‘He could beat me up, so I can’t say anything,’ Cobra drummer Nate Novarro says of Bieber hopping on his kit before VMAs. By James Montgomery Justin Bieber (file) Photo: Getty Images Anyone who was inside the J.W. Marriott in downtown Los Angeles during rehearsals for the 2011 Video Music Awards pre-show can surely attest to two things: the catchiness of Cobra Starship’s “You Make Me Feel …” (especially since they sound-checked it roughly 52 dozen times) and the fact that, during a quick break from all that sound-checking, Justin Bieber totally snuck behind the band’s drum kit and let it rip. Bieber, of course, was there to support his girlfriend, Selena Gomez , who was serving as MTV News’ special pre-show correspondent, and he’s definitely no stranger to the occasional drum solo , so the whole thing sort of made sense (though, to be fair, pretty much everyone who saw it go down couldn’t believe their eyes). But, when we caught up with Cobra Starship backstage at the Fueled by Ramen 15th anniversary show in New York on Wednesday, we had to ask them: Were they aware of Bieber’s impromptu drum performance? And, more importantly, did they take umbrage to it? “I heard about that, that Justin Bieber was playing our kit,” Cobra bassist Alex Suarez laughed. “It’s a rental,” drummer Nate Novarro added. Of course, you’ll notice that Novarro didn’t say whether Bieber’s actions angered him. Is the drum kit, much like the pitcher’s mound , a sacred space in which only a select few dare tread? “Kind of, but [Bieber] could beat me up, so I can’t approach him and say anything,” Novarro said. It should be noted, however, that this is not the first time Bieber has hijacked Cobra Starship’s kit . At the 2009 Jingle Ball in Sacramento, California, he took the stage during the band’s set after frontman Gabe Saporta challenged him to a dance-off, but, since JB was still recovering from a broken foot , all he could do was sit down behind the drums and bang out a searing solo. And that, Novarro believes, set the precedent for the VMA pre-show incident. “He showed me what he could do, and it was good, so I was like, ‘You can come back and do it whenever you want,’ ” he said. “I think he just took full advantage of that.” And it was at that exact minute that Cobra guitarist Ryland Blackinton — perhaps wanting to quash any beef with the Biebs (especially since the two are set to tour Mexico and South America next month) — stepped in to diffuse the situation and let it be known that they were cool with any and all Bieber-related drum performances. “He didn’t overstep any boundaries,” Blackinton said. Phew. Related Artists Justin Bieber Cobra Starship
As part of our Fall Movie Preview, Shawn Levy reveals how he created the sci-fi sports drama’s authentic boxing matches. By Josh Wigler A scene from “Real Steel” Photo: Dreamworks Summer may be over, but the fall season still holds plenty of hot movies worth looking forward to. We’re celebrating the coming months of fantastic films all week long with MTV News’ Fall Movie Preview, starting with a sports drama mixed with a sci-fi twist: “Real Steel,” the robot boxing movie starring “Wolverine” leading man Hugh Jackman and “Lost” babe Evangeline Lilly, which opens on October 7. Click for exclusive photos from Fall’s biggest flicks. “Real Steel,” which takes place in a future where robots have replaced human athletes in the boxing arena, marks a serious departure for director Shawn Levy, in more ways than one. The director of the “Night at the Museum” films and “Date Night” is most commonly associated with the comedy genre. In “Real Steel,” he’s stepping into the ring with significantly more dramatic fare. MTV News chatted with the director about his experiences exploring a new genre, how the giant robots of “Real Steel” were constructed (hint: they’re more human than you realize) and much more. MTV : This movie feels like a big departure for you in a lot of ways, Shawn. Your past work has focused mostly on comedy, but “Real Steel” takes on a decidedly different tone. Was that the appeal for you, trying on something new? Shawn Levy : You know, comedy has been really good to me, but this was a deliberate departure. This is the kind of movie that I’ve been waiting to do. When I was editing “Date Night,” the call came in from [“Real Steel” producers] Steven Spielberg and Stacey Snider, and they said, “We’ve got this underdog sports movie with boxing robots.” Already when you have [those two] on the other line, you’re inclined to nudge towards “yes.” But I’ve always loved sports movies, I’ve always loved that kind of iconic underdog story which sports movies tend to service so well. This was a deliberate step and an exciting chance to stretch some new muscles. MTV : Well this definitely does fall into the sports drama category, but when you’re throwing giant robots into the mix, you’re getting something just a little bit different than what we’ve seen from the genre before. Was it tricky