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It's no "Lucy in the Sky With Diamonds" or "Rocket Man," but William Shatner took to the airwaves on Monday night on "The Tonight Show with Conan O'Brien" and turned former Alaska Governor Sarah Palin's rambling, magnetic poetry-esque farewell speech into a soaring benediction in the way only a tireless pitchman/geek legend/part-time beat poet can.

Wrapping his velvet fog voice around such tortured pastoral blank verse as, "Denali, the great one, soaring under the midnight sun/ And then the extremes/ In the winter time it's the frozen road that is competing with the view of ice fogged frigid beauty/ The cold though/ Doesn't it split the Cheechakos from the Sourdoughs," Shatner almost made the goodbye address make sense.

Gravely intoning, "And then in the summertime/ Such extreme summertime/ About a hundred and fifty degrees hotter than just some months ago/ Than just some months from now/ With fireweed blooming along the frost heaves and merciless rivers that are rushing and carving/ And reminding us that here, Mother Nature wins," the "Star Trek" veteran brought clarity to an otherwise cloudy last wave from the one-time Republican vice presidential nominee and possible future Rush Limbaugh running buddy.

After watching it several times, O'Brien said it finally dawned on him that the hard-to-follow media-takedown "was always meant to be a poem!”"Hence, he invited frequent guest Shatner out to read the speech in its entirety while backed by bongos and a stand-up bass player. What doesn't make sense about that liberal media?

Tags Conana O'Brien, sarah palin, video, william-shatner

Last night, a mere week after her high stakes performance on "Today," Katy Perry returned to New York for a sold-out show at Manhattan's Hammerstein Ballroom. She wasn't alone: Cobra Starship opened the show and she was joined on stage by 3OH!3. The crowd was star-studded as well, as Perry welcomed Donald Trump, his wife Melania and Rihanna, who also joined Perry at a party at Manhattan hot spot the Griffin after the concert.

Though Trump didn't make it out to the party, "The Wrestler" star Mickey Rourke was also there. Perry has had an eventful time in New York. Earlier in the week, she headed downtown to get her second tattoo, which ended up being a tiny cartoon strawberry on her ankle. Perry said on her Twitter, "I wanna get a cartoon-ish strawberry to celebrate this amazeballs past 15 months." She also had fun with her Twitter followers when she posted a picture of a fake temporary tattoo of the words "Josh Grobin" (not the misspelling — it's actually "Groban") on her chest.

Perry's tour continues tomorrow night in New Jersey. She'll be in California next week opening up a homecoming show for No Doubt, and from there she'll play her first ever shows in Japan and Australia. Last night was hardly the first time Perry and Rihanna have thrown down together, as the pair hung out on vacation in Barbados and have teased the idea of collaborating in the future. The dominance of her album One of the Boys continues as well: It jumped up 17 places on this week's album chart and has well-surpassed the platinum mark after a stunning 58 weeks since its debut.

Tags Katy Perry, photo, Rihanna

Somehow, while nobody was paying attention, Jimmy Fallon became something of a hip-hop lightning rod in the hip-hop community, and his show "Late Night with Jimmy Fallon" has become a haven for rappers who just want to have fun. Of course, Fallon recruited the Roots as his house band, which has been a deft move, as not only is the music on the show largely great but they've also reached out to their friends for some after-hours jams (last week, Wale sat in with the group and freestyled his way through an excellent show). Last night during Fallon's monologue, the host busted out a recurring segment called "Slow Jam the News." Normally, it involved Fallon whispering news segments while the Roots' Tariq "Black Thought" Thompson sings the jokes. But last night, Fallon got an assist from Diddy on a remixed version of the news.

Fallon, Thompson and Diddy combined to deliver a hilarious take on Barack Obama's sluggish polling numbers. Later in the show, Diddy sat down to talk about his new MTV show "Making His Band," his vodka (he shared his recipe for the "OG Diddy," which combines Ciroc with lemonade and Welch's grape juice), his production history, his fragrance ("Men gotta smell good, too") and his upcoming album Last Train to Paris, which he promised "will make you dance, make you groove and make you love your woman better." When you look at Jimmy Fallon, you don't necessarily think, "Yep, there's a guy who knows the vibe of the streets," but so far his taste in hip-hop and his willingness to embrace it in late night (not something often seen) has made his show a must-watch for any rap enthusiast.

