May 16, 2024

Review Category : TMZ Music News

Pharrell’s Writing A Book, And He Wants You To Help Him

Innovation in the worlds of music and fashion apparently is not enough for Pharrell. He's making moves in the publishing game now, too.

On Thursday (April 24), the Virginia native released "Inspiration," in collaboration with Tipp-Ex, which is being promoted as a "social book."

What they've done is simple in execution, though likely tough to crack: "All the words from Pharrell Williams' book have been erased," the website for the correction fluid explains. "Join a worldwide community by rewriting them in real time."

To launch the campaign, Tipp-Ex also released a video called "The Hunter and the Bear." In it, the two title characters are inside a cabin as friends, rather than adversaries. The Hunter is trying feverishly to keep the door closed, as rabid fans want to get their hands on Pharrell's book before its official release. The Bear runs out of the frame, and then quickly returns with the book, but all the words have been whited out ‒ by Tipp-Ex, presumably.

And that brings us to where we are now.

Be the first person to guess a word ‒ any of the many in the book ‒ and you'll get credit when it's published as a hard copy and put on sale. Many of those missing from the book ‒ which is available in English, French, German, Spanish and Italian ‒ have hints to help, but others don't.

But this isn't merely about a guessing game or trying to flip the world of publishing on its head. The undertaking appears to be a metaphor, with the rewriting that it asks ...

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Sam Claflin Dishes About Getting His Spooky On In ‘The Quiet Ones’

There's more to acting than being really, really ridiculously good looking. To be a great thespian, you also have to be able to manipulate and contort that handsome face to convey both the most extreme and subtle of emotions. And it's not as easy as it looks — imagine how un-spooky scary movies would be without spine-tingling music or tension-building sound effects. What if the things that go bump in the night never actually bumped at all?

That's the situation that Sam Claflin, star of "The Quiet Ones," faced during shooting. Strangely enough, the human voice doesn't do a great job imitating the creepy sound effects that come in post-production.

"There's no sound effects," Claflin told MTV News before the movie's release. "They were given, unfortunately, by our director who, as amazing a great director that he is, a great writer as well, his sound effects weren't great, to the point where we were all struggling not to laugh."

Eventually, Claflin and his castmates decided that silence might be a better substitute for director John Pogue's vocal talents.

"It was very very difficult to put ourselves in that zone," he said.

Check out the clip above to learn more about "The Quiet Ones," in theaters April 25.

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‘The Amazing Spider-Man 2’: Exclusive Minimates Action Figures Reveal Villainous Alter-Egos

"The Amazing Spider-Man 2" is poised to take the box office by storm when it opens in the United States on May 2. In anticipation, Diamond Select is releasing not one, but two lines of their popular Minimates dedicated to the webslinger.

The first set, which will be available in collectible and toy stores features four two-packs:

» Battle-Damaged Spider-Man with Electro
» Spider-Man with Green Goblin
» Peter Parker with Gwen Stacy
» Alistair Smythe with Aleksei Sytsevich

The last set is notable for two reasons. First, it'll only be available at a rate of one pair per case ordered, per store. But for non-retailers, it's of note that B.J. Novak's villainous Smythe notes highly enough to get an action figure.

In the comics — and possibly in the future of the franchise — Smythe is the Spider-Slayer, a character who uses his knowledge and technical prowess not only to menace Spider-Man, but also to take on journalist J. Jonah Jameson, a character who has yet to appear on screen in the rebooted trilogy.

The other set will only be available at Toys R' Us, and includes variants:

» Battle-Damaged Spider-Man with translucent Electro
» Spider-Man with grinning Green Goblin
» Peter Parker with Gwen Stacy
» Flashback Spider-Man with Max Dillon

Yup, you can even own Jamie Foxx's nerdy alter-ego from the new movie, in toy form. Kids will thrill to play as a conflicted introvert with massive knowledge and no social skills! Or, you know, collectors will like it because it's cool.

Each Minimate ...

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Lorde’s ‘Tennis Court’ Gets Some Serious Balls With Flume Remix

Everyone from Bruce Springsteen to Rick Ross has done their own spin on Lorde's "Royals," but "Tennis Court" — which is a serious jam — hasn't got that much remix love. Until now.

May I introduce Australian dance music star Flume, who has just busted out a seriously danceable version of quirkily monikered hit.

Flume — a.k.a. Harley Edward Streten — premiered the remix during the first weekend of Coachella, later reviving it at his MTV Artist To Watch performance at New York's Highline Ballroom. Thursday (April 24), Flume bestowed the tune upon the rest of us, posting the remix to SoundCloud and YouTube.

