TVSquad

Somewhere tonight American Idol judge Simon Cowell is grinning. You can just imagine it, can't you? That smile that he wore on Britain's Got Talent when he heard Susan Boyle sing "I Dreamed A Dream" from Les Miserables, remember? Simon was smart enough to take that talented lady and make her a star. Oh yes, she had the talent, but Simon had the wherewithal. And today it's paid off with the news that Susan Boyle's debut CD is number one on the UK charts.

The record keepers across the pond, the Official Charts Company, announced that Boyle's CD, also called I Dreamed A Dream, sold 410,000 copies since its release on November 23. That means it's not only the top of the chart, it's also the fastest selling album this year. It's even the most albums sold in the first week of a release for a British debut.

Everybody's favorite singing newcomer, England's Susan Boyle, is going to appear on Dancing With the Stars this week. She will not be doing the samba or the quick step. Susan will be singing, promoting her upcoming CD, I Dreamed A Dream, in stores on November 24.

Luckily for Susan, Sharon Osbourne will not be on the show. Or maybe it's lucky for Sharon because after the horrible things she said about SB, Susan would probably deck her if she had the chance. Last week, while on Sirius radio, Sharon was compelled to share her opinion of Susan's sudden success.

Adam Lambert's first album since American Idol is coming out on November 23, and the cover of For Your Entertainment is stunning. Kris Allen's CD cover will definitely not look like this. Believe me, it won't.

To some, it's already too much. Too touched up. Too over the top. Too glamorous. Too much Adam.

Puh-leeze! Give me a break. This is exactly an Adam Lambert album cover should be. It should be stylized and dramatic. It should take your breath away. It should push the envelope because that's what Adam did in his entire American Idol experience.

When faced with a chance to play it safe, Adam never did. You know the expression, "Go big or go home"? That was Adam Lambert on Idol. He may have come in second to Kris, but he made a bigger impression.

It's been a good week for Barbra Streisand. Her new CD, Love Is the Answer, debuted at number one on the Billboard Top 200 chart, beating out Mariah Carey, Madonna and Paramore. Not bad for a lady who had her first chart-topper in 1964 with People. Well, tonight on BBC America, you'll have a chance to hear Streisand talk about the CD and sing two songs from it as well. Friday Night With Streisand & Ross airs on tonight at 9 p.m. on BBC America, a special edition of the UK talk show starring Jonathan Ross.

I know it's only May and hardly the time to start thinking of egg nog and holly and Ebenezer Scrooge or any of the other Christmas standbys, but forgive me if I let out a whoop of happiness about the news that Kristin Chenoweth will star in The Twelve Men of Christmas TV movie. The romantic comedy is slated to be part of the Fa La La La La Lifetime lineup (try saying that three times fast!), and while another holiday film doesn't usually make me gleeful, this one does.

Kristin Chenoweth is a gem. I'm still bereft that we'll probably never see her Olive Snook again because Pushing Daisies is gone unless there's a movie, and I was tiffed that the David E. Kelly NBC pilot Legally Mad was not picked up only because La Chenoweth was in it.

(S02E14) Twosomes were very much the theme in this episode, not just Chuck and Morgan, but Devon and Ellie, Jeff and Lester, Morgan and Anna, and -- naturally -- Chuck and Sarah as well as Chuck and Casey. There were scenes that dealt with all these pairs and their dynamics.

The case involved Anna's new boyfriend, car dealer extraordinaire Jason Wang, who caused Chuck's intersect to go off and he was involved with an Asian group of baddies called the Triad. To uncover what they were up to, the General -- whom I'm starting to really detest -- ordered Chuck to get close to Anna's boyfriend, which meant betraying Morgan.

Do you like comedy? Sure, we all do. If you especially like your comedy in written and audio form, these two news items should have you clapping your hands and doing the happy dance:

First, that Comedy Death Ray CD I mentioned earlier will be out on September 12. The 150-minute CD, comprised of sets recorded during the all-night fourth anniversary Comedy Death Ray show at the UCB theater and sets from the SF Sketchfest, will feature such comedians as Patton Oswalt (King of Queens, Comedians of Comedy), Maria Bamford (Comedians of Comedy), David Cross (Mr. Show, Arrested Development), Paul F. Tompkins (Mr. Show, Best Week Ever), Doug Benson (Best Week Ever, Last Comic Standing), Brian Posehn (Mr. Show, Comedians of Comedy, Just Shoot Me, The Sarah Silverman Program), Neil Hamburger (Tim and Eric Awesome Show, Great Job), and many more.

