Dancing With the Stars’ Maksim Chmerkovskiy was photographed kissing fellow pro dancer co-star Peta Murgatroyd this weekend, sparking rumors of romance. On Saturday at the Encore Beach Club in Las Vegas, Maksim was there celebrating with Peta, who won Dancing With the Stars with Donald Driver last week. That wasn’t the only time the hard-bodied pair and rumored couple were spotted together in Sin City. Witnesses have seen them together all over Vegas. And, at the opening of Chmerkovskiy’s new dance studio in Connecticut on May 23, the pair stood arm-in-arm while he whispered in her ear. Hmm … “She’s had a crush on him for a long time,” a source tells People of Peta. “They are really great together. And he is very happy. It’s early but I think this will last. They’re a great match, a good couple. She says they’re not dating but they are. Everyone knows it.” Still, at the debut of the Dance With Me studio (which Maks opened with his brother Val and fellow pro Tony Dovolani), both danced around questions . “I’m here to support Maksim,” was all Murgatroyd would say about Chmerkovskiy, who wouldn’t directly address the nature of their relationship either. “I try to keep certain things private just because – what’s a politically correct way of saying it? It’s none of anybody’s business,” he said. “It’s very intimate and personal.” Yeah. They’re totally doing the horizontal Argentine tango. [Photo: Fame/Flynet]
Mitt Romney may have come off sounding like a robot, but in his most recent response to this morning’s report about Joe Ricketts’ plan to inject Jeremiah Wright into the 2012 campaign, he finally repudiated the Republican billionaire’s plan: I repudiate the effort by that PAC to promote an ad strategy of the nature they’ve described. I think what we’ve seen so far from the Obama campaign is… Broadcasting platform : YouTube Source : Daily Kos Discovery Date : 17/05/2012 16:33 Number of articles : 3
MTV News travels to New Orleans, where four stars of the upcoming YA adaptation talk about the supernatural romance. By Amy Wilkinson Alice Englert and Alden Ehrenreich on the set of “Beautiful Creatures” NEW ORLEANS — This is a story of boy meets girl. Or, more accurately, boy meets caster. What is a caster, you may be asking? In the southern gothic world imagined by “Beautiful Creatures” authors Kami Garcia and Margaret Stohl, casters have magical powers much like witches. Some can seduce men with one lick of a lollipop. Others can mutate their arm into a slithering snake. And still others can channel Mother Nature, bending weather to their will. This is the supernatural realm MTV News stepped into recently during our exclusive visit to the New Orleans set of “Beautiful Creatures.” While there we got the scoop on the adaptation straight from the film’s four young stars. “Lena is a young girl who also happens to be a caster, and she’s moved around — she’s moved to a lot of small towns and problems follow her,” Alice Englert told us of her character. “She’s just come to Gatlin, which is so insignificant it doesn’t have a Starbucks, etc., and [the theater] gets the titles of movie names wrong, and everyone thinks I’m a Satanist.” Just the usual adolescent angst, right? Englert conceded that underneath her supernatural surface, Lena struggles with issues any typical teen would: “I think Lena is like most girls when you feel massively insecure.” Few things can make one feel more insecure than being bullied by classmates, which just so happened to be the theme of the scene being shot during our visit. “We’re shooting a scene where there sort of begins this class persecution of Lena, and it’s very blatant,” Englert explained. “The girls in class are sort of this awful clique of girls, who are always being mean to her, and they start tormenting her,” chimed in co-star Alden Ehrenreich , who plays Lena’s love interest, Ethan. “It’s getting out of control, and she gets of control,” Englert concluded. This particular scene was just one of many effects-laden moments scheduled during production — one in which the windows of the classroom shatter in magnificent fashion. “I forgot that we were shooting, and I just stood there, like, [ drops jaw ], my eyes crossed. It’s going to look so ridiculous,” enthused Zoey Deutch, who plays mean girl Emily. “It’s really fun. It was insane. It was so loud. I really thought there was an earthquake.” Special effects aside, Deutch was also impressed with the film’s source material, counting herself among the many fans of “Beautiful Creatures.” “I loved the books, I thought they were incredible,” she said. “I thought they were smart and like nothing I’d ever read before. I’m an avid ‘Harry Potter’ fan, and [‘Beautiful Creatures’] was kind of my favorite series I’ve read since then.” But for those wanting to draw parallels between protagonist Ethan Wate and the Boy Who Lived (or even a certain sparkly vampire), Thomas Mann, who plays Link, said not so fast. “I think it’s definitely going to be unique from those stories,” he assured. “Beautiful Creatures” hits theaters February 15, 2013. For young Hollywood news, fashion and “Twilight” updates around the clock, visit HollywoodCrush.MTV.com .
