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Once you get to a certain point, some superstars need new challenges and new ways to tell stories. For Alicia Keys, that means producing a Broadway show. The singer is slated to be involved with the show Stick Fly, which opens later this year.

And when we caught up with her at Madame Tussauds in New York for her wax figure unveiling earlier this week, where she also gushed over the state’s recent legalization of same-sex marriage, she revealed why she felt like she wanted to have her hand in something that's set to appear on the Great White Way.

"Broadway is something that's played an integral part in my life. It's been something that I've experienced my whole life," the New York native gushed. "I've always wanted to be a part of it."

She recalled growing up just a stone's throw away in Hell's Kitchen and the fact that her mom used to take her to quite a few shows back in the day. Read more...

Tags Alicia Keys, Broadway, Jay-Z, Will Smith

By Zachary Swickey

Bats**t crazy Courtney Love moment no. 172: Courtney jacks photographer David LaChapelle’s car outside the Soho House in the Meatpacking district of New York City. Well sort of…

According to the New York Post, Love swooped the ride “with permission” to visit director Brett Ratner’s house and promised LaChappelle she would return so they could attend his exhibition at the classy Lever House. Surprise, surprise, Love was a no-show, instead she stayed at Ratner’s through the night and probably watched the sun come up while she begged for a role in Rush Hour 4 (we made that last part up).

Heck, even the Soho House ratted her out when a rep commented on the debacle, saying, “Courtney did take his car. David was flipping out and going crazy at the front desk that Courtney stole his car.”

The Post even rang up Ratner for comment. “Courtney and David are best friends,” he said. “We were all supposed to go to the Lever House together, but I was too tired.”

Sounds like just another day in the life of Love and her celeb companions. This is child’s play compared to past antics of the loudest and proudest female in rock music. Here are the top five Courtney moments that would even put Amy Winehouse to shame. Read more...

Tags Courtney-Love

Lady Gaga and Justin Bieber are currently the reigning king and queen of pop, for argument's sake. So it makes sense that the two biggest pop stars around have hooked up with Google Chrome for endorsement deals. And in a lot of ways it also makes sense that both videos pay homage to their respective pasts, since in many ways these two stars are really shining examples of the digital age we live in.

They are the definition of what it means to go viral, and their ads each shed some light on that very notion. Gaga debuted her video a while back and on Wednesday night, Bieber premiered his. So how do the two videos stack up? Read more...

Tags google, Justin Bieber, Lady Gaga

Justin Timberlake, who was once known primarily as a singer (in case you forgot), announced yesterday that he is taking an ownership stake in Myspace. The amount of Timberlake's investment was not disclosed. Myspace itself was sold by News Corp. to Specific Media this week for $35 million in cash and equity.

Timberlake will reportedly assume the role of creative director for the site and already has big plans. "There's a need for a place where fans can go to interact with their favorite entertainers, listen to music, watch videos, share and discover cool stuff and just connect," Timberlake said in a statement. "MySpace has the potential to be that place. ... Art is inspired by people and vice versa, so there's a natural social component to entertainment. I'm excited to help revitalize MySpace by using its social media platform to bring artists and fans together in one community."

The singer-actor’s latest venture adds to the lengthy list of side businesses He Who Brought Sexy Back balances with his career as an entertainer. From restaurants and clothing lines to booze and now social media, there’s nothing this guy can’t do. Read more...

Tags Justin Timberlake, myspace

By Danielle Genet

We all remember the infamous meat dress Lady Gaga showed off at the 2010 MTV VMAs (by now we also all know it was real…gross!). Though her multiple outfit changes throughout the evening may have obstructed your memory, if you rack your brains a little further you’ll remember Gaga was there for a very special reason – she received 13 MTV VMA nods at last year’s awards show and picked up a hefty 8 prizes, including Video of the Year for “Bad Romance.”

“Bad Romance” continued its critically acclaimed success by winning two Grammy Awards in February for Best Short Form Music Video and Best Female Pop Vocal Performance, while her album The Fame Monster won for Best Pop Vocal Album of the Year. We could go on and on about Gaga’s nominations and awards but we’d rather devote our energy to understanding the discrepancy between “Bad Romance” and her earlier videos and Gaga’s more recent efforts.

“Bad Romance” has hit almost 400 million views online. We’re taking a look at Gaga’s other music videos and their current views (as of June 30) to try to grasp why they haven’t racked up as many hits on YouTube as “Bad Romance” despite being as successful, if not more so, on the singles charts. Read more...

Tags Lady Gaga

This is Beyonce’s week. Her new album 4 dropped on Tuesday, earning positive reviews and buzz that it will debut at the top of the charts. Tonight at 7pm, MTV will air a special, "Beyoncé: Year of 4,” that takes fans behind the scenes of the new album. So she’s basically everywhere, and all morning her videos were pumping through the MTV Newsroom.

Which leads us to the most terribly obvious statement we will make today: Beyonce makes great videos. Duh! But more than that, she makes extremely high-concept clips that go far beyond the usual bump and grind of many R&B and pop videos to deliver something truly artful without coming across as an art project. It’s a fine line she never crosses.

