Monday, August 4, 2008

People publishes first photos of Brangelina twins

Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt

Jolie and Pitt speak about their growing family, their charity work and their work-life balance in a question-and-answer in a special edition of People magazine that hit the newsstands Monday. A 19-page, $14 million-photo spread anchors the piece and gives a first look at the new babies interacting with the whole family.

The photos show Jolie and Pitt — each cradling a twin — sitting on a white bed with Zahara, 3, between them; Pax, 4, by Jolie's side; and Shiloh, 2, lying on top of 7-year-old Maddox, who is plopped down by Pitt. There are close-ups of the twins, Knox and Vivienne, with their eyes closed, and photos of the older siblings gently holding the babies.

"It is chaos, but we are managing it and having a wonderful time," Jolie, 33, says in the interview, though Pitt jumps in: "(It's) still a cuckoo's nest."

Jolie says they helped prepare their children for the babies' arrival by showing them an episode of "Dora the Explorer" that featured twins, and by celebrating the birth with cupcakes.

So far, laying out the welcome mat has paid off, she says.

"Shiloh calls them her babies. She and Z pick out their clothes and help change and hold them. It's sweet — they are little mommies," Jolie tells the magazine.

Jolie also puts to rest speculation they conceived the twins through in-vitro fertilization.

"If they had been conceived through IVF, we would have been happy to discuss it," she says. "But we have been fortunate never to have had fertility problems."

The photos were shot at the Chateau Miraval in Provence, France, where the Jolie-Pitt clan have hunkered down in recent months. The twins were born July 12 in Nice, France.

The photos of the family fetched $14 million, a person involved in the negotiations told The Associated Press on Friday, giving People and the British tabloid Hello! joint rights to publish the most expensive celebrity pictures ever sold.

The person asked not to be named because he was not authorized to release the figure.

The money — more than double the $6 million People paid for Jennifer Lopez's twins on a March cover, according to Forbes — will go to a foundation created by Pitt and Jolie that largely focuses on helping children around the world.

___

On the Net:

http://www.people

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Woody Says: Orgy Schmorgy! What's the Next Shot?




Leslie Gornstein
2 hours, 25 minutes ago


Scarlett JohanssonJavier BardemPenélope Cruz


Bardem, Johansson and Cruz make sun-kissed love in Vicky Cristina Barcelona, a summery, sultry romance that includes makeouts every which way, including a hookup between Johansson and Cruz in a sweltering photo-development darkroom.

But for Allen, who talked about the movie during a Los Angeles press conference Sunday, the sex scenes were "nothing."


"They just kiss and kiss and kiss," the legendary director said about a steamy scene between Bardem and Johansson. "And then when it's over, that's it. Lunch! And there you go. They're actors. There's nothing to it. They're kissing for a couple minutes, there, and I watch, and then it's over. And we move on to the next thing."


The "next thing" for Allen? An opera. Yes, really. Allen is in Los Angeles to direct a one-act comedic opus that debuts next month. Allen first agreed to do the show years ago, as a favor to pal Placido Domingo, who runs the Los Angeles Opera. Not that Allen is looking forward to it.


"This was like three years ago," says Allen, 72. "And I thought, eh, I'll be dead in three years. So I said OK. And then I didn't die."


Vicky Cristina Barcelona opens Aug. 15.

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'Dark Knight' still soars with $42.7M weekend





2 hours, 21 minutes ago


Bruce WayneThe Dark Knight

"The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor" opened at No. 2 with $40.5 million.

The top 20 movies at U.S. and Canadian theaters Friday through Sunday, followed by distribution studio, gross, number of theater locations, average receipts per location, total gross and number of weeks in release, as compiled Monday by Media By Numbers LLC are:

1. "The Dark Knight," Warner Bros., $42,664,219, 4,266 locations, $10,001 average, $393,751,065, three weeks.

2. "The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor," Universal, $40,457,770, 3,760 locations, $10,760 average, $40,457,770, one week.

3. "Step Brothers," Sony, $16,506,526, 3,094 locations, $5,335 average, $63,172,026, two weeks.

4. "Mamma Mia!", Universal, $12,615,515, 3,062 locations, $4,120 average, $87,470,125, three weeks.

5. "Journey to the Center of the Earth," Warner Bros., $6,662,406, 2,285 locations, $2,916 average, $72,927,314, four weeks.

6. "Swing Vote," Disney, $6,230,669, 2,213 locations, $2,815 average, $6,230,669, one week.

7. "Hancock," Sony, $5,087,756, 2,782 locations, $1,829 average, $215,883,222, five weeks.

8. "WALL-E," Disney, $4,603,179, 2,555 locations, $1,802 average, $204,078,076, six weeks.

9. "The X-Files: I Want to Believe," Fox, $3,385,878, 3,185 locations, $1,063 average, $17,021,373, two weeks.

10. "Space Chimps," Fox, $2,720,177, 2,134 locations, $1,275 average, $21,971,016, three weeks.

11. "Hellboy II: The Golden Army," Universal, $2,488,525, 1,959 locations, $1,270 average, $71,234,335, four weeks.

12. "Wanted," Universal, $1,239,980, 895 locations, $1,385 average, $131,320,095, six weeks.

13. "Brideshead Revisited," Miramax, $1,163,544, 189 locations, $6,156 average, $1,698,007, two weeks.

14. "Get Smart," Warner Bros., $994,065, 728 locations, $1,365 average, $126,500,884, seven weeks.

Kung Fu Panda16. "Iron Man," ParamountThe Incredible HulkKit Kittredge: An American GirlIndiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skullhttp://www.mediabynumbers


Universal Pictures, Focus Features and Rogue Pictures are owned by NBC Universal, a unit of General Electric Co.; Sony Pictures, Sony Screen Gems and Sony Pictures Classics are units of Sony Corp.; DreamWorks, Paramount and Paramount Classics are divisions of Viacom Inc.; Disney's parent is The Walt Disney Co.; Miramax is a division of The Walt Disney Co.; 20th Century Fox, Fox Searchlight Pictures and Fox Atomic are owned by News Corp.; Warner Bros., New Line, Warner Independent and Picturehouse are units of Time Warner Inc.; MGM is owned by a consortium of Providence Equity Partners, Texas Pacific Group, Sony Corp., Comcast Corp., DLJ Merchant Banking Partners and Quadrangle Group; Lionsgate is owned by Lionsgate Entertainment Corp.; IFC Films is owned by Rainbow Media Holdings, a subsidiary of Cablevision Systems Corp.

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Olsen Twins Butt of Jokes at Bob Saget Roast




Marc Malkin



Mary-Kate and Ashley OlsenComedy CentralFull House


Hosted by another Full House alum, John Stamos, the comedic beatdown included loads of raunchy sexcentric jokes about the Olsen twins.


Roasters like Jon Lovitz, The Sarah Silverman Program's Brian Posehn and Gilbert Gottfried showed no restraint during the two-hour taping on a Warner Bros. soundstage in Burbank. They even made several cracks about having sex with the Olsens when they were underage.

Perhaps Saget knew what was in store for him.


Before the show even started, he said, "I don't have my children here. I don't have my mother here. I can't keep it clean tonight."


Saget did, however, bring along his girlfriend, Michelle Ghatchi.


But the Olsens may not have to worry about the jokes getting much TV time when the roast airs Aug. 17. "All our roasts tend to be super filthy," a Comedy Central rep said today. "This ranked right up there."


The rep also explained that Saget will get a chance to view the first cut of the roast, and the network "will work with him on any edit requests."


—Additional reporting by Alexis Brunswick

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Key `Idol' producer Nigel Lythgoe is moving on




By LYNN ELBER, AP Television Writer



American Idol

Nigel Lythgoe is negotiating a joint-venture deal with "American Idol" creator Simon Fuller and 19 Entertainment, the company announced Monday.

The smiling, blond-haired Englishman, who could often be spotted on-camera sitting behind the "American Idol" judges' row, is familiar to viewers on "So You Think You Can Dance?", which he produces and helps judge.

"I will step back from my day-to-day producing work on 'American Idol' and will be devoting my time" to the new enterprise, Lythgoe said in a statement.

The change comes as "American Idol" jockeys to keep its hold on the No. 1 ratings spot, a rare feat for an aging show, and after last season's small ratings downturn and an unsettling audience shift.

The series averaged 28.4 million weekly viewers last season compared to the 30.8 million who watched during its highest-rated year, 2005-06.

Viewership for the May finale with winner David Cook and runner-up David Archuleta was the second-highest for the show in five years, but dropped slightly from last year among 18-to-49-year-old viewers — an indication that the "American Idol" audience is aging.

Fox congratulated Lythgoe on his new venture but acknowledged it was "disappointed" that he would not be continuing as executive producer.

"He is an extraordinarily talented producer whose creative contributions to the No. 1 show on television have been immeasurable," the network said in a statement.

It was unclear whether Lythgoe will continue to have a hand in "American Idol." His fellow executive producer, Ken Warwick, also has worked on the show from the beginning.

Asked what roles Lythgoe and Warwick might have with the show when it returns next January, 19 Entertainment spokesman Eric Green said the producers for next season have yet to be decided.

National auditions for the singing contest's new season are under way.

