By Tara Fowler
Okay, so there probably isn##Q##t much you don##Q##t know about RGos. If you##Q##re a true fan, you##Q##ve likely heard this all before. But that doesn##Q##t mean you couldn##Q##t use a little refresher in advance of this weekend##Q##s “The Place Beyond the Pines.” I mean, is there ever not a good time to talk about his torrid affair with Häagen-Dazs prior to “The Lovely Bones”? I didn##Q##t think so.
1) Those “Crazy Stupid Love” abs were real, but so was that time he melted down Häagen-Dazs and drank it: Gosling was supposed to play the father in Peter Jackson##Q##s “The Lovely Bones,” but was unceremoniously fired after he showed up on set 60 pounds heavier. “I really believed [the character] should be 210 pounds. I was melting Häagen-Dazs and drinking it when I was thirsty,” he confessed during an Oscar roundtable in 2010. “I really believed in it. I was excited about it.” Unfortunately, Jackson did not agree with him, and Mark Wahlberg was ultimately hired to replace Gosling.
2) Justin Timberlake##Q##s mom was his legal guardian for a while: During an interview with GQ, Timberlake revealed that his mother served as Gosling##Q##s legal guardian for a year while they starred on “The Mickey Mouse Club.” “Ryan##Q##s mom had to stay back in Canada,” he explained. “[M]y mom was his guardian for a year, so he could come down and be on the show.” A true bromance!
3) He might have corrupted Britney Spears and Christina Aguilera: While they were Mouseketeers, Spears and Aguilera came to Gosling with questions about sex. “I just told them what I heard — like positions and stuff,” Gosling admitted to EW in 2002. “And all the mothers went to Disney and told them I was corrupting their kids… I feel somewhat responsible for how sexual she is right now. When I see her with a snake around her neck, I think, ##Q##Did I do that?##Q## “
4) He copied Marlon Brando##Q##s accent and now he can##Q##t get rid of it: “As a kid I decided that a Canadian accent doesn##Q##t sound tough,” he told W. “I thought guys should sound like Marlon Brando. So now I have a phony accent that I can##Q##t shake, so it##Q##s not phony anymore. I##Q##m going for the Madonna thing, the Lady Gaga thing — a phony accent that becomes your trademark.”
5) He bought a restaurant on a whim: It##Q##s called Tagine and you can find it in Beverly Hills. “I never really wanted to own it but one of my best friends called me one night, said his cousin was leaving town and needed to sell it,” Gosling said. “My friend wanted to buy it but he said we had to do it that night. At the time I wasn##Q##t very busy so I spent all my money on this restaurant. I spent a year working in it and now I love it. I think it##Q##s one of the best restaurants in LA.”
6) He once tried to tattoo himself: Like the true badass he is, Gosling attempted to ink himself with a monster holding a bloody heart: “One of my tattoos is supposed to be a monster##Q##s hand dropping a bloody heart but I did it myself with a tattoo kit so it looks like a cactus.” After that, he left it to the professionals.
7) He thinks muscles are pointless: “That was a lot of work,” he told “Extra” of his physique for “Crazy Stupid Love.” It##Q##s such a waste of time. It takes so much time to make muscles and then they don##Q##t really do anything.”
8) He nearly ruined “The Place Beyond the Pines” with his shirtlessness: Director Derek Cianfrance told Vanity Fair that carnival-goers ruined the opening shot of the film countless times by staring at Gosling##Q##s bare chest. “I had about a dozen [assistant directors] with Dr. Seuss hats to distract people and make sure they did not look in the camera and did not look at Ryan Gosling with his shirt off walking through the fair,” Cianfrance said. “I would say that there were many takes ruined by people doing that.”
A pair of singers got the ax on Tuesday’s (November 27) results episode of “The Voice,” with the lone remaining Team Christina singer heading out the door.
Dez Duron, who tried out unsuccessfully on the last season of “The Voice,” was holding it down for coach Christina Aguilera, but the heartthrob singer didn’t make it to the top six. Team Cee Lo‘s Cody Belew was also sent packing, thanking fans for “riding with me on this journey.”
Another of Cee Lo‘s singers, Trevin Hunte, got stuck in the bottom three, thanking his “Lord and savior Jesus Christ” before he learned that he would live to sing another day.
Before saying goodbye to any singers, we got to hear everyone display their talents once more. Team Adam’s Amanda Brown and Hunte formed a blessed union to sing “Marry the Night,” Lady Gaga‘s ode to NYC.
