There was no bucking the system, and no going against Clive Davis. Sources tell me that Clarkson has agreed, through her wise new manager Narvel Blackstock, to make a pop album for release in 2008 with songs selected by Davis and his team. Clarkson's acquiescence comes at the end of a long melodrama concerning her current, turgid album "My December," which features a lot of ragged self-penned songs by Clarkson about a relationship gone sour

*****

Clarkson gets points for trying out her chops as a songwriter, but demerits for not following anyone's advice, trying to take on the record industry's most astute executive maybe of all time and acting like a 25-year-old (which is, in fact, her age.)

Rowling, 41, believes her Potter books will be read for years to come - "Do I think they'll last? Honestly, yes" - but she has no illusions about duplicating their success. Of course I won't write anything as popular as this again," Rowling says. "But I have truthfully known that since 1999, when the thing began to become a little bit insane. So I've had a good long time to know that, and I accept it."

So Rowling is ready to move on, but not before taking a jab at those who posted spoilers on the Internet just days before Hallows was published. Digital photos of every page of the book were put on the Web by an unknown party. "I felt angry," she says, her voice getting louder as she talks about it. "I knew it was about other people's egos." She says she was concerned for her young fans, the "10- and 11-year-olds who really wanted not to know" how the book ended until they'd had a chance to read it.

Two days before Hallows' publication at midnight last Friday, Rowling says, she was alarmed by how prevalent the spoilers had become on the Internet. She likened it to watching a massive dam spring several leaks. It was inevitable, perhaps, with a book of worldwide interest being published in the Internet age, but upsetting nonetheless. "The (leak of the) epilogue upset me most," she said. "I had been working toward that point for a long time. I did have a sense-of-humor failure when the epilogue went up."

Could writer's cramp be all in your mind? New research suggests just that, with French scientists saying they've identified structural abnormalities in the brains of people prone to the painful condition. The abnormalities consist of less brain tissue in areas that govern motor skills, movement and sensory functioning.

"It's always nice to know as much as you can about something before you devise a treatment," said Dr. Tom Swift, past president of the American Academy of Neurology and professor emeritus and former chairman of the department of neurology at the Medical College of Georgia. "With a lot of dystonias, for a long time it was thought there weren't any anatomical abnormalities, even for severe dystonias. Using newer [imaging] techniques with higher resolutions, there are some areas that show abnormalities, but they're very subtle."

Writer's cramp is a dystonia, or a movement disorder that causes involuntary contractions of the muscles. The condition refers to involuntary muscle contractions of the fingers, hand or arm while writing or performing other manual tasks. It often occurs in people who have used the same muscles repeatedly for years. As a result, writing can become a painful activity, and written work can become far less legible, according to the Dystonia Society.

In one quarter of cases, the condition affects both hands. Overall, writer's cramp affects three to seven of every 100,000 people, a relatively small proportion, but it can negatively affect work, self-esteem and social life, the study authors said. "In fully developed writer's cramp, the fingers grip the pen very tightly, and the arm drags down to the right lower corner of the page. It's pretty serious," Swift said. "Even typing can produce a similar kind of thing."

While Rowling hasn't officially started writing the encyclopedia, although she's got plenty of material from the stories left on the cutting room floor over the past 17 years. "I've said before that Dean Thomas had a much more interesting history than ever appeared in the books for me, and you just see glimpses of it," Rowling said. "But to write it really would take us into prequel territory. And that does take us into Star Wars territory. And that's not really a place I'm planning to go." "So there's always been bits that I knew about characters that didn't make final cuts because they weren't that relevant."

Rowling also admitted that a favorite character - Ron Weasley's father - was due to die in Book Five. "He was the person who got a reprieve," said Rowling. "I-- when I sketched out the books, Mr. Weasley was due to die in Book Five." Instead, Rowling swapped his death with someone else in the final book. "I don't want to say who for the people who haven't- read," she said. But I - I made a decision as I went into writing Phoenix that I was gonna reprieve Mr. Weasley and I was gonna kill someone else. And if you finish the book, I expect you probably know and someone else who is a father."

