Justin Bieber’s pet Monkey ‘belongs to Germany now’

By Emily Senger - Tuesday, May 21, 2013 at 9:37 AM - 0 Comments

Instagram

Justin Bieber had four weeks to pick up his pet monkey after it was confiscated by German authorities and his time is up. Mally, as the petite capuchin monkey is named, will now become property of Germany.

Bieber was busted for the monkey after he reportedly tried to sneak the 14-week-old primate into the country on his private jet on March 31. He didn’t have the correct documents to bring the monkey into the country and he has failed to produce those documents by the deadline, meaning Mally now belongs to the state.

“The monkey belongs to Germany now,” Judith Brettmeister, a spokesperson for the shelter that is caring for Mally told Reuters. She said that Bieber has not been in contact with her or the shelter since his monkey was confiscated and that he will not be able to get it back.

However, Bieber does have six weeks to contest the decision in court, should he choose to do so, reports The Associated Press.

At the time Mally was confiscated, the Biebs was on his somewhat troubled Believe tour, which was marked by not only the monkey incident, but also by Bieber collapsing on stage, Bieber offending many with his comments about Anne Frank, a Bieber bus drug bust and, finally, being attacked by a fan on stage.

Justin Bieber attacked by fan on stage at Dubai concert

By Emily Senger - Monday, May 6, 2013 at 8:38 AM - 0 Comments

Paul Stuart/Camera Press/Redux

A fan who attacked Justin Bieber on stage during his Dubai concert Sunday evening was no match for the teen pop star’s security team.

Bieber was sitting at a grand piano when a man — presumably a fan – rushed on stage. He was tackled by bodyguards, who managed to knock over the piano in the process.

Bieber ran to the side of the stage, where reports say he kept on performing just like nothing happened.

A fan recorded the incident and uploaded it to Youtube:

Continue…

Police search Justin Bieber tour bus, find drugs and stun gun

By Emily Senger - Thursday, April 25, 2013 at 3:15 PM - 0 Comments

Indigo/Getty Images

Justin Bieber’s Europe tour is having more problems after a police search of the Bieber tour bus in Sweden netted some illegal drugs and a stun gun.

The bus was parked under the Globen concert venue in Stockholm during Bieber’s Wednesday performance when police searched it, finding “a small amount of drugs and a stun gun,” reports The Associated Press.

Police did not say what the drugs were, but the search was prompted after police reported the smell of marijuana coming from the bus, AP reports. Continue…

Congratulations from Stephen Harper — (did he mention that he’s awesome?)

By Scott Feschuk - Thursday, April 18, 2013 at 4:40 PM - 0 Comments

Photo Illustration by Taylor Shute

Because the Conservatives are super-classy, they released a statement congratulating Justin Trudeau on winning the Liberal leadership. Here it is (for real) in its entirety:

“We congratulate Justin Trudeau on becoming Liberal leader.

“Stephen Harper has an Economic Action Plan that has created 900,000 new jobs since the recession, the best job creation record in the G7. He’s lowered taxes, such as the GST, and increased support for families with measures like the Universal Child Care Benefit.

“Justin Trudeau may have a famous last name, but in a time of global economic uncertainty, he doesn’t have the judgment or experience to be Prime Minister.”

Continue…

This week’s newsmakers

By Kate Lunau - Thursday, April 18, 2013 at 9:00 AM - 0 Comments

Paul J. Richards/Reuters

Holy diversity, Batman

In the latest issue of Batgirl, a character named Alysia Yeoh reveals she’s transgendered, and her roommate, Barbara Gordon, a.k.a. Batgirl, responds with a hug. The storyline was created by writer Gail Simone, who notes that the world of comic-book superheroes is becoming more diverse. In 2012, Green Lantern revealed he is gay, and that same year, Northstar (the first superhero to come out, in 1992) married his long-time partner, Kyle. Batwoman, who headlines her own title, is a lesbian. Diversity is “the issue for superhero comics,” Simone told Wired, noting that many of her industry’s most recognizable characters were dreamed up half a century ago, when sexuality and gender issues were treated much differently. If writers were to simply build around those characters, “then we look like an episode of The Andy Griffith Show for all eternity.”

