50 Cent to tour States but skip Los Angeles
Shorty can find 50 Cent in da arena this summer.
After selling over 3 million copies of “Get Rich or Die Tryin’ ” in under five weeks, Dr. Dre’s new protégé will take his entourage on the road this summer for a 29-date tour.
“Get Rich” is the best-selling record of the year thus far, but much of 50 Cent’s popularity stems from his bad-boy image.
“If he says he’s gonna pop you, you think he might,” said Eminem in a Rolling Stone interview. Eminem and Dr. Dre signed 50 Cent to their Shady Records section of Interscope earlier this year. His first album, “Power of a Dollar,” was put aside when the rapper was shot nine times in May 2000.
The tour kicks off April 1 in Denver. There are currently no dates scheduled in California.
Metallica and Ozzy bassists switch roles
Rock took a hint from baseball card aficionados last month when Metallica and Ozzy Osbourne traded bassists.
Robert Trujillo, former Ozzy bassist, quit the band last month to join Metallica for unpublicized reasons. In response, bassist Jason Newstead (who left Metallica in January 2001) joined Ozzy’s band and has been rehearsing with them frequently. Newstead left Metallica to devote time to his new band, Voivod, who will play the Ozzfest 2003 tour this summer.
“This is something I’m doing out of respect, so it took zero seconds (to decide),” Newstead said of his union with Ozzy. Ozzy returned the favor with a private rehearsal for approximately 25 songwriters and photographers in Hollywood.
“It’s not a fair exchange,” Ozzy said of the trade. “It’s robbery, I say.”
Newstead had played with Metallica for 14 years when he quit the band.
Gandolfini drops lawsuit against HBO
The Sopranos’ prize bird will sing after all.
James Gandolfini, star of HBO’s “The Sopranos,” will drop his lawsuit against the network and go back to work. HBO will also drop its $100 million counter suit, and season five will begin filming about a week after originally planned.
Gandolfini sued HBO for not notifying him early enough that there would in fact be a fifth season.
Spider-Man star to sit out second film
Tobey Maguire may have shot his last web.
The actor, who played the role of Spider-Man in last year’s film by the same name, is reported to be experiencing back pain as a result of two back-to-back physically demanding roles. The movie’s sequel is set to begin production April 12, meaning the healing Maguire may not be able to perform.
Jake Gyllenhaal, who starred in “Bubble Boy” and “Moonlight Mile” with Dustin Hoffman, is allegedly being sought by producers to fill the role.
— Compiled from news sources
March 20, 2003
