Britney Spear’s former bodyguard has accused the pop star of sexual harassment yesterday with a lawsuit filed in the Los Angeles Superior Court. Former policeman Fernando Flores, who started working as Spear’s bodyguard in February 2010, said that he suffered emotional distress and felt sexually harassed during his 5-month employment. He is seeking unspecified damages and attorneys fees.

According to 29-year old Flores, Spears have repeatedly paraded herself around naked and have performed sexual acts in front of him.    He also alleged that the 28-year old pop star had made several unwanted sexual advances and had summoned him to her room to expose her nakedness.  He also accused his security firm employers of mocking or ignoring his complaints about the alleged behavior of Spears.

A friend of Flores revealed that Spears has been seducing her bodyguard and that he felt that he could lose his job is he did not reciprocate her advances.  Furthermore, Flores’ friend said that working for Britney is a difficult job as her emotions are out of control and there were times when she runs around the house in the nude and yells at her staff.  According to reports, things became very unbearable for Flores especially when Jamie Spears, Britney’s father, chided him for allowing the pop star to leave the house without a bra.

Flores has also accused Spears of abusing her children on several occasions.  According to the lawsuit, there was a time when Spears demanded Flores his belt and hit her son Preston with it.  There was also a time when Spears fed her children crab meat despite the children’s allergies and alleged that the pop star prevented anyone from seeking medical help when the children started vomiting.  Flores has reported this incident to the L.A. Country Department of Children and Family Services and the investigation that followed said that the claim has no merit.

The statement released by Spear’s camp dismissed the lawsuit as an attempt of Flores to make a name for himself and to take advantage of the Spears family.  The statement also stated that Britney and her lawyers are expecting the lawsuit to be dismissed by the courts.  His long-time boyfriend, Jason Trawick, is yet to comment on the issue.

Spears shot to worldwide fame 10 years ago but has chosen a much lower public profile ever since undergoing the much-publicized personal and career meltdown in 2007 and 2008.  She has sold more than 100 million records worldwide and has ranked sixth on Forbes’ Most Powerful and Influential celebrities in the world for 2010.

Justin Bieber, a pop-R&B singer from Canada, is only 16 years old but he has become so popular the world over that some people say that Bieber reminds them of the late musician and King of Pop, Michael Jackson.  He started out as an internet sensation, has released a very successful album and chart-topping hits, and is already penning his life story via the book Justin Bieber: First Step 2 Forever: My Story to be published by Harper Collins.

A product of technology, Bieber made splashes in YouTube first before being discovered.  In 2007, his mother posted his video in a singing contest where he only placed second.  Her mother continued to upload Bieber’s videos singing different R&B songs and Bieber’s popularity on YouTube grew.  It was also this year when So So Def’s former marketing executive and current business partner of Usher, Scooter Braun, came across one of Bieber’s videos by accident.  Braun is said to have been very impressed with Bieber that he sought to find the young singer.

He was soon signed to Braun and Usher’s joint venture, Raymond Braun Media Group or RBMG.  It was reported that Justin Timberlake was also interested in signing Bieber in but lost to Usher in the bidding war.  Bieber was then signed to Island Records in 2008 with Braun as his manager.

Justin was raised single-handedly by her mother Pattie Mallette but he maintained contact with his father, Jeremy Bieber, as he grew up.  His father is still currently based in Canada while his mother moved with him to the United States and travels with him all the time.  Justin is said to have taught himself to play the drums, piano, guitar, and trumpet.

In 2009, Bieber’s debut single One Time was released and immediately charted within the top 30 in more than ten countries.  His debut release My World was a certified platinum hit in the United States by November 2009 and it made Bieber the highest debut by a new artist that year.  He is also said to be the first artist to have seven songs from a debut album chart to be in the Billboard Hot 100, four of which were included in this list even before the album was released.  In March 2010, his full studio release, My World 2.0 became certified platinum in the US in less than two weeks.

It was reported that Bieber’s fan base has reached more than 10 million Facebook fans, more than 5 million Twitter followers, and less than a million YouTube subscribers.

