By Mike Mooneyham
Nov. 5, 2006
The verdict appears to be in for Brooke Hogan’s debut album, and the results aren’t good.
Abandoning the innocent, spoiled-daddy’s-girl image portrayed on the hit VHI reality series “Hogan Knows Best” for a much more sexy, risqué one as the latest tanned teen pop princess hasn’t seemed to help sales or reviews for the 18-year-old daughter of pro wrestling icon Hulk Hogan.
Despite the abundance of promotion on TV and through the Hogan connection, only 30,442 copies of her “Undiscovered” album were sold the first week, according to sales figures at HitsDailyDouble. Almost sure to be a money loser for Sobe Entertainment, the album ranked No. 28 on the week’s sales charts.
Industry analysts had speculated that the first week would be boosted by novelty sales related to the “Hogan Knows Best” series, which served as a springboard for the album, and that a sizable drop-off could be expected for the following week.
The reviews for the 14-song CD, characterized as your typical pop album with ditties about looks, boys, teen angst and narcissism, have been equally harsh.
Brooke Hogan
“If Mandy Moore took a wrong turn down an alley and got in a dust up with Bone Thugs-N-Harmony, the resulting melee might sound an awful lot like Brooke Hogan’s debut album, ‘Undiscovered,’ a poor release of shrill coming-of-age tunes,” wrote the San Francisco Chronicle.
Making matters worse was that the statuesque blonde recently was bounced from the cover of Prom magazine after publishers decided she was “too sexy” to appear on the cover. Hogan had appeared on the cover of the November issue of the men’s magazine FHM wearing only a skimpy bikini, and Prom execs decided to pull the offer to appear on the cover of their teen-focused publication.
“We don’t feel up to taking thousands of telephone calls from the upset mothers of our young promers,” spokesman Aaron Bernick said in a statement.
Hogan’s representatives accused the magazine of trying to generate publicity by creating controversy. A feature on Hogan will still appear in the magazine.
“Clearly, Prom is attempting to publicize their magazine by stirring up controversy over photos of Brooke that they took more than a year ago,” Hogan’s rep said in a statement to E! Online. “Looks like they are trying to up their circulation.”
The Hulkster has spent much of the past year trying to dispel the notion that his daughter could simply conjure up a record deal because of her celebrity lineage. Brooke, however, admitted in a recent interview with the Associated Press that she doubted she could have landed a record deal without the bizarre series.
“I think that the show was definitely a blessing and I definitely wouldn’t be where I am today without it,” said Hogan, who got her first record deal at the age of 15 and later released a single, “Everything to Me,” which enjoyed moderate success. “Lindsay Lohan, Hilary Duff and Jessica Simpson all had a launching pad with TV. So we were just like, ‘Why not?’ We thought it would be good for the whole family.”
– WWE returns to the North Charleston Coliseum on Dec. 4 with a nationally televised Monday Night Raw along with an ECW taping on the same bill. Both brand shows will air back-to-back beginning at 7:30 p.m.
Ticket prices are $41, $31, $26 and $21 (plus applicable fees). Tickets are available at the Coliseum box office, all Ticketmaster outlets (including select Publix grocery stores), online at ticketmaster.com or charge at 554-6060.
– George’s Sports Bar, 1300 Savannah Highway, will air the Cyber Sunday pay-per-view at 8 p.m. tonight. Cover charge is $7.
– Ric Flair’s ex-wife, Beth, recently took the 16-time world champ back to court for what she thought was her fair share of Carolina Panthers tickets. She attempted to have her ex cited for contempt and be told to abide by a judge’s order that she receive her allotment of season tickets. But the plan backfired.
Mecklenburg District Judge Jane Harper didn’t hold the pro wrestler in contempt, saying she did not find that Flair had willfully refused to comply with her Oct. 5, 2005, order that he share his Panthers tickets with his estranged wife.
Flair, one of Charlotte’s best-known celebrities, said during Tuesday’s hearing that he had not renewed his seat license and could no longer buy season tickets. He said he hadn’t gone to any Panthers games this season. “I didn’t have them, and I couldn’t get them,” said Flair.
Flair’s lawyer, Bill Diehl, called the motion to have his client cited for contempt over the Panthers tickets frivolous.
“This was a complete waste of the court’s time,” Diehl said after the hearing, “and she lost.”
Flair heads back to court in November for a final settlement in the nasty divorce case.
– Pro wrestler Joey Maggs (Joseph Magliano) passed away on Oct. 15.
Maggs wrestled from 1991-98 for WCW where he was known as “Jumping” Joey Maggs and was used mostly as an enhancement talent whose job was to pull good matches out of bad wrestlers.
Maggs was an undersized but solid performer who began wrestling in 1987 in Georgia, Mississippi and Louisiana, and held the USWA tag-team belts with Rex King and the junior heavyweight title in Memphis. Maggs, though, got his greatest exposure working as a TV job guy in WCW.
– Kintaro Oki recently passed away at the age of 77 in Seoul, South Korea.
Oki, widely regarded as the biggest name in the history of Korean wrestling, had been in poor health for more than a decade, suffering from heart problems, diabetes and high blood pressure.
– Daniel Garcia, the most famous Huracan Ramirez wrestling character, passed away Monday at the age of 80. Garcia starred in several movies and was a top drawing card in Mexico. He also was the inventor of the huracanrana.
– WWE has given Psicosis (Dionico Castellanos) his walking papers. The firing came just weeks after the Mexican star was arrested on assault and auto theft charges.
– WWE diva Torrie Wilson and wrestling hubby Billy Kidman (Peter Gruner) are calling it quits.
Wilson made it official with the following declaration on her MySpace page:
“I have decided to let you in on a secret that I have been holding in for much too long. I am very heartbroken to say that I am in the stages of a divorce. It makes me incredibly sad to say this and I hope that you will respect me and my privacy at this really difficult time. This is just something that has been eating at me for some time now, and I feel it’s best to hear it straight from me rather than read it somewhere else. I think I have made things harder on myself by pretending that everything is fine and dandy to the outside world. I just pray that by opening up about this now, it might be easier to move forward in my life journey.”
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