Bono vs. Geldof: Who should win the Nobel Peace Prize?

Since Bono (at right) and Bob Geldof have both done a great deal to alleviate Third World poverty, how will the judges choose between these two Nobel Peace Prize nominees? Here's a cheat sheet (hope they read PopWatch in Norway):

Songs about former Nobel Peace laureates?
Bono: Yes, two of them: U2's ''Pride (In the Name of Love)'' and ''MLK,'' both about Martin Luther King.
Geldof: No.
Advantage: Bono

Songs against bloodshed?
Bono: ''Sunday Bloody Sunday,'' decrying sectarian violence in Northern Ireland
Geldof: ''I Don't Like Mondays,'' about a San Diego school shooting
Advantage: Tie

Political correctness?
Bono: Hung out with Sen. Jesse Helms
Geldof: Released an album called The Vegetarians of Love
Advantage: Geldof

Irony-laden lyric about violence?
Bono: ''I'm only hanging on/To watch you go down/My love'' (''So Cruel'')
Geldof: ''I don't like Mondays/I want to shoot the whole day down'' (''I Don't Like Mondays'')
Advantage: Geldof

Honored as Time magazine's Man of the Year?
Bono: Yes
Geldof: No
Advantage: Bono

Had to share Time's Man of the Year honor with evil Microsoft overlord Bill Gates?
Bono: Yes
Geldof: No
Advantage: Geldof

Brokered any peace treaties?
Bono: No
Geldof: Got Pink Floyd to reunite for 20 minutes at Live 8
Advantage: Geldof

By my count, Geldof is the clear winner, 4 to 2, but Bono could still come from behind if he can get, say, Paul McCartney and Yoko Ono to bury the hatchet, or if Geldof manages to compose an iPod jingle more ubiquitous and annoying than ''Vertigo.''

(I'm totally emailing this link to His Majesty King Harald V as we speak.)

Faith Hill 'Flies' to No. 1

On her new single ''Mississippi Girl,'' Faith Hill insists that fame hasn't given her a swelled head. It has, however, swelled her ability to sell plastic. Fireflies debuts at No. 1 on the Billboard album chart this week with sales of 329,000. (The one-new-studio-album-every-three-years strategy seems to be working pretty well for her.) Not sure I buy the singer's I'm-still-a-country-gal spin (neither does EW reviewer Greg Kot, here). Check out the video from her Live 8 performance, still streaming at AOL Music, where she sounds a lot more credible rocking out to Janis Joplin's ''Piece of My Heart'' than on ''Mississippi Girl'' two songs later. Which doesn't mean I can get Hill's current hit out of my brainpan.

Live 8: Burning Questions

After watching bits of 150 acts over 10 hours of Saturday's 10 Live 8 concerts, I still have some unanswered questions. Anybody want to help answer these for me?

-What was up with the painted-on masks on the faces of Michael Stipe and Kanye West's cocktail-dress-clad string ensemble?
-Why did Madonna flip the bird at the crowd?
-How embarrassed was Birhan Woldu, the Ethiopian woman who survived the famine 20 years ago, that Madonna used her as a prop?
-What happened to Pink Floyd bassist Roger Waters' voice?
-Who knew Tim McGraw, rocking a sleeveless vest, was so buff?
-Does Jon Bon Jovi still have the best hair in all of rock?
-Was anyone really yearning to hear Bob Geldof drag ''I Don't Like Mondays'' out of mothballs?
-What was the point of having seven channels on AOL if they were all showing Will Smith's speech?
-Did we all miss the best music because AOL, MTV, and ABC didn't air anything from the all-African lineups at the Johannesburg and Cornwall concerts?
-Will other artists who've seen their sales boosted by Live 8 emulate Pink Floyd and donate the increased royalties to charity?
-How many of these once-in-a-lifetime events, complete with all-star finales, has Paul McCartney headlined? And how many more will he have to headline?
-Why was the TV coverage so lacking in actual, you know, music?

