For one of music's fiercest power couples, one summer night in Jersey just wasn't enough.

Due to "overwhelming demand," Jay Z and Beyonce's upcoming monster "On the Run" arena tour has added a second MetLife Stadium date to it's list, Live Nation announced today.

The potent pair will now perform back-to-back nights, packing the state's largest venue July 11 and 12 in the first full tour to feature both ultra-popular artists.

Tickets go on sale Saturday at 10 a.m. for the new, July 12 show in East Rutherford, and will likely sell out quickly, considering there are no true New York stops on this tour. Madison Square Garden, and Barclays Center in Jay Z's hometown Brooklyn apparently did not make the cut.

The tour kicks off in Miami June 25 and concludes in San Francisco Aug. 6.

For fans closer to Philadelphia, the duo will hit Citizen's Bank Park July 5.

Both Jay Z and Beyonce are fairly fresh off their own respective tours, with Jay Z headlining 52 dates for his "Magna Carta Holy Grail" tour from October to January, and Beyonce finishing up her "Mrs. Carter Show" tour in March.

On the tour, the couple will surely take on some of their most popular collaborations, including "Crazy in Love," "Upgrade U" and most recently, "Drunk In Love," which the two performed live to open the 2014 Grammys in sizzling, sultry fashion.

The Grammys showing will be tough to top, but if anyone can one-up themselves, it's the almost criminally successful duo dubbed "Bonnie and Clyde."


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  History has revealed the cast for Sons of Liberty, a six-part miniseries that will follow a defiant and radical group of young men — Sam Adams, John Adams, Paul Revere, John Hancock and Joseph Warren included – as they band together in secrecy to spark a revolution and make America a nation.

 Ben Barnes (The Chronicles of Narnia), Henry Thomas (E.T.) and Michael Raymond-James (Once Upon a Time) will play Sam Adams, John Adams and Paul Revere, respectively, while Rafe Spall (Prometheus) and Ryan Eggold (The Blacklist) will fill the roles of Hancock and Warren.

 Additionally, Marton Csokas (Rogue) will play Thomas Gage, the British general who is sent to handle the unrest in Boston, while Dean Norris (Breaking Bad) has been cast as “the brilliant yet mischievous diplomat” Benjamin Franklin.

 “From the Boston Tea Party to the Declaration of Independence, Sons of Liberty will tell the rebellious story of America’s greatest fight for freedom,” History EVP Dirk Hoogstra said in touting the miniseries, which begins production this summer.

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How do we feel about this casting, ONTD?  idgaf i'm just happy MRJ will be on my tv again.

Robert Pattison as Indiana Jones just seemed too good to be true...

So when one tabloid reported that R.Pattz was the top pick to replace Harrison Ford in a Disney reboot of the iconic franchise, E! News did some digging. Unfortunately, though, sources tell us there's there's no truth to the rumors. Womp womp.

It would've been fantastic to see the 27-year-old Brit transform into the all-American "non-superhero superhero," but fortunately, there are plenty of other broad-range actors we deem worthy of wearing the hat (sorry, Shia LaBeouf, you didn't make the cut). In any case, here are our top 5 choices for the next Indiana Jones.




1. Bradley Cooper: This isn't the first time we've suggested the Oscar nominee for the part! You know he's got the whole acting thing down, and he also he commits to his characters—mentally and physically! And let's not pretend you're not dying to see this man in tweed again.


2. Scott Eastwood: He strives to be "a man's man," but you can see the sensitivity in those bright blue eyes! Scott could easily make the archaeologist-to-action star switch onscreen, and should he need any advice, dad Clint Eastwood is just a phone call away!




3. Liam Hemsworth: Yes, he's Australian, and yes, he's already got the Hunger Games franchise under his belt, but he'd make a great Indy! Big brother Chris Hemsworth got to take on Thor, so why shouldn't Liam tackle an icon, too?

Thoughts?


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Leo DiCaprio, along with Paris Hilton, refused to be filmed for “Keeping Up With the Kardashians” while partying on Sunday at Los Angeles daytime bash XIV Summer Sessions, which is perhaps most famous for its guests getting carried away with Champagne spraying.

There was a made-for-reality-TV scene as Brody Jenner was DJ-ing at the party, with his progressively weirder-looking dad, Bruce Jenner, fist-pumping (“Jersey Shore”-style) by his side in the DJ booth, along with brother Brandon Jenner.

A spy said, “Leo didn’t want to be filmed for ‘Keeping Up’ and didn’t want to arrive until filming was over.” Leo joined his close pal Lukas Haas and a group for a Mexican-themed party for Frankie Delgado.

Also refusing to be filmed with the Kardashians was the one-time reality star and ex-Kim Kardashian best friend Paris Hilton, who has recently launched her own DJ career.

How times have changed.



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“I hate karaoke,” Jonathan Groff tells me while shrugging on a leather jacket. “I love going to see other people do karaoke, but performing karaoke stresses me out. I get nervous that it’s like not in the right key. Or will I be able to hear the band? Is the mix right? Too many things out of my control.” This might come as a surprise, considering Groff, 29, was nominated for a Tony for his first role in a Broadway production, Spring Awakening, at the tender age of 22, before going on to star as Lea Michele’s vocally gifted boyfriend, Jesse St. James, on Glee.

But the baby-faced Groff, currently gearing up to film the second season of HBO’s comedy-drama Looking (oft-called the gay Girls [by idiots]), is more low-key than you’d expect from a guy who can claim Lea Michele as a BFF. (The two were co-stars in Spring Awakening, and Groff has to apologize for cutting our interview short, but he has to go meet Michele at Barnes & Noble to be on hand for a Q&A about her new memoir, Brunette Ambition.) [aw]

Groff is everywhere lately—announcing the nominees for the Tonys, making a cameo in Ryan Murphy’s adaptation of Larry Kramer’s epic AIDS drama The Normal Heart, and of course, being part of the whole Frozen juggernaut as Kristoff (a love interest who doesn’t turn out to be a total d-bag)—but he still approaches his fame with a sense of wary wonder.

“I haven’t googled myself in five years,” he brags, smiling. “I stay completely unhooked when it comes to social media.” That’s right … he doesn’t even have a Twitter account.

All these attributes in such a young star might be enough to make Groff emblematic of “New Hollywood”—his laid-back attitude towards stardom, his loyalty to a few choice contacts like Murphy, Michele and Looking’s co-creator Andrew Haigh. But add the fact that Groff began his career in Tinseltown already out of the closet, and the actor becomes much more than a symbol. He’s a sign of the changing times.

“I feel really lucky to be acting in 2014,” says Groff, who didn’t officially come out until after Spring Awakening. “Even 10 years ago, it was a totally different scene.”

Unlike hunks of yesteryear, Groff has spent no time in the closet.“I knew I would talk about it someday, but I didn’t know how or why or when. But then I fell in love for the first time after the show, and I thought ‘Well, I’d rather be out and be in love with this person than try to hide it for any job I had when I came out,’ so I just said fuck it.”

“Being in love was more powerful than any job I’d had before,” adds Groff, who came out publicly at the National Equality March in D.C. in 2009. “That was the impetus.”

Since then, Groff has had a crash course in what it means to be a gay celebrity in the era of Perez Hilton: he was linked romantically to actor Zachary Quinto when the Star Trek star was still in the closet, though the two have since broken up. Groff’s way of dealing with the drama was by refusing to take part in any of the Internet celebrity culture.

“I heard from friends of friends or whatever that like, ‘This picture was online’ or ‘I saw you and Zach walking down the street.’ So I’d know that things like that existed, but I don’t ever look at it.”

