ith grooming contracts and instant fame, Canadian-born J.D. Fortune has graduated from impersonating Elvis and Buddy Holly to becoming a real-life rock star for INXS.
  When Fortune first auditioned at Toronto's Mod Club for the reality TV show Rockstar: INXS, he was the only singer that the Australian band's guitarist/saxophonist Kirk Pengilly accompanied onstage for the classic "Never Tear Us Apart."
  "It was one of those spur of the moment things and, ironically, it was the only time it ever happened at the auditions that we went to," recalls Pengilly. "The reason is funny because it kind of goes to J.D.'s nature. He hadn't really prepared himself, so he didn't have a backing track and he didn't have someone to accompany him and he hadn't learnt it on guitar. But there was definitely something about him."
  But when Fortune was selected as one of 15 contestants to go to Los Angeles to vie for the gig to replace the late frontman Michael Hutchence, his confidence bordered on arrogance, his strategies seemed devious and even his onstage mannerisms were over the top.
  "I must say that in the early stages of the series, I hated him," laughs Pengilly. "I thought, 'There's no way that guy's gonna be our frontperson!' But we discovered that he's not really like that.
  The turning point for Fortune was his bold denouncement of a song he was supposed to work on with two other contestants, but did not like the direction it was heading. Instead, he wrote a little number called "Pretty Vegas," with guitarist/keyboardist Andrew Farriss, which became the first hit single off the new INXS album, Switch.
  The day after, an emotional Fortune was told he was "right" for INXS, and joined his new bandmates in the L.A. recording studio where they had been working on the album while the TV show was airing. "We'd walk by each other and high five each other and say, 'Toronto, baby,'" says Fortune of Pengilly.
  Canadian fans can get their fix of the band live with their first Canadian tour, hitting 12 cities from May to June.

TV drama is in the works based on the early years of singer/pianist Alicia Keys-and it's not yet known if there's a role for her in it. However, she will make her big screen debut as an assassin in Smokin' Aces, starring Jeremy Piven, Ray Liotta and Andy Garcia.
  Written and directed by Joe Carnahan (Narc), the film is about man who snitches on the mob. "He has a very, dark, gritty style," says Keys, 25, whose real name is Alicia Augello Cook. "I sometimes compare him to Quentin Tarantino."
  She is also slated to star in Compositions In Black And White; Halle Berry's adaptation of Kathryn Talalay's biography of 1940s' piano prodigy Philippa Schuyler. Keys, a graduate of Manhattan's Professional Performance Arts School, says the role "felt perfect" for her.
  "It's about this woman who was a classical prodigy who grew up in Harlem, where I grew up, who is half-black and half-white, like I am, and studied classical music like I did. But the twist comes in for me because the time period had so much tension." Keys, whose 2001 debut Songs In A Minor sold 10 million albums worldwide and 2003's The Diary Of Alicia Keys, which sold another seven million, says her next studio album "is in the process of being developed, obviously in my mind first."
  She says it will definitely move in a new direction. "I feel it will be more raw. I feel it will be more aggressive. I feel it will be more in your face," Keys says. "I feel like you can picture Joe Cocker and Janis Joplin-very gorgeous, strong songs."

irl rocker Avril Lavigne is trying her hand at acting, but the newly turned haute couture-fashionista says she doesn't want anyone going to the films thinking she has major screen time.
  "I want to do this for a bit of a change," says Lavigne, now 21. "I want to start off small, see how I like it, and make sure I'm comfortable."
  First the singer will be heard but not seen in an animated feature called Over The Hedge, due in theatres May 19. She is the voice of "Heather," a possum, in this forest creature adventure.
  "William Shatner plays my dad and Bruce Willis and Gary Shandling are in it, so it's a cool cast," Lavigne says. "These animals are hibernating and they wake up and find there's a hedge and we dare to cross it. We get over it and see the real world and it's really scary for us."
  Next up for the singer-turned-actress are roles in The Flock, a crime drama starring Richard Gere and Claire Danes, and Richard Linklater's Fast Food Nation, an adaptation of the best-selling book about the health risks in the fast food industry.
  But fans of Lavigne's music need not fret. The talented singer/songwriter will also start working on her third album.
  Meanwhile, she has recorded a rendition of John Lennon's "Imagine" for an Amnesty International campaign. "I just did a mellow version with piano," Lavigne says. "I just asked Chantal (Kreviazuk) to come play piano because I needed someone to play piano it and she's really good."