Rihanna debuted the visuals for "Where Have You Been" today, a lush music video featuring the singer climbing out of water and writhing around for a few minutes.
The track is off Talk That Talk, the album perhaps most known for "We Found Love." Though the video for "Where Have You Been" is not as intricate as the one for that lead single, RiRi generated a good deal of buzz by tweeting a topless photo of herself from the video shoot.
Rihanna doesn't normally do extended dance scenes, so it's interesting to see the singer go the path of the Britneys and Christinas before her and delve into some deeper choreography. In a behind-the-scenes video, Rihanna revealed that famed choreographer Hi-Hat ("Step Up 3") was helping her create a routine.
The video seems to have a tribal theme, though the scenes centered around the breakdowns of the track have a bit more of a pirate feel (at least in the wardrobe department).
"Where Have You Been" features a simple, club-ready house beat with a somewhat unremarkable breakdown. It recalls a muted version of Afrojack's 2010 hit "Take Over Control.". Interestingly, when Afrojack tapped vocalist Eva Simmons for that song, many said the singer was effecting an imitation of Rihanna's style. Two years later, it's American pop music is just now catching up to the Dutch house producers.
Unsurprisingly, "Where Have You Been" was produced by pop guru Dr. Luke and house producer and DJ Calvin Harris. Harris also produced "We Found Love."
The first line of the song ("I've been everywhere, man") is a reference to "I've Been Everywhere," a Johnny Cash song.
Sarah Palin has dismissed "Game Change" as unimportant, but a top aide says the HBO film about her 2008 vice-presidential bid was "true enough to make me squirm."
Nicolle Wallace, a senior advisor to the campaign, was assigned to work with Palin after she was chosen as John McCain's running mate and later wrote a novel with a mentally-ill character inspired by the former Alaska governor.
"This is a movie about the vast gray area where 99 percent of our politics actually takes place,” Wallace told "This Week" on Sunday. “You’re just feeling your way though a gray area and doing your best and that campaign was one of those instances for me."
Wallace has previously butted heads with Palin and once described her as bitter, cynical and aggressive.
"I believe that if she were on the cusp of becoming the nominee for the Republican party a whole lot of people... would talk about some of her more troubling deficiencies," she told MSNBC in 2010. "Her incredible cynicism, her bitterness, her aggressive attempts to claw anyone that points out an area for her to work on, I think these things will continue to reveal herself and the people that love her will continue to love her, but the people who are not so sure about her will, I think, formulate harder opinions and more clarity about her."
John McCain also spoke out about the movie on Sunday.
"Of course I'm not going to watch it," he said Fox News Sunday. "Why there continues to be such an assault on a fine and decent person, Sarah Palin ... They continue to disparage and attack her person. I admire and respect her, I'm proud of our campaign and I'm humbled by the fact that I was able to give her [the Republican vice-presidential nomination]."
Former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin (R) said she wouldn't watch her portrayal in "Game Change" by Julianne Moore.
"I'm not going to go see the movie, neither is the good Sen. John McCain," she told Fox News. "We've discussed this and realized that Hollywood lies are Hollywood lies. They're going to do what they can to drum up their money and their machine, and their machine happens to be a very pro-leftist, pro-Barack Obama machine there at HBO that created this movie. And those campaign staffers who essentially threw John McCain under the bus, I think that they should feel some shame, and they should feel some embarrassment, because the movie is based on a false narrative, as you can see in the trailer."
More than 500 days ago, a man fell out of the sky.
Since the opening credits for "Mad Men" aired for the first time on July 19, 2007, the imagery of the solitary businessman tumbling downward has become familiar to fans of the critically acclaimed AMC drama, even though the show has been away for a long time. The man's downward trajectory reflected the difficult life of handsome ad man Don Draper, whose slick facade almost completely unraveled over the course of the show's first four seasons. And the sparse, haunting imagery of the show's opening credits were a stylized distillation of the show's oft-copied mid-century aesthetic.
I recently sat down in a New York restaurant to talk to Jon Hamm about playing Don Draper on "Mad Men," which finally returns after an almost year-and-a-half break on March 25. Though we talked about a whole range of "Mad Men"-related subjects, one of the things on Hamm's mind was that falling man.
Prior to our conversation on that rainy Manhattan day, a few media outlets had stirred up a bit of controversy about the "Mad Men" "falling man" promotional posters that had sprung up in New York on bus shelters and buildings in recent weeks. Some relatives of 9/11 victims said the poster of was too evocative of the tragic events of that day (though others said they weren't bothered by the posters).
In the first part of a two-part Hamm interview that will appear on HuffPost TV, Hamm also discussed what it was like to direct the Season 5 premiere of "Mad Men;" the making of "Friends with Kids," a new film directed by his longtime girlfriend, Jennifer Westfeldt; Don's complicated relationship with his protege, Peggy, and many other things.
But first, we discussed the promotional posters for the long-awaited fifth season of the show. One of them features Don looking at an unclothed female mannequin, and the other one is an isolated image of the falling businessman, who, as Hamm pointed out, has been an iconic part of the "Mad Men" visual vocabulary for five years.
This interview has been edited and slightly condensed.
You know, the posters advertising the show have been springing up all over. What do you think of them?
Which one, the [falling man] teaser or the [mannequin] poster?
Well, both of them, if you have different thoughts.
I thought the teaser was great. People got up in arms, apparently because of 9/11, but I didn’t understand that. That image has been in our show since the beginning, so I don’t understand why all the sudden now people are focusing on it. I think it did exactly what it needed to do, which was remind people about the show in a very graphic, beautiful, iconic kind of way.
