February 16, 2011
By Staff Reporter
Reports of turmoil within the usually close-knit ranks of U2 were confirmed this week. Bono admitted to the Sunday World that he and the band were faced with what amounted to a devil’s bargain: sell the rights to one of their most popular songs for use in a commercial and donate the dough to charity, or to refuse the multi-million-dollar offer and maintain their artistic integrity. For a globe-trotting do-gooder like Mr. Hewson, this left him gored on the horns of a dilemma.
An American auto maker, whom Bono declines to name, offered a staggering $23 million for the rights to the 1987 hit “Where the Streets Have No Name.” The singer admits that he and the band were very tempted to take the money and donate it to the various charities they espouse, like the Chernobyl Children’s Project, Amnesty International and the AIDS awareness campaign in Africa.
“We discussed giving [the money] away, and in principle I am up for that,” said Bono.
“We thought, we can do a lot with this money — it’s an obscene amount of money . . . the lives it can change.”
Ultimately, the band decided against commercializing the tune. According to Bono, the song has a special meaning for the band — that it’s somehow touched by the hand of God. Oh, and of course, “the commercial concerns would have worn out the song.” Hmmm . . . can’t have that sort of carry-on.
While we understand the Bono’s reluctance to become just another ad hook — really, can you ever listen to Bob Seeger’s classic song “Like a Rock” and not think of Chevy trucks? — it seems a bit churlish to turn down all that money for a song that — face it — is 15 years old. We vaguely remember the “Pop” ethos, when he pushed the theory of art as a commodity. We even remember the band launching that concert tour with a press conference in the lingerie department of Kmart. And, of course, they had no problem performing “Streets” during the Super Bowl halftime show, which is basically the world’s most-watched infomercial.
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To be fair, the band hasn’t ruled out the possibility of selling other bits of their extensive catalog for commercial use.
“We just thought we couldn’t put a price on that song,” said Bono. “But offers of that size for any other tunes? We might be able to figure out a plan. We’re not at all ruling it out.”
Just think of the possibilities: Minute Maid could use “Lemon.” Or how about “Even Better than the Real Thing” for I Can’t Believe it’s Not Butter? Jewelry companies would line up for “Silver and Gold.” If you guys have any other suggestions, e-mail them to us at emurphy@irishecho.com. We’ll print the funniest ones next week, and send the best suggestions to the band’s P.R. reps.
Fraser: Can’t tell a lie
For the better part of two decades, we’ve known him as the deliciously pompous psychiatrist Fraser Crane, first on “Cheers” and then on his eponymous named show. Now, Kelsey Grammer is suiting up to play the father of our country in a movie that’s being shot 3,500 miles away in Ireland.
Grammer will appear alongside the dreamy — er, we mean, that fine actor, Aidan Quinn — in the big-budget movie “Benedict Arnold,” which begins shooting this week in Dublin.
We hear that the film, which is set at the height of the American Revolution, will feature elaborate battle scenes, which should provide lots of work for Irish extras. Whatever — we don’t mind what they do as long as the director remembers to shoot lots of close-ups of Aidan and those impossibly blue eyes.
Goodbye to the big buck$
Talk about the luck of the Irish. 007 hunk Pierce Brosnan and his wife, Keely Shay Smith, had it. Westlife hunk Bryan McFadden and his Atomic missus, Kerry Katona, had it. What’s it, you ask? Perfect timing, of course. Each couple had it — at least when it came to setting a date for their wedding. From a monetary perspective, that is.
When the couples sold the exclusive snaps of their wedding to celebrity glossy Hello! magazine (forcing them to spend most of their big day hiding under blankets), they scooped a cool bucket of cash — the McFaddens _300,000, the Brosnans considerably more. Now, we hear, the days of fat paychecks for pix is kaput. The publishers of archrivals OK! and Hello! have decided to put a stop to their usual bidding war. And the first celeb to feel the pinch will be new mom Elizabeth Hurley.
According to the News of the World, each of the magazines had offered Hurley _1 million for exclusive pics of her newborn, Damien Charles. Bidding was fierce, Hurley was reluctant, the baby did baby things like coo and poop, and then, all of a sudden — a deafening silence.
Actually, it wasn’t silence at all. If you listened carefully, you could almost hear OK! publisher Richard Desmond phoning Hello! publisher Eduardo Sanchez Junco. The two decided to offer Liz a modest _100,000 and — get this — share the pics.
Naturally, Liz turned them down flat. Her spokesperson sniffed, “She never had any intention of accepting an offer but was curious to see how high the offer would go.” (Anyone in the market for a bridge?)
Making beautiful music
This next item is so sweet it makes our teeth hurt. It seems that there’s romance brewing within the ranks of Louis Walsh’s pop empire. Westlife singer Mark Feehily has reportedly flipped for Bellefire cutie Cathy Newell. Yeah, yeah, music is the food of love, and all that.
We hear that the pair started making goo-goo eyes at one another when Bellefire joined Westlife on a recent European tour. Now Mark’s “besotted” with the dark-haired singer, according to pals.
“[He is] always on the phone to her,” said a source.
We can’t imagine it’s easy carrying on a romance when both parties are constantly on the road. Cathy is apparently luckier than her band mates, who say their careers are cutting into their snogging time.
“We’re all looking for boyfriends,” Ciara Newell, Cathy’s younger sister, sighed to the Sunday World.
“It’s hard to meet men and have a relationship when you’re so busy,” she said. “But we are keeping our eyes open!”
But just in case you thought the girls were spending their nights contemplating spinsterhood and watching reruns of “Keeping Up Appearances,” think again.
“Whenever we get a chance we share a pizza and wine and have a gossip about boys,” giggled bandmate Kelly Kilfeather.
“It’s a real girlie house and there’s always choccy biscuits in the fridge.” So at least they have their priorities right.
Briefings
Irish singer Maura O’Connell, who is now based in the country music capital of Nashville, Tenn., will make her film debut in the long-awaited Martin Scorsese flick, “Gangs of New York.” Maura got a firsthand taste of movie glamour when she reported on the set to play — you guessed it — an Irish singer in the turn-of-the-century epic.
“My teeth were blackened and my hair was very red and I was dirtied up for the part,” laughed O’Connell. “I sing an Irish-ish song.”