The comic actor talks about acting drunk, receiving an unexpected call from Coldplay’s Chris Martin while filming his new movie. By Kara Warner Russell Brand Photo: MTV News In Russell Brand’s new film, “Arthur,” he plays a hapless, immature and perpetually drunk billionaire who is faced with losing his inheritance if he marries the wrong woman. Now while Brand is known for his outrageous antics, he’s been sober since he spent three months in rehab in 2003. So, when MTV News caught up with Brand recently during the press day for “Arthur,” we asked him if he enjoys making believe that he’s liquored up. “Yes, it’s brilliant; it’s a right laugh. I love pretending to be drunk,” Brand said. “I had a real hoot. [You] can sort of stagger around. We were filming in New York, there’s crowds of people everywhere, hanging out, so I could just wander among them, pretend to be drunk, beg for change occasionally.”
Even good things can seem bad when there is too much of it too fast. This is what some insiders are saying about teen sensation Justin Bieber and his meteoric rise to fame. But some people close to the singer are starting to quietly come forward telling of a young man growing increasingly frustrated at the world of celebrity stardom. Bieber’s biggest complaint? No privacy. He is followed now by two body guards every place he goes and there is security outside his door while on the road in Hotels. “People are ALWAYS around him. Changing his close, messing with his hair, taping microphone wires too him, move here, stand there kind of thing. When he moves around, he always moves with a team of people”. They also say Justin is growing tired of having his mother, Pattie Mallette, around twenty-four hours a day. “Justin is starting to grow up and is not happy having his mother shadow him while at home and on tour. He feels that he is old enough to venture out on his own and it makes him feel like a little kid when his mother is always around. He thinks it might not be cool for a kid his age to hang around his mother as much.” Justin is guided through every step of his waking day by managers telling him about everything from what to eat, what to wear, when to sleep, when to work, and what to say. He feels like he has become the very thing he has told is fans he is not – a machine created to sing and make money for the people around him and a music producer’s record label. “He feels like h e has lost a lot of control and everything he does is now about keeping the image, and the machine, moving forward. People book things on his schedule months in advance and he has little time to just relax and be a kid. He travels almost %100 of the time”. His biggest fear is getting sick and not being able to perform because he doesn’t want to let anybody down. He knows on any given day there may be a hundred people earning their paycheck from the “Bieber Machine”. Overseas trips are the worst as somebody on the team is always getting sick from the 5,000 mile flight. “He is also tired of all the scrutiny in his life. In the beginning everybody thought he was gay, and then when he started dating Selena Gomez everybody wanted to kill her!” Bieber tries to play the role of “I’m just a kid who sings”, but now that he is seventeen he is starting to see that those days are gone and that his celebrity status is going to follow him a long time wherever he goes. He is starting to see the payoff for his success – and that payoff is not having much of a normal life. And contrary to what he has told every interview host, he does get tired of the screaming girls – and frequently wears earplugs in public to drown out the noise. “They are always screaming. You can hear them outside the hotel at 6:00 in the morning and at 11:00 at night. Every time he gets out of a car he has to be rushed by a crowed that is screaming at him. It gets old. At first he was great with it, but now you can see it in his eyes – he is growing tired.” But somehow we suspect that Bieber will find his inner strength and push through the drudgery. Not everybody gets this chance to live out their dream – and we’re sure he realizes that as well and is enjoying the good more than he is hating the bad. Related: Bieber manager Scooter Braun Picks Up Another Young Celebrity Talent Visit InfoStar Celebrity Blog More here: Is Justin Bieber Tiring of the Fame and Fortune? Friends Say He Is Growing More and More Frustrated
