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Agency reconsiders '.XXX' for porn sites

A global Internet oversight agency is reopening discussions about whether to create a ".xxx" domain name as an online red-light district where porn sites can set up shop away from the wandering eyes of children and teenagers.

Parents would be able to use the system to help block access to porn sites, though because its use would be voluntary, the ".xxx" suffix wouldn't keep such content entirely away from minors. Religious and other anti-porn groups worry that ".xxx" would legitimize porn sites, and the proposal has already been rejected three times since 2000.

But the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers, which oversees the allocation of Internet addresses globally, may revive ICM Registry's bid yet again as ICANN meets this week in the Kenyan capital of Nairobi.

Last month, responding to complaints from ICM, an outside panel questioned ICANN's grounds for the latest rejection in 2007. As a result, board members have been weighing the matter ahead of formal consideration of the ".xxx" bid on Friday, ICANN CEO Rod Beckstrom said in an interview.

Beckstrom said he was not able to give details of those discussions for legal reasons, and he could not say when ICANN may reach a decision.

Stuart Lawley, ICM's chief executive, said he has been the victim of a process that he considered far from open and nondiscriminatory.

ICM, which planned to charge $60 for a site to register a ".xxx" name, first proposed ".xxx" in 2000 as a way to help the online porn industry clean up its act. Those using the domain would have to abide by yet-to-be-written rules designed to bar such trickery as spamming and malicious scripts.

And parents could set up Internet software to automatically block any site ending in ".xxx," reducing the chances that minors and other Internet users would accidentally stumble on pornography online.

Given its voluntary nature, however, ".xxx" would unlikely have much effect on parents' ability to block porn sites. And because a domain name serves merely as an easy-to-remember moniker for a site's actual numeric Internet address, even if its use is required, a child could simply punch in the numeric address of any blocked ".xxx" name.

Anti-porn activists, meanwhile, worry that the creation of a virtual red-light district would serve as an endorsement of the adult-entertainment industry, as ".xxx" would be sitting alongside other suffixes such as ".com" for commercial sites and ".edu" for schools.

Skeptics note that porn sites would likely keep their existing ".com" storefronts, even as they set up shop in the new ".xxx" domain name, thereby expanding the number of porn sites on the Internet.

When ICANN last considered ".xxx," board members also expressed worries that the suffix would leave the agency in the business of regulating content, or the type of material that would find itself there.

The board also questioned whether ".xxx" had the support of the adult-entertainment industry, as many operators of porn sites were concerned that governments would later make the voluntary red-light district mandatory.

ICANN still wasn't swayed after ICM said that the content-regulation role would have been left solely with the company and that ICM would fend off efforts to mandate its use.

Lawley challenged ICANN's rejection before an independent review panel appointed by the International Centre for Dispute Resolution. That panel largely sided with him and concluded that ICANN's decision was "not consistent with the application of neutral, objective and fair documented policy."

The panel said that after ICANN gave the bid preliminary approval in 2005, it shouldn't have revisited some of the key issues already reviewed. Board members had used the new evaluations in deciding to reject the bid two years later, in 2007.

Although the panel's findings are nonbinding, ICANN's board was scheduled to discuss them Friday. It was not clear whether the board would vote on the matter or defer a decision for more discussion.

Lawley said the review panel was supposed to be ICANN's mechanism for accountability, and how the organization responds to the panel's findings "will provide great insight into the true accountability of this vital organization."

He said the process has so far cost his company about $8.5 million.

ICANN tabled and effectively rejected a similar proposal in 2000 out of fear the ".xxx" domain would force the body into content regulation.

ICM resubmitted its proposal in 2004, this time structuring it with a policy-setting organization to free ICANN of that task. But many board members worried that the language of a proposed contract was vague and could kick the task back to ICANN. The board rejected the 2004 proposal in 2006.

ICANN revived the proposal months later after ICM agreed to hire independent organizations to monitor porn sites' compliance with the new rules. But ICANN ultimately rejected that bid in what was to be its final consideration.

Conan O’Brien Launches TeamCoco.com and is coming to a town near you

With this morning’s announcement of Conan O’Brien’s 30-city tour, the former late-night comedian is fully embracing his online fan base, “Team Coco.”

The official poster for the tour re-uses the image made famous on the Internet of a heroic Mr. O’Brien, orange hair aflame, in front of an American flag. The image was produced by Mike Mitchell, an artist in Los Angeles, as a show of support for Mr. O’Brien when NBC tried in January to move “The Tonight Show” to 12:05 a.m. Within days the image and its message, “I’m With Coco,” was a viral sensation, inspiring dozens of pro-Conan groups on Facebook. Several of Mr. O’Brien’s employees even made the image their Facebook profile photo.

Now they have formally adopted the image as their own. Days after Mr. O’Brien signed off of “The Tonight Show” on Jan. 22, one of the comedian’s producers contacted Mr. Mitchell and said that they wanted the “Coco” illustration to be the emblem of a nationwide tour they were planning.

