Britney Spears Hosts As Ke$ha, Jennifer Lopez, More Bring Wango Tango To L.A.

Pitbull, Matthew Morrison, Selena Gomez, Far East Movement and others filled the Staples Center on Saturday night.
By Matt Elias


britney Spears hosts KIIS FM's Wango Tango 2011 on Saturday
Photo: Kevin Winter/ Getty Images

<P><b>LOS ANGELES</b> &#8212; Britney Spears makes headlines at concerts, even when she's not performing. That's probably why Los Angeles radio station KIIS FM tapped the pop princess to guest-host their annual Wango Tango music festival along with Ryan Seacrest on Saturday night at the Staples Center. </p><div class="player-placeholder right" id="vid:652696" width="240" height="211"></div><p> The bill was a balance of pop and hip-hop, with acts like Ke$ha, Jennifer Lopez, Pitbull, Ne-Yo, Selena Gomez, "Glee" 's Matthew Morrison, Lupe Fiasco, T-Pain, Jason Der&#252;lo, Far East Movement, New Boyz, Cobra Starship and newcomer Cody Simpson. Backstage, the media room went into a frenzy when Spears arrived in a red, geometric-print dress and a beaming smile. Owning her "femme fatale" moniker, Spears worked the carpet for a few moments while all of the cameras in the room were pointing at her. It was the second red carpet appearance by Brit this week, after her Beverly Hills benefit on Wednesday night for the St. Bernard Project. Check out photos from Wango Tango 2011. Spears' <i>Femme Fatale</i> collaborator Ke$ha, who was returning to the festival for the second time, said that an onstage collab between to the two would have to require one thing. "That would have to include me finding her and attacking her," Ke$ha told MTV News, with the best intentions. "I'm planning on pouncing her." While that never happened, at least not onstage, Ke$ha delivered on her promise of a set heavy on her glitter gun. And she assured us she knew the dos and don'ts of handling that kind of firepower. "Do not spray yourself in the face with it," she said. "Do spray everybody else with it. That's pretty much it." While Joe Jonas wasn't performing at the show, he took a break from recording his solo debut to catch up with almost everyone backstage. "I didn't see Britney backstage, just said 'hello' to a couple of my friends," Jonas said. "Backstage is always [full of] people, especially having it at the Staples Center this time, I think compared to all the way out in the desert, it changes everything." Also happy to have Wango Tango in Los Angeles were locals Far East Movement. "Man, we grew up literally a few blocks away from here, and you can only imagine basketball games being played here," Kev Nish said. "So to come in here as performers, to be able to do our songs in this arena is a little crazy. We used to pass out CDs a few blocks [away], so we're very thankful. And the lineup is nuts, so we're extremely excited to be a part of this lineup." <i>Were you at Wango Tango? Share your experience in the comments below!</i></p>

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Beyonce And Jay-Z Unveil First Blue Ivy Carter Photos

'We welcome you to share in our joy,' reads a note posted with the five photos, signed by 'the Carter family.'
By Kelley L. Carter


Beyonce and Blue Ivy Carter
Photo: Courtesy of the Carter family

<P>And now we've seen her. On Friday (February 10), Jay-Z posted the first photos of his and Beyoncé's daughter, Blue Ivy Carter, on his Life + Times website. </p><div class="player-placeholder right" id="id:1676907" width="240" height="211"></div><p> The rapper and his superstar wife are seen in the photos holding the newborn in a series of five photos. In the first large photo, we see the baby swathed in a polka-dot wrap sleeping. In the remaining images, she has her eyes wide open and is being held by her beaming mother, and in another, her back is to us while she's being held by her smiling father. Photos: Blue Ivy Carter revealed.</b> There's a note that reads: "We welcome you to share in our joy. Thank you for respecting our privacy during this beautiful time in our lives. The Carter family." The baby-picture reveal is just the latest Blue Ivy news. On Thursday, it was confirmed that the high-profile couple filed an application with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office to trademark Blue Ivy's name. The patent is intended to prevent the use of their daughter's name by non-related parties. The application was filed by Beyonc&#233;'s company, BGK Trademark Holdings, and is currently pending. <i>The Washington Post</i> reported that it will likely get approved, considering that parents are legally authorized to trademark the names of minor children. Earlier this week, Beyonc&#233; revealed her post-pregnancy body, and she's back in fighting shape only a month after the birth of her baby girl. B was photographed twice this week, including at the first night of Jay-Z's two-night charity stint at Carnegie Hall. <i>What do you think of the first Blue Ivy photos? Let us know in the comments!</i></p>

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Whitney Houston -- ROCKIN' OUT to Madonna's Halftime Show [Video]

Just five days before her death, Whitney Houston was GETTIN' DOWN to Madonna's Super Bowl halftime show ... singing and dancing to the music like her old self ... and TMZ has the footage. It all went down Feb. 5 at a bar inside the Regent Beverly…

Source: http://www.tmz.com/2012/02/21/whitney-houston-superbowl-madonna-video/

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'Hunger Games' Books 'Inspiring' For Wes Bentley

'I found the character of Katniss to be so intriguing,' the actor playing Seneca Crane tells MTV News.
By Kara Warner, with reporting by Josh Horowitz


Wes Bentley
Photo: MTV News

We've already heard "Hunger Games" star Wes Bentley address the fan fervor surrounding his role as Seneca Crane — or, more specifically, the beard that was specially crafted for his character. Now it's time to get into his thoughts on the impact of Suzanne Collins' best-selling trilogy as a whole and what he thought about reading them for the first time knowing he might be bringing Crane to life on the big screen.

