IB tease

TO I.B. OR NOT TO I.B.? Hey, boys and girls, you do not—repeat, do not—wanna miss I.B. Bad’s in-depth analysis of the high-stakes multimedia battle that’s shaping up between Simon Fuller’s UMG-powered American Idol Mk. II and Simon Cowell’s Sony Music-backed American edition of The X Factor. According to our in-house pundit, what makes the coming conflict fascinating as well as hugely important for the music biz is that the four principal opponents are all Englishmen of exactly the same age whose careers have been crisscrossing since they were junior A&R reps for London-based labels a quarter century ago. (10/8a)