Live 8 Watch: The bite-sized version

In case you don't have patience to watch hours and hours of Live 8 coverage on MTV or navigate multiple concert streams simultaneously on AOL, you can catch highlights of the July 2 shows that very night on ABC, which is condensing the entire extravaganza into a two-hour special. Somehow, ABC already knows that the highlights will include U2, Paul McCartney, and Coldplay.

Live 8 update: Elton and the Muppet

You should be paying regular visits to the Live 8 website to keep track of the ever-expanding list of venues and performers. Celebrity presenters added to the Philadelphia show include famous non-singers like Salma Hayek, Natalie Portman, Chris Tucker, Jennifer Connelly, and Jimmy Smits.

Also appearing will be Kami, the HIV-positive Muppet (you read that right). She's a regular on Sesame Street in South Africa, where childhood AIDS is common, though PBS has promised skittish Congressmen that Kami will never appear on the American Sesame Street. So this may be the only time she's ever seen on U.S. airwaves.

Also, Elton John has a plan to play for Live 8 audiences in both London and Dublin, thanks to the magic of jet travel. Not as impressive as Phil Collins SST-ing his way between London and Philadelphia 20 years ago to perform in both Live Aid shows the same day, but to be fair, it's not Elton's fault that there's no Concorde anymore.

Live 8: A feast for couch potatoes

Remember 20 years ago at Live Aid, when Madonna was a brunette, Paul McCartney was the Cute Ex-Beatle, and U2 proved itself the best live rock act on the planet? Now, Madonna's blonder, McCartney still looks eerily the same, and U2 is the world's top-selling concert draw. You can compare and contrast on July 2 when these acts and others perform at Live 8, whose TV rights have now been picked up by MTV and VH1. The networks will spend eight hours going back and forth among the concerts in London, Philadelphia, and elsewhere, as well as between 2005 and 1985 (when Mick Jagger and Tina Turner, left, raised the roof with "It's Only Rock and Roll"). Of course, the shows are also airing on AOL Music, as well as on Premiere Radio Networks and XM Satellite Radio. So you should be able to catch all the highlights from the simultaneous shows -- if your home theater system is wired like the Architect's room from The Matrix Reloaded.

Scary Spice, say you'll be there

I'll tell ya what I want, what I really, really want. I want to see me a Spice Girls reunion at the Live 8 benefit concert next month in London. Unfortunately, Scary Spice (at right) is having ''difficulty going back to something she did in the past,'' Live 8 organizer Bob Geldof told a British TV show this week, and if she opts out, then none of the other Spices will go on without her. (After all, how could Posh deliver that ''zig-a-zig HA'' with so much panache?)

Now, I've been through shock, denial, and anger this morning -- all before finishing my first Diet Coke -- but after reflecting on the lyrics to ''Wannabe,'' I'm stumbling toward acceptance. The writing's been on the wall the whole time. I just didn't want to see it:

If you want my future, forget my past,
If you wanna get with me, better make it fast,
Now don't go wasting my precious time,
Get your act together we could be just fine

Okay, Scary, I get it. We'll all forget ''2 Become 1.'' But how can the old crew ''get their acts together'' in time for Live 8? Are the clues hidden somewhere in the Spice Girls' lyric book? C'mon people, we've got less than two weeks to solve the mystery!

Pink Floyd reunion makes Geldof's Nobel a lock

DATELINE:  December 1, 2005, OSLO -- Sir Bob Geldof, who earned world-wide praise for his efforts behind the scenes at the Live 8 concerts, humbly accepted the Nobel Peace Prize today.  As observant pundits predicted, he received the prize in recognition of his success at brokering a truce in a 24-year-old feud among the members of Pink Floyd. In his acceptance speech, Geldof expressed regrets that he wasn't able to do the same for the Spice Girls. ''Maybe in 2025,'' he said...