Glass doors. Let your guard down, and they will punish you. This poor girl learned that the hard way as she took her eye off an automatic, sliding glass entryway for one second, then lost her bearings completely. Wait … which part just opened? Is that … BONK. Oh. Major props go to the guy who comes in from the opposite direction afterward – amazing how he negotiates the door so effortlessly – and to the guys who cleaned the glass. Give them a raise, building owners … they must be pretty spotless: Girl Walks Into Glass Door
According to the latest tabloid report, Kim Kardashian is gearing up to steal the wedding spotlight from Miley Cyrus and Liam Hemsworth . Life & Style reports the reality star and her rapping new man are making “SECRET PLANS TO ELOPE,” with Kanye West pressuring Kim to finalize her divorce from Kris Humphries so they can become husband and wife. “Kanye wants to marry Kim, and he’s telling her to expedite the divorce so they can start their future,” a Kardashian insider tells the tabloid. “Kanye’s like, ‘Just do whatever you need to do to make it go away.'” We might find out more about what that entails in a couple weeks when Kim and Kris give depositions in their ongoing legal battle. For now, the public is left to wonder whether Kardashian and West really are serious about taking the next huge step, with this source claiming the former is “starting to come around to Kanye’s way of thinking” about marriage: “As things get more and more intense and comfortable, both Kim and Kanye hate being apart. And as they grow closer, Kanye’s desire to marry Kim – and hers to be married to him – keeps getting stronger.” Do you think these two should get hitched?
Rush Limbaugh, asserting that President Barack Obama spends too much time courting celebrities for campaign cash and endorsements during times of financial hardship for average Americans, referred to him as “Barack Kardashian.” The White House responded in kind. “Two words: Donald Trump. Next question,” said Obama’s press secretary, Jay Carney, when asked about Limbaugh’s most recent ridicule of his boss. Trump, an outspoken supporter of Mitt Romney, has become a foil for Obama since he started fueling “birther” claims that Obama was born overseas. Carney’s comments aboard Air Force One came as Obama jetted to California for a set of fundraisers, one at the home of Glee creator Ryan Murphy. Obama’s re-election bid has also harnessed the power of celebrities like Sarah Jessica Parker , George Clooney and Jon Bon Jovi, among many others. On Tuesday, Limbaugh hammered Obama’s celebrity connections, highlighting his 2012 campaign’s latest ad, starring Vogue editor Anna Wintour: “It’s an indication once again how out of touch they really are, how distanced they have become from the people who make this country work.” “It’s an indication of what they think the strong drawing power of the presidency is. I’ll tell you that’s what’s becoming. He’s Barack Kardashian.” “He is becoming the male Kim Kardashian with this stuff,” Limbaugh said. SIDE NOTE: Obama has said that he doesn’t let his daughters watch the Kardashians, and also famously called Kanye West a jackass . Just saying. SIDE NOTE #2 : Kim’s management team has yet to fire off a vapid Tweet about this, followed by a plug for some lame product. But give it an hour. Asked if the president might be sending the wrong message, Carney said Obama’s millions of mostly unknown small donors reflect his true nature. “The difference between President Obama’s support, financial support, and his opponent’s is stark, but not in the way that you describe,” he said. “The fundamental difference is President Obama has vast numbers of small donors who support him. That is not the case for the Republican nominee.” “The fact that the president enjoys that kind of support speaks to what his policy priorities are. He’s out there fighting for the middle class.” “The bedrock foundation of his support are millions of Americans who believe in his vision for this country’s future and believe that he has their back.” As for whether Obama is actually a fan of Murphy and Glee , Carney deferred. “I don’t know the answer to your question,” he said, unamused. If the election were held today, for whom would you vote?
