Tuesday, May 6, 2008


Convincing wins by Obama could seal the deal; Clinton has regained momentum after Pennsylvania win.





It's been more than 40 years since Indiana voters have gotten this much love from Democratic presidential candidates. But in a battle for the nomination that nobody predicted would go this far, suddenly the Hoosier State is in play, and Senators Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama have been hitting up its heartland voters for weeks.

Along with North Carolina, which also holds a primary Tuesday, Indiana is among the dwindling reserve of primaries left for the bloodied Democrats to tap as each candidate scraps to get closer to the magic 2,025 delegates needed to sew up the nomination.

With 72 delegates (plus 13 superdelegates) at stake in Indiana, and the last big prize of 134 (and 17 superdelegates) available in North Carolina, neither state will allow the warring senators to reach the magic number, but decisive wins by either could bring the race closer to its end.

Here's what's at stake in Tuesday's vote:

For Hillary Clinton

At this point in the game, every win is a must for Clinton. Buoyed by a solid win in Pennsylvania two weeks ago that immediately helped pump up her perilously strapped bank account, Clinton has regained momentum in the race. While Indiana had been polling as a dead heat, it turned into a potential slim victory for Clinton in recent polling. The New York senator also managed to erase Obama's once-sizable double-digit lead in North Carolina since her Pennsylvania win, picking up an endorsement from the state's governor, Mike Easley, last week, which could only help her prospects.

A loss in Indiana coupled with a convincing win by Obama in North Carolina, however, could spell serious trouble for Clinton, who, despite the Pennsylvania win, has still been facing constant pressure from some party leaders to concede the race to Obama, who has won more states, more delegates and more of the popular vote. Losses could also impact Clinton's fundraising, which continues to lag well behind Obama's as the race limps into the final half-dozen contests over the next four weeks. Some pundits have speculated that if Clinton manages to pull off a win in North Carolina, however, it could set her up to run the table on the remaining contests, ensuring an ugly battle at August's Democratic National Convention in Denver.

For Barack Obama

It has been a rough few weeks for Obama. Coupled with his loss to Clinton in Pennsylvania, the junior senator from Illinois has twice been forced to speak out about the latest controversial comments from his ex-pastor, the Reverend Jeremiah Wright Jr. The comments appear to have seriously impacted his lead over Clinton in a number of polls. The distraction from his preferred message of bringing the country together and providing economic relief for the middle class has allowed Clinton to claim the momentum mantle. According to a recent New York Times/ CBS News poll, Obama's national lead as the candidate most Democratic voters believe will win the nomination has shrunk by almost 20 points. Combined with a perceived inability to connect with blue-collar workers in the two states at stake on Tuesday, Obama's diminished lead in North Carolina has put the senator on the ropes. Those difficulties were offset somewhat by his gains in wooing a few superdelegates his way, including Indiana's Joe Andrew, who was the head of the Democratic National Committee during Bill Clinton's presidency and whose defection got a lot of ink this past week.

Though he was ahead by nearly 20 points in North Carolina in early April, that lead had shrunk to single digits in some polls in the days leading up to voting. While the makeup of North Carolina's Democratic voters is perfect for Obama — a large number of black and affluent middle-class residents — a recent Supreme Court ruling on a voter ID law in Indiana could hurt his chances in that state. One of Obama's other core constituencies has been young voters, and because of the ruling, which requires Indiana voters to present a valid state photo ID in order to vote, it is believed that a large number of college-age voters who are from out of state may not be able to cast a ballot in this primary. Others who could be impacted by the ruling include poor, elderly and minority voters who lack a driver's license or other official state photo ID. In Obama's favor, however, is the fact that Independents and Republicans are allowed to vote in this Democratic primary.

If Obama is able to pull off a double-digit win in North Carolina and take Indiana as well, it could deal a major blow to Clinton's efforts to stay in the race. The victories could sway more superdelegates his way, which would increase the pressure on her to drop out. Losses in either or both, though, could renew concerns that Obama is not connecting with working-class white voters, a constituency that is seen as critical for whoever is the eventual Democratic nominee.

Get informed! Head to Choose or Lose for nonstop coverage of the 2008 presidential election, including everything from the latest news on the candidates to on-the-ground multimedia reports from our 51 citizen journalists, MTV and MySpace's Presidential Dialogues, and much more.

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'You have to be careful when dealing with a movie like this, because if you make the fanbase mad, they're going to, like, trample you,' 18-year-old Joey Lawrence laughs.




SANTA MONICA, California — At an age when most people are playing Xbox and avoiding their parents' pleas to take out the trash, 18-year-old Ontario, Canada, photographer Joey Lawrence has been training his unique eye on the likes of Disturbed and Panic at the Disco.

Now, the in-demand talent has landed the high-profile gig of designing the movie posters for "Twilight" and all its upcoming sequels. MTV News has your first look at the one-sheet you'll soon want hanging above your bed, as well as an exclusive interview with the teen artist.