John Travolta has been sued by a masseur (male masseuse) who claims that the actor tried to have sex with him during a recent massage. According to the shocking lawsuit, Travolta saw the masseur’s ad online, and scheduled an appointment for $200 an hour. Then it all went haywire. The accuser did not know who booked the appointment, but followed instructions and met up with a black Lexus SUV, which Travolta was driving. Travolta and the masseur, who says he saw Trojan condoms in the center console, drove to the Beverly Hills Hotel and went to Travolta’s bungalow. The suit claims Travolta stripped naked , appearing semi-erect. The masseur says he told Travolta to lay down on the table and the first hour went without incident. Unfortunately, there was a second hour booked. Then, according to legal documents, the 48-year-old actor began rubbing the masseur’s leg, touched his scrotum and the shaft of his penis. The masseur claims he told the movie star that he does not have sex with his clients, but Travolta was completely undeterred … allegedly. Offering to do a “reverse massage,” he added, “Come on dude, I’ll jerk you off!!!” The suit alleges that Travolta then masturbated and told the masseur he got to where he was “due to sexual favors he had performed when he was in his Welcome Back Kotter days,” and that this is the nature of the beast. “Hollywood is controlled by homosexual Jewish men who expect favors in return for sexual activity,” Travolta said, according to the lawsuit. The masseur, who is only listed as John Doe, claims Travolta called him a loser, but then doubled the hourly rate and sent him on his way. The suit seeks $2 million plus punitive damages. [Photo: WENN.com]
Pop star said he wrote about his 2011 paternity controversy on the upcoming album. By John Mitchell Justin Bieber Photo: Valery Hache/ AFP/ Getty Images Sometimes you just have some things to get off your chest. For teen pop phenom Justin Bieber , one of those things is a paternity suit filed last year by a 20-year-old California woman claiming that a brief bathroom rendezvous with him following an October 2010 concert resulted in her pregnancy. Rather than ignore the matter, Bieber is confronting it head on with his new album Believe. “That girl — Mariah Yeater — who said she was going to have my baby. I wrote about that situation,” Bieber told the BBC of his new album. “Every song has a piece of me… I wrote almost all of them or co-wrote them.” The case, which Yeater dropped in November, has many wondering if Bieber was wise to commit his feelings to something as public and eternal as an album, or if he should have just let go of what was really a minor controversy. Though few believed them, the rumors introduced Bieber to one of the many pitfalls of celebrity and briefly overwhelmed his press cycle when he was trying to promote his Christmas album, Under the Mistletoe. The accusation challenged his family-friendly brand, something family law expert told MTV News could be grounds for a defamation of character suit. The suit likely weighed heavily on Bieber, regardless of its merit, making it prime material for his songwriting. But does dragging it all back into the public sphere benefit him in any tangible way? His recent tweet about Yeater — which read, “Dear mariah yeeter…we have never met…so from the heart i just wanted to say…” accompanied by an audio clip of Sasha Baron Cohen’s character Borat saying, “You will never get this” — was neither subtle nor particularly sophisticated. And since details of the suit were made so public and remain fresh in the minds of his fans, why restart the conversation if there is nothing new to add? Responding to your own press is a slippery slope for celebrities, and it can do one of two things: clear the air or consume the conversation. For Madonna and Michael Jackson, it did the former. “Billie Jean,” Michael Jackson’s classic declaration that he was not the father, was wrapped in a bit of mystery. There have long been contradictory claims that the song is about groupies MJ encountered early in his fame and that it was derived from a real-life experience in which a mentally ill fan claimed that Jackson had fathered her child. But it really doesn’t matter; we just know that these accusations were out there, so MJ decided to shut it down with a song. The difference is, Bieber’s controversy is already over and, considering few people ever believed the claims, was never a huge deal to begin with. Ever an expert at handling the press, Madonna held her head high when she addressed the massive backlash she encountered after she pressed through her sexually charged Erotica -era with a lone song, “Human Nature.” She posited that people’s anger with her