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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Lil Wayne, T.I., Wiz Khalifa To Get 'Sleazy' With Ke$ha

Tip confirms second remix in the works for track, which previously featured a remix verse from Andre 3000.
By Jocelyn Vena


Ke$ha
Photo: MTV News

<P>Ke$ha's already gotten "Sleazy" with Andre 3000. Now, a few more rappers want to get dirty with the glittery pop singer. XXLmag.com reports that T.I. plans to jump on the track, and Lil Wayne and Wiz Khalifa will also be joining Andre and Tip on a new version of "Sleazy." Weezy should be a welcome addition to Ke$ha's dance tune, as it sounds somewhat like Wayne's single "A Milli." And while not much else is known about the remix, T.I. promised that he's going to go big with his verse. "I haven't heard anybody but mine. ... I'm gonna put my money on mine," the newly freed rapper, who ended an 11-month prison sentence in September, told the website. The Andre 3000 remix dropped earlier this year and appears on K-Dollar Sign's album <i>Cannibal.</i> The guys will have a lot of swagger to compete with because when Andre appeared on the first remix, he had this to say: "We start out so cute in our baby pictures/ That mama shot for our daddy so that he wouldn't forget you/ He forgot anyway, but hey, one day he'll remember/ If not, he's human, I'm human, you human, we'll forgive him/ I call her Keisha, she like it because it's 'hood to her/ She call me Andre 6000 because I'm good to her." Tip told XXLmag.com that his appearance on the Ke$ha song is just one of many remixes he's amped about. He has also worked on remixes for Meek Mill and Rick Ross's "Ima Boss," as well as Jay-Z and Kanye West's <i>Watch the Throne</i> song "N---as in Paris." "I'm looking for some more records to jump on," he said. "That's what I'm doin' right now. I'm commandeering hit records right now. I'm hijacking hit records. If you got a hit, I'm on it." <i>Are you looking forward to the new "Sleazy" remix? Tell us in the comments!</i></p>

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'Man On A Ledge': The Reviews Are In!

Effects work 'frighteningly well' but 'premise is so devoutly ridiculous,' critics say.
By Kara Warner


Sam Worthington in "Man on a Ledge"
Photo: Summit

If your impressions about the new action thriller "Man on a Ledge" are based on the film's very-literal title, you're very likely correct in assuming to know a decent amount about the film before entering the theater. "Ledge" is the story of ex-cop and fugitive Nick Cassidy (Sam Worthington), whose seemingly obvious suicidal plan to jump off a building is slowly revealed to be something much more.

Thus far, the critical reception for the film is very different from initial audience reactions. The Rotten Tomatoes Tomatometer has "Ledge" at a 22 percent fresh rating from critics, versus a 65 percent fresh audience rating.

Read on to see what has the two viewing bodies so divided as we sift through the "Man on a Ledge" reviews:

The Premise
"It's an arresting image, Sam Worthington out on that 40th-story ledge. He's a fairly tough-looking guy, after all, and we know him best as the tooth-gritting blockbuster hero of 'Avatar' and 'Clash of the Titans,' so it's head-spinning to see the man's beefy figure as a speck hovering so precariously close to New York's infinite sky. The camera swirls around Worthington's disgraced former cop Nick Cassidy, inching out past that thin strip of architecture, then back in. What if he trips, or jumps? For a while, anything seems possible, and it's both exhilarating and terrifying. Then the wool comes off, and it's clear that director Asger Leth and screenwriter Pablo Fenjves have ambitions considerably less grand than their protagonist's perch. Cassidy's ledge game — with all the studio-unfriendly moral ambiguities it entails — is just a con, a photo op for the crowds, and Nick's apparent desire to exit the material world is a front. What he truly, passionately wants to do is steal some jewelry." — Andrew Lapin, NPR

The Impact of Practical Effect
"I, on the other hand, was gripping anything in reach, palms dripping, thinking I might not have survived the effects had they been 3-D. Though there were other production sites, serious time was spent actually shooting on that 14-inch ledge wrapping the 21st floor of the Roosevelt Hotel to create the vicarious sensation of being there. Which worked frighteningly well, at least for the vertiginous among us. Oh, that the actual human dynamics of the unfolding story could have been as dramatic, as on the edge as that ledge." — Betsy Sharkey, Los Angeles Times

