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PAUL SIMON’s dad tried to dissuade the star from becoming a musician - because he was convinced his son would struggle to support his family as a folk singer.
Simon’s Hungarian father Louis was an accomplished bass player and violinist, but he wanted his son to find a more traditional occupation.
Simon tells Britain’s Uncut magazine, "I didn’t grow up in an artistic environment. My father was a working musician. My parents grew up during the Depression, in the ’30s. So things were harsh. It was all about surviving, having a job and taking care of the family. He didn’t want me to be a professional musician. He didn’t think it was a good idea. And there was nobody in my neighbourhood that was an artist." As a result, the Graceland star admits he was hesitant to label himself: "I was always uncomfortable with being called a poet or an artist… But by the time I was in my forties, I realised that being called an artist didn’t mean that you were a good artist or a great artist. It just meant that you made your living out of creating. And that’s what I’d been doing all my life."

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Reggae star BUJU BANTON is facing up to 20 years in prison after he was convicted on drug charges on Tuesday (22Feb11).
The Jamaican star, real name Mark Myrie, was hit with four cocaine-related counts stemming from an arrest in 2009, which related to a drug deal he was planning with two other men. Banton boasted about his drug connections to a federal informer on a flight from Spain to America.
The case ended in a mistrial last year (10) when a Florida jury was unable to reach a unanimous verdict.
A second trial got underway in a Tampa court last week (begs14Feb11), and during his testimony, Banton insisted he was simply trying to impress the undercover informant with details of a fictional drug deal.
The jury returned the guilty verdict after two days of deliberations, convicting the reggae star on three of the four charges, including conspiracy to possess with the intent to distribute cocaine. The 37 year old was acquitted of attempted possession with the intent to distribute cocaine.
The conviction comes two weeks after Banton won the Grammy Award for Best Reggae Album for Before the Dawn.

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BILL MURRAY has confirmed he’s the one holding up a possible second GHOSTBUSTERS sequel - and he has become "a problem" for his castmates and director IVAN REITMAN.
The Lost in Translation star, who played Dr. Peter Venkman in the two Ghostbusters movies, admits he has a script for a third film - but he hasn’t read it.
He tells U.S. radio host Howard Stern, "I guess I’m the problem. Before I was an asset, now I’m a problem. There’s a script somewhere, but I haven’t read it yet.
"I only made one sequel and it was Ghostbusters 2 and it didn’t end up the way it was presented… but I owe him (Reitman)… He’s puzzled that I haven’t gotten to this one.
"I’ll get to it… I gotta get to it. I feel bad… It’s not the foremost thing in my mind, so I don’t think about it. You know, the studio gets excited every 10 years or so. What they’d really like to do is recreate the franchise."

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A judge has dismissed an appeal by officials from the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department objecting to a lawsuit filed by the traffic cop who arrested MEL GIBSON for drink driving.
Sheriff’s Deputy James Mee lodged a complaint against his employers last year (10), alleging he had been "unjustly denied" a promotion following the scandal surrounding Gibson’s 2006 bust, during which the Braveheart star made anti-Semitic comments towards the Jewish officer.
Mee claimed he became a victim of "religious discrimination" after the controversy, and alleged video footage of Gibson’s arrest was erased and he was instructed to rewrite his report, deleting the religious slurs allegedly made by the actor, who was a friend of then-Sheriff Lee Baca.
Department heads attempted to have the action dismissed by arguing Mee’s claims that he was discriminated against because of his religion are unsupportable, adding that he waited too long to lodge the suit.
But a judge has rejected the County of Los Angeles’ challenge and the case will now be heard by a jury.

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Fashion mogul DIANE VON FURSTENBERG has publicly apologised for appearing to put a 15 year old on the New York Fashion Week catwalk.
Ironically, as the president of the Council of Fashion Designers of America, von Furstenberg helped draft new recommendations aimed at keeping girls under the age of 16 off the runway.
She insists she was not responsible for the slip-up, but she is taking the blame.
A statement from the fashionista reads, "It is to my horror that I discovered last Friday that in spite of me repeating to my production and casting people, one girl slipped through the cracks. I was horrified and terribly embarrassed… I am trying to be a good leader and set an example… so please accept my apology."

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Actress ALYSSA MILANO is pregnant with her first child.
The Charmed star, 38, and her talent agent husband Dave Bugliari, 32, will welcome the tot in early autumn (11).
Milano’s representative has confirmed the news to People.com.
The couple wed in August 2009.

