I was trolling the internet, or the great time suck, as I like to think of it (The exception, of course, is Hitfix. Studies show that reading Hitfix actually adds minutes to your life every day).  A few items caught our attention. We're not going to do our version of Drew's  tremendously entertaining and informative Morning Read-- and is must reading in the Newman household, by the way-- but every so often, I'll throw up a batch of things that struck my eye that don't need to be their own items.

 

Our favorite news item yesterday and a very telling sign of the times. For a long time, since dinosaurs roamed the earth, Britney Spears has been the most searched name on Google. This month, she's been surpassed by, get this, the term "Coupons."  Yes, people would rather get 25 cents off their Campbell's soup than catch the latest Britney news. The times, they are achangin'.

 

In other teen pop news, Lou Perlman, the pop svengali behind N'Sync and Backstreet Boys, who's now behind bars, is allegedly plotting a reality show from the clink, according to Portfolio, by way of the New York Daily News.  Perlman, who's serving 25 years in prison for a $300 million Ponzi scheme (Bernie Madoff makes him look small time although Perlman had the added allure of being a fugitive), would serve as a mentor to a burgeoning band- via phone. The band is called, dig this, Biteboy.  (Managers should guard against such things. Every single concert review will have the headline "You Bite, Boy!") Portfolio calls the show "part 'Charlie's Angeles' and part 'Making the Band'.' It would be produced by Jonathan Murray of Bunim-Murray fame, the company behind such shows at "The Real World." Call me crazy, but I'm just not seeing any takers on this one. However, loonier things have happened. It's not that the idea of someone behind bars would make it unseemly: "Hurl," the reality show where people stuffed themselves until they inevitably barfed, eliminated the bar on how low we'd sink. No, the problem is it's simply not a sexy enough idea. Perlman passed his Sell-by date more than a decade ago, making him appropriate for "Celebrity Fit Club"  or "Celebrity Rehab" or something like that with other D-Listers, but not a show that trades on picking "the next big thing."

 

Madonna's final album for Warner Bros. will be another greatest hits collection this fall. "Madonna does have plans to go into the studio to record a few new songs for this album," Madonna's publicist Liz Rosenberg told People, according to Hits Daily Double. "We're hoping to have a greatest hits package come out in September. We're all very excited about it."  This will be Madonna's fourth best-of set.  The last was 2001's "GHV2" (maybe her camp doesn't count the 1995's ballad-centric "Something to Believe In' as a greatest hits collection. According to rollingstone.com, Madonna's manager Guy Oseary tweeted earlier this week, telling fans to tweet him back on their song selections for the set.