So. I saw Rock Star contestant Storm Large in a coffee shop yesterday morning and nearly started hyperventilating. (It's a super small coffee shop and I didn't have the balls to ask for a photo) You see, I have had a bit of a girl crush on her since I saw her perform live last year. Anyway, she was dropping off her new CD to her friend behind the counter.

I went online and found it and here it is. You can preview the tracks on CD Baby and on her MySpace page (Warning: "Ladylike" is profane, but also awesome). This new album is the first in a pair of CDs she's releasing, called Side One and Side Two. Side One, which came out earlier this month, was recorded with the house band from Rock Star. She's touring it with her band, The Balls, starting tonight in Seattle. Besides hits such as "Ladylike" and "Beautiful", it also includes a cover of the Pixies' "Where Is My Mind". Side Two comes out early next year.

The first season of Metalocalypse, which finished off last week, will be available on DVD in the summer of 2007, according to DethKlok's lead singer Nathan Explosion (each of the band members have their own MySpace). The message was sent as a bulletin to members of the site, but you can check it out in the Toon Zone forums, also.

The message also teases that there may be a second season of the series, telling fans to pay close attention to the last line of the season's last episode. Since that line was something like, "The Metalocalypse has begun" I'm going to say that's a pretty good sign we'll be seeing more of the brutal but not-especially-bright boys of DethKlok in the future.

Also, a full-length DethKlok album will be available this summer. The CD will include complete songs featured in the show, as well as some new stuff. I'll keep my eyes and ears open for new information on both of these releases as more pops up. ROCK.

A few years ago I received a Hanna Barbera three-disc set of cartoon themes, comedy bits and sound effects. I have the content of all three albums on my iPod, which is quite entertaining when the iPod is on shuffle. After every few songs there will be a short clip of some wacky sound effect. Trust me, you've never heard "Smells Like Teen Spirit" until you've heard it followed by Fred Flintstone yelling "yabba dabba doo!"

I like cartoon music, that's my point. So this caught my interest, naturally. Scott Bradley was the musical composer for MGM animation, scoring Tom and Jerry cartoons and the works of Tex Avery. The first three-disc volume covers the 1950s and is limited to 3000 copies. If enough people show interest in the project, other volumes will follow, covering other decades. I suppose people like myself would love to have something like this, but I think even cartoonphiles have to admit that what made these soundtracks so great was seeing them paired up with the cartoons themselves. The next time you catch Tom and Jerry, pay close attention to the music: it stops, starts, takes weird detours, adds subtle gags to the scene, and twists and contorts to fit the action. Some of the most talented musicians in the business worked on those old cartoons, but I get the feeling that hearing the music by itself might leave one as half empty as watching the same cartoon with the mute button pressed.

[via Toon Zone]

I know, I know, it's a bit early to be thinking about Christmas, but the ever-diligent Muppet News Flash is reporting that a brand new Muppet Christmas album will be out on October 17. The album, titled, "A Green and Red Christmas" will feature twelve holiday songs, and is retailing for about ten bucks, which is a pretty good bargain. I wonder though, what makes them think they'll ever be able to top the Christmas album the Muppets made with John Denver, possibly the greatest Christmas album of all time next to Vince Guaraldi's soundtrack for A Charlie Brown Christmas? Not to mention the John Denver album is only $5.98 on Amazon. I'm just sayin'.

British jokester Banksy tampered with hundreds of copies of Paris Hilton's new CD, much to my amusement. He changed the cover art to a topless picture of Paris, but replaced her head with the head of a dog. There's also a sticker advertising the album's hits, including "Why Am I Famous?", "What Have I Done?" and "What Am I For?" He also replaced her CD with one that has 40 minutes of some dance mix by a DJ named 'DM'.

In case you're like me and didn't know who Banksy was but suddenly have respect for him... his real name is Robert Banks and he's a British graffiti/stencil artist whose messages appear throughout London and the world. His stencils on walls, sidewalks, etc. carry political messages. Some notable stencils include him sneaking into the London Zoo in the penguin habitat and painting 'We're bored of fish' on the wall, and he snuck his own art in New York's MOMA, MET, Brooklyn Museum and Museum of Natural History.