“They wanted it to be the main image,” Mr. Mitchell recalled in an e-mail message Thursday. “They are all such fans of the ‘I’m with Coco’ poster and what it means to everyone.”

Mr. Mitchell met with Mr. O’Brien’s executive producer, Jeff Ross, about a month ago, to talk through a licensing deal.

“Apparently Conan wanted to get me on board for it – obviously I was honored,” Mr. Mitchell said. He said he retains the rights to the widely distributed image; Mr. O’Brien’s team will use it for the tour and for some merchandise sales.

Mr. O’Brien has set up an online presence on Twitter and at TeamCoco.com. His representatives do not own ConanOBrien.com, so TeamCoco could become his primary Web site. The site currently promotes the tour, and says it is “Copyright © 2010 Team Coco Inc.”

Asked about compensation for the image, Mr. Mitchell said “a fair deal was made for both parties.”

Mr. Mitchell said Mr. O’Brien called to thank him for creating the image. He recalled Mr. O’Brien joking that “I love anything with my face on it, and CONAN in huge bold letters.”

How To Cheat On Any Test

Via:HipHopBlog

 

 

Better hope your teacher isn't watching this before mid terms and finals

Pacquiao One Bout Away From Mayweather Match

Manny Pacquiao of the Philippines and Joshua Clottey of Ghana

attend a news conference in New York City to promote their upcoming fight

It is 7:13 a.m. in Los Angeles and Manny Pacquiao, the world's best pound-for-pound boxer, is jogging on a public high school track. There are palm trees in the distance, and the low hum of traffic on I-10 is starting to turn into a low roar as the Filipino boxer, clad in a red tracksuit, dashes around the dirt oval despite a painful shin splint. A handful of early-arriving students hang on the chain-link fence surrounding the track and watch him do his work. The Pac-Man is preparing for his March 13 fight against Joshua Clottey, a dangerous but relatively unknown welterweight from Ghana. The $49.95 pay-per-view fight is billed as "The Event" but could easily be called "The Letdown."

Just three months ago, boxing was preparing for its version of the Super Bowl. Fresh from his mega-fight win over Miguel Cotto, Pacquiao had begun negotiations with Floyd Mayweather Jr., a brash welterweight whom non-sports fans know best from his appearance on Dancing with the Stars. The proposed battle was being compared to some of the greatest matchups in boxing history. Even people who had given up on boxing or hadn't really thought about it much were talking about the Pacquiao-Mayweather fight, which would probably earn each boxer $40 million, the most lucrative match ever. 

But negotiations became so acrimonious that they descended to the level of bad soap opera. Mayweather insisted on Olympic-style random blood testing, which Pacquiao refused, saying that drug-testing rules should be decided by boxing commissions, not individual fighters. Though suspicions were raised that Pacquiao was on some sort of performance-enhancing drug, the Filipino boxer — who has won an unprecedented seven belts in seven weight classes, putting on 40 lb. throughout his career — has never tested positive for banned drugs. He says he is willing to submit to random urine testing.  

Pacquiao's camp says the boxer refused the blood testing because he is superstitious and doesn't want to give blood so close to fight time. He was blood-tested a couple of days before his fight with Erik Morales, and lost. "It made me weak," says Pacquiao, who is suing Mayweather for sullying his reputation. There is speculation in some boxing gyms that Mayweather knew about Pacquiao's aversion to pre-fight blood testing and used it as a tactic to duck him. But Mayweather insists that he simply wants to reform the sport's drug policies. "I am taking a stand," he says, adding, "I should get to choose who I want to fight." But by allowing the negotiations to collapse, Pacquiao and Mayweather quickly became defined as the boxers who wouldn't fight each other. "I think Floyd is scared of Manny," says Freddie Roach, Pacquiao's trainer. "I think the public is disgusted by the controversy, but they still want the fight to happen."  

To fill the vacuum and assuage dissatisfaction, each boxer decided to take on formidable interim opponents. Pacquiao will fight Clottey, and Mayweather will battle "Sugar" Shane Mosley on May 1. The hope is that if Pacquiao and Mayweather both win their respective fights, they will work out their differences and fight in the fall. "My nails are going to be bitten down to the bone waiting until May 2," says Ross Greenburg, president of HBO Sports, which is hoping to televise the Pacquiao-Mayweather spectacle.

Pacquiao doesn't seem to be taking his current opponent for a pushover. Clottey has a 35-3 win-loss record, and 21 of those wins were by knockout. He stands 5 ft. 8 in. tall to Pacquiao's 5 ft. 6 in. and has a strong chin and the muscled body of a boa constrictor. But Pacquiao came into his training camp in great shape, and his sparring at the Wild Card Gym in Hollywood has been crisp and lively; Roach predicts a knockout. Still, it could be a tactically riveting duel, because Clottey likes to lean on the ropes, while Pacquiao will probably try to dive in close, hit him with combinations and then get out of the way of Clottey's uppercuts. 

