Rohin Guha reports from the music scene at SXSW in Austin, Texas. In his latest pop-music discovery, Rohin tracks down an interview with the mysterious and enchanting Elizabeth Harper, aka “Class Actress,” a singer we should get to know before she gets too famous and starts winning Grammys and stuff.

Born and raised in Southern California but currently residing in notorious New York hipster enclave Williamsburg, Class Actress, aka Elizabeth Harper, has managed to strike a neat, but intriguing balance among a broad range of sensibilities. On her debut EP, Journal of Ardency, Harper not only walks a tightrope over electronica, indie rock, and bubblegum pop, but also manages a different balancing act too. She tempers East Coast ennui with West Coast whimsy and creates a collection that serves as proof of her love of music — as both fan and artist. It’s this same joie de vivre that made her the most logical performer to open for British pop singer Little Boots’ American dates recently and one that now makes her an excellent fit in Austin this week.

Growing up, what did you listen to?
I loved Madonna, I loved Depeche Mode’s David Gahan and Martin Gore. I loved jazz. Bossa Nova, too–those were the vocals I wanted to emulate. Soft, pretty, jazz-like vocals.

Speaking of Madonna, you were presented by the New York Press as a Brooklyn-based incarnation of Madonna. What do you think of that kind of label?
It’s rad! You’re a woman on stage. Let’s face it–people are looking at you for that reason. So you might as well embrace it. And that you’re sexy and have that sexuality. Rather than play up the awkwardness.

But you don’t see that as problematic?
I don’t think that’s an expectation. I think it’s something that if you feel free — if you feel sensual — then you might as well let it go. I think that if you try to be sexy then you’re not going to be sexy. That’s the antithesis of sexiness. When people are dancing at a club, they feel sexy. They move in a certain way. They dress in a certain way. It’s a free feeling. That’s what I feel on stage. I think if you’re a performer and you can embody that feeling being out and feeling kind of like your avatar-self, I think you’re doing OK.

Your music tends to be very diverse. What kind of music do you try to avoid listening to?
I’ve been through every stage of music. Nirvana at one point and Blur. I played guitar for a long time. But I never got into emo. I don’t think the whiny boys in tight T-shirts were ever my style.

How did Journal of Ardency come to be?
We had these songs ready to go. And then we thought to put out the EP. We wanted to put five songs first to get people interested in the music to get people interested in the press on that. Also to give a little taste of what the album’s goign to sound like.

Who are you looking forward to seeing at SXSW?
I want to check out Neon Indian, Grizzly Bear, and the Dum Dum Girls.

This being your first SXSW showcase, how are you feeling?
I’m so excited! I had dreams about it last night. I can’t wait to go there and tear it up.

Class Actress has several shows lined up as part of SXSW.

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We need a body language expert in here! Justin Timberlake and Cameron Diaz reunite on set, appear pleasant enough. (E! Online)

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(Photo by Stephen Lovekin/Getty Images for The Weinstein Company)

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Today’s P.M Crush Links, a roundup of the day’s most talked-about celebrity news:

• Apparently George Clooney’s Italian girlfriend is responsible for the mullet he was sporting at the Oscars. She thinks it makes him look more European and less American. [Popeater]

• Madonna blogged about strong women for International Women’s Day. [Raising Malawi]

• Gabourey Sidibe news roundup: She’s apparently been talking to Modern Family producers about possibly guest-starring on the show, as urged by star Jesse Tyler Ferguson. [Movieline] Gerard Butler overheard Gabby saying she’d totally “hit that” on the red carpet, and told her he was available. [Access Hollywood]

• Lil Wayne is actually in jail now. For real. [TMZ]

• Betty White confirmed that she will be appearing on Saturday Night Live this season, though she didn’t say when or how. [People]

• Mariah Carey is once again accused of being pregnant, this time because she told an interviewer on the Oscars red carpet that she had a surprise coming up. [Anything Hollywood]

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Anderson’s gym, located in Manhattan’s tony Tribeca ‘hood, opened last year to lots of buzz — and a $900-a-month membership fee.

The source says Anderson is “taking 200 members max, so it’s possible they’re already filled to capacity and not signing up new members.”

