Alt-rock icons The Cult [ tickets ] have inked a new deal with Roadrunner Records, the two parties announced today (5/29).

The union will yield The Cult's first new studio album since 2001's "Beyond Good and Evil." The as-yet-untitled set is due out Sept. 25 on the band's own imprint label, New Wilderness.

"We have always dreamed of finding a label that allows us artistic freedom and has the muscle to get the music to the people," fronttman Ian Astbury said in a statement. "At the heart of this recording is an urban directness of savage rawness and an earnestness that is the center of any great rock and roll band."

In addition to the recording plans, The Cult--led by co-founders Astbury and guitarist Billy Duffy--will set out next week on an opening stint for The Who during a series of European arena dates. Additional European headlining and festival shows will follow, and a US headlining tour is in the works for this fall, according to Roadrunner.

Details about The Cult's currently scheduled European shows are posted at the band's website.

Britney Spears [ tickets ] has posted at her website a rambling letter to her fans, in which the pop starlet seems to indicate that her recent tabloid travails and trip to rehab were more the result of manipulative handlers--including a "manager from a long time ago" who re-entered her life after her divorce from Kevin Federline--than of her seemingly out-of-control behavior.

"Recently, I was sent to a very humbling place called rehab," she wrote. "I don't think that it was alcohol or depression. I was like a bad kid running around with ADD. ... I didn't know who to go to. ... I confess, I was so lost.

"I feel like some of the people in my life made more of some issues than was necessary," she continued. "I also feel like they knew I was beginning to use my brain for a change and cut some ties, so they wanted to be in more control of my life than me. I think it is actually normal for a young girl to go out after a huge divorce. I think it was a bigger issue because I had not gone out in such a long time. I am 25 and I do still have a lot to learn, and I am going to make mistakes everyday, and I am sure every mistake I make will probably be on CNN or Good Morning America. I am only human people and I love you for still loving me."

Spears goes on to say that the intent of her letter is not to "place blame on anyone."

"I know everyone thinks that I am playing the victim, but I am not and I hate what is going on right now so much. Maybe this is the reason for this letter ... to maybe allow people to look at me differently. It is like when you are a real woman and say what you feel and how you think things are supposed to be, that people just say you are a 'bitch.'

"I just hope this letter made some of you think a little bit more of me and where I am coming from. I just want the same things in life that you want ... and that is to be happy. It is just so weird because everyone has their own perception of me and how they think I really am. It is so weird how stories are told. There is your side, my side and the truth. Somebody has to figure it out. I guess we will never really understand or figure out life completely. That's God's job. I can't wait to meet him ... or her."

Bo Diddley [ tickets ], who had been hospitalized in Omaha, NE, since suffering a stroke May 13, was released last Thursday (5/24), according to a statement his publicist issued today (5/29). Diddley was flown by private jet to Gainesville Regional Airport in Florida, and was taken to Shands Rehab Hospital, where he is expected to remain for two weeks while undergoing speech and occupational therapy.

Fans are asked not to contact the hospital, but may continue to send well-wishes to postmaster@tciartists.com or TCI (Talent Consultants International, Ltd.), 105 Shad Row, 2nd Floor, Piermont, NY 10968.

Barbra Streisand [ tickets ], has canceled her June 15 concert in Rome--which was to mark the start of her European tour--a move that followed protests by Italian consumer groups who had cried "foul" over what they felt were exorbitant ticket prices, the Associated Press reports.

Tour organizers reportedly cited "unexpected production delays" as the reason for the cancellation, not a backlash over ticket prices. The tour will instead start with a newly scheduled June 18 show in Zurich. Ticket-holders for the canceled date will receive a refund, and will be afforded the opportunity to purchase tickets to one of Streisand's other Euro shows, according to the AP report.