Brown bows out of awards | More Jackson dates added

Published Thursday March 12th, 2009
D3

There won't be any awkward Chris Brown moment at the Kids' Choice Awards - the embattled pop star has withdrawn his name from the ballot.

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Joel Ryan/The Associated Press
Reese Witherspoon arrives for the British premiere of ‘Monsters vs. Aliens,’ in Leicester Square, London on Wednesday.

Brown had been nominated for favourite male singer and favourite song for Kiss Kiss at the March 28 awards show on Nickelodeon. The nominations came shortly before his arrest for allegedly attacking girlfriend Rihanna.

A petition had been circulated to take his name off the ballot but Nickelodeon said Tuesday he was still on. On Wednesday, Brown decided to take his name out of consideration. In a statement, his representatives said while Brown would like to speak directly to his fans, he can't because of his criminal case.

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As Michael Jackson once said, don't stop till you get enough.

Concert promoters on Wednesday more than doubled Jackson's summer run of concerts in London after advance tickets sold out within hours of going on sale.

AEG Live said an advance allotment of half the tickets for the 10 July shows announced last week sold out soon after going on sale. Fifteen more concerts have been added into September, and further shows are possible.

Ticket-seller Ticketmaster apologized for problems experienced by fans after its computer system crashed. Managing director Chris Edmonds said the glitches were the result of "an unprecedented level of demand."

Tickets, priced between 50 pounds and 75 pounds ($70 and $105) are currently on sale to buyers who registered online. Half the tickets for each show have been held back and go on sale to the general public Friday morning.

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Mandy Moore is a married woman.

Publicist Jillian Fowkes confirms the actress-singer and her fiancé, rock musician Ryan Adams, quietly tied the knot Tuesday in Savannah, Ga. No further details were provided.

The 24-year-old Moore confirmed her engagement to Adams last month.

Moore started out as a squeaky-clean teen singer and later crossed into movies with featured roles in such films as License to Wed, A Walk to Remember, Saved and American Dreamz. Adams, who played in the band Whiskeytown during the 1990s before beginning his prolific solo career, is known for his song New York, New York, which appeared on his album Gold, released in 2001.

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Jada Pinkett Smith is adding another title to her resume: schoolmaster.

The 37-year-old actress-producer-musician and her husband, Will Smith, opened the New Village Leadership Academy last fall. The private school, for pre-kindergarten through sixth grade, has 60 students, according to the website.

Pinkett Smith hopes to open a companion campus for upper grades.

"My plan is to eventually have a high school," Pinkett Smith said. "I'm keeping my fingers crossed. I'm just trying to make it through this year."

Pinkett Smith, who is set to star in and executive produce a new series on TNT, said she decided to open the elementary school after creating a home-school program for her children, 10-year-old Jaden and eight-year-old Willow.

"More and more parents were like, 'Can we come?' " she said. "Then my house started to fill up. We had like 20 kids and I said, 'We might as well start a school.' "

The New Village Leadership Academy generated some controversy when it was first announced because it relies on instructional methods developed by Scientology founder L. Ron Hubbard. The school's director has said it isn't a Scientology facility.

Hubbard's "study technology" is a secular course akin to a Montessori approach, the website says.

Pinkett Smith said the school stresses "100 per cent mastery," encouraging students to retake exams until they score 100 per cent. The student body is ethnically and economically diverse, she said, "which is a very difficult thing to find in Los Angeles, Calif."

 

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