avril lavigne (21 posts)

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• Madonna must be a really great friend, letting her pal crash on her couch all the time. In an interview with a Brazilian TV show, Jesus Luz called the pop queen "only my friend" and said he doesn't care about being called a "toy boy or boy toy." Additionally, the Material Mom supposedly is patting herself on the back for upping Alex Rodriguez's star power, which led to his recent hookup with Kate Hudson.

• Paris Hilton sets the record straight: She and BF Doug Reinhardt weren't kicked off a yacht for getting it on in the bathroom.

• Kevin Bacon's BlackBerry was stolen in a subway station. We'll let you come up with the six degrees joke while we marvel that he took the subway.

• We love it when stars try new things! Amy Winehouse is becoming a jewelry designer while Kate Moss preps to become the next Lauren Conrad by writing a novel.

• Breaking news: Avril Lavigne wears something other than a hoodie.

• Dear Susan Boyle: We love you, but your hotel neighbors do not. Get some sleep—you're going to need it. Love, Rise 'n' Shine

Angelina Jolie looks finger-lickin' good in the Big Picture gallery.

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Now you, too, can smell like a faux punk rocker. If you're into that sort of thing.

Avril Lavigne has signed on with Procter & Gamble Prestige Products to launch her own fragrance line, with the first top-noted fruit of her labor due out in fall 2009.

The 23-year-old singer said she was happy "to be working with Procter & Gamble on releasing my first fragrance. Creating this fragrance is a fun process and I am looking forward to sharing it with everyone."

While there's no word on what smells Lavigne is looking to re-create with her debut scent—spit and Deryck Whibley seem the likely front-runners—it will be targeted toward consumers in their early teens. Banking on all going well, the as-yet-unnamed fragrance will be the first of many, with additional debuts also planned.

Kevin Mazur/WireImage.com

The Best Damn Tour? Fans are going to have reserve judgment.

In news that will undoubtedly hearten Hilary Duff, rival Avril Lavigne has been rendered speechless after coming down with acute laryngitis. The illness has forced the Canadian punky popster to scrap six additional shows on her North American tour, bringing the grand total of nixed dates to eight.

"My sincerest apologies to all of my fans," she said in a statement Saturday night. "My intention was to complete the rest of the tour, but tonight at sound check in Anaheim I realized this wasn't possible. Even though I have been resting my voice for days, when I tried to sing nothing came out."

Refunds will be available on Monday for the six concerts—in addition to Anaheim and Sunday's gig in Los Angeles, Lavigne will skip dates in Santa Barbara and San Jose, Calif., and Spokane and Eureka, Wash. She had previously canceled shows last week in San Diego and Phoenix.

Avril Lavigne is looking to launch the best damn brand.

The 23-year-old pop star has partnered with manufacturer Jerry Leigh to be the face of Abbey Dawn, a new junior's lifestyle brand, featuring jewelry and apparel inspired by Lavigne's personal style.

"I actually am the designer," Lavigne told USA Today of the venture. "What's really important to me is that everything fits well and is well-made, so I try everything on and approve it all."

The singer said the Abbey Dawn line would include "a lot of hot pinks and blacks and stars and purple and zebra. Basically, everything I wear."

The line will be sold exclusively at Kohl's, with the first collection launching in July, just in time for back-to-school shopping.

"Our partnership with Avril Lavigne allows us to be true brand builders, and we are proud to welcome Abbey Dawn into our family," Jerry Leigh president Andrew Leigh said in a statement. "We look forward to working with Kohl's on this launch and believe it will be a retail success."

The Abbey Dawn collection takes its name from Avril Lavigne's childhood nickname. Items will be priced between $24 and $48, with inventory to be refreshed every 60 days.

Apart from her new retail collaboration, the Canadian chanteuse kicked off her Best Damn Tour Wednesday in support of her latest album, 2007's The Best Damn Thing.

Lavigne has also been the subject of pregnancy rumors lately, with rampant speculation existing that she and hubby Deryck Whibley will be hearing the pitter-patter of little rocker feet in the near future.

When asked about the baby gossip by Access Hollywood on Tuesday, Lavigne played it coy.

"I don't know. You'll have to ask my reps," she replied, laughing. "Maybe!"

Harshing on someone else's girlfriend has suddenly become the least of Avril Lavigne's worries.

Embroiled in a plagiarism case over her hit tune, the pop-punker has spent the better part of her summer defending her songwriting prowess. Now, though, she can take some solace that the attacks have stopped on at least one front.

