Spice Girls reunion is good news!

We can't fail to mention the return of the Spice Girls, who announced today they're reuniting for 11 concerts around the world in December and January. The shows will be their first concerts since breaking up in 2001, and the first with all five of the original group since Geri "Ginger Spice" Halliwell quit to pursue a solo career in 1998. In recent years, the misadventures of various members of the group have led to good tabloid laughs-- but it can't be denied: The Spice Girls made two really good albums and a movie that made Tabloid Baby's list of the Top 50 movies of all time before they called it a day (and with Emma Bunton leading the pack, they made some solid solo Europop singles that blast from our iPod).

Back in the mid 90s when Wannabe first hit the charts, the Spice Girls were a breath of comic book fresh air for Britain and pop music together. The producers behind them made them into one of the greatest pop groups of all time (check out their music video compilations).


The Spice Girls ruled! They're up there with Oasis and The Great Escape Blur. And we're glad they're back.

Never mind the bollocks, the Spice Girls were great

The Spice Girls are making a new video, preparing for their reunion tour and have updated their website. We don't have time for the Becks-Posh ridiculousness and erased the new season of Dancing with The Stars from the TiVo after Wayne Newton got voted off, but back in the Nineties, the Spice Girls were one of the best pop acts in the world. Their singles were perfect, their cartoon image very cool, their message positive and their videos really watchable.

The Spice Girls not only were tops of Britpop and helped lead the Cool Britannia movement that made London fun for about eighteen months, but alongside Oasis and Blur made the best music the decade had to offer, with a first album (left) that certainly ranks among the Top 100 in pop history (though their second CD disappointed).

Check out their revamped website (and check out their individual solo work, which you probably haven't heard if you're in the States).

Posh Spice as America's new Queen of Comedy?

She's a haughty stick-insect fashion plate who acts like she's something special when she's just a former Spice Girl. He's a guy who has a squeaky voice, plays a sport no one in America cares about, wears dresses and cheats on his wife publicly. They're treated like royalty in Europe, where royalty means something. Here in the States, they're considered plastic surgery oddities hiding behind oversized sunglasses on the fringes of Scientology. But hey, we'd watch their reality show!

The idea of a reality series starring David and Victoria Beckham has been batted around since it was announced the couple would be coming to America so David could join the Los Angeles Galaxy soccer team this summer.

And today, NBC is reportedly thisclose to signing Victoria, aka Skinny Spice, to star in a reality series revolving around the move--and her fashion business, DVBStyle.

What's most surprising is that the show will also be centered on Victoria's wild-and-crazy sense of humour.

Apparently the pouting poser is some kind of laff riot!

Vicki's manager, Simon Fuller, the prefab pop guru who created the Spice Girls and American Idol, says, "The Americans are falling over to sign Victoria to TV. They have taken a shine to her hilarious humour."

London's Daily Mail says the deal with the British Tina Fey is worth $19.6 million. The New Zealand Herald says it's worth $28 million. We at Tabloid Baby will go on a limb and say it's worth $100 million!

Fuller's company would produce the series, which could be on the air this summer. They're hoping the reality show will make the couple huge stars and products in America. Personally, we're just looking forward to the Spice Girls reunion. Because we really, really dig the Spice Girls. No fooling.

(...and check out President Bush's finger in the top photo. What's up with that?)

Who gives a f*** about the Beckhams?

We realize it's an old rag, but who said Paris Hilton jailbreak being a waste of oxygen? The Beckhams are in LA. And seriously, do these people have fans? Aside from his soccer prowess, which is appreciated in other parts of the world, are people really curious about these very British, very European proles with pretensions? Does anyone in the States really give a flying fuck about these vacuous pommie mannekins?

Anyway, Victoria "Posh Spice" Beckham, the stick figure with silicone bags attached to her chest, will be featured in an NBC special Monday night that was supposed to be a reality series until someone in power, probably new programmer and party animal Ben Silverman, realized a Posh series would contain half the content and brains of Hey Paula! and wisely downgraded it into a single hour, and talks exclusively with Ryan Seacrest (whose American Idol/Simon Cowell/Simon Fuller/Spice Girls connection came in handy) on E! tonight.

The big news? She says she'll smile more.

Give us Kate and Pete. Noel and Liam. Somebody interesting.

