Grapevine: Lambert causes stir; Jackson movie, CD debut strong

Adam Graham / The Detroit News

Lambert causes stir

Adam Lambert 's album cover hit the Internet this week, and it immediately made waves among his fans and detractors. Why? For one, it shows him in extreme close-up, apparently shirtless (and airbrushed to a cyborg-like sheen) and in front of an interstellar backdrop that looks as if it were stolen from a sci-fi geek's senior pictures. Second, he's wearing one leather glove and staring into the camera lens so intently that prolonged exposure to the cover could lead to hypnosis. Third, it's insanely cheesy. So what gives? "Thank you to those who appreciate and understand that the album cover is deliberately campy," Lambert wrote on his Twitter page on Tuesday night. "It's an omage [sic] to the past. It IS ridiculous. For those that don't get it: oh well... Glad to have gotten your attention. Androgyny. Rock n Roll." Lambert's "For Your Entertainment" (what, "Harmony House" was already taken?) hits stores Nov. 23. In the meantime, has anyone heard from that guy who actually won "American Idol" this year?

Jackson movie, CD debut strong

Michael Jackson 's critically acclaimed concert film "This Is It" -- as of press time, it had an 80 percent "fresh" rating from Rotten Tomatoes -- earned $2.2 million in midnight screenings on Tuesday night. Good business, but far from a record; "Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince" earned a record $22 million during its midnight debut earlier this year. The "This Is It" soundtrack, meanwhile, is on pace to sell about 300,000 copies this week, which would likely give it the No. 1 position on next week's chart.

Motherhood calling Shakira

Columbian superstar Shakira, who is on the cover of the new Rolling Stone, says she'd like to become a mother. "My body feels like it is asking to reproduce, to have a huge belly and carry babies," she says, which we swear is an exact line from "Species." She also says she's in no rush to get married (she's been dating her banker boyfriend Antonio de la Rua for nine years). "It's funny how the papers want to see you married, and then they want to see you divorced," she says. "Well, I won't do any of it."

Also...

• The soundtrack to "Twilight: New Moon" rises to No. 1 on Billboard's Top 200 albums chart this week. Tim McGraw 's "Southern Voice" debuts behind it at No. 2.

agraham@detnews.com (313) 222-2284