Avril to marry Nickelback frontman

Pop singer Avril Lavigne and Nickelback frontman Chad Kroeger aren’t just making music together. They’re getting hitched*.

A spokeswoman for Lavigne confirmed an August 21 report from People magazine that the 27-year-old pop singer and 37-year-old rocker became engaged earlier this month after dating for six months.

Zhang Ziyi receives threatening

messages: critic

Chinese actress Zhang Ziyi has received anonymous threats ahead of the release of her new movie “Dangerous Liaisons,” according to well-known movie critic Bi Chenggong.

Bi said on his microblog that he had received two anonymous messages asking him to notify Zhang to stay away from all promotional activities for the movie, which is set to be released on September 27.

Many netizens said the threats may have been orchestrated by the movie’s producers to promote it, but producer Chen Weiming denied the accusation.

Taylor Swift’s ‘Never Ever’ breaks music chart record

Country star Taylor Swift’s latest single made a record-breaking entry in the Billboard Digital Songs chart on August 22, scoring the biggest digital sales week ever for a song by a female artist.

Swift’s song “We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together,” an infectious, punky* country-pop anthem, quickly rose through the charts and gained strong radio play after its release two weeks before, selling 623,000 downloads, according to Nielsen SoundScan.

Jerry Nelson dies at 78

Jerry Nelson, the puppeteer* behind a delightful menagerie* of characters including Count von Count in “Sesame Street” and Gobo Fraggle in “Fraggle Rock,” has died. He was 78.

Nelson, who suffered from emphysema*, died on August 23 in his Massachusetts home on Cape Cod, the Sesame Workshop said on August 24.

(SD-Agencies)