Beyonce Set To Perform At 2011 BET Awards

Singer joins performers Chris Brown, Lil Wayne, Drake and others at the live June 26 show.
By Jocelyn Vena


Beyonce
Photo: Jeff Kravitz/ FilmMagic

Two days after her album 4 is officially released, Beyoncé is set to perform at the 2011BET Awards, which air live from Los Angeles at the Shrine Auditorium on June 26.

The "Run the World (Girls)" singer, known for power--packed performances, hasn't announced what she'll sing yet, but as it turns out, she's also nominated for an award at the show. The singer is up against Rihanna, Jennifer Hudson, Keri Hilson and Marsha Ambrosius in the Best Female R&B Artist category.

According to EW.com, Mary J. Blige, Kelly Rowland and Trey Songz are also slated to perform on the awards show. And "The Voice" judge and "F--- You" singer Cee-Lo Green will make a special appearance on the show, the website reported. Previously announced performers include Jill Scott, Alicia Keys, Lil Wayne, Drake and Chris Brown, who's up for six awards.

Other big nominees for the night include Lil Wayne with 5 nods, as well as Kanye West, Drake and Rihanna, each with four noms. There's a surprising mix of contenders in the Video of the Year category, including Willow Smith for "Whip My Hair," Marsha Ambrosius' "Far Away," B.o.B's "Airplanes," Brown's "Look at Me Now," Hilson's "Pretty Girl Rock" and West's "Runaway."

Fans will have their say that night when they'll be asked to decide on the Coca-Cola Viewers' Choice Award. Competing in that category are Brown ("Look at Me Now," featuring Lil Wayne and Busta Rhymes), Rihanna ("What's My Name?"), Lil Wayne ("6 Foot 7 Foot," featuring Cory Gunz), Mindless Behavior ("My Girl"), Nicki Minaj ("Moment 4 Life," featuring Drake) and Trey Songz ("Bottoms Up," featuring Nicki Minaj).

Are you excited to see Beyoncé perform at the BET Awards? Tell us in the comments!

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Source: http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/1665873/beyonce-set-perform-at-2011-bet-awards.jhtml

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Beyonce Responds To 4 Album Leak

'While this is not how I wanted to present my new songs, I appreciate the positive response,' she tells MTV News in a statement.
By Gil Kaufman


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

Beyoncé is taking a glass-half-full approach to the leak of her entire 4 album three weeks before its June 28 release date.

In a statement released to MTV News on Wednesday (June 8), Beyoncé lamented the early arrival but said she's making the most of the eagerness of her fans to get their hands on her first new batch of songs since 2008's double-disc I Am ... Sasha Fierce.

"My music was leaked and while this is not how I wanted to present my new songs, I appreciate the positive response from my fans," the singer wrote. "When I record music I always think about my fans singing every note and dancing to every beat. I make music to make people happy and I appreciate that everyone has been so anxious to hear my new songs."

Beyoncé fans were psyched Tuesday when her collabo with Andre 3000, "Party," leaked weeks before the new album was due. It was one of several leaks the album has faced over the past week. A short time after the Kanye West and Consequence-produced "Party" slipped out, another song, "Countdown," which samples the Boyz II Men tune "Uhh Ahh," also surfaced, followed by the entire album.

While B's team scrambles to take down the offending links that have popped up all over the Web, some online rogues have taken to Twitter to put up links, making it harder for the label to track down the music. Fans have already gotten a number of listens to tunes from the disc, including the uptempo dancehall first single "Run the World (Girls)," the lush ballad "1+1" and the second official single "Best Thing I Never Had." Another tune, "End of Time," which samples late Afrobeat superstar Fela Kuti, has also leaked online.

Have you heard any of the leaked album, or are you waiting for the official release? Let us know in the comments.

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Source: http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/1665391/beyonce-4-leak.jhtml

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Judge Orders Charlie Sheen To Pay $55,000 A Month Child Support

A judge has ordered Charlie Sheen’s former bosses to garnish $55,000 a month for child support from any payments they make to the former “Two and a Half Men” star. Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Hank Goldberg on Friday approved a request by Brooke Mueller Sheen to garnish any payments Warner Bros. Television makes to [...]

Source: http://www.celebritymound.com/judge-orders-charlie-sheen-to-pay-55000-a-month-child-support/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=judge-orders-charlie-sheen-to-pay-55000-a-month-child-support

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Usher To Donate Gadhafi Money To Charity

'I will be donating all of my personal proceeds...to various human rights organizations,' singer says of concert linked to Libyan dictator.
By Shawn Adler


Usher (file)
Photo: Getty Images

R&B superstar Usher announced Friday (March 4) that he was donating to various charities proceeds from appearing at a private event at St. Barts linked to Libyan dictator Moammar Gadhafi, according to a statement made to the Associated Press.

