Nick Cannon knows about the pitfalls and tricky turns of fame. He knows how great success can whiplash into unreturned phone calls and loneliness, driving a young star into desperation.

He also knows that his friend, Amanda Bynes, is going through a tough time right now, which is why he posted a lengthy, emotional open letter to his "sister" on Wednesday offering his support and love. "We need each other to in times of despair," he said. "No one can make it through anything alone. So I ask people who are quick to judge, tweet, report, or comment to ask yourself, 'What if that person was my sister? My brother? My Mother? Or me? What then would I say?' "

Cannon, who co-starred with Bynes on the fifth season of the Nickelodeon show "All That" in 1998-1999, explained that he's been asked a lot of questions about Amanda since the 27-year-old actress was involuntarily committed to a psychiatric ward
 in California last week after she set a small fire in a stranger's driveway.

"Lately I have been hit with an onslaught of questions about someone I consider family, someone I watched grow up, and someone I genuinely feel is one of the most pleasant human beings I have had the pleasure of meeting, Amanda Bynes," he wrote. Before Bynes' 5150 psychiatric hold, Cannon said he used to brush off the queries with a joke, but once she was hospitalized he said it was no laughing matter.

Read What Happens During A 5150 Hold.

"I tweeted a few weeks about how ...

For A-list stars like Matt Damon, it's easy to assume they get first stab at the best roles in Hollywood. But more often than not, they're the second choice. And sometimes ... they're the third choice — behind Eminem.

That was the fate of Matt Damon who scored the lead in "Wired profile of Neill Blomkamp, the "District 9" director retold the story of how he cast his new movie.

The "Elysium" director first approached Ninja of the South African band Die Antwoord and then Eminem, back when the budget was closer to the more modest $30 million of "District 9" (the final price tag is closer to $100 million). When both of the musicians passed, Blomkamp turned to Damon, who eventually signed on.

The Internet had a field day with that bit of trivia, so when MTV News' Josh Horowitz recently sat down with Damon, he asked how the actor reacted when he found out about his stiff competition. But according to Damon, being a second or, even third, choice isn't that odd of an occurrence.

"I don't even think [Eminem] was my competition. I think Neill went to him, so there was no competition," Damon said. "He got the offer, but that's probably 75 percent of the things that I do — somebody else got the offer before — that's kind of the nature of the business. I think you end up getting the part you're supposed to get. The right actor gets the part, ultimately. In terms of me, I never asked Neill. I just found out ...

After lots of hype, Lindsay Lohan's naughty neo-noir thriller, is finally here. Since Lohan was cast alongside adult film star, James Deen, last summer, the film has been the subject in many headlines.

And much of the ink spilled about the Paul Schrader-directed flick has been focused on Lohan and her reported ups, and most notable downs. That on-set drama was chronicled in a New York Times article published back in January.

"Yeah, Lindsay had some problems for four or five days, but certainly not for the 23 days of the shoot," screenwriter Bret Easton Ellis told MTV News of Lohan's issues on set. "When it's time to be professional, she's professional. She's been on movie sets her whole life. Yes, there were the four or five days where the New York Times reporter [captured]... all those problems she was having. But, you have to understand again there were 23 days of shooting where she was on time and on schedule."

While Ellis wasn't there for every day of shooting, he did get on-set reports from her co-stars, including Deen and "Awkward" actor Nolan Funk. And by all accounts production wasn't perfect, but it also wasn't a complete debacle.

"I was rarely on set. I was on set a couple of days, all I know is what I heard from James and what I heard from Nolan, occasionally... 'The Canyons' wasn't [difficult]. Most of the time, it was smooth. I think there was tension between Lindsay and James because I think Lindsay, she began to trust James a ...

When DJ Khaled pulled out a 10 karat diamond ring and proposed to Nicki Minaj at the MTV News studio last week, fans went into a frenzy trying to figure out if Khaled was serious, and so did Busta Rhymes, who reveals that he replayed the clip about 30 times in an effort to understand.

A few weeks before the big proposal, both Khaled and Nicki joined Busta on the set of his , which premiered shortly before the proposal hit the Internet. On Wednesday's (July 31) episode of "RapFix Live," when asked if he saw the big question coming, Busta admitted that he was completely caught off guard.

"Absolutely not," Busta replied. "I knew nothing about the Khaled proposal at the time. I definitely was surprised when he did it and I definitely rewinded the MTV piece that he did it through about 30 times because I just wanted to see if he was joking, or if he was serious."

Did it seem more real with each replay? "I definitely felt like it was closer to real than BS because we know Khaled," he added. "Khaled don't do that. He'll hype something up and joke around but that was a different kind of leap. If it was a campaign for the record, it was a brand-new, whole 'nother angle that I ain't never seen Khaled come from before, so it was definitely surprising for me."

On Monday night, after keeping fans in suspense for a few days, Nicki Minaj called into New York's Hot 97 radio station and ...

These days, when Miley Cyrus needs some advice about life in the spotlight, she knows where to turn. In a new interview, the former Disney princess revealed that she looks to none other than fellow Mouse House alum Britney Spears.

"Everyone goes through a time in their life where they don't want their picture taken every day. [Britney] just never had that time where she could say, 'I'm going through something right now and need to shut down,' " she told Huffington Post U.K. "I also don't have that, so it's good to have that one person in my life who gets it."

Cyrus rose to fame on Disney's "Hannah Montana," nearly 15 years after Spears made her TV debut on the '90s reboot of "The Mickey Mouse Club" on the same cable network. So it's not too surprising that she feels a kinship with the 31-year-old pop star. Spears has publicly weathered her fair share of ups and downs, and Miley has been under the microscope lately for everything from her fashion choices to her partying.

"I just think it's never blaming you or making you feel like, 'You've got all this going for you,' " Miley explained of why Spears is such a good pal. "It's like, she knows. Sometimes life just steps in the middle of your career the way life always does for anyone — it's just ours is a little more 24/7."

The VMA-nominated Miley is currently making the rounds promoting her hit single And in another interview with the Associated ...