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Usher also performs in studio and dances with Winfrey. By Jayson Rodriguez Usher on “The Oprah Winfrey Show” Photo: Harpo Usher, Justin Timberlake, Cher and the Black Eyed Peas’ Will.I.Am appeared on “The Oprah Winfrey Show” on Monday afternoon (May 10) as part of the talk-show host’s “Star-Studded Harpo Hookups” special. Timberlake appeared via Skype and gave away a pair of golf clubs to a lucky fan who was surprised to learn she’d be taking lessons on the links with the “Cry Me a River” star. The woman, who claimed to be JT’s biggest fan, is set to be married soon, and her fianc

Buck up, Bob and Harvey! The big, long quiet around the Weinsteins’ proposed re-acquisition of Miramax is said to possibly end this week at Cannes, where the brothers and their investors will convene to announce they’ve struck a deal to take back their pride and joy.

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Rejoice! Weinsteins Set to Announce Miramax Deal at Cannes

Thanks to her recent roles on Pushing Daisies and Glee , we know Kristin Chenoweth can act, sing and dance. Turns out, she can also express an opinion. In the most recent edition of Newsweek , openly gay writer Ramin Setoodeh states that homosexuals do NOT make convincing straight men on stage or on film. For example, he refers to Sean Hayes’ performance in the Broadway musical Promises, Promises as “wooden and insincere.” In response, Chenoweth writes: “I’d normally keep silent on such matters and write such small-minded viewpoints off as perhaps a blip in common sense. But the offense I take to this article, and your decision to publish it is not really even related to my profession or my work with Hayes or Jonathan Groff (also singled out in the article as too ‘queeny’ to play ‘straight’). This article offends me because I am a human being, a woman and a Christian.” She continues: “Thousands of people have traveled from all over the world to enjoy Hayes’ performance and don’t seem to have one single issue with his sexuality! They have no problem buying him as a love-torn heterosexual man. Audiences aren’t giving a darn about who a person is sleeping with or his personal life. Give me a break! “We’re actors first, whether we’re playing prostitutes, baseball players, or the Lion King. Audiences come to theater to go on a journey. It’s a character and it’s called acting, and I’d put Hayes and his brilliance up there with some of the greatest actors period. “The examples he provides (what scientists call ‘selection bias’) to prove his ‘gays can’t play straight’ hypothesis are sloppy in my opinion… No one needs to see a bigoted, factually inaccurate article that tells people who deviate from heterosexual norms that they can’t be open about who they are and still achieve their dreams.” What do you think, readers? Does Chenoweth make a convincing argument? Should she have gone off on the article in such a manner?

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Kristin Chenoweth Fires Back at "Homophoboic" Newsweek Article; What’s Your Take?

We’ve been told repeatedly by the brains behind The Big Bang Theory that Jim Parsons’ Sheldon simply isn’t a player in the game of love…so why bring in Blossom’s Mayim Bialik as…

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Will Love Blossom on Big Bang? Mayim Bialik Spills

