Jimmy Ellis, the voice behind the dance floor anthem “Disco Inferno,” has died. He passed away Thursday in South Carolina at the age of 74. Ellis died of complications from Alzheimer’s Disease, his daughter told the New York Times . Ellis was the lead singer of the funk band The Trammps, which released several R&B singles in the 1970s, including their Top 10 mega-hit “Disco Inferno.” The Trammps – Disco Inferno With its infectious “burn, baby, burn” refrain, the song helped propel sales of the Saturday Night Fever soundtrack to 15 million, making it the second highest selling soundtrack in history (behind Whitney Houston ‘s The Bodyguard ). The band toured together until 2010, according to the Times . In addition to his daughter, Erika Stinson, Ellis is survived by his wife, Beverly, son James III, three brothers, a sister, eight grandchildren and two great-grandchildren. A memorial service will be held next week in Charlotte, N.C.
With the exception of a single tweet on January 31, Heidi Klum has had nothing to say about her shocking separation from Seal, her husband since 2005. Until now. “I feel like I’m in the eye of the tornado,” she tells Elle . “It’s emotions inside of your body that are a tornado. And then the outside world doing all this craziness – with you wanting it or not wanting it – is another tornado.” “But as hard as it is, so is life,” adds the 38-year-old mother of four. “Sometimes I think a curveball just comes at you. Instead of something straight that you catch, it hits you in the head from the side that you didn’t expect.” Klum acknowledges there had been problems in the marriage. “To the outside world, you don’t really share all the things that happen. You kind of share just the most amazing sides,” she says. “But I don’t really want to get into any of that stuff. With my life, my family, my business – I want to go forward.” “I feel like already there are so many things being said about us – about him, about me. I’m not going to comment. Otherwise it makes you angry. You can’t always call and say, ‘This is not true, but this part is true.'” Seal has spoken endlessly about their separation while promoting his eighth studio album in January, a fact that Heidi doesn’t seem too thrilled about. “He’s a grown man. I can’t tell him what and what not to do. It’s hard.” “People don’t need to know who did what,” she adds. “I don’t want to talk positively or negatively about the ups and downs that we had. Every couple goes through things. Unfortunately, we’re in the public, so the highs are out there.” “I’m a lioness. I have four cubs. I’m a mom. I want to take care of my kids and protect them,” she says. “I don’t want to talk about them, or him, or me.” The ex-Victoria’s Secret angel adds that she’s a “strong person,” but she’s “also a soft person.” “I’m not a robot,” she says. “I’m not made out of stone.”
Is it possible to love a piece of dead fish more than you love people? That’s the question asked, implicitly if not directly, by David Gelb’s documentary Jiro Dreams of Sushi , a portrait of 85-year-old sushi master Jiro Ono that is itself as meticulous and carefully formed as a piece of nigirizushi . The movie’s title comes from an interview with Jiro, who speaks of waking up in the middle of the night with new ideas for perfecting and enhancing his craft. Then we see him standing stiffly behind the bar at his Tokyo restaurant, waiting with an air of placid annoyance for a customer to consume one of his precise and studied creations: With his hands, he has made a dream you can eat. And he wants you to know it. Gelb’s documentary is tactile in the same way. In fact, it’s so strictly visual – as opposed to sensual – that unlike most well-made movies about food, it may not send you walking out hungry. A food-critic friend and I were discussing this phenomenon: It could be, as my friend posited, that sushi, though among the most beautiful of all consumables, is just “not very food porny.” And it’s true: I left Jiro Dreams of Sushi wanting not to eat, but to make jewelry, preferably with the most colorful, carefully polished beads or stones available. Jiro, as he himself tells us in the film, has been mastering the art of making sushi nearly his whole life. For years he has run Sukiyashi Jiro, a 10-seat sushi restaurant in Tokyo, and though the place is just a modest – if elegant – dinerlike strip, it was the first restaurant of its kind to be awarded three Michelin stars. His eldest son, Yoshikazu, works in the restaurant with him, and though it’s strongly hinted that his skills are nearly as well-honed as those of his father, Jiro shows no signs of being ready to pass the torch along. A younger son runs another sushi restaurant on the other side of town, an enterprise Jiro talks about with gibing pride. He himself, as it turns out, struck out on his own before he was even a