Currently, Groff is single and living in—where else?—Chelsea, biding time until Looking begins its shooting schedule. “I’m obsessed with Westville,” says the actor of his favorite dining spot in the neighborhood.“And if I have time, I’ll definitely try to hit up an Equinox during the day. I go to the pool. I see my friends.” Groff shrugs, embarrassed by his apparent normalcy. “It’s such a boring answer, but it’s true.”

But who says boring has to be bad? After all, many people called the first season of Looking boring — Slate actually described the experience of watching as “profound boredom,” and Alessandra Stanley of The New York Times called it “tame,” “muted” and “muffled.” Yet watching gay men act against type by acting like, well, normal people (as opposed to shrieking harridans or innuendo-laced queens [um what? fuck you, Scene mag]) struck enough of a chord that HBO picked it up for a second season.

“The most surprising reaction I’ve gotten (about Looking) was when I showed it to my brother and his wife,” states Groff. “I thought, being straight and also coming from Pennsylvania, that they would watch it because I was family. But they ended up getting really into the show and really invested in it. It was surprising to meet people who weren’t gay but could get what we were trying to say.”

In Looking, Groff plays Patrick, a shy video game programmer who spends the season hanging out with friends, going on awkward dates, lusting after a coworker and dealing with the anxiety of bringing a date to his sister’s wedding. Far from the raucousness of Girls (which was HBO’s lead-in to the show), Looking was transgressive by not being transgressive; portraying Patrick’s life as a late 20-something with a distinct lack of remarkableness, despite being—gasp—a homosexual.

“I don’t think of sexuality that much when I’m trying to find a part,” says Groff of his recent roles in Looking and The Normal Heart. “I think of the people I’m working with and the project and the piece. And it just so happens that the last two jobs I got have to do with being gay, which is great because I have an added stake in it. So that’s been sort of a nice plus, but it’s not the main reason I took the jobs.”

Groff’s logic behind picking projects has a lot to do with the people behind them. “Most of the time, it’s a case of being drawn to the work of people I admire,” he tells me. Murphy, who directed The Normal Heart, was introduced to his Glee star Michele through Groff, with whom he had filmed a pilot for FX after Spring Awakening.

Groff was a fan of Andrew Haigh’s breakout film Weekend and considers the cast and crew of Looking to be part of his family. “We’ve evolved socially in a way I’ve never had on the job,” Groff says.


As for the next season of Looking, Groff stands by his “dream cameo,” Odd Future’s Frank Ocean. But if he had to pick someone to do a sex scene with, it’d be his C.O.G. co-star Corey Stoll. (You may remember him as the doomed Russo from the first season of House of Cards.)

“We had a potentially almost romantic scene, but then it turned out to be not romantic,” Groff says of filming C.O.G., a movie based on a David Sedaris short story, with Stoll. “So I would like to fulfill that — the starting of the relationship, and maybe have a love affair with Corey Stoll.”

As for other details—both about the next season of Looking and his own life—Groff is playing it close to the vest. “My favorite thing first and foremost is just getting the chance to act. That’s my favorite thing to do. So the fact that I got to do that this year is great. Then all this other stuff feels like really great extra experiences.”

Not for nothing, one of these extras just happens to be singing a benefit concert with Glenn Close on June 2. Hey, doesn’t sound too boring to us.

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On Tuesday's episode of The Colbert Report, host Stephen Colbert riffed on the recent ruling by the Department of Health and Human Services that paves the way for Medicare coverage of transition-related surgical care.

"But now men are becoming women, women are becoming men, and my inbox is becoming full with your angry letters every time I talk about it," Colbert deadpanned to the camera. "I know, I'm cis-hetero nazi scum. I accept your judgement."



Colbert has a mixed record on transgender topics. In February, trans writer and activist Janet Mock dropped by the show to discuss her new book, Redefining Realness, as well as her infamous appearances on the now-canceled Piers Morgan Live.

Prior to that, however, Colbert had been criticized for relying on transphobic humor on his show in several instances.

"Folks, it's just like when someone lies to you," Colbert said during an October 2013 segment of "The Word.""Technically, they're telling you the truth, as long as you never find out it was a lie." As he said this, text on-screen read "Or notice her Adam's apple."

"President-elect Obama is meeting every day with his transition team, or in beltway lingo, 'trannies,'" Colbert joked in a November 2008 episode.

"Colbert isn't using these jokes to mock conservatives' transphobia, he's just using time-tested trans jokes for easy laughs," reads a post on the blog Your Moment of Transmisogyny. "And because liberals — as well as conservatives — find the idea of a trans person to be the most hilarious/disgusting thing ever, these jokes fucking kill."

Other bloggers — like PQ Monthly's Leela Ginelle — have noted Colbert's propensity to use trans women as punchlines, and a Change.org petition calling for Colbert — along with Jon Stewart, Comedy Central, Viacom, and producers of both The Daily Show and The Colbert Report — to stop making jokes at the expense of trans individuals has more than 6,000 signatures as of press time.

To his credit, Colbert's latest segment seems more in line with the traditional, satirical nature he applies to other subjects, making the punchline of the joke conservatives who "don't get it," as opposed to trans women themselves.

"I agree to be totally cool with it — which I clearly am, which Time magazine clearly is, which all the people lobbying for [Carmen Carrera] to be a Victoria's Secret clearly are — as long as you are hot," Colbert says toward the end of the segment. "But now you want me to accept unattractive transgender people? Where does it end? Will I have to accept unattractive non-transgender people? What am I made of? Humanity?"


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There's a video, but it won't embed. So go to the source to watch it.

Melissa McCarthy started a line of plus-size clothing in part because no one would make her a dress for Academy Awards.

“When I go shopping, most of the time I’m disappointed,” she tells Redbook. “Two Oscars ago, I couldn’t find anybody to do a dress for me. I asked five or six designers — very high-level ones who make lots of dresses for people — and they all said no.”

That inspired McCarthy to begin her own fashion endeavor.

As for her marriage to Ben Falcone, the actress says they’ve stayed solid by staying grounded.

She tells the magazine, “We have a great marriage, and outside forces can’t really change that. Success doesn’t define us, even though we love what we do.”

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Lana Del Rey Is Anyone She Wants to Be
STORY BY: DUNCAN COOPER | PHOTOGRAPHY: GEORDIE

The camera zooms in on Lana Del Rey as she turns away from the crowd, hiding all but the slightest silhouette of her face. In the background, a massive screen flickers deep purple and blue; beside her on stage sits a potted palm. For one full minute: riotous, embracing applause. Gently, she wipes a tear with the middle finger of her left hand, then wipes her nose, which from this angle appears as the bottom-half of a perfectly slender S curve that begins on her forehead, shimmies down her face and ramps off into the void. Finally, she turns to address the audience, smiles and says, “I think you’re going to have to sing it for me.” The piano starts, and everyone complies, very loudly and very clearly. She tries to sing too, of course, then pauses to cry and smile at the same time, seemingly overwhelmed by the audience’s affection. But no one else stops singing: It’s you, it’s you, it’s all for you…

Lana Del Rey, the singer whose entire self so often seems a carefully constructed display, didn’t conceive of this scene, like she has the many music videos that helped propel her to fame. First came the eerily star-foreshadowing montages of 2008, in which she stitched together found footage and vamped in front of an American flag under her given name, Lizzy Grant. Back then, sometimes she’d make four videos for the same song, but most times, nobody much saw them. Next came “Video Games,” which applied that same cut-up look to a slightly fuller sound, and thrust Grant, now singing as Lana Del Rey, from bedroom clips to blockbusters. Then the big budgets arrived: she sat on a throne backed by two tigers in the video for “Born to Die,” embodied both Jackie O and Marilyn in a span of minutes for “National Anthem” and, for “Tropico,” lounged with Elvis and John Wayne in CGI heaven. Lana Del Rey’s filmography is a master class on how to build an icon, and yet, no footage feels like proof of her iconicity as much as the shaky clip of a teary 2013 performance, shot on a phone by a fan in Dublin.

