Bobby Brown Arrested For Driving Under The Influence If you thought Bobby Brown’s legal problems were a thing of the past, think again. According to TMZ reports : Bobby Brown has just been arrested on suspicion of driving under the influence in Los Angeles … TMZ has learned. Law enforcement sources tell TMZ, Bobby was pulled over in Reseda, CA at 12:20 PM PST for allegedly driving while talking on a cell phone. We’re told 43-year-old Bobby is currently in custody in Van Nuys jail. It’s unclear what substance cops believe Brown had been using before he got behind the wheel. Whitney Houston’s ex-husband already has a DUI conviction on his record stemming from an arrest in Georgia in 1996. He eventually pled guilty to DUI and served 8 days in jail. Update: 1:54 PM PST — Sources close to the singer tell us … Bobby’s “people” are en route to the jail to bail him out. SMH… What were you thinking Bobby??? All you had to do was lay low and let Raffles Van Exel and Ray J catch all the heat surrounding Whitney and now you gotta go and remind everybody what a fawk-up you are! More On Bossip! No Isht Sherlock: Kat Stacks FINALLY Admits That She Is A Dirty, Shady, Deceitful Hoe That Lied About Soulja Boy’s Cocaine Use! Eff A Geraldo: A Gallery Of Lovable, Wholesome White People Rocking Hoodies…Should They Get Shot, Too?! Celebrity Seeds: Eddie Murphy’s Beautiful Daughters Seen Getting Their Nails Done In Beverly Hills [Photos] Strong Or Stupid? Women That Stayed By Their Men Despite TONS Of Cheating Rumors
Twitter Exposes Racist Hunger Games Fans Via Their Tweets About Rue And Thresh “The Hunger Games” made a shatload of money this weekend at the box office ($155 million) but unfortunately a great film is almost being overshadowed by the overwhelmingly RACIST attitude some fans of the book have taken toward the casting of black actors in several of the main parts — even the ones who were described as having dark or brown skin in the book! Now as you may know, Katniss, the main character in the book and film, was described as having “straight black hair” and “olive skin.” It’s a post-apocalyptic world, so she could be a mix of things, but some pictured a Native American. Blonde-haired, blue-eyed Jennifer Lawrence won the part and dyed her hair dark. But when it came to the casting of Rue, Thresh, and Cinna, many audience members did not understand why there were black actors playing those parts. Cinna’s skin is not discussed in the book, so truthfully, though Lenny Kravitz was cast, a white, Asian or Latino actor could have played the part. But. On page 45 of Suzanne Collins’s book, Katniss sees Rue for the first time: …And most hauntingly, a twelve-year-old girl from District 11. She has dark brown skin and eyes, but other than that’s she’s very like Prim in size and demeanor… Later, she sees Thresh: The boy tribute from District 11, Thresh, has the same dark skin as Rue, but the resemblance stops there. He’s one of the giants, probably six and half feet tall and built like an ox. Dark skin. That is what the novelist, the creator of the series, specified. But there were plenty of audience members who were “shocked,” or confused, or just plain angry. The tumblr Hunger Games Tweets has collected a smattering of Twitter postings, with the goal of exposing “Hunger Games fans on Twitter who dare to call themselves fans yet don’t know a damn thing about the books.” What people are saying is disappointing, sad, stomach-churning, and just plain racist. Check out some of the tweets collected below: We saw the movie this weekend and loved it — Amandla Stenburg (Rue) and Dayo Okenyiyi (Thresh) were two of our favorite actors and we think it’s a damned shame that haters are gonna hate as usual. Source More On Bossip! No Isht Sherlock: Kat Stacks FINALLY Admits That She Is A Dirty, Shady, Deceitful Hoe That Lied About Soulja Boy’s Cocaine Use! Eff A Geraldo: A Gallery Of Lovable, Wholesome White People Rocking Hoodies…Should They Get Shot, Too?! Celebrity Seeds: Eddie Murphy’s Beautiful Daughters Seen Getting Their Nails Done In Beverly Hills [Photos] Strong Or Stupid? Women That Stayed By Their Men Despite TONS Of Cheating Rumors
Stars, they really are just like us. Among the millions of people who watched The Hunger Games this weekend were an abundance of celebrities, many of whom Tweeted strong praise and endless affection for the Jennifer Lawrence -led film. Among some of our favorite responses: Miley Cyrus : “Happy Hunger Games everyone! 🙂 can’t wait for everyone to see it! Such an amazing film! JENNIFER LAWRENCE IS GENUIS!” Justin Bieber : What other movies do u and your friends wait for in the middle of the night. #Hungergames.” Ryan Seacrest : “Romance for the ladies, bloodshed for the fellas … after a century of filmmaking, @TheHungerGames has finally mastered the ultimate date movie.” Kelly Osbourne : “Just got out of seeing #HungerGames all I have to say is wow! it really is a must see!” Joel McHale : “Breaking entertainment news: Jennifer Lawrence crushed to death by avalanche of scripts offered her this morning.” Darren Criss : “In short, The Hunger Games was great. They did an awesome job.” Blake Shelton : “It’s was SO good!! I can’t wait til the book comes out. I hope it does it justice…”