Contrary to popular belief, Kelly Clarkson doesn't have a major beef with Clive Davis. Anymore. So says the pop star. The 25-year-old Grammy winner took time out Monday to address the reports that have her feuding with the record mogul, animosity supposedly prompted by creative differences and Clarkson's disregard for Davis' wishes during production of her latest album, My December, on which all the tracks were either penned or cowritten by the original American Idol.

"I want to set the record straight on this by saying that I want my band, my advisors, those close to me and my record label to be one big, tightly knit family," Clarkson said in a statement posted on her Website. "Like any family we will disagree and argue sometimes but, in the end, it's respect and admiration that will keep us together. "A lot has been made in the press about my relationship with Clive. Much of this has been blown way out of proportion and taken out of context."

*****

"Contrary to recent characterizations in the press, I'm well aware that Clive is one of the great record men of all time," she stated on her site Monday. "He has been a key advisor and has been an important force in my success to date. He has also given me respect by releasing my new album when he was not obligated to do so. I really regret how this has turned out and I apologize to those whom I have done disservice. "I would never intentionally hurt anyone. I love music, and I love the people I am blessed to work with. I am happy that my team is behind me and I look forward to the future."

But the threat of spoilers hasn't ruined the party. Advance orders for the latest book have broken records and release celebrations are on tap across the country. "We expect the largest crowd in history to be at our stores Friday night at the stroke of midnight," said Barnes & Noble Chief Executive Stephen Riggio in an interview.

Scholastic expects to break both printing and sales records with the seventh book. The company said it has printed 12 million copies in the U.S., surpassing records held by the sixth book, which had a first-print run of 10.8 million in 2005. More than 6.9 million copies of the book were sold in the first 24 hours. "A very large first printing for a children's book would be 50,000," said Maureen O'Connell, chief financial officer for Scholastic. "This is unprecedented."

In years that the books are published, Harry Potter accounts for between 8% and 10% of Scholastic's $2 billion in revenues, O'Connell said. In years without a new book, sales account for less than 1% of revenues, she added.

*****

Meanwhile, Harry Potter book purchases are "outpacing the sale of adult books, even in this age of the Internet, MySpace, Facebook and video games," Barnes & Noble CEO Riggio said. "It has inspired kids to read the whole series, and it has made them more interested in reading." Barnes & Noble has taken 1.3 million advance orders for the seventh book, and the chain expects Saturday to be the company's biggest non-holiday sales day ever, Riggio said.

The author said she was "staggered" that papers including The New York Times had printed reviews ahead of the novel's publication on 21 July. The author said the information was in "complete disregard of the wishes of literally millions of readers". UK publishers Bloomsbury said spoilers remained "unauthenticated". Some books have been sent out early in the US. The book's US publisher Scholastic has sued online retailer DeepDiscount.com for breaking the strict embargo by dispatching a number of copies.

The book's contents have been the subject of intense speculation The novel has also appeared on auction site eBay, while pictures of what appeared to be pages from the new book have appeared on the internet. Bloomsbury said it was "dismayed" to learn about the early sales. But internet spoilers had not come from the few copies sold ahead of the official publication, it insisted. The strict embargo was being "enforced unflinchingly and without exception" by publishers in 93 countries, the company added.

Rowling said the US newspaper reviews would particularly affect children "who wanted to reach Harry's final destination by themselves, in their own time". "I am incredibly grateful to all those newspapers, booksellers and others who have chosen not to attempt to spoil Harry's last adventure for fans," she added. We tried very, very hard to give away the absolute bare minimum of the plot

Rowling's statement follows an earlier message on her website, in which she said: "Let's all, please, ignore the misinformation popping up on the web and in the press. "I'd like to ask everyone who calls themselves a Harry Potter fan to help preserve the secrecy of the plot for all those who are looking forward to reading the book at the same time on publication day. "In a very short time you will know everything!"