I ask her why she was crying. “I’d been sick on tour for about two years with this medical anomaly that doctors couldn’t figure out,” she says, to my surprise. “That’s a big part of my life: I just feel really sick a lot of the time and can’t figure out why. I’d gotten these shots in Russia, where we’d just been. It was just heavy. It’s just heavy performing for people who really care about you, and you don’t really care that much about yourself sometimes. I thought it was sad. I thought my position was sad. I thought it was sad to be in Ireland singing for people who really cared when I wasn’t sure if I did.” I’d expected self-congratulation, the triumph of finally making it. You never really know.

We’re speaking in the Brooklyn backyard of this story’s photographer, and she’s wearing one of his shirts. It fits her poorly—probably a men’s XXL—and with her hair and makeup done up for the cover shoot, she gives the impression of a young lumberjack’s date the morning after prom. She must know this. They’d been taking the photos in the house earlier, in an attempt at a more laid-back glimpse of a star known for her Hollywood glamour, when she noticed a rack of his vintage clothes and asked to pull from it. More than raw beauty, hers is the gift of producing a precise effect; voilá, she looks like somebody’s girlfriend.

It’s a few weeks before the release of her second major-label album, Ultraviolence, and like any artist with over a billion YouTube views, the 27-year-old Lana Del Rey is blessed and cursed with a punishing schedule. By the time I click off my recorder, after nearly 90 minutes, her publicist has twice come out to end the interview. In both cases, she rebuffs him. Barefoot, she carries a casualness with hardly a hint of the imperious pop star I’d expected; she’s excited, pensive, a little bit apprehensive. After, she tells me it’s the longest interview she’s ever done.

From the backyard where we sit, through an old screen door with a frame rimmed in dried-out vines, I can always hear her entourage. Among the six or seven inside, there’s her bodyguard, formerly employed by Brad Pitt, and her British stylist, Johnny Blueeyes, who during the shoot was prone to bursting into the room and crying, “You’re a staaaar!” The whole team, she says, was hired in 2011, after “Video Games” attracted offers from Interscope and Polydor. “I met everyone the same week,” she says. “Because I was very shy, I just sort of stuck with them.” Later, she mentions the staff again, by way of self-analysis. “I’m never the star of my own show,” she says. “I have a very complicated family life. I have a complicated personal life. It’s not just my life, it’s everyone else’s in this extended family unit. It’s always about someone else, even with the people I work with. I’m the quietest person on the set, generally. I’m actually the one that’s trying to keep it all together. It’s pretty weird. It’s a weird, weird world.” She’s chain-smoking Parliaments.

Everyone knows Lana Del Rey’s so-called true identity: she was born Elizabeth Grant, daughter to an entrepreneur who sold domain names. In the press, there’s been a perverse joy in labeling her a phony, whether that’s regarding her supposedly surgically enhanced lips (she has always denied this), or the rebranding that marked her early career. She was born in Lake Placid, in upstate New York, and went to boarding school in Connecticut. When she first started doing shows in 2006, while studying metaphysics at Fordham University in the Bronx, it was with a folky bent and a guitar that her uncle taught her how to play. The F chord was too hard, she later told the BBC’s Mark Savage—“Four fingers? Never going to happen”—but she recorded an acoustic album as May Jailer just the same. (That record, Sirens, was never released, though it eventually leaked online.) In 2008, while still in college, she signed a $10,000 record deal with an indie label called 5 Points and moved to a trailer park in North Bergen, New Jersey. index Magazine filmed a giddy interview with her there; she appears in a car mechanic’s windbreaker, her platinum blonde hair tied up with a baby blue scarf, and, when asked about the “very cohesive package” of her musical identity, says, “It has been a lifelong ambition and desire… to have a defined life and a defined world to live in.” During this period, she teamed with David Kahne, a producer for Paul McCartney and The Strokes, and developed a more idiosyncratic sound for her self-penned lyrics, with affected jazz vocals, synthesized orchestra sections and hip-hop drums—an uncanny mix of old and new. Under the name Lizzy Grant, she released an EP, Kill Kill, and recorded an album, Lana Del Ray A.K.A. Lizzy Grant, which sat on 5 Points’ shelf for two years before it was digitally released in 2010. By then, she’d gone brunette with swooping Veronica Lake curls, and was spending time in London in search of another deal. With the help of a newly hired manager and lawyer, she bought back the album rights and pulled it from the market. Henceforth, she would be known as Lana Del Rey.

You can read the rest of the article here.

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The CMT Awards went down at the Bridgestone Arena in Nashville, TN, on Wednesday. True to form, country music's finest were dressed to the nines and ready to party! Carrie Underwood, who is nominated for two awards, hit the red carpet in a flowing printed gown with her close pal Miranda Lambert. The ladies are also set to take the stage together for a performance of their hit, "Something Bad". Despite having to make an emergency landing during her flight from NYC to Nashville on Tuesday, Miranda was all smiles while posing for photos. The country crooner leads the nominations tonight with a total of six, so we could be seeing lots of her on the stage.

Also on hand for the festivities were Brooklyn Decker, Beth Behrs, Luke Bryan, and the show's stunning host, Kristen Bell. The Frozen star showed up in style wearing a low-cut gown, and seemed cool as a cucumber ahead of her big gig — this is Kristen's fourth year hosting the CMT Awards, but her first time going solo. Keep reading to see all the stars — including Keith Urban and Nicole Kidman! — as they arrive on the red carpet.






Brett Eldredge


Brooklyn Decker


Carrie Underwood and Miranda Lambert


Cassadee Pope


Dierks Bentley and Luke Bryan


Florida Georgia Line


Jason Aldean


James Van Der Beek


Jana Kramer


Hunter Hayes


Jaysoooooon Dayrooloooooooo


Jennifer Nettles and John Legend


Jimmy Butler


Kacey Musgraves


Kellie Pickler


Kristen Bell


Lady Antebellum


Leann Rimes


Lionel Richie


Little Big Town


Nicole Kidman and Keith Urban


Miranda Lambert


Luke Bryan


Sara Evans


Tom Arnold


RaeLynn


The Cast of "Party Down South"


Lindsey Sterling


Steve Austin


ZZ Top


Dustin Lynch


Kip Moore


Danielle Bradbury


Mr. and Mrs. Dog the Bounty Hunter


Dierks Bentley


Brantley Gilbert


Thompson Square


Kate Walsh


Beth Behrs




Video of the Year
Blake Shelton, Pistol Annies and Friends, ‘Boys ‘Round Here’
Carrie Underwood, ‘See You Again’
Eric Church, ‘Give Me Back My Hometown’
Florida Georgia Line (Feat. Luke Bryan), ‘This Is How We Roll’
Hunter Hayes, ‘I Want Crazy’
Kacey Musgraves, ‘Follow Your Arrow’
Keith Urban and Miranda Lambert, ‘We Were Us’
Luke Bryan, ‘That’s My Kind of Night’
Miranda Lambert, ‘Automatic’
Taylor Swift, ‘Red’
Thomas Rhett, ‘It Goes Like This’
Tim McGraw, Taylor Swift, and Keith Urban, ‘Highway Don’t Care’