trying to service that sports drama audience while keeping the sci-fi elements in the forefront as well? Levy : Honestly, it was an every day balancing act, from the six months of working on the script, the eight months of preparing the movie and the four months of shooting it, and another six editing it. It was every day, making sure you’re servicing just the crazy, balls-out action of robots wailing on each other — and thankfully we had [boxing legend] Sugar Ray Leonard as our consultant for the fights, which was a really great guarantor [of quality]. I’ll digress for a moment, but what’s cool about this movie is that this isn’t computer animation. This is motion capture with real fighters in a real ring, consulting in the ring with me and Sugar Ray, wailing on each other in full contact. We took that captured fight as data and we converted it into robot avatars. That was a big thing. To do the movie as mo-cap instead of animation was a big choice. Mo-cap allows the director to direct a performance; it’s not left to the imagination of an animator that sometimes you don’t even meet. It was huge. Every day we were making sure the robots were cool-looking in terms of design and full-contact fighting. On the flip side, we could never forget that the movie is about Hugh Jackman’s character, first, last and always. The movie is really only 30 to 35 percent robot-based fighting, but it’s 100 percent anchored in Hugh Jackman playing this bot corner man and how he uses these machines to eventually get a shot at redemption. MTV : Which is interesting, because when you see Hugh in these movies with huge action elements, he’s usually very much at the center of those scenes. But that’s not exactly the case in this film, is it? Levy : Without giving too much away, he’s at the center in that … our hero robot, he ain’t the biggest, he ain’t the newest, he’s not state of the art. What he has is this connection that I won’t give away to Hugh’s character, such that Hugh plays a former boxer [named Charlie] whose knowledge of the human sport that used to exist is the advantage that his robot has over the others. Every robot in the movie is built with one gear: full-on ground and pound. This robot fighter is informed more by Charlie’s boxing history. So there’s a nuanced human flair, resulting in this robot and his connection to Jackman, who’s able to win fights he has no business winning. MTV : As a director, how did you establish that connection between Hugh and his fighter? These are the two leads of the film, really, but only one of them is played by an actual person — unless you leaned on motion-capture for most of the robot’s appearances? Levy : Well, this is where it gets really cool. In my first meeting with Steven Spielberg, he said to me, ” ‘Jurassic Park’ was a long time ago, before computers could do everything. We built real dinosaurs that moved. I know it’s an old-fashioned notion, but consider building real, fully animated animatronic robots.” So that’s one big difference on this movie: We built real robots. In the fight scenes, it’s me and Ray directing human boxers. But in every scene in the movie where Hugh is interacting with one of his robots, if that robot isn’t walking or boxing, it was a real, big, massively tall robot in the room on set and in the movie. It’s unreal. What happens is, whether you’re 10 or 40 years old, if you’re a guy, and you’re face to face with this robot that’s literally shadowing everything you do — it’s actually robotically operated from a remote feed — it’s just unbelievably cool, and it affects the performances in a way that you just don’t get … if you’re acting opposite a tennis ball on a stick. There’s no comparison. That was really the co-star. ATOM in particular was in the room with us every day. I’d direct ATOM, his puppeteer, in much the same way that I’d direct Hugh. It was really cool to work with [something practical] in this day and age, where everything that can be computer-generated usually is computer-generated. MTV : We’ve talked a lot about the technical side of making “Real Steel,” but let’s go back to the beginning: You wanted to carve out a different type of movie for yourself. How did you find the experience of going from the comedy world to something significantly more dramatic? Levy : The irony is that though I’ve made thankfully a number of successful comedies, if I were to name my top 20 favorite movies, maybe you’d find one comedy on there. My career has gone one way, but my tastes have always run another. Those tend to be dramas, action, sports. So what was really amazing was to do a movie where the pacing, tone and, most importantly, the aesthetics and performances, where all those elements were not in the service of the almighty laugh. They were in service of themselves. When you do comedy, the laugh always comes first. Maybe you’ll find a scene or sequence — and I can point to this in “Date Night” — where you’ll bracket it off and slow down the movie with something a bit more poignant. But to do a whole movie that was not first and foremost in the service of laughs was very, very different, and very, very liberating. From “Abduction” to “Muppets, “Moneyball” to “Breaking Dawn,” the MTV Movies team is delving into the hottest upcoming flicks in our 2011 Fall Movie Preview. Check back daily for exclusive clips, photos and interviews with the films’ biggest stars. Check out everything we’ve got on “Real Steel.” For breaking news, celebrity columns, humor and more — updated around the clock — visit MTVMoviesBlog.com . Related Photos Exclusive Photos From Fall’s Biggest Flicks
