Teenager who posted YouTube videos about his heart condition died on Christmas Day. By Andrea Duncan-Mao Kid Cudi Photo: MTV News Kid Cudi wrote on his blog that he “broke down” over the death of Ben Breedlove, an 18-year-old fan from Austin, Texas, who suffered a fatal heart attack on Christmas Day. Cudi heard about Breedlove after a pair of YouTube videos the fan made went viral before his death. In the videos, Breedlove silently holds up cards that tell the story of living with a heart condition called hypertrophic cardiomyopathy, which is a disease that causes the heart muscles to enlarge, making it difficult to pump blood properly. He says he “cheated death” three times: the most recent time in early December when EMTs used shock pads on his chest after his heart stopped. He described a vision of being in a white room and being with his “favorite rapper, Kid Cudi” wearing white suits and feeling “happy and peaceful” and he “couldn’t stop smiling.” He ended his videos with a card that read “Do you believe in God and angels? I do.” After watching the videos, Kid Cudi wrote: “I am so sad about Ben Breedlove. I watched the video he left for the world to see, and him seeing me in detail, in his vision really warmed my heart. I broke down, I am to tears because I hate how life is so unfair. This has really touched my heart in a way I cant describe, this is why I do what I do.” Cudi went on to say, “To Ben’s family, you raised a real hero, he’s definitely mine. You have my love.” Breedlove’s parents released an obituary in the Austin American-Statesman on Thursday (December 29) referencing the videos and writing, “Now the world has come to know our Ben. He was a genius at using the Internet to reach and influence his peers. … In the weeks prior to his death, he had faced some scary situations with his health, but had been given an amazing gift that he was determined to share; first with us, his family, and then, not surprisingly (and generously) with his YouTube audience.” Related Artists Kid Cudi
Still slaving over pixels, demographics, and writing. I trust that your extended weekend was better. An abbreviated news roundup as the rest of the news world took a few days off. » San Antonio Express-News: D.C. judges see Texas bias Standard disclaimer: you’re just not following redistricting’s legal round properly unless you’re reading Michael Li’s Broadcasting platform : Vimeo Source : GregsOpinion.com Discovery Date : 27/12/2011 14:35 Number of articles : 2
I found 2011 to be a great, overstuffed year in film, though the sweeping trend of nostalgia that peaked during this awards season left me a little cold. Hugo , War Horse , The Artist , The Adventures of Tintin , The Help , even the self-aware looking back of Midnight in Paris — when it’s been such a turbulent 12 months beyond the movies, the comfort of evoking the past, especially the cinephilic past, is understandable, particularly with attendance down once again. But the features I really loved tended to be more prickly, vital affairs, about tragedy and life messily, stubbornly going on in its aftermath — ones that reminded us that film can not only be a great escape, but can also engage and reflect the outside world. 10. Shame Steve McQueen’s sophomore effort took flack from some who found it moralizing in its portrayal of sex addiction, but it’s not a film about a condition, it’s a film about damage. Michael Fassbender plays a man who’s left a traumatic childhood behind and has shored himself up in the city that never sleeps with an immaculate condo and a high-powered job that almost hide his underlying desperation and his inability to connect or open up to anyone on anything other than a physical level. It’s one of the loneliest portraits of urban living I’ve ever seen. 9. Warrior The neglected blockbuster of our Occupy Wall Street era, Warrior drapes Rocky trappings over characters and settings more immediate than you’d ever expect at a multiplex. Its two brothers, in what should have been star-making turns from Tom Hardy and Joel Edgerton, head to the cage after taking beatings elsewhere — one’s left the Marines on less than ideal terms after the death of colleague, the other’s upside down on his mortgage and unable to support his family on a teacher’s salary. Add to that the fact that the tournament in which they both compete was started by a former Wall Street type putting up the money to see “who the toughest man on the planet is,” and you have a rousing, violent fight film with a seriously bittersweet edge. 8. The Arbor Andrea Dunbar grew up in run-down Bradford council estates, drank heavily, had three kids by different fathers, wrote a trio of acclaimed plays about the life she knew and died at age 29. Clio Barnard’s documentary about the playwright brilliantly stages its interviews as their own performance, lip-synched by actors in the settings in which Dunbar and her children grew up and lived, and offering a piercing glimpse of how tragedy is taken up — her second work Rita, Sue and Bob Too was made into a film directed by Alan Clarke — and passed down, to her heroin-addicted eldest Lorraine. 