Australia might not let Chris Brown in

Australia's Immigration Minister is being encouraged to refuse an entry visa to Chris Brown, on account of his domestic violence:

Australian Minister for Women Michaelia Cash, speaking alongside Turnbull at an event in Canberra highlighting new government efforts to fight domestic violence, urged Immigration Minister Peter Dutton to bar the performer.

"People need to understand that if you are going to commit domestic violence and then you want to travel around the world there are going to be countries that say to you, 'You cannot come in because you are not of the character we expect in Australia'," Cash told reporters.

It would be an important signal to the wider world, although recently Australia has had something of a reputation for not allowing anyone in at all.

Dre sort of apologises a little

Both Dr Dre and Apple have been forced to sort-of engage a bit with the allegations that Dre used to beat women up.

Dre had been ignoring these claims for years, but discovered that when someone makes a biopic about you and also ignores them, it becomes hard to pretend it didn't happen.

So, sit back and see how Dre tries to make amends for beating women up, and then ignoring them for decades:

"Twenty-five years ago I was a young man drinking too much and in over my head with no real structure in my life. However, none of this is an excuse for what I did. I’ve been married for 19 years and every day I’m working to be a better man for my family, seeking guidance along the way. I’m doing everything I can so I never resemble that man again.”

“I apologize to the women I’ve hurt. I deeply regret what I did and know that it has forever impacted all of our lives.”

This raises a whole bunch of questions - Dre being a man of whom the world's most famous leading question, 'when did you stop beating your partners', can legitimately be asked.

More pressingly, if Dre deeply regrets what he did, isn't a bit of a coincidence that this regret has only just bubbled over into acknowledging that what your accusers have said is true the week after the movie came out?

And finally: even if your regret is heartfelt, why would you end it with the line about "all of our lives"? You think that the best way to say sort-of-sorry for beating women is to remind people that, hey, it's affected you too.

Apple, for their part, have popped out a statement which shrugs and says "well, he's never hit a woman so hard he cracked her ribs while he's been here":

“Dre has apologized for the mistakes he’s made in the past and he’s said that he’s not the same person that he was 25 years ago. We believe his sincerity and after working with him for a year and a half, we have every reason to believe that he has changed.”

What galls most here is the word "mistakes", as if repeatedly attacking women was a bit like speeding in a built-up area because you didn't see the sign.

Maybe Dre really is contrite. But it'd be easier to believe if we spoke about what it was he did then less than what he doesn't do now.

Grammys 2012: Didn't Adele almost have it all

So, it would have been Adele's night - and some sort of irony that a singer whose launchpad was funded, in part, from the Brit Award receipts turns up at the bigger award ceremony and carries off the prizes.

It would have been Adele's night, but for the death of Whitney Houston. One room. So many executives who have pushed their talent a little too hard, or turned a blind eye and sent them out working when they weren't fit. So many musicians who know that the difference between "tragic Whitney" and them was luck rather than judgement. Grief, guilt and there-but-for-the-grace-of-god.

It made for an odd night. Whoever might have been able to rise to the occasion, it was unlikely to be the man who played the chef in Deep Blue Sea. Clunking on to stage to host the event, LL Cool J announced that - for him - the only way to start was a prayer. Like it was Bideford Council.

Really, Ladies Love? The only thing you could think of was a prayer? In a gaudy gong-giving backslapfest, you thought the apt thing to do would be to pretend for a moment that you were in a place of worship?

Still, with an ever-present reminder of what happens when music careers go really wrong, there was a chance to correct the idea that the record companies care about nothing but how many units they can shift, right?

Right?

No. Chris Brown came on and was treated like a returning hero. MTV unwittingly captures the reason why this is a problem:

In the end, there were no innuendos or screen cuts to Breezy's ex-flame Rihanna. Brown simply finished his number, stood triumphantly and saluted the crowd before taking a bow.

