Earlier this week it was reported that the filmmakers behind Red Dawn were going to replace mentions of China with North Korea, in an effort to make the long-shelved remake more sellable to the “Asian superpower.” It turns out that might be difficult. In a spoiler-heavy review, the website Libertas reveals that the crux of the film deals with China invading America to “collect” on the debt owed by years of borrowing. Kinda hard to imagine North Korea having the same aspirations, isn’t it? [ Libertas via The Playlist ]
Earlier this week it was reported that the filmmakers behind Red Dawn were going to replace mentions of China with North Korea, in an effort to make the long-shelved remake more sellable to the “Asian superpower.” It turns out that might be difficult. In a spoiler-heavy review, the website Libertas reveals that the crux of the film deals with China invading America to “collect” on the debt owed by years of borrowing. Kinda hard to imagine North Korea having the same aspirations, isn’t it? [ Libertas via The Playlist ]
This is a damned shame… A Houston woman was facing felony child endangerment charges Thursday after police allegedly found her and her one-year-old baby both drunk on the infamous alcoholic energy drink Four Loko, local media reported. According to Houston Police, Lashwanda Allen, 32, said she had been drinking Four Loko and fell asleep with her children next to her and the drink beside the bed. When she awoke, she told police, her one-year-old daughter was holding an empty can and was stumbling around like she was drunk, KTRK reported Police said that the incident was reported to them after Allen’s roommate found her wandering the halls of her north Houston apartment complex. When the roommate asked of the whereabouts of Allen’s two children, Allen replied that they were inside the apartment and drunk. According to police, the roommate found Allen’s four-month-old daughter hanging upside down from the bed, with sheets wrapped around her waist. The baby girl was turning blue, police said. Soon after, police said, a neighbor found Allen’s one-year-old daughter in the complex’s parking lot. Allen’s roommate called for an ambulance. According to police, the one-year-old was legally intoxicated with a blood alcohol content of .09. Allen was being held Thursday at Harris County Jail on $2,000 bond. Getting drunk before your second birthday is not the business. That woman deserves to be whipped for being so negligent. And this woman’s neighbor said she actually has five kids!!! SMH. Source
Reps for the music and ‘Twilight’ stars confirm the split. By Jocelyn Vena Ashley Greene and Joe Jonas Photo: Kent Phillips/ Getty Images It’s official. Joe Jonas and Ashley Greene are no longer a couple. After rumors of their split hit the Internet early Thursday (March 17), the stars’ reps confirmed the breakup to People.com . The couple began seeing each other last summer. A source told the website that Jonas was “head over heels” for the “Twilight” star at the beginning of their relationship. The pair was regularly seen holding hands and getting cozy on dates, despite their two very busy schedules. He’s currently working on a solo album after touring through much of last year with his brothers, Nick and Kevin, and she’s busy filming “Breaking Dawn.” The news of the split comes one day after Jonas’ interview with Details magazine, in which he gushed over the actress, hit the Web. “It feels good. I think what works about it is she really puts my feelings first. She understands my busy schedule,” he told the magazine. “She’ll fly out to my shows — she’s been to places in South America that I can’t even pronounce.” Earlier this year, Greene opened up to Teen Vogue about her then-beau, sharing some insights into what their relationship was like. “We met through mutual friends in London, which is crazy because we both live in L.A,” she said. “And we’ve already met each other’s parents, which I think is a good result of the kind of lifestyle we live. He’s sweet and really funny, which is huge for me. We have a traveling relationship.” It seems though that all that traveling eventually made it hard for the pair to maintain their relationship. The New York Post reported that their busy work schedules contributed to the split, and that “it was mutual and amicable,” according to a source. Related Artists Jonas Brothers
