Lady Gaga’s $0.99 Album Download Overwhelms Amazon

Lady Gaga fans were delighted Monday to learn that they could download her new album, Born This Way, from Amazon for a mere $0.99 — until, of course, technical difficulties set in.

Downloads of the album are delayed, leaving folks unable to get the entire album immediately upon purchase. Amazon issued the following statement:

Amazon is experiencing high volume and downloads are delayed. If customers order today, they will get the full Lady Gaga, Born This Way album for $0.99. Thanks for your patience.

However, the damage has already been done, as users are meting out one-star ratings in droves, most of which deal with Amazon’s slow service as opposed to the quality of the music (although some reviews in the lower bracket did dub the disc “disappointing”). As a result, the album has a relatively low three-star rating.

Reviews of the following nature reign: “This review isn’t a review of the album, but of the Amazon’s digital music service. I tried this as an experiment to see if I wanted to order more music this way, but it only downloaded half the songs. Still a deal at 99cents, but not an experiment I’ll want to repeat with a full-price album.”

Many reviews also trumpet the user’s intent to buy from iTunes in the future, instead of Amazon — a state of affairs Amazon would want to avoid, considering iTunes already holds most of the market share for digital music.

This backlash does not bode well for the future popularity of Amazon’s new Cloud Player service, which the company was touting in the promotional language of the deal, offering users more storage space for buying the album.

mashable.com

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Lady Gaga Album Demand Melts Down Amazon


The Hottest Ticket On The Planet Right Now? It Sure Ain't Lady Gaga



Lady Gaga Album Demand Melts Down Amazon

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Lady Gaga

Amazon.com Inc.’s one-day, 99-cent promotion of Lady Gaga’s highly anticipated second studio album, “Born This Way,” is resulting in downloading delays on the Internet retailer’s website due to high volume, the company said Monday.

Amazon thanked users for their patience on its website and on Twitter, saying consumers who ordered “Born This Way” on Monday would get the full Lady Gaga album for the promotional price. Lady Gaga, a Grammy-winning multiplatinum pop star, is known for an unusual sense of style as well as hits including “Just Dance” and “Poker Face.”

A majority of Amazon users’ reviews for the album were poor, although they mostly focused their complaints on an inability to download all 14 tracks.

An Amazon representative wasn’t immediately available to provide additional comment on the delays.

–By John Kell, Dow Jones Newswires

You can leave your thoughts about Lady Gaga and her new album in the comments.

blogs.wsj.com/speakeasy

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The Hottest Ticket On The Planet Right Now? It Sure Ain't Lady Gaga

Jennifer Aniston Debuts New 'Do in 'Horrible Bosses'

Jennifer Aniston New Line Cinema Jennifer Aniston has made a career out of playing good girls. Heck, she even played the title role in a movie called, you guessed it, "The Good Girl." So, it's no surprise that people have noticed Aniston's role in the upcoming flick, "Horrible Bosses" breaks the trend. She plays a dentist who is annoying, inappropriate, disrespectful... in short, anything but good.

The comedy, which co-stars Colin Farrell, Kevin Spacey, and Jason Bateman, features a new look for Aniston. For the first time in a long time, she won't rock blond hair. She's dyed her hair dark brown, a not-so-subtle sign that her character is bad to the bone. Even the movie's poster refers to her as a man-eater.

See the exclusive 'Horrible Bosses' posters >>

Aniston, whose hair has long inspired many an online search, is getting renewed interest in her luscious locks. Over the past 24 hours, Web lookups on "jennifer aniston new haircut" have surged an astounding 350,000%. Related searches on "jennifer aniston new haircut pictures" spiked 2,500%. So, yeah, who needs "the Rachel," anyway?

But it's not just Aniston's hair that has people talking. It's the role, too. In the film, Aniston plays a dentist who sexually harasses her helpless underling, played by Charlie Day of "It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia."

'Horrible Bosses' New Line Cinema In the trailer, which is not safe for the young 'uns, Aniston goes completely over-the-top with her harassment, which Day's character can't stand. He and his friends, played by Bateman and Jason Sudeikis (who both also have "horrible bosses"), decide to take things into their own hands by offing the bosses with the help of a "murder consultant" played by Jamie Foxx.

While Aniston's new look is garnering the lion's share of attention, the film is also hot on the Web. Over the past week, searches on "horrible bosses" and "horrible bosses trailer" are both up over 400%. And, in a sign that is sure to please the studio's bean counters, Web searches for "horrible bosses release date" are on the up and up.

The film (and, with it, Aniston's new hair) hits theaters on July 8

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Jennifer Aniston Debuts New 'Do in 'Horrible Bosses'

NO Doomsday >> Still open for business

Saturday, May 21, 2011 Harold Camping's 21st May Doomsday prediction fails; No earthquake in New Zealand

May 21 Doomsday soothsayer Harold Camping's prediction has bombed, expectedly so. New Zealand’s Christmas Island was not hit by any earthquake even after the appointed time of the apocalypse passed the region.

It is official. It is Harold Camping, the leader of Christian radio network Family Radio, who ends with pie on the face. The LA Times reported that even after local time 6.P

.M. passed the Christmas Island, no earthquake took place according to data from the U.S. Geological survey. Now atheists of the world can celebrate the busting of yet another end of the world prediction.

"As of 10:30

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Arnold Schwarzenegger puts movie comeback on hold

Los Angeles (CNN) -- Arnold Schwarzenegger has placed his movie comeback on hold "until further notice" to focus "on personal matters," the lawyer for the former California governor said Thursday.

The announcement comes two days after the revelation that Schwarzenegger fathered a child with his former housekeeper.

It comes on the same day comic book creator Stan Lee's company announced it would stop plans to produce "The Governator," a children's comic book and TV show based on Schwarnegger's life.