Yes, MTV wrote up his appearance as if it was some sort of soap plot. "Tee-hee, they didn't do a reaction shot to show the look on the face that Brown had beaten to a pulp, ho-ho." Why should MTV care? After all, if the Grammys think that it's okay to give Brown a "triumphant" platform, who won't see his domestic violence as anything other than some sort of massive jape?

Here's the list of winners on a night when everyone lost a little:

Album of the year: Adele's 21

Record of the year: Adele's Rolling the Deep

Best pop solo performance: Adele's Someone Like You

Song of the year: Adele's Rolling in the Deep

Short-form music video: Adele’s Rolling in the Deep

Best rock performance: Foo Fighters' Walk

Long-form music video: Foo Fighters’ Back and Forth

Hard rock/metal performance: Foo Fighters’ White Limo

Rock song: Foo Fighters’ Walk

Rock Album: Foo Fighters’ Wasting Light

Best rap performance: Otis, by Kanye West and Jay-Z

Rap performance: Jay-Z and Kanye West’s Otis

Best new artist: Bon Iver

Alternative music album: Bon Iver’s Bon Iver

Country duo/group performance: The Civil Wars’ Barton Hollow

Folk album: The Civil Wars’ Barton Hollow

Country solo performance: Taylor Swift’s Mean

Country song: Taylor Swift’s Mean

Dance recording: Skrillex’s Scary Monsters and Nice Sprites

Dance/electronica album: Skrillex’s Scary Monsters and Nice Sprites

R&B album: Chris Brown's F.A.M.E.

Country album: Lady Antebellum's Own the Night

Recording package: Caroline Robert’s Scenes from The Suburbs, for Arcade Fire

Pop duo/group performance: Tony Bennett and Amy Winehouse’s Body and Soul

Pop instrumental album: Booker T. Jones’ The Road from Memphis

Traditional pop vocal album: Tony Bennett and various artists’ Duets II

R&B performance: Corinne Bailey Rae’s Is This Love

Traditional R&B performance: Cee Lo Green and Melanie Fiona’s Fool for You

R&B song: Cee Lo Green and Co.’s Fool for You

Rap/sung collaboration: Kanye West, Rihanna, Kid Cudi and Fergie’s All of the Lights

Rap song: All of the Lights

Rap album: Kanye West’s My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy

New age album: Pet Metheny’s What’s It All About

Improvised jazz solo: Chick Corea’s 500 Miles High

Jazz vocal album: Terri Lyne Carrington and various artists’ The Mosaic Project

Jazz instrumental: Corea, Clarke and White’s Forever

Large jazz ensemble: Christian McBride Big Band’s The Good Feeling

Gospel/contemporary Christian music performance: Le’Andria Johnson’s Jesus

Gospel song: Kirk Franklin’s Hello Fear

Contemporary Christian music song: Laura Story’s Blessings

Gospel album: Kirk Franklin’s Hello Fear

Contemporary Christian music album: Chris Tomlin’s And If Our God Is For Us…

Latin pop, rock or urban album: Mana’s Drama Y Luz

Regional Mexican or Tejano album: Pepe Aguilar’s Bicentenario

Bands or Norteno album: Los Tigres Del Norte’s Los Tigres Del Norte and Friends

Tropical Latin album: Cachao’s The Last Mambo

Americana album: Levon Helm’s Ramble at the Ryman

Bluegrass album: Alison Krauss and Union Station’s Paper Airplane

Blues album: Tedeschi Trucks Band’s Revelator

Regional roots music album: Rebirth Brass Band’s Rebirth of New Orleans

Reggae album: Stephen Marley’s Revelatino Pt. 1: The Root of Life

World music album: Tinariwen’s Tassili

Children’s album: All About Bullies… Big & Small

Spoken world album (includes poetry, audio books and story telling): Betty White’s If You Ask Me (And of Course You Won’t)

