Friday, May 23, 2008


'I just want to come out of the gate with a solid record,' the newly crowned champ says.





David Cook already told us backstage after the "American Idol" finale his immediate feelings about winning the whole thing — but what's next?

Now that his victory has had a few days to sink in, we caught up with the 25-year-old from Blue Springs, Missouri, to see what his debut album will sound like, whether winning will hurt his rock cred and how the show changed him (or didn't).

Q: Have you recovered?

A: Hopefully never. [Laughs.]

Q: Earlier in the season, Simon called you "smug," and then on the final performance night, he said you were one of the nicest competitors ever on "Idol." What changed?

A: You know, I didn't really change much of anything, as strange as it is. You know, I went into this with kind of a different perspective from everybody else. I didn't have any expectations as to what the show was going to do for me or what I was going to do for the show. And so my confidence level really never wavered, and maybe that's what seemed cocky or arrogant. But I think as the season went on, I think maybe he saw the work I was putting in — not just on my own stuff, but really just to make it a positive working environment for everybody.

Q: Did you understand how huge the show was before you got involved?

A: I think I understood what the show encompasses, but I just don't think I chose to get wrapped up in it. You know, I think for me, I wanted to not just experience the experience, but enjoy the experience.

Q: What will your debut album be like?

A: I think it's going to be a mixture of my writing and hopefully writing with some other people. But the bottom line is, I just want to come out of the gate with a solid record. If I can do that, I'll be happy.

Q: When do you think it will come out?

A: Well, the ideal release date is as soon as possible, if you're asking me. You know, these things take time. And as for the type of the record, you know, it will probably be a rock record, but I think that is a pretty vague generalization. I just want to make a record that is going to make the hair on the back of your neck stand up.

Q: What do you think about your instant fanbase?

A: Well, you know, it doesn't feel bad! [Laughs.] I can't believe the level of support that has come out of me doing this crazy TV show. So all I can do is try to embrace it and make all the effort of ... people supporting me worthwhile, and that is going to start with a record and, hopefully, moving down the road, a tour and a lot of success. The sky's the limit right now.

Q: Did all the different theme weeks on the show have an effect on your musical style?

A: Well, I don't see myself putting out a record of standards or anything like that. [Laughs.] For me, I'll probably end up putting out a rock record, because I just feel like that is the kind of music that I enjoy playing. That was the exciting thing for me about this show. I loved knowing that there were things that I could do that people would never expect that I could do. Andrew Lloyd Webber night was fun for me. I loved the fact that everyone was like, "What?"

Q: What did you look for when you were choosing your songs?

A: Actually, there was a short article that Debbie, our stage manager, hung up ... midway through the season. It talked about Frank Sinatra and how he would go about the song process, about recording a song. And before he listens to the music, he would read the lyrics and basically try to tune into what the lyrics were saying and what the song was about, and then he would go into the music aspect of it and figure out the melodies and all that. And so for me, that was really an eye-opening article, because it made me think I just really need to step back, and before I even try to learn this song, I just really need to read the lyrics.

Q: According to the numbers announced on the finale, you got 12 million more votes than David Archuleta. Did you have any idea throughout the season that you were leading the pack by that much?

A: I think that number is actually really misleading. Obviously, within the bubble of "Idol," it's hard to get a vibe on what's going on. I thought Archie was probably a little bit ahead of me, if I'm being honest. ... I attribute the finale vote discrepancy to my fans just being awesome. I don't really know how else to explain it. My hat's off to Archie for the whole scenario. I think he handled himself with a lot of grace. And, more importantly, he's just an amazing human being. I was just honored to share the stage with him.

Q: Since a lot of people are comparing you to season-four finalist Chris Daughtry, are you worried that winning the show might make you lose a bit of credibility in the eyes of rock fans?

A: Did it cross my mind at any point during the competition? I mean, sure — but only as an objective point. I think to go into this with the idea that you don't want to win is a huge slap in the face to the 103,000 people who auditioned this season that really wanted to win. ... As far as having more success by not being a winner, I think that's something that'll get played out hopefully in the next couple of years. I think Daughtry's success is amazing. And so for me, right now, I'm not trying to be Daughtry. I'm just trying to put out a solid record. Even if it doesn't do well commercially, at least I can say I put out a record that I'm proud of. That's the goal right now. Hopefully, if I can do that, the success would follow.

Get your "Idol" fix on MTV News' "American Idol" page, where you'll find all the latest news, interviews and opinions. And relive six seasons of "Idol" hot messes and high notes in six minutes with our video timeline.

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Some of the lists have changed since the debate (and a lot have more than 10) — but hey, that's hip-hop!





The MTV News Hip-Hop Brain Trust: Collectively we've made decisions that cause controversy and make the hip-hop community talk. We all stand by each other, but as you can tell from our roundtable debates, everyone submits their individual lists before a vote takes place on various "Hottest" or "Greatest" list positioning — most recently for the latest edition of "Hottest MCs in the Game."

While everyone's opinions are certainly heard in the show, here are the Brain Trust's individual lists of who they think is hot right now. And yes, some of these lists have been updated since everyone sat down at the roundtable — the game changes often!

Tuma Basa

Director, MTV Music Programming

1. Lil Wayne

2. Jay-Z

3. Rick Ross

4. Kanye West

5. 50 Cent

6. Snoop Dogg

7. Lupe Fiasco

8. Young Jeezy

9. T.I.

10. Bun B

Bridget Bland

Contributor, MTV Radio Network

1. Kanye West

2. Jay-Z

3. Lil Wayne

4. Young Jeezy

5. Rick Ross

6. Lupe Fiasco

7. T.I.

8. Snoop Dogg

9. Andre 3000

10. Soulja Boy Tell'em

Honorable mentions:

Plies

Ludacris

Gucci Mane

Rocko

Shawty Lo

Lil' Kim

Buttahman

Director, Music & Talent, MTV Jams

1. Lil Wayne

2. Kanye West

3. Jay-Z

4. Rick Ross

5. T.I.

6. 50 Cent

7. Ludacris

8. Soulja Boy Tell'em

9. Big Boi

10. Flo Rida

11.Young Jeezy

12. Snoop Dogg

Rahman Dukes

Senior Producer, MTVNews

(In no particular order)

Lil Wayne

Kanye West

Jay-Z

Nas

50 Cent

Plies

Rick Ross

Young Jeezy

Prodigy

The Game

Honorable mentions:

T.I.

Saigon

Sean Lee

Supervising Producer, MTV News

1. Kanye West

2. Lil Wayne

3. Jay-Z

4. Rick Ross

5. Snoop Dogg

6. 50 Cent

7. Andre 3000

8. Young Jeezy

9. Lupe Fiasco

10. Plies

11. T.I.

12. Soulja Boy Tell'em

13. Flo Rida

14. Pusha T

Joseph Patel

Senior Producer, MTV News

1. Kanye West

2. Lil Wayne

3. Young Jeezy

4. Ghostface Killah

5. Pusha T

6. Big Boi

7. Styles P

8. Bun B

9. Snoop Dogg

10. Rick Ross

Honorable mentions:

Andre 3000

Jay-Z

Shaheem Reid

Senior Hip-Hop Editor, MTV News

1. Kanye West

2. Jay-Z

3. Lil Wayne

4. 50 Cent

5. Rick Ross

6. Lupe Fiasco

7. Young Jeezy

8. T.I

9. Snoop Dogg

10. Plies

Jayson Rodriguez

Editorial Director, XXLMag

1. Kanye West

2. Lil Wayne

3. Jay-Z

4. Snoop Dogg

5. 50 Cent

6. Rick Ross

7. Lupe Fiasco

8. Young Jeezy

9. Plies

10. Talib Kweli

11. T.I.

12. Ghostface

13. Fabolous

14. Joe Budden

15. Styles P

Now that you've checked out our "Hottest MCs in the Game" show, we want to know what MCs you're feeling! Keep the debate rolling by submitting your own top-10 list below or heading to YouRHere.MTV to upload your video reaction. And the hotness continues: You can check in on last year's top 10 and see this year's complete list on our "Hottest MCs" page.

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'My main priority wasn't to win the competition,' runner-up says.





"American Idol" runner-up David Archuleta doesn't shy away from the tough questions.

Want to know what kind of album he hopes to release? How he felt about the controversy surrounding his dad? Whether he has time for a girlfriend? (We know a few of you are wondering ... ) Read below for that and more.

Q: Backstage after the finale, you said you felt a sense of relief. Can you explain that?

A: It was such a relief to just feel good about what I did [on Tuesday's performance night] and the fact that that was the last impression I gave on the show. The competition's all over. Now it's time to really focus on music.

Q: What do you want to say to your fans who are disappointed that you didn't win the show?

