Britney Spears teased Sunday's MTV VMAs in a series of spots with the evening's host, comedian Russell Brand. This caused everyone to speculate she was going to re-do last year's dismal performance. But then MTV issued a release, saying that while Spears will open the show, she wouldn't be performing.
And then MSN just happened to "get its hands on" this "secret Britney video" that shows the pop star rehearsing choreography to what sounds like a new (utterly terrible) track. Which feeds speculation that she will perform. At least she would have practiced the dance steps once or twice this time.
Hats off to MTV — because whether she dances on stage or not, they've got the blogs, and TV viewers, on the hook with suspense. Check back next week to see if Nielsen agreed.
If Kanye West were a politician he'd be a flip flopper. Since he's a mercurial, egotistical pop star, no one will pay that much attention to the fact that he has decided to return to MTV to close out Sunday's VMAs.
We thought Larry Rudolph put an end to the rumors about Britney Spears performing at this weekend's VMAs, but MTV won't shut up about it. According to the network, Brit will be opening the show, but "it is not a performance."
If anyone saw Forgetting Sarah Marshall, the highlight of the film was Russell Brand's character, Aldous Snow. What could have been a one-dimensional role as a egotistical, sex-obsessed rock star was actually given depth and humor by Brand's portrayal of Snow as a recovering alcoholic with a little more self-awareness than perhaps any of the other characters in the Apatow factory churn-out.
American audiences might not have been in on the joke, which is that Brand himself is a comedian and musician, and that his public persona of a disheveled, disorderly rock star was never just an act; the Brit has struggled with a heroin problem, alcoholism, and sex addiction, all of which he has "kicked with professional treatment." But with Amy Winehouse having to phone in her Grammy performance earlier this year, and Britney Spears' infamous performance at the VMAs in 2007, why have producers pegged Brand to be the host of the MTVs Video Music Awards this year? And more importantly; who is really in on the joke:
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MTV has put out a casting call for their newest shockingly ill-conceived reality show, Model Makers, which will feature young girls being judged on how well they slim down in order to prove their love of the catwalk. So disturbing, but not anything new for reality television, which as of late actually seemed to be pulling back from the precarious brink of Milf Island:
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Need more evidence that MTV's The Hills is one big piece of scripted reality programming that has veered completely away from organic plotlines?
How about showing Whitney at a party Lauren threw for Audrina's birthday, then having Whitney ask Lauren about the party in a later scene because, supposedly, she wasn't there? [Pink Is The New Blog]
Oh noers, MTV is remaking the 1975 definitive cult favorite, Rocky Horror Picture Show. And they are adding songs (which creator/star Richard O'Brian, is not okay'ing). Maybe, maybe, if Rob Zombie was involved, fans of the original would sleep better at night. But MTV? A word of advice? If Zac Efron ends up playing Frankenfurter, all those kids who dress up for the midnight showings at the local multiplex are going to shit a brick.
Britney Spears recorded a promo spot for this year's MTV Video Music Awards, the program that she opened last year with lip syncing, haphazard choreography, and back fat. Her participation with MTV so far inevitably leads to more speculation that she might return to the VMAS on Sept. 7. Then again, crazier things can happen: Quentin Tarantino did cast Spears as a lesbian murderess in his upcoming remake of Faster Pussycat! Kill! Kill!.
Sure, John McCain blasted Barack Obama’s international popularity earlier today, but that doesn’t mean he’s above name dropping. Take, for example, a 1999 speech he delivered to New Hampshire high school students, who McCain’s clearly trying to impress with a tale about bonding with his then 15-year old daughter:
In pursuit of that, a few months ago I went to the MTV awards. What a guy, huh?In New York — I now know who Puff Daddy is; Busta Rhymes, he was wearing a dress that night. I’m going to try and borrow it from him for part of this campaign. And who here likes Nine Inch Nails?
I knew you’d like Nine Inch — well, I kind of lean towards the Back Street Boys. Thank you very much. Obviously, a woman of taste and class.
Anyway, we had a great time at the time MTV awards.
It’s worth noting that Britney Spears performed at those particular awards.