The Grammy award winner's renouncement comes after similar announcements from singers Mariah Carey, Nelly Furtado, and Beyoncé, all of whom were revealed to have performed at private concerts linked to the Middle Eastern leader, who has faced open revolt and major political uprisings since February.

"I am sincerely troubled to learn about the circumstances surrounding the Nikki Beach St. Bart's event that took place on New Year's Eve 2009," Usher said of the concert, at which he appeared alongside Beyoncé but did not perform. "I will be donating all of my personal proceeds from that event to various human rights organizations."

Usher has already begun the process, having made a donation to Amnesty International, the AP reports. The exact size of the donation is not known.

The New Year's Eve gig was reportedly for Moammar's fourth son Muastassim, who an unnamed music industry source told MTV News has a history of throwing lavish parties "jammed" with supermodels.

Beyoncé, who sang at the event, donated all proceeds from her performance to the Clinton-Bush Haiti Fund, established in the wake of the Haitian earthquake.

"All monies paid to Beyoncé for her performance at a private party at Nikki Beach St. Barts on New Year's Eve 2009, including the commissions paid to her booking agency, were donated to the earthquake relief efforts for Haiti over a year ago," the "Halo" singer's publicist said in a statement to The Huffington Post. "Once it became known that the third-party promoter was linked to the Qaddafi family, the decision was made to put that payment to a good cause."

Singer Nelly Furtado tweeted February 28 that she plans to make similar amends.

"In 2007, I received 1million$ from the Gadhafi clan to perform a 45 min. show for guests at a hotel in Italy," she tweeted. "I am going to donate the $."

The leader of Libya since a successful military coup in 1969, Gadhafi has reportedly lost control of much of his country as a result of widespread uprisings. The United Nations voted unanimously to refer the dictator to the International Criminal Court for crimes against humanity.

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Coldplay, Led Zeppelin Album Covers Featured On New British Stamps

Album art from Pink Floyd, Blur and David Bowie also included.
By James Montgomery


Coldplay's new British stamps
Photo: Royal Mail

On Thursday (January 7), the U.K.'s Royal Mail unveiled a series of 10 new stamps, honoring the most iconic album covers of the past 40 years.

The albums featured in the new series are the Rolling Stones' Let It Bleed, Led Zeppelin's IV, David Bowie's The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders From Mars, Mike Oldfield's Tubular Bells, The Clash's London Calling, New Order's Power, Corruption and Lies, Primal Scream's Screamadelica, Pink Floyd's The Division Bell, Blur's Parklife and — the most recent album on to make the cut — Coldplay's A Rush of Blood to the Head.

Meant to honor "the most potent graphic images of modern times, many of which have provided a visual soundtrack to people's lives," the series is the end result of a lengthy research process by the Royal Mail, who looked through thousands of album covers by British artists before deciding on the final list. And, during a Wednesday night BBC Radio broadcast, it was revealed that the queen herself actually approved each design.

Led Zeppelin guitarist Jimmy Page — who helped design the cover for IV — was on hand to celebrate the release of the stamps and recalled the mysterious nature of the album's iconic imagery.

"Almost 40 years after the album came out, nobody knows the old man who featured on the cover, nor the artist who painted him," he said. "That sort of sums up what we wanted to achieve with the album cover, which has remained both anonymous and enigmatic at the same time."

Of course, any great honor is befitting of an equally great contest, so, on the same day the stamps were made available to the general public, Coldplay decided to give one of their Rush of Blood stamps away. In a message on their official site, the band held a contest to send one lucky fan "a letter using a Coldplay stamp, postmarked with today's issue date."

"We visited our local post office earlier today and bought some of the Coldplay stamps," the message read. "Very nice they are too."

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Source: http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/1629227/coldplay-led-zeppelin-album-covers-featured-on-new-british-stamps.jhtml

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Beyonce's 'Best Thing I Never Had' To Hit Radio Wednesday

Reports indicate that the second single is a vengeful midtempo tune penned by Babyface.
By James Dinh


Beyoncé
Photo: Getty Images

Beyoncé isn't wasting any time unveiling cuts off her upcoming album 4. After releasing the project's Major Lazer-sampled lead single "Run the World (Girls)," the pop star unveiled her power ballad "1+1" on the finale of "American Idol" and is now set to release "Best Thing I Never Had" on Wednesday.

