You can give up — Chase Simonds’ ALS challenge is better than yours. And he didn’t even have to throw a bucket of water over his head.

A few days before the Video Music Awards, the MTV producer was joking around doing dance moves in front of coworkers when VMAs co-executive producer Lee Lodge walked in. After Simonds’ humiliation wore off, Lodge made an offer: if Simonds learned and performed a dance routine on the VMA stage, he’d donate $500 to charity.

Since he’d recently found out his friend Clayton’s father has ALS, he had to accept the challenge — and went all out to craft a routine fit for a queen. A friend connected him to James Alsop, a choreographer who’s worked with Beyonce, who over the next couple nights helped him perfect his dance moves.

Maybe Bey will recruit him for Sunday’s VMA performance?

Emily Blake

Janet‘s gone through it. Katy experienced it. Britney, too.

And now, judging from her extraterrestrial (and extra weird) video for “Break Free,” Ariana Grande seems to be deep into her outer space phase.

In fact when we asked her how she’d like to take the stage to perform “Break Free” at Sunday’s VMAs, she requested there be no gravity whatsoever.

“If I were given an endless budget for my VMA performance, I would have them actually simulate zero gravity onstage for me,” She said. “We would have to come up with some sort of graceful way to turn that off without me like falling to the stage and dying. I would like to fly at some point… and I would like to finish off the number with Jane Fonda dancing with me.”

We can’t guarantee that that’ll all happen at Sunday night’s show, but hey, ya never know.

Emily Blake

Guys, there’s just three days until the 2014 Video Music Awards. Which means, there’s just THREE DAYS until Rita Ora and Iggy Azalea take the stage to perform their infectious new hit, “Black Widow.”

And now, Rita has given us a sneak peek at what they have cooked up with two Instagram pictures from their Thursday afternoon (August 21) rehearsal.

In one, their rocking matching “Black Widow” themed jackets and giving their fiercest looks to the camera.

In the next, their in action onstage — looking EVEN FIERCER.

Rita already told us we can expect “a lot of two blondes beating up dudes,” and while we didn’t see a Y chromosome in sight, they look like they could kick an ass or two.

Emily Blake

It’s been weeks since Fifth Harmony they’re up for the Artist to Watch VMA for their “Miss Movin On” video — and cried for 20 minutes straight — and they still can’t quite believe it.

But on Wednesday (August 20), the fivesome stopped pinching themselves and called on their fans to get to voting — because after all, the 2014 Video Music Awards are mere DAYS away.

In a Instagram video set appropriately to the tune of Ellie Goulding’s “Anything Can Happen,” the girls say “We need you now.”

Emily Blake

Katy Perry Rihanna and Coldplay could be performing at one of the most-watch (and most American) shows of the year … but, apparently, it’s going to cost them.

According to The Wall Street Journal, the NFL has narrowed down its list of potential performers for the Super Bowl Halftime to those three. But they’re asking “at least some of the acts” if they would contribute some of their income to the league or make “some other type of financial contribution.”

Their reps, naturally, didn’t respond too well to the request.

Then again, considering the esteem (and eyeballs) surrounding the halftime performance — this year’s show featuring Bruno Mars and the Red Hot Chili Peppers smashed records with 115.3 million viewers — it’s expected for artists’ album sales and publicity to spike post-show.

But at the end of the day: Whose money is it?

Super Bowl XLIX will take place in Phoenix on February 1.

Emily Blake

The death of 18-year-old Michael Brown has been emotional for people all across the country — sparking a slew of passionate protests in his hometown of Ferguson, Missouri.

But no one feels as heartbroken by Brown’s death as his family — a fact that Sybrina Fulton, the mother of Trayvon Martin, is well aware of. Fulton wrote an emotional letter the Brown’s family on Monday (August 18), as protests in Ferguson continued.

Fulton reminded the family that, despite the heartache, “neither of their lives shall be in vain” and encouraged them, and everyone, to “fight injustice”: “We will no longer be ignored. We will bond, continue our fights for justice, and make them remember our children in an appropriate light.”

To The Brown Family,

I wish I had a word of automatic comfort but I don’t. I wish I could say that it will be alright on a certain or specific day but I can’t. I wish that all of the pain that I have endured could possibly ease some of yours but it won’t. What I can do for you is what has been done for me: pray for you then share my continuing journey as you begin yours.

I hate that you and your family must join this exclusive yet growing group of parents and relatives who have lost loved ones to senseless gun violence. Of particular concern is that so many of these gun violence cases involve children far too young. But Michael is much more than a police/gun ...