In a statement, Fuller called Lythgoe "the best producer I have ever worked with" and noted they have collaborated for more than 10 years. Fuller heads 19 Entertainment, which produces "American Idol" with FremantleMedia North America.

TV, film and stage projects all will be on the table for Fuller and Lythgoe's new enterprise, Green said.

The two created the "So You Think You Can Dance?" contest series, which airs on Fox.

___

Fox is a unit of News Corp.


http://www.americanidol

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American Idol Loses a Mastermind




Natalie Finn
2 hours, 26 minutes ago


Nigel Lythgoe


The American Idol executive producer, who flashes his extremely pearly whites in front of the camera as a judge on So You Think You Can Dance, announced he's leaving the über-successful singing competition, which is heading into its eighth season on a ratings downswing despite still being the most watched show on TV.


"I will step back from my day-to-day producing work on American Idol and will be devoting my time" to a new development venture with 19 Entertainment head and fellow Idol mastermind Simon Fuller, Lythgoe said in a statement obtained Monday by E! News.


"Due to the huge success of So You Think You Can Dance, my summer will be taken up by travels to South Africa, Australia and Canada to work on local versions of the show," the 59-year-old former dancer-choreographer said.

The deal, which encompasses TV, film and stage projects, was also confirmed by the company, with Fuller calling Lythgoe "the best producer I have ever worked with."


Fox admitted that the network is "disappointed," but they wished the Brit well—although no exec can be too happy about the shakeup, especially now that Idol needs to bust out the heavy artillery to avoid losing more than the 2.4 million weekly viewers the show has already dropped between 2007 and 2008.


"He is an extraordinarily talented producer whose creative contributions to the No. 1 show on television have been immeasurable," a Fox rep said.


There's no word yet on who might step in to replace Lythgoe.


Auditions for the eighth season of American Idol kicked off July 17 in San Francisco. Paula, Simon and Randy and their tired, ringing ears are scheduled to touch down in Kansas City, Mo., this Friday.

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Dinosaurs interact with humans on 'Primeval'




By BRIDGET BYRNE, For The Associated Press
2 hours, 11 minutes ago


"Basically it's a man in a very colorful jumpsuit with something attached to a long pole going, 'It's swooping, it's swooping, it's coming around, it's coming down. Araaagh!'" says Ben Miller, mimicking an on-set stand-in for the beasts, later to be fully realized by computer-generated special effects.

As Sir James Lester, an arrogant government official, Miller only occasionally encounters a dinosaur. But the rest of the cast of BBC America's "Primeval" continually meet up with the fiercest of the species — or cozy up to the cutest.

"At first when you are reacting to a traffic cone on a stick it's a bit hilarious. The hardest thing was not to laugh," says Andrew-Lee Potts, who plays dinosaur-obsessed computer geek Connor Temple.

"It was a learning curve for all of us and there were a lot of giggles along the way," Potts added. "But now when you see new characters come to the show and you see those actors struggle with it, you realize how it's become part of your life, so I don't find it tough any more."

The series, which premieres on Aug. 9 at 9 p.m. EDT, is built around the adventures of a group of scientists turned action heroes. Attached to the so-called Anomaly Research Centre, they're investigating the sightings of alarming and intriguing creatures, which pop up in modern life via time warp holes in the universe.

On a recent rainy day in Chertsey, about 25 miles west of London, filming of the series continued on the Anomaly Centre set, which was built on an old industrial site.

A small dinosaur, a Diictodon, has escaped from its cage. But, of course, there's no sign on the set of anything that even remotely resembles a prehistoric beast.

"It looks like a big guinea pig," says Miller, helpfully describing a Diictodon to the uninitiated.

"Primeval," which airs in Britain on ITV, is the creation of Tim Haines and Adrian Hodges.

A science journalist turned filmmaker, Haines produced the Emmy-winning BBC documentary series "Walking with Dinosaurs," a huge hit when it aired on the Discovery Channel in 2000. He also used similar CGI, animatronics and location footage to create plausible images of extinct creatures in the 2001 series "Walking with Beasts" and "Walking with Monsters" in 2005.

"It gave me a skill set where you say, 'Well, what else can this do?'" says Haines.

So he devised this TV drama with "a creature of the week" — often scary, but never so ghastly that it oversteps the bounds of

family-friendly programming.

Haines explains that most of the creatures are drawn from historic truth because "if you obey the rules and design a creature based on biology or something that did exist, then people go, 'Oooh, that looks real!'"

Yet the fantasy element of the show provides license to let the imagination soar. "It's a fantastic relief not to have to worry about the length of their teeth and the size of nostril hair," Haines notes, "so I could add an extra sabre tooth to the Gorgonopsid and no one cared, because this is drama."

Besides the huge, predatory dinos, the show also features a harmless Scutosaurus, which looks like an elephant but is actually related to a turtle. On a smaller scale, there's Rex, a domesticated flying lizard. There are also giant spiders, millipedes, scorpions, worms, cute but deadly Dodos, the alligator-like Mosasaur, and a flying Pteranodon, which invades a golf course.


On the Net: http://www.bbcamerica

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Sightings: Katy, Sarah and Ozzy




Marc Malkin
2 hours, 17 minutes ago


KISSKaty PerryLollapalooza


FATHER'S DAY: Jerry O'Connell, being congratulated by friends on his impending fatherhood while hanging out at talent manager Fisher Pence's birthday party at a private home in the Hollywood Hills.


URTH DAY: Sarah Silverman, waiting in line to place her order at the Urth Caffé on Melrose Avenue in West Hollywood.

SUMMER CAMP: Ozzy Osbourne, performing with Camp Freddy, for the ESPN X Games party at the House of Blues in Hollywood.


DOGHOUSE: Aubrey O'Day, carrying her dog, Ginger, while walking in the Alice + Olivia fashion show at the EMM Group Estate in Sag Harbor, N.Y. She later sipped some Perrier-Jouët champagne poolside with Emmy Rossum.


BOOTLEGGED: Allison Janney, picking up a pair of Keaton 116 boot-cut jeans at Earnest Sewn Co.'s flagship store in New York's Meatpacking District.


BURNT TOAST: American Idol runner-up Katharine McPhee, having lunch with hubby Nick Cokas and friends at Toast in West Hollywood.


MESSING AROUND: Debra Messing, dressed down while dining with her son at California Pizza Kitchen in Westwood.


FIVE-PACK: Former Party of Five hottie Scott Wolf, running on a treadmill after weight training at L.A. Fitness in Los Angeles.


—Additional reporting by Alexis Brunswick

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World leaders salute Russia's 'conscience' Solzhenitsyn





28 minutes ago


Alexander SolzhenitsynFrench President Nicolas SarkozyRussia





Sarkozy said Solzhenitsyn, an ambivalent icon of the Cold War who died late Sunday aged 89, was "one of the greatest consciences of 20th century Russia.




"Born a year after the Russian revolution, for the very long years of Soviet terror he incarnated 'dissidence'," Sarkozy said in a statement.




"It was Alexander Solzhenitsyn who opened the eyes of the world to the reality of the Soviet system, giving a universal reach to his experience," he said.




"His intransigence, his ideals and his long, eventful life make of Solzhenitsyn a storybook figure, heir to Dostoyevsky.




"He belongs to the pantheon of world history. I pay homage to his memory," Sarkozy wrote.




Sarkozy's predecessor Jacques Chirac said that Solzhenitsyn "will be remembered as an intellectual who provided us with a testimony, tinged with suffering, and a sharp and accurate view on the tragedies of 20th-century totalitarianism.




"Russia today lost a great fighter for truth, who worked to reconcile the Russians with their past. The world loses a figure of freedom," Chirac added.







The EU's foreign policy chief, Javier Solana, called Solzhenitsyn "one of the greatest European writers of the 20th century ... an author who contributed to changing the course of history."





The 1970 winner of the Nobel prize for literature was remembered by the head of the institute that designates the award.




"With his descriptions of the (prison) camps, he opened the eyes of many on the left and forced them to reconsider communism," Horace Engdahl, head of the Swedish Academy, told the Aftonbladet daily's website.




Solzhenitsyn refused to travel to Sweden to collect his Nobel prize, for fear of not being allowed to return to his homeland.




Sweden's Foreign Minister Carl Bildt said Solzhenitsyn was "a central character in the tragic history of 20th century Russia.




"On days like today, we have a duty to remember him and his commitment to Russia."




US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice paid tribute to Solzhenitsyn as a "great writer and a moral witness."







"Solzhenitsyn was a great writer and a moral witness bringing the evils of the gulag to the attention of the world," she said.





"His brave and arduous life's journey, which included surviving the gulag, internal and external exile, made him one of the 20th century's most important voices in the struggle against the tyranny of totalitarian regimes."

Austrian Foreign Minister Ursula PlassnikRussian literatureChinese Academy of Social SciencesNikita KhrushchevSoviet UnionLeonid BrezhnevRussia's President Dmitry MedvedevMikhail GorbachevKarel Schwarzenberg





Solzhenitsyn's lying in state will take place on Tuesday ahead of his burial at the Donskoye cemetery in Moscow on Wednesday.

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Dinosaurs interact with humans on 'Primeval'




By BRIDGET BYRNE, For The Associated Press
2 hours, 10 minutes ago


"Basically it's a man in a very colorful jumpsuit with something attached to a long pole going, 'It's swooping, it's swooping, it's coming around, it's coming down. Araaagh!'" says Ben Miller, mimicking an on-set stand-in for the beasts, later to be fully realized by computer-generated special effects.

