THE WEEKEND STARTS HERE:

...with THE BEATLES!  In 1965-66, at Twickenham Film Studios, The Beatles videotaped a series of B&W promos, all produced by a British company, Intertel.  These videos were meant to be aired on shows like Hullaballoo and Top of the Pops.  Some never aired; the rest have been rarely seen until Al Gore invented the Internets.  Today's selections are:  "Help!" "Ticket To Ride," "Day Tripper," "Rain" and "Paperback Writer."

LED ZEPPELIN:  John Paul Jones tells Rolling Stone, "There is a band meeting in January," among other things.

BLACK MOUNTAIN:  Jeremy Schmidt lists a few of his favorite things for Pitchfork's Guest List feature.  Fans of Lee Hazlewood and Harry Nilsson will want to read it.  Rolling Stone belatedly names the heavy psych-folk band a "breaking artist," complete with a profile and video.  You can stream a few, including one from the album due Jan 22, from BlackMtSpace.

BONO pressed French Pres. Sarkozy to raise development assistance from .31 percent of gross national income to 0.7 percent by 2012 as agreed earlier.

PHONOGRAPH, who gently stretch the bounds of Americana with a dash of electronica, stopped by the World Cafe for a mini-set, streaming via NPR.

THE BLAKES, from Seattle, play some rock that somehow echoes the mid-60s with a dash of punk, without sounding retro on "Don't Bother Me."

THE A-SIDES did an unpluggedy Daytrotter session with four streaming and downloadable tracks.

AVRIL LAVIGNE has settled a lawsuit that accused her of plagiarizing her summer hit single, "Girlfriend," from the Rubinoos power-pop classic, "I Wanna Be Your Boyfriend."

YO LA TENGO:  Creative Loafing talks to Guitarist and lead songwriter/vocalist Ira Kaplan and notes the band has been inspired by the remarks of baseball and basketball players.

AMY WINEHOUSE & PETE DOHERTY are the odds-on favorites for "celebrity most likely to be sent to jail in 2008," according to British bookmaker William Hill.

CUTOUT BIN:  From John Lee Hooker to Big Star, from Chuck Berry to Beck, this Friday's fortuitous finds -- with covers a-plenty -- can be jukeboxed or streamed individually on the Pate page at the ol' HM.

JAMIE LYNN SPEARS:  A source close to the knocked up 16-year-old is denying a report that she was dumped by boyfriend Casey Aldridge because he doubts he is the father.

BRITNEY SPEARS made a run south of the border with married paparazzo Adnan Ghalib.  Meanwhile, US Weekly reports that police found at least one bite and several bruises on son Jayden James when they arrived at her home to end last week's custody standoff.  BONUS:  An internal memo shows that Spears is a priority for the Associated Press.

LINDSAY LOHAN is rumored to have gone on a romantic date with Entourage's Adrian Grenier.  Radar has a transcript of Grenier's uber-suave pick-up lines, which I think would work on Li-Lo.

NOT PREGNANT:  Pam Anderson and Avril Lavigne.

HALLE BERRY, otoh, is quite pregnant and wants "to stay pregnant forever."  It's good for her skin.  And she has taken up golf.

BRADGELINA, meanwhile, hope to get pregnant soon,

NOW SHOWING:  This week's wide releases include The Bucket List, currently scoring 42 percent on the ol' Tomatometer; the crime comedy First Sunday, currently scoring 21 percent; In the Name of the King: A Dungeon Siege Tale, which was not screened for critics; and the animated The Pirates Who Don't Do Anything, which is scoring 57 percent.  Atonement goes near-wide on 950 screens with its 84 percent score.  The Kite Runner expands to 715 screens, scoring 65 percent.  Foreign suspense flick The Orphanage expands to 707 screens with 83 percent.  And there is till the adorable Juno at 93 percent, and Charlie Wilson's War at 81 percent.

JUNO, btw, has a delightful screenplay written by an ex-stripper from Lemont, Illinois.  The stripping, however, was done in Mpls.

MADONNA has conned both UNICEF USA and Gucci into helping her raise money for the Kabbalah Center and her patron gurus, the Berg Family.  OTOH, Madge reportedly spends 10K a month on specially blessed Kabbalah water, so she's conning herself, too.

MISCHA BARTON phoned into "On Air with Ryan Seacrest" and called her recent DUI a major disappointment -- and something she never intends to do again.  Oddly enough, I rarely hear people busted for DUI announce their intent to do it again.

THE HOLLYWOOD WRITERS' STRIKE is about more than the writers.

THE DARK KNIGHT:  The trailer for the Batman Begins sequel is remixed for 1966.

GRATUITOUS FRIDAY:  Transformers' Megan Fox, Natalie Portman and Leo DiCaprio's gf, supermodel Bar Rafeli, all courtesy of Egotastic.

PAKISTAN:  An ethnic Pashtun tribe vowed on Thursday to raise a militia aimed at forcing al Qaeda-linked foreign militants from their lands on the Afghan border.  Shades of Iraq?

IRAN:  After the US Navy released the video of Iranian speedboats swarming around US warships, which featured a chilling threat in English, the Navy is saying that the voice on the tape could have come from the shore or from another ship.  The Navy never said specifically where the voices came from, but many were left with the impression they had come from the speedboats because of the way the Navy footage was edited.  The US sent a formal protest to Iran on Thursday over the incident.  Meanwhile, Iran's supreme court has confirmed that two youths found guilty of rape will receive 100 lashes each before being cast off a cliff.

IRAQ:  American bombers and fighterst dropped 40K pounds of bombs on suspected militant hide-outs, storehouses and defensive positions in the southern outskirts of Baghdad on Thursday, in support of Operation Phantom Phoenix.  Anbar province will be returned to Iraqi control in March.  NPR has a report on progress by the Iraqi Army and police.  On Thursday, newspapers in Baghdad went on the attack, accusing al-Qaeda and Osama Bin Laden of fueling sectarian sedition in the country.  Time magazine has a piece on how far Baghdad still is from normal.  An estimated 151K Iraqi civilians have been killed in the violence that has engulfed the country from the time of the US-led invasion until June 2006, according to the latest and largest study of deaths carried out by the World Health Organization and the Iraqi health ministry. That estimate substantially lower than the 601K death toll reported by US researchers in 2006.  The National Journal has come out with a devastating critique of the Lancet's report.

GLOW-IN-THE-DARK CLONED PIG passes the gene to its offspring.  Cue Mr. Burns!

BABY MICE on a PLANE!  Okay, not so scary, but they were quarantined.

GEMIMA, the "crooked-necked giraffe," had to be put to sleep Wednesday, having lived to the ripe old age (for giraffes) of 21.  Pics at the link.

DOG BITES BOY, saves his life.

DOGS & CATS:  Oscar the dog and his best friend, Arthur the cat, have a friendship which has lasted past death.  Cute... and creepy!