Scholastic reports that they "recently learned that some individuals have received copies of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows through the mail, beginning on Tuesday, July 17th, as a result of a breach of the on-sale agreement by the distributor, Levy Home Entertainment, and shipments made by DeepDiscount.com, a customer of that distributor. We are taking immediate legal action against DeepDiscount.com and Levy Home Entertainment. The number of copies shipped is around one one-hundredth of one percent of the total U.S. copies." (That's 1,200 copies if you do the math.)

They add, in vain, this extraordinary (and silly) request: "We are also making a direct appeal to the Harry Potter fans who bought their books from DeepDiscount.com and may receive copies early requesting that they keep the packages hidden until midnight on July 21st.

That shipping error may explain how, following our reports from earlier the week, one bittorrent site has photographs of the entire Harry Potter manuscript posted. TorrentFreak describes the posting, and offers spoilers on a separate page for those who want them.

A little less than two months ago, Mr. Dale, the veteran Broadway actor turned voice of Harry Potter, finished recording the audio version of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, the seventh and final installment in the colossally successful series by J. K. Rowling. So that means that he knows how it ends.

His grandchildren, who visited from England after he completed the recording, literally twisted his arms trying to get him to divulge a clue. His wife is still in the dark. Everywhere he goes, people want to know What He Knows. "It's a surprise ending," he said on Friday, during an interview in his Park Avenue co-op. "Let's say that." Gee, thanks. It is not quite four days until Harry Potter's legions of fans can procure a copy of Deathly Hallows - in hardcover, CD or cassette - and find out for themselves exactly who does what to whom. Mr. Dale signed a confidentiality agreement so that he will not breathe a word of the plot. But after spending eight years creating more than 200 voices for all the characters in the Harry Potter books, Mr. Dale really believes that readers - and listeners - should discover the end for themselves.

"For those people who say, 'C'mon, Jim, how does it end?,' it's like parents who say: 'There's a surprise gift for you in the next room. It's a bicycle,'" said Mr. Dale, whose apartment could easily make a Hogwarts professor feel at home with its eclectic collections of Victorian cake decorations, pewter plates and Persian swords. "Let the child find out for himself by opening this gift."

The Obama Girl's music video.

Posted on July 14, 2007
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Matt Nix Gets Burned

There's a fun new summer spy series that debuted a few weeks ago on USA Network that we like, called Burn Notice. Michael Weston is a CIA agent in the middle of a mission who gets "burned" -- that means the government has deemed him unreliable and cuts off his funding, freezes his assets, all with no explanation. Weston is stuck in Miami (which he hates) taking odd jobs while he tries to find out why he was burned and how to clear his name. His friends are Bruce Cambpell, an ex-spy, and an old girlfriend, Gabrielle Anwar. Sharon Gless is his nagging mother. It's sort of The Equalizer meets Alias, with a hint of Mission: Impossible.

The creator and writer of the show, Matt Nix is now blogging over at USA Network about how he got the idea for the show and the challenges of meeting the studio's demands for scripts. A movie screenwriter, this is Matt's first television show. He talks about writing the pilot.

I had written the pilot over the course of about a year and a half. A new experience, to be sure, but I had a while to climb the learning curve. Now I had three weeks to write my first-ever episode of television, at the same time we were editing and doing post-production on the pilot. My third child, Matthew, who was born during the pilot, was doing the newborn thing. And my other two children, Charlie and Esme, had been without me for a month on the pilot and needed some serious daddy time.

This was actually a perfect introduction to the world of television. Take a reasonable amount of work, double it, double it again, add some more work, and that's what it's like.

I have to say, though, it was fun discovering how an episode of "Burn Notice" would work. Getting into the characters more, exploring more detailed stories. In the pilot, we had to spend so much time on the spy business, there wasn't a whole lot of time to spend with the client or the bad guy. Now we needed to get into how a "case of the week" would work.