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MICHAEL JACKSON’s three children keep their late father’s memory alive by talking about him "all the time", according to the King of Pop’s brother JACKIE.
The Thriller hitmaker’s kids Prince Michael, 14, Paris, 12, and eight-year-old Blanket were left devastated by the singer’s sudden death in June 2009, but they are refusing to let his legacy fade away and are constantly quizzing their dad’s relatives to fill in the gaps about Jackson’s life.
Jackie Jackson tells People.com, "(They are) doing really well. They are around their father 24 hours a day. They have pictures in the bedroom. They talk about him all the time. They ask me stories about him. They want to know more about him." And the trio is particularly interested in Michael’s youth, when he first rose to fame as part of the Jackson 5.
Jackie adds, "They like to see us as little kids. We were the same age they are and we were doing our thing."

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JUSTIN BIEBER is set to be immortalised alongside his idols MICHAEL JACKSON and PRINCE - bosses at Madame Tussauds will unveil statues of the teenage pop sensation in three wax museums around the world.
The Baby hitmaker has been working closely with the organisation’s artists for the past four months to perfect his look-a-like and fans will be seeing triple when the wax figures are launched in March (11).
And the 16 year old is awestruck to have reached the milestone so early on in his career.
He says, "I’m honoured to be getting my own wax figures at Madame Tussauds New York, London and Amsterdam.
"To be immortalised in wax alongside some of my idols - Michael Jackson, Prince, Beyonce and my mentor, Usher - is incredibly exciting and very cool." Bieber fans will be pleased to learn the wax figures will feature the singer’s famous floppy hairstyle and not his new, "mature" cropped do, which he debuted on Monday (21Feb11).

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SYLVESTER STALLONE is taking his painting pastime seriously - he has opened his first art exhibition in Switzerland.
The Rocky star has been dabbling in art for over 30 years and sold one of his works last year (10) for a massive $50,000 (£33,330).
But he only recently decided to put his paintings on public display, and debuted his abstract art show at Galerie Gmurzynska in St. Moritz earlier this month (Feb11).
And Stallone, 64, insists his love for art runs deeper than his interest in acting and directing, according to the New York Post’s Page Six column.
He says, "If you feel a passion for something, you can move mountains."

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Rap superstar EMINEM has broken virtual history on YouTube.com by becoming the first hip-hop artist to score one billion hits.
The hitmaker’s 28 official promos, including Not Afraid and Love The Way You Lie, have proved to be hugely popular with fans on the video-sharing website, and on Monday (21Feb11), Eminem became only the third musician to achieve the massive feat.
The only other stars who can lay claim to the honour are Lady Gaga and Justin Bieber - the teenager remains the all-time most-viewed artist on YouTube.com with 1.3 billion views, according to FameCount.com.

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Blues icon LEON RUSSELL has landed another top accolade - he will be inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame in June (11), a month after he is immortalised in the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame.
Russell has seen his popularity soar since teaming up with Sir Elton John for their joint album, The Union, last year (10), and the Rocket Man will introduce his pal at the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame gala in New York in March (11).
And now the Tight Rope singer has been lauded by the Songwriters Hall of Fame - he will be part of the Class of 2011 when the honorees are inducted in New York in June (11).
Country superstar Garth Brooks will also go down in songwriting history, alongside Allen Toussaint, John Bettis and duo Billy Steinberg and Tom Kelly, who wrote Madonna’s Like a Virgin.

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Country star LEANN RIMES is planning to become Mrs. EDDIE CIBRIAN as early as May (11), just five months after the actor proposed.
The couple became engaged over Christmas (10) and Rimes is reportedly keen to return to Montana, where the stars enjoyed a romantic vacation last summer (10), to exchange vows.
A source tells the New York Post’s Page Six column the 28-year-old singer "has approached a number of owners of private ranches about a May or June wedding".
A representative for Rimes has refused to confirm or deny the rumours, issuing a firm, "No comment." Rimes met Cibrian, 37, on the set of TV movie Northern Lights in 2008, while they were married to other people. They have since ended their respective marriages.

