Conan O’Brien’s set to make his debut as the host of the MTV Movie Awards on Sunday, April 13, 2014. The annual awards show doesn’t have much in common with other awards events and offers up categories other groups don’t pay attention to like the Best Scary as S**t performance and the Best Shirtless Performance.
The Emmy-winning talk show host and comedian had this to say about signing up for hosting duties: “After eight years of intense negations, I am honored to announce I am hosting MTV’s second most prestigious awards show.”
The 2014 MTV Movie Awards will be held at Nokia Theatre L.A. Live in downtown Los Angeles.
2013’s MTV Movie Awards marked the first year the show shifted from around Memorial Day to April. Fans responded by increasing the show’s ratings by 20%, with 3.8 million people tuning in.
Matt Passmore and Stephanie Szostak are onboard in starring roles.
“This is a powerful new addition to our drama slate and marks the next generation of sophisticated storytelling for USA,” said USA Network President Chris McCumber. “Through a culturally resonant story of an imperfect marriage, the series takes a captivating look at real modern day issues facing couples in today’s complicated world.”
Other new series recently greenlit include Dig (a six-episode event series), Sirens from Denis Leary, and Chrisley Knows Best.
The Plot:
A provocative drama that explores a marriage that has grown stagnant, the untitled Sean Jablonski pilot follows investment banker Neil Truman (Passmore) through the accidental discovery of his wife’s involvement with a male escort. When Neil gains possession of the escort’s phone, he uncovers a unique perspective on his life and what motivates women to stray, as his wife Grace (Stephanie Szostak) contemplates whether her needs are being met and if her marriage is worth saving.
Josh Duhamel and Kristen Bell (soon to be seen in Veronica Mars) have joined with PetSmart Charities to show their support for shelter pets. Duhamel and his production company Dakotakid Media are working with PetSmart Charities on a special Rescue Waggin’: Tales from the Road series. The eight episode web series spotlights homeless dogs and puppies in need of second chances and searching for forever homes.
And Kristen Bell is just the first of eight celebrities to be featured in a Rescue Waggin’: Tales from the Road episode. Bell is a big advocate for adopting from animal shelters, and her dog Mr. Shakes was up next to be euthanized at a shelter when she fell in love and adopted him. He still shakes, but he’s a happy member of Bell’s home now.
Executive produced by Duhamel and Jude Weng, the web series also includes appearances by Adam Shankman and Bret Michaels.
Duhamel became involved in an expanded role this year after being a part of the Rescue Waggin’ program in 2013. “Adopting my dachshund, Meatloaf, changed my life,” said Josh Duhamel. “He was a clumsy little dude with horrible breath–but we adored him.”
“I tell anybody who’s going to get a pet that adoption is the only way to go, not just because it’s the right thing to do, but because they make incredible pets. I’m honored to partner with PetSmart Charities to help share the joy of pet adoption with others,” added Duhamel.
“The Rescue Waggin’ program is an extension of our adoption program and unites animal shelters from across the country in an effort to avoid euthanizing healthy adoptable dogs,” said Jan Wilkins, executive director of PetSmart Charities, Inc. “We are excited to show the world how our Rescue Waggin’ program gives thousands of beautiful dogs and puppies a second chance at life.”
The Details:
Rescue Waggin’: Tales from the Road puts viewers in the passenger’s seat of the Rescue Waggin’ vehicle to experience the shelter pet transport process from start to finish. The web series chronicles real stories of dogs and puppies from communities with more pets than adopters to communities where adoptable pets are in demand. Visit rescuewaggin.org to view a new webisode each Monday in March.
Rescue Waggin’ vehicles travel up to 3,000 miles a week giving hopeless pets a new “leash” on life. The program has saved the lives of more than 70,000 dogs and puppies since 2004.
Set to make its debut at the 2014 SXSW Film Festival, Stage Fright‘s all about the horrors of musical theater. You know, the bad singers, the bad productions, and the bad blood which apparently is spilled all over the place in this upcoming release from writer/director Jerome Sable. Come on, any film that teams up Minnie Driver and Meat Loaf has to be worth checking out, doesn’t it?
Magnet Releasing’s set an April 3, 2014 debut on iTunes and OnDemand followed by a theatrical run launching May 9th. The cast also includes Allie MacDonald, Douglas Smith, and Brandon Uranowitz.
The Plot:
Starry-eyed teenager Camilla Swanson wants to follow in her mother’s footsteps and become a Broadway diva, but she’s stuck working in the kitchen of a snobby performing arts camp. Determined to change her destiny, she sneaks in to audition for the summer showcase and lands a lead role in the play, but just as rehearsals begin, blood starts to spill, and Camilla soon finds herself terrified by the horror of musical theatre.