Even good things can seem bad when there is too much of it too fast. This is what some insiders are saying about teen sensation Justin Bieber and his meteoric rise to fame. But some people close to the singer are starting to quietly come forward telling of a young man growing increasingly frustrated at the world of celebrity stardom. Bieber’s biggest complaint? No privacy. He is followed now by two body guards every place he goes and there is security outside his door while on the road in Hotels. “People are ALWAYS around him. Changing his close, messing with his hair, taping microphone wires too him, move here, stand there kind of thing. When he moves around, he always moves with a team of people”. They also say Justin is growing tired of having his mother, Pattie Mallette, around twenty-four hours a day. “Justin is starting to grow up and is not happy having his mother shadow him while at home and on tour. He feels that he is old enough to venture out on his own and it makes him feel like a little kid when his mother is always around. He thinks it might not be cool for a kid his age to hang around his mother as much.” Justin is guided through every step of his waking day by managers telling him about everything from what to eat, what to wear, when to sleep, when to work, and what to say. He feels like he has become the very thing he has told is fans he is not – a machine created to sing and make money for the people around him and a music producer’s record label. “He feels like h e has lost a lot of control and everything he does is now about keeping the image, and the machine, moving forward. People book things on his schedule months in advance and he has little time to just relax and be a kid. He travels almost %100 of the time”. His biggest fear is getting sick and not being able to perform because he doesn’t want to let anybody down. He knows on any given day there may be a hundred people earning their paycheck from the “Bieber Machine”. Overseas trips are the worst as somebody on the team is always getting sick from the 5,000 mile flight. “He is also tired of all the scrutiny in his life. In the beginning everybody thought he was gay, and then when he started dating Selena Gomez everybody wanted to kill her!” Bieber tries to play the role of “I’m just a kid who sings”, but now that he is seventeen he is starting to see that those days are gone and that his celebrity status is going to follow him a long time wherever he goes. He is starting to see the payoff for his success – and that payoff is not having much of a normal life. And contrary to what he has told every interview host, he does get tired of the screaming girls – and frequently wears earplugs in public to drown out the noise. “They are always screaming. You can hear them outside the hotel at 6:00 in the morning and at 11:00 at night. Every time he gets out of a car he has to be rushed by a crowed that is screaming at him. It gets old. At first he was great with it, but now you can see it in his eyes – he is growing tired.” But somehow we suspect that Bieber will find his inner strength and push through the drudgery. Not everybody gets this chance to live out their dream – and we’re sure he realizes that as well and is enjoying the good more than he is hating the bad. Related: Bieber manager Scooter Braun Picks Up Another Young Celebrity Talent Visit InfoStar Celebrity Blog More here: Is Justin Bieber Tiring of the Fame and Fortune? Friends Say He Is Growing More and More Frustrated
Can you guess which celebrity stands amongst his/her fellow students in this 1994 – 1995 kindergarten class photo? Check the gallery below for the answer! SOURCE RELATED: Chris Brown “Talk Ya Ear Off” (Produced By Timbaland) [NEW MUSIC] RELATED: Chris Brown’s New Lambo [PHOTO] RELATED: Chris Brown Gets His First Number One Album RELATED: Chris Brown Performs On “Dancing With The Stars” RELATED: Chris Brown Is Driving His Neighbors Crazy
‘I didn’t want to miss this opportunity to document this once-in-a-lifetime experience,’ pop diva says of the magazine photo shoot. By James Dinh Mariah Carey on the cover of Life & Style magazine Photo: Life & Style Like quite a few celebrities-turned-mothers before her, Mariah Carey has shed her clothes at the height of her pregnancy for an intimate photo shoot. For the new issue of Life & Style magazine, which hits newsstands on Friday, the powerhouse diva offers some candid belly-baring images and opens up about her journey to motherhood. “I was feeling very vulnerable about taking pictures at all right now, but then I didn’t want to miss this opportunity to document this once-in-a-lifetime experience,” the 42-year-old songbird told the mag. “My ultimate goal was to share this