The infamous oak tree that Tiger Woods drove into that fateful night has met a fate similar to that of his golf career. It’s gone down hard. It was Thanksgiving night in November 2009 when Woods – hopped up on painkillers and reportedly fleeing Elin Nordegren – hopped in his Escalade and plowed into the tree, which sat in his neighbor’s yard. Well, new neighbors moved in recently and tore the thing down. The construction company that did the work on the property said the tree was in terrible shape ever since the crash. The new peeps decided to get rid of it in spite of (or perhaps because of) its status as a memento of Tiger’s affair with Rachel Uchitel . A new tree will be planted soon, according to TMZ . For now, though, there’s just a portable John sitting there, allowing workmen to relieve themselves on the very spot where Tiger Woods’ career went down the toilet. Downright poetic. [Photo: WENN]
That Usain stay making it rain!!! In one whirlwind week, Usain Bolt turned the biggest disappointment of his career into another golden show capped with a world record even he believed was not within him this year. After opening with a false start in 100 final last Sunday, Usain Bolt again produced the amazing in his closing race of the world championships – anchoring Jamaica to a world record in the 4
Akron football coach Rob Ianello scolded rookie Ohio State football coach Luke Fickell at midfield after the Buckeyes shutout the Zips 42-0 today in Columbus. (Video Credit: ESPN / ESPN3.com) Moments before the customary postgame handshake between the coaches, Fickell chose to run out the clock with three consecutive running plays with Ohio State running back Broadcasting platform : DailyMotion Source : SPORTSbyBROOKS Discovery Date : 03/09/2011 22:08 Number of articles : 2
Model Bar Refaeli poses for photographers on the “Carnage” red carpet at the 68th Venice Film Festival in Venice September 1, 2011. She has been demonstrating exactly why she is a Sports Illustrated cover girl soaking up the sunshine in Italy. And today Bar Refaeli stole the spotlight as she attended the premiere of Carnage at the Venice Film Festival this evening. The model looks simply stunning in a low cut black jumpsuit by Emilio Pucci which boasted lace detailing and a series of buttons
Ahhh boy, here we go! Former Michigan State wide receiver and current Flint Northwestern coach Andre Rison has been indicted by a federal grand jury in a child-support case in Arizona. The indictment accuses the 44-year-old Rison of failing to pay more than $10,000 between August 2008 and last month. A federal court has jurisdiction because Rison now lives in Mt. Morris, near Flint. He has been summoned to appear on Sept. 14 in U.S. District Court in Phoenix. The indictment says the due date for his payments had passed two years ago. The child lived in Arizona at the time the payments were due. No further information on the child was immediately available. Rison played 12 years in the NFL and was a five-time Pro Bowler. He was a member of the Green Bay Packers’ 1996 Super Bowl-winning team. C’mon bruh, take care of your kids! You’re lucky that your baby’s mother is a reasonable woman, ain’t no tellin’ what Left-Eye would’ve done. R.I.P. Lisa… Source
Welcome Jaime Collins — now Jaime Thomas into the real actual “Basketball Wives” Club . Charlotte Bobcats forward Tyrus Thomas traded vows with the lovely Jaime earlier this summer (July 9) at Louisiana’s Old State Capitol in Baton Rouge. Don’t they make a lovely couple? Keep flipping for more photos from their special day
Javaris Crittenton, the former shooting guard for Georgia Tech University and the Washington Wizards, is officially a wanted man. The 24-year old is accused of killing Jullian Jones on August 19, a mother of four, in a botched attempt to retaliate against the person who robbed him in April. Considered “armed and dangerous” by the Atlanta police, authorities have released the following poster of Crittenton: The FBI believes Crittenton is in Los Angeles and has put up a cash reward for information leading to his arrest. Meanwhile, Gilbert Arena – who actually drew guns with Crittenton inside the Washington locker room two years ago – has Tweeted the following in response to the case: I really wanna say sumthing but i wont becuz theirs a dead woman involved.
