Have you ever seen a couple and notice that one person is way more into their significant other than their significant other is into them? Possibly worse, have you ever seen a couple that just don’t seem into each other at all? Sure, most couples aren’t always on top of each other (and if they were, I’d probably be doing another topic…lol) and just because they aren’t it doesn’t mean they aren’t in love but sometimes you see couples and see, “What in the world is going on here?” Click Here To Read The Rest At MadameNoire.com
With first-round voting open until Sunday at midnight, a host of MMM favorites appear headed for an early exit … unless you vote them through. By James Montgomery Marcus Mumford Photo: Getty Images It’s been a wild opening week in the 2012 Musical March Madness tournament, with plenty of potential upsets in the works and even more allegations of voter fraud levied by angry Tokio Hotel fans (a yearly MMM tradition!) And while there’s still time to vote in all first-round matchups — polls close Sunday at midnight ET — as the week wraps up, we figured it was a good time to recap all the action: the shocking results, the 4chan-inspired chicanery and all the fierce, fan-driven mania that makes Musical March Madness tick. Vote for your favorite band, discuss and share on Facebook and Twitter in the MTV Musical March Madness interactive bracket! But first, let’s address the allegations lobbed by Tokio Hotel’s fervent fanbase. After jumping out to a huge lead over fifth-seeded Arcade Fire in their first-round matchup (something like 140,000 votes), TH’s supporters watched in abject horror as the Fire quickly closed the gap and eventually took the lead. Gains of this size don’t happen every day, so we started getting a lot of feedback from Tokio fans, most claiming that there was something fishy happening with the votes (of course, others just said we were part of a massive conspiracy against their beloved Kaulitz brothers). Since the integrity of MMM is our top priority, we investigated, and it turns out those fans were right. It seems some overzealous, web-savvy fans were helping swing things in Arcade Fire’s favor, writing scripts that repeatedly voted for AF … and we mean repeatedly (like 90,000 times each). And while that level of cheating was definitely inspired, well, it’s still cheating, so we scrubbed all the votes in question, and returned Tokio Hotel to their rightful lead. They’re up by some 200,000 votes at the moment, and appear a lock to advance to the second round. We’ll be monitoring things much closer from here on out, but, for the moment, all is right with the world. And please, let’s keep it clean, folks. Cheaters never win. Of course, there are still plenty of other eye-opening (and legitimate) results to discuss as the first round wraps up, perhaps none more shocking than the upset brewing in the East region, where top-seeded Mumford & Sons are on the verge of getting booted from the tourney by Canadian crushers F—ed Up (we see you, Damian!) Right now, it’s the underdogs in the lead by nearly 11,000 votes, and we’ll be watching to see if they can hold on to the lead. Mumford fans, you’ve got your work cut out for you if you want to keep your favorite band in the tourney, so get cracking. Things are looking equally grim for the West’s #1 seed, the Foo Fighters, who are getting absolutely blasted by #16 James Durbin. The “American Idol” bandanna enthusiast surged to the lead early in the week, and has yet to wilt beneath the Foos’ full-court press. Can he keep it up through Sunday? We’ll just have to wait and see, but it appears like Durbin may be bound for round two. Vote for your favorite band, discuss and share on Facebook and Twitter in the MTV Musical March Madness interactive bracket! And while both of those matchups are verging on blowouts, others are too close to call, and probably will remain that way until the last vote is counted. The West’s #3 seed, Blink-182, are getting all they can handle from #14 Korn, and the East’s #3, Florence and the Machine, are on the brink of getting booted by reunited Swedish vets Refused, who hold a slim (like 2,000 votes) lead. Also in the East, #6 Fun. fell behind #11 Semi Precious Weapons early, but have rallied, and now lead by roughly 1,000 votes. Oh, and there’s quite a battle brewing between Maroon 5 and upset-minded Lana Del Rey, who have been locked in a fierce back-and-forth all week. Right now, it’s Del Rey by less than 2,000 votes. Can she shock the world? We’ll be watching closely. And speaking of shocking the world, there’s a potential game-changer taking place in the East’s Coldplay/Arctic Monkeys tilt, where the Monkeys lead Chris Martin and company by just 200 votes. These two have been going back and forth all week, and this one seems destined to go down to the wire. And that’s fitting … like we said, it’s been a wild ride already. Is your favorite band on the ropes? Get voting. And check back Monday, when we reveal the 32 bands that will move one step closer to hoisting the big gold trophy on April 3. MTV’s 2012 Musical March Madness Tournament is under way! Voting in the first round runs until midnight ET on Sunday, March 18, and winners are determined by fan votes, so if your favorite act made the cut, it’ll be up to you to guide them to glory. You can rally the troops on Twitter using the hashtag #MMM or by downloading one of our custom badges — but get ready, it’s gonna be a war! Related Videos Musical March Madness Returns! Related Photos MTV’s Musical March Madness 2012 Related Artists Foo Fighters Mumford & Sons
Congratulations to Elles van Gelder and Ilvy Njiokiktjien for placing 1st in this year’s World Press Photo Multimedia Contest with their project, Afrikaner Blood. The Dutch multimedia production follows young white Afrikaner teenagers in South Africa who attend a holiday camp set up to teach them self-defense and how to combat a perceived black enemy. The Broadcasting platform : Vimeo Source : MediaStorm Discovery Date : 15/03/2012 19:34 Number of articles : 3
