Sunday, December 5, 2010
Brahim Zaibat Gives An Interview About His Relationship With Madonna
Saturday, December 4, 2010
Trombone Shorty, Mannie Fresh Bring New Orleans Sound To New York
Brooklyn's Red Hot + New Orleans festival also features Dr. John, Ivan Neville, Partners-N-Crime.
By Rahman Dukes
Trombone Shorty
Photo: BAM
BROOKLYN, New York — The Big Easy is ready to take on Brooklyn.
On Friday (December 3), some of New Orleans' signature music artists kick off the Red Hot + New Orleans festival at the borough's BAM Howard Gilman Opera House. The two-day music cabaret will unload legendary acts including Ivan Neville, Irma Thomas, Dr. John, rap duo Partners-N-Crime, world-renowned producer Mannie Fresh and the show's musical director, , with his Orleans Avenue bandmates.
Andrews' first stab as the production's musical director comes just days after snagging his first Grammy nod in the best contemporary jazz album category for his acclaimed CD Backatown. The trumpeter, whose performance style is often described as recalling the "lips of Louis Armstrong," also appeared as himself in a recurring role on the HBO show "Treme" earlier this year. Trombone says sharing the Brooklyn stage with some of his city's top acts will be an honor.
"[I'm] happy to be here representing New Orleans," Trombone told MTV News backstage after a rehearsal at BAM. "I'm making a donation to the AIDS task force of New Orleans, presenting the music of New Orleans and doing it for a good cause."
Trombone says delivering the classic New Orleans sound to an audience of mostly New Yorkers isn't difficult at all.
"I get to play some of my favorite songs that I grew up on with some of the people that wrote the songs, like Ivan Neville. The world-famous Mannie Fresh [is here]," he said. "I'm honored to be here and there's not much directing I have to do. They're all legends."
Neville shares Trombone's excitement about playing alongside his regional peers at Red Hot.
"Glad to be a part of such a cool thing with some New Orleans legends," Neville said. "Young legends. It's an honor to be here. It's a wonderful thing."
The Red Hot series plans to donate part of the proceeds from the event to New Orleans' NO/AIDS Task Force in commemoration of World AIDS Day. Mannie Fresh says the event is every music lover's dream.
"They got people like Irma Thomas, Dr John," he said. "That's crazy, [getting] that in one place for a good cause. Come and enjoy yourself. New Orleans is in the house."
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Kristen Stewart And Robert Pattinson 'Breaking Dawn' Honeymoon Scene Hits Internet
Bootleg footage shows the pair kneeling on a beach and kissing in Brazil.
By Jocelyn Vena
Robert Pattinson and Kristen Stewart in "Eclipse"
Photo: Summit
Can't wait for the November 18, 2011, release of part one of "Breaking Dawn"? Well, on Thursday some bootleg footage of Robert Pattinson and Kristen Stewart shooting scenes for the flick hit the Internet.
The footage was shot in Brazil, where Bella and Edward's honeymoon scenes take place. It shows the duo kneeling on a beach and sharing some unheard dialogue before kissing. They go through the scene a few times before they break and walk away from the spot where they're shooting. Stewart is wearing a blue sweater over a bathing suit, while Pattinson sports a white tank top and shorts, an outfit visible in photographs posted online.
While these aren't official images from the film, last month an official photo from "Breaking Dawn" was released for public consumption. In it, Bella's hand is holding feathers from a pillow that Edward destroyed while the pair had sex for the first time on Isle Esme. Stewart and Pattinson were also spotted kissing in Rio de Janeiro last month while shooting more scenes for the film.
Despite all the sexiness that could take place in the finale, Summit Entertainment has assured fans that the "Breaking Dawn" films won't be rated R, instead opting to keep the action PG-13. The final installment of the "Twilight" franchise, "Breaking Dawn, Part 2," is set for a November 2012 release, capping off four years and five films. Both parts of the final book are being directed by Bill Condon.
Check out everything we've got on "The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn, Part 1."
For young Hollywood news, fashion and "Twilight" updates around the clock, visit HollywoodCrush.MTV.com.
