OMG: Celebuzz exclusively reports that faux lesbian Katy Perry has broken up with her faux lesbian-loving boyfriend, Travis McCoy of Gym Class Heroes. Celebuzz also exclusively reports that Travis took to his blog with these heartfelt words of pain about the breakup:

Young millionaire Lil Wayne sacrificed his own body to sell 2.9 million albums last year, but surprisingly the record industry continued going straight to hell in 2008, if "numbers" are to be believed:

This guy named "Chip" who is friends with Mike Huckabee mailed a CD to some friends with a terrible song called "Barack the Magic Negro" on it, and now he will lead the Republican party.

"An audience of almost 3,000 clapped and cheered as Woody Allen and his jazz band gave their first ever concert in Poland on Sunday... He received a standing ovation at the end." [AP]

It is "the holy day season," we're told. Here at Gawker HQ, that means one thing: Christmas music!*

Oh, hey you guys, anyone know of a good apartment for Frances Cobain? She's thinking downtown, a room for her mom, maybe an office. No more than $7 million, though. Eight, tops.

Ridiculously braided Guns "N" Roses frontman Axl Rose is destroying our national economy this holiday season through sloth and anger. And, even more, by not selling any freakin records:

On SNL last night, Kanye West sounded disturbingly like a quiet man doing bad karaoke. Severe tech problems, or natural talent problems? Click to watch, listen, and judge.

Sad but true, I'm afraid. Elmer Valentine, who opened and owned the famed West Hollywood music magnet Whisky a Go Go (they invented the practice of having Go Go dancers in hanging cages!), died last week at the age of 85. The former "dirty cop" from Chicago opened the club in 1964, which would play host to the likes of The Doors (who were the humble house band for a time), Van Morrison, and Frank Zappa. The New York Times obit doesn't mention the future of the club, but whether it carries on or not (we're sure it will), a legend has still shuffled off. Oh, and speaking of legends, remember CBGB's? The "counter-culture" club closed back in 2006 (sniff!), and now its name is being wrestled to the ground and branded over and over again:

It was hilariously revealed a couple weeks ago that hippie folk singer Ani DiFranco personally played a set for capitalist Wall Street Journal staffers in their actual building, for some reason. Well now, further hilarious elements of this story have emerged. Among them: There is an actual place called "The WSJ Cafe"; Ani DiFranco played there; and finally, the WSJ has a staffer named "Chris Farley," who interviewed the hippie singer, right there in the "WSJ Cafe." Click here for the a video of the encounter, which, inexplicably, exists. [WSJ via Jezebel]

You may not know that Kanye West—the eclectic business mogul best known for his muppet shows, model wrangling, blogging, and MacBook stress-testing—is also a bit of a fashionista. He loves the clothes and whatnot! So much so that he wants to take time off from his other ventures and go intern in a fashion house. Celebrity fashion-related intern trend now officially official!

Nominees for the 51st Grammy Awards were announced. Big winners: Coldplay (seven nominations), Lil Wayne (eight nominations, white nerds are gonna flip), Jazmine Sullivan (new R&B singers gets five noms) and M.I.A., nominated for record of the year (Idolator: "!!!!!!!!"). For the latter, stock up on cave-aged gruyere for the dressing room and prepare the cameras for an ultra-close-up during any self-undermining comments from the singer about how she has so not sold out the struggle (and performance too plz?). Robbed:

Odetta, the awesome blues and folk singer whose work was a soundtrack to the American civil rights movement and an inspiration to Bob Dylan and many others, has died at the age of 77. She began singing in the 1940s, and "In 1961, Martin Luther King, Jr. anointed her 'The Queen of American folk music.'" Okay? She was also Rosa Parks' favorite singer. Not much more needs to be said, except that her music was off the chain. Three clips come tumbling down like Jericho, below:

In what is sure to be the most consequential piece of legal maneuvering since 50 Cent sued Taco Bell last week, idiot Guns n' Roses frontman Axl Rose had his attorney fire off a scathing letter to the Dr. Pepper corporation regarding the company's recent GnR-related marketing mishaps. It promises to be quite a dustup—rock and roll style!!1! Take, heed, soft drink companies: here's what happens when you try to give out a free soda to everyone in America:

Condoleezza Rice played the piano for the Queen of England! Why? Because it's the end of the second term of the Bush administration, and after next month no one will let her do anything fun anymore. The whole "Israel and Palestine peace process" thing kinda fizzled out for our nation's top diplomat so now she's just on a "shit I get to do because I'm still the Secretary of State" tour. Maybe next Sunday she'll call plays for the 49ers! There is a video after the jump.