What's worse than a flip-flopper? Trying to have it both ways! Thus, conservative group Let Freedom Ring's catchy nickname for Barack Obama: "Both Ways Barack." Their 30-second spot, which isn't terribly creative but certainly drives home its point, would otherwise be forgettable were it not for the singular historical blip it scored: being the first political ad MTV aired since reversing its long-standing policy and agreeing to take dollars from the nation's dirtiest industry.
Except: Didn't MTV say they would only take ads from candidates or their parties, and not the "unaffiliated" 527 groups who so eagerly spread salacious messages about candidates? You know, like the one seen here? CONTINUED »
On Monday night's episode, 20-year old Bailey Hanks won MTV's Legally Blonde The Musical: The Search for Elle Woods competition. Tonight, at the Palace Theatre, just a number of weeks since the show started taping, she'll take the stage for the first time in Legally Blonde, replacing Laura Bell Bundy.
This is great news for every other singer-actress working the theatre circuit, for Ms. Hanks had never seen a Broadway show, nor auditioned to appear in one, before sending in a tape to MTV to become, in a single effort, both a reality television and Broadway stage star.
Congratulations on having the entire industry already hate you! Break a leg before they do it for you.
You cannot flip through the television dial without hitting an episode of Will & Grace, Golden Girls, Law & Order, CSI, Friends, or Fraiser. That is because these shows have syndicated themselves into oversaturation; there is no escaping their broadcasts, because they are broadcast all the time.
MTV also latched on to this concept, airing marathon sessions of its endless reality series whenever there was a gap in its four-figure-budget programming.
And now, it will do it with music videos. Funny, because it's been years since you could attach "MTV" to "music videos." CONTINUED »
Baldwin Hills, the teen-focused reality show that is marketed as BET's answer to Laguna Beach and The Hills, premiered with a respectable (for BET) 1.5 million viewers on Tuesday. As 2007-2008 BET premieres go, the show comes in second place after Keyshia Cole: The Way It Is, meaning troubled R&B stars are more compelling to BET viewers than upper-middle-class kids and their overbearing parents. But how do Baldwin Hills' second season premiere numbers compare to its counterpart at MTV?
Having used the July 4 holiday weekend to quietly drop her lawsuit against Joe Francis, former Eliot Spitzer call girl Ashley Dupre is working on her next for-profit venture: reality TV show. She's supposedly in talks with MTV, among other networks, to launch her own dating show, with Dupre becoming the next Tila Tequila as contestants vie to penetrate the Jersey Shore's finest. No deal appears very far along however, and though she's said to be working with execs at Handprint Entertainment — responsible for turning Nicole Richie and Pamela Anderson into even more ridiculous pop culture icons — this news sounds more like a fishing expedition for a deal than an actual indication Dupre will be appearing in primetime by the fall. Either way, since taste doesn't appear to be a concern, the only real obstacle will be scheduling filming around that little public service she agreed to perform — testifying against New York's ex-governor in exchange for immunity.
If you've watched just one episode of Fox's dancing competition So You Think You Can Dance — as every member of Jossip HQ has — then you already know the best part of the show is not Cat Deeley's legs, the male dancers' lean and solid torsos, or the female dancers' crotch flashing. It is Mary Murphy, the choreographer and ballroom dancing champion who sits in the judge's chair next to producer Nigel Lithgow. After each performance wraps, Murphy tells the dancers one or more things, which range from, "It just wasn't doing it for me," to, "You've got a ticket on the HOT TAMALE TRAIN!" The number of her shrieks are matched only by the number of times she flashes that toothy smile. Today, she is profiled by the Los Angeles Times, which, according to this graph that charts the paper's coverage of her, is making it her month.
While the hot tamale train used to be Murphy's most esteemed honor bestowed on contestants, her newest top award is "Tra La La," as in, "the Tra La La phase of my heart."
Every notable reality show judge has their "thing." For Donald Trump, it's, "You're fired." For Heidi Klum, it's, "Auf wiedersehen." But those are concocted by producers; they're supposed to stick. Murphy's "hot tamale train" catchphrase, however, seems to have been born organically. It doesn't seem to be an executive producer-coined (in this case, it would've been Lithgow, who created the show) gimmick to deliver each episode. Rather, if our memory serves, she began saying it during Dance's first season, realized how much of a trademark it was, and kept on using it.
What, then, of other reality show judges who have tried to follow her lead? One horrific example sticks in our memory, and MTV's to blame. CONTINUED »
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