John Lennon's sticky business

Heard of John Lennon, the postage stamp designer?

A set of stamps, depicting a clenched fist, which the late Beatle designed to support a strike by postal workers, sold for for £1,260 ($2,000) at a Sotheby's auction on September 24.

Among the other collectibles that went under the hammer was a 1960 table from Lennon's former home at Weybridge, south of London, which went for $3,800. A signed copy of the epochal album Revolver sold for $34,000. But nobody bid for a collection of photographs of the Beatles in Adelaide, Australia, which was expected to fetch $24,000.

Perhaps they didn't have Lennon's stamp of approval.

Ho hum, Babs…

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Barbra Streisand has confirmed what a lot of people have been saying, through stifled yawns, for ages: her songs are so boring that even she is bored of them. Now, how boring is that?

The singer-actress, whose new record The Movie Album releases October 14, was quoted as saying one reason she gave up concerts is because she grew tired of listening to her own songs.

'I never listened to my records for maybe 10 years,' Streisand, 61, told Reader's Digest. "Then I can appreciate it, but really, I just get sick of it. That's why I gave up concerts — in addition to having stage fright and the exertion of singing 30 songs a night.'

Yawn!  

Just call me Julio

His father Julio and older brother Enrique need no introduction – one for his memorable voice and the other for his escapades with the Internet's most downloaded tennis star, Anna Kournikova. But Julio Iglesias, Jr prefers to stick to his first name.

'It doesn't mean I'm not proud of being an Iglesias, I really am, and I love the whole Iglesias music. I just like to be called Julio. It's shorter. It's straight to the point. Julio. Say it — Julio,' the singer told AP television news.

Tercera Dimension, the 30-year-old's new album, is his first in Spanish.

Like father like son, perhaps?

Hetfield's Chevy: Going, going, going... on eBay

The black 1967 Chevrolet Camaro that James Hetfield drove in Metallica's video for I disappear could well be yours, if you can cough up the shekels.

Hetfield owned the Chevy for three years after it was gifted to him. The two-door automatic, which has done 77,000 miles, has been extensively restored.

The starting bid of $8,000 had climbed to $70,100 as of Thursday morning. Proceeds from the sale will be donated to music programmes in schools.

Metallica's new album St Anger ranks at 74 on the US charts, with sales of about 1.4 million copies. The band is preparing to tour South America, Japan and Europe later this year.

Metallica, deserted by many fans after an infamous lawsuit filed against peer-to-peer portal Napster over licensing rights, is struggling to reclaim lost ground with the new album.

Sad but true -- nothing matters like respect.

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