BEYONCE, QUEEN LATIFAH and FERGIE of the BLACK EYED PEAS have designed shoes for JAY-Z's "S. Carter Women in Entertainment" program. The shoes will be auctioned off at rbk.com through July 28th, with all proceeds going to the Shawn Carter Scholarship Fund . . . LORETTA LYNN has received three nominations, including Album of the Year for "Van Lear Rose," for the Americana Honors and Awards Show to take place September 24th at the Nashville Convention Center. Other nominees include MINDY SMITH, PATTY GRIFFIN and RODNEY CROWELL . . .
ALICE COOPER will star in Staples' new back-to-school campaign along with his song, "School's Out" . . . BONO received the annual Freedom Award from the National Civil Rights Museum in Memphis on Thursday . . . Auditions for the fourth season of American Idol begin on August 4th in Cleveland. The show has raised its maximum age for contestants from twenty-six to twenty-eight . . .
MOS DEF will release The New Danger, the follow-up to his acclaimed 1999 debut Black on Both Sides, on September 28th. Part of the delay can be attributed to the rapper's continued work as an actor. Last week he received an Emmy nomination for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Movie for his role in HBO's Something the Lord Made. Mos is currently filming Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy for a 2005 theatrical release. After the film wraps, he plans to tour the U.S. this fall . . .
JIMMY EAT WORLD will release their next album, Futures, on October 19th . . . LUDACRIS will appear on the season premiere of Crank Yankers, airing on July 20th on Comedy Central . . . Dream Ticket: Four Destinations, a four-DVD set of live ELTON JOHN footage will be released exclusively through Best Buy this fall . . . MEGADETH frontman DAVE MUSTAINE is being sued for $18.5 million by former bassist DAVID ELLEFSON for withholding merchandise and publishing royalties . . . LIL' MO has signed a record deal with Cash Money Records and will release a new CD titled Syndicated, in October . . . LOS LOBOS will film two San Francisco shows this month for a DVD due by year's end . . .
JEWEL will headline AIDS Project Los Angeles' Summer Party 2004, a benefit concert set for June 24th. ROBI DRACO ROSA and PAUL LEKAKIS will also perform at the charity event . . . The DAVE MATTHEWS BAND's catalog will has been made available through Napster . . . ELVIS COSTELLO AND THE IMPOSTERS have joined the lineup for the 2003 Austin City Limits Festival, set for September 17-19 . . . LEONARD COHEN will release a new studio album, Dear Heather, on September 28th . . . TONY BENNETT's paintings will be exhibited at the P&C Art Gallery in Washington, D.C., from August 18-31. Bennett will perform at the nearby Wolf Trap Theater on August 16th . . .
ASHLEE SIMPSON, little sister of JESSICA, has been named the next Candie's Shoes girl. The ads will start running in September and continue throughout the fall . . . JUVENILE signed a new deal with Atlantic Records and plans to release a new album in early 2005 . . . DURAN DURAN's upcoming box set featuring their first three albums, Duran Duran, Rio, and Seven and the Ragged Tiger, will hit stores August 10th . . . The USED will release a new CD titled In Love and Death on August 31st . . . STORY OF THE YEAR, MY CHEMICAL ROMANCE, LOSTPROPHETS and LETTER KILLS will launch a U.S. tour beginning September 17th in Tucson, Arizona . . .
PRINCE is selling a new track, "Silver Tongue," through his online NPG Music Club Store. The song, featuring music by Prince and lyrics by NIKKA COSTA, costs seventy-seven cents for NPG club members and ninety-nine cents for non-members . . . American Idol winner FANTASIA is the new spokesmodel for the clothing brand American Rag Cie, found exclusively in Macy's department stores . . . The RED HOT CHILI PEPPERS staged the highest grossing concert at a single venue this year with their three-date sold out shows at London's Hyde Park in June. The performances took in more than $17 million . . . Rockabilly singer ERSEL HICKEY, best known for his song "Bluebirds Over the Mountain," later covered by the BEACH BOYS, has died from a post-surgical infection. He was seventy. BRIAN McKNIGHT will release his next album, "Gemini," on September 21st . . . CHRISTINA AGUILERA and ANDRE 3000 are among the celebrities participating in a series of print and broadcast PSAs sponsored by Declare Yourself, a nonprofit organization encouraging young people to vote. The ads will hit magazines and airwaves later this month . . . THRICE and AVENGED SEVENFOLD will contribute previously unreleased tracks to the Hopeless Records compilation, "Hopelessly Devoted to You, Vol. 5" . . . J.J. CALE was honored by his hometown of Tulsa, Oklahoma, when the mayor declared July 5th "J.J. Cale Day." The FOO FIGHTERS' DAVE GROHL joined TRENT REZNOR during a weekend recording session for the upcoming NINE INCH NAILS album, "Bleed Through." No release date has been set . . . ALICIA KEYS is the first artist to sign on for a concert at the Great Wall of China on September 25th. The show will commemorate the twentieth anniversary of the Great Wall restoration project . . . CHRISTINA AGUILERA has cancelled her one-off show in Pittsburgh on July 17th because the promoter filed for bankruptcy . . .
A biography on BELLE AND SEBASTIAN titled, "Just a Modern Rock Story," is due out in the late spring of 2005 to coincide with the band's next album . . . LUKA BLOOM will release his next album, "Before Sleep Comes," on Bar None Records this fall . . . Former "American Idol" contestant JUSTIN GUARINI will star in "Good Vibrations," a musical built around the music of the BEACH BOYS. The show will debut July 29th in Poughkeepsie, New York . . .
EMINEM and his Shady Records have struck a deal with Sirius Satellite Radio to create a new hip-hop channel. The rapper will host specialty shows on the station which will debut this fall . . . WYCLEF JEAN, FOUNTAINS OF WAYNE, the WALKMEN, A TRIBE CALLED QUEST and The DEAD KENNEDYS are among the artists lending tracks to the upcoming soundtrack to The Manchurian Candidate . . . LOSTPROPHETS' deluxe single "Last Summer" will be available as an import on August 23rd and will include B-side cover versions of the STROKES' "Reptilia" and PHIL COLLINS' "In the Air Tonight" . . . MARIANNE FAITHFULL's new album, "The Mystery of Love," produced by PJ HARVEY and featuring three songs with NICK CAVE, will hit streets September 14th . . .
DANGER MOUSE's remix of ZERO 7's "Somersault" became the 100 millionth song downloaded through the iTunes Music Store on July 11th. The twenty-year-old Kansas native who purchased the song won a new PowerBook, an iPod and a 10,000 song gift certificate . . . Miller beer company is holding a contest in which winners will be allowed to attend a special concert titled, Rock Through Time, featuring performances by VELVET REVOLVER, the DARKNESS, LENNY KRAVITZ, BO DIDDLEY, BEN FOLDS and JAMES BROWN, among others, on September 17th and 18th at New York's Roseland . . . RICK JAMES is planning to release a thirty-song double-CD of new music, although no date has been announced.