"Identity" grew out of a couple of things. I have long been fascinated with con artists as well as spies. As Michael says in the episode, they do a lot of the same things and have a lot of the same skills. They just do what they do for different reasons. I liked the idea of putting Michael up against a con artist and seeing if he could beat the guy at his own game. I also wanted to do something that would really demonstrate the difference between Michael and the average P.I. or cop. Michael's not interested in getting the guy busted by the police. That would be easy. He wants his client's money back. That's a much, much harder (and more interesting) thing to do.

Burn Notice airs Thursday nights on USA Network.

Posted on July 13, 2007
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Damon Lindelof: Harry Potter Must Die

Damon Lindelof, co-creator and head writer for Lost, wrote a very interesting (and revealing) an op ed piece for The New York Times explaining why -- although he doesn't actually think it will happen -- Harry Potter really needs to die at the end of the last book.

Because if there's one thing we like more than explosions, it's surprises. And even though 8 out of 10 of us want him to die, we know in our hearts that he won't.

And that's because Ms. Rowling wouldn't dare.

She can’t whack Harry because there are rules that must be followed when it comes to how one ends a grand mythology. Good triumphs over evil. Hope overcomes despair. Paper covers rock. Harry wins. Voldemort loses. The Ewoks sing.

And this is precisely why Harry has to die.

Because it will be tragic. And emotional. And surprising. But most of all ... it will be fair.

*****

So yes. Sorry, kiddies. I hope Harry buys the farm. Even though I know he won't. However... Maybe if He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named tossed one final spell at Harry? Like a mega-Avada Kedavra curse that nobody had ever survived? And if Harry, like, did some kinda Matrix-slow-motion move and used his wand to deflect? And then his opponent like totally exploded everywhere into a thousand pieces of reptilian flesh? If, like, Harry blew on the end of his wand and said, "I told you not to curse, Voldemort." That'd be fine, too.

Aha! So that's why you killed off Charlie?? Because it was fair? Well, we beg to differ, Mr. Lindelof. We beg to differ. And if you kill off Sawyer and Sayid, well, all bets are off.

Posted on July 12, 2007
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Kathleen Woodiwiss Dies

Legendary romance author Kathleen Woodiwiss has died after a long battle with cancer.

Read by millions and loved by many, Kathleen Woodiwiss is credited for being one of the premier romance novelists of our time writing 13 novels over 35 years, all of them New York Times bestsellers. Her son, Heath, posted the following message at the KWoodiwiss forum at Forumwise online and the Simon & Schuster discussion board:

"Hello. I am very sorry to inform you all of the death of my mother Kathleen. She took the death of my brother a bit harder than we thought and the cancer came back with a vengeance. She passed away Friday morning at 0630 in Princeton, MN. I just want to thank you all for all of your support and being such great fans. My Mom was amazed at all of the people that supported her. Her final book is done, but not finished. We will be trying to polish it up for her. Her editor at Harper Collins has been a great source of stress for my Mom and the rest of us as well, so I am not sure how that will work out, but we are trying to get the book published as fast as possible. We all want this to be her greatest book ever. Thank you again for all of your support." - Heath.

Her obituary is a simple one and posted online at the Star-Tribune.com of Minneapolis website. For her fans, an online guest book is available there and you can read the heartfelt tributes others have posted.

Kathleen is widely credited as being the inventor of the long-form historical romance novel. Avon took a chance with her by publishing her 600 word novel, The Flame and the Flower which immediately became a runaway bestseller. Along with Shana, those two novels formed the basis for an entire industry. There are 36 million copies of her books in print. According to her son Heath, Kathleen's cancer came back shortly after the sudden death of one of her sons. She will be missed.

Posted on July 10, 2007
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Fans Beg J.K. Rowling to Write More About Harry Potter

Fans are so unhappy at the thought of losing Harry Potter that they are begging J.K. Rowling to write more stories about the boy wizard and his friends. So far, thousands of fans have signed the petition asking Rowling to write more novels about Harry.

