Guess the change in his pocket was enough. Cee Lo Green reunited with his boys from Goodie Mob this week, inside an Indianapolis strip club and TMZ has learned the crew treated the stripper ladies to a five-figure thunderstorm: Cee Lo and his boys met up in Indy for some pre-Super Bowl partying Wednesday night … and decided to take the festivities over to a local gentlemen’s establishment around 1:00 AM Thursday morning. Sources inside the club tell us … Cee Lo requested lap dances from “the baddest b*tches in the club” … and the group rewarded their good behavior by making it rain with roughly $10,000 in cash. We’re told there were other famous people in the club at the time — including some NFL players — but they were no competition for Team Cee Lo, who easily commanded the girls’ attention. Hope they’re spending more time in the studio then the strip club SMH More On Bossip! Ladies, Can We Watch?: RihRih Asks Ochocinco’s Permission To Get In Evelyn Lozada’s Panties Lady Lovin’: The 10 Most “Lesbihonest” Cities in America (Part 2) Wait, There’s More! A History Of Slore-y “Journalists” That Showed Off Their Cakes At Super Bowl Media Day For The Ladies: The Best Super Bowl Bangin’ Baller BAWWWWDIES!!! [Photos]
Cortez Shaw, Kristine Osorio and Skylar Laine also make an impression on the judges during Texas auditions. By Adam Graham Ramiro Garcia auditions on “American Idol” Thursday Photo: Michael Becker / FOX The “American Idol” judges have mostly seen eye-to-eye (to eye) so far this season, with the majority of contestants being passed through to Hollywood or sent back home by unanimous vote. But on Thursday’s (January 26) episode, we saw several disagreements between the judges, with Jennifer Lopez giving singers a passing grade while Steven Tyler and Randy Jackson flunked them. It was implied but not explicitly spelled out that the boys were voting on looks more than voices, angering Lopez to the point where she mock-stabbed Tyler in the head with a pen. The dissension continued with contestant Linda Williams, whose version of Alicia Keys’ “Fallin’ ” seemed shaky, though it was good enough — or her looks were — to earn “yes” votes from Tyler and Jackson. “Wake up! Honestly, I feel like somebody slipped you something,” Lopez told Jackson, as she could sense which way he was leaning. It wasn’t enough to dissuade the Dawg, and after Williams was passed through to Hollywood, Lopez moaned to her fellow judges, “That was awful. That was awful!” Let the drama begin! The latest episode did its best to ramp up the drama factor, taking a detour from the happy-go-lucky vibe that has purveyed over the first four episodes of the season. Even though the Galveston, Texas, auditions gave out 54 Golden Tickets — more than any other audition city so far this season — the show highlighted fewer of those winners than any other episode, instead introducing viewers to oddballs and wannabes , in keeping with years past. Is this the producers’ way of reacting to the show’s slipping ratings ? The night’s warmest story belonged to 28-year-old Ramiro Garcia, a worship leader in Houston who was born without ears and was told he would grow up mute. After several surgeries, doctors discovered his ear canal ,and he taught himself to not only speak but to sing. His husky, smoky version of “Amazing Grace” was a standout. Tyler told him, “I like your insides” — a weird compliment, to be sure, but it was enough to give Garcia a pass through to Hollywood. Another standout was 20-year-old Cortez Shaw of Garland, Texas, who put a warm R&B twist on Adele’s “Someone Like You” and instantly won the favor of the judges, who implied they’d heard far too many botched versions of 2011’s #1 sob song. Shaw said he grew up bouncing between his friends’ homes while his single mother struggled with homelessness, but he put a positive spin on everything and came out ahead. And he’s not lacking for confidence: “I’m gonna win ‘American Idol,’ ” he said after earning his Golden Ticket to Hollywood. “OH MY GOD!” Kristine Osorio also sang an Adele song — “One and Only” — and equally wowed the judges. The 28-year-old mother of three from Amarillo, Texas, was praised by Tyler for her upper register, and her slick hairdo and tattooed upper body give her a strong, unique look. Also graduating through to Hollywood were 17-year-old Skylar Laine from Brandon, Mississippi, a deer-killin’, ATV-ridin’ country gal who was more than convincing singing Pistol Annies’ “Hell on Heels,” and Baylie Brown, a 21-year-old who made it through to Hollywood back in season six and return this year on the strength of her country-fried rendition of Bon Jovi’s “Bed of Roses.” “American Idol” is back Wednesday to put a bird on it with a trip to Portland, Oregon. What did you think of Thursday’s “American Idol”? Let us know in the comments! Get your “Idol” fix on MTV News’ “American Idol” page , where you’ll find all the latest news, interviews and opinions.