A: To the people who've been supporting me so much, I just want to thank them. It means more than anything to know that people are appreciating the hard work that we put into this. I want them to know that I'm feeling great about it. The fact that Cook won, I think he deserved it so much. He just proved it week after week. He deserves to be the American Idol! He's such a great guy too. My main priority wasn't to win the competition; it was just to do my best. You can suck and people can vote enough for you to win, but that wouldn't feel very good. [Laughs.] We both gave it all. We just poured it all onto that stage on Tuesday night. And we both feel really great about it. I don't think I could have done anything better or change anything to make me feel any better about what I did.

Q: Was it hard to hear all the criticism about your dad throughout the season?

A: I hadn't really heard much of it until later on. I tried to stay away from the press. I didn't like to hear anything going on in the news about me, good or bad, just because I didn't want it to distract me or let it go to my head. I just wanted to stay myself and how I was at the beginning of the competition. ... In interviews, it started coming up, and it was just kind of strange, because they're really weird things, like that he refused to give me water. That's the weirdest thing. I'm 17, and if I want water I'm pretty sure I would just go get it! [Laughs.] And then another thing was that he made me cry during one of the recording [sessions]. He's a great guy. There isn't really anything he's done that's bad like the things that have been spoken about him. My family has just been such a great support, and they're the ones who've kept me grounded and allowed me to be who I am today. No one understands what I'm here for more than they do. They get what I love about music and how it's changed my life.

Q: What kind of album do you hope to make?

A: I'd love to still do the pop thing, just because I'm still a teenager, and on the show, I was getting a little mature with my songs, even though I love to do that stuff. I still want to be able to relate to the kids my age, so I like the pop, but I still wanna have meaning in my music. I'd still like to do some fun stuff, along with songs that have more meaning in them. John Mayer and Sara Bareilles are examples I use of people who have done the more pop side of music, but their music is still real. It has meaning and depth to it. They're respected as real musicians and artists.

Q: You have a lot of female fans. Now that the show's over, do you have a little more time to date someone?

A: Now it's really time to focus on making an album and writing songs and all that. I just feel like, being 17, I'm not really mature enough to understand those feelings yet. I've watched so many of my friends, like, "Oh, we broke up. I can't live without them!" It's like, "You're 17! What are you talking about?" ... I so don't want to deal with the drama right now. [Laughs.] I just wanna be able to focus on music and then, when I feel like I've met a girl who has a great personality and I can connect with and has really good standards for themselves and has respect for themselves, but not like in an arrogant way, someone who cares about others as well, you know, it's not all about them. It's just something I'll want to focus on later on in life, when I'm ready, but I just feel like I'm so young. I'm still learning so much.

Get your "Idol" fix on MTV News' "American Idol" page, where you'll find all the latest news, interviews and opinions. And relive six seasons of "Idol" hot messes and high notes in six minutes with our video timeline.

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Before fans head to the theaters, there are still a few things to learn about their favorite cosmo-sipping heroines.





Ten years ago, "Sex and the City" was an anthology of Candace Bushnell's columns from the New York Observer newspaper. When the rights were purchased for a mere $50,000 by the creator of "Beverly Hills, 90210," the concept was developed to run on a pay-cable channel whose biggest previous hit had been "The Larry Sanders Show." It would star an actress whose career had fallen to barely released flicks like "If Lucy Fell," another best remembered for the 1987 hit "Mannequin," an actress booted off "Melrose Place" after only one year and a struggling former child star.

Now, its unlikely journey has made "Sex and the City" a summer blockbuster competing with Hollywood's biggest heroes.

"Carrie Bradshaw is Indiana Jones for the female audience this summer," series creator Darren Star laughed, discussing "Sex and the City: The Movie," which opens on May 30.

"It's enormously flattering to know that people still care about the show," grinned 43-year-old Sarah Jessica Parker, whose career has gotten increasingly hotter every year since she first got Carrie-d away. "[When we were filming the movie] crowd-control was difficult to deal with. It's a wonderful problem to have that kind of interest; it was exciting to have that energy around us."

Bucking the box-office formula laid out by such films as "Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me" and the "X Files" movie, Star's sisterhood of the traveling designer pants is generating hope for a $60 million-plus opening weekend.

"When I put the show on TV, I wanted it to feel like people were watching a movie," Star said, speculating on why "SATC" might work better on the big screen than other adaptations of recent TV shows. "[I hoped] it wouldn't feel like they were watching a TV show. It would feel like a movie."

After six hit seasons on HBO, high-class DVD releases and thousands of hours of TBS reruns, the show has accumulated more fans than ever. Now, the studio hopes that they'll soon be dragging their boyfriends and husbands to the theater to see the latest drama in the lives of Carrie, Samantha, Charlotte and Miranda.

"I feel like the characters are friends to the audience, and they just want to spend time with their old friends," Star said. "When women watch the show, they like to identify with one of these women.

"Carrie is the observer. [Charlotte] is the rules girl," he summed up. "Miranda is the one who puts aside work for men, but she's focused on her career. Samantha is the one who can live life like a man, have sex without strings and gives this 1970s vibe, like the freedom of sexuality."

Believe it or not, there are still some "Sex and the City" trivia tidbits that even the most faithful flirtini drinkers don't know. So before you head out to the theater, here are a few fun facts to get you in the mood:

»Man's Best Friend: "There was a scene in the first season when Charlotte walked in on a guy she was dating, and his golden retriever was [performing a sexual favor on] him," Star said of the taboo that even "SATC" wasn't allowed to touch. "That was the only thing deemed too inappropriate for 'Sex and the City' — and that was a deal-breaker for Charlotte."

»Blond Ambitions: Determined to hire a redhead for Miranda, Star almost passed over Cynthia Nixon. "For me, it was important that the hair color, body types and everything was different," he remembered. "When Cynthia Nixon came in to read for the first time, she was blond. I saw Miranda as a redhead. Thankfully, I took that leap of faith that she would look good as a redhead."

»Tutu Tango: The "Sex and the City" opening with Carrie walking down the street in a ballerina outfit is iconic, but Star remembers filming a different take that day. "Sitting in the vault somewhere, there is an alternate opening-credit sequence where Sarah is wearing a blue dress," he revealed. "And she doesn't get splashed by the bus, but instead she trips when she sees the bus."

»Avoiding a Big Mistake: At the time of his casting, Chris Noth was best known as a tough TV cop. Star insists that if he had seen Noth's work, the actor likely wouldn't have gotten his Mr. Big break. "Chris did audition, but the advantage he had was I had never watched 'Law & Order,' " the creator remembered. "Two years into 'Sex and the City,' I finally saw it, and there he was running around with a gun! And I couldn't believe that Mr. Big was running around with a gun. I thought, 'Wow, I'm glad I didn't see that.' "

»Sex and the Retirement Home: "I love that women identify with the characters, because it empowers them; it gives them more freedom in their own lives," Star explained. "But I have had friends' mothers come up to me and say, 'I'm Samantha!' That scares me a little."

Check out everything we've got on "Sex and the City."

For breaking news, celebrity columns, humor and more — updated around the clock — visit MTVMoviesBlog.

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Our education continues with 'Kingdom of the Crystal Skull,' now in theaters.





He's the world's most pre-eminent archaeologist, but for millions of fans worldwide, Indiana Jones isn't just a professor at Marshall College, he's our teacher as well. In the 19 years since "Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade" hit theaters, we've had a lot of time to absorb his lessons.

So in honor of the release of his latest adventure, "Kingdom of the Crystal Skull," we present the 19 most important things we've learned from watching Indiana Jones.

1. The Size of Your Rod Does Matter

If you listen to anyone telling you differently, you're literally just seeing one side of the coin. Remember to take back one Kadan to honor the Hebrew God whose rod it is. By the way, this is as good a time as any to let readers know that I'm not allowed to make circumcision jokes on MTV.

2. Never Get Caught With a Sword in a Gunfight

Forget all your fancy maneuvers and impressive showmanship. The simplest solutions in life are often also the best. Sometimes, problems just aren't as complicated as we make them out to be.

3. Anything Goes!

Giant boulders, restless tribes, poisoned darts, double crosses ... as you travel through life, expect the unexpected.

4. Only the Penitent Man Will Pass

In the face of seemingly insurmountable challenges, remember to be humble and learn your own limitations. It's OK to rely on a little luck and last-second inspiration.

5. Step Where He steps, and Don't Touch Anything!

Life is full of booby traps. Find yourself in an unfamiliar environment? Try proceeding with caution, and if you can, bring a guide. There's no need to leap when you can look ...

6. Take a Leap of Faith

... Except when you have to. Not all life's answers can be found in "The Chronicles of St. Anselm." Your father wouldn't steer you wrong — learn to trust in something bigger than yourself.

7. It's OK to Be a Little Crazy

He no crazy, he nuts! And that's OK too. When all else fails, and life has you cornered, do the one thing they least expect. Hey, what do you have to lose?

8. Know Your Competition

Think you can drink anyone under the table? It's probably best you don't try it against someone with their own family label. No matter how good you are at something, chances are there's someone out there who's better.

9. Don't Play Poker With a Pickpocket

Of course, sometimes the competitions will be rigged. Look, no matter how cute he is, remember your enemy has an ace up his sleeve. Listen to us, and you'll live longer.