Male Video of the Year
Blake Shelton, ‘Doin’ What She Likes’
Eric Church, ‘Give Me Back My Hometown’
Hunter Hayes, ‘I Want Crazy’
Jason Aldean, ‘Night Train’
Luke Bryan, ‘Crash My Party’
Randy Houser, ‘Runnin’ Outta Moonlight’

Female Video of the Year
Carrie Underwood, ‘See You Again’
Cassadee Pope, ‘Wasting All These Tears’
Kacey Musgraves, ‘Follow Your Arrow’
Miranda Lambert, ‘Automatic’
Sheryl Crow, ‘Easy’
Taylor Swift, ‘Red’

Group Video of the Year
Eli Young Band, ‘Drunk Last Night’
Lady Antebellum, ‘Compass’
Little Big Town, ‘Your Side of the Bed’
Rascal Flatts, ‘Rewind’
The Band Perry, ‘Done’
Zac Brown Band, ‘Sweet Annie’

Duo Video of the Year
Dan + Shay, ’19 You + Me’
Florida Georgia Line, ”Round Here’
Florida Georgia Line, ‘Stay’
Thompson Square, ‘Everything I Shouldn’t Be Thinking About’

Breakthrough Video of the Year
Brett Eldredge, ‘Beat of the Music’
Cassadee Pope, ‘Wasting All These Tears’jfc
Cole Swindell, ‘Chillin’ It’
David Nail, ‘Whatever She’s Got’
Thomas Rhett, ‘It Goes Like This’
Tyler Farr, ‘Redneck Crazy’

Collaborative Video of the Year
Blake Shelton, Pistol Annies and Friends, ‘Boys ‘Round Here’
Florida Georgia Line and Luke Bryan, ‘This Is How We Roll’
Florida Georgia Line and Nelly, ‘Cruise’
Hunter Hayes and Jason Mraz, ‘Everybody’s Got Somebody But Me’
Keith Urban and Miranda Lambert, ‘We Were Us’
Tim McGraw, Taylor Swift, and Keith Urban, ‘Highway Don’t Care’

CMT Performance of the Year
Dierks Bentley and One Republic, ‘Counting Stars’ (From CMT Crossroads)
Jake Owen, ‘Days of Gold’ (From CMT Hot 20 Countdown)
Lady Antebellum and Stevie Nicks, ‘Rhiannon’ (From CMT Crossroads)
Luke Bryan and Lionel Richie, ‘Oh No/All Night Long’ (From 2013 CMT Artists of the Year)
The Band Perry and Fall Out Boy, ‘My Songs Know What You Did in the Night/(Light Em Up)’ (from CMT Crossroads)
Willie Nelson and Neil Young, ‘Long May You Run’ (From CMT Crossroads)



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Pictures Source 2
Winners List

This trashy mess of people. BTW, Taylegend isn't here, so the quality of this red carpet is even lower than usual. Instead we get Jayson Dayrooloh, a dude dressed as a pilot (no, really), and a lot of tacky.

FUCK THIS POST. I think everything should be fixed now.

An interview with the director as the cult slasher film finally arrives on Blu-Ray.

In 1983, a New York University film school graduate student named Robert Hiltzik decided that the best way for him to get into the movie business was to write, produce and direct his own feature film. That movie, Sleepaway Camp, was an unassuming yet distinctive slasher tale set at Camp Arawak, where a familiar genre scenario of revenge plays out as the campers are murdered one by one, in a series of gruesome “accidents.” When the killer is finally revealed, it’s done in a closing shot that is one of the more memorable of the many slasher films that came out during that bloodthirsty decade.

Like so many of its kind, Sleepaway Camp has become a cult classic among fans who saw it in theaters or later discovered it on VHS, while also spawning three more inferior sequels that Hiltzik had nothing to do with. He finally mounted his own follow-up, Return to Sleepaway Camp, that was eventually released in 2008, but not even that managed to be a satisfying successor to the original.

Sleepaway Camp arrives on Blu-ray (May 27) for the first time, courtesy of the fantastic folks over at Scream Factory, in a bonus-packed edition that includes a fresh transfer of the film, new commentaries from Hiltzik and stars Felissa Rose and Jonathan Tiersten, a brand new documentary on the making of the movie and more goodies. Robert Hiltzik, now a partner in a New York City law firm, got on the phone with Den of Geek to discuss the movie’s history, production and legacy, as well as its possible (and probably inevitable) reboot.

Den of Geek: How did Sleepaway Camp first come about for you?

Robert Hiltzik: I was in graduate school at NYU. It’s a three year program. It was kind of my second year and I was trying to figure out what I was going to do with this master’s degree once I got out of there. I didn't want to be getting coffee for film producers. So I figured what I wanted to do was I wanted to try and figure out how to make a movie and jumpstart that whole process. So the process was then to figure out what kind of movie was easiest to get to market and inexpensive to make. So I figured horror films -- everyone likes horror films. And if I could shoot it in one location I’d save a lot of money. And that’s where the camp idea came from. So ultimately what happened was rather than go to school my third year I started making the movie without the school knowing it. And the story is that, you know, because I’d missed so many classes they weren’t going to give me my degree and my classmates actually came to support me and said the guy just made a feature film -- you’ve got to give him his degree.

That’s a hell of a final project to show them.

I don’t know if they ever saw it. I didn’t actually show it there. But, you know, I was working on whatever assignments I had to some extent but I rarely went into class.

Did you have a taste for horror films yourself or was it simply just the most practical movie to make?

When I was growing up that’s when they had Saturday matinees. Almost every Saturday I was going to see the double feature down at the movie theater – it was about three or four blocks away from my house. And I’d go there with my friends, you know, we’d go to the stationery store next door, buy the five cent boxes of candy and sneak them in. And we’d watch double features, you know. Robinson Crusoe on Mars and things like that. Sometimes there were horror movies -- Dracula, Frankenstein, things like that. But horror movies were not something that I gravitated to as a filmgoer -- just whatever they were serving up on those Saturday matinees. I was a big James Bond fan and I really liked those movies.

So you filmed at the actual camp that you went to as a kid?

That’s right.

Things seemed much looser back then. It’s hard to imagine summer camps being okay with filming a pretty gory horror movie there these days.

Well, I don’t know if he ever saw the script. I think it was a business decision for the camp. You know: "We’re not doing anything with the camp and here’s a way to make a couple extra dollars –- why not?" I was familiar with the camp so I knew the layout like the back of my hand. When I was writing the script I didn’t know I was going to get access to the camp, but the layout of that camp was what I was depending on when I wrote the script.

Something that sets the movie apart from a lot of the slasher films of the time are the fact that the kids look like kids.

Right. That was something that was very important to me because in the horror movies at that time, whether it was Friday the 13th or the other films, they were using 20, 22-year-old kids to play 14, 15-year-olds. And that bothered me a lot because I wanted kids to be kids and I thought the audience would appreciate that. I really enjoyed casting those kids because, you know, one of the reasons that the producers use older kids to play little kids is because of the union rules. If you’re under 18 you can only work a certain amount of time a day. So if you have someone over 18, well, he’s an adult, you can work your 10-15 hour days. With kids you can’t do that because you have an eight hour day and four of those hours are spent on tutoring for school. So the path of least resistance, of course, was just use kids that are older. I didn’t want to go that route. I thought it would play better if I had kids playing kids.

The psychosexual aspects of the movie -- was it simply about making the most shocking type of angle for the movie?

