Jessica Lange & Sam Shepard Split
Jenny McCarthy Jessica Alba Jessica Biel Jessica Cauffiel Jessica Paré Jessica Simpson Zooey Deschanel Aaliyah Abbie Cornish Adriana Lima
Jenny McCarthy Jessica Alba Jessica Biel Jessica Cauffiel Jessica Paré Jessica Simpson Zooey Deschanel Aaliyah Abbie Cornish Adriana Lima
Jay-Z and Kanye West's VMA set, 30 Seconds to Mars' 'Unplugged' and Beyoncé's big reveal made our top 16 — now you decide on the best.
By Gil Kaufman
Kanye West and Jay-Z perform at the 2011 VMAs
Photo: WireImage
When's the last time Beyoncé came to your job and revealed that she was pregnant with her first child? Or Jay-Z and Kanye West dropped by your party to perform live on TV for the first time as the Throne?
Those are just two of the 16 awesome moments compiled as part of a list of our Best MTV Live Performances of 2011. As the year draws to a close, the music experts at MTV News, MTV.com, Buzzworthy and MTV's music and talent department have narrowed down hundreds of live musical performances from 2011 to a carefully curated 16. Now, it's up to you to vote and decide on the Best MTV Live Performance of the year.
Voting is under way now and will remain open through Monday, December 12, at noon ET.
The choices are pretty amazing and they include Grammy nominee Adele's mesmerizing "Someone Like You" from the VMAs, Odd Future's mayhem-filled performance of "Sandwitches" and "Yonkers" at the 2011 mtvU Woodie Awards and Paramore's set at the "Fueled by Ramen 15th Anniversary Concert."
Also on the list is Mac Miller slaying the crowd during "Knock Knock" at "Mac Miller: Live in Chicago," MTV exclusives like 30 Seconds to Mars' MTV "Unplugged" show, Jack's Mannequin's rooftop take on "Release Me" and other memorable moments from Chris Brown, Pitbull, Wiz Khalifa, Lupe Fiasco, Lil Wayne, Foster the People, Robyn and Two Door Cinema Club.
Check out the nominees, watch show highlights and vote for the Best MTV Live Performance of 2011. Stay tuned for the results on Monday, December 12, at noon ET!
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Black-and-white video showcases Bieber's heartfelt singing with his idols.
By Rob Markman
Shawn Stockman and Justin Bieber
Photo: LiveWire Entertainment
Christmas is right around the corner, but the Biebs is already in the holiday spirit. On Wednesday (November 23), Justin Bieber dropped the video for "Fa La La" with Boyz II Men. There are no reindeer or presents under the tree; instead, Justin and the Philadelphia R&B outfit sing of a warm love that will endure through the holiday season.
The black-and-white clip begins in an empty loft, where Bieber sings alone, with his arms flailing and face slightly scrunching every time he hits those heartfelt notes. Justin's solo intro leads way to a collaborative bridge, where Boyz II Men join in. "Baby you de-serve eve-ry-thing you want/ It's your night," they all sing in harmony as the "It's So Hard to Say Goodbye" vocalists join the teenage star in song on the front porch of a brick house.
No elaborate set needed. With an empty city as their backdrop, the four crooners throw down in an old-fashioned sing-off. As the track builds, BIIM's Wanya Morris really gets into it, pounding his chest and kicking one leg up to accentuate his performance. Bieber, who is dressed in a white tee and slim-cut leather jacket, tugs on his collar to let you just how much his words mean to him.
On November 1, Bieber teased the clip when he tweeted, "Killed it with @BoyzIImen on DWTS and then just shot a video for our song #FALALA with @colintilley - great night! living a dream. Thanku," in reference to his appearance on "Dancing With The Stars" and the Colin Tilley-directed "Fa La La" video.
Maybe some of Boyz II Men's subject matter was a bit mature for the pint-size Bieber, but they influenced him nonetheless. "He told us his mom didn't want him to sing 'I'll Make Love to You,' so he'd sneak and go sing it somewhere," Wanya Morris told MTV News. "It's also good to know we've influenced such a good artist. It's something that makes us feel we've accomplished [something and] we're doing our job, [that] a guy so young and so into his craft [is] influenced by three guys from Philadelphia that love to sing."
Yes, "Fa La La" is the latest single from JB's holiday LP, Under the Mistletoe, but Tilley and company didn't overload the video with Christmas themes as to so implicitly tie it to December 25 -- after all, true love should last all year 'round.
What do you think of the video? Let us know in the comments!
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From Kim and Kris' monster-size rock to Beyoncé and Jay-Z's 18-carat mega-sparkler, we dish on the diamonds.
By Jocelyn Vena
Jason Trawick and Britney Spears in Las Vegas. Inset: her Neil Lane enagement ring.
Photo: Denise Truscello/WireImage
After Britney Spears confirmed her engagement to longtime beau Jason Trawick last Friday, fans wanted to know everything about the ring, a four-carat diamond designed by Neil Lane.
Trawick — Brit's former agent — popped the question after working with famed jeweler Lane on the design, according to People.com. The site also reported that Trawick wanted a crown-like band. In addition to the mega-sparkler at the center of the tiara-style setting, the hubby-to-be also had 90 small round diamonds added around the band. Spears debuted the ring during a trip to Las Vegas over the weekend to celebrate her fiancé's birthday.
"Jason is a romantic and when I asked him to tell me about Britney and what the ring would represent to them so I could find inspiration, his response was always the same — she is his princess!" Lane told the website. "Jason didn't want an over-the-top ring with a giant stone."