"In light of recent events, A Squared Entertainment, POW, Stan Lee Comics, and Archie Comics, have halted production," the statement said. The statement was a revision from an earlier one that said the companies "have chosen to not go forward with the Governator project."

Schwarzenegger's entertainment lawyer, Patrick Knapp, said in a statement provided to CNN that all plans for new films are suspended.

"At the request of Arnold Schwarzenegger we asked Creative Artists Agency to inform all his motion picture projects currently under way or being negotiated to stop planning until further notice," Knapp said.

Schwarzenegger had been scheduled to start production in August on his first movie since leaving the governor's office in January.

"Governor Schwarzenegger is focusing on personal matters and is not willing to commit to any production schedules or timelines," Knapp said. "This includes Cry Macho, the Terminator franchise and other projects under consideration."

Schwarzenegger, who was once one of Hollywood's highest-paid actors, appeared on his way to renewing a film career that was interrupted by his political career. The comeback plans will resume "when Governor Schwarzenegger decides," Knapp said.

The statement did not indicate how Schwarzenegger would focus on his "personal matters," or if they included meeting with the son who he only publicly acknowledged this week.

Schwarzenegger acknowledged Tuesday that he fathered a child "over a decade ago," but he did not identify the mother.

The New York Times, citing two friends of the family, reported that the mother is Mildred Patricia Baena, who worked for two decades as housekeeper for the Schwarzenegger family.

Neither Baena nor her son have been seen at their home in Bakersfield, California, since the scandal became public.

The son is "a wonderful, very respectful, very intelligent young man," according to a neighbor who said she often spoke to him.

"He's very well-centered and he's just not your everyday kid," said Marty Steelman, who lives next door to the home that the boy and his mother moved into last summer.

A real estate agent told her Schwarzenegger helped purchase the house "for a staff member that was retiring," Steelman said in a CNN interview Thursday.

Property records indicate that Baena took out a mortgage when she bought the house last June.

The boy, now 13, was born less than a week after Maria Shriver gave birth to another Schwarzenegger son, Christopher, according to birth records obtained Wednesday by CNN.

CNN is not identifying the child.

"The son is a wonderful, very respectful, very intelligent young man," Steelman said. "He's got great manners."

The boy would stop by her home and chat, once to sell something for a fundraiser for his middle school, she said. He told her husband that he is interested in martial arts, she said.

The child often played basketball in his back yard, she said. He knocked on her door several times to retrieve the ball after it bounced over the fence into her yard, she said.

"He's just a really nice kid," Steelman said. "If you had the choice of picking a child for mentoring, he would be the type of child that you would take on immediately and enjoy every minute of it."

The house, which sits on a cul-de-sac in an upscale neighborhood of Bakersfield, has a swimming pool in the back yard, she said.

Although the family moved in last summer, the mother was there only on weekends until about eight weeks ago, Steelman said. She told her she was commuting to a job in Los Angeles, which is more than 100 miles from Bakersfield, she said.

The birth certificate listed the father as the man Baena was married to at the time. However, divorce papers obtained by CNN say the couple separated less than three weeks after the October 2, 1997, birth. She is a 50-year-old native of Guatemala, according to the document.

The Los Angeles Times, which first reported the story early Tuesday, quoted the woman as saying she recently retired "on good terms" with the couple after working for them for 20 years.

Schwarzenegger has provided support for the child since birth, one source told CNN.

The revelation that Schwarzenegger fathered a child outside his marriage came a week after Schwarzenegger and Shriver jointly announced they were "amicably separating." No reason for their split was given at the time.

The developments have been "very hard" for Schwarzenegger, and the actor "is doing everything he can to take full responsibility to take all of the spotlight off his children and wife," a source close to Schwarzenegger told CNN.

"He realizes the terrible mistake he made and has a lot of work to do to repair his relationship with his family," the source said, adding that Schwarzenegger has asked people around him to not talk about his relationship with his wife and their four children, who range in age from 13 to 21.

"He's in touch with his family and talked to them last night and apologized to them," the source said Tuesday, noting that Maria Shriver, his wife of 25 years, was among the family members he spoke with.

Shriver, meanwhile, joined talk show legend Oprah Winfrey on Tuesday for a taping of the Oprah Surprise Spectacular -- part of the final episodes of "The Oprah Winfrey Show" scheduled to air next week.

As she walked onstage with longtime Oprah confidant Gayle King, thousands in Chicago's United Center jumped to their feet and erupted in applause.

Earlier Tuesday, Shriver released a written statement describing "a painful and heartbreaking time."

"As a mother, my concern is for the children," she said. "I ask for compassion, respect and privacy as my children and I try to rebuild our lives and heal. I will have no further comment."

A source close to Shriver said Tuesday that the former NBC anchor and her children were "circling the wagons and are working through" the family crisis.

Schwarzenegger has issued a statement saying he told his wife about the child after he left the governor's office in January.

"I understand and deserve the feelings of anger and disappointment among my friends and family," he said. "There are no excuses and I take full responsibility for the hurt I have caused. I have apologized to Maria, my children and my family. I am truly sorry."

Schwarzenegger's four children were told about their sibling only recently, with Shriver "methodically" talking to them, the source said. They were "well prepared" before it became public, the source said.

Schwarzenegger, a naturalized U.S. citizen from Austria who gained fame as the youngest winner of the Mr. Universe bodybuilding contest, was governor until January. He has been busy in recent months reviving his acting career and signing movie deals -- including plans for another installment of his "Terminator" series.

CNN's Thelma Gutierrez and Traci Tamura contributed to this report.

http://edition.cnn.com/2011/SHOWBIZ/celebrity.news.gossip/05/19/california.schwarzenegger/index.html?hpt=C2