I think the image on the [mannequin] poster this season is the same thing. I think it’s supposed to be evocative. It’s supposed to be something that makes you think, first of all, about our show and remember what our show is about, and second of all, it’s an image that makes you go, "What does that mean?" You look at it twice, instead of just [seeing] a bunch of faces on a poster.
The best movie posters are ones that draw you in, and you're like, "Oh. What is that? What’s going on?" Without being completely obtuse and completely like weird for weird’s sake.
Do you worry about the times between seasons in terms of people’s awareness of the show?
Sure, but first of all, it’s completely out of my control, and second of all, it’s not unprecedented in the world of television. There have been these longer-than-normal hiatuses and we’ve never ascribed to any sort of regular network schedule, so the weirder thing for us as a cast and as a show is debuting in the spring rather than the summer. We’ve never done that. We’ve only ever come out in the summer while we were shooting, so in many ways, we have this kind of instant feedback of having the show air while we’re shooting it, so we can get a little boost. "Oh my God, it’s back on the air." People are excited.
This year, we finished the whole season [before it aired]. We didn’t have a press conference or anything. The first time we talked about the show was [at a Los Angeles press event in January], which was well after we had finished shooting, and it was like, "All right, people are excited." It was like doing a radio show or something, where you didn’t know if people were watching or paying attention, because they kind of weren’t. We were just making a show.
So yeah, in that sense, we worried about it, but it was like, "Well, we didn’t choose for it to be off a long time." That decision was made at the network and studio level, and it was a premeditated decision on their part. They wanted to shift the schedule so they could put “Breaking Bad” in the summer and ["Mad Men"] in the spring and launch more shows. [It was] a totally calculated move that networks do, which is fine. And then we got a chance to go back and make our show, which was fun.
Was it one of those "absence makes the heart grow fonder" things?
Well, there’s obviously two sides of that equation -- "Absence makes the heart grow fonder" or, "Out of sight, out of mind." Aphorisms only get you so far. I was able to make “Friends with Kids," which was exciting and a significant portion of our life for Jen and I. So it was nice to have a break, be able to go make that movie and then also have time to do nothing. I did a play reading and a little thing on ["The Increasingly Poor Decisions of] Todd Margaret" and just some weird little fun things that weren’t crazy, stressful or anything.
Was that kind of nice to have that rest? Because the last five years have been kind of a rocket ship.
That was great in a lot of ways. Everybody, from the cast and crew to the writers, was excited to come back. When we got back, it was like, "Holy shit! First day of school!" And it was, "I missed you, I haven’t seen you in so long. What have you been up to?" The fact that I was directing the first one we shot -- people were like "I can’t believe you’re directing. This is hilarious! We’re so excited for you and proud of you," and all this other stuff. It was really a very collegial and familial atmosphere and I think we all missed each other genuinely. We’re a very tight cast. We hang out a lot.
There's already a lot of speculation on the new season, just based on the episode titles that are floating around out there.
I love it. We live in a world where all information is so instant and global and defined, even though often, it’s defined incorrectly. It used to be that if you wanted a fact about something, you could look in an encyclopedia and you could find the facts. Now, if you want to find out about something, you go to Wikipedia and you find some of the facts and some very strange material that’s been added. So we do live in a world now where all information is sort of subjective, but it’s all instantly obtainable.
What makes our show kind of fun for people is that we don’t spoil it. We don’t pre-release it and we don’t let it [get out there early]. I mean, we give it to critics and to people who obviously have to write about it, but as a cast, we’re not teasing it, we’re not setting it up. It’s like, "Watch the show or don’t, but you’re going to watch it in the order it’s presented." That’s the way I want to experience drama. I hate going to a play and having it overhyped to me and so I sit there and I'm like, "This isn’t that good."
I cover my eyes for movie trailers because they give away everything.
Yeah.
And actually I don’t read a lot of the film critics that I like and respect until after I've seen the movie, because they’re way worse than TV critics about giving key parts of the story away.
That’s the reason I like your writing, and that’s the reason I like Alan Sepinwall and Tim Goodman and a lot of these guys, because I enjoy our show and I love watching it. I watch it and then I go read what you guys say about [each episode], and I think, "Oh my God. A) I'm thrilled that they got that, that they understood that nuance that we built into the show on purpose, and B) I just like an intelligent discussion about something I find creatively fulfilling."
Things got so dark for Don in Season 4, which was my favorite season, by the way. There's still some element of danger to the double-identity thing, but it seemed to me that there has been some kind of integration between Dick Whitman and Don Draper. Am I misreading that?
I don't think you're misreading it. Matt and I talked about this. We have these long lunches before the season starts where we sit and we talk about theme in very general terms. We talk about character. We talk about, "Where is Don? What do you think is going on?" I think I remember saying to him, "You know that point in your life where you hit a certain age when you realize like the shit you cared about when you were young doesn’t matter?" This stupid shit that you held onto, whether Mary Jane likes you -- whatever it was. It's just, this stupid shit doesn’t matter anymore. It’s Danny Glover in “Lethal Weapon” -- "I'm too old for this shit."
There is a moment I think in any adult’s life where they’re just like, "Who cares?" Like, "I've got to get up and go. I don’t have time for this." When Betty found out [about the Dick Whitman identity] and people know and the world kind of knows, Don is like, "Let it go." Then Anna dies and that’s his last connection to it. There is a very real idea of being found out by the military and those attendant issues, not only personally, but also for the business. But at a certain point, I think Don is like, "This has been around my neck for so long. I'm literally too old for this. I cannot worry about it anymore."