As Sir James Lester, an arrogant government official, Miller only occasionally encounters a dinosaur. But the rest of the cast of BBC America's "Primeval" continually meet up with the fiercest of the species — or cozy up to the cutest.

"At first when you are reacting to a traffic cone on a stick it's a bit hilarious. The hardest thing was not to laugh," says Andrew-Lee Potts, who plays dinosaur-obsessed computer geek Connor Temple.

"It was a learning curve for all of us and there were a lot of giggles along the way," Potts added. "But now when you see new characters come to the show and you see those actors struggle with it, you realize how it's become part of your life, so I don't find it tough any more."

The series, which premieres on Aug. 9 at 9 p.m. EDT, is built around the adventures of a group of scientists turned action heroes. Attached to the so-called Anomaly Research Centre, they're investigating the sightings of alarming and intriguing creatures, which pop up in modern life via time warp holes in the universe.

On a recent rainy day in Chertsey, about 25 miles west of London, filming of the series continued on the Anomaly Centre set, which was built on an old industrial site.

A small dinosaur, a Diictodon, has escaped from its cage. But, of course, there's no sign on the set of anything that even remotely resembles a prehistoric beast.

"It looks like a big guinea pig," says Miller, helpfully describing a Diictodon to the uninitiated.

"Primeval," which airs in Britain on ITV, is the creation of Tim Haines and Adrian Hodges.

A science journalist turned filmmaker, Haines produced the Emmy-winning BBC documentary series "Walking with Dinosaurs," a huge hit when it aired on the Discovery Channel in 2000. He also used similar CGI, animatronics and location footage to create plausible images of extinct creatures in the 2001 series "Walking with Beasts" and "Walking with Monsters" in 2005.

"It gave me a skill set where you say, 'Well, what else can this do?'" says Haines.

So he devised this TV drama with "a creature of the week" — often scary, but never so ghastly that it oversteps the bounds of

family-friendly programming.

Haines explains that most of the creatures are drawn from historic truth because "if you obey the rules and design a creature based on biology or something that did exist, then people go, 'Oooh, that looks real!'"

Yet the fantasy element of the show provides license to let the imagination soar. "It's a fantastic relief not to have to worry about the length of their teeth and the size of nostril hair," Haines notes, "so I could add an extra sabre tooth to the Gorgonopsid and no one cared, because this is drama."

Besides the huge, predatory dinos, the show also features a harmless Scutosaurus, which looks like an elephant but is actually related to a turtle. On a smaller scale, there's Rex, a domesticated flying lizard. There are also giant spiders, millipedes, scorpions, worms, cute but deadly Dodos, the alligator-like Mosasaur, and a flying Pteranodon, which invades a golf course.


On the Net: http://www.bbcamerica

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Miley Cyrus Dance-off With Will Smith?




Marc Malkin
2 hours, 36 minutes ago


Miley CyrusWill SmithTeen Choice Awards


Here's the deal:


Cyrus and her best buddy Mandy Jiroux (aka M&M Cru) have been engaged in a months-long YouTube dance-off with actor-dancer Adam Sevani (above) and his Step Up 2 director, Jon M. Chu (or ACDC). Sunday marks the final round of the fancy footwork battle.


"Will Smith is so cool," 15-year-old Sevani tells me today during a break from rehearsals. "I did the Kids Choice Awards with him, and he was just so cool. I wanted to use him for our [Teen Choice] performance, but I don't know if he's gonna be here."


Even without Mr. Jiggy, Sevani promises that the five-minute dance-off (each team has two and a half minutes to show their stuff) will be "history" in the making.


Why? Well, they've got a pretty good track record...

For their YouTube performances, ACDC recruited megawatt stars to make cameos, including Lindsay Lohan, Adam Sandler, Chris Brown, Amanda Bynes, Elijah Kelly, Hairspray director-choreographer Adam Shankman and even Diana Ross.


For its part, M&M started the celebrity guests with stars from the first Step Up movie Channing Tatum and Jenna Dewan.


Come Sunday, anything—or anyone, for that matter—is possible. "They don't know what we're doing, and we don't know what they're doing," Sevani says. "They don't know what celebrities we're using, and we don't know which ones they're using."


A rather confident Sevani predicts, "We're going to just murder them—single-handedly!"


The winners, chosen by the audience, will take home one of the coveted surfboards.


Depending on how you look at it, Cyrus may or may not have an advantage over the guys because she's also going to be hosting the awards show. "I'm hosting alone," Cyrus told me earlier this week, "so I'm kind of nervous."


In the end, Sevani says, the dance-off is nothing more than a fun and friendly competition. "I want her crew to do good and the same with mine," he says. "I want everything to be good, so I can be like, 'Wow, that was amazing. We need more of that!' "

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`Traveling Pants' lose some magic in sequel




By CHRISTY LEMIRE, AP Movie Critic
1 hour, 52 minutes ago


But the magic in those jeans, and in the bond that linked the friends who've shared them over the years, seems to have faded in "The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants 2."

The sequel to 2005's surprisingly tolerable "Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants" finds our eclectic group of heroines a little bit older and wiser and a lot less connected, despite the promise they made to ship the jeans to each other along with a note containing the juicy details of their latest adventures. Now, they barely have time to dash off an e-mail saying hi.

Makes sense that they'd go off to college and begin forming separate lives, but the film from director Sanaa Hamri ("Something New"), taking over for Ken Kwapis, feels disjointed, too. It bounces from one girl's story line to another's without much tonal cohesion, and it doesn't help that the situations the characters find themselves in are often soapy and contrived. (The script from Elizabeth Chandler is based on the second, third and fourth books of Ann Brashares' series of novels.)

And because they spend so little time talking, laughing and bonding, it depletes the sequel of much of the original's spark. Part of the allure of the first film came from watching these women support each other no matter what, in a way that was real and believable without feeling too treacly. Imagine how "Sex and the City" would play if its four stars never got together to dish.

One consistency remains, though: America Ferrera pretty much steals the whole movie out from under her co-stars as the quick-witted Carmen, who's now studying drama at Yale. Ferrera is an actress with a likable, accessible presence who always makes her performances look effortless — that's something we knew even before she became the Emmy-winning star of TV's "Ugly Betty," but her charms only seem to strengthen as she grows older and more seasoned.

Carmen, who also serves as our narrator again, had hoped to spend the summer after her freshman year back home in Bethesda, Md., with her three best girlfriends. Instead, she ends up working backstage at a Vermont theater company when it becomes obvious that everyone else has made other plans — and she finds herself making an unexpected star turn, much to the annoyance of the WASPy drama queen (Rachel Nichols) who'd invited her there.

Tragic Tibby (Amber Tamblyn) is at NYU film school and, somewhere along the way, transformed herself into a goth version of Liza Minnelli. She doles out snarky, unsolicited advice to customers at the video store where she works (and gets a few amusing lines in there) but her relationship with nice-guy Brian (Leonardo Nam, returning from the first film) has turned suddenly serious. (Her plot line is the one that veers the most drastically all over the place.)

Gorgeous tomboy Bridget (Blake Lively, who has some fresh clout of her own as the star of "Gossip Girl") is playing soccer at Brown and still struggling to heal from her mother's suicide. As she continues to run from herself in painfully symbolic fashion, she jets off to Turkey to volunteer at an archaeological dig. There, she receives some insightful advice from a professor (Shohreh Aghdashloo) which inspires her to seek out the grandmother (Blythe Danner) she barely knows in hopes of learning about her own past.

And quiet Lena (Alexis Bledel) is an art student at the Rhode Island School of Design. (Wait a second. All four of them got into selective, top-notch schools? No one ended up at community college or waiting tables? This really is a fantasy.) Lena's still heartbroken over the way things ended with her first love, Kostos (Michael Rady), on the Greek island of Santorini. Or at least she's supposed to be heartbroken — Bledel is so ethereally placid, it's hard to tell. But she does get a second chance at romance with the sexy model from her drawing class (newcomer Jesse Williams).

Stuff happens, feelings are hurt, boys dramatically enter and leave their lives and major problems wrap up a bit too neatly, especially at the picturesque ending. That "Traveling Pants 2" offers material that's tailored to an underserved audience — girls and women who like films that allow them to think and feel — is, of course, a solid start. You just wish it were a more comfortable fit.

"The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants 2," a Warner Bros. release, is rated PG-13 for mature material and sensuality. Running time: 111 minutes. Two stars out of four.

___

Motion Picture Association of America rating definitions:

G — General audiences. All ages admitted.

PG — Parental guidance suggested. Some material may not be suitable for children.

PG-13 — Special parental guidance strongly suggested for children under 13. Some material may be inappropriate for young children.


NC-17 — No one under 17 admitted.

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Morgan Freeman seriously injured in car crash




By HOLBROOK MOHR, Associated Press Writer
1 hour, 45 minutes ago


actor Morgan FreemanMississippi Delta

Freeman, 71, was airlifted to the Regional Medical Center in Memphis, Tenn., about 90 miles north of the accident in rural Tallahatchie County.

