Duhamel calls Fergie a `real total star'
06/19/2007 9:25 AM, AP
"Las Vegas" hunk Josh Duhamel and his girlfriend, Fergie, are a match made in Hollywood heaven with hot looks to match their hot careers. But Fergie, who's been heating up the pop charts, is the flashier one.
"She's a real total star," Duhamel says in the July issue of Best Life magazine, on newsstands June 26. "I'm more subdued than that. I'd rather sneak up on people. But that's what makes us work. We have similar fundamental values. We both grew up in similar families. She's just got a great soul."
Duhamel, 35, and 32-year-old Fergie (real name: Stacy Ann Ferguson), who performs with the Black Eyed Peas and as a solo act, have been dating for nearly three years. The couple have no immediate plans to marry, according to Best Life, and recently bought a house together. A big house.
"A girl like Fergie comes with stuff — a lot of stuff," Duhamel says. "And there just wasn't enough room for the stuff."
Duhamel got his start on ABC's "All My Children" before graduating to prime time (NBC's "Las Vegas") and film ("Turistas," "Win a Date with Tad Hamilton!"). He co-stars with Shia LaBeouf and Jon Voight in the Paramount Pictures action movie "Transformers," directed by Michael Bay, which opens July 3.
"There's still so much more I want to do," he says. "Before it was about gaining confidence. Now it's about gaining some respect for what I do. Get that, and everything you want will come along with it because people will want to work with you."
A few acts to follow: actors-turned-power players Brad Pitt, George Clooney and Leonardo DiCaprio.
"There are actors my age who are just incredible," says Duhamel, who studies the work of Matt Damon and Ryan Gosling. "They set the bar, and that's where I want to be."
The A-list competition helps sharpen his drive for success.
"It always feels like I have to prove myself to be more than what people think they see. That's part of what I'm fighting right now. People don't know what you're capable of until you actually do it."
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Paramount is a division of Viacom Inc.; NBC is a unit of General Electric Co.; ABC is owned by The Walt Disney Co.
Fergie lets intimate side show on debut
09/19/2006 2:19 PM, AP
Mark Kennedy
NEW YORK (AP) — In the basement of a trendy downtown hotel, Fergie sits waiting at the head of a large wooden table, scribbling notes on a yellow legal pad.
The sexy, spicy element of the Black Eyed Peas apologizes for wanting to meet in this stuffy, angular room rather than the trendy Asian restaurant first suggested.
"I just couldn't deal with a New York night out," she says.
She also apologizes for wearing a black Adidas track suit and knit cap — she's simply not up for glamour today. Her nails are scuffed and bitten. She apologizes for that, too.
It's a different image of a performer more often seen strutting her stuff in something small, expensive and tight, her hips wiggling, boasting about her "lovely lady lumps."
"Maybe I'll get on the table and dance," she says with a smile.
The 31-year-old is preoccupied these days with her solo debut CD "The Dutchess," an eclectic collection of 13 songs she hopes will prove she's more than just a pretty Pea.
Containing everything from torch songs ("All That I Got," "Finally") to bouncy pop ("Fergalicious," "Clumsy"), reggae ("Voodoo Doll") and even techno ("Glamorous"), the album has germinated for years and represents her wide musical influences.
"That is my truth and makes me who I am," says Fergie, born Stacy Ann Ferguson. "If I'd only done one style, that wouldn't have been a truthful representation of me."
Lyric-wise, "The Dutchess" — a riff on how her name is so close to Britain's Duchess of York, Sarah Ferguson — offers a more introspective Fergie, a woman willing to talk about her loves, her critics and her former meth addiction.
"There are a lot of times when I really dig deep on this album, whereas with the guys, I don't know if there's enough of a platform to go into all of my drama or love affairs," she says.
"I think it's important to represent who I am in all facets," she adds. "That's why I've talked about my struggle with drugs. I don't want to talk about it all the time because it's not a part of my life any more but I'm not running from it."
Based on the success of the saucy first single "London Bridge," Fergie shouldn't stress. A late entry for song of the summer, it sat atop the Billboard singles chart for three weeks — not to mention all it did for Anglo-American relations.
"It was a huge landmark day for me. I was crying — happy crying — and running around the house calling everybody," she says when the song hit No. 1. "For it to finally happen and for the song to be successful, it's really rewarding."
The rest of the CD — co-written by Fergie and produced by Ron Fair, DJ Mormile and will.i.am, the Peas' lead lyricist — features samples from Little Richard, The Commodores and The Temptations. Guests include John Legend, Ludacris and Rita Marley.
"Once people get this album and hear what she's capable of as a singer and writer, I think that's when the roof blows off it," says Fair, chairman of Geffen Records. "That's when she's not just a little trifling pop girl doing disposable hits."
Fergie, raised in Whittier, Calif., may have seemed destined for that fate when she emerged at age 7 in the kiddie TV band Kids Incorporated, later graduating to the pop girl group Wild Orchid in the 1990s.
Wanting to make it on her own, she approached will.i.am with the hope of convincing him to help create a solo CD. She had seen the Peas live in 1998 — before they were multiplatinum sensations — and was an enormous fan.
She started off a kind of apprenticeship, adding her booming, soulful backing vocals to what would be the band's third album, "Elephunk," which had hits like "Where's the Love" and the Grammy Award-winning "Let's Get It Started." By the time will.i.am — together with bandmates Taboo and apl.de.ap — left for a tour of Australia in 2003, Fergie was their fourth member.
