Gwen Stefani made an appearance Wednesday on “Late Night with Seth Meyers,” in her first TV interview since she pulled double duty last week at two major awards shows in a row. Which meant it was her first chance to address:

A) that whole “Colbore Report” flub at the Emmys,
B) the origins of her now-famous finger clap, and
C) the, ahem, well-rounded differences between the VMAs red carpet and the one at the Emmys.

Stefani breezed right past her Emmys goof and said the finger-clap is something she picked up at summer camp. Apparently, “If everyone does it, it sounds like rain,” she explained. But let’s be honest, the real highlight of this interview is seeing her describe the VMAs red carpet as an electric buttcheek extravaganza. Which it totally was.

Kat Rosenfield @katrosenfield

Yes, the NFL is really a passer’s league, but when Thursday night prime-time football kicks off on CBS on September 11, it will be a runner’s game thanks to the night’s new theme song. The league has chosen the Jay Z and Rihanna track “Run This Town” as this season’s Thursday Night Football theme.

According to the NFL, “The Thursday Night Football open will be accompanied by the narration of Academy Award-nominated actor Don Cheadle. Cheadle’s narration sets the scene to kick off the NFL week on Thursday nights, highlighting the division rivalry games. And, asking the question, who will ‘Run This Town’?”

The 16-game Thursday Night Football schedule kicks off with division rivals the Pittsburgh Steelers taking on the Baltimore Ravens on September 11 and each week’s open will feature customized narration from Cheadle about that week’s game. The new opening was recently filmed in an airplane hangar and was produced and directed by 28-time Emmy Award-winer Pete Radovich.

“This open combines one of music’s biggest stars with one of the most dynamic actors in Hollywood,” Radovich said. “The energy that both talents provide gives the opening to every Thursday night the big-game, primetime feel it deserves. It is a dream scenario for any director.”

Here’s a couple of times Rih Rih wore football jerseys, because, you know, football!

Zimbio

Daily Mail

Gil Kaufman

Often guilty, never convicted. Serving 15 years to life at MTV News.

With additional reporting by Janelle Myers

Booty-ful Girls
Bum dia! I mean, bom dia (‘good day’ in Portuguese). Sorry, I got distracted, because Iggy Azalea posted a steamy still from Jennifer Lopez‘s unreleased music video for the remix of her song “Booty.” J-Lo told us that she and Iggy filmed the video just days before the VMAs.

There She Goes Again Being Taylor Swift
Taylor Swift wrote an inspiring Instagram comment encouraging a teenage girl not let bullying bother her and be herself. “Every time someone picks on me, I’ll think of you in the hopes that every time someone picks on you, you’ll think of me… and how we have this thread that connects us. Let them keep living in the darkness and we’ll keep walking in the sunlight,” she told her fan. Way to pull on the heartstrings Taylor.

Another Fall Out Boy Is Becoming A Dad
Fall Out Boy frontman Patrick Stump revealed that his wife Elisa Yao has been walking around with a baby bump. The singer said that the couple will have their first child by the end of October.

Ohtay! ‘The Little Rascals’ Reunited
Remember how adorable Alfalfa, Darla and the rest of “The Little Rascals” cast were? The gang reunited to recreate the film’s poster from 20 years ago and it’s equal parts hilarious and jaw-dropping. Unfortunately, I doubt that’s the same dog though…

Did She Get A Surfbort?
Happy Birthday Beyoncé! You can celebrate the “Drunk In Love” singer’s 33rd ...

Iggy Azalea is already planning a re-up. The “Black Widow” rapper announced on Thursday (September 4) that she’ll be re-releasing her debut, The New Classic, with an additional six tracks.

In addition to the dozen songs on the original, including “Fancy,” “New Bitch,” “Change Your Life” and “Don’t Need Ya’ll,” Iggy said she’s working on a new cover for the album this week.

Oh, and she’s got some guests lined up for it as well, like, say Ellie Goulding?

How you like that?

Gil Kaufman

Often guilty, never convicted. Serving 15 years to life at MTV News.

Now that we can smell what The Rock is cooking when it comes to his upcoming DC Entertainment movie collaboration, it’s time to talk about what he’s not cooking: a “Justice League” role.

This week, Dwayne Johnson announced that he is playing Black Adam in Warner Bros. and DC’s upcoming adaptation of “Shazam.” If you don’t know who Black Adam is (or what a Shazam is, for that matter), he’s a magically-infused badass (do you expect anything less from Johnson?) who butts heads with the equally magical Billy Batson, a 12-year-old boy who transforms into Shazam, a superhero with veritable Superman poise and physique.

Though Black Adam and Shazam both exist in the same DC universe as Superman, Batman and Wonder Woman, they don’t necessarily lend themselves to the grounded, gritty tone of “Man of Steel,” and, presumably, “Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice.” So maybe it won’t come as a huge surprise to hear that the upcoming “Shazam” film will follow its own path, veering away from plans for the upcoming “Justice League” movie.

“It feels to me like ‘Shazam’ will have a tone unto itself,” New Line’s Toby Emmerich tells Entertainment Weekly about the Rock-starring movie. “It’s a DC comic, but it’s not a Justice League character, and it’s not a Marvel comic. The tone and the feeling of the movie will be different from the other range of comic book movies.”