Since we're talking about Season 4, I've got to bring up "The Suitcase." It’s now probably been like two years for you since you made it, but at the time, did you know how special that episode was?
I did. I really loved that script. There have been a couple scripts that Matt has written [like that]. One is the pilot. One is an episode called "5G."
I loved "5G."
That was a first season episode that Matt wrote in a weekend.
I'll never forget Don walking down that hotel hallway, and not knowing what he was going to do.
Yeah, you didn't know if he was going to murder someone. It was scary. It’s a really weird one-off scary thing. That was written out of sequence. It was written to put in between two [other episodes due to] a network note. They were like, "We need to know more about this guy, give us a little taste." Matt wrote it in a weekend and it was a beautiful episode of television. We found out about Adam and all that stuff. We were like "Wait, what? This guy is who?"
And that double identity became a lynchpin of the whole show.
I remember reading it. Matt had kind of written it hurriedly, I read it and I was like, "Dude, you did this in a weekend? Unbelievable!" "The Suitcase" is like that. First of all, I love Elisabeth [Moss, who plays Peggy]. She is a wonderful, wonderful actor and a wonderful person to work with. It came at a time when I was completely fucking exhausted. We had shot [much of "Mad Men's" season] and I had shot “Bridesmaids” and I had shot pickups on “The Town” and all this crazy stuff was happening.
And also, the character had gone through so much stuff that season, by that point. I was like, "Fuck, Matt, you’re killing me! What other degrading [things] do you want to do with this guy?" [Laughs.] It at least ended the downward spiral, where Don is having to deal with all of this shit that he doesn’t want to deal with. He sort of unwittingly or consciously co-opts Peggy into his madness and they share a crazy night and it’s completely asexual. It’s completely platonic. It’s two friends, who maybe aren’t capable of helping one another, trying to help one another in whatever way they can.
But there is a baseline level of trust there.
And love. It was a lovely script and it was, I think, in many ways, it was payoff of four years of these people being in each other’s worlds. The first episode of the show, the pilot, is Peggy’s first day at work. [By "The Suitcase,"] she’s finally like, "Okay, enough." And Don is not going to like shrink away from a fight.
He wanted to fight.
Yeah, he did. He was spoiling for it.
It’s like what I love about that episode, and the show, is that there are so many levels to it. On one level, he’s really right. They pay her to work.
He was very right!
But at the same time, he wanted to just mess with her because he felt awful.
He feels bad. I mean, I'm sure you’ve had this experience, as a working woman in the world, of your superior putting their shit on your shoulders and blaming you for something you had nothing to do with. Because either they fucked up or they’re pissed off about something, you get the full blast. I've certainly had that. I've worked in enough restaurants where the chef's going through a divorce or something, where I'm like, "All right, I'm just serving the salad. Come on now."
And then ["The Suitcase"] resolved itself in such a lovely way, with so many echoes of the pilot. With her hand on his -- [it's this] connection that has been earned over many years. It's that sense that Peggy has earned her spot at the table and proven it over and over and over again. She’s earned her friendship with Don, and Don is not friends with a lot of people. He's friends with Roger, but there is a lot of judgment on how Roger lives his life that Don does not agree with. I think there is a baseline of respect for Peggy that Don doesn’t have for a lot of people.
She understands him on some basic level.
When, I thought about, it was not that they’re the same person, because they’re not, but they have a lot of similar qualities. One of the big ones is ambition. They both want to be something other than what they are, what they were born into.
And they know they can do it.
And they know they can do it. When you grow up, whether you grow up in [a little town in] Pennsylvania or in Brooklyn, you look at the big city and you think, "That’s where I want to be."
NEW YORK -- Meryl Streep is fresh off her Oscar win for playing Margaret Thatcher. But she had an entire theater at Lincoln Center wondering if an even better role for her would be a political icon closer to home: Hillary Rodham Clinton.
The question arose as Streep paid a glowing and affectionate tribute to the secretary of state at the Women in the World summit, an annual gathering of prominent women leaders and unsung heroines from across the globe that closed over the weekend.
"This is what you get when you play a world leader," Streep said Saturday, hoisting up her best-actress Oscar for "The Iron Lady."
"But if you want a real world leader," Streep continued, "THIS is what you get!" Clinton strolled onstage at Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts' David H. Koch Theater, and Streep enveloped her in a hug.
The three-day summit, now in its third year, is organized by Tina Brown, editor in chief of Newsweek and The Daily Beast. Besides Streep and Clinton, feminist icon Gloria Steinem and former secretary of state Madeleine Albright, Brown harnessed the star power of Angelina Jolie, who came to read the words of Dr. Hawa Abdi, a Somali humanitarian facing danger from Islamist rebels there.
Also given star treatment was International Monetary Fund chief Christine Lagarde, who delighted the delegates at dinner Thursday when she suggested that the financial crisis might have been averted, or at least been much less serious, if more women had been at the helm of financial institutions.
"If Lehman Brothers had been a bit more Lehman Sisters ... we would not have had the degree of tragedy that we had as a result of what happened," Lagarde said.
She added that recent studies have shown "what the level of testosterone in a given room can produce when you do trading."
Many global problems were addressed by the dozens of panels attended by some 2,000 delegates each day. But a constant undercurrent was an issue at home: the debate in Washington over women's reproductive health care.
Clinton and other speakers referred, obliquely and not, to conservative radio commentator Rush Limbaugh's insulting remarks about law student Sandra Fluke, who came under attack after she testified to congressional Democrats in support of their national health care policy that would compel her Catholic college's health insurance plan to cover birth control.