Sequel had impressive debut, and high marks from audiences may assure lengthy stay at box-office top. By Eric Ditzian Robert Downey Jr. in “Iron Man 2” Photo: Francois Duhamel He’s no Batman, no Spider-Man, no Captain Jack, no Edward and Bella, but Iron Man is still one hell of a box-office monster. “Iron Man 2” set its repulsor rays on summer blockbuster mode and came away with $133.6 million over its opening weekend . That’s good for #5 on the all-time list, trailing “The Dark Knight,” “Spider-Man 3,” “New Moon” and “Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest.” That’s an impressive debut for this sequel, marking a 35 percent increase over the $98.6 million opening of “Iron Man” two years ago. Yet just how impressive is that jump in ticket sales? In an effort to offer some historical context and to see what the future holds, MTV News compared “Iron Man 2” to some other movies that have gone gangbusters at the box office. The Second Time Around: A Brief History Sequels to blockbusters can fall just as easily as they can rise. Both the “Spider-Man” and “Harry Potter” sequels, for example, experienced decreases in box-office openings. In that sense, “IM 2” can be viewed as a rousing success. But if we want to dump a bit of cold water on the “IM 2” fire, we can note that in terms of attendance, “IM 2” ranks ninth on the all-time opening weekend list. What’s more, the “IM” sequel jump didn’t exceed that of the second films in the “Pirates,” “Matrix,” “Batman” or “X-Men” franchises. Paramount’s exit polling, according to BoxOfficeMojo.com , goes a long way toward explaining the impressive but not record-breaking opening. The “IM 2” audience skewed 60 percent male and 60 percent over the age of 25. Record-breakers like “Dark Knight” and “Spider-Man 3,” by contrast, skewed younger and more female. That sort of broad appeal is necessary if you’re going to jump from simply remarkable numbers to record-breaking ones. Will Iron Man Defeat Alice? After just one weekend, “IM 2” has already become the fourth-highest-grossing film of 2010, behind “Alice in Wonderland,” “How to Train Your Dragon” and “Clash of the Titans.” Will “IM 2” eventually unseat some or all of its competitors? The poorly received “Clash” seems likely to lose its #3 spot by next weekend. “Dragon,” by contrast, has experienced notable staying power in its seven weeks of release. Even assuming a stark 50 percent drop-off for “IM 2” in its second weekend, it’ll still be nipping at the heels of “Dragon” by next Monday. If it doesn’t beat “Dragon” in weekend two, you can count on “IM 2” grabbing that spot in weekend three. Which only leaves “Alice,” a film that has been benefiting from the premium price of 3-D tickets. Opening with $116 million, “Alice” held the top box-office spot for three straight weeks, not dropping 50 percent week to week until its fifth weekend. Out for 10 weeks already and pulling in just $700,000 this weekend, “Alice” seems to be holding relatively steady with its $330.8 million domestic gross. For “IM 2” to knock off “Alice,” it will have to mirror or exceed that staying power. By way of comparison, in ’08 “Iron Man” didn’t experience a 50 percent week to week drop until its 12th weekend. Can “IM 2” mimic that feat? If so, it’s assured of becoming 2010’s top grossing film … for now. Looking to the Future Next weekend, “IM 2” faces off against Russell Crowe’s “Robin Hood,” Amanda Seyfried’s “Letters to Juliet” and Queen Latifah’s “Just Wright.” None of these films should give “IM 2” a run for the top weekend spot. But on May 21 comes “Shrek Forever After,” a box-office behemoth whose last incarnation opened to $121 million. Can both films coexist? And the weekend after that brings “Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time,” another big-budget entry in the summer movie season. Will “IM 2” have what it takes to triumph this summer and beyond? Past top box-office openers provide a mixed answer. “Dark Knight” wound up as the #3 all-time grosser. “Spider-Man 3,” the #2 opener, rose only to the #18 spot, while “New Moon,” the #3 opener, stalled out at #34 on the all-time list. Answers about “IM 2” will become clearer in the coming weeks, but it’s important to note that the movie notched an A with audiences, according to Cinemascore . It’s just that sort of audience thumbs-up that will go a long way toward assuring a lengthy stay in the upper tier of the box-office charts. Check out everything we’ve got on “Iron Man 2.” For breaking news, celebrity columns, humor and more — updated around the clock — visit MTVMoviesBlog.com . Related Videos MTV Rough Cut: ‘Iron Man 2’ Gear Up For ‘Iron Man 2’ With These New Clips Related Photos ‘Iron Man 2’ Premieres In Los Angeles ‘Iron Man 2’

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‘Iron Man 2’: How Do Its Box-Office Numbers Compare To Other Blockbusters?