Chávez 2.0

Nicolás Madurohas been elected president of Venezuela by a far narrower margin than his supporters had predicted, in a vote that his opponent, Henrique Capriles, says is “illegitimate.” Maduro was anointed candidate for the ruling United Socialist Party last month, following the death of his flamboyant and controversial predecessor, Hugo Chávez. Maduro promised to carry on Chávez’s “Bolívarian Revolution,” which funnelled state resources to Venezuela’s neglected poor but also wrecked the country’s economy and politicized its public service and state institutions. Maduro won 50.7 per cent of the vote against 49.1 per cent for Capriles. Maduro said they show that Chávez “continues to be invincible, that he continues to win battles.”

Continue…

Justin Bieber on Anne Frank: ‘Hopefully she would have been a belieber’

By macleans.ca - Sunday, April 14, 2013 at 7:12 PM - 0 Comments

Continue…

Half of Justin Bieber’s followers are fake, report says

By Jessica Allen - Thursday, April 11, 2013 at 8:07 AM - 0 Comments

Justin Bieber used to have the most Twitter followers of anyone in the world. But a new report says more than 50 per cent of his followers are fake, which means that the 19-year-old Canadian pop star only has the second most Twitter followers of anyone in the world.

According to the website Social Bakers, which monitors and tracks social networks for social media stats and metrics purposes, only 17.8 million of Bieber’s 37.3 million followers are linked to real accounts. That means only 47 per cent of his followers are actual ‘Beliebers’.

“The company spots fake accounts by looking at the number of followers and seeing if genuine tweets have been posted, rather than spam,” says the BBC. “The data also considers fake accounts to continuously tweet buzz phrases such as ‘diet’, ‘make money’ and ‘work from home’.”

What does all this mean? It means that Lady Gaga, who Bieber overtook last year for the title of most Twitter followers, is back on top. After one takes into account the number of fake followers she has, Lady Gaga still has 19 million real Twitter followers compared to Bieber’s 17 million.

The Rat Pack’s inside man

By Nicholas Köhler - Thursday, April 4, 2013 at 9:20 AM - 0 Comments

(Reportes Associes/Gamma-Rapho/Getty Images)

In his autobiography, entitled—what else?—My Way, after the tune he wrote for Frank Sinatra, Paul Anka comes off as a Dante figure, returned from the depths of strange netherworld landscapes—Las Vegas, Los Angeles—dragging up to the earth’s surface a trove of forbidden gossip. “Frank, of all the women you’ve known,” Anka, the aging Ottawa-born teen idol, asked Sinatra shortly before his death, “who was the best in bed?”

You might think Sinatra’s reply—which by the way was Angie Dickinson, praise that fellow Rat Packer Dean Martin, apparently in a position to know, seconded—would remain locked in the subterranean vault of the American entertainment business back in Anka’s heyday, with its high-wattage machismo, the drinking, hookers and collusion with the Mob. A thing of confidence—secret, in other words. Instead Anka, whose name in Arabic means “noose,” as in a hangman’s, dishes on all his famous pals, crafting that rare thing: a celebrity memoir that’s fun to read.

In the lead-up to its publication, and the release of his first CD in six years, Anka is already causing a stir, with expansive excerpts in Britain’s Daily Mail and a TMZ-broadcast rant in which he scolds rapper Jay-Z for not returning his call. There’s something peculiarly Canadian about his comeback—the way Anka’s memoir, told from the point of view of a smart but wide-eyed Ottawa boy visiting the land of excess and crookedness down south, serves to puncture its myths. Here is an aging Dean Martin, sitting in a restaurant with his false teeth in a glass, or Sinatra showing him his colostomy bag. Who knew Anka was the keeper of such secrets?

Continue…

Germany to Bieber: You have four weeks to pick up your pet monkey

By Jessica Allen - Tuesday, April 2, 2013 at 6:37 PM - 0 Comments

Instagram

So far, this much is clear: Justin Bieber was recently given a tiny capuchin monkey. The gift may have been from record producer Mally Mall, who tweeted the first picture of Bieber with his new pet named “Mally”, or from music producer Jamal Rashid, as a birthday gift for the Canadian singer.

Then Bieber decided it would be a good idea to sneak the 14-week-old monkey into Germany, via his private jet, for the latest European leg of his Believe tour.