Mayweather (40-0, 25 KOs) also has a tough opponent. Mosley is a wily 38-year-old who twice defeated Oscar De La Hoya. (Both Mayweather and Mosley have agreed to random blood testing.) Richard Schaefer, CEO of Golden Boy, which is promoting the fight, predicts that HBO will sell 3 million pay-per-view buys to make it the biggest fight in boxing history. It will also be shown in theaters nationwide.

While waiting to meet in the ring, Pacquiao and Mayweather will compete at the box office. Pacquiao's last several fights have been at Las Vegas' MGM Grand, a 17,000-seat venue, against marquee opponents. His bout against Clottey will be held at Texas Stadium (45,000 seats for the event, and ticket sales have been brisk). But because Clottey was a last-minute replacement for Mayweather with no natural fanbase in the U.S., HBO declined to feature the fight in its popular 24/7 series (it did so for several of Pacquiao's previous matches), and the media tour was shortened to only two cities. Bob Arum, Pacquiao's promoter, chose not to sugarcoat it. "To be frank, we had to overcome disappointment," he says. "People were looking forward to a Pacquiao-Mayweather fight." 

Mayweather's match will be staged in the smaller MGM Grand, but it will get the full buildup with a four-episode Mayweather-Mosley 24/7 series on HBO. Mayweather spent last week on a three-city media tour, generating interest in his bout with outlandish theatrics, which included a shoving match with Mosley. Some of the crowd at the Los Angeles event chanted, "Manny! Manny!," but they were drowned out by "Money! Money!," Mayweather's nickname.

Yet both fighters' handlers, as well as Mayweather and Pacquiao themselves, appear unwilling to compromise on the blood-testing issue. Meanwhile, fans descend upon Pacquiao's training gym every day in hopes of catching a glimpse of him. He has had to spend more time than he wanted answering questions about blood testing, steroids and Mayweather — a nemesis who has clearly gotten under his skin. "I have never seen him so angry," says Roach. 

If a Pacquiao-Mayweather détente can somehow happen, it needs to be soon, while the men are still at their prime. Pacquiao, who is 31, is running for Congress in the Philippines and starting to hint at retirement. Mayweather, 33, has already come back from one retirement. If Pacquiao can beat Clottey and Mayweather is victorious over Mosley, then the fight for the two men's legacies will begin again — at the negotiating table.

 

Rapper Ludacris runs his own show

Ludacris removes his shades as he awaits his lunch at the restaurant in the posh Mandarin Oriental Hotel. He concedes he is a little tired with a concert at the nearby Verizon Center just a few hours away, but he really doesn't have time for rest. The Atlanta rapper also known as Chris Bridges is a busy man.

The Grammy-winning, platinum-selling artist has his hands full promoting his star-studded new album, Battle of the Sexes, out today, while also touring with the Black Eyed Peas and collaborating on current hits by Justin Bieber (Baby), Raheem DeVaughn (Bulletproof) and Taio Cruz (Break Your Heart). On the side, he's juggling a slew of charity and business ventures, including his Disturbing Tha Peace record label and a popular Atlanta restaurant. Parenthood and a thriving acting career also vie for his attention.

"I know I'm working hard, but it's hard for me to think about all I'm doing because I'm constantly on the move," says Ludacris, 32. "How do I do it? I take it one minute at a time. I've got a great team of people around me, I designate my time intelligently, and I'm a great multitasker."

He's also passionate about applying creative tweaks to his latest projects. On Battle, he enlists several female artists to engage him in lyrical conversations on gender. That novel concept initially was hatched for a duet with former DTP labelmate Shawnna, but it was broadened to include a range of female and male artists.

"Hip-hop is such a male-dominated industry," says Ludacris, who has been criticized for less-than-flattering references to women in his lyrics. "There's a female voice that's sometimes kind of missing."

His collaborators welcomed the opportunity to fire back.

"Guys and girls have been having this battle of the sexes from the beginning of time," says newcomer Nicki Manaj, who rhymes on the song My Chick Bad. "So when you put that to the music, it's fun."

Says Eve, who has heard on a remix of the same song: "This is a great concept. I wish I'd thought of it."

Another track, Hey Ho with Lil' Kim, addresses the double standards of promiscuity. Can't Live With You, featuring his cousin Monica, deals with a couple in an edgy though loving relationship, and B.O.T.S. Radio finds him and Shawnna giving callers advice on love.

He doesn't have a counterpart on the current club banger How Low, which went No. 1 on USA TODAY's urban airplay chart and has sold 1.2 million downloads, but it has inspired numerous remixes featuring Ciara and Pitbull, Rick Ross and Twista, and Flo Rida. "Everybody is sending me verses, which is flattering," he says. "We have so many versions of that song it's ridiculous."

