Times Square Gossip

ATAIA Some people are born knowing what they must do. Ataia is one of them. ATAIA, the daughter of John Lennon’s guitarist releases her first single “FINE”. Singer, songwriter, actress, born in Nyack, NY, Ataia grew up in Germantown, MD, Argentina, and Nashville, TN. “I have been writing songs and singing all of my life.  I spent a lot of time in the studio with my dad, writing and singing, and playing whatever instrument he handed to me that wasn’t TOO big for me.” ATAIA lost her Dad in 2010 to a rare disease and then three years later lost her beloved brother to suicide. These deep personal losses affected her deeply. Her desire to bring "hope to others" and to encourage others to "ask for help" is the message she wants to relay through music. ““I choose to take my pain and bring hope to others. It is okay to be okay, or not be okay. It is not okay to check out! I want to take whatever action I can to help prevent sufferi...

The Beatles Famous Abby Road Cover Re-Created John Lennon In Wax Paul McCartney In Wax The Beatles At Madame Tussauds Madame Tussauds in Hollywood, Unveiled the Beatles Wax Figures in Los Angeles, California today. Photos By: RD / Orchon / Retna Digital

**** THE WEB GOSSIP **** The Legend Bob Gruen LENNON NYC -- We finally got to watch the excellent American Masters/PBS special entitled Lennon NYC which focuses on John Lennon’s time in New York City. The 1 hour and 55 minute documentary is jammed packed with many never before seen interviews with the likes of Elton John; recording engineer Roy Cicala; photographer Bob Gruen; Yoko Ono; Ringo Starr; drummer Jim Keltner; May Pang; David Geffen; guitarist Earl Slick; and, most notably producer Jack Douglas, who gives out some really terrific revelations on the artist, including the fact that Lennon would always flatten his D chord on the guitar, so when someone asked if that was him, he could say the out-of-tune somewhat guitar was his. He also offers some rather startling views on his songwriting and habits in the recording studio. I found it particularly moving that the day after Lennon’s death, he and Ono retreated to the studio where they listened to out takes and what they had recor...

Beatle John Lennon's widow Yoko Ono who barely knows the famed groups songs, just realized their music is "special" when she recently revisited the band’s catalogue. Famous in her own right as a artist, Ono met Lennon in 1966, at the height of the super groups fame, and was married to him until his death in New York City in 1980. Yoko is now confessing that she is no expert on the band’s music, and gained a new appreciation of the tracks when she helped organize the release of remastered versions of their albums earlier this month. She says, "I didn’t know the Beatles’ songs so well until I started to become responsible for them. Having to check it, listen to it, and make sure everything is alright reminded me how each one has some kind of special energy." Ono is also very adamant the new The Beatles: Rock Band video game is a good move, because it will spearhead a second coming for the famous band. She adds, "It’s not about chopping heads. It’s going to pr...

**** JOHN LENNON ALSO OPENS UP ABOUT BEAUTIFUL YOKO ONO **** Yoko Ono A series of interviews with Beatles John Lennon has been published. They reveal the legend's thoughts on his bandmate Paul McCartney and the historic bands breakup. The interviews also include previously unpublished chats with McCartney and Ringo Starr by British journalist Ray Connolly. In one of the tapes, recorded in 1969, Lennon is heard praising McCartney’s musical ability at a time when the legendary band was on the verge of splitting up and after he was rumored to have dismissed his friends work as pop ditties. Lennon tells Connolly, "(For No One from the Revolver album) that was one of the good ones. All his semi-classical ones are best, actually. I suppose it was a bit hard on him… I only ever asked two people to work with me as a partner. One was Paul McCartney and the other Yoko Ono. Lennon also reveals more about the reasons behind the band’s split, insisting he wanted to initiate the break up m...