But after landing in Munich on March 31, custom officials seized little Mally when Bieber broke strict health laws by failing to produce the necessary documents that are usually required in most places when you try to bring a monkey into their country.

German authorities have given the 19-year-old pop star four weeks to pick him up or else Mally the monkey will be placed “in permanent care”.

The good news is that several zoos have offered to give Mally a home if Bieber doesn’t reclaim him in time. And if history–or TMZ–has taught us anything it’s that maybe Bieber won’t even bother to pick up Mally because last December he gave away his pet hamster named PAC to a random fan. That fan promised to take care of PAC but then Pac died earlier this month.

While Germany waits for Bieber to pick up his pet, Mally is being kept in quarantine in a German shelter. They said in a statement that the monkey should not have even been taken away from its mother until it was at least a year old.

But Darwin–also a capuchin monkey–seemed pretty independent at five months old when he was found wandering alone in a Toronto Ikea parking lot wearing a shearling coat and a diaper. Plus, Darwin is getting a book launch and has his own Twitter handle.

Wait: so does “Mally Bieber”–and he has nearly 34,000 followers compared to Darwin’s 7,500.

Since his European tour began, Bieber has had an Instagram meltdown, was kicked out of a nightclub on his 19th birthday, started a show in London nearly two hours late, collapsed on stage at another London show, fought with photographers and cancelled a show in Portugal.

But with the support of nearly 34 million Twitter followers, Bieber is bound to bounce back.

Bieber’s ‘Beauty and a Beat’ gets a classical makeover

By Jessica Allen - Thursday, March 21, 2013 at 2:17 PM - 0 Comments

Last week the University of York released a video of an orchestra and choir covering Justin Bieber’s top-charting single A Beauty and a Beat. The video was made to support Red Nose Day–a 25-year-old U.K. charity that raises funds to transform lives at home and in Africa through comic relief.

Justin Bieber has Instagram meltdown, insults Lindsay Lohan

By Emily Senger - Friday, March 15, 2013 at 10:02 AM - 0 Comments

Indigo/Getty Images

Justin Bieber’s bad couple of weeks got even worse Thursday when the singer used his photo-sharing account on Instagram to post a rant about the media, which also made disparaging comments about Lindsay Lohan.

Though the rant has since been edited to remove the bits about Lohan, it read: Continue…

Newsmakers

By Emily Senger - Thursday, March 14, 2013 at 6:00 PM - 0 Comments

Marcos Brindicci/Reuters

When life imitates art

Bolshoi Ballet star Pavel Dmitrichenko, famed for his portrayal of villains on stage, claimed from a Moscow court last week that while he sanctioned an attack on Sergei Filin, the company’s artistic director, he did not expect his hired thug to throw acid in the man’s face. Asked whether he wished to apologize to Filin, Dmitrichenko defiantly replied: “For what?”

They should write a song about it

Taylor Swift often laments her tragic love life, but Swift’s fans are all too happy to shower her with adoration. Now it seems not all of their messages are making it into the pop princess’s hands. A Nashville resident, Kylee Francescan, reportedly found stacks upon stacks of unopened letters addressed to Swift and covered in glitter, photos and stickers behind a school dumpster. When the local news team investigated, Swift’s people said the mail was likely mixed up with another batch of fan mail destined for the recycle depot. With Swift receiving “thousands of fan letters everyday,” it seems her problem may be too much love, not the opposite.

Continue…

Tour troubles mount as Justin Bieber cancels Portugal show

By Emily Senger - Monday, March 11, 2013 at 8:07 AM - 0 Comments

It was more bad news for Justin Bieber on his Europe tour Monday as the Canadian pop star announced he would cancel one of two shows scheduled for Portugal.

Bieber’s show Monday night in Lisbon will go ahead, but his Tuesday show will be cancelled due to “unforeseen circumstances,” reports The Guardian. It speculates that those “circumstances” could be low ticket sales.

The decision to cancel the Lisbon show is the latest bump during what has been a rocky ride in Europe for Bieber. Continue…

‘Getting better,’ Justin Bieber tweets after collapse on stage

By macleans.ca - Friday, March 8, 2013 at 5:00 AM - 0 Comments

Pop star Justin Bieber is recovering after collapsing on stage in London on Thursday evening.

