Recording industry suing 16- and 20-year-old downloaders

If at first you don't succeed at suing adult music downloaders, try, try again--by suing the kids. The Recording Industry Association of American, representing five record companies, has filed a lawsuit in a New York federal court against 20-year-old Michelle Santangelo and 16-year-old Robert Santangelo for pirating music over the Internet, according to the Associated Press.

The RIAA had previously tried to sue the defendants' mother, Patricia Santangelo, who refused to settle the lawsuit; a judge later called her a genuinely "Internet-illiterate parent." In this case, Santangelo has denied knowledge of music downloading in her home, adding that if it did happen, the music sharing and downloading programs on the computer are to blame, not her kids.

"[E]ach of the defendants participated in the substantial violations of plaintiffs' copyrights at issue and then concealed their involvement, standing idly by as Patricia Santangelo repeatedly protested their innocence and chastised plaintiffs for filing allegedly frivolous litigation," the RIAA claimed.

The RIAA said the Santangelo siblings had downloaded or distributed more than 1,000 songs on their family computer. Specific songs named, according to the AP, include Michael Jackson's "Beat It," The Offspring's "Pretty Fly (For a White Guy)," and Hanson's "MMMBop."

50 Cent, De Niro team up to clean up New Orleans

Apparently 50 Cent's 2005 film debut dud Get Rich or Die Tryin' hasn't discouraged the rapper from the movie business altogether. 50 Cent, whose real name is Curtis Jackson, and actor Robert De Niro are in "final negotiations" to costar in a police-corruption thriller called New Orleans, according to The Hollywood Reporter.

The movie, formerly titled Microwave Park, stars De Niro as a police officer and 50 Cent as his partner after Hurricane Katrina. De Niro's character thinks his partner died during the storm's rage but learns he was shot to death. Production begins in New Orleans in February. There's no word yet on whether any of 50 Cent's music will be used in the film.

Get Rich or Die Tryin' was a 2005 movie loosely based on 50 Cent's life, and it shared the same title as the rapper's hit 2003 album, which sold more than 6 million copies in the United States and more than 12 million worldwide.

Culture Club throws angry words at Boy George

In an interview with the Associated Press, the remaining members of the formerly Boy George-fronted '80s band Culture Club denounced their former bandmate for lashing out at the band as it readies a new tour.

Culture Club and Boy George parted ways in the late 1980s, but that didn't stop the rest of the band from finding a new singer. Sam Butcher will belt out the tunes for the band--rebranded as Culture Club Reborn--during the UK tour starting December 7. But the 29-year-old Butcher didn't get the seal of approval from Boy George, who called the new frontman "dreadful" and the new Culture Club sound mediocre. The remaining band members--bassist Mikey Craig, drummer Jon Moss, and keyboardist Phil Pickett--also criticized Boy George for accepting a songwriting award at the Q Music Awards. The song? Their most famous, "Karma Chameleon."

"We should have been there," Craig said. "George wasn't the sole writer of the song. We wrote collectively. At the end of the day, Culture Club was very much ours as well as George's. He was the visual impact that everyone got, but there was a hell of a lot behind it."

The band's name and image was a group effort, too, Moss said. "He wanted to call himself 'Papa George.' It doesn't have the same ring to it," he said. "And he wanted to call us Caravan Club."

Panic! at the Disco OK with emo typecast

Las Vegas rock band Panic! at the Disco says they don't mind being called an emo band and won't change their music to satisfy other people's criticisms. Preparing the follow-up to their hit debut album A Fever You Can't Sweat Out isn't changing their musical direction, said guitarist Ryan Ross.

"I don't think our new record will be any kind of reaction against emo. But then I don't really think our first album fit into any category," Ross said. "We didn't consciously go in any direction or write songs that would necessarily fit in a particular genre, and we're not going to be doing that now."

Brandon Flowers, singer of fellow Las Vegas rockers The Killers, has publicly expressed his dislike of Panic!, Fall Out Boy, and other bands in recent months. "Emo, pop-punk, whatever you want to call it, is dangerous," the outspoken Killers frontman said in June.