Madonna will go to the Superbowl

During the FA Cup final, every year, my Dad would holler "the band! show us the band!" as the screen cut from the half-time entertainment to Hill, Moore, or whoever yakkitying away about the sport just shown.

Were he to be around for the superbowl next month, he'd probably be yelling "the pundits! In God's name, bring on the pundits!" as Madonna and Cirque Du Soleil top up their earnings for the current tax year.

Michael Jackson: Cirque du oh why

If there used to be one thing in defence of Cirque Du Soleil, it was that they used to use interesting music as a backdrop to their juggling and trapeze doodling.

Not any more, though, as - with people still dangling over arenas to the sounds of The Beatles - the circus folk are going more and more like a fairground dodgem set up. They're now working on a show based around the money of Michael Jackson.

Music of Michael Jackson. Did I say money?

Jackson, who died at age 50 last June after a drug overdose, was described as a "huge fan" of the French Canadian performance group.

He was always going on about them. Had a t-shirt and everything.

"He said he was an acrobat himself," [Cirque CEO Daniel] Lamarre said in an interview. "As an artist he had this amazing way of bringing some visual element to his performances."

I remember Jackson claiming to be an acrobat. Or a juggler, or something. Or at least, he ran a fairground for a bit, didn't he? That's pretty much the same thing.

As this creep towards absorbing back catalogue to build Las Vegas shows around, it's only a matter of time before we find CDS trying to claim that Mama Cass was, really, something of a trapeze artist herself.

War is over (again)

Peace just can't stop itself breaking out, can it?

Today's Daily Mirror reports an end to the bad feeling:

YOKO Ono has ended her long-running feud with Sir Paul McCartney - by calling the former Beatle a "magnificent man".

The pair fought a bitter battle over the Fab Four legacy for more than three decades with Yoko suggesting Macca's talents were inferior to her husband John Lennon.

But at the first anniversary of the Beatles-inspired show Love, Yoko, 74, said: "John would have been very happy this is such a success... and that another magnificent man introduced him."

How lovely. The trouble is, the Daily Mail reported the end of the feud on the same location last year:

After the first night of a Beatles-inspired stage show called Love in Las Vegas, Sir Paul took the stage and kissed Yoko on the cheek.

It was a very public reconciliation for the two who have fought a bitter battle over the Beatles' legacy for more than three decades.

If they keep ending their feud on an annual basis, it might start to look like it's more a promotional push for the Beatles-themed circus acrobat show.