The "Save Harry!" petition calls on Rowling to reverse her decision to end the bestselling series with the seventh and final instalment, "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows".

"Millions, perhaps billions of us, love reading his adventures and we never want them to end," says the online petition, launched on Monday at saveharrypotter.co.uk.

After spending 17 years writing the books, Rowling said she was both "euphoric" and "devastated" that it's finally over. But in a television interview, she left fans with the tantalising, if remote, possibility that she may one day return to the magical world of Hogwarts. "I think that Harry's story comes to quite a clear end in book seven," she told the BBC at the weekend. "But I have always said that I wouldn't say never.

"I can't say I will never write another book about that world, just because I think: 'What do I know, in 10 years' time I might want to return to it'. But I think it is unlikely." Even if she does write another book, it is unclear whether some of the main characters, including Harry, would play a part. Rowling said some characters will die in the last book, but wouldn't say if the boy wizard is among them: "It's not a bloodbath, but it's more than two," she said.

Bookstore Waterstone's -- who is the driving force behind the petition -- reminded people that Sir Arthur Conan Doyle killed off Sherlock Holmes, but was forced to bring him back when fans went crazy over the death.

Posted on July 9, 2007
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Songwriters Enthusiastic About Live Earth

On Saturday, 7-7-07, the biggest concert event ever to happen on Earth will happen. Live Earth, which was organized by former Vice president Al Gore, is a series of worldwide concerts which will happen around the world over a 24 hour period. The performers are essentially everyone who's anyone in the music biz -- from Garth Brooks to Madonna to Justin Timberlake to Shakira to Duran Duran.

Vice president Gore said that songwriters have been excited about the project. Madonna wrote the official Live Earth song and did a video. He also said that there will be lots of surprise performances tomorrow.

You can see "Hey You", Madonna's official Live Earth video, and get all the programming info here.

Posted on July 6, 2007
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James Patterson Responds to Stephen King's Attack

Remember when Stephen King recently attacked author James Patterson, saying how he has no respect for Patterson's work? Well, our eagle-eyed reader Angie Thomson spotted Patterson's response to King's vicious literary attack. In the middle of a review of the new film 1408 (which is based on a Stephen King story), Patterson said:

"1408 - Recently Stephen King commented that he doesn't have any respect for me. Doesn't make too much sense-I'm a good dad, a nice husband-my only crime is I've sold millions of books. As far as 1408 goes, what can I say, I liked it-the first third is especially fine. I'm a John Cusack fan and, in terms of the books anyway, a Stephen King fan, too."

It's all quite odd -- why in the world would Stephen King say such a thing in the first place?

Posted on July 5, 2007
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Roberto Orci Talks Transformers

Roberto Orci, one half of the screenwriting team for the Transformers film talked to CraveOnline about his new film and working with director Michael Bay. The film won the MTV Movie Award for Best Film You Haven't Seen Yet.

Crave Online: How do you write for a director like Michael Bay?

Roberto Orci: The first great step is to make sure that he's not involved until you've written two drafts. So we wrote two drafts before we actually showed him anything. That was in order so that we would be confident that again, the structure would be solid enough that he could come in and play and we wouldn't be developing something based on an idea that was half formed. Also it helps when you have Spielberg as the producer. This is our second movie with Bay so we got to know him pretty well. We are able to predict essentially and very much we wrote this movie in a way for him and for Spielberg and for ourselves.

Crave Online: Did Michael bring the "boy and his first car" idea or was that you?

Roberto Orci: That's something we came up with with Spielberg. Spielberg asked us to do the movie and we were very concerned it being a giant toy commercial with no humanity. We came in and we said, "Listen, we'd love to do the movie but we don't know what it is. Take your movie Close Encounters. It's a great alien movie but it's actually about a guy whose family is disintegrating through his obsession. Do you guys agree that this is a human thing?" And he said, "Yes, and here it is, a boy and his car." That's all he said. That was enough for us to go, "Ahh, okay, now I know what it is." Thus we developed a draft off of that.

