Makarevich's family boat lurched?

Knowledgeable rumormongers close to Moscow's show biz circles allege that the marriage between the famous rock singer and leader of the band Mashina Vremeni, Andrei Makarevich, 46, and Anna Rozhdestvenskaya, 26, has gone wrong, the weekly Mir Novostei wrote.

Makarevich has appeared alone at all recent parties and get-togethers and socialized mainly with his male friends. Also, he was noticed in the company of pop singer Alyona Sviridova, who is divorced at the moment.

At first, the reason was thought to be rooted in jealousy, i.e. that Makarevich simply feared to show his young and beautiful wife to his friends.

A Mir Novostei correspondent called Makarevich's home phone number and, after a pleasant female voice responded, asked if he could speak to Rozhdestvenskaya. The woman on the phone replied that Rozhdestvenskaya had moved away from the apartment quite a long time ago, and added that she did not know her present phone number. When asked about Makarevich, the woman politely replied that he was away on business and was expected back shortly.

Another indirect confirmation to the rumor is Makarevich's bio currently available at www.mashina.ru, where his marital status is described as "not strongly married."

Baskov is a zero-profit project

‘Frankly, I haven’t gotten back a single kopek of what I invested," Boris Shpigel, president of the Biotek pharmaceutical company and producer and father-in-law of famous tenor Nikolai Baskov told the weekly Mir Novostei.

"Baskov is not a profit-making project. We have just broken even, i.e. proceeds are equal to costs.

"My business is medicine and my hobby is Baskov," Shpigel went on to say. "I've broken every law of show business and my intuition has been my sole guide. We mixed genres and created a new genre – popular classics. As you can see, it has proven to be in high demand.

"When Baskov sang in a duo with Montserrat Caballe in St. Petersburg, the prima donna said that after Freddie Mercury's death she swore to herself that she would never again sing ‘Barcelona’ in a duet with a man. But Baskov impressed her so much that she broke her promise.

"When I became his producer I could not have known that he would become my son-in-law. At that time he had not yet met my daughter. In fact, I was against the marriage because my daughter is too young; I thought she should have finished her university classes first. But this wasn’t something I could decide. When I work with Baskov as his producer I forget that he is my son-in-law.

"I do not interfere with Baskov’s creative ideas, but we cooperate in elaborating the conception and strategy of development. The choice of repertoire is also up to him. I only give him some general directions, like: ‘I want you to sing something patriotic.’

"Can you imagine how much we will have to spend on the preparation of Baskov’s upcoming concerts in the Rossiya Concert Hall? We will need excellent stage decor, lighting and sound. After all, the concerts are timed to his 25th birthday.

"Sometimes, Baskov sings without a microphone. The Rossiya Concert Hall, like the Bolshoi Theater, has excellent acoustics. Baskov once nearly lost his voice after singing without a microphone in the Kremlin Palace.

"One of the upcoming concerts will feature Baskov singing duets with Russian pop-stars who will come to wish him Happy Birthday: Philip Kirkorov, Irina Allegrova, Alexander Buinov, Oleg Gazmanov, Lev Leshchenko and Muslim Magomayev."

Konets Filma joins effort to save snow leopards

Konets Filma, the rock group of Yevgeny Feklistov and Vladimir Dzhumakov, who are particularly famous for their recent hit "Alice," a satirical remake of the Smokies song, decided to contribute to a program to save snow leopards, Zhizn wrote. The animals are considered an endangered species.

There are only some 30 living snow leopards on the whole planet today, and the World Wildlife Fund is organizing a charity auction to raise money for a program to protect them. After lengthy brain-racking, Feklistov and Dzhumakov decided to sacrifice the gilded dumb-bells they received as a prize at the "Stopudovy Hit" contest.

"We are giving away our most precious possession, and hope that our contribution will help save the lives of at least a few leopards or maybe somehow assist in their breeding," Feklistov told Zhizn.