Lady GaGa Breaks Record by Officially Selling 1.1 Million Copies of 'Born This Way'

The official sales number of Lady GaGa's new album "Born This Way" is in, and it's revealed that the May 23 studio release has sold around 1,108,000 copies in its opening week. The huge number actually has been predicted by music experts when they heard that the CD was sold only for 0.99 cents on Amazon last week. 


With such a big number, the Mother Monster has broken record as an artist with the highest sales week since 50 Cent sold 1,141,000 copies of his album "The Massacre" in 2005. The SoundScan-era record week, however, is still firmly held by NSYNC's 2000 "No Strings Attached" (2,416,000). 


GaGa joins four other solo female acts to ever sell more than a million albums in just a week. The other four record holders are Taylor Swift's 2010 "Speak Now" (1,047,000), Britney Spears' 2000 "Oops!...I Did It Again" (1,310,000), Whitney Houston's 1992 "The Bodyguard" soundtrack (1,061,000), and Norah Jones' 2004 "Feels Like Home" (1,022,000). 


That impressive sales week has also granted GaGa a No. 1 position on Billboard Hot 200. This will mark her first ever No. 1 album on the U.S. album chart. She previously debuted at No. 2 with 2008 "The Fame", landed at No. 5 with 2009 "The Fame Monster", and arrived at No. 6 with 2010 "The Remix" hit No. 6. 

New 'Deathly Hallows Part 2' Poster: Greasy-Haired Snape

Warner Bros. Pictures has released a new character poster from "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part II". After Harry Potter, Hermione Granger, and some other main characters previously got highlighted on one-sheets, Severus Snape comes to join them and gets his own banner. 


On his character poster, Alan Rickman's Snape sports his usual greasy hair and black uniform. Snape, who becomes Headmaster of Hogwarts in the final "Harry Potter" novel, looks concerned for anything he is staring at. 


Earlier in May, Rickman wrote a letter as his way of saying goodbye to the fantasy film. The letter read, "I have just returned from the dubbing studio where I spoke into a microphone as Severus Snape for absolutely the last time." 


"On the screen were some flashback shots of Daniel (Radcliffe), Emma (Watson), and Rupert (Grint) from ten years ago. They were 12. I have also recently returned from New York, and while I was there, I saw Daniel singing and dancing (brilliantly) on Broadway. A lifetime seems to have passed in minutes." 


"Three children have become adults since a phone call with Jo Rowling, containing one small clue, persuaded me that there was more to Snape than an unchanging costume, and that even though only three of the books were out at that time, she held the entire massive but delicate narrative in the surest of hands." 


"It is an ancient need to be told in stories. But the story needs a great storyteller. Thanks for all of it, Jo. Alan Rickman." 


The last movie of "Harry Potter" film series will witness the battle between good and evil forces of the Wizarding world which breaks into an all-out war. Eventually, Potter is the only one who has to make the decisive sacrifice as he draws closer to the climatic showdown with Voldemort. 


Radcliffe reprises his role as the titular character, with Grint and Watson returning to star as Ron Weasley and Hermione Granger respectively. Other supporting stars include Gary Oldman, Bonnie Wright, and Tom Felton. The movie itself will hit 2-D and 3-D theaters across the nation on July 15. 

Avril Lavigne Truly Sorry for Her Rude Word at Tampa Bay Rays Concert

Avril Lavigne has apologized to the crowd of more than 24,000 attending baseball game between Tampa Bay Rays and Cleveland Indians. The pop punk rocker offered the apology after landing in hot water for throwing expletive rant during her concert at the game. 


"We just had so much fun tonight and we want to take the tirade out and say thank you to the Tampa Bay Rays!" the "What the Hell" singer said for disturbing "the family friendly atmosphere" of the gig at Tropicana Field. "I'm truly sorry if anyone was offended by my language." 