‘I wouldn’t kill for love, for sure, but I would do anything positive for love,’ actress says. By Jocelyn Vena Photo: MTV News VERONA, Italy — Amanda Seyfried “would do anything for love,” but she won’t do that. And after getting that Meat Loaf song in our head, the “Letters to Juliet” star revealed that much like her character, Sophie, she’s a big believer in romantic gestures. “I’d fly anywhere for somebody if I loved them,” she told MTV News in the Italian city that inspired “Romeo and Juliet” as well as “Letters,” which opens on Friday. “There are no boundaries. There are some things I wouldn’t do. I wouldn’t kill for love, for sure, but I would do anything positive for love. I would do it.” In the film, Sophie answers a 50-year-old letter a woman named Claire (Vanessa Redgrave) wrote to Juliet about her long-lost love and stuck in a wall where the lovesick appeal to Shakespeare’s tragic character for help. Claire and her grandson Charlie (Christopher Egan) soon fly to Verona and take Sophie along on a road trip to look for the man Claire lost touch with so many decades before. Seyfried said she was drawn to the romantic flick because of Sophie’s incredibly positive outlook on love. “That’s another reason I liked the script, because I connected to that romance,” the “Mamma Mia” star said. “She’s not cynical. There’s nothing cynical about her, and a lot of times in a romantic comedy, the lead character is pretty cynical about love. And she’s not and I love that. [Charlie’s] that guy. … I’m glad it was him.” Would you ever make a big romantic gesture like in “Letters to Juliet”? Discuss it in the comments! Check out everything we’ve got on “Letters to Juliet.” For young Hollywood news, fashion and “Twilight” updates around the clock, visit HollywoodCrush.MTV.com . Related Videos MTV Rough Cut: ‘Letters To Juliet’ ‘Letters To Juliet’ Clips

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‘Letters To Juliet’ Star Amanda Seyfried Loves A Good Romantic Gesture

‘We had to figure out how to deal with the reality that the shield was in [Tony Stark’s] workshop,’ Jon Favreau says. By Eric Ditzian, with reporting by Josh Horowitz Jon Favreau Photo: MTV News Midway through “Iron Man 2,” Tony Stark decides to build a particle accelerator in his basement. Why? Because he’s frickin’ Iron Man — does he need a reason? For the nitpickers among you, let’s just say that pulsing reactor in his chest is causing some problems, and Stark needs to create an entirely new element to save his life. Yup, the stakes are high. So Stark is putting the finishing touches on the machine that smashes together subatomic particles when Agent Coulson, who works for the superhero-focused spy agency S.H.I.E.L.D., stops by and notices something strange: Captain America’s stars-and-stripes-bedecked shield. Coulson wants to know how in the world Stark came into possession of the superhero’s equipment. Stark seems blissfully aware of its true owner, choosing to use the shield to prop up his homemade accelerator. It’s a funny moment that speaks to the burgeoning Marvel universe on the big screen. “The First Avenger: Captain America” is in the works for a July 2011 release, followed the next year by “The Avengers,” which will bring together the Captain, Stark and other Marvel characters. But why did the shield pop up at all in “IM2”? Director Jon Favreau explained how the Easter egg came about in a recent MTV News interview. “We introduced Captain America’s shield briefly in one shot in the last film,” he said. “An [Industrial Light and Magic] artist put it in there as a joke to us for our cineSync sessions, when we’re approving visual effects. “They got a laugh out of it, and I was like, ‘Leave it in, that’s pretty cool — let’s see if anybody sees it,’ ” he explained. “Of course, everybody saw it — so now it really was in his room, so we had to figure out how to deal with the reality that the shield was in his workshop.” OK, so that’s the how of the Captain’s shield. When it came to the why, however, Favreau was reluctant to delve into detail, especially when it came to his conversations with directors of upcoming Marvel films. “We’ve talked about it,” he said. “Let’s see what [‘Captain America’ director] Joe Johnston does.” But Favreau did drop us one hint about a possible connection between Stark and the Captain: that Stark’s father, Howard , invented the super-soldier serum that turns Steve Rogers into the Captain. “Part of the history of the Stark family is the super-soldier program,” Favreau said. Check out everything we’ve got on “Iron Man 2.” For breaking news and previews of the latest comic book movies — updated around the clock — visit SplashPage.MTV.com . Related Videos MTV Rough Cut: ‘Iron Man 2’ Gear Up For ‘Iron Man 2’ With These New Clips MTV Rough Cut: Jon Favreau Related Photos ‘Iron Man 2’ Premieres In Los Angeles ‘Iron Man 2’