Comedy album: Louis C.K.’s Hilarious

Musical theatre album: The Book of Mormom

Compilation soundtrack for visual media: Boardwalk Empire: Vol. 1

Score soundtrack for visual media: Alexandre Desplat’s The King’s Speech

Song written for visual media: I See the Light (from Tangled)

Instrumental composition: Bela Fleck and Howard Levy’s Life in Eleven

Instrumental arrangement: Gordon Goodwin’s Rhapsody in Blue for Gordon Goodwin's Big Phat Band

Instrumental arrangement accompanying vocalist: Jorge Calandrelli’s Who Can I Turn To (When Nobody Needs Me), for Tony Bennett and Queen Latifah

Boxed or special limited edition package: Dave Bett and Michelle Holme’s The Promise: The Darkness on the Edge of Town Story

Album notes: Hear Me Howling: Blues, Ballads & Beyond as recorded by the San Francisco Bay by Chris Strachwitz in the 1960s

Historical album: Band on the Run (Paul McCartney Archive Collection – Deluxe Edition)

Engineered album, non-classical: Alison Krauss and Union Station’s Paper Airplane

Producer of the year, non-classical: Paul Epworth

Remixed recording, non-classical: Cinema (Skrillex Remix)

Surround sound album: Layla and Other Assorted Love Songs (Super Deluxe Edition)

Engineered album, classical: Aldridge: Elmer Gantry

Producer of the year, classical: Judith Sherman

Orchestral performance: Brahms, Symphony No. 4 by Los Angeles Philharmonic, conducted by Gustavo Dudamel

Opera recording: Adams: Doctor Atomic

Choral performance: Light & Gold - Eric Whitacre, conductor (Christopher Glynn & Hila Plitmann; The King's Singers, Laudibus, Pavão Quartet & The Eric Whitacre Singers)

Small-ensemble performance: Mackey: Lonely Motel – Music from Slide

Classical instrumental solo: Schwantner: Concerto for Percussion and Orchestra by Christopher Lamb, Giancarlo Guerrero conducts Nashville Symphony

Classical vocal solo: Joyce DiDonato with Kazushi Ono and Orchestre de l’Opera National de Lyon with Choeur de l’Opera National de Lyon for Diva Divo

Contemporary classical composition: Robert Aldridge and Herschel Garfein’s Elmer Gantry

UPDATE: Thanks to @tismey for pointing out that LL Cool J was the chef; Ice T was the Kangaroo in Tank Girl. I regret the error.

Bookmarks: Chris Brown

Tonight's Grammys are, as you'd expect, currently being refitted as a mawkfest. They have a more pressing problem, though, one they've bought on themselves. Chris Brown - best known for spending Grammy evening punching women in the face - has, somehow ended up on the bill. Sasha Pasulka asks why we're letting this happen:

Accepting that Chris Brown gets to perform at the Grammys because some people bought his album is no different from accepting that women without health insurance don’t get to be screened for breast cancer because some VP at Komen is anti-abortion. It may happen, but that doesn’t mean we should tacitly accept it. What if Chris Brown had hit your sister that night? Or your daughter? (What if Chris Brown had hit Taylor Swift that night?)

We’re accepting the message that women just aren’t that important, that their health and their safety and their self-respect is only important until it stops being convenient for everyone. We should be angry about this, and we should be angry publicly about this.

Dappy arrested

The law will churn through the allegations that Dappy assaulted his girlfriend, possibly getting to the truth.

For the time being, though, let's just look at the opening to the Daily Mail story:

N Dubz singer Dappy was yesterday arrested on suspicion of assaulting his girlfriend.

The cousin of X Factor judge Tulisa Contostlavos was reportedly held for questioning after police were called out to the home of his girlfriend's mother.

He had a solo number one a couple of weeks ago, but he's really famous for being related to a judge on the X Factor. That might tell you something about the state of the music industry.

Bez: Strangeways, there you go

After serving two weeks of his one-month sentence for attacking his partner, Bez is out of Strangeways.

He'd have probably have spent longer in the Big Brother house than he did in prison.