Beside Avril, announcer Rusty Kathy and Rays' spokesperson Rick Vaughn have also said sorry for the incident. "That's not what the Tampa Bay Rays are about," Rusty said to the crowd. Rick chimed in, "The Rays demand profanity-free performances from all of our concert performers and we are extremely disappointed by the language used in last night's show." 


Avril got furious after she was booed by audience when her mic didn't work during the performance. She reportedly snapped at the crowd, saying the technical problem "f**king happened on a baseball field." 


Before singing live, Avril tossed out the first pitch of the baseball game. She tweeted later in the evening, "I just threw the opening pitch and playing a concert after the game! Fun :)." 

Justin Bieber, Scotty McCreery, Lauren Alaina Added to CMT Awards Line-Up

More big stars are added to the already-star-studded guest list of upcoming Country Music Television (CMT) Awards. The latest one is Justin Bieber who scores his first CMT nomination in Collaborative Video of the Year, thanks to "That Should Be Me", his joint track with Rascal Flatts. 


Joining the pop idol will be Scotty McCreery and Lauren Alaina who recently finished first and second respectively at the "American Idol" finale. They have dropped their country debut single with Scotty releasing "I Love You This Big" and Lauren offering "Like My Mother Does". 


"I Love You This Big" bowed at number 32 on Billboard Hot Country Songs chart and climbed to No. 5 on iTunes song list. It's reportedly the highest chart debut for a new artist on the Country charts in the SoundScan era. The previous records on the Billboard chart had been 42 and 41. 


The other guests include Shania Twain, Sara Evans, Train, Kristin Chenoweth, Melissa Peterman and Mary Steenburgen. Newly-crowned "Dancing with the Stars" winner Hines Ward, Green Bay Packers' Clay Matthews, and stars of CMT original movie "To the Mat" Laura Bell Bundy and Ricky Schroder are invited as well. 


Hosted by Kid Rock, the CMT Awards will be held in a live ceremony in Nashville, Tennessee on June 8. Big & Rich, Jason Aldean, Keith Urban, Lady Antebellum, Luke Bryan, Rascal Flatts, Sugarland, Toby Keith and Zac Brown Band will perform. 

Alleged Photos of Blake Lively in the Nude Leaked

Blake Lively might have taken naked pictures of herself in the past. While the "Gossip Girl" star dominated media headlines with speculations of her dating Leonardo DiCaprio, photos of a blond girl who looks like her posing in her birthday suit have just leaked out. 

Most of the snaps hide the girl's face as she poses seductively in front of a mirror in the bathroom, but one gives a blurry look at her face and shows that the girl's nose looks a little different than Blake's. The racy images seem to have been taken several years ago given the early generation iPhone the girl used to take them. 

In another news, Blake has been snapped holding hands with newly-single Leo in Monte Carlo. Us Weekly, which obtained the photos in its new issue on stands Wednesday, April 1, reported that the two displayed their affection while taking a moonlit stroll after dinner on May 27. An eyewitness claimed that 36-year-old Leo "looked very in love." 

On Sunday, May 19, Leo reportedly took Blake to a Grand Prix-viewing bash aboard Philip Green's Lionheart yacht. A fellow partygoer said, "Her face lit up when Leo was talking." Another source claimed Leo "had introduced Blake as his girlfriend," adding, "I would say they're totally smitten!" 

Do you think this is a real photo of naked Blake Lively? Let's hear your thought! 

Blake Lively Threatens to Sue Over Fake Nude Photos

Just hours after photos of a blond girl who looks like her spread across the web, Blake Lively comes forward to set the record straight. Through her representative, the actress who plays Serena van der Woodsen on "Gossip Girl" denied the authenticity of the nude photos and threatened to sue any publication reprinting the images. 

"The photos of Blake Lively which have just surfaced on various websites including Perez Hilton and Zap2it are 100% fake," insisted the rep. "Blake has never taken nude photos of herself. Blake will pursue legal action against the publication which initially published these photographs and any other outlets that republish them in any manner." 

