A spokesperson for Brian May said it is "highly improbable" that the Queen guitarist will join Guns n' Roses in any capacity. That notion was echoed by G n' R manager Doug Goldstein, who said, "there haven't been any conversations like that." Phil Symes, Queen's U.K.-based publicist, was unaware of an Internet report that suggested May would be one in a series of celebrity guitarists joining G n' R on the road when and if they ever tour. "I was just with Brian last week, so I think we would know," Symes says. "I think he very much enjoys what he does, doing his own music and working with other members of [Queen]." Goldstein joked that the idea of using a rotating set of celebrity guitarists "sounds like a cool idea" and added that "[guitarist] Robin [Finck] is doing his Nine Inch Nails thing and we have no idea how long that's gonna last." Goldstein said that Axl Rose is currently laying down vocals for the long-awaited album and there's no tentative release date planned . . .

"Lies, lies, lies, lies," Michael Jackson told ABC's Diane Sawyer in 1996, referring to the allegations that he had molested a thirteen-year-old boy. Three years later, he's won a settlement defending his public denial. A California court has ruled that Jackson's words were not in violation of the terms of his 1994 out-of-court settlement with the boy's father. This is Jackson's third legal triumph is just over two years. In 1997 he won a suit against Neverland employees who claimed they were fired for complying with authorities during the molestation investigation, and last year he won a suit against a videographer who claimed to have incriminating footage of Jackson and the boy. . .

Fatboy Slim married his deejay girlfriend Zoe Ball at a low-key ceremony in Bath this weekend. The pair originally planned to marry on Saturday, but switched the ceremony to Friday at the last minute, perhaps to throw the merciless British paparazzi off their trail. According to the London Times, about three hundred friends and family members feted the couple at a reception in a Somerset hotel, where Graham "Suggs" McPherson from ska second-wavers Madness played "It Must Be Love."...

Don't count Geri Halliwell out yet. The former Ginger Spice's debut solo album, Schizophonic, may have been performing rather poorly since its release at the end of June, but this week it's Latin pop-styled second single, "Mi Chico Latino," entered the U.K.'s Top 75 Singles chart at No. 1...

Jeff Buckley fans can expect the late singer's second posthumous release next year (the first being 1998's two-disc Sketches for My Sweetheart the Drunk) on Columbia Records. Buckley's former bandmates Michael Tighe and Mick Grondhal and Buckley's mother Mary Guibert are at work selecting tracks from soundboard tapes. . .

Steve Winwood, Joe Walsh, Seal, Ziggy Marley, Gilberto Gil, John Mayall and the Bluesbreakers, Sonia Dada, the Funky Meters and more are all set to play the Janus Jazz Aspen at Snowmass festival in Colorado over Labor Day weekend, Sept. 3-6 . . .

Welcome to the bold new world of post-Woodstock '99 festivals. For Ireland's annual outdoor concert at Slane Castle (featured on the cover of U2's 1984 album, The Unforgettable Fire) on Aug. 28, four hundred Irish police will patrol the grounds by helicopter, horseback and jet-ski (on the nearby Boyne River). The lineup includes Robbie Williams, Gomez and Placebo. The eighty-thousand ticket event is sold out. . .

Canadian singer Alannah Myles, who gave us the 1990 No. 1 hit "Black Velvet," is seeing red. The Grammy winner is suing Canadian daily paper The National Post for defamation of character over an article that mentioned rumors of Myles' alleged cocaine habit and stated that "Myles has no concrete goals apart from finding a husband and having a baby" . . .

BILL CRANDALL, JENNY ELISCU, BLAIR R. FISCHER, RICHARD SKANSE
(August 23, 1999)