She just slapped her personal brand on a perfume bottle, but Lady Gaga clearly thinks she’s making enough money. The performer, on the hot seat  who has unleashed such tunes as “Poker Face,” “Born This Way,” and “Bad Romance” onto the cultural landscape in the last four years is getting into the business of not just selling her art, but selling her name.

Last month, the 26-year-old launched her Fame perfume line with a memorable piece of performance art: sleeping in a giant perfume bottle and possibly peeing in a champagne bucket. Now, the word from New York's Daily News is that Gaga and her creative team are working on producing a “healthy drinking water brand” so she can rake in some more bucks while helping the world stay hydrated.Continue reading...

"Death to tyranny" reads one of the t-shirts offered from right wing radio host Glenn Beck's new denim and clothing brand, 1791. The tyranny shirt is sold, online only, alongside jeans and other message shirts with shallow, jingoistic messages of Americana including cherry trees and Native Americans. All products are, of course, made in America.

The 1791 brand, which launched as a charity clothing line 11 months ago, is the latest extension of a dwindling Beck empire. It is also the latest brand line from a right wing radio host looking to leverage popularity to fill his own pockets. The problem for Beck's particular endeavor is that the market is currently filled with a glut of Tea Party-focused products.Continue reading...

As if the wired world we’ve woven isn’t busy enough, one in a growing trend of celebrities turned entrepreneur, British comedian Ricky Gervais has just launched Just Sayin’, a voice-based social app for the iPhone.

As Instagram is to photos, "as Twitter is to newsprint," Just Sayin’ wants to be for voice. “Basically, voices have to be part of this new media we’re inventing...Everyone has an opinion. And there’s no better way to express your own opinion than in your own voice,” commented Gervais to the New York Times.

The creator and star of the original The Office is an investor in and creative director of the app, which lets users share voice- and video-based messages via iPad, iPhone, or iPod touch — and yes, it's coming to Android devices later this year — all shareable on Twitter and Facebook.Continue reading...

Eva Longoria certainly isn't the first actress or actor to yield to the conceit that they've got a great idea for a restaurant. But she may be the first to think she can sell a steakhouse aimed at women. Thus, Longoria's part-owned SHe by Morton's is reportedly all set for launch by New Year's Eve in Las Vegas.

It replaces her old Las Vegas eatery, Beso, a failed restaurant in which she also was a part-owner, on the same site. And while she's no longer busy with Desperate Housewives, she is busy campaigning for Barack Obama, and appeared at the Democratic National Convention in Charlotte to pitch her personal story in an outreach to women and Hispanics — two groups she'd no doubt welcome to her relaunched dining concept, too.

With a 1920's theme, SHe aims to be "an updated interpretation of the gilded age when wealth and excessive opulence ruled America's upper-class combined with a modern version of art deco to create a feeling of empowerment, especially for female guests," according to a news release. While set in the era of Prohibition, it won't prohibit men — and may have a successful role model in STK, a Vegas chophouse with a sexy vibe located at the racy Cosmopolitan hotel with the tagline "Not your daddy's steakhouse," which is also aimed at high-rolling, confident women.Continue reading...

Jay-Z may only own a smidgen of the NBA’s new Brooklyn Nets team and the rusty-looking arena that was just built for them to play in, but he’s definitely playing his role to the hilt. The rapper supposedly helped design the team’s logo and pick the color scheme and sold out a slew of shows at their Barclays Center home.

And now, he and his wife, Beyoncé, are continuing to spread their influence for the Nets wherever they go — including, over Labor Day Weekend weekend, in Philadelphia for the Budweiser-sponsored Made In America festival, a music festival that Jay-Z had organized and headlined.Continue reading...

In a blinding glimpse of the obvious, the Oprah brand is rising from the ashes as the former queen of daytime returns to what she does best: one-on-one interviews.

Oprah’s Next Chapter interview with Rihanna Sunday night scored 2.5 million viewers, OWN's second highest-rated telecast in its brief and tumultuous history. It was more than double the numbers posted from her Kardashian interview in June, which drew 1.1 million viewers. 

Thanks to female viewers, the episode, in which Oprah unabashedly (redundant) queried Rihanna on her stormy relationship with Chris Brown, ranked No. 2 in the 9 p.m. Sunday timeslot, pulling in a 2.43 rating for women 25-54 and a 2.49 rating for women 18-49 years-old. The only show on OWN with higher ratings was Oprah’s interview with Whitney Houston’s family following the superstar’s death. Continue reading...

David Beckham was all over the London 2012 Olympics, bringing the torch to the Olympic stadium in a boat, photo-bombing Adidas-sponsored local marketing, "directing" the brand's last commercial, hyping Samsung's Galaxy III and cheering on wife Victoria's Posh Spice revisited turn at the Closing Ceremony. He was even projected onto England's iconic white cliffs of Dover wearing only his H&M skivvies, a controversial stunt that foreshadowed the latest phase of his underwear campaign for the brand that continues this week.

Nine larger-than-life 11-foot statues of Beckham are coming to Los Angeles, New York's Flatiron District and San Francisco as H&M looks to drive sales of Beckham's bodywear line. (Follow the hashtag #HMBeckham for details on a related contest.) He's also the Paralympics brand ambassador for British grocer Sainsbury's, with a new campaign breaking Thursday that promotes the Games' UK telecast on Channel 4. Check it out below.Continue reading...

Steven Klein directed and Ridley Scott produced the trailer, above, for Lady Gaga's first perfume, Fame, which is being released in September. Her first namesake perfume is described as "the first ever black eau de parfum" and is "built on three main accords: dark, sensual and light."Continue reading...