10. Never Insult Your Host

This is more food than they've eaten in a week. When in Rome, sometimes you have to eat what the Romans eat, even if it's chilled monkey brains. Don't embarrass yourself. Do, and the next thing you know they've sent an assassin to your room.

11. Avoid Dark Tunnels

They contain snakes, rats and really, really large bugs. Trust us, take the long way around. That said ...

12. It's Always Gonna Be Snakes

Snakes! Why does it always have to be snakes? 'Cause life isn't fair, that's why. It's going to test you, challenge you, push you past your limitations. Conquer your greatest fear — even if it means you have to call in a rope — and you can do anything.

13. Stay in School

You never know when a little knowledge is going to save your life. Remember: In the Latin alphabet, Jehovah begins with an I.

14. Don't Call Us Junior

What's in a name? Only our identity, self-worth and life story — all wrapped up in a neat little appellation. Forget what Shakespeare said: A rose by any other name just wouldn't smell as sweet. You call him Dr. Jones, lady, his professional name.

15. Let It Go

Sometimes our obsessions can get the better of us, make us forget who we are and why we're here. Never put an object of desire above a friend or a family member. Know that the true value of material goods will never equal the value of a father's love. Let it go.

16. Choose ... Wisely

The quest for the Grail is the quest for the divine in all of us. Don't be fooled by fancy jewels and sparkling diamonds — not all that glitters is gold. The most valuable things in life are often the ugliest, and most worn from use.

17. Your First Love Will Always Be the Strongest

Who else would you go all the way to Nepal for? Sure, you were both young and stupid, but remember how you felt when you first fell in love? Chances are, that's as good as it's gonna get. Someday, if you're lucky, that special someone will walk back through the door.

18. Archeology Is the Quest for Truth, Not Fact
Yeah, we inverted Indiana's statement to his students, but so does Indiana himself, in action if not words. Forget fortune and glory (and Dr. Tyree's philosophy class right down the hall): The objects we choose to seek in life say more about who we are than what they are. Seek to be illuminated.

19. It's Not the Years, It's the Mileage

Life is just one adventure after another. It's OK to be tired or broken-down if you're caught up in the middle of it all. Don't go to the grave with your odometer stuck at zero.

Check out everything we've got on "Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull."

For breaking news, celebrity columns, humor and more — updated around the clock — visit MTVMoviesBlog.

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The formerly flashy rap star has earned back his freedom after more than a decade.





Hip-hop pioneer Slick Rick was given a full pardon Friday (May 23) by New York Governor David Patterson, most likely ending a deportation threat that has hung over the rapper for 11 years. According to The New York Times, Governor Patterson delivered the pardon to prevent the MC from being deported to England, where he was born and lived until the age of 11.

In 1991, Slick Rick (Ricky Walters) was convicted of attempted murder and weapons charges after he shot and injured his cousin and an acquaintance. Rick served five years and 12 days in prison before being paroled in 1997, but a law that threatens to deport immigrants convicted of aggravated felony or weapons charges had always loomed large.

In 2002, Slick Rick was arrested aboard a docked Caribbean cruise ship — by the INS, who had been fighting for his deportation since 1995. He spent a year in an immigration detention center in Bradenton, Florida, before a judge ruled he could go free in 2003. (MTV News spoke with him shortly after his release.)

In administering the pardon, Governor Patterson noted that Slick Rick had served his sentence, had earned an "exemplary" record while in prison and on parole, and had lived in the community without incident for over 10 years. He also cited Slick Rick's community service and the fact that deportation would separate Rick from his wife and two teenage children, who are all American citizens.

Slick Rick was 25 years old at the time of the incident and one of hip-hop's biggest — and flashiest — stars, recognizable as much for his immeasurable amount of jewelry as he was for his iconic eye patch (he's blind in his right eye as a result of an injury as an infant).

Technically, Slick Rick is not completely free of the threat of deportation. He still must get approval from immigration courts for an "adjustment of status" that would remove the threat, but the chances of it being granted have increased dramatically with the governor's pardon. Immigration courts originally decided to adjust his status in 1995 but vacated the decision due to a technicality.

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Defense has asked the state to file criminal charges against some witnesses in singer's child-pornography trial.




CHICAGO — R. Kelly's lawyers have figured out a new defense strategy: make sure the singer isn't the only one on trial.

In a hearing separate from Kelly's child-pornography trial (the jury has Fridays off), the singer's defense attorneys asked that Chicago Sun-Times reporter Jim DeRogatis — who received the tape from an anonymous source in 2002 and turned it over to police — be compelled to testify, implying that he may have committed a crime by allegedly making and keeping a copy of the sex tape at the heart of the case. Assistant State's Attorney Shauna Boliker also revealed that the defense had asked the state to file criminal charges against some witnesses.

THE R. KELLY TRIAL: IN BRIEF

Status of Trial
Opening arguments began on May 20

The Charges
Kelly faces 14 counts of child pornography — seven for directing, seven for producing.

What's at Stake?
Kelly faces 15 years in prison and a $100,000 fine. If convicted, he'd have to register as a sex offender.

For full coverage of the ongoing R. Kelly case, see The R. Kelly Trial Reports.

Which witnesses the defense wants charged, and for what crimes, remains unknown, as that portion of the hearing was held in the judge's private chambers and is considered sealed. But charges of either possession of child pornography or perjury are the most likely, considering how Kelly's defense team hammered away this past week at witnesses who either had or held viewings of the sex tape, yet did not immediately contact the police. (One witness, Stephanie "Sparkle" Edwards, denied that she had held viewings for family members, despite her brother's and his ex-wife's testimony that she had.)

It might seem like the defense would be shooting itself in the foot to make such an argument — after all, Kelly's case hinges on the belief that the tape is not child pornography and, therefore, not a crime. Wouldn't it undermine the defense's own case to insist that the tape be considered child porn and anyone in possession of it be charged with a crime?

"The logic of their motion escapes me," Sun-Times attorney Damon Dunn said outside the court.

As for DeRogatis, the reasons the defense wants him to take the stand kept changing. At first, defense attorney Marc Martin told the court that DeRogatis must show the chain of custody of that tape.

"But you're not operating in a vacuum," Judge Vincent Gaughan countered. "That's in the police report. I want to know what you expect to get from this witness."

Then Martin revealed that he thought DeRogatis had committed a crime. "After he gave the tape to Detective Dan Everett," Martin alleged, "he kept a copy. Somehow, he had possession of a copy, and he watched that tape with Stephanie Edwards, after the tape had been tendered to the police."

"Nobody has proved that he had [kept a copy], as far as I know," Dunn countered.

Martin said knowing who had a copy and when was "critical to our defense," and that DeRogatis shouldn't have First Amendment protection for his actions, since it wasn't under his function as a reporter that they wanted him to testify. However, Dunn said that DeRogatis would indeed assert his reporter's privilege against testifying. And Boliker said she didn't see how DeRogatis' testimony would be relevant to the case at hand.

Martin then said the defense needed DeRogatis' testimony to "impeach Stephanie Edwards," since she gave contradictory testimony. Martin argued that Kelly had a Sixth Amendment right to call witnesses.

"You don't have a right to call everybody," Gaughan said. "Otherwise, the trial would last to infinity."

Gaughan set the next hearing about the matter for May 30, at which point he will make his ruling whether DeRogatis will be compelled to testify. Kelly's trial will continue Tuesday.

Find a review of the major players in the R. Kelly trial here. For full coverage of the case, read the R. Kelly Reports and check out this complete timeline of the events leading up to the trial.

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Uwe Boll surpasses himself.





German director Uwe Boll is customarily described as the world's worst filmmaker. I don't know if this is true — it's a big world, after all. But with the release of "Postal," he stakes a strong claim to being the world's most offensive. I mean that in a good way.

"Postal" is a foul and horrifying movie, a classic of its kind. I laughed pretty much non-stop through the first hour or so (unfortunately, the picture runs nearly two hours), cringing in shame and yet cackling helplessly nevertheless. The opening scene, already notorious, has two Muslim terrorists sitting at the controls of a plane they've just hijacked. They're piloting it toward a New York skyscraper, but seem more concerned about an upsetting story they've heard: It seems that there are now so many martyrs-for-Allah that each can no longer be guaranteed a hundred virgins when he reaches paradise — the number has been cut to 20. One of the terrorists whips out a cell phone and calls Osama Bin Laden, who confirms this. Angrily, the terrorists decide to change course and head for the Bahamas. Unfortunately, at this moment the plane's passengers storm the cockpit, and in the ensuing confusion, the aircraft reaches its original destination and crashes into the tower.

There's nothing funny about 9/11, obviously. But the joke here is about Islamic terrorists, so ... well, let me just say that at the screening I attended, I wasn't the only person laughing.

