By Jayson Rodriguez
Perhaps inspired by Lil Wayne's new song about him, Kobe Bryant powered the Los Angeles Lakers to victory in Game 2 of the NBA Finals on Sunday night.
Kobe once again led the way for Los Angeles, as his 29 points and 8 assists helped the Lakers top the Orlando Magic in overtime, 101-96. The win gave the Lakers a 2-0 lead in the best-of-seven series.
The veteran guard has played two of his best finals games ever since Wayne released a new pro-Kobe track last week titled, naturally enough, "Kobe Bryant."
Coincidence? Probably. It likely has more to do with his team taking a butt-whipping from the Celtics in the first two games of last year's championship.
Among the many stars spotted watching Bryant's performance yesterday were Diddy, Rihanna, Will.I.Am, Maroon 5's Adam Levine and "High School Musical" star Zac Efron. Longtime Laker fans Jack Nicholson, Andy Garcia, Penny Marshall and Denzel Washington were also in attendance.
Game 3 is set for Tuesday night in Orlando: Get ready paparazzi shots of high-profile Magic fans like Tiger Woods and ... er, that's really it. Maybe Rick Ross and Flo Rida can make the drive up from Miami to spice things up?
By Daniela Capistrano
We're all about artist iPhone apps in the Newsroom — from Lil Wayne's "Be Like Lil Wayne" app to the Fray's live-concert-streaming app, we love tracking the latest features designed to entice fans.
Music mogul and new-media king Sean "Diddy" Combs wants you to get onboard Last Train to Paris with a free iPhone app designed to build anticipation for the September 22 release of his new album.
Diddy's new app will aggregate all of his various social-networking profiles and bring news directly to his fans via his integrated Twitter feed, a feature (right now) that most artists don't provide. And, similar to Fall Out Boy's and the Fray's apps, "LTTP" allows fans to upload their favorite photos to a fan site through their iPhone. His twist on this now standard functionality is that instead of sharing concert photos of the artist, fans are asked to submit photos of themselves and their friends, particularly photos of their travels.
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By Jayson Rodriguez
Battle lines were drawn between rappers this weekend. Diddy (along with Snoop Dogg) is a hard-core Pittsburgh Steelers fan, as he said on a video blog last week (which we can't link to, owing to his provocative language) before he headed down to Tampa, Florida, for all the festivities surrounding Super Bowl weekend.
We're guessing former G-Unit rapper Hot Rod rides for the Arizona Cardinals, since he is from Phoenix. But after Super Bowl XLIII, where the Steelers defeated the Cards 27-23, Hot Rod didn't return a text asking for a comment on the game. After all, this hasn't been a good year for Arizona: John McCain took an L in the presidential election, then Kurt Warner and company caught one on Sunday night.
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By Adrienne Day
Who were you rooting for last night: the Steelers, the Cardinals, or Team Springsteen? Plus, we have the story behind the Boss' mysterious halftime quip, "I'm going to Disneyland!"
Which Super Bowl movie ads scored big and which got sacked in their own end zone? (Hint: We thought the one for "Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen" was kind of awesome.)
Diddy's Hitmen production team dish on their involvement with Jay-Z's top-secret American Gangster, which is now up for a Best Rap Album Grammy.
If you missed it, check out the very first footage to be released from "G.I. Joe: Rise of Cobra," which debuted during last night's game.
"Madden NFL 2009" correctly predicted the Super Bowl winner. Multiplayer looks back at how the football franchise has forecast the victors in years past.
By Nick Neofiditis
As you enter the NYC borough of Brooklyn, there's a sign that reads very bluntly: "Welcome to Brooklyn: Believe the Hype." That sign never read more true than last night as I walked out of the "Notorious" movie premiere in New York.