The 2011 Nobel Peace Prize winner Leymah Gbowee, of Liberia, was the most blunt, saying women had been too passive: "Where are the angry American women?" she asked.
From Liberia to Egypt: Panelists discussed whether the Arab Spring risked becoming an Arab Winter for women, who were central to the popular uprising but now fear being marginalized.
"Tell people there is no spring without flowers and there is no Arab Spring without women," said Dalia Ziada, Egypt director of the American Islamic Congress.
Other popular lines of the weekend included the definition of "glass ceiling," from Jane Harman, the former California Democratic congresswoman: "It's actually a thick layer of men."
How do you puncture that layer? Kah Walla, a political leader from Cameroon, spoke of empowering women across Africa but added that in the United States, too, the level of female representation in politics was a serious issue.
"Every woman here needs to be involved with getting a woman elected," she said.
The opposition leader in Israel, Tzipi Livni, of the Kadima Party, spoke about the nuclear threat from Iran. But she said she would not engage in what she called "megaphone diplomacy."
"Maybe that's something men do," she quipped.
And Steinem had a good line – speaking on a panel about women leaders, moderated by Facebook chief operating officer Sheryl Sandberg, she speculated on why some men feel uncomfortable with females in power.
"The last time a lot of powerful guys saw a powerful woman, they were 8," Steinem said. "They feel regressed to childhood by a powerful woman."
Yet men played a role in the summit, too, perhaps none more eloquently than Imam Demba Diawara, a village chief from Senegal. In a powerful discussion of the practice of genital cutting, Diawara, whose own family members had endured the procedure, spoke of how he had gradually come to understand that cutting was dangerous and sometimes fatal. He said he had since visited 378 communities to convince leaders of his view.
"By 2015, we will see the end of genital cutting in Senegal," he predicted.
The conference came to a more lighthearted end with Streep, who spoke humorously of the similarities she shared with Clinton.
They're roughly the same age, she said. They both have two brothers. They both had spirited, big-hearted mothers. They both went to women's colleges and then to graduate school at Yale.
"But there our two paths diverged in the wood," Streep noted, concluding that "I'm an actress, and she's the real deal."
Clinton arrived to deliver a call to arms for women around the world to get involved in effecting change. But not before expressing relief that there was one movie Streep had never made.
"I'm just glad she didn't do a movie called `The Devil Wears Pantsuits,'" quipped Clinton, mixing the title of a Streep film with her favored style of clothing.
"The Hunger Games" premiered last night in Los Angeles, and the early reviews are mostly positive.
Though full reviews are still scant, we've collected critics' early takes on the film, as well as reactions from critics, fans and celebrity fans who attended the premiere.
At Slashfilm, Germain Lusser said "The Hunger Games" was "exceptional" and claimed director Gary Ross "knocked this movie out of the park."
The movie, which is based on a novel by Suzanne Collins and stars Jennifer Lawrence, Elizabeth Banks, Liam Hemsworth, Woody Harrelson, Stanley Tucci and other stars, will be released on March 23. Until then, check out more reactions to the film below, followed by a gallery of the films' stars on the red carpet.
Though it looks as if she could give birth at any moment, almost nothing will stop Jessica Simpson from promoting her latest TV show, "Fashion Star." She stopped by both the "Tonight Show" and "The Ellen DeGeneres Show" to talk a bit about her new series, but mostly about impending motherhood and being really, really pregnant.
"Labor is really going to hurt," Simpson told Jay Leno on "Tonight," after revealing she's been having Braxton Hicks contractions lately. "I have so much respect for my mom and all the women across the world."
Leno joked about how long it took Simpson to get to her seat, saying he thought maybe she was giving birth backstage, but the "Fashion Star" mentor took the teasing in stride.
"We're waddling now," she said, revealing that though it feels as if she could give birth at any moment, she still has a few more weeks to go.
Simpson recently showed off her growing baby bump on the cover of Elle's April issue, posing nude for an iconic Demi Moore-esque cover, and revealed she and her fiance, former NFL player Eric Johnson, were expecting a girl.
Simpson also shared with Leno her shock and excitement when she found out she was expecting.
"We weren't trying, but we were definitely practicing -- and not safely practicing," she said, laughing.
Simpson and Johnson were engaged when they learned a baby was on the way, and have since put their wedding on hold until their baby girl arrives.
"I want him to be my husband so bad, and I do still want to wear the pretty gown and everything, and I have to wait until after the baby," Simpson said. "And now [our daughter will] just be in the wedding!"
Simpson recently dropped by "The Ellen DeGeneres Show" as well -- her episode airs Tuesday -- and yes, there was a paramedic on standby should she go into labor. But for those thinking she may be expecting twins, think again.
"There is only one, there is only one girl," Simpson said when asked how many babies she was carrying. "But I did get knocked up by a baller ... A big football player."
Though Simpson said she and Johnson already have a name picked out for their daughter, which they are keeping under wraps, DeGeneres gave them some nice options thanks to her "Celebrity Baby Name Generator," including Stapler Thunderstorm and Thursday Foghorn.
Oh, it's just the glamorous XX contingent of the Jolie-Pitt clan. Angelina Jolie whisked daughters Shiloh and Zahara off to LAX airport Monday afternoon, reportedly for a trip to France. Seven-year-old Zahara rocked a new, blue-braided 'do, while 5-year-old Shiloh wore a tux-printed T-shirt and gave the camera a toothy smile. The trio had just been to New Orleans with Brad Pitt and the rest of the family for Brad's Make It Right gala.