Amazingly, things get even worse. "Postal" is based on one of the video games of that name ("Postal 2," to be exact), which have been condemned for their mindless violence ever since being introduced in 1997. The plot concerns a luckless hick (Zack Ward) — a trailer-park Travis Bickle — who goes postal in response to the depravity of the modern world. After discovering his enormously fat wife having sex with another hick who lives nearby, this lead character (known only as "The Postal Dude" in the film's credits) goes to visit his Uncle Dave (Dave Foley) in search of support. Dave is a sleazy scammer who operates a hippie commune dedicated to "organic monotheism." The Dude finds Dave in bed with three naked women. There follows a bathroom scene that I will not describe. Dave's commune is deep in debt to the IRS; he needs money. In order to raise some, he wants the Dude to come in with him on a scheme to rip off a shipment of an enormously popular kiddy item called the Krotchy Doll. I will not describe the Krotchy Doll. (Do I need to?)

The story gets even more disgusting. A corrupt cop approaches a car that's holding up traffic and pulls a gun and blows away the woman driver. The Dude shoots a menacingly aggressive homeless guy (accidentally, though — even Boll has limits, apparently). Later, small children are mowed down in the most graphically bloody way, and a TV news chick arranges their little corpses around her feet to deliver a touching on-the-scene report.

The movie reaches its odious peak at the opening of an amusement park called Little Germany, which is run by Uwe Boll himself, in full Lederhosen drag. A "Hasselhoff Beer Garden" is the only one of the park's loathsome attractions I feel comfortable noting. Also on hand for the opening is a celebrity guest — tiny Verne Troyer. ("You know," Boll tells him, "all those rumors out there that my movies are financed with Nazi gold? It's true!") After much subsequent slaughter (also involving a gang of Islamic terrorists who operate a "Taliban TV" station in the back of a local convenience store), Troyer is raped by a roomful of chimpanzees. The movie ends — why not? — with George W. Bush and his friend Osama Bin Laden skipping off hand in hand through a field beneath a towering mushroom cloud.

The select group of people who might actually wish to see this movie — which makes the early work of John Waters seem like the family classics of Frank Capra — will have very little chance to do so. Boll is fearlessly releasing it on "Indiana Jones" weekend, in a nationwide total of 10 theaters, according to his latest count. (It was originally scheduled to play in about 1,500, until theater owners got a look at it.) Not to fret, though, fellow trolls — a picture like "Postal" is the reason the midnight-movie circuit was created. And of course it'll be available on DVD, too. Probably next week.

Don't miss Kurt Loder's review of "Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull," also new in theaters this week.

Check out everything we've got on "Postal."

For breaking news, celebrity columns, humor and more — updated around the clock — visit MTVMoviesBlog.

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Upcoming album finds metalcore band playing with spooky electronic and proggy effects.





On Tuesday, the pride of Tampa, Florida, Grammy-nominated Christian metalcore outfit Underoath, invited Metal File out to Elmwood Park, New Jersey, to producer David Bendeth's House of Loud studios — where Paramore's breakthrough album, Riot!, was tracked — and gave us a quick foretaste of their upcoming 42-minute-long LP, which they'd finished mixing just hours earlier. All told, the mix, which is due in stores this fall, had the boys in the Garden State for nearly two weeks.

When we arrived, we found the band relaxing in the studio's living-room-like lounge, playing "Wii Sports" and abusing the "Addams Family" pinball machine. After a quick photo shoot, Underoath played us six tracks from the disc, which they've given a title that they're keeping under wraps (although guitarist Timothy McTague did slip, saying the name of the record ends with "ation" and that "it will make all album titles up to 2008 disintegrate"). It was the first time the band played any of the new material for anyone outside its inner circle.

According to frontman Spencer Chamberlain, the 11 songs, which were tracked over six weeks in March and April with producer and Killswitch Engage guitarist Adam Dutkiewicz for the follow-up to 2006's Define the Great Line, were actually written over a two-year time span, and much of the lyrical content was inspired by the singer's struggles and triumphs during that period.

"We write really slow," he confessed, "because we're really anal about what we keep and what we don't. We're not like other bands. We don't go in with 20 songs and pick the best ones. We can barely get out of a room with the six of us agreeing, so, normally, to get 11 songs we all agree on takes two years.

"[This record's] about the last two years of my life," Chamberlain continued. "The rough times, the good times. You know, our band almost broke up, and I had some issues with substance abuse — all kinds of things. Just real life and how I dealt with things. It's definitely some of the darkest [stuff we've done], but that doesn't mean I'm always totally desperate. It's a pretty desperate record."

The six songs we heard — still carrying working titles like "Viper," "Elephant" and "Jam" — were, for the most part, furiously paced, with lots of layers and almost Nine Inch Nails-esque spooky electronic effects. Several of the songs were anthemic, feedback-filled numbers that build slowly to their thunderous, ear-splitting crescendos, and there were breakdowns aplenty. Chamberlain's vocals are intense, passionate and sounding better than ever over the shredding guitars. Aaron Gillespie's adroit drum-pummeling adds even more fury and force to the tracks, which are sprinkled with blistering, steely guitar solos. The songs — which, at times, stop and start on a dime effortlessly — sounded huge and unpredictable, never really heading in those directions you might expect. It's also clear that the band wanted to experiment this time around, injecting almost prog-like elements here and there.

"You've got to step it up every time," Chamberlain explained. "That was the key. This is the first record [we started working on] where we haven't completely hated what we did before. From [2002's] The Changing of Times to [2004's] They're Only Chasing Safety, we hated it. So we changed, and then, by the time Chasing came out, we hated that too. Then we wrote Define the Great Line, and I feel like this record's kind of similar to that. I was worried, at first, but I think we took it and stepped it up a lot. It's the same style — we didn't completely change who we are. But we had to push each other, raise the bar and experiment and explore things we haven't done before. This is our band, and this record — this is our sound."

Underoath, who are releasing their Survive, Kaleidoscope live CD/DVD May 27, are looking forward to previewing the new material for their fans this summer when they head out with Disturbed, Slipknot, Mastodon, DragonForce, Airborne, Five Finger Death Punch, 36 Crazyfists, Machine Head, Black Tide, Suicide Silence, the Red Chord and Walls of Jericho on the inaugural Rockstar Energy Mayhem festival.

"It's cool for us to do at least once," Chamberlain said. "We've done Warped Tour so many times, and we love Warped. I think the shows on Warped, for us, are incredible. But for this record, we wanted to expand musically and lyrically and push ourselves. So why not push ourselves into a market where some may not know about us? Why not play to Slipknot fans — fans that may not like us, and maybe, if they heard us, would? On Warped, we know what's going to happen: Our fans are going to be there. With this, there will be a lot of people who haven't heard us, so it's something totally new for us."

The rest of the week's metal news:

As I Lay Dying frontman Tim Lambesis has launched a new side project, the Arnold Schwarzenegger-inspired Austrian Death Machine. The band's debut disc, Total Brutal, will land July 22, and feature 17 songs, including "I Am a Cybernetic Organism, Living Tissue Over (Metal) Endoskeleton," "Who Is Your Daddy, and What Does He Do?" and "If It Bleeds, We Can Kill It." According to Lambesis, Arnold "is the embodiment of everything brutal and stereotypically metal." ...

Barely legal metallers Black Tide played a free gig on May 15 at the Whisky a Go-Go in Hollywood during a release party for James Frey's book "Bright Shiny Morning." But things didn't go so well. According to the New York Post, there were a number of scuffles with security during the band's set, and "literary types were horrified as the brawl spilled out to the sidewalk, where it took 20 cops to quell the violence. Three men were arrested." ...

Pantera/ Hellyeah kitman Vinnie Paul has been tapped by Connecticut hardcore heroes Hatebreed to produce, document and record the band's May 27 gig in Dallas for a CD/DVD set. "We can't even begin to explain how excited we are to be recording our live album with Vinnie Paul," Hatebreed's Jamey Jasta commented. "It's a great honor and privilege to be working with him on this." ... Soulfly plan on releasing two editions of their forthcoming album Conquer on July 29. One will be the standard version, while the other will be a special edition with three bonus cuts: "My Path," a cover of Bad Brains' "Sailin' On" and a rendition of Marilyn Manson's "The Beautiful People." ...

The lineup for this year's Trash and Burn Tour has been revealed. The tour, which kicks off July 29 in Albuquerque, New Mexico, will feature Darkest Hour, Misery Signals, Winds of Plague, Stick to Your Guns, Arsis, Light This City and Arsonists Get All the Girls. Dates are booked through September 3 in Seattle. ...

Lamb of God's upcoming two-DVD set, "Walk With Me in Hell," has been plotted for a July 1 release. The effort will contain footage captured during the band's recent appearances on Ozzfest, the Gigantour and the Unholy Alliance runs. ... Strapping Young Lad's upcoming CD/DVD best-of collection, titled 1994-2006 Chaos Years, will hit stores May 27. Band mastermind Devin Townsend remastered 17 of the band's tracks — including "Detox," "Love?" and "All Hail the New Flesh" — for the offering. ...

