When 14-year-old Matthew Burdette committed suicide during Thanksgiving vacation last year, he left a note saying he couldn’t handle school anymore and had “no friends.”

What his parents didn’t know then was that the reason their son was so despondent was because a fellow student at Matthew’s school had allegedly videotaped him masturbating in a school bathroom stall and uploaded the clip. The video was quickly passed around by other students and led to Matthew, a water-polo and wrestling team athlete, being “mercilessly bullied,” according to a $1 million claim filed by Timothy and Barbara Burdette against the San Diego Unified School District.

According to CBS News, the Burdettes claim in their suit that a teacher, an administrator and other employees at University City High School possibly knew that Matthew was being harassed but didn’t step in to stop it.

A Boy Scout going for his Eagle rank, Matthew was kicked out of class on November 15 for eating sunflower seeds and not given anywhere to go, so he wandered the halls and ended up in the boys’ bathroom, according to the claim. An unnamed student then allegedly videotaped Matthew, uploading a clip in which it was claimed that Burdette was masturbating to SnapChat and Vine, where it went viral among the schools students and throughout the district.

“From the moment the video was posted, Matthew was mercilessly bullied, harassed and teased by students who had seen the video. This continued for the next two weeks,” according to the claim. Two ...

Yes! Yes! Yes! It’s hard to believe that it’s been a decade since “Napoleon Dynamite” came into our lives. But it has been, okay?

We know this because some of the movie’s stars gathered for an anniversary photo op recently and we could hardly recognize the old gang. There was Napoleon himself, Jon Heder, Deb (Tina Majorino), Summer Wheatly (Haylie Duff) and, of course, Pedro (Efren Ramirez). What? Uncle Rico was busy?

(Publicist Stephanie Kahan, who posted the picture, also appears in the photo.)

The anniversary will be celebrated for real on August 7 at the Hollywood Forever Cemetery with a cast reunion and the story of the film’s creation. And if you haven’t already bought the special Blu-Ray/DVD box set “Napoleon Dynamite: 10 Sweet Years… of Liger Magic, Tots & Great Skills,” well, gosh, what are you waiting for?

Gil Kaufman

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

We still don’t know who Demi Lovato‘s “killer” duet partner is yet (though we have pretty good idea).

But now we know what the cover of her inspiring “Really Don’t Care” single with Cher Lloyd looks like… and it’s awesome.

Demilovato.com

“Whether its a break-up song or it’s just saying that you really don’t care what other people think, I think it’s an anthem for people,” Demi told On Air with Ryan Seacrest. “It’s something that everyone can relate to, whether you’ve been bullied or you’re going through a bad breakup.”

Gil Kaufman

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

I’m not gonna lie. I thought the first picture of Yaya DaCosta as Whitney Houston in the upcoming Lifetime biopic looked … pretty good. The hair, the beaming smile, the white tank, the red lips and 1980s-appropriate bushy eyebrows. I mean, it’s close.

But I’m starting to wonder if director Angela Bassett is rushing things now that I’ve seen the actor hired to portray Houston’s ex-husband, Bobby Brown. Belize-born Arlen Escarpata, 33, has a long T.V. résumé, including appearances on “Cold Case,” “The Shield,” “Judging Amy,” “The Client List” and the new Halle Berry series “Extant.”

Escarpata has an impressive high-top fade in the picture, but … well, we’re not sure he nails Brown’s legendary smirk and swagger in this first shot. Check it out and compare it to a classic picture of the real couple from 1994.

Lifetime/Jack Zeman

AFP/VINCE BUCCI

Gil Kaufman

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

Ariana Grande is down to one job. After news broke on Sunday that Nickelodeon was canceling her show, “Sam & Cat,” following just one season, Ariana has to be content to be just a music superstar and not a double threat.

“I want to thank Nickelodeon for making a childhood dream of mine come true, for being a family to me, for being so accommodating and supportive of my multitasking with my music career, and for of course introducing me to many of my fans however many years ago,” Grande wrote in a long Facebook post announcing the news, which she said she had kept to herself until the network made it official.