As reports swirl that Britney Spears is still in talks with Simon Cowell to join Fox's "The X Factor," we have to ask: Should an infamous lip-syncer be judging a talent competition?
"I think the more experienced the singer, the better," observes Taylor Hicks, "American Idol" winner, of Britney's potential new gig. "The fact that a legit performer is giving you constructive criticism holds a lot more weight in my opinion."
Fellow performer Debbie Gibson agrees that the show needs a judge whose raw talent speaks for itself.
"Absolutely not!" Debbie tells me when asked if Britney should join the show. "I definitely think if vocals are what the show is about, then the judges need to walk the walk or sing the song."
However, several industry insiders point out that Cowell himself isn't a performer, yet he has a cozy spot behind the judges' table.
"I think Britney would be great for 'X Factor' given all the experience she has as being a global superstar," says Daymond John of ABC's "Shark Tank." "She will be able to provide some incredible guidance and advice to all the contestants. Britney has also faced adversity and has come back from many personal challenges, and the public always supports her. She is more than just her voice."
Britney may have the experience to determine who has the makings of a superstar, but will she make for good TV?
"I don't hold lip-syncing against a performer. Almost everybody does it at one point or another," says Joe Levy, former editor of Rolling Stone, who worked with Britney on several covers. "Britney's done this since she was a kid. She's got enough experience to judge whether or not someone is a good performer. I'd be more concerned about her talking without a script for the first time in her life than judging someone's pitch."
Maybe the best suggestion comes from Lindsay Lohan's mother, who offers up the name of a similar lip-syncing legend: "Cher’s knowledge and personality makes her the perfect replacement."
Dina Lohan may be on to something, and we have a feeling that Cher wouldn't scoff at a $10 million offer.
Nicole Richie has been killing it with her fashion in the last couple of days.
Just yesterday, the reality TV beauty looked elegant in a simple white top, which she paired with a belted skirt, as she grabbed dinner in New York City. To complete the look, Nicole wore her hair up in a bun and donned some right lipstick. Between this and her zebra-striped top from yesterday, it’s no wonder she was picked to be on NBC’s Fashion Star!
Jessica Simpson has made billions from her eponymous fashion line, and she tells ELLE that she’s hoping her little one — a girl! — will be similarly style-conscious.
“Eric is so athletic — we’re gonna have this athletic girl and I won’t even be able to take her shopping, ’cause all she’s gonna want is sports bras and Nikes!”
But while the baby’s personality has yet to be seen, one point is already decided: her “nontraditional” name.
PHOTOS: Moms-to-Be Who’ve Dared to Bare!
“We’re sure,” Simpson explains in the magazine‘s April issue, for which she posed nude.
“It’s nothing shocking and nothing you’ll have to add to the dictionary. Still, when people hear it, they’ll know … why.”
After years of being in the spotlight for her personal issues and not her work, Lindsay Lohan bit the bullet and spearheaded her own comeback Saturday night by not only hosting "SNL," but poking fun at herself in the opening monologue. Whether it was her court-mandated ankle monitor, her sobriety, or her relationship with Sam Ronson, everything seemed to be fair game for the actress. And with surprise celebrity guests like Jimmy Fallon and Jon Hamm, it certainly made for a memorable opening.
Under the humor, though, there was an obvious sense of support both from the cast and the crowd. At no moment was it more evident than Kristin Wiig saying, "Everybody here believes in you. Everyone. We wouldn't have you back otherwise," only to be met by applause that went well beyond a response to a prompt light.
Whether the appearance will give Lohan's career the kickstart it needs is still to be seen, but if there's one thing America loves, it's an underdog.
Lindsay Lohan made the most of her personal and legal woes in her so-called "comeback" appearance on "Saturday Night Live."
For Lohan, hosting "Saturday Night Live" is almost like coming home. It's her fourth time hosting the show, but it's been six years since the last time.
Appearing in a modest blue dress, Lohan jumped into a self-mocking monologue as cast members came out to welcome her to the show.
As she walked toward the audience a siren went off - a riff on Lohan's once often active ankle monitor.
Kenan Thompson came to help the starlet but wound up shining a light in her eyes to make sure they were clean.
Kristin Wiig piled on, greeting Lohan by giving her a full body pat-down.
When Wiig coyly explained herself by saying "I'm a lesbian now," Lohan quipped, "been there, done that."
Jimmy Fallon made a guest appearance for Lohan, announcing that John Hamm (in the audience) was on hand in case she couldn't handle her duties.
It was a sharp contrast to the last four years --- where she's been in and out of rehab, court and jail.
Last week, Lohan spoke of past regrets to "Today" host Matt Lauer.
"I regret the choices that I've made, but I'm grateful for where I am today, because of them," she said. "I don't need to see any more negative stuff. I don't need to put myself in those places any more."
In January, Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Stephanie Sautner praised the actress for completing all her required community service on time, saying "Keep doing what you're doing. You appear to be doing very well."
On Feb. 22, Judge Sautner told her she seemed to be getting her life "back on track," The Associated Press reported.
Lohan is currently lined up to play the late Elizabeth Taylor in the Lifetime movie "Liz and Dick," about Taylor's romance with Richard Burton.
Lohan remains on informal probation for taking a $2,500 gold necklace from a Venice, Calif., jeweler without permission in January 2011.
'SNL' Road to Redemption?
Last week on "Late Night with Jimmy Fallon," Lohan revealed how she pursued "SNL" producer Lorne Michaels, until he agreed to let her host.
