Lana Del Ray

Whether it's your fourth grade talent show or your network TV debut, everyone has one of those not-so-fresh moments where things just don't go off the way you expected in front of a huge audience.

Buzzed-about singer Lana Del Rey had one of those on Saturday night. Two of them, in fact. Hyped as the first artist to play "Saturday Night Live" before the release of a debut album, Del Rey took some serious fire after she stumbled through shaky, deer-in-the-headlights performances of "Video Games" and "Blue Jeans."

In a moment that made Ashlee Simpson's infamous lip-synching scandal seem like child's play by comparison, Del Rey even took fire from respected NBC news anchor Brian Williams, whose email meant for Gawker Media founder Nick Denton was accidentally made public after he told Denton that the performance was "one of the worst outings in 'SNL' history."

Del Rey is used to answering her critics by now about everything from her looks to the full-court major-label push behind her upcoming debut, Born to Die.

But she is, of course, not the first star (or future star) to do a face plant in their big debut. Read More...

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Lady Gaga

Singer, songwriter, director, prime-time Thanksgiving show host, Polaroid designer, friend of Obama. Lady Gaga has so many hyphens in her name at this point that her business card is starting to look like a word cloud.

But that hasn't stopped her from signing up to become an ordained minister in order to perform a wedding ceremony for her close pal and yoga teacher, Tricia Donegan. In light of the legalization of gay marriage in New York state in June, Gaga has filled out the paperwork to do the deed.

According to numerous sources, she reportedly told Perez Hilton, "I'm actually getting ready now to be ordained to marry one of my best friends, Tricia, who is also my yoga instructor."

It would be the first step to what Gaga earlier suggested could be a second (or third or fiftieth, considering her other recent new gig as a nude model for Tony Bennett) side gig as a traveling wedding officiant, following earlier comments that she would like to start performing gay weddings at her concerts in the future. Read More...

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Here's how this one usually goes:

1) Clueless Republican politician (and they're almost always Republicans, for some reason) decides to adopt a rousing pop/rock song as their campaign anthem.

2) Singer/band gets wind of said appropriation and demands that politician cease and desist from using the song because a) they don't agree with that person's politics, or b) the pol has completely misinterpreted the song and is using it for jingoistic inspiration when the true meaning of the song is the total opposite of what they think. (Call it the "I don’t think that means what you think it means" corollary.)

3) Said politician quietly agrees to stop using the song, or defiantly vows to keep playing it at rallies without the artist's consent.

Then there's GOP presidential kind-of frontrunner Mitt Romney, a Detroit native who grew up in southeast Michigan as the son of the state's former governor, George Romney. According to the Detroit News, Romney has finally picked a campaign theme song: Kid Rock's amber waves of grain fist-pumping, flag-waving anthem "Born Free."

I know what you're thinking here: "oh man, Kid is gonna go all in on that guy for using his music!" Except he's probably not going to. Unlike Katy Perry, who demanded that momentary GOP frontrunner and gay rights foe Rep. Michele Bachmann cease and desist from using her song "Firework" earlier this year … after Tom Petty sent an actual cease and desist order to get her to stop using "American Girl" at campaign stops. Rock's probably okay with this one. Read More...

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Miley Cyrus

As officials crack down on Occupy movements across the country in a move to tear down the impromptu encampments erected in support of the 99 percent, plenty of celebrities have spoken out in support of the cause.

Sure, everyone from Kanye West and Jay-Z to Katy Perry, Susan Sarandon, Lupe Fiasco, Michael Moore and Cornel West have dropped in and chopped it up with the protesting hordes. But only someone as brave as Miley Cyrus has been willing to put her creative reputation on the line and make some fresh art to celebrate the sit-in protests. (Okay, Third Eye Blind did release the rousing "If There Ever Was a Time," but, you know, it's Third Eye Blind.)

Cyrus has just released the video for the remix of her 2010 anthem "Liberty Walk," which is cut to a montage of Occupy footage from across the nation and the globe. The Village Voice wondered if the clip was a Miley production, or maybe just a mash-up made by fans. It does feature the opening caption, "this is dedicated to the thousands of people who are standing up for what they believe in," which sounds very 2011 Miley. But unfortunately for Cyrus, it posted right around the time that a flap erupted about her allegedly stony birthday celebration, which kind of made the former Disney queen fit the Fox News take on the alleged do-nothing attitude of the OWS hordes.

Miley, who, happens to be one of the 1 percent, hasn't officially commented on the video yet, but the Voice said it may actually be a good thing. " If Miley Cyrus can glom onto the movement's message so easily, then it's unlikely to be particularly complex," the paper reported. "Either way, though, Miley Cyrus making a video in support of Occupy Wall Street seems to be a far more important development than it's being given credit for. Where the hell do you go from there?"


What do you think of Miley's Occupy video?

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Justin Bieber

Though his camp has categorically denied it, Justin Bieber is in the midst of one of those music industry rites of passage that just about every young male star goes through at some point.

No, not the voice change. No, not the fake death story and not the obligatory moving violation in a pimped-out Batmobile.

The singer is currently battling allegations that he fathered a child with a fan, courtesy of a 20-year-old California woman who has filed suit and demanded a paternity test and support for her three-month-old child. Bieber, of course, is not the first star to face this kind of (alleged) baby mama drama. It's happened to such old schoolers as Mick Jagger, James Brown, Sammy Hagar, Tom Jones and Screamin' Jay Hawkins and comedian/singer Eddie Murphy (who admitted to fathering a secret child with former Spice Girl Mel B).

