50: "I'm the George Bush of hip-hop"

A year after he defended President George W. Bush from comments made by Kanye West after Hurricane Katrina, 50 Cent has come out and praised Bush again--this time for how similar the two are. Calling Bush his "homeboy," Fiddy said, "You wanna know something? I actually like Bush. In some ways, I'm the George W. Bush of hip hop--nobody likes me, but I'm still gonna run it for the next four years." But if you were hoping 50 would declare his candidacy for the White House in 2008, you're going to be disappointed. "I don't need that kind of pressure," he said. "All I need is a sequel to my video game and a new hit single."

Last September, in the wake of West's comment that "George Bush doesn't care about black people," 50 came to Bush's defense, calling him "a gangsta" and wishing that his felony conviction hadn't prevented him from voting for Bush in the past two elections.

Lachey group starts ABA team

A motley crew of celebrities has joined together to own the Hollywood Fame, the newest member of the American Basketball Association, a C-level pro basketball league. The group is led by singer and Jessica Simpson ex Nick Lachey, as well as his buddy A.J. DiScala, actors Geoff Stults (7th Heaven) and Stacy Keibler (Dancing With the Stars), former NBA player John Salley, and Baltimore Ravens quarterback Kyle Boller. The Fame will launch its inaugural season in November, playing at the Los Angeles Memorial Sports Arena.

Pink covers Jett for NBC football broadcasts

Rebel-rouser Pink is covering a song by original riot grrl Joan Jett for NBC's Sunday-night football telecasts. Pink recorded a reworked version of Jett's "I Hate Myself for Loving You" as the theme to NBC Sunday Night Football, renaming the song, "Waiting All Day for Sunday Night." In the song, Pink sings, "All right Sunday night where are you?/Just kicking back from the things that you do/You want the big game, we want it too." "This is something so different for me," Pink said in a statement. "It's like hearing yourself on the radio for the first time." The song will debut September 10 during the show's first broadcast.

Green Day ends break and gets back to work

After spending the first half of 2006 working through ideas for their follow-up to their smash American Idiot, Green Day took a summer vacation but are now back in the studio, according to a post on the band's Web site. "Billie, Mike, and Tre are back from summer vacations and working hard on new material for the next Green Day album," the band wrote. "Stay tuned for more news next week." The trio also plans to release a film version of Idiot within the next year.

Foo Fighter to keep promise to miners

Two Australian miners are going to have a chance to toss back some beers with the Foo Fighters' Dave Grohl when the band tours there later this year. Miners Brant Webb and Todd Russell spent two weeks trapped underground when the mine they were working in in southern Australia collapsed. As rescuers dug an escape tunnel, Webb and Russell were given music players to pass the time, and the pair requested Foo Fighters' songs. When Grohl got word of the news, he offered to fly the pair to the United States so he could buy them a beer. That never happened, but now that the band is set to play shows in Australia in October, Grohl says they're going to have a "big night." "You know what? I'm not just having one beer with those dudes--we're going for it," Grohl told Australian Broadcasting Corp. radio Thursday. "This is going to be a big night."