Well, you know, the way I wrote the film was I came up with a beginning and I came up with the end. I wanted a good beginning to grab the audience right away and then hold onto them. Then I wanted a shocking ending or a twist that they would talk about when they walked out of the movie theater. And then I filled in the middle from that point on. I thought that was something that no one had really seen before and would really shock the system of the audience. The psychosexual angle came about because once I picked that ending, I thought I had to foreshadow it, otherwise I’m cheating the audience. So there had to be that issue -- even if it’s just below the surface it had to be presented.

The last shot has been commented on a lot, because of the way you hold it and change the color. Was there any particular inspiration for that?

Once we shot it, we were just looking for something new with the music and everything. I didn’t want it to be too static so that the color changes just to give it a little more energy and just make it more visceral. I didn’t really know how I was going to shoot it until, you know, we were planning on how we were going to do it but, you know, we played with that a little bit and probably shot it a few different ways and then solved the problems in the editing.

Even though you had been in film school, this was your first feature film. Did you feel like you had a handle on how to make it or were you just making it up as you went?

No, you know, I wrote a 90 minute script and that script is what we shot. In other words I didn’t take a two and a half hour film and then cut it down in the editing room and shoot everything. We shot my script. So effectively what I did was I pre-edited the film with the script. This is what the elements are, this is what we’re going to do. And there were some times where we had to make some adjustments, which you have to do on every film, whether it’s because of weather or because some of your stunts aren’t working out. But I would say that we pretty much stayed on a straight line. After the first day of shooting we were already one day behind because we were shooting in the water which is, you know, the opening scene. And water always takes a long time. But we never went over another day. In fact, for the rest of the shoot we were always only one day behind. So we were pretty well organized. We had a really terrific crew and they were really very supportive. They’re professionals. You’ve got some kid coming in who’s still in film school making a feature and they were really terrific. They got it, they understood what I was trying to do and that made things much easier.

Do you have a single fondest memory of the shoot?

Well the bees (sequence) was always one of my favorites. I remember the local beekeeper coming in and, you know, I was like, "More bees, more bees." Many fond memories. The cast, the crew -- we were family for the five weeks we were shooting. It was a different kind of family because you had very young kids there and I didn’t have a lot of parents around which surprised me a lot. The parents would basically allow me to care for their kids because they left. It’s not like they were on the sidelines, you know, like a little league game where you have the little league parents. They pretty much gave me their kids and didn’t interfere. We were all in it together and we were in one location so for five weeks it was a terrific experience.

Obviously the movie has become a cult favorite over 30 years -- are you gratified to see that happen? You certainly couldn’t have foreseen it at the time you were making the movie.

Absolutely. I’ve said before when you make a film you never know how it’s going to be received. You think it’s the best thing since sliced bread but you still never know how the audience is going to react. And yet I’m constantly surprised at the reaction it’s developed over the years. In fact, a couple of years ago I was in Chicago at a viewing and a whole new generation of fans was coming up to me, you know. Instead of 40 and 50-year-olds I was being approached by teenagers, 15-year-olds, 20 year olds who were gushing about the film. So it's gratifying but always surprising because you just never know.

Is there still a possible reboot in the works?

There is. The reboot has been written and, of course, the way I put it is it’s not your parent’s Sleepaway Camp. So it’s been updated, modernized and it has different elements in it while trying to maintain the elements that the fans have really appreciated. So I want to keep that. Honestly the issues I’ve had with it is that all the studios want to use their director, and that’s not going to happen because I’ve seen what some of these rebooted '80s films end up looking like and at this point in time, it’s not something I need to do. It’s not a money issue because they’ll throw money at me to give them the rights, but I’d rather do it myself.

Favorite death in the Sleepaway Camp series? And not here for the writer calling the sequels 'inferior', smh.

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Antonio Marziale's audition tape for the role of Trystane Martell.

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Justin Bieber is letting God do his talking ... posting a photo of several Bible passages in the wake of the latest video of him using the n-word.

TMZ posted the video Wednesday ... showing a 14-year-old Bieber singing a racist version of his own song, repeating the line ... "There'll be one less lonely n*****."

Bieber's camp wanted the video out so he could own up to what he'd done.

Bieber's Instagram post focuses on 3 verses -- 2 from the book of John and one from Isaiah -- and all of them deal with forgiveness and salvation for your sins.



His manager Scooter also posted this.



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Wednesday's upcoming episode of Catfish: The TV Show isn't about romance. Instead, it's an eye-opening tale of how even celebrities are vulnerable to web deception.

MTV gave PEOPLE an exclusive look at the new episode, in which Rent and Death Proof actress Tracie Thoms enlists Nev Schulman and Max Joseph's help to find a fan that went too far. Thoms shared how she formed a friendship with a girl named Sammie, after Sammie reached out over Twitter to help the star promote her film Raze. Unfortunately, Thoms eventually discovered that Sammie was creating multiple fake accounts to manipulate the actress' emotions and get more attention. When Thoms called Sammie out on her behavior, the fan cut off contact.

Worried about Sammie's well-being and wanting closure, Thoms went to Catfish. Thoms talked to PEOPLE about her Catfish caper and what she hopes fans and stars alike will learn from her experience on Wednesday's episode.



What did you know about Catfish before being on the show?

I was a recent fan of the show when I wrote my letter to Nev and Max, but I was very aware of the premise and knew what it was all about. I think it became apparent to me what the show was, shortly after my experience. I would tell people about it and they would be like, "Oh my god, it's like that show Catfish."

Without giving too much away, what made you consider reaching out to Catfish with your situation?

I had no closure with the situation and no real way to get it. I also thought it was an interesting opportunity to explore this phenomenon of social media interactions between fans and actors.

A lot of the fans who interact on social media with the people they admire don't understand that there are people who do things like this to celebrities. So celebrities have to be careful. And a lot of celebrities don't realize, if they haven't had an experience like this yet, that fans are capable of this kind of deception.

How can having this connection with fans through social media be positive for a celebrity?

It really gives us an opportunity to reach out to our fans. It's very easy for me to give advice and answer questions, or be like "Hey, what's up?" We can have a conversation.

The reason that a lot of people know me is from Rent. Rent naturally garners a very young fan base. It speaks to young people who are dealing with a myriad of issues, whether they feel marginalized because of their age, or their sexual orientation, or because they want to be an artist. It speaks to all those kids.

So there are a lot of kids that I talk to, and I like it. I like being able to help in any way I can. Often times I feel like I say things they've heard a lot, but coming from me it helps them get through it.

Has this experience changed how you interact online at all?

Yeah, I don't interact with fans exactly the same way that I used too. I am less likely to have back and forth conversations on Twitter.

I hold myself back from being as personally involved with fans online, which makes me kind of sad. It wasn't a decision I made, it was something I noticed a few months ago. I'm still there, and respond when I can, but I subconsciously refrain from being as open as I was.


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totally non-ironic fanboi for this one, I straight up squealed (like a pigoon) when I saw the headline



Following the success of his Biblical epic, Noah, earlier this year, Darren Aronofsky is looking to bring his next project to the small screen. Deadline reports that the Requiem for a Dream helmer has plans to executive produce an HBO miniseries adaptation of Margaret Atwood's "MaddAddam" trilogy and is potentially planning to direct as well.

The trilogy began with "Oryx and Crake" in 2003. It was followed by "The Year of the Flood" in 2009 and "MaddAddam" in 2013.

As the story begins, we meet a man called Snowman sleeping in a tree, wearing an old bedsheet, mourning the death of his beloved Oryx and slowly starving to death. He searches for supplies in a wasteland where insects proliferate and mutant pigoons and wolvogs ravage the land.

