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| Taylor Swift Tapped To Co-Host VMA Preshow Special Posted: 05 Sep 2008 01:52 AM PDT Plus: Sway will track stars' every move from the MTV News Chopper during 'Opening Act' at 8 p.m. Sunday.
The clock keeps ticking away toward the launch of the 2008 MTV Video Music Awards at 9 p.m. Sunday. But the VMA action really gets under way an hour earlier, at 8 p.m., as MTV News brings viewers "Opening Act," which will be co-hosted by country crossover cutie Taylor Swift live from the VMA red carpet. New this year to the preshow is the MTV News Chopper, which will be flying Sway across the Los Angeles airways all evening long. Sway, armed with cutting-edge GPS tracking technology, will clue viewers in on the whereabouts of the various celebrities who'll be arriving for the big show and ensure that all the VMA nominees, presenters and performers arrive on time and in style. Swift will serve as MTV News' fashion correspondent during the preshow. Once inside, Swift will be taking the VMA stage to introduce the Jonas Brothers' highly anticipated performance. The preshow will also feature MTV News' Tim Kash, John Norris, Kim Stolz and Jim Cantiello, who will be reporting on all of the festivities while interviewing some of the biggest stars in entertainment as they make their way to this year's VMAs. In addition, the VMA red carpet will be transformed during the preshow into a stage that will host a one-of-a-kind VMA dance-off, featuring crews Kaba Modern and Fanny Pak from MTV's own "America's Best Dance Crew." (Check out live video from the red carpet as the stage is built!) "ABDC" fans chose Kaba Modern and Fanny Pak to perform during "Opening Act" after five finalist crews from seasons one and two of the show competed last weekend in the special one-hour "America's Best Dance Crew: Battle for the VMAs." After the preshow performance, fans will once again have the power — voting at VMA.MTV.com for the winning crew, which will be announced on the VMA stage. This year's VMAs will be hosted by comedian and "Forgetting Sarah Marshall" co-star Russell Brand. The evening will feature performances from Christina Aguilera, Kanye West, T.I., the Jonas Brothers, Katy Perry, Rihanna, Lil Wayne, Paramore, Kid Rock and Pinkand a special appearance by Britney Spears. Presenters include Fall Out Boy's Pete Wentz, Jamie Foxx, "Gossip Girl" star Chace Crawford, a very pregnant Ashlee Simpson, John Legend, Kobe Bryant, Leona Lewis, Paris Hilton, Slash, Taylor Swift, Shia LaBeouf, Michael Phelps, Miley Cyrus, Lindsay Lohan, Scarlett Johansson, Ciara, Zac Efron, Vanessa Hudgens, Ashley Tisdale, Corbin Bleu, Kristen Stewart, Robert Pattinson, Taylor Lautner, Christopher "McLovin" Mintz-Plasse and "The Hills" gang — Lauren Conrad, Heidi Montag and Spencer Pratt. This year's VMAs will unfold at the Paramount Studios lot in Hollywood and will air live starting at 9 p.m. ET. Now that you've helped us pick the nominees for this year's Video Music Awards, head to VMA.MTV.com to vote for your favorite in the Best New Artist category, check out the latest additions to the performer and presenter lineups, see the best (and worst) of VMA fashion and much more. Then tune in this Sunday at 8 p.m. ET for MTV News' "Opening Act" on the red carpet, followed by the big show, live from Hollywood at 9 p.m. ET. Related Videos Related Photos Related Artists |
| Fall Out Boy Exclusive: Band Previews <i>Folie A Deux</i> Tracks For MTV News Posted: 05 Sep 2008 08:39 AM PDT Patrick Stump explains LP's political edge and how Pete Wentz's marriage affects the lyrics.
LOS ANGELES — "Hell yes, this record is political. But it's not ever going to be overt. You have to look beyond that," Fall Out Boy frontman Patrick Stump said from the studio where he and his bandmates are putting the finishing touches on their Folie à Deux album. "I think this is a very political record, but that gets misunderstood really easily. I think people don't really care what 'politics' even means anymore. If there's a simple theme that I would want to express through the music, it's that you really need to think about things." Stump is speaking, of course, about the recent reports of the (supposed) political slant on the FOB album that's due November 4 — Election Day. While his sentiments are probably only going to further confuse fans — and provide ammo to critics — we've got to admit that he's pretty dead-on in his assessment. At least, judging from the tracks we heard.