Cee Lo, meanwhile, reunited with his “Voice” contestants, past and present — and the Muppets! — for a Christmas-themed performance before teaming for a duet with Kermit for “It Ain‘t Easy Being Green,” wearing a mirrored avocado-colored sleeveless getup with matching hat for the occasion.
Belew, Terry McDermott, Melanie Martinez and Nicholas David put their various team alliances aside for a folk-circle performance of the Plain White T’s track “Rhythm of Love,” and Cassadee Pope and Duron channeled Rihanna and Ne-Yo for the love/hate track “Hate How Much I Love You.”
All eight artists landed on the iTunes charts after Monday night’s episode, host Carson Daly informed the audience, with McDermott’s cover of coach Blake Shelton’s “Over” topping the rock chart and Martinez’s take on Alex Clare’s “Too Close” at #1 on the alternative chart.
Earlier this year One Direction debuted on the Billboard 200 chart with 176,000 copies of their first album sold in week one, and months later their follow-up Take Me Home has clocked in the third-largest first week sales of the year with 540, 000 copies sold, according to Nielsen SoundScan.
This means that One Direction is now tied with Justin Bieber as the only artists todebut two #1 albums within the past 12 months.
One Direction teach us the art of the swoon face: Watch now!
Taylor Swift remained at #2 with an additional 144,000 copies of Red sold and The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn – Part 2 Soundtrack debuted at #3 with 93,000.
Toronto singer the Weeknd breached the top five, pulling in at #4 with his major-label debut Trilogy, but Christina Aguilera had a disappointing first week, charting at #7 after moving only 73,000 copies of Lotus. Green Day’s ¡Dos! landed at #9 with 69,000 sold, followed by Lana Del Rey’s Paradise closing out the top 10.
Over on the iTunes album charts, “American Idol” winner Phillip Phillips commanded the #1 spot with The World from the Side of the Moon, while Swift’s Red held at #2 and the “Twilight” soundtrack completed the top three. AC/DC’s re-release of Back in Black and Led Zeppelin’s Celebration Day managed to trump One Direction however, pushing Take Me Home to #7.
Cassadee Pope’s “Over You (The Voice”) had a big showing at #1 on the song’s charts, with PSY’s “Gangnam Style” holding tight at #2 and Ke$ha’s “Die Young” at #3. Bruno Mars’ “Locked Out Of Heaven” pulled in at #4 while Rihanna’s “Diamonds” rolled in at #8, topping Pink’s “Try” at #9 and another offering from “The Voice” at #10.
Justin Bieber already donates $1 of every ticket sold on his Believe tour to charity, and now, he’s decided to direct the proceeds from four New York-area shows to the ongoing recovery effort in the wake of Hurricane Sandy.
“After talking with the team, I am proud to announce that for the four NYC area shows — the Jersey show, the Brooklyn show and two [Madison Square Garden shows], we are going to donate $1 to Hurricane Sandy relief,” Bieber wrote on his Facebook page Thursday (November 8). “Thanks for helping us. #GIVEBACK.”
Those shows include a November 9 concert at the IZOD Center in East Rutherford, New Jersey, a November 12 show at Brooklyn’s Barclay’s Center and his two-night stand at the Garden, set for November 28-29.
Bieber is just the latest star to lend a hand to victims of Sandy. Earlier this week, Lady Gaga donated $1 million to the Red Cross recovery effort, and last week, Bruce Springsteen, Christina Aguilera and Billy Joel were just some of the musicians who performed on an NBC telethon that raised $23 million for the Red Cross.
And the stars of MTV’s “Jersey Shore” are getting in on the act, too. On November 15, they’ll team up with Architecture for Humanity on “Restore The Shore,” a live special that will ask viewers to contribute to the restoration and rebuilding of Seaside Heights, the show’s home base. The show will bring together the cast, as well as other celebrity guests, in MTV’s Times Square studio, and will air on the channel.
You can also donate $10 to the Red Cross‘ recovery efforts by texting “REDCROSS” TO 90999.
With just one week to go until Christina Aguilera releases her seventh studio album, Lotus, the “Your Body” singer hosted an album preview event, where she played five tracks to some of her biggest fans, both old and new.
