Will Beyonce's 4 Be #1 Again?

Experts think B needs a hit single soon, but her latest album seems poised to top the charts again next week.
By Jocelyn Vena


Beyonce's <i>4</i>
Photo: Columbia

As a contender for 2011 Summer Diva, Beyoncé is certainly making great strides to rule the airwaves this summer. After B's fourth solo LP, 4, debuted at #1 last week, it's looking likely that she'll top the charts on next week's Billboard albums chart as well.

A rep for SoundScan hadn't responded to MTV News' request for an exact number of units expected to be sold by next week, but Billboard is reporting that a lack of high-powered new releases should secure a repeat top spot for Beyoncé's latest.

The buzz around B and the album will probably only continue to grow, since she's slated to debut a video for her next single, "Best Thing I Never Had," very soon. But her album's success comes as a bit of a surprise, seeing as "Run the World (Girls)" nor any other single has really resonated with fans or radio so far.

"Beyoncé, I love her, but none of her singles thus far off 4 seem poised to be doing huge numbers," Perez Hilton told MTV News.

But we should not count B out in the singles department just yet, Us Weekly senior music editor Ian Drew said.

"You've got to remember that Beyoncé, being typical Beyoncé, her albums generally are anchored by really big hits; this album doesn't have those hits yet," Drew told MTV News. "It's not to say that it won't. There are some very strong songs on the album, but they have not been released yet. There are those songs on it, but they have not come out yet and they haven't struck yet. Beyoncé is coming out at a time when radio is very crowded."

Despite those obstacles, B is definitely marching to the beat of her own drummer. "She's going in a different direction," Drew said. "She's taking control of her own career."

Have you checked out Beyoncé's new album? Share your reviews in the comments!

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Source: http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/1666940/beyonce-4-album-sales.jhtml

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'Harry Potter' Director, Writer To Adapt 'The Stand'

Director David Yates and screenwriter Steve Kloves are 'the right team' to bring Stephen King's novel to the screen, expert tells MTV News.
By Terri Schwartz, with reporting by Josh Wigler


"Harry Potter" Director David Yates
Photo: Stephen Lovekin/ Getty Images

Hot off the success of the "Harry Potter" franchise, director David Yates and screenwriter Steve Kloves are teaming up again to adapt another major literary property: Stephen King's "The Stand," for Warner Bros.

For the uninitiated, "The Stand" is a post-apocalyptic novel that follows a group of survivors after 99.4 percent of the human race is wiped out by the effects of a biological weapon. The remaining survivors break off into two camps, one based in Boulder, Colorado, which represents good, and the other in Las Vegas, which represents evil. The two camps eventually face off in a stand that determines the future of mankind.

When it comes to bringing a beloved novel to the big screen, Yates and Kloves certainly seem like the go-to pair, but "The Stand" is a different beast than "Harry Potter" in many ways. For one, the adult-oriented material is much darker than "Potter." Drew McWeeny of HitFix, who broke the news, told MTV News he thinks the way Yates and Kloves treated the darker aspects of the "Potter" movies is a mark in their favor as they gear up for the "Stand" collaboration.

"I think they've demonstrated as a team that they are capable of making extreme darkness palatable and ably depicting the struggle between good and evil," McWeeny said. "It might not have been the first team I thought of to adapt that book, but it's a damn good team."

MTV Movies Blog editor and "The Stand" fan Josh Wigler doesn't think the movie can be made with anything less than an R rating. Similarly, McWeeny said the film won't be an easy project for Warner Bros. to move through the studio.

When McWeeny first broke the story, he said it didn't make sense to bring "The Stand" to the screen again if it didn't expand upon the 1994 TV miniseries — and he offered that the new element should be the very disturbing material that made the novel a hit.

The novel, which features a massive cast of characters, is divided into three "books," and the assumption is that Yates and Kloves wouldn't attempt to adapt the story into just one movie. The larger question is whether Warner Bros. would make two movies or a trilogy out of "The Stand." McWeeny thinks it could go either way.

"I've been hearing that three is the magic number, creatively, and they want a trilogy," he said. "[But] two films may just make better economic sense for them. I do think there's a way to pull it off in two films, but that's when you really start cutting this to the bone and that may not be best for the story itself."

With Universal having passed on Ron Howard's ambitious attempt to adapt another King classic, "The Dark Tower," it seems fair to presume that Yates and Kloves may worry about making "The Stand" too big. But there are many elements of "The Stand" that make it more adaptable than "Dark Tower" ever was, McWeeny said.

"Even though ['The Stand' is] very big and has a ton of characters, there is a much more linear storytelling shape, and a simple film trilogy is something that Hollywood understands," he explained. "Coming off the final 'Potter' film, I think Yates and Kloves are the right team to get almost anything made."

For breaking news, celebrity columns, humor and more — updated around the clock — visit MTVMoviesBlog.com.

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Source: http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/1668923/harry-potter-david-yates-the-stand.jhtml

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'Real Housewives' Going on Tour

'Real Housewives' Going on Tour

Ever wish you could talk to some of the Real Housewives in the flesh -- instead of just screaming at your TV screen about their questionable behavior? Well, some viewers are going to get to do just that, because Bravo is taking its show on a live tour.

