I will not be updating the site until Monday or Tuesday since I am going away with my family this weekend.

I will update as soon as I get back!

Happy Memorial Day everyone!

Chicago Tribune
By Andy Downing

“Glee Live!” rumbled into a sold-out Rosemont Theatre with all the subtlety of a monster truck rally.

Mixing high camp with an overdose of arena-rock bombast, Tuesday’s concert, the first in a two-night stand, featured group performances by a dozen regulars from the popular FOX show, including student leads Lea Michele (Rachel) and Cory Monteith (Finn).

For the uninitiated, the series, which concludes its first season on June 8, follows the lives of glee club members at fictional William McKinley High School as they navigate issues ranging from teen pregnancy to student-teacher crushes. “The second someone tries to rise above?be different?the herd pulls them back in,” football coach Ken Tanaka notes in the pilot episode. And more often than not, “Glee” goes out of its way to celebrate these social misfits.

For this brief, four-city victory lap, the crew kept the exposition to a minimum, focusing the 70-minute set on the show’s musical numbers. After a brief video introduction from “Glee’s” adult leads? Matthew Morrison (Will Schuester) and the scene-stealing Jane Lynch (Sue Sylvester)?the cast launched into a fist-pumping, pyrotechnic-fueled “Don’t Stop Believin’.” Bon Jovi’s “It’s My Life,” led by a leather jacket-clad Monteith, sounded similarly steroid-injected, though the volume couldn’t obscure the fact that the song felt ill-suited to the characters. It would be a major surprise if any of the show’s central figures?with the possible exception of mohawked football player Puck?even owned a Bon Jovi album.

Better were a handful of stripped-down numbers, including a solo turn where Michele vamped her way through Barbra Streisand’s “Don’t Rain On My Parade”?a fitting song choice for the talented, headstrong and somewhat entitled Rachel. A soaring duet on “Defying Gravity” between Michele and the underutilized Chris Colfer (Kurt) showed equal restraint, the pair’s voices winding together until they were nearly indistinguishable.

While the concert’s “bigger is better” approach didn’t always connect, it did generate a handful of eye-catching set pieces. In one sequence that looked like it sprang from the imagination of rapper Xzibit, Amber Riley (Mercedes) delivered a scathing “Bust Your Windows” while flanked by seven bikini-clad cheerleaders and perched atop a black Escalade. “Bad Romance,” in turn, doubled as a Lady Gaga-themed fashion show, the cast members donning a half-dozen looks inspired by the pop provocateur, including glittery lobster headgear and an angular, Judy Jetson-ish look modeled by a bemused Colfer.

EW.com
by Brad Wete

After earning their first No. 1 album with The Power of Madonna last month, Glee‘s latest installment, Glee: The Music, Volume 3 Showstoppers, debuts at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 albums chart with 136,000 albums sold. The re-release of the Rolling Stones’ 1972 album Exile on Main Street debuts at No. 2 with 76,000 sold.

Four other albums also debut in the top 10 this week. The Black Keys’ Brothers comes in at No. 3, selling 73,000 copies. With 62,000 units sold, last week’s chart-topper Justin Bieber drops three spots to No. 4. Nas and Damian Marley’s rap-reggae hybrid Distant Relatives sold 57,000 units and debuts at No. 5.

Band of Horses’s Infinite Arms gallops to No. 7, selling 45,000 copies, and LCD Soundsystem’s This is Happening rounds out the chart at No. 10 with 31,000 copies sold.

Lady Antebellum‘s Need You Now continues its reign in the top 10 at No. 6 with 46,000 copies sold. Usher’s Raymond v. Raymond sits at No. 8. He sold 41,000 copies. AC/DC Iron Man 2 soundtrack lands at No. 9 with 32,000 albums bought.

People Magazine features a video of Lea talking about the last year.

Watch It Here.

E!Online
by Kristin Dos Santos

If you happen to be one of the lucky ones who’s seen the Glee Live concert (hint: It’s so good, I literally lost my voice screaming!), you know that there is very good reason to tune in to Glee tonight: Lady Gaga.