Click here to see a high-rez version of the "Twilight" poster, and for talk about the movie's sequels!

He's not to be confused with that other Joey Lawrence, but read on for his thoughts about the "Twilight" fanbase, the scene he got to watch on set, and the brand-new poster that has us all saying, "Whoa!"

MTV: So, Joey, how did you get started?

Joey Lawrence: Well, I started making movies when I was 7 years old, being chased by dinosaur puppets. Little home movies. And I took some photographs of some local bands for a while. Slowly, the bands got a little bigger, more recognizable, and now I shoot everything from movie posters to musicians as well.

MTV: Before you were approached, were you aware of the "Twilight" phenomenon?

Lawrence: No, I didn't know much about the books. But when I told some friends of mine that this next assignment coming up was "Twilight," I had one girl who was like, "Oh my God! You've got to bring me! I love 'Twilight'! I love Edward! He's so hot!"

MTV: There are a lot of people who feel very passionately about this universe.

Lawrence: That's right. And you have to be careful when dealing with a movie like this, because if you make the fanbase mad, they're going to, like, trample you. [Laughs.]

MTV: Take us through your thought process as you were trying to design the first-ever poster for that fanbase.

Lawrence: Well, obviously the main thing for this poster was the interaction between Bella and Edward. Because in the movie, he's protective of her, he plays a more protective role, so that was why in the poster, you see he's kind of looming over and watching out for her. Also, she can't appear to be weak of character, and it can't look like a normal kind of love poster, because obviously he's a vampire. [I decided to] light it pretty dark as well, to match the mood of vampires.

MTV: Why do you think Catherine Hardwicke, or Summit [Entertainment, the production company behind "Twilight"], picked you over all the other people who do this for a living?

Lawrence: It was Summit. I think the reason why they chose me is because they have such a young cast, and they really wanted a young photographer as well. In my portfolio, I have one picture of a guy who's in a car; it's lit the exact way that they wanted [the poster]. So they saw that picture, and this [became] my first movie poster.

MTV: As you walk into movie lobbies and see your poster, or know that it's thumbtacked to the walls of a thousand teen bedrooms, how much of a dream come true will that be?

Lawrence: It's cool. I got to check out the set ... and they had it set up where it was that scene, I think it's the final scene of the movie, where they get to crash through the floorboards. I got to see the floorboards messed up. It was cool to visit the movie set and see how it all goes down.

MTV: One of the most noticeable things in the poster is Edward's eyes. Was he really wearing those contacts, or is there some visual trickery that makes them so vivid?

Lawrence: No, his contacts were in. They're kind of weird, because once you bring them into the sunlight, the maximum effect is there, and they're really bright orange. They still look natural in real life, but a little bit eerie, because they're really dark.

MTV: So you just naturally captured the look of those contacts? You didn't enhance the photo?

Lawrence: No, I think it's pretty enhanced in the poster. But that's advertising. [Laughs.]

MTV: I've been to enough photo shoots over the years to be amazed by how talkative a photographer has to be. You have to just keep yapping, making them at ease, making them laugh. What kind of things did you say to Robert Pattinson and Kristen Stewart?

Lawrence: Well, how I like to work is [a bit different]. Lots of photographers like to hide behind cameras and stuff, but I keep the camera pretty stable. It was all shot on seamless, so I had a wireless remote, and I could bark things out at them as we were going.

MTV: Was there a lot of barking involved?

Lawrence: No, they were pretty good by themselves. I just told them, "Be in character." I wanted them to be themselves in the movie. And they got it.

MTV: When you say "seamless," is that the equivalent of what us movie fans would call CGI?

Lawrence: Yeah, but it's not a green screen. Because of the schedule, and you have so many different actors and many different variations for the posters, the best way to shoot everything at once in one day is just on a seamless background. You light it the way that they're going to digitally comp [in backgrounds], and you just do different styles of lighting. ... We had one darker setup and one lighter setup. So we had one person go here and do different things, then you bring them to the darker set, so things can go really fast.

MTV: Kristen and Robert seem to have such a natural chemistry. Were they kidding with each other as much as MTV saw on our set visit?

Lawrence: Yeah, they joked a bit. There were a few snapshots of them laughing here and there, because they were like, "Oh, we're cuddling close."

MTV: It must be hard to create the look of genuine, sincere, Romeo-and-Juliet-like love during a photo shoot.

Lawrence: Yeah, well there was also, like, 30 people watching! So it must be difficult for them, when I'm also there with a remote, like, "That looks good!" But they're professional actors, so they were able to make it look convincing.

MTV: You're 18 years old. Does that usually help or hurt you professionally?