Photos of Blake's look-alike posing in her birthday suit leaked out on Tuesday evening, May 31. Most of the snaps capture the girl posing seductively in front of a mirror in the bathroom, but cleverly hiding her face behind her phone. One photo, however, gives a blurry look at her face. The racy images seem to have been taken several years ago given the early generation iPhone the girl used to take them. 

Kirsten Dunst - Cofee Stroll

Another classy outfit, very 70's - flared jeans plus a white shirt and brown leather bag.

Zoe Kravitz - Asos July 2011

The styling is very Zoe. Fun, fresh and youtful.

Disney Acquires Romantic Comedy Pitch THE GIRLFRIEND EQUATION

Disney is currently prepping and moving forward with a romantic comedy pitch entitled The Girlfriend Equation. The pitch is based on a story recounted on Public Radio International’s This American Life. THR reports that Tim Rasmussen and Vince Di Meglio (Marmaduke) will write the screenplay for the flick. The story centers on a Harvard grad student who worked to identify and woo his soul mate through mathematical equations, so it’s like A Beautiful Mind, but for kids! Alex Ankles is overseeing the project for Panay Films.

Exclusive: Director Richard Donner Talks SUPERMAN and SUPERMAN II; Plus an Update on DAVE and the GOONIES Musical on Broadway

With Warner Bros. releasing Superman: The Motion Picture Anthology (1978-2006) on Blu-ray next week, earlier today I got to sit down with director Richard Donner to talk about the first two Superman movies.  While the last decade has seen some exceptional comic book adaptations, Donner’s Superman is still one of my favorite films and it’s definitely one of the best comic book movies ever made.  Even though it’s thirty something years old, the original Supermanwas the first time I believed a man could fly, and it’s a benchmark that every studio should look to when trying to bring a comic book to life.

Even though I could’ve talked to Donner for hours about what it was like to make the “Man of Steel’s” first two movies, with only ten minutes, I had to limit my questions.  We talked about how Superman and Lois got back to civilization after he lost his powers in Superman II, when he first knew they could make people believe a man could fly, his reaction to being asked to complete his version of Superman II, and what’s up with the Goonies musical and Dave on Broadway.  If you’re a fan of the first two Superman movies, I promise you’ll enjoy this interview.

And one last thing before the interview…I checked out the new Blu-ray box set and it’samazing.  It’s absolutely loaded with some great behind the scenes footage, awesome extras, and extended and different versions of the films.  Absolutely recommended.  The list of everything included in the set is at the bottom of the article.

Richard Donner Time Index

• :12 – When Superman loses his powers in Superman II, how do he and Lois get back to civilization? He says it happens during the dissolve.
• 1:40 – When rewatching the film, does he see issues in it or is he able to watch it as “the great first film.” Says he doesn’t see issues in the movie anymore. He would still like to re-shoot it. The production was under tremendous duress, it was a rushed production and he was awestruck by Marlon Brando and Gene Hackman. He doesn’t see the problems when re-watching, but he thinks “I wish I would’ve done this.”
• 3:28 – Talks briefly about CGI use today.
• 3:48 – Talks about first seeing the footage of Reeve flying and thinking “this will work.” When he first came in, they told him they had the flying figured out and they showed him a person on a board with wires. A flying unit was on board for a year before they filmed the first flying shot. Talks about shooting his first flying test using camera and rear projector tricks. One day the crew brought him down to the Fortress of Solitude set to show him a demonstration of Reeve flying across the set with wires, and he remembers Reeve flying towards the camera and banking. After that, he said they all knew they had it.
• 7:23 – His reaction to hearing they had found all of his footage that he shot for Superman II. After they made the film with his replacement, they showed it to him and asked if he wanted to have his name on it. He declined, because he felt it had become a parody. After the fan-outcry of people wanting to see Donner’s cut of the film, they pressured the studio to release the footage and let him put it together. They dug up a lot of footage, but a lot of his scenes were never shot. They only exist on screen tests, so they cut together screen tests and put them in his cut of the film.
• 9:41 – He talks about the Goonies musical and Dave on Broadway. “Dave is really moving fast. We were in there, Lauren and I, and she heard some of the music and the book and it’s sensational. And Goonies is moving at the beginning stages, like a year before Dave. We’re getting good outlines and good story from Tim…oh shit, this is terrible. He’s a wonderful writer. I’d say hopefully we’ll have a good script maybe by the middle of this year, around September or October we’ll have a script that we can go to from there. It’s along process, Broadway, it’s amazing. It’s frightening in a strange way. But we only get great reactions from everybody, everybody wants to see it. It seems like a great idea, and we’ll persevere. A musical of Goonieson Broadway? But it’s gotta be irreverent, and it’s gotta be Goonies. A lot of people are pushing, ‘Oh rewrite it, do it for adults,’ I said, ‘No adults go to see Goonies, but it’s gotta be…’ Anyway, it’s a bitch (laughs).”