The Direction
"Mr. Leth, the son of renowned Danish documentarian Jorgen Leth, has directed only one other film, 'Ghosts of Cité Soleil,' a highly stylized doc that revealed a soul yearning to breathe free of nonfiction. He has an instinct for weaving sturdy narrative fabric out of intersecting plot lines. ... Amid the hoopla, Mr. Leth takes sobering assessment of media-circuses and mob mentalities: The people down below taking cellphone pictures, the ones yelling 'Jump!'; the callous nature of cops for whom it's all routine. There's the occasional goofy grace note: Kyra Sedgwick, playing a voracious and obviously Anglo television reporter named Suzie Morales, rolls the 'R' in her surname as she signs off, just in case someone missed the point (we've all heard it). In another scene, Mr. Leth takes such pains to strip the shapely Ms. Rodriguez down to her underwear that audiences, who may well be leering, will also be laughing at how obvious it is." — John Anderson, Wall Street Journal

The Final Word, Pro/Con Style
"Director Asger Leth, making his U.S. feature-film debut with 'Man on a Ledge,' keeps the pace brisk and never allows the tone to stray into self-seriousness, which is crucial for a movie whose premise is so devoutly ridiculous. The script, from Pablo F. Fenjves, provides enough feints and twists to keep us engaged. Jamie Bell and Genesis Rodriguez aren't the most believable of couples, but there's a screwball charm to their comic routine as amateur thieves charged with aiding Nick's scheme. (Leth can't resist inserting an entirely superfluous — but nonetheless greatly appreciated — scene of the criminally gorgeous Rodriguez stripping down to a thong in the middle of a heist.) Worthington makes for a likable populist protagonist, even if his Australian accent betrays him on copious occasions, and Harris' disturbingly emaciated frame lends an added menace to his devious plutocrat villain." — Thomas Leupp, Hollywood.com

"Like last year's action comedy 'Tower Heist,' 'Man on a Ledge' becomes something of a parable of the 99 percent, with Cassidy initially an object of prurient interest for the massed crowds below, then becoming a blue-collar folk hero. That gives the movie at least a frisson of contemporary relevance, but the filmmakers blow that advantage with plot and characterization that require not just a suspension of disbelief but a suspension of eye-rolling reflexes and the nagging impulse to burst into derisive laughter." — Ann Hornaday, Washington Post

Check out everything we've got on "Man on a Ledge."

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

Source: http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/1678092/man-on-a-ledge-reviews.jhtml

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Lady Gaga, Bono, Usher To Headline Bill Clinton Foundation Fundraiser

October 15 show will be streamed live over the Internet.
By Gil Kaufman


Lady Gaga
Photo: Jason Merritt/Getty Images

<P>Even a dozen years removed from the White House, former president Bill Clinton still has that same superstar-attracting aura. That might explain why such bright lights as Lady Gaga, Bono and The Edge of U2, and Usher have signed on to perform at an October 15 party for Clinton at the Hollywood Bowl. According to The Hollywood Reporter,</i> details on the final list of performers and presenters are still being worked on, but an impressive list of movie and TV personalities are expected to sign on for the event, which is being billed as a celebration of the 10-year anniversary of Clinton's nonprofit William J. Clinton Foundation. To date, the foundation has raised more than $10 billion for some of the ex-president's most cherished causes, including HIV/AIDS treatment, economic empowerment, food aid and global health initiatives. The show, which will also serve as a birthday party celebration for the former Democratic leader (who turned 65 on August 19), will be broadcast exclusively by Yahoo, which will stream "A Decade of Difference: A Concert Celebrating 10 Years of the William J. Clinton Foundation" worldwide to a potential audience of millions. Clinton continues to travel the world doing good works, though he turned his attention homeward over the weekend when he participated in the 10th anniversary ceremonies of the September 11 terror attacks. He announced on Sunday that he will team with Republican House Speaker John Boehner in a bipartisan effort to raise the final $10 million needed to complete the Fight 93 National Memorial in Shanksville, Pennsylvania.</p>

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