“(Justin’s) heading to the doctor now,” Bieber’s spokeswoman Melissa Victor told Reuters Thursday evening. “He fainted and took a 20-minute reprieve and was given oxygen.”

Bieber’s manager Scooter Braun appeared on stage at London’s O2 arena to explain to fans what happened:

Reports suggest Bieber returned to the stage before being taken for medical treatment.

Later in the evening, the 19-year-old tweeted that he was getting better. “Thanks for the love.”

A tardy Justin Bieber disappoints Beliebers (and parents) at London concert

By Jessica Allen - Tuesday, March 5, 2013 at 8:46 AM - 0 Comments

Canadian teen pop idol Justin Bieber appears to be testing his fans’ adoration. The 19-year-old singer started a London concert last night nearly two hours late.

As parents made their way to the venue expecting to pick up their kids, the show was just getting started.

According to the BBC, one fan reports that they just kept playing Michael Jackson songs while the audience waited for Bieber to come on stage.

“Everyone was on edge and as more time passed, everyone was getting more worried and booing,” said the fan.

A parent told the BBC that after a few parents went to the information desk to complain, they were told that it was out of the venue’s hands. ’It’s just Justin Bieber’s production team’.

“We said that was all well and good, but most of us have to get trains… it was just a shambles. I said we’ve really got to leave at 10.50pm to get the last train.”

Another parent tweeted that his daughter was inconsolable after seeing just 15 minutes of Bieber before she had to leave to catch the last train home.

Andy Ward, who waited for his daughter outside the arena until after midnight, told the BBC that kids were crying and that organizers did nothing to communicate to the audience when Bieber’s show would start.

He said: ”Needless to say I am sure that Justin Bieber is resting, sleeping and counting his millions with not even a care in the world for the inconvenience caused; the tears of the girls who had to leave even before he came on due to having to get the last trains home; the additional expense of car parking, taxis and the knock-on effect today.”

Although the venue apologized on Bieber’s behalf, the singer waited until morning to explain his tardiness to angry parents and disappointed fans and seemed to suggest that the situation had been exaggerated by the press.

Justin Bieber is now on stage and apologises for the lateness of his show

— The O2 (@The_O2) March 4, 2013

last night i was scheduled after 3 opening acts to go on stage at 935 not 830 but because of some technical issues i got on at 10:10..so…

— Justin Bieber (@justinbieber) March 5, 2013

i was 40 min late to stage. there is no excuse for that and I apologize for anyone we upset. However it was great show and Im proud of that

— Justin Bieber (@justinbieber) March 5, 2013

 

my relationship with the media is not always easy but im trying. Im all about the music and the performance and i respect my fans.

— Justin Bieber (@justinbieber) March 5, 2013

i never have any intent to upset or let anyone down. and Im not okay with things being exaggerated. once again sorry for anyone upset.

— Justin Bieber (@justinbieber) March 5, 2013

Justin Bieber turns 19: ‘Worst birthday,’ pop star tweets

By macleans.ca - Saturday, March 2, 2013 at 12:05 AM - 0 Comments

Justin Bieber turns 19: ‘Worst birthday,’ pop star tweets

Storified by Maclean’s Magazine· Fri, Mar 01 2013 21:36:22

Missing on Twitter: Justin Bieber’s tweets

By macleans.ca - Sunday, February 24, 2013 at 7:00 AM - 0 Comments

Noted on Saturday night:

There was much debate about whether or not Bieber’s Twitter account was actually hacked — some suggest it has merely been suspended. No matter, with 30,000,000-plus followers, there was a lot of concern and upset in the twitterverse:

Missing from Twitter: Justin Bieber’s tweets

There was trouble in Bieleberland on Saturday night when the pop star’s Twitter account turned up empty. (OMG, etc.) Some suggested he’d been hacked, others offered that might all be a publicity stunt. Calmer voices suggested Twitter had suspended @justinbieber:

Storified by Maclean’s Magazine· Sun, Feb 24 2013 07:26:54

The Week in Pictures

By Andrew Tolson - Friday, February 22, 2013 at 1:46 PM - 0 Comments

of Photos

Chilling new details in the alleged plot to kill Justin Bieber

By The Canadian Press - Wednesday, February 20, 2013 at 5:16 PM - 0 Comments

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. – Newly released audio of phone calls made last November from a New Mexico prison is shedding new light on an alleged plot to murder Canadian teen pop star Justin Bieber.

