Maybe you can’t quite ask Woody Harrelson anything , but at least he has a forthcoming contemporary in Russell Crowe. The Oscar-winner recently leveled with fans on Twitter, acknowledging his and Liam Neeson’s interest in Darren Aronofsky’s biblical epic Noah while putting a swift, certain and severe end to speculation that he may participate in a RoboCop . Anyway, now you know. If only it could always be this easy. Tweets, not trades, Hollywood! [ @russellcrowe via The Playlist ] @russellcrowe Is there any truth to these rumors of you being involved in “Robocop”? Fri Feb 03 07:11:04 via web John Dotson DRockDot @DRockDot no Fri Feb 03 07:12:32 via web Russell Crowe russellcrowe Follow S.T. VanAirsdale on Twitter . Follow Movieline on Twitter .
A gaggle of right-wing functionaries is furious with Clint Eastwood and Chrysler, with no less than Karl Rove calling out the actor-director- inspirational halftime huckster for a Super Bowl ad that Rove and others perceived as a thinly veiled reelection endorsement for President Obama. Wait, what ? The shit hit the fan Monday afternoon when Rove took to Fox News to protest the epic TV spot, arguing that… honestly, I have no idea. Big Hollywood’s John Nolte offered the most succinct explanation of conservative outrage — “Because Obama’s decided to eliminate moral hazard and socialize losses for anyone who employs the unions who fund his campaigns, Chrysler obviously wrote a thinly veiled thank you in the form of a reelection ad for their benefactor, and convinced a Republican icon to deliver it” — but things just got straight-up surreal with Rove (via EW ): Watch the latest video at video.foxnews.com “Chicago-style politics”? Excuse me? If anything, this is Detroit politics (or economics, really), and to think Eastwood would just overlook the potential implications therein for the simple sake of a rah-rah Super Bowl message is to underestimate a pretty smart guy who once made it a two-year mission of his life to emphasize the benefits of business over politics . Anyway, Eastwood’s manager offered a beleaguered defense (“People have to understand that what he was doing was saying to America, ‘Get yourselves together – all of you – and make this a second half.’ It’s not a political thing”), but the best part came when Eastwood himself reached out to O’Reilly Factor producer Ron Mitchell to defuse the conspiracy theories, hype, conjecture, invective and the rest of it: “I just want to say that the spin stops with you guys, and there is no spin in that ad. On this I am certain. l am certainly not politically affiliated with Mr. Obama. It was meant to be a message about just about job growth and the spirit of America. I think all politicians will agree with it. I thought the spirit was OK. I am not supporting any politician at this time. Chrysler to their credit didn’t even have cars in the ad. Anything they gave me for it went for charity. If any Obama or any other politician wants to run with the spirit of that ad, go for it.” Love. It. It’s like, “Screw you and your panic; there’s plenty of room up here for anyone who wants to join me on the high road.” Now Obama doesn’t have to say a word, and the conservatives are left to either embrace the “let’s fix this” spirit that they just implicitly ascribed to the president or oppose it as a matter of ideological course — which would just reinforce the ad’s criticism of “the fog, the division, the discord and blame” crippling our discourse. Whoops! I’m still not buying a Chrysler, but hey. This is turning out all right! Follow S.T. VanAirsdale on Twitter . Follow Movieline on Twitter .