On Thursday night, MTV News visited Fall Out Boy — who, coincidentally, are nominated for Best Rock Video at the 2008 Video Music Awards — at an L.A. studio to get a sneak peek at a handful of songs from Folie, all of which bore tentative titles ("America's Sweethearts," "Never Believe," "Does Your Husband Know?") and a healthy dose of political edge. But not of the red state/ blue state variety, mind you. Rather, the new songs delve deep into the politics of the heart and mind, exploring decaying relationships, moral dilemmas and societal shortcomings. The lyrics — written once again by bassist Pete Wentz, who works through a series of thoroughly detestable characters on the new album — deal heavily with concepts like truth and trust, arrogance and infidelity, responsibility and commitment. It's a world where there's not all that much difference between a marriage vow and a campaign speech, in that both are rooted in a promise, one that is easily — and often — corrupted. "One of the things I wanted to do on this record is — and it was very conscious ... I don't think enough people give Pete Wentz any credit. I think he's awesome, I think he's a very talented guy," Stump said. "People only take pictures of him on his way to somewhere. So you just see him with his cup of coffee walking into the studio, but you don't see him in the studio. He's in here working a lot. He totally outdid himself on this record. He doesn't even know how good his lyrics are here. ... So I really had to do something to suit that. So I've been using musical style as a palette to support his lyrics." The best example of this synergy is probably "Husband," which struts in on a massive drum line and crunching, processed guitars, gets amplified by a four-piece horn section, then falls away to a simple, somber piano line. It's sexual one minute, heartbreaking the next — the perfect accompaniment for Wentz's tale of infidelity and deception. "Swagger is a great way to describe it, because on the song, he's lyrically adopting a character that has swagger, so I wanted the music to have that swagger. The verse is so confident and funky and forward because the lyric is so full of itself," Stump explained. "And then everything stops, and there's a piano breakdown, and it's very melancholy and sad and theatrical, and the lyric shifts to the doubt that's behind all that arrogance. And ultimately, I wanted the music — in conjunction with the lyric — to express that arrogance is usually a mask for terrible insecurity. "What I took out of [the lyrics] was that there was something so compelling about the character in the song. ... Like in 'Silence of the Lambs,' when Hannibal Lecter is talking about how he doesn't kill, he covets. ... The song is about that — the prowl of chasing a woman," he continued. "I think it meant, like, this guy is cheating on his girlfriend, but he knows she's not cheating on him. There's this total 'looking into the mirror and trying to convince yourself of absolute lies' kind of thing. People ask all the time, 'Oh, Pete got married, how does that affect the record?' and I think, if anything, he just wanted to point out how lightly people are taking their marriages. No one seems to be worried about what's going on, they just want to have things." And that focus on the failings of society continues on "Never Believe," which is powered by drummer Andy Hurley's work — this time a taut marching cadence — and lush, open guitarwork from Joe Trohman. Stump's voice is loud and clear as he urges the listener to "throw your cameras in the air/ Wave 'em like you just don't care." " 'Never Believe' contains my favorite Fall Out Boy lyric, maybe ever. Because everything we're trying to say about pop culture, it's in this song," Stump said. "The chorus — 'Change will come, but I will never believe in anything again' — that's about the '90s, when we really cared, [but] then we got into all this awful mess. And I think people stopped believing in the goodwill of man and that you can change the world or do any good. So everything became internalized. The past decade has been totally about 'me.' It's totally about 'Oh, I'm sad. I want this. I know somebody who knows this person. Me me me me me,' so that's what that song is about." And while he was at it, Stump decided to dissect the first single from Folie, the strutting "I Don't Care," which the band debuted earlier this week on their official site. Seems that it, too, is another attack on the vapidness of the era we currently inhabit, one obsessed with celebrity and the self. It's an attack you can shout along to, of course. It is a Fall Out Boy song, after all. "Like the chorus says, 'I don't care what you think as long as it's about me.' It's that pop culture thing again, where people don't care about anything but the superficial, and I think there's something so tragic about that," he laughed. "I also thought there was something so ironically anthemic about the chorus, where it's not something you want to sing along to, because it's vacuous and empty. So I wanted something really anthemic underneath it, like something you'd hear at sports games or whatever, because I wanted people to hear it and be confronted with how empty that is. I didn't want anything to be superficial on this record unless the point was to point out superficiality." Related Artists |
| Pink, Jonas Brothers Take Over TV And Movie Sets For VMAs Posted: 05 Sep 2008 06:52 AM PDT As we prepare for Sunday's big show, Hollywood goes about its business.
