Earlier it was reported that Brad Womack himself had been hospitalized in Austin, Texas, for a non-life threatening medical issue. “The incident has nothing to do directly with Brad,” says the rep. “He just made the call.” The drama continues for Bachelor star Brad Womack. The reality star jumped into action to help a fellow citizen in need on Monday, us has learned. “Brad called 911 for a guy that was having a panic attack in the park near Brad,” says an ABC spokesperson. Last week it was
Director Neil Burger takes us behind the scenes of Bradley Cooper and Robert De Niro’s new thriller. By Eric Ditzian Robert DeNiro and Bradley Cooper in “Limitless” Photo: Universal Pictures There is a scene midway through “Limitless” in which Abbie Cornish’s character is running through a park, attempting to escape a guy intent on gutting her like a fish. Unsure how to get away, she swallows a black-market drug called NZT — a little pill allowing her to access 100 percent of her mind — and scans the park for possible weapons: a pair of gardening sheers or a baseball bat, perhaps? Then she sees a little girl on ice skates off in the distance. Bingo! She races toward the rink as the evil dude gives chase, then picks up the girl and uses her ice skates to slice her enemy’s face. It’s a wackily kinetic scene in a thriller filled with such moments. The only problem for director Neil Burger was casting the girl to take part in the madness. “Luckily, the stunt people were completely game to offer up their child to be thrown through the air!” Burger laughed in a recent conversation with MTV News. And that, it turns out, is how Piper Brown, daughter of Jill Brown (whose stunt credits include “The Green Hornet” and “I Am Legend”), made her big-screen debut. “It was our first day of shooting, which is an insane way to begin,” Burger said. We had to do it in one day with 200 extras on the ice, plus the crew, and we’re just powering through everyone with cameras and cranes.” That’s just one of the untold stories behind the production of “Limitless” we picked up during a recent conversation with Burger. Before checking out the film, which hit theaters Friday (March 18), check out four more “Limitless” secrets revealed: Why Is NZT a Clear Pill? In creating a fictional drug for the big screen, Burger and his team could have gone in any direction. NZT could have been something you swallow or smoke or, heck, even something used as a suppository reminiscent of a troubling scene in “Trainspotting.” But following the book on which the movie is based, they stuck with a pill. What, however, would the pill that Bradley Cooper’s character gets hooked on look like? “Right up to the end, we were thinking about what this pill would be,” Burger explained. “Sometimes we thought it’d have these beveled edges or a different colored center, but it started to look like a hundred other things you’ve seen, from a Lifesaver to Skittles. Then we stumbled onto one that was clear, and I knew it was just perfect. It sums up exactly what it does for him.” What Exactly Does NZT Do? Though the story is based on a novel by Alan Glynn, it was up to Burger to “invent the rules of the drug,” as he put it. How does it affect Cooper’s Eddie Morra? What would happen if Eddie suddenly couldn’t get his fix? “I worked on it on my own, because I had to become an authority on it with the actors and crew,” he added. “It became that you don’t get high or wired or stoned. You were just clear and knew what to do and how to get it done.” Along those lines, Burger didn’t refer to any existing drugs, because there’s nothing on Earth like NZT. “I didn’t do research. I just decided what I wanted the drug to be. I wanted Eddie to become the perfect version of himself. I wanted him to remember everything he’s ever seen. It’s not that it makes him into Superman. It makes him fearless, and he’s able to access information instantaneously.” How Did They Pull Off Those Ultra-Long Zooming Shots? Often when Eddie is on NZT, the camera pushes through the cityscape in a long, seemingly continuous shot, pushing forward for miles without stop. It’s a very cool visual effect, one unlike we’ve ever seen. How the heck did they pull off what Burger calls “infinity zooms”? “I started looking at fractals,” he told us. “I liked the idea that each part they’re made up of is a mirror of the whole. And I looked at fractal zooms, where you push into the fractal, going from shape to shape, an Escher-like movement. That was how Eddie’s mind worked: these microcosms that mirrored a larger sense of the world. I wanted to bring that idea into the city and have it be like a fractal zoom. It was a great way to show how he perceived space and time. “So I had a very clear idea of how I wanted to do it, and nobody could figure out how to do it,” he explained. “I found a visual-effects company that finally figured it out — and it’s a bit of a secret, because it’s a new thing. We were able to move the camera through the city and then visually stitch it all together, but you can’t see where the seams are.” Why Did They Change Eddie’s Job From Copywriter to Novelist? In Glynn’s book, Eddie is a struggling copywriter. In the book, he’s a struggling novelist. Why was it important to change his job? “It was important to make him an artist with aspirations toward greatness, and it just wasn’t happening. A copywriter just wasn’t going to communicate that,” Burger said. “He had to have the big dream. We all want to be a rock star or a pro basketball player or Warren Buffet, but then when push comes to shove, we aren’t those things — we can’t be those things. He was just one more guy who had this big dream, and he couldn’t achieve it, even though he wanted to. NZT could let him achieve that dream, and then a whole lot more.” Check out everything we’ve got on “Limitless.” For breaking news, celebrity columns, humor and more — updated around the clock — visit MTVMoviesBlog.com .
