Heath Andrew Ledger : R.I.P.

Heathcliff Andrew Ledger (April 4, 1979 – January 22, 2008) was an Academy Award-nominated Australian actor. After appearing in television roles during the 1990s, Ledger developed a Hollywood career. He starred in both critical and financial successes, including The Patriot, Monster's Ball, and Brokeback Mountain, and completed the role of The Joker in the forthcoming The Dark Knight. Ledger died in New York City on January 22, 2008.

MOTOROLA : RAZR2 V8

Confident and strong, this next-generation RAZR™ takes thin to the next level by packing it with a new, richer multimedia experience. RAZR2 V8 provides an unmatched music experience. It comes complete with 512MB end user memory¹ or 2GB memory, USB 2.0 high speed for fast music file transfers2, Windows Media Player® 11 synchronization for simple music management and a music touch screen on the external display for effortless control.

Dressed to Thrill

The RAZR2 V8 is outfitted in extravagant materials tailored to sleek perfection. A stainless steel frame helps ensure strength while vacuum metal housing, chemically hardened glass, spun metal and chrome create an amazing appearance.

SUMMARY OF FEATURES:

• Super-slim, iconic RAZR design with clamshell form factor, stainless steel frame, metal and glass housing, internal antenna

• Large 2.0” QVGA (320 x 240) 262K color external display with contextual touch interaction

• 2.2” QVGA (320 x 240) internal display, 262K color

• Integrated 2.0 megapixel camera with 8x zoom

• MotoSync™ – Over the air synchronization of Email, Phonebook and Calendar

• Music player with optional stereo micro-USB headset and stereo Bluetooth wireless tecnology5

• Available in 420MB end user memory¹ or 2GB

• Full HTML broswer to surf the sites you know and love³

• Speaker independent name and digit dialing

• EDGE Class 12

• MPEG 4 video capture and playback

• Integrated Bluetooth wireless technology with imaging, printing and peer to peer gaming profiles5

• Messaging via MMS, WV, SMS3

• Class 2, version 2.0 Bluetooth wireless technology with range up to 30 feet5

• High speed micro USB 2.0• Up to approximately 500 minutes talk time and 280 hours standby time6

The RAZR2 V8 is expected to be available in July 2007. For more information regarding pricing and product availability in your region, please check with your local Motorola representative.

MOTOROLA and the Stylized M Logo are registered in the US Patent & Trademark Office. The Bluetooth trademarks are owned by their proprietor and used by Motorola, Inc. under license. Windows and Windows Media are either registered trademarks or trademarks of Microsoft Corporation in the United States and/or other countries. All other product or service names are the property of their respective owners. © Motorola, Inc. 2007. All rights reserved.

MOTOROLA : RAZR2 V9

The sleeker, smarter, stronger RAZR2 V9 is an exciting evolution of the RAZR™ brand. With mesmerizing appearance and a new, richer multimedia experience, RAZR2 V9 is the ultimate stylish feature phone.

Stand Out in a Crowd

With its fabulous good looks and incredibly innovative CrystalTalkTM technology – automatically accounting for background noise and adjusting the audio to match the ambient volume – consumers will be heard in a crowd. HSDPA 3.6 Mbps technology helps connect users to the Internet at broadband-like speeds¹, like DSL in your pocket. RAZR2 V9’s integrated digital music player supports a wide variety of audio formats, so consumers can bring the party wherever they go.

SUMMARY OF FEATURES:

• Sleek, slim iconic RAZR design with clamshell form factor, metal and glass housing, internal antenna, tandem 2.2” and 2.0” 240x320 QVGA 262K color displays

• Touch-sensitive external music keys• Integrated 2.0 megapixel camera, with 8x digital zoom

• Connectivity featuring Micro USB, USB 2.0 Full Speed, USB mass storage and version 2.0 Bluetooth wireless technology with Enhanced Data Rate2

• 3G High-Speed Downlink Packet Access (HSDPA) 3.6 Mbps wireless broadband connection and EDGE/GPRS class 10 & 12

• 45MB of end user memory and support for up to 2GB of memory with an optional microSD card

• Stereo Bluetooth wireless technology supporting A2DP and AVRCP profiles2

• Video and audio streaming¹, capture and playback• Video telephony and See What I See capable¹

• Messaging via MMS, email, SMS, MotoSync¹

• Independent Voice Recognition

The RAZR2 V9 is expected to be available in Q3 2007. For more information regarding pricing and product availability in your region, please check with your local Motorola representative.