teenager, supporting himself any way he could. When his younger son decided to start the restaurant, Jiro told him he had better succeed, because he had no home to go back to. He derides the idea of parents who reassure their children they can always come home. “When parents say stupid things like that,” he says, “the kids turn out to be failures.” That gives us a few clues to his parenting style. And yet Jiro’s grudging love for, and pride in, his children shines through, even though it’s something he’d rather not advertise. (At one point he concedes, “I wasn’t much of a father,” and no mention is made of the children’s mother, though we see her in a photograph or two.) That’s one of the strengths of Gelb’s understated technique – he never tells when he can show, letting Jiro do most of the talking, though we also hear from Tokyo restaurant critic Yamamoto (who informs us plainly that in the dozens of times he has eaten at Sukiyabashi Jiro, he has never had a disappointing meal) and the fish dealer who proudly supplies Jiro with those all-important raw ingredients (although Jiro, who used to do all the marketgoing himself before suffering a heart attack, now leaves the daily shopping to Yoshikazu). Mostly, though, we see Jiro at work, sometimes supervising his devoted but slightly cowed restaurant workers, but more often just making the stuff: The precision of his hand movements is something to behold, as he forms a small dollop of rice into a suitable bed for a piece of glistening salmon or mackerel. As he cuts through a slab of tuna, the pieces fall away in thick, red ribbons – this is what velvet would look like if you could slice it. Jiro’s quest for perfection is all-consuming and, the film suggests, won’t be quelled until he draws his last breath, or until his limbs stop working, whichever comes first. At its simplest level, Jiro Dreams of Sushi is a portrait of a master. In its deeper layers, it explores what drives us to make things: Beautiful, jewel-like things, or things that delight our palate – or, in this case, both. Follow Stephanie Zacharek on Twitter . Follow Movieline on Twitter .
Two teen-oriented comedies this season share much in common, from a gleeful embracing of the spirit of youthful recklessness to the idea that geeks will indeed inherit the earth. One is among the better comedies we’re likely to see this year; the other is by far, on its face, the sleaziest . Both were penned by the same actor-turned-screenwriter, Michael Bacall , who also captured the slings and arrows of slacker youth heroism in 2010’s Scott Pilgrim vs. the World . So why are Project X and 21 Jump Street so diametrically opposed when it comes to depicting the youth of today? Last weekend’s R-rated party bacchanal Project X was crafted with just the right pedigree for it to become, potentially, the party film of its generation. Produced by Hangover director Todd Phillips (and co-scripted by Matt Drake), cast largely with unknowns, and shot in a first-person verite style, the premise was simple: Three geeky suburban losers throw the biggest party ever to become cool and get the ladies. Critics had plenty to complain about solely on moral grounds – rarely do films so glorify bad behavior without serious, remorse-inducing consequence when it comes to the teenagers onscreen, let alone the ones watching in the multiplex. Reveling in that unapologetic party spirit was much of the point, though; in taking risks and throwing caution (and his parents’ property value) to the wind, protagonist Thomas was handsomely rewarded for his ballsiness as a sign of maturity of sorts. Forget the gross, near-total objectification of women (even the obvious girl next door love interest partakes in a showy swimming pool dip) and the juvenile use of derogatory words like “bitch” or “faggot” — at the film’s end Thomas and Co. may face charges for wrecking his cushy Pasadena neighborhood, but they’ve gained the respect of his fellow party-goer peers. That’s all that really matters, right? Wrong, says Badass Digest’s Meredith Borders . It feels too insufficient a justification for the makers of Project X to hide behind the “teen boy perspective” defense given just how much the film celebrates this skewed point of view. In a post appropriately entitled “Michael Bacall, How Could You?”, Borders details the film’s offensiveness: “ Project X isn’t an outsiders’ perspective of one misguided group. It’s a celebration of that perspective. I simply don’t believe that a screenwriter can write a film that uses the word ‘bitch’ that frequently – said by protagonists whom we are surely meant to support – without being culpable for that sentiment at least in part. Bacall, Drake, [director Nima] Nourizadeh and of course producer Todd Phillips are all responsible for the message in Project X , and the message is execrable.” Meanwhile, Choire