I love Gwen Stefani.  To me, everything about her is glamorous, punky and spirited and independent all at the same time.  She seems remarkably down to earth, and also very ambitious.  I also love the fact that she is actually a “triple threat” but has never been put in to the “diva” category like JLo and other multiple talented women who can tend to get on your nerves just for the sheer opulence of their life and how everything seems to be “overdone” to the hilt all the time.

Her new album, Sweet Escape is just another reason why she’s been so successful thus far.  She continuously pumps out hits because they really hit a note with the dancer in us, and the secret part of us that loves “fun music”.  Not only that, her sounds are always original, and they usually create a plethora of copycats (think Fergie, nelly furtado, etc. who have all produced music that sounds very similar to Gwen’s unique sounds and tastes).

Gwen Stefani morphed into a style icon from a punky, rasta punk image with a fun twist because she had that bleached blond patinum hair and she wore really cool clothes ( remember when she used to dye her hair pink?) And yet somehow she still managed to keep her style about her, and make it her own. 

Now with her new album, there are several songs I like, including the title track “Sweet Escape” which is one of my favorites on the album, and there are others on there too that are noteworthy, except just maybe one or two that were just not my taste.  Check it out though, she’s got some serious talent and pumps some fun tunes!

Pete Townshend of the famous band “The Who” was scheduled to do a Howard Stern Sirius Satellite Radion interview.  He was actually waiting in a studio to be interviewed along with Roger Daltry and another bandmate, and when he heard Howard talking about the “child porn thing”, he reportedly stormed out, not wanting to talk about something he’d been 100% aquitted of years ago.

The Who prodigy was accused of looking at child pornography several years ago, and claims he was sexually abused as a child, but he was just looking at the images for research on a book. 

He was fully aquitted, and Roger Daltry stuck up for him when he went on Stern, basically telling Stern to cut him a break, and that he deserved to not be harassed about something that he was not guilty of.  What’s in the past is in the past….good for Roger - it takes a lot to get a shock jock like Howard to apologize - which is exactly what he did. 

Howard said he’s a big fan of their work, and that he loves them, and wants to have Pete on - Hmm Howard, I remember listening to your show a while ago when you were still on terrestrial radio, and you said you didn’t care for the Who - as a matter of fact - I think you said “Who cares about the Who?” or something to that effect….

Weird Al Yankovic, who’s the genius behind parodies of popular songs like Michael Jackson’s “Bad” and other popular rap songs, including polka, rock, and other well known songs that beg to be made fun of, has come out with a new parody of a popular rap song which he titled “White and Nerdy”. 

The video, in typical Weird Al fashion, is hilarious, and shows a doo ragged Weird Al bein’ his white and nerdy self, but at the same time trying to be “tough” and “gangster”.  Weird Al has had a rough past few years, just a few years ago, both of his parents, to whom he was unusually close, passed away in somewhat of a freak accident involving carbon monoxid poisoning.

The two were killed when their home was filled with carbon monoxide fumes in their sleep, and Weird Al reportedly had a very tought time with their untimely death. He’s said that incident put him out of creative commission for a good while, but he’s back with a venegeance, and it looks like his new single White and Nerdy is getting a ton of attention - as it should, it’s hilarious stuff! 

Hate to say “I told you so”, but Paris Hilton’s crappy album has fallen off the charts already, and has only sold about 120,000 copies.  Studio execs may not be too happy about this less than stellar performance, since they reportedly spent at least a million dollars on production costs and trasportation/entertainment costs making the album for Ms. Hilton. 

Will she make another album?  Some are saying it’s doubtful now that any record company would want to back another album by Paris, simply because the debut album performed so poorly. 

I have to admit though, I did think it would sell a little more, seeing how Paris puts herself in the public eye as much as possible, but whatever…..she has plenty of other opportunities awaiting her, I’m sure!

Forever nice, humble and down to earth country star Faith Hill seems to have it all.  Self Magazine even recently voted her as one of the most inspiring “real” women recently.  And there’s a reason for that. 