She also thanked show producer/creator Dan Schneider for giving her such a “special, beautiful character who I hid behind for so long. What I mean by that is when I was younger, people loved Cat so much I used to pretend to be more like her. It took me a long time to be brave enough to separate myself and show people how different we actually are…. I think that’s honestly because I admire her so much. Her appreciation for life and everybody she encounters. Her passion and genuine excitement for the little things that most people dread like school projects and work. She always saw negative obstacles as opportunities to make things good… So I know a lot of people will think this is a lot for some ‘dumb’ kids show character…. but to ...

Demi Lovato wants to tell you something.

“I believe that love comes in all different shapes, sizes and colors,” she says in a new 45-second public service announcement for the Human Rights Campaign’s Americans for Marriage Equality effort. “So whether you’re LGBT or straight, your love is valid, beautiful and an incredible gift. So let’s protect love and strengthen the institution of marriage by allowing loving, caring and committed same-sex couples to legally marry.”

And she’s not wrong. According to a recent ABC News/Washington Post poll, a majority (58 percent) of Americans now support same-sex marriage, an all-time high. Among people 18-29, support shoots up to 81 percent.

Check out the video:

Gil Kaufman

There’s no way to sugarcoat it: Robin Thicke is having a bad, bad week. From the negative reviews of Paula to the hashtag hijack, gallons of haterade and uncomfortable questions about his split from wife Paula Patton, the “Blurred Lines” singer’s roll-out of his seventh album has been rough.

And then the sales figures came in from the UK. 530. Not 530,000. 530. That’s how many copies the album sold across the pond. By any measure that’s a disastrous debut and a 98 percent drop from the nearly 26,000 copies Blurred Lines sold during its first week of UK sales last year, according to The Guardian. (A spokesperson for the British Recorded Music Industry association could not be reached at press time for confirmation on the final UK sales totals.)

Things Are Hard At Home, Too
Limping onto the British charts at #200 was tough, but Thicke had an equally rocky landing on the Billboard 200 album chart Stateside. Paula sold just under 24,000 copies in the U.S., according to figures provided by Nielsen SoundScan, helping it just barely squeak into the top 10 at #9. The album-long plea for a reunion with his estranged wife of nine years (and high school sweetheart) has drawn quite a bit of harsh criticism, which may have contributed to the soft open.

A year ago, Lines gave the singer his first #1 debut thanks to a career-best 177,000 units shifted. That number, of course, was goosed by the breakout, ...

Halle Berry has just done something pretty amazing for an Oscar-winning actress. No, we’re not talking about her jump to TV to star in the Steven Spielberg-produced pregnant astronaut space series “Extant” that debuts tonight (July 9), though that’s pretty amazing.

It’s what she did on Tuesday night with Jimmy Fallon on “The Tonight Show” when she agreed to make a human hamster wheel with Jimmy, something we’re going to go ahead and assume nobody with an Academy Award on their shelf has ever done before.

“Should we show them how we roll?” Fallon asked Berry, who was wearing in a body-hugging black and white dress. “Let’s do it,” she said, kicking off her heels. “I’m promise I’m not going to peek, I’m not going to look at anything, trust me,” Fallon said as he laid down on the blue gymnastics mat and Berry positioned herself over him.

And this is how they rolled (five times!)

Gil Kaufman

Selena Gomez is going through some… stuff. Whether she’s back with Justin Bieber for real, or just feeling some feelings today, from the looks of her Instagram things are getting deep.

It all started early Tuesday morning (July 8) with a melancholy little video of the singer/actress at a microphone appearing to play a haunting tune on the piano. “I don’t know. I’m on my way you know,” she wrote.

To where? For what? We honestly don’t know.

An hour later she posted some Like messages in which fans appeared to be giving her some advice. (It was upside down, but we righted it for your pleasure.)

Instagram

Then came this moody selfie with the caption “And usually always right.”

And that’s when things got REALLY interesting. “That’s who you wanna wake up to. #promise,” she wrote alongside a text from, well, we’re not sure. But whoever it is, they clearly had Selena on the mind.

Gil Kaufman