Apparently some reporter overheard Iman gabbing recently. I wonder if it wasn’t at the Vanity Fair’s Tribeca Film Festival Party. Since then the same three anecdotes have been popping up on gossip sites all over the net. Each farticle* makes a weak attempt to turn a quote from Iman into a news item. Below are each of the quotes, followed by its resultant headline, followed by what I expected Iman must have said when I first read the headline.

“Two weeks ago Alexandria was listening to Hilary Duff songs. David just leaves the room. He thinks she should be listening to underground music.”

Bowie Despairs of Daughter’s Musical Taste

“What do you know, I caught David sobbing wildly with his head in the oven again. He wouldn’t tell me why crying, but I looked at iTunes, and noticed that Lexi had swapped his Arcade Fire playlist with her Hillary Duff playlist. Then it all made sense.”

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On Heidi Klum hosting Project Runway in the US: “Definitely Heidi and I come from two different places. I’m not belittling Heidi Klum, but I have been in fashion much more than she has. Not to toot my own horn, but I have been one of the best runway girls. I know clothes, and I know about working hand in hand with designers, I mean, I’ve worked with Calvin Klein, Marc Jacobs, John Galliano. Yves St Laurent - he created a whole collection for me. Tom Ford, Valentino. Versace. Jean Paul Gaultier. Thierry Mugler… I could go on and on.”

Iman Starts War with Klum

“Heidi Klum presents an imminent threat to the safety and security of our nation. She has ignored UN security council resolutions for far too long. Consequently, on the morning of April 28th, 2008, I ordered a surgical air strike on Heidi Klum’s home.”

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On hooking up with David: “It took me a while. because, you know, he’s a rock star and you’ve got to be careful with rock stars. I was a huge fan though. I would go to his concerts and there were invitations to see him backstage, but I didn’t do that. I’m not that girl.”

Iman Rejected Husband David Bowie’s Charms During Their First Meeting

“Our first date was going well, but then he grabbed a guitar and rearranged the words of China Girl to something like Somali Girl, and I was deeply offending. I grabbed the guitar from him, smashed it on the coffee table and that was that.”

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* That’s right, I said farticle. I know it’s not a word. I just made it up. A farticle is a tiny blast of insubstantial, foul-smelling information.

Check out Scarlett Johansson’s new music video for “Falling Down” with David Bowie singing backup vocals.

During a press conference for the kick-off of the 7th Annual Tribeca Film Festival today, Director Doug Liman revealed that he, David, Whoopi Goldberg and Fred Durst will all be acting as jury members in this year’s festival. David’s panel, which includes Actor Matthew Modine, will be judging works in the the Documentary and Student Short Film category. Close to 90 movies will be premiered during the 12-day event, along with 121 feature films and 79 short films. For more details about the festival, head over to ContactMusic.

David and Iman were also among the flock of celebs who attended Vanity Fair’s 7th Annual Tribeca Film Festival Party last night. The event was held at the State Supreme Courthouse in downtown NYC. Mrs. Bowie wore a smashing magenta floral-print dress and her other half dressed in a black suit and slim black tie. There are heap of photos out there. Some of the best are at HelloMagazine, Digital Spy, M&C, ContactMusic and WWD.com.

Here’s one for the “More To Own” section. Back in March EMI announced plans to try and squeeze a new revenue stream out of David Bowie’s back catalogue. Repackaged compilations of the Beatles and Queen have accounted for a major chunk of their recent recorded music sales, so the idea is to give the same treatment to artists like Bowie and Pink Floyd.

I don’t know about you, but as a fan who is ready and willing to collect Bowie CDs and merchandise, this news item made me sigh. Hasn’t there been a steady flow of Bowie reissues and compilations over the past few years? Does the world really need these same old songs in shiny new packaging? The Times Online reported that the plan’s architect, EMI Music Catalogue’s Executive VP Stephen Alexander, even expected Bowie to be reluctant of the scheme, saying “I’m told that he is not always easy to persuade, but we’ll try to see if we can work up serious plans that have credibility. We don’t know for certain where it will go, and maybe I’m being naive, but hopefully it will work.”

So it looks like the first release is going to be the Santa Monica ‘72 show, due out on June 30th. BowieNet’s press release states that “over the last 36 years this historic recording has only been occasionally available as a bootleg.” That depends upon who you ask. In 1994 it was released by the Golden Years label in the UK and then the following year in the US by Griffin Music. Bowie’s former management company, MainMain, was behind these “semi-legal” releases, so there you go. They certainly don’t have the commensurate bootleg computer-printer graphics. Bassman lists them as albums, so I’m calling them albums.

All catty arguments aside, it’s a great performance. Bowie has said:

“I can tell that I’m totally into being Ziggy by this stage of our touring. It’s no longer an act; I am him. This would be around the tenth American show for us and you can hear that we are all pretty high on ourselves. We train wreck a couple of things, I miss some words and sometimes you wouldn’t know that pianist Mike Garson was onstage with us but overall I really treasure this bootleg. Mick Ronson is at his blistering best.”