"I was calling Lorne -- I kept asking him -- not harassing him, but I wasn't giving up, saying 'Can I host? Can I host?'" she told Fallon. "He was in L.A. and you know Lorne, he's very straight to the point. He was like 'What about March 3?' I'm like, 'I'm free!'"
'SNL' has always welcomed Lohan on its stage, and even tried to get her help when she first showed signs of being in trouble.
According to a 2006 Vanity Fair article, Lorne Michaels and Tina Fey, then the show's head writer, staged an intervention, telling Lohan about their experiences with John Belushi and Chris Farley, who both died of drug overdoses.
"They sat me down, literally before I was going to do the show," Lohan told the magazine. "And they said, 'You need to take care of yourself. We care about you too much, and we've seen too many people do this,' and I just started bawling. I knew I had a problem and I couldn't admit it."
Last November, audiences were introduced to Pixar's first heroine, Princess Merida, in the trailer for "Brave." She was feisty, she was witty and she was, um, brave! In the newest clip from the film, fans get a quick and important lesson: When it comes to archery, don't test Merida's skills.
The two-minute video features a competition to win the hand of the Princess. Unfortunately for the participants, Merida would rather take her destiny in her own hands by showing the suitors a thing or two about shooting a bow and arrow. This leaves her mother, Queen Elinor, none too pleased.
"Brave" tells the story of Merida, who, after defying an age-old custom, hopes to undo a beastly curse. The film, starring Kelly Macdonald, Julie Walters, Billy Connolly, Emma Thompson and Craig Ferguson, hits theaters on June 22.
JUNEAU, Alaska — Current and former aides to Sarah Palin lashed out Wednesday at HBO's "Game Change," describing the upcoming film's depictions of her on the 2008 campaign trail as "sick" and inaccurate.
None of the aides said they have yet seen the movie, which debuts March 10, and some said they had asked for an opportunity to screen the film but had been denied.
Trailers for the film, which is based on the bestselling book chronicling the 2008 presidential race, have been released, however, and some snippets appear to cast Palin in an unfavorable light. As portrayed by Julianne Moore, Palin is seen complaining about how she's being handled by political advisers and mumbling about missing her baby, who was born in April 2008. In one snippet, campaign strategist Steve Schmidt, portrayed by Woody Harrelson, describes her as being on the verge of a nervous breakdown.
Aides said none of that jibes with their own experiences with the former Alaska governor, and they defended her vigorously Wednesday.
Jason Recher, who handled vice presidential road operations for the McCain-Palin campaign, called Palin "one of the most engaged public servants I'd ever observed." Tom Van Flein, her former personal attorney, called her diligent, sharp and enthusiastic about the campaign.
Meg Stapleton, a former spokeswoman, said that she, unlike some of the others who worked with Palin during the campaign, had not been contacted by anyone associated with either the book or movie.
"They don't want to hear anything good," she said, her voice full of passion. "We all know Palin sells and the dramatization of Palin sells even more. This is sick."
"They mock Gov. Palin, you mock Gov. Palin, as weak and unable to cope and press forward," she told reporters on the conference call. "And the movie and the trailer ... say that. And yet look with your own eyes at what she and her family have endured and inspired over the last few years. Any lesser man would have hanged himself by now. So who's weak?"
Recher noted that Palin wasn't the primary focus of the book, and he said he told screenwriter and co-executive producer Danny Strong that the book "absolutely, unequivocally" did not accurately reflect his time with the McCain campaign.
Filmmakers have said that they sought historical accuracy.
Director Jay Roach last month said he wrote a long letter to Palin seeking an interview with her to help the film, "but I got a very quick email back from her attorney saying, `I checked, she declined.'"
Strong, in an email, acknowledged that members of Palin's camp asked to screen the film but said filmmakers responded that they would privately screen the movie for Palin and her husband. He said Sarah Palin declined the offer.
The film portrays Palin "in a balanced light," he said, "showing her strengths and weaknesses as the vice presidential candidate."
In addition to the book, Strong said the movie is also based on 25 interviews conducted with members of the campaign by himself and Roach. He said secondary sources include Sarah Palin's book "Going Rogue," other books written on the campaign and "innumerable" newspaper and magazine articles.
Palin did not participate in Wednesday's call. Tim Crawford, the treasurer of the political action committee SarahPAC, who facilitated the call, said Palin is on the record as considering the movie a false narrative, and wrote about her experiences in one of her books.
We were already trying to wrap our heads around the news that Chris Brown would lend his voice to Rihanna's "Birthday Cake" remix, but the singers have managed to blow our minds a little bit more.
On Monday the former couple (who are rumored to be seeing each other in secret) threw us for a loop when they both released remixes featuring each others vocals.
We knew that Brown was the "shocking" addition to "Birthday Cake" that producers promised, but we were more than surprised to hear Rihanna singing on Brown's remix for "Turn Up The Music."
The songs dropped simultaneously and couldn't have been released at a more opportune time. Brown has been a hot topic in the media this past week after he shot back at critics like country singer Miranda Lambert, who were upset to see him honored and performing at last week's Grammy Awards. Lambert, and other celebrities, spoke out against the music industry officially welcoming Brown back into its good graces for the first time since he brutally assaulted Rihanna in 2009.
Though "RIP Chris Brown" started trending on Twitter after the 22-year-old singer wrote that winning a Grammy was the "ultimate F**k OFF," his career is somehow still alive.
Although many aren't ready to forgive Brown, the remixes are proof that Rihanna certainly has. The 24-year-old singer seems to have extended an olive branch to Brown and perhaps her heart as well. Hearing Rihanna sing on Brown's song the words, "I love you baby," and Chris singing on "Birthday Cake": "Girl I wanna f**k you right now. Been a long time, I've been missing your body," only further fuels rumors the two have being seeing each other in secret.