Saturday afternoon, a flash mob took over Times Square in New York City to honor the memory of “Soul Train” creator Don Cornelius . Playing 70′s classics like The Jackson Five’s “Don’t Stop Til You Get Enough”, some fans really got into the spirit by donning Afro wigs and roller skates and grooved down the now classic “soul train” line. Cornelius, 75, was found dead in his Los Angeles home this past Wednesday, reportedly from an apparent suicide. Watch festivities below: RELATED POSTS: Don Cornelius, 75, Found Dead In An Apparent Suicide Celebrities React to Death of Don Cornelius Don Cornelius’ Ex To Pocket His Life Insurance Policy
Saturday afternoon, a flash mob took over Times Square in New York City to honor the memory of “Soul Train” creator Don Cornelius . Playing 70′s classics like The Jackson Five’s “Don’t Stop Til You Get Enough”, some fans really got into the spirit by donning Afro wigs and roller skates and grooved down the now classic “soul train” line. Cornelius, 75, was found dead in his Los Angeles home this past Wednesday, reportedly from an apparent suicide. Watch festivities below: RELATED POSTS: Don Cornelius, 75, Found Dead In An Apparent Suicide Celebrities React to Death of Don Cornelius Don Cornelius’ Ex To Pocket His Life Insurance Policy
‘It’s such a timecapsule of the spirit of our creativity.’ singer tweeted. By Christina Garibaldi with additional reporting by Andréa Duncan-Mao Lady Gaga in Japan Photo: Jun Sato/WireImage It’s a merry Christmas for all of Lady Gaga ‘s Little Monsters. Mother Monster herself played Santa to all her fans when she presented them with an unreleased song at midnight on Christmas Day. “Been racking my brain on what to get Little Monsters for Christmas!! I finally figured it out!!” Gaga tweeted on December 22. “On Christmas Day I will leak to you an unreleased Song off Born This Way! It was recorded live, in one take, on the tour bus. Uncensored.” “Stuck on F***in You,” which was recorded on the road in Minnesota during her Monster Ball tour, captures the feeling of a late-night jam session, where Gaga’s voice soars over just a guitar and drum machine. It’s a stripped down, bluesy joint that showcases her humor and flair for improvisation. “We were all wasted on the bus making records,” Gaga tweeted Saturday (December 24) night, “It’s such a timecapsule of the spirit of our creativity. I wrote, sang and freestyled the last minute + half of the song.” Gaga is spending at least part of her holidays abroad. “Well, I’ll be in Japan right up until Christmas Day,” Gaga told MTV News earlier this month. “So I’ll be eating with all my Japanese Little Monsters. I like shabu shabu [a form of Japanese hot pot].” Lady Gaga, who was MTV News’ Top Newsmaker of 2011 , will be ringing in the new year in her hometown of New York. The “Marry the Night” singer , along with Justin Bieber , Nicki Minaj , LMFAO and Florence and the Machine, will watch the ball drop at the 40th annual “Dick Clark’s New Year’s Rockin’ Eve.” The event will be hosted by Ryan Seacrest, with appearances by Fergie and Jenny McCarthy. Related Artists Lady Gaga
The judges are not ready to crown Melanie Amaro X Factor champion just yet. Following one of Chris Rene’s two performances last night, Nicole Scherzinger and Paula Abdul jokingly argued about whether or not he looks like $1 million on stage… or $5 million the grand prize that will be awarded to next week’s winner. Does Rene have the best voice in the competition? No. But his spirit “transcends across the universe,” according to Scherzinger. That, or he’s just very good looking, right, ladies? Watch Chris cover “Fly” and “No One” now: Chris Rene – Fly Chris Rene – No One
For the past three decades, Anthony Robbins has served as an advisor to leaders around the world. A recognized authority on the psychology of leadership, negotiations, organizational turnaround, and peak performance, he has been honored consistently for his strategic intellect and humanitarian endeavors. His nonprofit Anthony Robbins Foundation provides assistance to inner-city youth, senior citizens, and the homeless, and feeds more than three million people in 56 countries every year through its international holiday “Basket Brigade.” Robbins has directly impacted the lives of more than 50 million people from over 100 countries with his best-selling books, multimedia and health products, public speaking engagements, and live events. http://www.youtube.com/v/Fu1tirKjF4k?version=3&f=videos&app=youtube_gdata Follow this link: The Power Of Belief (by Anthony Robbins)