Sicha writes at The Awl of Project X ’s selective, seemingly just off-target approach to capturing what the kids today are all about: “Especially for a film directed by an Iranian Brit, who’s supposed to have done ‘hip’ commercials and videos, it’s crazy retrograde. I expect the word ‘faggot’ to get tossed around a lot in a film that’s about three straight guys trying to get laid, but in 2012 we never get a shot of, say, the gay dudes from the high school throwing down at the party? (Despite lingering girl-on-girl softcore tributes even!) Kids today, they like to say ‘faggot’ and they like having homos at their party. And then it all takes place in Los Angeles county, but there’s barely a Mexican to be seen? Come on. Also I expect straight guys to talk about ‘pussy’ a lot, but I also expect the girls to beat them down for it. Instead there’s a bunch of Mean Girls chicks strutting around and ripping off their tops in the pool. As if!” Sicha’s observations, interestingly enough, play into the common defense of Project X – that despite the handheld found footage-aided conceit (a gimmick that suggests some element of “realism” even when we know it’s staged), this is pure 15-year-old boy fantasy. Maybe the three nerdy heroes of Project X don’t live in a real-world scenario to begin with — the kind of post-racial melting pot of diversity and interests united by Twitter and YouTube that kids enjoy these days, at least in places like Los Angeles. Perhaps the world of Project X approximates that of any conventional teen sex comedy where the jocks are macho and the tomboy best friends are model-hot and nerds get pushed into lockers, only it’s told from the nerds’ point of view. “Of course they’re obsessed with sex and think of girls as sex objects,” the apologists cry. “Of course their drug-hazed memories of raucous house parties filled with drunk underage girls look like American Apparel ads! They are teenage boys !” Bacall said as much when prodded for comment by The Hollywood Reporter in the face of Project X criticism: “The criticisms about the movie being amoral because kids are dancing and drinking and having a good time, I think that’s absurd… because kids have been dancing and drinking and altering their states of consciousness for a very long time, and this is nothing new. The thing these guys do turns out to be massively irresponsible and possibly tragic, as we fade to black, but I think the value in it for them is in kind of finding out where their limits are. Granted, there are more productive ways to do that, but this is the path that these guys decided [to take], and given that’s the concept of the movie, we wanted to just make that path as deep as possible.” So it’s possible that Project X is an elaborately conceived manipulation of the collective teen sex comedy movie worlds we grew up watching and that the found footage aspect is a deliberate wrench thrown into the mix to pervert your expectations. Maybe it’s a collective cultural dream for us all to share in which the nerds finally win! (Or: It’s a shared wet dream that Thomas, Costa and JB are simultaneously having after watching Porkys during a sleepover in Thomas’s parents’ basement while the cool kids party elsewhere in the greater Los Angeles County.) Maybe these loser bottom-rung-of-the-social-ladder geeks are so out of the loop that they have no idea how to treat ladies with respect or invite all kinds to their house parties; naturally, if this was simply their fantasy, the conditions of the world would be limited to what they think the outside world is like in their minds. Or maybe I’m overthinking this. Because after watching Project X , I saw Bacall’s next movie, 21 Jump Street , a movie that goes about embracing and identifying the nature of modern teenagerdom in a much clearer — and more positive — way. You might not think so to look at it , but 21 Jump Street — an update of the Johnny Depp cop show about a babyfaced cop sent to pose undercover in high school, here starring Channing Tatum and Jonah Hill — is surprisingly sophisticated. Directed by Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs duo Phil Lord and Chris Miller, it constantly beats its critics to the punch in explaining its own vulnerable spots, including the very idea of recycling a decades-old idea in 2012. Where it surprises the most, aside from letting Tatum play to his comic strengths, is in addressing just how much has changed in youth culture, and the entertainment industry’s depiction of youth culture, since the 1980s. Tatum’s ex-jock Jenko used to be the big man on campus in high school, where he tormented Hill’s awkward, Eminem-idolizing geek Schmidt. Now they’ve grown into rookie cops and besties, embracing their opposite strengths; they complement one another as a pair, even if the sting and the glory of high school, respectively, still