Captain America, Thor and Channing Tatum’s Jenko battle it out on Twitter to win Best Hero on Sunday. By Ryan J. Downey Daniel Radcliffe in “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – Part 2” Photo: Warner Bros. Harry Potter spent several movies (and books, of course) battling Voldemort, both indirectly and in face-to-face confrontations. Katniss Everdeen’s skill with a bow and arrow has kept her alive against considerable odds. Captain America has fought bad guys (like his arch-nemesis the Red Skull) in various incarnations since World War II, whether with the Invaders, the Howling Commandos or the Avengers. His teammate, Thor, has gone up against all manner of sinister foes across all the nine realms, not the least of which being his half-brother, the mischievous Loki. Jenko, from the big-screen version of “21 Jump Street,” not only had to contend with drug dealers, but there was the whole “politics of high school” drama too. But right now, all these heroes are facing their most fervent, vocal, communicative, evolving and passionate adversary yet: Twitter. The MTV Movie Awards first-ever social voting category, Best Hero , has harnessed the power of Twitter like Marvel supervillains harnessing the power of the Cosmic Cube to determine which of the big screen do-gooders (many of them ripped from the written page) is truly the people’s champion. It’s been up-to-the-minute action worthy of some of their biggest adventures, with the instantaneous might of the microblogging medium allowing each of them to rise and fall in the ranks constantly as fans tweet their favorites with special hashtags. Harry Potter and “Hunger Games” hero Katniss have been in the closest competition for the top spot, each with well over 100,000 votes as of this writing. Katniss, of course, is just starting her movie franchise stardom even as the onetime boy wizard has grown up and moved on after last year’s final “Potter” installment. “The Avengers” mopped the floor with the blockbuster “Hunger Games,” usurping the novel-based movie’s throne to become the #1 movie of 2012 thus far (and rising through the top five in the all-time list as well). However, the Best Hero category may have split the Avengers fan vote by pitting two of Earth’s Mightiest Heroes against each other. Captain America has been a distant third with his pal Thor even further behind at #4. Jenko from “21 Jump Street,” the smash comedic take on the ’80s TV show of the same name about a group of cops who go undercover in high school, has his work cut out for him. He’s trailing behind all the other heroes, but in fairness, he doesn’t have the same historical power of his foes. Channing Tatum also had to walk in the shadow of Johnny Depp (who — spoiler — reprised his TV role in a brief cameo) in “Jump Street,” though it won favor with critics (85 percent on the Tomatometer!) and fans ($136 million at the box office! For an action comedy! In March!) alike. Channing Tatum, of course, is also nominated in the Best Kiss category thanks to his steamy lip-lock with Rachel McAdams in “The Vow.” But when we sat down with him on Thursday, he told us he’s confident that a certain franchise has that category in the bag. “It doesn’t matter. The ‘Twilight’ kids always sweep it,” he told MTV News when he sat down for the “Magic Mike” MTV Sneak Peek Week event . “They sweep it every time.” He was kind enough to personally thank MTV News’ @JoshuaHorowitz and the small but dedicated army of #VoteJenko fans himself from his own Twitter account, @ChanningTatum. Twitter user @lesleycherrypie voted Jenko, “Not only because he’s hot, but that is a big part of it.” @CaraFoshizzle quoted several of her favorite lines from “Captain America: The First Avenger” as she tweeted her vote for Mr. Steve Rogers. @HarryPotterings pleaded, “Please #VOTEPOTTER before the voting closes! It’s one of our last chances to win an award for our childhood.” @CleverGranger said, “Katniss ‘won’ The Hunger Games, but Harry ‘saved’ the wizarding world. Who’s the true hero now?” Quotes from “The Hunger Games” have flooded the Twitter-verse, as well. @MaryamA115 said, “She’s getting closer! 2nd place now. :D” Head over to MovieAwards.MTV.com to vote for your favorite flicks now! The 21st annual MTV Movie Awards air live this Sunday, June 3, at 9 p.m. ET.