When New Moon, the second installment of the Twilight series, was filmed in British Columbia, the producers were reported to have called in the Canadian Mounties to protect its lead star, Robert Pattinson, from the barrage of female fans. Constables Brandon Builziuk and Brendon Baillant were enlisted to make sure that the filming went without a hitch.

The two cops are said to have encountered many overzealous teen fans while on assignment.  They were said to be tasked to keep the fans off the set.  Part of New Moon was filmed in the tiny island of Tofino on Vancouver Island in British Columbia.

According to the two constables, the fans were annoyed with them because they won’t allow them to get closer.  Moreover, the constables said that the fans’ spirits lifted when Pattinson’s co-star, Kirsten Stewart, came over and posed for a few photographs with them.

The money donated by the New Moon producers, amounting to more than $3000 because of the service rendered by the two Mounties while the crew was filming, was used to purchase for two local school’s sporting equipment.

It has been reported that female fans kept on visiting the set even though it had been raining hard the whole time.  On the other hand, the producers are said to have loved the rains because it helped make the scenes gloomier.

Robert Pattinson is an English actor, musician, model, and producer who started out with his career portraying the role of Cedric Diggory in Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire.  He eventually landed the leading role as the vampire Edward Cullen in the film adaptations of Stephanie Meyer’s Twilight Novels and gained international fame.

Pattinson has been cited as one of the highest paid actors in Hollywood and one of the biggest movie stars in the world.  This year, Forbes has ranked him as one of the most powerful celebrities and is one of Time magazine’s “100 Most Influential People In The World.”  He has also been named as “Best Dressed Man” of 2010 by both GQ and Glamour and included in the People’s list of “World’s Most Beautiful.”

In 2009, Pattinson was one of the “Sexiest Men Alive” by both People and Glamour.  He was also included in the “Top Hollywood Earners of 2009.”  In the same year, he was also named by Vanity Fair as “the most handsome man in the world.”

Pattinson already has a wax statue of him in Madame Tussauds collection both in New York City and London.  He will be seen in his upcoming films Water For Elephants, Bel Ami, Unbound Captives, and the parts 1 and 2 of The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn.

photo from www.yahoo.com

Fantasia Barrino, grand winner of American Idol’s Season 3, resumes promoting her album Back To Me despite being subjected to close media attention these past weeks.  She was named in a divorce case and there had been allegations of the existence of sex tapes of her and a married man.  She was then hospitalized for an alleged “medical overdose.”

Despite all the bad publicity, Fantasia is bent honoring her previous commitments especially for the promotional tour supporting her album.  She is also set to appear in various shows to promote her new album.  She is also set to be in Las Vegas to attend Steve Harvey’s Hoodie Awards.

In the wake of Fantasia’s travails in her personal life, her single Bittersweet, previously in No. 4 on Billboard list for Adult R&B, is now occupying the top spot.  It joins fantasia’s previous chart toppers Truth Is and Free Yourself.

Fantasia’s second single is scheduled to be announced in the next weeks but there’s currently a buzz on the internet about a newly leaked track that is not yet on the final album, “Lucky.”  The lyrics of the said song is said to tackle the matter of love triangle.

Fantasia is alleged by Paula Cook to have been having an affair with her husband, Antwaun, and alleged that there are times when Fantasia and Antwaun recorded their sexual activity on video.  Rumors of the affair started circulating in November last year when the 26-year old singer was photographed with Antwaun.  Antwaun’s name is said to be tattooed on Fantasia’s upper left shoulder.

Cook has filed for divorce and has been said to have been blaming Fantasia for ending her marriage.  Fantasia’s manager, on the other hand, denied such allegations.  It was said that Fantasia dated Antwaun on and off for eleven months after the latter told her that he and his wife separated last summer.

After Paula Cook’s allegations was reported by the media and got sensationalized, Fantasia was hospitalized for overdose from aspirin and a sleep aid.  The police classified the incident as a suicide attempt.

Barely two weeks after, Fantasia is once again ready to work.  She recently reprised her starring role in Broadway’s The Color Purple in a Los Angeles production.  Her new album Back to Me is set to be released on August 24 and the second season of her reality series for VH1, Fantasia for Real, is set to premier in September 19.

photo from www.yahoo.com

Liu Wei, a Chinese armless pianist, awed China’s Got Talent audiences at the Shanghai Grand Theater with his flawless rendition Richard Clayderman’s classic piece Mariage D’amour using only his toes.