The actor "has a broken arm, broken elbow and minor shoulder damage, but is in good spirits," according to a statement from Donna Lee, Freeman's publicist. A hospital spokeswoman said Freeman was in serious condition but would not discuss his injuries.

"He is having a little bit of surgery this afternoon or tomorrow to help correct the damage," Lee's statement said. "He says he'll be OK and is looking forward to a full recovery."

Freeman, who won an Oscar for his role in "Million Dollar Baby," is among the stars in "The Dark Knight," now in theaters. His screen credits also include "Driving Miss Daisy."

Freeman and a companion were traveling on a dark, two-lane highway that cuts through the expansive farmlands of the Mississippi Delta when the car ran off the side of the road shortly before midnight Sunday, authorities said. The vehicle flipped several times but landed upright in a ditch alongside Mississippi Highway 32, about 5 miles west of Charleston, not far from where Freeman owns a home with his wife.

Mississippi Highway Patrol spokesman Sgt. Ben Williams said rescuers had to use the jaws of life to remove Freeman from the car.

"He was lucid, conscious. He was talking, joking with some of the rescue workers at one point," said Clay McFerrin, editor of Sun Sentinel in Charleston, who arrived at the scene soon after the accident happened.

McFerrin said it appeared Freeman's car was airborne when it left the highway.

Bystanders converged on the accident scene trying to get a glimpse of the actor, McFerrin said.

When one person tried to snap a photo with a cell phone camera, Freeman joked, "no freebies, no freebies," McFerrin said.

Williams said Freeman was driving a 1997 Nissan Maxima that belonged to Demaris Meyer of Memphis.

"There's no indication that either alcohol or drugs were involved," Williams said. He said both Freeman and Meyer were wearing seat belts. The woman's condition was not immediately available.

Freeman was born in Memphis, Tenn., but spent much of his childhood in the Mississippi Delta. He is a co-owner of the Ground Zero Blues Club in Clarksdale.

"I'm definitely concerned," country singer and fellow Mississippian Steve Azar, whose video for his hit "Waitin' on Joe" featured Freeman, said Monday. The two have also worked charity events together. "He's been the best ambassador our state has ever had."

"He could live anywhere in the world and he came back home," Azar said. "I just think it shows a lot about him as a person and how grounded he is."

The hospital where Freeman is being treated is commonly known as The Med, and is an acute-care teaching facility that serves patients within 150 miles of Memphis.

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Official: Olsen seeks immunity in Ledger probe




By TOM HAYS, Associated Press Writer
1 hour, 4 minutes ago


Mary-Kate OlsenHeath Ledger

Olsen's lawyer has twice refused requests for her to speak with investigators, said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because the investigation was ongoing. The lawyer, Michael C. Miller, said the "Full House" actress has nothing to do with the drugs, and has already told the government everything she knows.

"We have provided the government with relevant information including facts in the chronology of events surrounding Mr. Ledger's death," Miller said in a statement Monday, "and the fact that Ms. Olsen does not know the source of the drugs Mr. Ledger consumed."

The official confirmed a report that Olsen wants a promise of immunity from prosecution before speaking to the Drug Enforcement Administration. Olsen was a close friend of Ledger's, and was the first person called by a masseuse who found the 28-year-old "Dark Knight" actor's lifeless body in his Manhattan apartment.

Authorities have obtained a subpoena that could force Olsen to appear before a grand jury if negotiations with her lawyer fail, the official said. Other potential witnesses all have answered questions voluntarily, including doctors, Ledger's ex-girlfriend Michelle Williams and anyone who was in his apartment around the time of his death, the official added.

DEA investigators suspect the painkillers oxycodone and hydrocodone found in Ledger's system were obtained with phony prescriptions or other illegal means, the official said. Oxycodone is sold as OxyContin; and hydrocodone as Vicodin.

The other drugs, including anti-anxiety medication and sleeping pills, were prescribed legally by doctors in California and Texas, the official said.

The medical examiner's office wouldn't say what concentrations of each drug was found, but made clear he was killed by the combination — not an excess of any one drug in particular. It's common for the DEA to investigate an overdose death with so many different drugs involved, spokesman Garrison Courtney said last month.

The DEA's New York office declined comment on the stalemate with Olsen, which was first reported Monday by the New York Post. There was no immediate response to a message left with a spokeswoman for Olsen.

The masseuse discovered Ledger's body on Jan. 22. Police say she spent nine minutes making three calls to Olsen before dialing 911 for help, then called the actress a fourth time after paramedics arrived. At some point during the flurry of frantic calls, Olsen, who was in California, summoned her personal security guards to the apartment to help, police said.

Shortly after the Australian-born actor's death, Olsen issued a statement that read: "Heath was a friend. His death is a tragic loss."

___

AP writer Sandy M. Cohen contributed to this story.

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LONG ISLAND, New York — On Sunday night, Nas gave the Rock the Bells show its most monumental moment, bringing out fellow legendary MC Jay-Z. After Nas, backed by a live band, performed "Breathe" — a prime cut from his Untitled LP — Hov came out to the music of "Success."

"Nas, let that bitch breathe," Jay yelled before going into his grumpy verse about being bored with all the spoils that go to the victor. "I used to give a f---, now I give a f--- less/ What do I think of success? It sucks."

Jigga cut the record short as the music changed to "Black Republican." The two hip-hop icons lacerated their mics during the performance, making the audience dance and throw up their Roc-A-Fella diamonds.

(Read more about Jay-Z's surprise appearance with Nas on our You R Here blog.)

Nas started his set off with a live band that played a heavy-rock swing for his intro. With his feet firmly in front of the people, he kicked into "N.*.*.*.E.R." (The Slave and the Master). "We trust no black leaders," he rhymed. "Use the stove to heat us/ Powdered eggs and government cheeses/ The calendars with Martin, JFK and Jesus."

The band continued to earn their keep with a frenetic rendition of "Hip Hop Is Dead." The live guitars really enhanced the song, and the instrumentation seemed to enhance Nas' mood. He was way more energetic than the last few times he performed in New York, at times even shouting his words.

In between songs, he once again declared the irrelevance of some of the elder black leaders and said he's ready and able to take on the responsibility of leading his communities. "Jesse Jackson, I love you, but his ass is outta here. Al Sharpton, his ass is outta here."

From there, it was a mini-Illmatic set with everyone on their feet to hear selections from his most lauded LP. Nas performed "New York State of Mind," "Ain't Hard to Tell" and "Represent" back-to-back-to-back, followed by "The World Is Yours" and "Life's a Bitch," leaving the crowd no time to get any air.

With no capes, masks or gloves, Nas and Jay-Z epitomized hip-hop crusaders standing side by side. Jay in his Yankees hat and Nas sporting the Mets logo above his brim brought dizzying energy to Jones Beach with just the sight of the two together. Their historical battle ended many moons ago, and their friendship has been a matter of public record for years. Still, whenever you see them together, it's an event. It feels like history.

A Tribe Called Quest were the show's closers, and their set also felt historic. It was the first time the timeless collective performed a proper concert in their hometown since disbanding in 1998.

Q-Tip set things off with a few minutes of his solo act, as his friend and obvious fan Mos Def played hypeman. Tip's black T-shirt read the opening lines from "Excursions," and as Tip rapped, Mos pointed out every word: "Back in the days when I was a teenager/ Before I had status and before I had a pager/ You could find the abstract listening to hip-hop/ My pops used to say it reminded him of bebop." Q finished with "Breathe & Stop" and "Vivrant Thing."

When it was finally time for the whole Tribe, DJ Scratch exchanged turntable duties with Ali Shaheed Muhammad from a set high above the stage, which was actually the top of a super-size TV screen. On the stage, long-lost Tribe member Jarobi joined Q-Tip and Phife Dawg for a live rummaging of their catalog, which included "Electric Relaxation" and "We Got the Jazz."

Phife, who looked like his health has been getting increasingly better since having a kidney transplant, wore a New York Knicks Jamal Crawford jersey and switched up his quotables from the latter record to make a statement about the group's label: "So jet to the store, and buy the LP/ On J.I.V.E., unfortunately."

Consequence came out during "Stir It Up," and Busta Rhymes trampled the stage during "Scenario." Mos Def, who couldn't contain himself, was out with the entire gang for that showstopper as well. Bus was then given time for "Put Your Hands Where My Eyes Can See."

Tribe ended their triumphant return to New York with "Check the Rhyme" and "Award Tour," during which Q-Tip rapped from the crowd.

Method Man, no stranger to stage-diving, took his tireless enthusiasm to the expensive seats during his and Redman's set. Meth jumped in the audience, wearing a fan's sunglasses, and was even passed an extremely large pair of feminine bloomers. The duo promised to have a Blackout 2 LP ready this year and to start filming "How High 2" in early 2009.

Slick Rick came out for literally 30 seconds and did half a snippet of "La Di Da Di." EPMD — Long Island natives — made a surprise appearance with "It's My Thing" and "You Gots Ta Chill." Keith Murray helped Red and Meth close with "Rapper's Delight."

Guest appearances were in abundance Sunday. Pharoahe Monch and Talib Kweli held Mos Def down during his set. Cappadonna — really no big surprise — appeared with Ghostface and Raekwon the Chef during their show. Jay Electronica, Poison Pen, Immortal Technique, De La Soul and the Pharcyde also opened during the more than 10-hour-long festival.