Neck Brace-Wearing Snooki Faces Possible Lawsuit After Car Accident

Snooki's recent fender bender in Florence, Italy is not without consequences. Although she wasn't arrested for crashing into the back of a police car escorting her on Monday, May 30, the "Jersey Shore" star could be facing lawsuit from the two officers who were sent to hospital for minor injuries because of the accident. 


A spokesperson for the Florence Police Department said that although the male and female officer have been released from the hospital and their injuries were "nothing serious", they "will not be back at work for a week." Per Italian law, they have up to 90 days to decide whether to take civil action against the pint-sized reality star. 


Snooki has also had her license to drive in the country automatically revoked because she injured fellow motorists. While she was not injured in the car crash, the 23-year-old sported a neck brace while walking down the streets of Florence followed by camera crews. She was later seen ripping it off in laughter. 


After news of her minor fender bender broke, the President of a national Italian American group UNICO labeled Snooki as the country's worst ever export. To Radar Online, Andre Dimino said, "She really is the lowest of the low and will do anything for attention, even hitting a police car. She is our worst ever export and is an embarrassment for Italian Americans and our whole country." 


"For MTV to go and film in Italy was totally ill conceived, and this latest incident has just added insult to injury as far as I'm concerned," Andre continued on. "The whole situation is actually really sad, and it is painting our country in a terrible light." 


Still, Snooki apparently isn't the only "Jersey Shore" stars having some troubles with the law in Italy. Us Weekly additionally reported that the reality series cast has collected over 300 Euros worth of fines for various traffic violations since they arrived in Italy three weeks ago. 

Encore’s Birthday Marathon: Day 14

I posted a snippet earlier “celebrating” Clint Eastwood’s birthday. 2004 wasn’t the first year that I watched the Oscars, but it was the first year where I was actively participating. I had my prediction list, my wish list and I was painfully invested in the outcome of the “race”. So, it’s only natural that Clint’s visage is what appears when I think of all that went wrong with me and Oscar on that first fateful night. But, I think I’m already overreaching...

               

Around the time that the precursors were being handed out in that 04/05 Oscar season I remember making my sister print out the entire roster of the Oscars in the top 6 categories from 1932 onward. I’m still not sure what I hoped to achieve by this (as you can imagine it was a gargantuan amount of paper) but I ended up memorising a great deal of it so that I turned into a prodigious Oscar-trivia go-to person. I’ve grown past the embarrassment in that I can actually admit to it without cringing, much, but it’s only proof that when I commit to something I really do commit. General jadedness had made me lose that zeal towards the Oscars but I still retain that uncontrollable intensity (proof) and now I have this strange relationship with the Oscars – and all general awards’ ceremony, really. Jose said that if you try really hard you can blame every terrible thing about movies on the Oscars. He was deliberately being sarcastic, but is interesting how the Oscars have managed to take on that larger than life existence, which only adds to that conflicting relationship I have with them. It's too early in the year to spend talking about the Oscars. Right...?

