Odds & Ends: Nicki Minaj, Cranberries, Billy Joel, Bob Dylan

Nicki Minaj apologized Tuesday to those she may have offended with her “Only” lyric video after it was criticized by the Anti-Defamation League for evoking “the style of Nazi propaganda films.” Hours later, the director said he wasn’t sorry.

The animated NSFW video for the tune – which features Drake, Lil Wayne and Chris Brown –stars a cartoon Minaj as a ruler, surrounded by troops. The symbol for Minaj’s label, Young Money Entertainment, which Lil Wayne founded, is emblazed on basically everything. 

“The artist who made the lyric video for ‘Only’ was influenced by a cartoon on Cartoon Network called ‘Metalocalypse’ & Sin City,” Minaj tweeted. “Both the producer, & person in charge of over seeing the lyric video (one of my best friends & videographer: A. Loucas), happen to be Jewish. I didn’t come up w/the concept, but I’m very sorry & take full responsibility if it has offended anyone. I’d never condone Nazism in my art.”

“Only” director Jeff Osborne didn’t shy away from the Nazi connection when talking to MySpace’s Spencer Stein about the video.  

“First, I’m not apologizing for my work, nor will I dodge the immediate question. The flags, armbands, and gas mask (and perhaps my use of symmetry?) are all representative of Nazism,” Osborne told MySpace. He added that a majority of the symbols are American, from the MQ9 Reaper Drone to the Lincoln Memorial.

“As far as an explanation, I think its actually important to remind younger generations of atrocities that occurred in the past as a way to prevent them from happening in the future,” Osborne said. And the most effective way of connecting with people today is through social media and pop culture. So if my work is misinterpreted because it’s not a sappy tearjerker, sorry I’m not sorry.”

In its statement, the Anti-Defamation League accused the video of being “insensitive to Holocaust survivors and a trivialization of the history of that era.”

Billy Joel is getting closer to tying Elton John’s record for most number of performances by an artist at New York’s Madison Square Garden.

After announcing a Jan. 9 concert at the venue last week, now he’s added a February show on the 18th.

As we previously pointed out, Joel’s January show, which marks the 13th consecutive show of his franchise run, broke his own record of the “longest run of any artist” at MSG.  

The February concert will bring Joel’s grand total of MSG performances to 60. Elton John, with 64 gigs to his name, holds the record for most number of performance at The Garden.

A Citi cardmember presale is ongoing now for both the January and February shows. The general onsale for both gigs begins Friday, Nov. 14 at 10 a.m. EST.

For more information visit BillyJoel.com.

HBO was this close to airing a comedy series dreamed up by Bob Dylan in the ‘90s but the singer/songwriter was quickly over the idea no sooner than it was green-lit.   

Producer/writer/director Larry Charles, who you know from his work on “Seinfeld” and “Borat,” discussed how it all went down during an appearance on the “You Made It Weird” podcast (via Rolling Stone).

Charles said Dylan was interested in making a slapstick comedy after getting “deeply into Jerry Lewis.” He noted that the musician even wanted to star in the TV show, “almost like a Buster Keaton.”  

The two got together, dug through a box of Dylan’s scraps of paper, and wrote a comedy “filled with surrealism and all kinds of things from his songs.”

After pitching the concept to HBO and getting the network’s then-president Chris Albrecht to agree to the show, Charles, Dylan and their respective managers walked out to the elevator. That’s when Dylan said he didn’t want to do the show anymore because “it’s too slapsticky.”

Dolores O’Riordan’s flight from New York to Shanon, Ireland, ended with The Cranberries frontwoman being detained and arrested.

The singer is accused of assaulting a flight attendant in the business section of Aer Lingus flight EL 110. According to the BBC, the flight attended “suffered a suspected fracture in one of her feet.”

The police were waiting to meet the flight when it landed in Shannon. O’Riordan also allegedly assaulted a police officer during the arrest. The officer was not seriously hurt.

After being questioned at Shannon police station, O’Riordan reportedly complained of being ill and was taken to the hospital. The BBC reports she has since been discharged and released without charge.