Britney Spears is piling up impressive airplay stats for her new single, “Hold It Against Me,” which broke records for single-day spins at both MediaBase and BDS, her label, Jive Records, reported Tuesday, a day after the song went to radio.
But another pop music act is experiencing a sense of déjà vu with the bouncy song written for Spears by Max Martin and Dr. Luke , with its chorus built around the lyric “If I said I want your body now/Would you hold it against me?”
“Didn’t we already do that?” asked the country-pop duo the Bellamy Brothers , who scored the biggest hit of their career in 1979 with their lilting, Jimmy Buffett-esque song “If I Said You Had a Beautiful Body Would You Hold It Against Me?” It spent three weeks at No. 1 on Billboard’s country singles chart and made it into the Top 40 of the pop chart as well.
“That little song went No. 1 and has since become one of the defining songs of our career,” David Bellamy, the song’s writer, said in a statement the brothers issued Tuesday. “If you listen to the lyrics of Britney Spears’ new single, ‘Hold It Against Me,’ you’ll find some major similarities.”
“Howard and I have no personal beef with Britney,” Bellamy added. “She’s a talented gal. But professionally, well, in all honesty, we feel completely ripped off. Where’s the originality?”
It’s hard, however, for the Bellamys to get too charged up over the originality issue. Bellamy has previously credited the line to that master of the sharp one-liner, Groucho Marx, who used it while hosting his popular 1950s TV game show, You Bet Your Life.
“We had heard that line growing up, and our family always had a weird Southern sense of humour, and they’d use that line around a lot,” Bellamy is quoted as saying in an interview at the Songfacts.com website. “So it just came one day that it’d be a great song title.”
A generation later, apparently Britney, Martin and Dr. Luke couldn’t agree more.
Chris Lorway , who has been the artistic director of Luminato, the Toronto Festival of the Arts and Creativity, for the past five years, is in the process of resigning his position.
“I’m currently working out the details with (president and CEO) Janice Price and the board,” he said Wednesday on the phone from Manhattan, where he is attending a professional conference.
Before coming to Luminato, Lorway had held a variety of high-profile positions at The Lincoln Center Festival, The New Yorker Festival, The Henson International Puppet Festival, and Nova Scotia's Celtic Colours International Festival, which he helped to launch.
He said there was nothing odd about his decision to leave. “Five years is a long time in this business. . . . Sometimes you need a new voice.”
The late character actor Maury Chaykin is among the nominees for the ninth annual ACTRA Awards.
Chaykin, who starred in the TV comedy series Less Than Kind , is up for outstanding male performance.
Others in the category include Mark McKinney of Death Comes to Town , Noah Reid from the film Score: A Hockey Musical , Nicholas Rose of New Year , and Chuck Shamata of Break a Leg .
Molly Parker and the late Tracy Wright , who both starred in the Bruce McDonald film Trigger , are up for outstanding performance by a female. Their competition will include Sarah Manninen from the TV movie Keep Your Head Up, Kid: The Don Cherry Story , Zoie Palmer of The Untitled Work of Paul Shepard , and Liisa Repo-Martell of Flashpoint .
The awards will be handed out in Toronto on Feb. 25.
Tyler Perry and his movies and TV series garnered 19 nominations Wednesday for the 42nd annual NAACP Image Awards. Two of his features, For Colored Girls and Tyler Perry's Why Did I Get Married Too? were nominated for best film of 2010.
Janet Jackson was nominated for best actress and Jill Scott for supporting actress for Why Did I Get Married Too? , Michael Ealy for supporting actor and Anika Noni Rose , Kimberly Elise , Phylicia Rashad and Whoopi Goldberg for supporting actress in For Colored Girls .
Perry, who won the NAACP Chairman's Award last year, was also nominated for his screenplay for Why Did I Get Married Too? and for best director for For Colored Girls .
David Nelson , who starred on his parents’ popular television show The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet , has died from complications of colon cancer. He was 74.
Nelson was the last remaining member of the Nelsons TV family, which included actor/bandleader Ozzie, his singer wife, Harriet Hilliard and his teen idol brother Rick.
The show originated on radio in 1952 as Here Come the Nelsons , then ran for 320 episodes on TV from 1952 to 1966 as The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet , with some of the story lines taken from the stars’ own lives. David Nelson also directed and produced numerous episodes of the show throughout its run.
• South American pianist Gabriela Montero , who is scheduled to perform with the Toronto Symphony Orchestra in June, has now been booked for a solo recital at the Glenn Gould Studio on Jan. 28. Tickets and info at www.roythomson.com .
Margaret Whiting , the sweet-voiced singer who sold millions of records in the 1940s and ’50s with sentimental ballads such as “Moonlight in Vermont” and “It Might as Well Be Spring,” died Monday in Englewood, N.J. She was 86.
• Archie Comics says that starting in April, several of its comic books featuring the teen characters Archie, Jughead, Betty and Veronica will be released simultaneously in print and digital versions.
star Eddie Furlong was arrested in Los Angeles for violating a court order to stay 100 yards away from his estranged wife. The 33-year-old actor was in court Tuesday for a hearing on the three-year restraining order obtained by Rachael Kneeland when the judge ordered his arrest. He was released on $75,000 (U.S.) bond about three hours later.
• Jeff Madden , who won a Dora Award for his performance as Frankie Valli in the Toronto production of Jersey Boys , is flying to Australia to take on the same role in the Sydney production of the musical, directed and choreographed by Des McAnuff and Sergio Trujillo . McAnuff will also be in Sydney working on the Australian premiere of the musical version of Dr. Zhivago .
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