The Britney Factor:

Fox’s courting of Britney Spears had some validity to it after all, reports E! News exclusively, again. Still quoting unamend sources, E! is relaying the message that “The contract is signed.” The $15 million X Factor judge deal took a few months to tweak, but for a mere one season’s work, the fallen pop star will take on the highest paid reality television gig in recent history, surpassing Jennifor Lopez‘s $12 million deal with Simon Cowell’s other television show, American Idol. You may have heard of it. Debuting this fall, the rest of the host team is still yet to be confirmed, what with Cowell axing Paula Abdul and crew after last year’s inaugural season.

Are You Licensed:

Jimi Hendrix‘s Estate is cracking the whip again on this whole Andre 3000 biopic, All is by My Side, set to be filmed in a few weeks over in Ireland. Late yesterday the Wall Street Journal reported that Experience Hendrix LLC, the family-owned company that controls all Hendrix posthumous likeness, said in a statement that it “has made it known many times in the past that no such film, were it to include original music or copyrights created by Jimi Hendrix, can be undertaken without its full participation.” So is it going to be like a Gus Van Sant Last Days enigma or something? What is happening here? Strike a deal, people.

The Auld Triangle:

NYC caught two Irish lads giving the anthem treatment to an old rabble-rousing folk tune, “The Auld Triangle,” from Dominic Behan’s 1960s play, The Quare Fellow. Or at least that’s the kind of humble demeanor Glen Hansard and Bono attempted to treat a small crowd at the Lower East Side’s Living Room venue last night, where Hansard was doing a little taping for Serius/XM’s series “The Loft.” And Bono actually did a good job of not treating the space like an arena, too, forgetting most of the lyrics. Dig on the performance over at Paste. And join in the chorus “And the auld triangle went jingle -angle/On the lonely banks of the royal canal.”

This Land Is Your Land:

As part of all the festivities this year honoring the centennial of folk legend Woody Guthrie‘s birth, author and Grammy Museum Executive Director Robert Santelli put together a book on the roots of Guthrie’s most infamous tune, “This Land is your Land,” and its path from unknown, unlicensed material to Library of Congress stamped panache and schoolhouse staple. Some wry uncut verse gems abound and more via the L.A. Times preview of the book, of which hit book stores this past March:

As I was walkin’, I saw a sign there
And that sign said ‘No trespassin’
But on the other side, it didn’t say nothin’
Now that side was made for you and me

Lyricapsule:

We made a mention of the day police moved in on John Wayne Gacy Jr.’s horror house back in December. But today marks the day that Illinois decided to execute the notorious serial killer back in 1994, 16 years after his incarceration. Thus it’s another opportunity to throw on one of Sufjan Stevens‘ finest whispy folk numbers, eponymously titled “John Wayne Gacy, Jr” and creep out in a genius sweet pop melody way when Stevens’ paints pictures like so:

 He put a cloth on their lips
Quiet hands, quiet kiss on the mouth