Danish death-metal act Compos Mentis have been working on material for their next LP, which they'll start tracking June 23 with Christian Bonde. Lyrically, the band said the disc will "be centered around the parish pump and different moments in Danish history, as well as various aspects of a 'typical' Danish mentality."

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Hip-hop pioneer 'Slick Rick' pardoned by governor




By MICHAEL GORMLEY, Associated Press Writer



Walters, 43, has been under threat of being sent back to his native United Kingdom, although he has lived in the United States since he was a child. In a statement, he expressed gratitude to Paterson and his lawyers, and hoped that he could finally put the turmoil behind him.

"This has been a long and difficult road and I am happy for this to be settled once and for all," Walters said. "I look forward to enjoying this time with my family and friends and to continue leading an honest and productive life."

In announcing the decision, Paterson noted Walters' commitment to helping young people.

The eye patch-wearing star behind '80s rap classics like "La-Di-Da-Di" and "Children's Story" was a successful rapper when he was convicted of shooting his cousin and another man in 1991. Both survived.

Although he had completed probation requirements in the attempted murder case and resumed his musical career, he was arrested again in June 2002. Immigration agents stopped him after he returned to Miami from a weeklong Caribbean cruise where he was a featured performer.

The arrest was on a 1997 Immigration and Naturalization Service warrant that had not been pursued earlier, and he spent 17 months in jail, despite calls for Walters' release from such luminaries as the Rev. Jesse Jackson, Will Smith and Chris Rock.

A federal judge eventually ruled in October 2003 that the Bureau of Immigration Appeals denied Walters' due process when it issued the warrant, but Homeland Security officials pressed forward in the case. In 2006, Walters told The Associated Press he was simply going to keep working and play out his appeals.

"If you were in my shoes, how would you look at life?" he said then. "You'd ride life out, too. Anger would just make life not enjoyable, you know what I mean?"

The Democratic governor noted that Walters is now a rap artist and landlord in the Bronx who has not had any other criminal problems since his release from prison and has volunteered at youth outreach programs to counsel against violence.

"Mr. Walters has fully served the sentence imposed upon him for his convictions, had an exemplary disciplinary record while in prison and on parole, and has been living without incident in the community for more than 10 years," Paterson said. "I urge federal immigration officials to once again grant Mr. Walters relief from deportation, so that he is not separated from his many family members who are United States citizens, including his two teenage children."

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Madonna to show film at Michael Moore's festival




By JOHN FLESHER, Associated Press Writer



Michael Moore

Moore announced Thursday that Madonna, like himself a Michigan native, will appear for a screening of "I Am Because We Are" during the Traverse City Film Festival on Aug. 2.

"She's sort of entered my realm," Moore said. "When I saw it, I thought, 'Wow, it's like she's been making these films for years.'"

Madonna produced and narrated the documentary after traveling to Malawi, where she met the toddler David Banda. She and husband Guy Ritchie are adopting the child.

"I Am Because We Are" illustrates the poverty that children of the southern African country face, how the AIDS crisis is claiming lives, and the conditions that cause disease and other misery there. But the film urges people to volunteer and tries to offer hope.

"She takes the viewer through a very personal journey and tries to connect us, living here in the U.S., giving us a window into the way it is for other people in the world," Moore said. "You're extremely moved when you watch it. You understand very clearly why she's devoted so much of her life to the people of Malawi."

Moore said he was "outraged" by the criticism Madonna received for her efforts to adopt David. Some children's rights groups said it would be better to provide more resources so children could remain in their native countries. Others accused her of using her celebrity status to circumvent Malawian adoption laws, which she denied.

"As one who has seen what the yellow press can and does do, all of that was just one more reminder to me of just how dishonest so much of the media is in this country," Moore said.

"I am very excited to come to Michigan to show my film," Madonna said in an e-mail Friday to The Associated Press. "The film is a labor of love and I am happy that I can bring it home to my roots with the help of Michael.

"I am also honored that the film will be screening at this particular festival arranged by Michael as he is a genius and I am a huge fan."

Moore, who won the Academy Award in 2002 for "Bowling for Columbine," said he saw an early version of Madonna's film in London while shooting scenes for his latest documentary, "Sicko."

After watching the finished product about a month ago, he asked Madonna for permission to screen it during the festival in Traverse City, his adopted hometown about 250 miles northwest of Detroit. Moore established the festival in 2005 with local author Doug Stanton and photographer John Robert Williams.

"She said she'd be thrilled to come here and be part of the film festival," Moore said. "We were pleasantly surprised."

Madonna, born in Bay City and raised to the south near Detroit, recently released a new album, "Hard Candy," and is preparing for a worldwide tour that begins in August. She'll take a one-day break from rehearsals to visit Traverse City.

The film will be shown in a downtown theater that seats 540. After the film is shown, Madonna will take questions from the audience, Moore said.

___

On the Net:

http://www.traversecityfilmfest.org


http://www.iambecauseweare

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Terrell Owens is ready to take on more TV jobs




By JAIME ARON, AP Sports Writer



Terrell OwensDancing With the Stars

"They asked me to do that last year and I graciously declined," Owens said. "I don't need to get on national TV to show people I can dance. I do that 16, 17 weeks out of the year. I've been doing it all my career."

Owens said he'll save his ballroom dancing skills until he gets married, whenever that may be. He added that he hasn't watched the ABC dancing show, skipping out on NFL star Jason Taylor this season and previous years featuring former Cowboys great Emmitt Smith and Owens' former teammate Jerry Rice.

Besides, he's more of a sitcom guy, as evidenced by his recent gig on "Under One Roof."

He was so giddy to watch it — and, perhaps, so motivated to help the ratings — that he turned on every television in his house.

"I thought I was going to see something different (on different TVs)," he said, laughing. "I had some friends over watching it. Everybody said I did pretty good."

Those words were hardly out of T.O.'s mouth when teammate Tank Johnson walked by and mockingly shot back one of Owens' lines, an indication he was tuned in, too.

"I think I surprised a lot of people with my performance," Owens said. "For me, I feel like I can act. That's what I want to do. If I wasn't really comfortable with it and didn't think I could really do it, then I wouldn't have done it."

Owens said he grew up watching "Good Times" and "The Cosby Show," but as a budding thespian he feels there's room to grow. He mentioned having hung out recently with his pal Jamie Foxx, and noted the success of The Rock, a former college football player. He said some friends are teasingly calling him "Denzel."

"I think comedy was a good start," he said. "I don't really see myself limiting myself just to comedy."

___

ABC is owned by The Walt Disney Co.

___

On the Net:

http://abc.go/primetime/dancingwiththestars/index?pnindex

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Morton, Watson share screen time in `Synecdoche'

Samantha MortonEmily Watson

Morton, 31, and Watson, 41, co-star as variations of the same character in "Synecdoche, New York," which premiered Friday at the Cannes Film Festival.

"It's really weird. Over the years, I've been in situations where people ... have mistaken me for her" or complimented her for "Breaking the Waves," Morton said.

"And I went, `Oh, I wish,'" she said of the 1996 film that gave Watson her breakthrough role and earned her an Academy Award nomination. "And apparently, she's had a similar thing herself with me, so the casting was incredible."

Morton, an Oscar nominee for "Sweet and Lowdown" and "In America," plays an assistant who has a lifelong flirtation with a theater director (Philip Seymour Hoffman) in "Synecdoche," the directing debut of screenwriter Charlie Kaufman ("Being John Malkovich").

Watson, who wasn't at a news conference with other cast and crew, co-stars as an actress cast to play Morton's character in the director's theatrical re-creation of the world at large, which includes a massive New York City set built inside warehouses.

The two eerily resemble each other in "Synecdoche," sharing distinctive hairstyles, mannerisms and speech patterns.

Spending a few days together on the set, Morton and Watson developed a bond that went beyond their physical resemblance.

"We naturally started kind of dancing," Morton said. "Not physically, but it became a dance, of how we would do things, and it was just so wonderful."

___

On the Net:

http://www.festival-cannes.fr/en.html

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Madonna auctions off lip gloss at AIDS benefit




By ANGELA DOLAND, Associated Press Writer



Material Girl

Madonna emptied her purse and came up with a magnifying mirror, hair clips, skin blotting tissues and lip gloss. She put it on the block along with a one-of-a-kind diamond-encrusted alligator bag donated by Chanel. The lot sold for $472,000.

The 49-year-old singer asked the crowd not to insult her with low bids: "This lip gloss touched my lips."

The benefit on the sidelines of the Cannes Film Festival late Thursday raised more than $10 million for the American Foundation for AIDS Research (amfAR), a record for the annual event.

Mary J. Blige sang "Family Affair" and an R&B edition of U2's "One." Burlesque dancer Dita Von Teese shed her silk stockings in a slinky strip routine. As usual, Sharon Stone played auctioneer.

Stone tried to get the crowd to bid for a kiss with Madonna, reminding everyone that George Clooney sold two kisses last year for a total of $700,000.

