It’s official: America likes talking stuffed animals more than naked men. Despite strong competition from Channing Tatum and the shirtless strippers of Magic Mike , Ted smoked and cursed his way to the top of the box office this weekend, earning $54.1 million on Friday and Saturday. It was the third-highest debut of all-time for an R-rated comedy, trailing only The Hangover II and Sex and the City . Ted Trailer Magic Men didn’t fare too poorly itself, though, pulling in a 73 percent female audience and garnering $39.2 million in two days. “This is what the business is about,” says Warner Brothers’ President of Domestic Distribution, Dan Fellman. “There are surprises sometimes, and when you get a sleeper, it’s great.” Here is a look at the weekend’s top five: Ted : $54.1 million Magic Mike : $39.2 million Brave : $34.0 million Madea’s Witness Protection : $26.4 million Madagascar 3: Europe’s Most Wanted : $11.8 million
Mitt Romney Gets Campaign Donation From Victoria’s Secret CEO Money man Mitt Romney will take it any way he can get it…….when it comes to campaign donations. Mitt Romney knows Victoria’s Secret. Romney, in New York today for some campaign fundraising, regaled donors with talk of his pledge to repeal the president’s health care law. Joined at Cipriani by New York Jets owner Woody Johnson, Romney also joked about going to the home of Les Wexner, the chairman, CEO and founder of Limited Brands Inc. in Columbus, Ohio. Wexner, a self-made billionaire, has enjoyed a boost in the stock price of his company’s chain of shopping mall stores this year. That includes Victoria’s Secret, the lingerie giant with the famously glossy catalogs. Wexner donated $250,000 in April to a super-political action committee, Restore Our Future, that supports Romney for election as president and opposes Barack Obama. “Some of you know Les Wexner,” Romney told his audience. “He owns Victoria’s Secret, among a number of other enterprises. He has a very, very large home,” Romney said. “I remarked to Les, ‘Never has so little fabric bought so big a house.’” Source Image via Wenn
Mitt Romney Gets Campaign Donation From Victoria’s Secret CEO Money man Mitt Romney will take it any way he can get it…….when it comes to campaign donations. Mitt Romney knows Victoria’s Secret. Romney, in New York today for some campaign fundraising, regaled donors with talk of his pledge to repeal the president’s health care law. Joined at Cipriani by New York Jets owner Woody Johnson, Romney also joked about going to the home of Les Wexner, the chairman, CEO and founder of Limited Brands Inc. in Columbus, Ohio. Wexner, a self-made billionaire, has enjoyed a boost in the stock price of his company’s chain of shopping mall stores this year. That includes Victoria’s Secret, the lingerie giant with the famously glossy catalogs. Wexner donated $250,000 in April to a super-political action committee, Restore Our Future, that supports Romney for election as president and opposes Barack Obama. “Some of you know Les Wexner,” Romney told his audience. “He owns Victoria’s Secret, among a number of other enterprises. He has a very, very large home,” Romney said. “I remarked to Les, ‘Never has so little fabric bought so big a house.’” Source Image via Wenn
Mitt Romney Gets Campaign Donation From Victoria’s Secret CEO Money man Mitt Romney will take it any way he can get it…….when it comes to campaign donations. Mitt Romney knows Victoria’s Secret. Romney, in New York today for some campaign fundraising, regaled donors with talk of his pledge to repeal the president’s health care law. Joined at Cipriani by New York Jets owner Woody Johnson, Romney also joked about going to the home of Les Wexner, the chairman, CEO and founder of Limited Brands Inc. in Columbus, Ohio. Wexner, a self-made billionaire, has enjoyed a boost in the stock price of his company’s chain of shopping mall stores this year. That includes Victoria’s Secret, the lingerie giant with the famously glossy catalogs. Wexner donated $250,000 in April to a super-political action committee, Restore Our Future, that supports Romney for election as president and opposes Barack Obama. “Some of you know Les Wexner,” Romney told his audience. “He owns Victoria’s Secret, among a number of other enterprises. He has a very, very large home,” Romney said. “I remarked to Les, ‘Never has so little fabric bought so big a house.’” Source Image via Wenn