Tranformers opened Monday and is playing everywhere to huge crowds.

Have a safe and happy Fourth of July!!

Posted on July 4, 2007
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Salmam Rushdie and Padma Lakshmi Divorcing

Sir Salman Rushdie is becoming quite the tabloid fixture. He's now getting divorced from his fourth wife, the much-younger and quite gorgeous Padma Lakshmi. Padma is a model, actress and also writes cookbooks. She is currently the host of Bravo's Top Chef. Apparently, after being together for more than seven years (and married since 2004), Padma dumped him.

He married Lakshmi, a former model born in 1970 in India, in 2004. She was his fourth wife and the couple had no children. "Salman Rushdie has agreed to divorce his wife, Padma Lakshmi, because of her desire to end their marriage," spokeswoman Jin Auh said in a statement on his behalf. "He asks that the media respect his privacy at this difficult time," the statement said.

Rushdie hit the headlines two weeks ago when he was selected for knighthood by Britain's Queen Elizabeth, provoking renewed anger among some Muslims in Iran and Pakistan. When the Indian-born Rushdie started his romance with the model more than 20 years his junior, the British tabloids made much of their differences in age and intellectual stature.

But Rushdie always defended his wife. "Anyone who's met Padma knows she's as intelligent as they come," he told The Times of London in a 2005 interview. "But, you know, it's not supposed to be permitted to be gorgeous and really smart and also very nice."

"It feels very odd to see newspaper articles saying 'Beauty and the Beast' and 'Why Do Beautiful Women Love Ugly Men?"' he said in the interview. "But at this stage, I'm kind of resigned to it at -- as you say -- pushing 60." Rushdie shot to fame in 1981 when his second novel, "Midnight's Children," a magic-realist exploration of Indian history, won the Booker Prize. The late Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, Iran's supreme religious leader, pronounced a fatwa, or religious edict in 1989 that called on Muslims to kill Rushdie because of perceived blasphemy in his fourth novel, "The Satanic Verses."

What an odd story. Usually a famous couple issues one of those "it's a mutual decision and we'll remain the best of friends" statements. But not this time. This one was more like: "my wife is dumping me, so I guess we're getting a divorce." That's harsh.

Posted on July 3, 2007
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The Six Stages of Email

Nora Epron discusses the Six Stages of Email in a new Op Ed piece in The New York Times. Modeled after the stages of grief, Nora's version traces her feelings about email -- from the joy when it was first introduced, to the lows of the avalanche of spam, to begrudging acceptance of its place in her life. It also chronicles her love affair with AOL, which began with passion, but ended badly.

Stage One: Infatuation

I just got e-mail! I can't believe it! It's so great! Here's my handle. Write me! Who said letter writing was dead? Were they ever wrong! I'm writing letters like crazy for the first time in years. I come home and ignore all my loved ones and go straight to the computer to make contact with total strangers. And how great is AOL? It's so easy. It's so friendly. It's a community. Wheeeee! I've got mail!

*****

Stage Three: Confusion

I have done nothing to deserve any of this:

The Democratic National Committee needs you. Virus Alert. FW: This will make you laugh. FW: This is funny. FW: This is hilarious. FW: Grapes and raisins toxic for dogs. FW: Gabriel García Márquez's Final Farewell. FW: Kurt Vonnegut's Commencement Address. FW: The Neiman Marcus Chocolate Chip Cookie recipe. AOL Member: We value your opinion.

*****

Stage Five: Accommodation

Yes. No. No :). No :(. Can’t. No way. Maybe. Doubtful. Sorry. So Sorry. Thanks. No thanks. Not my thing. You must be kidding. Out of town. O.O.T. Try me in a month. Try me in the fall. Try me in a year. NoraE@aol.com can now be reached at NoraE81082@gmail.com.

Nora's latest books is I Feel Bad About My Neck: And Other Thoughts On Being a Woman, a collection of very funny essays.

Posted on July 2, 2007
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