The good folks in Brazil really want their citizens to learn English, and they’re going to sexy extremes to accomplish this mission. In a new commercial that focuses on ESL (English as a Second Language), two men arrive on an island… full of Megan Fox clones! The actress and her similarly hot friends beg the boys to speak to them in English. Alas, they cannot and the result is banishment to a slightly less attractive locale: Mike Tyson island. Watch now: Welcom to Megan Fox Island!
There are instances when reviewing intentions would be so much easier than reviewing actual movies, and Red Tails, which was directed by first-timer Anthony Hemingway but conceived, shaped and willed into being by George Lucas, is one of them. Red Tails is – or is intended to be – a rousing comic-book adventure based loosely on real-life events: The picture follows a group of Tuskegee Airmen as they shoot down German fighter planes and blow munitions transport trains to smithereens. In between missions, they fight more personal battles, against insidious racism and bigotry. It’s a great idea to make a movie, in 2012, about the Tuskegee Airmen, who broke ground as the U.S. military’s first African American aviators: They represent a chapter in history that’s been underexplored, certainly in the world of movies. But it’s a shame the idea had to come from George Lucas, whose enthusiasm for his subject translates mostly into a peculiar strain of inept awkwardness. Even if Red Tails becomes a hit – and it just might – it still represents a missed opportunity for greatness. Red Tails focuses chiefly on two fictional pilots, Marty “Easy” Julian (Nate Parker) and Joe “Lightning” Little (David Oyelowo), both members of the Air Corp.’s 332 nd Fighter Group stationed in Italy, guys with very different styles but bound by years of friendship. Easy follows all the rules, rarely straying from the straight-and-narrow (though he does, as it turns out, have his own demons to fight); Lightning is the hotdogger who’ll go out of his way to shoot down that random Nazi, even when it means going against orders. He also has the kind of confident swagger that earns him the love of a pretty Italian girl, Sofia (Daniela Ruah); he’s so charming and well-mannered that even Sofia’s old-world mama approves of him. The cast of characters milling, and flying, around Lightning and Easy include Ray “Junior” Gannon (Tristan Wilds), who wants nothing more than to be a fighter pilot even after an injury compromises him, and David “Deke” Watkins (Marcus T. Paulk), the only truly religious pilot in the gang, who keeps a holy card emblazoned with the figure of the deity he refers to as “Black Jesus” close by at all times. In the air, these pilots show a desire to fight hard for their country, and they’ve got the skills to do so. But military brass doesn’t get it – in their eyes, the Tuskegee pilots are inferior and are thus relegated to routine assignments, flying in rickety old junkers. But Colonel A.J. Bullard (Terrence Howard) pulls off a minor miracle, getting a plum assignment for his boys. That pleases pipe-smoking Major Emanuelle Stance (Cuba Gooding Jr.) to no end – his men have been champing at the bit for a chance like this, and at last they’ll have the chance to prove what they’re made of. The problem isn’t that Red Tails paints its story, and its characters, in brilliant, admittedly corny comic-book colors. (The script, filled with dialogue along the lines of “Germans! Let’s get ’em!”, is by John Ridley and Aaron McGruder.) The approach could have worked, particularly when you’ve got a cast of actors as charismatic as these. Gooding and Howard, both known quantities, are perfectly serviceable here – Howard, in particular, makes even the most stilted dialogue sing, thanks to his silky purr. But even the lesser-known performers here, like the British actor Oyelowo, have some astonishing moments of grace – it’s frustrating to watch them working so hard in a picture that can’t, in the end, do them justice. Because there’s just no way around it: Red Tails is, for the most part, simply a clumsy piece of work, one that revels in ’40s comic-book style without managing to capture any of the emotional resonance of comic-book style. There’s no dramatic rhythm or flow to Red Tails . A terrible thing might happen to a character, only to be rapidly erased by this or that handy distraction. It’s as if Lucas were simply afraid of human feeling, any kind of human feeling, even the kind you often find in comic books. The movie has touches of comedy that, for reasons that are almost impossible to fathom, don’t come off as comic. At one point a white character tells one of the pilots that under cover of night, he’ll be safe from the Nazis: “At least they won’t see you in the dark.” The line should be a joke – it is, in fact, a marvelous if obvious joke – but it falls flat, almost as if Lucas and/or Hemingway (it’s hard to tell who’s at the steering wheel here, though we can safely put most of our money on the former) suffered from a failure of nerve and decided to neutralize it. The picture is full of clunker moments like that, instances where the initial impulse may have been good but the execution is nothing but blundering and inelegant. This is Hemingway’s first film, though he has previously directed episodes of Treme, The Wire, and CSI: NY . If he has a distinctive style, it’s impossible to identify it in Red Tails. The handprints all over the movie clearly belong to Lucas. That’s