LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) – Drummer Tommy Lee has played plenty of stadium shows with his band Motley Crue. But none was quite like his performance with the University of Nebraska marching band before 77,881 red-clad football fans.

“Oh yeah, it’s real different,” Lee said of Saturday’s halftime show at the Baylor-Nebraska game in Memorial Stadium. “That was awesome, absolutely great.”

Lee is in Lincoln filming a prospective NBC-TV reality show in which he takes classes at Nebraska including chemistry and the history of rock ‘n’ roll. If the show makes the cut, it is scheduled to air on NBC in July.

He tried out for the marching band’s drum line earlier in the week.

Lee, 42, joined the band in the stands in full uniform, playing along with other drummers, a broad smile on his face.

Lee took part in the band’s Latin music halftime show, playing a rack of five tom-toms carried on his shoulders. A cheer went up from the stands as Lee was shown on the stadium’s giant TV screens during a rendition of the Cuban song “Malaguena.”

Lee also came out of the stands twice to man a hand-held compressed-air cannon that shoots hot dogs into the stands. “It’s awesome, dude,” Lee exclaimed after his first shot. “You can launch a wiener.”

GOLD COAST, Australia (AP) – Australian television critic and author Clive James launched a scathing attack on the thirst for fame, which he says has fueled the reality television phenomenon.

Speaking to a national conference of commercial radio stations, James suggested that reality shows and celebrity obsessed tabloid newspapers were making people famous for doing nothing.

“If you ask people what they would like to do with their lives, they say they’d like to be famous or on television,” said James, who is based in London. But “they don’t say what for and they have nothing to offer. If you want to be famous, urinate on the shoe of someone who is famous.”

James, who has hosted TV shows in Britain and written poetry and an acclaimed memoir, cited the example of Rebecca Loos, who became a minor personality after claiming to have had sex with her former boss, soccer star David Beckham.

“Rebecca sold her story and is now a TV star,” he said. “We should … do our best to get back to a state where fame, if we have to have it, is at least dependent on some kind of achievement.”

James said he pulled the plug on his own TV career after realizing he was gaining fame simply for being on television. “I fired myself from the small screen and tried to find a path back to normality,” he said.

NEW DELHI, India (AP) – Architect Daniel Libeskind, designer of the master plan for redeveloping New York’s World Trade Center site, says no one architect should control the design of an entire public space.

Libeskind, speaking Saturday to more than 200 Indian architecture students, said the amount of input into the World Trade Center project will make it difficult in the future for architects to dictate their ideas on public buildings without collaboration.

“If a project is weak, by the end of all the compromises, there will be nothing left,” he said. “But if it is strong, compromises will forge it.”

Thousands of people around the world sent in prospective designs for the project.

The cornerstone of Libeskind’s design was laid July 4 for the Freedom Tower, the first skyscraper to go up at the 16-acre site. The tower will honor more than 3,000 people killed in the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attack.

Libeskind said he was chosen master planner for the project in part because he did not propose to design every building himself. He defended compromises demanded by the site’s developer, who wanted more office space for businesses.

CLINTWOOD, Va. (AP) – Bluegrass icon Ralph Stanley didn’t need to say a word.

His eyes said it all Friday as he gave a tour of memorabilia on display in the new Ralph Stanley Museum and Traditional Mountain Music Center, which details his 50-year career.

The museum opened to the public Saturday, but Stanley, some of his friends and Gov. Mark R. Warner were among those who previewed its contents a day early.

“Words don’t express how honored I am to have this in my name,” said the 77-year-old Grammy Award winner.

Stanley performed with his brother, Carter, who died in 1966. Among the family treasures on display in the century-old Victorian mansion are his late brother’s stage tuxedo and the claw-hammer banjo used by Stanley’s mother.

“I like it all,” Stanley said of the collection.

Carter Stanley, who died at age 41, performed most of the vocals for the Stanley Brothers as they helped make bluegrass popular. Ralph took over after his death.


Copy the Story Link

Only subscribers are eligible to post comments. Please subscribe or login first for digital access. Here’s why.

Use the form below to reset your password. When you've submitted your account email, we will send an email with a reset code.