Take, for example, the somewhat dark “Why Don’t You Love Me,” which features the typically clean-cut Queen Bey as a jilted, smoking, martini-swilling pinup vixen with her eye makeup running down her face.

Beyonce comes straight out of the Madonna/Michael Jackson school of seeing music video as an art form. She’s used it as a venue to do something unique and interesting. Another prime example of this is the continuous, single-shot style of her legendary “Single Ladies” vid. Read more...

Tags Beyonce

It seems that two of the biggest female stars in the world are obsessed with the same thing. Beyonce and Taylor Swift are both quite into and superstitious about their birthdays.

Swift, born December 13, can often be seen wearing the number 13 on her hand or tweeting about the importance of that number to her life, while Beyonce has referenced her birthday (September 4) in videos and album titles (like her most recent 4).

Swift has listed her reasons for that number's importance and it seems that when she says, "Basically, whenever a 13 comes up in my life, it's a good thing," she's not wrong.

Don't believe us? "I was born on the 13th. I turned 13 on Friday the 13th. My first album went gold in 13 weeks. My first No. 1 song had a 13-second intro," she's explained to MTV News. "Every time I've won an award I've been seated in either the 13th seat, the 13th row, the 13th section or row M, which is the 13th letter."

For more on Beyonce’s connection to the number 4, read on. Read more...

Tags Beyonce, Taylor Swift

At the June 21 memorial service for legendary E Street Band saxophonist Clarence Clemons, Bruce Springsteen delivered a moving tribute to his longtime friend and bandmate. Springsteen has posted the eulogy in its (slightly revised) entirety on his website, and his words are marked with great esteem but also honesty, revealing Clemons to be a great if imperfect man. “As you boys [Clemons’ sons] know your pop was a not a day at the beach. ‘C’ lived a life where he did what he wanted to do and he let the chips, human and otherwise, fall where they may,” Springsteen said during the eulogy. “Like a lot of us your pop was capable of great magic and also of making quite an amazing mess.”

That said, The Boss also spoke to the familial relationship he and Clemons shared. “From the first time I saw my pal striding out of the shadows of a half empty bar in Asbury Park, a path opening up before him; here comes my brother, here comes my sax man, my inspiration, my partner, my lifelong friend,” he said. “Standing next to Clarence was like standing next to the baddest ass on the planet. You were proud, you were strong, you were excited and laughing with what might happen, with what together, you might be able to do.”

Read Springsteen’s eulogy in full for Clemons below. Read more...

Tags Bruce Springsteen, clarence clemons

Professional Renaissance man James Franco is busy. He has, ahem, seven different films in various states of production, including August’s Rise of the Planet of the Apes and Sal, the Sal Mineo biopic he is also directing. This is, of course, in addition to his studies at Yale University, where he is getting his PhD in English. In the last several months, he’s had art shows, filmed a documentary about what goes on backstage at Saturday Night Live, hosted the Oscars and now he has a music video.

The actor is one half of the duo Kalup and Franco, who will release their debut EP Turn It Up on July 12 via Dutty Artz, the label founded by Jace Clayton, aka DJ/Rupture. So that’s also happening.

Kalup and Franco’s first official single is called “Rising” and in the trippy video for the track, the 127 Hours Oscar nominee appears randomly (and mostly sort of transparently) sitting on a couch (we think) while his partner in weirdness Kalup Linzy floats around crooning. This is obviously a no-budget parody of an indie music video, right? That almost seems too easy for Franco, so we’re sure there’s something in there about the state of consciousness in the 21st century world.

Anyway, check it out after the jump and let us know your thought in the comments! Read more...

Tags James Franco

By Zachary Swickey

Imagine drinking a beer, waxing nostalgic at an Alice Cooper show and then seeing Captain Jack Sparrow, better known as Johnny Depp, waltz onstage for a song or two. Well, that’s exactly what happened this past weekend at the intimate 100 Club in London.

If you’re wondering how these two souls came together, we assume they are old pals from their time together on the set of 1991’s Freddy’s Dead: The Final Nightmare, the sixth installment of the Freddy Krueger franchise.

Some of the crowd already knew what they were in store for, after Cooper posted a backstage pic on Facebook of Depp preparing to take the stage with guitar in hand. “Johny Depp!! Waiting to jump onstage with Alice for ‘18’ and ‘School’s Out,’” he wrote.

No slouch when it comes to music, Depp was a member of P, which included Gibby Haynes of Butthole Surfers fame, Flea of the Red Hot Chili Peppers and Sex Pistols’ guitarist Steve Jones. P was known to play the Viper Room in the early 1990s when Depp was still a partial owner of the famous venue. He also did some slide guitar work on the Oasis tune “Fade In-Out” from their ‘97 album Be Here Now.
A man of his word, Depp showed off his impressive guitar prowess with Alice and his gang for the promised tunes and a portion of Pink Floyd’s “Another Brick in the Wall,” which inevitably led into the anthemic “School’s Out.”

You’re bound to have a celeb sighting if you happen to catch some of the must-see shows rolling through bigger cities this summer. From Jason Segel to Sandra Bullock, here are a few examples of celebs crashing the stage. Read more...

Tags Alice-Cooper, Ethan Hawke, gwyneth-paltrow, jason segel, Johnny Depp, kim kardashian, Sandra Bullock