Chuck Creekmur of music news site AllHipHop.com says Battle is continued evidence of Ludacris' musical growth after six hit albums and 14 top-10 R&B singles. He has sold more than 14 million albums in the USA.

"He's a real artist who commits to a concept and seeing it through," Creekmur says. "A lot of artists string together a bunch of songs and call it an album."

Ludacris, who got his start in the late 1990s at an Atlanta radio station as DJ Chris Lova Lova, was known as a brash party animal when he made his debut in 2000 with Back for the First Time. But in recent years, he has varied his themes to keep his music fresh. The still playful but more mature The Red Light District came out in 2004 and was followed by the somewhat darker Release Therapy two years later.

"He could have easily fallen victim to some of the traps other artists fall into by trying to stay the same," Creekmur says. "He's grown from kind of cartoonish rapper to a grown-up hip-hop artist. He's very lyrical, but some people forget that because of some of his more pop songs."

Building respect

That's a misconception Ludacris set out to change with 2008's Theater of the Mind, which went gold but was his first album to fall short of selling 1 million copies. It coincidentally came out at a time when he was getting notices as an actor. He calls the cinematically themed opus his favorite album to date.

"With that album, I set out to be respected as a lyricist," Ludacris says. "I feel like I accomplished that because even though I had sold a lot of records, people didn't start calling me a lyricist until after Theater of the Mind came out. I just love to re-invent and challenge myself to do things that I haven't done."

He applies that drive to all his projects. He was already a connoisseur of fine spirits when he was approached two years ago by the venerable French/Norwegian winery Birkedal Hartmann about bringing a new Cognac brand, Conjure, to the USA in a 50/50 venture. He didn't want to simply lend his name to the product's marketing, so he learned everything he could about the company and the process, then went to Europe to see it firsthand.

"We wanted somebody who would be really involved," says Kim Birkedal Hartmann, fourth-generation owner of the Cognac, France-based company established in 1887. "We just didn't want any endorsement deal. It was fascinating to see how interested he was. He wanted to know everything, and our master blender helped him select and blend the Cognacs he wanted."

Ludacris proudly declares that the custom-made liquor "tastes like luxury."

Forging such partnerships is one of the rapper's fortes. He got into business with San Francisco chef Chris Yeo, whose Straits restaurants serve spicy Singaporean cuisine, three years ago after meeting him at a charitable dinner. Straits Atlanta, which opened in April 2008, is now one of the city's more popular upscale restaurants. This year, he signed on with MTV to host and executive produce the Sprite Step Off, a documentary-style series that aired in February and followed step teams from three fraternities and three sororities competing for $100,000 in scholarships.

"I just treat people the way I want to be treated, and I respect my elders," he says. "Relationships are extremely important. Whether it's making records or in business, if we combine our efforts, intelligence and resources, there is no limit to the things we can do."

But time does limit the things he can do, and he has put his film career on hold until he finishes his tour in mid-April. He says his next role may be in the fifth installment of The Fast and The Furious franchise (he was in the first sequel, 2 Fast 2 Furious), which is still in development. His acting résumé includes Max Payne, RocknRolla, Fred Claus and Gamer and TV's Law & Order: Special Victims Unit, and he won a Screen Actors Guild outstanding cast award for Crash and was nominated for another with Hustle & Flow. He says he has been careful not to accept stereotypically thuggish "rapper" roles and even thought of turning down Hustle & Flow until producer John Singleton convinced him that the down-and-out rapper he portrayed differed greatly from his own personality.

"As it turned out, I'm glad that I did do it," he says. "But I definitely want to continue to take roles that people would not expect me to take."

Parenthood in the picture

His face lights up when asked about his role as a parent. He calls his daughter, Karma, 8, "my best friend."

"She rolls with me," he says. "Whenever I'm at the restaurant, she's there trying to help out the servers and she gets paid for that. And whenever I'm acting, she'll come on set and root me on. I'll bring her to some of my shows — the clean ones I do at festivals where there are other kids. She's my road dog and she loves it."

He says he won't be slowing down in the foreseeable future. He already has decided on Ludaversal— a play on Universal Records, DTP's parent company — as the title for his next album, which he says could arrive by year's end. In the meantime, he's ready for any other opportunities that come his way.

"It's just the rush that I get from working toward a goal and really loving what I do," he says. "I love it so much it's almost a crime, because not everybody is so blessed. I will keep going until I can't do any more."

'Lost Boys' actor Corey Haim dead in Burbank at 38

Corey Haim, a 1980s teen heartthrob for his roles in Lucas and The Lost Boys whose career was blighted by drug abuse, has died. He was 38.

Haim died early Wednesday at Providence St. Joseph Medical Center in Burbank, Los Angeles County coroner's Lt. Cheryl MacWillie said.

"As he got out of bed, he felt a little weak and went down to the floor on his knees," Assistant Chief Coroner Ed Winter said. His mother called paramedics.