"Tennis Courts" was already a pretty EDM-esque jam — what with that deep-voiced "yeah" and everything — but in Flume's expert hands, it becomes a full-blown fist-pumper. Kicking off with a kind of burbling water sound effect, the song builds from a bottom-of-the-well holiday commercial sample to a total musical breakdown. The good kind. Lorde's jam about nostalgia just got a kick into the future.

What do you think of Flume's remix? Who should take on "Tennis Court" next?

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Ed Sheeran Docuseries Leads MTV Summer Lineup

While you scramble to work on that beach bod, make sure your DVR is in top shape too because MTV announced its summer schedule on Thursday (April 24) and it is seriously ripped.

In addition to new shows "Finding Carter" and "Snack-Off" and the return of "Teen Wolf" and "Ridiculousness," one of the new series announced was the documentary "9 Days and Nights." The subject of the first 60-minute episode in June is Ed Sheeran, with special appearances from pal Taylor Swift and producer Pharrell Williams. The show is slated to debut on June 10 at 11 p.m. ET/PT.

The announcement of the new shows was hosted by Nicole Byer of the hit series "Girl Code," MTV2's Andrew Schulz and Charlamagne of "Guy Code," and featured phenomenal performances by Bastille, playing their hit "Pompeii." In addition, Rita Ora introduced Paramore, who performed "Still Into You" and "Ain't It Fun."

Grammy Award-winning EDM star and 2014 MTV Movie Awards performer Zedd also took the stage to get the crowd moving with "Clarity" and was joined onstage by Paramore lead singer Hayley Williams for an epic version of their song "Stay the Night."

The event also featured appearances by MTV on-air talent including Victoria Justice debuting a first-look at her new MTV series "Eye Candy."

The full summer schedule:
»"Teen Wolf" — Season four of the series will debut on June 23 (10 p.m. ET/PT) and finds Scott, Stiles, Lydia and Kira returning for a new semester with more human than supernatural concerns.

»"Finding Carter" — On the July 8 debut (10 p.m. ET/PT) of this ...

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Read The Craigslist Ads For Katy Perry’s ‘Birthday’ Alter Egos

We've all seen Katy Perry's new video for "

Lucky for you, we here at MTV News are known for our digging skills, and have spent hours scouring Craigslist to bring you the (imagined) original pitch ads for Goldie, Kriss and more. Check them out, as well as hype posters (courtesy of Perry's Twitter) for each entertainment professional.

Klown 4 Hire -- $40/hr
experienced brtdy clown here to make you laugh and your kids faces light up like beacons of joy i am very funny and love to make kids laugh. willing to do sack races, balloon art, laughter kriss the Clown will make your party so much fun
pay is $40 per hour please note no clown license must sign wiaver and provide cake
email krissclwn@yahoo.com

L@@K: PRINCESS MANDEE HERE TO SPARKLE 4 U
If u w@nt your special princess birthday party to really sparkle stop looking right now than PRINCESS MANDEE right here for all every fairytale you have! ~~**~*
I will paint ur face with authentic real CVS makeup and make all your babies look like beauty queens ok look at my instagram for example of my work and inner ^v^charisma^v^ ;-P
Tweet me @mandeerogersakalil_prncessmandee 4 rates no fire signs lol xo
.¸¸.?´¯`♥"If u can't handle me at my worst then u sure as hell don't deserve me at my best" MARILEN MONROE ♥.¸¸.?´¯`

Your Kids Are Animals Just Kidding I Have Animals Haha Hire Me For Your Birthday
Hey kids! Do you love animals! I love animals! You'll love my animals! Happy birthday but happier with my animals!
I'll bring you ...

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Rita Ora Shares Her ‘Fifty Shades Of Grey’ Acting Secret

She's known for her catchy songs and killer style, but soon, Rita Ora will be known for her acting too.

The British songstress, who had a brief role in the "Fast and Furious 6," will be heating up the big screen in the film adaptation of E L James' erotic novel,

Ora recently stopped by MTV News to give us the scoop on her character Mia Grey, the adopted sister of S&M-loving billionaire tycoon Christian Grey.

"She's honestly one of the ones that loves her brother for whatever," Ora said. "She doesn't know about his fantasies yet, but she's extremely involved and loves him and she studies in France, speaks French, and it was a good learning curve for me."

Ora originally approached the production hoping to jump on the film's soundtrack but found herself getting the role. She admitted that playing the part took a lot of hard work, mostly because she had to master two different languages.

"I prepped for the role by learning some French first of all, by learning an American accent and by really just not being me," Ora revealed. "I had a brown wig on and I was being the smart girl that came from French school to see her family, so it was just a lot of dedication, it was like going back to school."

But there were times when it was hard to keep focused both on and off set, and it didn't have to do with the kinky sex scenes.

"Working with Dakota was extremely fun she's just so gorgeous so it kind of ...

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