had more to do with their own hang-ups than with her behavior and refused to apologize. Madonna knew she’d struck a nerve and defiantly declared, “Absolutely no regrets.” She dually stood her ground and introduced something new to the conversation. With “Human Nature,” Madonna held up a mirror to the public and asked “Is it really my sexuality you are uncomfortable with?” Bieber needs to pay particular attention to this lest he fall hard into Taylor Swift territory, where the artist is practically expected to directly address the minutia of their private lives in every song. First, it was Joe Jonas with “Forever & Always,” then John Mayer on “Dear John” and Kanye West on “Innocent.” It’s important, of course, for a singer/ songwriter to write what they know, but there’s a reason we only just learned who the subject of Adele’s multiplatinum, Grammy-winning 21 was (and why she’s never confirmed it). We want to be able to apply a song’s emotion to our own lives, but it’s hard to do that when a track is either too specific or too self-indulgent. We haven’t heard Bieber’s song about Yeater, so we can’t speak to whether it is either. If he has something new to say about the controversy — perhaps how it felt to be betrayed by one of his fans — then he may have found a way to turn lemons into lemonade. But if all he brings to the table are boasts about not being the father, well, then he should get ready for questions about how literal his love songs are regarding his relationship with Selena Gomez. Once you open the door and make your private life the subject of your professional endeavors, there’s no turning back. Related Videos Taylor Swift Is ‘Fearless’ About Love MTV News Extended Play: Justin Bieber Related Artists Justin Bieber
There’s nothing more enraging to me as a moviegoer than that dreaded moment when, in the middle of a movie, the unmistakable, un-ignorable glow of a cell phone screen cuts through the glorious darkness in my field of vision and takes me out of the viewing experience. Texting , sexting, checking emails, Tweeting — I don’t care what your excuse is, it’s not okay to ruin everyone else’s experience by using your phone (or talking or shaking the entire row of seats with your nervous-boredom knee jiggle or letting your stank feet air out in the aisles or snoring, you selfish prick.) So why would theater owners or studio heads, whose job it is to deliver an enjoyable movie-going experience to their paying customers, ever even entertain the notion of allowing or encouraging texting in a movie theater? That’s just what some members on a panel discussion entitled “An Industry Think Tank: Meeting the Expectations of Today’s Savvy Moviegoer” at CinemaCon reportedly proposed today in a conversation about issues facing the industry. Deadline’s David Lieberman reports : Regal Entertainment CEO Amy Miles says that her chain currently discourages cell phone use “but if we had a movie that appealed to a younger demographic, we could test some of these concepts.” For example, she says that the chain talked about being more flexible about cell phone use at some screens that showed 21 Jump Street . “You’re trying to figure out if there’s something you can offer in the theater that I would not find appealing but my 18 year old son” might. You know what else these hypothetical teenagers want when they go to a movie? To see R-rated boobs and sneak into other movies without paying, so let’s just let them do all of that, too. IMAX’s Greg Foster seemed to like the idea of relaxing the absolute ban on phone use in theaters. His 17 year old son “constantly has his phone with him,” he says. “We want them to pay $12 to $14 to come into an auditorium and watch a movie. But they’ve become accustomed to controlling their own existence.” Banning cell phone use may make them “feel a little handcuffed.” To which I say: Handcuff those kids! Teach them some self-control, for goodness sake. And what does it mean when the IMAX guy is totally okay with his kid being on the phone in a movie? In an IMAX theater there’s literally no room in your field of vision to look at anything else, but interrupting your experience to look down and text is cool? Which brings me to the first issue here: Kids. Not the kids themselves per se, but the fact that pretty much the entire hypothetical justification for allowing cell phone use in theaters stems from an attempt to solve the issue of dwindling attendance by blaming the teenagers. You think every kid out there is so ADD-addled and attached to their iPhones that they won’t or can’t focus on a movie for two hours? (I mean, maybe.) Does that mean we should let them or anyone of any age do whatever they want in a theater? HELL NO. Here’s the thing: You can’t just let The Text-Crazy Kids blaze up Facebook in a theater in order to boost box office without messing it up for everyone else — and that includes the rest of us old people and that segment of the teenage populace that, you know, doesn’t need to compulsively check their phones at the movies and maybe, just maybe, hates it as much as the rest of us when other people do it. To officially allow texting in a theater is to effectively encourage texting in a theater. And while folks like Miles might experiment with outside the box teen baiting strategies –and good luck to her in that — how can you even effectively host a text-friendly screening? By offering specialty showtimes, a la Baby Brigade or 21 and Up screenings, maybe? Who knows? Such an approach might just work, and I’m sure the theater owners would rejoice in the box office boom and bathe in the shower of gold coins and allowance money that followed. But here’s my request, if it comes to that: Keep those screenings segregated and instill a text-friendly screening surcharge; if moviegoers MUST TEXT during a movie, make them pay extra for the privilege. The real problem with this line of thinking, though, is its potential effect on film culture at large: Once texting is allowed, why not talking, or any of the plethora of bad theater behavior that could snowball from there? The thing is, texting in a movie isn’t just an issue of allowing overstimulated kids needing to be plugged into their apps and social networks and conversations at all times; it’s a far more problematic issue of engagement at the movies. And not just for the texters, who might be half-paying attention to a movie while chatting up their friends, but for those around them who deserve to be able to watch a film without interruption or distraction. By encouraging texters to engage half-way with a film and allowing their bad behavior to ruin fellow moviegoers’ ability to escape into the magic of the movies, we’d be killing the sanctity of film culture. Audiences will learn not to pay full attention to a film — and if you can’t focus on a film, how are you to appreciate it? Why come back to the movies every week if you care less and less about movies themselves? The exhibition and studio pros at CinemaCon seem to care less about the greater impact on film culture in their desperation to increase ticket sales. Thank goodness for Tim League . His Alamo Drafthouse cinemas, headquartered in Austin, Texas, take pains to protect the filmgoing experience — recall the infamous anti-texting video that went viral last year — and at CinemaCon it seems he was the lone reported voice of reason on the issue: “Over my dead body will I introduce texting into the movie theater,” [League] says. “I love the idea of playing around with a new concept. But that is the scourge of our industry… It’s our job to understand that this is a sacred space and we have to teach manners.” He says it should be “magical” to come to the cinema. Note that in response to League’s laudable declaration, Regal CEO Miles reportedly retorted that “one person’s opinion of magical isn’t the other’s.” In Miles’ world, “magical” probably means “profitable.” In other news, remind me to never patronize a Regal theater again. Going to the movies should be a magical experience, even for those casual ticket-buyers who just want to escape for two hours and who go to the cineplex maybe five times a year. My two favorite theaters in the world, League’s Drafthouse and L.A.’s New Beverly Cinema, notably enforce a no-talking, no-cell phone policy because the people who run them and their patrons, for the most part, agree that movie-watching is a special experience. They love the movies, and I’m not sure I can say that Miles and Foster proved at CinemaCon that they do, too. Movies are meant to transport, and by their nature that’s an intimate relationship between art and receiver. You should never have to compromise your movie-going experience because of some fidgety asshat in the row in front of you. So: Am I alone in this, or do other people have to fight the urge to wrestle texters’ cell phones out of their hands during a movie and hurl them at the wall whenever that dreaded light illuminates the dark? And at what point should we become alarmed if industry execs keep batting these ideas around to boost ticket sales? Sound off. Photo: A sign reminds people of strict rules regarding cell phones in the theaters on opening day of the 28th Telluride Film Festival August 28, 2001 in Telluride, CO. A ringing phone during a screening will result in immediate ejection from the theater and no refund. (Photo by David McNew/Getty Images) Follow Jen Yamato on Twitter . Follow Movieline on Twitter .