News about the tune's radio release first surfaced online late last week when Pittsburgh radio ration Kiss 96.1 reportedly received an email from B's camp. When MTV News reached out for comment, a representative for the singer confirmed the approaching radio date.

Not much is known about B's new tune, but from the looks of it, the entertainer may have already given fans a preview of the track during a recent album listening session in New York. JustJared.com reports that the second song played during the event was a midtempo tune about karma with drums similar to "Girls." Written by Babyface, the song reportedly features vengeful lines like "You showed your ass, baby, I saw the real you."

"Best Thing I Never Had" is just one of the pop star's forthcoming cuts from her 12-song album, which hits stores in less than a month. Just last week, the music sensation revealed the track list for the forthcoming LP on Facebook. In addition to "Best Thing I Never Had," 4 also includes "Party" featuring Andre 3000, "Rather Die Young" and "Start Over."

Are you excited to hear B's new single? Let us know in the comments below!

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Source: http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/1664832/beyonce-best-thing-i-never-had.jhtml

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'Transformers: Dark Of The Moon' Has Loads Of Energon And... Frances McDormand?

Of all the surprises that "Transformers: Dark of the Moon" has in store for moviegoers, there's perhaps no greater surprise than this: the blockbuster-to-be has attracted the likes of Oscar-winner Frances McDormand. Yes, the woman whose diverse and staggeringly impressive resume which includes "Almost Famous," "Mississippi Burning," "Blood Simple" and, of course, "Fargo," will be [...]

Source: http://moviesblog.mtv.com/2011/06/28/transformers-dark-of-the-moon-cast-frances-mcdormand/

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Michael Jackson's Family Upset With James Durbin Over 'American Idol' Pepsi Quip

'We were shocked to see this,' read the Jacksons' message; Durbin tweeted an apology on Thursday.
By Gil Kaufman


James Durbin performs on "American Idol" on Wednesday
Photo: Michael Becker/ Fox

Some people might argue that it's patently unfair to take rank amateurs, put them on the biggest show on TV and then expose them to potential worldwide ridicule every week. Because it's one thing to tune in to "American Idol" from your living room or play shows at the local wings joint, it's another thing entirely when you get up on that stage and open your mouth with tens of millions watching and listening.

James Durbin learned this lesson the hard way this week when he made what he thought was an innocent crack about not setting himself on fire during his pyro-tastic cover of Elton John's "Saturday Night's Alright (For Fighting)" on Wednesday night.

Asked by host Ryan Seacrest if he was worried about dancing around among the flames shooting up from the piano onstage, Durbin joked, "I have a lot of hairspray in my hair to keep it from jumping around — so much so, the one thing I was worried about was having a 'Pepsi moment.' "

The seemingly innocent crack was a reference to the 1984 on-set accident in which late pop icon Michael Jackson was badly burned during the shooting of a Pepsi commercial by some wayward pyro effects. The serious burns he suffered in the incident allegedly led to his longtime addiction to pain medication and prescription drugs.

The Jackson family was not amused by the quip and sent a statement to TMZ on Thursday.

"We were shocked to see this. It's nothing to make light of and everybody should be focusing on who was responsible for Michael's death," read the statement. Family patriarch Joseph Jackson also was reportedly miffed that "Idol" producers did not cut the comment from the West Coast feed of the show.

Durbin defended his slip-up in a tweet, which has since been scrubbed from the singer's official "Idol" Twitter feed, that explained, "For anyone talkin ... I said pepsi NOT MJ! I have no disrespect for Michael. I grew up singing his art. I guess youll take it how you want it." He later added, "Talkin about MJs passing is too soon. Making a reference to an incident 25 years ago..not too soon. The stab was at pepsi people."

It's worth noting that Pepsi's bitter rival, Coca-Cola, is the main "Idol" sponsor, a fact that Seacrest reminded Durbin of in an awkward moment after the comment on the show.

What did you think of James Durbin's "Pepsi" quip? Tell us in the comments.

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Source: http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/1661097/jackson-family-james-durbin-american-idol.jhtml

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Cameron Diaz Covers Maxim Magazine

Camron Diaz

She?s never been one for a traditional way of thinking, and Cameron Diaz feels like marriage is a dying institution. The ?Something About Mary? babe told Maxim magazine that she?s more a fan of doing things her own way. ?I think we have to make our own rules. I don?t think we should live our lives in relationships based off old traditions that don?t suit our world any longer.? ?I think a lot of people are married to people they?re not romantic with anymore. I just didn?t ever marry anybody that I then had to get divorced from. We break up. We move on.? [gallery=754]

Source: http://www.celebritygossiphollywood.com/celebrities/cameron-diaz/cameron-diaz-covers-maxim-magazine/

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