Mitt Romney Gets Campaign Donation From Victoria’s Secret CEO Money man Mitt Romney will take it any way he can get it…….when it comes to campaign donations. Mitt Romney knows Victoria’s Secret. Romney, in New York today for some campaign fundraising, regaled donors with talk of his pledge to repeal the president’s health care law. Joined at Cipriani by New York Jets owner Woody Johnson, Romney also joked about going to the home of Les Wexner, the chairman, CEO and founder of Limited Brands Inc. in Columbus, Ohio. Wexner, a self-made billionaire, has enjoyed a boost in the stock price of his company’s chain of shopping mall stores this year. That includes Victoria’s Secret, the lingerie giant with the famously glossy catalogs. Wexner donated $250,000 in April to a super-political action committee, Restore Our Future, that supports Romney for election as president and opposes Barack Obama. “Some of you know Les Wexner,” Romney told his audience. “He owns Victoria’s Secret, among a number of other enterprises. He has a very, very large home,” Romney said. “I remarked to Les, ‘Never has so little fabric bought so big a house.’” Source Image via Wenn
Mitt Romney Gets Campaign Donation From Victoria’s Secret CEO Money man Mitt Romney will take it any way he can get it…….when it comes to campaign donations. Mitt Romney knows Victoria’s Secret. Romney, in New York today for some campaign fundraising, regaled donors with talk of his pledge to repeal the president’s health care law. Joined at Cipriani by New York Jets owner Woody Johnson, Romney also joked about going to the home of Les Wexner, the chairman, CEO and founder of Limited Brands Inc. in Columbus, Ohio. Wexner, a self-made billionaire, has enjoyed a boost in the stock price of his company’s chain of shopping mall stores this year. That includes Victoria’s Secret, the lingerie giant with the famously glossy catalogs. Wexner donated $250,000 in April to a super-political action committee, Restore Our Future, that supports Romney for election as president and opposes Barack Obama. “Some of you know Les Wexner,” Romney told his audience. “He owns Victoria’s Secret, among a number of other enterprises. He has a very, very large home,” Romney said. “I remarked to Les, ‘Never has so little fabric bought so big a house.’” Source Image via Wenn
New York State Liquor Authority charges W.i.P. with 17 violations, saying the club poses a ‘threat to public health and safety.’ By Rob Markman W.i.P. nightclub Photo: The fall-out from June 14’s bottle-bashing brawl reportedly between Drake’s and Chris Brown’s camps continues. On Tuesday, The New York State Liquor Authority ordered an emergency suspension of W.i.P.’s liquor license, the club where the incident took place. W.i.P., with its adjacent (and affiliated) club Greenhouse, were both slapped with 17 separate violations. The New York Daily News is reporting that R. Kelly, New York Knicks basketball star Iman Shumpert and the cast of the upcoming film “Savages” all had scheduled parties at the clubs, but now will have to look for new venues. “The SLA will not tolerate violent bars that break the law,” SLA Chairman Dennis Rosen said in a press release obtained by MTV News. “This should serve as a message that this agency will not hesitate to take immediate action when licensees pose a threat to public health and safety.” The release cites 10 separate assaults and altercations at the two clubs, the earliest occurring on March 11 and the latest being the bottle-throwing incident which left quite a few patrons injured, including NBA star Tony Parker , who is now suing the club for $20 million after he suffered a cut in his left eye. While both Drake and Chris Brown and their respective entourages have been implicated in the brawl, police have yet to charge any of the men with a crime. Meek Mill, whose has also seen his name circulate in the brawl rumors, will appear on Wednesday’s “RapFix Live” and address the drama starting at 4 p.m. Related Artists Drake Chris Brown
