'Thor' Sequel Is A 'Tantalizing' Prospect, Kenneth Branagh Says

'There's a passionate fanbase out there that will say what they think,' the director tells MTV News.
By Kara Warner, with reporting by Josh Horowitz


Kenneth Branagh
Photo: MTV News

With the mighty "Thor" having vanquished the competition at the box office this weekend, we can now officially turn to talk of sequels. Specifically, would esteemed director Kenneth Branagh be willing to take on another "Thor" movie?

"We went through so many possibilities for how the story might go, that of course the prospect of that is very tantalizing and fascinating," Branagh told MTV News about toying with the sequel idea. "I loved working with this group of actors and had a fantastic experience working with everyone in the Marvel family," he added.

"You know as well as I do, there's a passionate fanbase out there that will say what they think. People will vote with their feet. And because it's such a big chunk of change for everybody involved, I think that's going to have a crucial, crucial impact but it would be a lovely challenge and problem to have should we do a second one," he said.

Branagh went on to say that in doing research for "Thor," he discovered plenty of fun, new elements of the story that warrant further exploration in future installments.

"When I first got involved with this, I was so thrilled. The first big, really exciting moment when I started really going through the comic books was all the descriptions of powers," he explained. "I loved it, amazing. People's body weights, how tall they were, what they could do, all of that kind of stuff. There's a vast amount of that from the Thor universe that I'd like to see," he said, before reiterating that it's up to fans to support and show film some love. "As they say in the voiceover of 'Big Brother' back home [in the U.K.], 'You. Decide,' " he said with a laugh.

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Check out everything we've got on "Thor."

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'Bridesmaids' Stars Say Jon Hamm 'Embraced' Awkward Sex Scenes

'He's usually the guy you call for awkward sex scenes,' Maya Rudolph jokes to MTV News.
By Kara Warner


Jon Hamm and Kristen Wiig
Photo: Getty

From the outside looking in, the new movie "Bridesmaids" has a lot going for it: An all-star cast of very funny women, anchored by "SNL" star Kristen Wiig and her onetime castmate Maya Rudolph, the universal and consistently humorous experience of being in weddings ... and Jon Hamm.

How does Hamm, known to most as "Mad Men" star Don Draper, fit into this mix of lovely ladies? He plays a sleazy "friend with benefits" to Wiig's character. Those "benefits," by the way, are hilariously awkward sex scenes that open the movie.

When MTV News caught up with the "Bridesmaids" cast, plus producer Judd Apatow and director Paul Feig, we asked them to comment on the use of handsome Jon Hamm for not-so-sexy sex.

"He's usually the guy you call for awkward sex scenes," Rudolph quipped.

"Judd met with him and told him about it; I talked to him and sent him the script," Wiig explained of getting Hamm aboard. "We were like, 'We're not quite sure what your character is going to be yet, it's not fully fleshed out yet,' and he was such a trouper and signed on. And then we were like, 'OK, now we're doing a sex scene!' " Wiig said with a giggle.

"I don't think I've ever seen somebody play such a slimy jerk but be like, 'Hey! It's cool!' " scene-stealer Melissa McCarthy said of Hamm's method of making a jerk impossible to hate. "It's the weirdest energy. It's so good and weird."

"All we know is that we want his sex to be as bad as ours," Apatow joked.

"We're trying to bring him down to our level, the handsomest man in the world," Feig added. "I'd worked with Jon before on 'Mad Men,' Kristen worked with him on 'SNL,' Judd knows him, we all know he's one of the funniest guys in the world, [and] he embraced this with such a gusto," he said. "The stuff we had him doing, we should be arrested."

"Most of the time we had no film; it was just for the ladies to take runs at him," Apatow continued, tongue-in-cheek.

"Mixing and matching, we like to say," Feig said. "Let's see who he goes best with."

Check out everything we've got on "Bridesmaids."

