Reports that Lil' Kim would be joining the winter's biggest hip-hop touring ticket have proved false. The notorious diva was supposed to join the Cash Money Millionaires and Nelly for a handful of dates this month as the tour winds down towards its Dec. 22 finale. Despite billing at some of the tour's venues, Lil' Kim hasn't made any appearances with Nelly and the Cash Money crew, and according to a source at Kim's label, Atlantic Records, she still has no plans to join the tour . . .

Hole may be on an interminable hiatus but Courtney Love is keeping her movie career alive. From porn star in The People vs. Larry Flynt, to Eighties twenty-something in 200 Cigarettes, to housewife in the upcoming Julie Johnson, Love may have found her perfect film role match. She has just signed on to star in Hello, Suckers, a biopic about Texas Guinan. Who, you might ask? Guinan, born Mary Louise Cecelia Guinan, worked in vaudeville and starred in silent films, primarily Westerns, as a gun-toting hero and was notorious for improvising details of her past history to suit her present. Best known as "Queen of the Night Clubs," the Waco, Tex., native worked as a hostess in New York speakeasies and greeted customers with the film's title, and what became her catch phrase, "Hello, suckers" . . .

Elton John announced the total profit from his Out of the Closet III sale/auction -- he's raised over $600,000 for AIDS charities, he announced Thursday on his Web site (www.eltonjohn.com). John auctioned off a piano he used to compose his Rock of the Westies album and about 30,000 other items (mostly clothes and accessories, including a Versace suit John wore to collect his Oscar), all of which sold in three and a half days. All proceeds will aid the Elton John AIDS Foundation (www.ejaf.org) . . .

In light of the recent ten-year anniversary of Stevie Ray Vaughan's death and the release of the new box set, SRV, it was surely only a matter of time before his old backing band, Double Trouble, resurrected itself. On Feb. 6, drummer Chris Layton and bassist Tommy Shannon -- who spent the Nineties holding down the rhythms in the Arc Angels and Storyville -- will dust off their old moniker and release their debut "solo" effort, Been a Long Time on Tone-Cool Records. Filling in for Vaughan will be his brother Jimmie along with fellow guitar slingers Charlie Sexton, Willie Nelson, Eric Johnson, Doyle Bramhall II, Kenny Wayne Shepherd and Jonny Lang. Dr. John and Susan Tedeschi will be among those on hand to provide vocal chops, with Tedeschi taking the reins for the lead single, a cover of Led Zeppelin's "Rock and Roll." The whole lot of them will sit in with the band for a taping of Austin City Limits on Jan. 12, as well as an all-star concert later that night at the Austin Music Hall. In honor of the occasion, Austin Mayor Kirk Watson has already officially declared Jan. 12 as "Double Trouble Day" . . .

Tina Turner wrapped up her world tour on Dec. 6 at the Arrowhead Pond in Anaheim, Calif. Supported by a seven piece band and five back up singers, Turner, who turned sixty-one on Nov. 26, performed for two hours, singing hits like "Proud Mary" and "What's Love Got to Do With It" as well as songs from her latest album, Twenty Four Seven. The tour, announced last June as her final stadium and arena tour, concluded with little fanfare and no special guests. Turner barely mentioned the semi-retirement, only saying, "I thank you all for your support," before exiting the stage. According to the concert trade publication Pollstar, Turner came in second to only Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band for concert revenues in the first six months of 2000. Turner will continue to record and make occasional live appearances, but not on the scale of her Twenty Four Seven tour . . .

And the 2,168th star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame goes to . . . Sting! Sting joins other singers and musicians like Phil Collins and Paula Abdul who have received stars on the Walk of Fame. The star will be unveiled on Dec. 8 at in front of the El Capitan Theater on Hollywood Boulevard. Sting will be there, along with wife Trudie Styler, to accept the honor. Meanwhile some new Sting tunes can be heard in the animated flick The Emperor's New Groove which opens Dec. 15 . . .

With a tour, holiday specials and award show appearance behind them, 'N Sync will use January not to recuperate but to get to work on their fourth album. Though the band plans to write and produce more of their own material, they will enlist No Strings Attached contributors Richard Marx, who penned "This I Promise You" and She'kspere, who produced "It Makes Me Ill." No word yet on when the next album will be released, but fans can expect one more single from No Strings Attached and, of course, a video. While the single has not been chosen, it will most likely be out in January. Also reaching airwaves in 2001 is Justin Timberlake's contribution to Brian McKnight's as-yet-untitled album, expected to be released in the spring . . .

