the beatles
People
7:21AM Brian Moylan | [Paul McCartney coaxes a stuffed animal into his limo and kidnaps it in London today. He will not return the bear to its parents until control of the Beatles catalogue is given back to him. Image via INF]
Help! He Needs Some Help!
7:21AM Brian Moylan | [Paul McCartney coaxes a stuffed animal into his limo and kidnaps it in London today. He will not return the bear to its parents until control of the Beatles catalogue is given back to him. Image via INF] 
Music
1:56PM Jess McGuire | If the ARIA charts are any indication of music quality (and god knows they must be, given the Black Eyed Peas amazing spate of number hits), then we can safely assume that the gravelly voiced rocker’s latest album is better than anything the Beatles ever produced. More »
It’s Official: Jimmy Barnes Is Better Than The Beatles
1:56PM Jess McGuire | If the ARIA charts are any indication of music quality (and god knows they must be, given the Black Eyed Peas amazing spate of number hits), then we can safely assume that the gravelly voiced rocker’s latest album is better than anything the Beatles ever produced. More »
People
The One Michael Jackson Article You Have To Read
5:30AM Foster Kamer | New pieces about the final days of Michael Jackson are flooding the news, along with tributes, memorials, debates on the nature of the conversation about him, etc. If there’s one article you have to read on it, however, it’s this: More »
Ringo Starr Officially Hates You
4:00AM STV | You know how you’ve been writing, editing and rewriting your fan letter to Ringo Starr for the last decade, only to stand at the mailbox time and again, reeling at the note’s inadequate expression of how deeply his work and spirit have sustained you all these years, thus pushing you back to your desk for another few months of wistful, Proustian polishing? Believe us, we relate. As such, Starr’s disclosure Tuesday that he will neither accept nor return fan mail after Oct. 20 has lit an epistolary fire under our arse to finally put this thing to bed. It’s exactly what we needed — especially in the stern, slightly schizophrenic terms Starr bellows in his videotaped warning after the jump. More »
7:55AM Defamer Hollywood | Guardian reporter Sean Michaels has discovered a sort of epistolary parallel universe in which A Clockwork Orange is a late-’60s time capsule from hell: A recently unearthed letter from the period propositioned director John Schlesinger — presumably between his Oscar-winning films Darling and Midnight Cowboy — to helm the film with Mick Jagger in the lead. It gets better: The Beatles were reportedly interested in contributing songs. Alas, Schlesinger evidently had a problem with novelist Anthony Burgess’s infamous ultraviolence; “the film’s extreme delinquency wasn’t ‘the sort of subject I particularly want to tackle,’ ” the director told executive producer Si Litvinoff, thus opening the door for Stanley Kubrick’s dystopic 1971 masterwork starring Malcolm McDowell. Michaels spends a few minutes fancying the alternate Jagger/Beatles version, but really, we’d rather not imagine this at all unless… no. Just no. Sorry we even brought it up. No. [The Guardian] More »
7:55AM Defamer Hollywood | Guardian reporter Sean Michaels has discovered a sort of epistolary parallel universe in which A Clockwork Orange is a late-’60s time capsule from hell: A recently unearthed letter from the period propositioned director John Schlesinger — presumably between his Oscar-winning films Darling and Midnight Cowboy — to helm the film with Mick Jagger in the lead. It gets better: The Beatles were reportedly interested in contributing songs. Alas, Schlesinger evidently had a problem with novelist Anthony Burgess’s infamous ultraviolence; “the film’s extreme delinquency wasn’t ‘the sort of subject I particularly want to tackle,’ ” the director told executive producer Si Litvinoff, thus opening the door for Stanley Kubrick’s dystopic 1971 masterwork starring Malcolm McDowell. Michaels spends a few minutes fancying the alternate Jagger/Beatles version, but really, we’d rather not imagine this at all unless… no. Just no. Sorry we even brought it up. No. [The Guardian] More »
Paul McCartney Just Can’t Get Enough Courtroom Action
2:37PM Clem Bastow | It’s probably safe to say Sir Paul McCartney didn’t really enjoy dragging his recently deceased marriage through the courts these past aeons months – however, that’s not the norm for he of the perky eyebrows, as he’s quite happy to get sue-tastic when it comes to his baby, The Beatles.
This is somewhat at odds with his other favourite pastime – making lots and lots of money – so we were slightly surprised to see that Apple Corps are going to court to attempt to stop the release of a ‘bootleg’ quality recording of an early (1962) Beatles gig, given they okayed the neverending Anthology series, so haven’t seemed to have any issues with shiteful-quality recordings in the past if they were shifting megabucks units.
A £7.5million lawsuit argues the poor quality recording at the Star Club harms the image of divorce-row Macca and the other Beatle legends.
It is unclear how US firm Fuego Entertainment got hold of it. But a Fuego spokesman said: “It’s unfair to millions of Beatles fans not to allow this recording.”
Given that much of The Beatles’ time in Hamburg involved a) prostitutes and b) getting around the strip with toilet seats around their neck, we guess it’s possible that the recorded performances might not be up to scratch.
But maybe Paul just needs to read Fuego’s statement again: “millions of Beatles fans” – MILLIONS. Each paying MONEY. Delicious MONEY. YUM YUM YUM.
(It’s okay, we’re trained hypnotherapists; we’re close personal friends of Jackie Stallone and her psychic dogs, too.) More » 
