The third season of The Vampire Diaries is about to debut on The CW and to celebrate (ie. promote), the principle cast — Nina Dobrev, Ian Somerhalder and Paul Wesley — are featured in a fun new photospread for Rolling Stone magazine. Yes, despite the fact that RS is a music mag, they do devote [...]
An a cappella girl group covers Usher's hit for Nationals in next week's episode. By Aly Semigran
Usher Photo: Christopher Polk/ Getty Images
During this week's episode of "Glee", the gang from New Directions took a big risk when they decided they would compete in Nationals by singing their own original songs. Well, the stakes just got a little higher.
MTV News has an exclusive first listen to one of the rival groups who will go up against the McKinley High glee club in New York City during next Tuesday's (May 24) big season two finale. In the upcoming episode, an all-female a cappella group sings Usher's 2004 club and radio smash "Yeah!," which may have the Nationals judges saying just that.
Singers replace synthesizers for the four-note melody that repeats throughout the song, and lead vocalists RaVaughn Brown and Missi Hale match the high energy that Usher, Lil Jon and Ludacris brought to the track.
Granted, a few things have been tweaked in the version for the tween-friendly show, including the length (the original is over four minutes long, while the "Glee" version comes in at three and a half minutes) and the tune's instructions to "Take that and rewind it back ... got the rhythm make ya booty go."
Also, instead of Ludacris' verse, "We want a lady in the street/ And a freak in the bed," one girl sings, "You know you want a kiss on the lips, old red." The line, "Ludacris fill cups like double D's" has also been cut from the song.
But, it's not all PG. At one point in the girls' rendition of the track, they page homage to Lil Jon's crunk hit "Get Low," singing, "From the windows to the walls" and even Mystikal's booty-happy single "Shake Ya Ass," when they urge, "Show me whatcha' workin' with."
At the 2005 Grammy Awards, the power trio of Usher, Lil Jon and Ludacris won the Best Rap/Sung Collaboration for "Yeah!" But, will the song bring the same sort of fortune to this girl group at Nationals? Or will the glory all belong to New Directions this time? Gleeks will still have to wait a few more days to find out.
The "Glee" season finale airs Tuesday at 9 p.m. on Fox, while "Glee": The Music, Volume 6, including the three new original songs "Light Up the World," "Pretending" and "As Long as You're There," will be available on Monday.
What do you think of this a cappella group's version of "Yeah!"? Let us know in the comments section below!
Learn how an army of Beliebers almost mauled the 2010 VMA host on 'VMAs Revealed,' airing Saturday at noon ET on MTV. By James Montgomery
Justin Bieber at the 2010 Video Music Awards Photo: WireImage
It seems that Justin Bieber can't so much as step outside without inciting a riot of considerable magnitude, so it was to be expected that his performance at the 2010 MTV Video Music Awards — supposedly a secret song-and-dance routine set outside the Nokia Theatre in Los Angeles — would probably attract some attention.
But VMA producers had no idea just how out-of-hand things would get — or how close VMA host Chelsea Handler would be to being mauled by Justin's army of Beliebers as a result. It was all thanks to one harmless tweet by JB himself, as we learn in "VMAs Revealed," a new behind-the-scenes special set to air this Saturday at noon ET on MTV.
It all started before the VMAs, during Bieber's rehearsals. Producers planned to have Handler exit the theater and take a spot at the front of the stage, holding a sign that read "Chelsea hearts Justin." Everything was going swimmingly until an army of Bieber fanatics got wind of things.
"Out on the Nokia Plaza, they were rehearsing Justin Bieber's performance," MTV News VP Ryan Kroft explains in "Revealed." "[And] if you sort of stopped and paid attention, out comes Chelsea Handler in curlers."
Of course, on the night of the big show — after Bieber had tweeted about "free tickets to [his] VMA performance" — things changed. The Nokia Plaza was positively packed with screaming Bieber fans, who didn't take kindly to Handler's intrusion — and they let her know by crowding up against a barricade, nearly crushing her and sending all plans out the window.