especially true in the technically impressive dogfighting sequences, which are the best reason to see Red Tails . Watching those planes swoop and skim through the air, sometimes flying in ballet-like formation, at others approximating a chaotic streetfight, is the greatest pleasure the movie offers. That’s not surprising when you consider that Lucas, the eternal, wide-eyed naïf among his generation of filmmakers, presented an early cut of Star Wars with old-movie dogfight footage substituting for the space-combat effects he’d fill in later. Yet not even these glorious, effusive sequences are nearly enough to carry the picture, and in some ways, they do it a disservice. Red Tails is a project that has been dear to Lucas’ heart for years. According to a profile of Lucas in the New York Times Magazine , the filmmaker first commissioned the script in the early 1990s, and although 20th Century Fox is distributing the picture, Lucas is footing all the bills himself. Lucas has admitted that with Red Tails he’s using the comic-book approach to lure a younger audience; he wants them to engage with the story of the Tuskegee Airmen, and his intentions are noble. If only his passion had translated into a more graceful movie, one that didn’t squander the considerable gifts of its cast. In the end Red Tails is mostly about the coolness of flying. Its heart is in the clouds, instead of with the men at the controls. Follow Stephanie Zacharek on Twitter . Follow Movieline on Twitter .
Thank you to Britney Spears, and to her children, for putting smiles on her faces. Newly engaged and settling back into things at home in California with sons Sean Preston, 6, and Jayden James, 5, after her world tour, the 30-year-old star is loving life. “Jayden is having some hair-raising fun on the trampoline!” she wrote Tuesday, sharing a photo of her boys playing together outside on her Facebook page. AWW! On Twitter, Spears also showed off her “little Hercules,” posting a photo (below) of Sean P. flexing his muscles at his gymnastics class. Kid’s breaking out the big guns! For all the tumult they went through early on, the boys are happy nowadays, as are their parents. Father Kevin Federline recently praised Britney’s fianc
If horror movies have taught us anything, it’s that you can lead teenagers to a big red sign that reads “DON’T GO IN THE WOODS,” but you can’t make them not go in the woods anyway. Actor Vincent D’Onofrio nods to this and other slasher clichés in Don’t Go in the Woods , his feature directing debut — that is, when he’s not nodding to clichés native to the musical and the old “star is born” storyline. All that nodding gives a new definition to the term “genre-friendly,” and if a film could get by on its cheap and cheerful vibe alone, this one certainly would. Unfortunately, outside of the proxy satisfaction it will give those who are dying to see the grim reaper let loose on the set of a very special episode of Glee , the pleasures of Don’t Go in the Woods can’t quite compensate for its straggly bits. Casting five unknown musicians to play the band at the center of the film was logical enough: Slasher actors are not known for their Juilliard pedigrees, so prioritizing their musical skill makes sense. The story has the band decamping into the woods to try and write that elusive hit record without the usual distractions (D’Onofrio’s pointed removal of one of them, the cell phone, seems to channel the modern horror director’s frustration with those little plot spoilers). And the songs they do come up with are tuneful in a strangled yet twinkly, Fleet Foxes kind of way. Musician and director Sam Bisbee (who took home a 2010 Oscar for The New Tenant , a short film he worked on with D’Onofrio) wrote all of the music, and the boys’ performances are high points, in part because if they’re singing it means no one on-screen is attempting to act. Well, no one but the psychotically focused group leader Nick (Matt Sbeglia). Nick has disproportionately big blue eyes and a hipster cloche of dark hair, and during his numbers he usually strays from the campfire to emote in private. Nick rides the rest of the guys — played by Casey Smith, Soomin Lee, Nick Thorpe and Jorgen Jorgensen — like they’re pack mules, and at least one reason why they might put up with it emerges. Their camping spot is the same one Nick used to visit with a now-deceased brother (actually, it was shot on D’Onofrio’s Woodstock, N.Y., property), though presumably the forest’s resident Sledgehammer Guy was not a problem back in those less gruesome times. Did I mention Sledgehammer Guy? Oh, he’s around. He just makes noises that everyone shrugs off for a while, but when the band’s groupie crew shows up to join the party (and make Nick popping mad, naturally), Sledgehammer Guy gets cracking. The kill sequences are quick and not very scary — more like pulling weeds than serial murder — and though some of the ladies get to warble out a few evocatively shot bars before they’re beaned to death, most of the jam sessions are directed like stand-alone videos. A story about the clash of creative and destructive drives set in the wilderness and starring a bunch of scruffy but ambitious kids has big themes and genre toys to play with. Though obviously aware of the potential and prepared to really go for it, D’Onofrio came up with something that feels unfinished — an interesting harmony that needs a better bridge. Follow Michelle Orange on Twitter . Follow Movieline on Twitter .
