Function Magazine

On Monday, May 14, 2012, the Fox Network Group announced at the New York’s Beacon Theater that Britney Spears and Demi Lovato will be joining returning X Factor Judges, Simon Cowell and L.A. Reid this fall when the X Factor begins.

Even before Simon Cowell’s announcement of Britney Spears joining the X Factor, critics including The Hollywood Reporter were betting on her success at the famed show indicating it will be a total disaster due to her inability to string a sentence and her competence especially in front of a live audience and a live show. Also, various published materials indicate that the creator of The American Idol, Nigel Lythgoe, expressed concerns over the selection of two new judges.

Britney and Demi replace last season judges, Paula Abdul and Nicole Scherzinger. The last season host, Steve Jones has also been replaced. At this writing no one has been named to host the season two. But some speculators indicate former teen idol Miley Cyrus is being considered for the job. Another that has been mentioned in news media is pop star Gwen Stefani.

The X Factor faces heavy competition from the shows like The Voice in a plentiful of music shows.

Who could forget the puppet characters of Kermit, Rowlf, Miss Piggy, Gonzo and Fozzie Bear? Many of us grew up with Muppets characters. Newcomer to the gang is named Walter. Muppets have been entertaining kids all over the world in radio, television, movie theaters and cartoon books since 1955.

Jim Henson who died in 1990 created the Muppets in 1955 in Washington DC in a live TV show known as Sam and Friends. In 1960, the Muppets appeared on nationally televised the Today Show. From 1966 to 1971, the Muppets made a regular appearance in the Ed Sullivan Show. Muppets weekly appearance on Saturday Night Live started in 1975. The Muppets started its first season as the Muppets Show in 1976. The Muppets celebrated their 30th anniversary in a TV special in 1985 called The Muppets: A Celebration of 30 Years.

The Muppets had an illustrious career in movies too. The Muppet Movie premiered in 1979. The Muppets from Space released in theaters in 1999 and in 2011, The Muppets movie was released as the last big-screen movie. In this movie, the Muppets travel to Los Angeles to save the old Muppets Theater.

Since the death of creator Jim Hanson in 1990, Walt Disney Company has purchased the Muppets in 2004.

Season 11 American Idol now down to eight after elimination of Heejun Han. On Thursday, March 29, 2012 Heejun got the boot being the least vote getter and judges refused to use their only save for the season. He sang “A Song for You” but was unable to sway the judges.

With Heejun’s elimination, now the show is down to eight which started the final with 12 plus one. Earlier one of the contestant has been thrown out of the show for violation of rules. The show marks quarter point at this time and continue to air on Fox on Wednesdays with the results broadcast on Thursday.

American Idol first started airing at Fox on June 11, 2002. It is a reality television musical show looking for a superstar produced by FremantleMedia North America and 19 Entertainment, and created by Simon Fuller. It is based on UK show called “Pop Idol”. It has a massive audience and has been the number one for many consecutive years on Nielson ratings. The three judge panel provides their comments after each performer and popular voting starts at the end of the show, and stay open for two hours.

Then there were four record labels including Sony, Universal and Warner. Emi Group is being sold off one piece at a time. This group dominated the music industry for decades and is being replaced by the competition from digital media. It was difficult at best for the up and comers to make a deal with major record labels. No one could reach the stardom that some of the artists like Lady Gaga reached without the backing of the major labels.

However, myriad of digital companies are helping unknown to well known to produce and distribute music through the internet. This wasn’t the case with big label record companies. Among the new digital music media players TuneCore, ReverbNation and CD Baby are noteworthy mentions. Apple sold 320 million music players assisting the success of the digital music media. You Tube is also changing the way new comers are getting into the industry and promoting their success. Online stores such as Bandcamp are showcasing thousands of new artists online. Their sales reached $7.3 million in a 12 month period.

Big labels are facing big problems and are unable to compete with research that is being done by the digital media.

The 84th Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Science Awards (commonly called Oscars or Academy Awards) honoring films made in 2011 will be held on Sunday, February 26, 2012 at soon to be renamed Kodak Theatre in Hollywood, California. One of the most prominent ceremonies of the year will recognize excellence in the film industry. The first Academy Awards was held in 1929 in Hollywood, California.

Membership of the Academy stands at 5,783 as of 2012 and were became members at the invitation of the Board of Governors. This membership represent different aspects of the trade while actors representing 22% of the membership. These members will be selecting the best in each category through a secret ballot and auditors will tally the results.

The most coveted awards include Best Picture of the Year, Best Actor in a Leading Role, Best Actress in a Leading Role and Directing. Nine films are nominated for the coveted Best Picture of the Year. Five actors and actresses are nominated for each category. There are five movies in the Best Directing category. Altogether 24 awards will be given out at this year’s award ceremony and over 40 million Americans and millions of other viewers all over the world will be watching the telecast.

It has finally been announced that the Pussy Cat Dolls singer Nicole Scherzinger is to replace Cheryl Cole as a judge on the US version of X Factor. She will be joining Simon Cowell, L.A.Reid and Paula Abdul on the judging panel. The announcement was made after Cheryl Cole who was fired from the show two weeks ago refused the offer from the producers to return to the show again. Scherzinger has already made an appearance alongside Simon Cowell as a guest judge on the UK version of X Factor. She will start work on the show at the New Jersey auditions this week. The show will be aired in September 2011.

Cheryl Cole came in to the show to replace Danni Minogue who controversially left the show in May. Scherzinger is also responsible for changing the age limit for the girls and boys categories up to 28 years in the UK version. She has enjoyed tremendous success with the group Pussy Cat Dolls which she joined in 2003, and has appeared with Shaggy and Will Smith. She is currently dating formula one race driver and 2008 world champion Lewis Hamilton.