7. Certified Copy It’s never clear which part of Juliette Binoche’s antiques dealer and William Shimell’s writer’s relationship is the pretense — are they strangers who play at being married, or a married couple playing at meeting as strangers? The thesis of Shimell’s book may or may not line up with that of Abbas Kiarostami’s film — the relationship between art and reproduction, original and copy — but the figuring out, and the slippery nature of the connection the pair on screen, is delicious. 6. The Tree of Life It’s a film about a family that stretches from the beginning of the universe to a possible vision of the afterlife — if it may not be wholly lovable, its ambition alone should earn respect. But it’s the evocative immersion on childhood that lingered with me after Terrence Malick’s more grandiose imagery had faded, the tactile sense of that Texas street, the house, the endless possibility, uncertainty and wonder of being young and new to the world, the flashes of memory — the offering of a drink to a prisoner, the caress of a baby’s foot, the goading of a younger sibling to touch a light socket — that break up the more iconic moments with startling specificity. 5. Margaret Messy, vivid and wonderful, Kenneth Lonergan’s difficult production has become a critics’ cause, in part because of how tough it’s been to actually see. It’s worth the trouble, and in some ways better because of the long wait in reaching the few theaters it did — it now looks less like a movie about post-9/11 New York and more one about the city in all of its anonymous, chaotic glory, about a teenage girl’s first horrific brush with mortality and about the strange places that life leads us. 4. Take Shelter Few films have attempted to capture our age of anxiety like Jeff Nichols’s drama, about catastrophic dreams that may be caused by mental illness, but seem just as much to spring from the sense of uncertainty with which we’ve all been infected. Anchored by a stunning performance from Michael Shannon, Take Shelter presents a look at quiet breakdown spurred on by a desire to protect one’s loved ones, and pairs it with frightening scenes of monstrous storms and shadowy attackers that rival any of this year’s horror movies. 3. Into the Abyss Trust Werner Herzog to find stories so strange and moving in a terrible small-town triple murder over an automobile. The Texas of this film is recognizable, but it’s also near-mythic — a place of universally broken families, sudden violence, prison reunions and hard-earned redemption. Taken alone, the interviews with Melyssa Burkett or Jared Tolbert would be enough to make the film. As part of a kaleidoscope of suffering and hope, they’re highlights in something dark, funny and expressly moving about the persistence of human nature in the face of loss. 2. A Separation A marriage falls apart over the decision of whether or not to leave Iran in Asghar Farhadi’s magnificent drama, and encompasses in its disintegration a snapshot of the fractured nation that’s so nuanced, empathetic and complex it quickens the heart. Certainly the smartest film of the year, both as a self-contained work and in the respect it offers the audience, A Separation is unadorned by a score or flashy camera tricks — it doesn’t need them. 1. Melancholia The opposite of love isn’t hate, it’s indifference, and in Lars von Trier’s film it’s the awesome force of Kirsten Dunst’s depression-fueled disinterest that exudes a gravitational drag on everyone around here even before the arrival of the destructive planet of the title. Before the breathtaking apocalyptic imagery appears — the object looming closer in the sky, the static sparking from fingertips — Melancholia is already a devastating look at an illness that leaves you unable to connect to what life has to offer, even on an extravagant wedding day that seems to compress half a lifetime into a night. But it’s that the film turns to offer a sympathetic eye to Charlotte Gainsbourg’s anxious sibling in the second half that makes it great, and that gives it a soul. As she struggles to hold everything together in the face of approaching disaster, even Dunst’s depressive is moved to offer her a conciliatory gesture as the world ends. Follow Alison Willmore on Twitter . Follow Movieline on Twitter .