MOTOROLA and the Stylized M Logo are registered in the US Patent & Trademark Office. The Bluetooth trademarks are owned by their proprietor and used by Motorola, Inc. under license. Windows Media is either a registered trademark or trademark of Microsoft Corporation in the United States and/or other countries. All other product or service names are the property of their respective owners. © Motorola, Inc. 2007. All rights reserved.

Lisa Simpson

Lisa Marie Simpson is an extremely intelligent girl, one of the brightest characters on the show, with an I.Q. of 159 or so. She plays the saxophone. Lisa is also a Buddhist and often serves as a mouthpiece for the show's writers, many of whom are postgraduates, to voice their knowledge of philosophy, science and history.

Age
Lisa is 8 years old (despite the fact that there have been 3 separate episodes which focused on her 8th birthday), two years younger than her brother Bart. Lisa's mother Marge insisted on choosing her name because her father Homer wanted to call her "Bartzina" (due to his already having a son named "Bart" and being too inept to think of anything else).

Future
It should be noted that specific dates should be treated as very loose canon, given the general "timelessness" of the series.

Intelligence
Lisa is an extremely bright girl, with an I.Q. of 159 (in Smart and Smarter) and is a member of Mensa Springfield. Lisa demonstrates an early intelligence by changing her own diaper as an infant. Her other precocious achievements include constructing an elaborate Lego castle, spelling the word "star" on her letter blocks, and completing a Taj Mahal jigsaw puzzle. When unable to attend school due to a teachers' strike, she suffered a sort of "school withdrawal" and invents a perpetual motion machine, for which Homer chastises her, saying, "In this house, we obey the laws of thermodynamics!" She also organized a student strike upon learning that Principal Skinner was exploiting her, when she was the student body president.
Wikipedia

Super Mario Bros. : BIO

This article is about the first, 1985, Super Mario Bros. game. For other Super Mario Bros. games, see Super Mario Bros.

Mario Burazāzu) is a video game released by Nintendo in late 1985 for the Nintendo Entertainment System. Considered a classic of the medium and making a huge impact in entertainment at the time, Super Mario Bros. featured bright, expansive worlds that changed the way video games were created. Although often wrongly credited as the first scrolling platform game (there are at least a half dozen earlier), it is the first console original in this genre to feature smooth-scrolling levels, which made it a landmark in home video-gaming.

Super Mario Bros. is listed in The Guinness Book of World Records as the best-selling video game of all time, and was largely responsible for the initial success of the Nintendo Entertainment System, as well as ending the two year slump of video game sales in the United States after the video game crash of 1983. It has inspired countless imitators and was one of Shigeru Miyamoto's most influential early successes. The game starred the Italian plumber Mario and his slightly younger brother Luigi, the former eventually becoming Nintendo's most well known mascot. The theme music, by Koji Kondo, is recognized world wide, even by those who have not played the game.

The game was succeeded by a direct sequel in Japan (later retitled Super Mario Bros.: The Lost Levels in North America), and by Super Mario Bros. 2, a Mario-themed port of Yume Kōjō: Doki Doki Panic, elsewhere in the world.

Gameplay

The player takes the role of Mario, or in the case of a second player, Mario's brother Luigi. The ultimate object is to race through the Mushroom Kingdom, evade or eliminate Bowser's forces, and save Princess Toadstool.