Minya Oh, the author of "Bling Bling: Hip Hop's Crown Jewels," told MTV News she was pleasantly surprised by how understated the rock is. "The ring is so damn classy! It's [four] carats, which by Hollywood standards these days is practically microscopic," Oh said. "The setting is a tiny crown but both that and the thin diamond-studded band are done so delicately, from afar the focus is still on that bright white center stone. Nothing about the ring overwhelms her hand, and nothing screams, 'Please believe my relationship is real!' " She added, "This is the kind of ring a pop icon has when they're ready for something that means more than just the ring."
This is hardly Spears' first engagement ring, however. When her ex Kevin Federline popped the question back in 2004, the former back-up dancer gave the pop princess a five-carat diamond ring.
All this talk about rocks got us thinking about some other celebrity proposals, so we decided to spotlight a few memorable engagement rings.
Kim Kardashian & Kris Humphries
When it comes to size, Spears' ring from Trawick is small compared to Kim Kardashian's monster-size rock. When Kris Humphries popped the question earlier this year, he gave her a 20.5-carat Lorraine Schwartz diamond. Of course, the size of the ring didn't guarantee lasting marital bliss: the couple split after 72 days of marriage.
Beyoncé & Jay-Z
Like Humpdash, Jay-Z, who is expecting his first child with wife Beyoncé, also went the Lorraine Schwartz route. He gave his pop-star lady love an 18-carat ring back in 2007. The couple kept their wedding ceremony under wraps.
Kristin Cavallari & Jay Cutler
While it has been a bumpy engagement for former "Hills" star Kristin Cavallari and her football player fiancé Jay Cutler, the couple announced they were engaged again last month. Cutler opted to use the same 5.2-carat ring he'd given the MTV reality star back in April when he first decided to put a ring on it.
Hilary Duff & Mike Comrie
Before Mike Comrie asked mama-to-be Hilary Duff to be his blushing bride last year, he reportedly spent $1 million for the sparkler, said to be about 12 to 13 carats.
Katy Perry & Russell Brand
Russell Brand also gifted Katy Perry with a ring of about 12 to 13 carats when he proposed last year to MTV's 2011 Artist of the Year. The comedian asked the pop star to marry him while the two were in India. The couple would later re-create that magic when they also married in the country in October 2010.
Share your well-wishes for Britney and Jason in the comments!
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With the first season of the hit competition show set to come to a close this week, the stars of "The X Factor" gathered together for a press conference in Los Angeles on Monday (December 19).
Among those on-hand were co-judges Paula Abdul, Simon Cowell, Nicole Scherzinger and L.A. Reid, who posed for pictures on the arrivals carpet before heading inside to join the final three contestants for a drawing to decide the order of performances.
During the drawing, Melanie Amaro chose to go third while Chris Rene picked second and Josh Krajcik ended up as the opener of the show airing on FOX this Wednesday (December 21).
Meanwhile, the winner will be crowned the following night during the results show, with star performers slated to appear including Justin Bieber, Leona Lewis and Ne-Yo with Pitbull.
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From their favorite holiday recipes to stories about Santa, stars share their holiday memories and traditions exclusively with iVillage!
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'A Game of Shadows' director Guy Ritchie recalls how one shot was turned into his favorite action sequence.
By Kara Warner
Noomi Rapace, Robert Downey Jr. and Jude Law in "Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows"
Photo: Daniel Smith/ Warner Bros
There's a lot to like about Guy Ritchie's big-screen versions of the adventures of Arthur Conan Doyle's famous literary hero Sherlock Holmes, the latest of which, "Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows," just arrived in theaters. One of the most likable elements is that Holmes (Robert Downey Jr.) is a bit of a badass, which Ritchie has showcased with as many action sequences as possible.
Those who've seen "A Game of Shadows" know that the "forest escape" scene is the most impressive of the bunch. In a nutshell, Holmes, Watson (Jude Law) and Madam Sim (Noomi Rapace) are running through a forest, trying not to get hit by the sniper pursuing them or one of the many bombs being hurled their way. The sequence has that patented Ritchie finesse. It features a mix of real-time action and slow motion so the audience can fully invest in all the stunning detail, even if that detail is people being blown to bits.
When MTV News caught up with Downey and Ritchie, we asked how that sequence — which was written simply as "they run through the forest" in the script — came to be.
"It was the height of the winter, and there was a phantom camera on essentially a remote-controlled, high-speed track," Downey recalled of the setup. "So we were trying to sync ourselves with the remote-controlled track. It's really interesting stuff. I think Guy really had an idea for how he wanted [it] to look and feel, and we accomplished it, thank God. It was freezing out there!"
Ritchie revealed that although he had planned every detail to make the scene as big as it could be, a technician's blunder forced him to make some unplanned changes that actually improved the sequence.
"I threw a lot of moving parts at it. We had ideas, and all in all, it came together in a way I hoped it was going to come together. One of the technicians missed one of the shots, which was the most fundamental shot of Robert and Jude running through the woods. I've only got one shot of them doing that, because the guy forgot to record the rest of it," he said. "So I string this shot out, but what it meant is that I could scream at someone else and realize there was a lot more that could be extracted from this scene, so I went back for three or four more days and absolutely wrung its neck," Ritchie explained of stretching the one shot of Downey and Law to fill time. " ... Somewhere, some poor technician got fired somewhere because he forgot to record it, but really, I'm indebted to him."
Check out everything we've got on "Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows."
For breaking news, celebrity columns, humor and more — updated around the clock — visit MTVMoviesBlog.com.
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