Last year was a stellar year for music here on YouTube, with live streams of Coachella and Lollapalooza festivals, and a barnstorming year-end with Brit-rockers Kasabian live from London on New Years Eve. We also handed our homepage over to a host of musicians, resulting in enlightening curations from the likes of Red Hot Chili Peppers , My Morning Jacket and tUnE-yArDs’s Merill Garbus . And if that’s… Broadcasting platform : YouTube Source : YouTube Blog Discovery Date : 10/01/2012 12:00 Number of articles : 2
Yesterday, British boy band The Wanted taped their very first U.S performance of “Glad You Came” on The Ellen DeGeneres Show. Their appearance will air this afternoon but if you’re impatient like me, you can watch it now. They totally smashed it! With “Glad You Came” currently making the rounds on radio and the boys touring, it seems they’re on their way to fare quite well here in the U.S. In case… Broadcasting platform : YouTube Source : ALI’S BlOg Discovery Date : 10/01/2012 15:00 Number of articles : 2
Steven Spielberg’s holiday offering is a ‘litmus test’ for moviegoers’ feelings about the director, one critic says. By Eric Ditzian Tom Hiddleston in “War Horse” Photo: DreamWorks The Christmas holiday offers a staggering array of fresh cinematic choices. The last two weeks have given us films about chipmunks and tigers, 19th-century detectives and 21st-century spies, motion-captured adventurers and motorcycle-riding hackers . Shoot, there are not one but two Steven Spielberg flicks to choose from when all of your presents have been opened and that post-holiday-meal coma has set in. The most recent is “War Horse,” which nabbed two Golden Globe nominations and is likely to garner a slew of Oscar nods, including Best Picture and Best Director (even if the reviews are mixed). The movie, which hit theaters on Sunday (December 25), isn’t polarizing so much as it is, in critic Bill Goodykoontz’s lovely phrasing, a “litmus test” for moviegoers’ feelings about Spielberg’s films in general. Some reviewers have lauded the beautiful cinematography and stellar cast, while others have taken issue with the film’s overly sentimental tone. Read on for a deep dive into “War Horse” reviews. The Story “The film deals with the relationship between Albert Narracott (Jeremy Irvine) and his horse, Joey. It’s a sprawling story that uses the background of World War I as a framework, but it’s really a very direct journey. Albert’s father (Peter Mullan) buys a horse, Albert falls in love with it, WWI begins, the horse is sold to Captain Nicholls (Tom Hiddleston), and Albert decides to enlist so he can find his horse and keep him safe. The film follows Joey from owner to owner, using the horse’s journey as a way of dipping into a number of stories along the way, and eventually reaching a rousing and nakedly tear-jerking finale. It is an episodic film, and how you feel about the movie as a whole will depend largely on whether or not you are moved by the various stops along the way.” — Drew McWeeny, HitFix The Performances “The cast is exemplary down the line, with both names and newcomers delivering expansive, emotional and almost entirely sympathetic performances. Neither side in the conflict is ennobled or demonized; like Joey (and a striking black steed who’s his companion for a while), the grunts are just pawns in the hands of unseen manipulators of countless fates. Irvine is the very picture of a sturdy, well-intentioned, ruddy-faced English country lad of a hundred years ago and Mullan and [Emily] Watson look to have come from the earth they tread. Tom Hiddleston cuts a striking figure as an English officer who understands Joey early on, setting an example for the many others who briefly come and go through the horse’s life as the war grinds on.” — Todd McCarthy, The Hollywood Reporter The Action “Spielberg’s battle scenes are a marvel of sight and sound — the latter literally shakes the theatres from the pop of rifles and the thunder of cannons. Spielberg tugs at the heart strings, but he’s also not afraid to smack you upside the head with combat that realistically shows the madness of war. He interrupts the action too often, perhaps fearing a punitive censor rating. There are long stretches of ‘War Horse’ where Joey passes from hand to hand like the precious golden circle of ‘The Lord of the Rings,’ as this