Hill has 3 adorable little girls, a loving (and hot) husband, and also finds time to work on various charities that are close to home and close to her and her husband’s heart. 

They even started up their own subdivision to make sure the money they raise goes to the right organizations, since we all know so many of these charities get lost in bureaucracy and very little money ever actually reaches those in need. 

Faith has always demonstrated a down to earthness, and has maintained a real sense of who she is, while also maintaining adoring fans and a family whom she is determined to raise “normally”, with chores, responsibilities and a sense of working for what you want.  I agree with Self’s pick, she’s inspiring to me!

Coming to news stands soon is the People Magazine “Hottest Bachelors” issue, where they tell you their picks (who picks these anyways) for the hottest single guy catches of the year. Rumor has it that #1 on this year’s list will be American Idol winner Taylor Hicks, the Jay Leno lookalike (at least that’s who I think he looks like!).

I mean, I hear he has a great personality and all, but the #1 bachelor of the year? I’m not so sure People’s got their head screwed on straight for this one.

I can think of a lot better number ones. How about Matthew Mconaughey, or Keanu Reeves? I hope they at least made the list! Supposedly Taylor lets on that he can’t get a mysterious blond whom he exchanged long glances with at an airport out of his head, because People puts out a plea to find out who the mysterious blond is…..could this be fate? Will this mysterious blonde come forward?

Stern’s new home, Sirius satellite radio, whose biggest satellite competitor is currently XM radio, the home of shock jock rivals Opie and Anthony, currently has about 4.1 million subscribers and expects to sign up at least 2 million morethe end of this year, boasting a huge 87 percent increase over its customer tally in late 2005.  Not bad, Stern! Sirius credit Howard with this huge increase in subscribership.

This, although it’s a great stride for Sirius, is not even close to Stern’s former audience on terrestrial radio which was just over 12 million listeners in his CBS career.  Most subscribers said the reason they subscribed was because Howard Stern was a new part of Sirius’s repertoire. 

Many analysts are now predicting that satellite radio as a whole will increase sharply with subscriber totals going over 40 million listeners in a just few years, especially with the cleaning up of terrestrial radio, and the new Stern draw, and effect on other satellite shows.

Sirius’ larger rival XM Satellite Radio has about 6.5 million listeners, but recently re-reviewed its year-end subscriber forecast from 9 million to 8.5 million overall subscribers.

After guitarist Keith Richards had his tree climbing fall earlier this year, things looked uncertain for the band’s European tour (these guys still tour - aren’t they ancient?).  But the bands publicist now says that the tour has gotten the green light from management, and the Stones will be making their tour stops as originally planned.

The tour is called ” A Bigger Bang ” and is said to be one of the last tours for the aging rockers.  Wait, didn’t we hear that one before? 

All I can say is these guys must really love to rock, because they sure do like to tour a lot.

Word is Tom Petty and “his people” are thinking about suing the Chili Peppers camp for allegedly ripping off the sound from Petty’s “Last Dance with Mary Jane” song with their “California” sequel. I listened to the song a couple times, and there are some undeniable similarities, but enough to say they “ripped him off”, I’m not sure sure….

27 year old rocker and frontman of the band Babyshambles, and perhaps more famously, the guy who dated and got dumped by fellow druggie Kate Moss got into trouble again recently.  This time, the singer was on a budget airline EasyJet, to the Spanish city for a performance at Barcelona’s Primavera Sound Festival.

Several passengers noticed that the rocker was in the bathroom for way too long, and when the crew became suspicious and searched the bathroom, they found a bloody syringe, haphazardly covered by a paper towel in the trash.  Apparently Pete was doing smack in the airplane’s bathroom. 

Pete reportedly entered the compact stall with a bag but turned up empty-handed after leaving the loo, causing police to detain all 142 passengers on board while the flight crew accounted for all carry-on luggage.

“Unfortunately, members of the Doherty party began throwing their bags around and swapping bags, and would not identify which bags were which,” the EasyJet spokesperson recounted. “They were not being cooperative with the police and they did not seem to be taking the situation seriously.”

My prediction is, this guy will be dead by 35, what’dyou think?