It Happens This Week
• Astros vs. Mets: Clemens returns to New York
• Museum Mile Festival on Fifth Avenue
• International soccer at Giants Stadium: Italy vs. Ecuador
• Glover’s Reef and Bathysphere exhibits at New York Aquarium
• It’s ‘Mr. and Mrs. Smith’!!!
• Big Apple Barbecue Block Party in Madison Square Park
• National Headache Awareness Week

(Photo: Kristin Callahan/LFI)

Nazi Uniforms Don’t Make You a Nazi
Except in Germany.
Scott Weiland, the former Stone Temple Pilot who teamed up with some ex–Guns N’ Roses members to form Velvet Revolver, recently had to make it clear to his record company that “in no way, shape, or form am I a Nazi.” Confusion arose during the band’s current tour, when he took to dressing like an SS officer. This stressed out execs at the German division of his label, Sony BMG, since the band is heading there. One wrote his U.S. colleagues: “Please don’t get me wrong, we absolutely don’t want to interfere in how our artists dress like,” but “any kind of wearing/ presenting Nazi symbols in public is strictly forbidden by law in Germany and can lead to getting arrested!” The exec added, “I’m just telling you this to avoid any unpleasant situation.” Eventually, the note was passed, with much apology, to Weiland, who answered via his BlackBerry that they just didn’t get it, man. He’s actually critiquing Fascism: “The Nazi SS hat that I wear in fact symbolizes the loss of democracy and the shift to totalitarism [sic],” he wrote. “One could make an arguement [sic] that indeed the Government of the U.S. is evolving into, or is already, a facist [sic] police state, hiding under the guise of a republic.”