For more sights and stories from concerts around the country, check out MTV News Tour Reports. And send your own concert pics, videos and reviews to MTV News You R Here!

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CHICAGO — In the end, there was no Barack Obama. Only Kanye West. And Trent Reznor. No one really seemed to mind this.

Lollapalooza 2008 wrapped up Sunday night not with an appearance by the junior senator from the great state of Illinois (as had been rumored all weekend), but rather, with a much-hyped showdown between homecoming king Kanye and Reznor's rejuvenated Nine Inch Nails, both of whom came equipped with big-budget stage shows, booming soundscapes and more than a few blinding lights.

But that's where the similarities ended. Just about any way you slice it, West and NIN are about as diametrically opposed as, say, Obama and John McCain, and that held true in Grant Park. West's set was a reflection of the man himself — bombastic and cocky one moment (lots of crowd-pleasing, cell-phone-in-the-air moments and big, big, big production), disarmingly earnest and emotional the next (he dedicated the set to his late mother, Donda, and made several mentions of her throughout). Reznor and company chose the opposite approach, bringing out both the power tools and the ProTools, delivering a performance that veered wildly between bludgeoning guitars and jazzy bleep-bloop, and basically scrambling everything you thought you knew about the dark prince of industrial rock.

So who won? Depends on whom you ask. While we're at it, what about the 40-or-so other acts on the bill? (Don't worry, we'll get to them in due time.)

West's fans would probably tell you it was the Louis Vuitton Don in a landslide; after all, he packed the most everything into his 90 minutes. The show was a slightly stripped-down version of his current Glow in the Dark Tour, and while there were no holograms or lunar landscapes on hand, there were still a whole lot of seizure-inducing strobes, moody lighting and rolling fog, not to mention a space-age backing band, complete with robo-suited guitar players and 23rd century female singers in foot-high shoulder pads.

(See all of our photos from Lollapalooza 2008 right here.)

Taking the stage accompanied by a wall of pulsing synths and chimes, and bathed in an eerie white light, West started things off with a dreamy take on "Good Morning," waving to the tens of thousands staring up at him (tens of thousands of hands waved back). At song's end, he paused at center stage, stroked his beard and cracked a sly smile. And then he took things up several hundred notches, plowing through hits like "Heard 'Em Say" and "Through the Wire" (the latter of which he introduced by asking, "Yo, can I take it back to where it all started?") while the Lolla crowd went certifiably bananas.

Next, West got theatrical. "Diamonds From Sierra Leone" started off with ominous synthesizers and tinkling keys, then built to a sensory overload thanks to layers of drums and tympani (oh yeah, he had two drummers), wailing backing vocals and popping lights. He started off "Can't Tell Me Nothing" by rhetorically asking the crowd, "Is this what you waited all weekend for?" and ended it crouched on one knee, eyes heavenward. "Put On" boomed and stuttered like a fireworks show, as West showed Chi-town some love and took Young Jeezy's song to unheard heights, before directing his band to strip it all back to "just the keyboards" so he could proclaim for all to hear, "I put this city on my back."

But it wasn't all just posturing and preening. West clearly realized the significance of his hometown headlining set, and it wasn't simply a matter of civic pride. There was real emotion on the stage, and after "Put On," he slowed things down and finally let some of that boil over. His voice slightly hoarse, he began talking about his mother, who passed away late last year. And you could've heard a pin drop.

"It was hard for me to perform the first song because when I see 100,000 [people] singing along, there's only one person I could think of who's missing tonight," he said, pausing for a minute. "This performance is for my mama, the woman who drove me to Chicago at the age of 3 and said, 'Baby, this is where we're gonna start our life.' "

West then tore into a lengthy and emotional version of "Hey Mama," during which he repeatedly shouted the address of his boyhood home ("7915 South Shore Drive") before collapsing to his knees once again.

He then quickly zipped his guard back up and ripped through another block of hits, including "Flashing Lights," "Homecoming" and "Gold Digger." As 10 p.m. loomed, the stage lights dimmed and the roboto refrain of "Stronger" — which had been teased three times during West's set — finally kicked in, growing faster with each beat until — boom! — every light erupted, West leapt in the air and thousands of tired Lolla fans lost their minds. The song rattled to a false close — complete with West sprawling out on the stage — before kicking in once again and sending the place into the stratosphere. Then, with arms stretched high above his head and tympani drums crashing around him, West strode off the stage very much the conquering hero. Phew.

Meanwhile, on the other side of Grant Park, fans of a hardier breed were digging in for what promised to be a fairly epic set from Nine Inch Nails. After all, this was to be the first time most NIN fanatics would get to see Reznor on his high-cost, high-concept Lights in the Sky Tour, a multimedia extravaganza featuring millimeter-thin video screens, serious special effects and no shortage of visual mind-f---ery. And what Nine Inch Nails lacked in, well, Kanye-ness, they no doubt made up for in overall sonic wallop, right?

Well, sort of. Those who opted for NIN got a show that dazzled the ears and eyes but hit a strange, almost lullabye-like slow spot in the middle that caused a not insignificant portion of the crowd to wander off, possibly to see what the spotlights in the sky from the other side of the park were about.

That's not to say that Reznor and company didn't deliver exactly what fans were expecting. With the bodybuilder-buff frontman scowling, the lean, mean band ripped through "Discipline" and "Closer," which still has as stunning an effect today as it did nearly 15 years ago as fans shouted along to the R-rated chorus of "I want to f--- you like an animal." After that, things got a bit spotty. Hidden behind a layer of those razor-thin screens — which descended from the rafters and displayed undulating red, green and yellow spots of digital dust — the group went into a nearly 35-minute mini-suite of hushed industrial jazz that featured vibraphones, upright bass and images of cornstalks on one screen, all of which seemed to confuse the crowd that came for the hard attack.

Reznor brought it all back home, though, and sent the sweaty, hulking masses spilling out into the Chicago streets happy, thanks to a raucous string of set-closing numbers, including a truly brutal "Terrible Lie," a panicked "Survivalism" and the still-destructive first taste of sin, "Head Like a Hole." Kanye it most certainly wasn't (it was barely Nine Inch Nails at times), but it was 90 minutes that hit harder at the gut and the brain than anything else this weekend (and yeah, that includes Rage Against the Machine).

(Check out our Saturday Lollapalooza recap here.)

And while the headliners were the big draws — after all, this was the first time in Lollapalooza's four-year tenure in Chicago that all three days have sold out — there were no shortage of other highlights throughout Sunday. Kid Sister's bleepy party-hop got bleary-eyed festgoers bumping and grinding at 12:15 in the afternoon. Brazilian Girls were bawdy and ballsy, and Girl Talk mashed up beats (and packed a huge crowd) while flanked by two (fake) leaf-blower-wielding cops, who pelted enraptured partiers with confetti, glitter, silly string, toilet paper and, at the end of the set, inexplicably, a full-sized river raft.

Chromeo and the Black Kids performed at adjoining stages and had pretty much everyone throwing their hands in the air with reckless abandon. Saul Williams did his usual death-disco thing. The National were somber, reedy and solid as always. Mark Ronson threw everything but the proverbial kitchen sink into his evening set (including one of the dudes from Phantom Planet). And Lolla faves Gnarls Barkley — sans matching costumes this time around — slinked their way through a soulful, simmering set, highlighted by Cee-Lo's keening take on Radiohead's "Reckoner."

And when you've got all that — plus so, so much more we didn't even get to mention — who needs the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee? Kanye, Trent and Obama in a three-way battle for fest-closing bragging rights? That probably would've been overkill.

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Artist: Soulja Boy Tell'em

Representing: Atlanta/ Hip-Hop's Next Generation

Mixtape: Teen of the South

411: Soulja Boy hears the flak he catches for his lyrical deficiency on songs such as "Crank That" and "Yahhh!" However, the 18-year-old says he can really spit if he wanted to. He's not gonna let his detractors knock him off his grind while making his second LP, iSouljaBoy, which is due later this year. He's going to keep his music geared toward the party.

"If I wanted to, [I could] go that route and be respected [not for] my success ... respected [for] my music and my lyrics or whatever," he said about switching up his steez. He's not going to do that officially. But Soulja did say that he put more emphasis on his wordplay while making his new street CD.

"That's why I did the mixtape that I did," he said. "I did a mixtape called Teen of the South with DJ Scream. And I did that just to step my game up a little bit on that [lyrical] side. But I wasn't really going into no album and just full-fledge trying to switch my swagger and try to get respect from the game. 'Cause why would I show love to the game? The game don't show you love back. So I wasn't gonna do that and come back out and mess up my image and mess up myself. I was going on the strength that I want respect from people who probably don't like me anyway. So I'm gonna stick to what I do and stay being successful and I'll do some mixtapes and some futures, something like that."

The first single from iSouljaBoy is coming soon. He expects it to be just as big as "Crank That."

"I ain't giving away nothing," he responded when asked for details. "Polow Da Don did the beat. That's all I'll say. Polow did the beat. I ain't saying who's featured on it or nothing like that. I'm just saying when it comes out. We ain't doing no leaks, we ain't doing nothing. When it comes out, straight video, straight radio, all in the same day."