Yesterday we pointed out that our nation's current idiot president, George "W" Bush, had made the unlikely move of commuting the cocaine-smuggling sentence of a rapper—a black man, with unruly hair!—because that rapper, John Forte, went to fancy prep school Exeter, and being a prep school cokehead is something Bush can relate to. Friends, we firmly believe in the accuracy of this macroanalysis. But even more amusing is the micro-analysis, because the chain of events that caused the union-busting Republican Mormon Sen. Orrin Hatch to become a fierce advocate of the (allegedly) coke-slinging producer of The Fugees is just what America is all about: Step One: John Forte goes to Exeter, makes friends with Carly Simon's kid, then makes friends with Carly Simon. Step Two: John Forte goes to jail. Step Three: Carly Simon records one of Orrin Hatch's soulful ballads and then is like "Okay now you owe me, old man."

Who said George W. Bush is not a friend to the hip hop community? The president has gone and pardoned John Forte, a rapper (who got briefly famous doing tracks with the Fugees) who's been in prison since 2000 for a cocaine smuggling conviction. $1.4 million in liquid coke through the Newark airport, to be precise. I forgive Bush for the wars and everything now! Forte has always maintained his innocence, but so does everyone else in jail, and you don't see Republican Christian fundamentalist zealot politicians pardoning them. So why did W. set Forte free? It's those private school connections paying off:

What complex feelings we have towards M.I.A. The Sri Lankan-British rapper (sort of) has said some bone-headed things about missing the days when she used to get shot at and made crazy contract demands, and married a rich guy. So that was annoying! But then there's her music. The music. It's really good. Like the soundtrack in the new Danny Boyle film Slumdog Millionaire. It's kinetic as ever and, unlike when her song "Paper Planes" was featured in Pineapple Express ads, the tales she spins of third-world ghetto kids actually make sense within the context. To the extent that Slumdog feels like it's a different view of the Bombay slums, M.I.A.'s music throughout the film deserves plenty of the credit. "If I was painting a picture of that part of the world, it’s not that I’d make it more glum, but I would try not to involve all the positive stuff from it, like the singing and dancing and easy stuff," she tells the LAT's Pop & Hiss blog. "I think we’re already used to that, and comfortable with that part." Those Pineapple television spots made M.I.A. a star (not unlike Feist's iPod Nano ads), but when the visuals match the aurals, you can get a better sense of her lyrics and beats and crazy sounds and all that good stuff that almost makes us forget about her cave-aged Gruyère needs. Almost.

After 17 years of false starts and whispery rumors, no one was shocked when Chinese Democracy, Guns N' Roses' (well, Axl Rose's at least) newest and much-delayed album, was finally released last week. Except for the, well, Chinese! As if they were living under some sort of all-the-way-around-the-world rock or something, this is apparently the first the Communist-y supernation has heard of the album. And they are not happy about it. The album's title is "venomously attacking China," according to national Chinese newspaper the Global Times. The album is laden with commentary on the Chinese government, referencing the banned spiritual practice of Falun Gong and featuring the 1989-y lyric: "if your Great Wall rocks blame yourself." (If you're Great Wall's a rockin', you're probably doin' the knockin'! Of boots! Chinese boots!) But, c'mon, we've known the title of this thing for years, and the Chinese are just now getting mad about it? They could have been raging about this since, like, before the internet even existed! Where were the pamphlets about how the album is a Western tool meant to "grasp and control the world using democracy as a pawn"? I mean, it's true! And it's also about rockin' out! Their reaction, though resoundingly nationalistic and scary, is probably kind of what Axl and his newish bandmates were hoping for here stateside. Instead all they got was a deliciously side-winding review by Chuck Klosterman, and sad opening day debuts at Best Buy. So, I guess it just goes to show that the world has changed a lot since last we Used Our Illusion, but China hasn't noticed. Because, you know, they've been focusing on slightly bigger things. China State Media Blast New Guns N' Roses Album [AP]

Pat Buchanan is defending Hillary Clinton, the Guardian is scooping on U.S. political news, and now this, perhaps the ultimate WTF moment in media this week: Lefty, anti-corporate folksinger Ani DiFranco performed two songs for Wall Street Journal editorial staff today, right before deadline, we hear. "Weird time to be a biz reporter," one staffer at the conservative business newspaper Twittered. The setlist?