On Dec. 27, as Britney Spears kicked off her much-hyped "Piece of Me" residency at Las Vegas's Planet Hollywood resort, descending from the vaulted ceiling in a futuristic gilded cage while wearing what appeared to be her rhinestoned nude bodysuit from the 2000 VMAs, the burning question inside the 4,600-seat theater was: Was she singing live?
The answer: Eh, probably not. Not most of the time, anyway. The relatively intimate setting made that pretty obvious. But then, there was another, almost equally valid question: Did it even matter? And once again, the answer was, well, no. Not really.
Real-time reactions inside the theater to Britney's 90-minute Vegas revue — which included her flying through the air dressed as a snowy Christmas angel for "Everytime"; a reenactment of the Cardio Barre choreo from her "3" video; a totally-'90s, ravey "Scream & Shout" duet with a virtual, Max Headroom-like will.i.am; a rainforest performance of "Toxic" (toxic rain?) during which Britney scaled a giant plastic tree; and several dance routines seemingly inspired by Paula Abdul's "Cold-Hearted" video — were mixed. Some spectators seemed peeved by Britney's apparent lack of actual singing, tweeting their snarky disdain:
"Prison Break" star Wentworth Miller has just revealed he's a gay man ... in a statement that reads as a giant "F YOU" to Russia.
The 41-year-old actor fired off a letter to the director of the St. Petersburg International Film Festival -- rejecting its invitation for him to travel to the Motherland for the event ... and in the letter, WM went public about his sexuality for the first time.
"Thank you for your kind invitation. As someone who has enjoyed visiting Russia in the past and can also claim a degree of Russian ancestry, it would make me happy to say yes. However, as a gay man, I must decline."
Miller continues ... "I am deeply troubled by the current attitude toward and treatment of gay men and women by the Russian government."
"The situation is in no way acceptable, and I cannot in good conscience participate in a celebratory occasion hosted by a country where people like myself are being systematically denied their basic right to live and love openly."
He added, "If circumstances improve, I'll be free to make a different choice."
When it comes
to "X-Men: Days of Future Past," there just might be too many mutants
... and at least one of them has ended up on the cutting room floor (or in the
recycle bin — however it works with editing movies these days).
This will come as sobering news to Sookie
Stackhouse fans, as it's Anna Paquin's Rogue who apparently won't be appearing
in the overstuffed superhero mashup, which combines the cast of the original
"X-Men" trilogy with the young'uns of "X-Men: First Class"
(2011). Director Bryan Singer has revealed that he's cut an early rescue
sequence that features Rogue and fellow "X"-alums Patrick Stewart
(Professor X), Ian McKellen (Magneto), and Shawn Ashmore (Iceman).
"It's a really good sequence and it will
probably end up on the DVD so people can see it," Singer said toEW.com. "But like many things in the
editing process, it was an embarrassment of riches and it was just one of the
things that had to go. Even though she's in the materials and part of the
process of making the film, she won't appear in it."
Singer also
assured that the decision had nothing to do with the acting skills of the
Oscar-winning Paquin, whom he worked with in "X-Men" (2000) and
"X2" (2003).
"She did a fantastic job," said the
Singer, adding that Paquin "completely understood" about the change and
that, like some "X-Men" characters, "films evolve."
There's a chance that Paquin will still
appear in "Days of Future Past" via the film'supcoming reshoots, but for now, don't
expect to see Marie D'Ancato amongst the many, many faces of the mutant lineup.
Actually, there are other superhero
flicks from the days of both the future and past that could've benefited from
following Singer's lead. The comic book movie genre has been struggling with
overloaded ensembles for quite some time. More than one Batman movie being
criticized for having "too many villains," from Joel Schumacher's
reviled "Batman & Robin" (Poison Ivy, Mr. Freeze, and that thing
that was supposed to be Bane) to Christopher Nolan's "The Dark Knight
Rises" (Catwoman, Scarecrow, Ra's al Ghul, Talia al Ghul, and Bane).
The ultra-ensemble approach to superhero
movies is only getting ... well, bigger. Based on the trailer, it looks like
Andrew Garfield's wall-crawler will be facing off against thetriple threat of the Green Goblin, Electro,
and Rhino in next summer's "The Amazing Spider-Man 2" as Sony paves the
way for the mega-villain mashup, "The Sinister Six" — and seems to be
favoring the bad guys over the good, as Shailene Woodley's Mary Jane Watson was cut from the filmearlier this year.
