Take That Do Simon Cowell's Private NYE Gig

Both the Daily Mail and the Sun published these classy pics of Take That‚ sans Robbie Williams (who was allegedly in L.A. with his wife for "a family get-together") performing a 35-minute set at Simon Cowell's New Year's Eve party in Barbados.

The That apparently didn't get paid anything for their crooning services, but were given an all-expenses-paid week in the island nation with their families. Plus, added bonus—Howard Donald stripped off his shirt for the paparazzi.

Reportedly both Rihanna and Sinitta were among the 350 partygoers—and if she knew what was good for her, RiRi would have taken off her wig and bowed down to Sinitta, because we know who the real star is there.

Sigh. Only seven-and-a-half months till I see these fuckers live in Milan.

So, There's This Rumor That Shayne Ward May Be Dropped By Simon Cowell :(

I'd take this with a grain of salt, as the original source is apparently News Of The World, but Digital Spy published info and quotes yesterday hinting that if Shayne Ward's next single—apparently the title track from his third album Obsession—doesn't perform well, he'll get the axe from Simon Cowell's SyCo roster.

Well, at least I'm taking it with a grain of salt. Then again, if Shayne isn't bogged down with silly things like recording music, maybe he can spend more time doing photo shoots like the one above (for the December issue of UK Cosmopolitan).

Anyway, says "a source":

"Shayne is finished at SyCo. Simon has tried his best to turn him into a star but it simply hasn't worked. He gave Shayne one more chance after ending his working relationship with Louis but his music hasn't connected with the public.

"The chances of him being a popstar again are incredibly low. It's a huge personal blow to Shayne. For a long time people thought he'd become the next Robbie Williams. But the music industry is ruthless and he is costing the company a lot of money at the moment."

"Shayne is also quite arrogant about his music [and] isn't the easiest person to work with. He will be quietly let go next year and the focus will turn to the new crop of X Factor contestants."

Strange. Shayne hardly comes across as arrogant or difficult to work with. In fact, at times he seemed to be very publicly bending over backwards (and, sadly, not the other way around) to get this album out there.

That said, Obsession peaked at #15 on the UK chart, while first single "Gotta Be Somebody" squeaked in at #12. Time will tell—but wouldn't you much rather watch Shayne Ward singing at you than Matt Cardle?

Maybe it's all stemming from comments Shayne supposedly made about recent X Factor contestants One Direction lip sycing? I will say this, though—I ordered Obsession from Amazon UK four weeks ago, and the damn thing never arrived. Bad omen?