Keys premiere the wacky Harmony Korine-directed clip days before they take the stage at this Sunday’s MTV Movie Awards. By James Montgomery The Black Keys in their “Gold on the Ceiling” video Photo: Warner Music Back in February, when MTV News sat down with the Black Keys to premiere their “Gold on the Ceiling” video, they let it be known that they had just shot another clip — this one directed by oddball auteur Harmony Korine — though they weren’t really sure what it was for. “We did a video with Harmony, but it’s not really for ‘Gold on the Ceiling,’ ” frontman Dan Auerbach said. “Well, it is, sort of,” drummer Patrick Carney added. And though he couldn’t say when the clip would see the light of day, Auerbach went on to describe it thusly: “Pat and I are dressed up like babies, in onesies, and we’re in BabyBj
Casting news continues to trickle out for the film based on the wild life and times of CBGB, none of which is quite as eye-opening as word that the story of one of New York City’s most legendary, lamented live-music venues will be filmed largely in… Savannah, Georgia. So it goes! We get some stuntbozo driving a sportscar into a Sbarro for Jerry Bruckheimer, and Savannah gets Malin Åkerman as Debbie Harry , Rupert Grint as Cheetah Chrome, Joel David Moore as Joey Ramone, and Alan Rickman in the aforementioned role of club proprietor Hilly Kristal, all reviving the dawn of punk and new wave in the edgy metropolis where the Girl Scouts were founded Hollywood honchos go to self-immolate . Rock on, bitches : All of the movie’s interior shots will be done at Meddin Studios, which will be transformed to look like the iconic New York club, said director Randall Miller. “We’re going to build the interior of the club on the stages here,” Miller said. “Then the plan is we’ll do some shooting on the streets of downtown Savannah — and finally a few days in New York. “We’re using both Georgia and New York for New York,” he joked. “Savannah has a kind of downtown area that could really work for so many cities,” Miller said. “That translates pretty well in what we’re doing.” Fine, do what you’ve gotta do. By which I mean cast James Franco as Richard Hell already . [ The Strut , Savannah Morning News via EV Grieve ]
It’s no secret that Chinese censors are tough nuts to crack when it comes to Hollywood imports like Men in Black 3 . And, sure — those scenes of aliens with reptilian tongues disguised as Chinatown restaurant workers serving up contraband foodstuffs played on easy jokes, and were reportedly excised from the Chinese release. But was there something more subtle and subversive at play when Agent J “neuralized” a crowd of innocent Chinatown bystanders? Per the Telegraph, Men in Black 3 ‘s Chinatown scenes were the focus of China’s censors, who took pains to cut out moments from the film that painted people of Chinese ancestry — well, aliens posing as Asians working in a Chinese restaurant, at least — in a negative light. Reports vary on just how much was cut out, with The Telegraph citing 13 minutes of edited footage. Sure, whatever. Take out the seemingly villainous Chinese folks. More interesting is the speculation surrounding why a scene depicting Smith mind-wiping a group of civilians right after his Chinatown brawl might have been removed. “This could have been a hint on the use of internet censorship to maintain social stability,” commented China’s Southern Daily newspaper (via The Telegraph ). Censoring the MIB neuralizer from audiences because it’s a form of insidious government mind control? Hilariously ironic. I’d like to think Barry Sonnenfeld and Smith and Co. had this kind of subversive agenda in mind, but YEAH RIGHT. All I want to know is, how can I neuralyze that hideous Pitbull song from my brain? [ The Telegraph ]
This KimYe thing is moving at warp speed! Kim Kardashian And Kanye West Both Put Their L.A. Homes Up For Sale According to TMZ reports : Kim Kardashian and Kayne West have both discreetly listed their homes for sale, setting the stage for the big, “We’re movin’ in together” … TMZ has learned. Kim has given a “pocket listing” to a realtor for her $4.8 mil Beverly Hills home — a pocket listing doesn’t appear in official real estate documents. We’re told Kim’s asking price is $5 million. Ditto Kanye, who listed his L.A. home as well — again, a pocket listing. Sources close to the couple confirm … both are selling their homes so they can rent a house together. They’re looking for a really private place to live … behind gates. Won’t be long before little KimYe babies are runnin’ around those cozy Calabasas skreets… Image via PCN/Tumblr
Why can’t heroines just be heroines anymore, instead of micromanaged personalities who may as well have the words “Role Model” tattooed across their foreheads? That’s the fate suffered by poor Kristen Stewart as the warrior princess athlete orphan Christ figure Snow White in Snow White and the Huntsman . She’s not just Joan of Arc — she’s Joan of Archetypes. Moviegoers who love Kristen Stewart — and they include a distinctive subgroup who avoid the Twilight pictures as a vampire eschews sunlight — have long been waiting for Snow White and the Huntsman , hoping to see this enormously appealing actress in a role that is, at last, worthy of her. I think Stewart has held her ground admirably enough in the Twilight pictures, particularly the profoundly crazy-ass Breaking Dawn – Part I , which gives her character something to do other than swan about moodily. (They don’t call her Bella Swan for nothing.) She also made