Singer’s death at age 27 and the comeback that never was is our #10 Newsmaker of the year. By Gil Kaufman Amy Winehouse Photo: Getty Images If I had gone to journalism school, I’m sure one of the first things they would have taught me was to remain objective in my reporting and not get too emotionally involved in the subjects I cover. But, just like the deaths of Kurt Cobain, Aaliyah and Sublime’s Brad Nowell, I cared more than was probably professionally prudent when I found out that Amy Winehouse had died . I didn’t personally know Winehouse, had never interviewed her and had only seen her perform a few times. But something about her titanic talent spoke to me, almost as much as the fascination I (and all of us, I suspect) had about her madcap, edge-of-a-knife life. We love reading (and writing) about the chaos of star’s lives because it allows us to live vicariously through the insanity they reap from the safety and security of our by-comparison tame lives. We shook our heads when she had that disastrous show in Belgrade in June, fearing that it meant we would have to wait even longer for her forever-gestating follow-up to her 2006 breakthrough second album, Back to Black. The news Winehouse had made since her 2008 Back to Black Grammy triumph was mostly bad — arrests, drug possession, punch-ups, divorce, rehab, canceled shows — but her pugnacious attitude and promise kept us interested. I was pulling for her because I know all too well from experience how this one usually ends. There was a part of me that couldn’t wait for Winehouse to defy the critics and stage a triumphant comeback that would surprise and delight us all over again. Once she passed, though, we paid tribute the only way we know how, with essays about her importance to music , shout-outs from contemporary acolytes like Katy Perry and Nicki Minaj and the cast of “Glee” ), a look back at her career highlights on MTV and as much information as we could give you about the details of her death. (That enduring interest in Winehouse’s legacy became the #10 Top Newsmaker of 2011 .) We wondered if there would be more music from the singer who’d only managed two studio albums before her death , measured her influence beyond “Rehab” and dug up every bit of tape we had to shed more light on her creative process . Because I wondered it myself, we also asked experts if sudden fame had crushed the fragile, troubled singer. And we told you everything we could about the VMA tribute to her featuring Bruno Mars and Russell Brand . Once her cause of death was revealed, the first question that needed to be answered was, “how is that even possible?” And when details were revealed about her first posthumous album , Lioness: Hidden Treasures, we spoke to everyone we could about the tracks , fearing it might be the last we’d hear from this suddenly silenced voice. We were as sad as you were, but we kept it together to bring you the news. Well, almost. In a Newsroom post, I reminisced about the first time I saw Winehouse perform, at the South By Southwest festival in Austin, Texas, in March 2007. I dug through the tens of thousands of pictures in my iPhoto folder to find the series of shots I’d snapped of her from just a few feet away at her Stateside debut. I remembered how blown away I was by the enormous, tear-stained sound coming from this tiny woman. I wrote about how I sometimes reveled in reporting on her bad behavior. But mostly, I admitted that like a lot of you, I’m just sad we won’t have Amy around anymore. How did Amy Winehouse’s death affect you? Share your thoughts below. MTV continues our Best of 2011 coverage by looking back at the biggest pop-culture stories of the year. As we count down the newsmakers that mattered to you most, also check out our Best Artists , Best Songs , Best MTV Live Performances and Best EDM Artists of 2011. Related Videos Amy Winehouse Remembered Related Artists Amy Winehouse
After Brad Womack famously selected no one in his first stint as The Bachelor , the Texas bar owner was brought back for a second go-around last winter. He got engaged to Emily Maynard, but that fizzled out before long. Now it’s Emily being sought by ABC to return for another stint on the reality franchise. In fact, the network has already asked her to be The Bachelorette, sources say, and despite her earlier lack of interest, “It’s basically a done deal.” Wow. Another source close to Emily Maynard , the single mom of six-year-old Ricki, tells Life & Style that while “she hasn’t signed the contract yet, she’s fully on board.” Since splitting with Brad in May after becoming engaged to him on The Bachelor season finale, the North Carolina product has been linked to various men. Jeremy Shockey of the NFL’s Carolina Panthers and Most Eligible Dallas cast member Matt Nordgren come to mind, though she has denied seriously dating either. Perhaps the allure of being The Bachelorette grew on her. “Emily is America’s sweetheart,” adds the source. “Fans will be thrilled! Everyone loved her.” True. If Emily doesn’t pan out, look for a castoff from Ben Flajnik’s season to fill the role ( The Bachelor spoilers we’ve read single out a few prospects). What do you think: Should Emily Maynard be The Bachelorette?
