This is by far the sweetest and (ignore the bad tagline) tenderest ad I’ve seen all year. Probably because it has a ’60s and ’70s feel to it. And the children have British accents.
This is Charlie, the sweater wearing parrot.
Charlie was a neglected pet who had plucked out his feathers, according to the BBC.
The charity’s co-ordinator, Rebecca Blagg, began knitting the eclectus parrot sweaters after the U.K. bird charity Safehaven rescued the poor bird in 2007.
“He was the worst we’d ever seen. He was literally like an oven-ready chicken, he was that bald,” she told the BBC. “He was so cold without his feathers, he was shivering.”
Since being nursed back to health, Bagg has said Charlie has become so accustomed to his multitude of sweaters (He has ones in green, blue and peach and brown ones) that he becomes quite angry and agitated when he’s not wearing one.
“Knitting’s not my forte and I’ve never knitted for a parrot before,” she said. “But he seemed to like it.”
Press day for any entertainer is a total bore. You’re stuck in one room for a whole entire day where you must spend your time is answering the same three questions as shot out by journalists (trust us, we know the questions suck but we’re obligated ask). So of course we’re going to love it when a journalist and star both decide to go off the rails and have a normal conversation.
Enter Mila Kunis.
Just to set the record straight, Kunis was everyone’s imaginary BFF before Jennifer Lawrence hit it big with the Hunger Games. Kunis is a natural when it comes to interviews—befriending journalists, confessing that yes, people do shout “Shut up, Meg!” at her on the streets, and being on the ready when it comes to defending her friends whether it’s in english or Russian.
So yeah, she was total cool when BBC1′s Chris Stark just wanted to shoot the shit with her and eventually, tried to ask her out. For the record, she seemed like she total would’ve said yes if she wasn’t working.
WATCH THE VIDEO BELOW:
Victoria Abraham defines one up and coming artist each week so you can impress your friends with your musical brilliance. This week, she tackles Emeli Sandé soulful songstress from Scotland.
Emeli Sandé is a brilliant songwriter with a beautiful voice who writes the kind of soulful pop ballads that make you feel better on your worst days and provides excellent mood music. Although she is another in a long line-up of UK songstresses to take over North American airwaves, Emeli has carved out a space all her own.
Origins: Alford, Scotland
Full name: Adele Emeli Sandé
Known for: She is known for her phenomenal songwriting abilities.
Used in a sentence: Soulful and beautiful, Emeli Sandé makes the kind of music that goes best with lit candles and a bubble bath.
File next to: Leona Lewis
Download now: “Clown”
Five fun facts:
1.She studied medicine at the University of Glasgow, but dropped out in her fourth year.
2.She has a tattoo of artist Frida Kahlo
During the day, Lucy Spraggan is that pesky salesperson on the street with a clipboard that you try to avoid. She hates her day job and auditioned for The X-Factor knowing it could change her whole life.
I wasn’t sure what to expect after she announced she’d be singing a song she personally wrote about “Beer Fear” — you know, when you go to the bar, have a few too many Tequila shots or Flaming Sambucas and end up proposing to your everlasting love (who’s actually just the greasy dude you met on the dance floor).
Her rendition ended up being one of the wittiest performances I’ve seen on the show. It wasn’t necessarily that she had the best voice (though she did have a nice Lily Allen flare), but her lyrics were intelligent and incredibly hilarious. Everyone can relate to beer fear, am I right?
Watch it here:
There you go again X-Factor, making me look like a crazy person sitting in an office full of guys, trying to block the tears welling up in my eyes. Contestant Bella Ferraro auditioned for Australia’s The X-Factor with an emotional performance of “Skinny Love” by Birdy, originally by Bon Iver.
Bella left high school to pursue music. She nervously auditioned for the judges on her eighteenth birthday.
There are several reasons why her performance is so touching. First, she doesn’t realize how damn talented she is. Hands shaking at times, Ferraro seemed genuinely shocked when the audience applauded her within five seconds of starting. Her supportive mom looked on from the audience, tearfully proud. All the judges, including hard-to-please Mel B, gave the contestant a deserved standing ovation.
Yesterday the UK edition of The X-Factor made me angry when I saw Pink cover artist Zoe Alexander storm off the stage upon receiving constructive criticism. But you’ve reclaimed my love, X-Factor, with Bella Ferraro.
Watch it here:
Pink tribute artist Zoe Alexander loves her day job but decided to audition for The X-Factor UK to discover her own sound and identity. Her audition was going pretty well — she was chirpy and the judges loved her style. However, the panel thought her cover of Pink’s “So What” was too close to the original and gave her a second chance to put her own spin on a different song.
Unfortunately, Alexander blew her second song but didn’t take too kindly to the constructive criticism the judges gave her. Although they all voted no, they told her she could become a better artist if she took some time to discover her own sound. That’s when the tantrum started. Alexander was completely unprofessional. She not only fired off a false excuse (“You guys told me to sing Pink”) she abrasively threw her microphone offstage and pushed away a camera crew.