"I didn't plan to ever be in the band, but as things organically grew, and I started working with them for my solo album, there was some point where we made that decision," she says. "I just went with my gut."
Joining a tight hip-hop band that thrived onstage was more difficult than it seemed. Fergie held back at first until she could learn how to roll with the ad-libs and pick her spots.
There were also the catcalls and ire from long-term fans of the Peas who didn't like the band's blossoming mainstream popularity — blaming it, in part, on the newest blonde Pea.
"It does get painful sometimes," she says. "I actually really had to pep-talk myself so that I could overcome those fears. It's hard when someone's sitting there staring at you. Or even mad-dogging you.
"Now I just get in their face."
In 2005, the group's "Monkey Business" turned into another multiplatinum success thanks to "My Humps," "Pump It" and "Don't Phunk with My Heart," which won another Grammy.
Despite the Peas' triumphs since she came aboard, she's loathe to single out herself as the reason behind their success: "I think it has to do with us. I think we all are responsible for the success of these albums," she says. "It's a team effort."
But it's all about Fergie on "The Dutchess." On the new album, she mixes her vulnerable and fierce sides. "Would you love me/If I didn't work out/Or didn't change my natural hair?" she asks a lover in "All That I Got." On "London Bridge," she threatens to mace pushy photographers and boasts: "I'm such a lady, but I'm dancin' like a ho."
"It's poking fun at certain things. I'm really not going to spray the paparazzi with mace — I don't know if you know that about me," she says, smiling.
"I'm not a promiscuous girl — like I talk about in 'Clumsy,' I'm always the girl with the boyfriend in serious relationships — but I do like to play with my sexuality. I don't think that means I have to live in a morgue," she says (Fergie and "Las Vegas" hunk Josh Duhamel have been dating for some time).
Fergie thinks she'll be able to open up even more on the next Black Eyed Peas album — no, she insists, they're not breaking up — because her solo CD will let fans "get me and know who I am."
"Sometimes I feel like the underdog. But I like that because then more people will be surprised when they do see something that they like from me," she says. "I've learned that I can't please everybody."
Fergie makes solid solo debut
09/18/2006 1:35 PM, AP
Fergie, "The Dutchess" (A&M Records)
Fergie, the source of eye candy and soaring vocals for the hip-hop group The Black Eyed Peas, shows stand-alone versatility and style on her genre-hopping solo debut, "The Dutchess."
She's a rapper on the party track "London Bridge" and the "Supersonic"-flavored "Fergalicious." She's a jazz-lounge crooner on "Velvet," an R&B songbird on "All That I Got" and as radio-ready as any American Idol on the guitar-driven ballad "Big Girls Don't Cry."
Fergie had ample help from Peas producer and frontman will.i.am, who helmed the record and made it the first release from his new label. Still, she had a hand in writing all but one of the album's 13 songs.
Ludacris lends writing and rhyming to "Glamorous," a song about the bling lifestyle. "I still go to Taco Bell," Fergie sings. "I'm still real."
"Mary Jane Shoes," featuring Rita Marley, is a reggae jam to the tune of Bob Marley's "No Woman, No Cry."
Fergie postures about her skills and sings along with The Temptations on "Here I Come," while "Fergalicious" is all about how hot she is. But she sounds sincere on the reflective, John Legend-produced "Finally."
Some of the lyrics are slightly inane ("Would you love me if I didn't work out?"). But with "The Dutchess," Fergie proves to be a multitalented singer worthy of solo status.
Fergie Serves It Solo
08/10/2006 5:07 PM, E! Online
Fergie is gettin' it started, all right.
The Black Eyed Peas' frontwoman has announced a release date for her hotly anticipated solo debut just as the album's first single, "London Bridge," climbs to the top of the Billboard charts.
Her lovely lady humps must be in quite the tizzy.
Fergie has announced plans to drop The Dutchess Sept. 19, marking not only her solo debut, but the first album released off fellow Pea Will.I.Am's record label--the aptly, if uninspired, named Will.I.Am Music Group.
While the songbird, whose real name is Stacy Ferguson, has yet to address the story behind her album's title, it's been widely reported that it's a play on the nickname she shares with Sarah Ferguson, Britain's Duchess of York.
The fact that her debut single references the U.K. could either be a sly substantiation of the rumors or simply a coincidence.
In any case, while the album is billed as a solo effort that doesn't mean Fergie didn't get some help.
Will.I.Am, who produced most of the record's tracks, lends his voice to the album, as do Ludacris and Rita Marley.
And if the debut single's performance is any indication, the album is primed to be a success.
"London Bridge" ascended to the top of the Billboard singles charts this week, reaching number one on both the Hot 100 and Hot Digital Songs charts, as well as nabbing the top slot on the iTunes Top 100.
The track debuted July 17 at an unimpressive 84 on the Hot 100, only to make the jump to five in its second week. The leap marked the second biggest week-to-week jump in Hot 100 history, bested only by "Breaking Free," a track off the unstoppable High School Musical soundtrack.
Fergie is currently on tour with the Peas, who are spanning the globe in support of their multiplatinum 2005 album, Monkey Business.
The group's "My Humps" is also up for Best Hip-Hop Video at the MTV Video Music Awards on Aug. 31.
