple was briefly visible on last night's episode of Conan, its Zapruder-like examination of the footage is amazingly effective in making us aware of how many precious seconds of our lives we were wasting trying to catch a split-second glimpse of a famous person's areola. We were especially ashamed about the state of our lives while expending a full three minutes trying to set the slider precisely on the :27 mark during our seventh viewing, a frustrating effort which still didn't produce the results we'd hoped for.

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The producers of Captivity, still reeling from protests about their overly graphic, unauthorized billboards, should gird themselves for a fresh round of outrage from the public. Once it's discovered that their movie contains disturbing images of star Elisha Cuthbert being disembowelled by sadistic bears, they'll likely face protests by PETA, and be forced to fall back once again on the disingenuous explanation that they're just trying to tell an uplifting story of grizzly empowerment. [Special thanks to the Defamer reader who somehow caught this as it flashed by during a commercial that ran on Li'l Bush last night.] MPAA, captivity,

· Imagine's Brian Grazer will superproduce an adaptation of the graphic novel Cowboys and Aliens for DreamWorks and Universal, a project the spikey-haired seeker described as the "perfect realisation of all the cowboys-meeting-aliens-related ideas I've been quietly developing since I was a hyperactive six years old locked in my bedroom with a chest full of toys." [Variety] · Fox's show about people who think they can dance continues to shame their one about people who think they can direct movies, pulling in more than triple the viewers of the last On The Lot installment. [THR] · Another famously overweight TV personality rumored to be under consideration to replace Bob Barker is Drew Carey. [Variety] · Advertisers give a $US2.4 billion upfront vote of confidence to Steve McPherson's vision for ABC, with one Madison avenue booster gushing, "Have you heard about this Cavemen thing? It's like a sitcom and car insurance commercial all rolled into one! Think of what they could do with that Coke ad with the polar bears." [THR] · Stripping off his shirt and smearing his entire body in warpaint, CEO Howard Stringer whipped 7,000 employees into a frenzy at a shareholder ceremony in which he dramatically declared himself the "Sony Warrior." [Variety]

· The disturbing photo (left) of the House Speaker posted prominently on Drudge Report earlier today had us thinking that if someone ever makes The Nancy Pelosi Story, the agent for the Creature from Pan's Labyrinth is going to be getting a call. · Stop crying and say "cheese," The Smoking Gun recommends to aspiring, teary-eyed mugshot models. · The popular Perez Hilton blogsite goes temporarily dark after getting yanked by its panicking, lawsuit-averse service provider, leaving the internets temporarily short on Photoshopped satire involving male ejaculate and pictures of Britney Spears making a Starbucks run. But it's back now, restoring order to brief chaos. · You really haven't seen anything until you've seen a reporter hit in the chest by a pair of 10-pound Asian carp. · A handwriting expert examines Paris Hilton's response to her jailhouse fan-mail for our sisters at Jezebel, and the results will shock you. Or maybe not: "To a graphologist, the Paris Hilton writing looks like somebody caught in pre-rebellious, pre-pubescent years while most children are under the sway of teachers and parents."

No superhero - not even the everyday variety that manages to juggle bionic blogging abilities with extraordinary TV executive powers - comes out of the box fully formed. We therefore turn once again to Andy's Blog, the cheery corner of the internet where Bravo's Andy Cohen lets his thoughts out for air, for what might very well be the origin myth of the world's most spotlight-friendly Super-Exec:

Hi Andy, I was just watching an episode from Season 6 of "Sex and the City" called "Let There Be Light" and in a scene where Charlotte comes across Carrie trying on shoes in Barney's, the shoe department guy helping Carrie pick out shoes looked exactly like you. But IMDB doesn't have you listed on the episode. Did you get to make a cameo on the show?! -Anna

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LATimes.com uses the occasion of former Warner Bros. head Terry Semel's recent ouster from Yahoo! to assemble a handy, clip-n-save-quality scorecard helping you stay current on how your favourite former studio bigwigs are keeping themselves busy. While the group's... Read More »

Pinkberry has weathered its fair share of trials recently - perhaps that's to be expected, as any Borg-like entity steadily converting the L.A. population into one Fruity-Pebble-consuming master race is sure to meet with some pockets of resistance. But... Read More »

This just in from the Defamer Special Correspondent on Things Currently Trapped in an Elevator Shaft at William Morris: Benderspink has been stuck in an elevator @ WMA for 30 minutes. Having never seen this particular scenario played out... Read More »