Tag Archives: PR

LL Cool J And Paisley Follow ‘Accidental Racist’ With Lighthearted ‘Live For You’

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LL Cool J And Paisley Follow Accidental Racist With Lighthearted Live For You

By Sidney Madden

LL Cool J has dropped the new pop track “Live For You” featuring Brad Paisley on the heels of their recent controversial collaboration “Accidental Racist.”

As if a perfectly timed effort to draw attention away from the backlash, this new song off from his upcoming album, Authentic, is in classic LL fashion; smooth, introspective and lovey-dovey via stupidDOPE.

In other words, it’s a complete one eighty from LL‘s feature on“Accidental Racist,” off of Paisley’s new album Wheelhouse which finds the country crooner and Queens rapper musing about post-Construction racism in the South and has caught some major flack since its April 8 release.

One of the most scoffed at lines in particular came from J who rapped, “If you don’t judge my do-rag / I won’t judge your red flag / If you don’t judge my gold chains / I’ll forget the iron chains” over Paisley’s explanation of being “A white man from the South Land”. The song promotes forgiveness and understanding but was highly criticized for not only reinforcing prejudicial stereotypes but also being down right corny.

Paisley and LL have stood by the record under the media scrutiny, with LL saying in an interview with ABC News, “I’m not advising anyone to truly forget slavery. But what I am saying is forget the slavery mentality, forget the bitterness. Don’t get bitter, get better”.

Now, sliding onto the charts just two days later, “Live For You” seems to be a carefully constructed PR move from J’s camp, reminding his fans of what he does best. “You’re in every breath that I take, every dream that I dream, every move that I make,” raps the veteran ladies man, as Paisley shows off his vocal range singing the hook.

Hopefully the two artists returning to their roots will squelch the slander connected with “Accidental Racist.”

Chad Johnson Calls Out Evelyn Lozada For YMCMB Hook Up

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Chad Johnson Calls Out Evelyn Lozada For YMCMB Hook Up

By Henna Kathiya

Apparently the drama doesn’t have to end just because the marriage did. Chad Johnson still had some things to say about his ex-wife, Evelyn Lozada, when he went on a Twitter rant yesterday (March 20) about the reality star sleeping with a member of YMCMB.

After a particularly messy split last September based on the charges that Johnson head butted Lozada, things have been pretty quiet since then. However the former Miami Dolphins player has still heard rumors trickling down the grape vine which spurred his Twitter rant.

“Since you want to open up a can let’s air out the dirty laundry of the oh so saved and righteous when it’s convenient!!!!, he tweeted. He went on to attack Lozada’s publicist as well. “F— you and your PR campaign to keep your 15 minutes alive…she better hope that YMCMB d— keep her straight for life.”

Although Lozada does not have any affiliations with YMCMB music wise, the Cash Money’s book division published her book “Inner Circle”, last year.

Lozada put her two cents in, refusing to engage directly by tweeting. “KEEP TALKING CAUSE I’M WALKIN…” However she did post a more subtle message on her Instagram account, “Fools talk because they’re trying to convince themselves. The wise are quiet because they already know their truth.”

‘Arrested Development’ Updates: Only One Netflix Season, Ben Stiller Will Cameo

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Arrested Development Updates: Only One Netflix Season, Ben Stiller Will Cameo

Magic is bound to happen when Ben Stiller’s Tony Wonder makes a guest appearance on “Arrested Development” during the new season of the resurrected sitcom.

The news comes from EW.com, who report that the Wonder-ful Stiller will only appear (and disappear) in one episode of the show, which premieres on Netflix in May. Additional details on how his latest tricks will affect the Bluth family’s resident magic man, GOB, are still unknown.

Stiller, who previously appeared on the series, joins already announced season 4 guest stars, Seth Rogen, Kristen Wiig, Conan O’Brien, Isla Fisher, and John Slattery, who are all set to stop by the model home for the highly-anticipated, Netflix-only run of the cult-loved sitcom.

In other “Arrested Development” news, Netflix CEO Reed Hastings shared that the revived series is likely only to run for one season. Complex reports that Hastings opened up about the show at a tech conference in San Francisco, sharing, “It’s a fantastic one-off. Think of it as a non-repeatable amazing. [Original programming] may be the center of PR for a while and that’s OK, but I don’t want you guys to think that suddenly we’re the original content company.”

While fans might only get this last chance to spend time with TV‘s wackiest family, it’s bound to be as bananas (stand) as ever. Last August, the show’s producer and narrator Ron Howard gave MTV News some details about reuniting for what seems to be the last time.