To celebrate the 20th anniversary of the iconic album, we crunch the numbers to measure its huge impact. By James Montgomery Kurt Cobain Photo: Michel Linssen/Redferns Twenty years ago today (September 24), Nirvana released Nevermind, and the world hasn’t been the same since. The album would go on to usher in rock’s great renaissance, cause a seismic shift in popular culture, bring the underground to the mainstream and make unwilling stars out of three rather scruffy guys from the Pacific Northwest (OK, so Dave Grohl was technically from Northern Virginia, but he lived in Seattle while they were making the album). And while we’d like to say the earth shifted slightly on its axis the moment that first box of Nevermind s was cracked open, we’d be exaggerating. Back then, Nirvana were relative unknowns, and with popular music dominated by the likes of Whitney Houston, Natalie Cole and Color Me Badd (not to mention rock behemoths like Metallica and Guns N’ Roses), the odds of them making an impact of any sort seemed long, at best. Of course, we all know how things turned out. All week long, we’ve been paying tribute to Nevermind ‘s 20th anniversary on MTVNews.com, but today, the album’s actual birthday, we’ve decided to honor its legacy in a slightly different way: by crunching the numbers. Because unlike the countless biographies, as-told-to features and behind-the-scenes tell-alls that came in the album’s wake, the numbers don’t exaggerate: Nevermind was (and still is) huge. Even if it probably never was supposed to be. Here are some vital stats about Nirvana’s seminal album: 7,305 : Number of days since Nevermind was released. In case you’re wondering, that’s 175,320 hours, or 10,519,200 minutes, or 631,152,000 seconds. 46,521 : Number of copies of Nevermind originally shipped to retailers by Geffen Records, which hoped the album would eventually sell 200,000 copies. 144 : Nevermind’s debut position on the Billboard Top 200. 9 : Number of weeks after its release that Nevermind was certified platinum (for shipment of 1 million units) by the Recording Industry Association of America. 1 : Nevermind ‘s position on the Billboard Top 200 during the week of January 11, 1992, when it overtook Michael Jackson’s Dangerous to become the nation’s highest-selling album. 253 : Total number of weeks Nevermind spent on the Billboard Top 200. 30 million : Number of copies Nevermind has sold, worldwide. In the U.S., it’s certified as diamond by the RIAA, for shipment of 10 million copies. 0 : Number of Grammys Nevermind won (it was nominated for two). 4:30 : Total length of first single, “Smells Like Teen Spirit.” The album version runs 5:01, making it the second-longest song on Nevermind (after aptly named hidden track “Endless, Nameless”). 9 : Number of times Kurt Cobain shouts “a denial” at the end of “Smells Like Teen Spirit.” 6 : Highest position “Smells Like Teen Spirit” held on the Billboard Hot 100 singles chart. $670 million : Amount, in cash and stock, Colgate-Palmolive paid to acquire Mennen, manufacturers of Teen Spirit anti-perspirant, in February 1992, six months after the release of “Smells Like Teen Spirit.” 2 : Fragrances of Teen Spirit currently available: “Sweet Strawberry” and “Pink Crush.” During the height of the brand’s popularity, there were as many as 10. $30,000-$50,000 : Estimated budget of the “Smells Like Teen Spirit” video . $7 million : Estimated budget of Michael and Janet Jackson’s “Scream” video, widely reported to be the most expensive of all time. 18-25 : Age of extras in the “Smells Like Teen Spirit” video, according to the casting call . Extras were instructed to “adapt a high-school persona, i.e. preppy, punk, nerd, jock” and “be prepared to stay for several hours.” 4 : Number of nominations “Smells Like Teen Spirit” received at the 1992 MTV Video Music Awards. It won two, for Best Alternative Video and Best New Artist in a Video. 1 : Number of nominations “Weird” Al Yankovic’s “Smells Like Nirvana” received at the same show. $50,000,000 : Amount earned by the Kurt Cobain Estate in 2006, when he topped Forbes magazine’s annual Top-Earning Dead Celebrities list 12 years after his suicide. MTV News reveals the Nevermind You Never Knew , celebrating the 20th anniversary of Nirvana’s definitive album with classic footage, new interviews and much more.
Onetime ‘120 Minutes’ host Dave Kendall relives that Sunday night the generation-defining clip debuted. By James Montgomery, with reporting by Andréa Duncan-Mao Kurt Cobain Photo: Frank Micelotta/Getty Images On September 29, 1991, Nirvana’s “Smells Like Teen Spirit” video premiered on MTV’s “120 Minutes,” an event that, in the years that followed, would come to signify the beginning of rock’s great renaissance and usher in a cultural shift that would define a generation. Of course, back then, it was just another video on another Sunday night, and no one — not even “120” host Dave Kendall — thought otherwise. “I have to say, quite honestly, as soon as I heard that record and saw that video, I had no idea they were going to be as huge as they were,” he laughed. “I was very, very impressed. I was moved but I really didn’t have any idea it would explode to the extent it did. There’s the truth.” To be fair, no one did. And so, in celebration of the 20th anniversary of the album “Teen Spirit” was meant to promote — Nevermind, of course — MTV News spoke with Kendall about the days before Nirvana became the biggest band in the world and about the alt-rock explosion that followed in their immediate wake. Needless to say, once “Teen Spirit” hit, everything changed and, as host of “120,” he had a front-row seat for all of it. “At that time, most of the music ‘120’ was playing was quite separate from the rest of MTV. Some stuff had crossed over — like, we played Midnight Oil, we played Sinead O’Connor, we played Depeche Mode, the Cure — but a lot of our stuff was really closeted. It was still in this ‘alternative’ genre,” he explained. “So the mood in the building at that point was ‘Some alternative acts might cross over, the others wouldn’t.’ Like, if MTV had known that Nirvana was going to be as huge as they [were], they would’ve world-premiered the video in prime time, not late-night Sunday on ‘120 Minutes.’ But then, I didn’t know either!” And how could he? After all, since creating “120 Minutes” in 1986 (and beginning hosting duties soon after), Kendall had been focused on trying to find bands he loved — “I was a bit stuck in my Anglo-centric, industrial, techno-pop mode,” he laughed — and hadn’t been paying attention to the storm that was brewing in the Pacific Northwest. So when the “Teen Spirit” video appeared at MTV, he’d never even heard of the band that would subsequently change the world. “I hadn’t heard Bleach, I wasn’t that aware of new, American rock … when I first heard the Nevermind record,” he said. “I thought it was going to be another Seattle record, so I was a little suspicious and a little resistant to it because I thought it was going to be a lot of guitars, sort of a ’70s feel. I didn’t think it was going to be something new,” he continued. “And then when I heard it, I knew I’d been wrong. It wasn’t just heavy, it wasn’t just rock, it was real melancholy, real passion, real vulnerability, the way it married intense rage with deep melancholy and sadness. And that really touched me.” Little did Kendall know that within a year the “Smells Like Teen Spirit” video would help bring “120 Minutes” to the mainstream and forever alter the show’s playlist too. It’s little wonder, then, that he’d leave the show the following year, though, with the benefit of 20 years’ worth of hindsight, he can finally appreciate everything that happened following the premiere of that one little video. And, much like the rest of us, Kendall’s still amazed by it all. “It definitely changed the landscape of alternative music at that point. It had become slightly more guitar-heavy over the previous couple of years, partly because of the Seattle grunge influence, but that was the record that ushered in the ‘grunge era’ into the ‘alternative mainstream,’ ” he said. “It brought guitars back into the music, and took the emphasis away from keyboards and synthesizers. It was gutsy and heavy and authentic, and that’s what changed the landscape. Nirvana opened people’s eyes.” Stick with MTV News as we reveal the Nevermind You Never Knew , celebrating the 20th anniversary of Nirvana’s definitive album with classic footage, new interviews and much more. Related Artists Nirvana
‘I probably felt at that time that I was rebelling and I could associate myself with that,’ Weezy tells MTV News of Seattle grunge band. By Rob Markman Lil Wayne Photo: MTV News Long before Lil Wayne was living his rock-star dreams onstage, he was at home — like many other kids his age — rocking out to Nirvana . “I was a real big fan of that,” Weezy told MTV News’ Sway after his MTV “Unplugged” taping earlier this year. The multiplatinum rapper — who released his first rock-inspired album Rebirth in 2010 — recalled the impact that Krist Novoselic, Dave Grohl and Kurt Cobain had on him. It all started with The Box, a now-defunct cable station that was fueled by fans’ phoned-in music video requests. For Wayne, it was rare to see a rock and roll video, especially one that he could identify with. ” ‘Smells Like Teen Spirit’ was one of the only rock songs that would come on, and you’ll be like, ‘That one is OK, I can deal with that one,’ ” he recalled. On Saturday, the Seattle grunge band’s breakout album, Nevermind, turns 20 . And while singles like “Come as You Are,” “Lithium” and “In Bloom” helped make Nevermind a classic, it was “Smells Like Teen Spirit” that made music fans across the world take notice. Nirvana was bigger than just rock. Maybe it was the loud guitars, the punk-style wardrobe or Cobain’s long hair, but something attracted Wayne when he first saw the video as a kid in 1991. Interestingly enough, the Cash Money Billionaire now plays guitar , dresses with a punk-inspired swag and swings his long dreads onstage. But if you let Weezy tell it, it’s the lyrics to “Teen Spirit” that he most identified with. “Because I was young and I actually listened to the lyrics, and I probably felt at that time that I was rebelling and I could associate myself with that and relate to the things [Cobain] was talking about and speaking about in the song,” Tunechi remembered. “I probably couldn’t, but I thought I could.” Share your memories of Nevermind in the comments below! Stick with MTV News all week as we reveal the Nevermind You Never Knew , celebrating the 20th anniversary of Nirvana’s definitive album with classic footage, new interviews and much more. Related Videos Nirvana: The Nevermind You Never Knew Related Artists Nirvana Lil Wayne
