April 21, 2025

About the author  ⁄ MTV News

On The Set Of ‘Ravenswood’: Enter The City Limits…If You Dare!

If you thought Rosewood was the creepiest zip code in Pennsylvania, well, you were wrong. Welcome to Ravenswood, where generations of townsfolk have been plagued by a mysterious curse, with no end in sight — until now.

A spin-off of "Pretty Little Liars," "Ravenswood" follows five young strangers (including "PLL" regular Tyler Blackburn) as they work to unravel the town's supernatural secrets...before it's too late.

The show is the brain-child of "Pretty Little Liars" executive producers I. Marlene King, Joseph Dougherty and Oliver Goldstick, who were toying with the idea of a new scary series when ABC Family came calling for a spin-off of their teen hit.

"We love ghost stories, and I think we've all wanted to do a kind of scary show, and at the same time, ABC Family came to us and said, 'We'd like to do a 'Pretty Little Liars' spin-off,' and we kind of merged the two," King explained. "We were like, let's get to have our cake and eat it too. Let's do a scary spin-off of 'Pretty Little Liars.' "

King then approached Blackburn, who had been playing Hanna's long-suffering boyfriend, Caleb Rivers, going on four seasons.

"It came very casually," Blackburn recalled of being approached about the spin-off. "I mean, it was one day on set, Marlene pulled me aside, and she was like, 'So we're developing this show with you as the lead, and we don't know too much about it. We don't know if it's even gonna get picked up.' It was so nonchalant that I was like, is she messing with me? What's going ...

Read More →

Finished ‘Allegiant’ Already? Here’s Five More YA Books To Pre-Order Now!

Given that the day is already waning, we're guessing than Veronica Roth fans are deep into "Allegiant," the third book in her "Divergent" trilogy — many have finished, if the Amazon reviews are any indication (watch out for spoilers!). To prepare those intrepid readers out there for the withdrawal, MTV News has compiled a list of excellent upcoming YA novels you can pre-order today — after you look up blinking and blinded from your marathon reading session, that is.

"Allegiant" marks the last book in Roth's trilogy, in which Beatrice "Tris" Prior navigates a dystopian iteration of Chicago where all citizens are divided into factions. Born into an Abnegation (selfless) family, Tris never quite feels like she belongs among her loved ones, which makes sense: after taking an aptitude test that all members of society are given as teens, Tris discovers that she is "divergent" — which means she fits into multiple factions. When given the choice, however, she chooses to join Dauntless (the brave), setting her on a dark journey to discover who she is and where she comes from.

After you turn the last page of "Allegiant," all of your questions — and Tris's — should be answered. So the new question becomes: Where do you go from here? What will you until Roth pens another book — or the movie version of the first book, "Divergent," opens in March of 2014?

How about throwing yourself into yet another series, leaving yourself no time to mourn the characters you left behind? We've got five upcoming book releases that you can mark ...

Read More →

Keeping Up With Kim And Kanye: A Timeline To Their Engagement

Kanye West and Kim Kardashian will soon be Mr. and Mrs. Kimye.

On Monday night, West gave Kardashian a 15-carat, Lorraine Schwartz-designed ring in front of family and friends at San Francisco's AT&T Center arena. So while their loved ones celebrate the good news, MTV News is taking a look back at the road to their engagement.

December 2010
Kanye is in the studio with Kim when she records her song Even that far back, though, the two are fending off romance and baby rumors. (That month, Kim is spotted on her first date with soon-to-be ex-husband Kris Humphries.)

April 2012
Kim and Kanye romance rumors really begin to heat up after they're photographed together in NYC. Also that month, Yeezy releases the track in which he mentions Kim and Humphries' relationship.

May 2012
Kim tries to play coy when MTV News asks about her relationship. At this point, the pair have been spotted all around the world, including the Cannes Film Festival where Yeezy premieres his "Cruel Summer" film.

"I don't know if I'm ready to talk about him," she says. "I feel like I've had such a hard time sharing my love life that now, I'm a little bit more reserved on that."

(Not So Cruel) Summer 2012
Kimye continue to travel the globe, including appearances in Birmingham, U.K. for a stop on the Watch the Throne tour and, later, at the BET Awards. The couple also take their love to the small screen, with appearances on "Keeping Up With the ...

Read More →

‘Jersey Shore’ Star DJ Pauly D Is A Dad!

Aw yeah! star DJ Pauly D has some big news: He's a dad.

"I'm proud I'm a father," the reality star and DJ told TMZ on Tuesday (October 22). "I am excited to embark on this new part of my life."

According to the report, Pauly (real name Paul DelVecchio) and an unidentified woman, 26, have a baby girl together who was born a few months ago. MTV News reached out to Pauly D's rep for comment but had yet to hear back by press time.

Since the news broke, the 33-year-old MTV star has been re-tweeting congrats and well-wishes from his followers. "@KimKardashian engaged and @DJPaulyD a dad all in the same day!" one follower, @J_Wids, wrote. "What a day for #news this is!"

Pauly D is not the first person in his "Jersey Shore" crew to become a parent. Just last August, Snooki gave birth to her son, Lorenzo. At the time, Uncle Pauly D was very excited about the prospect of having a baby running around with the crew.

"I feel like we're all having this baby, because it's the first 'Jersey Shore' baby," he told MTV News in August 2012. "And we never thought in a million years Snooki would be a mother, so we're all gonna help her."

