Los Angeles, CA, United States (Celebrity News Service) – While Blake Shelton was in search of “The Voice,” his record label wanted to silence his…by shutting down his Twitter account.

Shelton’s label bosses at Warner Bros. thought his Twitter messages were overly candid and sometimes offensive, like his tweet where he re-wrote some Shania Twain lyrics to read, “Any man that tries Touching my behind / He’s gonna be a beaten, bleedin’, heaving kind of guy.”

After the remarks were considered anti-gay, Shelton’s label heads wanted to prevent him from tweeting, something he and the rest of the judges regularly do for “The Voice.”

“There was a point where Warner Bros. was like, ‘We’ve got to get Blake off Twitter, ’cause he can’t say these type of things,’” Shelton told the New York Times.

Shelton apologized for his tweets after he was under pressure from critics and groups like GLAAD, but the tweets haven’t seemed to have caused him any distress.

His new album, “Red River Blue,” was just released on Tuesday. Featuring the hit single “Honey Bee,” it’s already at #1 on iTunes and is on its way to a big debut.

“I hope that people learn from me, it’s OK to be yourself,” Shelton said. “It’s OK to offend somebody, and, as a matter of fact, please be polarizing. If you’re not polarizing, you failed in my opinion. If you don’t stand for something, how can anyone respect what you do?”

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Los Angeles, CA, United States (CNS) – Angelina Pivarnick, the former “Jersey Shore” fire-starter who’s been M.I.A. since the show left, well, MIA, could be joining her housemates once again for its new season in Italy.

While MTV just announced that Pauly D, Snooki, and the rest of the gang would be heading to Italy for the hit show’s fourth season, Angelina also tweeted that she’s packing her bags for the European country.

“Italy this summer!!! Flights booked in full!!! Yahh!!! Can’t wait!!! Xxoxoxox,” she wrote on her Twitter.

Now it hasn’t been announced if her trip is MTV-sanctioned or she’s just planning this on her own. But we’d love to see her surprise the other 8 housemates with an appearance (unless they get wind of her tweets and, well, surprise failed).

“I would be a liar if I told you I didn’t miss it, because I actually do,” Angelina told Rumorfix. “I miss the fact that I was part of such a big TV show.”

Angelina might also have her timing a bit off as well. While she said she’s heading off to Italy in the summer, the fourth season of “Jersey Shore” is expected to film a bit earlier in the spring.

But we’d love to see Angelina take the drama overseas, especially with new roomie Deena in the mix. Angelina has already said that if she would return for the fourth season, she would “beat the s—t out of the new girl.”

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Los Angeles, CA, United States (CNS) – Lindsay Lohan is now legally free to check out from the Betty Ford Center, but she is still planning to extend her stay. The recovering starlet is reportedly considering getting additional treatment, which means she needs to stay until the weekend.

Lohan has been ordered to check in at the rehab center until January 3 by Judge Elden Fox when she failed two drug tests in October.

But according to TMZ, Lindsay is apparently taking precautions before reentering real life. She is said to be talking with people at the rehab center about reentering the residential day treatment program until Saturday.

She wrote on Twitter for the New Year, “Today is the first day of the rest of my life ‘The future depends on what we do in the present.’ – Mahatma Gandhi… One step at a time…”

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Enter Twitter, the 140 character posting machine capable of attracting thousands of followers and connecting you to people across the globe. Easy to use, and quickly becoming just as popular as Facebook or MySpace, this is one tool every artist should add to their repertoire for generating publicity and interest. Strangely addictive and remarkably useful, Twitter is a great method of sharing thoughts, reviews, links, and news.

A crucial aspect of utilizing Twitter to your advantage is the slimmed down length of the posting. Instead of full length blog posts, press releases, or reviews, the info is shortened, forcing you to only share the most important info with fans and followers. This helps to create succinct, flowing updates which aren’t too wordy or cumbersome to read, giving people the updates they’re searching for as quickly as possible. Becoming a skilled Twitter user can generate more followers of your profile, who will see each and every one of your musical tweets.

