Bob Dylan bores me to tears — Simon Cowell

HEY SIMON, WHERES YOUR MUSICAL TALENT?

Don’t expect to see Bob Dylan joining the celebrities on “American Idol” anytime soon.

One of the show’s judges, Simon Cowell, says he has never bought a Dylan record because he “bores me to tears.”

The British pop impresario says in the February issue of Playboy that he would “plug my ears and run in the other direction” if he were to see a 21-year-old Dylan singing “Blowin’ in the Wind.”

Cowell, 47, is not known for holding back when it comes to issuing verdicts on the wannabe stars who flock to the top-rated talent show. Last season, he said a female contestant was so fat that the stage should be enlarged, and he suggested that another hopeful should shave his beard and wear a dress.

On the other hand, he told Playboy that inaugural champ Kelly Clarkson is “a young Aretha Franklin,” and he much preferred her music to Dylan’s.

R2-D2 Communication & Mobile Entertainment Systems

Nikko Home Electronics is offering a new approach to home electronics by putting the joy and heart back into technology driven products. Here’s a look at their first two product offerings, sure to make all fanboys reading drool with envy.

R2-D2 M.E.S. ( Mobile Entertainment System )
Features include a built-in DVD/CD player, stereo speakers, integrated iPod dock, eleven R2-D2 sound effects and a full-function remote control built into a Millennium Falcon! The suggested retail price for this item will be close to $2500.00.

R2-D2 C.S. ( Communication System )
Also coming soon from Nikko is an R2-D2 Skype phone/motorized webcam. It features a replica of Anakin’s Lightsaber from ROTS that contains the controls for the R2 and the Skype phone, a wireless webcam and a web interface to view the camera image and control R2. The suggested retail price for this item will be approx. $349.

For more information check out Nikko’s R2-D2 Website.

James Brown’s Family Plans Museum in SC

The children of late soul singer James Brown are planning to turn his home into a Graceland-like museum and build a mausoleum on the site for his body, an attorney for Brown said Friday.

The plans for the Beech Island site are being discussed by Brown’s children, several close friends and the singer’s trustees, said attorney Debri Opri, an attorney for Brown. The group wants to consult with Elvis Presley’s family to see how they did Graceland, Opri said.

“Mr. Brown was a great fan and truly, truly cared about Elvis Presley,” Opri said.

No attempt had been made to contact Presley’s estate by late Friday, said Jack Soden, CEO of Elvis Presley Enterprises. But he said it’s not unusual for family members of deceased entertainers to contact the Presley estate.

“We’ve been happy to give the benefit of what we’ve learned to heirs,” Soden said. Soden said Graceland “is very profitable,” generating “millions in revenue.” There are around 600,000 visitors each year, he said.

The Godfather of Soul died of heart failure Dec. 25 at age 73. The entertainer’s body lies in a sealed casket in his home on Beech Island until his children choose his final resting place.

Family Feuds Dog Famous Folks in Death

James Brown has yet to rest in peace.

His embalmed body lies in a sealed casket at his South Carolina home while his family and attorneys argue over his estate and final resting place. Security guards maintain constant watch over the Godfather of Soul — whose coffin sits in a temperature-controlled room — while issues surrounding his estate are hashed out.

Such posthumous problems are nothing new. While burial battles like Brown’s are rare, a whole host of family dramas have haunted famous folks well into the afterlife.

The unending eclectic list includes athletes, musicians, movie stars and other notable names.

“It’s just the nature of families,” said Joelle Drucker, an attorney with Greenberg Traurig in Los Angeles. “If you don’t get along, if there’s a prior marriage with children and conflicting interests, there’s always going to be fighting. It tends to be the norm rather than the exception.”

The family of baseball great Ted Williams started fighting immediately after his death in 2002. Williams’ son, John Henry, said his dad wanted to be cryogenically frozen, but Williams’ daughter from a previous marriage, Barbara Joyce Ferrell, insisted Williams wanted to be cremated, as indicated in his will. After he died, the Hall of Famer was decapitated and his head and body were frozen separately at the Alcor Life Extension Foundation in Scottsdale. The legal fight over Williams’ final fate continued more than two years after his death, when Ferrell dropped the case.

Cryonics also posed a problem for the family of Walt Disney. After his death in 1966, a British tabloid published a picture that supposedly showed Disney’s head on ice, said Disney biographer and longtime Associated Press reporter Bob Thomas. But the photo was a fake, Thomas said.

Disney “was cremated and he’s lying in Forest Lawn,” he said. “The family abhorred this kind of nonsense.”

Cremation isn’t problem-free either. Four years after actor Peter Lawford’s death, his ashes were removed from a crypt at a Los Angeles cemetery because his children reportedly refused to pay the funeral bills. The ashes were turned over to Lawford’s fourth wife, who scattered them in the Pacific Ocean. Then one of Lawford’s friends came forward, claiming he had already dumped most of Lawford’s ashes into the ocean off the coast of Malibu four years earlier during a drunken party just after the actor’s death.

Public figures usually establish their burial plans well ahead of time, said Ron Hast, publisher of Mortuary Management, a national monthly magazine for the funeral industry. Burials typically take place no more than seven days after death. Some religious traditions require even more timely interment.

He noted that President Ford’s body was flown from California to Washington, D.C. to Michigan and was still buried within seven days.

But burial isn’t enough to end some family feuds.

Lawsuits continue to be filed years after Marlon Brando’s 2004 death. The actor’s former caregiver sued the executors of his estate in July claiming she was forced out of a house Brando bought for her. A former Brando business manager also sued the actor’s estate in 2005, claiming sexual harassment and wrongful termination.

Ray Charles eternal rest was also dogged by lawsuits. Fights over child support and paternity issues continued for more than a year after he died in June of 2004.

Sometimes the arguments even begin while the prominent person is still alive. The family of 88-year-old evangelist Billy Graham is already at odds over where his final resting place will be. One son wants him buried near the family home in Montreat, N.C., while another wants Graham’s grave located near the Charlotte evangelical center that bears his name.

Perhaps Graham will have the final vote.

Superhero Supplies

See it HERE.

Tears of a Clown….