‘She is beautiful and she is sexy. She is hot,’ legendary filmmaker says of Lively’s performance in his summer flick, out July 6. By Josh Horowitz Taylor Kitsch and Aaron Johnson in “Savages” Photo: Universal Pictures When Oliver Stone releases a film, you’d better sit up and take notice. Whether he’s tackling the Vietnam War (as he did in a trilogy of films: “Platoon,” “Born on the Fourth of July” and “Heaven & Earth”), presidential scandals (another trilogy: “JFK,” “Nixon” and “W.”) or pulpy genre violence (“Natural Born Killers,” “U-Turn”), you can be sure he’ll give an audience member something to chew on. So when Stone signs on to direct some of the hottest young actors in Hollywood (Taylor Kitsch, Blake Lively, Aaron Johnson) in a tale of sex, drugs and violence, yeah, we’re interested. MTV News caught up with Stone to talk about his first legitimate summer release, “Savages” (set for a July 6 release), as well his distaste for most summer popcorn films, and his upcoming gargantuan take on nothing less than the history of the United States. MTV : The release date of “Savages” was shifted quite a bit. It’s now being released in the middle of a very competitive summer. Were you happy with that decision? Oliver Stone : I’ve never done a summer movie, believe it or not. Except for “Natural Born Killers,” but that was August, late summer. This is my first time out there in the big leagues. So I’m excited in a way. MTV : Do you think “Savages” will play well for that younger summer audience? Stone : I think it plays well. I don’t know that it would play completely to the “Hunger Games” crowd because we have a different kind of sexuality and the take on violence is real for us. It’s fun and exciting. It’s a wild ride. You don’t know what’s going to happen. I think the unpredictability is what makes it work. MTV : Can you give me a sense of the relationship at the heart of the story between the characters played by Blake, Taylor and Aaron. Stone : They are all friends and they believe in free love, and they happen to be growing some grass. One of them [Johnson] is doing good around the world. The other one [Kitsch] is an Afghanistan and Iraq veteran who’s his best buddy from school; they have a partnership. The girl [Lively] is from Laguna. They met on the beach, basically. MTV : It sounds like just about every hot young actor was in the running for these roles. Stone : I met with every pot dealer I could. [ Laughs ] For the girl, I had to meet a few of the younger newcomers because I did not know who they were. I saw [Blake’s] work and I was very impressed with “[The Private Live of] Pippa Lee.” And she was very strong in “The Town.” I think people that know her from “Gossip Girl” will be surprised. She is beautiful and she is sexy. She is hot. That’s what a lot of fans would say about her. MTV : Has “Savages” received a rating yet? Stone : We got a hard R. It’s an intense movie but it’s a different style than “Natural Born Killers.” It has a lush look. It has some of that sun-drenched romanticism that I like. It’s not just action, it is also romantic. MTV : “Savages” will be surrounded by some big summer blockbusters. You’ve managed to avoid tentpole movies, though you did almost direct a “Mission: Impossible” at one point. Stone : Well, we tried to make a “Mission” at that time, which was ahead of its time in terms of the story. I looked at it as a vehicle that was supersmart. [But] they could never pick a script. With “Mission Impossible,” you have to hit these beats all the time. MTV : It sounds like it’s not a regret for you. Stone : It’s all steroids now. I mean “Iron Man 2” is unwatchable, as is “Transformers 2.” It’s not my kind of moviemaking. “Savages” is a different kind of movie. It’s realistic and at the same time it has a bit of that summer pop feel. MTV : What’s the status of your TV series, “The Untold History of the United States”? Stone : That one’s a bitch. It’s a bitch in my butt. MTV : It will begin airing on Showtime in November? Stone : Yeah, we will make that for sure, but there are so many factors and fact checking. It’s a lot of work. It’s 21 hours and each hour has to work like a movie. I’m dealing with an important issue to me. That’s a legacy for me. Something that matters. It may not matter to most people, but it does matter to me. This is a perception of our time that is completely different from what we’re hearing in magazines and in our newspapers. We deal with all types of things, such as the nature of the atomic bomb, why was it used, why it should not have been used. It’s all kinds of stuff. Reagan’s legacy, our national security state, we go after all of it. MTV : Do you narrate it? Stone : Yes, I narrate it as well. Check out Oliver Stone’s “Savages” in theaters July 6, and “The Untold History of the United States” on Showtime in November. It’s Summer Movie Preview Week, and MTV News will be bringing you exclusive interviews, clips and photos for the most anticipated summer movies . Get ready to gorge on inside looks at “The Avengers,” Robert Pattinson’s “Bel Ami,” Kristen Stewart’s “Snow White,” “The Amazing Spider-Man” and more! Related Videos Summer Movie Preview 2012 Related Photos Get Psyched For 2012’s Summer Movies!