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/1663680/jon-hamm-bridesmaids.jhtml

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Michael Jackson Doctor Pleads Not Guilty To Involuntary Manslaughter

Conrad Murray's trial slated to start March 28.
By Gil Kaufman


Dr. Conrad Murray appears in court on Tuesday in Los Angeles, California
Photo: Irfan Khan-Pool/ Getty Images

Michael Jackson's former personal physician Dr. Conrad Murray entered a plea of not guilty to charges of involuntary manslaughter in the June 2009 death of the pop star at his arraignment on Tuesday morning (January 25).

According to the Los Angeles Times, when asked by judge Michael Pastor how he pleaded to the charge, Murray said, "Your honor, I am an innocent man." When Pastor interrupted and asked Murray what his plea was, the cardiologist said, "Therefore, I plead not guilty."

The brief hearing in Los Angeles Superior Court ended with Pastor setting a March 28 date for the start of a trial in the case. Murray faces a maximum of four years in prison if convicted, and the Times noted that he surprised the judge by invoking his right to a speedy trial, which meant the case would have to begin by late March. Pastor noted the rarity of a defendant asking to have a speedy trial, then set jury selection for the week of March 28 and said he was inclined to allow television coverage of the trial that the defense expects will last two months.

Lawyers for Murray have maintained his innocence all along, saying he did not do anything that "should have" caused the 50-year-old pop icon's death. The Los Angeles County Coroner's office determined that Jackson died of an overdose of the surgical anesthetic propofol mixed with a cocktail of other sedatives.

Murray has admitted to administering propofol to Jackson in the hours before the singer's death, but the defense appears to be gearing up to claim that it was Jackson who administered the final, fatal dose of the drug after he woke in a panic from a fitful night of sleep.

During a preliminary hearing earlier this month to determine if there was enough evidence to hold Murray over for trial, the physician's attorneys said that there was evidence Jackson injected or drank a fatal amount of the drug when the doctor was not looking.

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Source: http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/1656619/michael-jackson-doctor-conrad-murray-pleads-not-guilty.jhtml

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Is Oprah Winfrey Broadway Bound?

With only a few shows left of The Oprah Winfrey Show…sniff sniff…what is Oprah going to do with all that extra time? Are the rumors true? Is she headed to Broadway? We’ve got the details here! It’s hard for me to imagine my weekday afternoons without Oprah. It was always nice to just step away from my computer, take a break from my work and watch the talk show queen for an hour. Sigh. I will really miss her. May 25th will be her last air date. It will be a very sad day for myself and many, let alone Miss O. 25 years. That’s a long time, but she deserves some much needed time off, right? Wait just a minute! She may have a gig already lined up. Yes, it looks like Oprah is Broadway bound! What exactly will she be doing? Right now that’s up in the air, nothing has been confirmed, but she reportedly already has had several talks with producers in New York. In an interview with the Chicago Tribune, she revealed: “I have a stack of plays in my bag right now that I am reading. And just this past weekend, I was in New [...]

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/RightCelebrity/~3/ZvZTCiJLwdM/

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Black Eyed Peas Premiere ?Don?t Stop the Party? Video

They just keep the hits coming, and the Black Eyed Peas just debuted a brand spanking new music video.

The clip is for their new single ?Don?t Stop the Party,? and it?s sure to get toes tapping across the world.

Ben Mor directed the video, comprised of footage of will.i.am, Taboo, Fergie, and apl.de.ap on tour in South American and at the Super Bowl.

Coming up this weekend, the Black Eyed Peas will be hitting up the Radio 1 Big Weekend in the UK, with dates in Western Europe next month.

Source: http://celebrity-gossip.net/black-eyed-peas/black-eyed-peas-premiere-%E2%80%9Cdon%E2%80%99t-stop-party%E2%80%9D-video-504307

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Britney Spears Has Created 'Her Own Genre,' Dr. Luke Says

Femme Fatale producer tells MTV News the pop star defies categorization because she's 'forward-thinking.'
By Jocelyn Vena, with reporting by Matt Elias


Britney Spears
Photo: Max Morse/Getty Images

Since Britney Spears emerged on the scene nearly a decade and a half ago, she's run the gamut of pop music: from sugary bubble-gum to dirty, sexy dance tracks. In that respect, her longtime collaborator and Femme Fatale producer Dr. Luke says that the superstar has in many respects become bigger than pop. In fact, he says it's hard to confine her to just one genre.