incredibly personal moment with my true fans.” On the cover, Carey poses with one arm high and the other across her very pregnant belly while her golden-blonde hair flows over her chest. Meanwhile, the singer apparently wasn’t the only one excited about the intimate photo shoot. Carey, who is pregnant with twins (a boy and a girl), revealed, “The babies were kicking almost the entire time; it was unbelievable. Especially the girl — clearly she’s a diva in training!” While the babies aren’t due for another few weeks, Carey and husband Nick Cannon were alerted just last week when contractions sent the singer to the hospital. She explained to Life & Style that her photo shoot was delayed due to their impromptu trip, saying, “We didn’t start shooting until 1:30 a.m. because I was in the hospital from the night before until the day of the shoot with contractions five minutes apart!” As her due date looms closer, Carey admitted that pregnancy has enlightened her to a brand-new perspective on motherhood. “Now I have so much respect for mothers everywhere, especially those who’ve had difficult pregnancies or given birth to multiples,” she said, adding, “We need to have Mother’s Day once a week!” Soon-to-be-father Cannon is also basking in the thrill of his twins’ impending arrival, telling the magazine that he thought he “couldn’t love Mariah more,” but admitting that he now has “a whole new appreciation and admiration for her.” Send your well-wishes to Mariah and Nick in the comments! Related Artists Mariah Carey
Wiz Khalifa’s Rolling Papers comes in at #2. By Gil Kaufman Britney Spears Photo: Jive Make it an even half dozen. With the chart-topping bow next week of Femme Fatale, Britney Spears will notch her sixth Billboard 200 #1 debut thanks to first-week sales of 276,000 for the pop diva’s seventh studio collection. Though it’s nearly half the 505,000 in sales the singer put up with 2008’s Circus, the debut easily outpaces the week’s #2 showing by Wiz Khalifa, whose Rolling Papers moved 197,000, according to figures provided by Nielsen SoundScan. Among the other debuts in the top 10 are the physical release of Radiohead’s latest, King of Limbs (#6, 69,000), Snoop Dogg ‘s Doggumentary (#8, 50,000) and Mary Mary ‘s Something Big, which rounds out the new titles at #10 on sales of 42,000. The rest of the top 10: Adele , 21 (#3, 94,000), Chris Brown , F.A.M.E. (#4, 91,000, down 66 percent), Songs for Japan (#5, 71,000), Jennifer Hudson , I Remember Me (#7, down 66 percent) and Kirk Franklin , Hello Fear (#9, 46,000). After debuting at #4 last week, the Strokes take a bit of a dive down to #18, as sales of Angles leveled off by 76 percent to 21,000. The hard-charging soundtrack to the critically panned fantasy film “Sucker Punch” actually rises nine spots in its second week to #22 on sales of 20,000. The soundtrack to the “Grey’s Anatomy: The Musical Event” episode comes in at #24 (19,000), while Sum 41 ‘s Screaming Bloody Murder inches on to the charts at #31 (15,000) and Panic! at the Disco plunge 25 places in week two to #32 with Vices & Virtues (15,000). A number of indie darlings also make their chart debuts, including the Mountain Goats with All Eternals Deck (#71, 9,000), the Pains of Being Pure at Heart , Belong (#91, 6,000) and Peter Bjorn and John , Gimme Some (#108, 6,000). Britney also tops the iTunes albums chart, edging out the Songs for Japan compilation, followed by Khalifa, Adele, the “Grey’s Anatomy” album, Mumford & Sons ‘ Sigh No More and albums by Brown, Radiohead, the self-titled effort from Sara Ramirez and the “Sucker Punch” soundtrack. Black Eyed Peas rule the iTunes singles chart with “Just Can’t Get Enough,” winning out over Katy Perry ‘s “E.T.,” Rihanna ‘s “S&M,” Perry’s “E.T.” without Kanye West, then Khalifa’s “No Sleep,” Brown’s “Look at Me Now,” Jennifer Lopez ‘s “On the Floor,” Adele’s “Rolling in the Deep,” Cee Lo Green ‘s “Forget You” and Lady Gaga ‘s “Born This Way.” Next week will see new albums from Foo Fighters , TV on the Radio , Paul Simon and Jessie J . Related Videos Britney Spears: I Am The Femme Fatale Related Photos Candid Moments From ‘Britney Spears: I Am The Femme Fatale’ Britney Spears Brings Down The House In Las Vegas Related Artists Britney Spears