The rest of the top 12 are letting their grades slip performing songs from the year they were born. By Eric Ditzian “American idol” finalist Stefano Langone Photo: FOX Before we dive into this week’s “American Idol” report card, we need to pause and award a special gold star to Steven Tyler, whose commentary on Wednesday night — replete with rhyming phrases, butchered metaphors and one instance of nonsensical, if oddly well-intentioned, racial profiling — keep us glued to the telly through some snooze-inducing performances. Who cares if his commendations didn’t always line up with objective reality? We’d tune in any day of the week to hear the Aerosmith frontman suggest that one singer has a “sorcerer’s grasp of melody” and highlight another singer’s “ethnic what-it-is-ness.” Yet just as we hand out that gold star to Tyler — and plan to dole out a few more — there are far too many contestants who earned themselves some demerits on Wednesday. It doesn’t matter if they were sick or sleepy or just simply misguided in their song choices from the year they were born — there’s no hiding from our “Idol” report card. Let’s get on with it! Excellent Stefano Langone : On a generally weak evening in “Idol” land, Stefano finds himself at the top of the class, despite his pretaped diss of “Funky Cold Medina.” Harsh! Stefano’s got a silky smooth voice, confidence for days, and he popped off some top-notch runs during Simply Red’s “If You Don’t Know Me By Now.” Then he went ahead and sealed the deal with that bear-hug with his mom. Now, all he’s got to do is apologize to Tone Loc. Good Pia Toscano : From judges to Jimmy Iovine to the voting public, everyone has been waiting for Pia to bust out something that isn’t a capital-B ballad. Who knew the moment she’d finally go up-tempo-ish would be with a rendition of Whitney Houston’s “Where Do Broken Hearts Go”? Sure, it had a bit of a cruise-ship cabaret feel, and her outfit would have been a better fit on “The Love Boat” than “American Idol,” but her vocals were, as always, on point Scotty McCreery : Iovine spoke up for an army of frustrated viewers when he said he’s not trying to change Scotty, just have him grow and get better. If only! Nothing approaching growth took place during his version of Travis Tritt’s “Can I Trust You With My Heart.” One note at the end snuck out of Scotty’s comfort zone before he reeled the vocals back in. The North Carolina native can probably coast into the finals without growing in any meaningful way, but where’s the fun in that? Lauren Alaina : Wacked-out on Nyquil though she may have been, Lauren showed no ill effects once she stepped up onstage (the same cannot be said for her pre-performance interview, when the only thing she seemed to be able to giggle-slur at Ryan Seacrest was, “Look at yooooooooooooou!”). Precocious and confident, Lauren bounced back from a subpar performance last week and solidified her fan-favorite status during Melissa Etheridge’s “I’m the Only One.” Satisfactory James Durbin : He got off to a very shaky start and never really recovered; we blame the absurd tail/scarf thingamabob James once again attached to his hiney. Last week, when he left that piece of flair in his dressing room, the guy slayed us with an emotional ode to Paul McCartney. This time around, he split the difference between vulnerable rocker and hair-metal circus act, and it didn’t work. Oh, and he seemed to hint that he’d be around until the finale several months down the road. Cocky ain’t a good look. Be humble and be great. On Wednesday, James, you were neither. Paul McDonald : We know Paul was sick, but was he also suffering from vertigo? Perhaps chronic dizziness is the key to explaining that marionette-meets-drunken-sailor dancing style. More distracting than those moves, though, were his lackluster vocals. He’s still got the most distinctive voice on the show, and we hope he doesn’t land in the bottom three this week. We hope by next week, Paul’s on the mend and ready to wow us again as he did earlier in the month with Rod Stewart’s “Maggie May.” Haley Reinhart : Randy Jackson echoed what we’ve been wondering for a while: What kind of artist is Haley ? She seems the least fully-formed of anyone on the show. Perhaps the pressure of trying to figure out exactly who she is got to her. Haley was nervous from the get-go and couldn’t keep up with the tempo of Whitney Houston’s “I’m Your Baby Tonight.” Will that lipstick debacle earn her some sympathy votes? Fingers crossed! Because we continue to think she’s got a lot of potential and a beautiful instrument, and if she sticks around long enough, she just might surprise us one of these days. Casey Abrams : Man, we loved the song choice of Nirvana’s “Smells Like Teen Spirit” before