the early-evening news

Supergroup Seeks Erratic Singer for Hedonism, Choogling

Photo: Getty Images


Velvet Revolver Now Just a Bunch of Guys Who Used to Be in Guns N’ Roses: Velvet Revolver front man Scott Weiland has left the band, presumably to spend more time with his “increasingly erratic onstage behavior and personal problems.†From the press release, it sounds like VR plans to forge ahead, so Brett Michaels and Sebastian Bach may want to start polishing their résumés. [Business Wire via Idolator]

Tonight, Simon’s Won’t Be the Only Cleavage: In a few short hours, the remaining American Idol finalists will interpret songs made famous by Dolly Parton, who’ll also appear as a guest judge. [EW]

Movie Critics an Endangered Species: In this morning’s Times, David Carr investigates the thinned ranks of newspaper movie critics. Soon, American moviegoers wishing to avoid stinkers will be forced to adapt Vulture’s math-based Judd Apatow formula to predict the quality of all films. (Rule to live by: If it stars McLovin, it’s probably worth your $10.) [NYT]

Shore Scores: Howard Shore will reprise his Lord of the Rings role as the guy who writes the orchestral score for the upcoming Hobbit movies. [Ain’t It Cool]

April Fools: Google did this, ABC News did this, /Film did this, Jezebel did this, and Rick Astley is popular as ever. [April Fools’ Day On the Web]