Producers never quite got a good shot of Handler and her sign — "I think you can see her sign bobbing around, you just can't see her head. She should've worn the curlers," Kroft said — but luckily, she escaped serious bodily harm. And the true Beliebers ended up being happy too: Not only did they get to see a once-in-a-lifetime performance from their idol, but Bieber would go on to win the VMA for Best New Artist later that night.
For more backstage stories from the 2010 VMAs — like Rihanna's wig mishap, Lady Gaga's unforgettable meat dress and 30 Seconds to Mars' unconventional white-carpet arrival — tune in to "VMAs Revealed" this Saturday at noon ET on MTV.
The 28th annual MTV Video Music Awards will air live on Sunday, August 28, from the Nokia Theatre in Los Angeles at 9 p.m. ET/PT. See the list of nominees, revisit last year's highlights and vote for your favorites in the general categories by visiting VMA.MTV.com.
As the 10-year anniversary of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks approaches, the remembrances have already begun pouring in. One story is particularly interesting: A woman claims that Oscar-winning actress Gwyneth Paltrow actually saved her life that fateful morning.
According to a story in The Morton Report, Lara Lundstrom Clarke had a chance encounter with Paltrow on the morning of Sept. 11, 2001, which delayed her arrival at the Twin Towers. As a result, Clarke, who was 24 years old and working as an account manager at Baseline Financial Services at the time, was not at her desk on the 77th floor of Tower 2 of the World Trade Center at the time of the attacks.
After rollerblading before work and coming home to shower, Clarke says she dashed out the door and headed for the downtown 1 train to take to lower Manhattan. Pressed for time, she decided to jaywalk across 7th Avenue to get to her subway station.
Clarke then describes what happened next: "It was one of those mornings that felt good, you had a little skip in your step. What the heck -- I always cut across 7th Avenue. Then all of the sudden a silver Mercedes SUV came barreling down towards me. I stopped and they screeched to a halt. Then it developed in to one of those classic who-goes-first situations. It got ridiculous. Then I made eye contact with the Mercedes driver. OMG it was Gwyneth Paltrow. I knew she lived down the street, so it made sense. She waved me across, I crossed and she continued on her way. At least if I was late for work I had a story to tell."
Due to this coincidental encounter, Clarke missed her train and had to wait for the next one. It was 8:47 a.m. when Clarke started up the subway steps into the concourse at the World Trade Center. The first plane hit, causing those below ground to wonder what had happened, if a bomb had exploded. The crowd on the subway steps hustled back downstairs. "It was total chaos being stuck in the basement of a building. All I could think about then was my parents and if I died, what it would do to them," Clarke says. "My heart was racing, I was paralyzed. I couldn't even speak. 'Get me outside, I need to be outside.'"
When she was finally able to exit, Clarke started walking uptown, and heard the second plane hit at 9:02 a.m. She said she looked back and saw her actual office explode. It was only later, at home, that she learned that most of her coworkers had survived, due to the angle of the wing as it sheared through the floor. Only four people out of the staff of 170 died that day.
The jaywalking moment with Paltrow, whose movie Sliding Doors has an eerie similarity to this real-life story, impacted Clarke's life immeasurably. "If I had made that train I would have been at my desk on the 77th floor of 2 World Trade Center," says Lundstrom. And who knows what would have happened?
A publicist for Paltrow, 38, has confirmed the account, adding that Gwyneth is "deeply moved" by the story.
In fact, the mom of two (who's married to Cash Warren) says she took her time losing the weight after her first daughter, 3-year-old Honor, was born.
"It wasn't until my daughter was a year old that I lost it all completely," she told iVillage recently. "For me, it's just whatever I feel comfortable with."
She may not be stressed about her body, but that doesn't mean Alba doesn't feel overwhelmed sometimes. The 30-year-old actress, who plays a superhero in Spy Kids: All the Time in the World (in theaters Aug. 19), says she wishes she had her own superpowers to help her out with her mommy duties. So, what's number one on her wish list?
