"We were told before we went that our Brazilian fans might be more enthusiastic than normal. One day Kristen [Stewart] and I, we were doing interviews on the second floor, and all of a sudden our security guards rush in and lock the doors all around us. And they come up to us and they're very calm and they go, 'Two thousand girls just rushed the hotel lobby. They got past hotel security, and somehow they know you're up in this room and they're on their way up right now.' That's the only time I have ever felt in danger. They started shaking the doors."
-"New Moon" star Taylor Lautner, whose shirtless appeal as Jacob Black extends far beyond Forks, Washington and onto other continents. Lautner appeared last night on "The Tonight Show" and had plenty of funny stories to tell host Conan O'Brien. For instance, he talked about how he managed to develop the skill to catch grapes in his mouth (he credits co-star Stewart), which he also demonstrated for O'Brien and his studio audience. The star also joked about his constant shirtlessness in "New Moon." "There is a scene where [Kristen Stewart] gets a cut, and there's only one way to handle a serious cut like this, and its just to rip [my shirt] off!" he laughed. "A fan actually asked me in London, 'If you could give Jacob any advice, what would it be?' And I said, 'If somebody gets cut, you don't need to take your shirt off.'" But all that shirt-doffing clearly worked for audiences, as "New Moon" took in over $142 million during its premiere weekend — good enough for the third-biggest opening of all time.
"Did I trip a little bit? I don't even remember. Yeah, I meant to do that. You should know me better than that. That was part of the choreography. The measure of things is not what happens when you fall, it's how you recover when you fall. It was fun, it was really fun. It was nice to be back on stage and doing my thing."
-Singer, dancer and hot Internet trend Jennifer Lopez, speaking to Ryan Seacrest on his daily radio show about the tumble she took during her performance of "Louboutins" on Sunday night's American Music Awards. Lopez was in the middle of an elaborate dance number, which featured her climbing all over a set of male dancers. When she jumped down from the shoulders of a dancer to the stage, Lopez lost her footing and landed on her backside. She took it in stride, chuckling her way through the interview with Seacrest. The AMA performance of "Louboutins" marked the first piece of promotion for Lopez's upcoming album, which does not currently have a title and is expected to be released some time in early 2010.
"It's gonna be sexy, I think. The wardrobe is amazing. I'm working with 10 dancers that I'm so impressed by. I was looking for a certain sensuality — five guys, five girls and they're all incredible."
-"American Idol" runner-up and For Your Entertainment mastermind Adam Lambert, telling MTV News about his upcoming performance on this Sunday night's American Music Awards broadcast, which marks the first time he'll sing in prime time since the "American Idol" finale in the spring. It'll be a big week for Lambert, as he will perform on Sunday and then drop his debut album on Monday, challenging a number of other high-profile artists (including Rihanna, Susan Boyle, Beyonc&233;, Lady Gaga and Shakira) to a Thanksgiving-week sales war. Lambert also talked about the band he brought together (the same group he just debuted online). "I auditioned a band a couple weeks ago that I've been working with," he told MTV News' Larry Carroll. "I'm so impressed by [them] and it feels really good to be part of a team situation again. It's great because I'm back in a team environment and it reminds me of my roots in musical theater." Check out Lambert — as well as the rest of the AMA performers, like Jay-Z, Rihanna, Eminem and Janet Jackson — this Sunday at 8 p.m. on ABC.
"There are some mothers, and then also there are a couple more guys from this sequel. There was a guy, maybe a 230-pound guy who was at the premiere, kind of maybe Hispanic looking, and he was asking me to bite him as well. And so I did, and the surprising thing was, I kind of liked it afterwards. And I've been out to dinner with him a couple of times."
-Cheeky "New Moon" star Robert Pattinson, who joked around about biting people with veteran host David Letterman on Wednesday night's episode of "The Late Show with David Letterman." Pattinson has been on a whirlwind press tour to promote the second film in the "Twilight" series, which opens with a handful of sold-out shows Thursday at midnight and goes wide Friday. Though he plays a brooding undead loverman in the movies, Pattinson himself has been keeping it loose with various interviewers. In an appearance on Thursday morning's edition of "Today," Matt Lauer asked him about a bunch of tabloid rumors, and Pattinson confirmed every one. "I actually come up with these rumors myself," he said with a smirk. "I'm my own press agent." He was honest about the process of going from anonymity to superstardom almost overnight. "It's kind of incredible. I mean, especially — literally the day before I auditioned, I was going to quit acting 'cause I never got any jobs," he told Laure. "So I guess that's not really quitting, when you're not really getting any jobs. It's just surrendering to fate."
"I met [Lil Wayne] a few months ago, and he's honestly — I don't even know if he'll want people to know that he's incredibly polite and respectful. He's so talented and very funny. And really optimistic, and super supportive of me, which I've really, really appreciated so much. I sent him a couple of my songs. He's been diggin' on them for a while. Then he heard ['Make It Rain'], and he was like, 'All right, I'm gonna kill it!'"
-"Gossip Girl" star Leighton Meester, announcing that she recently collaborated with Young Money CEO Lil Wayne on a song called "Make It Rain." Before her performance at last night's event for the opening of the new American Eagle store in Times Square, Meester told MTV News that the legends about Wayne's unconventional work ethic have not been exaggerated. "It was like, literally, 4 o'clock in the morning," Meester said of one of their sessons. "He was so sick — he didn't even write anything down. He just, like, vibes to the music and dances. I don't even know how he does it; he's amazing." Meester's musical career has already gotten off to a strong start, as she has had notable, head-turning collaborations with Cobra Starship, Robin Thicke and now Weezy. Her full-length debut doesn't have a release date yet but is expected to hit the streets some time in January of 2010. In the meantime, she'll keep things feisty as Blair Waldorf on "Gossip Girl."