Liu played with his toes as nimbly as a pianist’s fingers and made not a single mistake from the beginning to end of his piece.  He was given a standing ovation by the show’s judges and the audience.

He admits, though, that he could not play some beautiful musical pieces because he is not able to press keys across octaves.

The 23-year old Liu lost his arms after being electrocuted by a high voltage wire while playing hide and seek with his friends when he was 10 years old.  His two arms needed to be amputated.

Instead of resorting to hopelessness, Liu defied the odds and pursued his dream.  According to him, “For people like me, there were only two options. One was to abandon all dreams, which would lead to a quick, hopeless death; the other was to struggle without arms to live an outstanding life.”

After the accident, Liu initially was in disbelief and tried to ‘wake up from the nightmare.”  He gradually accepted his fate and was able to learn how to use his feet to do things that a normal kid can do.  He even became one of his high school soccer team’s best players

Liu started playing the piano when he was 18.  That was the time when he decided to realize his childhood dream to be a musician as he started to make a detailed plan for his life.  He learned music theory but his piano teacher told him that it is impossible to play with one’s toes.  Though he understood his teacher’s position, he persevered.

He learned to play the piano all by himself without anyone knowing, not even his parents.  He created his own style of toeing the piano keys.  He then performed in front of his friends and parents.

He started playing the piano as a hobby, saying that he enjoys playing the piano with his toes.  Though some of his friends suggested that he stop as they fear that all his efforts will be in vain, he continued developing his skill.  He chose not to believe that he can’t do certain things like other people just because he lacks arms.

Liu persevered and he found himself in the limelight five years later.  He qualified for the next round in China’s Got Talent.

Who will ever forget the “King of Rock and Roll” Elvis Presley?  Born Elvis Aaron Presley on January 8, 1935, he became one of the most popular 20^th century singers and cultural icon in the world.

Today, August 16, 2010, marks the 33^rd death anniversary of The King and he is still popular as ever.  Year after year, hundreds of thousands of his fans troop to Graceland – Elvis’ Memphis estate where he, his parents, grandmother, and his favorite golden palomino quarter horse are buried – to pay respects to their idol.

Even if Elvis has passed away for more than three decades now, the interest in his legacy has not seemed to wane.  As of last year, Elvis still earned royalties and licensing revenues that amounted to around $60 million.  There is even a Facebook account in his name that has more than 1 million fans.

For many of us who have not been of The King’s generation, all we have are bits and pieces of stories about him.  Here are some of the little-known facts about the much-admired King of Rock and Roll:

• When he was in high school, Elvis used “Elvis Cat” in signing the yearbooks of his friends.

• Even if he was dubbed as the King of Rock and Roll and had several rock hits, he never received recognition from the Grammy’s for them.  It is with his gospel recordings that he received three Grammy awards.  In 1971, he received a Lifetime Achievement Award.

• Except for the five shows he did in Canada in 1957, Elvis never performed outside the United States of America.

• Fifteen of the songs he recorded have the word “blue” in the title.

• He likes black pepper with his eggs.  His friends noticed that he would often pour so much pepper that his omelet would look black.

• Elvis loved animals.  He had a pet turkey named Bowtie.  He also owned two great Danes, a basset hound, a Pomeranian, a chow chow, some peacocks, several horses, a chimpanzee, a mynah bird, a monkey and some chickens, ducks, guinea hens.

• Elvis’ pink Cadillac is really iconic but he also has an identical Cadillac model in purple.  Both his pink and purple cars are currently on display at the Graceland Museum.

• Who styled Elvis’ hair for his funeral?  His friend Larry Geller.  When he found about half inch of white hair regrowth in Elvis’ black dyed hair, he touched the spot up with a black mascara wand.  Not bad; Elvis once used a black shoe polish to dye his hair.

Rihana Mosaic

Rihanna has stormed the pop charts for the last 3 years after signing her first record contract at just 16 years old. Her music captures the hearts of all who hear her. The passion comes through in her music and she takes her fans along for the ride.