For some reason her dad decided to drag her back on stage (perhaps so she could apologize) but all girl did was swear, swear, swear. If the judges weren’t already confident in their decision I’m pretty sure Alexander’s bad attitude sealed it.
Watch it here:
In his spare time, 18-year-old Curtis Golden plays computer games, reads comics and collects figurines of superheroes. He describes himself as the “stereotypical nerd.” Spurred by his sisters, he also became a huge Spice Girls fan, which is why he was probably all the more nervous to audition for X-Factor UK in front of band member Mel B.
Unfortunately, Mel B branded his unexpected, countrified performance of Christina Aguilera’s “Candyman” as “annoying and irritating.” His Spice Girls memorabilia wasn’t enough to win Mel B over but his unique performance was enough to get me.
According to Metro UK, the contestant was too shy to audition in previous years but finally decided to go for it after surviving a serious car accident. He told them that after something like that happens, “you kind of stop giving a c**p.”
Watch below to see if he ended up getting through.
The recent British invasion of musicians has come with The Wanted, Cher Lloyd, One Direction, Conor Maynard — the list goes on. One female 90s group in particular that made all the girls feel like they had ‘GIRL POWER’ is the Spice Girls and they’re reuniting, but probably only for one night.
According to the Hollywood Reporter, the Spice Girls are expected to re-unite to perform at the London 2012 Olympics closing ceremony. During a radio interview earlier this week, Posh Spice aka Victoria Beckham said, “I don’t know about a comeback tour, but I loved being back with the girls. We are very excited about the Olympics.” If the reports are true (we are totz crossing our fingers about this) the gals will join George Michael, Jessie J, Take That and The Who.
The group recently reunited in London to launch Viva Forever! a new musical based on their hit songs that is set to be out at the end of the year. Hopefully it goes worldwide because there is no way I am missing this!
Tara Reid had an embarrassing time yesterday, and was booed off live U.K. television. Reid was a cast member on Britain’s Celebrity Big Brother, and complained how she was portrayed in the show. She was “evicted” from the Big Brother house.
During a later interview, she said ”We shoot it for 24 hours, they edit it down to one hour – I don’t know what they show.”
She ranted, “To be honest with you, what I’ve seen just of these clips right now, I’m not that happy with that. There was a lot of great times (but) I feel like you guys took the toughest times of me and showed it, which is kind of sad. There were so many good things.
“If that’s the only things that you guys showed in the hour, no wonder why people booed me.”
The live audience booed her as she walked off the stage. Tara can never catch a break.
Eminem performed two shows at a U.K. festival this past weekend and took home $3.3 Million.
TMZ helpfully points out he made $50,000 per song performed, having rapped roughly 50 songs throughout the two days. Slim Shady was playing at the V Festival in England.
He was also joined by Rihanna, who reportedly got $825,000 per night to perform.
We are in the wrong business!
Now that Tara Reid is a married woman, she also has to help out with the bills. So the newlywed will be appearing in Celebrity Big Brother 2011 in the U.K.
TooFab reports Tara will have some excellent celebrity company, including:
- David Hasselhoff’s ex-wife Pamela Bach
- Sisqo
- Jermaine Jackson
- Stephen Baldwin
- Heidi Fleiss
Although this is probably not the role she dreamed about, a job is a job.
‘Destiny Child’ member and solo singer Kelly Rowland has officially signed on to join the judges panel for the UK’s ‘X Factor,’ reports Perez Hilton.
In its eighth season, Rowland will join fellow judges Gary Barlow, Tulisa Contostavlos, and Louis Walsh.
In a statement, Rowland said: “I am so excited to join The X Factor UK and be able to spend time in one of my favourite places in the world. The music coming out of the UK right now is incredible with artists like Adele, Jessie J and James Blake, so I’m confident this season of The X Factor will give me opportunity to hear a few diamonds in the rough.”
“Being a judge is never easy, but I promise to be as sternly honest as I can and also encourage everyone who crosses the stage. I can’t wait to meet the world’s next superstar!”
I wonder what Cheryl Cole will do with her time now that she is not returning to the UK version. Cole was set to be a judge on the US version, but was replaced with Nicole Scherzinger due to American audiences not being able to ‘understand her.’ And now, there are no spots for Cole to return to on the UK version. Talk about a tough week.
Lady Gaga’s latest album ‘Born This Way’ blasted onto the U.K. chart this Sunday, marking the biggest first-week sale of the year at 215,000 units.
If that wasn’t enough, the sales of her album are more than the rest of the top ten titles combined. Talk about madness!
Gaga’s opening U.K. sales also narrowly beat Adele’s first-week sales of 208,000 for “21″ in late January, which had spent 16 of the previous 17 weeks at No. 1.