guide their egos. But settling into their new assignment takes some adjustment; in the intervening years since they were teenagers, kids have evolved. Jenko, now ostracized for his meathead tendencies by the popular kids — a diverse gang of forward-thinking, environment-friendly, gay-inclusive honor students — blames the culture of Glee for ruining the old, familiar ways of teenagerdom. It’s a smart approach to turning time-worn clichés on their head, especially since, for the Glee generation, things are different. Maybe not so different everywhere — just take a look at the documentary Bully to see that much — but in today’s hyper-integrated culture the old conventions just don’t ring true anymore. Perhaps that’s a perspective that comes from being on the other side of 18 and looking back, comparing what was then to what is now. By that logic, if one subscribes to the Bacall defense, we can’t possibly expect the youngsters of Project X to know any better, I suppose. Nor are the fans targeted by Project X encouraged to give its critics much thought. A clever campaign for the film saw Warner Bros. strategically partnering with Vice Magazine on a series of college screenings paired with hip-hop shows, culminating in a live-streamed performance last week by Odd Future’s Tyler the Creator and Kid Cudi on a soundstage decorated, appropriately enough, like a middle-class suburban scene. The Vice deal was about as perfect as movie synergy comes, given the publication’s knack for making a business out of the often-skeezy side of party culture. At one point at the end of the night, Kid Cudi (whose anthemic 2009 single “Pursuit of Happiness” serves as the film’s unofficial theme song) brought the extended cast of Project X — including, by all appearances, at least a few underage actors — onstage to do shots in front of the undulating crowd of hundreds. No one seemed even a bit concerned, despite the fact that the moment had been captured by countless camera phones and even, probably, witnessed on the web in the live-stream. The party was just too good — too epic, the characters of Project X might say — to be bothered by something as mundane as moral consequence. Follow Jen Yamato on Twitter . Follow Movieline on Twitter .
Georgia Tech student Thaddeus Johnson tells MTV News Republican nominee ‘has too much baggage’ to take on President Obama. By Becca Frucht Photo: Getty Images ATLANTA — After a slow morning at the polls , things are finally picking up as the Super Tuesday action kicks into gear in A-town. Yes, former Peach State Congressman Newt Gingrich is expected to easily take the state, possibly his only win today, but that doesn’t mean the other candidates aren’t getting attention from voters too. Or that everyone is totally onboard with the Newt message. The weather’s warmed up, the Georgia Tech student center is jumping and the polling place right smack in the middle of it is … still crickets. Every table in the Student Center food court is packed — and when I polled all the kids just steps away from the voting booths, most of them were either registered in their home counties, had already sent in their absentee ballots (props to these conscientious citizens!) or simply unaware that anything was going on. So MTV’s Powerof12 news team stepped outside to see what was going down in the quad and we ran into two cool coeds in spirited sweatshirts. Pals Thaddeus Johnson, 20, and Briana Brown, 22, agreed to a sun-dappled chat on what they’re thinking about this Super Tuesday, how their parent’s politics influenced them and why it’s important for young people to exercise their power to vote. They also threw in on what issues are most important, and we learned that the duo has the same social pressure point, interestingly. For Briana, the debate over contraception is what’s sparked her interest in the GOP race, “It applies a lot to us in this college setting, and it’s an interesting issue that I didn’t think of before the primary.” The issue has blown up into a national talking point thanks to the recent controversial comments from right-wing talk radio personality Rush Limbaugh denigrating law student Sandra Fluke. As far as Johnson is concerned, ” Newt Gingrich has too much baggage” to take on President Obama in the Presidential election, but he thinks whatever happens, it’s important for the youth vote to get out because “we’re the generation of tomorrow. We’re the next people that are gonna run the country. These older people, yeah, they’re gonna vote, but they’re about to die off.” Harsh? Maybe. True? Oh yeah. MTV has Super Tuesday covered, with reporters on the scene in Georgia, Ohio and Massachusetts! Check back for up-to-the-minute coverage on all the primaries, and stick with Power Of 12 throughout the presidential election season. Related Videos Super Tuesday: MTV News Is On The Ground!
