Blog Posts by Lyndsey Parker

Our daily countdown of the top 50 highlights and lowlights in Madonna's career--leading up to her 50th (yes, 50th!) birthday on August 16--continues today with number 36 through 40. Feel free to share your own favorite Madonna memories on the board below, predict what will be the number one Madonna moment of all time...or just post your birthday well-wishes to the hottest half-centenarian ever.

36) She Get Breathless With Warren Beatty
Typecast as blonde-bombshell seductress Breathless Mahoney in Dick Tracy, Madonna was soon seducing her co-star on the set. Or so she would have the movie-ticket-buying public believe. See, at the time it was up for debate whether Warren and Madonna were actually a real Hollywood power couple, or if their romance was a mere marketing stunt to promote their film. However, if the latter was the case, the publicity they generated from being seen canoodling together certainly did not help this box-office bomb:

37) Britney + Madonna = Blonde Ambition X2
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Our daily countdown of the top 50 highlights and lowlights in Madonna's career--leading up to her 50th (yes, 50th!) birthday on August 16--continues apace today with Madge moments 41 through 45. If you don't see your personal favorite memories on this list yet, please refrain from posting angry messages on our board, because there's a strong chance that they'll show up on the list somewhere between spots 1-40. But do feel free to start sharing your own favorite Madonna memories on the board below, or just post your birthday well-wishes to the hottest half-centenarian ever!

41) Madonna And Missy Elliott Fall Into The Gap
M&M, together at last! Two of the music biz's most iconic and individualistic hitmakers, Madge and Missy became bluejean babies in 2003, when they teamed up for a memorable Gap commercial. They both looked fly, and Missy sounded so-addictive rapping on Madonna's "Hollywood"/"Into The Groove" mashup...but Madonna wasn't very sportswomanlike when demonstraed her advanced

Last week on America's Best Dance Crew 2, Fanny Pak received the first standing ovation from the judges of the whole season--including guest judge Missy Elliott!!--after their completely amazing and freaky interpretation of Missy's "Get Ur Freak On":

And yet, even after that amazing performance, Fanny Pak still didn't get the most votes, and so they ended up on the chopping block last night.

In the words of judge Lil' Mama: AMERICA, ARE YOU SERIOUS?

So then Fanny Pak and the other crew in the bottom two, Super Cr3w, had to battle it out for a spot in next week's finale. But I wasn't worried. I figured Fanny Pak had this one in the bag. Or in the pack, so to speak. Because the theme was '80S NIGHT, and Fanny Pak are all about the '80s. So they seemingly had an edge going into this competition, before they even slipped on their legwarmers. But then when did their Flashdance-themed routine, they were such maniacs on the dance floor, I assumed there was NO way they could lose.

Fanny

I know August is a big reality-TV finale month, and sometimes it's hard to keep track of it all, what with So You Think You Can Dance wrapping up last night and the America's Best Dance Crew 2 finale in just six days, etc. But for those of you who missed the big announcement this past Monday: Melissa Lawson won season 6 of Nashville Star.

So naturally, the NStar camp is in rush-release panic mode right now. Melissa barely had time to accept congratulation kisses from her five kids or brush the celebratory confetti out of her hair before she was whisked offstage on finale night and into a press-filled interrogation room (see my interview blog here); her coronation single "What If It All Goes Right?" was the number-one iTunes country track by the following morning; as I type this, she's probably on a plane to Beijing right now to sing at the Olympics; and the Nashville Star package tour with Melissa and the rest of the top four (Gabe Garcia, Shawn Mayer, and Coffey) kicks off next month.

Well, the miracles of modern science never cease. Clay Aiken's officially a father, y'all.

Yes, Clay's test tube non-lovechild with his BFF, record producer Jaymes Foster (who is woman, in case you were unsure), was hatched this morning.

I could write something even snarkier here, but to be honest, the shock/awe/disgust of the original news of Clay's fatherhood has worn off a smidge since Clay and Jaymes's jawdropping pregnancy announcement was made some time ago. So I guess I'll just say congrats to the Foster-Aikens, and leave it at that.

It's boy, by the way, and his name is Parker Foster Aiken. As far as I know, this bundle of in vitro joy was not named after me...but hey, in my demented mind I'd like to imagine he was. "Parker" has such a nice ring to it, don't you think?

Anyhoo, proud papa Clay wrote on his blog today: "The little man is healthy, happy, and as loud as his daddy."

Yikes! Does that mean he'll be on American Idol season 27 someday? With a name like Parker, this

On this week's So You Think You Can Dance finale, the judges got to pick their favorite routines of the season, and have those dancers reprise them. For the most part I agreed with their choices: Mark and Courtney's sadomasochistic "Garden" routine, Mark and Chelsie's workaholic-husband "Bleeding Love" number, Katee and Josh's sad soldier-leaving-his-sweetheart "No Air" dance, and my hands-down favorite, that psycho-girlfriend "door dance" with Katee and Twitch.

But the judges overlooked a couple dances, in my not-so-humble opinion, so I'm going to run my own "encores" here....

Twitchington's Bed Dance:
As guest judge Napolean put it, "How can you go wrong with a good-looking guy, a beautiful girl, a bed, and flowers?" Add Mia Michaels to that mix and well, you can't go wrong. I am dumbfounded that no judge picked this routine, but thanks to the wonders of the Interweb, we can all watch Twitch and Kherrington hit the sack again and again:

Katee & Joshua's "Hometown Glory":
Another

Well, Usher is once again a mama's boy. Last year the R&B superstar controversially fired his momager amid rumors that she didn't get along with his new wife, and then he enlisted the services of Hollywood power broker (and Mariah Carey manager) Benny Medina. But now Usher has rehired his mom, Jonnetta Patton, amid rumors that Benny was disappointed with the relatively low sales of Usher's latest album, Here I Stand.

So it seems the old saying--that blood is thicker than management-contract ink, or something to that effect--is true. Because apparently Benny couldn't forgive Usher for selling "only" 2 million copies of his new album (as opposed to Confessions' whopping 19 mill), but Usher's mother is willing to forgive a very public termination and her son's confessions to the press like "This is great for me because it means I now get to have my mother strictly as my mother with no added pressure" and "I hurt more than anything over these last two years, when I felt my mother didn't

Much like the burning questions "Will a plus-size girl ever win on America's Next Top Model?" and "Will a rocker ever win on American Idol?," the question "Will a breakdancer ever win on So You Think You Can Dance?" is a matter I've often pondered.

It never seemed like a b-boy (or b-girl) had a chance on SYTYCD--they were always great in their own specialty genre, sure, but whenever they had to pick up choreography or, say, do a Viennese waltz, they just fell apart. (This season's Robert Muraine, winner of tonight's finale faceoff with Philip Chbeeb, is a perfect example: He got so discouraged and exasperated during this season's audition rounds, he quit against the judges' wishes.)

Well, zaftig Whitney just won ANTM this year, and of course rocker boy David Cook triumphed on AmIdol too. So maybe, I thought, 2008 would be Twitch or Josh's year, too.

But still, I never really imagined it would come down to two b-boys in the SYTYCD finale. Especially over Katee!

Yes, tonight SYTYCD