Joints To Check For

» "Gucci Bandana" (featuring Shawty Lo and Gucci Mane). "All of us, we from Atlanta, Georgia," Soulja said. "I'm from South Atlanta. Shawty Lo from West Atlanta. Gucci Mane is from East Atlanta. And basically, you know, it's swagger. It's all about your swag. Dudes going Louis. Dudes going Gucci. Dudes going Prada. So I was like, 'Let me go Gucci real quick.' We hooked up, went into the studio, knocked the song out. And basically, it's like three 12-[bar] verses. We just spittin' about how swagged-out we are, basically. Just a swag record. I went in, I did the beat."

» "iDance." "That was gonna be my first single leading into my second album," Mr. Tell'em told us. "It was a hot record. Three million views on YouTube. Two million plays, all that. But I didn't wanna go back that route no more. Like, I was already successful with a big dance song. This record was incorporated with a dance. It was another big dance. And it was about to take over again. I told the record company, I was like, 'Stop. I don't wanna come back dancing.' 'Cause the question that everybody's asking is, like, 'What am I gonna come back with?' So I could have took back over with that record, but I think dancing is starting to get a little corny. So I was like, 'Man, I'm gonna hold off on that tip.' So I just threw it on the mixtape. It's heavy in the streets. We gonna shoot an underground video to it."

» "Shopping Spree" (featuring Yo Gotti and Gucci Mane). "Basically the record is just talking about [the fact that] I'm successful in the industry, so I got a lot of cheese," the young millionaire said. "[I made] $6 mil at 16. So basically I'm just saying I'm on a shopping spree. Just talking cash money, that's all."

Don't Sleep: Other Notable Selections This Week

» The Commission - Rock the Bells '08
» DJ Blazita and Cassidy - Philly Renegade
» Ice Cube and Redman - "Street Bangaz Vol. 1" DVD
» Lil Wayne - The Leak 4
» Superstar Jay - Born Ready

'Hood's Heavy Rotation: Bubbling Below The Radar

» Freeway - "Will I Ever Be Free"
» Lloyd Banks - "718 N---a"
» Re-Up Gang - "My Life's the Sh--"
» Rhymefest (featuring Jadakiss and Chamillionaire) - "What's Up"
» Sauce Money (featuring Jadakiss and Busta Rhymes) - "Get That Paper" remix
» UGK (featuring Akon) - "Bad as Hell"
» Young Jeezy (featuring Jay-Z) - "Put On" remix

Celebrity Faves

We had Ludacris and DJ Drama on Mixtape Monday Video a few weeks ago telling you about their collaboration, Gangsta Grillz: The Preview. As predicted, the tape is causing a stir. Luda is as entertaining as ever with his metaphors and flows, and as you've heard, the tape is being talked about from the 'hood to presidential-campaign tour buses. Now, despite Barack Obama's camp saying they weren't amused with "Politics as Usual," you can bet that the Illinois senator is getting Luda's vote come November. They had a chance to meet and chop it up some time ago.

"I went to Barack Obama's office right before he started running for president," 'Cris told us. "So, you know, we went in and talked and everything. People were wondering what we talked about — it was confidential. But I was a firm supporter of Barack even before he decided to run for the presidency. So I'm all for it, man. We're making history, and we're still going strong. So make sure you vote Obama, believe that. '08!"

The Streets Is Talking: News & Notes From The Underground

"I recorded material with Dr. Dre for the Detox," 50 Cent told MTV News in New York. "It's great. I want it back. I want the records back."

50 was just joking. He doesn't really want the songs he did with Dre back, but he does want some material the Doc just has laying around.

"He has the music. It's right there in the computer," Fif divulged. "I stop by [his studio] every time and get something that adds something significant to my project each time [I'm about to put a record out]. And I spend three or four days there. To me, he's the best producer in the game.

"When I walk in the studio, I record the first [beat] that comes on regardless if I think it's a hit record or not," he added. "We get in work mode, get comfortable and go through the material that's in the computer. Dre always has hit records. Sometimes, artists that need producers, they need someone to create a direction for them musically. I need the jewels he's just got laying around. He don't gotta tell me what to do with it. All he has to do is say, 'Track six.' Or, 'Go to track eight.' He'll have hits playing there. You just have to get in and get them."

The G-Unit's team captain doesn't know when the album is coming out, but he's anticipating it just as much as everybody else.

"Hopefully he'll get it done and put it out," 50 said. "I'm waiting for the Detox. All I can say is, Dr. Dre is the best producer in my eyes. Just the consistency over the years. ... He knows what he wants. He's such a perfectionist that it becomes difficult for him to put it out." ...

"I loved the Bo Jacksons/ The orange and blue." N.O.R.E.'s "I Love My Life" is 10 years old, but it can still give you the chills as it glides out of your speakers. Smooth-thug reflections! While Noreaga's solo debut is heralded as a classic, back then he didn't really catch on to the accolades. Recently in Miami, he told us how it was difficult for him to put out his brand of hardened, street-basher music during a time when Puff Daddy and the family dominated with sleek party joints — especially in New York.

"When we came out, I can say it now, I actually hated Puff Daddy," Nore said in his studio, sitting next to Capone. The duo were in the lab recording their next LP, Channel 10. "I can say that now, 'cause Puff is my man. I was disgusted at what they was doing with the shiny suits and the blow-up dolls and looking like Missy. I didn't agree with that. I felt the shiny-suit movement was destroying the grimy movement. As I got older, I learned to respect people for doing different things. At that time, 'Pone was actually locked up. I was on the streets, and I would turn on BET and MTV, it would be the shiny-suit dudes. It was a messed-up time.

"Mase was killing them," he added. "Y'all can say what y'all wanna say about Mase, but he was killin' them. You almost wanted to throw on something shiny. They caught Jay-Z. Remember Jay with the 'Sunshine' [video]? He had the Ferris Wheel, the Cyclone, whatever. It was real hard."

Capone and Nore were just off a night from recording two songs for their LP. One is an untitled record featuring Mobb Deep.

"First time it's just Mobb Deep and CNN [Capone-N-Noreaga]," Nore said. "We got Prodigy. We got him in jail on the phone call. We got him before jail, after jail. That's it. We don't know the name of it."

They didn't know the name of the other track either. "The record is about surviving," Nore said of the second track," Nore said.

"We letting them know we relevant, we survived the storm," 'Pone jumped in. "Nothing's changed. We always gonna be relevant as long as good music is relevant."

CNN also have the mixtape Back on That Q.U. Sh-- out in the street. Their original DJ, Whoo Kid, helped them put it together.

" 'Hollywood' signifies a lot," Capone said of the record we should check for. "People think Capone and Nore, we haven't lived in the 'hood for the past 12 years. So they think we may be in Hollywood or La-La Land. The record is basically Nore telling me, 'I never should have went there, but I had to do it.' 'Hollywood' is not Hollywood as you know it, though."

Channel 10 comes out in September. The title pays homage to where you can catch the television network CNN on the dial in their hometown of New York.

For other artists featured in Mixtape Monday, check out Mixtape Mondays Headlines.

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Turning 18 brings with it certain responsibilities, and recent birthday boy Soulja Boy Tell'em is taking at least one of them very seriously: He's picked which candidate he's voting for.

"I'm pretty much going for Obama," he told MTV News last week. "[He's] got my vote."

He's got a serious reason for his decision: the war in Iraq. "I'm starting to sweat it," he said. "The war is crazy right now. My auntie's over there, so we'd love to see them come back real soon."

The kid in him quickly returned to the surface, however: "Can my vote count for two or something, since I'm a celebrity?" he joked.

That side of him also came out when he talked about his forthcoming mixtape with Bow Wow — who has also taken a fair amount of heat for being a teenage rapper. The duo are working on the mixtape to show the world that although they're young, they're more than ready to play with the big boys.

"There's, like, people always hating," said Soulja, who took a load of criticism for some statements about his skills around the time of MTV News' "Hottest MCs in the Game" last year.

"He was like, 'I'm the most hated on,' so he wanted to do a mixtape [with me] — kind of like 'the two most hated on' or something like that. And I was like, 'Man, that'd be crazy.' "

Bow Wow told MTV News last month, "Everybody is always picking on us anyway. We might just go 'head and kill the game and sh-- on all these n---as. Do a mixtape album together, put it out and go hard!"

Despite his youth, Soulja Boy is already developing wisdom beyond his years when it comes to his career. "I'd just tell you all that [the game] has changed a whole lot. It's still changing, even [since] I'm in the game. It's something that you gotta adapt to. It's nothing that you gotta attack off the rip or go against."

Soulja Boy is currently at work on his second full-length LP, iSouljaBoy.

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Mary-Kate Olsen's lawyer issued a statement Monday (August 4) claiming that the actress had no involvement with the drugs that killed Heath Ledger and has already cooperated with police, according to People. The New York Post and other outlets reported Monday morning that Olsen had declined to speak with investigators unless she was granted immunity from prosecution.

"Despite tabloid speculation, Mary-Kate Olsen had nothing whatsoever to do with the drugs found in Heath Ledger's home or his body, and she does not know where he obtained them," Olsen lawyer Michael C. Miller told People in a statement.

The Post had speculated broadly about the source of the OxyContin found in Ledger's system when he died, and Miller denied any connection to Olsen in his statement.

