Briefly: TLC, Bon Jovi, layoffs, interactive programming

The Associated Press reported that TLC member Tionne "T-Boz" Watkins will no longer tour with the group due to health reasons. According to Billboard, a spokesman for the group's label Arista said that "the group is currently on hiatus and has no tour planned."

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Bon Jovi's performance of the song "It's My Life" on VH1's "Storytellers" will be available on VH1.com as a video download until Nov. 6.

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From reports of layoffs in the e-world:

MTVi--25 per cent of its staff

Hollywood.com--70 per cent of its staff

Musicmaker.com--30 per cent of its staff

More as it develops.

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Referring to MTV's interactive video show "Direct Effect," Inside's newsletter asks the question, "... with MTVi laying off workers ... who's going to be doing all that work maintaining the Web side of things?"

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Also: "interactive"? You can vote on which video you want to see. Whoop-diddy-do. We once called a radio station and made a request and the DJ played it. Little did we realize it was an act of interactive programming. We should have charged a consulting fee.

From staff reports, compiled by James Woster.