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Every day a multitude of stars wanders through the halls of MTV News to talk about their latest projects and goof around with our intrepid correspondents. But sometimes we catch stars elsewhere, and that's why we put together Spotted!, a daily compendium of stars in the wild.

New York Fashion Week is almost complete, and the parade of stars wandering down red carpets, showcasing their own lines and attending runway shows is ending. Still, not all of the star-studded events in Manhattan this week have to do with couture. For example, Thursday night (February 18) saw a number of rock stars show up for a party at the Metropolitan Pavilion celebrating Guvera, the latest technological experiment to help try to save the music industry. Guvera, which launches in the U.S. on March 30, provides artists with an ad-supported outlet for music, video and licensing opportunities to fans. It's a way to help try to satisfy music loves in an age of rampant digital piracy, and the party was attended by rockers the Donnas, rapper Jim Jones and, in a fantastically hardcore team-up, shock rock legend Alice Cooper and earnest Staind frontman Aaron Lewis. Every event should be lucky enough to have that much metal added to its lineup.

On the fashion front, Kate Moss and Pixie Geldof both attended Naoimi Campbell's Fashion for Relief in London (which raised money for Haiti) while Brooklyn Decker, Kate Bosworth and Kellan Lutz all showed up to the Calvin Klein after party. Click here for these photos as well as the entire "Spotted!" archive, which features over 400 candid shots of stars like Britney Spears, the Jonas Brothers, Taylor Swift, Justin Bieber, Miley Cyrus, Jessica Simpson, Mariah Carey, Adam Lambert, Jay-Z, Rihanna, Robin Thicke, Ryan Seacrest and Shakira!

Tags Alice-Cooper, photo, Spotted!

Three months after the confusing and bizarre incident that saw Tiger Woods crash a car and then watch his personal life slowly unravel, the world's most famous golfer appeared on TV earlier today to talk about his current situation, apologize to people (especially kids who look up to him) and let the press know that he won't be talking in depth any time soon. It was a straightforward confession, though it's not entirely clear what it was meant to accomplish or how it would help Woods' progress.

Still, it will immediately become one of the most famous and high-profile celebrity apologies of all time, joining the following pantheon.

Kanye West
Only 24 hours after he crashed Taylor Swift's acceptance speech at the 2009 MTV Video Music Awards, West appeared as a guest on the premiere episode of "The Jay Leno Show," where he appeared contrite and regretful for his actions the night before. Key Moment: Leno asks West what his late mother would think, which nearly devastates the rapper.

Hugh Grant
In the summer of 1995, Grant was arrested in Los Angeles for soliciting a prostitute, leading to one of the most unfortunate mug shots of all time. Read more...

Tags Tiger Woods, video

In one of the stranger stories to come over the wire in a long time, it turns out that former Republican presidential hopeful Mitt Romney got into an altercation with Sky Blu of LMFAO on an airplane on Monday (February 15). Before the flight from Vancouver (where the group was hanging out at the Winter Olympics) to Los Angeles could even get off the ground, Romney asked Blu to put his seat up. When the artist didn't comply, the altercation became physical, and Blu was escorted off the plane by air marshals.

While this is probably the most direct confrontation between a musician and a politician, there have been no shortage of head-to-heads between the two worlds.

John McCain vs. John Mellencamp
At rallies during his 2008 presidential run, McCain's camp often played the rootsy midwestern rocker's "Our Country." One problem: Mellencamp is a staunch Democrat and at the time was endorsing the campaign of John Edwards (who was also using "Our Country" at rallies). Read more...

Tags Bruce Springsteen, LMFAO, Mitt Romney

After years of stasis followed by a few experiments and tweaks, the Academy Awards show — which airs Sunday, March 7 — has turned itself upside down this year. Not only have they expanded the Best Picture category to include 10 nominees (rather than the usual five), the producers of the telecast also announced that the nominees for Best Original Song won't be performing on the show. Rather than five staged performances, the music will be integrated into the show via montages and other video segments.

Considering how middling this year's Best Original Song nominees are, this decision isn't necessarily a crime. After all, do we really want to take time out of an already bloated block of programming to watch Randy Newman sing two songs from a kid's movie? Unlikely.

On the other hand, the Oscars have played host to a handful of absolutely stunning, bizarre and moving musical performances, especially in the past 10 or 15 years. By turning the musicians away at the door, the producers may be denying the world a great musical moment like one of the following.

Elliott Smith
Dressed in a suit that looked like it was made from the couch in a '70s bachelor apartment and looking profoundly uncomfortable in front of the cameras, singer-songwriter Elliott Smith still managed to create one of the most memorable Oscar moments in history at the 1998 show. His tenderly savage performance of his breakout hit "Miss Misery" (which was nominated for its inclusion in "Good Will Hunting") was gorgeous and sad, and it thrust Smith into fame, a major label deal and a rapidly-growing discomfort with fame.