The Mario Brothers' primary attack is simply jumping on top of their enemies, which kills the mushroom traitors, known as Goombas, and sends the turtle soldiers known as Koopa Troopas into their shells. Mario and Luigi can then kick these shells into other enemies, which will conveniently dispatch them; but conversely, kicked shells can bounce back off walls or other vertical obstructions and hit them. Some enemies can be killed only by fireballs or shell impact; stomping them will hurt the Mario Bros. Jumping on enough enemies in succession or kicking a shell into enough enemies in succession (combos) results in double points earned with each enemy killed, eventually earning Mario or Luigi a 1-up - an extra life - another chance to pass the level. Mario and Luigi can also obtain 1-ups through finding 1-up mushrooms and by collecting 100 coins.

Aiding them in their quest are several powers. Mario or Luigi can be hurt if the brother touches an enemy. If he takes a hit from an enemy as Super Mario or Luigi or Fire Mario or Luigi, he simply reverts to regular Mario or Luigi and the game continues. However, if he takes a hit as regular Mario, falls down a pit (regardless of status), or if the time clock runs out, he loses a life and starts again. The point where Mario continues depends on how far he ran through the level before dying: either from the very beginning or at an invisible "checkpoint" partway through the level. There are no checkpoints in castles or in world 8, the final world. Mario can also collect a Starman and become invincible. Invincible Mario is impervious to the touch of enemy characters and most obstacles, although he will still die if he falls in a pit, falls into lava, or if time runs out.

The game consists of eight worlds with four levels in each world. Though each world is substantially different, there are basic similarities: typically the first sub-world is a generic above-ground (overworld) level, the second is in an underground dungeon on Worlds 1 and 4 or underwater on Worlds 2 and 7 (or in the overworld with a unique challenge), the third is a series of platforms suspended high in the sky, and the fourth is always a fortress or castle. The third and sixth worlds take place at night, and all other worlds take place during the day. At the end of each castle level, Mario fights "King Koopa" (who, until the final level, is actually a lesser enemy disguised as King Koopa) across a bridge over a pool of lava. In the later worlds (worlds 6-8), King Koopa throws hammers as well as occasional jets of fire breath. King Koopa may be defeated in one of two ways: either by touching the ax at the edge of the bridge (thereby dropping King Koopa into the lava) or, as Fiery Mario, throwing fireballs at him to defeat him directly, revealing what enemy is in disguise. At the end of each world save the last, Mario is greeted with the words, "Thank you Mario! But our princess is in another castle!", spoken by a Toad retainer, which became a popular quotation among gamers.

After beating the game, the player is given the option to start the game again in "'Hard' Mode", where all Goombas are replaced by Buzzy Beetles (Koopa Troopa-like enemies who cannot be killed by fireballs), and all enemies walk faster. In addition, the elevator-style lifts are about 60% their original size throughout. There are also some hazards in the earlier worlds that only appear in "Hard Mode". For example, in World 1-3 random Bullet Bills fly across the screen, a danger that normally only appears in certain later levels.

Players may get to the beginning of any world with a relatively small amount of effort by using hidden warp zones in a number of levels. One is in level 1-2 and is reached by walking on the blocks at the top of the level passing the exit pipe. This zone allows jumping to worlds 2, 3 and 4. The other two are in 4-2; one is in the same place as the one in 1-2 but this only allows access to world 5. The other is reached through a beanstalk that grows from a hidden block and takes the player into a surface area that leads to worlds 6, 7, and 8.

Minus World

By passing through a solid wall due to a glitch, it is possible to travel to "World -1", also known as the "Minus World" or "World Negative One" and considered by the game to be world 36. This stage is identical to world 2-2 but upon entering the warp pipe at the end, the player is taken back to the start of the level. Exploiting the same glitch in the Japanese Famicom Disk System is considerably different and has three levels, after which the player is returned to the title screen as though he or she completed the game. This glitch has been fixed in the Super Mario All-Stars remake as well as in Super Mario Bros. Deluxe. Super Mario All-Stars changes the default pipe layout to remove the Minus World pipe. Interestingly enough, in the Nintendo Wii Virtual Console version of Super Mario Brothers, the glitch still remains from the original. If you go to the pipes on either end of the warp room you will go to the Minus World; however, if you go to the middle pipe it takes you to world 5. Interestingly, the area cannot be reached in the arcade cabinet version of Super Mario Bros, as the two bricks that allow the player to access the Minus World are not present.