“[Show creator] Mitch [Hurwitz] isn’t trying to recreate something,” Howard said. “It’s been away for a while, and part of the fun that Mitch has been mining and exploiting is, what’s new to discover about these people? What’s delightfully unchanged? He and the writing staff and the actors have a fantastic sense of that. They’re pretty brazen, pretty bold and fearless. That’s what made the show into something that fans really kept alive.”

Jennifer Lawrence Makes Herself The Target On ‘SNL’

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If there’s one thing viewers learned from the latest episode of “Saturday Night Live,” it’s that Jennifer Lawrence sure doesn’t mind poking fun at herself. As the host for the evening, the “Silver Linings Playbook” actress took multiple opportunities to make light of recent news headlines as well as “The Hunger Games” franchise.

Fresh off her Best Actress in a Comedy or Musical win at the 70th Annual Golden Globe Awards, Lawrence started strong with her opening monologue, which made fun of what some thought was a dis toward Meryl Streep during her ceremony acceptance speech. “I would never trash talk any of my fellow nominees at the Golden Globes, but the Oscars are another story,” she said with sass, before throwing jabs (and closing praise) at her fellow Oscar nominees, even including 9-year-old Quvenzhane Wallis. “You think you can beat me? Whatchu talkin’ bout, Wallis? Also, the alphabet called. They want their letters back,” she told the audience. Much like the real Tommy Lee Jones during last Sunday’s award show, an impersonator in the crowd kept a poker face, at least for most of her jokes.

When Lawrence wasn’t playing a wannabe New York lesbian bandmate or a contestant on a canine version Top Chef, she kept the self-targeted jokes coming, particularly during a skit where she reprised her “Hunger Games” role as Katniss Everdeen for a news conference only a short 10 minutes following Everdeen’s win in the film.

Sitting alongside a lookalike Games’ character, the District 12 warriors were bombarded with a series of silly questions like “What the hell kind of name is Katniss Everdeen?” and “Have you been using performance enhancement drugs?” But one of the best questions came from a reporter (naive to the annual tournament’s concept), who asked: “Did you have a chance to speak with any of the other competitors after the game?” Exchanging confused looks with her male tribute, Everdeen replied, “They’re all dead…That’s how the ‘Hunger Games‘ work.”

Lawrence hit another high note during her cameo in “SNL“‘s trailer film parody of “The Hobbit” and its never-ending sequels. In “Hobbit 10: The Elf Queen Tries To Pick An Outfit,” Lawrence appears as the elf queen with long blonde hair and contemplates which white dress she should wear. “We are going to be so late,” says one hobbit, to which she barks back, “No we aren’t!”

As the Luminers teased with MTV News in rehearsals, the 2013 Grammy-nominated band continued their PR momentum with a performance of smash “Ho Hey.” While it wasn’t the confetti-filled party like in the song’s video, the fivesome appeared to have just as much fun during the number. Before a red-lit set, the group chanted the feel-good tune as a few of the bandmates hopped and pranced beside each other. Returning to the Studio 8H stage just a few skits later, the folk-rock group performed their second single “Stubborn Love.” As the sounds of guitars, drums and the cello filled the stage, the band wailed the movie soundtrack-ready tune and was met with roar of applause.

“SNL” went old-school, and we mean 1860s old-school as Lawrence ended her hosting duties with a skit about two lovers exchanging letters during the Civil War era. Despite the amount of eloquence and tender love that dripped from her character’s writing, her fiancé’s vapid responses included a photo of his genitals.

“Gregory, we are through,” she says in a final letter. “Harold Thompson has returned honorably from battle. I have accepted his proposal of marriage and burned the photograph you sent of your genitals with the inscription: now you.”

Did you enjoy Lawrence’s “SNL” episode? Tell us what you think below.

Is Lindsay Lohan Really Anything Like Elizabeth Taylor?

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Lindsay Lohan stormed the Lifetime network on Sunday night playing the one and only Elizabeth Taylor. Given the similarities between both women’s personal lives, it would seem that Lohan would make for the perfect modern-day starlet to re-imagine the late screen legend in “Liz Dick.”

Let’s break it down for you. Both women happened to be former child stars who, as adults, lavished themselves in jewels (sometimes gifted to them, sometimes stolen, allegedly) and lived out their lives in the tabloids without much concern for how it may affect their PR. Given all that, does her co-star Grant Bowler think that Lohan truly is Liz reincarnated?