Born in Barbados in 1988, Rihanna Fenty was found by the famous music producer Even Rogers (Jessica Simpson, NSYNC). He was holidaying with his Barbadian wife in 2003 when her talent impressed him. Rihanna’s talent also impressed the head of Def Jam Records, Jay-Z who signed her to a six album contract when she was only 16.

Born in Barbados

Growing up in Saint Michael she is the oldest of three and has two brothers. She went to primary school in Barbados and on to the Combermere School where her musical talent was developed. Once here, Rihanna and two friends formed a trio singing group. In 2004 Rihanna became a beauty pageant winner and took part in her school’s show.

The Beginning of Success

Rihanna’s first taste of fame came with the release of her debut album Music of the Sun in 2005. PondeReplay was the hit from this album that first brought her worldwide musical acclaim.

She then released A Girl Like Me in 2006 which features her first number one hit single SOS.

Then in 2007 she released her third album which had an astonishing three number one hits across the world – Umbrella, Don’t Stop the Music and Take a Bow.

Achievements

She is the first female Barbadian singer to receive a Grammy Award and only the second Barbadian artist ever to receive this honour. Rihanna has sold more than 11 million albums across the world and has the most number one hits for this century for a female solo artist.

In her short career, Rihanna has had five number one hits on the Billboard Hot 100 with Umbrella, Disturbia, SOS, Live your Life and Take a Bow. In little more than three short years, Rihanna has an astonishing 11 singles in the US top 40 music charts.

Rihanna’s success continues. By the middle of 2008 she had eight of the top 10 pop music single in America which makes her one of the most consistent artists of current times.

The Evermore band is Jon, Peter, and Dann Hume, brothers all. They hail from New Zealand, though they are based in Australia. Their genre is alternative-indie rock.

The name comes from “The Battle of Evermore”, an acoustic guitar and mandolin composition by Led Zeppelin which was released on their fourth album in 1971. The band members were greatly influenced by their parents’ love of music, and this choice of name shows the influence of their parents’ music choice. Their parents were reportedly very supportive of their musical ambitions.

Continuing the influence of their parents’ music tastes, the group cites as their favorite artists and influences Bob Dylan, The Beatles, Crowded House, Stevie Wonder, U2, and The Shins.

All three of the brothers have written songs for the various albums. Speaking of the bountiful output during the recording of “Real Life”, Jon Hume remarked, “Instead of me writing almost everything, we suddenly had three writers coming up with a lot. We could have made two albums simultaneously.” Dann is said to have written nearly 100 songs during this burst of creative output.

Awards they have won or received nominations for include an MTV Award for Supernova Breakthrough Act, a NZ Music Award, the APRA Silver Scroll, and five ARIA nominations. Both of their albums, Evermore “Dreams” and “Real Life”, have gone platinum. They won an APRA Silver Scroll Award for Evermore “It’s Too Late” in 2005.

Evermore boasts an impressive website at evermoreband.com, which has many community features including forums, members, and an area for members to submit fan art, as well as the standard video and Evermore MP3 music clips.

The album “Real Life” was recorded at Longview Farm in Massachusetts, which is the oldest recording studio in the USA and the previous haunt of Jimi Hendrix, The Rolling Stones and Aerosmith. During the recording of “Real Life”, temperatures in Massachusetts plunged to -25 degrees, making the band feel a sharp difference from the normally temperate home.

Of their style, they have said, “We wanted to be sure all the tunes sounded great just played simply on a guitar. That way you know you have a great song.” They add, “We’re the kind of band that is going to change with every record. We will always sound like us, but we’ll utilize our strengths as three writers.”

The name of the band is frequently mixed up in online searches with the video game “Secret of Evermore”, a role-playing game by Square software for the old Super Nintendo console. Square is the game publisher best known for their cult classics “Secret of Mana” and “Seiken Densetsu 3″, as well as their famous “Final fantasy” series. Perhaps as a shy recognition of this, the band produced a Flash game based on their Evermore “Running” video. The game, being a ‘jump-n-run’ type, has much of the soaring spirits of “Running”. Evermore has hosted the game on their site and it was the subject of a competition to win an XBox 360.

