Pete Doherty’s Meltdown a Rousing Success: Watch Video.

Pete Doherty‘s rendition of “Chim Chim Cheree” at this weekend’s Meltdown Festival was, apparently, a revelation. The Jarvis Cocker-curated event included performances from Grace Jones, Nick Cave and Shane MacGowan, but Doherty stole the show, says Tom Horan of The Daily Telegraph:

He was the only singer all night to have memorised his song. Almost whispered and at times strangely poignant, his rendition of the Dick Van Dyke chimney-sweep’s anthem had the hall spellbound. It was a truly inspired piece of casting.

Here’s a short snippet of it. In related news, rumors abound of a Pete Doherty/Carl Barat performance at Glastonbury.

Rihanna just won’t budge, will she? Five weeks at No. 1, and she just keeps swatting away newcomers. Popbitch had predicted the new White Stripes single would enter the chart at No. 1; it appears old Jack and Meg will have to settle for runner-up this week. Former Destiny’s Child songstress Kelly Rowland and American Idol Kelly Clarkson both saw chart entries from singles that tanked stateside. So it’s true, I suppose, that the British pop charts are where bad American singles go to die?

1. Rihanna – Umbrella
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2. The White Stripes – IckyThump
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3. Enrique Iglesias – Do You Know(The Ping Pong Song)
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4. Kelly Rowland Ft. Eve – LikeThis
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5. Mutya Buena – Real Girl
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6. Calvin Harris – The Girls
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7. Gym Class Heroes – Cupid’s Chokehold
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8. Beyoncé and Shakira – Beautiful Liar
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9. Kelly Clarkson – Never Again
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10. Hellogoodbye – Here In My Arms
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In other news:

• Rod Stewart and Penny Lancaster are Man and Wife. (Mirror)
• That wonderful opera singer who shocked the judges was voted the winner of Britain’s Got Talent.(BBC)
• Car phone salesman Paul Potts says he’ll spend his show winnings on paying off debts and buying new teeth.(The Times)
• 12.6 million viewers watched Potts take home his prize.
  (The Stage)
• Simon Cowell is the real winner of Britain’s Got Talent, says The Independent‘s Robert Hanks.
• The notoriously mean Sunday Mirror critic Kevin O’Sullivan thought Britain’s Got Talent was “brilliant”: “Repeat regularly over nine nights, chuck in a few heartbreak stories, add as many energetic dance troupes as possible, a smattering of eccentrically loveable oldsters – and just a dash of performing pets. Call me cynical. But that, my friends, is a simple recipe for success. An instant phenomenon, this crazy talent show has served up an astonishing week of must-see TV.”
• Can Kudos Productions, the maker of Life on Mars and MI-5, become a major player in the film industry? The Guardian (reg. may be required) reports it has “three British films already in production and 10 more in development” and has deals in place “to remake its recent TV successes including Hustle, [MI-5], and Tsunami: The Aftermath for the big screen.”
• Layer Cake director Matthew Vaughn and producer Kris Thykier have signed a major three-year deal with Sony.(Mirror)
• Caroline Aherne, star of Brit-com The Royle Family, says she’s standing by her friend, Michael Barrymore, and is even developing a quiz show for him to host.(The Sun)