Tags Barack-Obama, Diddy, Jimmy Fallon, The-Roots, video

It's official: Bryce Dallas Howard, the actress best-known for playing Gwen Stacy in "Spider-Man 3" and for starring in the worst M. Night Shyamalan films, will join the cast of "Twilight" starting with the third film "Eclipse" (scheduled for release in 2010). She'll take on the role of Victoria, the nomadic vampire who is trying to kill Bella and whose role beefs up significantly in the third film.

Howard is something of Hollywood royalty, as her father, Ron Howard, has been in the business for decades. He broke in as a child star on "The Andy Griffith Show," graduated to a role on "Happy Days" and has since become one of the most prolific and varied directors in film, creating modern classics like "Apollo 13," "Willow" and "Cinderella Man." (He is also responsible for "The Da Vinci Code," but it's hard to hold that against him considering he brought "Arrested Development" to television). He's also one of the few people to have multiple guest spots on "The Simpsons," which is elite company indeed. But though Ron's contribution to American pop culture is great, his best recent work has been in a cameo in the video for Jamie Foxx's "Blame It," where he is seen rolling with Jake Gyllenhaal, Forest Whitaker and Samuel L. Jackson at a club. It's hard to believe that Ron is much of a club guy, but he makes the appearance work if only because his look could easily be described as anti-hip-hop. Still, he looks more at home toasting champagne with those ladies than Gyllenhaal does.

So best of luck to Bryce in the upcoming "Twilight" film (which begins shooting next month), and a toast to her father Ron for his work in "Blame It."

Tags Bryce Dallas Howard, jamie foxx, Ron Howard, video

The government's "Cash for Clunkers" program is pretty brilliant, as it not only encourages people to buy cars (thus sending some cash into the anemic automotive industry) but it also forces people to embrace more fuel-efficient cars. The full list of eligible vehicles is online, but the gist is that if you have a car that was made after 1984 and gets less than 18 miles per gallon, you can snag yourself a $4,500 credit — not a small chunk of change by any means.

But with all these people trading up their old cars, does that mean that fewer people are going to go the "Pimp My Ride" route? That will probably make Xzibit pretty sad.

The rapper spent six seasons taking automotive disasters and tricking them out with monitors, rims, stereos, fish tanks, video games and the occasional novelty horn. Xzibit wasn't just the host — he was genuinely enthusiastic about car culture and has a pretty impressive collection of his own. He's still best known as the often-hyperactive host of "Pimp My Ride" (where he justified everything with the phrase "Because I'm X to the Z, Xzibit," as in "We're going to turn this disaster into a masterpiece — because I'm X to the Z, Xzibit"), but he's also an actor who had prominent roles in flicks like "Gridiron Gang" and "The X-Files: I Want to Believe."

Of course, he was a hip-hop artist first, launching his career in the late '90s and helping usher in the second wave of post-Death Row California rap. His biggest hits came during the "Pimp My Ride" era, including the clip above for "Mean Muggin (Hey Now)."

So just in case you don't qualify for the "Cash for Clunkers" program but you still want to fix up that old piece of junk sitting in your garage, just remember: A little hot rod paint goes a long way — because he's X to the Z, Xzibit.

Tags Pimp My Ride, video, xzibit

"Somehow, breaking up for five years and going through all this heartache and animosity and everything else somehow was the best thing that ever happened to our band. It's really gratifying and strange and humbling to think that right now it's really cool to like Blink-182."

-Blink-182's Mark Hoppus, talking to MTV News' James Montgomery about how the band's split ended up being a boon for their credibility and their business. "The same thing happened in Europe," added Tom DeLonge. "We canceled a show in London three times, and each time we would sell out another night. Then the band broke up and became even more huge." Hoppus finds the development truly bizarre, but he welcomes it. He, DeLonge and Travis Barker are back together and on tour for the first time in nearly five years, and they already have new music in the works (though don't expect to hear any of it on their current tour).

Tags Blink-182, Mark Hoppus

By Rahman Dukes

One of the most interesting moments of Monday night's launch for the Americas Most Wanted tour didn't take place on the big stage, but rather backstage.

Moments before Young Jeezy was set to perform, two beautiful women emerged backstage, walking hand-in-hand, and made jaws drop.

"There goes Nicki Minaj" said one rapper. "And wait, is that Amber Rose with her? What are they doing?"

Indeed, it was Amber Rose, Kanye West's on-again/ off-again girlfriend. But were she and Nicki holding hands just to stir up controversy, or … ?