Track Listing

Albums

** Dreams

*** Dreaming… Pt. 1
*** It’s Too Late
*** This Unavoidable Thing Between Us
*** For One Day
*** Dreaming… Pt. 2
*** Are You Satisfied???
*** Come to Nothing
*** Dreams Call Out to Me
*** Without Your Smile
*** Into the Ocean (Calling You)
*** Know It’s True
*** Sunshine
*** Everyone (Moving On)

** Real Life

*** Real Life
*** Running
*** Light Surrounding You
*** Unbreakable
*** Morning Star
*** Never Let You Go
*** My Guiding Light
*** Afloat
*** The Great Unknown
*** The Only One I See
*** Inside of Me
*** Goodnight Is Not the End

Extended Play

** Slipping Away

*** Slipping Away
*** Pick Yourself Up

** Oil & Water

*** Slipping Away
*** Oil & Water
*** Pick Yourself Up
*** Tears
*** Colours Burning

** My Own Way

*** Hold On
*** My Own Way
*** What’s Inside
*** The Same As You
*** So Fine

** Unbreakable

*** Unbreakable – 3:15
*** Real Life (Live) – 4:33
*** It’s Too Late (Live) – 5:17
*** Unbreakable (Live) – 3:12
*** Running (Live) – 5:09

Evermore on YouTube:

The Veronicas are Jessica and Lisa Origliasso, the pop-rock Australian singer/songwriter duo. They’ve cut two albums and seven singles, and racked up a few awards, so their popularity is currently rising. And here’s all the fascinating trivia there is to know about the Veronicas:

They’re twin sisters, born December 25th, Christmas day, 1984.

Although they were born and raised in Australia, they are the daughters of Italian immigrants.

Their show business career extends not just to singing, but acting as well. They played the characters ‘Sapphire’ (Lisa) and ‘Emerald’ (Jessica) in the 2001 TV series “Cybergirl”.

The Veronicas isn’t even their first group. They were originally members of a group called ‘Teal’, with friends Tracy Woods and R.Viknes. Their only production from this was “Baby It’s Over”, which got them a small amount of initial publicity.

The hit TV show ‘Australian Idol’ hired the Veronicas to compose songs for contestants on the show to try out. One of their songs later appears on contestant winner Casey Donovan’s album “For You”, and another one of their songs appears on the “Say It’s Forever” album by Japanese pop singer ‘Miz’.

The Veronicas – Untouched

The Veronicas have since moved to Los Angeles, where they see a better opportunity for rising pop stars. They’ve since signed with Warner Brothers, who have produced their debut album, “The Secret Life Of…”.

The Veronicas really did get their name from the Archie comic book series originally created by Bob Montana. But there’s a lot more to the name than that. The Archies were actually a fictitious American pop band created by the comic book enterprise of the same name; live recordings were made by an assembly of studio musicians for the animated cartoon series to play. The Veronicas, then, were named in synchronicity with their male pop comic-inspired equivalents. In a cross-promotional deal, they have appeared in the comic book series as characters, in issue #167 of the spin-off series “Veronica”.

Pop music bands aren’t the only genre to adopt the practice of naming themselves after Archie comic strip characters; that distinction is shared with open-source computer software as well. The predecessor to the World Wide Web we know today was the ‘gopher’ protocol, and the chief program to access gopher was called ‘Archie’. Sure enough, other programs to work with the gopher protocol came along that were named ‘Veronica’ and ‘Jughead’. So, I predict that a pop band will eventually come along called “the Jugheads”, just to complete the circle.

The success of the Veronicas album “The Secret Life Of…” was such that it never left the top 40 in the ARIA album charts for the entire year of 2005. Five singles were also released from this album, including “4ever”, “Everything I’m Not”, “When It All Falls Apart”, “Revolution”, and “Leave Me Alone”.

While we’re talking top spots, one of their songs has also set a record: “When It All Falls Apart” from their first album spent 17 weeks in MTV Asia’s Pop-10 chart.

Their second album, “Hook Me Up”, was leaked to the Internet 3 days before it even got released, to the delight of fans searching for the Veronicas’ mp3s.

Their single “When It All Falls Apart” has also been recorded in “Simlish” and became part of the music in the Sims 2 video game, specifically in the Seasons expansion pack. You can’t say you’ve permeated popular culture until you’ve either been part of the Sims or Second Life, it seems.