Rihanna’s recent musical collaboration with Chris Brown has spurred criticism across the media and celebrity spectrum. Reese Witherspoon has even weighed in. The This Means War actress star appeared at the World Conference of Women’s Shelters in Washington, D.C., as part of a partnership with the Avon Foundation. There to raise awareness about domestic violence, the mother of two say she is making sure her kids – Ava, 12, and Deacon, 8 – learn an important lesson. She openly discussed how she actively talks to her two children about domestic violence, and that Chris Brown and Rihanna are part of that conversation. “We talk about domestic violence and what that means,” Witherspoon, 35, said. “Although the concept is somewhat foreign to them, they’re starting to understand that this happens to families in our country and all throughout the world.” She also doesn’t shelter them from the realities of Brown’s assault on Rihanna: “My daughter knows what happened to her. My son knows as well.” “We talk about what is abuse. It’s important to talk to our daughters and our sons at an early age about what’s appropriate and what is absolutely not acceptable.” Judging from mom’s open and mature communication style – not calling anyone out while still not mincing words on a difficult topic – Ava and Deacon are lucky. Miranda Lambert ? Not quite as tactful. [Photo: WENN.com]
Best bike rentals in the globe. from Stason bros. on Vimeo . Some things are better with half naked hipster chicks dyking out……especially bike rental videos….every single commercial on TV….and well as every single thing I experience in my life should play out like that….I am going to work on making that happen…cuz the world is filled with too many uptight prude chicks unwilling to suck a handlebar, too busy complaining about your weight, your household income, who is gonna take the kids to school and you know what…that fucking sucks…but this….this is amazing….hipster Russian who are well versed with the sex trade…changing the face of what we jerk off to…..HOT. If you’re a hipster girl willing to get naked – feel free to email me so we can have sex.
Delonte West comes clean… During an interview with Dallas News, Delonte West finally spoke on the rumor that he chopped down LeBron James’ mother in 2010: “It’s affected me,” West says. “Everywhere I go, first question, ‘Don’t tell me you did that.’ ” “That” would be the rumor that during the 2010 playoffs, West had a sexual encounter with Cleveland Cavaliers teammate LeBron James’ mother, Gloria. West says he wants to permanently squash the rumor not just for his sake, but mostly for James and his mother, who West says expressed nothing but kindness during his three seasons in Cleveland. In fact, West says Gloria James reminded him of his single mother, Delphina Addison, who raised Delonte and his siblings to be “happy-poor, just enjoy life and the blessings that God has given us. “If we want to continue to grow as a human race, what are we teaching our kids if we try to make humor and fun out of stuff like that?” West says of the rumor. “Number one, something like that never happened. I don’t know where they got that from. “For a strong black woman like that, for people to try to tear her down, that’s terrible. That’s terrible in so many ways.” Well, we finally got that cleared up. Do you believe it? Or do you think he’s covering up from a dark truth? Sound off! Pics via Wenn Source
Billy Crystal’s return as host foreshadowed at 2011 Academy Awards. By Kevin P. Sullivan Billy Crystal at the 83rd Annual Academy Awards Photo: Kevin Winter/ Getty Images It certainly doesn’t feel like it’s been that long, but it was a year ago that “The King’s Speech” won top honors at the 83rd Annual Academy Awards . As we head into the 2012 Oscars on Sunday, it’s an appropriate time to look back on last year’s winners that surprised, moments that shocked and snubs we’re still not quite over yet. Anne and James In an attempt to appeal to a younger demographic, the Academy enlisted the help of Anne Hathaway and James Franco and “youth-oriented” segments including an Auto-Tuning of some of the year’s biggest movies. The result was a confusing three hours of underwhelming laughs and jokes that fell mostly flat. Afterward, blame flew both ways, but it seems unlikely that either will host again. Kirk Douglas, Show Stealer Leave it to a 94-year-old to show all the kids how it’s done. With more energy than the two hosts combined, Douglas won over the audiences in the Kodak