Aimee Mann
Mann really should have been scored all five nominations for her contributions to the soundtrack to Paul Thomas Anderson's sprawling "Magnolia." Read more...

Tags Aimee Mann, Best Original Song, Elliott-Smith, oscars, Three Six Mafia

It's an exciting day for movies, as today marks the long-awaited release of "Shutter Island," the latest collaboration between director Martin Scorsese and superstar actor Leonardo DiCaprio. Unlike the duo's previous tag-team efforts (2002's bloody American history film "Gangs of New York," the 2004 Howard Hughes biopic "The Aviator" and the Oscar-winning crime drama "The Departed"), "Shutter Island" is an old-school thriller with plenty of elements of psychological horror thrown in for good measure.

Based on a Dennis Lehane novel, "Shutter Island" tells the story of Teddy Daniels, a police detective investigating the strange disappearance of a patient at a prison for the criminally insane. The movie's tense tone and twisty plot make for a spectacular piece of psychological cinema, which means that you'll need a bit of preparation before taking it on. That's why we've put together a video playlist inspired by "Shutter Island," featuring tracks and videos that tap into the spookiness of the film. Since the film takes place in Massachusetts, you have to begin with some Dropkick Murphys ("I'm Shipping Up to Boston," a song that has premiered in past Scorsese efforts), followed by a healthy dose of fright-inducing metal (Mercyful Fate's "Nightmare by thy Name," Metallica's "All Nightmare Long," Sworn Enemy's "Scared of the Unknown").

But it's not just riffs and screams, either. There are explorations into the subconscious (Blondie's "Dreaming," The Material's "The Truth About Reality"), unexplained phenomena (The Faint's "Disappear") and the nature of confinement (The Receiving End of Sirens' "Planning a Prison Break"). But since "Shutter Island" is a movie about questioning what is real and trying to navigate the horrors of the human mind, we begin with Beyoncé's "Sweet Dreams." Is DiCaprio's experience a sweet dream or a beautiful nightmare? You'll have to buy a ticket to find out.

Tags Beyonce, blondie, Leonardo DiCaprio, martin-scorsese, Metallica, Shutter Island, video

Usually, Wake-Up Video is dedicated to a moment in history, a birthday, a memorable album release or a relevant piece of news. But this morning's dedication is to Layne Staley, the former Alice in Chains singer who died of an overdose in 2002 and a guy who we miss dearly. He was brought up on Thursday night's tearful episode of "Celebrity Rehab with Dr. Drew" on VH1 (which, if you haven't been watching, is a compelling train wreck of a show) when former Alice in Chains bassist Mike Starr told the emotional story of Staley's death. Starr blames himself for his best friend's death, as he was with Staley during his final days but did not call 911 even when Staley told him that he thought he was dying. It was an amazingly sad confession from Starr, who has been struggling with addiction himself for most of his adult life.

Staley was a fascinating talent who lent his haunting voice to some of the best songs of the grunge era. Though Alice in Chains' albums were wildly inconsistent affairs, nobody was better when they were on than the boys in AIC. Songs like "Them Bones," "Rooster," "We Die Young" and "Would?" combined the savage guitar work of Jerry Cantrell with the haunting harmonies their two voices often created. And for a group who could be remarkably loud and jagged, their finest moments were the quiet times, like on their acoustic EP Sap or on their edition of "MTV Unplugged" (which remains one of the best entries in that series).

Alice in Chains recently got back together and replaced Staley with a remarkable vocal doppelganger named William DuVall. They put out a remarkably good album in 2009 called Black Gives Way to Blue, but their legacy will still be their incredible output at the beginning of the '90s. Need proof? Look no further than "No Excuses," and remember a talent who went before his time.

Tags Alice in Chains, Layne Staley, video

Internet addicts, rejoice! The season nine "American Idol" contestants will be allowed to tweet (and update Facebook and MySpace pages) for the first time in the show's history! So far the top 24 has remained mum, but while we wait for the newbies to peep their first tweets, I thought it'd be fun to highlight my top 10 favorite "Idol" Twitter-heads from seasons past.

#HereWeGo

10. Kelly Clarkson
The original "Idol" only picked up Twitter somewhat recently, but she took to it like a champ. (Sort of.) Kelly has always made her fans feel like close personal friends and her Twitter page is no different. And when she decides to speak her mind, you'll want to be one of the first people to hear it.

9. Frenchie Davis
Long before Chris Golightly, we had the original DQ diva, Frenchie Davis. Lucky for us, Frenchie's sass levels are still through the roof, and the woman knows her way around a Twitter trend. As Frenchie would say, "Werq!!!!!!!!!!!!!"

