Pharrell Will Voice It Up

Well, it must be said: Pharrell is on fiya.

See, it was announced yesterday that, hot off an Oscar nomination for the ubiquitous “Happy,” the Grammy-winning music man will replace Cee Lo Green on the seventh season of TV’s The Voice.

No word yet on whether Christina Aguilera – who is expecting her second child (a girl) later this year with her fiancé Matt Rutler – will be back for the new season, but this could be a good time to break in a new girl coach.

You know...should Shakira opt to skip the upcoming season.

Photo: EW.com.

At It Again

“It’s On Again.”

Or so sing Alicia Keys and Kendrick Lamar on the Pharrell-produced lead single off the Amazing Spider-Man 2 soundtrack.

It’s a bit of a groovy track, one that, Keys says, evokes the message that, “We can all be superheroes in our own lives!”

Btw, this isn’t the first time Keys has played the soundtrack game. In 2008, she and Jack White recorded “Another Way to Die” for the James Bond movie Quantum of Solace.

Photo: Billboard.com.

Getting His Freak On

My, my – I guess sooner of later everyone does go back home at least once.

I say that because Michael Chiklis is joining the Freak Show.

Indeed, Evan Peters is getting some masculine company on the new, predominantly female (again...so far) installment of American Horror Story. In fact, the Emmy-winning star of The Shield – which used to air on FX – will be playing Peters’ father and Kathy Bates’ ex-husband.

You can expect the Jessica Lange-led American Horror Story: Freak Show to debut later this year.

Photo: Boston.CBSLocal.com.

#NicoleRichieBackOnTV

It has been a while since I read anything non-fashion-related about Nicole Richie.

Just last week, actually, I got to thinking girlfriend should like, be on the radio. That like, I would listen to a show that had her on regularly.

But now comes word that Richie has been eyeing a return to TV and that, in fact, VH-1 has given #CandidlyNicole a straight-to-series order, with eight episodes set to debut in July 17.

The show, btw, is so named because it is based on Richie’s AOL online series...which was based on Richie’s Twitter feed.

It’s come to that, folks. But I like her, so OK.

Photo: E! Online.

Chelsea Out

Are you fond of E!’s Chelsea Lately?

Well then, you better get it while it’s hot.

Chelsea Handler has announced – through her manager – that she is not planning on renewing her contract with the cabler once it ends later this year. What...a bummer.

The comedian is set to be weighing her options, as well as the attention of “at least seven [business] suitors” that are looking to get into bed with her.

In the meantime, Handler will plug away.

And keep writing runaway hits.

And touring, as she is now with her “Uganda Be Kidding Me Live,” which I am catching in Miami Beach later this week.

Photo: JawsJumboBurgers.net.

Wolverine’s New Tune

People! That long-awaited Wolverine musical starring Hugh Jackman?

It. Is now. A reality.

Kinda.

Jackman was on the BBC Radio 1’s The Matt Edmonson Show last week, and, ever the obliging guest, the Awesome Aussie sang some silly lyrics to the tune of “Who Am I?” from Les Misérables – complete with a plug for the upcoming X-Men: Days of Future Past, natch.

Check it out:



Yeah, I would see Wolverine: The Musical.

I totally would.

Hedwig Hotness

Neil Patrick Harris is looking H-O-T as Hedwig on Broadway’s Hedwig and the Angry Inch.

The show kicked off previews last night and will officially open on April 22.

Get!

Photo: EW.com.

Mojave Man

Seems going to Mojave is kind of hard.

Well, it is the desert....

I say that only because I feel like I have been reading about the forthcoming indie psychological thriller by that title, from the Oscar-winning screenwriter of The Departed, William Monahan, for a couple of years now.

Garrett Hedlund stars in the project (which has been shot, evidently), as a suicidal artist who journeys into the desert to sort himself out and instead runs into his equally messed up (and dangerous) doppelgänger (Oscar Isaac). Jason Clarke – first cast in 2012 – also has a part in the film, as a baddie of some sort if memory of his casting item serves.