Snooki has yet to comment on Pauly's bundle of joy, but her "Snooki & JWoww" co-star, JWoww, did have a message for Pauly. "Holy s--t I just heard!" she told E! News. "I'm so f---ing happy for him I just texted him. Crying! ...

Read More →

‘Captain America 2’: What We Learned From The New Teaser Poster

In two days, we'll get our first official look at footage for "Captain America: The Winter Soldier" when the teaser trailer hits iTunes. But until then, we'll have to spend our time dissecting the surprisingly plot-heavy (and awesome) teaser poster just debuted by Disney and Marvel.

The movie, which stars Chris Evans as Steve Rogers, a.k.a. Captain America, finds the character now living in the present day after the climactic events of the first movie — and "Marvel's The Avengers." When S.H.I.E.L.D. comes under attack, Rogers teams up with Scarlett Johansson's Black Widow and new hero The Falcon (Anthony Mackie) to take down a mysterious villain named The Winter Soldier.

The poster figures the usual "hero's back facing toward us" pose, sure, but there's a lot more going on. First, we get to see a S.H.I.E.L.D. helicarrier in the background and logo under Cap's feet — teasing the involvement of the international spy organization. And we also get a glimpse of modern day Washington, D.C. a major setting for the movie, which has been described as more of a political thriller than just a superhero movie.

And finally, Cap is the only thing in the poster with any color, pretty much underlining the idea that even with two years passing between his unfreezing in "The First Avenger" and now, Cap is still very much a man out of time.

It's going to be a long two days, and an even longer wait until next April when the movie opens, but be sure to stay tuned to MTV News for more on ...

Read More →

Kim And Kanye Get Engaged: 9 Things He Should Have Put On That Scoreboard

Kanye West and Kim Kardashian got engaged on Monday night, and, predictably, 'Ye pulled out all the stops for his bride-to-be.

And while there were plenty of particulars surrounding the engagement that caught our eye — a $1.25 million ring being one of them — perhaps the most Kanye of them all was the way he chose to pop the question: with a message plastered across the AT&T Park scoreboard.

It was not just any message, mind you. No, like all of Kanye's most memorable missives, this one was grammatically adventurous, loaded with exclamation points, and, of course, written in ALL CAPS. It's those personal flourishes that make his proposal all the more touching, after all.

So that got us thinking ... what if, instead of scrawling "PLEEEASE MARRY MEEE!!!" on the scoreboard, Kanye had reverted back to his former self, and filled the screen with one of his bazonkers rants? We're sure Kim would have said yes anyway — after all, when you love someone, you love all of them — and it certainly would have made for some interesting Instagrams.

With all due respect to the happy couple, here are some of Kanye's best meltdowns, tantrums and screeds, presented in full scoreboard glory:

...

Read More →

Kim Kardashian’s $1.25 Million Engagement Ring? Kanye Breaks The Bank For Love

Kimye took an important step towards legal recognition on Monday night, when Kanye West and Kim Kardashian got engaged in San Francisco.

As you'd probably imagine, 'Ye proposed to KK in the most understated way possible, renting out an MLB stadium, hiring a 50-piece orchestra and plastering his proposal on a scoreboard. Oh, and then there was the 15-carat engagement ring he slipped on her finger. Only the best for his bride-to-be, after all.

And while we'd like to join well-wishes have been pouring the chorus of friends and family wishing the couple all the best, we also couldn't help but wonder: how could us mere mortals could pull off an engagement of this magnitude?

Simple answer? We'd need pretty deep pockets. After crunching the numbers, here's a dollar-by-dollar breakdown of KimYe's engagement. Turns out whoever said love don't cost a thing clearly didn't know what they were talking about.

Check Out 8 Wedding Gifts We Picked For Kim And Kanye!

$175: That's how much it costs to get a message on the scoreboard in San Fran's AT&T Park. That buys you four customizable lines of 20 characters — including spaces and punctuation — and messages "cannot be used for commercial purposes." Though, given Kim Kardashian was involved, we suspect they're going to ignore that last part.

$50,000 - $80,000: The going rate to rent a symphony orchestra for a private event. Of course, if you're looking to cut a few corners, the ever-reliable WikiAnswers suggests looking to Western Europe, since, "after the collapse of Communism ... local ...

Read More →

Three Things Lady Gaga’s VMA Performance Tells Us About <i>ARTPOP</i>

Lady Gaga will be spending the next few weeks teasing jams off her November 11 ARTPOP release. However, MTV News noticed that Mother Monster already tipped her hand a bit during her show-opening performance at the 2013 Video Music Awards, giving us some brief glimpses into tropes and trends that have been manifest leading up to this epic release.

At the VMAs, Lady Gaga gave us a pretty spirited walk down memory lane with her debut live performance of "Applause," during which she executed a series of costume changes that took us through the oeuvre of Gaga. All in all, we were familiar with many of the looks donned by the singer — her signature mermaid/Venus look that she most recently sported in the video for "Applause," the yellow wig she wore during The Monster Ball tour and in the upcoming flick the list goes on. Still, there were a few looks that were more fresh than others — looks that we later saw made manifest on album covers and at shows. And, of course, there was at least one look that has yet to be explained.

Lady In Black
When Lady Gaga stepped out on the red carpet at the VMAs, she wasn't wrapped in meat or anything of the like — she was attired in a simple black dress and sunglasses, a demure look by Mother Monster standards.

Little did we know that that look would be echoed during her iTunes Festival performance and in promo pics giving fans a ...

Read More →