“As in every record, it’s my heart. It’s a labor of love. It’s not just songs to me; these are blood, sweat and tears and stuff from the heart,” Aguilera said. “You’ll hear on this record that I’ve written songs for the next generation to hopefully inspire new singers of raw talent and realness. … I definitely wanted to have fun and make Lotus about freedom.”
The five tracks from Lotus, which hits stores November 13, have Aguilera showing off her impressive vocal range, reminding us why she is one of the best in pop music. Yet on these tracks, Aguilera — who called this a “celebratory record” — is also taking some risks. Her lyrics are unapologetic, she is exploring different sounds and she recruited some friends in fellow “Voice” coaches Cee Lo Green and Blake Shelton for some impressive collaborations.
Let’s take a closer look at the songs:
“Let There Be Love”
It’s hard to believe that in Aguilera’s decade-plus career, she has not worked with hitmaker Max Martin, but on Lotus, she finally teamed up with the super producer, and it seems like the collaboration was long overdue.
Martin produced two songs on Lotus: lead single “Your Body” and “Let There Be Love,” an uptempo track with a heavy beat and sultry lyrics that seems like it was made for people to get on their feet and get into the clubs. “I want to know your hearts beating/ I want to tell you like that/ It feels so good that I can’t hold back like that/ Hit the right spot making my eyes roll back/ Let there be love,” she sings.
“He couldn’t have been more great, and this is a really super fun song,” Aguilera said of working with Martin. “Super uptempo, it’s probably the most dance-ish song on my record … but it’s just free and it’s representative of what this album is about.”
“Army of Me”
We all know Aguilera is a fighter, but she wanted to prove it again. With “Army of Me,” Aguilera took a page out of her Stripped era, penning a song reminiscent to her smash single “Fighter” with lyrics like “One of me is wiser/ One of me is stronger/ One of me’s a fighter/ And there’s a thousand faces of me/ We’re gonna rise up for every time you broke me/ You’re gonna face an army of me.”
This wasn’t a coincidence: Aguilera has been introduced to a whole new generation of fans ever since appearing on “The Voice,” many of whom aren’t familiar with her past work, which is why she wanted them to have their own “Fighter” anthem.
“This song is a really fun uptempo, and I wanted to do sort of a ‘Fighter 2.0′ inspirational uptempo for the younger generation, because I felt they should have it,” Aguilera said. “All these 6-year-olds who know me from pushing my button and turning around in a big red chair who weren’t around for the actual ‘Fighter,’ this is my chance to recharge it, rejuvenate it and do something modernized for them.”
“Blank Page”
Late last week, Aguilera shared “Blank Page” with all her fans, tweeting out a link to the moving ballad, which shows off her vocal range. Even though the lyrics are completely different, Aguilera told the group this song reminds her of one of her most powerful ballads: “Beautiful.”
“It’s almost reminiscent to me of the quality of song, to me, that’s so vulnerable and so empowering that ‘Beautiful’ is, but in a relationship way,” Aguilera explained. “It’s about being OK with saying you’re sorry and the fact that you might have regrets, but it’s about finding closure and making peace with yourself and the situation. The song is sort of the heart of the record.”
“Make the World Move” (featuring Cee Lo Green)
With a musical arrangement that is funky and explosive, it’s no wonder Aguilera tapped her fellow “Voice” judge to appear on the inspirational track. “The time is now/ No time to wait/ Turn up the love/ Turn down the hate,” she sings over a fast-moving track backed by horns.
“I got to collaborate with my good buddy Cee Lo,” Aguilera said. “There was a part for a potential male vocal on the chorus, and I just heard immediately Cee Lo‘s voice on it, his signature Cee Lo, and it was fun collaborating with him and having him on my record and us joining forces together.”
“Just a Fool” (featuring Blake Shelton)
Previewing another power ballad from Lotus, Aguilera’s vocals sound better than ever on “Just a Fool.” The pop diva recruited her “favorite” “Voice” judge, Blake Shelton, who she said “busted his ass to make the time” to record the song. Shelton brings his smooth vocals and country flare to the heartbreaking ballad, which blends nicely with Aguilera’s booming sound as they sing about the pain of a breakup.
“Who am I kidding? I know what I’m missing/ I had my heart set on you/ But nothing else hurts like you/ Who knew that love was so cruel/ I waited and waited so long/ For someone to never come home/ It’s my fault to think you’d be true/ I’m just a fool,” the two sing on the moving duet.
What do you think of Christina Aguilera’s new tracks? Let us know in the comments!