And now Mark Wahlberg has revealed, at the recent CinemaCon, that he, too, headed into Mojave. Alas, he did not say what kind of role he played.

And now you know.

Photo: Zimbio.com.

How Cute Are the Cambridges?

There are family portraits, and then there are royal family portraits.

So it’s a good thing, a refreshing thing, Prince William and Kate Middleton, a.k.a. Princess Kate of England, kept the latest family photo they released to the press – of themselves and their precious 8-months-old Prince George Alexander Louis and their dog Lupo – fairly grounded and worthy of the former description.

Low-key, no frills. Simple. Regal but not stuffy.

Welcome to the new monarchy, beeyotches!

Photo: UsMagazine.com.

Elton’s Going to the Chapel

Big cheers go out to y’all, my English friends of friends, now that gay marriage is a thing in England.

And congratulations to Elton John and David Furnish, for those two crazy kids are getting hitched soon.

The couple – civil-unioned since 2005 – is planning on exchanging I dos and become husbands at last some time...this year.

In May, actually!

A summer gwedding. How fabulous.

Photo: AceShowbiz.com.

Actor-Cum-Designer

So what? There are no good parts for young men in Hollywood anymore?

Bitchy, party of one!

Read me out, though: Why is Hayden Christensen venturing into fashion? By which I mean, of course, why isn’t he on a screen, big or small, doing what he became a household name for? Takers came out four years ago, knowwhatImean.

C’mon, dude, act. More. Then knock yourself out putting out RW&CO capsule collections or whatever. Good for you for staying busy, but, you know...call your agent.

RW&CO will be available in stores and online next month. GTS.

Photo: Newswire.ca.

Singing About Dreams

I’m...starting to think we are never getting that newlywed Leighton Meester record the actress said she was getting ready to put out like, five years ago.

So it’s a good thing she gets to sing on screen every once in a while.

And that she likes to jam it with her gal pals, as she did recently with singer-songwriter Dana Williams, with whom she recorded a cover of Fleetwood Mac’s “Dreams.”

Sweet voice. Wish we had gotten to hear what she was working on way back when the Gossip Girl iron was scorching hot.

Photo: EW.com.

It’s the New Green Goblin!

If you thought – as did everyone else – that the big baddie of the upcoming Amazing Spider-Man 2 was meant to be Jamie Foxx’s Electro, well then...you have som’in’ else comin’ your way, too.

’Cause Electro won’t be it.

It actually has become more and more apparent, thanks in no small measure to Entertainment Weekly’s latest cover story, that Dane DeHaan’s Harry Osborn (pictured here) will take center stage in the sequel as the Green Goblin.

A very fug Green Goblin.

Can it be May 2, already, please?

Photo: EW.com.

Channeling Billie Holiday

This one’s gonna make some of my peeps smile.

Five-time Tony winner Audra McDonald is back on Broadway.

The Meryl Streep of the Great White Way – I can call her that, right? – is playing Billie Holiday in her new one-woman show Lady Day at Emerson’s Bar & Grill (she has been doing previews of the show since March 25, actually).

Plan on being near Broadway starting on April 13 because that is when the show will officially open.

And plan on betting big on McDonald at the next Tonys. You know it’s pretty much in the bag.

Photo: NoneSuch.com.

Agent Coulson’s Cellist

Remember that cellist Gwyneth Paltrow asked Clark Gregg about, kind of in passing, in The Avengers?

Well, she’s going to be seen soon, on TV’s Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., don’t you know, don’t you know.

And in the form of Whedonverse fave Amy Acker.

Indeed, the actress has signed on to appear on the show as said cellist, on April 22.

The guesting gig – a one-of, so far – will mark a reunion for Acker and Gregg, who co-starred in Joss Whedon’s follow-up to The Avengers, Much Ado About Nothing, last year.