Theatre and at home, overtly hitting on Hathaway and making sweeping generalizations about Australians and Brits. The King’s Night Despite hanging in second behind “The Social Network” for most of the awards-season love leading up to the Oscars, “The King’s Speech” came from behind to win three of the top categories: Best Picture, Actor and Director. Colin Firth locked up his award months in advance by sweeping the earlier ceremonies, but the race for picture and director came down to Oscar night, ending with Tom Hooper’s controversial win over David Fincher. The Dark Knight Rises His victory for Best Supporting Actor might not have come as a surprise, but Christian Bale’s tough-guy image was nowhere to be found. The actor sincerely thanked his wife and daughter after accepting the prize for “The Fighter.” Not only was he happy, but he even made fun of himself and his previous bouts with bad language. Billy Crystal’s Standing Ovation In the evening’s most-apparent act of foreshadowing, Billy Crystal took the stage to honor former Oscar host Bob Hope, and the audience welcomed him with a standing ovation. It wasn’t long after that talk of bringing Crystal back to host started, setting up the Oscar night we’re now anticipating. The MTV Movies team has the 2012 Oscars covered! Stick with us for everything you need to know leading up to the awards show, and on Sunday, February 26, tune into MTV.com at 5 p.m. ET for our two-and-a-half-hour red-carpet live stream and updates on the night’s big winners. To join the live conversation, tweet @MTVNews with the hashtag #Oscars. Related Videos 2011 Oscars Red Carpet Interviews Related Photos The 2011 Academy Awards Best And Worst Oscars Hosts Of All Time
Billy Crystal’s return as host foreshadowed at 2011 Academy Awards. By Kevin P. Sullivan Billy Crystal at the 83rd Annual Academy Awards Photo: Kevin Winter/ Getty Images It certainly doesn’t feel like it’s been that long, but it was a year ago that “The King’s Speech” won top honors at the 83rd Annual Academy Awards . As we head into the 2012 Oscars on Sunday, it’s an appropriate time to look back on last year’s winners that surprised, moments that shocked and snubs we’re still not quite over yet. Anne and James In an attempt to appeal to a younger demographic, the Academy enlisted the help of Anne Hathaway and James Franco and “youth-oriented” segments including an Auto-Tuning of some of the year’s biggest movies. The result was a confusing three hours of underwhelming laughs and jokes that fell mostly flat. Afterward, blame flew both ways, but it seems unlikely that either will host again. Kirk Douglas, Show Stealer Leave it to a 94-year-old to show all the kids how it’s done. With more energy than the two hosts combined, Douglas won over the audiences in the Kodak Theatre and at home, overtly hitting on Hathaway and making sweeping generalizations about Australians and Brits. The King’s Night Despite hanging in second behind “The Social Network” for most of the awards-season love leading up to the Oscars, “The King’s Speech” came from behind to win three of the top categories: Best Picture, Actor and Director. Colin Firth locked up his award months in advance by sweeping the earlier ceremonies, but the race for picture and director came down to Oscar night, ending with Tom Hooper’s controversial win over David Fincher. The Dark Knight Rises His victory for Best Supporting Actor might not have come as a surprise, but Christian Bale’s tough-guy image was nowhere to be found. The actor sincerely thanked his wife and daughter after accepting the prize for “The Fighter.” Not only was he happy, but he even made fun of himself and his previous bouts with bad language. Billy Crystal’s Standing Ovation In the evening’s most-apparent act of foreshadowing, Billy Crystal took the stage to honor former Oscar host Bob Hope, and the audience welcomed him with a standing ovation. It wasn’t long after that talk of bringing Crystal back to host started, setting up the Oscar night we’re now anticipating. The MTV Movies team has the 2012 Oscars covered! Stick with us for everything you need to know leading up to the awards show, and on Sunday, February 26, tune into MTV.com at 5 p.m. ET for our two-and-a-half-hour red-carpet live stream and updates on the night’s big winners. To join the live conversation, tweet @MTVNews with the hashtag #Oscars. Related Videos 2011 Oscars Red Carpet Interviews Related Photos The 2011 Academy Awards Best And Worst Oscars Hosts Of All Time