Surrounded by the likes of Puffy, Mrs. Wallace, Biggie's managers Marc Pitts and Wayne Barrow, Mary J., Lil' Cease, Busta Rhymes, Jay-Z, Beyoncé, Nas, Jadakiss, Faith Evans, a host of family and friends of the late rapper, virtually all of the cast from the film and just about anyone who matters in the hip-hop industry — it's hard to believe I even managed to score a seat in the theater! Besides being privileged enough to enjoy the premiere of the film in such company, I also got a chance to hear and see the reactions of the crowd during the movie and as we flooded out of the theater.
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Buzzworthy blog's own Tamar Anitai called up today and asked me for "a very special favor." Minutes later I was sitting at her desk smelling a Post-it note.
With a tester bottle cleverly hidden in her desk drawer, she asked James Montgomery and I to give our first impressions of the fragrance she had sprayed on the paper. It was very strong, sweet, and made me think of women I would have a crush on, but be too intimidated to talk to. Overpowering, but sexy.
James was slightly more highbrow about it. "It recalls fresh linens and Sunday mornings," he proclaimed.
Then when we learned it was a man's fragrance: Diddy's new I Am King.
Read the rest of our I Am King smell test at Buzzworthy.MTV.com...
By Elena Torres
On Wednesday morning I got to meet one of the biggest (and most ever-changing) names in hip-hop history: Diddy. We visited him on the set of "CSI: Miami," where the mogul will have a two-episode guest spot as a power attorney. "It was definitely a better feeling being the lawyer than being the defendant," Diddy noted.
"CSI: Miami," like many shows on television, films nowhere near Miami. The hit show shoots in Manhattan Beach, just outside Los Angeles, and on Wednesday it happened to be pouring rain. So there I was at 8 a.m., standing in the rain — which we Californians are not used to! — and I looked over and saw Diddy walking around the set. Immediately, I noticed something was off. Suddenly it clicked: He was carrying his own umbrella!
That's right, the man who made another man famous for holding an umbrella over his head wherever he went (i.e. Farnsworth Bentley), was walking around carrying his own. There he was, chatting on his BlackBerry like any other guy, keeping himself dry. Farnsworth Bentley has even released his own line of umbrellas, just because we have all seen him carrying umbrellas over Diddy's head. But today, Diddy had no bow-tie-wearing, umbrella-carrying sidekicks in sight.
It's one thing if Diddy flies commercial, but I don't know how I feel about seeing him hold his own umbrella. What is the world coming to?
Stay turned for more from our visit to the "CSI: Miami" set with Diddy in the coming days!
By Akshay Bhansali
OK, OK. The lines may be a bit of a pain as you queue up to cast your vote for the next president of the United States today. But if his Diddyness can muster up the spirit, so can you! And let's see you try to do it with 10 cameras following you.
Well, perhaps his trip was a bit expedited. In fact, once Sean Combs entered the Coalition School for Social Change, his polling station in Midtown Manhattan, his visit to the voting booth probably clocked in at around eight minutes. And during those eight minutes, Diddy did what he does best: electrify the room. Sullen, drowsy would-be voters were jolted awake. Frowns and droopy eyes were quickly replaced with smiles, hugs and flash photography. Combs was cordial and friendly as many, including an 80-year-old fellow marathon-runner, struck up conversation with the entertainment titan. Read more...
Remember all those people who gave Diddy a hard time when he ran around in that "Vote or Die" shirt during the 2004 presidential election? Remember how they said that kind of celebrity showboating never works and that young voters don't really pay attention when stars like Christina and Beyoncé tell them to go out and vote? Turns out those people were wrong. Researchers from Washington State University surveyed 305 students on campus and found that "celebrities have the power to motivate civic engagement regardless of their own grasp of the issues at hand" and that the star voting initiatives four years ago helped lower complacency among voters 18-25.
So, do you pay attention to celebrity get-out-the-vote campaigns?
On Tuesday, Diddy kicked out both Aubrey O’Day and D. Woods from Danity Kane, for getting caught up in Aubrey's publicity-hungry web. Although D. Woods said she'd be moving on to another group, Aubrey never said what plans she has now that she's on her own. But Diddy announced that he plans to do another season of "Making the Band," so do you think we've seen the last of Aubrey, or is she already plotting her return to the group?