"Regarding the government's investigation, at Ms. Olsen's request, we have provided the government with relevant information including facts in the chronology of events surrounding Mr. Ledger's death and the fact that Ms. Olsen does not know the source of the drugs Mr. Ledger consumed," the statement continued. "We don't know the source of the information being quoted in the media regarding the government's inquiry, but these descriptions are incomplete and inaccurate."

The actress was the first person Ledger's housekeeper called after his masseuse found the actor dead from an accidental overdose in his SoHo apartment January 22. Federal investigators have already talked to many people connected to "The Dark Knight" star, including his doctors, the masseuse, his family and actress Michelle Williams, who is the mother of his two-year-old daughter, Matilda.

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It's a sun-drenched Thursday afternoon in Acton, California, which is about an hour's drive north of Los Angeles, and the air's nothing if not arid.

Here, we find the members of Metallica — frontman James Hetfield, drummer Lars Ulrich, guitarist Kirk Hammett and bassist Robert Trujillo. They're all milling about, wearing shades, waiting. All of a sudden, a Hummer painted in desert camouflage and topped with a .50-caliber machine gun rolls by.

The vehicle's carrying a group of what look like U.S. soldiers across the dusty terrain when, out of nowhere, there's an awesome blast. One of the soldiers is wounded; he's bleeding. Another soldier rushes to his aid, with a medic kit in hand, and starts tending to his wounds. Minutes later, a helicopter approaches, and the bloody soldier is flown to safety and into the capable hands of a military medical team.

Of course, this isn't Iraq. It isn't Afghanistan. It's the set of Metallica's video for their track "The Day That Never Comes," the first single from Death Magnetic, the band's first studio effort since 2003's St. Anger (due in stores this September).

But don't let the war-time theme of the video fool you. According to Hetfield, the clip won't be making any lofty political statements about the war in Iraq. Instead, it's a statement on humanity, helmed by acclaimed Danish director Thomas Vinterberg, who, along with Lars von Trier, co-founded the Dogme 95 movement in filmmaking.
Hetfield said that when he was writing the song's lyrics, he never envisioned the video would look anything like this.

"That's the beauty, I think, of writing vague but powerful lyrics — that someone like a movie director can interpret it in his own way and obviously, someone creative is able to take the metaphors and apply them to whatever he needs in his own life," the frontman explained. "The main [theme of the video] is the human element of forgiveness and someone doing you wrong, you feeling resentment and you being able to see through that in the next situation that might be similar and not take your rage or resentment out on the next person and basically keep spreading the disease of that through life."

The video's next scene involves the same soldier who assisted his wounded comrade in the previous scene. A group of soldiers pulls up alongside a broken-down car and spots a man in a djellabah, holding a set of jumper cables. The soldier approaches slowly — with gun drawn — fearing the car may contain a suicide bomber, and his crosshairs become fixed on the suspicious man's head. With anger and resentment in his eyes, the soldier debates whether to pull the trigger. Ultimately, he lowers his gun and assists the harmless civilian so that he can make his way home.

"The one thing that I wasn't keen on here was Metallica plugging into a modern war or a current event [that] might be construed as some sort of political statement on our part," Hetfield said. "There are so many celebrities that soapbox their opinions, and people believe it's more valid because they're popular. For us, people are people — you should all have your own opinion. We are hopefully putting the human element in what is an unfortunate part of life. There are people over there dealing with situations like this, and we're showing the human part of being there.

"It's the forgiveness part — that is key," he continued. "Metallica has never plugged into any current event visually, but this one is kind of a hotbed. People have very high opinions about this war, and we're trying to cut through all of that. The politics and the religion tend to separate people, and what we're trying to do is bring it together with the common thread of resentment and forgiveness."

Ulrich said that a father-son relationship inspired the song's lyrics but that the band didn't want the true meaning behind the track to bleed into its visual component.

"It's a story about human beings who don't know each other, in a particularly tense situation," Ulrich explained. "It could be a contemporary war setting, but it's really about forgiveness and redemption and understanding what goes on in people's minds. We really feel that this was such a beautiful and epic way to treat the song in something that was really radically different than the specificity of the lyrics."

"Ultimately, the concept of the video deals with humanity and the relationships between human beings and how your basic sense of humanity can override any sort of politicized situation," Hammett added. "It's about being compassionate and humanistic in that sort of situation. So you could call it a microcosm of what's happening in the world today."

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Change is good, as the man Conor Oberst hopes to see in the White House, Barack Obama, reminds us. As for Oberst himself, he's never been big on staying in one place, either ... geographically or musically.

For more than a decade, as the leader of Bright Eyes, he's released a string of albums that have seen him torn and heartbroken over matters personal and political (Fevers and Mirrors,Lifted ...) and discovering New York, like a good young artist, before deciding he'd had enough (I'm Wide Awake, It's Morning). He's dipped a toe into electronics (Digital Ash in a Digital Urn), and last year, country rock (the Four Winds EP), lush strings and even a waltz or two (Cassadaga).

This year, change for Oberst came in the form of a makeshift recording space in a Mexican mountain villa, a patched-together group of musicians — most of whom he'd collaborated with in the past — dubbed the Mystic Valley Band, and a change of label, from longtime home Saddle Creek to Merge. The result is Conor's first solo album in 13 years, one that he is supporting with a tour that brings him and the Mystic Valley crew to the States in the coming weeks.

The new album, due officially August 5 but already leaked, is generally more subdued and certainly more stripped down than Cassadaga, and it wrestles thematically with some of the same ideas that the Bright Eyes record did, including the importance of adventure, exploration, loving life and living it one day at a time. Getting Oberst to talk in depth about the songs, though, was not so easy.

He is the pre-eminent American singer/songwriter of his generation, a guy who, though some may still dispute whether he deserves to be spoken of in the same breath as Guthrie and Dylan, certainly has earned his place alongside Elliott Smith, Jeff Tweedy,Jeff Buckley and, yes, even Bruce Springsteen himself. But when I met up with Conor earlier in the summer and told him we wanted to do a track-by-track commentary on the album, he gave me the sort of look I imagine I would get if I had said, "Mr. Oberst, I'm afraid we'll need to do a root canal." But he gamely suffered through my queries, and what follows are the best bits of our conversation — his thoughts on select tracks from Conor Oberst.

"Cape Canaveral"

John Norris: There are a lot of tracks that seem to be inspired by one location or another. Can you talk about that one and where it came from?

Conor Oberst: For me, even the songs that don't mention a specific geographical location, in my mind they usually take place somewhere, there's a setting to it. And for whatever reason, it finds its way into the songs a lot. That song is, I guess, more of nostalgia of watching rocket launches on TV, that kind of thing. I've never been to a rocket launch, unfortunately. I'd like to see one though.

"Sausalito"

Norris: "Sausalito," it's kind of like a driving song to me, a little bit of a road song. Any particular inspiration there?

Oberst: The Grateful Dead? I don't know. Yeah, it's definitely an escapist song. I think it makes a lot of sense, road trip ... [Sausalito] is a very beautiful place. As much as it sounds romantic to live on a boat, I don't think I would like it that much. I'm kind of a solid-ground person.

"Get-Well Cards"

Norris: I know probably the single word or name that you would do well without ever hearing again is Dylan. But on "Get-Well Cards," there are moments — because of this kind of spoken/sung thing you do there — where he's who comes to mind. Can you talk about that?

Oberst: That's fine with me. He spits fire, Dylan. So I like his music. "Get-Well Cards," that's actually kind of a beach-inspired song. Hanging out at the beach and kind of daydreaming. ... I guess it's kind of about forgiveness. That's the main gist of that one: forgiveness.

"I Don't Want to Die (In the Hospital)"

Oberst: I think it has a sort of comedic aspect to it. The juxtaposition of the music and what's being sung about I suppose. ... I just think of sort of a stubborn old cowboy man that just wants to go lay in the grass and, you know, die out by the tree or something.

"Eagle on a Pole"

Oberst: That song, there's actually a story behind it. We were on the bus one day and a friend of ours that travels with us and works for the band kind of came out from the back of the bus and said that first line: "Saw an eagle on a pole ... I think it was an eagle." And then this guy Simon Joyner, who is a great songwriter from Omaha and one of my great friends, he was on tour with us and sitting there and he was like, "You know, that's a great name for a song." We kind of had a contest where he wrote a song with that first line, and [then] I did, and a couple of our other friends. We kind of all played them for each other. Simon's is better than mine, but it is a good line to start a song.

"NYC — Gone, Gone"

Oberst: I think of it as a pseudo-spiritual song — stomping feet and clapping hands. I like that it's short too. I don't have many short songs, but I like that about it.

Norris: This is no big rift with New York?

Oberst: No. It is the idea of once you're here, it like ... seems like there's a lot of songs about getting here, then once you're here, [there's a] "Where do you go next?" kind of thing.

"Moab"

Oberst: Moab [Arizona] is an amazing town. ... I'd heard about it and then actually I just drove out there by myself on a whim in between things, and it's uh, yeah, it's ... I wanted to check it out. There's, like, this place, Arches National Park, out there, which has the big blown rock arches, and it's really amazing.

"Valle Mistico (Ruben's Song)"

Norris: "Valle Mistico" [where Conor recorded the album] essentially is an instrumental. It's a horn track. Who's playing on that?

