Tuesday night, Simon said he was unimpressed. Wednesday night, America agreed, voting Bucky Covington out of the "American Idol" sing-off. Covington's departure slimmed the Idol hopefuls to seven. The winner will be named May 24. Petulant judge Simon Cowell said on Tuesday's program -- a tribute to the music of Queen -- that the 28-year-old Covington's take on the band's "Fat Bottomed Girls" was "mediocre

It's been a long and winding road, but the Beatles are finally getting online. Apple Corps, the music company formed by the Fab Four to control their music and business empire, has confirmed plans to digitally remaster the band's entire catalog and, for the first time, make it available for download via online stores

Tom Cruise's next mission, should he choose to accept it: Crisscross New York via helicopter, motorcycle, speedboat, subway and motorized couch (okay, we made that last one up) for a six-hour whirlwind promotion of Mission: Impossible III. And, to kill the suspense, he already has. Dubbed, yes, "Mission: NYC," the hypefest is set to take place May 3 with TV appearances and borough-wide screenings all leading up to the premiere of the sequel at the Tribeca Film Festival that night

Michael Jackson may be able to moonwalk his way out of his monetary problems after all. The onetime King of Pop is said to be close to cutting a deal that would allow him to avoid bankruptcy by refinancing millions of dollars in loans, the New York Times reports

LATER THIS MONTH Robert De Niro's Tribeca Film Festival will host the premiere of United 93, the first mainstream Hollywood film to tackle the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001. Directed by British filmmaker Paul Greengrass, who made The Bourne Supremacy, the film is a reconstruction of events on board United Airlines flight 93, which crashed in Shanksville, Pennsylvania, as passengers tried to overpower hijackers

The 6-month-old son of singer Britney Spears and husband Kevin Federline fell from a highchair, prompting social workers to visit the couple's Malibu home over the weekend, sources close to the situation said Tuesday. On Friday, Spears became concerned that her son, Sean Preston Federline, might have a head injury and took him to an emergency room, the sources said. That is when the Los Angeles County Department of Children and Family Services was notified

For some musos, success is a giant entourage and loads of groupies. For Bernard Fanning, it's someone to cut your grass. Bernard Fanning's album Tea & Sympathy has gone triple platinum (more than 200,000 sales), he sold out three Enmore Theatres, which pack in about 2000 punters, with similar audiences in Brisbane and Melbourne, and he doesn't have to divide the dosh five ways with the Powderfinger boys. He's probably rolling in cash

"Bad Day" has turned oh-so-good for Daniel Powter. The first single from the singer-songwriter from British Columbia had been bouncing around on the radio for nearly six months, with middling success, even though it had been a huge hit across Europe, where it was the most-played song of 2005. Then came American Idol. Once the TV powerhouse started using the song as its send-off music for its castaway contestants, "Bad Day" exploded in popularity, reaching No

Sarah Jessica Parker reckons it's time Matthew McConaughey left home. Sarah Jessica Parker sure gets to play characters that can help single girls on the make. Carrie Bradshaw - her persona-defining role on Sex and the City for six seasons - was a newspaper sex columnist. In the course of her scribblings, she met people such as Chris Noth's Mr Big

US pop star Britney Spears and her husband were cleared of any wrongdoing by child welfare agents who visited their home in response to a hospital report of an injury to their infant son, her lawyer said. The statement from lawyer Martin Singer did not give details about the mishap that led to Saturday's house call by the Los Angeles County Department of Children and Family Services, or DCFS