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DIANNA AGRON has no plans to follow her GLEE co-stars MATTHEW MORRISON and MARK SALLING into the music business - she’s too focused on her acting.
The blonde beauty shot to fame playing school cheerleader Quinn in the all-singing, all-dancing U.S. show, but while her co-stars have gone on to record albums, Agron has no urge to head into the studio.
She tells Interview magazine, "I never solicited myself as a singer until I realised I could use that to a musical standpoint. I loved musicals growing up. Classic films were some of the only ones I watched.
"So when the opportunity came for the show to audition, of course it was all of a sudden, ‘I sing! I sing! Send me in, please. I beg of you’."

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JAMES FRANCO’s dreams to cover CHER’s BURLESQUE tune YOU HAVEN’T SEEN THE LAST OF ME at the Oscars have been dashed - show bosses have opted not to let him perform the track.
The Diane Warren track won a Golden Globe for Best Song, but was snubbed as an Academy Awards nominee - but that didn’t stop co-host Franco from planning to honour the ballad.
Franco has posted a video of him performing the track badly on Twitter.com, writing, "They pulled this from the Oscar show. Damn it."

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New mum CHRISTINA APPLEGATE suffered in agony when she gave birth to baby daughter SADIE GRACE last month (Jan11) after opting not to have an epidural as planned.
The actress endured an 18-hour delivery and admits she felt "profound pain" as she became a first-time mum.
Appearing on The Ellen DeGeneres Show in America, she explains, "I had my plan… to have an epidural but I didn’t react to it well.
"I didn’t like it. I didn’t like the feeling of numbness. I didn’t like it. It was really creepy to me. It was too much, so we turned it off and we opted for go all the way… It was profound pain."

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MACKENZIE PHILLIPS has taken issue with her half-sister CHYNNA’s assertion they are "taking a break" from one another, because they have had little contact since the ONE DAY AT A TIME actress went public with her incestuous relationship with their father.
The 51 year old shocked fans with the 2009 release of her book High on Arrival, in which she revealed she had shared a decade-long sexual relationship with dad John Phillips, the founder of The Mamas & the Papas.
Chynna spoke out in support of Mackenzie when the news hit the headlines, insisting she was "proud" of her sister, but the Wilson Phillips singer later admitted she had distanced herself from the actress as she struggled to come to terms with the revelation.
But Mackenzie is baffled by her half-sister’s behaviour, because Chynna’s virtually cut off all forms of communication with her.
She tells America’s Today show, "I’m very, very sorry that my family has been hurt by the truth.
"I don’t really know (what happened with Chynna). I remember when she was on the tour for the Wilson Phillips Christmas album, she said, ‘You know, my sister and I are taking a break’. Well, if taking a break is just stopping talking to the other person, then yes, we’re taking a break."

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PAUL SIMON was desperate to include BOB DYLAN’s "weathered" vocals on his latest album - and struggles to understand why his pleas for a collaboration went unanswered.
The singer was convinced the Blowin’ in the Wind legend was a perfect match for the title track of So Beautiful or So What and begged Dylan to record a duet.
But Dylan, who toured with Simon in 1999, failed to get in touch.
Simon tells Britain’s Uncut magazine, "I thought Bob could sing, put a nice voice on the verse from So Beautiful or So What that begins, ‘Ain’t it strange the way we’re ignorant / How we seek out bad advice.’ "I thought it would be nice if he sang that, since his voice has become so weathered I thought he would sound like a sage. I sent it to him, but I didn’t hear back. I don’t know why." But Simon took the snub in his stride, revealing he rarely gets into deep discussions about songwriting with his old pal.
He adds, "He’s fun to be with (but) I never had a really serious discussion about songwriting with any of those guys I know. I’ve talked very little about songwriting with Paul McCartney. I’ve never talked about it with Bob Dylan."

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R&B superstar USHER has a steamy way to unwind after performing live - he slips into a portable hot tub backstage.
The Yeah! hitmaker has confessed he suffers from severe homesickness on tour and feels compelled to hang drapes in his dressing room to provide some creature comforts.
And now he takes a portable plunge pool along whenever he hits the road to help him soak away the stresses of life on tour.
The singer tells British TV show Loose Women, "I have a few little things that make the dressing room comfortable. I really like a living space, not just dry walls. I have drapes to kind of make it feel like home.
"I take what I consider my therapy. There is a regimen that I have after every show where I have a cold and hot dip, so I travel with a hot tub. It’s inflatable, so every night there’s this inflatable tub that I dip into. After every show I take a cold dip and a hot dip - it’s just relieving the excitement and the pressure and the adrenaline. So I take a cold shower and pipe down and sit in the hot tub - alone!"

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