Overnight Briefing & General Reality Check

Idle gossip & unconfirmed rumors:

Did CARROT TOP make a sudden trip to the hospital over the weekend? Sources in Sin City tell PerezHilton.com that the raven-haired comedian popped into a Las Vegas emergency room Sunday night, but no one's talking about the visit. On the bright side, rumor has it he was released just a few hours later. (Lee)

Reality Round-Up:

The next season of "American Idol" could be more interesting --and not just because SIMON COWELL is leaving. Producers dropped the minimum age a year yesterday, meaning they'll take kids as young as 15 on the show.
   But, there is still no word on who'll be replacing Simon, or whether they'll stick with the four-judge panel at all. Auditions for Season 10 of "American Idol" will be held in Milwaukee; New Orleans; Nashville; East Rutherford, New Jersey; Austin; and San Francisco and begin July 21st in Nashville. (Marino)

Broadcast, cable and video news:

Tonight's the debut of "Memphis Beat," the TNT series starring JASON LEE, ALFRE WOODARD and D-J QUALLS as cops in Memphis with a twist --one of the cops (Jason Lee's character) is a cop by day, but a singer --with a passion for ELVIS songs-- as his night-time job.

Also on the Animal Planet cable channel tonight (and I can't wait): "Michael Jackson and Bubbles: The Untold Story."

Michael Jackson stuff:

MICHAEL JACKSON has made 1-billion dollars since his death a year ago this Friday. Billboard.com broke it all down. Michael has sold 429-million dollars worth of music in the last 12 months. That's 9-million of his own albums, plus another 800,000 JACKSON 5 and JACKSONS' albums. The "This Is It" concert film earned a worldwide total of 392-million dollars in ticket, DVD and Blu-ray sales. Michael's songs brought in 130-million dollars in publishing earnings.
   Even though he didn't tour, many fans did not return their O2 tickets for refunds, and various licensing deals for merchandise brought in another 35-million dollars. And finally, Sony Music made a deal with Michael's estate to release 10 albums through 2017. The tally for that is 31-million bucks. Add it all up, and it's a little more than 1-billion dollars. Sadly, like ELVIS PRESLEY, Michael is worth more dead than alive. (Marino)

World Cup update:

A British woman has injured her throat after blowing her vuvuzela too hard.
   Twenty-nine-year-old YVONNE MAYER tells the London Daily Mail that she was "blowing it as hard as she could" at one of the games when she felt a tinge in her throat.
   "At first I thought I'd gone down with a bug," she said, "but the next day it was worse." The doctor told her she'd ruptured her throat from blowing too hard, "and that perhaps I had been doing it all wrong."
   No long-term damage is expected.
   Mayer would have spoken sooner about the injury but she was following doctor's orders: no talking. She says she's also done blowing the annoying horn.
   "I thought I was blowing it right," she said. "Perhaps I was trying too hard."
   Editor's note: Sad thing is, if she lived in the U-S she could probably sue someone for $100 million.
   --Now if we could get the Obama administration to declare a six month moratorium on vuvuzela blowing, I'd be all for it. (Maiman)