Low rise jeans for men is a style that has been around for some time now.But Justin Bieber took the trend a bit too far and nearly lost his trousers on the streets of Spain yesterday.Despite wearing a studded belt, the 17-year-old heartthrob was forced to keep hiking up his pesky pants . And luckily there wasn’t a throng of female fans that are usually on hand to witness the sighting.Because Bieber exposed more than he bargained for with his backside covered by some purple material on display. Justin paired his urban look with an oversized red sweater and a baseball cap by Obey – a popular street-wear label founded by American contemporary artist Shepard Fairey. The teen star accessorised the look with some black high-top sneakers and a large diamond encrusted medallion – popular with many famous rap stars such as Pharrell Williams and Snoop Dogg. He was spotted in the outfit whilst grabbing a snack at McDonald’s in the capital of Madrid.Accompanied by burly minders, the Never Say Never Star indulged in a beverage while one of the bodyguards carried some lunch. Some say that the ultra-low-rise pants look for young men originated in jails, where prisoners aren’t allowed to wear belts. But it’s has turned into fashion statement these days with many young boys embracing the trend. Justin also donned a similar look for the Spanish premiere of his popular film Never Say Never this evening.He wore another pair of low slung jeans in light grey which he paired with a matching hoodie by Kings Rowe and some trainers.Justin is in Spain for two shows of his My World tour.But whilst busy with his day job, the singer has found time to have fun too. Yesterday he proved himself to be something of a natural left-foot as he took to the football pitch. He was spotted working up a sweat in a Barcelona FC kit on the outskirts of Madrid.After tearing up the AstroTurf for a while the star managed to score a goal as he competed against some local teens. Related Posts: Justin Bieber attends Never Say Never Premiere in Paris Justin Bieber pitch as he leaves devoted French fans sobbing in his wake Justin Bieber: I’m Growing a Mustache Justin Drew Bieber Ooh la la! Nicole Scherzinger spices up her wardrobe with VERY tight leather trousers as she hits Paris Follow this link: Justin’s trousers fall down in public
Low rise jeans for men is a style that has been around for some time now.But Justin Bieber took the trend a bit too far and nearly lost his trousers on the streets of Spain yesterday.Despite wearing a studded belt, the 17-year-old heartthrob was forced to keep hiking up his pesky pants . And luckily there wasn’t a throng of female fans that are usually on hand to witness the sighting.Because Bieber exposed more than he bargained for with his backside covered by some purple material on display. Justin paired his urban look with an oversized red sweater and a baseball cap by Obey – a popular street-wear label founded by American contemporary artist Shepard Fairey. The teen star accessorised the look with some black high-top sneakers and a large diamond encrusted medallion – popular with many famous rap stars such as Pharrell Williams and Snoop Dogg. He was spotted in the outfit whilst grabbing a snack at McDonald’s in the capital of Madrid.Accompanied by burly minders, the Never Say Never Star indulged in a beverage while one of the bodyguards carried some lunch. Some say that the ultra-low-rise pants look for young men originated in jails, where prisoners aren’t allowed to wear belts. But it’s has turned into fashion statement these days with many young boys embracing the trend. Justin also donned a similar look for the Spanish premiere of his popular film Never Say Never this evening.He wore another pair of low slung jeans in light grey which he paired with a matching hoodie by Kings Rowe and some trainers.Justin is in Spain for two shows of his My World tour.But whilst busy with his day job, the singer has found time to have fun too. Yesterday he proved himself to be something of a natural left-foot as he took to the football pitch. He was spotted working up a sweat in a Barcelona FC kit on the outskirts of Madrid.After tearing up the AstroTurf for a while the star managed to score a goal as he competed against some local teens. Related Posts: Justin Bieber attends Never Say Never Premiere in Paris Justin Bieber pitch as he leaves devoted French fans sobbing in his wake Justin Bieber: I’m Growing a Mustache Justin Drew Bieber Ooh la la! Nicole Scherzinger spices up her wardrobe with VERY tight leather trousers as she hits Paris Follow this link: Justin’s trousers fall down in public