As he tries to piece together what has taken place, the narrative shifts to decades earlier. How did everything fall apart so quickly? Why is he left with nothing but his haunting memories? Alone except for the green-eyed Children of Crake, who think of him as a kind of monster, he explores the answers to these questions in the double journey he takes - into his own past, and back to Crake’s high-tech bubble-dome, where the Paradice Project unfolded and the world came to grief.

Atwood herself is attached to serve as consulting producer.



OH SHIT, I just remembered that brain-dead statement from people connected with "Noah" that the movie was all-white because they were trying to be post-racially Mythic and Universal. Was Aronofsky himself part of that, or was it some idiot underling? (Obviously Aronofsky himself was involved in the casting tho).

Anyway, don't care, point is, MARGARET ATWOOD ON HBO.

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“[L]et this serve as proof anything is possible,” Iggy Azalea said, regarding how she became the first female rapper to top the Billboard Hot 100 in a decade. And, based on the rate she’s working, Azalea hopes to churn out more hits soon. In an interview with Miss Info for Hot 97, she confirmed that she has already started working on a follow-up to her Def Jam debut The New Classic.

Azalea plans to start recording new songs in August, after she wraps a few festival dates. She didn’t reveal who will appear on the new album, though she did reveal that she wants Missy Elliott to appear.

Meanwhile, Azalea plans to release “Black Widow,” featuring Rita Ora and co-written by Katy Perry, as her next single. It would be interesting to see how that song adds to her current success; recently, thanks to “Fancy” and her guest verse in Ariana Grande‘s “Problem,” she became the first act since the Beatles to have her first two chart entries rank first and second on the Hot 100.

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Mods, can we get a 'slay' tag???

The 2013 NBA Finals were brilliant. All a reasonable fan could ask for when the series ended was more. Well, we got it.




Finals rematches don't come about too often, but the Basketball Gods blessed us this season by doling out another helping of Spurs vs. Heat. What makes this serving so rich is that the last course was basically perfect ... provided you aren't a heartbroken San Antonio fan. Last June, we got a compelling basketball series that focused almost entirely on basketball, a wonderful feat in today's media age. With loads of future Hall of Famers, stunning moments and seven games of drama, you couldn't really ask for more.




The question now is whether this edition will live up to that standard. In essence, that's a question for the Miami Heat, who don't seem to be quite as good as they were in 2013. Coming off of back-to-back titles, Miami took it easy this season. Dwyane Wade rested plenty, LeBron James put less effort into his defense and the team seemed totally content to get into the playoffs healthy, even at the expense of home court advantage.




And that's exactly what happened: Miami finished in the East's No. 2 spot and well behind a few West contenders in the standings, but ended up with a refreshed Wade and a healthy roster. The plan worked.



And it's for all the wrong reasons.
But the Spurs made sure to rest key players heavily too and still ended up with the NBA's best record. That's what makes San Antonio the favorites to win this series: the Spurs had the same goals as the Heat and still blew most opponents out of the water. That Miami is back in the Finals should tell us that the Playoff Heat are a different squad than the one we saw for about six months of regular season ball. But the Spurs just cut through the nasty West. San Antonio is better than they looked in the regular season too!




The best thing about the 2013 Finals was that the teams were so evenly matched that any single player on either squad could be the difference. And we're not just talking about the legends of the series, the Duncans, LeBrons, Wades and Parkers. Danny Green could be the difference. James Jones. Kawhi Leonard. Chris Andersen. When two teams match up well, every little thing matters. That makes for compelling basketball.




LeBron isn't used to being the underdog. The last time his team wasn't expected to win may have been in the 2007 Finals, when the Cavaliers faced the rampaging Spurs. San Antonio swept Cleveland easily.




San Antonio has talked about wanting revenge for last year's title loss to LeBron and the Heat. Perhaps they are missing that 2013 was LeBron's revenge for 2007. No one really cares about legacy all that much, but the result here could decide whether the Spurs are seen as a persistent foil to LeBron's reign or one of the Homerian challenges King James overcame in the end.




Regardless of what narrative springs from the loins of this series, the basketball itself figures to be beautiful and compelling. That's all we want in the end: something to make our heart flutter. Here's to the Spurs and the Heat, purveyors of sport magic and worthy champions.




-Tom Ziller

Seth Rollins betrays The Shield and joins Evolution: Reasons to be Excited and Afraid

Setting our feelings aside (mostly), we look at the potential positives and negatives stemming from the shocking events of June 2nd in the latest edition of the series we trot out for big angles like Seth Rollins turning on The Shield.


We've had some time to sleep on it (or at least, those of us who aren't vampires that live for the impassioned blood of pro wrestling fans), so it's time to take an analytical look at the break-up of The Hounds of Justice.

Oh, who am I kidding? SAY IT AIN'T SO, SETH!

Here are the reasons this mark is excited and afraid about a future with Seth Rollins aligned with Randy Orton and Triple H in Evolution against his former Shield-mates, Dean Ambrose and Roman Reigns.

On the one hand:

1) Those feelings that you're feeling.Those don't just happen. In fiction, in life or the unique blend of both that is pro wrestling, shock, betrayal, sadness and anger have to be earned. And WWE worked for this over the last eighteen months. It almost certainly wasn't drawn up exactly like this, but teams are built to be broken. Fans, performers and behind-the-scenes players all know this.

So to create something where the dissolution of a team was both meaningful AND a surprise is pretty awesome.

2) Rollins works great as a heel, and this was one of the heelishly heel turns ever.

Prior to his debut as as a member of The Shield at Survivor Series 2012, I wasn't the world's biggest fan of the characters Colby Lopez had portrayed in the independents or in WWE.

With one exception...his heel championship run as Tyler Black in Ring of Honor (ROH) just prior to his departure for WWE.

That character came about because the ROH fans had labeled him a sellout when word of his contract with Stamford broke, and he claimed that they were just then revealing their true feelings. They had never appreciated him, so why should he look out for anyone but number one?

Sound familiar?

Solo babyface Seth Rollins was always kind of a dull affair. For those familiar with the current NXT product, he was more Adrian Neville than Sami Zayn. He's grown considerably as good guy within The Shield, but it's a good call to have his first work without Reigns and Ambrose on the main stage to be as a rudo.

3) Speaking of NXT, we're about to get some rematches of one of the greatest feuds in the history of its predecessor, Florida Championship Wrestling (FCW).

Go and seek out the feud between Rollins and Ambrose over the FCW15 title, especially the 30 minute blowoff from September of 2011. And their follow-up matches from the first half of 2012 over the Florida Heavyweight Championship.

You can thank me later.

It'll be fun to see Dean and Seth do it again with the alignments reversed.

Bonus excited: My word, is Roman Reigns going to get one of the loudest babyface pops of all-time when he gets his revenge on Seth (if they do this right).

On the other hand:

1) What if they don't do this right?

WWE's recent track record feels pretty solid right now, but that's largely the result of the story that culminated with Daniel Bryan's WWE World Heavyweight Championship win at WrestleMania 30. Outside of that and the peripheral angles that it created (of which it can be argued the Batista heel turn which lead to Evolution reforming which lead to last night is one of them), they remain the same hit and mostly miss operation that they've been since the fall of WCW.

So while I'm confident that the BIG story that results in Seth and Triple H getting their comeuppance - and turning Reigns into the next main event hero, a la Bryan - will work out, I'm less confident in other aspects. There's precedent for WWE to screw up all of them...

Do they have Dean Ambrose's story plotted out enough to avoid his spending time adrift as a babyface in the mid-card title scene? I believe that he's got too much skill and charisma to get lost, but it's been known to happen to similar performers (see: Ziggler, D.)