As July 20, 2012, release inches closer, how to keep some mystery. By Kara Warner Marion Cotillard and Christian Bale in “The Dark Knight Rises” Photo: Warner Bros. Gone are the days when moviegoers could arrive at a theater on opening day knowing almost nothing about what would unfold onscreen. Too much technology and the big, bad advertising/promotional machine have made it nearly impossible to avoid finding out about key plot points ahead of time. I don’t like it. Take all this crazy hullabaloo surrounding next year’s surefire crowd-pleaser “The Dark Knight Rises,” for example. Don’t get me wrong: I am as psyched about this movie as anyone; I just don’t want to know everything about it. So, in an effort to keep myself from stumbling across something I don’t want to, here is a handy guide for avoiding “The Dark Knight Rises” spoilers from now until the film’s July 20, 2012, release. 1. Take a Stand/Tell Your Friends I don’t know about you, but my film-obsessed friends are the worst offenders when it comes to spoilers. They’ll start conversations with, “Did you see [spoiler] in that teaser for [movie]?!?” Be proactive, and politely inform your nearest and dearest that you really and truly wish to remain as spoiler-free as possible — and that the future of your relationship depends upon it. 2. Stay Away From Social-Networking Sites This is tough one, living in this overly connected day and age of ours, but very important if you’re committed to the cause. If you have to be on Twitter and Facebook, try to limit your use on days when there is news or new videos announced or leaked about the flick. Be on the lookout for “spoiler-free” reportage, because as nice as it is to come across a “Spoiler Alert!” it’s often right in front of or next to the spoiler in question. Also, if you’ve followed through with item #1 on this list, your friends might do you a solid and avoid drawing your attention to their overly descriptive, excited reactions and remarks in their tweets and status updates. 3. Don’t Watch Trailers Once upon a time, watching the previews before a movie used to be as paramount to my film-going experience as seeing the full-length feature that followed them. That was up until a few years ago when studios started churning out five-minute reveal-all opuses that give away the best gags, lines, action sequences and cameos. I know that the new “Dark Knight Rises” trailer is amazing without watching it, and I’ll be following the protocol set with Nolan’s previous Batman films wherein I’ll watch the trailers after I see the film. Caveat: I will watch a trailer if I’ve read the source material, i.e. the book, graphic novel, self-help book upon which the film is based. Or if I’m forced to write about it, which leads to the next item … 4. Don’t Have a Job Covering Entertainment News Make no mistake, I love my job. Live for it, most days. The only thing worth complaining about is the state of being constantly over-informed. We journalists should go after and keep up with any and all pertinent information as it relates to our audience, but in doing so, we’re confronted with the proverbial double-edged sword in being too in-the-know. Plus, sometimes we’re invited to very special events and presentations with preview footage and conversations with filmmakers that cannot be ignored, as was the case with the early press screening of the “Dark Knight Rises” prologue I attended. 5. Be Realistic, or Move to El Paso Let’s face it: It’s nearly impossible to avoid all spoilers. You never know when a new TV spot will air, a photo will leak or your friends will strike up a conversation about Bane’s mumblings or Catwoman’s costume. Just as it seems ridiculous to obsess over uncovering spoilers, it’s probably equally unhealthy to rearrange your life to avoid them. But in making people aware of your wishes, limiting your social networking on certain newsy days and not watching trailers, it’s possible to walk into the theater on July 20 without having been exposed to the entire plot and future of the franchise. Or you can move to El Paso, Texas, which was recently named the least socially networked city in the United States and where you’re more likely to have a conversation about BBQ than Batman. Check out everything we’ve got on “The Dark Knight Rises.” For breaking news, celebrity columns, humor and more — updated around the clock — visit MTVMoviesBlog.com . Related Videos ‘Dark Knight Rises’ Trailer Decoded!