8. Paula Abdul
Do you watch "Idol" and miss Paula's New Age-y words of wisdom? There's a very easy way to fix that problem — click the follow button.

Read more...

Tags American Idol, David-Archuleta, kelly-clarkson, kris allen, Paula-Abdul, Twitter

Memphis based band Free Sol got their lucky break when fellow Tennessee native Justin Timberlake heard their music and decided to sign them to his Tennman Records label. Frontman Free Sol admits that being in the studio working on the group's forthcoming debut album with the pop superstar has taught him quite a lot.

"Yes [we were in the studio with Justin] several times. It's like school," Free Sol told MTV News about working with Timberlake in the studio. "He's a genius. A lot of people think that dude from *NSYNC, but really he's like ... He's a baby Quincy [Jones], you know what I mean? So we learn a lot."

Free Sol revealed that in a few weeks, the band and Justin have a very daunting process that lies ahead of them before they release an album (which they hope to have out by the summer). "In March, we're going in with Justin. We did about 108 songs," he explained. "We did 108 songs and we're gonna pick 12."

With the band performing at Justin's William Rast show on Wednesday night (February 17) during New York Fashion Week, it was their chance to show the fashionista set what they were made of. "I would wish for [our music to sound like] the Black Eyed Peas meets Outkast," he explained. "What we do, we took the pop and the rock and the hip-hop and we do a little dirty. We keep it Southern, but yet we still keep it melodic."

So was he nervous to be the soundtrack for his boss' fashion show? "Really, it's not nerve-racking," he said. "He's so down to earth. He's so cool and if you do get nervous, he'll come over to you and be like 'shake that off,' so it's real cool, real lax, real simple."

Tags Fashion, Free Sol, Justin Timberlake, video

By Nick Neofitidis

I'm a really huge hockey fan, so yesterday when I got to interview four members of our U.S. Olympic women's and men's hockey teams, I was pretty excited. However, there is one drawback to being a stand out supporter of Team USA Hockey, especially at the 2010 Olympics in Vancouver. Canadians love (and I mean love) their hockey. All the niceness we learned about? Here comes the big asterisk.

That being said, I wanted to make sure our men and women hockey players are taken care of while at the games. So when I got men's team forward Ryan Callahan and goalie Ryan Miller on the microphone at the Team USA house downtown, I went right to my biggest concerns for them.

"Fellas, please tell me that while you are warming up they are not blasting any Celine Dion or Michael Bublé!" Once Calli and Mills (we hockey fans like to shorten names, trust me) got a good laugh out of my questions, they assured me they were too focused and didn't even hear what was playing. Women's team forwards Hilary Knight and Kelli Stack also reassured me of the same. That was quite a relief, because I did not want to have to drop the gloves and go toe to toe with the Canadian team. (Those guys are huge.)

With the stadium music crossed off my list of concerns, I asked everyone what music they liked to listen to in the locker room or on the Ipod before a big game. The men went right to rock and roll, with Kings of Leon, 30 Seconds to Mars, AC/DC and Metallica leading the way. As for the ladies, the're no Taylor Swift on these iPods. These ladies are bumping some serious hip-hop: Lil Wayne, Jay-Z, Drake and Eminem. Now that's hardcore.

Unfortunately, I will have left Vancouver before both teams play Canada. But you can be sure I will be listening, watching and cheering all the way. Good luck, Team USA!

Tags Hockey, olympics, Vancouver, Winter Olympics

"'Avatar' confuses people because it's got all this cool eye candy and all this cool action, and if they're starting to feel something in the middle of that, it's kind of OK. Unless you're a hard right-wing pundit, in which case it's OK, and the whole movie's ridiculous and fatuous and stupid. It's high-quality left swill, is how I would position the film."

-Film director James Cameron, who despite the massive success of "Avatar" has had to field loads of complaints and criticisms from people who have called his film "anti-American" and "a liberal PC revenge fantasy." Admittedly, "Avatar" does contain deep-seeded lessons about environmentalism and conservation, but he doesn't buy into the idea that his film is trying to bring down capitalism (considering the amount of money that "Avatar" has made worldwide, he's probably just fine with the free market).

It's nothing new for Cameron, who has spent a career crafting massive spectacles that have been met with confused reactions. "The two 'Terminator' films were tough enough that even if there was a soft, gooey center there, the films still were hard-ass, so it was OK," he explained. "But 'Titanic,' it was kind of like I took the hard-ass part away, and I left the soft, gooey center and a lot of people loved it. But it was also easy to attack, especially after the fact. There was this revisionist sense that if you were a guy, you didn't like 'Titanic.'"

Despite the criticism, Cameron isn't done with the "Avatar" universe just yet. He's working on a prequel novel and is working out the details with Fox about making a sequel.

Tags Avatar, James Cameron, Quote