we even heard a note. We thought we were in for a creative arrangement — perhaps something as inspired as Andrew Garcia’s re-jiggering of “Straight Up” last year. What we got instead was a cover you’d hear in any basement in any suburb, where a bunch of middle-school kids are rocking out before dinnertime. We won’t even get started on his singing, if we can call it that, because we’re still haunted by that crazy-eyed look on his face as he raced to keep up with this grunge classic. Unsatisfactory Naima Adedapo : Uh-oh. We’ve been rooting for Naima, if only because she offers up a sense of artistic unpredictability in a season that is sorely lacking it. We even defended her take last week on Rihanna’s “Umbrella”; it was a mess, but at least it was a compelling mess. This week, her homage to Tina Turner was too sloppy to endorse, and we suspect she’ll end up in the bottom three. Her flavor may be crazy, but her vocals, alas, are cuckoo. Thia Megia : Back in the day, we used to fall asleep when someone popped “Pocahontas” into the living room VCR. Visions of those somnolent evenings came tip-toeing back to us when Thia voluntarily — voluntarily! — chose to sing a tune from that Disney flick. Last year, we used to ding Katie Stevens for insisting on becoming the oldest, mustiest teenager the world has ever seen. Thia is giving Stevens a run for her money in 2011. Oh, and enough with the ballads! We have a feeling she’s safe for a few more weeks, so we hope she takes a cue from Pia and shows us some artistic range. Karen Rodriguez : Looking like the lovechild of Snooki and General Zod, Karen insisted again on toggling between English and Spanish, as if lingual dexterity might mask her vocal shortcomings. After a trip to the bottom three last week, Karen just might be the odd woman out on elimination night. Jacob Lusk : Listening to Jacob sing is like riding a rickety roller coaster: kinda fun, mostly terrifying. There’s no denying he communicates genuine emotion while singing; the problem is that the emotion he often inspires in listeners is fear. Don’t miss “Idol Party Live” every Thursday on MTV.com, following the “American Idol” results show, for analysis, celebrity guests and even some karaoke — get in the conversation by tweeting with the hashtag #idolparty ! In the meantime, get your “Idol” fix on MTV News’ “American Idol” page , where you’ll find all the latest news, interviews and opinions. Related Videos MTV News Extended Play: ‘American Idol’ Top 13 ‘Idol Party Live’ With Jim Cantiello And Sammi ‘Sweetheart’ Related Photos ‘American Idol’ Season 10 Performances
Video below of live coverage and horrible images of cars, houses, farms and more being swept away by the Tsunami that hit Japan after a massive 8.9 magnitude earthquake: A state of emergency has been called, 200-300 bodies found in the port city of Sendai and many more unaccounted for still. The effects were felt as far as Tokyo and tsunami warnings were extended across the Pacific to North and South… Broadcasting platform : YouTube Source : Wake Up America Discovery Date : 11/03/2011 15:38 Number of articles : 2
Video below of live coverage and horrible images of cars, houses, farms and more being swept away by the Tsunami that hit Japan after a massive 8.9 magnitude earthquake: A state of emergency has been called, 200-300 bodies found in the port city of Sendai and many more unaccounted for still. The effects were felt as far as Tokyo and tsunami warnings were extended across the Pacific to North and South… Broadcasting platform : YouTube Source : Wake Up America Discovery Date : 11/03/2011 15:38 Number of articles : 2
‘Regardless if you’re writing a verse for somebody else’s album, write it like it’s for yours,’ MC tells MTV News of what he’s learned from Weezy. By Jayson Rodriguez, with reporting by Sway Calloway Cory Gunz and Lil Wayne on the set of “6 Foot 7 Foot” Photo: Rahman Dukes/MTV News Long before Charlie Sheen proclaimed he only had one gear (“Go!”), Lil Wayne proved to be a high-octane performer. From his legendary mixtape run that saw the Cash Money rapper release a yacht-load of free material to his song-stealing cameo on DJ Khaled’s posse cut “We Takin’ Over,” Weezy is powered like an Energizer. It’s a lesson that isn’t lost on his latest prot