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'Black Swan' Cheat Sheet: Everything You Need To Know
We've been keeping up with the choreography of this ballet thriller from the start.
By Eric Ditzian
Natalie Portman in "Black Swan"
Photo: Fox Searchlight
Long before Darren Aronofsky resurrected Mickey Rourke's career inside the ropes of a wrestling ring, the director hit upon the idea to spin a big-screen tale about a love affair between a ballet dancer and a wrestler.
"What was amazing to me was how similar the performers in both of these worlds are," he explained to MTV News. "They both make incredible use of their bodies to express themselves. They're both performers."
But Aronofsky soon realized that incorporating these two disparate athletic worlds was simply too much story for one single movie. He ended up dropping the ballet idea and making "The Wrestler," a film that nabbed two Oscar nominations. Two years later, he's picked up the ballet again for "Black Swan," the Natalie Portman-starring drama about a dancer in a highly competitive New York company. It's expected to garner even more Oscar nods.
"I've always considered the two films companion pieces," Aronofsky said. "They are really connected, and people will see the connections."
Long before we checked out "Black Swan" earlier this week, we've been connecting the dots. With the film getting a limited release Friday (December 3), here's everything you need to know about this awards-season darling.
Training for the Dance
Last June, with the status of his "RoboCop" reboot up in the air, Aronofsky veered away from his plans to make a movie about a futuristic man/bot hybrid and toward work on "Black Swan." After years of discussion with the director, Portman signed on to star in what was being described as a drama with possible supernatural overtones in which Portman's ballerina, on the verge of the biggest performance of her career, faces a terrifying question: Is her rival real or just a delusion?
"Like the way we kind of knew that Mickey Rourke was going to be in 'The Wrestler' and we were able to construct the material for him, Natalie had been attached to the film for eight or nine years; so when we were thinking about it, we were thinking about Natalie," Aronofsky told us. "First and foremost, we just wanted to make the character work and make sense of the character. Then Natalie, through her own work, was able to get to a place where she was able to play it."
By November, the rest of the cast began to come together: Mila Kunis as Portman's rival and Winona Ryder as a dancer past her prime. Vincent Cassel eventually came aboard as the company's intense director and Barbara Hershey as Portman's overbearing mother.
About That Sex Scene ...
Late that same year, rumors started floating around that the film called for Portman and Kunis to engage in a steamy sex scene. When we talked to Portman, she confirmed the scene would indeed take place. "It's a very extreme movie," she explained. "It's like very extreme situations. But it's not explicit in any way."
Yet it was explicit enough for Kunis to ban her father from watching the scene in question. "[My dad] was like, 'I don't think I should see the movie,' " she told us. "I was like, 'See the movie. There's going to be a point; get up and leave.' "
That scene, it turned out, wasn't the only sexually explicit one in the film. There's also a masturbation scene, in which Portman is caught by her mother. "So disgusting," Portman said of shooting the scene. "It was akin to the experience of watching the movie with my parents sitting next to me, let me tell you."
Raising the Curtain
The super creepy trailer dropped online in August and set the Web on fire; a prominent lesbian kiss will do that, we suppose. It was also clear that Kunis and Portman got into crazy shape for the production. As they'd tell us later, they each dropped 20 pounds and spent the entire shoot starving.
"We were on set together in tutus, emaciated and tired," Portman told us at the red-carpet premiere this week.
And the intensity of the experience continued to affect them, even after they were able to ditch their diets and eat like normal human beings. "I definitely felt both physical and mental aftershocks from the experience, because it was the first thing I've ever done that was this physically demanding on top of an emotionally demanding part," Portman explained in an earlier interview. "The kind of discipline that it demands also puts you in that space for the acting part. But yeah, it affects you in ways. I'll probably figure out how it affected me in, like, five years. I'll look back and go, 'Oh, that's why I did that and that and that.' "
Check out everything we've got on "Black Swan."
For breaking news, celebrity columns, humor and more — updated around the clock — visit MTVMoviesBlog.com.
Related Videos Related PhotosFriday, December 3, 2010
For Two Fitness: Stylish (and Comfy!) Workout Tanks for Moms-to-Be!