Mark Wahlberg, Nicola Peltz, and Jack Reynor in 'Transformers: Age of Extinction' (Photo Credit: Andrew Cooper/Paramount Pictures)
“I don’t think it’s a truck at all. I think we just found a Transformer.” Yes, Mark Wahlberg, you did. The teaser trailer for Transformers: Age of Extinction starts off with Wahlberg having a hunk-of-junk truck towed to his house so he can tear it apart and sell it for parts. But he soon discovers there’s something very different about the metal, and there’s something incredibly special about the old truck. And, of course, that discovery leads to a batch of action scene clips.
In addition to Wahlberg, the cast includes Sophia Myles, TJ Miller, Titus Welliver, Jack Reynor, Nicola Peltz, Stanley Tucci, Han Geng, and Kelsey Grammer.
Paramount’s releasing the Transformers: Age of Extinction on June 27, 2014.
Linkin Park (Photo Courtesy of Live Nation)Hot off his Oscar win for his performance in Dallas Buyers Club, Jared Leto joined with Linkin Park’s Chester Bennington to announce a planned North American tour. The Carnivores Tour with Thirty Seconds to Mars and Linkin Park will kick off on Friday, August 8, 2014 in West Palm Beach at the Cruzan Amphitheatre. The tour, which will feature special guest AFI, will visit 25 cities all around North America before finishing up in Concord, CA on September 19th.
Tickets will go on sale on March 7th at livenation.com. Advance sales to fan club members are now underway.
“Carnivores is a metaphor that is meant to convey an appetite for something visceral and substantive, and I feel that’s exactly the hunger this tour will feed,” explained co-lead singer Mike Shinoda from Linkin Park.”
Leto added, “We are so excited to join our friends on this epic journey. It’s going to be the adventure of a lifetime.”
The Carnivores Tour Dates
Aug 8 West Palm Beach, FL @ Cruzan Amphitheatre
Aug 9 Tampa, FL @ George M. Steinbrenner Field
Aug 12 Charlotte, NC @ PNC Music Pavilion
Aug 13 Bristow, VA @ Jiffy Lube Live
Aug 15 Camden, NJ @ Susquehanna Bank Center
Aug 16 Mansfield, MA @ Xfinity Center
Aug 18 Holmdel, NJ @ PNC Bank Arts Center
Aug 19 Wantagh, NY @ Nikon at Jones Beach Theater
Aug 21 Darien Center, NY @ Darien Lake Performing Arts Center
Aug 23 Montreal, QC @ Parc Jean-Drapeau
Aug 24 Toronto, ON @ Air Canada Centre
Aug 26 St Paul, MN @ Minnesota State Fair
Aug 27 Winnipeg, MB @ MTS Centre
Aug 29 Tinley Park, IL @ First Midwest Bank Amphitheatre
Aug 30 Clarkston, MI @ DTE Energy Music Theatre
Sept 5 The Woodlands, TX @ The Cynthia Woods Mitchell Pavilion
Sept 6 Dallas, TX @ Gexa Energy Pavilion
Sept 8 Englewood, CO @ Fiddler’s Green Amphitheatre
Sept 10 Phoenix, AZ @ US Airways Center
Sept 11 Irvine, CA @ Verizon Wireless Amphitheater *
Sept 13 Quincy, WA @ The Gorge Amphitheatre
Sept 15 Los Angeles, CA @ The Hollywood Bowl *
Sept 16 Chula Vista, CA @ Sleep Train Amphitheatre
The special Game of Thrones event will take place on March 20, 2014 at the Cushman & Wakefield Theater. The epic one-night-only GoT experience offers an advance screening of episode one, complete with props and costumes from the show that are on display as part of the traveling exhibition. GoT fans will also have the chance to take photos while seated on the Iron Throne.
The tickets will cost $15 each and will go on sale via Ticketmaster on March 6. All of the net proceeds from the event will benefit the charities Books for Africa and Nothing But Nets.
“Game of Thrones has become a truly global sensation thanks to the show’s incredibly dedicated and loyal fans,” said Zach Enterlin, SVP of Advertising and Promotion at HBO. “To create an event that matches the excitement of the viewers and the epic scale of this series, we knew we had to do something really special. A fan screening of this size, at a venue like Barclays Center, feels like the perfect way to celebrate the new season of Game of Thrones.”
For the rest of us, we have to patiently wait until April 6th at 9pm ET/PT to catch the premiere of season four.