Can they position Randy Orton to not end up just as lost as he was before last Summer? The Viper runs at the top make him an extremely valuable tool in Creative's toolbox. Wins over him need to matter, like they did for Daniel Bryan...as opposed to the way he spent his last year-plus as a babyface adrift...kind of like Sheamus is now.

What's the long-term plan for Rollins? Young guys usually flourish as part of a villainous stable, but "what's next?" can be a bit of stumbling block. Heels are built to lose, and as we've seen time and time again, it's what they do when they get back up that makes the difference between a hot angle and a long career. Ask Wade Barrett, just now recovering from Nexus' defeats of four years ago,

2) Does this development elevate anyone?

Long-term, yes, this continues the capital-M making of The Shield. Making as many of the trio into long-term main eventers is a worthy and essential goal.

But it's also simply a re-arranging of guys that were already big stars. While they've only held lesser titles in the company, The Hounds of Justice have been around the WWE championship since their debut, and have been in one of the top two or three angles in the company for most of the last year.

Does this help with the fact that Bryan will probably still be facing Kane when he returns? Or that John Cena and Bray Wyatt may be (unnecessarily and potentially damagingly) heading into their fourth straight pay-per-view (PPV) against one another?

A large part of the reason that WWE scrambles when top stars leave or go down is because they focus so myopically on the big stars. It's great that everyone is talking about Rollins' turn this morning. But it would be even greater if they were working on the new star or moment we'll be buzzing about in six months or a year.

3) Dean Ambrose: hero of the people?

As talented as he is, Ambrose's performance lends itself to playing an unhinged, even dangerous, character. The multitude comparisons to Batman villain The Joker don't happen for no reason.

The last few months of face Shield has shown that he can do that, but I don't think it allows him to reach his full potential. I want to see solo Dean unleashed to corrupt the WWE's heroes and bring down the whole enterprise, not play Riggs to Roman's Murtaugh in an odd couple buddy flick.

And while an anti-hero face works in small doses, we already kind of have one right now. It would probably be easier to craft a fully realized heel from Ambrose now, with the lessons they've learned from how fans have embraced Wyatt as a "cool heel", than it would be to turn back the tide of audiences singing along to "He's Got the Whole World in His Hands".

Final Analysis: 85% excited, 15% afraid...100% MARKING OUT

How's everybody else feeling about last night's big twist, following twelve hours to process and twelve thousand words on cSs to consider?

For those who didn't see it :(


and Bae responded :(

Trust is completely dead to me. pic.twitter.com/ytvu6LSO1r

— Roman Reigns (@WWERomanReigns) June 3, 2014

Ummm ...

The end of the Donald Sterling saga is a victory for the NBA

Mark J. Terrill/AP
Merely a week after his attorney pledged a fight "to the bloody end" to keep the Clippers, Donald Sterling has bloodlessly dropped his lawsuit against the NBA. The NBA Board of Governors is expected to approve former Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer, who last week reached a deal to buy the Clippers for $2 billion, as the next Clippers owner. Donald and Shelly Sterling, who together own the Clippers through a family trust, will split the $2 billion. According to an estimate by Robert Raiola, a senior manager in the Sports & Entertainment Group of the accounting firm O'Connor Davies, LLP, approximately $662 million of the $2 billion will be paid to the I.R.S. and California Franchise Tax Board in capital gains taxes.
Sterling's decision ends an extraordinary controversy that began about five weeks ago, when TMZ.com published a recording of Sterling making racist comments to an acquaintance, V. Stiviano, about an Instagram photo in which she posed with Magic Johnson. The recording sparked an international controversy for the NBA. Players threatened a boycott, corporate sponsors dropped the Clippers, and President Obama, along with other leaders, expressed outrage at Sterling's remarks. The controversy was like none before it, and it occurred just two months after Adam Silver succeeded David Stern as NBA commissioner.

Decisive legal win for NBA and validation of league strategy
The NBA outmaneuvered Donald Sterling at every step, making it virtually impossible for him to wage an effective legal fight. The league's immediate response to the TMZ story was to conduct an investigation and verify the authenticity of the recording. The NBA retained former assistant U.S. attorney David Anders to lead this investigation, with Silver, an attorney by trade, and NBA executive vice president and general counsel Rick Buchanan overseeing the operation from league headquarters. Anders obtained crucial evidence that authenticated both the recording and Sterling's voice, and he received direct testimony from Stiviano. Stiviano's statements were crucial. They ensured the NBA would not have to rely exclusively on the recording, which may have been created unlawfully under California law. Even though the NBA likely possessed a clear legal right to use the recording, the testimony from Stiviano was powerful backup evidence.

Silver's move to suspend Sterling for life and recommend the Board of Governors end Sterling's ownership was bold and exceeded what many expected. In hindsight, Silver's decisive course of action was the right one, as NBA owners were put on immediate notice the commissioner wanted them to vote out Sterling. Any goodwill Sterling might have obtained over the years from friendships with fellow owners was likely outweighed by Silver's clear directive. Sterling was quickly in the hole.
The NBA then built a compelling legal case against Sterling and adroitly used the league's constitution. To execute this strategy, the league quickly pivoted from expressing outrage over Sterling's words to highlighting the damage Sterling caused the NBA. The NBA made this shift in rhetoric to quash concerns, most notably from Mavericks owner Mark Cuban, that Sterling was receiving the harshest punishment possible over fundamentally private comments. Sterling, the league contended, was being punished not for his words but for the deleterious effects of those words on the NBA. The league also assured NBA owners that ousting Sterling would not create a precedent to oust owners, especially since the league constitution was designed to make such an ouster very difficult: a super-majority of three-quarters (22 of the 29 other ownership groups) is required.

This line of argument also helped the NBA mollify serious criticism for the league's past failures to oust Sterling over housing discrimination, an obviously far more serious matter than racist comments made in private. The league's emphasis on impact helped NBA officials talk through the topic of Sterling's housing discrimination. Sterling, officials noted, was able to settle housing discrimination lawsuits before they caused public outrage and thus before they harmed the NBA. Sterling's remarks to Stiviano, in contrast, caused public outrage and negatively impacted the league.
The NBA also used the bevy of legal documents Sterling, an attorney by trade, signed with the league. Two of those documents, the franchise agreement and the joint venture agreement, contained covenants prohibiting Sterling from taking positions adverse to the NBA. Breach of those covenants enabled the NBA to argue Sterling violated Article 13(d), which empowers the league to oust an owner from violating contractual obligations. The league was aware it could interpret the constitution broadly. Any legal challenge by Sterling to the NBA's interpretation of its own constitution would have required Sterling to prove the NBA acted "arbitrarily and capriciously." This is a deferential standard that would have been extremely forgiving to NBA interpretation.

Any fleeting chance Sterling may have held to win at least eight of the 29 ownership votes was forfeited in his bizarre and caustic interview with CNN's Anderson Cooper. While Sterling assured Cooper he was sorry for his remarks to Stiviano, he viciously and inexplicably attacked the character of Magic Johnson. If Sterling thought his fellow owners would appreciate an ad hominen assault on Johnson, he was sorely mistaken.

The league catches a break with a cooperative and astute Shelly Sterling
Until the last two weeks, Shelly Sterling was thought to be a potential roadblock for the NBA to remove her husband as owner. Shelly Sterling owns half of the Clippers through a family trust, but she is a non-controlling owner. Donald Sterling, in contrast, is the team's controlling owner, which gives him the power to sell the Clippers with NBA approval. There was some speculation Shelly Sterling, who has been implicated in her own controversies over the years, might use her interest in the Clippers to block a sale. It was also thought she might divorce her husband of 59 years and, since California is a community property state, demand a judge conduct a fair market valuation of the Clippers. Such a valuation could have taken months or longer. Finally, Shelly Sterling's suggestion to Barbara Walters that her husband may be suffering early signs of dementia was initially viewed as an attempt to cast the NBA as trying to oust an elderly man who is no longer responsible for his choice of words.