On the last day of her twenties, Nellie McKay paused to contemplate the milestone before her — or not. Taking a deep breath that soon escaped as a halting laugh, the singer/songwriter/actress and all-around pop polymath brought to mind another benchmark that loomed in her decade past. “In P.S. I Love You ,” McKay began, citing the 2007 film in which she co-starred, “we go over to my sister, played by Hilary Swank, and we surprise her. And she’s really down and out. So I hold up a ‘Happy Birthday’ sign, and I say, ‘You’re 30!’ It’s a big laugh line — or it’s supposed to be a big laugh line. I don’t know if it landed. So that’s kind of surreal to have done that. But I don’t know if…” She trailed off. “Who knows?” McKay finally asked. ” I don’t know.” McKay’s feelings about 30 are reflected in her art, a trademark blend of genuine wonder and calculated mystique enveloping myriad styles and influences — musical, historical, cultural and otherwise. Eisenhower-era gloss? Check. Nixon-era rage? Check? Jazzy, postmodern feminist fusillades against the crises of capital punishment and environmental wreckage? Er, check ? The sweet irrepressibility of following your dreams, even if the path detours into fetching your next meal from a dumpster in Brooklyn? Check — at least for Ramona, the spunky songstress played by McKay in this week’s microindie Downtown Express . “It’s the land of plenty!”, Ramona coos with ironic relish to her new bandmate and beau Sasha (Philippe Quint), himself a Russian immigrant and subway busker whose forthcoming classical violin recital conflicts with his more rockin’ aspirations for the good life in America. The almost obsessive balance of passions and principles that has characterized McKay’s work since her 2004 breakthrough album Get Away From Me undergirds much of director David Grubin’s Express , but it’s the consequences — the privation, the insecurity, the searing frustration of it all — that stand out in McKay’s haunted screen persona. For all the creative and romantic capital that Ramona and Sasha may accrue, her eyes reflect the bitter awareness that utopia is out of reach. McKay is reticent about Ramona’s ghosts. “I have my own theory,” she said, “but I don’t want to interfere with what anyone might think while watching it. I guess I think there is something like that, but I think people should just invent it for themselves.” And McKay knows a few things about invention. The daughter of a British director and an American actress, her mythology commenced with a very public battle to release her debut as a double album (“Should have signed with Verve instead of Sony,” she sang in one typically melodic lament; Verve has since rescued her from the Sony deal’s scorched wreckage) and meandered through confused reports about her age, her upbringing, her activism and even the true meaning of her songs. What ratio of caustic social criticism to earnest romanticism was to be found in a ballad like “I Wanna Get Married,” and how were listeners to reconcile such schisms with album-length tributes to the likes of Doris Day ? That’s just for starters. More recently, McKay has explored the vicissitudes of notoriety with acclaimed tributes to Barbara Graham (the murderess put to death in California in 1955; her story inspired both the Oscar-winning film I Want to Live! and McKay’s 2011 song cycle of the same name) and the conservationist and writer Rachel Carson. The latter show, Silent Spring—It’s Not Nice to Fool Mother Nature , is touring presently, its own heroine reflecting Ramona’s brassy