"I think they're fantastic novels. She's a great writer, very poetic at times, and I love that," Bentley told MTV News. "What struck me first was that it was politically sophisticated, a level at which you don't see in adult novels. I also found it very exciting, and I found the character of Katniss to be so intriguing and so inspiring and very clever. I love to see that in a book."

Speaking to getting into the character of Seneca Crane, Bentley didn't want to give away too much but did reveal that he felt that he had a lot to work with, thanks to director Gary Ross.

"Gary created a great version of the character from the script, and I had a lot of fun with it," Bentley said. "We had a blast."

The "American Beauty" actor also said he tried to maintain "tunnel vision" with regard to the constant online chatter and debates over the film's casting, but his wife thwarted those efforts.

"I was sort of aware of that excitement about the book," he said. "My wife was trying to tell me how people felt about me being cast, which seemed positive, but I didn't want to hear much about it; I just wanted to focus on the work."

Bentley said if he could play any other role in the film, it would be Katniss, because she is such a strong character. He also deftly avoided the Team Peeta or Team Gale question by emphasizing the fact that the story is about survival, not romance.

"I don't even think it plays like that," he said. "[Katniss] is a strong individual character who is having to do something much bigger. It's about survival."

Check out everything we've got on "The Hunger Games."

For young Hollywood news, fashion and "Twilight" updates around the clock, visit HollywoodCrush.MTV.com.

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Adele Notches Best Sales Year Since Usher's Confessions

In 2011, 21 moved more than 5.6 million copies in the U.S.
By Gil Kaufman


Adele
Photo: Getty Images

<P>The music industry has been stuck in a rut for nearly a decade. But every once in a while, it still manages to produce one of those unstoppable hit albums that give everyone that good old feeling. </p><div class="player-placeholder right" id="vid:604336" width="240" height="211"></div><p> This year's model is Adele's <I>21</I>, which not only sold more copies than any other album in the U.S. in 2011 (more than 5.6 million to date), but which has also moved the most units of any artist since 2004. According to a Reuters report, those gaudy figures (which top 15 million worldwide) make the British songbird the first artist to cross the 5 million mark in one year since Usher did it with his fourth studio album, <I>Confessions</I>, which sold 7.9 million units more than seven years ago. And to think she did it by releasing just two mega singles, "Rolling in the Deep" and "Someone Like You," and barely touring North America due to recurring vocal issues.&#8232; There have been other big hits along the way to Adele's mark, including Eminem selling more than 3.4 million copies of his comeback <I>Recovery</I> album last year and Taylor Swift taking the honors in 2009 with <I>Fearless</I>, which sold 3.2 million copies. But none have come as close to Usher's mark in the interim. There doesn't seem to be any chance Adele will be surpassed by the end of the year: The closest contenders are Lady Gaga's <I>Born This Way</I> (2.08 million) and Michael Bubl&#233;'s <I>Christmas</I> (2.4 million). The other good news is that overall music sales are expected to be up slightly (3 percent) by the end of this year, marking the first time that's happened since 2004.</p>

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Whitney Houston's Funeral: Watch It Here

Fans line streets near New Hope Baptist Church in Newark, New Jersey, where funeral service is under way today.
By Rob Markman, with reporting by Raynold D. Fabre-Jeune


Whitney Houston
Photo: Vince Bucci/Getty Images

NEWARK, New Jersey — With her music, Whitney Houston brought joy to the lives of her family, friends and fans, so it is only right that exactly one week after her death, on the day of her funeral, all the love Whitney gave is given right back.

Fans lined the streets of Newark, New Jersey, in hopes of getting as close as they could to the New Hope Baptist Church, where the funeral for Houston, who was found dead in a Beverly Hills hotel on February 11, is being held. It is the same church the pop diva grew up attending and where she built a loving fanbase even as a youngster with her powerful church choir vocals.

"Everybody, I want them to know that God sent us an angel, and now his angel has gone back home to rest and sing in heaven," Patricia Copeland Williams, a Houston family friend, told MTV News on Friday upon leaving the pop star's wake at New Hope Baptist. "We will always love her and we'll always remember, and we're never going to forgot Cissy, the woman that birthed her."

The Houston funeral is a private affair and only invited guests are allowed into the church and the surrounding city blocks. Before the ceremony, fans gathered outside of police barricades on the corner of Orange and Nesbitt streets, about four blocks from the church, singing Houston's hits including "Greatest Love of All" and "I Will Always Love You." Media outlets lined the block on the corner of Lock Street and Essex Avenue, but without an invite, that was about as close as anybody would get.

Musical luminaries and close friends Clive Davis, Stevie Wonder and CeCe Winans are all expected to attend. Kevin Costner, who starred with Houston in the 1992 hit film "The Bodyguard" and ex-husband Bobby Brown are also among the expected attendees.

Aretha Franklin, who is Whitney's close family friend, had been scheduled to sing "I Will Always Love You" at the service but canceled due to illness, according to CNN. Franklin performed in Whitney's honor Friday night at Radio City Music Hall.

Stay with MTVNews.com all day Saturday for continuing coverage of Whitney Houston's funeral services.

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Akon Sued Over $51,000 Construction Bill -- Pay Up Right Na Na Na Na Na

Akon is up to his neck in $51,000 of construction bills on his Georgia mansion ... and he still hasn't paid up -- this according to a new lawsuit filed by a local contracting company.Southern Electric filed the lawsuit against Akon in Georgia…

Source: http://www.tmz.com/2012/02/21/akon-sued-construction-bill/

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