Details on Game of Thrones:
Based on the popular book series A Song of Ice and Fire by George R.R.Martin, this hit Emmy®-winning fantasy series chronicles an epic struggle for power in a vast and violent fantasy kingdom. Members of the ensemble cast include Emmy® and Golden Globe® winner Peter Dinklage, Lena Headey, Emilia Clarke, Nikolaj Coster-Waldau, Kit Harington, Natalie Dormer, Maisie Williams and Sophie Turner. Executive producers, David Benioff, D.B. Weiss, Carolyn Strauss, Frank Doelger, Bernadette Caulfield; co-executive producers, Guymon Casady, Vince Gerardis, George R.R. Martin.
“Please look after this bear. Thank you” reads the tag at the end of the first teaser trailer for Paddington, and if the actual film remains as faithful to the books as the teaser (that tag is lifted from author Michael Bond’s long-running series of children’s books), then there’s hope for a Paddington film that’ll be embraced by generations of Bond’s books. Also tipping the scales toward this being a sincere and faithful adaptation is the fact it’s from producer David Heyman. You may remember him as one of the key individuals behind the blockbuster Harry Potter films.
Adapted and directed by Paul King (The Mighty Boosh, Come Fly With Me), Colin Firth provides the voice of the cute little bear. The live-action cast includes Hugh Bonneville and Sally Hawkins (as Mr. and Mrs. Brown), Jim Broadbent, Peter Capaldi, Julie Walters, and Nicole Kidman.
Paddington arrives in theaters on December 12, 2014.
Heather Looney and Paige Logan of North 40. (Photo credit: Kristin Barlowe)
It’s been a while since Paige Logan and Heather Looney chased their dreams to Nashville. Logan came from Safford, Ariz., where she studied piano, taught herself guitar and mandolin and soaked up the sounds of her dad’s LP and 8-track collection. In 1993, she and her sister hit the road for Music City; a year later, Paige was there alone, beginning a long stretch of day jobs and determination.
Meanwhile, Looney and her dad had been performing around Shreveport, La. Going solo, she relocated frequently before settling in Nashville with her husband a year after Logan’s arrival. Eventually, the two crossed paths, and their 20-year friendship culminated in their debut album, Whole Lot Of Livin’, produced by Paige’s husband Mills Logan and Leigh Reynolds. Rhymetown Entertainment released the debut album in January.
Vocal blends distinguish this duo. They embrace vibrato as an expressive device. When they drop it for a few beats, as in the higher passages of “Far Too Long” (written by Logan and Looney), the impact is dramatic. They also avoid the upper register, concentrating on the contralto range; the result is a honeyed, rich quality that draws listeners in as if to a whisper. And they sing almost exclusively in harmony; when one breaks into a solo line and the other improvises some churchy backup on “Don’t Make Me The Reason” (Logan and Looney), the moment seems to spark from the speakers.
Is there life over 40 in Country Music? You betcha.
For more on North 40, visit www.CMACloseUp.com.
IN THEIR OWN WORDS
SONG YOU’D LOVE TO COVER
“Heather would love to cover ‘Stand By Your Man’ and Paige would cover ‘El Paso.’”
ALBUM ON YOUR PLAYLIST
“Heather has Train and Chris Knight. Paige has Tom Petty’s Greatest Hits and Simon & Garfunkle.”
DREAM DUET PARTNER
“Heather’s is Michael Bublé and Paige’s is Freddie Mercury.”
PET PEEVE
“Heather’s is rude people. Paige’s is people who take more than they need or don’t give back more than they take.”
SOMETHING WE’D NEVER GUESS ABOUT YOU
“Heather was adopted at 2 weeks old through the Volunteers of America and believes that her parents chose her because she could scream on key! Paige has been on a vegan diet for 22 years and she likes coffee and water at room temperature.”
Fox and WBTV have announced the key pieces of the Gotham puzzle are now all in place. The final two series regular roles have been signed up and we now know that Bruce Wayne will be played by David Mazouz and Selina Kyle will be played by Camren Bicondova.
The series, based on DC Comics characters, is an origin story about Commissioner James Gordon and takes place before Batman exists. That means Mazouz is definitely not playing Batman, so say the studios.
Mazouz and Bicondova join the cast that’s led by Ben McKenzie (Detective James Gordon) and features Donal Logue (Detective Harvey Bullock), Zabryna Guevara (Captain Essen), Erin Richards (Barbara Kean), Sean Pertwee (Alfred Pennyworth), Robin Lord Taylor (Oswald Cobblepot aka The Penguin), and Jada Pinkett Smith (Fish Mooney).
Here are the official character descriptions:
· David Mazouz (Touch) has been cast as the preteen Bruce Wayne, sentenced to a solitary life after the tragic murder of his wealthy parents. Serious and soulful, young Bruce relies on the guidance and protection of Alfred Pennyworth and James Gordon.
· Acting newcomer Camren Bicondova has been cast as Selina Kyle, a teenage orphan who is suspicious and wholly unpredictable. A street thief and skilled pickpocket, she’s dangerous when cornered.
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