Meanwhile, in the US, Gaga’s first-week album sales are expected to surpasses the 1 million mark. This is partly because her biggest fan base is there, and amazon’s 99 cent sale of the album didn’t hurt.
This was expected, though, so we can’t all be too shocked. The album is great and Gaga is great, so as long as the top-earners are deserving, I’m happy.
For what seems like forever, Adele has been dominating the charts. But after reviewing UK sales, it seems as though soul-singer Adele may lose her number one spot on the charts to Kate Bush.
The iconic singer just released her new album, ‘Director’s Cut,’ which is already expected to top the UK artist album sales this week and potentially beat out Adele’s ’21′ for the first time in 15 weeks.
Bush’s album has sold 17,562 copies this week, compared to the Adele’s 14,645.
Adele is currently number one on the Canadian and American charts. It’s so crazy how big of a hit Adele has become – literally everyone loves her. And I don’t blame them, because I love her too.
I don’t think Bush will beat out Adele in Canada and America, but it looks as though she’s about to be dethroned in the UK.
The creator of controversial TV show ‘Skins” has called it quits, reports Perez Hilton.
Series creator Jamie Brittain has quit the show, and now its future is said to be in jeopardy. A spokesman for the network Channel 4 has released a statement:
“Jamie has decided after five hit series to move on to write new projects and we wish him well. ‘Skins’ is written by a team of young writers who are hard at work on the new series which is currently in pre-production.”
Creator Brittain himself even released a statement, saying “I’ve just said everything I wanted to say. It’s time for new writers to come forward and portray their truth about teenagers. I’m really sad to leave, but I’m confident that the writing and production team I’ve left behind will do an awesome job.”
His co-creator Bryan Elsley has been left to work on the American remake, as well as current assistant producer Toby Welch and script producer Neil Ducan, who have taken over running the next season.
If the ratings don’t hold up, though, and its content doesn’t live up to the hype – the show could be in danger. It’s hard enough for new shows to really take off, but with the creator just taking off – it doesn’t look good. Especially with the cast due to be changed at the end of the next series as well, there is a strong chance the sixth series will be the show’s last.
The show has already been subjected to much controversy. Its racy content has been deemed inappropriate by many of the older public, as it deals with sex and drugs at such a young demographic, so the show already has a target on its back. What do you think though, will you miss ‘Skins’ if it leaves?
HPNTZ – the Rihanna/Biggie pseudo-mashup – may have garnered a lot of attention for Dan Black, but it is his album Un that won me over. Dan has an incredible talent for crafting catchy yet credible pop songs,and I was thrilled to have the opportunity to discuss his music with him.
It’s recently been a rough go for Steven Tyler and Aerosmith since the rockers have been toying with the idea of breaking up for the past six months now. MTV news, however, has reported they have put those ideas to rest and are planning tour dates for this upcoming summer. Guitarist Joe Perry and drummer Joey Kramer confirmed the news via twitter.
“We are looking to crossing the big pond with Aerosmith this summer for some rockin’ festivals,” Perry tweeted on Tuesday.
Kramer followed the next day, “Aerosmith is back!”
Forget the Gaga comparisons. Little Boots may be Britain’s reigning blonde synth-pop bombshell, but you won’t catch her hitting red carpets with Kermit the Frog or posing half nude on the cover of Rolling Stone. Plus, she’s not opposed to wearing pants.
To put it simply, Little Boots is just a little more low-key.
“All that sex stuff is really not me,” Boots says of the comparison. “We’re both blonde and we both have a lot of synth in our music [but] I don’t really pay attention to it. I’m not offended by it. I’m not annoyed. I’m just kind of like whatever.”
With the matching hair colours, the shared affinity for producing exhilarating electro-pop songs and corresponding friendships with Perez Hilton, it looks like it’s going to take this songstress from across the pond a little bit longer to shed the “UK’s Lady Gaga” tag, whether she pays attention to the pundits or not.
When andPOP caught up with Little Boots at the Cadillac Lounge on Queen Street West in Toronto, she was just Victoria Hesketh—her infamous platinum hair tied back in a messy ponytail, sipping on water, raving about all the nice Canadians she’d met and looking more like the girl you’d sit next to in Psych 101 than an international pop diva.
Hesketh entered the UK music scene back when she was actually a student at the University of Leeds with a little indie rock band called Dead Disco. But when Hesketh’s dreams of making funky, danceable pop tunes clashed with the band’s direction, she ditched the boys and took to YouTube to broadcast her talents. With that, she became a bit of a sensation.
If you haven’t heard of “Band of Skulls,” you will very soon. These UK rockers had the first ever global iTunes “Single of the Week” back in April for their debut song “I Know What I am,” and they just keep taking the rock world by storm.
The trio were voted Best Live Band at Toronto’s NXNE festival in June and are fresh off Lollapalooza. Twi-hards may already know “Band of Skulls” has been confirmed to be included alongside Radiohead and Muse in the upcoming “New Moon” Soundtrack, out in November.