Emmerich added that “Shazam” fans can expect the movie to have “a ...

There’s nothing like hip-hop music. Since the late 1970s, when the culture and music was taking form, there was something unique about the beats and the rhymes, as well as the dances, fashion and graffiti.

Now that hip-hop has fully bloomed and penetrated almost every facet of pop culture, it’s become clear that there is just no musical genre in the world that can currently compare.

That’s no dis; we love pop, rock, reggae, EDM and all other forms of music, but we just happen to think hip-hop is the best and we have 14 reasons to prove it.

1. The Lyrics

No other genre of music packs as many multilayered, dual-meaning and witty lyrics in three minute and 30 second songs. Seriously, picture Katy Perry singing: “I should probably sign to Hit-Boy, ’cause I got all the hits, boy.”

2. Slang

Getty Images

Part of what makes rap lyrics so appealing is the slang that MCs use to paint their picture. Spitters like E-40 have created a language that everyone uses, so keep that in mind the next time your grandmother says “fo’ shizzle.”

3. The Fashion

No doubt hip-hop has been influencing everyday fashion since the 1980s. So when you see Taylor Swift with a fitted hat, a hoodie and a boombox you’ll understand the influence.

4. Tupac Shakur

Kevin Mazur / getty Images

No other genre of music has an artist quite like Tupac. He blended his own gangsta and Black Panther political ...

If there were any doubts about the powerful, jaw-dropping VMA performance that Beyoncé bestowed upon us this year, we now have the numbers to back it all up.

Billboard reports that post-VMAs, sales of King B’s self-titled fifth album have risen by a whopping 181 percent—from 6,000 copies to 16,000 in a mere week.

As for the individual songs that Bey performed during her extended medley, they saw an increase as well, with a 155 percent jump from 49,000 to 126,000.

Related: Beyoncé’s 2014 VMA Performance: Fearless, Feminist, Flawless, Family Time

And Beyoncé wasn’t the only one to see a boost from the award show—overall music sales from VMA-related artists were up by 41 percent, which Billboard notes is fairly high.

Sam Smith was another big gainer from the host of musicians who were featured on the show. His debut album In The Lonely Hour had a gain of 24 percent, with 30,000 sales for the week up from 24,000.

Considering how much Sam loves Beyoncé, could this correlation be the work of the Illuminati, who some people still think coordinated the entire VMAs? Guess we’ll never know.

One thing is for sure, we’re not going to be forgetting Beyoncé’s performance anytime soon. In fact, let’s watch it again, shall we?

Yup, still ***flawless.

Caitlin White

MTV Weekend Editor. Acts like Madonna but listens to Merle.

@harmonicait

So that “statement” Nick Cannon gave about separating from wife Mariah Carey? Apparently that wasn’t him.

In a slew of tweets on Wednesday (September 3), Cannon claimed that confirmation of the couple’s split came from “false reports.” In August, Yahoo! reportedly obtained a statement from the actor, saying “There is trouble in paradise … We have been living in separate houses for a few months.”

However, Cannon now has this to say:

“For the record I NEVER have, nor will I make a statement regarding my marriage,” he wrote on Twitter among other comments, ending his speech with “And finally, ‘Trouble in Paradise’ is the dumbest phrase I’ve ever heard! I would never say that sh!t.”

Read the whole screenshotted monologue below:

Emilee Lindner

Member of MTV News' Cat Braintrust, has an unhealthy obsession with pork dumplings and tweeting Austin Mahone's mom. Follow @emileelindner

The 2015 Guinness World Records book won’t officially arrive until September 10, but we have a sneak peek on some star-studded achievements right… now!

First off, a major “yaaaas” is in order for the boys of One Direction — according to a release from the Guinness folks themselves, the band now has the honor of being the “First act to debut at No.1 with first three albums” with Midnight Memories, Up All Night and Take Me Home all debuting at the top spot.

“This really is one of our proudest moments, both for us and our incredible fans,” Niall Horan said. “Whenever we talk about it we always say how cool it is that we did it first, how sick is that?!”

Pretty sick, Niall. Pretty sick.

Additionally, Miley Cyrus now has the honor of being the “Most searched-for Pop Star on the Internet,” while Shakira is officially the “Most ‘liked’ person on Facebook.” (She reached 100 million in July, meaning she also wins “First person to reach 100 million likes on Facebook.”)

Metallica also had a pretty sweet year for the Records book — the band made history when they became the first (and, as of right now, only) band to perform a concert on all seven of the earth’s continents. They played a show in Antarctica called “Freeze ‘Em All,” which lead vocalist James Hetfield said was attended by “300 very curious penguins.”

Congrats are also in order for “Frozen,” which won “Highest box office film gross for an animation,” at ...

Beyonce’s 33rd birthday might not be until Thursday, September 4, but that shouldn’t stop you from celebrating early! Hello, you’re a grown woman — you can do whatever you want. Same goes for grown men. For now.

To help you observe what might as well be the BeyHive national holiday, we’ve curated this 33-song “Happy Bey Day” playlist that spans the iconic entertainer’s entire career. So, pop open a jar of Swagu, put on that freakum dress and [INSERT FLAWLESS THIRD BEY REFERENCE HERE], because it’s time to party.

John Walker

Bad at filling out bios seeks same.