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‘Iron Man 2’ Director Explains Appearance Of Captain America’s Shield

‘What an incredible woman & story of triumph!’ Keys tweets about the late singer. By MTV News staff Lena Horne Photo: Michael Ochs Archives/ Getty Images A new generation of artists took to Twitter to mourn the loss of Lena Horne, who died Sunday at age 92. The singer, actress and civil-rights activist left her mark on the world of jazz with her rendition of “Stormy Weather.” “Wow! Lena Horne! What an incredible woman & story of triumph!” Alicia Keys tweeted. “May we all know that life is a journey of possibility as long as we hang on … ” Diddy also remembered the late music icon on Twitter, writing, “RIP to the QUEEN LENA HORNE!!!!! We thank you for all the doors that you have opened! We love you! WE MISS YOU!” Monica chimed in: “RIP to the amazingly talented Lena Horne. U have truly left your mark on the world. U influenced many with your style and grace.” “Dancing With the Stars” contestant Chad Ochocinco wrote, “Just been informed we’ve lost another great one in the beautiful LENA HORNE, favorite movie with her is STORMY WEATHER #sad.” While young music fans might not be completely familiar with Horne, newer stars like Kelly Rowland paid their respects to the woman who helped pave the way for minority artists in the entertainment industry. “Sending prayers, and Love to The family of the Beautiful, Legendary Lena Horne,” Rowland wrote. “She will be missed!!!!” “She was an icon,” Queen Latifah told ESPN . “I always remembered her as Glinda the Good Witch in ‘The Wiz.’ She always had this amazing beauty, talent and warmth. Maybe it was her accent?” Share your memories of Lena Horne in the comments. Related Artists Lena Horne

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Lena Horne Remembered By Alicia Keys, Diddy, Others

Instead of a quickie 3-D conversion, Marvel opted to preserve ‘the film’s quality,’ president Kevin Feige reveals. By Josh Wigler Robert Downey Jr. in “Iron Man 2” Photo: Francois Duhamel Given the $133.6 million opening weekend for “Iron Man 2,” Marvel Studios isn’t likely to have any regrets regarding the recent rollout of their premier superhero franchise — though a 3-D opening would have been a nice bonus. In an interview with the Los Angeles Times, Marvel Studios President Kevin Feige revealed that the studio briefly entertained the idea of converting “Iron Man 2” into 3-D after seeing the success of “Avatar” and “Alice in Wonderland.” Ultimately, the studio decided not to pursue the conversion for the sake of preserving the film’s quality. “We couldn’t have turned over a version of the movie 10 or 20 weeks earlier for 3-D conversion without undermining the quality,” Feige explained. “We used all the time we had for mixing and editing and discovering the right tone.” That’s not to say that Marvel fans won’t see their favorite superheroes flying around in 3-D in the coming years, of course. According to Feige, the Marvel Studios team “has been doing a lot of research into 3-D processes, and we’re looking at it on future films when we have the time. “We will be doing it at some point,” he declared. Marvel has three films in development for release in the next two years: “Thor,” “The First Avenger: Captain America” and “The Avengers.” As “Thor” is already well into its shooting schedule, Marvel would have to convert the footage into 3-D in post-production, but “Captain America” and “The Avengers” haven’t started filming and could be shot with 3-D cameras. Would you like to see future Marvel films in 3-D? Let us know in the comments! Check out everything we’ve got on “Iron Man 2.” For breaking news and previews of the latest comic book movies — updated around the clock — visit SplashPage.MTV.com . Related Videos MTV Rough Cut: ‘Iron Man 2’ Watch The Second ‘Iron Man 2’ Trailer Now! ‘Iron Man 2’ Premieres In Los Angeles Related Photos ‘Iron Man 2’ Images From ‘Iron Man 2’ Trailer 2

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‘Iron Man 2’ Almost Went 3-D, Marvel President Says