"I feel like Britney kind of has her own genre: If you look at songs like 'Toxic' and 'Piece of Me' and 'Oops! ... I Did It Again,' they all were sort of influential and led the way," he told MTV News on Thursday (April 28) at the ASCAP Pop Music Awards.

So when the pair sat down to work on her latest release, Dr. Luke said her pop-music shape-shifting was very much on his mind. "She wanted to keep on with that and do stuff that was forward-thinking," he continued. "So we put some dubstep stuff in there, in bridges; snuck it in different places and I hope it ended up good. I hope you like it."

It seems every time Spears drops a new album, it's declared her comeback record. But Dr. Luke noted that Brit has really never gone anywhere. "Where'd she go? I don't know. I didn't know she ever disappeared, really," he said. "She's always been selling out concerts and records, so I don't know that she ever disappeared."

So what do Spears and Luke have up their sleeve now? "Not yet ... give me a second to breathe, come up for air!" he told us.

Plus, even with Femme Fatale already in stores, it seems like the pair are always finding ways to update the songs. Take, for example, the recent remix of "Till the World Ends," which features Ke$ha (the track's songwriter) and Nicki Minaj.

"Well, we already had Ke$ha on the song 'cause she co-wrote the song ... and she sounded really good on it," Dr. Luke explained. "And then Nicki got on the Femme Fatale Tour so we put Nicki on it and it just sounded amazing. She killed it."

Which version of "Till the World Ends" do you prefer? Tell us in the comments!

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Source: http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/1662892/britney-spears-dr-luke.jhtml

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Lady Gaga To Appear In Cannes, 'FarmVille'

Gaga also performs at Robin Hood Foundation benefit Monday night in NYC.
By Jocelyn Vena


Lady Gaga arrives at the Bourget Airport in France Tuesday
Photo: Credit KCSPresse / Splash News

Gaga, it seems, is everywhere these days. She's set to perform during the Cannes Film Festival on the French show "Le Grand Journal" on Wednesday; Kanye West will also perform on the show next week, according to Billboard. Gaga is already in France, writing on Twitter, "In the glass of a Parisienne boudoir getting ready for BornThisWayMadness."

The singer is also set to give fans first listens to tracks from Born This Way on "FarmVille" starting next Tuesday, according to The Hollywood Reporter, a week before Gaga's new album drops. Fans who buy $25 Zynga game cards will be treated to Gaga exclusives, and a Gaga-themed farm will be added to the game.

On Monday night in New York City, Gaga took the stage at the Robin Hood Foundation benefit in New York. Sarah Jessica Parker, Naomi Watts and Liev Schreiber were among the Hollywood heavyweights on hand to watch her perform at Jacob K. Javits Convention Center, and she didn't disappoint.

"Besides being immensely talented, Lady Gaga is immensely smart and immensely giving," David Saltzman, executive director of the Robin Hood Foundation, told MTV News. "She grew up in New York City aware of the disparity between those who have and those who have not, and she is, thank goodness, devoting her money and time and efforts to people who haven't been fortunate. Everything she sang brought the house down. She's Lady Gaga."

Other highlights included an interview between Tom Brokaw and Michael Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff; a boisterous Kid Rock performance; a message from first lady Michelle Obama; and Seth Meyers doing what he does best: "being ridiculously funny in the way that only he can be," Saltzman said.

Saltzman credits the partnership between the Robin Hood Foundation and Lady Gaga for shedding more light on the organization, which helps out homeless youth in New York.

"More than 4,000 people came together to save the lives of people in need," Saltzman said about the event. "We're thrilled that all sorts of people joined forces last night, some of whom happened to be celebrities. They were all blessed by good fortune."

So how does one get all those people together in one room? "Lot of begging, a lot of praying," he joked. "It's a big undertaking, and we're thrilled to do it. We raised more than $47 million to help poor New Yorkers ... as a result, thousands and thousands of lives will be saved."

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Source: http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/1663620/lady-gaga-cannes-film-festival-farmville.jhtml

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