Late last month the Webmaster reported to you The Last Shadow Puppets‘ cover of In The Heat of The Morning. It seems that Bowie is a fan of the cover. When the BowieNet webmaster asked him for a comment he exclaimed, “That’s a delight! How lovely. A daymaker.”  I imagine The Last Shadow Puppets must be brimming with pride at receiving Bowie’s stampo of approval.  There could be no higher compliment.

Speaking of compliments, the next cover comes from someone who has been short on complimentary things to say about Bowie.   Morrissey recorded a cover of Drive-In Saturday as a b-side to his upcoming single All You Need Is Me.  The single is due out on May 19.  I’ve never been a fan of Morrissey’s work and I like exactly one song by The Smiths, but I have to admit I want to hear his version of Drive-In Saturday.  He’s got an interesting voice so at the very least it will be an interesting cover.

Close your eyes and imagine a world where David Bowie turned down the role of Jareth in Labyrinth. Millions of little girls won’t have their eyes opened to the wonderful world of the male area by Bowie’s tights. Millions of little boys won’t look down at themselves and think, “Am I going to look like that in tight pants when I grow up?” Even more little boys won’t discover that girls aren’t that hot anyway, they’d much rather have what is dancing around onscreen. Labyrinth fanfic sites will never come into being and make gutter-minded Bowie fans blush, giggle, and pick up their jaws off the ground. Global warming will have come and gone and the world will be covered in gigantic glaciers, sleeping through an ice age. Well, that is apparently the world that Graeme Thompson from The Observer wants for us all to live in - a world where Bowie never donned the Jareth tights and hair extensions. Maybe it was a diversion from Bowie’s previous stage personas, but Mr. Thompson does not take into consideration that Bowie was absolutely perfect for the movie and the movie perfect for him. Without him, the movie would have gone the way of Gigli. Mr. Thompson I hope you never obtain a Time Machine. You will make the world a colder, darker, more boring place.

A few notable Bowie covers have popped up in the news recently and are worth a mention here. The first is by new band The Last Of The Shadow Puppets, a union of Artic Monkeys singer Alex Turner and Miles Kane’s of The Rascals. Their first album, The Age Of Understatement, will feature their take on In The Heat Of The Morning, one of Bowie’s best early recordings if you ask me, that is actually a 40 year old song as of this year. It’s a unique selection for a cover so it should make an interesting listen. The album hits stores April 21st.

Next, Tulsa act Radio Radio has been covering I’m Afraid of Americans in concerts. Many of the Radio Radio songs I’ve heard have a strong bass line, so the choice is well suited for their style. LiveDaily.com gave the song a rave review, suggesting their version rivals Bowie’s own interpretation, if that is somehow possible (hehe). The tune is not included on their debut album so I’m working on tracking it down elsewhere. Americans has been reworked before by Trent Renzor, a band called “Q,” and most recently by Fashion Bomb on the unfairly-titled cover compilation, 2. Contamination.

Life on Mars has also been given the cover treatment by jazz trio The Bad Plus. Earlier this month they did a recorded show at the Linda Norris Auditorium in Albany, NY, and their performance of the song caught the attention of reviewer David Singer who wrote:

They followed with a roaring version of David Bowie’s “Life On Mars,” which had its unrecognizable but vicious Bad-Plus moments. As always, they either crept back into the tune or explosively broke free to rejoin the Bowie song.

Their rendition can be heard on their last album, Prog.

To hear a wide range of other Bowie covers, open up the player at the BowieZone.net and choose the “Bowie Covers” playlist.

Back in February we reported a rumor that Bowie may be cast in the upcoming movie “Will” starring Lisa Kudrow and Liam Aiken. According to Bowienet today, he will indeed have a part in “Will” playing himself. While the movie will be a musical dramedy, Bowie has described his screentime as being “a ten second scene of absolute silence.” Ah well. You know that’s still enough involvement to get us fans out to see it. Expect a link to an exclusive shot of the original cracked actor sometime in the near future.

…You can now fill in those days where you have to wear *gasp* non-Bowie t-shirts with a brand spankin’ new shirt.  Funny t-shirt site TeesMyBody now has a new David Bowie in Space shirt.  The front of the shirt shows a cartoonish illustration of Aladdin Sane floating away from his spaceship in a spacesuit.  I totally WANT one!

God bless The Jim Henson Company.  They’ve just released Labyrinth for download on iTunes.  Boys and girls, if you’ve not already got a copy of Labyrinth then now is the time to buy it.  Don’t let another night go by where you have not experienced the awesomeness of Labyrinth.  Oh yeah, the Dark Crystal is also available for download.  I’ve actually never seen that one.  Guess it’s about time.