"To be able to clone myself," she says. "I wish I could be myself, but in three different places."
Watch our exclusive video to find out how being a mom has changed Alba's movie choices and why she says she's happy to take on smaller roles.
Brown dropped the mixtape just in time for the weekend on his website, and the Bieber track samples Brown's "Look at Me Now." It was produced by David Banner.
Breezy shows off his signature bad-boy swagger, rapping about all his riches. "My bad/ I'm sorry/ I'm double-parked/ Yeah, that's my Bugatti/ And that's my Ferrari/ Next to my Ducati," he raps. "Man, my house so big take the escalator to the elevator/ Take the elevator to the private and then I jet," goes another verse.
The pals swap verses with the funky beat from "Look at Me Now" behind them. Bieber shows off his own lover-boy swag with lyrics like, "Baby, I'm your doctor/ I could be your rocker/ Swaggin', I'm not braggin' but I swear that I could rock ya, baby/ I'm not crazy/ I got swag like Patrick Swayze."
Bieber and Brown were spotted in the studio last month, and many fans were wondering what they were up to. This release marks Brown's first-ever rap mixtape release. In addition to Bieber, it features appearances from Tyga, Dawn Richard, Wiz Khalifa, Swizz Beatz and Kevin McCall, to name a few. 9th Wonder, DJ Chuckie and No I.D. are a few of the producers who get credits on the mixtape.
This isn't Bieber's first foray into the world of rapping. He rapped on the Sean Kingston track "Won't Stop" and spit some rhymes as Shawty Mane in a Twitter video he posted last year.
The 2012 presidential race just got a little bit more interesting or, perhaps we should say, "nuttier." On Thursday night, Roseanne Barr -- who's currently starring on the Lifetime reality show Roseanne's Nuts -- announced on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno that she'll be supporting a new candidate in the 2012 election: herself.
"You know Jay, I decided that since you're the one that got Arnold Schwarzenegger elected as governor of California, that I wanted to make my announcement here on your show because I really wanted to ask for your support," the 58-year-old comedian said. "My announcement is that I am running for president of the United States." Watch Barr's interview below!
Right after that announcement, Barr quipped, "... and also prime minister of Israel. It's a twofer."
But Barr insists she isn't joking about a presidential bid. "I'm totally serious because I want to be part of the debates because I want to represent the taxpayers," she told Leno. "In fact, I'm choosing the taxpayers as my vice president." And if she's not allowed to take part in the debates? "I'll Photoshop myself in," Bar joked.
When Leno asked whether she would be running under the Democratic or the Republican ticket, Barr replied: "I'm not for either party because they both suck and they're both a bunch of criminals. So I made up my own party. It's America's Green Tea Party.”
Barr currently lives on a 40-acre nut farm on Hawaii’s Big Island with her boyfriend Johnny Argent, and is starring in a Lifetime Television reality series about her life on the nut farm called Roseanne's Nuts. When Leno asked her if living with a man without being married might hurt her chances in the upcoming Presidential race, Barr said, "I don't believe in marriage anymore."
What will be Roseanne's campaign promises? No more taxes, all student loans and all debts will be forgiven, marijuana will be legalized, and money itself will be abolished. "Everything will be based on barter and growing and eating vegetables," the presidential hopeful declared.
Leno held up various bumper stickers Barr had brought along with her, with slogans such as "Isn't it time we had a President with some nuts?" and "Finally a President who can't get the maid pregnant," a clear reference to Schwarzenegger's love-child scandal.
Barr said that it was former vice presidential candidate and potential 2012 presidential hopeful Sarah Palin who inspired her to do a reality show and run for president. "I have feral pigs that overrun my farm and I'd like to shoot them out of a helicopter. That's what got me to thinking that I too should run for president if she can," Barr joked. "I wanted to edge her out. I feel like she's stealing my act, anyway."
So is Barr really going to run for POTUS in 2012, or is she pulling America's collective leg. We can't tell at this point, but we'd sure love to see her lock horns with Palin in a debate -- or, at the very least, shoot feral pigs from a helicopter together.
