‘Kon was ‘fully involved’ in her first two albums, but now ‘creatively, 100 percent, it’s all Gaga,’ he tells MTV News. By Jocelyn Vena, with reporting by Rob Markman Lady Gaga Photo: WireImage Over the course of her ever-evolving career, Lady Gaga’s longtime boss, Akon , has always been by Gaga’s side as she reincarnated herself from disco-ball-wearing dance princess to couture-sporting pop demi-goddess. Now that Mother Monster is several years and millions of albums sold into her career, Akon has stepped back a bit and changed his role in the Haus of Gaga, giving the singer more control over what she does with her career. “So the way it works is, Gaga’s on Kon Live/Streamline, which is Vincent Herbert, and it’s distributed through Interscope,” he explained to MTV News. “And the first two albums, we were fully involved in everything creative when it comes to Gaga, and then, as she grows, she becomes more in tune with herself [and] what she wants to do. “Now she has full control over her project, period,” he continued. “Everything you see of Gaga now is all from her brain … and our job is just to make sure whatever she’s thinking we can make into reality. So I guess more so with the approval processes and everything like that, we still do what we do, but creatively, 100 percent, it’s all Gaga, and Vince does all the day-to-day stuff relating to Gaga.” Then whatever’s about to go down in Gaga’s upcoming “Marry the Night” video certainly got the A-OK from Akon. The singer was spotted in New York City filming a clip for the fifth single from her chart-topping Born This Way. What are you expecting from the “Marry the Night” video? Let us know in the comments! Related Videos MTV First: Lady Gaga Related Artists Lady Gaga Akon
Looks like John Travolta may not get the chance to prove that he’s man enough to play John Gotti Sr. in the upcoming crime-boss biopic from Barry Levinson. Showbiz 411 reports that the project, Gotti: In The Shadow Of My Father has been indefinitely postponed now that production company Fiore Films has run out of funds. Al Pacino , Ben Foster and Kelly Preston had also been cast in the film. Click ahead for more Buzz Break.
MTV reality star was in the bottom two with soccer goalie Hope Solo. By Kelley L. Carter Kristin Cavallari and Mark Ballas Photo: ABC Networks It was a surprise elimination on Tuesday night’s “Dancing With the Stars.” In the end, it came down to MTV reality star Kristin Cavallari and Mark Ballas against soccer goalie Hope Solo and Maksim Chmerkovskiy. Head judge Len Goodman said he was in disbelief, because he thought one of the couples would be fighting it out to be in the finals. Cavallari was the one who got the boot. She and Ballas both appeared to be shocked when their names were called. And it’s no wonder. On Monday night, they scored a 24 out of 30 for their samba to Beyonc
Producer Tricky Stewart reveals that singer is in studio working on leftovers from their Teenage Dream sessions. By Jocelyn Vena, with reporting by Vanessa White Wolf Katy Perry Photo: Steve Granitz/ WireImage She may still be releasing tracks off Teenage Dream thanks to her latest single, “The One That Got Away,” but Katy Perry is already hard at work on some other super-special, top-secret musical project. Producer Tricky Stewart, who worked with Perry on three Teenage Dream songs, is back at work with the California Gurl herself, prepping some music with the singer. “Katy and I went into [the studio] just to address some issues with records that we had done in the past that didn’t end up going on Teenage Dream, ” he told MTV News. “So we are in the process of just listening and freshening up things and getting ready for something special she has going on.” What is it that she is readying? Well, Stewart doesn’t exactly know, or maybe he just doesn’t want to say. “I don’t know what it is, but I know she has something going on because she wants to be in the studio,” he said. “So that’s good. … I can tell you that Katy likes the studio again; that’s always a good thing.” While he couldn’t shed much light on the project itself, he did reveal the name of the song. “This song is really special. It’s called ‘Dressing Up,’ so it’s going to be a big record, I think,” he said. “It definitely fits. It’s right there in what her sensibilities are as a musician and a songwriter. She doesn’t change much. She has a very keen musical taste. It’ll be really good.” The music they are working on is using some leftovers from their Teenage Dream sessions. And they hope to finally put that magic out into the world. “We always knew that the records we created were special [and] at the time it was more contractual obligation [that they didn’t make the record],” he explained, noting all the success the singer has experienced with the record, which includes five #1 songs . “I can only have so many songs produced by me on the record. She didn’t need to have extra songs at the same time.” Related Photos The Evolution Of: Katy Perry
LP will feature Jackson songs and mash-ups from Cirque du Soleil show of same name. By Gil Kaufman Michael Jackson The Immortal World Tour Photo: Sunshine Sachs/ Cirque du Soleil The second posthumous Michael Jackson album is slated to hit stores on November 21. But unlike last year’s Michael, which featured unreleased tracks from the late pop icon, Immortal will serve as the soundtrack to the just-launched Cirque du Soleil show of the same name. The album, sorry, “musical tapestry,” is entitled Michael Jackson The Immortal World Tour, and it will feature reworked versions of some of Jackson’s most beloved hits, mash-ups and never-before-released outtakes of the late King of Pop’s tunes. Among the latter is an alternate take on the Jackson 5 staple “ABC” and a choir-assisted rendition of “They Don’t Care About Us.” The visually stunning show — in the tradition of previous Cirque musicals featuring the music of Elvis and the Beatles — kicked off in Montreal on Sunday and is slated to travel throughout North America and the rest of the world. It will hit 60 North American cities before wrapping up in June in Chicago and taking up a residency at the Mandalay Bay Resort & Casino in Las Vegas. Cirque writer/director Jamie King recently told Billboard that the idea was to be as inventive as possible with the MJ arrangements, treating them like Cirque did the “Love” soundtrack to the Beatles show, in which the Fab Four’s tunes were reshaped in previously unheard ways to create a seamless mixtape of trippy sounds. “Definitely all the hits that the fans want to hear are there,” King said. ” ‘Beat It,’ ‘Thriller,’ ‘Wanna Be Startin’ Somethin’ ‘ — the big, iconic songs are there, with some other songs mixed and matched throughout. There’s some younger Michael in there as well, ‘Ben,’ the Motown stuff. … It’s a mixed bag of tricks in terms of songs. It’s a music-driven show, so we’re making sure the music is the narrative that drives us and takes us on the journey.” The collection will come in several versions , including a deluxe $50 set that features the CD, a T-shirt and show program. It will feature more than 40 of Jackson’s greatest hits. In a statement, Kevin Antunes, musical designer of the Cirque du Soleil show, added, “Michael’s legacy as the greatest entertainer of our lifetime is inspiring beyond words. It was clear from the start that Michael’s voice and overall musical essence was the sole/soul source of creative energy driving the project. From the studio to the stage, there’s an undeniable integrity and resolute truth in Michael’s vocal performances that are highlighted in the Immortal arrangements. It was built with love and respect for Michael’s music, his family and his millions of fans around the world.” Among the songs included on the deluxe version are: “Working Day and Night,” “Ben,” “Shake Your Body (Down to the Ground),” “Beat It/ Jam/ State of Shock,” “Remember the Time/ Bad,” “Man in the Mirror,” “Can You Feel It/ Don’t Stop Til You Get Enough/ Billie Jean/ Black or White,” “Human Nature/ Speechless,” “Wanna Be Startin’ Somethin’,” “I’ll Be There,” “Gone Too Soon” and “Is It Scary/ Thriller/ Ghost/ Somebody’s Watching Me/ Threatened.” In other MJ news, in the midst of the manslaughter trial of former Jackson physician Conrad Murray , the Michael Forever tribute concert is slated to take place in Cardiff, Wales, on October 8. The show, hosted by Jamie Foxx , will feature performances from the Black Eyed Peas , , Ne-Yo, Cee Lo Green , Jennifer Hudson , Leona Lewis, Craig David, Pixie Lott, Alexandra Burke, Alien Ant Farm, Motown legend Smokey Robinson and the first live performance by Jackson sibling LaToya in more than 20 years. Related Videos Cirque Du Soleil’s Michael Jackson The Immortal World Tour Related Artists Michael Jackson