We’re very sorry, Dallas. But Lamar Odom, Khloe Kardashian and, it’s safe to assume, a full E! camera crew are headed your way. The Los Angeles Lakers finalized a trade with the Dallas Mavericks over the weekend, sending the reality star/power forward to Texas in exchange for a $8.9 million trade exception, as well as a protected first-round pick. Odom actually requested the deal because his feelings were hurt when the Lakers previously included him in a trade for Chris Paul. The NBA vetoed that exchange, leading Odom to whine to The Los Angeles Times : “You don’t want to go to no place you’re not wanted.” Khloe has said she’ll follow her man wherever he goes, while Kobe Bryant is sad to say goodbye to last year’s Sixth Man of the Year. “To be honest with you, I don’t like it,” the star two guard said. “It’s tough to lose Lamar. Pau [Gasol] is still here, and we’re all thankful for that. It’s hard when you’ve been through so many battles with players to just see them go somewhere else. It’s tough.” Now, we’re begging Dallas: PLEASE sign Kris Humphries . [Photo: WENN.com]
On YouTube: Parody of Rick Perry’s “Strong” video with Rabbi Jason Miller. Filmed and edited by Adam Luger. RABBI JASON ON FACEBOOK http://facebook.com/rabbijasonmiller RABBI JASON ON TWITTER @rabbijason Broadcasting platform : YouTube Source : Gay South Florida Discovery Date : 08/12/2011 21:21 Number of articles : 2
In an interesting piece of TV news, The Bachelor is suing Stephen Carbone, a.k.a. Reality Steve, claiming $75,000 in damages, according to reports . NZK Productions and Alternative Television, Inc. take issue with his tactics of “soliciting information from participants, cast, crew and/or other employees” by “inducing them to breach their confidentiality obligations.” Steve has been posting lots of The Bachelor , Bachelorette and Bachelor Pad spoilers for years, and surprisingly detailed, mostly accurate ones at that. The wild ending of Jason Mesnick’s season of The Bachelor, when he dumped winner Melissa Rycroft for Molly Malaney after the show aired, was Steve’s first big scoop . It’s unclear who the mole is – Steve is just some dude from Texas who posts this stuff in long-winded rants on his personal site – but producers claim he’s liable for damages because those who participate sign confidentiality agreements. Several of his tactics are highlighted, like this one email: “Let me just say, I’m very well aware of your contract,” Carbone allegedly wrote an unnamed source. “I also know that over 500 contestants have been on this show and not one of them has ever been sued for the $5 million.” “It’s just a scare tactic. Trust me. Just like they had no idea you sent me that last email, they’ll have no idea about any correspondence either.” “I know you’re scared and a little paranoid, but don’t be. Unless they are hacking your email or tapping your phone, there’s absolutely no way for them to find out.” The suit also highlighted this email to a former contestant: “I’m aware you were eliminated at the SF rose ceremony, so I probably actually know more about what’s happened since you left than you do, however … I do have some blanks that need to be filled in during the early episodes.” “I’m aware of your contract, but no one would know of our conversing.” The producers claim to have sent cease-and-desist letters to Carbone earlier this year. Now they’re arguing his actions “constitute unfair and illegal business acts” and are “unscrupulous, immoral, unethical, oppressive and injurious.” Carbone did not respond to an email from EW . The Bachelor returns January 2, with Ben Flajnik in the starring role. Steve has yet to spoil who wins this coming spring. Watch the trailer for the 16th season of the show below: The Bachelor 2012 Preview