Where's Jerry? Read the MDA press release

WORLD’S TOP TELETHON EMBRACES SHORTER FORMAT
TO INCREASE AUDIENCE AND INCOME

TUCSON, Ariz., Oct. 6, 2010 – The Muscular Dystrophy Association today announced an important change to its perennial Labor Day Telethon, which for 45 years has galvanized tremendous public support for MDA’s lifesaving mission. The Association will shave more than 15 hours off its previous 21½-hour Telethon format. The move is central to a strategy to increase audience for and income from its 2011 Labor Day telecast. The 2010 Telethon raised $58.9 million.

“Ever since pioneering the Telethon as a fundraising, education and sponsor-recognition program, MDA has enjoyed unparalleled support from television and cable stations across America,” said Gerald C. Weinberg, MDA president & CEO and Telethon executive producer. “Our ‘Love Network’ of some 170 stations annually helps us reach an audience of some 40 million Americans. The stations’ efforts, and those of our national, regional and local sponsors, have been truly outstanding.

“What we’re doing now has amazing potential,” Weinberg added. “The shorter format means every hour of our show will be in the extended prime-time window of 6 p.m. to midnight in every time zone. This means our live, or tape-delayed Sunday broadcast with live local segments, will be even more attractive to stations that otherwise primarily would be running repeats from last season. The talent we’ll be attracting will be even bigger, since every moment of our prime-time show will have a tremendous audience.”

With its unrivaled Telethon track record, the Association could very well experience a net gain in total markets reached by its venerable show in 2011. There are more than 1,200 television stations serving communities across America, and it should be much easier for stations to clear six broadcast hours for proven live programming, than it has been to clear nearly two days of programming for the Telethon.

Weinberg explained, “The combination of buzz surrounding the new MDA Labor Day Telethon, and the tremendous good will that stations, on-air personalities and sponsors have consistently enjoyed by partnering with MDA, are a powerful combination. That’s why we’re so optimistic about the new show’s ability to increase audience reached and income in 2011.”

“There’s nothing like our Telethon,” noted Lee Miller, longtime Telethon producer. “In 2010, some 65 top acts performed, including some amazing production numbers by Tyce Diorio of “So You Think You Can Dance” as well as top Broadway and Las Vegas show segments. Our 2011 prime-time focus should make it easier to fill every moment of the show with the best headline entertainment.”

Rich MDA Telethon History

Over the years, countless megastars have appeared on the Telethon to help families affected by muscular dystrophy. And the surprise Dean Martin/Jerry Lewis reunion organized by Frank Sinatra still is one of the 10 best television moments of all time.

The who’s who of historical MDA Telethon appearances by contemporary stars includes: Jerry Seinfeld, Whoopi Goldberg, Eddie Murphy, Martin Short, Adam Sandler, Nigel Lythgoe, Nancy O’Dell, Donald Trump, Neil Patrick Harris, Larry King, Jimmy Fallon, William Shatner, Alison Sweeney, Wayne Brady, Drew Carey, Regis Philbin, Dr. Phil, Howie Mandel, Jason Alexander, Jann Carl, Woody Harrelson, Billy Crystal, Alan Alda, Tom Arnold, Terry Fator, Carrot Top, Martha Stewart, Bill Cosby and Don Francisco of “Sabado Gigante.”

Consider contemporary musical acts, too, and it’s easy to see why the MDA Telethon is so much a part of Americana. The Telethon audience has enjoyed Celine Dion, Garth Brooks, Mariah Carey, Clint Black, Cher, David Archuleta, John Ondrasik of Five For Fighting, Gloria Estefan, Enrique Iglesias, Train, Aretha Franklin, Tim McGraw, Faith Hill, Elton John, Wynnona Judd, Billy Joel, Cyndi Lauper, Paul McCartney, Mindy McCready, John Mellencamp, Reba McEntire, Carlos Santana, LeAnn Rimes, Tom Petty, Dolly Parton, Sugarland, Spice Girls, Stevie Wonder, Donny and Marie Osmond, Clay Aiken, Chicago, KISS, Jon Bon Jovi, Kid Rock, Tracy Lawrence, Billy Ray Cyrus, Randy Travis, Kenny Rogers and the Rolling Stones. Even the King of Pop, Michael Jackson, performed on the MDA Telethon.

About MDA

The Muscular Dystrophy Association pioneered cause-related marketing decades ago, and annually orchestrates thousands of special events in communities across America with the help of outstanding local, multiregional and national sponsors. The first organization with a national Telethon, MDA also is the first nonprofit to receive a Lifetime Achievement Award from the American Medical Association (“for significant and lasting contributions to the health and welfare of humanity”).