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Takashi Murakami : BIO

Takashi Murakami (村上隆 Murakami Takashi?, born 1 February 1962 in Tokyo) is a prolific contemporary Japanese artist. Murakami works in both fine arts media, such as painting; as well as digital and commercial media. He attempts to blur the boundaries between high and low art. He appropriates popular themes from mass media and pop culture, then turns them into thirty-foot sculptures, "Superflat" paintings, or marketable commercial goods such as figurines or phone caddies.

Murakami was born in 1962 in Tokyo, where he attended the Tokyo National University of Fine Arts and Music. Murakami started as a student of more traditionalist Japanese art. He pursued a doctorate in Nihonga, a mixture of Western and Eastern styles dating back to the late 19th century. However, due to the mass popularity of anime and manga, Japanese styles of animation and comic graphic stories, Murakami became disillusioned with Nihonga, and became fixated on otaku culture. Otaku culture is most often an unfavorable reference to a “nerd” society, consisting of boys and girls that take an obsessive interest in either manga or anime. He felt that otaku culture was more representative of modern day Japanese life.

This resulted in Superflat, the style that Murakami is credited with starting. Superflat is a style developed from Poku,(Pop+otaku). Murakami has written that he aims to represent Poku culture because he expects that animation and otaku might create a new culture. This new culture being a rejuvenation of the contemporary Japanese art scene. This is what it is all about to Murakami; he has expressed in several interviews in the last five or six years the frustration that his art has risen from. It is a frustration rooted in the lack of a reliable and sustainable art market in post-war Japan, and the general view of Japanese art in and outside the country as having a low art status. He is quoted as saying that the market is nothing but " a shallow appropriation of Western trends". His first reaction was to make art in non-fine arts media, but decided instead to focus on the market sustainability of art and promote himself first overseas. This marks the birth of KaiKai Kiki, LLC.

KaiKai Kiki LLC
In 1996, Murakami founded the Hiropon factory. The factory was originally just a group of assistants that helped him to produce his sculptures and paintings. However, as new projects came in and the need for a dramatic increase in the volume of his work arose, the Hiropon factory gradually grew to a point in 2001, at the same time as his solo show at the Museum of Contemporary Art, Tokyo, into a professional art production and artist management organization. That same year he registered it as Kaikai Kiki Co., Ltd. Today it is an internationally recognized, large-scale art production and artist management corporation, employing over 100 people in the US and Japan. Kaikai Kiki LLC has two main objectives. The first is the successful marketing of Murakami’s work, and the second a supportive environment for the teaching and fostering of new young Japanese artists.

Murakami has been quoted many times as saying Bill Gates is one of his greatest influences. He has said that some of KaiKai Kiki’s success and efficiency can be attributed to ideas and practices Murakami gained after reading Gates’ Speed of Thought. “I set out to investigate the secret of market survivability- the universitality of characters such as Mickey Mouse, Sonic the Hedgehog, . . .” this is the thriving notion behind what has made Murakami so successful. Kaikai Kiki is not only involved with how can we best make a piece of art with high quality and concept, but with a system of checks and balances, supply and demand.

Art production at Kaikai Kiki, generally goes something like this. Murakami formulates an idea or sketch in any one of hundreds of pocket sized sketchbooks, then it is resketched in a larger notebook, from where it is scanned into Adobe Illustrator and this is the last phase that Murakami is directly involved with, his assistants then print out the full scale image, then silkscreen it onto canvas, and his assistants paint the canvas. In this fashion Murakami is able to produce a considerable oeuvre.

The second aim of Kaikai Kiki is artist management and nurturing of a large-scale rejuvenation of Japanese art. All of Murakami’s production assistants are artists that are taught by Murakami through the production process, but they are also provided with a forum and physical space, in which they can share their ideas and produce artwork. Many of these artists are currently exhibiting within Japan and internationally at recognized galleries. Most important in this endeavor, however, is the art fair that Kaikai Kiki puts on twice a year, GEISAI.