Bar Refaeli has got to be one of the most beautiful women in the world right now – if she has not already claimed that crown already. Continue reading →
Bar Refaeli has got to be one of the most beautiful women in the world right now – if she has not already claimed that crown already. Continue reading →
Jessica Alba is a gorgeous actress, we think one of the best in the world and here she is giving the paparazzi a nice view up her skirt Continue reading →
Nick Cannon and Heather Morris have also been added to the list of big-name hosts for the series, which returns March 29. By John Mitchell Lucy Hale Photo: Getty Images In the early aughts, the MTV series “Punk’d” became a pop-culture phenomenon, and now, the sneaky celebrity pranksters are back for more. “Punk’d” returns for an all-new season on Thursday, March 29, at 10 p.m. ET/PT, featuring a new celebrity host each week and guaranteeing the most hilarious moments in the show’s history. Nick Cannon, Lucy Hale, Mac Miller and Heather Morris will join the ranks of previously announced celebrity hosts Justin Bieber, Miley Cyrus, Kellan Lutz, Bam Margera, Hayden Panettiere, “Punk’d” alumnus Dax Shepard and Tyler, the Creator, and they all have one goal in mind: to pull a killer prank on their unsuspecting celebrity friends. So, who are this season’s unsuspecting celebrity marks? Well, we already know that Rob Dyrdek, Liam Hemsworth, Khlo
Rookie MC tells Mixtape Daily he wrote The Blue Album in four days because ‘something just hit me.’ By Rob Markman Jon Connor Photo: MTV News Fire Starter: Jon Connor When inspiration strikes Flint, Michigan, rap rookie Jon Connor, he just runs with it. His latest mixtape only took him a few days to write, and after he released The Blue Album on Valentine’s Day, Jon Connor sat down with Mixtape Daily and vowed to never slow down his output. “Maybe I’m biased, but I love The Blue Album . I did it in actually four days, wrote the whole Blue Album in four days because something just hit me,” he said. “I have such a hunger for respect and I want to be the best in the world, I’m gonna be the best in the world, that’s the way I look at it.” The Blue Album is a 14-track dedication to Jay-Z ‘s trilogy of Blueprint albums, with Connor taking instrumentals from each of the three albums and using them to suit his own needs. On “Takeover,” the self-proclaimed People’s Rapper commandeers Jigga’s track of the same name, but instead of throwing shots at specific rival rappers like Hov did, the newcomer keeps his darts ambiguous but still potent. “Best in the World” is a retread of “Hovi Baby,” the TLC-sampling track from The Blueprint 2, and the horn-laced “Thank You” pays homage to Jay’s 2009 The Blueprint 3. To craft an entire mixtape using only Jay-Z beats is a tall order for any rapper, much less the still largely unknown Jon Connor, but the nimble lyricist consistently delivers impressive bars throughout. “I feel that there’s people that know about me, but at the same time it’s still people that’s sleeping,” he said. “I had an epiphany, it’s like if I have to drop a tape every two months to make people respect me or bring people in to where I’m at, then that’s what I’m gonna do. Nothing is gonna stop me, and I think that’s what people are gonna get from The Blue Album. ” What do you think of Jon Connor’s The Blue Album ? Tell us in the comments! Related Artists Jay-Z
This week at SXSW Movieline caught up with director Gareth Evans, whose Indonesian martial arts actioner The Raid: Redemption is set to knock your socks off later this month courtesy of Sony Classics. (Haven’t heard of the martial arts form silat? You will, come March 23.) With his film steadily collecting kudos left and right, Evans is already thinking ahead to his Raid sequel (working title: Berandal ), and an insane, dangerous-sounding four-on-one car fight he plans on working into the mix. First up, though, is the U.S. remake currently in the works at Screen Gems. The original film worked with the unique (and relatively new to most audiences) martial arts form silat , employed dynamically in a fairly basic setup: A SWAT team trapped inside a tenement building locked down by a vicious gangster must fight their way out. The American remake will build on the elements of The Raid , with Evans on hand as executive producer and Raid stars/fight choreographers Iko Uwais (who plays hero Rama) and Yayan Ruhian (who steals scenes as the sadistic Mad Dog) working on the remake’s fight choreography. “There will be elements of silat in there, which is kind of cool because there’s a respect for the original,” Evans said. “And I’m curious because the thing is yes, silat is an Indonesian martial art, but it’s practiced all over the world. There are schools of silat in London, there are schools of silat in America, there are schools of silat in France, and they have international championships as well. So there are a lot of people that know silat around the world, so it’s not a far-fetched idea that someone in America could know silat, the same way that it’s not far-fetched for a guy in America to know kung fu or muy thai.” While screenwriter Brad Inglesby has been recruited to script the remake, a director has yet to be found. Whoever it is, Evans isn’t worried about passing the reins to another filmmaker’s vision. “For me it’s like this: the storyline and the central concept is streamlined,” he explained. “It’s a very straightforward action film. So there’s room for improvement, and I think that director, whoever it is, has to be given the kind of creative freedom to push it in whatever direction he wants to push it and not have somebody standing over his shoulder saying, ‘You can’t do this, or you can’t do that.’ I think it should be that person’s decision.” After his Raid promotional tour is done, Evans will turn to pre-production on the sequel, with plans to begin filming next January. But how do you follow a film that’s already packed with non-stop, relentless, wall-to-wall, inventive action? “By going in a slightly different direction,” he teased. “If I try to replicate and copy it’ll fall on its ass, so I want to do something kind of different. We’re going to take the story out now and go onto the streets. So everything that was scary about that building and about that boss is small fry compared to the gangs we meet in the sequel — now we meet the people who let him have that building. And we expand the world out, we explore certain characters that were kind of hinted at in this but not expanded upon, and we ramp up some of the set pieces as well.” Evans’s Raid films will always retain their focus on silat, only showcased within different environments. Like, for example, the limited confines of a moving automobile. “We’ll have one fight scene,” Evans said, “a four-on-one fight inside of a car, and Iko’s going to be kicking people out through the windows, and it’s going to be nuts. What we’re doing now is we have to figure out how to shoot that without killing anyone. “Once we get that sorted,” he continued with a laugh, “then we’ll start shooting that.” Read more from SXSW here . Follow Jen Yamato on Twitter . Follow Movieline on Twitter .
Young heroes rebel against a fascist government that controls its citizenry through institutionalized terror and reality television, igniting a revolution that spreads across an isolated land via broadcast images and word of mouth. The Arab Spring? Nope. Try The Hunger Games , set in a dystopian sci-fi future that parallels current global unrest, which stars Jennifer Lawrence , Elizabeth Banks , and Donald Sutherland say they hope could spur a generation of YA-consuming youths into political action. “We live in a world where in the past, present, and possibly future governments and certain countries are controlling their people by keeping them separate, weak and hungry so that they’re not strong enough to fight back,” said Lawrence, who stars in the adaptation as teenage coal miner’s daughter/District 12 tribute Katniss Everdeen . “I think that there are a lot of messages [in The Hunger Games ] about history repeating itself and how something is wrong when you stay quiet, how we are the new generation.” Elizabeth Banks , who plays Capitol-assigned chaperone Effie Trinket , echoed the sentiment. “There are oppressive regimes all over the world that are being toppled by young people using YouTube to start revolutions,” she said. “There is no greater connection. This book is happening right now.” It can certainly be argued that Collins’ book series and the Gary Ross-directed feature adaptation has the potential to influence a generation of youngsters who’ll come for the sci-fi escapism and leave the theater appreciating its personal messages of personal accountability and standing up for what’s right in the face of impossible odds. More subtle are the franchise’s critiques of capitalism, celebrity, and media exploitation; if The Hunger Games succeeds in teaching kids to think critically about reality television alone that will be some sort of cultural coup. (Of course, there’s the tricky contradiction of getting such message from a heavily-marketed $70+ million studio production whose elaborate campaign has tapped social, online, and mainstream media in the pursuit of a huge box office, not to mention the issue of selling “ Capitol Couture ” as a merchandising tie-in.) Thankfully, here’s Donald Sutherland to put the Hunger Games potential for real world translation into relatable terms: “This has the possibility to change everything – to motivate, to catalyze, to activate, whatever revolutionary instincts there are in what is, essentially, from my point of view, a dormant generation.” “I just hope that they see from this allegory that the future is unacceptable. But more than that, it’s unimaginable. If you look at the weather, if you look at fossil fuels, if you look at a political party that just says no only because they want to get elected – they have no concern for four years for the people… those people are our business managers! “We own this country; they’re supposed to administer it for us. It’s not for them. They’re not supposed to be profiting from it! You don’t profit from it in Canada. You don’t profit from it in France. You don’t spend hundreds of millions of dollars to get elected! Nobody in their right mind would spend that much money in Canada, it’s just a bad investment! But it’s a good investment here, and that’s a problem.” “And you’ve got a Supreme Court that says a corporation is a citizen? Sorry, no. They don’t file the same tax forms I file… if they do, I’d like to know what it is. Because General Electric can make $4 billion in profit and they don’t pay any tax? I’m sorry. Oliver Wendell Holmes said, ‘Taxes are what you pay for a civilized society.’ If you carry that all the way backwards, we’re not civilized.” Of course, while older viewers may be prompted into critical political thinking by The Hunger Games , 12-year-olds clutching Mockingjay pins may not quite grasp the world as Sutherland sees it… yet. Then again, maybe all that needs to be planted is the seed of awareness. “It could make them stand up and become aware through this allegory of the political structure that they live in and what needs to be changed,” insisted Sutherland. “They could all become Katniss Everdeen.” Read more on The Hunger Games , which arrives in theaters March 23. Follow Jen Yamato on Twitter . Follow Movieline on Twitter .