Wood down, Brown off

Apparently keen to tidy up rock star domestic violence before the end of the year, Ronnie Wood has been cautioned after an assault on his then-partner Ekaterina Ivanova, while Ian Brown has been released without charge after being interviewed by police. Brown had been arrested after an alleged incident between him and his wife Fabiola Quiroz.

Chris Brown furrows his brow

Poor Chris Brown is all confused:

"I'm confused right now as far as the public perception [of me]," he revealed during the upcoming MTV News special "Chris Brown: The Interview". "Like, I think with my fans, they still love me, they support me, definitely. You have those people who will support you. So it's kinda like 50/50 for me. I got the people that will come out and support and then the people that don't wanna see me do anything. They basically want me in jail."

How very puzzling that after you beat the crap out of your partner - and tried to get out of it by treating it like you'd turned up wearing last year's sneakers - that there's not much support for you beyond your most dogged fans. I can't work it out at all.

Chris Brown has shaky grasp of how justice works

Chris Brown is currently trying to make us forget what he got up to earlier this year. It might be working, given that MTV headline their report on the latest Chris Brown interview with "Chris Brown On Rihanna Altercation: 'I'm Learning From My Mistakes'", thereby downgrading domestic violence to something more akin to a scuffle.

Brown - somewhat hopefully - tries a gambit suggesting the fault might be in people who look at a person beating their parner, rather than the beater:

"Just be human. Because at the end of the day, I'm human. Of course you're gonna have your thoughts and opinions. I'm not gonna say they're wrong. But at the end of the day, it's not right to judge someone. People make mistakes all the time. I'm learning from my mistakes everyday and I regret it every second."

You didn't turn before your light changed, Chris, or snaffle an extra cookie from the plate - you beat the crap out of Rhianna. That's a little more than "making a mistake", don't you think?

And where does the idea that we shouldn't judge a self-confessed domestic thug come from? Isn't that a key element in criminal behaviour, that - by definition - it's something society will judge and find wanting? Shouldn't Chris concentrate a little more on the contrition, a little less on telling the rest of us we're in the wrong?

Chris Brown: The sort of thug only a mother could love

I know, I know, it's hard for mothers to see the faults in their kids - after all, admitting fault in them is tacitly to concede the flaws in your own parenting skills.

But you'd think Joyce Hawkins, mother of Chris Brown, might have found something to criticise in her son, right? Not a bit of it:

"I just want to say from the bottom of my heart thank you for your continued support. I'm sorry I wasn't allowed to speak to anyone as this case was on going. I can now say this has been the most painful moment in my entire life, but knowing that you were still standing by Chris' side in his time of need made this a little easier for us. Because of all your prayers God brought him through. I just want to say God has never failed me and never will. All moms and dads please stand by your children and pray for their goodness each and everyday."


"I made a promise... I would never be ashamed of him no matter where I am or who I talk to. You see this whole thing isn't about Chris, it's about God. He wants to show all of you the goodness of him through Chris. Chris will be addressing all of his fans very soon. We love you so much and so does God."

Now, standing by your kid - that's admirable and brave. But unless you're realistic - and share your disappointment in their behaviour - how is the child ever going to learn right from wrong?

And prelates of all denominations might like to intervene at all this praising God; the obvious question being 'what sort of God intervenes to get a soft sentence and a stage-managed orchestrated sob-session on Larry King for a bloke who hits women, but couldn't be arsed to intercede to stop Chris Brown from smashing Rihanna's face in in the first place?'

Mind you, this message from his Mom appears on Brown's website. Given his record for hitting women, perhaps she felt she had no choice.

It's not eulogy, it's me: Chris Brown

Presumably hoping he can set the time spent drafting the press release against his court-mandated hours of community service, Chris Brown has been sharing why this is really all about him:

"Michael Jackson is the reason why I do music and why I am an entertainer. I am devastated by this great loss, and I will continue to be humbled and inspired by his legacy.

