Pop Culture News and Notes

A British court ruled against The Beatles in their suit against Apple Computer (which they filed to prevent Apple from using the apple-shaped logo on their iTunes site; the Beatles contend that they had a 1991 agreement with Apple that prevented the computer giant from using the logo, which they claim was too similar to the Beatles’ own Apple Records logo, on music-related enterprises.) Apple Corps…which was founded by the Beatles in 1968 and which is still owned by Paul McCartney, Ringo Starr, John Lennon’s widow Yoko Ono, and the estate of George Harrison…is most likely going to appeal. For its part, Apple Computer hopes to reach some kind of amicable accommodation with the Beatles that might include iTunes finally having the music of the Fab Four, which is not legally available as online downloads, for sale.

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Mission: Impossible 3 opened with comparatively soft numbers despite (or maybe because of) the incessant promo tour Mr. Cruise and his big wide grin embarked on last week. $48 million in domestic box office is still a lot of money but it probably disappoints the producers and the studio anyway since that is about $10 million less than Mission: Impossible 2 did during its opening weekend back in 2000. It gets worse when you factor in rising ticket prices between 2000 and now because the estimated number of people who went to see MI3 during its first weekend was more than 3 million less than those who queued up for MI2’s debut. There’s no reason to cry for Tom or the studio since it’s likely that MI3’s overseas take (where couch jumping and wild-eyed rants about postpartum depression may not have the same impact) will help them all make mountains of dough just the same.

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Axl Rose has reportedly said that the oft-delayed new Guns ‘n’ Roses disc, Chinese Democracy, will be released sometime this fall. The record has been talked about for just about a decade now so Axl will just have to forgive us if we don’t hold our breath in anticipation that this thing will actually drop this year…