‘It’s true. We will do 10 episodes and the movie,’ series star Jason Bateman tweeted over the weekend. By Gil Kaufman The “Arrested Development” cast Photo: FOX The “Arrested Development” movie is finally happening. No, seriously. After years of rumors, denials, hedging, backtracking and wishful thinking, series co-creator and executive producer Mitchell Hurwitz confirmed over the weekend that not only are the seriously, hilariously, unapologetically dysfunctional Bluth clan headed to the multiplex, but they will get tuned up for their movie debut by making a short trip back to TV. Speaking on Sunday at the New Yorker Festival , Hurwitz broke the news, with “Development” actor Jason Bateman confirming it a few hours later on his Twitter feed. “It’s true. We will do 10 episodes and the movie. Probably shoot them all together next summer for a release in early ’13. VERY excited!” According to The New York Times , when asked by moderator Nancy Franklin to give an update on the long-rumored film, Hurwitz confessed, “We’re 80 percent of the way to an answer.” He explained that director/producer Ron Howard, who also narrated the show, “had been talking about this for ages and trying to get this going. … We don’t completely own the property, there are business people involved and studios and that kind of thing. Just creatively, I have been working on the screenplay for a long time and found that as time went by, there was so much more to the story. In fact, where everyone’s been for five years became a big part of the story. So in working on the screenplay, I found even if I just gave five minutes per character to that back story, we were halfway through the movie before the characters got together.” Hurwitz was speaking on a panel that gathered the beloved cult show’s cast together for a “Bluth Family Reunion.” He said that the plan is to do a limited-run (9 or 10 episodes) of the series on TV and then segue into the movie in order to get the hype machine cranked up again, with each episode focusing on one character’s backstory to bring us back to the present. Among the castmembers on hand were Bateman, Michael Cera, Will Arnett, Portia de Rossi, Tony Hale, David Cross , Jessica Walter, Jeffrey Tambor and Alia Shawkat, as well as call-in guest Howard . Given the show’s sly, twisty inside-joke humor and legendarily wacky tangents, there was, of course, some skepticism about whether Hurwitz’s announcement was possibly part of some cosmic joke. But he later confirmed that he was halfway done with a screenplay, though he did not make any announcement about which studio or network would be handling the re-boot. Hurwitz also cleared up a long-running misconception about why the movie has not come to pass: the alleged reluctance of “Scott Pilgrim” actor Cera, who was allegedly refusing to play ball. The show’s creator explained that the rumor that Cera was stonewalling the project was an inside joke gone wrong. “I kind of was perpetuating a little thing, like, wouldn’t it be funny if Michael Cera was the holdout,” he said. “Let’s put that out there. And Michael had that Andy Kaufman thing. And then it really turned ugly, quickly. So I really just have to say, for those of you that have been following this saga, Michael’s always been great.”
As a longtime Harveyologist, few prospects on the movie beat seem more appealing to me than an unauthorized documentary about Harvey Weinstein. I mean, Harvey Weinstein! Just saying the name conjures both quivering fanboy chills and the faint, foggy effluvia of sweat and Diet Coke wafting over a freshly vacuumed and Febrezed red carpet. Harvey. Weinstein. Stirring, no? So why, why does the first trailer for Unauthorized: The Harvey Weinstein Project leave me so cold?