Police say the calls were between Dana Martin, the 45-year-old prisoner accused of masterminding the plot, and one of the men he allegedly hired to carry out the gruesome plan.

In the tapes, Martin tells the nephew of a former jailhouse friend how to suffocate Bieber using a paisley scarf — apparently his signature move.

“Tie it really, really tight, knot it in the front once really tight, and put in a knot, and that cuts off the oxygen, and then tie it in the back again,” Martin tells Tanner Ruane.

“That just seals the deal,” he adds.

In another clip, he asks Ruane whether his uncle, Mark Staake, has gone over “the Bieber thing” with him.

“Nah, the way I like to work, dude, the way I work — I like to know as little as possible,” Ruane replies.

At another point in the call, however, he tells Martin they have bought hedge clippers, which police have said the would-be killers were to use to castrate Bieber, his bodyguard and two other men unconnected with the star.

Authorities say Martin, who is serving two life sentences in a New Mexico prison for the killing of a 15-year-old girl, told them he had hatched the scheme after Bieber never returned messages he sent to the 18-year-old “Beauty and a Beat” singer.

Police recounted in an affidavit filed late last year in a New Mexico court that Martin, who has a tattoo of Bieber on his leg, told them the perceived slight was part of what led him to dream up the alleged murder plot.

The promise of notoriety provided another incentive, police wrote in the affidavit.

They said Martin drew Staake into his scheme, and Staake brought in Ruane, his nephew and right-hand man.

Staake was released on probation at the end of October and started to track Bieber’s whereabouts, Martin told police.

The murder was to take place in New York at the end of November, according to the affidavit, which was when Bieber was in the city to give a concert.

The plan was derailed when the accused would-be assassins accidentally ended up at the Canadian border.

The U.S. border agent found Staake had an outstanding probation violation warrant from New Mexico and he was arrested.

Martin and Ruane spoke on the phone later that day, and when Ruane told Martin that Staake had been arrested, Martin called off the plot.

In the phone call, which was recorded by authorities, Ruane expressed disappointment at Martin’s decision, saying they had found one of the first two victims’ homes and had brought a pair of hedge clippers for the castrations.

Staake and Ruane were arrested on charges of two counts each of conspiracy to commit murder and two counts each of conspiracy to commit aggravated battery.

The allegations against them have not been proven in court.

-By Paola Loriggio in Toronto

Prime-time battle: Justin Bieber vs. The Grammys

By macleans.ca - Sunday, February 10, 2013 at 3:16 PM - 0 Comments

Noted on Twitter: An invitation from Justin Bieber to his fans to join him Sunday night at 8 p.m. for a live stream during which he’s going to play some new music. (Some 85,000 tweeps so far took him up on the suggest to retweet.)

Timing is everything for the Canadian singer who released Believe Acoustic to the top of the Billboard chart a couple of weeks ago. Perhaps not by coincidence, Bieber’s live event goes up against another one to which he was not invited.

As Bieber fans are well aware, Justin Bieber was snubbed by the Grammys when the nominations were announced in December — a oversight that would not have gone unnoticed even had his manager had not sent a rocket to the Recording Academy. “The kid deserved it,” Scooter Braun tweeted. “The kid delivered … he deserved to be recognized and I don’t really have any kind nice positive things to say about a decision I don’t agree with.”

Bieber’s mom, Pattie Mallette, has agreed in recent days. “It’s my boy, I’m a little biased,” she said told Fuse. “I think they blew it.”

Christopher Rogers of Hollywood Live says if Grammy viewership drops this year’s awards ceremony, organizers will only have themselves to blame. 

New role for Justin Bieber’s mom: producing anti-abortion film

By Emily Senger - Tuesday, January 22, 2013 at 11:28 AM - 0 Comments

Pattie Mallette, mom to pop star Justin Bieber, has taken on a new role producing an anti-abortion film.

Crescendo, the short film which Mallette is promoting, opens on Feb. 28 and will be screened at pregnancy centres. Proceeds from the film will go toward those U.S. pregnancy centres, which provide support for women and encourage them not to have abortions.

