by MTV News Staff 19 mins ago

By Nick Blake

Like most people who would rather watch a “Real Housewives” reunion show than experience even a fleeting moment of actual productivity, several once-promising hours of my life have been vanquished in the name of lifelessly finishing the last hour of a cable movie that I have already seen 3,500 times. It’s a proud American tradition, after all. You’re flipping through the channels and there it is: the movie that you know every word of, peppered with commercials, and yet you just can’t resist settling in for the long haul. You know. Those movies.

But a cable movie irresistibility hierarchy exists, even if it’s never been written — until now. Below, we’ve taken what we’ve determined are the 11 most ubiquitous cable movies and ranked them by our futility in doing anything else when they’re playing, even (perhaps especially) at 4 a.m.

Witness, friends and underachievers:

11. “Meet the Parents”
IRRESISTIBILITY RATING (out of 10): 2

“Meet the Parents” is, of course, a super-watchable modern classic, but not because of its resolution. You’re not going to sprawl on your couch with 47 minutes left in “Meet the Parents” and intensely shout to your girlfriend, “Babe, call and see if you can change the reservation to 9 – I am NOT leaving this effing apartment until I see Stiller finally put a ring on this girl.”

10. “Knocked Up”
IRRESISTIBILITY RATING: 2.5

Since “Knocked Up” is a Judd Apatow movie, that means that the first half is almost entirely comedic and the second ...

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by MTV News Staff 17 mins ago

To celebrate the 25th anniversary of “The Simpsons,” the series’ cast and crew put on a huge live show at the Hollywood Bowl in Los Angeles last night.

Hosted by voice actors Nancy Cartwright, Yeardley Smith, and Hank Azari, “The Simpsons Take the Bowl” also featured a memorable performance from Conan O’Brien, who performed “The Monorail Song” from the show’s fourth season.

A tribute to the classic musical “The Music Man,” the song originally appeared in the episode “Marge vs. the Monorail,” which O’Brien penned back in 1993. Last night, the talk show host reminisced about how even 21 years later, he still gets pegged as the “monorail man.”

He seems to have accepted his fate, though, because he then broke into the song backed by the Los Angeles Gay Mens’ Choir.

Watch fan-shot footage of Conan singing “The Monorail Song” below.

by MTV News Staff 4 mins ago

Last Wednesday, Rihanna blessed Twitter with a few choice photos of herself and her adorable baby niece. Looks like the singer’s not off babysitting duty yet; last night, she posted two more photos of her perfect, tiny gal pal.

Rihanna’s niece didn’t quite get the memo to look at the camera for this selfie, but how could we be mad?

And here’s “her maje$sty” crashing after a long day of fabulous hangs with her “Aunty OhNaNa.”

Keep the family snapshots coming, Rih Rih, we love ‘em almost as much as your high fashion photo shoots. It’s almost enough to make us feel like Rihanna brought her Instagram back. Almost.

by MTV News Staff 24 mins ago

By Sasha Geffen

Last night, Miley Cyrus dropped a surprise cover of “Babe I’m Gonna Leave You,” a tune by folk songwriter Anne Bredon that Led Zeppelin made famous by including on their first self-titled album in 1969. That’s a long time before the Disney star was even born, but Miley still owned the song, shredding her powerful voice in a way that’s seriously reminiscent of Led Zeppelin’s iconic singer Robert Plant.

In case you’re scratching your head a little at her song choice, we’ve thrown together a few more Zeppelin tracks to get you familiar. They have a huge catalog of great rock songs from the ’60s and ’70s, and we don’t think Miley should stop at just one. Here are five tracks that she should take on next.

5. ‘Immigrant Song’

This high energy rocker already got the Karen O treatment during the opening credits of “The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo,” but we want to hear Miley take on those screams, too!

4. ‘Over the Hills and Far Away’

This tune fakes you out with a quick acoustic riff from guitarist Jimmy Page, but erupts into a full-blown rock song right after the first verse. We’ve heard Miley do the same thing in her dance-pop track “Someone Else,” so this classic would make a perfect fit.

3. ‘Heartbreaker’

Miley obviously knows how to soundtrack a party, but she might be at her best when she’s tackling pain and heartbreak, like ...

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by MTV News Staff 14 mins ago

By Charles Webb

As Sony has begun to build their own cinematic universe around Spider-Man, one man has been there through it all as one of its architects: writer and producer Alex Kurtzman. Somewhere between a female-driven spinoff and a potential “Sinister Six” movie, Kurtzman has his own assignment: bringing anti-hero “Venom” to the big screen.

Kurtzman was on hand at the Paley Center For Media’s red carpet premiere for CBS’s “Scorpion” (which he produces) in advance of its premiere September 22 on CBS. While there, MTV News asked the producer about the appeal of Spider-Man’s black-suited enemy.

“The idea,” Kurtzman explained, “is that you can do things with Venom that you can’t do with Spider-Man.”

Making his appearance all the way back in “Amazing Spider-Man” #299 (1986), Venom, for the uninitiated, is disgraced reporter Eddie Brock and the transforming alien costume that bonded with him. Both have a grudge against Peter Parker, and they’re not afraid to terrorize, or kill anyone around him for a little payback. At the same time, Venom/Brock weirdly thinks of himself as a hero, making the occasional jump over to the good guys’ side.

While it’s not currently known whether Brock, Venom’s later identity Flash Thompson, or some third iteration will be featured in the movie, it does seem that the character will share at least some DNA with his comic book counterpart.

“Venom is the representation of every line that will get crossed,” Kurtzman said. “He’s a much darker character.”

When it comes to comparing what ...