So Michael is the reason why Brown does music. Presumably the idea for beating the crap out the people you're supposed to cherish came from Michael's dad.

Chris Brown plea-bargains his ass out of jail

So, it's six months community service and five years' probation for Chris Brown, following a plea-bargain deal.

Judge Patricia Schnegg told him: "I think it's commendable that you took responsibility for your conduct, sir."

Although, surely, that he only did this after a couple of months of trying to find a way to weasel out of responsibility by trying to shift the focus to the LAPD is a little less commendable?

As part of the ruling, Brown and Rihanna have to keep fifty yards apart from each other:

except at entertainment industry events when the distance is reduced to 10 yards.

Thank god the US courts are prepared to show the organisers of the MTV Video Awards a little flexibility with their seating plans.

This apparent faith in the power of the goody bag to regulate Brown's behaviour is only slightly tarnished by the assault having taken place on the eve of the Grammys.

3AM Girls: Let's all get together and have a laugh about domestic violence

In a piece that's dimwitted even by the low bar set for the modern Daily Mirror, the 3AM Girls enjoy a quick giggle about a victim of domestic violence meeting her abuser:

Know that awful moment when you realise you're trapped in the same place as your ex for a few hours? Rihanna certainly does by the Disturbia look on her face.

The look on her face? You mean the face that Brown punched and punched, do you?

Oh, yes, that's one of those awful moments like turning up in the same dress as someone else is wearing, isn't it? Did Rihanna see the funny side?

Rihanna, 21, looked anxious and was seen whispering to a pal.

Still, don't let that stop you turning it into a frothy piece for your gossip column, eh?

Chris Brown: Let's talk about anything other than what I did

Chris Brown's attempts to build a defence by focusing on anything other than the incident with which he has been charged continue with attempts to call for an investigation into the leaking of the post-beating Rihanna photo:

[Brown's lawyer] Geragos is reportedly seeking notes from the Internal Affairs probe, along with notes from the 25 officers and LAPD personnel who handled the case and other documents that he intends to use "at the preliminary hearing to attack their credibility. The defense intends to prove and argue that the aforementioned officers are not credible and that the Court should not believe some of their statements."

Obviously, many musicians get annoyed when their work is shared online without permission, but if anyone has the right to be outraged over the leaking of the photo, it's not Brown.

Regardless of whether an LAPD officer leaked the photo, as Geragos suggests, the attorney believes that the leak has irreparably damaged his client's case, according to The Associated Press.

"The purpose of the leak was necessarily for profit and to vilify Mr. Brown and poison the potential jury pool," Geragos wrote in his motion of the photo, which he claims was seen by "hundreds of thousands of viewers" and which can still be seen in multiple stories on the TMZ site, including its report on this motion. The AP reported that Geragos is seeking files on officers, detectives, supervisors, criminalists and a forensic photographer, as well as information about any misconduct complaints others have filed against officers in other cases. A judge is scheduled to hear the motions on May 28.

So this a defence which isn't "I didn't hit her", but focusing on how bad Brown ended up looking because he hit Rihanna. Clearly, Geragos' line is that what remains of Brown's reputation has to be sacrificed to try and keep him out of jail.

Ciara: One handed debating

Now, it might be that - if you were Ciara, and had recorded a duet with Chris Brown, you might have had some concerns about releasing the track. You know, with that whole 'hitting women' thing hanging over him and all.

But Ciara has decided to go ahead and release it any way. Of course, she's really thought it through:

"You know what it is? Honestly, with that record, it's just more about the music for me," Ciara told MTV News last weekend. "I wanted to focus on the music and leave it at that, because it's a record that I've had for a while, I love the way it sounds and it's one of my most favorite records on the album. And if I alter it, it's not gonna sound the same. So for me, really it's nothing more than about the music, so I kept it there."