“Oh, I don’t know! I don’t know,” Bowler, who played Liz’s longtime love Richard Burton in the flick, told MTV News. “I, for myself, look for attributes that I have in common and if you like fuse those together so that I can tick that box and then I get curious about the stuff that’s a long way away from me, like internally. But that process goes on completely in your imagination and in your own head. So I don’t know about anybody else, whether they are close or far from their character. That’s impossible to tell. Really the only thing you can do is, as an audience later, sit back objectively kind of look at it and go ‘Oh yeah, there’s a lot of similarities.’ “

The film’s production, in many ways, played out like the Burton/Taylor love affair, full of controversy and speculation. It seems that each time Lindsay stepped on set, hullabaloo followed, including the time she was found unconscious in her hotel room and an investigation into the film’s production. Given who they were, perhaps Burton and Taylor would have appreciated that type of pre-release hype.

“They were the first paparazzi couple. The entire term ‘paparazzi’ became known around the world because of Burton and Taylor,” he said, recalling the scandal they created when they first fell in love on the set of “Cleopatra” in Rome (they were married to other people at the time), forever changing the way celebrity culture plays out in the press. “That was the end of it,” he said. “Really from then until now, studios and the people producing product have lost control controlling the stories around it. And, we have what we have today.”

But there was one moment that really struck Bowler during filming — one that made him realize how much Liz and Dick lived in public without a care.

“The amazing thing about their relationship was what didn’t happen behind closed doors,” he continued. “One thing that blew my mind shooting the movie was there a scene where Burton forces Taylor to choose between him and her husband, Eddie Fisher. But he did it in real life, and in the movie, in the middle of a dinner party in a home full of their friends. What was remarkable about them was how cavalier, if you like, or how open they were conducting their life. They certainly didn’t hold anything back.”

What are some more similarities between Liz Taylor and Lindsay Lohan? List ‘em in the comments!

‘X Factor’ Goes Live, And Britney, Demi Get (Barely) Passing Grades

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It was the moment that “X Factor” fans were waiting for. Wednesday night’s first live show promised proof of whether new judges Britney Spears and Demi Lovato were ready for prime time, or if the latest bold-name reality singing show panelists only give great TV in the editing room.

And the early verdict after the two-hour performance show was … yes and no.

MTV News spoke to a pair of “Factor” experts to judge Britney and Demi and the reviews were mixed, though both agreed that Spears was taking home a pretty hefty paycheck compared to the Dr. Seuss-level amount of words she expended on the show.

“Demi impressed me and I thought she was really sassy in a relatable way,” said Shirley Halperin, music editor for the Hollywood Reporter. “It was so nice to hear an honest-to-goodness opinion after two seasons of J.Lo and Steven Tyler [on 'American Idol'], who didn’t say much. It was weirdly refreshing and she seemed like a real person, which I could not say of Britney, who seemed a little bit like a robot.”

Though she didn’t offer the kind of detailed, impassioned comments that Lovato did, Halperin said Spears held her own and didn’t go off the rails (as some had feared the highly sheltered singer might) in her first live TV gig. “It wasn’t a big train wreck by any means, but she didn’t really say much. You could easily count the total number of words she said, which was around 50 and she’s getting paid $15 million!”

If anything, Spears’ live debut was a bit anticlimactic for Halperin, who thought that some of the low energy on Spears’ part may have come from the show being moved up one day due to the World Series finishing early and the singer being not quite ready for the live shows.

“Factor” blogger MJ Santilli said both women distinguished themselves by making bad song choices for their charges, but that Spears’ miscues seemed to point out her lack of musical wisdom. “When Britney went outside of her genre you could tell she didn’t have a lot of musical knowledge and her picks were mostly terrible,” she said of choices that included a Train song for soul sister Diamond White and a sleepy Jason Mraz number for Adele-like singer Beatrice Miller.

“Britney pretty much said something was amazing, or that it was boring, which was not very illuminating,” said Santilli. “She was just kind of wooden and making faces … and not very engaged.”

She thought Lovato, who gamely mixed it up with Simon Cowell and wasn’t afraid to offer some unpopular opinions, was better, but might have also suffered from some first-night jitters. “She was not as thoughtful as she was when I saw her live [during auditions] in Providence,” she said.

Neither thought Spears (or Lovato) were going to give the show the kind of ratings boost some at Fox may have been hoping for. Though “Factor” scored 7.4 million viewers on the traditionally slow Halloween night, the 2.7 rating with adults 18-49 was up from last week’s special telecast, but a 22 percent drop for the previous Wednesday episode on October 11, according to the Hollywood Reporter.

She may not boost the ratings in the way Cowell intended, but, if nothing else, Halperin said the move to “Factor” is a personal boost for Spears. “I think the show is good for her career, but she’s not necessarily all that great for the show,” she said. “It’s normalized her and makes her a bit more accessible than she’s been the last six years and does a lot for her PR, but does it help the ‘X Factor’ become a more watchable or talked about show? I don’t think so.”

