The following will appear in this week’s edition of The Weekender:
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Last week, Scranton officially became an all-encompassing city. I couldn’t even interview Soulja Boy Tell ‘Em without drawing a connection to The Electric City.

The “Crank That” artist will visit Northeastern PA on February 26, when he performs at The Scranton Cultural Center. Soulja already has a friend in town.

“DJ Woogie holds me down man,” said Soulja Boy last week, when he called into The Ralphie Radio Show. “Thought I’d never jump into the mixtape game man, but Woogie and I did it man so, you know, it’s only right for me to come down there and show love to Scranton.” 

The aforementioned “Woogie” is a product of Scranton, who still resides in the area. But, the DJ spends most of his time trotting the globe, representing the Shadyville DJs – a group of mixers handpicked by Eminem’s own, DJ Whoo Kid. In addition, Woogie spins for and with some of the biggest names in music, from Tommy Lee to Sean Kingston.

Woogie sold Soulja on releasing mixtapes – free compilations of B-sides, mash-ups, and freestyles.

Suddenly the 19 year-old rapper added a new arsenal to his repertoire. Sure, this facet of his career didn’t involve a coined dance or a million YouTube views – but the Internet certainly played a huge factor.  Over 10,000 people downloaded Soulja’s inaugural mixtape with Woogie… in its first five minutes of availability on the net.

Now Soulja is promoting his second major-label LP, iSouljaBoyTellEm. The music video for the single, “Kiss Me Thru The Phone” is already a smash on web, with over 2.7 million views.

And that’s what you can expect when you see Soulja Boy perform: music fit for dances, dances fit for YouTube, and YouTube antics fit for a live show. Here’s hoping the SCC is fit for all of the above.

GEORGE CLOONEY’S GIRLFRIEND… COME ON DOWN!

You’d think an international movie star like George Clooney would pull in A-list actresses, platinum selling artists… maybe exotic looking models as partners.

Apparently, you’d think incorrectly. Danny Ocean found his last girlfriend in Las Vegas, a cocktail waitress named Sarah Larson. Now it seems Clooney moved on to a semi-professional game show contestant.

TMZ’s Leslie Harris told me that cameras caught Clooney on a date with a woman who’s gone by three different names on four different game shows. Katie, Kate, or Stephanie Moeser appeared on Hollywood Squares, The Price Is Right, Trivial Pursuit, and Don’t Forget The Lyrics – all between 2003 and 2007.

And George thought he was a player…
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