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Because of some backstage machinations, Ne-Yo is a little bit richer.

The R&B star has scored a nice payday for being dumped from R. Kelly's road show last year. A Los Angeles judge has ordered Kelly's promoter to pony up $700,320 to the "Because of You" Grammy winner.

Ne-Yo went to court in December, alleging he was bounced from the Double Up tour because his opening set was getting better reaction from fans and critics than Kelly's. The bill also featured Keyshia Cole and J. Holiday.

Superior Court Judge Malcolm Mackey made his default judgment after Georgia-based Rowe Entertainment refused to respond to the lawsuit filed by Ne-Yo under his real name, Shaffer Smith.

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Johnny Depp returned to his musical roots Friday night, reuniting with his old band The Kids for a fund-raiser in Florida.

With his girlfriend, Vanessa Paradis, and their 9-year-old daughter, Lily-Rose, screaming in the crowd of 2,500, the Oscar-nominated actor strapped on a guitar and sang backup vocals during the power-pop group's 90-minute set.

The second annual Sheila Witkin Memorial Reunion Concert honors The Kids' late manager, who was well known in South Florida's music scene. All proceeds from the benefit go to the Dan Marino Foundation, which funds programs for children with special needs. The band also reunited in January 2007 for the same cause.

The 45-year-old actor joined The Kids when he was a high school student in Miramar, Fla., and moved to Los Angeles with them in search of a record deal. After the band broke up, Depp decided to pursue a career in acting.

Johnny and the boys are scheduled to rock out again tonight on day two of the benefit.

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Here's a shocker: At the last minute, Amy Winehouse pulled out of a concert in Paris on Friday night because she was too sick to perform.

The trouble-stricken Brit, who's been hospitalized twice since June, was too ill to make the trip from her home in London to the City of Lights for the Rock En Seine festival.

Her spokesman Chris Goodman told People, "It's nothing serious. It's just a normal illness—she hasn't visited a hospital or anything like that. She's at home in bed, just unable to sing."

On the festival's official blog (in French), organizers say they weren't given an exact reason for her absence and that they may seek legal action.

The 24-year-old chanteuse is due to perform at next weekend's Bestival festival on England's Isle of Wight.

Ticket holders, don't hold your breath...

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Samantha Ronson may be spending most of her time making headlines with a Razzie winner, but soon she's going to be spending at least one night with the possessor of a more prestigious piece of hardware.

The celebrity spinner has been tapped to get the VIP crowd primed for Oscar winner Julia Roberts and the Dave Matthews Band, who will be taking the stage Sept. 10 at Madison Square Garden as part of the Stand Up for a Cure's 2008 concert series.

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These 14 seconds are worth watching just for the little head roll Keith Urban does at the end when describing how he might look performing with a slipped disc in his back.

But although the New Zealand-born country star was hurting, he still showed up early Saturday night at the Konocti Harbor Resort & Spa in Kelseyville, Calif., to do his own sound check.

He went on to sing a combo of greatest hits and lesser-known gems—including a stellar version of "Shine," from Love, Pain and the Whole Crazy Thing—and otherwise rock the house.

The artist's rep says that Urban isn't planning on letting his injury affect any upcoming dates on his North American tour, which touches down next on Aug. 30 in Halifax, Nova Scotia.

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More than 40 years after the Beatles were banned from playing in Israel, Sir Paul McCartney will reportedly take the long and winding road back to Tel Aviv next month.

Israeli media is buzzing that the 66-year-old legend will take the stage Sept. 25 for his first-ever performance in the Holy Land as part of the country's 60th birthday celebration. Although the gig hasn't been confirmed, the official announcement is expected in the next few days.

The Fab Four was refused entry in 1965 amid concern their lyrics could corrupt the morals of Israeli youth. Earlier this year, Israel's ambassador to Britain, Ron Prosor, sent formal letters to McCartney, Ringo Starr, and the families of John Lennon and George Harrison, that said, "There is no doubt that it was a great missed opportunity to prevent people like you, who shaped the minds of the generation, to come to Israel and perform."

No word yet on whether McCartney's allowed to jump, shout, hug and kiss onstage.

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Looks like Avril Lavigne can prove she's "The Best Damn Thing" in Kuala Lumpur after all.

The Malaysian government has given the go-ahead for the wannabe punk rocker's gig on Aug. 29 as scheduled, despite scrapping the concert last week for being "too sexy."

The decision was reversed after Lavigne's promoters assured the performance wouldn't corrupt the mainly Muslim country's youth or disrupt its independence day celebration on Aug. 31.

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Looks like Madonna's Sticky and Sweet tour is gonna come with a side of French dressing.

Continuing her penchant for partnering with haute couturiers for her stage shows—Jean-Paul Gaultier provided the wardrobe for 1990's Blonde Ambition tour, Dolce & Gabbana took the reins for 1993's Girlie Show—the "Vogue" singer has teamed up with venerable French fashion house Givenchy to provide at least two costumes on her upcoming world trek.

One of the outfits will be donned during Madonna's opening number, a coat dress in black stretch satin, keeping in line with the fashion house's dark and gothic bent.

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This year it was the cops who got busy at the Uppsala Reggae Festival.

Sean Paul was arrested on suspicion of marijuana possession Friday after getting swept up in a police raid at the annual Swedish music fest, which takes place in the town of Uppsala, about 110 miles north of Stockholm.

Kinda like shooting fish in a barrel, though, isn't it?

Anyway, per TMZ, the Jamaican artist was one of 200 to 300 people—including 10 performers—who were hauled off to a local police station for questioning. Police said that they collected evidence at the scene and an investigation into the allegedly smoky shenanigans is currently underway.

Whether Sting, Andy Summers and Stewart Copeland really are ready to call it a career or not, they can return to their separate corners for now knowing they played one hell of a 151-show reunion tour. (Plus they've got $358.8 million, minus costs, to split among them, having just put on the third-highest-grossing tour of all time.)

They had planned for awhile to close things out in New York, the scene of the original crime—their first U.S. gig nearly 30 years ago at the recently deceased punk-rock club CBGB.

"It's been a huge honor to get back with my good friends," Sting, who at one point was shown backstage via video screen getting a shave and a mani-pedi, told the audience tonight. "The real triumph of this tour is that we haven't strangled each other—that doesn't mean it hadn't crossed my mind. Or Andy's or Stewart's."

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Sheryl Crow and Fleetwood Mac have stopped thinking about a shared tomorrow.

Just as frontman Lindsey Buckingham was confirming that his band's 2009 tour would proceed without the "All I Wanna Do" songstress, Crow came full circle on the rumor that she started in March, when she told a music website that she and the '70s-era hitmakers "definitely" had plans to collaborate.

"No, that was those Rumours—to quote the album," the singer-songwriter told a group of Nashville college students Wednesday at a Grammys Foundation Q&A session when asked about her future Fleetwood plans.

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Rather unironically, Alanis Morissette is headed back on the road.

The Canadian songstress kicks off a 38-city theater tour Sept. 18 in support of her latest album, the nicely conflicted-sounding Flavors of Entanglement.

After spending the rest of the summer entertaining European crowds, Morissette and her angst will touch down first at the Charlottesville Pavilion in Virginia. She'll strum her way across the U.S. and Canada before wrapping things up in Oakland, Calif., on Nov. 17.

Tickets for the North American leg of her tour go on sale July 25. The full itinerary is on Morissette's website.

Called a "career highlight" by some critics, Flavors of Entanglement debuted at No. 8 on the Billboard 200 last month and has sold about 130,000 copies.

A postbreakup Morissette said in May that the record "chronicles the rock bottom finally being hit."