We take a look at what the semifinalists need to do to stay in the race. By Eric Ditzian “American Idol” top 13 Photo: FOX Word on the reality-show street is, Wednesday’s (March 9) “American Idol” theme will have the top 13 contestants singing the tunes of artists they worship, but that’s the farthest we’ll drive into spoiler territory. Producers made the decision to pretape the performance episode , and while the Web is rife with info about what went down during the show, we’ve chosen to avoid all that. What’s the fun in reading about a reality competition before actually seeing it? So diving into the upcoming episode with only past shows to inform us, let’s take a look at each singer: who we’re excited about, who we honestly don’t care for and who better step it up or risk getting the boot on Thursday night. Ashthon Jones The 25-year-old has a whole lotta potential, but as someone wiser than us once said, potential just means you ain’t done sh– yet. Jones displayed boatloads of confidence and stage presence last week, yet never set sail toward the front of the “Idol” pack. She’s got some R&B gifts, but something about her take on Monica’s “Love All Over Me” felt too self-consciously like she was reaching for a diva moment. Ashthon, you’re not quite there yet. There’s a reason the judges had to use a wild card to save you. Show us your fun, energetic side first. Win some voters over. Wait a few more weeks before going diva again. Casey Abrams This kid has two things going for him: a free-wheeling, blues- and soul-infused instrument and a likable, everydude demeanor. Whether he’s too quirky to win the whole shebang (see: Bowersox, Crystal) is an open question. But there’s no doubting he’s a fan favorite, and even if his new performance doesn’t even approach his eyebrow-raising take on Screamin’ Jay Hawkins’ “I Put a Spell on You,” Abrams will be safe. We think we can count on him bringing the blues on Wednesday. Let’s see if he can tone down the growls a bit. Haley Reinhart Hey, we didn’t feel her rendition of Alicia Keys’ “Fallin’,” but America clearly did, voting her through to the next round. If she delivers another performance with notes that ping-pong across the musical scale, she might be in trouble. Like Jones, we encourage Haley to dial back the diva-tude and realize she’s never going to out-belt someone like Keys. Song choice will be the key to her survival, or lack thereof. Jacob Lusk Last week, we argued that while Lusk is potentially on the brink of a breakout performance, he’s not quite there; there was something simply too old-fashioned about it. Though a Luther Vandross tune is already on his “Idol” r
‘He sent me a message today, and he just told me he was rooting for me,’ country crooner tells MTV News of ‘Your Man’ singer. By Kara Warner Scotty McCreery Photo: MTV News For anyone who has been following the last month or so of “American Idol,” which has narrowed the contestant field from tens of thousands to 24 semifinalists, the journey of North Carolina country crooner Scotty McCreery has, in large part, been due to his repeat performance of Josh Turner’s “Your Man.” When MTV news caught up with the deep-voiced high school junior at the afterparty celebrating this year’s “Idol” top 13 on Thursday, we asked him if, given the resurgence of interest in Turner’s 2005 hit single, he’s met or heard from the Nashville star yet. “I actually met him the day I auditioned for the show at a meet-and-greet,” McCreery revealed. “He sent me a message today, and he just told me he was rooting for me and that he was proud of me. So that meant a lot to me.” With regard to what McCreery plans to sing during the 10th season of the reality singing competition, the 17-year-old hinted at a few big country names and accepted our suggestion that he take on fellow deep-voiced singer Trace Adkins. “Trace is the man! I saw him in concert this summer,” McCreery said, admitting his admiration for Adkins but no plans to sing any of his tunes. “Maybe some Tim McGraw, some Garth Brooks,” he teased. “[I’ll] change it up a little bit.” McCreery went on to say that while he wants to focus on his strengths in country music, he also wants to keep America guessing. “I want to stay true to myself and sing country,” he said, “But I’ll switch it up here and there, give America something different. We’ll see where that goes.” What do you want to hear McCreery sing? Tell us in the comments! Don’t miss “Idol Party Live” every Thursday on MTV.com, following the “American Idol” results show, for analysis, celebrity guests and even some karaoke — get in the conversation by tweeting with the hashtag #idolparty ! In the meantime, get your “Idol” fix on MTV News’ “American Idol” page , where you’ll find all the latest news, interviews and opinions. Related Videos MTV News Extended Play: ‘American Idol’ Party