vulnerability in Downtown Express — and, in turn, reflecting much of McKay’s own complex, confrontational character. But ultimately, while McKay may have mellowed out slightly since her politically aware broadsides of eight or nine years ago, she seems to acknowledge that her sprawling worldview has only gathered more focus and strength when distilled through real-life subjects. “We’re just starting the Rachel Carson [show], so I’m still finding it,” McKay said. “But to be able to tell their stories and channel them some way is a relief and a pleasure. I think those shows are far superior to solo shows.” Asked what relief and pleasure she could take from such turbulent, troubled stories, McKay didn’t flinch. “Well, Rachel’s was troubled because we live on a devastated planet,” she replied. “But I think she found a lot of joy. And actually, Barbara did, too. Barbara knew how to have a good time.” Fundamentally, McKay said she cherishes the “relief from yourself” that her acting efforts have afforded her. “I don’t want to be myself,” she told me. “I have to live with her.” Yet she does hesitate when asked about the real Nellie McKay — the one Grubin cast after seeing her perform on Broadway in The Threepenny Opera in 2006, or the one who generously tips NYC subway musicians for making her commute “a beautiful thing” (as well as “to make up for the people who don’t give anything”), or the one who self-effacingly credits vodka for the chemistry shared with her Russian co-star Quint, or the one who even wants to put “the real Nellie McKay” in any kind of perspective at all. “I think you try to find what works, and that can be very elusive,” she said. “I mean, gee…” McKay paused again. “I have…” And then followed a longer, struggling pause, relieved only by invoking yet another pseudorealist icon: “I feel like Woody Allen tearing up the driver’s license in Annie Hall .” (Did I mention McKay also used to be a stand-up comic?) Which brings us back to 30 — or “57,” as McKay cheekily replies about her milestone before going a little darker about its meaning (or lack thereof). “I don’t know that any thing means much,” she said. “I don’t see that anything leads to much. I mean, I don’t really feel that things change . They just mutate. For instance, if you look through the century, certain things have gotten better and certain things have gotten worse. I wouldn’t say overall that things have gotten better. I think you could say things have gotten worse, but I don’t think you could say that things have gotten better. Overall. You can’t say that.” Does McKay — this ivory-tickling, ukulele-slinging avatar of ’50s class, millennial angst and every fraught neurosis in between — even think she was born at the right time? Another pause. “Well,” she said, “I think maybe you do choose your parents. I know I chose the right mother. But born at the right or wrong time? Gee, I don’t know. Do you think you were born at the right time?” Maybe? Would I like to have experienced the Jazz Era? The Renaissance? Sure. Slavery? The plague? Not so much. “I guess you deal with what you get,” McKay said. Indeed. And as tough and mercurial a nut as she is to crack, Nellie McKay’s art makes her mystery worth it. On screen, on stage, on record, you deal with what you get. The payoff is worth it. Downtown Express opens Friday in New York . PREVIOUSLY: Nellie McKay Plays My Favorite Scene [Top photo of Nellie McKay: Danny Bright; bottom photo of McKay and Philippe Quint: Susan Meiselas] Follow S.T. VanAirsdale on Twitter . Follow Movieline on Twitter .