You knew The Hunger Games would open big , but this big? Meet your new bona fide box office powerhouse franchise: Taking in $19.75 million at midnight showings around the country, Lionsgate’s PG-13 action-romance earned the #1 all-time non-sequel midnight debut, outperforming even The Dark Knight ‘s 2008 $18 million midnight. We’ve got another true blue four-quadrant blockbuster on our hands, people! If you’re sitting bleary-eyed at your desk right now with a happy smile on your face from last night’s late night debut, share your reactions after the jump. Here’s my happy Hunger Games midnight madness story: I arrived for the 12:15 am showing at the Arclight in Hollywood to a scene of PURE. CHAOS. By which I mean the garage was packed, the lobby resembled a refugee camp, and the bar was swarming with bodies jockeying for a drink like it was the Cornucopia. A man, bellied up to the bar, screamed into his phone to some unfortunate person on the other end, ” I’ve been up for 36 hours and I’m not fit to come back to the hospital and I’m going to the cinema, dammit! ” Which is how I knew The Hunger Games would hit all five quadrants, the fifth being drunken 40-year-old male doctors on their one night off. I mean, behold: The film played exceedingly well in my theater, and the entire place was buzzing once the credits rolled. But the real bloodbath? Getting out of the parking garage. Did you see The Hunger Games at midnight? Are you planning on seeing it this weekend? Leave your thoughts and box office prognostications below. [ Deadline ]
‘All his expression comes out in his creations,’ musician-turned-actor tells MTV News. By Kara Warner with reporting by Josh Horowitz Lenny Kravitz, Woody Harrelson and Josh Hutcherson in “The Hunger Games” Photo: Lionsgate For those of us who’ve been following each and every production detail of “The Hunger Games,” the casting process was perhaps the most intriguing element to dissect and overanalyze. One of the most interesting casting announcements was Lenny Kravitz landing the role of sensitive, sympathetic stylist Cinna. When MTV News caught up with Kravitz recently, we asked the Grammy-winning musician-turned-actor to tell us how he ended up with the role. “How hard [did I go] after it? I was on the other end of the phone, that’s about it,” he said. “I wish I had a great, struggling story, but I was working on my album when Gary Ross called and said, ‘I’d like you to do this movie, “The Hunger Games,” ‘ and so the first thing I had to ask was, ‘What is “Hunger Games”?’ because I honestly did not know. He told me and I downloaded the book that night, read it, called him back promptly the next day and said, ‘Thank you very much, I’ll be there.’ ” Kravitz said Ross was inspired to contact him after seeing his performance in “Precious.” “He liked the performance in ‘Precious’ and thought that Nurse John and Cinna shared some similar qualities as far as being nurturing characters, and that sold him,” Kravitz said. “So I was very fortunate.” What sold Kravitz on accepting the role was what also made a lot of us obsessive fans of “The Games”: author Suzanne Collins’ captivating story and relatable, respectable characters. “Here I am recording all day, it’s 2 a.m. and I’m tired and pick up the computer. Already, my eyes are tired and I was so tired and wanted to put it down, but I couldn’t,” he recalled. “It really kept my attention, the storytelling. It really comes down to that.” Although readers of the book came to know a more flamboyant version of the character as created by Collins, Kravitz and Ross decided to tone him down just a bit. “I would always ask Gary Ross, ‘How far do you want to go with this?’ and at the end of one of our conversations, we both agreed that it would be more interesting to make him more subdued, like [fashion icons] Yves Saint Laurent or Tom Ford, more classic,” he said. “[Cinna] wears his waistcoats and his flats, and all his expression comes out in his creations. He’s got his little bit of gold eye shadow, but yeah, he’s pretty subdued.” Check out everything we’ve got on “The Hunger Games.” For young Hollywood news, fashion and “Twilight” updates around the clock, visit HollywoodCrush.MTV.com . Related Videos MTV Rough Cut: ‘The Hunger Games’ Related Photos ‘Hunger Games’ Cast Hits NYC Related Artists Lenny Kravitz
‘I went in and actually auditioned for her, but I was too young,’ recalls the 15-year-old, who plays District 2 tribute Clove instead. By Amy Wilkinson Isabelle Fuhrman Photo: MTV News Few film roles in recent memory have been as hotly contested as the bow-and-arrow-wielding heroine of Suzanne Collins’ dystopian ” Hunger Games .” A year ago, it seemed every working actress in Hollywood under the age of 25 was auditioning for the role of Katniss Everdeen — a part that eventually went to Oscar nominee Jennifer Lawrence. But director Gary Ross was able to utilize at least one would-be Katniss, namely Isabelle Fuhrman, who plays District 2’s vicious tribute Clove. “I saw myself as Katniss, but I think everyone does when they read the book, because that’s the character that you related to so much because you’re seeing the whole story through her eyes,” Fuhrman told MTV News recently. “From page one, I was like, ‘Oh, I want to be Katniss so badly.’ That’s what I wrote in [a] letter to Gary, how much I wanted to play Katniss. I went in and actually auditioned for her, but I was too young because I [was] 14.” Of course, Fuhrman said there are no hard feelings between her and Lawrence, whom she described as the “perfect” Katniss. In fact, landing the role of Clove came with the bonus of learning a new (potentially lethal) skill: knife throwing. “I’m not going to be modest right now: I’m very good at it, and I’m very proud of that,” Fuhrman said with a grin. “That was so hard to learn how to do, because there is a lot of physics involved with it. The knife goes three knife-lengths each rotation, and [you have to] how much force you want to put into it so it lands with the blade in versus the butt. It was difficult, to say the least, because I did training for about only two weeks before we started shooting, so I had to pick it up pretty quickly.” You can witness Fuhrman’s nifty knife skills when “The Hunger Games” opens Friday. Check out everything we’ve got on “The Hunger Games.” For young Hollywood news, fashion and “Twilight” updates around the clock, visit HollywoodCrush.MTV.com . Related Videos MTV Rough Cut: ‘The Hunger Games’ Related Photos The Hunger Games ‘Hunger Games’ World Premiere Red Carpet ‘Hunger Games’ Cast Hits NYC
Movie events have become deadly little things, highly mechanized gadgets thrown by studio marketing departments into an audience’s midst in advance; then we just stand around and wait for them to explode. The Hunger Games , adapted from the first of Suzanne Collins’ hugely successful trio of young adult novels, was decreed an event long before it became anything close to a movie: More than a year ago its studio, Lionsgate, launched a not-so-stealthy advertising campaign that made extensive use of social media to coax potential fans into convincing one another that they had to see this movie. The marketing was so nervily persuasive that you had to wonder: How could any movie – especially one that, as it turns out, is largely and surprisingly naturalistic, as opposed to the usual toppling tower of special effects – possibly hope to measure up? The surprise of The Hunger Games isn’t that it lives up to its hype – it’s that it plays as if that hype never even existed, which may be the trickiest achievement a big movie can pull off these days. The picture takes place in a dystopian future, in a dictatorship called Panem that’s a thinly disguised version what used to be the United States. Panem’s richest and most privileged citizens live in the capitol city – called, conveniently, Capitol – while everyone else toils away in the 12 outlying districts to provide everything those Capitol dwellers might need, from food to coal to luxury goods. At some point in Panem’s history, the underlings in the districts revolted, French Revolution-style. As punishment, each district must now offer up two of its youngsters between the ages of 12 and 18, a boy and a girl chosen by lottery, to compete in a televised yearly event called the Hunger Games. The young people, called Tributes, kill one another off in an elaborately controlled stadium environment until there’s just one left standing: That kid earns accolades for his or her home district – and, more importantly, food. As allegories go, this is a pretty obvious one, particularly in the era of the 99%, although neither Collins nor Gary Ross, director of the movie version, really needs to belabor the point: The focus, in the book and in the movie, is on the storytelling: If the larger ideas are pretty elephantine ones, at least they emerge from the story rather than obscure it with their meaty flanks. Jennifer Lawrence plays 16-year-old Katniss Everdeen, a denizen of the poorest section of Panem, District 12, which specializes in coal production – Katniss’ father, a miner, was killed in a mining accident, leaving the young woman to fend for the family by using her crackerjack archery skills to hunt game (illegally) in the nearby forest. When Katniss’ impossibly young and extremely fragile sister Prim is chosen to compete in the Hunger Games – the announcements are made on a national holiday known, creepily, as Reaping Day – Katniss steps forward as a volunteer, desperate to take Prim’s place. Her male counterpart is the baker’s son, Peeta Mellark (Josh Hutcherson, who played Laser, Annette Bening and Julianne Moore’s son in The Kids Are All Right ), and the complication, as you might guess, is that he’s been sort-of-secretly in love with Katniss since childhood. Now the two will be life-and-death adversaries, and Katniss’ mistrust of Peeta’s motives – complicated by her own confused affections, given her exceedingly independent nature – provides the movie with some strong but delicate bone structure. The Hunger Games may offer some reasonably effective metaphorical statements about class divisions in this country — and about the house-of-cards crassness of reality TV – but in the end, it works because of its deft handling of an even more universal theme: This is a movie about an independent-minded girl who just isn’t sure she can trust a boy, as true to the spirit of the Shirelles as it is to Greek myth. There’s action here, too, and a great deal of vitality that feels true both to the spirit of Collins’ book and to the idea of movie entertainment as it exists – or ought to exist – outside the framework of mere movie marketing. Ross previously brought us the 1998 Pleasantville , as well as the disappointingly perfunctory 2003 Seabiscuit , and there are ways in which The Hunger Games (whose script he adapted, along with Collins and Billy Ray) feels workmanlike instead of genuinely inventive. For one thing, Ross overuses the handheld camera, particularly in scenes that are supposed to be intimate and deeply emotional: When Katniss gets Prim ready for her first Reaping Day, she tucks in the tail of the little girl’s shirt with the kind of efficient tenderness that the best big sisters have in their DNA. The family lives in what appears to be a simple wooden house, if not a shack. In the book, Collins notes that District 12 is located in what used to be called Appalachia, and if the movie doesn’t stress that outright, it at least implies as much: Ross and cinematographer Tom Stern channel the mood of Walker Evans and Dorothea Lange with their muted — though not blanched — color palette and austere compositions. (James Newton Howard wrote the movie’s restrained score, and there’s additional music by roots-music craftsman T. Bone Burnett, which tells you something about the picture’s commitment to capturing the aura of this distinctly American landscape.) Ross’ instincts are so good that you wonder, particularly in the District 12 scenes, why he didn’t just screw the camera into the damned tripod: The stillness would have been classical and elegant and better suited to the emotional tone and texture of this part of the story. Still, there’s so much in The Hunger Games that Ross gets right. He understands the nature of visual storytelling, trusting the audience to follow the narrative without spelling out every little thing in actual dialogue. He trusts us to pick up on telling details – for example, the lacy, little-girl anklets worn by the youngest Tribute, a sparkplug named Rue (played beautifully by a young actress named Amandla Stenberg), when she appears for her pre-competition televised interview. And The Hunger Games , mercifully, doesn’t suffer from overproductionitis. The picture, like the book it’s based on, has a number of fantastical elements – the glossy, gleaming futuristic edifices of the Capitol; a competition arena that resembles the natural world but can be controlled by technicians to create extra challenges for the participants, like rolling balls of fire and snarling creatures that are half-dog, half-lion. Even so, it relies mostly on a deceptively soothing kind of naturalism. These trees look like real trees; the sunlight certainly seems bright and strong. Their familiarity only adds to the story’s sense of menace, particularly when the going gets really ugly, as it inevitably does: At one point a crew of bloodthirsty Tributes surround a tree Katniss has climbed for safety, exhorting one of their members to “kill her.” The action in The Hunger Games is often a bit of a jumble – it’s sometimes hard to tell who’s coming from where. But Ross takes care to give the violence — which is discreet but visceral — the proper amount of weight. These are, after all, young people killing other young people. And one scene, in particular, conjures just the right level of Ophelia-floating-down-the-river grace — the simplest wildflowers become a kind of benediction. The picture makes room for a number of standout supporting actors: Stanley Tucci as an unctuous yet sympathetic games commentator; Elizabeth Banks as the fluttery, ineffectual official helper-outer Effie Trinket; Woody Harrelson as Katniss and Peeta’s boozy mentor; and Lenny Kravitz, sadly underused, as Cinna, who’s in charge of “styling” the District 12 entrants. (At one point in the pregame festivities, he puts Katniss in a dress whose fluttery, feathery skirt turns to fire as she twirls.) Wes Bentley has a turn as a smooth, unnerving semi-villain, and Donald Sutherland shows up as a malevolent elder statesman, a role he digs into with sly gusto. But Lawrence holds the real key to the effectiveness of The Hunger Games , and she plays Katniss as the best kind of fallible heroine. Hutcherson may be teen-heartthrob material – in other words, wholly nonthreatening — but he has the right amount of prickly sweetness to make the character of Peeta work: He can’t be too much of a sap, or you’d wonder what the hell Katniss sees in him. And as Lawrence plays her, Katniss – a sturdy girl, both physically and emotionally – deserves the best. There’s something primal about the way Katniss strides through the forest in the movie’s early scenes, stalking a deer with a rudimentary bow and arrow. She aims for the head and then, distracted by a District 12 pal (his name is Gale, and he’s played by Liam Hemsworth), misses. Lawrence has all the boldness and delicacy of her intended prey: Like that deer, she doesn’t miss a trick — her senses are aquiver every moment. Her Katniss is both tender and fierce, a character with contours and shadows, not just a cutout-and-keep role model. When she succumbs at last to Peeta’s earnest charms, it’s as if she’s finally captured the most elusive of prey, if only temporarily: She’s at peace with herself, but her very restlessness is part and parcel of that peace. As Katniss, Lawrence never stops moving: Even in her stillness, she always hits her mark. Read more on The Hunger Games here . Follow Stephanie Zacharek on Twitter . Follow Movieline on Twitter .
