April 20, 2024

About the author  ⁄ Brenna Ehrlich

We’re Painting The Town Purple: Happy Spirit Day

by 17 mins ago

Over here at MTV News, we’re against bullying 100% — and we’re flaunting that POV proudly via our snazzy new purple logo in honor of Spirit Day (October 16).

Since 2010, October 16, for many people, has been a day to stand up against the bullying of LGBTQ youth. According to GLAAD, purple is the color of choice because the hue symbolizes “spirit” on the rainbow associated with the LGBTQ community.

What are you doing to show your support? There’s a veritable outpouring of spirit on social media. We’ve nabbed some of our favorites below. Happy Spirit Day!

‘Game Of Thrones’ got in on the action.

Related: 4 Ways to Get Involved This Spirit Day, Featuring The Cast Of ‘Faking It’

We would enjoy some of this spirited candy, please and thanks.

Tons of people are making their avatars see purple.

Related: 13 Important Facts About The “T” In LGBT

That manicure…

You can wear purple on your sleeve.

Or Lorde-out with your lips!

Love ya, Laverne! Paint that Empire State Building purple!

Happy Spirit Day!

Brenna Ehrlich is a reporter for MTV News as well as the senior writer/editor for the O Music Awards. In the past, she served as associate editor at Mashable, penned a netiquette column for CNN and co-authored the blog and book "Stuff Hipsters Hate." She likes trying not to die in moshpits and listening to songs on repeat. Follow her on Twitter @BrennaEhrlich for news on cats and punk bands.
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Are These New Taylor Swift Lyrics About BFF Lorde?

by 18 mins ago

Taylor Swift, you fiend! You’ve barely given us time to fully digest your indie-pop sea change of a track, “Out Of The Woods,” and you’re already teasing us with new tunes via Instagram? OK, fiiiine, lady, we’ll bite — and get SO DAMN EXCITED.

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After sharing possibly New York-themed lyrics to Instagram Tuesday for an as-yet-unreleased 1989 track, Swift revealed a new set of lines today (October 15). They read: “Nice to meet you/ Where you been?/ I could show you incredible things.”

The words are written on a fancy kind of greeting card, with a diamond necklace laid out around the whole display.

We’re not sure what significance the jewels have yet (it’s no paper airplane necklace), but Lorde did pipe up on Twitter that it’s her favorite track on the record, so maybe those sparkly things could be a nod to Taylor and Ella’s friendship? (Diamonds in the flesh and not being royal and all that).

I guess, for now, we’ll have to wait until the album drops on October 27 to see what’s what. In the meantime, we’ll just all be over here like…

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Brenna Ehrlich is a reporter for MTV News as well as the senior writer/editor for the O Music Awards. In the past, she served as associate editor at Mashable, penned a netiquette column for CNN and co-authored the blog and book "Stuff Hipsters Hate." She likes ...

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Bono’s Response To That Whole Free Album Thing? ‘Oops’

by 6 mins ago

Remember when U2 gave us all their new album, Songs of Innocence, for free via iTunes? Remember how some people got a little PO’d that it had automatically popped up in their music libraries? Well, that all came to a head this week when Bono officially apologized for… giving people music for free. The horror.

In a Q&A posted to Facebook, a fan asked Bono, point-blank: “Can you please never release an album on iTunes that automatically downloads to people’s playlists ever again? It’s really rude.”

Related: Was U2′s Apple Album Release A Good Idea? We Asked The Experts

Bono, rather sheepishly, responded, “Oops. I’m sorry about that. I had this beautiful idea — might have gotten carried away with ourselves. Artists are prone to that kind of thing. A drop of megalomania, a touch of generosity, a dash of self-promotion, and deep fear that these songs that we poured our life into over the last few years might not be heard. There’s a lot of noise out there. I guess, we got a little noisy ourselves to get through it.”

U2 made history when the band made a special appearance during Apple’s latest product launch and gave away their record for free via Apple’s music services: iTunes, iTunes Radio and Beats.

The album reached 500-million people, 26 million of which downloaded it to their devices. Some users were displeased with the record’s existence on their phones, however, and Apple set up a dedicated site that allowed people ...