GEISAI is an open-application event, where artists or galleries rent booths to display their work. This is a one-day event where about 1,000 artists and a few galleries participate, and it draws professionals and enthusiasts alike from all over the world. GEISAI attracts television networks, magazines and other media to scout the emerging talent. While appealing to a progressive audience, GEISAI remains rooted in rich Japanese artistic tradition, and produces a unique art festival that while open to all remains strictly Japanese and hopes to renew and influence the next generation of Japanese artists.

Artwork
As mentioned before Murakami’s style is called Superflat, a post-modern style characterized by flat planes of color and graphic images involving a character style derived from anime and manga. Superflat is an artistic style that comments on otaku lifestyle and subculture , as well as consumerism and sexual fetishism at large. Social commentary is nothing new, nor is appropriation of mass media or popular culture.

So what makes Takashi Murakami different from his predecessors, like Andy Warhol? Unlike Warhol who took low culture and repackaged it, selling it to the highest bidder in the “high-art” avant-garde of his day; Murakami takes low culture, repackages it, and makes it available to all in the form of paintings, sculptures, videos, T-shirts, key chains, mouse pads, plush dolls, cell phone caddies, and $5,000 limited-edition Louis Vuitton handbags. This is a comparable idea to Claes Oldenburg, who sold his own low art, high art pieces in his own store front in the 1960’s, but what makes Murakami different is his methods of production, and his work is not in one store front, but many ranging from toy stores, candy aisles, comic book stores, and the French design powerhouse of Louis Vuitton. Murakami’s style is truly an amalgam of his Western predecessors, looking back to Warhol and Roy Lichtenstein, Claes Oldenburg, and his Japanese predecessors and contemporaries, masters of anime and manga. He has successfully marketed himself to Western culture and he is bringing this success back to Japan in the form of Kaikai Kiki and GEISAI.

His signature and most infamous works are "Hiropon" and "My Lonesome Cowboy". "Hiropon" is a fiberglass sculpture of an anime-style female, taller than average, with gigantic breasts and wearing an undersized bikini top, which fails to cover her adequately. A stream of milk, which she is squeezing from her right nipple, wraps behind her to her left nipple being squeezed by her other hand, resembling a jump-rope. "My Lonesome Cowboy" is a similar sculpture of a nude male holding his penis as he ejaculates a stream of semen, which he guides with his other hand to swirl upward, resembling a lasso. "Hiropon" prompted Gainax producer Toshio Okada to dub Murakami the "Ota-king" after the character in his own Otaku no Video. Both pieces of work are comments on the immense rate of overly sexed anime, and are critiques on westernization.

Smooth Nightmare is an excellent example of a popular Murakami painting. The Superflat style is really obvious here. In this painting, there is one of Murakami’s reoccurring themes, the mushroom. The mushroom repetition is a good example of Murakami’s work’s connection with themes of the underground and alternative cultures. Murakami’s work is quoted as being among some of the most desired work in the world by ArtNews in November 2003. Chicago collector, Stefan Edis reportedly paid a record $567,500 for Murakami’s 1996 Miss ko2 , a life-size fiberglass cartoon figure, at Christie's last May. Christie’s owner, Francois Pinault, reportedly paid around $1.5 million in June to acquire Tongarikun (2003), a 30-foot tall fiberglass sculpture, and four accompanying fiberglass mushroom figures, that were part of an installation at Rockefeller Center.

However, Murakami is most recognized for his work with Marc Jacobs for the luxury fashion house, Louis Vuitton. He is the mastermind behind Louis Vuitton's Monogram Multicolore canvas range of handbags and accessories. Utilizing the monograms of the standard Louis Vuitton Monogram Canvas, but in 33 different colors, on a white or a black background, instead of gold monograms on a brown background. He also inspired the "cherry blossom" logo in 2005; which can be found as smiling faces in pink and yellow flowers sporadically placed atop selected pieces, in Monogram Canvas by Louis Vuitton.