First-round voting set to close Sunday at midnight. By James Montgomery Foo Fighters Photo: MTV News The Foo Fighters entered the 2011 Musical March Madness tournament as the top seed in the meaty Midwest region, and, so far, they’ve lived up to that high billing, totally dominating their over-matched first-round opponents, 16th-seeded the Damned Things . Vote for your favorite bands now over on the Newsroom blog. With voting on opening-round matchups set to close Sunday at midnight, the Foos hold a commanding 73-27 lead over the Damned Things (who were rallying the troops early) , all but ensuring them a spot in the second round of our tournament. And though they’re poised to move one step closer to hoisting the championship trophy , the Foos remain remarkably nonplussed about not only their title hopes, but the entire MMM bracket, for that matter. “That sounds like exercise or something,” Foos frontman Dave Grohl replied when asked about Musical March Madness. “And ‘bracket’ sounds like ‘brisket’ to me. Sort of makes me want to eat something.” It bears mention that Grohl said this one day after the Foo Fighters kicked off the South by Southwest Music Festival with a raucous surprise set at the Austin, Texas, BBQ shack/venue Stubb’s , which probably explains why he had brisket on the brain. But still, with a field of competitors that still includes heavyweights like 30 Seconds to Mars , Linkin Park and Panic! at the Disco , you’d think the Foos would a least be looking ahead to the tournament’s later rounds. But, again, you’d be wrong. Instead of looking forward, the Foo Fighters are looking backward. Seems, if anything, their Musical March Madness success has stirred up some painful childhood memories — certainly a first in the illustrious two-year history of the tourney. “[It] makes me think of walking down the hallway in high school and being called ‘f–‘ by all the jocks,” guitarist Chris Shiflett said, laughing. “You now what though?” drummer Taylor Hawkins added. “If you saw a picture of Chris in high school, you’d understand.” Will the Foos survive to stir up more bad thoughts for Shiflett? Or will they be felled by one of their fellow titans? Well, that’s really up to you, isn’t it? Voting is now open in all first-round matchups over on the Newsroom blog and closes Sunday night. May the best band win, even if it pains them to do so. MTV’s Musical March Madness tournament is back! Voting on all first-round matchups continues until Sunday, at which point we’ll move on to the second round of the action. All winners are determined by your votes, so if your favorite act made the cut, it’ll be up to you to guide them to glory. You can rally the troops on Twitter using the hashtag #MMM — but get ready, it’s gonna be a war. Related Photos Bands Hit The Court For MTV’s 2011 Musical March Madness
Iconic show’s ’90s host says he’s excited to bring back a ‘trustworthy’ place for fans to find new music. By Ryan J. Downey Matt Pinfield Photo: Bryan Bedder/ Getty Images “120 Minutes,” two of the most beloved hours in alternative-rock history, is returning to the airwaves. MTV2 will air a brand-new monthly version of the trailblazing music program with a weekly online counterpart dubbed “120 Seconds” on MTV Hive . Both will be hosted by Matt Pinfield,
Iconic show’s ’90s host says he’s excited to bring back a ‘trustworthy’ place for fans to find new music. By Ryan J. Downey Matt Pinfield Photo: Bryan Bedder/ Getty Images “120 Minutes,” two of the most beloved hours in alternative-rock history, is returning to the airwaves. MTV2 will air a brand-new monthly version of the trailblazing music program with a weekly online counterpart dubbed “120 Seconds” on MTV Hive . Both will be hosted by Matt Pinfield,
Confession time: I love Justin Timberlake. Not his music career, mind you — though who doesn’t love a little ” Rock Your Body ” every once in a while — but his acting one. You can grumble that he jumped the shark with endless appearances on SNL and his performance as himself — er, Sean Parker in The Social Network , but for my money, Timberlake constantly hits it out of the park. He even makes something as disposable as Bad Teacher look moderately watchable in a “Let’s wait to see it on a Wednesday night on HBO2 !” sort of way. All of which is a long way around saying that his presence in Friends with Benefits is key to making this summer rom-com look positively charming.