a fine and fierce Joan Jett in Floria Sigismondi’s The Runaways . But Snow White and the Huntsman , the debut feature of Rupert Sanders , does her no favors. This Snow White is clearly designed to be a young woman of agency, not a girly-girl victim who waits around for a prince to save her. The problem is that she’s so admirable, so aggressively self-reliant, so beloved and respected by little forest animals as well as simple-minded villagers, that she barely has time to be a woman. Stewart is laced so tightly into her character that she can hardly breathe, let alone give a performance. Luckily, Charlize Theron — as the really, really wicked Queen Ravenna — is on hand to give us something to watch, and boy, does she. This is, of course, a “dark” version of the fairy tale, not a cheerful one, and as written by Evan Daugherty, John Lee Hancock and Hossein Amini, it at least half-delivers on that score. The picture opens with a quick backstory, revealing how the young and ravishing Ravenna tricked Snow’s father, a poor widowed king, into marrying her before murdering him on their marital bed. Along with her hapless twit of a brother, Finn (Sam Spruell) — the two have a quasi-incestuous, master-and-servant relationship — she takes over the kingdom, turning it into a place of darkness and death, as was her plan all along. She also locks away the orphaned Snow, who starts out as a little girl before morphing into the comely but feisty K Stew. Snow eventually manages to escape into the forest, which, under Ravenna’s rule, has become a wasteland in which tangled branches transform into writhing, hissing serpents and flowers that appear to be made of mussel shells glisten with venomous portent. Snow needs help, but just a little. And when a sturdy local huntsman shows up — he’s played by Chris Hemsworth, of Thor and The Avengers — the two reluctantly join forces, though Snow has not forgotten her first love, a duke’s son named William (Sam Claflin), even though we can all see how boring, if good-looking, he is. Snow White and the Huntsman isn’t as willfully hammy as that other recent entry in the Brothers Grimm source-material parade, Tarsem Singh’s Mirror, Mirror , and it’s not as enjoyable either, though admittedly it’s a completely different creature. Production designer Dominic Watkins sure knocked himself out here: One of the movie’s most fantastic backdrops is a fairy refuge inhabited by slippery, naked little creatures with pointed ears and oversized peepers; their homeland is also populated by stands of mushrooms, each sporting a single, blinking eye, and moss-covered turtles that provide handy landing pads for clouds of butterflies. Most magnificently, this forest is also home to a dignified-looking white hart with a set of antlers that spread as wide and as tall as the branches of an oak. (They resemble, in the good way, an over-the-top showgirl headdress.) The hart bows in respect to Snow, because it’s clear she has the power of healing, of leadership, of having fabulous hair even though she’s been fighting her way through an ugly forest for days on end. She’s also a great warrior, as we see during the picture’s lavish but oddly unexciting climactic battle sequence. She doesn’t even need a cadre of great English character actors disguised as dwarves to save her, but they show up anyway. (The gang includes Eddie Marsan, Ian McShane, Bob Hoskins, Ray Winstone, Nick Frost and Toby Jones, all shot to appear height-challenged.) Stewart moves through the picture looking noble and sadly dull, unwittingly setting the stage for the evil queen to steal her show. Theron is marvelous here, playing Ravenna as a cooler-than-cool customer who’ll do anything — include draining the blood from innocent young beauties — to stay young-looking. She works wonders with dum-dum dialogue along the lines of “My beauty…fades,” and struts around boldly, doing justice to Colleen Atwood’s luxurious glittering-metallic costumes. (At least one of these appears to be an obvious nod to the late British designer Alexander McQueen, featuring a collar of shiny black plumes that fan around the queen’s face like an ornithological lion’s mane.) Snow White and the Huntsman looks great. And yet even there, it’s often guilty of trying too hard. The picture was shot by Greig Fraser (the DP behind great-looking pictures like Bright Star and Let Me In ), and many of its images are arresting. But it also features a number of “what for?” visuals that have no real reason to exist other than that they look cool. At one point Ravenna submerges herself in a creamy-white milk bath (cool!) and emerges as a figurine coated in porcelain (wha…?). Clearly, this is one of her special magic beauty treatments, but it doesn’t make sense even in a fantastical way. And it’s emblematic of all the ways in which Snow White and the Huntsman works overtime to wow us, to make us shiver, to remind us that, hey, girls can be strong too! This Snow White is no wussy princess. But her tomboy nobility is no match for the imperious Ravenna and her succession of liquid-stainless-steel gowns and spiky medieval-gal-on-the-rag headgear. Don’t see Snow White and the Huntsman for its ho-hum empowerment message. See it for the killer clothes. Follow Stephanie Zacharek on Twitter . Follow Movieline on Twitter .
Earlier this month, T.I. told Power 105.1′s The Breakfast Club that he wanted to retire from the music game , and while he’s not the first rapper to express unhappiness with his day job, his proclamation was somewhat unexpected… Continue