It’s obviously very early in the game to paint either judge as a success or failure, but based on Wednesday’s show, Santilli put it even more succinctly: “If Britney is not awesome or a train wreck, forget it,” she said.

What did you think of Britney and Demi on “X Factor” Wednesday night? Did they kill it, or did they bomb? Let us know in comments below.

Miley Cyrus Ditches ‘Hannah Montana’ In New Video, Porn Star Says

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Miley Cyrus has been working overtime lately to prove to the world that she’s all grown up, from her engagement to Liam Hemsworth and seductive “Two and a Half Men” cameo to her chopped-and-dyed hair and … shooting a video with a porn star?

That was the latest headline Wednesday (October 31) about the onetime Disney princess, but it’s not as salacious as it might sound. The music video, for the dubstep track “Decisions” by Borgore, happens to feature Cyrus (who sings on the chorus) and the Israeli DJ’s ex-girlfriend, adult-film star Jessie Andrews. Borgore wrote the song about Andrews, who won Best Actress at the AVN Awards this year, so when she popped up on set, of course the track’s inspiration had to make a cameo.

“I was actually just coming to support,” Andrews told MTV News on Wednesday. “I wasn’t supposed to be in the video. They needed more girls, and they were like, ‘Be in it! Be in it!’ And I was like, ‘No,’ because the song is about me.”

Andrews ended up relenting, but by the time she arrived on set around 2 a.m., Cyrus had already finished filming her scenes. Even if they didn’t have screen time together, Andrews said she totally gets what Miley is going for with the wild new video, which premieres Thursday.

“I understand where she’s coming from, trying to break away from that,” she said of Cyrus’ child-star past. “She doesn’t want to be Hannah Montana anymore; she wants to be her own person. … The way she’s dressing, the hair, the music — everything is outside of the box. It didn’t really surprise me.”

Cyrus told Rolling Stone last month that the “Decisions” video shoot was quite the scene. “That sh– was crazy!” she said. “[Borgore] walked into his hotel room, and it was people in the weirdest clothes you’ve ever seen. My fiancé was dressed as a unicorn. We make out in the video, which is very funny. It’s just the most random group. We walk in and we’re like, ‘This feels like a party,’ so it’s dope.”

So what other craziness did Andrews witness on set? “There was a goat, there was a dog, there was a lot of little people, like six midgets,” Andrews told us. “There was a huge Amazon lady and a lady with huge, huge boobs. Just a lot of crazy things and half-naked girls and cakes.”

Borgore didn’t know Cyrus before she recorded vocals for “Decisions,” Andrews said, and he was just as surprised as Miley’s fans were when she ended up on the dance track.

“He wrote the song just as a single for him, and he didn’t know Miley was going to be on it until after the fact,” she revealed. “They wanted to put a girl vocal on it, but they didn’t know who. Both of them are with the same management, so they decided that she would be good for it. And they pitched it to her and she liked it, so she got on the track.

“It was really random, because he had put out the single and everything, and nobody could really tell who it was,” she added. “And then one day, [Miley] randomly tweeted it. And he was like, ‘I don’t know if this is good or bad.’ I was like, ‘I mean, it’s good. There’s a lot of PR now about it and you’re shooting a music video. So it’s good.’ “

UK Video Of The Week: Fem Fel Feat. Blade Brown

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79860 FemFel UK Video Of The Week: Fem Fel Feat. Blade Brown

By Joseph ‘JP’ Patterson

Artist Name: Fem Fel
Location: London, UK
Musical Style: Reflective rap.

Fem Fel has come a long way since I profiled him on The Independent nearly two years ago. We both have, really, but his delivery and content has made more of an impact where UK rap is concerned. From a shy rhymer to a confident story-teller, he has spent enough time honing his craft in the studio to finally receive the praise and adoration that he truly deserves. “At the moment, I’m on the verge of a publishing and record deal,” Fem Fel tells RapFix. “I’m spending most of my days recording demos in the studio.”

With a strong PR team taking good care of him, the south Londoner has been fortunate enough to bless certain internet and magazine pages that even signed artists haven’t been able to bless, so news of a record deal is no surprise to me. And that leads us nicely on to his new track, Big Money – which features fellow south Londoner, Blade Brown.

“Big Money is basically Fem Fel in story-telling mode, allowing people to hear, see and feel our experiences, without having to have had personally experienced it themselves,” he says. “It also represents the struggles and aspirations of people from whatever area or background – the whole ‘nothing to something’ theory. I heard the beat and it just evoked the right emotion and there was nothing else I could do but give my heart to the track.”

