Pop Stars Unite For Queen Cover

Posted last night to the Tonight Show's YouTube channel: "In honor of the Super Bowl, Jimmy and the Roots join Carrie Underwood, Sam Smith, Ariana Grande, Blake Shelton, Usher, Meghan Trainor, One Direction, and Christina Aguilera for an a cappella version of We Are The Champions."

Swag Tuesday

Courtesy of the Karpel Group, today's Swag Tuesday prize is Lotus, the new album by Christina Aguilera which is now available nationwide. Entertainment Weekly has a review:

You say you want a revolution? Good news! Christina Aguilera has already armed the battle-clones for war on ''Army of Me,'' one of many thundering self-empowerment anthems on her fifth studio album, Lotus. ''There's a thousand faces of me,'' she hollers. ''And we're gonna rise up.../For every time you wronged me/Well, you're gonna face an army, army of me.'' Which begs the question: Rise up against whom? Is the whole world really out to get her, or is this just an excuse to wear camouflage hot pants? If it sounds like Aguilera is in self-defense mode, that's not a surprise. Since she released her 2010 clunker, Bionic, she's gotten divorced, dodged tomatoes for her big-screen performance in Burlesque, and rebounded as a coach on NBC's The Voice. But her mixed messages are too often unintentionally funny.

We have three copies of Lotus to give away. Enter to win by commenting on this post and please remember to leave an email address you check frequently. Entries close at midnight on Thursday, west coast time. Publicists: If you'd like to take part in Swag Tuesday on JMG, please email me.

Christina Muffs The National Anthem

Burlesque Bombs At Box Office

Burlesque was stinking up the joint at theaters nationwide this weekend and is now predicted not to make up its production cost.

According to estimates, two films are tied for fourth place this weekend: the $55 million Screen Gems musical Burlesque and the Fox thriller Unstoppable, each with approximately $11.8 million in ticket sales. Burlesque, which was hammered by critics (a less-than-stellar 33% approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes), got off to a pretty weak start with only $5.3 million in mid-week sales. For its first five days, Burlesque teased $17.2 million in ticket sales. Despite the presence of singers Aguilera and Cher, each whom have a considerable fan following (I think), it appeared that no one outside of those two camps were interested in seeing the latest Chicago wannabe.

I'm told that Burlesque even played to mostly-empty houses in Chelsea. Chelsea!

New Burlesque Trailer

Is it really so wrong that so many of us want this to be Glitter + Showgirls bad? It's been ages since we've had a spectacularly bad/campy movie to chew on.

Quote Of The Day - Christina Aguilera

"I love giving my male friends advice. And when I need advice myself? I go to my gay guy friends. They're very understanding and they are often coming from the same perspective. Who's better at giving advice, gay or straight guys? Well, that depends on the advice you're looking for. If it's bedroom-related, my gay friends are the best. They just lay it out there!" - Christina Aguilera, speaking to Cosmopolitan.

Aguilera's movie with Cher, Burlesque, opens on November 24th. It will be her acting debut.

Cher & Xtina: The Movie

Christina Aguilera - Not Myself Tonight

Christina Aguilera's new video debuted last night and is already being roundly dismissed as trite and derivative. My buddy Matthew Rettenmund at Boy Culture:

I realize GaGa does videos that go over the top, but I think when she does it there is a clear sense of purpose, even if the actual purpose is often difficult to sense! Christina's video feels like a GaGa rip-off in structure, and uncomfortably quotes from Madonna throughout (though the opening frames really remind me of Annie Lennox's jerky head movements in "Missionary Man"), including homages to "Human Nature," "Erotica," "Express Yourself" and "Erotica." A mess.

Rettenmund is the author of The Encyclopedia Madonnica.

Haiti Telethon Highlights