barnyard Balzac further demonstrates its wisdom and stoicism while dispensing silent life lessons.” — Peter Howell, Toronto Star The Dissenters “[It’s] overlong, painfully earnest and sometimes even hokey. Clearly, Spielberg intended ‘War Horse’ as a throwback, an homage to good, old-fashioned, heartrending storytelling, full of recognizable types and uplifting themes. The skies are so impossibly colorful in such a retro way, they look like hand-painted backdrops on a soundstage. And the dialogue is so frequently on-the-nose and repetitive, it might just make you cringe.” — Christy Lemire, The Associated Press The Final Word ” ‘War Horse’ is a sort of litmus test for how you feel about Steven Spielberg’s films. It’s a beautiful movie, stunning to look at, with echoes of film history all throughout, reaching back to ‘Gone With the Wind,’ ‘The Searchers,’ Spielberg’s own ‘Saving Private Ryan’ and more. It’s also unapologetically sentimental. Spielberg all but begs you to cry, and unless you’re a heartless cad, you probably will.” — Bill Goodykoontz, The Arizona Republic Check out everything we’ve got on “War Horse.” For breaking news, celebrity columns, humor and more — updated around the clock — visit MTVMoviesBlog.com .
Justin Bieber and Mariah Carey make our list of yuletide favorites. By Jocelyn Vena Justin Bieber Photo: Getty Images Looking for some inspiration for Christmas-themed music? Well, don’t worry, MTV News has wrapped up a special holiday playlist so that you can get into the spirit of the season. Grab a glass of eggnog, put on your best reindeer sweater and snuggle up by the fire with these choice tunes. “Mistletoe,” Justin Bieber Bieber’s modern-day missive (released in 2011 off of Under the Mistletoe ) about kissing under the mistletoe certainly harks back to carols of days gone by, but he updates the narrative using his own fly-boy language, referring to his girl as his “shawty.” Awww! “All I Want for Christmas Is You,” Mariah Carey Perhaps the most ubiquitous pop song of the last 20 years, Carey’s iconic single may have been reimagined by Bieber , but it will forever be associated with Carey, her skimpy Santa suit and her desire to be reunited with her boy. “Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays,” *NSYNC Spunky and funky, *NSYNC’s 1998 track is all about getting together with your friends and family and wishing them “Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays” — a fitting sentiment for folks of all persuasions. “My Only Wish (This Year),” Britney Spears Like Carey before her, Britney uses her sugary sweet, incredibly innocent ode to the holidays to pine away for the one thing she hopes Santa can get her: her one true love. “Last Christmas,” Wham! George Michael had one message for that ex-special someone: This year, to save him from tears, he’ll give his heart to someone special. After it was released, the song immediately became a Christmas staple with radio and local malls playing it endlessly through the season. “Do They Know It’s Christmas?” Band Aid While many Christmas songs focus on chestnuts roasting on an open fire, 1984’s A-list-filled charity single reminded the world that not everyone has chestnuts or an open fire. “Santa Claus Is Comin’ to Town,” Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band This song had already been recorded and re-recorded, but when Springsteen put his Jersey sass on the Christmas classic, it became the type of jovial, rocked-out tune cool enough to top the lists of his fans. “Christmas (Baby Please Come Home),” U2 Darlene Love may have recorded the track in 1963, but Bono and his boys put their own spin on the song when they released it in 1987. It’s all about wanting your baby to come home to you on Christmas. And, really, who doesn’t want that? “Baby, It’s Cold Outside,” Nick Lachey and Jessica Simpson In a world where these two are still together, it would actually be a cute idea to have this real-life couple sing about wanting to stay warm with one another on a chilly winter night. “Don’t Shoot Me Santa,” The Killers Every Christmas playlist needs a kooky take on the holidays, and the Las Vegas band’s spin on pleading with Santa to cut them a break is a bit country, a bit rock and roll, and all fun. See also: Blink-182’s “I Won’t Be Home for Christmas.” “I’ll Be Home for Christmas,” Michael Bubl