Welcome to THG’s Week in Review! Below, our staffers look back at the stories, stars and scandals that made the last seven days some of the craziest ALL MONTH. If you don’t already, FOLLOW THG on Twitter , Google+ and Facebook for 24/7/365 news. Every day, week and year, let us be your celebrity gossip source! Now, a rundown of the week that was at The Hollywood Gossip : The Bachelor Finale: Ben Flajnik Proposes to Courtney Robertson The Bachelor season finale revealed the inevitable proposal, shrug. The only surprise: Ben is still engaged to Courtney Robertson . George Clooney was arrested in a protest over Sudan crimes. Russell Brand was arrested for less humanitarian reasons. Liar Jermaine Jones got the boot from American Idol. Some hacker leaked pics of Heather Morris nude . Donald Trump Kids Go Hunting, Kill Elephant (Photos) Donald Trump’s kids were criticized over these hunting pics (above). Kim Kardashian and Jon Hamm are engaged in a random feud. Cops are investigating an alleged Lindsay Lohan hit-and-run . Britney Spears is reportedly still in talks to join The X Factor . Elle features Jessica Simpson nude on its cover this month. Nicki Minaj posed for Allure , almost as revealingly. Meghan McCain (above) is featured in Playboy this month. Just an interview. The cover of Playboy , meanwhile, features Bruno Mars. Yes, Bruno Mars . Nick Gordon and Bobbi Kristina Brown are now dating, apparently. The Real Housewives of OC are all certifiably insane. Bear Grylls got fired from the Discovery Channel. Charlize Theron is adopting a baby boy! The first pic of Robert Pattinson in Breaking Dawn Part II leaked (cue squeals). And Kristen Stewart as a vampire in the same film, too, for good measure. Rihanna spoke out about her decision to collaborate with Chris Brown. Dharun Ravi was convicted of hate crimes in the Tyler Clementi case. Piers Morgan really doesn’t like Kate Moss or Madonna. Rick Santorum hates porn . Like a lot. The Hunger Games Clip: Crushing on Katniss The countdown to The Hunger Games (preview clip above) continues … The Jersey Shore Season 5 finale ended with tears, sex and pranks. Jennie Garth and Peter Facinelli split after 10 years of marriage. Jaycee Dugard opened up to Oprah about her 18-year ordeal. THG readers picked their favorite celeb couple (not a shock). The trailer was released for Johnny Depp’s Dark Shadows … Dark Shadows Trailer What was the highlight of the week for you? Did we leave anything out?
Ray J, a hip hop artist and reality star previously best known for videotaping himself having sex with Kim Kardashian , is not taking the death of Whitney Houston well at all. Describing the late singer as “the love of [Ray J’s] life,” a source tells Radar Online that this amateur sex tape director will soon seek professional help. “He has saved voice mail messages on his cell phone from her that he has been listening to,” this insider claims . “His sister Brandy has urged him to go to counseling to deal with this loss, and he has finally agreed.” “Ray is just numb and he needs to be able to start to deal with these feelings.” Ray J spoke out a couple weeks ago about the pain from Whitney’s passing and said God has been talking him through it . We wish him all the best in this difficult time.
A new, special sneak peek from The Hunger Games has emerged. It focuses on President Snow giving advice to Seneca Crane, explaining the important of hope and the contest at the center of the movie, and it’s a scene NOT included in the novel. Don’t waste any more time. Check it out now! The Hunger Games Clip: All About Hope Among other sneak peeks released by the studio: Katniss meeting Cinna for the first time. Katniss showing off her bow and arrow skills . Peeta telling the world about his crush.