"That's cheap!" Madonna quipped. "Everyone's kissed George Clooney."

Madonna said she wouldn't give away a kiss for less than $1 million. Instead, she offered to serenade two fans backstage during her next concert tour in the city of their choice.

As bidding took off, Madonna prodded the crowd along, saying "Don't humiliate me!" and "People have offered me millions to play at their bar mitzvahs." The package sold $550,000.

Madonna's white Gibson acoustic guitar, which she used on her "Confessions" tour, sold separately for $472,000.

The auction started off with Stone pledging $100,000 for pediatric AIDS research and asking others to do the same. Within minutes, amfAR raised $2 million, with bidders including Roberto Cavalli, Tommy Hilfiger, Valentino, Milla Jovovich and Michelle Yeoh.

The "Basic Instinct" star also sold her red 1976 vintage Porsche 911 Targa, which she restored to its original luster after it was stolen and recovered. It sold for $786,000.

Sean "Diddy" Combs offered to let a fan spend 24 hours in his presence, and Von Teese put a private striptease on the block. Both went for their minimum bids — $314,000 for Combs and $77,000 for Von Teese.

The event was held at the Moulin de Mougins outside Cannes.

___

On the Net:

http://www.festival-cannes.fr

http://www.amfar.org

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"Indiana Jones" cracks whip at box office opening




By Steve Gorman



Actor Harrison Ford

That tally ranks as the fourth highest-grossing Thursday
debut on record and bodes well for a movie industry looking to
"Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull" to help
shake the movie business out an early summer slump.

But analysts were divided over whether the highly
anticipated adventure flick from Viacom Inc's Paramount
Pictures is on track to overtake last year's "Pirates of the
Caribbean" film as the biggest opening on a U.S. Memorial Day
holiday weekend.

"Crystal Skull," directed by Steven Spielberg, is the
fourth movie in the beloved and lucrative movie franchise that
began in 1981 with "Raiders of the Lost Ark," and is the first
to hit the big screen in 19 years.

The three previous "Indy" movies have collectively grossed
more than $1.2 billion in ticket sales worldwide.

In the latest film, Ford, 65, reprises his title role as
the bullwhip-cracking archeologist who hates snakes, and is
reunited with actress Karen Allen, his co-star from the first
adventure. Set during the 1950s Cold War era, the story pits
him against an evil KGB agent played by Cate Blanchett in a
race to find a skull endowed with mystic powers.

Box office analyst Paul Dergarabedian, president of Media
By Numbers, said the film's opening Thursday performance was
robust enough without being so strong as to diminish its
weekend audience.

If its Friday-through-Monday box office tally crosses the
$140 million mark, the film would exceed last year's Walt
Disney Co's "Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End" as the
biggest North American opening yet for the four-day Memorial
Day holiday weekend.

"They have a strong shot at meeting or exceeding that
Pirates of the Caribbean number last year," Dergarabedian said.

Brandon Gray, president of online tracking service Box
Office Mojo, disagreed.

"We just don't have enough previous data to say what this
$25 million indicates," he said, noting that few potential
blockbusters have opened on the Thursday before a four-day
holiday weekend.

Unlike the new "Indiana Jones" film, "Iron Man" was fully
financed by Marvel Studios, which paid Paramount a flat fee to
market and distribute its film. Thus, Paramount has much more
at stake riding on the success of its latest release.

Reuters/Nielsen

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Indiana Jones makes Russian communists see red




By Denis Pinchuk



Russian Communist Party
members

"Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull" stars
Harrison Ford as an archeologist in 1957 competing with an evil
KGB agent, played by Cate Blanchett, to find a skull endowed
with mystic powers.

"What galls is how together with America we defeated
Hitler, and how we sympathized when Bin Laden hit them. But
they go ahead and scare kids with Communists. These people have
no shame," said Viktor Perov, a Communist Party member in
Russia's second city of St. Petersburg.

The comments were made at a local Communist party meeting
and posted on its Internet site www.kplo.ru.

The film, the fourth in the hugely successful Indiana Jones
series, went on release in Russian cinemas on Thursday. Russian
media said it was being shown on 808 screens, the widest ever
release for a Hollywood movie.

In past episodes Indiana Jones has escaped from Nazi
soldiers, an Egyptian snake pit, a Bedouin swordsman and a
child-enslaving Indian demigod.

RUNNING DOGS

"Harrison Ford and Cate Blanchett (are) second-rate actors,
serving as the running dogs of the CIA. We need to deprive
these people of the right of entering the country," said
another party member, Andrei Gindos.

Though the ranks of the once all-powerful Communist Party
have dwindled since Soviet times, its members see themselves as
the defenders of the achievements of the old Soviet Union.

Other communists said the generation born after the 1991
collapse of the Soviet Union were being fed revisionist,
Hollywood history. They advocated banning the Indiana Jones
outright to prevent "ideological sabotage."

"Our movie-goers are teenagers who are completely unaware
of what happened in 1957," St Peterburg Communist Party chief
Sergei Malinkovich told Reuters.

"They will go to the cinema and will be sure that in 1957
we made trouble for the United States and almost started a
nuclear war."

"It's rubbish ... In 1957 the communists did not run with
crystal skulls throughout the U.S. Why should we agree to that
sort of lie and let the West trick our youth?"

Vladimir Mukhin, another member of the local Communist
Party, said in comments posted on the Internet site that he
would ask Russia's Culture Ministry to ban the film for its
"anti-Soviet propaganda."

The "Indiana Jones" film is not the first Hollywood
production to offend Russian sensibilities.

A government official at the time said the film, starring
Bruce Willis as the leader of a team of astronauts sent to
deflect an asteroid on a collision course with Earth, "mocked
the achievements of Soviet and Russian technology."

Reuters/Nielsen

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Morton, Watson share screen time in `Synecdoche'

Samantha MortonEmily Watson

Morton, 31, and Watson, 41, co-star as variations of the same character in "Synecdoche, New York," which premiered Friday at the Cannes Film Festival.

"It's really weird. Over the years, I've been in situations where people ... have mistaken me for her" or complimented her for "Breaking the Waves," Morton said.

"And I went, `Oh, I wish,'" she said of the 1996 film that gave Watson her breakthrough role and earned her an Academy Award nomination. "And apparently, she's had a similar thing herself with me, so the casting was incredible."

Morton, an Oscar nominee for "Sweet and Lowdown" and "In America," plays an assistant who has a lifelong flirtation with a theater director (Philip Seymour Hoffman) in "Synecdoche," the directing debut of screenwriter Charlie Kaufman ("Being John Malkovich").

Watson, who wasn't at a news conference with other cast and crew, co-stars as an actress cast to play Morton's character in the director's theatrical re-creation of the world at large, which includes a massive New York City set built inside warehouses.

The two eerily resemble each other in "Synecdoche," sharing distinctive hairstyles, mannerisms and speech patterns.

Spending a few days together on the set, Morton and Watson developed a bond that went beyond their physical resemblance.

"We naturally started kind of dancing," Morton said. "Not physically, but it became a dance, of how we would do things, and it was just so wonderful."

___

On the Net:

http://www.festival-cannes.fr/en.html

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Cannes critics cool as film competition nears end




By Mike Collett-White



Cannes film festival

Star power was sustained, however, with the red carpet
attracting big names like Madonna, Angelina Jolie, Brad Pitt,
Clint Eastwood, Penelope Cruz, Woody Allen, Steven Spielberg
and Harrison Ford and sports stars Mike Tyson and Diego
Maradona.

With two out of 22 films in the main competition this year
yet to screen, critics and journalists who have been through 10
days of movies, news conferences, interviews and parties
struggled to come up with many highlights.

The competition closes on Sunday evening when the
nine-member jury headed by Sean Penn hands out the awards,
culminating in the coveted Palme d'Or for best picture.

"Even before the halfway mark, the general mood has been
one of disappointment," said Jay Weissberg, a critic with trade
publication Variety.

"Coming off another weak Berlin festival, there is a sense
that 2008 is not going to be the best year for films."

He and several others highlighted "Waltz With Bashir" as a
potential winner of the top prize.

The animated documentary was seen as an innovative way of
exploring an Israeli draftee's memories of the 1982 massacre of
Palestinians living in Beirut's Sabra and Shatila camps.

Other leading contenders included Hollywood veteran Clint
Eastwood and Turkish director Nuri Bilge Ceylan, underlining
how Cannes seeks to unite mainstream cinema with
smaller-budget, independent film making.

Eastwood's "The Exchange," originally titled "The
Changeling," features Angelina Jolie as a 1920s mother who
loses her son and faces down a corrupt Los Angeles police force
and a serial child killer as she goes in search of the truth.

Probably more than any other movie in Cannes it has sparked
early Oscar buzz, although several critics were underwhelmed.

FAMILY DRAMAS

Ceylan's "Three Monkeys," a brooding family tragedy, leads
Screen International's informal poll of critics, while another
family drama, "A Christmas Tale" by France's Arnaud Desplechin,
is a firm favorite among domestic experts.

