Only a geographic imbecile would confuse Spain and Brazil, two countries dissimilar in size, language and continent. But if you're looking for the Rock in Rio concert taking place this weekend, better pack your Spanish-English dictionary: After three editions in Brazil, the fest is expanding its reach and has already held concert blowouts in Lisbon and Madrid.
Organizers are banking that the words "Rock in Rio" can become a brand like Bonnaroo or Lollapalooza, not just a callback to the home of samba and Gisele. This final weekend of Rock in Rio, held in the Madrid suburb of Arganda del Rey, will feature The Police, Franz Ferdinand, Amy Winehouse and Bob Dylan.
A British woman, who amazingly isn't Amy Winehouse, was arrested at Trondheim Airport in Norway wearing a large wig:
Concealing 2.2 pounds of cocaine glued to her head.
The bewigged coke carrier was coming off a flight from Copenhagen and had the drugs glued so firmly to her head that she had to be hospitalized to de-stick the contraband from her real hair, a local newspaper said.
Before Amy and others with outrageous dos get too excited about the coke-cloaking potential of their beehives, they should take note that this drug mule's downfall came directly as a result of her unusual hair. According to the AP, customs agents stopped the woman because they "suspected that she was wearing a wig."
Amy Winehouse said yes, yes, yes to a private gig at a new gallery in Russia this weekend. The "Rehab" singer was paid a reported $2 million to sing at the opening of the Center for Contemporary Culture, a new art museum in Moscow operated by the wife of entrepreneur and football team owner Roman Abramovich.
In its past life the CCC was actually a bus garage designed by famous Russian architect Konstantin Melnikov, before Daria Zhukova saw its potential as a loftlike gallery space.
We bet Amy's powerful pipes rang out from there to Odessa--unfortunately, after the singer's return to London she ended up making an unscheduled trip to the hospital amid rumors of a collapse.
The story at last night's Grammy Awards was largely about who didn't make it to the show, not who did: Because of an eleventh-hour visa rejection, award frontrunner Amy Winehouse couldn't leave rehab to sing "Rehab" nor to pick up any of her five trophies.
Of course, maybe Kanye West would rather have skipped the awards when he once again lost Album of the Year--this time to Herbie Hancock for his Joni Mitchell concept album "River: The Joni Letters."
Rihanna performed and picked up an award for best Rap/Sung Collaboration with Jay-Z, a trinket that probably was comforting when she got into a wee fender-bender on the way out. Elsewhere, Barack Obama won a Grammy for the audio version of his latest book, beating out former president Bill Clinton in a coincidence that says absolutely nothing about the election.