Singing star Lady GaGA would have loved to have been a hippie in the wild 1960s, so she could have been a groupie chasing after Beatle John Lennon. GaGa is convinced she was born in the wrong era, and is insisting she would have fit right in when The Beatles were at the height of their worldwide fame. And she would have wasted no time in going after singer John Lennon, even if it meant fighting off his longtime partner Yoko Ono. She says, "I’m quite sure that if it were 1968 I may not be the Lady GaGa that I am today. "I might be arguing with Yoko Ono and trying to win John Lennon’s heart and chasing The Beatles in a bus on LSD, hoping that one of them hands me a microphone one day." Photo By: RD/Leon/Retna

John Lennon's A Family Tree "John’s artwork speaks for itself," says Yoko Ono, the artist, businesswoman, and keeper of her late husband John Lennon’s creative flame. “It is meant to bring people together to enjoy and find an opportunity to talk to each other. We hope that the exhibition helps people to discuss real issues of peace.” That conversation has been ongoing, stemming from the largest collection of Lennon’s artwork ever assembled: a traveling exhibit that has traversed the country and the planet for 15 years, attracting record crowds and raising hundreds of thousands of dollars for charity. Now, this critically acclaimed exhibit is coming to Southampton in New York. Yoko Ono has joined forces with the Southampton Inn to present Come Together: A Look Into John Lennon’s Life Through His Artwork – hand-signed pieces and limited edition prints, as well as serigraphs, lithographs, copper etchings and aqua tints, all of which will be available for sale. They will be...

Yoko Ono And John Lennon Beatles legend John Lennon's killer Mark Chapman has been denied parole for the fifth time following a hearing today. The 53 year old is expected to serve at least two more years at New York’s Attica Correctional Facility before he can make another appeal for his release. He was originally sentenced to a 20-year-to-life sentence for shooting the singer outside his New York City apartment at the Dakota's in December 1980. According to media reports, Chapman’s parole officers denied his most recent attempt at freedom because it "would not be in the best interest of the community," despite confirming he has maintained a clean disciplinary record since 1994. Yesterday Lennon’s widow Yoko Ono, lobbied against Chapman’s release, insisting he would be hunted down and killed by Lennon’s loyal fans if he was ever set free from prison. To this day, fans still gather in Central Park's Strawberry Fields daily, singing Lennon's songs.

Yoko Ono drugged Beatle icon John Lennon during his attempts to give up smoking according to the late Beatle’s ex-girlfriend May Pang.The star dated former assistant Pang for 18 months from 1974 to 75, but returned to his wife Ono following the brief fling. And Pang insists Ono’s methods of helping Lennon to stop smoking were unconventional, she made him drink the cure, which made him physically sick and made him sleep excessively. She says, "He wasn’t ready to go back. It wasn’t as clear cut as, ‘I’m going to leave you and go home.’ He went over there for this method she had to quit smoking. He was going to come back. He said, ‘Don’t worry, I’ll be gone for a couple of hours. I’ll be back, we’ll go for dinner.’ He was gone all weekend. I couldn’t get through to him there. Every time I called, Yoko said, ‘He’s sleeping, he’s sleeping.’ "When I saw him on Monday, something wasn’t right. Something had gone on.When I asked him, he said, ‘I drank this tea Yoko gave me and I thre...

Beatle John Lennon was a television addict who spent hours each day lying in bed and flicking channels, his ex-girlfriend and Times square Gossip friend May Pang reveals. Pang, who was Lennon’s assistant and then dated him from 1973 to 1975 - while he was separated from wife Yoko Ono, claims her favourite image of the former Beatle is of him glued to the box with his two cats crawling over him at their home on New York’s East 52nd Street. She says, "The man really liked to stay in bed and just lay there and watch television. Cable was new then. We had a box with buttons and his fingers were constantly moving on it. We had cats called Major and Minor. They would just sit all over him. It was just cute."