An autopsy will determine Haim's cause of death. There was no evidence of foul play, police Sgt. Michael Kammert said.

Haim, who gained attention for his roles in "Lucas" and "The Lost Boys," had flulike symptoms before he died and was getting over-the-counter and prescription medications, police Sgt. William Mann said.

"He could have succumbed to whatever (illness) he had or it could have been drugs," Mann said. "He has had a drug problem in the past."

Haim was taken by ambulance to the hospital from an apartment in Los Angeles near Burbank. The enormous complex is known as Oakwood and is popular with young actors, Kammert said.

Haim acknowledged his struggle with drug abuse to The Sun in 2004.

"I was working on Lost Boys when I smoked my first joint," he told the British tabloid.

"I did cocaine for about a year and a half, then it led to crack," he said.

Haim said he went into rehabilitation and was put on prescription drugs. He took both stimulants and sedatives such as Valium.

"I started on the downers which were a hell of a lot better than the uppers because I was a nervous wreck," he said. "But one led to two, two led to four, four led to eight, until at the end it was about 85 a day."

In 2007, he told ABC's Nightline that drugs hurt his career.

"I feel like with myself I ruined myself to the point where I wasn't functional enough to work for anybody, even myself. I wasn't working," he said.

The Toronto-born actor got his start in television commercials at 10 and earned a good reputation for his work in such films as 1985's Murphy's Romance and his portrayal of Liza Minelli's dying son in the 1985 television film A Time to Live.

His career peaked and he became a teen heartthrob with his roles in the 1986 movie Lucas, and The Lost Boys, in which he battled vampires.

In later years, he made a few TV appearances and had several direct-to-video movies. He also had a handful of recent movies that have not yet been released.

But in 1997 he filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection, listing debts for medical expenses and more than $200,000 in state and federal taxes.

His assets included a few thousand dollars in cash, clothing and royalty rights.

In recent years, he appeared in the A&E reality TV show The Two Coreys with his friend Corey Feldman. It was canceled in 2008 after two seasons. Feldman later said Haim's drug abuse strained their working and personal relationships.

Lindsay Lohan Sues E-Trade Claiming Baby Ad Is a Parody of Her - VIDEO

The Super Bowl may be long over, but Brand Battle 2010 continues to rage on, as yet another commercial is bit by the controversy bug — this time one of those adorable spots from E-Trade featuring a talking baby named “Lindsay.”
 
According to the New York Post, actress Lindsay Lohan is suing the investment site on the grounds that the man-eating, substance-abusing baby in the commercial is based on her.

Lohan’s lawyer, Stephanie Ovadia, is asking that the commercial be taken off the air and every copy of the offending spot be rounded up (which could now be more difficult given today’s coverage). The actress is also asking for $100 million.

According to Ovadia: “Many celebrities are known by one name only, and E-Trade is using that knowledge to profit… They used the name Lindsay…They’re using her name as a parody of her life. Why didn’t they use the name Susan? This is a subliminal message. Everybody’s talking about it and saying it’s Lindsay Lohan.”

Ovadia also says Lohan was mistreated because E-Trade didn’t get her approval nor offer her compensation for allegedly being referred to in the ad. Now, the lawyer says her client is owed $50 million in exemplary damages, as well as $50 million in compensatory damages.

Although Ovadia says that the spot — which debuted during the Super Bowl and aired during the Winter Olympics — helped garner E-Trade mucho money, it wasn’t one of the most popular ads to premiere. It didn’t rank tops with either online viewers or couch potatoes (although the talking baby series has racked up a lot of success in the past).

Still, today it joins a cadre of commercials that cleaned up on hits due to controversy — including the Tim Tebow spot, GoDaddy’s rejected “Lola” ad and men’s-only dating site ManCrunch’s similarly punted ad.

One could argue that by suing E-Trade, Lohan is calling even more attention to the ad in question. As of right now, the ad has nearly 2.5 million views on YouTube. It remains to be seen — most likely tomorrow — what effect this lawsuit has on further increasing visibility. But judging from the fact that it’s been cropping up all over the web since the litigious news hit, you can bet Lohan’s legal ire will ensure the vid’s virality for at least the remainder of this week.

Check out the vid below and let us know in the comments whether or not Lohan has a case.

Will Universal Music's New Boss Keep the Hits Coming?

Lucian Grainge's management style is not short on theatrical flourish. Four years ago, the Briton who is about to become the world's most powerful music industry executive, arrived late to the boardroom of Universal Music Group's international head office in London after the company had suffered a particularly poor sales period. As he entered, he turned off the lights, leaving his executive team sitting nervously in the dark. He then paced around the room until finally uttering the words: "See that. Better get used to it. That's what it's like when you don't have any hit records."

