Go Memphis

Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie have begun legal action against a British tabloid that reported the celebrity couple was going to split, a lawyer acting on their behalf confirmed Monday.

When Dina Martin and Jenny Vergos sang, "Come to the cabaret!" Saturday night at the Children's Museum of Memphis, they weren't kidding. One room was transformed into a cabaret with a dance floor, stage, bar and live entertainment. The rest of the museum was Paris, France, with an Eiffel Tower, Arc de Triomphe and Charlie Chaplin.

The dean of Memphis singer-songwriters, Keith Sykes, will perform Thursday at the Memphis Zoo's "Thursdays Unplugged at the Lodge" music series. Sykes will be playing selections from his 30-plus years career, which has included writing songs for Jimmy Buffett and Rosanne Cash, among others. 5:30-8:30 p.m. Tickets are $10 for members, $12 for nonmembers. For more information, visit memphiszoo.org.

They are on opposing sides, but Indianapolis Colts and New Orleans Saints fans found something to bond over at the Super Bowl — a Daughtry concert. Black and gold mixed with Colts blue as the rockers performed before Sunday’s game. Lead singer Chris Daughtry joked that he was able to bring together a rowdy group. “There was ... a lot of fights getting ready to break out,” he said. Daughtry performed in Memphis at Minglewood Hall last August and at the DeSoto Civic Center in December.

The Memphis Symphony Orchestra's concert on Saturday night was much anticipated on several levels. The program featured the Rachmaninoff "Piano Concerto No. 2," robust, romantic and enduringly popular. Better yet was that it was performed by guest artist Kirill Gerstein, Russian-born U.S. citizen with a background in jazz. And it was the second appearance of conductor candidate Thomas Wilkins, who is in the running for the permanent position of MSO maestro and music director.

Some eight months after "$5 Cover" and almost three years after Three 6 Mafia's "Adventures in Hollyhood," MTV returns to Memphis for an episode of "The Buried Life." The new reality series chronicles the misadventures and charitable missions of four twentysomething Canadian men who use "good will, guts and gumption" to "travel the globe in a purple transit bus to complete a list of '100 things to do before you die...,'" according to MTV.

Actor Charlie Sheen's stolen Mercedes-Benz was found overturned hundreds of feet down a cliff near his Sherman Oaks home early Friday, but there's no evidence anyone was in the car when it went into the ravine, police said.

It's country night in Tunica's casinos Saturday as a trio of honky-tonk heroes — George Jones, Kenny Rogers (above) and Garry Allan — take to area stages.

Ekundayo Bandele feels that the time has finally arrived. Hattiloo Theatre, the black repertory company he founded on Marshall Avenue, is halfway through its fourth season. His team of actors and stagehands gets stronger with every show. And now, he wants his actors to get some respect. With the opening of August Wilson's "The Piano Lesson" this weekend, Bandele has started featuring actors' names on posters, in lieu of having a marquee. "They deserve it," he said.

If Brad Pitt can beat the Nazis ... If the blue-skinned indigenous tree huggers of Pandora can beat the U.S. military ... If Sandra Bullock can beat the Boyz-N-the-Memphis-Hood ... hen surely you, gentle reader, can beat Beifuss in The Commercial Appeal's 14th annual "Beat Beifuss at the Oscars" contest, which officially begins -- drumroll, please -- TODAY. Or can you?

In June, Exene Cervenka was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis. But it hasn't derailed one of the most vibrant and distinctive of American artists, who has made a career as a poet and spoken word performer, a visual artist, and most famously the leader of legendary L.A. punk band X and alt-country avatars the Knitters. She will perform at the Hi-Tone Café in Midtown Memphis tonight, along with the Dex Romweber Duo and Richard James and the Special Riders.

Saturday, when the sky was grey, the air was biting and the icy streets were treacherous, we drove along a woeful section of Cleveland just north of Poplar to get to Al-Rayan. And there we found the remedy to all the unpleasantness listed above. It's called selta — or salta, depending on which menu you're reading. The robust stew, which Al-Rayan owner Hindi Nahwi makes with lamb and potatoes, is a traditional dish of Yemen, and arrives bubbling in a black clay pot.

Dear John (PG-13, 108 min.) A soldier (Channing Tatum) falls for a college student (Amanda Seyfried) in this adaptation of Nicholas Sparks' best-seller: Forest Hill 8, Stage Cinema, Majestic, Collierville Towne 16, DeSoto Cinema 16, Studio on the Square, Cordova Cinema, Paradiso, Hollywood 20 Cinema, CinePlanet 16.

The voice answering on the other end of the line is raspy, wispy, barely audible. Ramble John Krohn, the deejay/producer/singer-songwriter known as RJD2, is between legs of a tour to promote his latest album, The Colossus, and his pipes are shot.

PRINCE CHARLES' WIFE has turned barmaid during a visit to the set of a British TV soap.

Something exciting is happening at Joysmith Gallery. Through the end of this month, Memphians can get a look at the visceral, energized work of Angelbert Metoyer, and if he isn't a household name yet, just wait. The New Orleans-born, Houston-reared artist, whose Creole descent, sense of heritage and eclectic palette have earned comparisons with Jean-Michel Basquiat, is primed for the kind of acclaim and popularity reserved for few modern painters.

Describe a dish you created. I lived in South Carolina in Charleston, and I lived in New Orleans. Both have a version of shrimp and grits. I took a Creole sauce, which is tomatoes and peppers and celery and stuff. ... If you see shrimp Creole it's chunky. It's a more rustic kind of dish served over rice. I took the Creole sauce and pureed it and then took the concept of sautéing shrimp and sausage in this Creole sauce over grits.

In the space of just a few weeks, we have movies starring Harrison Ford, Mel Gibson and John Travolta. It's like the early '90s all over again. Nostalgia is on Travolta's mind, too. In "From Paris with Love," he plays a violent but chatty CIA agent who, while bullets fly, likes to engage in dialogue that recalls "Pulp Fiction" as if written by action film hacks. It's a kind of return to Paris for Travolta, who memorably gave his travelogue of the French capital in "Pulp Fiction."

George McConnell, who returns to town Saturday for a show at Newby’s near the University of Memphis, has a message for all the kids in college out there. “Anybody that’s out there reading this: If you’re in school, don’t graduate,” says the Oxford, Mississippi-based singer-songwriter, laughing. “College is the best life in the world.” He is only half joking. Though he graduated from Ole Miss more than 20 years ago, McConnell still calls the college town home.

Members of After the Storm went through bad weather before the skies finally cleared. Singer Nick Kunkel, 21, and drummer Glenn Griffin, 21, got off to a rocky start. “We actually hated each other in high school,” Griffin said. “We played on the same rugby team. He was pompous. Nick was all about Nick. It was just the way he carried himself.” Kunkel spent a lot of time trying to impress girls. He’d pop the collar of his Polo shirt and try to act cool. “What 18 year old isn’t like that?” he said.