Those members include: Paltrow, Christy Turlington, Edie Falco, Beyonce, Kate Hudson, Chelsea Clinton and Kelly Ripa.

“If people are paying $900 a month for a gym, they are going to expect some pretty personalized instruction,” says the source.  “And the gym is a small space. … I’m sure they don’t want too many of the unwashed masses crowding Gwyneth when she’s working out,” says the source.

Anderson became famous in the workout world for training Madonna and Paltrow, the latter after she had her second child.

She is currently building her empire with gyms in New York and L.A., in addition to DVDS and an upcoming book. She also plans to open a gym in the Hamptons, the source says.

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It’s a fad that many of us would be hard-pressed to term, but many of us recognize: The baby doll dresses. The twee voices. The false eyelashes, oversized eyewear, excess lipstick. The two-and-a-half minute jingles. Though it was dominated primarily by French, Quebecois, and Spanish popstrels who were easily interchangeable, yé yé performers’ hallmarks seeped through the ages. Everyone from Baby Spice to Ke$ha have co-opted some element—affected naïvete, hemlines, bubbly hooks—from the yé yé girls. During the height of its success, Susan Sontag wrote of the movement in her essay Notes On “Camp”:

“In the last two years, popular music (post rock-’n'-roll, what the French call yé yé) has been annexed” into the camp sensibility.

The movement takes its name from the yells of “Yeah! Yeah!” that peppered the movement’s hits. Yé yé songs, though explicit by nature, still opted for more subtlety. It was an era when mankind on the whole wasn’t so desensitized to sex that we needed a musician to hammer us over the head with sex and booze. Fans made do with France Gall’s “Les sucettes,” or “Lollipops” which at once managed to be subtle and profane—clearly an allusion to oral sex.

And therein lies the curiosity of this movement. The yé yé girls, although hypersexualized idols of their time, still played coy despite the explicit nature of their music. Their music was upbeat, punchy, and fun. It was flirty and spontaneous.

The success of French singer-songwriter Serge Gainsbourg made the effects of the movement global, even if the term remained elusive. A yé yé mastermind, he orchestrated Gall’s career (and wrote “Les sucettes”)—the foremost yé yé performer who he dubbed the “French Lolita.” He also penned songs for Brigitte Bardot and Petula Clark. In Clark’s case, most noticeably through “Downtown,” which is known for its arguably racy undertones. Echoes of this particular movement even hit success in Japan, with the rise of a brand of “idols” or shibuya.

Performers like Jacqueline Taïeb managed to make a dent in Europe, by borrowing from The Who’s “My Generation” into her song, “7 heures du matin,”—a tune in which she vocally crushes on Paul McCartney. More interesting is how like pop stars today who struggle to evolve from their first album to their second, even these yé yé girls were out to carve out entire careers despite the gimmicky pretense of yé yé. A performer from Italy named Mina found herself trying to sell a “bad girl” image after taking some time off to get married and have a baby—both virtually death knells in the pop world, regardless of era. It’s an image struggle that someone like Madonna—who in her earliest days flirted with the Lolita image too—knows all too well.

Although many of these songs have been lost to time as kitschy detritus, the yé yé spirit still burns bright as ever. On American shores no less. If Gaga has made bubblegum pop a cool commodity again, another unlikely, hipster-friendly musician has picked up the yé yé torch and reinvigorated the genre. It’s here that French cross-over act Yelle’s 2007 album Pop-Up stands tall as a direct descendent of Gainsbourg’s labor of love in the ‘60s. It’s also here that Ke$ha, despite her déclassé approach to pop, owes her career to a parade of mod-styled naïfs.