New York will have to get used to Grainge this summer when the 49-year-old takes over as head of Universal Music worldwide, the largest record company on the planet with a market share of nearly 29% and such acts in its stable as U2, Lady Gaga, Eminem and Amy Winehouse. Grainge has been groomed for the role for several years and says his fingers will remain close to the light switch. "It will depend if they have any hits or not," he tells TIME.  

Grainge is one of a trio of talented British music executives — all born within six months of each other — who have landed at the heart of the industry, even though none had any college education. Simon Cowell, the elder of the group and the only one who has turned 50, is perhaps the most famous name in the business, with a television and music operation that generates significant profits for rival Sony Music. Simon Fuller, the youngest, is the impresario who devised American Idol and managed the Spice Girls.

Grainge, though, describes himself as "the powerful one." He may not appear on television, but the turn-off-the-lights story is typical of a man who is both fiercely competitive and entertainingly playful. He chases artists signed to other music companies with fervor, personally persuading the Rolling Stones to switch over from rival record company EMI two years ago. And once he's wooed acts, he can keep them on board — no small achievement in an industry not short of ego. When he was honored at London's Grosvenor Hotel with a Music Industry Trust Award in November 2008, he was feted by some of the biggest names in the business. Bono and the rest of U2 presented the award, Take That performed, and Benny Andersson and Bjorn Ulvaeus, the male half of ABBA, tried to outbid British rock band Snow Patrol in the fundraising auction that followed. 

Paul McGuinness, the manager of U2, probably Universal's biggest single act, has worked with Grainge for decades. "Making it in the United States is the biggest challenge of all for any British talent in the music business. He will need all his intelligence and skill to pull it off," he says. At a time when many major acts are breaking away from Universal, U2 has stayed loyal to the label, in part because Grainge has earned the respect of the band. "Lucian's advantage is that he has got a strong musical record of his own, so his opinion on a song, as well as business, is taken seriously," McGuinness says.

That comes from a long career working his way up through the London music scene. After leaving school at the age of 18, he started as a runner at a talent-scout company called MPC and says he was so junior he was "getting the secretaries sandwiches." Desperate for a job in music, he started cold-calling record-label bosses in the Music Week directory until he got through by chance to Maurice Oberstein, a senior executive at CBS Records. His persistence was rewarded with a job in the company's artists and repertoire (A&R) division, hunting for new songwriters and building their careers. Soon after, he moved over to RCA to do the same job and scored his first hit single in the U.S. — Olivia Newton-John's "Heart Attack," which was written by a Briton he had signed, Paul Bliss.

In 1986, Grainge joined Polygram's songwriting division and gradually moved up the ranks at the company, which would later become Universal following a merger with MCA. Eventually, under the tutelage of Doug Morris, the Universal chief executive he'll be replacing, Grainge rose to run the company's U.K. headquarters and then its international operations. As EMI has faltered in recent years, he has become a key force behind helping British acts break into the U.S. market, most notably, the troubled Winehouse. 

Grainge's plans for his new position remain somewhat of a mystery. His approach emphasizes artist relations at a time when other companies would rather talk about formulating an effective digital-distribution strategy to combat music piracy. It's not that Grainge doesn't care about this issue — indeed, he wants the U.S. to become tougher on piracy. He says, however, that there is "no platinum-tipped magic bullet" to solve the problem. One thing that will help: forming a coalition of music, film and publishing companies to lobby both Congress and Internet service providers to enact tougher sanctions against music pirates. "English-speaking content has most to lose [from file-sharing]," he says.

As for expanding Universal Music's operations, he wants to turn it into a "content-owning rights company," which means developing television and film formats to vie with the two Simons' TV franchises: Fuller's American Idol and Cowell's soon-to-be-arriving X Factor, which is already a big hit in Britain. Among Universal's television projects in Britain is a show called Popstar to Operastar, which features Meatloaf as a judge of La Scala wannabes. And on the theater front, Universal is backing Judy Craymer, the producer of the stage and film musical Mamma Mia!, in her efforts to create a musical about the Spice Girls called Viva Forever.

Whether either format produces the next Susan Boyle remains to be seen. But if anybody is going to keep the lights on in the U.S. music business, it's likely to be Grainge.

 

2012 Summer Olympics: London Learns from Vancouver Games

The construction site just off east London's Pudding Mill Lane is a hive of activity. To a sound track of saws, whirring engines and vehicle horns, workers are shifting earth, laying roads and scaling a cavernous steel-framed structure. On a viewing platform overlooking the site, a steady stream of people gather to watch the development take shape. Many linger: a dedicated coffee shop at one end of the platform offers hot drinks amid the crisp, wintry weather.

London's construction workers had better get used to the scrutiny. With the Vancouver Winter Games now concluded, attention will switch to the British capital — which was awarded the 2012 Summer Games five years ago — as it races to get ready. Learning from the last host city will be vital. While the sports on show in London will be different from those in Vancouver, the Canadian city's experience "gives us real food for thought," Sebastian Coe, chairman of London's organizing committee, told reporters ahead of the closing ceremony on Feb. 28. London, he said, would "use this information to ensure we stage a Games for everyone." 