I met Nicki (a fellow resident of Jamaica, Queens) a few months back when we covered her Beam Me Up Scotty mixtape. Apparently, she and Rose met on the set of Drake's video for "Best I Ever Had," which Kanye directed. Nicki has intimated in the past that she doesn't limit herself to the opposite sex.

Amber initially said that she wasn't going to do an interview with us, but who can resist Sway's charm? Swizzy managed to secure some very exclusive news about her appearance in an upcoming visual that we'll share with you within the next few days.

For now, just enjoy the photos.

Tags Amber Rose, Americas Most Wanted, nicki minaj, photo

Ever since Michael Jackson's shocking death last month, the tributes to the King of Pop have been pouring in from every corner of the globe. They've come in the form of tearful reminiscences at his official memorial service, amazingly coordinated flashmob performances of his most famous moves and, of course, sand sculptures. But one tribute actually came in just a few weeks before Jackson's death, and in some ways, it is the most touching one of all.

You might have caught me waxing rhapsodic earlier this year about how Peter Bjorn and John's mind-warpingly awesome clip for "Nothing To Worry About" (featuring the infamous Tokyo Rockabilly Club) was just the shot of positive gamma go juice we all needed to get us out of recession depression.

Well, the enigmatic trio have done it again, with the clip for "It Don't Move Me," which, like "Nothing," has little to do with them and everything to do with capturing a totally unique, bizarre cultural moment. In this case, the clip for the track chronicles the strange inner life of a skinny white dancer obsessed with perfecting Jackson's iconic dance moves as his somewhat portly friend videotapes every high kick, finger shake, foot shuffle and hair flip.

Why does a strange dude show up midway through wearing a green wrestling mask and shaking gold chains at the faux MJ? Why does the chubby pal hit golf balls at his dancing friend as he executes the "Thriller" dance in front of a gigantic stuffed dog amid a shower of fireworks? Who the hell knows? Suffice it to say that the dancer has clearly studied Jackson like a PhD student.

I can tell you this: Every time I watch the three minutes of brain teasing bliss, I'm reminded again of how deeply Jackson's music affected all of us. But seriously: What's with the dude in the wrestling mask?

Tags Michael Jackson, peter bjorn and john, video

By Jayson Rodriguez

Fabolous was living it up Monday night. The Brooklyn MC celebrated the release of his fifth LP Loso's Way at Manhattan night spot Griffin.

Like his album, which arrives in stores and online today, the event was full of stars.

Faboulous was joined by Keri Hilson, Wale, Ryan Leslie and Nina Sky, among others. DJ Clue manned the turntables. And hit after hit that Fab's contributed to over the years blasted over the speakers throughout the night.

(Click here for more photos from Fabolous' Loso's Way launch party in New York!)

Prior to the shindig, 'Loso was joined by big chief L.A Reid and a mix of Def Jam execs and media members for a screening of the accompanying DVD production of "Loso's Way," the film that comes as a part of the deluxe set.

Tags DJ Clue, Fabolous, Keri Hilson, ryan leslie

While brother Kevin prepares for wedded bliss, one of the Jonas Brothers is single once again. Yesterday, MTV News got confirmation that Joe Jonas had officially split up with actress Camilla Belle. Despite rumors that Belle was cheating on Joe with a Spanish tennis star, a representative from the Belle camp says the split has nothing to do with anybody else. Still, that hasn't stopped Joe from changing the lyrics to the song "Much Better" at recent concerts, with the line "Get a rep for breakin' hearts, now I'm done with superstars," becoming "Get a rep for breakin' hearts, now I'm done with movie stars."

This is the second consecutive relationship that has ended publicly for Joe — he famously split with pop country star Taylor Swift last year. So does Joe still have the sympathy of the people? We wandered downstairs to talk to the folks lined up to get into today's episode of It's On with Alexa Chung and asked: Are you on Joe Jonas' side or Camilla Belle's side in the aftermath of their split?

The wildly inaccurate polling reveals something we probably could have predicted: A full 81 percent of those polled side with Joe, leaving only 19 percent on Team Camilla. The alignments weren't necessarily altruistic, though, as several people sided with Joe only because it meant that he was now single and available.

What do you think? Did Camilla break Joe's heart, or is Joe just the player that Swift has intimated that he is? Leave your thoughts in the comments or head over to Your.MTV.com to make your voice heard!

Tags Camilla Belle, Joe Jonas, Jonas Brothers, Taylor Swift, video