MDA is the nonprofit health agency dedicated to curing muscular dystrophy, ALS and related diseases by funding worldwide research. The Association also provides comprehensive health care and support services, advocacy and education.

Belinda Carlisle records an album in French

Ha! Belinda Carlisle has made the greatest of album of her career. And it’s in French.

Yeah, somebody sent us a CD and it was a big surprise: the singer from the Go-Gos tackles some of the the greatest hits of the French pop world in Voila. Sacred hipster pop like Serge Gainsbourg’s Bonnie et Clyde and chanson warhorses like La Vie En Rose. And from the first notes, it's very cool. And Belinda is very good; grown-up, with a deep voice that sounds like it's been oiled by lots of pastis, surprising gutteral growls, and only occasional lapses into Berlitz diction or Ronstadt-phonetics-by-the-numbers.

She sounds French. The band plays clean, classic Europop and features Brian Eno on keyboards (along with our favorite Irish accordion player, Sharon Shannon). It’s good living room music.

Now, you should know that French pop music is very big in the Tabloid Baby office. Gainsbourg, Jacques Higelin and Johnny Hallyday’s Rock ‘n’ Roll Attitude all get play on the hard drive. But the real favorites are the spice girls like Brigitte Bardot, Jane Birkin, Carla Bruni, Charlotte Gainsbourg, Françoise Hardy, Valerie Lamercier, Claudine Longet and Vanessa Paradis. Well, against all odds, add Belinda Carlisle.

We were never fans of the Go-Gos or any of that early Eighties LA powerpop. Belinda Carlisle always seemed chubby and squeaky. When the Tabloid Baby LA years began in earnest in the early Nineties, she lived down the road from us in Benedict Canyon, married to James Mason’s son, cleaned up into a lady who lunched. Later she got herself airbrushed and naked in Playboy and apparently moved to southern France.

Of course, Voila was recorded in London and she credits not only a “French Vocal Coach” but a “French Language Tutor” in the liner notes. But it all sounds like Paris, a nice cartoony version of France, as all good French pop music provides. And on the cover, she looks her age—slimmed and worn. All good. (The only unnecessary frill is a “bonus” 4-track disc in which she sings some of the same songs in English. She sounds better in French.)

Posh & Becks spark a British invasion

Uh oh. First Ant & Dec and now this. It looks as if NBC has opened the floodgates with its bright idea of pouring millions into a reality show starring a pair of British tabloid celebrities no one in America gives a toss about. Months before the launch of the summer series starring Skinny Spice and David Beckham, E! Entertainment is throwing up a retread, starring another vacuous plastic surgery-enhanced UK tabloid couple unknown on these shores.

E!'s bought up the rights to the UK series Katie and Peter, which follows the romance of a pair who fell in love while competing on I'm A Celebrity! Get Me Out of Here!, and then, like Peter Brady and that messed-up Top Model winner who met on The Surreal Life, turned their romance into a reality series. The only difference is that Katie and Peter allowed full access into their empty lives, including their engagement, wedding and birth of their first child.

Katie is Katie Price, a model who for some reason is also known as "Jordan," is a tabloid celeb best known for her artificial breasts, sexual relationships with footballers and boy band singers, abortions, miscarriages, topless pix, appearances in Playboy-- and a sex video.

Peter is Peter André, sort of a straight George Michael with less talent: a Greek Australian pop crooner who had some success in the UK, but had faded into obscurity by the time he hooked up with the desert island reality show.

The couple taped three seasons and even received a BBC award as The Most Annoying Couple of 2006.

E! plans to air at least 22 episodes beginning April 21st. The show will be paired with The Girls Next Door (good tie-in-- Katie, as Jordan, was a Hefner fave and, at his invitation, lived in the mansion for a few weeks-- probably getting it on with the geezer-- back in 2002). And, perhaps as a warning, E! exec Cyndi McClellan says British celebrity couples are literally lining up to tape reality shows that will introduce them to US audiences.

Just don't expect the same level of access or reality from the Beckhams. The NBC series is being quietly scripted as a comedy, and word is they've even cast someone to "play" a bodyguard in order to inject some drama and conflict into their dreary British lives.

(See a Katie & Peter in action-- in a music video-- here.)

(See some NSFW pix of Katie, er Jordan, here).