Coe, part of a 50-strong London delegation that studied the Winter Games firsthand, divides the lessons he and his colleagues learned into "four Ss" — sport, service, stadiums and sites. The team is set for a full debrief in the next few weeks. Ahead of that, here's a quick TIME guide for London:

Get the atmosphere right, and you're golden. Canadians bought into the Vancouver Games in a big way, and that played a key part in their success. London's organizers applauded Vancouver's party atmosphere, while International Olympic Committee President Jacques Rogge reckoned that locals had "embraced the Olympic Games like no other city in the world before."  

Building such an atmosphere in London will be crucial. Plans are in place to put up dozens of big screens throughout the U.K. by 2012, mimicking the sites in and around Vancouver that offered people without tickets the chance to feel part of the action. 

Locating about a quarter of the 2012 venues outside of London should also help stoke Britons' interest. Within the sprawling, densely populated capital, though, organizers "need to carefully plan how they're going to control, handle and manage the crowds to make sure everyone's safe and not gridlocked," says Ed Hula, editor of Around the Rings, a publication on the Olympics. 

Give locals something to cheer about — but don't overdo it. Sports fans will doff their cap to a great performance by any competitor. In Vancouver, it was hard to see past American skier Lindsey Vonn or South Korean figure skater Kim Yu-na. But the sporting success of the home nation helps set the tone for an Olympics. Just ask Canada's rabid ice hockey fans. Canada topped the gold-medal count this winter, and the U.K. will be under pressure to deliver in 2012. Recent history is encouraging: Britain finished fourth in the medals table in Beijing and landed its biggest gold-medal haul in a century.

But the other lesson from Canada is that you can go too far. The country's "Own the Podium" initiative — a $110 million program designed to put Canada on top of the medals table — generated almost as much criticism as podium finishes. The plan limited rivals' access to facilities like the sliding and speedskating tracks, prompting protests from foreign competitors. Some even suggested that it contributed to the tragic death of Georgian luge competitor Nodar Kumaritashvili. Others claimed that it heaped too much pressure on the home nation's athletes. London chair Coe has defended the initiative in recent days; a two-time Olympic track champion, he knows all about high expectations. But managing expectations, and limiting the grumbles of others, will surely be in London's interest.

When you invite the world to a party, there are going to be glitches. Transport snarls, a lack of early snow and a mechanical snafu during the opening ceremony prompted one British newspaper to label Vancouver a contender for "worst Games ever." But minor hitches are inevitable. So too is a little criticism. What matters is how you react. "Success is measured in part or determined by how well you respond or how you cure inefficiencies early on," says Hula. And in that sense, "[Vancouver] did very well." 

For London, as with any host, it underlines the need for "testing, testing, testing," as Rogge urged for the Vancouver Games. The message seems to have got through. "We have an entire year built in to make sure we test, test, test," says Joanna Manning-Cooper, spokeswoman for the London organizing committee. In 2011, organizers will try out all 26 of the Games' venues, mounting everything from "mass participation jamborees" to full-blown international meets in order to test catering, toilets, turnstiles and transport.

Selling more obscure sports cleverly can work. Demand for many of the 9 million tickets that London organizers plan to sell will be fierce. For some events, though — think handball — organizers know they may have to coax fans along. But that doesn't mean it can't be done. Few Britons had ever heard of ski cross before the Vancouver Games, but the event, which pits four skiers simultaneously against one another over an undulating course, drew millions of television viewers. London organizers have been busy drawing up marketing plans to help push the lower-profile events. Vancouver may have given them some ideas. 

Merchandising matters. O.K., so we've known that for a while. But ever since the over-commercialized Atlanta Games in 1996, host cities have made a big deal of being all about the sports while treating merchandising like a necessary evil. Vancouver proved it doesn't have to be that way. The enormous success of the red mittens — sales of the $10 gloves generated more than $12 million for Canadian sports — "helped us clarify our thinking around what could become the iconic collector's item of the Games," says Manning-Cooper. 2012 umbrella, anyone?

Secrets Of Special Effects

A spaceship lands. Humans become avatars. A man in a cape can fly. Special effects have made movies magical for decades. Big-dollar or ultralow-budget, the goal is the same: to frighten, fool or thrill the audience.

For a huge movie like Avatar, various special effects companies spent years on the project. One of them, Legacy Effects, had about 120 people working on the look of the inhabitants of the alien moon, Pandora.

But special effects happen on a smaller scale as well. In a cramped trailer in Van Nuys, Calif., two guys mix up fake blood for a slasher scene in C.L.A.S.S. (that stands for Criminal Law and Student Slayings). It's so low budget — $1 million — the filmmakers are shooting in producer Sheldon Robins' aunt's house for the film's final scene.

