Mitchell partners with Starbucks
NEW YORK (AP) - Joni Mitchell is following the lead of Paul McCartney in joining with the coffee giant Starbucks to release her comeback album.
Hear Music, a record label formed in partnership with Starbucks Corp. and the Concord Music Group, said Wednesday that Mitchell is its second signing. "Shine," her first album of new compositions since 1998, will be released on Sept. 25.
McCartney's album "Memory Almost Full" came out last month and was played relentlessly at Starbucks franchises, where listeners could purchase it with their coffee. The disc has sold 447,000 copies, 45 per cent of them in Starbucks stores, the company said.
The new venture has attracted interest from veteran artists both because the music business is collapsing around them, and their fans are much more likely to be spending time in Starbucks these days than in music stores.
Mitchell worked with Hear Music two years ago as it released a disc of favourite Mitchell songs selected by various artists. She had essentially retired from making music and said this project was one of the things that rekindled her interest, said Ken Lombard, president of Starbucks Entertainment.
Mitchell wrote nine of the 10 songs on "Shine," the exception being an adaptation of the Rudyard Kipling poem "If."
She described it as "as serious a work as I've ever done" with some dark lyrics.
Earlier this year, Mitchell was co-director of "The Fiddle and the Drum," a ballet based on her music that debuted in Canada. She's also planning an exhibit of her paintings in New York this fall.
Hear Music expects to sign one more artist this year and eight in 2008, and is looking for a mixture of new and established artists, Lombard said.
One role model for a veteran artist adapting to rapidly changing times, Prince, recently gave away thousands of copies of his CD through a newspaper in England. Lombard said not to expect a Mitchell album offered for free to customers who buy a frozen latte.
Turncoat Michael returning to 'Lost'
BEVERLY HILLS, Calif. - Turncoat Michael is making a "Lost" `comeback. Harold Perrineau, who plays the character last seen betraying his fellow crash survivors to save himself and his son, will return to the show next season.
ABC Entertainment President Stephen McPherson didn't offer any details Wednesday of what's in store for Michael. He also didn't say whether Walt, the son played by Malcolm David Kelley, will be seen again.
The pair fled the mysterious island where the crash victims were struggling to survive against the dangerous "Others," with desperate Michael turning over his friends in exchange for escape.
The network had planned to make the "Lost" announcement at Comic-Con International, the comic book and pop-culture show starting Thursday in San Diego. But McPherson, speaking to a meeting of the Television Critics Association, was pressed for the information.
McPherson initially balked at talking, instead joking about what the announcement might be.
"I've cast Don Imus on `Lost,'" McPherson quipped.
Earlier this year, ABC said will run for three more seasons, concluding in 2009-10. The series will return for its fourth season in January.
Singer Mindy McCready taken into custody
NASHVILLE, Tenn. - Country singer Mindy McCready was taken into custody Wednesday at Nashville International Airport as she returned to Tennessee, accused of violating her probation, officials said.
McCready, 31, was arrested last week in Fort Myers, Fla., her hometown, on misdemeanor charges that she scratched her mother on the face during a scuffle and resisted sheriff's deputies.
Deputy District Attorney General Derek Smith told The Tennessean that she violated probation in three ways: by being charged in a new offense; not reporting those charges immediately to her probation officer; and by the nature of the new assault charges.
An official at the Williamson County sheriff's office just south of Nashville said McCready was being booked Wednesday night.
McCready's previous attorney, Lee Dryer, did not immediately return calls to his office on Wednesday after business hours, though information from the Williamson County Court Clerk showed Dryer had withdrawn as her lawyer. It was not yet known if she had a new attorney.
She was on probation for obtaining the painkiller OxyContin fraudulently at a pharmacy in 2004. Still pending was another probation violation charge resulting from a drunken driving arrest in May 2005.
McCready had a hit in 1996 with "Guys Do It All the Time," but has struggled in recent years amid personal problems. Her album "Ten Thousand Angels" sold 2 million copies that year.
The singer was found not guilty of the DUI charge in July 2006 but guilty of driving on a suspended license. She then pleaded guilty to violating her probation but has petitioned to withdraw that plea.