           

It has been a while since the Oscars. How do you feel about them now?

On His Birthday...

I have a vague antipathy towards Clint Eastwood on principle. On two separate occasions he beat out two of my favourite films for Best Picture at the Academy Awards and as silly as it is, I’ve never gotten over it. The fact that I’m hardly a fan of his work generally is just insult being added to injury. I do love him for Mystic River, though. It does appear on my list of favourite films, and with good reason. I think it’s almost perfect. I’ll forget the injustices done to James Ivory and Martin Scorsese (and the inadvertent ones done to Annette Bening and Clive Owen) and instead revel in the goodness of Clint. 

Małgorzata Socha - Fashion Designer Awards

Looking amazing and sexy in a Polish label BohoBoco grey/white dress. I adore how she added a silver clutch plus a minimalistic hairstyle and red lipstick!

January Jones: "X-Men: First Class" Lingerie Lady

Giving fans even more reason to hit theaters this coming weekend, January Jones shows off her fine figure in newly-released lingerie-clad stills from her new movie "X-Men: First Class".

Set to be released on June 3rd, the "Mad Men" hottie worked it for the cameras in some seriously sexy garb as she portrayed her Emma Frost character for the much-awaited superhero caper.

As for her own special power, January recently said that becoming invisible to her fans is the ability in which she possesses.

She told, “I have this knack of being able to go out and not be recognized. I wander around town in jeans and a T-shirt and my hair in a ponytail so no one really spots me."

Jones continued, "If I do get spotted no one believes it’s me because they think I look far too small. I think the camera must add ten pounds!”

Nicole Scherzinger: Worried About Cole Backlash

Gearing up for the busy day ahead, Nicole Scherzinger was spotted leaving her hotel in Paris, France this morning (May 31).

The former Pussycat Doll is in the City of Lights to do some promotional appearances ahead of her new album’s release.

Back in the States, Nicole was recently chosen to replace Cheryl Cole as a judge on the new talent show “The X Factor,” and while she’s grateful for the gig, Scherzinger is fearful that British fans will react negatively.

A source revealed, "Nicole is really upset at what happened to Cheryl. She knows her well and thought she would have been a great in the show. She knows how people in Britain are so proud of their stars and want to see them do well in the States too, so she is aware there could be a lot of unhappiness surrounding the rejection.”

"The last thing she wants is bad blood between herself and Cheryl and anyone thinking she might have been lobbying to get her place. Nicole wants to see her do well in whatever she does next and hopes there won't be any hard feelings."

Rosie Huntington-Whiteley: British GQ Cutie

Heating up the cover of British GQ's July issue, Rosie Huntington Whiteley shows off her fabulous long legs.

The “Transformers: Dark of the Moon” babe looks absolutely stunning in the accompanying photo spread, and discusses her bouts with bullying growing up.

Given her amazing lips and beautiful face, Rosie had to deal with jealous kids picking on her, that is until she scored her first modeling gigs.

"I was really teased about the way I looked at school. I got teased because of my lips. I got called t*t lips - because I had big lips but no breasts. And then I was called kipper lips."

"There was this big group of girls who were the local answer to Mean Girls and they would storm the bathrooms shouting 'I'm going to f***ing get you Lips. See you on the school bus."

Jessica Szohr Talks "Gossip Girl" Departure

She spent four years playing Vanessa Abrams, and Jessica Szohr didn’t sound too sad to be leaving her “Gossip Girl” gig.

The beautiful brunette chatted with press about how her departure is mutually beneficial and will allow her to pursue other avenues.

"When I started the fourth season, I kind of had a talk with the producers. We didn't know what we were going to do with the characters. After playing someone for four years, it can be a little repetitive.”

“So I was ready for a change. I had so much fun and I made friends I'll have for a lifetime and it was so great to work in the city, but I got the most I could out of Vanessa. I have two movies that I start in August and July and I have a couple movies coming out in the next couple months."