A lock of John Lennon's hair is being auctioned off.The late Beatle gave his shorn strands to hairdresser Betty Glasgow - who worked as a stylist on the Fab Four's films 'Hard Day's Night' and 'Help' -along with a note saying: "To Betty, Lots of love and hair from John Lennon. "The piece is being sold by English auction house Gorringes, in Worthing, as part of 'The Betty Glasgow Collection of Beatles and Film Memorabilia' on December 12, and is expected to reach between £2,000 and £3,000. For safe-keeping Betty stuck the hair inside a copy of John's second book,'A Spaniard in the Works'.She admits she will be sad to sell the hair because it reminds her of the fantastic times she had with John and the other Beatles - Sir Paul McCartney, the late George Harrison and Ringo Starr.Betty said: "It was great fun working with the boys on the films. They were always together in a group and having a laugh. My job was to keep their h...

John Lennon has visited his son Julian Lennon from beyond the grave.Julian was left shocked by the haunting moment which occurred more than 25 years after the Beatles legend's death while he was shooting a new film in Australia recently.Julian, who agreed to take part in an ancient ceremony with an Aboriginal tribe, was left speechless when he was handed a white feather by a tribe elder, a symbol of great significance to him.A source told Britain's Daily Express newspaper: It may sound strange but that was a very weird and emotional moment for Julian. He was left speechless. Not long before he died, John had told him, 'If anything ever happens to me, look for a white feather and you will know I am there for you, always looking out for you.' "Julian, 44, was in Australia to produce the film 'Whaledreamers' to raise awareness about the plight of whales and the Earth's oceans.He isn't the only person to have been visited by John since his death.Fellow...

JOHN LENNON was forced to persuade his wife YOKO ONO to keep the baby when she discovered she was pregnant in 1975, because she was ready to have an abortion. Ono, 74, admits she had just reconciled her relationship with the Imagine singer, and was worried a child would complicate things. She later gave birth to baby Sean Taro Ono Lennon on October 9th, 1975. She says, "I thought I should let John decide whether to keep it or not. We’d just got back together and I became pregnant very soon."I didn’t know if it was the right moment to have a child. I just didn’t want to burden him with something he didn’t want."He said, ‘Of course we’re going to keep it’ as if he was very upset by the remark."

The famed piano where John Lennon wrote 'Imagine' British pop star GEORGE MICHAEL has made a £1.45 million ($2.9 million) donation to the Virginia Tech University massacre victims - in the shape of a piano that once belonged to JOHN LENNON. Michael bought the piano - on which the former Beatle composed his hit song Imagine - for £1.45 million a few years back, and hopes his gift will help to promote peace at the campus, where 33 people died after student Seung-Hui Cho went on a killing spree in April. His spokesman confirmed the delivery of the piano and added, "George’s deepest wish is to imagine a world of peace, a world without violence."

Yoko Ono is calling for the anniversary of the death of her husband, John Lennon, to become a day of worldwide healing. In a full-page ad appearing in Sunday editions of The New York Times, Ono urges readers to mark the anniversary by apologizing to those who have suffered because of violence and war. "Every year, let's make December 8th the day to ask for forgiveness from those who suffered the insufferable," writes the former Beatle's widow.Ono urges readers to take responsibility for failing to intervene on behalf of victims around the world. "Know that the physical and mental abuse you have endured will have a lingering effect on our society," she writes in a portion of the letter directed to victims. "Know that the burden is ours." Ono was with Lennon when he was gunned down as he returned home from a recording studio on Dec. 8, 1980. The shooter, Mark David Chapman, remains in New York's Attica state prison. His fourth request for parole ...

Yoko Ono Yoko Ono sued music company EMI Group PLC and a subsidiary for $10 million Wednesday, claiming she was cheated out of royalties due from the sale of music recordings by her late husband, John Lennon. The lawsuit, filed in Manhattan's state Supreme Court, accuses EMI and Capitol Records Inc. of violating a half-dozen agreements by "willfully and knowingly under reporting royalties" by hiding the "true use and disposition of Lennon's recordings." Ono's three-page filing, which included a summons and notice but no detailed complaint, also accuses EMI and Capitol of "intentionally and systematically rendering dishonest and grossly deficient accounting statements."