He continues: “When choosing a collab, it only made sense to call for somebody who was capable to do the same. Working with Blade Brown is like working with my brother. We always do our odd once a year collab, especially since our joint mixtape, Fem Fel Vs Blade, went down so well.” Watch below, as two of the UK rap scene’s most loved names go back-to-back on this inspirational offering…

RapFix’s “UK Video Of The Week” is a new weekly column by UK-based music journalist, Joseph ‘JP’ Patterson, designed to give us a closer look at hip-hop across the pond. Stay tuned.

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‘Taken 2′ Star Liam Neeson Was ‘Wary’ Of Sequel

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Given how particular his set of skills is, Bryan Mills isn’t a hero you can just place in any movie. “Taken,” on its own, was enough of a surprise for star Liam Neeson, producer Luc Besson and the rest of the creative minds involved — how on Earth were they going to be able to top themselves in a sequel?

“I was very wary,” Neeson admitted to MTV News about his feelings going into “Taken 2,” his latest action thriller in theaters now. Even though he was also “a little bit excited,” the Irish actor could not imagine a scenario in which a sequel to the first film’s story — in which Neeson’s retired black ops character kills his way across France to find and rescue his kidnapped daughter — would make any kind of sense.

Indeed, even the success of the original “Taken” was unexpected for Neeson. “We knew that we had made a really good, compact, European thriller in the first one, that would have a commercial life of some sort — before disappearing into DVD land,” he said. But thanks to what Neeson described as “an extraordinary PR job” by distributor 20th Century Fox, “Taken” went on to earn over $200 million at the worldwide box office. And now, it’s generated a sequel, one that ultimately made sense to Neeson.

“They came up with a storyline set in Istanbul and I thought it was good,” he said, adding that his co-stars Famke Janssen and Maggie Grace were also on board with the new idea. “I wouldn’t have done it without the two girls.”

But as Neeson has already mentioned, “Taken 2″ appears to be the end for Mills and friends. Well, at least for Mills himself; Neeson sees a way that the films could go forward, just not with him in the lead.

“I think Famke is keen to do a third one, and she could do it very well. Her and Maggie. Maybe they should,” he mused, before joking, “They can call me for advice every now and then!”

Check out everything we’ve got on “Taken 2.”

Porter Robinson Reveals Back-To-Back ‘Poseidon’ Tour With Zedd

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CHICAGO — After banging back-to-back sets at Lollapalooza by Zedd, Madeon and Porter Robinson, MTV News caught up with PR this past weekend and he made a major revelation about a new tour concept he and Zedd have coming up.

“We’ve been going back and forth on this a little bit, but I think the final, official name of the tour is ‘Porter Robinson Zedd Present: Poseidon — The Back-to-Back Tour,’ ” Porter revealed. ” ‘Poseidon’ is the name of the song we are doing together. It’s going to be sort of the theme of the tour. We wanted to include ‘Back-to-Back Tour,’ to make it clear that it’s not Zedd opening for me, or vice versa. We are playing together.

The coming together of Porter Zedd makes sense, really. When not performing, the two buddies are often seen hanging together. They share an appreciation for musicality over the ‘hardest drop,’ and have an endearing respect for one another’s abilities. So just what will their song “Poseidon,” sound like? We’ll let PR do the talking.

“The song is pretty,” Porter said. “It’s kind of like disco chords on trancier sounds, with a nice topline, and a really nice crowd vocal. Me and Zedd recorded it together. We did a 100 takes of like three guys going, ‘Heeeey,’ and we turned it into this massive crowd vocal, and it turned out really well and sounds really cool. I think it’s something where I’ll be able to pull the fader up and everyone will be able to sing along.”

As for the tour, Porter couldn’t reveal any dates just yet, as details are still being finalized. But he did dish a bit on what fans can expect from a ‘Back-to-Back’ Tour with Zedd Porter Robinson.

“Me and Zedd have discussed this a little bit, but we don’t have this set in stone,” Porter said. “I would love it to be just purely for the fans: A Porter track. A Zedd track. A Porter track. A Zedd track.”

“I remember seeing Doctor P and Flux Pavilion and between the two of them they have so many hit songs,” he continued. “They just slap them back and forth for an hour and a half and the crowd screams every time they recognize something. To me that’s awesome! So I would love to capture that with me and Zedd. But we also have a lot of songs that are not by us that we have a shared huge appreciation for and we plan to improvise a lot. We want to get up there and be stupid and have fun.”

Would you attend ‘Porter Robinson Zedd Present: Poseidon — The Back-to-Back Tour’? Let us know in the comments!