Oberst: This guy Ruben, who worked at Valle Mistico. He used to blow this conch, like a seashell horn. So every night ... there was this mountain that was above the place and he would go up there and blow it and he was just ... we became really great friends with him. It was just a sound we were used to hearing. And you can really hear the sound of the night. 'Cause you blow it and it reverberates off the mountainside, and I just ... it's such a pleasant sound, I wanted to capture it.

"Souled Out!!!"

Oberst: This is a pun, and I don't typically like puns. But it was almost, like, too good to pass up. That's actually the one song that was written start to finish down there. Just kind of jamming. I'm very fond of the drum take in that song, 'cause it was the second time we'd ever played the song and we recorded it. That's always, I think, there's something fresh about it for that reason, because we didn't really know how it went when we recorded it.

"Milk Thistle"

Norris: What's the significance of the name "Milk Thistle"?

Oberst: That's a, you know, an herbal supplement you take for liver protection. That's where it comes from. ... It's, like, to promote liver health.

Norris: [The lyric] "If I go to heaven, I'll be bored as hell," is that sort of an ongoing thing of, like, not worrying about what happens next?

Oberst: Yeah, I guess the logical problem with the idea of heaven [is that] you can't really have infinite eternal goodness, 'cause you wouldn't understand it.

Norris: Well, the concepts of heaven and hell, aren't they just a way to keep us all behaving?

Oberst: I guess it depends on who you talk to.

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The Box-Office Top Five

#1 "The Dark Knight" ($43.8 million)

#2 "The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor" ($42.5 million)

#3 "Step Brothers" ($16.3 million)

#4 "Mamma Mia!" ($13.1 million)

#5 "Journey to the Center of the Earth" ($6.9 million)

It's a magic trick worthy of the Joker himself: How do you make box-office records disappear? First, line up a few victims; maybe "Shrek" or, most recently, "The Mummy." Then slam their heads repeatedly against the cold, hard reality of "The Dark Knight."

"Ta-da!"

Christopher Nolan's second take on the Batman legend is quickly becoming legendary itself, claiming $43.8 million over the weekend to narrowly beat out "The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor" and claim its third-consecutive weekend victory. With an overall total of $394.8 million, "The Dark Knight" will easily pass $400 million domestic by sometime Monday afternoon (August 4), making it the quickest movie to ever reach that milestone. And it'll have done it in 25 fewer days than the previous record holder, "Shrek 2," a difference equivalent to Peyton Manning throwing 51 touchdowns in his first eight games, or Alex Rodriguez hitting 80 home runs by the All-Star break.

It is already the eighth-highest grossing movie of all time.

Impressive as that is, Batman's record-breaking run only makes James Cameron's "Titanic" look that much more impressive. For all its many records, even the most optimistic predictions peg "The Dark Knight" as finishing somewhere in the $500 million range, about $100 million — or roughly 17 percent — short of the all-time number one, "Titanic," which grossed $600 million, a figure that jumps to about $800 million when adjusted for inflation. Is there any way "The Dark Knight" can eventually surpass ol' Jack and Rose? Possibly, if it's still in theaters come the fall, when well-deserved Oscar talk for Christopher and Jonathan Nolan and, especially, Heath Ledger, begins to heat up.

But forget about "Titanic." The question on everyone's mind here isn't where "The Dark Knight" winds up, but how Batman himself does in the series' inevitable third installment. Can the hero find redemption? Add your thoughts to writer David S. Goyer's and chime in over at the MTV Movies Blog.

In second place, "The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor" finally answers the age-old question: Just how much is Rachel Weisz worth? Answer: About $26 million. Rob Cohen's foray into special-effects perfection came in somewhat below expectations but still managed a respectable $42.5 million, making it the series' second-highest opener behind, yup, "The Mummy 2" with Weisz. Cohen's got ideas, but only time will tell whether it's enough to green-light a possible "Mummy 4."

Rounding out the top five, "Step Brothers" came in third with $16.3 million, "Mamma Mia!" was in fourth with $13.1 million and "Journey to the Center of the Earth" grabbed the fifth slot with $6.9 million, giving actor Brendan Fraser the unusual distinction of having two movies in the top five.

Upcoming Releases

"The X-Files" couldn't do it. Neither could "The Mummy." Leave it to a couple of stoners to finally dethrone "The Dark Knight," which is what in all likelihood will happen when "Pineapple Express" opens this week. The honor couldn't go to a funnier movie. Also opening is "The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants 2" starring America Ferrera and a magical pair of dungarees.

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

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Oscar-winning actor Morgan Freeman, 71, was seriously injured in a car accident late Sunday night in Mississippi, a spokesperson for the Mississippi Highway Patrol told CNN.

Freeman was driving on Highway 32 with an unidentified female passenger, near Ruleville, Mississippi, when his car swerved from the road and flipped several times at 11:30 on Sunday night, according to the report; he was then airlifted to Regional Medical Center in Memphis. A hospital spokesperson said that the actor has been listed in critical condition, but police told The Associated Press that he was talking before being taken to the hospital. TMZ reported that Freeman broke several ribs and injured his knee; the condition of his passenger had not been announced at press time.

"They had to use the jaws of life to extract him from the vehicle," Clay McFerrin of Charleston, Mississippi's Sun Sentinel told AP. "He was lucid, conscious. He was talking, joking with some of the rescue workers at one point."

McFerrin arrived to the scene of the accident not long after it occurred and said bystanders were trying to get a look at the actor. When one fan tried to take a photo of the actor, he said Freeman quipped, "No freebies, no freebies!"

Freeman lives on a ranch in Mississippi with his wife, Myrna.

The actor, who won an Oscar for his role in 2004's "Million Dollar Baby," plays Lucius Fox in the summer blockbuster "Dark Knight." The film is currently in its third week at #1, racking in $394.9 million domestically.

He is set to play Nelson Mandela in "The Human Factor," which is currently in pre-production and slated to be released next year, although how Sunday's accident will affect that role remained to be seen at press time.

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Miley Cyrus, the Jonas Brothers and prep-school soap "Gossip Girl" were among the big winners Sunday night during the 10th annual Teen Choice Awards, which were taped at the Gibson Amphitheatre in Hollywood. The show will air Monday night (August 4) on Fox.

Not only did the 15-year-old Cyrus host the awards and perform her hit single "7 Things," she walked away with three surfboard trophies to add to her collection. "Hannah Montana" was picked as Choice TV Show, Comedy, while Cyrus was singled out as Choice TV Actress, Comedy; she was also honored as Choice Music Female Artist.

But Cyrus' big night didn't end there. She, along with friend Mandy Jiroux, teamed up with their M&M Cru, and participated in a dance-off with Adam Sevani and Jon Chu's dance troupe ACDC. Black Eyed Peas diva Fergie, with some help from the audience, decided Cyrus' crew was the clear winner.

(See photos of all your favorite stars on the red carpet here.)

More than 30 million votes were cast before Sunday's ceremony, according to The Associated Press, and it appears many of those votes were cast for the Jonas Brothers. The New Jersey trio walked away with six surfboards, for Choice Music Single, Breakout Group, Music Love Song, Summer Song, Male Hottie and Red Carpet Fashion Icon Male.

Six awards were also doled out to the CW soap "Gossip Girl" and its stars; not only was the show singled out as Choice TV Show Drama and TV Breakout Show, Blake Lively was named Choice TV Actress Drama and TV Breakout Star Female, while Chace Crawford took the TV Breakout Star Male prize. Ed Westwick, who plays antagonistic antihero Chuck Bass, was voted Choice TV Villain.

Meanwhile, "American Idol" won the award for Choice TV Reality Music Competition, while this season's winner and runner-up, David Cook and David Archuleta, also walked away with surfboards: Cook, for Choice TV Male Reality/ Variety Star and Archuleta for Most Fanatic Fans. MTV's "The Hills" was the winner of the Choice TV Celebrity Reality honor, while Lauren Conrad claimed the Choice TV Female Reality/ Variety Star prize.

Chris Brown also cleaned up Sunday night, taking the awards for Choice Hook-Up (for his duet with Jordin Sparks on "No Air"), Music Male Artist, Music R&B Artist and Music R&B Track.

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Mary-Kate Olsen has refused to talk to federal investigators regarding Heath Ledger's death in January unless she gets immunity from prosecution first, according to the New York Post. The actress was the first person Ledger's housekeeper called after his masseuse found the actor dead from an accidental overdose in his SoHo apartment January 22.

A lawyer for Olsen has "repeatedly rebuffed attempts by the feds" to speak to his client, the paper reported. Investigators are hoping that Olsen, who was allegedly dating the actor around the time of his death, can help with a few details, like where he got the drugs that caused the overdose and the events that led up to it.

Federal agents have identified the two doctors who prescribed Ledger the drugs that were found in his home at the time of his death, however, they still don't know how he obtained OxyContin, a powerful painkiller that showed up in the actor's autopsy. New York Police Department officials closed their case without talking to Olsen, but the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration reportedly wants to speak to her regarding her involvement with the actor.

Olsen's lawyer, Michael Miller, told the Post, "We are not going to comment on whether there is a criminal investigation."

Federal investigators have already talked to a slew of people connected to "The Dark Knight" star, including his doctors, the masseuse, his family and actress Michelle Williams, who is the mother of his two-year-old daughter, Matilda.

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