–By Rohin Guha

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Jon Voight says his reconciliation with Angelina Jolie this week was “wonderful.” and that they had “spent quality time together.” (ShowbizSpy)

Madonna boy toy Jesus Luz was deejaying at a party in Rio when a guest came up and threw beer in his face — Luz then “went to a corner and started to cry.” (Page Six)

Charlie Sheen’s wife Brooke Mueller has reportedly been in rehab more than five times and has been hiding her addiction to crack and heralcoholism from people close to her for months. (RadarOnline)

Scarlett Johansson was seen recently playing ping pong with former Guns
N’ Roses frontman Axl Rose. (Page Six)

Courtney Love tweeted that she’d be interested in “hate fucking” John Mayer “just to put him in his place, hes a better guitarist than me but not better in bed!” (Huffington Post)

Following last year’s success of The Hangover, Anna Faris and Jennifer Garner are rumored to be starring in a new comedy about a bachelorette party. (Perez Hilton)

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According to reports, Madonna’s boyfriend, Jesus Luz, doesn’t actually know how to DJ, but rakes in $10,000 for appearances anyway. (Radar)

Andrea Friedman, who voiced a character on Family Guy meant to be the daughter of Sarah Palin and who also has Down’s syndrome, said the former governor doesn’t have a sense of humor about the joke. (Palingates)

Jessica Simpson is turning to her sister, Ashlee, for comfort after John Mayer revealed intimate details of their sex life last week. (OK)

In other Jessica news, she is supposedly dating ex-boyfriend Dane Cook again. (Anything Hollywood)

Ellen Degeneres surprised down-on-her-luck American Idol castoff Angela Martin with the promise that Kara DioGuardi would write a song especially for her to record, and that the two Idol judges would help her land a record deal. (Ellen)

(Photo by WENN)

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At a DUI progress hearing for Lindsay Lohan yesterday, Judge Marsha Revel said in court that Lindsay was, “In full compliance. Everything looks good.” Lindz still must complete the alcohol education classes she has been ordered to attend by July 2010. (Radar Online )

Those happy family photo ops in Venice are being staged “like a military operation” to quash reports that Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie are splitting, sources said. The pair, who have vehemently denied a rift, have been seen daily as a family unit in the romantic Italian city. (Page Six)

“I think Jesus was a compassionate, super-intelligent gay man who understood human problems,” says singer Elton John in an interview. Sir Elton also talks about his past relationships, drugs, and fame.
(Parade)

A friend of Heidi Montag says Spencer Pratt is looking to have some plastic surgery too! *According to the friend, Spencer is looking into “lipo, chest implants and a nose job.” (Perez Hilton)

Tina Fey will probably reprise her famous impression of Sarah Palin when she hosts Saturday Night Live in April, the comedian said. (Associated Press)

Simon Cowell knows what it takes to be an American Idol judge, and he says neither Howard Stern nor Madonna is the right choice to replace him next season. Cowell also said he would love to have Lady Gaga on the show as a mentor. (New York Daily News)

Although former Girl Next Door Kendra Wilkinson is six years too young to run, there is a grassroots movement to put her on the ballot for Indiana senator when Evan Bayh’s term is up. Asked about this, she said: “Oh yeah. I would change a lot in this world, let me tell you that.” Meanwhile, Wilkinson
said in another interview that she wants to have another baby. (Popeater, OK!)

Justin Timberlake thinks everyone wants to look like a rock star. “I think we all want to dress like rock stars,” Timberlake said. “That’s a pretty blatant correlation.” (MTV News)

Angelina Jolie was photographed in Venice, Italy Wednesday afternoon with two protruding muscles where her chin meets her neck. Dr. Elie Levine, a plastic surgeon who has not treated Jolie, says that it appears she’s “received Botox to her face and likely her neck.” (Us Mag)

Kristen Stewart is heading over to London this weekend, because she’s nominated for BAFTA’s Orange Rising Star award. So who will also be at the British awards show as a presenter? Well, Robert Pattinson, of course…(E! Online/Ted Casablanca)

Love has blossomed on the set of the final Harry Potter film between Bonnie Wright, who plays Ginny Weasley, and Twilight vampire Jamie Campbell Bower. (OK! U.K.)

Chris Brown earned a glowing probation report six months after he was sentenced to “labor-oriented service” for assaulting Rihanna. “It looks like you’re doing really, really well,” said Judge Patricia Schnegg, who reviewed his probation report. (CNN)

Conan O’Brien can’t appear on TV until September, but he has a plan that would keep him in front of audiences: putting on a series of live theatrical shows. (Page Six)

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