Italian entry "Gomorrah" was lauded for its brave depiction
of the brutal world of the Naples mafia in a drama based on a
bestseller by Italian author Roberto Shavian.

Another Italian film, "Il Divo" directed by Paolo
Sorrentino, has also been well received. It takes a satirical
look at former prime minister Giulio Andreotti, depicting him
as the symbol of a corrupt political system.

Two-time Palme d'Or winners Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne
from Belgium are seen as contenders with "Lorna's Silence,"
while two of four South American entries drew praise.

In "Lion's Den" from Argentina, Martina Gusman gives a
compelling performance as a pregnant woman jailed for murder
whose life is transformed by her son, and "Line of Passage"
from Brazil is a touching drama set in the slums of Sao Paulo.

Steven SoderberghArgentineIndiana Jones and the Kingdom of
the Crystal Skull


(To read more about our entertainment news, visit our blog
"Fan Fare" online at http://blogs.reuters/fanfare)

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Thursday, May 22, 2008


Defense accuses girl's aunt of conspiring to extort money from Kelly.




CHICAGO — "I kind of know her like the back of my hand."

Sitting on the witness stand, a 24-year-old woman named Simha Jamison told the court how she was able to identify the girl on the sex tape at the heart of R. Kelly's child-pornography trial: They were best friends.

She also said the man on the tape is Kelly.

THE R. KELLY TRIAL: IN BRIEF

Status of Trial
Opening arguments began on May 20

The Charges
Kelly faces 14 counts of child pornography — seven for directing, seven for producing.

What's at Stake?
Kelly faces 15 years in prison and a $100,000 fine. If convicted, he'd have to register as a sex offender.

For full coverage of the ongoing R. Kelly case, see The R. Kelly Trial Reports.

Jamison was among a string of witnesses on Wednesday (May 21) who identified the girl and Kelly on the sex tape, as Jamison's legal guardian, Peter Thomas, and two of the girl's relatives also took the stand. The girl's uncle, Ben Edwards Sr., and her aunt, Edwards' former wife and Chicago police officer Delores Gibson, both testified that they first saw the tape at a December 2001 family meeting held by Ben's sister, Stephanie "Sparkle" Edwards, to discuss legal options. That was about a month and a half before an anonymous copy was sent to the Chicago Sun-Times.

Upon hearing that Sparkle, a former protégé of Kelly's, instigated the meeting and had a copy of the tape in her possession at the time, defense attorney Ed Genson became very antagonistic toward Edwards, to the point that Edwards began answering "I don't recall" to every question about who was in the room when the tape was played. Genson suggested that if Edwards couldn't remember who was there, how could he know who was on the tape at all?

"She's my niece; she's my blood," Edwards retorted. "Why wouldn't I remember her?"

"OK, so your memory is bad," Genson said.

"Am I on trial here?" Edwards asked. "I told the truth. It looks like [my niece] is on the tape. It looks like R. Kelly is on the tape."

Defense attorney Sam Adam Jr. attacked Gibson for not taking the tape from Sparkle to give to the police and instead advising the girl's mother to see a lawyer. Toward the end of his cross-examination of her, he accused Gibson of conspiring with Sparkle to extort Kelly, and of going public when that failed. "You and Sparkle had that tape sent to the Sun-Times, didn't you?" he asked. "No," she said.

Jamison made the strongest witness, retaining her composure throughout. She did not allow Adam to rattle her on cross-examination. She testified that she and the girl had been best friends approximately since the summer after third grade until six years ago. The two girls rode bikes, rollerbladed, played basketball and went shopping together when they hung out, which was "every day," she said

Through her best friend, Jamison said, she also met R. Kelly (godfather to the girl allegedly in the video). The two girls often went places where Kelly played basketball (at a gym called Hoops) and recorded music (at a studio called Trax), as well as his home, including a sauna room known as the "Colorado Room." Frequently, when her friend visited her godfather, Jamison testified, she saw him give her money: "no less than 100 and no more than 500 [dollars]." The exact amount was disputed on cross-examination.

During Jamison's junior year of high school, she said she saw a sex tape at a friend's home, and recognized the two individuals on the tape. "I thought she looked just like my best friend ... (and) her godfather R. Kelly."

Jamison said she was able to identify her friend by her face and her hairstyle, since they had both gotten the same cut going into their freshman year: a mullet, "short at the top, long at the back." Jamison said they were 13 or 14 at the time.

Adam tried to confuse Jamison, showing her pictures of the girl with a braided hairstyle and asking her which year that would have been taken and how old she would have been at the time, though it turned out the picture was taken in January 1997, when the girl was 12. Adam also tried to get Jamison to identify Kelly by photos of a mole on his back. "I didn't recognize that as his back, but his head was attached to it," she said. "It doesn't look like a mole to me. A cancerous mole, maybe," she said, as Kelly smiled.

Jamison also got a few laughs out of the court, such as when Adam asked her about the possibility of the tape having been altered with special effects. Had she seen the Wayans brothers movie "Little Man"? "It looked real, didn't it?" Adam asked. "Not really," Jamison replied with some sarcasm.

Find a review of the major players in the R. Kelly trial here. For full coverage of the case, read the R. Kelly Reports and check out this complete timeline of the events leading up to the trial.

[This story was originally published at 4:24 p.m. ET on 05.21.08]

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'If somebody don't make it home, that's on me. I felt I should have been shot,' rapper says of Philant Johnson's death in 2006.





T.I. can sum up his recent gun-possession arrest and subsequent guilty plea in one sentence. But the King of the South knows it's way more complicated than that.

"I was walking with guns and not walking with God," he said at his Atlanta estate last week.

Tip, who is awaiting sentencing later this year, still couldn't go into the specifics of his case, but he did trounce rumors that range from ridiculous (he was arming up for some type of pre-emptive strike) to more realistic (he had some heavy beef in the streets). The biggest question on everyone's mind is why did he need so many guns? And even if he was justified in getting the firearms, why would he go purchase them himself?

"If you are thinking with a rational mind, with priorities properly arranged, it makes no sense," Tip, in his usual calm drawl, said of the firearms deal that ended in his arrest. "But if your judgment has been altered by some tragic event, and something has you thinking on another level other than you should be thinking on, at that point those decisions become more jaded.

"What happened? All I can say is that I exercised poor judgment," he added. "There were some very poor decisions on my behalf. I let my concerns for my safety and my family's safety, and my concerns about what might happen and what could happen — I let that deter my judgment to a point where my priorities were in disarray. I'm now paying the consequences for it."

Earlier in the day, Tip spoke to kids at two separate events, giving them words of advice and encouragement. As part of his commitments to the courts, he has to complete more than 1,500 hours of community service. And that means going out and dropping jewels on the youth. That's something that T.I. has always participated in throughout his career, which made it easier for the courts to decide on his community service. Having experience in going out and talking to the kids made it easier for the courts to decide on his community service.

One major point he wanted to drive home with the young people is "Don't let temporary emotions cause you permanent problems." That's a lesson he had to learn after his arrest last year.

"That's how I can tell them with such sincerity," he explained. "I've experienced it. All that forward-thinking and transitioning from one area of life to another area of life — all that was flipped upside down and scrambled all the way up after Philant died in Cincinnati. Everything was, like, OK. I thought I had everything under control. Now, obviously, this new person I've become has caused my homeboy his life. It caused me to think differently in certain ways, and in hindsight, I can say I was sadly mistaken."

Philant Johnson was T.I.'s best friend. He died in early 2006, shortly after one of the rapper's shows. After an altercation at a club, gunmen pulled up alongside the vehicle carrying T.I., Johnson and others. The assailants shot several rounds at Tip's entourage. Philant was the only fatal casualty, although others were hurt. Tip was completely unharmed physically, but he was scared and riddled with guilt.

"I mean, when you've been through so much, it ain't a matter of being spooked," he said. "You're numb to a lot of things. It's a certain level of concern and questions. It just made me [say to myself], 'I'll never let that happen again. That'll never happen anymore. Not me. Not like that. I'll be ready.' "

"I take full responsibility for that," Tip said of his friend's passing. "When people leave here — we go on tour — people leave their families. They leave out their houses, they're coming with me. I'm responsible for everybody out there from the DJ to the hypeman to the driver. I'm responsible. If somebody don't make it home, that's on me. I felt I should have been shot. I felt like I should have been hurt. The fact I got out, [that there] wasn't nothing wrong with me ... Me and Philant were sitting close. It's not beyond the realm of possibilities for us to have had the same injuries. I place a great deal of the blame on myself. [Dealing with] this new situation is my way of getting over that situation."

As Tip forges on with his life as an artist and family man, he's coming to grips with his errors but refuses to put them completely behind him.

"I can't necessarily say I wish it never happened," he said. "Everything I've endured has made me stronger, it has made me smarter. I think I'm a man better because of it. Of course, I do have some reluctance to say I appreciate all of those experiences, but I have found ways to turn negatives into positives.