What, you may ask, will the women do, exactly? Will they pace the stage, chugging wine and dispensing witty put-downs that devolve into full-blown altercations before your very eyes? Well, sort of. According to Bravo's press release, "the ladies discuss the most talked about moments, reveal cast secrets and answer questions straight from the audience."

In each of three cities -- Atlantic City, N.J., Hammond, Ind., and Atlanta, Ga. -- Bravo will assemble four Housewives from various seasons and iterations of the show. And, yes, the network has offered up some of the more, uh, assertive ladies for your enjoyment. Spark plugs Caroline Manzo (Real Housewives of New Jersey), Kyle Richards (Real Housewives of Beverly Hills), Jill Zarin (Real Housewives of New York City) and Nene Leakes (Real Housewives of Atlanta) are among the participants.

Diehard fans of the show will pay a steep price for this dream-come-true: Tickets range from $49.50 to $170 for the Red Carpet Experience Package (which includes an exclusive cocktail reception hosted by the Housewives themselves). Tickets go on sale on August 19th at 10 a.m. ET at bravo.com or www.ticketmaster.com.

Here are the dates and lineups:

Atlantic City, N.J., ?Caesars Circus Maximus Theater
October 1, 2011
Caroline Manzo (New Jersey)
?LuAnn de Lesseps (New York City)
Kyle Richards (Beverly Hills)
Vicki Gunvalson (Orange County)

Hammond, Ind., The Venue at Horseshoe Casino
October 8, 2011
Sonja Morgan (New York City)
Gretchen Rossi (Orange County)
Lisa Vanderpump (Beverly Hills)
Phaedra Parks (Atlanta)

Atlanta, Ga., Cobb Energy Performing Arts Centre
October 15, 2011
Nene Leakes (Atlanta)
Jill Zarin (New York City)
Melissa Gorga (New Jersey)
Marysol Patton (Miami)

Source: http://www.ivillage.com/real-housewives-going-tour/1-a-373013

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Jay-Z Tops Forbes? List Of Top Hip-Hop Earners

Jay-Z has had a nice year so far, having released the insanely popular The Throne as part of his Watch the Throne collaboration with Kanye West, and now he?s rocketed to the top of another chart?Forbes Magazine?s top hip hop earners of the year. According to Third Age: Jay-Z, rapper and businessman, earned the top [...]

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/beatcrave/~3/Eq6aAhaxJLQ/

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Jay-Z And Kanye West's 'Otis' Maybach Work: How Much Did It Cost?

Kanye West and Jay-Z could have spent up to $150,000 trashing the $350,000 car for the video.
By Gil Kaufman


Kanye West and Jay-Z
Photo: WireImage

How much swag do Kanye West and Jay-Z have? Enough to trash a $350,000 Maybach in their "Otis" video and laugh about it.

The conspicuous-consumption-loving clip is a lesson in the dynamics of hip-hop power, with two of the biggest names in the game flexing their muscle by taking one of the world's most expensive luxury cars and essentially turning it into a torn-up plaything that's probably not even street legal, according to Myles Kovacs, president and co-founder of DUB magazine.

"It's a great gimmick and it looks 'Mad Max'-ish. ... They're clearly rich enough that they can take something most people could never dream of owning and tear it up," Kovacs said of the dismantling of the car that takes place in the clip.

Experts dissected the meaning of "Otis" and the Maybach for us.

What starts out as a mint vehicle is quickly stripped down in the Spike Jonze-directed clip. With the glass roof tossed to the side, the doors ripped off and welded to the back, the front grill removed and stuck on the tail end and fender walls created out of sheet metal, Kovacs said the actual work done on the car was minimal, but the damage was maximum.

"If it's just for show or to make a movie car, it's pretty simple," he said. "You're just trashing the car, bolting on fake bumpers, pushing the wheels out, removing doors, cutting the roof off and adding flame throwers on the exhaust. But these guys are crazy to spend money to ruin a car like that."

The Maybach is on display at the Watch the Throne pop-up store, and MTV News was on the scene.

While 'Ye and Jigga are clearly having a blast driving the chopped and screwed 'Bach in "Otis," Kovacs said at this point the frame of the car is probably buckling and it's folding up "like a taco," because it appears that the center roof supports have been taken out.

He originally guessed that a job like this might cost $150,000 and take two to three weeks if you were aiming to have the car be street-legal and reinforce the frame. Making it just safe enough for the video would set you back $100,000 or so. But if all they did was cut the doors and roof out and do some welding here and there, the right tech could do that in a week. Add another for painting and the right shop could get the job done for $20,000 or so.

"The thing is, the value of that car is nothing now, you couldn't drive it on the street," he said. "It would start malfunctioning big time."

That's something to consider for anyone thinking about taking the car off their hands. The last frame of the video declares, "The vehicle used in this video will be offered up for auction. Proceeds will be donated towards the East African drought disaster." Their heart is in the right place, even if their grill isn't.

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Source: http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/1669022/otis-video-maybach.jhtml

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