NEW YORK — They won't be there in person, but Whitney Houston's millions of fans worldwide will be able to share in her homecoming service Saturday as they watch her private funeral on the Internet and elsewhere.
Houston's publicist, Kristen Foster, announced Wednesday that The Associated Press will be the only video camera allowed inside at Saturday's funeral in Newark. The AP will stream the service on . The event also will be available to broadcasters via satellite. http://livestream.com/aplive
It will provide a much-needed connection for fans who have lacked a formal place to eulogize Houston, one of the world's best-selling artists who died in Beverly Hills, Calif., on Saturday at the age of 48.
Some have gathered and placed flowers outside the Newark, N.J., church where the funeral will be held by invitation-only at the request of Houston's family, who wish to maintain some privacy. Others have stopped by the funeral home. But many have longed to share more fully in commemorating the superstar's life, and have shown their grief in one of the few ways available to them – by buying her music.
Houston's funeral will be at New Hope Baptist Church, where she sang as a child. Her eulogy will be given by gospel singer Marvin Winans, a Grammy Award winner and longtime family friend. Afterward, Houston will be buried in Fair View Cemetery in Westfield, N.J., according to her death certificate. Her father, John Russell Houston Jr., was buried there in 2003.
Meanwhile, in Los Angeles, investigators for the coroner's office have subpoenaed records from the singer's doctors and pharmacies who dispensed medication found in the hotel room where she died.
Assistant Chief Coroner Ed Winter said such inquiries are routine in virtually all death investigations.
Investigators have not said what medications they have recovered from Houston's room at the Beverly Hilton Hotel. The singer was found underwater in a bathtub by a member of her staff hours before she planned to attend her mentor Clive Davis' swank pre-Grammy gala. Police have said there were no signs of foul play and Winter said there were no signs of trauma on her body when an autopsy was conducted on Sunday.
It will be weeks before toxicology results reveal the medications and quantities, if any, that were in Houston's system when she died. The Grammy winner's history of substance abuse has added to the speculation that her death may have been caused by prescription drugs.
In a 2009 interview with Oprah Winfrey, Houston talked about how she was deeply shaken by the death of Michael Jackson. Jackson died at age 50 that year from an overdose of the anesthetic propofol.
Houston recalled taping a show celebrating Jackson's 30th anniversary celebration in 2001. Houston was strikingly thin – so much so that rumors spread soon after that she had died. Jackson was also frail.
"I was getting scared," she told Winfrey. "I was looking at myself going, `No, I don't want this to be like this. This can't happen. Not both of us.'"
Like Jackson, Houston was on the verge of a career comeback before her death on Feb. 11. And, like Jackson, sales of her recordings have soared since her passing as fans try to recapture her glory days in the 1980s and 1990s. Old recordings have been propelled to the top of sales charts on iTunes and Amazon.com.
Back in October of 2010, the Internet was abuzz with news that Meryl Streep and Julia Roberts would join forces to bring "August: Osage County" to the big screen. Better late than never! According to a press release from The Weinstein Company, Streep and Roberts will finally star in "August" when production begins this fall.
Based on the Pulitzer Prize and Tony Award-winning play by Tracy Letts, "August: Osage County" focuses on an Oklahoma family that reunites after the mysterious death of the family patriarch. Streep is set to play Violet, the pill-addled matriarch of the Weston family, who constantly butts heads with her eldest daughter, Barbara (Roberts). John Wells (TV's "ER," "The Company Man") will direct.
"After seeing Meryl Streep's mesmerizing portrayal as Margaret Thatcher in 'The Iron Lady,' it has me even more excited and proud to co star with her," Roberts said in the press release.
The role of Violet won Deanna Dunagan a Tony Award, so should Streep not win an Oscar for "The Iron Lady," at least she has her 18th nomination sewn up.
No one can deny that Angelina Jolie put her blood, sweat and tears into her filmmaking debut. And Tuesday night, the emphasis was on the tears.
While attending the Bosnian premiere of her hard-fought directing debut In the Land of Blood and Honey, Jolie became overcome with emotion and teared up with emotion while taking the stage at her cinematic homecoming.
MORE: So true? So false? Did Billy Bob really use his bizarro relationship with Angelina as the basis for a new movie?
While Angie was all business on the red carpet beforehand, when she took to the stage later on in the night, she seemed immediately overcome after receiving a standing ovation from the crowd.
"It means so much to all of us, it means so much to me and I can't tell you how much it means to be here with all of you and to share this film and that you're receiving it so warmly means the world to me," a clearly emotional and shaky-voiced Jolie told the crowd before the film.
"I care so deeply for all of you in this country."
Rapturous and encouraging applause in the 5,000-strong auditorium in which the film screened, naturally followed.
Jolie was joined by Brad Pitt at the screening, but it was apparently a quick trip. The duo was spotted flying back out of the country yesterday.
Tuesday night's "Glee," "The Spanish Teacher," in which much was said about guest star Ricky Martin's glinty teeth, wasn't the heavy-duty, plot-advancing sort of episode or the serious-depth-adding sort of episode or the major-league, tear-inducing or enthusiastically get-up-off-the-couch-and-dance sorts of episodes. But it was a type of "Glee" episode I actually particularly like: the kind that makes you belly-laugh and chortle and snicker despite your better judgment and marvel at the "Glee" writing team's wit and way with a snappy line.