Photo: Fandango.com.

Fleetwood Mac Is Whole Again

Just like Stevie Nicks promised two summers ago, all of Fleetwood Mac is hitting the road again soon.

Yes, Christine McVie’s going with the rest of ’em when they go!

The welcome good news was made official this morning on Today, 16 years after she left the band because she “was just burned out and frightened to fly,” when McVie, Nicks, and the Fleetwood Mac men – Mick Fleetwood, an on-the-mend-from-cancer John McVie, and Lindsay Buckingham – confirmed that they are all going on tour this fall.

So f---ing groovy!

The “On with the Show Tour” will kick off in Minnesota on Sept. 30 and hit South Florida in 

Photo: Philadelphia.CBSLocal.com.

On Skid Row...and Off the Wagon?

I thought Zac Efron was doing well.

You know, I mean, I really don’t know how else to put it – not that I am judging – but I gotta ask the question, as I am sure a lot people are: What was the actor doing on L.A.’s Skid Row last Sunday night? It came to light today that he and his bodyguard were attacked there by three men after they supposedly ran outta gas and were waiting for a tow.

OK. I’ll bite.

Per TMZ, though, Efron – who sought rehab last year (for booze and coke) and was sober six months last December – was “obviously intoxicated.” 

I really hope Efron hasn’t relapsed. He’s got so much going on, you know. Not that people with less going on would be more understandable, but it’s like, you know, you know.

It’s Hollywood. We I feel more strongly about those folks, for whatever reason.

Photo: UsMagazine.com.

David Will Be Back

Looks like we’re getting a sequel to Prometheus in 2016, folks.

Recent reports suggest and Noomi Rapace and Michael Fassbender (in an especially expanded capacity), could be back on the screen in a new Ridley Scott-directed second exploration of the pre-Alien universe.

A writer has been hired to reword the project’s script, and 20th Century Fox has earmarked a spring 2016 opening date for an untitled Scott release.

One need only connect the dots....

Photo: 20th Century Fox.

G.P. and Chris Martin Are Done

Man, I hope they can fix this.

Because, as you can like, totally see in the pic at right (taken just this past awards season), they make a cute, absolutely “Magic”-al pairing.

Alas, for now it is true...and it is what it is: Gwyneth Paltrow and Chris Martin have announced they are going their separate ways.

Because they are planning to – seriously, G.P.? – “consciously uncouple.”

Cue up a bunch of rumors old and new!

The Paltrow-Martins first became an item circa the middle of 2002, and married in December 2003. They have two kids together: Apple, 9, and 7-year-old Moses.

Photo: ElComercio.pe.

M the Director Strikes Again

Madonna is at it again.

Yes, the the Queen of Pop’s directing another film.

Her follow-up-from-behind-the-camera to W.E. will be the adaptation of Adé: A Love Story, the debut novella of one Rebecca Walker.

The film will chronicle the love story between a young college student and the titular character, a young Swahili man...and the Kenyan civil war that threatens to tear them apart.

Here’s to hoping M writes a beautiful song like she did for W.E. (that would be “Masterpiece”) and gives it a plum spot within the film so that she can finally earn that Oscar nomination we all want her to.

Photo: JapanTimes.co.jp.

Everybody Can Talk...About His Being Out

In case you needed to know, Neon Trees lead singer Tyler Glenn has confirmed that he is gay.

That’s all.

Photo: Twitter.com/tylerinacoma.

Backstreet Spice, Anyone?

I wonder how Posh Victoria Beckham feels about this one.

I read a rumor so, so good yesterday, I simply had to get on my knees and pray it comes true digest it for a while.

The Backstreet Boys and the Spice Girls may be going on tour together.

You don’t understand, the me from winter 1997 is doing cartwheels within me.

I mean, can you imagine how tremendous this would be? Best part it, the two quintets already met once upon time, as you can see in the picture at right.

I wannabe it that way!

Photo: RadioLaurier.com.