‘It’s all about competition,’ he tells MTV News about Magnum-sponsored freestyle contest whose winner will get to perform with Luda. By Alvin Blanco Ludacris at the “Live Large Project 2” competition on Monday Photo: Dave Kotinsky/ Getty Images Ludacris is a marquee hip-hop artist but he has no problem lending aspiring rappers a hand. On Monday, the Atlanta-based MC/actor was at New York City’s Highline Ballroom for the Magnum-sponsored Live Large Project 2, a hip-hop/freestyle competition that gives contestants a shot at a cash prize and the chance to perform alongside Luda at Springfest 2011 in Miami. It’s the second year Luda has participated in the event, and the Disturbing Tha Peace Records founder said it always makes him remember his days as a hungry unknown. “I remember being an aspiring artist and up-and-coming rapper and wishing I had opportunities like the one that Magnum Live Large Project is giving out — $5,000, a trip to Miami, able to perform — all of these different things is good, man,” Luda told MTV News. “It’s all about competition. That’s what hip-hop is all about anyway.” The Highline stop was just one of four regional events that span the West Coast (Bay Area), South (Miami) and the Midwest (Detroit). The top three contestants from each region, as well as a fifth selected via YouTube, will make the trip to Miami to compete for the $5,000 prize. New York’s top three winners were Perelli, Renegade and Pumpkinhead, who won $1,000 for being the fan favorite. According to Ludacris, anyone who’s achieved his level of success should feel obligated to support events like this one and serve as a source of inspiration. “It’s definitely important for me to give back to MCs coming up,” he said.”That’s part of the reason we do what we do. You can never forget where you come from or how you came up. I’m very excited to be doing this. And don’t get it twisted, I’m getting inspired my damn self by watching the up-and-coming rappers and it’s making me realize and remember back in the day when I was the same way.” A rap industry neophyte that Ludacris thinks highly of and can relate to is Big K.R.I.T . After making strides independently, the Meridian, Mississippi, rapper and producer signed with Luda’s label home, Def Jam, last year and recently released a new mixtape, Return of 4Eva. Luda, along with Bun B, makes an appearance on the remix of “Country Sh–.” “When [Big K.R.I.T.] speaks, you can feel his heart,” Luda told us. “His heart is on the outside of his chest. He’s talking about his experience and being from the South and being from Mississippi. Just respecting the fact that he’s the production side as well as spilling his heart out on the beats, I can respect that.” Ludacris is working on his eighth album, Ludaversal, due out later this year. Related Artists Ludacris
‘When I’m playing ‘Firework,’ the whole arena literally moves up and down,’ she tells MTV News. By Jocelyn Vena, with reporting by Sway Calloway Katy Perry Photo: MTV News Katy Perry has been hitting the road on her California Dreams World Tour , which hits the States in June. Her colorful live show includes costumes to match and choice cuts plucked from the singer’s repertoire. Some of those tunes, specifically songs from last year’s Teenage Dream, are proving to be more than just a good time for fans — they’re also inspirational. “I always want to be completely honest and, for this record in particular, I knew from the outside world, a lot had changed. [But] I was hoping that I was still the same me, [the] kind of quirky, weird-perspective girl that I’ve always been,” she told MTV News recently. “But you know, there was a lot of distraction and glitz and glam. When you get to a certain point, you have to push it all away and remember what your core is, and that’s what I did for this record.” So, before she hit the road or the recording studio, Perry headed home to Santa Barbara, California, and took it all back to the beginning, before she was a famous pop star with an over-the-top life. “I started writing songs like ‘Firework’ and ‘Teenage Dream’ and songs that I think now are anthems for people,” she explained. “When I’m playing ‘Firework,’ the whole arena literally moves up and down. It’s the song that people are holding onto and inspired by.” Perry admitted that something as simple as a Hollywood party can be fun fodder for a song, but these days she likes to go a little deeper. “I feel really happy that I took that time to not write about DJs and fame, the materialistic world, which is great ’cause I love those glitz-and-glamour bells and whistles, but I know people connect to more substantial [lyrics].” Which Katy Perry song are you most eager to hear her perform live? Let us know in the comments! Related Videos MTV News Extended Play: Katy Perry Related Artists Katy Perry