Director Anthony Mandler talks to MTV News about Del Rey and A$AP Rocky’s controversial new clip, which has them playing JFK and Jackie O. By James Montgomery Lana Del Rey and A$AP Rocky in the video for “National Anthem” Photo: Ever since Anthony Mandler wrapped production on Lana Del Rey ‘s “National Anthem” video a month ago, he has spent just about every day trying to avoid talking about it … mostly because he knew there’d be no shortage of folks doing just that when the clip premiered. After all, the video — which premiered Wednesday (June 27) and features Del Rey in dual Jacqueline Kennedy/Marilyn Monroe roles and A$AP Rocky as John F. Kennedy — was seemingly destined to create conversation, if not controversy. But now that it’s finally been unveiled, he’s weighing in on the social and political contexts of the clip (from Portugal, via Skype) to MTV News. “You see why I held back on talking about it; I didn’t want to spoil anything. Anytime you’re dealing with the American Camelot of the Kennedys, you’re dealing with a packed powder keg,” he said. “And really, what Lana was trying to do — this was her concept, she came to me with it, and I kind of dug it out with her — was really look and explore an archetype; just like Shakespeare wrote ‘Romeo and Juliet,’ and that became the archetype of the forbidden love story. “And I think the Kennedy relationship, certainly the triangle of Marilyn Monroe and Jackie O and Jack Kennedy, became this kind of ideal of what seemed perfect from the outside was maybe rotting from the inside,” he continued. “And Lana was really interested in exploring this loss of innocence, this idea that what you think you’re experiencing is maybe not what it’s always going to be. Because when you say ‘Kennedy,’ that immediately evokes something, just like when I say ‘It’s a Romeo and Juliet story.’ So I think using that power, that pedigree of the story is a really fascinating place to show the loss of something, the breakdown of something.” Of course, building off that archetype, the “National Anthem” video takes the socially charged stance of re-imagining the main characters as an interracial couple. It was a decision that was bound to raise some eyebrows, which, according to Mandler, was precisely the point. “We used the Kennedy framework to kind of implement this new Camelot, this racially diverse Camelot, this maybe socially diverse Camelot … bringing it into the modern era, but still keeping that classic framework,” he explained. “There’s a kind of micro-commentary of ‘This is the new royalty,’ you know, A$AP and Lana, trying to pick two people to maybe represent the next generation of something. I think even with an African American president, it’s still controversial to see him sitting and playing JFK, it’s still taboo, even if it shouldn’t be. You’re kind of like ‘Is this right or wrong? This feels very right, but also feels very wrong at the same time.’ And I think in all of Lana’s songs, and her image in general, and the person she is, it all fits in. It’s kind of like there are two sides of a mirror, and you’re not sure which side you’re looking at.” And though he’s aware the video may rankle some, Mandler wanted to make it clear that “National Anthem” isn’t meant to disrespect the Kennedy legacy … and to that end, he points to the climactic final scene, which re-enacts JFK’s 1963 assassination, minus any of the grisly details. Because, to him, the video is less about reinterpreting history and as it is about examining loss, historical or otherwise. “We didn’t want it to be a mockery. How many artists and rappers and singers have you seen running around in badly fitted suits, acting like the president? And I think it may have worked with other people to mock, but that was not what we wanted; we want this to be very serious,” he said. “The whole movie kind of hedges on the gunshot, it hedges on that close-up of the hand when the gunshot happens, and you don’t see anything violent. What you’re used to seeing with the Zapruder film, is this very kind of violent, destructive act; I didn’t want to go anywhere near that. “It was never about re-creating a death scene, it was always about the person sitting next to him,” he continued. “It was always about seeing it through her eyes, seeing this kind of castle crumble in the moment, and that shot where she’s coming up out of the car, and the pain in her eyes, that destruction, it’s like the whole castle is crumbling around her. That’s what we were going for.” Related Videos A$AP Rocky Rips Up ‘RapFix Live’ Related Artists Lana Del Rey
