Search Results for: the wonder years

There are actors who sing and singers who act, but throughout pop history few entertainers have successfully balanced those twin careers. Neither could Hilary Duff, though not due to lack of effort. While her career as a pop diva skyrocketed – she released two platinum albums and a best-selling greatest-hits disc in just three years – the former Disney child star found her acting career stalling. Despite her considerable star wattage, Hollywood had difficulty seeing Duff beyond her past sugary sweet roles and good girl persona (no rehab or pantyless partying here). “It always shocks me the lack of openness,… Read more »

“American Idol” will launch an ambitious poverty-relief campaign in April with a two-night spectacular that is slated to feature performances from Gwen Stefani, Pink and Sacha Baron Cohen as Borat. Host Ryan Seacrest announced the details of “Idol Gives Back” on Thursday night’s results show, in which the final 12 contestants were revealed . The April 24-25 episodes are aimed at raising awareness and funds for poverty-relief organizations helping children in the United States and Africa. The first night will find the top six finalists on the show singing “life anthems” about hope and compassion, with show sponsors Coke and… Read more »

It’s understandable that Adam Levine would admit to “going a little mad” as Maroon 5 embarked on the follow-up to their multiplatinum, Grammy-winning Songs About Jane. “It’s one thing making a record, but it’s another thing making a record when you’ve had all this success and there’s all this pressure, and you say you don’t feel it and pretend you don’t, and then one day you wake up and it knocks you in your face,” the singer said. Levine responded to the pressure by, well, partying. “I worked my ass off for four years, and I thought, ‘I’m going to… Read more »

LOS ANGELES – In the weeks leading up to the 49th Grammy Awards, many miles of verbiage were unspooled by slick-suited TV pundits and somewhat bitter music journalists to dissect, predict and pick apart music’s biggest night. But as the awards themselves actually unfolded, live from the Staples Center, it was the moments in which very little – if anything at all – was said that carried the most weight. Whether it was the Dixie Chicks’ Natalie Maines simply – and somewhat fittingly – quoting “The Simpsons” in a kiss-off to the group’s many critics; Chris Brown’s footstep-perfect rendition of… Read more »

It’s no secret – particularly to various employees at Gambleversity.com, MyBookie.org and/or BetOnAnythingThatMoves.net – that we here at MTV News enjoy the occasional foray into the exhilarating world of wagering. Of course, the key word here is occasional. But with Sunday’s Grammy Awards on the horizon, we convened the MTV News Bet-ological Braintrust – which is really nothing more than a couple of writers and “Hammerin’ ” Hank Goldberg on speakerphone – and determined just which of the Grammy’s 108 categories are most ripe for some sweet speculation. While there are plenty of intriguing possibilities – the battle between Eddie… Read more »

Panic! at the Disco went from a group of teenagers who’d written only three songs and never played a live show to the biggest new rock band in America. Their secret: Put together a band the way you’d create a MySpace page and let the kids run wild Ryan Ross bought his C55 Mercedes three months ago, but it’s been parked in his Las Vegas garage ever since. When the Panic! at the Disco guitarist climbs behind the wheel, cues up Tom Waits’ new Orphans collection and starts pushing buttons on the navigation system, he’s still not sure how it… Read more »

Frustrated with just donating money to charities, Oprah Winfrey says she built a school for poor girls in South Africa because she wanted to feel closer to the people she was trying to help. “I really became frustrated with the fact that all I did was write check after check,” she told Newsweek magazine. “At a certain point, you want to feel that connection.” Winfrey spent five years and $40 million to build the Oprah Winfrey Leadership Academy for Girls outside Johannesburg. The school for 12- and 13-year-old girls has 28 buildings on 22 lush acres. The school includes huge… Read more »

One sunny afternoon not long ago, Dick Copaken sat in a booth at Daniel, one of those hushed, exclusive restaurants on Manhattan’s Upper East Side where the waiters glide spectrally fro table to table. He was wearing a starched button-down shirt and a blue blazer. Every strand of his thinning hair was in place, and he spoke calmly and slowly, his large pink Charlie Brow head bobbing along evenly as he did. Copaken spent many years as a partner at the white-shoe Washington, D.C., firm Covington & Burling, and he has a lawyer’s gravitas. One of his bes friends calls… Read more »

When writing the lyrics for “From Under the Cork Tree,” Fall Out Boy’s Pete Wentz, far right, shifted his focus from a romance gone horribly wrong to a more introspective vew of the world. After writing an album’s worth of lyrics about a girl who shattered his heart, Pete Wentz realized that the world is a bigger place than a cold-hearted woman and he needed to pen tunes that reflected that – a world where tsunamis could devastate parts of Asia, a war in Iraq could affect people on a global scale and the Molly Ringwald vs. Samantha Fox debate… Read more »

Modern-rock promotion finds itself at a crossroads as a growing number of terrestrial radio broadcasters tune out the ratings-challenged format. Record companies are attempting to adapt to modern rock’s recent marginalization on the airwaves in major markets like Philadelphia, Miami, New York and Washington, D.C. by emphasizing other options for building buzz. In lieu of airplay, touring, blogs, ringtones, downloads, Internet and satellite radio, videogame tie-ins, alliances with brand marketers, film and TV exposure, sponsorships and placements in commercials all are growing in value. The marketing strategies for a number of big-name rock artists with current or upcoming releases show… Read more »