Quick News On Justin Timberlake And Usher
(5/28/04) MTV

Amidst the cavalcade of stars — including Prince, Jack Nicholson and Eddie Murphy — sitting courtside Thursday night at Los Angeles' Staples Center for game four of the Lakers/ Timberwolves playoff game were Justin Timberlake and Usher, seated side by side, looking like old chums. ... Though Timberlake's upcoming film "Edison" has yet to find a distributor or secure a release date, initial images from the movie are starting to become available. Timberlake co-stars with Morgan Freeman, who plays a semi-retired investigative journalist who helps Timberlake's rookie character make sense of evidence he's uncovered in a big city crime scandal.

Michael McDonald wins over new fans
(5/28/04) Joseph P. Kahn Boston Globe (thanks candy!)

...The fact that performing is so much fun and that the music has if anything improved with age "surprises us as much as anyone," (singer Michael) McDonald continues. Losing a pair of Grammys this year -- for best male pop vocal performance and best pop vocal album -- to Justin Timberlake, who wasn't even born when McDonald won his first Grammy, doesn't seem to faze him, either.

"It was well deserved, he made a great record," says McDonald. "I was just thrilled to be there." He could tell how long it had been since he'd been to a Grammy ceremony, McDonald jokes, because, "I was the only one in the entire building wearing a tuxedo..."

McDonald's to give away free music
(5/28/04) Billings Gazette

Who needs Walt Disney Co. when you have Sony Corp. and pop phenom Justin Timberlake?

Probably not McDonald's Corp.

With two years left on one of the most constraining co-marketing deals in recent history, the fast-food giant is looking like a company that is thinking well beyond the House of Mouse.

And with good reason.

Next week McDonald's will announce a huge global promotion with Sony Music that calls for the fast-food company to give away free music through Sony's new online Connect program with purchases of Big Macs.

Roughly 500,000 free songs will be made available. The promotion is expected to kick off during the press event with pop idols Timberlake and Ashanti...

Museum lights up Beatles, Pink Floyd
(5/28/04) Daytona Beach News-Journal

DAYTONA BEACH -- The music of the Beatles, Pink Floyd, U2, Kiss and dozens of other rock and pop acts is invading the Museum of Arts and Sciences this summer.

Laser light shows were a staple at the museum's planetarium in the 1980s, but the high cost of maintaining the projection system brought an end to those shows in 1990, said Susan Cerbone, museum communications manager.

Advances in technology have brought the laser "concerts" back. The music shows will be at 3 p.m. Tuesdays through Saturdays, beginning this Tuesday and running through Aug. 7. The shows will be in the planetarium of the museum at 1040 Museum Blvd. Planetarium admission is $3 for adults and $2 for children and students, in addition to museum admission of $8 adults and $4 children and students. For more information, call (386) 255-0285.

The museum also presents astronomy shows at 11 a.m. and 1 p.m. Tuesdays through Fridays and at 1 p.m. on Saturdays.

The laser music shows include:

...June 8-12 -- Laser Pop featuring songs by Pink, 'N Sync, 3 Doors Down, Smashmouth, the Beach Boys, the Beatles, Sting and the B-52's...