Elton John lost a libel case in London's High Court against Britain's The Guardian for printing a spoof which satirized his annual White Tie and Tiara Ball fundraiser for his AIDS Foundation. The Guardian reported that Elton had filed suit against last summer's humorous diary entry credited to Elton called A Peek At The Diary Of..., which joked about the gala, saying, "Naturally, everyone could afford just to hand over the money if they gave that much of a toss about AIDS research -- as could the sponsors, but we like to give guests a preposterously lavish evening because they're the kind of people who wouldn't turn up for anything less."

In his suit, Elton claimed the piece was, "... gratuitously offensive, (with a) nasty and snide tone." The presiding judge Justice Tugendhat stated in his 17-page ruling, "The transparently false attribution is irony. Irony is a figure of speech in which the intended meaning is the opposite of that expressed by the words used... The attribution is literally false but no reasonable reader could be misled by it... Irony is not always a form of sarcasm or ridicule."

The Guardian's editor, Alan Rusbridger applauded the High Court's decision: "We're sorry that Elton John lost his sense of humor over this article. The judge -- and, we suspect all readers -- saw the article for what it was: a piece of mild satire. Newspapers have published satire since the 17th century in this country. The judgment is an important recognition of the right to poke the occasional bit of fun."

In honor of its most famous sons, Hartford, England has renamed several streets in tribute to Mick Jagger, Keith Richards and the Rolling Stones. According to The Associated Press, the new streets will be part of a new housing and business development, and will include Sympathy Street named after "Sympathy For The Devil," Cloud Close after "Get Off My Cloud," Rainbow Close after "She's A Rainbow," Dandelion Row after "Dandelion," and "Little Red Walk" after "Little Red Rooster."

Other streets will be named Satisfaction Street, Ruby Tuesday Drive, and Stones Avenue.

Keith Richards says that despite their advanced ages, the Stones feel like a young band: "All I can say about this band is, in essence, they're still very youthful physically in the way they feel about things. I guess maybe rock and roll does that for you. At the same time we are apparently growing up -- signs of maturity are showing -- and in a way maybe that's what we're supposed to be doing. How do you make rock and roll grow up? We grow up with it but also with the same fervor of youth."

Paul McCartney claims that he was the first member of the Beatles to be opposed to the Vietnam war, and was responsible for explaining the downside of the war to John Lennon.

McCartney spoke to Prospect magazine, saying, "We sort of stumbled into things. For instance, Vietnam. Just when we were getting to be well known, someone said to me: '(British philosopher) Bertrand Russell is living not far from here in Chelsea, why don't you go and see him?' and so I just took a taxi down there and knocked on the door. He was fabulous. He told me about the Vietnam war -- most of us didn't know about it, it wasn't yet in the papers -- and also that it was a very bad war. I remember going back to the studio either that evening or the next day and telling the guys, particularly John, about this meeting and saying what a bad war this was."

McCartney went on to say that he has since handed over the political "megaphone" to the next generation of rockers including Bob Geldof and Bono.

Political historian, Tariq Ali, who was a key member of England's anti-war movement in the 1960s and friend of Lennon's during the early '70s, doesn't recall McCartney taking any type of stand in the regard to the Vietnam war at the time: "It is not my recollection at all. It is possible McCartney met Bertrand Russell, but certainly I had no contact with Paul."

Bruce Springsteen's upcoming Working On A Dream album will be released as a "Deluxe Package" featuring the CD and a bonus DVD, according to backstreets.com. The DVD features a fly-on-the wall look at the E Street Band sessions for the new album including footage of Springsteen leading the band through "My Lucky Day," "Queen Of The Supermarket," "Kingdom Of Days," "Working On A Dream," "Life Itself," and "The Last Carnival."

Included in the footage are early demo versions of the songs which Springsteen plays for the band to acquaint them with the material.

Working On A Dream will be released on January 27th.

Madonna and Guy Ritchie could be spending the holidays together for the the sake of their children. According to the U.K.'s Daily Mail, Madge will arrive in Britain on December 23rd with their son Rocco, adopted son David and her daughter Lourdes. They are expected to spend several days there, including Christmas Day at Ritchie's Ashcombe House estate. An insider says, "Madonna and Guy want the best for the kids and so she has decided to come over to the U.K .so they can be with their father." Ritchie hopes to treat the kids to nice holiday. One source says, "Because of what the kids have been through this year he wants to treat them to a really special Christmas with stockings of presents and a big tree."

The Who kicked off their three-night stand at London's Indigo2 Arena last night (December 14th) with a special show in which members of the band's fan club were offered first dibs on the best seats.

Roger Daltrey explained why the fan club show -- and the other two London gigs -- are important for the band: "It's just a couple in London -- just for the fans on the site. Just 'cause we want to play. We don't like sitting 'round doing nothing, but like I said, it's important to do it, because otherwise your passion and your inspiration becomes habit. And that's a bad deal, 'cause then it's cheated."