The costumes, the bubbles, the songs, the stuffed animals the…tears?! Wait a minute, what? Again?! Here’s the scoop:

Chris Colfer (Kurt) tells my pal Korbi that he shot a scene that is the most emotional scene ever on the series. And with the recent waterworks of the past few episodes, that is saying something!

“It was pretty intense,” Chris say of his scene tonight with Mike O’Malley (Kurt’s father) and Cory Monteith (Finn). “I kind of realized, Oh there’s such a bigger meaning behind this! Omigod, this is so dramatic.”

And Chris isn’t the only one OMGing. Heather Morris (Brittany)?who pretty much steals the show at the Glee Live concert, BTW?tells me of tonight’s episode: “Oh, god. You have no idea. It’s so good! I can’t wait for everybody to see it and like our outfits and everything. Naya and me, we have the most insane outfits. It’s awesome.”

“Lady Gaga’s person made our costumes,” boss Ryan Murphy tells me. “It’s, I think, our most expensive number because the set is crazy and the costumes are crazy. And we like to keep it real, so Lea and Idina Menzel do an acoustic version of “Poker Face” that she blessed and wanted us to do. Sort of like a stripped-down mother/daughter ‘Poker Face’ that Lady Gaga was involved in.”

“It’s really nice and we do these cool harmonies,” Idina tells me of the duet with Lea. “I guess the meaning of the song, which is quite sexual apparently, is different within the context of the show. It’s actually very simple and truthful.”

Speaking of the mother-daughter twist, any chance now that since Mr. Shue has made out with Shelby (Idina Menzel) and Shelby is Rachel’s biomom, they all might end up one big happy (second) family?

“No, I don’t think Will is going to end up being Rachel’s stepdad or anything,” Matthew Morrison (Will Schuester) tells me with a laugh. “That was a big twist with Idina’s character. I just loved that episode. It was fun.”

And, of course, it’s not all Gaga tonight. “We are in KISS costumes,” Cory Monteith (Finn) tells me. “I’m all Finn and I’m all like, ‘Mr. Schue, we’re guys. We can’t do Gaga. The only guy who’s gonna wanna do that is Kurt. But I don’t want to.’ So, I suggest KISS and it happens. It’s better than Pantera!”

Tune in tonight for all the Glee Gaga goodness!

Lady Gaga spoke to EW.com and shared her thoughts on the Glee episode:

“I love Glee. I love the cast and the creativity of the writers. I went to a musical theatre school, and used to dream that someday the students would be singing my songs. Can’t wait for “Bad Romance” + “Poker Face” in Glee fashion!”

Lea will be presenting at the Tony Awards next month along with her co-star Matthew Morrison.

The Tony Awards are on June 13th at Radio City Music Hall.

MTV.com
By George Loomis

Lea Michele knows she has made good decisions regarding her diet, her dedication to family and her nose. That’s right: her nose.

When Lea recently sat down with Women’s Health for her cover issue, the “Glee” star proudly declared herself as the only girl in her high school class “not to get a nose job.” But Lea has more to be happy about than her lack of plastic surgery.

“I went out to dinner with my boyfriend, and Penelope Cruz and Javier Bardem were leaving the restaurant as we were going in,” Lea told the magazine about the moment she knew she had made it. “[Penelope] was like, ‘Eez eet you? Are you dee girl I’ve been zeeing at all of dezz [Award] tings?’”

When her “Glee” schedule isn’t keeping her busy, Lea makes a point of spending time with family. She told the magazine that even though Los Angeles has “been good” to her, she flies home “every chance [she gets].” And although they’re very close, don’t assume that her family has always been supportive of her vegan diet.

“Coming from an Italian family, you can imagine [they] couldn’t understand,” Lea revealed in the issue, hitting newsstands today. “But they respected my decision.”

Lea credited her toned physique to her strict vegan regimen ? along with the strenuous “Glee” workouts, of course ? a diet inspired by the book “Skinny Bitch.” Lea said of the bestseller, “It slapped me in the face.” She even gave up her favorite habit of relaxing at home with a cheese plate and champagne!

Even Lea isn’t perfect, though, admitting, “I love myself, the way I look, my body, but sometimes I can’t help but feel insecure [in L.A.]. It plays with your head.”