HOLLYWOOD — "Quiet on the set!" a director yells. Good luck getting that to happen. The VMAs may have taken over Hollywood, but MTV's awards show isn't the only shoot in town — let alone at Paramount. Here on the 65-acre lot, five separate television shows are under way: Selma Blair's new series "Kath and Kim," Christian Slater's "My Own Worst Enemy," "Privileged," "Dirty Sexy Money" and, perhaps the most inconvenienced by the VMAs, "Everybody Hates Chris." "I wouldn't say you've been bad neighbors," teased Tyler Williams, the show's star. "You've just been neighbors who've taken over half our lot." (See where the movie magic happens in this photo tour of the Paramount lot.) The VMA main show takes place at Stage 16 — "Everybody Hates Chris" is at Stage 17. But the show also makes judicious use of the 46 New York-themed facades nearby, which the VMAs are borrowing for performances by the Jonas Brothers (on the "Brooklyn" block) and Pink (on the "SoHo" block across the street). In fact, the Jonas Brothers are going to be performing just in front of the brownstone used as the front of Chris' house. "You've been building things, moving in on the territory, dropping property values," Williams joked. "But you're making up for it with the Jonas Brothers. People performing right outside our house will be funny. One of us should come out and yell, 'Shut up! God!' [during the performance]. But we'll watch and be like, 'That's our house! Our block! Our neighborhood!' " Most of the shows have gone on like it's business as usual — as long as they stay on one of the 29 soundstages (don't even ask about the parking situation). And some of these stages are huge. One of the three for "Dirty Sexy Money" holds the Darling mansion, and it is so big, you could actually get lost inside and believe it was real. There are real flowers. Real wood for the floors. Real glass for the chandeliers. Real antique chairs for the foyer. It's just around the edges that it becomes evident that it's all a set. But that's just one of the many movie-magic touches all around the lot, where you're constantly surrounded by something that looks real and something that's fake and, sometimes, it's hard to tell the difference. Peppered around the stages are storefronts for shooting purposes — but some of the businesses are functional, like the dry cleaner, barber shop and hospital (which doubled as Kelly McGillis' beach house in "Top Gun"). Tourists get confused and drop real mail into some of the prop mailboxes on the New York streets. Old Hollywood types added to the confusion. Lucille Ball, for instance, had the lot build her a facade of her New York and Beverly Hills homes across the way from her office so she could take pictures there and pretend she wasn't quite the workaholic she was rumored to be. New Hollywood isn't much better, but at least most of the shows on the lot have a sense of humor about being here, considering the placards they place on the golf carts they use to putt around ("Everybody Hates Chris" becomes "Everybody Hates Actors," for instance — and, just for us, they made signs that read, "Everybody Hates MTV"). "We don't hate you," Williams said. But during a fantasy sequence the show had to shoot on the New York block this week — a shoot the VMAs delayed — Williams took inspiration from MTV to get in character. "I was throwing dishes, pots, pans, forks, knives out the window," he said. "There was a car outside that I was throwing at, and I don't remember — I may have blacked out — but I remember something silver on the car and throwing a knife at it. It might have been a Moonman." Now that you've helped us pick the nominees for this year's Video Music Awards, head to VMA.MTV.com to vote for your favorite in the Best New Artist category, check out the latest additions to the performer and presenter lineups, see the best (and worst) of VMA fashion and much more. Then tune in this Sunday at 8 p.m. ET for MTV News' "Opening Act" on the red carpet, followed by the big show, live from Hollywood at 9 p.m. ET. Related Videos Related Photos Related Artists |
| MTV Street Teamer Among Hundreds Arrested During RNC Protests Posted: 05 Sep 2008 01:19 AM PDT Charlie Berens, like many others, got swept up in mass arrests.
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