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Like most badass dudes, My Chemical Romance frontman Gerard Way is looking to buy a Trans Am.

Unlike most badass dudes, he's taking to Twitter to find it.

Yes, citing the need for "research and exploration" (we're assuming for MCR's upcoming "raw" new album), Way is searching for a 1979 Pontiac Trans Am — "T-Tops a BIG Plus" — and he's begun posting a series of Tweets about his quest for the perfect muscle machine.

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By Talia Manzo and Melanie Wolfson

Last night, we were invited to attend the Day26 album listening party for their upcoming album, Forever in a Day, and as interns, of course we seized the chance!

Although we usually stick to pop and rock artists, we ended up being more comfortable than we ever thought possible with stepping outside of our comfort zones into the R&B realm because when it comes down to it, we just love music. Arriving early, we grabbed spots on a large, plush couch and took in the environment on the 26th floor (cute, right?) of Atlantic Records: candlelight, flowers and a stunning view overlooking Sixth Avenue on a clear New York night.

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Tags day26

By Lindsay Wallace

Val Emmich — a.k.a. Jesse from "Ugly Betty" and Liz Lemon's much younger boyfriend in the "Cougars" episode of "30 Rock" — kicked off his concert tour in New York earlier this month, and we caught up with him before the show.

The New Jersey native is a bit of a modern-day renaissance man: He's an actor, musician and recently completed his first novel. He recalled the moment when he felt his musical career was taking hold. "It was when you're not just playing for you and your buddies, and there's people coming to see you who you don't know, and you're like 'Whoa, who's that person?' " Despite the fact that he's been making music for the past 15 years, he said, "It wasn't until I got my first record deal a couple years ago that I said, 'Oh my god, I can call myself a musician!' I can literally say that I make money doing that. So that was the moment." Laughing, he added, "I still feel like a garage band."

Check out some video of the Val after the jump! Read more...

Jimmy Chamberlin has left the Smashing Pumpkins, not exactly with a bang, but not with a whimper, either. The band's original drummer — who, depending on how you read it, either recently quit the band or was asked to leave — posted a cryptic explanation on his blog last night, explaining that he couldn't go into detail about why he left Billy Corgan as the only original member, but, suffice it to say, he felt like the group was not headed in the right direction.

"I will say, without going into any unnecessary details, that this represents a positive move forward for me. I can no longer commit all of my energy into something that I don't fully possess," Chamberlin wrote. "I won't pretend I'm into something I'm not. I won't do it to myself, you the fan, or my former partner. I can't just, 'Cash the check' so to speak. Music is my life. It is sacred. It deserves the highest commitment at every level and the Pumpkins are certainly no different." That kind of talk led Rolling Stone to speculate that perhaps Chamberlin was not OK with the group's music popping up lately in Visa, Ford and Hyundai commercials and "Guitar Hero: World Tour," or maybe because Corgan recently testified in Washington, D.C., in favor of the proposed Live Nation/ Ticketmaster merger.

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Dear Britney, MJ and assorted pop stars of the universe,

Enough with the circus theme already. Seriously, we get it: You're launching your big arena tour, and you want an over-the-top show that also doubles as a metaphor for just how trying and crazy your life is ... so, of course, you go big-top (or maybe you just want to wear one of those ringmaster getups). Britney did it, Pink did it too, and while they were a little corny, they worked.

But now it appears that Michael Jackson is trying to get in on the circus shtick too for his upcoming string of sold-out shows at London's O2 Arena, and we're just going to come out and say it: The circus is over.

And it's all MJ's fault.

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Just as Lauren Conrad wraps up her time on "The Hills," she is also taking a break from her clothing line.

The reality-TV star blogged about the hiatus and explained her reasoning. "A few days ago, a statement was released to the showrooms that carry my clothing line," she wrote. "It asked them to let the stores know that I was planning to take a couple seasons off from my line so that I could make some changes that I felt were necessary."