In her recently released book Nowhere But Up, Mallette, 37, writes that she was encouraged to have an abortion when she got pregnant at age 17, but she chose not to.
Continue…

Justin Bieber banned from Philippines after Instagram quip

By Aaron Hutchins - Friday, January 4, 2013 at 2:28 PM - 0 Comments

Justin Bieber’s rise to stardom is in large part thanks to YouTube. In the Philippines, however, Instagram may prove to be his downfall.

A resolution was filed in the country’s congress last month declaring Bieber a “persona non grata,” barring him from entering the country unless he offers a public apology for taking a few jabs at boxing legend Manny Pacquiao on Instagram, a photo-sharing social network program.

The Filipino icon was knocked out in a recent bout, and images spread across the Internet of him lying motionless on the canvas. Bieber posted a photo of the unconscious boxer with a superimposed picture of Simba from The Lion King, with the words “Dad wake up.” A second Instagram posting juxtaposed the picture with Michael Jackson doing his dance move. The caption reads: “Pacquiao doing the lean with MJ. Classic moment.”

Bieber’s boxing allegiances are firmly rooted in the corner of American Floyd “Money” Mayweather Jr., who is the pound-for-pound king of boxing and Pacquiao’s rival.

“It doesn’t matter if it is someone as big as Justin Bieber making degrading or insulting comments about a Filipino citizen. Banning him will show how seriously we take our national pride,” said Representative Carol Jayne Lopez. She encouraged Filipino youth to stop listening to Bieber’s music. There was the Twitter hashtag “#banjustinbieber.”

Bieber responded on Instagram: “If they were beliebers I know they wouldn’t leave my side over [a] boxing opinion.”

Relationships taking a break

By Anne Kingston - Tuesday, December 25, 2012 at 12:10 PM - 0 Comments

Robo-bride no more

Katie Holmes’s divorce from Scientologist Tom Cruise after five years of public captivity was as sudden as the couple’s whirlwind nuptials. The 33-year-old actress’s Houdini-like manoeuvres, more jailbreak than marital meltdown, left her with custody of five-year-old Suri. Soon after, a Vanity Fair story ran about how the Church of Scientology recruited her to screen test as a prospective wife for the actor. Now the former Dawson Creek star is on Broadway. Meanwhile, her 50-year-old, couch-jumping ex has been seen squiring other women about; we can only assume he’s auditioning wife No. 4.

Big O axes little O

Oprah Winfrey lured the former “Queen of Nice,” Rosie O’Donnell, to her ailing TV network, OWN, with high hopes the former talk-show host would draw viewers and buzz. Six months later, after format changes, humiliating ratings and carping from staff, Winfrey yanked the show—to O’Donnell’s chagrin. Now the two former daytime doyennes aren’t talking at all—at least to each other.

Bad branding

Fourteen months after a showy Indian wedding complete with elephants, celebrity exhibitionists Russell Brand, 37, and Katy Perry, 28, announced their joint act was over. The British comedian, once fired from MTV for dressing as Osama bin Laden, filed for divorce from the American singer known for shooting whipped cream from her bra. Future mates have hard acts to follow.

Canada: just not that into Iran

When Canada breaks up with a country, it doesn’t fool around. Last September, the government unilaterally cut diplomatic relations with Iran, shuttering the Tehran embassy and booting Iran’s diplomatic staff from Ottawa. Dangers were too high, Foreign Affairs Minister John Baird said of the criticized move that showed the ayatollahs who was boss. Continue…

Alleged plot to kill Justin Bieber derailed at Canadian border: police

By The Canadian Press - Thursday, December 13, 2012 at 4:39 PM - 0 Comments

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. – A plot to kill Justin Bieber, allegedly masterminded by a 45-year-old prisoner obsessed with the young star, was derailed when the accused would-be assassins accidentally ended up at the Canadian border, according to court documents.

Dana Martin, serving two life sentences in a New Mexico prison for the killing of a 15-year-old girl, told police he had hatched the scheme after Bieber never returned messages he sent to the 18-year-old “Beauty and a Beat” singer.

Police recounted in an affidavit filed in a New Mexico court that Martin, who has a tattoo of Bieber on his leg, told them the perceived slight was part of what led him to dream up the alleged murder plot.
Continue…