"What I realized translated most through my material is the aggression, and the people miss it because the other artists don't come from the same type of background or lifestyle. They don't want that from those artists. You know, what they would knock me for is if I sung on a record — 'Oh, 50 is singing on a record' — they get upset when I use the melody. I've been encouraged to use more melody because I'm an international touring artist and I'm watching the music break language barriers, and all they can follow is melody when you go out there at different points. So I brought it, I came back, and I did different things creatively and they kind of resent me for what they love Drake for. It's interesting."
-Rapper/mogul/cultural critic/"New Moon" fan 50 Cent, discussing the reasoning behind the harder-edged songs in his catalog, especially on the just-released Before I Self Destruct. During a long conversation with MTV News, 50 went through each of his albums one-by-one and talked about the choices he made at various points in his career. For instance, he admits that he was probably overextending himself during the creation of The Massacre. "I overwrote this album. It's 22 cuts, the maximum playing time on a single CD. Technically it's a double-disc. You know, I had so much going on creatively at that point that I also wrote the hit music that was on Game's effort, you know, doing this project." According to 50, Before I Self Destruct is the best album he's ever produced. "I finally found a balance of what I feel like a great album is — and this is representation of it."
"It's really new for us. We've never done a video that wasn't performance. I'm really excited for our fans to see this side of us. This is the first time we've ever had a real set, where it's not like a stage with instruments and a mic. We've built this whole world."
-Paramore singer Hayley Williams, expressing her enthusiasm about their new video for "Brick by Boring Brick," the second single from the band's excellent new album Brand New Eyes. The clip, which premieres on MTV on Tuesday night (November 17), was directed by Meiert Avis, who has also been responsible for videos for U2 ("With or Without You"), Avril Lavigne ("My Happy Ending") and Flyleaf ("Again"). It features the band stepping outside of their normal video routine to cast themselves as characters. "After we came up with the treatment, we wrote it down in an e-mail, sort of sent it out, and then we got a few treatments back," Williams explained to MTV News' James Montgomery. "One of them was from Meiert Avis, who we recognized, because he's done some awesome videos in the past. We just thought he's got really good ideas, he gets where we're coming from, with the whole fantasy thing, but not going too overboard. But also, he wasn't afraid to bring a lot more ideas to the table. He's exciting to work with." Paramore just wrapped up a tour for Brand New Eyes and have a few weeks off before they head to Europe.
"There's so much money involved, and it's such a huge investment to make a movie, and it's difficult to make money in this climate. But when you hear about [people] at film festivals saying, 'There are no passion purchases anymore at all,' like, when people just say, 'This is a great movie, and I want to distribute it because people wouldn't be able to see it [otherwise].' There's none of that anymore. So what I'm saying is that I'd love to invest in stuff which wouldn't make any money. But I think there is a compromise in between the two."
-"New Moon" star Robert Pattinson, talking about his goal of being not just an actor but a producer in the film industry. While speaking to MTV News' Larry Carroll, Pattinson expanded on something he recently said to Italian Vanity Fair about wanting to open up his own production company. "I guess, just from my experience in the industry and stuff like that, I'd like to make it a lot easier for the creative people to get their thoughts heard," Pattinson explained. "Because I think it's difficult." Pattinson's fresh clout comes from his work as Edward Cullen in the "Twilight" films, which turned him from an unknown to an instantly recognizable superstar almost overnight. "New Moon" is in theaters next week, so stay tuned to MTV Movies, Hollywood Crush and the MTV Movies Blog for the latest on all the goings-on in Forks, and be sure to check out two specials — "Love Bites" and "New Moon Revealed" — airing this Monday, November 16 at 10 p.m. on MTV.
"I want to do nothing. I literally just want to go outside and go for a walk. I want to be able to wake up in the morning and not know what I'm going to do, and feel out the day. But the way I like to do that is to just get up, and go outside. And I can't really do that. I literally don't have anything besides the walk thing [to complain about]. I should stop saying that. Because I do get to take walks — it's just not the same kind as I used to. And it's also like, I think this is the most intense that it's going to get. After this, it's only going to put me in a better position to do what I love after this saga is complete."
-"New Moon" star Kristen Stewart, discussing the strange things that fame sometimes takes away from young people. The 19-year-old actress went from vaguely recognizable to ubiquity almost overnight, but she's not complaining about the life that "Twilight" has created for her. "I'm the luckiest person in the world," she told MTV News' Larry Carroll. "I get to do every single day what I [want to do with my life]. If I wasn't doing this, I would be searching to find another venue in which I could express myself." In addition to starring as Bella in the remaining "Twilight" films (the second of which, "New Moon," opens next week), Stewart will also be appearing in the rock biopic "The Runaways," in which she plays female punk legend Joan Jett.
"People don't associate the Black Eyed Peas with the gay market, but our new record is a huge dance record, so people are starting to catch on. I want more gay love! They're completely gay-friendly. Are you kidding me? Look at how they dress! Kanye West really did a great thing for hip-hop and made it very mixed and open."
-Black Eyed Peas singer and "Nine" star Fergie, talking to magazine The Advocate about her band's desire to embrace the gay market. The star also admitted that she was comfortable flirting with women in the video for "I Gotta Feeling" because she has experimented in the past. "Yes, it was [my idea to flirt with the girls]," she said. "That was fun because it was so naughty. It was a big tease, but it felt very natural." While the latest Black Eyed Peas album The E.N.D. continues to tear up the charts (after 22 weeks, the album remains in the top 20 and has sold over a million copies), the singer born Stacy Ann Ferguson will also appear in "Nine," a film adaptation of the stage musical that is a spiritual sequel to Federico Fellini's "8 1/2."