Meanwhile, "Batman vs. Superman" has already
made Gotham and Metropolis overcrowded with the addition of Wonder Woman (Gal Gadot) and whoever "Game of Thrones" alum
Jason Momoa might be playing (fans are speculating either Martian Manhunter or
even Aquaman).
oss Whedon
proved that he knew how to make a superhero ensemble work in "Marvel's The
Avengers" (2012), but he arguably has a more challenging task ahead of him
with the 2015 sequel, "Avengers: Age of Ultron," which will include
the addition of at least two extra good guys (Quicksilver and Scarlet Witch)
... and maybe even a second bad guy to go along with James Spader's Ultron, per
the recent rumors that H.Y.D.R.A. bigwigBaron von
Struckerwill be
making an appearance.
We'll have to see if any of these upcoming
superhero movies will suffer any "Days of Future Past" kinds of
character casualties in an attempt to slim down the ensemble and streamline the
action. It wouldn't necessarily be an act of villainy.
"X-Men: Days of Future Past" will
hit theaters on May 23, 2014.
A heartthrob feud?Mark
Wahlbergrevealed in the December
20th issue of The Hollywood Reporter that back in the day, there was some
seriously bad blood between him andLeonardo
DiCaprio. The feud was so heated, in fact, that Mark almost didn't get cast in
the 1995 film "The Basketball Diaries." Leo, the star of the flick,
didn’t want him in it.
The
42-year-old told the mag, "Leonardo was like, 'Over my dead f------ body.
Marky Mark's not going to be in this f------- movie.'" But the "Pain
and Gain" star admitted that he deserved the icy treatment from Leo.
"I didn't even realize it, [but] I was a bit of a d--- to him at a charity
basketball game," he admitted. "So he was like, 'this f------ a------
is not going to be in this movie.'"
But
all's well that ends well. Mark managed to wow Leo with his acting chops, and
he landed the role. "So I come in and I do the audition and I kind of look
at him and he kind of looks at me," he recalled. "And then we do a
scene, and they're like, 'Hmm, this f------ dude's pretty good, right?' The
next thing you know, boom, we're hanging out."
Check
out the vid to see a younger Mark and Leo in "Basketball Diaries,"
and be sure to tune in to "omg! Insider" on TV tonight for the latest
in entertainment news.
This Sunday Dec. 15, the
WWE will combine the World Heavyweight (held by John Cena) and WWE
Championships (held by Randy Orton) to determine the "Champion of
Champions."
A match that should've
been built up for months and ultimately led to a huge encounter at WrestleMania
30 was instead thrown together with little thought and even worse execution.
The combining of the
company's two major titles should've been treated like a once in a lifetime
event -- even though WWE did something similar 12 years ago -- that fans simply
could not miss. In theory the match would be between the two biggest stars in
the company and would help elevate them to heights they'd not yet reached.
But how can the WWE
expect fans to show an interest in this match when neither champion has done
anything to legitimize their own title reigns?
Orton was essentially
handed the WWE Championship during his feud with Daniel Bryan. Not once during
the series of matches with Bryan did Orton win without interference or help
from another party. In his Survivor Series match with Big Show, Orton again was
aided by Triple H before scoring the win.
Without a string of
clean wins over legitimate competition, Orton will not be taken seriously as a
champion. Even though he is no fan favorite, Orton needed to prove to fans he
was worthy of holding the belt. Ric Flair and Triple H weren't always the most
popular guys, but they still defended their titles without help and gave
credibility to their reigns.
That brings us to Cena.
A few months ago, when Cena returned from injury, he said he wanted to bring
credibility to the World Heavyweight Championship. He wanted to make people
perceive it as an equal championship to Orton's.View gall
After easily disposing
of Alberto Del Rio, Cena won that belt and began his quest to legitimize his
title. The problem is that was only two months ago. It hasn't even been 45 days
and yet we're supposed to believe that he's legitimized the title?
It doesn't help that
we've seen Cena and Orton feud before, multiple times in fact, over the last
few years. While both are no doubt superstars in the wrestling business, fans
eventually get sick of seeing the same two guys feud over and over again.