"I'mma be honest with you, pretty much everyone on my team was supportive [of keeping the record on the album]. Because we knew what the whole reasoning of wanting to keep it was," she explained. "Being as though I was leaving it at that, I felt OK about that. When you listen to the album, from the beginning to the end, it feels good to you, and it just felt good to me. I could try to do it a different way and I even had moments where I played with it a little bit, but it didn't feel right. So it's all about what feels good to me, so that's why I kept it.

"It definitely took time [to make the final decision]," Ciara added. "In the decision-making process for the records, once you get down to the last few days, that's when you kind of know. It definitely took time, but [the question was] more if the record made sense for the album, period. And that's how I weighed all the records."

So it sounds like she drew up a pair of lists, one headed 'in favour of not incurring further expense rerecording record' and the other headed... well, actually, I don't really think there was another column. Perhaps Ciara could have explained a little about the actual weighing of the decision, but it looks a little like someone at the label decided to go ahead and the rationale has been reverse-engineered from there?

That sound? It's just weeping

Boston Public Health Commission has carried out a snap survey of local teenagers' reactions to Chris Brown's attack on Rihanna. If the Commission had been hoping to release a positive-sounding press release about how far we've come in public attitudes to domestic violence, they would be disappointed:

“Somehow young people have gotten the message that this is just part of a relationship,” said anti-violence advocate Deborah Collins-Gousby.

Of the 200 Boston youths (ages 12 to 19) surveyed last month, 51 percent said Chris Brown was responsible for the incident, 46 percent said Rihanna was responsible and 52 percent said both were to blame; 52 percent said the media was treating Brown unfairly; 44 percent said fighting was a normal part of a relationship; and a “significant” number said “Rihanna was destroying Chris Brown’s career.” Women blamed Rihanna as much as men did.

I'm not quite sure how 51 per cent can blame Brown, 46 per cent can blame Rihanna and then another 52 per cent can blame both of them. But since the responses defy all understanding, there's no reason why they shouldn't also defy mathematical logic too.

Turning a personal tragedy into a public sideshow

Where do you begin when a New York radio station tries to turn domestic violence into a sideshow?

New York is having a “Shred Your Ex” party the day before Valentines Day. Radio Station WBLI has invited members of Rihanna's Fan Club and other fans across the nation to join the pop star's side along with others who are “unlucky in love.”

According to Nancy Cambino, the station's operations manager, “Valentine's Day should stand for love so we find it fitting to make the Friday the 13th right before Valentine’s Day a day for revenge for those who were unlucky in love. Whether you're a Rihanna fan or not, we can all empathize with being with someone who caused love to go wrong.”

The centerpiece of this event is to be the "shredding" of Chris Brown CDs and posters. Despite, of course, that he's not actually been convicted of anything. But let's just assume - for the sake of argument - that he is guilty; is turning a woman's abuse at the hands of her partner into a radio promo really the best way to show support? Is "revenge" the correct emotional response to be stirred up in the first place? And does WBLI not understand that there's a difference between being "unlucky in love" and being violently assaulted? Given that one of the tricks used by violent partners is to humiliate their victims in public, isn't this being more supportive of Brown than of Rihanna?

Knight in the cells

Suge Knight has been thrown in jail, accused of beating his girlfriend while brandishing a knife. Although, as balance, the police point out:

“He did not stab her,” said Officer Jacinto Rivera, a department spokesman.

He's all heart.

The affectionate punch

Florence And The Machine's debut single, Kiss With A Fist came out on Monday and is already fetching ten quid second hand. It's also attracting some raised eyebrows, prompting a defence of the song on the band's blog:

leona lewis's bleeding love isn't actually about her bleeding.
this isnt really about punching someone in the face. thank you and goodnight.

Judge for yourself (not Leona Lewis):

Shins keyboard player uncharged

Neither Marty Crandall nor his former girlfriend Elyse Sewell are to be charged following the allegations both made of domestic violence. Police have cited lack of evidence for their decision, coupled with a desire to avoid a lengthy he-said, she-said investigation.