Initial reports said the line was actually dropped from stores, but Conrad wrote that this "isn't the case at all. As a result, a lot of people were under the impression that my line was being discontinued or had been dropped. The truth is, I was the one who asked to take a couple seasons off."

She said she's taking a break to learn more and grow as a designer. "I have learned so much in the past year, and I want to apply that to the improvement of my clothing line," she said. "I also wanted to make some changes in production so I would be able to lower the price point."

Now that she's done with "The Hills," Conrad will have a lot more free time on her hands to work on her designs. "I am actually really excited about beginning this process," she continued. "I have spent the last couple weeks working on designs for spring, which is when I am planning to bring the (new and improved) line back. I also have some very exciting things going on that will be announced shortly."

Tags lauren-conrad, The Hills

By Matt Wenzel

According to James Montgomery, Asher Roth is the hip-hop version of CollegeHumor.com. Find out what makes Roth so different from other MCs.

It's Motown week on "American Idol"! Find out which singers we think have an advantage.

And in other "American Idol" news, Ashley Tisdale recently told us about how much she loves the show. She recalls stalking the current cast in the recording studio, as well as meeting Danny Gokey.

In our Newsroom blog, Shaheem Reid looks back to five years ago this week, when Usher released his smash hit Confessions, and talks about how it still holds up today as one of the best R&B albums of the decade.

With Sacha Baron Cohen's new film "Bruno" coming soon, Web sites registered by fake companies related to the movie have been popping up all over the Internet. Read more about the marketing campaign on the Movies Blog.

Tags American Idol, Asher Roth, Bruno

Five years ago this week, Usher dropped one of the biggest R&B albums of the decade, Confessions. I was actually in the studio that summer in New York when Ush was recording the title track with Jermaine Dupri — throwback jerseys were still in, Ush had the San Francisco jacket and JD still had his braids!

Listening to the music, on which Ush sang about everything in his relationship, I knew I would hear — hell, the world would hear — something different this time. He was already a star, but with this joint, you had the feeling it was going to be different. Usher would be talking about realer things that older cats could also relate to.

Then he dropped the megaton bomb with “Yeah!” I remember hearing the record on a mixtape — I wanna say it was a Big Mike R&B mixtape. I told my brother Ari it was going to be huge — it just felt pop and 'hood at the same time, like nothing else that was on the radio — and Luda put the nail in the coffin with his verse at the end. We just listened to the mixtape all that weekend — it had to be close to Christmastime — and “Yeah!” in particular. As the album release date neared, I had the chance to hear more material and do more interviews and really get a chance to know more about Usher as a person. He really let his guard down and got pretty personal.
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Tags album, Confessions, review, Shaheem Reid, Usher

By Ashley Mastronardi

Not only did Britney Spears kill it last night at her concert at New York's Nassau Coliseum, she looked amazing! Her blonde locks were flowing and her body was in tip-top shape. But it was her over-the-top costumes that made her rock-hard frame look all the better. Here are my top five favorite Circus concert looks:

5) Pasty Britney: No, Britney doesn't need a tan — she actually seemed to be wearing pasties, like strippers wear. Britney shook her stuff while wearing black tassels that were attached to an S&M-inspired sparkly body suit. It was a little X-rated for the 8-year-old girls sitting next to me, but the guys in my section didn't seem to mind!

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Quick: What do Eminem and Dustin Hoffman have in common? What about Dr. Dre and Tom Cruise? Until today, we here at MTV News couldn't have come up with much besides them all being really, really rich. But check out this photo from the set of Em's latest music video and tell us it doesn't look like the rappers are doing their best "Rain Man" impression.

Go with us on this one for a second. First off, there's Slim Shady all clean-cut, with dark hair sculpted into a neat side part. What, you don't immediately see the resemblance to Hoffman's autistic genius Raymond Babbitt? Fine. But now note those matching gray suits and white shirts. Hoffman and Cruise wore almost the exact same outfits in "Rain Man."

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