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Did Led Zeppelin rip off Stairway to Heaven?
A lawyer in Philadelphia is gearing up to sue Led Zeppelin for allegedly pilfering another band’s music when it composed and recorded its 1971 classic song Stairway to Heaven.
Francis Alexander Malofiy confirmed a report in Bloomberg Businessweek saying a copyright lawsuit is in the works, but declined to give details.
According to the magazine, the plaintiffs in the pending case allege Led Zeppelin lifted the opening riffs of Stairway to Heaven from a 1968 instrumental called Taurus recorded by the Los Angeles psychedelic band Spirit.
The plaintiffs include Spirit’s founding bassist Mark Andes and the trust that manages royalties for the band’s guitarist Randy California, who died in 1997.
Spirit and Led Zeppelin shared the stage during a US tour in 1969.
Led Zeppelin guitarist Jimmy Page is said to have started writing Stairway to Heaven in 1970 in a remote cottage in Wales.
Released the following year, it’s widely regarded as one of the greatest rock tunes of all time.Bloomberg Businessweek said the eight-minute song had earned $US562 million ($A608.06 million) as of 2008.
Earlier this month Led Zeppelin unveiled two previously unheard recordings ahead of the re-issue in June of its first three albums. Page, now 70, meanwhile scotched rumours of a reunion concert.
AFP
Gale enjoying every second of being a mum
Megan Gale can’t believe how quickly her first week as a mum has gone.
The model mum posted a photo of baby River Hampson, sleeping in his cot at home, onto Instagram overnight.
‘‘At exactly this time one week ago I was in the hospital giving birth to this beautiful little soul...and now here he is sleeping soundly at home.
‘‘I can’t believe how quickly the week has gone. It’s so true - you have to enjoy every second you have with them as time just flies once they’re born,’’ Gale wrote.
River is the first child for Gale and partner Shaun Hampson, 26, who plays for the Richmond football club. He was born on May 13 and weighed 3.87kg.
The model announced the news on Instagram, by posting a black and white photo of her baby boy’s tiny hand.
AAP
Taylor Swift sued for trademark breach
Singer Taylor Swift has been slapped with a trademark infringement lawsuit by bosses at a California apparel company.
Executives at Lucky 13 have accused the singer of using the company’s federally registered logos to promote her own clothing line.
In a suit filed in California on Tuesday, Lucky 13 bosses claim they have contacted the Love Story song writer’s camp several times to try to resolve the issue but all efforts have proven unsuccessful.
Owner Robert Kloetzly is now asking for Swift’s merchandising site to be shut down and for all the profits made or the damages to his company - whichever is greater.
Swift has often talked about the significance of the number 13, telling MTV.com in 2009, ‘‘I paint (it) on my hand before every show because 13 is my lucky number- for a lot of reasons. It’s really weird.
‘‘I was born on the 13th. I turned 13 on Friday the 13th. My first album went gold in 13 weeks. My first (number one) song had a 13-second intro.
‘‘Every time I’ve won an award I’ve been seated in either the 13th seat, the 13th row, the 13th section or row M, which is the 13th letter (of the alphabet). Basically, whenever a 13 comes up in my life, it’s a good thing.’’
WENN
Rihanna blasts fake Instagram page
R&B star Rihanna insists a new Instagram.com account set up in her name is a fake.
The Stay songwriter recently disabled her ’badgalriri’ blog after coming under fire from website bosses for breaking their nudity rules by posting risque shots from her sexy covershoot for French men’s magazine Lui, in which she was snapped exposing her bare breasts and her nipple piercing.
She was forced to remove the saucy pictures from the photo-sharing site and subsequently decided to close down her page, which had amassed 12 million followers.
However, it appeared Rihanna had returned to Instagram just days later after a profile named ’badgalriri—again’ was set up, with a tagline stating, ‘‘IM BACK B**CH (sic)!’’.
It also included a Vevo.com link to her video for the song Pour It Up.News of the phoney page has since been brought to Rihanna’s attention and she reached out to her fans via Twitter.com on Monday to warn them not to fall for the bogus account.
Alongside a screen grab of the Instagram profile, which had garnered over 47,000 followers, she wrote, ‘‘#PHAKE (sic)!!!! Let’s be clear, I do NOT have an IG account!’’
WENN
Angelina Jolie is daughter’s acting coach
Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt became crew members on the set of the actress’ new Disney film Maleficent as they attempted to get a great performance out of their daughter Vivienne.
The youngster was picked to play the young Princess Aurora in the adapted fairytale and mum and dad were on set the day the five year old made her big movie debut.
Jolie admits she and her fiance became stage parents for the day, telling US news show Access Hollywood: ‘‘She was trying to catch the butterfly, which was a day that I wasn’t working, so mummy and daddy had to be, like, the set parents, trying to get her to do everything.
‘‘I was holding the stick with the blue thing on it and, like, kinda dancing and making her follow me and Brad was on the edge of the cliff, kinda singing and... trying to get her to dance into his arms.
‘‘We were exhausted by the end of that day. It was so hard.’’
WENN