Drunk on a plane
Colleen Walsh, the Canadian TV personality who was arrested in Newfoundland last March when her transatlantic flight was diverted to St. John’s, was fined and placed on probation for assault and air rage charges.
Walsh, who has worked for CBC, CTV and Global, attributed her actions to two bottles of wine, sleeping pills and “menopausal exhaustion.”
Walsh said that her career and reputation have been “devastated” by the charges.
–Mike Lakusiak
Franz Ferdinand reportedly not ‘Lovin’ It’
Earlier this week, Franz Ferdinand frontman and food critic Alex Kapranos went on an online rampage, lambasting their American label Sony for giving a McDonald’s website permission to use one of the band’s tracks.
After tweeting multiple strings of profanity towards Sony, Kapranos eventually joked that he was “just pissed off because I had a sponsorship deal with White Castle in the cards.”
–Sarah Murphy
Conan’s finale trumps both Leno and Letterman
Conan O’Brien’s final show as host of NBC’s Tonight Show drew over seven million viewers in the U.S., obliterating his timeslot rival David Letterman and predecessor-successor Jay Leno’s 10 p.m. program.
Only 2.8 million viewers watched Letterman’s Friday show; on Thursday, Leno was beaten by both The Tonight Show and Jersey Shore.
After taping his final show, Conan celebrated with his employees, a party that reportedly included copious amounts of Jameson Irish Whiskey, ice cream and sushi.
–Mike Lakusiak
New digital music format
A Norwegian firm has developed what could potentially be the successor to the mp3 digital audio format.
Bach Technology has created MusicDNA, a digital audio code that has the capacity to package music videos and lyrics as well as artist and tour information with a song.
The technology aims to encourage consumers to purchase songs from a legitimate source rather than through Internet piracy. The first releases in the format are due this spring.
–Mike Lakusiak
YouTube movie rentals
YouTube is in talks with major movie studios to begin a service for online movie rentals.
The site began offering independent films from the Sundance Film Festival for online rental on Saturday for $3.99 and could expand.
Google, owner of YouTube, is competing directly with NetFlix, a company that already offers a similar service. The YouTube name and visibility should be important in the outcome of this move toward world domination for Google.
–Mike Lakusiak