Despite rumors of a delay, the band’s spokesperson says no release date was ever set. By James Montgomery Coldplay’s Chris Martin Photo: Mark Metcalfe/ Getty Images You may already have an idea about what Coldplay’s upcoming album is about — namely “love, addiction, OCD, escape and working for someone you don’t like” — but up until now, you probably had no idea when the still-untitled disc would be hitting stores. But when the band began lining up headlining dates on summer festivals (Glastonbury, T in the Park, etc.), fans interpreted that to mean that Coldplay were also readying their fifth full-length for release, meaning that a brand-new album should be only a few months away. Of course, that optimism was dashed when a well-informed member of Coldplay fansite Coldplaying.com posted that the album had been pushed back until October, writing, “I can confirm the change of plans in the Coldplay camp regarding the schedule[d] release of LP5, originally before summer. Hope people can wait until October.” Given that this particular member had, in the past, seemed to have been privy to some top-secret Coldplay information (he/she claimed to have heard “Violet Hill,” the first single off the band’s Viva la Vida album, two weeks before the song premiered, and wrote about it in shockingly accurate terms to prove it), word of the October release quickly began spreading as chapter and verse amongst Coldplay fans. The only problem? According to a spokesperson for the band, there is no release date for Coldplay’s new album, nor has there even been one. “A release date has not yet been set for Coldplay’s next studio album,” that spokesperson wrote in an e-mail to MTV News. Coldplay are currently working on the new album with frequent collaborators Brian Eno and Markus Dravs. Last month, frontman Chris Martin told BBC’s Radio 1 is a “thinly veiled account of what happens within the group,” but added that it’s not entirely about interpersonal conflict. “[It] also has a lot of uplifting stuff,” he said. “It’s supposed to be about life, the good stuff and the bad stuff. Everything.” Related Artists Coldplay
I call Carmen Electra Carmen Sandiego cuz I don’t know where in the world she is….You know since her career died and she pretty much disappeared. I’m witty like that, you know almost comedic genius except for the whole “it’s not funny” part…at least not funny according to her ex husband and my twitter best friend Dave Navarro who told me I was an idiot when I wrote that…which would have hurt my feelings if I had feelings.. That said, here are some pictures of Carmen Electra, clearly still alive, dressed for St Patrick’s day, stretching in all kinds of good ways next to the pool, even if this isn’t the 90s and she’s not the hottest fake tits on MTV….even if she’s no longer in her 20s….even if she looks like Fergie….even if she’s wearing too much clothes…it’s good enough for me cuz I’m the kind of guy who likes watching local yoga troops in action…it’s like free porn in the park during the summers…and free porn is always good porn…even if the girls in the shit justify why it’s free…if you know what I mean…
Judges praise 21-year-old’s powerhouse Performance of the Pretenders’ ‘I’ll Stand By You.’ By Adam Graham Pia Toscano Photo: Michael Becker / FOX On a night when Thia Megia gave a quiet, confident performance well beyond her 15 years and teen Lauren Alaina was compared to both Kelly Clarkson and Carrie Underwood, it was nevertheless Pia Toscano who stole the show on Wednesday’s (March 2) “American Idol.” Toscano, who anchored the episode with the final performance of the evening, took on the Pretenders’ “I’ll Stand By You” and knocked it out of the park, building to a series of powerful glory notes in the closing moments that brought the entire studio audience — her fellow contestants and the judges included — to its feet. The soaring anthem, from the Pretenders’ 1994 album Last of the Independents, has a bit of “Idol” history of its own: Gina Glocksen sang it as a contestant back in season six, but more memorably, Carrie Underwood sang it during the “Idol Gives Back” special that same year. The song became a top 10 single for Underwood, peaking at #6 on Billboard ‘s Hot 100; it remains her second-highest charting Hot 100 single to date. (Underwood took it higher than even the Pretenders did; their version topped out at #16.) Toscano, the 21-year-old New Yorker who tried out for “Idol” during the New Jersey auditions, was resplendent on Wednesday in a sleek, black mini-dress. Following her performance, which was as assured as it was controlled, she held her hands in front of her mouth as Randy Jackson reminded her of the standing O she had just received and then told her that her performance immediately ranked among the best performances in the show’s history. “That was unbelievable,” the Dawg told her. “That’s how you do it!” Steven Tyler, after invoking one of his more nonsensical Tyler-isms (“You know, after Monday and Tuesday, even a week says WTF” — WTF??), agreed with Jackson’s assertion that she was “unbelievable,” adding as well that it was “gorgeous.” Jennifer Lopez kicked it up a notch, calling the performance “out of this world.” “You were saving that for when it counts!” she teased her. Heading into the show, Toscano wasn’t necessarily a name on the tip of the tongues of many viewers, but it definitely was afterward. And on a night when she needed to bring it, she brought it, and in doing so brought the house down with her. What did you think of Pia Toscano’s performance? Let us know in the comments! Don’t miss “Idol Party Live” at 10 p.m. 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 Photos ‘American Idol’ Season 10 Performances
Franco’s ‘distracted’ delivery and Anne’s ‘charming’ turn has drawn inevitable comparisons to past emcees like Alec Baldwin and Steve Martin. By Eric Ditzian Anne Hathaway and James Franco host the 2011 Academy Awards on Sunday Photo: Getty Images In the wake of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences’ effort to infuse some youthful vitality into Sunday’s Oscar ceremony by tapping James Franco and Anne Hathaway to emcee the event, positive praise for the hosts’ joint performance has been hard to find. The New York Times called Hathaway “charming and charismatic” but said Franco came off “a little distracted and even blas