The Pussycat Dolls: Bio

1993–2003: Dance troupe beginnings
Some sources claim that Antin first began exploring the idea of a modern burlesque troupe in 1993 with her friend Christina Applegate; the troupe's first performance was in 1995. During this period they performed with numerous guest vocalists (see list below), with a repertoire of '50s and '60s pop standards, performed in lingerie and/or old-fashioned pin-up costumes. Antin reportedly drew inspiration from the choreography of Bob Fosse (Sweet Charity, Cabaret, Chicago).
They secured a Thursday night residency at Los Angeles nightclub The Viper Room, where they stayed from 1995–2001. In June 1999 Playboy ran a Pussycat Dolls pictorial, featuring at least contemporary members Kasey Campbell, Kiva Dawson, Erica Gudis and Lindsley Allen. In 2002 they moved to The Roxy. The group became internationally popular and was featured in magazines, television specials for MTV and VH1, ad campaigns, and movies. Carmen Electra was the group's lead performer for many of their shows. She said "I was part of the Dolls for two years and did every show with them...but financially, I couldn't become part of their new music project...It was a financial sacrifice I couldn't make."
With the involvement of music producers Jimmy Iovine and Ron Fair, the troupe was re-cast, transformed into an pop/R&B recording group, and signed up as employees of Iovine's label Interscope Records.
Meghan Grim is the most recent member of the Pussycat Dolls.
2003-present: Music career
In 2003, Nicole Scherzinger, a former member of Popstars winners Eden's Crush, became the group's lead singer. The present members of the group are Scherzinger; Carmit Bachar (who joined in 1995); Kimberly Wyatt, Ashley Roberts (who joined in 2001); Jessica Sutta (who joined in 2002); and Melody Thornton, (who joined in 2003). They opened the MTV Asia Awards 2004.

The Pussycat Dolls on the cover of their 2005 debut album, PCD. Listen to "Buttons' audio sample
In 2005, The Pussycat Dolls released their debut album PCD. The album debuted at #5 on the Billboard 200, selling about 100,000 copies. It has produced six singles. "Sway" was their first single, released from the Shall We Dance soundtrack, then later included on thir debut album, but it was "Don't Cha" (featuring Busta Rhymes, originally recorded by Tori Alamaze) that became their first major hit. The follow-up, "Stickwitu", became the group's first U.S. # 1 Billboard Pop Radio hit,it went on to sell over a million digital downloads in the world and became their second #1 single in the UK. The third single, "Beep," featured Black Eyed Peas lead rapper will.i.am. They recently released their latest single, "Buttons," featuring Snoop Dogg which followed in the success of the previous singles and went straight into the top 3 on the UK singles chart, #3. The group's final single has been confirmed as the high tempo, club track "Wait A Minute" and is set for release on August 2006, in the United States,"I Don't Need a Man" will be released in Canada (The video was premiered on MuchOnDemand September 14th, 2006) , the UK and Ireland and "Sway" will be released as the 5th single in Continental Europe. The 5th single in Australia and New Zealand hasn't been confirmed yet.
The Pussycat Dolls are proving to be a recognised female group as MTV Hits (UK) marks them as #1 in Top 10 Female Groups (July 2006) beating #2 Destiny's Child and #7 Spice Girls. Furthermore, securing #1 in VH1's (UK) 'Top 20 Sexiest' and #2 in TMF's Ultimate 20 Women in Pop (August 2006).
The group won a Billboard Music Award for "Don't Cha" as Top Hot/Dance Club Play Single of the Year. The song was also nominated for Top-Selling Single of the Year and Top-Selling Dance Single of the Year.
At the SXSW music conference in 2006, Interscope lawyer Darryl Franklin said, during a panel discussion, that the contract with the group is unique in that its members are actually salaried employees of the record label and, by design, completely interchangeable. This means that in addition to CD sales, the label also controls merchandise, web sites and all other commercial aspects of the group and their income, excluding song publishing.
In 2006, San Francisco-based company Doppelganger (along with Interscope Records) launched the PCD Music Lounge, an interactive website.
On June 30th's VSpot Top 20 Countdown, host Matt Pinfield announced that lead singer Nicole Scherzinger has written 12 new songs for the follow-up album to 2005's PCD.
Touring
In 2006 The Pussycat Dolls have been performing live shows as support for Black Eyed Peas, and as headliners in the UK, Europe and Malaysia. (Even though the Black Eyed Peas performed in Israel, The Pussycat Dolls didn't open the show.)
On August 8, 2006, after a Dolls concert in Kuala Lumpur, their concert promoter, Absolute Entertainment, was charged with flouting Malaysian decency laws. The Malay Mail quoted Culture Arts and Heritage Minister Datuk Rahman as saying: "I believe the way the Pussycat Dolls behaved onstage amounted to gross indecency". The charge was settled by paying a fine of RM5000 (US$1358 ).
In November 2006 the Dolls will be touring with special guest Rihanna.

