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ENTERTAINMENT. Cont'd.
Prince's career back on front burner
He says he doesn't quite see
that the masses, perhaps weary of American Idol-ism and manufactured pop, seem
to be clamouring for an all-out Prince resurrection since his electrifying
performance with Beyonce at the Grammys. But even a grey-haired U.S. customs
agent in Toronto got wide-eyed with excitement when told the purpose of a trip
to Florida was to interview Prince. "He comes through here all the time," the
agent whispered. "He's so tiny!" Prince himself is thought to have
singlehandedly turned the Musicology tour - coming to Toronto in July - into a
massive sell-out by suggesting that this would be the last time he'd play his
old classics live. No one who buys a ticket will be disappointed: Prince's
phenomenal live show is almost beyond description, even though he's not
playing some of his naughtier tunes about masturbation, oral sex and other
carnal pleasures."It was a different time, a different place, and I was
different then," says the recently minted Jehovah's Witness. "I pushed the
envelope as far as it needed to be pushed, and now it's on the floor, and
people seem to want it to stay there. People don't want to turn on a football
game and see Janet Jackson flashing. If they want to see it, they'll pick the
appropriate time and place to see it." His Jacksonville fans thought they were
picking the appropriate time and place. The crowd roared with delight at every
bump and grind of Prince's amazingly lithe body, at every dirty lyric, at
every suggestive aside. When he invited some 20-odd, mostly female, mostly
gorgeous audience members on stage to "funk it up," there was no denying that
sex and women play a huge role in all things Prince. He's coy when asked why
the crowd erupted when he sang a lyric about wanting to "go down south" in a
plea to an angry lover not to make him sleep on the couch. "They
misinterpreted me," he says with a smile. "I was talking about going down
south to Jacksonville." His sex appeal remains firmly in place, in large part
due to his obvious love of women - he's always had women in his bands, has
always promoted female musicians and his lyrics have always suggested a
penchant for keeping his women satisfied. When he sang a heart-wrenching
acoustic version of Little Red Corvette, Prince himself assured the crowd that
he did, in fact, have enough gas. Translation for those not familiar with the
song: there's no need to worry, ladies, that he's lacking any stamina in the
sack. It also doesn't hurt that he looks like he hasn't aged in 25 years.
There's not a line on his face, not an inch of middle-age sag - and yet no
sign of a Botox face freeze or any other artificial elixir of youth. He even
yells out on one song on Musicology: "I ain't had no nose job!" Prince argues,
however, that indeed he has discovered the fountain of youth. "There's no
special moisturizer, there's no special diet except that I don't eat meat - I
just don't believe in time," he says. "If you don't hold yourself up to these
artificial measurements we as human beings have put in place for time, then
you don't worry about aging. And if you're not worrying about time, and if you
don't have that ticking clock inside of you stressing you out, then maybe you
won't age." Prince sits back on the sofa and ponders further, then offers up
another nugget that should please those who are delighted he's making a
grand-scale comeback. "If I believe I'm going to live forever," he says with a
grin, "then just maybe I will." -Leeanne Goodman.
Photo:
Jason Priestley and Naomi Lowde. (AP /Paul Skipper)
LOS ANGELES (AP) -- Former Beverly Hills, 90210 star Jason Priestley has become engaged to longtime girlfriend Naomi Lowde, the actor-director's publicist said Monday. No other details of the engagement were immediately available, according to spokeswoman Annett Wolf. Lowde is a makeup artist. The 34-year-old Canadian actor, who played Brandon Walsh on the long-running teen drama, was seriously injured in an August 2002 car crash. The avid race car driver spun out of control and hit a wall nearly head-on during practice at the Kentucky Speedway. More recently, Priestley appeared in the campy independent film Die Mommie Die! He also directed the 1999 documentary Barenaked in America, about the band Barenaked Ladies.
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