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Which Celebrity Pet Are You?

by 22 mins ago

That old saying, “It’s a dog’s life,” takes on a whole new meaning when that dog belongs to Lady Gaga. Yup, the pets of pop stars lead charmed lives — lives that leave the rest of us poor mutts drooling with jealousy.

Take our quiz below to find out with celeb pet is your spirit animal — and try not to be too disappointed that these pampered house pets have it better than you. Hey, at least you have the gift of speech! That ain’t nothing!

Brenna Ehrlich is a reporter for MTV News as well as the senior writer/editor for the O Music Awards. In the past, she served as associate editor at Mashable, penned a netiquette column for CNN and co-authored the blog and book "Stuff Hipsters Hate." She likes trying not to die in moshpits and listening to songs on repeat. Follow her on Twitter @BrennaEhrlich for news on cats and punk bands.
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This Train Dance Party Should Be The Most Awkward Thing Ever

by 8 mins ago

What would you do if a spontaneous dance party broke out during your morning commute? Bury your face further into your book? Angrily jam down on your headphone to drown out the blaringly happy jam undulating through your train car? Or, I don’t know, join in?

That’s what Peter Sharp set out to discover in the newest video from the Australian social performance artist. Sharp starts out the video by standing up on a crowded train, dressed in a snazzy suit. When he begins speaking, you can almost feel the physical discomfort of the other passengers (people talking loudly on trains never results in anything good), until you hear what he’s saying, “I don’t want money, I just want to spread a bit of happiness.”

The above statement still sounds a little suspect, until Sharp begins dancing and the rest of the passengers — miraculously — begin dancing and clapping (slightly off-beat), too.

According to Mashable, Sharp’s whole MO is bringing joy to unlikely places — in unlikely situations. He started his whole mission in Spain, hitchhiking from Barcelona to Croatia in a business suit, busting out dance parties along the way.

Perhaps your subway car is next?

Brenna Ehrlich is a reporter for MTV News as well as the senior writer/editor for the O Music Awards. In the past, she served as associate editor at Mashable, penned a netiquette column for CNN and co-authored the blog and book "Stuff Hipsters Hate." ...

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Lorde Sang The ‘I Am Lorde’ Song From ‘South Park’ And It Was Perfect

by 21 mins ago

If we didn’t already think Lorde was the coolest girl in music (have you not seen our embarrassingly gushy articles on the teen?), the 17-year-old singer’s game acceptance of her “South Park” parody would have convinced us.

The latest evidence of her awesomeness? Ella sang the “I Am Lorde Ya Ya Ya” song from the first infamous episode during an interview. She shared the excerpt via a tweet this past weekend.

If you were hiding from the world of pop culture these past few weeks, Lorde appeared in two — count ‘em, two! — “South Park” episodes. In the first, the kids try to put together a charity concert featuring Lorde — and then there’s some stuff about gluten — only to find out that Lorde is just Stan’s dad in disguise. When she reappears in the next episode, we discover that Randy Marsh wasn’t just dressing up as Lorde — he is Lorde.

Lorde didn’t really speak up about the episodes until the second one had aired, posting clips from “her” second appearance to Instagram and applauding the show’s message of transgender acceptance. Coolest girl in the music world? We think yes.

this is actually surprisingly cute – and from what i can tell also has a message of transgender acceptance (i'm still very new with this type of humour so i'm not sure if was actually genuine but it seemed so to me)

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Nat Wolff Has A Confession To Make About Cara Delevingne

by 3 mins ago

In the upcoming film “Paper Towns,” Nat Wolff’s character Quentin may be obsessed with Cara Delevingne’s Margo Roth Spiegelman, but, in real life, the actor admits that he didn’t initially know who Delevingne was.

“This is going to sound crazy, because she’s the biggest super star in the world — I had never heard of her,” Wolff told MTV News. “She just came in to audition and she was unbelievable. I think she’s that character. She’s perfect for that role.”

“Paper Towns” is the second John Green novel to become a film — following close on the heels of smash-hit “Fault In Stars” — and pulls together a lot of the same team from that film: Wolff (who played a supporting role in “Fault”), as well as Scott Neustadter and Michael H. Weber, who co-wrote both “Fault” and “The Spectacular Now.” Delevinge’s casting was announced in September, and, although shooting starts soon, only she and Wolff’s roles have been unveiled.