From that perspective, can I just note what a great addition to the cast of characters Coach Roz is -- and how spot-on NeNe Leakes is in the role? Her takedown of Sue after the cheerleading coach tells her she plans to soon be out on maternity leave was so darn hilarious. The way it blithely stepped right over the line of good taste and then shrugged and proudly dusted itself off reminded me of the way Sue Sylvester used to be in "Glee's" early days, when the writers didn't yet feel compelled to add nuance and heart and a back story to her character. Alas, most of Roz's choicest lines probably can't be printed in a family newspaper. (Is the phrase "donkey booties" over the line?) I think it's probably safe to share a chuckle, though, about her suggestion that Sue's going to "give birth to a grandchild" and the way she brags that, after winning her Olympic medal in Beijing, she "had noodles with the president and a threesome with Michael Phelps."
OK, so key plot points? Here goes:
McKinley High gets a new Spanish teacher with "Larry Bird white" teeth: Mr. Schu may be a great glee-club coach, but he's apparently an abominable Spanish teacher, perhaps because he doesn't actually speak Spanish. After someone (Santana, as it turns out) complains about his subpar skills -- and with Figgins holding tenure like a carrot over his giant-sombrero-sporting head -- Schu enrolls in a night school Spanish class, where his Spanish pales in comparison to a woman who wants to communicate to her maid that she's not supposed to use the bathroom on the job and his teaching pales next to the swivel-hipped former top tooth model (like a hand model, only with teeth) played by Martin. Martin's character has hung up his floss to help people learn the language his parents, illegal immigrants who raised him in Ohio, taught him. Mr. Schu, meanwhile, has to look up even cognates and thinks Spanish is about singing "La Cucaracha" in celebration of Taco Tuesday or doing an Elvis Presley number dressed as a matador. Eventually, Schu cries uncle (metaphorically, and in Spanish) and gives his job to the more qualified Martin, taking a vacant history-teaching job at McKinley instead. That means Martin will be a recurring character on "Glee"? Ole! (Go ahead -- go crazy with your "Livin' la Vida Loca" puns.)
Sue wants to have a baby: Sue has decided it's time to have a little Suzy or a little Sylvester in her life, explaining that she had her eggs frozen (at the Kroger!) back in the '70s. Such foresight, that Sue. But then she goes about trying to make that baby happen in a most distasteful manner -- first asking the "Glee" club guys to donate sperm to a sperm bank after finding the existing candidates underwhelming and then asking Mr. Schu to gaze upon some cheerleading magazines and make a donation in a cup. (Ick. Did we really need to picture that?) Emma shows up to confront Sue with one of her pamphlets: "Please Don't Hog My Fiance's Nog." Apparently it's not only Will's thick hair, but also his big heart that Sue's hoping to pass on to the next generation. Ultimately, though she finds another donor. Who, though?
Sam and Mercedes are still at a standstill: Sam and Mercedes, unsure how to cope with their future (and last week's kiss) in light of their past romantic involvement and Mercedes' current relationship, show up in Emma's office. After giving them some pamphlets she's just gotten back from the printer -- "So You're a Two-Timin' Ho" and "So You're Dating a Two-Timin' Ho" -- she advises them to stop communicating for a day. (Right there in her office, Sam tweets about how good Mercedes smells, and says he "won't stop until it's trending.") And just when it seems their break will prompt them to reconnect, Mercedes' football-playing beau swoops in to sweep her away again. Sigh.
Kurt restores Finn's confidence: After Rachel lets the cat out of the bag to Kurt and Mercedes about her engagement to Finn, Kurt reads Finn the riot act about how he's giving up on himself and his future and resigning himself to a life where he's "the guy who holds [Rachel's] purse on the red carpet." "You're a star, Finn, just as bright as Rachel," Kurt tells his half-bro, adding that Finn's time isn't up, "it's just beginning." Happily, it looks like Kurt may have gotten through.
Emma's pamphlets get her noticed: Emma's on a roll with her pamphlets. She's been so prolific, she says, she's feeling like Stephen King. But Will is dismissive, calling the pamphlets -- with titles like "Performance Anxiety -- It's not just for teenage boys" and "No Insurance, No problem. How to give yourself stitches" -- "silly." Emma explains that they're intentionally silly: "Sometimes you have to be a little provocative." But it's not until Coach Beiste circulates a life-saving pamphlet on jock-strap hygiene entitled "Taint Misbehavin' " and helps it get picked up for a wider distribution that Will realizes the "genius" (as Beiste calls it) of Emma's pamphlet production. Figgins apparently realizes it, too, and gives Emma the open tenured teaching position at McKinley.
What did you think of the episode? Did you have a favorite line? Did Ricky Martin's character make you reach for the floss?
Love her or hate her, there's no doubt that only Madonna can bring a certain level of pop flair to a performance.
Madonna's Roman-themed Super Bowl halftime show included a medley of her hits and assistance from her younger counterparts on the pop music scene.
The singer debuted her new single, "Give Me All Your Luvin,'" during a set that also included classic hits "Vogue," "Music," "Express Yourself" and "Like a Prayer."
During "Music," Madonna appeared to slip on the stage, but quickly recovered (see video above).
Nicki Minaj, M.I.A., LMFAO, and Cee Lo Green (and his marching band) joined Madonna for the pop icon's first Super Bowl appearance. M.I.A. flashed the camera her middle finger during "Give Me All Your Luvin,'" a move censors didn't seem to catch.
In the end, Madonna disappeared in a puff of smoke as the words "World Peace" were projected onto the field.
Watch: Madonna's halftime show performance (article continues below):