"Now, in hindsight, [it was] absolutely the wrong decision," he said of the events leading up to his most recent arrest. "I made a horrible mistake. At the same time, I'm not gonna let that mistake define me. That mistake ain't gonna dictate my future. ... I'mma move past that. My future is way brighter than my past."

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'That's where the boy wants to be,' Ross says of #4 nod; Game calls list 'the certified top 10.'





Hate it or love it, MTV News' "Hottest MCs in the Game" list is well respected — just ask the artists themselves.

"MTV, y'all's top 10 is the certified top 10," Game said last week on Ed Lover's Power 105.1 radio show, when the Compton star was interviewed with several members of MTV's Hip-Hop Brain Trust. "I don't think it's another top 10. People scramble [to see] who's the best MCs all year. I don't think fans respect anything more than MTV's list."

"Justice! Justice! Justice for the downtrodden and the oppressed!" Lupe Fiasco yelled recently at a stop on Kanye West's Glow in the Dark Tour when MTV News correspondent Sway told him he was one of our "Hottest MCs in the Game." "Justice does exist in this world, ladies and gentlemen."

Lupe was very vocal when he was left off last year's list — and didn't even receive an honorable mention. "Yeah, I went and found all of the individual board members and asked them what was up," Fiasco said. "It feels good, man. I used that as motivation. I took that as, 'Oh, OK. I'll be back.' And I came back with a vengeance. [The Cool] is gold. Smash record that was nine weeks at #1. The bells and whistles and everything that comes with it. So, you know, I'm happy. I'm happy. A Grammy that just came out of nowhere. It feels good, man, the work. So now I've got to find something else to motivate me again, so I can be the underdog. I like being the underdog. I like that. It feels like you've got something to achieve. You wake up in the morning with a purpose."

Lupe placed seventh — one above Young Jeezy.

"I love Jeezy. Jeezy's got charisma," Fiasco said of the Snowman. "Even with the stuff he talks about — people say it's worlds away and worlds apart — I come from the world that Jeezy comes from. I'm from the 'hood and the whole situation. And the way he articulates it ... it motivates you. Like that's what his first album was, Thug Motivation. It really is like he's a motivational speaker, the charisma and the energy that he puts into the record. ... Like Tupac, the way he gives it and the way he says it and the ad libs, the whole thing. The way he sets it up for you. It's just phenomenal."

Mr. 17.5 was in his Dirty South Studio in Atlanta when he was told he made the list. "I'mma respect that, though," Jeezy said. "I feel at the end of the day, I take what I do very seriously. You only gonna get out what you put in."

Jeezy did take a brief hiatus last year after putting out the USDA album. But he's since gone on a tear with cameos, catapulting him into the top 10. "Sometimes you gotta give it a break," Young said. "You can't be all over the place all the time. It has to be an event when you jump on something. Normally you wouldn't do that. Now I'm on it. If it sounds right, I'm on it. If [the song] sounds right and I like it, I'm on it. I don't need no money or nothing."

Rick Ross, whose swagger and lyrics have been a staple in the game this past year, earned the #4 spot on the 2008 list.

"You get into best of the best," the boss said about going top five. "You looking at moguls, entrepreneurs, bosses when you crack that top five. That's where the boy wants to be. That's where everybody should aspire to be if you in the game and wanna go to that next level."

Ross was delighted to make the list. He felt he's come a long way. "Just being a fan of the game and coming from the streets and now participating in the countdown is something you can be proud of. It's definitely an accomplishment. It's all good, man."

Ross names Cash Money Millionaire key players Lil Wayne and Baby as being in his personal top five. He also likes Jay-Z and Kanye West.

"His presentation!" Ross said of why he respects West. "The level, the art. You see the art when you look at it. It definitely inspires you. Even if it's a different genre, a different lane, it still is gonna inspire you. I get that from Kanye. Listening to different records, it sounds like he made them for arenas.

"Jay's the best," Ricky Ross continued. "It's not even a comparison. Hands down ... Jay's the best. Either way you look at it, from the music standpoint to the accolades to the new GMC Jay-Z Denali. So Jay, that's how he's been able to remain relevant. He's the best."

Now that you've checked out our "Hottest MCs in the Game" show, we want to know what MCs you're feeling! Keep the debate rolling by submitting your own top-10 list below or heading to YouRHere.MTV to upload your video reaction. And the hotness continues: You can check in on last year's top 10 and see this year's complete list on our "Hottest MCs" page.

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The guitarist and Obama-supporter hopes more voters will look further down the ballot in the general election.





Beyond Senator Barack Obama's decisive win, the big news about Tuesday's Oregon primary — a mail-in-only election, our first— was the sheer number of voters who participated. But something disheartening happened too: By my calculations, about 13-15 percent of the Democrats who participated voted for a presidential candidate without weighing in on the slew of statewide and local races also being decided.

It's hardly a surprise that some of the races deep down on the ballot were ignored. To a degree, that's always the case. Besides, there's been much noise made here (as everywhere) about the presidential race, especially after Obama's little town-hall gathering (75,000 sun-soaked Portlanders, plus the Decemberists) over the weekend. But the Oregon Democrats are running a high-octane race for the senate seat of incumbent Republican Gordon Smith, and that has been pretty noisy as well. Contenders Steve Novick and Jeff Merkley have jabbed and jeered at one another for months now in the sorts of squabbling matches usually reserved for a general election.

Novick alone got a lot of attention, even nationally, for his uncompromising straight talk, his righteous bombast (pegging Bono as "the most hypocritical human on the face of the Earth" is one in a line of Novick rants, each requiring a few minutes of context to be understood fully) and his physical attributes (he stands 4 feet 9 inches and has a hook for a left hand). He's a rousing and committed public speaker, a fearless firebrand. But yesterday, Novick lost, narrowly, to Merkley. Both candidates lost a few votes to the spoiler, Candy Neville, who walked away with 7 percent.

In any other election year, Merkley would have crushed Novick in a landslide: Merkley has years of public service under his belt, and a spotless record. He's a genial, likable fellow and a policy wonk of the highest order. But the spread between him and his rival was reasonably small: 47 percent to 41 percent. The Democratic voters who came out for either Hillary Clinton or Obama in the presidential primary, but who opted out of every other race, could have held the key to Novick's fate. But he was unable to reach them through the static of the presidential race.

In a way, Novick's candidacy was a lot like Obama's is. Both are underdogs, running against respected, well-established opponents. Conventional wisdom doesn't give either a win; they're lucky to place or show. But Obama's ground campaign in Oregon is awesome, and not in the superlative sense: It's simply worthy of awe. His team has remarkable presence, organization and clarity of purpose, especially given the fact that he's barely even been to Portland.

Novick, on the other hand, lives here. He owes some of the nearness of his near miss to the Clinton/Obama struggle, but he couldn't capitalize on that momentum. If my math is correct, 15 out of every 100 Democratic voters didn't even register that Novick's name (or Merkley's) was on their ballot. Why? And more important: Can we convince those 15 voters to open their voter information pamphlets in November?

(Death Cab for Cutie's new LP, Narrow Stairs, will debut at #1 on the Billboard albums chart next week.)

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But rocker told Us magazine that he still has his head up.





Unlike the never-ending Democratic presidential race, America won't have to wait long to find out who will win this year's "American Idol." But even before the singing champ is crowned Wednesday night, semifinalist David Cook has practically conceded the contest.

In an interview with UsMagazine following Tuesday night's show, Cook refrained from arguing with judge Simon Cowell's assertion that David Archuleta won the evening. "You know, everybody's got an opinion, and tonight was Archuleta's night," Cook reportedly told the site. "I have to concede it: The kid came out all three songs and nailed it. But I walk away from this with my head held high."

While Cook got positive remarks for his Clive Davis-chosen cover of U2's "I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For," Cowell preferred Archuleta's take on Elton John's "Don't Let the Sun Go Down on Me," as well as his reprise of John Lennon's "Imagine." After the first song, Cowell speculated that the crown might rest on Archuleta's head after the final elimination.

Though his take on Collective Soul's "The World I Know" drew jeers from Cowell, Cook told the magazine he didn't think his song choice was a bad one. "I don't feel like I've won it or lost it," Cook said after the show. "I feel like it's completely out of my hands. ... But I did what I set out to do tonight, which is to have fun and just embrace the moment. Mission accomplished."

And though the judges set him up as the almost unbeatable winner-to-be, Archuleta told the magazine that he's not getting fitted for the crown just yet. "Even though Simon wasn't so favoring Cook, he did so well, and I think America will realize that," Archuleta reportedly told the site. "You never know what will happen."

No matter who ends up winning, Archuleta said he looks up to the older competitor. "I just feel it's cool to be able to be next to [Cook], someone you look up to," he said.

Get your "Idol" fix on MTV News' "American Idol" page, where you'll find all the latest news, interviews and opinions. And relive six seasons of "Idol" hot messes and high notes in six minutes with our video timeline.

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