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by MTV News Staff 17 mins ago

by Alyse Whitney

Let’s get one thing out of the way first: Yes, Lifetime’s “The Brittany Murphy” story was as sensationalized and over-the-top as we all thought it would be.

All of the facts we knew about Brittany’s untimely death in 2012 were not mentioned or saved for a written slide at the end of the unauthorized biopic. The rest was a garbled mess telling her “story” from her humble New Jersey beginnings to the sad end of her career, including her rise to fame post-”Clueless,” her romance with “Just Married” costar Ashton Kutcher, her mother Sharon’s battle with breast cancer, and her strange relationship with her now-deceased husband, Simon Monjack.

Ultimately, this jumpy tale didn’t give us any answers about Brittany’s mysterious death — it was more like one of Lifetime’s original movies, complete with bad acting, dramatic music, and equally-dramatic lighting — but it did provide plenty of ridiculous and outrageous moments. Below, we outline 16 of the film’s most dramatic scenes and cringe-worthy quotes.

1. The whole intro

In the first few minutes of the film, we see Simon screaming, “You all killed her!” at the paparazzi after Brittany’s death, then a flash of tweets from Alicia Silverstone, Paris Hilton, Lindsay Lohan, and Ashton Kutcher mourning her.

2. When a member of the “Clueless” crew calls Brittany a “chunky monkey”

After smiling and being nice to Brittany, a random crew member walks a few feet away from her and loudly says that her onscreen ...

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by MTV News Staff 7 mins ago

By Sasha Geffen

Late last night, movie geeks from all over Twitter took to their feeds to start a new movement in cinema humor: #ExplainAFilmPlotBadly. The hashtag, which is now trending, attempts to summarize popular movies in hilariously blunt terms—like describing Lord of the Rings as “Racially diverse group journeys to a volcano to destroy jewelry.”

Apparently inspired in part by a newspaper blurb that summarized The Wizard of Oz as “Transported to a surreal landscape, a young girl kills the first person she meets and then teams up with three strangers to kill again,” #ExplainAFilmPlotBadly exposes the alarmingly simple stories that make up some of our favorite flicks. Take away all the movie magic, distill a story to its most basic parts, and everything from “Lord of the Rings” to “Mrs. Doubtfire” starts to sound pretty ridiculous.

Check out some of the best tweets that have emerged since the hashtag started taking off.

by MTV News Staff 4 mins ago

By Sasha Geffen

Performing at the BBC Radio 1 “Live Lounge,” UK singer/songwriter FKA twigs (aka Tahliah Barnett) paid tribute to fellow English crooner Sam Smith by covering his hit single “Stay With Me.”

Backed by a drummer, bassist, and guitarist, Barnett turned the song from a towering piano anthem into a slow, nervous trip-hop track. In a way, her eerie take on the chart-topping hit fits its heartsick lyrics even more closely than Smith’s original rendition.

In an interview with the BBC’s Alice Levine, the 26-year-old singer explained how the song spoke to her: “There was one line which basically alludes to saying, ‘I’m not in love with you and maybe this isn’t a serious thing, but it’s perfect for right now and it’s what I need emotionally right now,’ and maybe that’s just something that I have related to.”

FKA twigs recently released her debut album LP1 on Young Turks. In addition to covering Smith, she also performed her own song “Two Weeks” at the Live Lounge.

Hear Barnett’s full interview at Radio 1′s website, and watch her performance of “Stay With Me” below.

by MTV News Staff 13 mins ago

By Sasha Geffen

Nine Inch Nails‘ frontman Trent Reznor and his partner in crime Atticus Ross are teaming up yet again to score a David Fincher movie. This time, it’s the thriller “Gone Girl,”based on the best-selling novel of the same name by Gillian Flynn.

Reznor and Ross have previously scored two Fincher films together, winning an Oscar for their soundtrack to “The Social Network” and a Grammy for the music they composed for “The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo.” In a new interview with the Wall Street Journal, the pair discussed some of the unusual inspirations behind their newest work.

“[Fincher] said, ‘Think about the really terrible music you hear in massage parlors,’” Reznor told the newspaper. “The way that it artificially tries to make you feel like everything’s OK. And then imagine that sound starting to curdle and unravel.”

But Fincher clarified that the unraveling soundtrack will matche the movie’s plot.

“The movie is about the facade of the good neighbor, the good Christian, the good wife. So the notion was to start with music that’s attempting to give you a hug,” he told the WSJ.

“Gone Girl” starring Ben Affleck and Rosamund Pike, hits theaters October 3. Catch a snippet of Reznor and Ross’s creepy new score from the trailer below.

by MTV News Staff 23 mins ago

By Caitlin Abber

If you’ve been on the internet in the past 48 hours, you know that personal and private photos of Jennifer Lawrence, Kate Upton, and several other female celebrities were stolen from their phones and shared widely across the internet. You’ve likely seen people tweet their opinions about it, and heard commentators on TV discuss the issue ad nauseam. In solidarity, and also just because women are generally fed up with this crap, many celebs, including Lena Dunham and Emma Watson, have also taken to Twitter to express their disgust.

But what is interesting isn’t the fact that people are talking about it (people gonna talk!), but what they are saying: The collective response has been rife with anger — and noticeably so.

It now seems that we are talking about the real issues behind the violation itself, and using language that clearly identifies who is in the wrong (the leaker of the photos), and who is not at fault (the women who took the photos of themselves). In the past this hasn’t always been the case, and you can still hear echoes of that when people say things like, “if you didn’t want your photos leaked, you shouldn’t have taken nude photos in the first place.” But that doesn’t seem to be the main message we are hearing.

“I think that the most valuable thing we can do is to reinforce, over and over, that 1) this is a crime, 2) this is a sexual violation, ...

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