Beck will release a CD of recent B-sides as well as the winning remixes of his tracks by winners of his "Mixed Bizness" contest. The tracklisting for the CD includes remixes of "Sexx Laws," "Mixed Bizness" and "Salt in the Wound," a B-side from the "Sexx Laws" single. The album will be released exclusively through www.beck.com . . .

After not letting any western rock albums into their country for three years, China has embraced A Perfect Circle 's Mers de Noms, which was made available to Chinese consumers on Oct 30. Thanks to strict sanctions regulations for music to be sold in China, American music isn't regularly available. The last album to clear these regulations was Guns n' Roses Use Your Illusion I and II, which were finally admitted in 1997 . . .

Jennifer Lopez will release JLO, the follow up to 1999's On the 6 on Jan. 23. The first single, "Love Don't Cost a Thing, is currently No. 46 on the Billboard Hot 100 Singles one week after its release. Lopez lovers will be able to catch a lot more of the singer/actress/model as the new year also brings the release of her latest film, The Wedding Planner, on Feb. 16. But those who prefer Lopez as a singer can catch behind the scenes footage of the making of her latest album on the "Jennifer Cam" via her Web site, www.jenniferlopez.com. Less voyeuristic fans can see Lopez when she appears on the American Music Awards on Jan. 8, Saturday Night Live Feb. 10 and the Grammys Feb. 28 . . .

Stone Temple Pilots will be heading into the studio to record a follow up to their latest album 4. Once again, producer Brendan O'Brian will be on board. According to a source close to the band, the band is shooting for a June release . . .

With the third single "You Make Me Sick" from her debut album Can't Take Me Home released to radio this week, Pink is setting out on a mini-tour. The eight-city radio station sponsored tour kicks off on Dec. 7 in Buffalo with stops in Auburn Hills, MI; Washington D.C.; St. Louis; Minneapolis; Philadelphia; Phoenix and wraps up in Seattle on Dec. 17 . . .

The Private Public, which features the acting debut of Curt Smith, formerly of Tears for Fears, will be privately screened on Feb. 10, with a world premiere in April as part of the Los Angeles Independent Film Festival. The film, a fictional take on the subject of documentaries, is the directorial debut of Dana Altman, grandson of filmmaker Robert Altman. In addition to appearing in the film, Smith has contributed a solo, acoustic version of the Tears for Fears hit "Everybody Wants to Rule the World" to the soundtrack . . .

Kid Rock and Ozzy Osbourne have been tapped to appear in the forthcoming movie The Bubble Boy. The comedy concerns a young man born without an immune system and subsequently lived his entire life in his bedroom -- only to venture out in a portable bubble on an adventure to win back the love of his life. Osbourne was last seen playing himself in the Adam Sandler flick Little Nicky. As for Rock, he already earned his stripes this year in David Spade's The Adventures of Joe Dirt . . .

DMX has put down the mic and picked up the pen. The rough-voiced rapper has written an autobiography, A Dogz Life, which will be published by HarperCollins late next year . . .

"How We Kick It on Xmas," a previously unreleased Snoop Dogg song, has been posted for download on the hip-hop Web site www.westside2real.com. The song, on which Snoop raps with Kokane, is a snapshot of the holidays in the 'hood. It will not be included on Snoop's upcoming album, Tha Last Meal, which is set for release in two weeks. As for other Snoop downloads, his former label, Death Row Records, put Tha Last Meal back on their Web site for free download once again, after pulling it briefly last week. Snoop and his label, No Limit, have yet to take any legal action against Death Row over the album's free posting . . .

Britney Spears made a guest appearance during 'N Sync's Friday night show at the San Diego Sports Arena, where the boy band and its audience serenaded the singer with "Happy Birthday" (Spears turned nineteen on Saturday) . . .

As goodbyes go, it was a long one. Months after the announcement of their impending break-up, the Smashing Pumpkins bid 1,100 of their biggest fans a fond farewell Saturday night in a four-and-a-half concert that was billed as their very last (or as Billy Corgan put it, their "last gasp"). They ended it at Chicago's Metro Theater, where the Pumpkins played their first ever public performance a dozen years ago, on Oct. 5, 1988. Joining Corgan, guitarist James Iha, drummer Jimmy Chamberlain and bassist Melissa Auf Der Maur (who replaced original bassist D'Arcy Wretzky last year) for the festivities were Cheap Trick guitarist Rick Nielsen (on "Cherub Rock") and Corgan's father, William Corgan, on "Born Under a Bad Sign." Fans, some of whom forked over more than $1,000 for scalped tickets, left with a complimentary CD documenting the band's debut performance at the Metro and the timeless image of a teary-eyed Corgan proclaiming, "God bless the Smashing Pumpkins!" . . .

