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| 3/1/04 |
Investigative reporter Justin
Timberlake? LOS ANGELES -- So what's Justin Timberlake uncovering now? The 'N Sync boy-band-singer-turned-Grammy-winning solo artist is preparing to take on an acting role as an investigative reporter. Timberlake, also famous for dating Britney Spears and ripping away Janet Jackson's bustier during the Super Bowl halftime show, tagged along with Associated Press reporter Bob Porterfield last week to get a taste for journalism. At the downtown county courthouse, the 22-year-old Timberlake was instantly recognized. He was wearing jeans, a sweat shirt and a stocking cap. He created quite a stir as he filled out an application for legal documents and pored over them with Porterfield in a public viewing area for about 45 minutes. They pulled an old lawsuit filed by Arnold Schwarzenegger, Bruce Willis and Denzel Washington against an electronics firm that allegedly used their likeness in ads without permission. "He was interested in learning on how you retrieve these public records. Basically, I showed him how you find them, how you request them," Porterfield said Monday. Timberlake will play a reporter who uncovers an elite team of corrupt police in the movie "Edison" with Kevin Spacey, Morgan Freeman and LL Cool J. Shooting starts in coming weeks in Vancouver, B.C. Porterfield, a two-time Pulitzer Prize winner who teaches graduate-school journalism, was impressed with his latest student. "I thought he was sharp. He seemed attentive and interested in learning this stuff. He has a real interest in developing his part. He took quite a few notes." And what did the AP reporter get in return? "I got an autograph for my 8-year-old granddaughter and my 14-year-old niece," Porterfield said.
JC on CNN Headline News 2/29 - Transcript Anchor: "Well he's used to being nsync with other musicians, now JC Chasez is striking out on his own. Denise Kwan caught up with him in los angeles." Kwan Voice Over: "Two years ago, JC Chasez swore he'd never release a solo album." JC: "For a while I just wanted to take time off. Everybody's like, 'when are you gonna cut a record?' and I told them I wasn't, because I wasn't in the right space in my mind." Kwan VO: "It's an nsync star's prerogative to change his mind." JC: "The record's called schizophrenic because I'm a NUT." Kwan VO: "As a member of NSYNC, JC Chasez is used to a whirlwind schedule, but now the 27 year old heartthrob is doing it on his own." [footage of the Tower Records signing] Fan: "Oh my god, I'm out here to see JC! Waaaaaah!!" Kwan VO: "From TRL to On-Air with Ryan Seacrest to a cramped hotel room with us, the former Mousketeer has been burning up frequent flyer miles like a political candidate in training." JC: (at Tower signing) "There's a presidential election going on and they're in a different state every day and I've got a record coming out and I'm in a different state every day." [play the opening of "If You Were My Girl" in the background] Kwan VO: "But one campaign stop he didn't make was at the NFL Pro Bowl. An invitation to perform at halftime was revoked after Janet Jackson and his NSYNC colleague Justin Timberlake ran abreast of the Super Bowl censors one week earlier." JC: "What I was gonna do for the Pro Bowl was something totally different than what happened at the Super Bowl. What am I gonna do, repeat? Do the same thing? That's the dumbest thing I've ever heard." [show footage of the pop odyssey tour] Kwan VO: "Chasez says there are plans to hit the studio with Timberlake and the rest of his nsync buddies later this year." JC: "J's done his solo thing and I've done my solo thing and they say, 'well you guys got to be so creative on your own' and everything like that. Well, that's what's gonna make the next NSYNC record better anyways." Kwan VO: "In the meantime, Chasez is relishing the opportunity to put his own musical mark on the charts, co-writing all of Schizophrenic, 17 eclectic tracks." JC: "This is my record, so I don't have to worry about what other people think. I'm willing to stand on my own two feet with it, otherwise it wouldn't be my record." Kwan: (during interview, to JC) "I've been reading some really good reviews. Good luck with it." (she's very smiley-happy-giddy) JC: "Thank you very much." Kwan: "Thank you so much, JC." JC: (holding up his cd to the camera) "That's the done deal."
Got music? New Web site offers artists copyright protection As the music industry scurries to clamp a lid on illegal Internet music downloads, Dot Com Ventures Inc. is poised to launch a Web site protecting the copyrights of artists. "The idea is to offer artists a protected site where people can listen to their music and download the whole album -- but can't make extra copies of the music," says Ernie Falco, a partner in Dot Com Ventures. The site, MusicFreedom.com, is the brainchild of Falco and Ryan Totka, co-founders of Internet consulting firm TornadoPromotions.com, and Bill Marquez, co-founder of Internet search engine Netster.com. The idea took shape after Falco and Totka met Chasez, who was looking to record a solo album and build a Web site featuring it. Falco and Totka had established a track record for building Web sites around famous people. Among clients of their TornadoPromotions.com are such well-known names as basketball superstar LeBron James, the St. Louis Rams' Marshall Faulk and former Chicago Bears lineman William "The Refrigerator" Perry. "These guys know their stuff," says Adam Plotkin, president of the National Association of Professional Athletes (NOPA), which represents more than 4,000 retired and current professional athletes. "Our clients (with TornadoPromotions.com Web sites) have been right at the top of search lists every single time. They exceeded all our expectations." Dot Com Ventures originally was conceived as another entrepreneurial effort: a means of developing a search engine comparable to Google. "Then when we met J.C. and he explained what he was looking to do, we realized this would be a great opportunity for that, as well," Totka says. The proprietary MusicFreedom.com technology created by Marquez prohibits unauthorized copying once music is downloaded from the site. Artists who want to be part of the site will pay a monthly fee to Dot Com Ventures. Web surfers who want to download music then will pay a per-album-downloaded fee. Eventually, Falco says he plans to include an online retail store on the site with merchandise related to the artists. "I think when artists see what we have and the amount of traffic that can be driven to this site, we'll grow even more than we are right now," he says. "And business is exploding even now."
Charity Benefactors Watch the Oscars
Gatti transformed a West Hollywood parking lot into a lime-green tent with some 14,500 yards of Bengalian file silk. He used 4 1/2 miles of bamboo to line the tent. Greeting guests were two very large balls of anthurium plants. Speaking of green, it cost $2,500 a ticket to attend the 12th annual Elton John/In Style benefit, with proceeds going to the Elton John AIDS Foundation, which the singer founded in 1992. ...Also attending were singers Michelle Branch and JC Chasez and actors Allison Janney, Katie Holmes and John Stamos and Rebecca Romijn-Stamos. Mingling during an intermission were Carson Kressley from "Queer Eye for the Straight Guy" and newlyweds Dave Navarro and Carmen Electra. To add to the benefit's take, guests could bid on a Bentley Continental GT, a hard-to-get $150,000 car considered the fastest four-door coupe in the world. It sold for $400,000... |
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