‘I think the ladies gonna like this one,’ DJ Drama teases MTV News about collabo from his October album. By Rob Markman Chris Brown Photo: Getty Images J. Cole is riding high this week after the release of his debut, Cole World: The Sideline Story. Aside from the inevitable euphoria that comes with dropping one’s first album, relative newcomer Cole also got a chance to work with Jay-Z, Missy Elliott and Trey Songz on the project. But fans shouldn’t expect the high-profile collaborations to stop there thanks to DJ Drama . On October 11, the Atlanta DJ will drop his latest album, Third Power, on which he paired Cole with Chris Brown for a track titled “Undercover.” “We were searching for tracks for Chris,” Drama explained to MTV News about how he and producer V12 the Hitman came up with the song. “We got something, Chris went in. I thought about it for a minute: Who hasn’t he worked with, who hasn’t he been on a record with?” That meant excluding heavy hitters like Lil Wayne, Busta Rhymes, Kanye West and Swizz Beatz, who are among CB’s army of previous collaborators. Drama eventually thought to link Brown with Roc Nation’s rookie rapper Cole, and although the pair appeared together on little-known British rapper Chipmunk’s “Champion (Remix),” Drama’s “Undercover” will mark the first time Cole and Breezy co-headline a song. “J. Cole has definitely been doing his thing,” Drama added. “That’s another guy that I have a lot of respect for and am excited for what he’s been accomplishing, so we made that allegiance right there; plus, you got some bars from Breezy.” Brown already has a dedicated female fanbase and Cole — thanks to songs like his R&B-tinged “Can’t Get Enough” and a feature on Miguel’s hit “All I Want Is You” — is becoming a heartthrob himself. Whatever the case, Drama is pretty sure the song will win women over. “I think the ladies gonna like this one,” he said. Are you excited to hear a Chris Brown/ J. Cole collabo? Tell us in the comments! Related Artists Chris Brown J. Cole DJ Drama
‘Spinning Gold’ follows life of label co-founder Neil Bogart. By Jocelyn Vena Justin Timberlake He once played Napster co-founder Sean Parker in “The Social Network,” and now he’s getting ready to play another real-life entrepreneur. Deadline Hollywood reports that Justin Timberlake will play ’70s record producer and Casablanca Records co-founder Neil Bogart in a new biopic. “Spinning Gold” will take a close look at Bogart’s career as a record executive who launched the careers of acts like KISS, Parliament, Donna Summer and the Village People. “This is saga about a young dreamer who started with nothing and came of age in the ’60s and ’70s, believing anything was possible and every risk was worth taking,” said Tim Bogart, Neil’s son and the film’s writer. He said the film is “literally three decades in the making.” Bogart died of cancer in 1982, at the age of 39. Bogart added, “We needed a young actor who can carry this picture. … When Justin walked into the room, that was the moment I had been waiting for 29 years. He has the exact same energy as my father, the same glimmer in his eye.” A director has yet to be attached to the project, which is set to shoot in 2012. Album plans are also under way. Fans hoping Timberlake will head back to the studio to record new music will be sad to see his film roster keeps getting filled with new projects. In November, his sci-fi flick, “In Time,” hits theaters. “To be honest, my plan would have probably been to do another record, probably right about now. I never stop considering myself a musician. To me, it’s my bread and butter,” Timberlake said in a recent interview with Short List. “And I mean that in a personal way. I don’t mean that it finances my ‘acting hobbies.’ I joke with my friends that I should have a business card saying, ‘David Fincher put me in a movie,’ because ‘Bad Teacher’ got a blessing due to ‘The Social Network,’ and then ‘Friends With Benefits’ came out of that. “All the movies I’ve done were just opportunities that came up, but now that they’re all coming out back-to-back, people think, ‘Oh, he’s trying to make a statement by having an acting career,’ ” he continued. “But it’s not like that for me. I don’t ever want to stop doing music.” For breaking news, celebrity columns, humor and more — updated around the clock — visit MTVMoviesBlog.com . Related Photos The Evolution Of: Justin Timberlake Acting, Log-Rolling, Quilting: Justin Timberlake Can Do It All Related Artists Justin Timberlake
