Source: The Los Angeles Times.

　　What we heard: This week, Paul McCartney's heavily publicized divorce from Heather Mills hogged headlines on both sides of the Atlantic. In the UK, newspapers such as The Daily Mail have speculated that because the musician must pay a $50 million settlement to the one-legged former model, he has moved to find news ways to cash in on the Beatles' song catalog. Though Beatles copyright holders Sony/ATV Music Publishing have since quashed that speculation of an iTunes deal with an outright denial, rumors of the Fab Four landing on alternative formats hasn't gone away just yet--thanks in no small part to Sony/ATV itself.

　　The Los Angeles Times is reporting today that the Beatles catalog may soon show up in a future installment of Activision's Guitar Hero in a similar fashion to the recently announced Guitar Hero Aerosmith. Speaking to the newspaper, Sony/ATV Music CEO Martin Bandier said, "It's something we have talked about and something I'd like to pursue." The Times story wasn't clear on whether Bandier was referencing discussions taking place internally at Sony/ATV or with Activision as well.

　　Sony/ATV--which is jointly owned by Sony Corp. and controversial musician Michael Jackson--has historically been a strict guardian of The Beatles' highly prized catalog, as evidenced by its refusal to release the Liverpool quartet's landmark library on iTunes. Given that precedent, it seems more than a bit implausible that the Beatles would turn up in a game before seeing dissemination through more widely accepted distribution outlets.

　　However, as the LA Times notes, Sony/ATV also seems to have begun to relax their hold on the Beatles' recordings, with Fox's American Idol recently given permission to conduct Beatles-themed shows. And, of course, precedence falls by the wayside when Sony/ATV's CEO definitively expresses interest in having the group headline a future Guitar Hero game.

　　The official story: Neither Sony/ATV nor Activision had responded to requests for comment as of press time.

　　Bogus or not bogus?: Bogus that Activision and Sony/ATV have signed any deals to bring the Beatles to Guitar Hero, or that discussions are even officially taking place. However, if Sony/ATV's interest is genuine, Activision would be insane not to jump aboard the yellow submarine.