Bono from the band U2 arrives at the 86th Academy Awards in Hollywood, California March 2, 2014MIKE BLAKE/Reuters
BONO A NO-GO
U2 has bumped their weeklong gig on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon.
The Irish rockers were scheduled to kick off five straight days on the late-night talk show starting tonight, but those plans fell apart Sunday after frontman Bono was forced to undergo emergency surgery on his arm following a cycling accident.
As reported on the band's official website: "It looks like we will have to do our Tonight Show residency another time – we're one man down. Bono has injured his arm in a cycling spill in Central Park and requires some surgery to repair it."
So far, NBC hasn't announced which musical group – if any – will fill in for U2 on the slated performance dates and there's no word on when the band will be able to make good on the weeklong stint.
But in the note on their website, U2 appears to remain firmly committed to the residency. "We're sure he'll make a full recovery soon, so we'll be back!" says the statement. "Much thanks to Jimmy Fallon and everyone at the show for their understanding."
While the band declined to provide more details on their lead singer's bike accident, there's no question that U2 has had a run of bad luck in recent months.
In early September, U2 chose a unique way of releasing their new album Songs of Innocence by performing at the Apple event to release the iPhone 6, where it was announced that the album had automatically been downloaded to the company's 500-million iTunes users (whether they wanted it or not).
One week later, Apple released detailed instructions telling iTunes customers how to remove the U2 album from their playlist.
Around the same time, Bono himself issued a profuse public apology for the auto-download of the album, citing "a drop of megalomania, touch of generosity, dash of self-promotion and deep fear that these songs that we poured our life into over the last few years mightn't be heard."
Bono survived a closer call more recently when Berlin airport authorities revealed that his private plane lost a hatch while coming for a landing in the German capital.
An airport spokesperson insisted that the aircraft, which was flying from Bono's birthplace of Dublin, was never in danger of crashing.
Now Bono and the lads have been forced to back out of a high-profile gig on network television's highest-rated late-night talk show, with which they already have a solid connection: When Fallon kicked off his Tonight Show tenure last February, U2 were the first band to appear on the program.
Perhaps the most unfortunate part of Bono's injury is that Fallon was so excited to have U2 for the five-day marathon, as evidenced by his ceaseless on-air mentions of the residency and last week's call-out for fans to submit videos of themselves lip-synching The Miracle (of Joey Ramone), the first single off their new album.
According to Fallon, those fan videos were supposed to have been incorporated into one of the band's live performances on The Tonight Show this week.
No doubt Tonight Show producers will hang onto the videos already submitted, but it's unlikely the same song will be still on the charts when Bono's arm heals.
BROTHERLY LOVE
Colin Farrell has joined the campaign to support gay rights in Ireland. The weekend edition of the newspaper Sunday World featured a letter in which the Total Recall star recounts how his older brother was bullied as child and calls out the Irish government for not legalizing gay marriage. From the letter: "My brother Eamon didn't choose to be gay. Yes, he chose to wear eyeliner to school and that probably wasn't the most pragmatic response to the daily torture he experienced at the hands of school bullies." Farrell also stated that his brother and now-husband Steve were married in Canada due to Ireland's antiquated marriage laws.
Source: People
WEDDING VOWS
Solange Knowles married video director Alan Ferguson in New Orleans on Sunday. The singer-actress walked down the aisle in a low-cut white jumpsuit for the ceremony that included her older sister Beyoncé and brother-in-law Jay Z. The wedding was the second marriage for Knowles, 28, was previously wed to songwriter David Smith from 2004 to 2007. Ferguson, 51, is best known for directing the music videos for Katy Perry's Hot n' Cold and Beyoncé's Dance For You.
Source: Yahoo.ca
STAR POWER
She's everywhere: Kim Kardashian will appear on the Indian version of Big Brother. According to a statement from the Hindi entertainment channel Colors, the reality star will make her first appearance on the Mumbai set of the show called Bigg Boss on November 22. Nearly identical in format to Big Brother, Bigg Boss follows celebrities forced to co-habitate for 90 days without phones or Internet access. The release stated that Kardashian will not be one of the sequestered celebrities, but rather a guest star, and quoted her as saying, "Hello India…I, Kim Kardashian, am coming to India…in Bigg Boss's house."
Source: Time
FASHION FAUX PAS
The scientist heading up the recent Comet Probe mission has apologized for his questionable fashion choice. British scientist Dr. Matt Taylor, who served as project manager on the mission to land a probe on a comet for the first time, recently wore a Hawaiian shirt emblazoned with naked women during several TV interviews, which in turn generated social-media discussions about working environments in the scientific community for women. On Friday, Taylor wore a dark-blue hoodie to take part in a Google Hangout session hosted by the European Space Agency and was reduced to tears as he said, "The shirt I wore this week…I made a big mistake and I've offended many people and I'm very sorry about this."
Source: Buzzfeed