Instead, Shelly Sterling, with Donald Sterling's apparent knowledge if not his blessing, sought out offers for the Clippers. She did so while recognizing the NBA Board of Governors was going to vote out Donald -- and by legal extension her -- on June 2. She wisely created a brief but intense bidding war for the Clippers, with bidders having to put in their best offer as their only bid. Ballmer's $2 billion offer topped the list, but there were several other bids that far exceeded expectations for the Clippers, which were valued last year at $500 million. Shelly Sterling also knew Ballmer would be well-received by the NBA, which had favorably screened Ballmer last year when he tried to buy the Sacramento Kings. Ballmer is also friendly with many NBA owners and is a lock to be approved by the Board of Governors.

Shelly Sterling still faced an obstacle: how could she sell the Clippers while her husband was uncertain about selling the team? Her attorneys believed she could take over the family trust because doctors had apparently declared Donald Sterling mentally incompetent due to dementia. It remains unclear if a probate court ever approved such a declaration, and we may never find out.
Donald Sterling's lawsuit had almost no chance of success
Shelly Sterling's declaration her husband was incompetent was initially met with hostility by Donald Sterling's attorney, Max Blecher, who denied his client was in anyway incapable of making decisions. This view was cemented when Donald Sterling filed a lawsuit last Friday against the NBA, arguing the league was unlawfully forcing him out.
Donald Sterling's lawsuit set the table for a long and potentially historic fight with the NBA, but sources confirm the league was decidedly unimpressed by Sterling's legal arguments. Sterling built a case around three basic areas of law that were difficult to conceive as carrying much weight. Sterling argued California privacy law blocked the NBA from using the recording, but the NBA was aware the law only extended to parties to the recording, not third parties like the NBA. Sterling then argued the NBA misinterpreted its own constitution, but the NBA knew it would be afforded wide discretion by a judge in interpreting its own document, especially since Sterling himself contractually consented to league discretion. Sterling lastly raised the always-threatening antitrust law, but the league knew Sterling could likely prove no antitrust injury. Sterling's ouster from the Clippers would likely help, not hurt, the Clippers' standing with consumers.
The NBA was worried even less by Sterling's lawsuit because Shelly Sterling, on behalf of herself and the Sterling family trust, indemnified the NBA from all costs related to Donald Sterling suing the league. In essence, then, if Donald Sterling defeated the NBA in court, he would effectively be paying half of the damages awarded to him: the trust, which he co-owns, and his wife, with whom he shares half of their wealth under California community property law, would be paying him.
The one issue that may have undermined the NBA's legal strategy was if Donald Sterling contested to his wife's account of his mental competence. He could have sued her, arguing she lacked the legal right to take over the Sterling family trust. If a court found she lacked the legal capacity to sell the team, then her sale of the Clippers to Ballmer would have been jeopardized. But apparently Donald Sterling, who is 80 years old, reasoned that such a battle was not worth his time, energy and expense, especially when compared to a $2 billion payout.

Silver's newfound power will help him with other issues
Silver's ouster of the notoriously litigious Donald Sterling with essentially no resistance, while simultaneously raising the value of all NBA teams through the Clippers' $2 billion price tag, was masterful. It cements his authority over the NBA, and Silver will likely use his newfound capital to pursue his original agenda items, with raising the NBA's age limit to 20 years old at the top of the list. Raising the age limit will require negotiation with the National Basketball Players' Association once the union selects a new executive director. But Silver has built goodwill with prominent NBA players, including Lebron James (who ironically entered the NBA out of high school), and that should help him obtain his goals, including an elevated age limit.
Michael McCann is a Massachusetts attorney and the founding director of the Sports and Entertainment Law Institute at the University of New Hampshire School of Law. He is also the distinguished visiting Hall of Fame Professor of Law at Mississippi College School of Law.

Jurgen Klinsmann says the United States can't win the World Cup in 2014

n many ways, 2014 is a transitional year for the United States men’s national team. For the first time since France 1998, the team will be without American icon Landon Donovan, who made his World Cup debut in 2002 but failed to make the final 23-man roster for Brazil. The team headed to South America, filled with strong central midfielders, is adapting to a a new 4-4-2 diamond formation to better suit the roster. The United States faces the Group of Death, having been drawn in a group with superpowers Germany and Portugal, and World Cup rival Ghana.


The United States advanced to the round of 16 in South Africa, meeting the expectations of a nation, but not exceeding them. With a Herculean task ahead, manager Jurgen Klinsmann made it clear that the United States is still years, and possibly generations, away from serious World Cup success. In an interview with the New York Times’ Sam Borden, Klinsmann said that “is not possible” for the Americans to win the World Cup in 2014.





Klinsmann’s willingness to part with a legend like Donovan sends a clear message, though: This is his team, and he’s focused on the future, not the present. Seven of the United States’ 23 players heading to Brazil are under the age of 25, and only six outfield players are over the age of 30. Klinsmann noted that most pro sports franchises tend to rely upon established stars, many of whom have reached their peak and have no room for growth. With the national team, he’s doing the opposite.




“Kobe Bryant, for example — why does he get a two-year contract extension for $50 million? Because of what he is going to do in the next two years for the Lakers? Of course not. Of course not. He gets it because of what he has done before. It makes no sense. Why do you pay for what has already happened?”




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Who do u guys have in the NBA Finals ? and WWE fans what do you think of Seth's swerve ??

Elusive Sales: Mariah Carey’s New Album Suffers Shocking Dip

Following the dismal debut sales of Mariah Carey‘s new album ‘Me. I Am Mariah…The Elusive Chanteuse’, many of the singer’s loyal fans clung to hope that the set would enjoy a slow yet steady ascend.

However, hope was sadly dashed today following the release of sales forecasts for next week’s Billboard 200.

See what we mean below…

According to Hits Daily Double, here’s how next week’s tally is shaping up:

1. Miranda Lambert (RCA Nashville) 170-180k
2. Frozen (Walt Disney) 50-55k
3. Brantley Gilbert (Valory) 50-55k
4. Coldplay (Parlophone) 45-50k
5. Now 50 (NOW) 40-45k
6. 50 Cent (G-Unit) 35-40k
7. Now Country 7 (NOW) 25-28k
8. Led Zeppelin I (Rhino) 25-28k
9. Michael Jackson (Epic) 24-27k
10. Led Zeppelin II (Rhino) 24-27k
11. Led Zeppelin III (Rhino) 22-25k
12. The Black Keys (Nonesuch/Warner Bros.) 21-24k
13. Lucy Hale (DMG Nashville) 19-21k
14. Iggy Azalea (Grand Hustle/Def Jam) 15-18k
15. OneRepublic (Interscope) 15-18k
16. Fault In Our Stars (Atlantic) 15-18k
17. If/Then: A New Musical (Sony Masterworks) 15-18k

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If still looking for Mimi, stop. It’s a fruitless exercise, because the ‘The Elusive Chanteuse’ does not feature. What does this mean? It confirms that the album is set to sell less than 15,000 copies in its second week on sale – representing anywhere from a 70%-80% drop from its already disastrous 58k opening.

A great album it may be, yet it’s clear it’s time to pay our last respects. It’s a wrap.

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