The advent of smart phones, especially Blackberrys and iPhones makes Twitter even more effective, as people are beginning to use their advanced mobile devices to follow social networking on the go. A myriad of applications are available for most phones, allowing you to update, view, and tweet to your heart’s content no matter where you are.

Remember, social networking sites are your friend, as long as they’re used properly. Be smart about what you write online, especially while posting personal information, but don’t be afraid to share your thoughts or pertinent info regarding musical endeavors. Over time, your Twitter followers will grow, as will the audience your posts reach, making it an effective tool which nearly anyone can take advantage of. Use keywords, witty comments, and post regularly to keep fans coming back for more.

Los Angeles, CA, United States (AHN) – Kanye West has been on Twitter quite a bit lately. First, to denounce Matt Lauer and NBC’s “The Today Show” after a recent appearance. Now, he announced that he’s canceling his “Today Show” performance originally scheduled for later this month.

West was slated to take the stage on Friday, November 26th to perform tracks from his upcoming new album, “My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy.” He’s still scheduled to perform the day before during the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade.

But after his much-discussed “Today Show” appearance, where West expressed his frustration with the show for playing audio of his infamous Taylor Swift speech interruption during his interview, he pulled the plug on what was to be a “live concert on the plaza.”

“I’m not performing on the Today Show for obvious reasons,” Kanye tweeted. “I’m so happy the world got to see just a small piece of ‘the set up.’…I blatantly said I’m not performing on a tweet and to everyone around me and the next day they still announced a performance.

“Do you guys see what I’m saying now?” he continued. Sounds like “Paranoid” isn’t just a song off “808s & Heartbreaks.”

But Kanye insists he isn’t angry at Lauer or the show. “I don’t hate Matt Lauer,” he added. “We don’t promote hate. That’s the whole point!!! I promote love and truth!”…All positive energy… all smiles.”

“Much love to Matt and the whole Today Show,” he continued. “I accept ya’ll future apology in advance LOL!”

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Hip-Hop artists are doing it themselves. Authors are publishing their own books. Anyone with a quality HD camera and the hunger for cinema can make a film. And you know what? Because of the internet, there is no longer a middle man needed distribution reaches to your audience.

So now what’s your excuse?

With the advent of today’s internet marketing techniques through social media, you are now able to showcase your live shows via video platforms such as YouTube or Film Rookie. You are not able to not only allow your music to be heard, but to be instantly purchased via MP3 and Ringtone downloads. You are now able to nationally brand yourselves, spit shine your images and tell your stories via social website such as Twitter, Facebook, Digg and MySpace. In fact, you are now able to completely build your platform in the most effective way having to go through hearing some type of gatekeeper try and tell you that your work isn’t marketable and won’t sell. Yes… thanks to today’s media technologies, you will never have to deal with that person again. Now how you decide to portray that image and produce that music is solely up to you. But never again can you put the blame on any outside sources.

In the classic Chuck Grown go-go song, “Bustin Loose”, Chuck begins with the demanding phrase, “Keep what you’ve got until you get what you need.” Well… for the past 30 years, you’ve given a lot. But now I’m here to tell you that just what you have needed is now here.

In this, my friends, are the areas that TMOTTGoGo.com will strictly be focusing on. The production. The image building. The promoting. The marketing. And everything else that entails please your current audience and building some new ones. Talkin ’bout making moves. This surpasses going just beyond the beltway by 2650 miles. (that’s DC to LA by the way).

In the words of the Legendary James Funk, “Now, how you gonna carry it?”

Kato Hammond is an American musician and journalist. He is the owner and creator of Take Me Out To The Go-Go, Inc. (TMOTTGoGo), editor and publisher of Take Me Out To The Go-Go Magazine, executive producer of TMOTTGoGo DVD Magazine, and webmaster of TMOTTGoGo.com. You can find more helpful resources by visiting his website at: http://www.tmottgogo.com