Phonte Coleman is one of the most underrated lyricists making hip-hop today. After a decade of recording as a member of Little Brother and The Foreign Exchange he has finally released his long-overdue solo project, Charity Starts At Home . The 12 track CD features everything fans have come to expect from Tigallo: witty wordplay, heartfelt vocals and lush, heavy-hitting beats. Te is best when he’s writing reality checks drawn on inspiration, so check out some of our favorite lines from the new project. (snippets) “Dance in the Reign” “ Flow so addictive/ it’s like habit forming/flow hair raising/it’s like rabbit farming…/Peter cottontail hoppin over beats and rockin acapells since the days of Akinyells..” The title of the song alone sets up the many double entendres listeners will be treated to throughout the album. He could have stopped at the flip of hair and hare, but he literally and figuratively made it hip-hop by the next bar. “Not Here Anymore” “Y es Phontiga spit/Amazon flame/ watch 9th re-Kindle it/ cuz i-Pad verses with the wisdom of my innocence lost…/ Te is so subtle with this one that you could almost miss it if you’re not reading it. After not speaking for a few years 9th and Te literally rekindled their friendship earlier this year and this 21st century MC redefines a “book of rhymes.” “Everything is falling down” “I made a new lane for myself and said F8ck it/ Why rage against the machine when you could just unplug it?” What’s telling about this project is that he’s put it out independently and has nearly as much buzz (if not more) than any of his releases on major labels. Matrix? What Matrix? “Eternally” No such thing as Te without bars/ that’s like Pixar with no cars/ or seeing a dark-skinned DeBarge. . Point blank, Te raises more bars than Willy Wonka pole vaulting in Rikers. Pause. “Sendin My Love” “But wifey wants a scholar and a traveler/hunter and a gatherer/ and after I capture her now I gotta put my spear up?/” The classic dilemma of any man trained to pursue his woman is that once she’s “caught” the hunter must now change the practices that made him successful in the first place. It’s a d**k thing. “Ball and Chain” “ …when the love flames burn out /now your house lookin Smokey like the teardrops of a clown…” Flipping both the literal ‘smoky’ and Smokey Robinson, Te not only references the classic song “tears of a clown” on this lamentation of marriage, he acknowledges that smoke literally makes you tear up. Word to Andre Rison. “We Go Off” “They say Phonte is the incarnation of verbal murder/ pin it on me like prom night.” No, you missed it. He didn’t just say pin the murder on him. That would be too easy. He’s the in-CARNATION of verbal murder, the damn flower. Pin THAT sh*t on him like it’s prom night or drop it in the casket cuz your career is dead. “These young’s want all of the spoils, but none of the toils/ Got me climbin the walls/ too good to press olives but be the first squeaky wheel lookin for oil…” Phonte, “Who Loves You More” This is a long overdue indictment of the Internet generation raised on instant gratification. Give em a rotary phone and some rabbit ears then see how much hustle they have in em. BONUS: DJ Flash dropped “The Best Of Phonte Mixtape” in advance of the album so here are some of my all time favorite Tigallo lines. “Light It Up” “Got plans to shine /style 3 times dope like eastern standard time…” “On The way” “ Man of all seasons/ used to have a fetish for weed, women and grapes and I like them all seedless” “The Yo Yo” “Deep down you know that I’m right/ man I’m about to kick some Trick Daddy next poetry night like “my Black Queen, don’t know na’an n*gga!” “Life of the Party” We on the same page, we all on one accord/ Little do they know we all came in one Accord “I See Now” Respect game when it comes to my ex things/I keep em in line like rollerblades at the X-Games “Welcome To Durham” You Ain’t Ernie Barnes…/ stop drawin attention” “The Becoming” I target you herbs/On some teleprompter shit I got you watchin ya words/ Te rhymes is real life, yours is so for instance/ taxin these niggas like no dependents/ 12 bar courtrooom drama with no codefendants/ don’t beat it off/ come to your senses… “Lovin It” Ya’ll niggas is borin me/I’m never gon’ change up/please join a sorority go step your game up.” “Sinners” Not a sex therapist lookin for inner peace/ I’mma sex terrorist invadin your middle east” RELATED POSTS: Phonte Feat. Elzhi “Not Here Anymore” [NEW MUSIC] Phonte “Charity Starts At Home” Album Cover & Tracklisting Pharoahe Monch F/ Styles & Phonte, “Black Hand Side” [VIDEO PREMIERE]