According to www.marilynmanson.net, Holy Wood (In the Shadow of the Valley of Death) comes with an enhanced three-minute movie of Manson undergoing an autopsy. The revelation comes with the tag line: "Warning: with added twists and turns the autopsy is not for the weak stomached individuals. Holy Wood is in stores now." Whether the Manson autopsy is meant to drive Holy Wood up from No. 60 on Billboard's Top 200 or drop it off the chart entirely remains to be seen . . .

Madonna's home in England's posh Notting Hill neighborhood was broken into on Nov. 30. Madonna, daughter Lourdes, son Rocco and boyfriend Guy Ritchie were asleep upstairs while thieves made off with a Range Rover as well as a number of other items. No one was injured during the robbery and the Range Rover was later recovered by police. This is the second time one of Madonna's homes has been broken into this year . . .

The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People honored Bruce Springsteen on Sunday with a humanitarian award. The fifty-one-year-old musician appeared before nearly 150 people from a local chapter of the NAACP in Middletown, N.J. to receive the award. "Humanitarian is too big a word for what I do," Springsteen said, according to an Associated Press report. Earlier this year, Springsteen played an extended engagement at New York City's Madison Square Garden, where he played "American Skin (Forty-one Shots)," a new song about the death of West African immigrant Amadou Diallo, who was shot and killed by New York City police officers in 1999 . . .

Boyzone's Ronan Keating won't be joining the unemployment lines anytime soon, despite the fact that Westlife have just given him the heave-ho as their manager. The record-breaking boy band -- with seven consecutive number ones -- felt they no longer needed Keating to shepherd their career anymore, after they surpassed the Beatles record for number one records. But an insider insisted that he was only their manager in name only -- in order to stir up some early interest for the band. "Having Ronan posing with Westlife early on guaranteed that their picture would be pasted all over the teen mags, and get them into record label doors. But their real manager was and is Louis Walsh." For the uninitiated, Walsh also manages the careers of Keating as well as Samantha Mumba. As for Keating, the bottle blond not only has a thriving solo career -- his last UK single from Notting Hill broke the charts at number one -- but the twenty-three-year old just published his self- titled autobiography, and his wife Yvonne is expecting their second child in February . . .

Shane MacGowan has completed a memoir that will be published in the spring. The appropriately titled A Drink with Shane MacGowan is designed as a series of interviews with the songwriter/musician as conducted by his wife, Victoria Clarke. According to a release for the book, MacGowan touches on his childhood including his introduction to Guinness (his family allowed him two pints a night at age five) and covers his move from Ireland to London where he viewed and ultimately immersed himself in the city's punk scene. MacGowan also addresses the creation of the Pogues and his ultimate departure from the group he founded. In addition to his story in his own words, MacGowan's memoir will feature his lyrics and numerous photographs, many previously unpublished. A Drink with Shane MacGowan will be published as a paperback by Grove Press in April with a cover price of $13 . . .

In addition to chipping in on R.E.M.'s upcoming album, Scott McCaughey has put the finishing touches on two new albums, one as the Young Fresh Fellows, who return after a seven-year hiatus, and another with his rotating collective, the Minus 5. "The Young Fresh Fellows are a tablet that refuses to dissolve, regardless the manner or brand of liquid immersion," McCaughey's nom de plume Robert Stove (of the "Electric Bird Digest") writes. "Briefly the band arose to stardom in 1984 and has endured a steady 2% decline in popularity with each ensuing year." As for the Minus 5 disc, R.E.M.'s Peter Buck, Wilco 's Jeff Tweedy and numerous other guests from the Posies, Screaming Trees , Mott the Hoople, Guided by Voices, the Presidents, the High Llamas and the Maroons. Because We Hate You by the Fellows and Let the War Against Music Begin by the Minus 5 will both be available on Mammoth/Malt on Feb. 27 . . .

Roadhouse rock vet Delbert McClinton has put the finishing touches on Nothing Personal, his first new album in three years. The thirteen-track album was produced by McClinton with longtime collaborator Gary Nicholson and marks his debut for New West records. The album also boasts a duet with Iris DeMent on "Birmingham Tonight," a song that reflects McClinton's countrier side. Nothing Personal is set for release on March 6. McClinton has also begun to court guests for his seventh annual Delbert McClinton and Friends Sandy Beaches Cruise. Michael McDonald, Asleep at the Wheel, Marcia Ball, Junior Brown and Wayne Toups and Zydecajun are just a few of the acts who will perform on the five-day cruse that launches on Jan. 2. More information is available at www.delbert.com . . .

ANDREW DANSBY, STEVE FLORIO, CHRISTINA SARACENO, RICHARD SKANSE, JAAN UHELSZKI, JENNIFER VINEYARD
(December 9, 2000)