Robins put much of the little money he had toward special effects makeup. "The most important part was making sure my kills didn't look cheesy," he says.

Jerry Constantine will commit the makeup murders. Constantine did special effects makeup work on The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, Watchmen and Van Helsing. Usually, for bloody scenes, Constantine attaches plastic tubing to the actor's back, and with a syringe, fires fake blood through the tubing during the live scene. But not on this budget.

"They don't have time for the two-hour makeup for me to pull the actor, glue the appliance on, and then spurt the blood," Constantine explains. "So we fake it out."

Viewers will see the actor after the throat's been slit. (Sorry, but it's all make-believe, remember.) First, Constantine takes a superthin, neck-sized piece of latex foam and cuts a horizontal slit in the middle. Constantine's assistant is Mike Measimer — they've been working on films together for 11 years. Constantine holds the piece up to the actress' neck and proclaims that it will work perfectly, so they glue it on. The two men work in tandem, like surgeons in reverse (wearing black surgical gloves.)

Constantine powders the line where the foam meets skin. With a sponge dipped in makeup, he dabs various pinks onto the fake flesh, then sprays on some pale brown freckles. It looks just like the woman's natural neck, but with a big empty slit in the middle. And now, the slashing begins. Before it gets too gory, we're going to cut away (as it were) to some of the special effects folks who worked on Avatar.

The Big Leagues

Legacy Effects, the special effects company for Avatar, is the offspring of the Stan Winston Studio. Winston worked with Avatar director James Cameron on his Terminator films, creating the menacing bots from the future. (Winston also did Aliens and the groundbreaking dinosaurs in Jurassic Park.) Winston's studio started working with Cameron on Avatar in 2006, but Winston died of cancer in 2008.

John Rosengrant, Winston's protege of 25 years, and a few others at the studio started Legacy Effects, a name in honor of their friend and mentor. They carried on the work in Avatar, creating the specialty props such as the enormous Armored Mobile Platform (AMP) suit, which looks like a tank on legs. The AMP is on display in Legacy Effects' warehouse, where all their movie, TV and commercial props and makeup effects are made. The AMP stands 13.5 feet high, and it's made of 200 distinct pieces — hand-detailed to suggest a metal texture.

"It's like Apache helicopter meets power loader from Alien," says Rosengrant, who worked on all three Terminator movies. Standing nearby the AMP suit in the warehouse is a rogues' gallery of specialty props: the Avatar Scorpion cockpit; the T-600 robot and two-gun turret tank from Termination Salvation; and the Iron Monger from Iron Man.

Rosengrant and his team also created the prosthetic legs actor Sam Worthington wore in Avatar. They found a Sam-sized young man — whose paralysis didn't stop him from playing basketball — and made a cast of his legs.

"We finished them off in silicon and punched individual hairs into them. [The prosthetic legs] would get strapped onto Sam, and his legs would go down into holes in the wheelchair," explains Rosengrant. "I think it was important to make sure that this was convincing, because it really sells the idea of Jake in his freedom as an avatar versus how he was trapped on Earth."

Rosengrant's team also conceived the look of Pandora's Na'avi people — with their enormous eyes. The team selected snow leopard eyes as inspiration and played with the color, turning them more golden and less green.

"You always draw from nature," says Rosengrant, "because you're trying to make the unbelievable believable."

Now, Back To Slashing

Making the unbelievable believable is a tall order on a small budget, but special effects makeup artists Jerry Constantine and Mike Measimer are still working on wreaking murderous mayhem on an actress' neck in C.L.A.S.S. So far, they've made the prosthetic to look completely natural with the actress' skin.

Constantine adds cotton to the horizontal slit area. He's creating what he delicately calls the "meat." The cotton will give dimension to the wound area after red coloring is applied to look like blood. Then, with a tiny spatula, Constantine spreads what looks like raspberry jelly on top. And ick — it suddenly looks like thickened blood.

"This where it starts to look like what it is," says Constantine. And it does. It looks so real, you want to turn away.

With all the advanced special effects on movies these days, it's hard to believe that Constantine and Measimer are still doing it the old-fashioned way. But even at a big studio like Legacy Effects, "slashing" is alive and well. Alan Scott, one of the co-owners of Legacy and a Stan Winston protege, stands by the old methods.

"The technologies that have been used in special makeup effects that worked for nearly 100 years still work," Scott says.

He says digital blood is not as messy, but you don't have actors reacting to something visually horrible, either.

"If you just have a tennis ball that you're playing to, it's hard to understand that there's a 30-foot creature trying to eat you," Scott says.

Scott and Rosengrant were inspired by all the old, great classic horror films — Frankenstein, The Mummy — and actors like Boris Karloff and Lon Chaney. In fact, Scott says, he'd love to do a full-on zombie movie.

"That's part of our roots," he says. "We love horror. My wife doesn't understand it, but that's my whole Netflix library