‘It’s not something that would be particularly easy for another artist to emulate,’ says veteran manager Danny Goldberg. By Gil Kaufman Tupac hologram at Coachella Photo: Getty Images Sure, the laser Pink Floyd show is totally awesome and the Beatles cover band totally nailed “Penny Lane.” But after the rapturous response to the Tupac Shakur hologram at Coachella, you can be sure phones are ringing off the hook this week all over Hollywood with calls to the Digital Domain wizards behind the stunt. Think of the possibilities: The Doors resurrected with a young Jim Morrison, Nirvana on tour with a virtual Kurt Cobain or a resurrected Tupac and Biggie sharing a stage for a greatest hits show. But does the success of the Tupac mini-set mean that holograms are the touring industry’s version of 3-D movies? “I thought it was great in that particular moment,” said veteran manager Danny Goldberg, who has worked with everyone from Nirvana and Led Zeppelin to Sonic Youth and the Hives, who he was on hand to see at Coachella. “They were evoking a certain nostalgia for [the era of] gangsta rap and I thought it worked in that context and was exciting and special. I think it’s not something that would be particularly easy for another artist to emulate.” Goldberg said certain things work best the first time and if someone else was to try a holo-show they would have to find a way to make it new again, otherwise it might just seem cheesy and derivative. Part of that potential pitfall is the legacy of the artist. For example, if Paul McCartney announced a tour with a virtual John Lennon, Beatles fans would likely see that as being in bad taste and not show up. “It’s another tool in the toolbox of technology, but some tools should only be used sparingly,” he said, adding that he thought the execution at Coachella was stellar. Making the trick to work on a larger scale, or even on a full-blown tour is unlikely given the unique aspects of the Coachella gig. “Part of what made that effective was that it was a surprise, coupled with authentic living, breathing superstars in Dre and Snoop and not over-relying on it,” said Goldberg. “I wouldn’t look at it as the beginning of a big trend, but as an amazing moment.” Fans may get another chance to experience the trick when the upcoming Cirque du Soleil-created Michael Jackson show in Las Vegas opens next year. While a spokesperson for the Jackson estate would not confirm that the MJ show would use similar technology, when MTV News spoke to Cirque President and CEO Daniel Lamarre in 2010 he said that, “The new technology that we want to bring to [the permanent] Vegas [show] will be more theatrical,” promising that fans, “Will see Vegas become the home of Michael Jackson and people will come from all over the world to experience the uniqueness of the technology that we want to bring there.” At the time, Lamarre hinted at the use of “3-D technologies and hologram technologies to allow people to see Michael Jackson onstage.” Also on hand to watch holo-Pac at Coachella was Dave Brooks, managing editor of live entertainment trade magazine Venues Today . He said he could definitely see the technology employed in several ways. “Obviously the posthumous thing is one idea,” he said. “Think about the Michael Jackson Cirque tour, or the Who bringing back a hologram of [late drummer] Keith Moon. [Bringing back] dead band members could be a way to enhance the show and plenty of people would be impressed to see a hologram of Keith Moon.” As for whether an all-hologram tour could win over audiences, based on what he’s seen so far, Brooks said it wasn’t likely … yet. “Anything is possible, but from that one glimpse of the technology I can’t say it’s enough to make a whole tour of just that.” In fact, he said having the hologram Tupac on stage for two songs was great, but it would likely have gotten tired if the West Coast legend had hung around all night. Given the amount of all-star collaborations among pop and hip-hop stars these days, Brooks said the other way he could see the technology deployed is to briefly bring some of those one-off singles to life in concert. “Because of the nature of pop music these days, with collaborations like Calvin Harris and Rihanna and Alicia Keys and Jay-Z, this could definitely add a ‘wow’ factor,” he said. “It’s one thing to have [the other singer] on a screen, but if you could have them there in 3-D it would impress more.” Related Photos Tupac’s Hologram At Coachella Related Artists Tupac
I stole these pics from the virgin over at HOLLYWOODTUNA …….and I figure if he’s gonna do the work for me, I’m gonna let him, you know since I don’t have to pay him, I just have to give him a shout out, because otherwise he will cry to me about how he found these in the depths of the internet and I totally robbed him….not that I ever mind bottom feeding or admitting to bottom feeding…It’s kinda my thing….not to mention it’s not like he took the pics of Xenia Deli himself….and really….hot girls always make us do unethical things…like robbing our friends….to fuck our other friend’s wife when he is away cuz you know she looks at you with sex eyes at every BBQ you are invited to….it is just the nature of being a backstabbing, table scrap eating, scavanger of a man….a title I can live with…..even if I’d rather live with Xenia Deli sitting on my face…