The WWE has presented
this match as "epic" and has tried to say that never have the top two
wrestlers of their generations faced off with so much on the line. I guess
Steve Austin and The Rock were washed up when they feuded.
But even if the WWE
wanted to go with Cena vs. Orton, building it up over a few months would have
done more to make fans want to pay to see it. Triple H could've come out on
"Raw" a couple weeks ago and announced that the main event at
WrestleMania 30 would be Cena and Orton in a unification match. Then, much like
how Cena and The Rock was handled a couple years ago, the two could've had
different matches against other opponents or with each other to "prepare"
for the big match.
The winner of the Royal
Rumble could've been awarded a title match at SummerSlam as a way to keep
interest, and fans would have the proper amount of time to get invested in a
unification match.
Sadly, the WWE elected
to just throw together the match -- in a tables, ladders and chairs setting no
less -- at a pay-per-view that only the most diehard fans will order. The WWE
could throw us a curveball and not have a winner Sunday, but they've advertised
the match as "there must be a winner," and I highly doubt they're
planning on screwing the fans again.
Mila Kunis and Ashton Kutcher haven't made any plans to make
things official, but they looked pretty good walking down the aisle at Kunis'
brother's wedding in St. Petersburg, Fla., on Saturday (Dec. 7).
The 30-year-old actress turned heads as a
bridesmaid in a strapless pink dress, as her older brother Michael Kunis, 36,
tied the knot with ballet dancer Alexandra Blacker, 29. The pair becameengaged last year after meeting
through Mila, who was trained by Blacker to play a dancer in the 2010 film
"Black Swan,"reports People magazine.
And though it was her brother's big day, Mila
reportedly caused quite the buzz herself, as she continued to wear a ring onthatfinger.
"Mila wore a gold band on her engagement
ring finger but it didn't have a diamond, just a simple gold band similar to a
wedding band,"a source told E! News. "Mila was very happy for her
brother and his wife. During the ceremony, she stood at the altar and seemed
very focused on the vows."
Rumors that she may be engaged to Kutcherfirst began when Kunis was
spotted sporting the ring in September.
There might be a bit of irony in the fact that a
day after nominations for the 56th Annual Grammys were revealed, Rebecca Black
graced YouTube with a new song and video. If view counts are your thing, know
that it has already racked up over 8.5 million hits in a mere three days.
Naturally, Black's follow-up single to her
much-talked-about track"Friday"is called"Saturday,"thus the reason it hit the Internet over the weekend. Will the
latter be equally as loathed as the former? The 16-year-old's original viral
video has scored over 220 million views since its 2011 release and re-upload
following a legal dispute. On YouTube, it has had a quarter as many likes
(321,000) as dislikes (1.2 million) since it was reposted.
The new song is trending in the opposite
direction after the weekend, with 107,000 likes to 56,000 dislikes. Besides the
song perhaps having improved sonically, viewers may also like the fact that
this time, Black seems to be in on the joke.
"Two p.m., getting out of my bed," the
teenager sings to start the track. "Trying to get Friday outta my
head."
There are plenty of other references to the
earlier video: Black goofing around with friends, using the same alarm clock,
riding around in a convertible, and eating cereal from a bowl with text on it
that reads, "Gotta have my bowl." In "Friday," Black
proclaimed, "Gotta have my bowl, gotta have cereal."
View gallery
.
Rebecca Black in her "Saturday" music video
Like the first YouTube hit, "Saturday"
features a second artist. Dave Days, who has 1.6 million subscribers and a
video with Miley Cyrus to his credit, contributes a guest verse.
View
gallery
.
A scene from Rebecca Black's "Friday"
The pre-chorus and chorus sound similar to
something you would hear on pop radio, with a guitar breakdown followed by an
up-tempo beat, over which Black insists, "I don't want this Saturday to
end!"
Funny, because that's the same thing we usually
say to ourselves on the weekend! Kidding aside, Black probably doesn't want the
virality of the song to cease. The track earns revenue on every view and iTunes
purchase, and "Friday" became such a part of pop culture that it
received cover treatments on both "Glee" and Katy Perry's
"California Dreams" tour.