Repertoire

The Dolls' repertoire includes both contemporary pop/R&B and cover versions of pop standards. The contemporary works are mostly written by professional songwriters and/or producers; Scherzinger is the only group member to have co-written any tracks. The covers often fit within the traditions of burlesque, cabaret and drag shows; featuring musical vamps and flirtatious choreography.
Their recorded cover versions include: "Sway" (Dean Martin); "Santa Baby" (Eartha Kitt); "Feelin' Good" (Nina Simone); "Tainted Love" (Gloria Jones/Soft Cell); "Where Did Our Love Go" (The Supremes/Soft Cell); a mash-up of Donna Summer's "Hot Stuff" with Siobhan Fahey's "Bitter Pill"; "Right Now" (Mel Torme); and "Don't Cha" (Tori Alamaze).
Their live cover versions have included: "Big Spender" (Chita Rivera/Shirley Bassey); "Fever" (Peggy Lee); "The Pink Panther Theme" (Henry Mancini); and "These Boots Are Made For Walking" (Nancy Sinatra).

Vocalists

The Dolls have been accused of being a group where only one member sings (Scherzinger), and the rest are just eye candy. However, Thornton and Bachar both have solo spots on many tracks: Thornton: "Beep", "Bite The Dust", "Buttons", "I Don't Need A Man", "Hot Stuff (I Want You Back)", "Sway", "Tainted Love/Where Did Our Love Go"," "Stickwitu", "Flirt", "Obesity", and "Santa Baby". Bachar: "Beep", "We Went As Far As We Felt Like Going", "Hot Stuff (I Want You Back)", "Right Now","Tainted Love", "Bite The Dust" and "Santa Baby". Roberts and Sutta also sing on the "Stickwitu" B-side "Santa Baby".

Other endeavors

Television series

In April 2006 The New York Times reported that Interscope executives are working to produce their own reality TV series overseen by the producers of America's Next Top Model and McG, the director of Charlie's Angels and Charlie's Angels: Full Throttle. Entitled The Search for the Next Pussycat Doll, the show will search for the new member of the troupe.
In August 2006, it was announced that the show would be picked up by the CW, the new network being formed from the merger of UPN and the WB.

Merchandise

In a merchandising agreement with Interscope, in 2006 toy manufacturer Hasbro had plans for a line of dolls modeled after The Pussycat Dolls, and reportedly aimed at six- to nine-year-olds. The groups "Dads and Daughters" and the "Campaign for a Commercial-Free Childhood" successfully lobbied the company to scrap the plan because they felt that the dolls would have been inappropriate for children, due to the overtly sexual nature of The Pussycat Dolls' songs, videos and live shows.
Interscope also negotiated a deal with Estée Lauder for a Pussycat Dolls line of cosmetics under the Stila brand.

Computer games

In September 2006 it was reported that the Pussycat Dolls had re-recorded "Don't Cha" in Simlish for inclusion in the computer game The Sims 2 Pets.