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The Spokesman-Review Newspaper
Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

Karaoke jokes? Don’t be cruel

Elvis Presley (Associated Press / The Spokesman-Review)

Karaoke and Elvis: a match made in Graceland and MySpace.

This year, the folks at Elvis Presley’s famed former Memphis home have joined with the social networking Web site MySpace for a nationwide “Elvis Week Karaoke Contest.”

“We encourage folks to show us their style of an Elvis classic,” says Kevin Kern, spokesman for Elvis Presley Enterprises.

Presley died at Graceland on Aug. 16, 1977, and each summer it becomes ground zero for a weeklong celebration drawing thousands of fans from around the world. The karaoke contest will get things going this year.

Participants can go to MySpace’s karaoke site at http://ksolo.myspace.com/ and record one of three Elvis songs: “Hound Dog,” “If I Can Dream” or “Suspicious Minds.”

The winner will perform at Graceland on Aug. 12.

The karaoke contest is open to MySpace users across the United States and Canada. CoRecordings can be submitted until Aug. 4.

Only those that draw at least 100 plays from MySpace users will be included in the competition.

Still shaping boys’ lives

Lou Pearlman, the former boy band promoter turned federal jailbird, has taken another career turn: police informant.

After a 19-year-old fellow inmate confessed to killing an off-duty Orlando, Fla., police officer in a botched robbery, Pearlman went to authorities, court documents show.

Pearlman, who created the Backstreet Boys and ’N Sync, is serving a 25-year sentence for running a $300 million investment scam.

Jerry’s kidding?

Jerry Lewis was cited Friday for carrying an unloaded concealed weapon after police confiscated a handgun found in his carry-on bag at the Las Vegas airport.

Lewis’ manager said the gun is a hollowed-out prop that the 82-year-old entertainer sometimes twirls during his show.

A police spokesman replied that if it were merely a prop, “it wouldn’t be a weapon, and we couldn’t cite him for carrying a weapon.”

Solace times two

Alicia Keys and the White Stripes’ Jack White have teamed up to record “Another Way to Die,” the theme song for the new James Bond film, “Quantum of Solace.”

It’s the first time in the 22-film Bond franchise that the theme will be a duet.

Headed for double-ought?

Speaking of 007, Jason Connery, son of the original screen Bond, Sean Connery, is denying allegations by his mother that he will inherit nothing from his father’s $160 million fortune.

“I am truly sick of reading about my father and our relationship and of his being portrayed as some sort of monster or tyrant who rules my life by ‘cutting me off from his wealth.’ This all could not be farther from the truth,” he says.

The birthday bunch

Actor Don Murray (“Bus Stop”) is 79. Actress Susan Flannery (“The Bold and the Beautiful”) is 65. Singer Gary Lewis (and the Playboys) is 63. Actor Michael Biehn (“Aliens”) is 52. Actor Wesley Snipes is 46. Musician Fatboy Slim is 45. Author J.K. Rowling (“Harry Potter”) is 43. Actor Dean Cain (“Lois and Clark”) is 42. Actor B.J. Novak (“The Office”) is 29.