Also in Tuesday morning’s round up of news briefs, Elissa Greer joins FilmDistrict’s exec team, comic book writer Alan Moore is looking to collaborate on film, big-name directors and others come out in defense of Wikileak’s Julian Assange and BAFTA revamps its nomination and voting rules. Elissa Greer Joins FilmDistrict Greer will serve as Senior Vice President of Publicity, overseeing the Company’s domestic theatrical publicity and promotional campaigns. She previously worked at New Line Cinema. Greer’s hire completes the senior executive team working under FilmDistrict’s President of Marketing, Christine Birch. Around the ‘net… Director Takes on 3-D Popeye Hotel Transylvania director Genndy Tartakovsky is set to develop and direct Popeye for Sony Pictures Animation. The character first appeared in 1929 with a long running series of cartoon shorts and Robert Altman’s 1980 version starring Robin Williams, Variety reports . Big Easy Express Becomes First Feature Launched Worldwide on iTunes The documentary which traveled the film festival circuit becomes today the first feature to be distributed via iTunes in 50 countries. Directed by Emmett Malloy, the film follows a train tour by folk bands Edward Sharpe & the Magnetic Zeros, Old Crow Medicine Show, and Britain’s Mumford & Son, Deadline reports . Alan Moore to Write First Screen Project The comic book creator will collaborate with director Mitch Jenkins on a series of “occult, noir flecked” short films. He recently finished the latest edition of The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, Century 2009 , The Guardian reports . Michael Moore, Oliver Stone & More Push Ecuador on Assange Asylum Bill Maher and Naomi Wolf asked the South American country to allow Wikileaks founder Julian Assange to have political asylum. Assange, who is Australian, walked into the Ecuadorian embassy in London last week to avoid extradition to Sweden where he would face sex assault charges, THR reports . BAFTA to Change Nomination, Voting Process Rules The British Academy of Film and Television Arts is altering how it will proceed with the 2013 Orange British Film Awards. January 9th will be the nominations, six days ahead of the Oscar nominations, Deadline reports .
Also in Tuesday morning’s round up of news briefs, Elissa Greer joins FilmDistrict’s exec team, comic book writer Alan Moore is looking to collaborate on film, big-name directors and others come out in defense of Wikileak’s Julian Assange and BAFTA revamps its nomination and voting rules. Elissa Greer Joins FilmDistrict Greer will serve as Senior Vice President of Publicity, overseeing the Company’s domestic theatrical publicity and promotional campaigns. She previously worked at New Line Cinema. Greer’s hire completes the senior executive team working under FilmDistrict’s President of Marketing, Christine Birch. Around the ‘net… Director Takes on 3-D Popeye Hotel Transylvania director Genndy Tartakovsky is set to develop and direct Popeye for Sony Pictures Animation. The character first appeared in 1929 with a long running series of cartoon shorts and Robert Altman’s 1980 version starring Robin Williams, Variety reports . Big Easy Express Becomes First Feature Launched Worldwide on iTunes The documentary which traveled the film festival circuit becomes today the first feature to be distributed via iTunes in 50 countries. Directed by Emmett Malloy, the film follows a train tour by folk bands Edward Sharpe & the Magnetic Zeros, Old Crow Medicine Show, and Britain’s Mumford & Son, Deadline reports . Alan Moore to Write First Screen Project The comic book creator will collaborate with director Mitch Jenkins on a series of “occult, noir flecked” short films. He recently finished the latest edition of The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, Century 2009 , The Guardian reports . Michael Moore, Oliver Stone & More Push Ecuador on Assange Asylum Bill Maher and Naomi Wolf asked the South American country to allow Wikileaks founder Julian Assange to have political asylum. Assange, who is Australian, walked into the Ecuadorian embassy in London last week to avoid extradition to Sweden where he would face sex assault charges, THR reports . BAFTA to Change Nomination, Voting Process Rules The British Academy of Film and Television Arts is altering how it will proceed with the 2013 Orange British Film Awards. January 9th will be the nominations, six days ahead of the Oscar nominations, Deadline reports .