Though most people thought the show would be cancelled, “Two and a Half Men” will go on without Charlie Sheen. It’s been officially announced by Warner Bros. Television and CBS that Ashton Kutcher will be the show’s new star. On his side, Kutcher has already acknowledged the news and publicly displayed his contentment with the turn of events, the scoop of which came from The Hollywood Reporter. That same report, however, did not reveal how much money Kutcher accepted for the role. Rumors are circulating that for him it’s a “huge payday.”

“Two and a Half Men” creator and executive producer, Chuck Lorre, in a statement said: “We are so lucky to have someone as talented, joyful and just plain remarkable as Ashton joining our family…Added to that is the deep sigh of relief knowing that our family stays together. If I was any happier, it’d be illegal.”

It seems Hugh Grant was first offered the gig but decided to take a pass. Lorre has openly spoken about his satisfaction at the completed script for Kutcher’s introduction and many are saying that viewers will be happy with the handling of the awkward moment.

Ashton Kutcher most recently starred in the big screen alongside Natalie Portman in “No Strings Attached.” His freshly announced TV role will mark his first foray into television acting since the demise of “That 70’s Show,” though he successfully worked as an executive producer for MTV’s “Punk’d.”

People believe Kutcher will bring a younger demographic to the show and give him kudos for having reached 6.7 million Twitter followers.

Kutcher played coy on the news Thursday. “I’m starting to become convinced that people put my name in articles just to improve their SEO or hoping I’ll tweet it,” he wrote on Twitter.

He then went on to ask his followers: “What’s the square root of 6.25?” The most mathematically inclined among them skipped no beat and quickly shot back the pointed answer — 2 1/2.

March saw the firing of the show’s original star, Charlie Sheen, as well as his media meltdown. Sadly, a month after being fired Sheen even went on a nationwide tour he baptized “My Violent Torpedo of Truth/Defeat Is Not an Option.” Suffice it to say that it was not the most well-received show. In some sort of demonstration of perseverance, Charlie Sheen has said he plans to continue his tour in Europe and Australia.

Superman, for a long time now, has been considered to be an icon when it comes to American entertainment (just as much of a phenomenon that Michael Jackson has been) yet in the latest story released by Action Comics, the much-loved superhero intends to give up his American citizenship because he feels that his powers will serve a greater purpose in serving people around the world.

In this latest release, Superman is “tired of his actions being construed as instruments of U.S policy”, and thus wishes to renounce his U.S citizenship when he will speak with the United Nations the following day.

And while this story has been criticized by people everywhere, Superman does not denounce his citizenship in the story but merely discusses his plans to do so, while standing silently at the Tehran protest to show the demonstrators that they aren’t alone in the fight for freedom.

Furthermore, the co-publishers of Action Comics, Dan Didio and Jim Lee clearly respond to the criticism raised at this story by saying that he [Superman] wants to maintain a global focus to his never-ending battle but is still attached to his roots, a Kansas farmboy from Smallville which is his adopted home, thanks to the destruction of his real ‘home’, Krypton.

According to the story, the reason for Superman to consider this course of action is due to the fact that that the Iranian government accuses him of causing an international incident, which also makes him realize that “truth, justice and the American way is not enough” because the world is now too small and connected.

However, this is not the first time that a superhero has decided to move away from US policy as Captain Marvel also chose a similar path in the 1970s during the Watergate Scandal.

In reducing the number of contestants from 24 to 13, Randy Jackson remarked this would was the toughest night ever on American Idol. With four of the contestants from California, two from Nashville and two from New York with the remaining three winning contestants out of six being picked out by the judges Jennifer Lopez, Steven Tyler and Randy Jackson after an audition.

The clear winners that were picked by the viewers through online and phone votes, consisting of five men and five women in all, were James Durbin, Casey Abrams, Jacob Lusk, Paul McDonald, Scotty McCreery, Haley Reinhart, Thia Megia, Pia Toscano, Karen Rodriguez and Lauren Alaina.

The three who benefited from the extra chance given by the judges were Stefano Langone, Naima Adedapo and Ashthon Jones after completing their audition with a song.

While the results were pretty clear with the winning ten contestants, there seemed to be some indecision when it comes to picking the three out of the six contestants who were given a second chance by the judges in the wild-card competition.

In the meanwhile, the television channel Fox aired the world premiere of Jennifer Lopez’s new music video as they were still undecided despite having time during the commercial break to do so. And with this delay there was no doubt that the ones who were painfully waiting for their decision was the six contestants, and one can only imagine what they went through to get to the next round.

American Idol has decided its Top 24. 12 girls and 12 boys were chosen to go to the next round live for the public to vote. It has been an interesting season with many good singers and interesting characters.  Some favorites like 15-year-old Jacee went home, while some other favorites that made it were: Brett Loewenstern (long red haired guy), Jovany Barreto (the guy who showed his abs), Paul Mcdonald, James Durbin (the punk that delivers pizza), and Scotty McCreery (the country singer), Lauren Alaina.

Here is a list of remaining Top 24:

• Thia Megia
• Naima Adedapo
• Ashthon Jones
• Karen Rodriguez
• Pia Toscano
• Robbie Rosen
• Stefano Langone
• Casey Abrams
• Julie Zorrilla
• Tim Halperin
• Tatynisa Wilson
• Jordan Dorsey
• Jacob Lusk
• Rachel Zevita
• Kendra Chantelle
• Paul McDonald
• Clint Jun Gamboa
• Lauren Turner
• Haley Reinhart