“Paper Towns” picks apart the idea of the “manic pixie dream girl” (a term coined by critic Nathan Rabin, who recently apologized for its existence) — zeroing in on a boy named Quentin’s obsession with free spirit Margo Roth Spiegelman. Former childhood friends, the two occupy separate social spheres until Margo plucks Quentin from smart-boy obscurity to go on a night-long mission of revenge against an ex-boyfriend who cheated and some wayward friends. When tomorrow dawns, however, Margo has disappeared, and Quentin sets out on a quest to ...

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Facebook To Launch Mystery App That Will Let You Go Anonymous — Kind Of

by 30 mins ago

Get ready, guys: Facebook is about to go anonymous. Kind of.

Yup, just days after Facebook agreed to change its policies requiring users to employ their real names on the site, news that the social network plans to launch a mobile app that will allow us all to go by whatever name we desire hit the scene.

The New York Times has the inside intel on the app, which will allow users to talk inside of Facebook without using their real names. The app is expected to come out in the next few weeks, but details about how it will work are scarce. Perhaps it will utilize Facebook Groups? Or perhaps it will simply be a new chat app, like Messenger? All we have are guesses at the moment.

News of the app comes after Facebook last week apologized to users adversely affected by the site’s “real name” policy, which requires people to use their actual names on Facebook. The policy came under fire these past few weeks when someone decided to report hundreds of accounts as fake, many of which were those of drag queens using their stage names on the social network. This led to a lot of heat from the drag community, as well as LGBTQ users who prefer using names other than those given at birth, according to the Times.

Facebook is working on amending that policy now, first reinstating those shut-down accounts, but how it will handle the chosen name-versus-given name question in the ...

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Here’s The Surprising Scientific Reason Why Men Are Attracted To Big Butts

by 5 mins ago

Nowadays — if popular music is to be believed — we’re currently “all about that bass”. Prominent posteriors are everywhere on the Billboard charts — Nicki Minaj’s “Anaconda” ode to big butts, Meghan Trainor’s “All About That Bass” curvy girl “bringing the booty back” anthem, and, of course, Jennifer Lopez and Iggy Azalea’s “Booty” celebration. (Not to mention Beyonce’s always-revered rear.)

Butts are clearly having, well, their biggest moment ever, a fact that evolutionary psychologists like Gordon G. Gallup, Jr. of the University of Albany finds unsurprising. According to Gallup, a man’s attraction to women with bigger butts — see Trainor’s assertion that “boys like a little more booty to hold at night” — is woven into their genes.

Evolution isn’t about survival of the fittest, Gallup told MTV News. It’s about pairing your genes with someone “who has genes that code for health and vitality and fertility.” In some cases, that means all the right junk in all the right places.

“The reason narrow waists and broad hips are so prized — the reason males rate these as being attractive, even though they don’t have any insight into why they do — is two-fold,” he said. “It means, if a woman has a narrow waist, she’s not pregnant. And if she has broad hips it means that the underlying skeletal morphology is probably such that she’d be able to have a relatively unencumbered childbirth.”

Translation: An hourglass shape indicates ...

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Beyonce Is Feminism, According To Aziz Ansari

by 35 mins ago

Not only is Beyoncé kind of a champion for feminism, she’s also, apparently, part of the definition of the word — at least for “Parks and Recreation” star Aziz Ansari. And we tend to agree.

Ansari sat down with David Letterman on “The Late Show” Monday night where he spoke about some people’s reticence to call themselves feminists because “people think ‘feminist’ means some woman’s going to start yelling at them.”

According to Ansari, though — and most rational human beings — “feminism” is just a call to treat men and women equally, an idea he explained by way of Beyoncé and husband Jay Z’s joint On The Run Tour.

“You’re a feminist if you go to a Jay Z and Beyoncé concert and you’re not like, ‘I feel like Beyonce should get like 23% less money than Jay Z,” Ansari said. “‘Also I don’t think Beyoncé should have the right to vote and why is Beyoncé singing and dancing — shouldn’t she make Jay a steak? I’m sure he’s very tired after walking and rapping those two songs.’”

Whip that one out next time someone starts talking about how they’re not a feminist because they don’t hate men.

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For more about gender norms and feminism, go to LookDifferent.org.

Brenna Ehrlich is a reporter for MTV News as well as the senior writer/editor for the O Music Awards. In the past, she served as associate ...

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