Chantal Kreviazuk, Lavigne's fellow Canadian singer-songwriter and onetime collaborator  who publicly dissed Lavigne last month—prior to the "Girlfriend" singer getting sued for allegedly ripping off a similarly boppy '70s track—has issued a mea culpa for her comments.

"I would like to apologize for any misconceptions concerning Avril Lavigne, which may have resulted from statements I made in my interview with Performing Songwriter magazine," Kreviazuk said in a statement Tuesday. "It was not my intention to call Avril's songwriting ability or ethics into question.

"My statements and any inference from my statements, which call into question Avril's ethics or ability as a respected and acclaimed songwriter, should be disregarded and are retracted. Avril is an accomplished songwriter and it has been my privilege to work with her."

The make-nice comments are quite a change of tune from what Kreviazuk was quoted as saying just a month ago.

During an interview with the magazine in support of her upcoming album, Ghost Stories, the interviewer brought up Lavigne, who had been written about in a previous issue.

"I find it funny that it's in Performing Songwriter," Kreviazuk railed to the interviewer. "I mean, Avril, songwriter? Avril doesn't really sit and write songs by herself or anything. Avril will also cross the ethical line, and no one says anything. That's why I'll never work with her again."

Kreviazuk blamed a misappropriation of credit for her falling out with Lavigne.

"I sent her a song two years ago called 'Contagious,' and I just saw the track listing to this album and there's a song called 'Contagious' on it—and my name's not on it. What do you do with that?" asked Kreviazuk, who has penned hits for Gwen Stefani, Kelly Clarkson and Alanis Morissette, and who performed a duet of "O Holy Night" with Lavigne for the 2004 holiday charity album Maybe This Christmas Too?

Asked if she considered consulting a lawyer, Kreviazuk demurred.

"See, I won't do that. I'll just tell you. Art should not be subjected to that kind of controversy. Art should be pure. In my head it is, anyway."

Largely ignored when first published, Kreviazuk's statements began to get major play after Lavigne was sued by the band the Rubinoos for allegedly stealing parts of "Girlfriend" from their 1979 tune "I Wanna Be Your Boyfriend." (View the lawsuit.)

Kreviazuk's sudden change of heart regarding Lavigne's professionalism came just four days after the latter posted a retaliatory message on her Website, refuting not only the claims of the Rubinoos, but also Kreviazuk's comments, a slight Lavigne referred to as "slap in the face #2."

"I was going to be the bigger person and not reply when I read Chantal Kreviazuk's article in Performing Songwriter magazine," Lavigne wrote last Friday. "Chantal's comments are damaging to my reputation and a clear defamation of my character and I am considering taking legal action.

"Chantal has also made false accusations about my writing skills," Lavigne continued. "I am so over this topic...I don't have to prove anything to anyone."

Lavigne insisted the decision to cut professional ties was "simply based on the fact that we had no hits together. That is why her name is not on this record, despite her numerous attempts to be included, which were always denied.

"From my perspective this is a clear case of bitterness. Chantal is upset that she didn't get to be a part of my record."

As for not giving Kreviazuk a credit for "Contagious," Lavigne said that the title was the only similarity between the two songs: "Different lyrics, different melody, different genres," she wrote.

Despite threatening legal action, Lavigne said she had forgiven Kreviazuk for her comments. "She did email me after the article came out apologizing and I forgive her," Lavigne wrote. "But I have to put the truth out there so my fans are not confused by these false accusations."

While her beef with Kreviazuk seems kaput, the Rubinoos mess shows no signs of going away quietly.

Lavigne lovers and haters are hitting YouTube, with side-by-side musical comparisons of the two songs proliferating on the video-sharing service to both prove and disprove the plagiarism accusation—the most popular of which are attracting upward of 1.5 million views.

But we're guessing Lukasz "Dr. Luke" Gottwald was not among them.

"I never heard of the Rubinoos before the lawsuit," Lavigne's "Girlfriend" cowriter and producer told the Los Angeles Times. "I never heard of the song and neither has Avril. I would take a polygraph on that in front of them.

"Me and Avril wrote the song together. It started out with Avril wanting to make something fun and upbeat," he said, before adding to the confusion over who exactly should get credit for the song.

"It has the same chord progressions as 10 different Blink-182 songs, the standard changes you'd find in a Sum 41 song. It's the Sex Pistols, not the Rubinoos."

Somewhere Johnny Rotten just dialed up his barrister.