Lawrence: It can do both. People are trusting you with such a huge job, and most 18-year-olds who I know, I don't know if you'd want to trust them with a big job like this. But for this job, I'd say it worked in my favor being 18 years old, because it's a pretty young cast, so I'm sure they wanted someone cool and in the same age group, not some old dude snapping pictures, being like, "Yeah! Get closer!" [Laughs.]

MTV: A lot of teenagers will read this interview and think, "Why does he have such a cool job while I'm bagging groceries?"

Lawrence: Yeah, well, the best way to do it I guess is to not act like you're 18. And push for it, as if you were some old, starving guy.

MTV: Have you ever been on a gig and run into trouble because someone suddenly realized your age?

Lawrence: Actually, a lot of the shoots that I go on, people think I'm the assistant at first. [Laughs.]

MTV: Have your friends who are "Twilight" fans been bugging you for details ever since you got this job?

Lawrence: Well, that one girl, she really wants to see the pictures, but obviously I can't send them to her yet, or they might leak all over the Internet.

MTV: We have footage of you shooting Rachelle Lefevre and several of the other "Twilight" stars. Who was your favorite?

Lawrence: Oh, who's the guy who plays Jasper?

MTV: Jackson Rathbone?

Lawrence: Yeah, Jackson Rathbone is the coolest dude! He was bouncing around. There are shots, just outtakes, that are so ridiculous of him. Since it was shot on seamless, we had props for them to sit on, because they were going to be digitally comped somewhere else later. So we had apple boxes, and shots of him, like, hiding behind the apple box — just ridiculous things.

MTV: And I've got to flip the question: Who was the most difficult person to shoot?

Lawrence: Um ... [Laughs.] They were all pretty cool.

Every Tuesday is "Twilight Tuesday" here at MTV News! Check back here each and every week for the hottest scoop on the film adaptation of Stephenie Meyer's beloved vampire series, and we'll still bring you breaking "Twilight" news throughout the rest of the week. And make sure you check out the MTV Movies Blog for our ongoing "Twilight" discussions each and every day.

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

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

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We followed Maddy to the Spain set of her 'Take a Bow' video to discuss her voice, family and then-trashy image.




Where do old interviews go to die? Since 1988 they've gone into the MTV News vault, but we've been exhuming them to bring you these classic natterings. Here's the latest in the series, which runs every Tuesday.

November of 1994 was cold, damp and windy up in Ronda, a fairly ancient town perched on a mountain cliff in the south of Spain. Madonna had gone there to shoot a video for "Take a Bow," her next single, so we, of course, dutifully followed. Ronda is promoted to tourists as the birthplace of modern bullfighting — meaning it was there, around 200 years earlier, that some brave/insane matador had decided to climb down from the relative safety of horseback to do battle with a bull face to face (or horn-to-groin, just as likely). "Take a Bow," the song, had nothing to do with bullfighting, but in the world of music videos this was a fact of gnat-like insignificance.

Madonna and her crew (which included cinematographer Harris Savides, who went on to shoot "American Gangster") set up in Ronda's old stone bullring, with Maddy's friend Donatella Versace, the fashion personage, flitting around up in the gallery. Congregated in a street outside the ring was a troupe of bullfighting pros — picadors,banderilleros, and so forth — who were awaiting the arrival of Madonna's video costar, the dark and sultry Emilio Muñoz, an actual, well-known torero. The sun had come out, and the afternoon proceeded in the usual way. Madonna, looking very 1940s in a little black-veiled hat (she was lobbying for the lead role in the movie version of the hit musical "Evita" at the time), was situated in a seat looking down on the dusty ring, where Muñoz twirled about, baffling a bovine opponent with his shiny cape. She was playing the role of a woman who'd been dumped by this guy, and was now blinking away tears of heartbreak. Since tears and heartbreak were two commodities rarely associated with Madonna, it had been decided to intersperse the video with other scenes showing her writhing around on a bed in her underwear. That was more like it.

Our interview later on proceeded in the usual way as well. Our own camera crew spent hours setting up a flattering shot on the edge of a courtyard garden in a beautiful old building filled with gleaming carved wood and weathered brick. Then Madonna arrived — well past the appointed time, as usual — and marched straight up to the cameras to check the out the angles and the lighting, which, as usual, she found to be wanting. After much scurrying about, everything was adjusted to ... well, not to her satisfaction, probably, but to a point where she was willing to put up with it without feeling compelled to punch anybody.

She was wearing some beautiful outfit — I forget exactly what it consisted of, but it looked great on the monitors. Then, however, she pronounced herself chilly, and suddenly pulled on a nondescript white sweater that obliterated the look we'd been hoping to capture. For good measure, she also flopped a fur lap robe over her legs, completing the impression of a person being nursed back to health following some frigid Arctic mishap. She then began talking about her family, her voice, and her then-trashy image while we blinked away tears of professional heartbreak.

Enjoy digging through The Loder Files? You'll find more here, and there's much more to come from the vaults — check back every Tuesday!

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