But who has been under the paternity microscope recently? Read More...

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It's hard to think of something more embarrassing for a 17-year-old boy than going to the mall with his mom to buy jeans and having her measure his inseam while all his friends fall out of their food court chairs giggling.

Well, except being a 17-year-old international pop superstar and having your manager discuss the status of your little fellas with all the world. Cue to what we can only imagine was a very red-faced Justin Bieber slouching on a couch during a cover story interview with Billboard magazine recently in which his longtime manager, Scooter Braun, dropped this bon mot. "Vocally, his balls have dropped," Braun said of the vocal changes fans might hear on the singer's upcoming Christmas album, Under the Mistletoe.

Wow, okay. Thanks Scooter, but seriously dude, TMI.

Of course, Bieber isn't the only teen dream who's had to deal with ch-ch-ch-changes to his voice at the peak of his powers. Read More...

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Madonna has long made a career of being in just the right place with just the right people at just the right time. And it sounds like she's at it again on her upcoming untitled 12th album. Though Madge's spokesperson gave a "no comment" when asked by MTV News to confirm the news, the popular Madonna fan site MadonnaTribe reported this week that the Material One has recorded nine songs so far for the disc, including the lead single, "Give Me All Your Love," which will feature … wait for it … Nicki Minaj and M.I.A.

The album, which she is reportedly recording with old pal William Orbit (Ray of Light) as well as dance veterans Martin Solveg and Benny Benassi, is slated for release early next year and unconfirmed rumors continue to bubble up that Madonna will play the new single when she performs at halftime at next year's Super Bowl on February 5.

Orbit has kept things close to the vest, but did recently tweet a tantalizing message that appeared to confirm the Super Bowl appearance. "I hesitate to make a comment about anything musical," he wrote. "Ya'll might think is a cryptic tease. But will say: \o/\o/\o/\o/\o/\o/\o/." The obvious cheerleader reference has been taken by Madonnaphiles to either be a confirmation of the appearance at the big game or a hint that the gig will feature some cheerleaders spelling out the singer's name in the stadium while she plays her new song.

Read More...

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They're not even on at the same time of year, but the arms race between "American Idol" and Simon Cowell's "X Factor" continued on Sunday night when Fox (which airs both shows) unwrapped the first commercial for season 11 of "Idol."

The show doesn't return to air until January 22, but three months out producers seem to be sticking with the positive people vibe they explored last year with a revamped judging panel that included newbies Steven Tyler and Jennifer Lopez. For the first time since season seven, the entire panel has returned intact, with veteran old-schooler Randy Jackson getting some serious love as the first face you see in the new ad.

Strutting through a tree-lined park lane, Jackson is surrounded by budding singers, and, despite some ribbing from early "Factor" promos that dinged "Idol" for its shiny, happy attitude, all seems well in "Idol"-ville. The first glimpse of Lopez is of her designer shoes, as the camera pans out and we see more freshly-scrubbed faces singing and busting moves on an Pleasantburg, U.S.A. Hollywood set.

The poppy, acoustic soundtrack (sample lyric, "anything is possible"), soars into lite rock territory when Tyler spots a garage band (in a literal, cul-de-sac garage!) jamming out as he waves them to join his legion of primary color t-shirt-wearing minions. Check the promo out, after the jump! Read More...

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Justin Timberlake

There's not enough lip-gloss, guyliner and MAC foundation in the world to describe how catchy Heart2Heart's "Facebook Official" is. But that's not why we're obsessed with this robot-like boy band that claims former N'SYNC member Lance Bass as their mentor.

No, we're freaking out over the FB song because the very first line of the audio crack tune appears to take a big, fat slap at Bass' former bandmate, Justin Timberlake, who recently signed on to help resurrect the sinking social networking site MySpace. And while we keep holding out hope that JT will one day come to his senses and return to making music, it seems pretty certain at this point that we should wave "Bye Bye Bye" to any hope of that 20th anniversary N'SYNC reunion tour in 2015.

You see, on "Official," Heart2Heart – Chad Future (self-proclaimed "leader"), Nico (youngest and most acrobatic), Pretty Boi Pete ("swag general"), Brayden (rapper/actor) and KX (choreographer and "sub" vocalist) – sing about telling a girl they want to make their thing as official as possible. Future shows her how by dressing up in his best all-white everything, winking into the camera and rapping, "log on, MySpace is dead/I'm checkin' your page to see what you said," just moments after Bass makes his brief cameo in the clip. Read More...

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The Internet may actually melt down tonight. In a scenario not seen since a unicorn mated with a double rainbow and then bit its finger, Cher is slated to be in the audience of ABC's "Dancing with the Stars" this week to cheer on her son, Chaz Bono.

Bono, who has had a remarkably solid run on the show despite some leg injuries, less-than-stellar dancing and early criticism from conservative groups about the inclusion of the first transgender dancer on the prime-time reality juggernaut, will also be getting some love from his stepmother, Rep. Mary Bono Mack, half-brother Chesare Bono, half-sister Georganne LaPiere Bartylak and girlfriend Jennifer Elia.

Chaz supporters and Cher fanatics have been waiting all season for the famously feather-loving movie star and pop icon to take a seat in the audience for the program. People magazine reported that Chaz confirmed the blessed news, spilling the beans that mommy dearest will watch the proceedings on Monday (October 10) night.

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