Attention fashion lovers, gossip hounds and all-around pop culture aficionados! Monday night (May 6) is the annual Costume Institute Gala, and that means fashionistas of all types will be descending on the famed staircase at the Metropolitan Museum of Art to pay homage to all things punk.

We know that before the red carpet kicks off and the champagne begins to flow, you might have a few questions. Like, who will be there? What does punk have to do with it? Will Kimye's outfits pay homage to Sid and Nancy? So, ahead of all the Met Ball fun, MTV News is rounding up the latest dish about the splashy fete.

God Save the Met
This year's exhibit, "Punk: Chaos to Couture," runs at the museum through August 14. It will take a look back at the influence the punk movement of the '70s has had on fashion, right through today. That means that you can finally learn there actually aren't that many degrees separating Johnny Rotten and Joe Strummer from Avril Lavigne.

For complete coverage of everything Met Gala, head over to MTV Style!

Paging Queen Bey?!
Beyoncé has been named the Honorary Chair of the Met Gala this year. With a night off from her Mrs. Carter Show, she could easily make the trip from London to NYC just in time to show the fashion world just who runs it. "The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo" star Rooney Mara has also been named a co-chair of the event, along with fashion luminaries like Moda Operandi co-founder Lauren Santo Domingo, Givenchy creative director ...

Ladies and gentlemen, can we please have your attention? We've just been handed an urgent and horrifying news story. We need all of you to stop what you're doing and listen: There's been a shark attack on the set of (Not really.)

In "Anchorman," Will Ferrell's Ron Burgundy lands in a bear enclosure at the zoo, and when the sequel to the 2004 comedy hits theaters in December, the newsman will encounter yet another dangerous beast.

Photos from the Atlanta set show Ferrell treading water and struggling against a mechanical shark that's attacking him. It's unclear what leads Burgundy to end up in the water with the deadly creature, but since he's wearing his signature suit, it doesn't look like he was going out for a swim. But Burgundy has faced greater peril, so you can pretty safely assume he'll be OK.

"Anchorman: The Legend Continues" is the long-awaited follow-up to the 2004 hit comedy. Back in March of last year, Ferrell appeared in character on "Conan" to officially announce the sequel that had been rumored for years. Shooting started in Atlanta a little over two months ago.

The sequel reunites the all-star comedy lineup from the first "Anchorman." Christina Applegate, Paul Rudd, Steve Carrell and David Koechner are all returning to re-form the Channel 4 news team.

New additions to the cast include Kristen Wiig as a rumored love interested to Carrell's Brick Tamland and Harrison Ford, who joins the movie as a veteran newsman. There have also been a string of recently revealed surprise cameos. We won't spoil them ...

Main Pick

Headliner: Locksmith

Representing: Richmond, California

Mixtape: The Green Box

Real Spit: Locksmith always had grand expectations. These days the Richmond, California, lyricist strives to leave an indelible mark on the rap game, but when he was younger, all he wanted to do was hang out by the big electrical green box outside of his home.

With that simple childhood dream, Locksmith found the inspiration for his newest project, The Green Box which will drop on Iamlock.com on Tuesday.

"This is probably my most personal work," he told Mixtape Daily of the project, which features all original production. "It's a glimpse of who Locksmith is as a person, as a young man growing up and my journey to becoming who I am now."

On "Stand It," Lock bears his soul over a mellow 9th Wonder-produced groove. The Persian MC raps of his hardships growing up, while trying to discover who he really is. "Fighting with my childhood, other n---as would pester him/ I swear to God I even thought I was Mexican," he raps open and honestly.

As Lock got a little older, he'd look up to the neighborhood hustlers, who would set up shop by the green box. It's a recurring theme on the tape. "When I listened to the songs I was like, 'Yo this album is kinda describing where I came from and my progression and who I am now. What's the best way to symbolize that? Going back to my neighborhood, Crescent Park, Richmond, California and taking that symbol which is the green box," he said.

Joints to check for

» "Stand It" ...

What better way to celebrate arrested development than with a prom-themed music video, right? That's just what Avril Lavigne is doing in her clip for her new single,

Looking a bit like the beauty queen featured on Hole's classic Live Through This album, Lavigne and her band party like it's high school all over again in the soon-to-be-released video. MTV News was on set with the singer, who explained just why she wanted to don some formal wear for the clip.

"We're at prom, and the guys look amazing," she said, referring to her band who threw on some rented tuxes for the video. "I had my own concept for this video. And then last minute, we changed it because the director came up with a concept and the concept was just 'prom.' And that was really it."

With the treatment as straight-forward as "prom," and the video coincidentally dropping just in time for prom season, the singer immediately jumped on board to put the new treatment into action. She added, "I thought, 'That's an awesome idea,' 'cause we can dress up, the band can be in cool tuxedos. That was way more fun than I anticipated."

"Never Growing Up" is the lead single off Lavigne's follow-up to 2011's Goodbye Lullaby. It was co-written by her fiancé, Nickelback frontman Chad Kroeger. Much like the video, the tune celebrates youthful effervescence.

Speaking of formal wear, Lavigne will soon wear a wedding gown, as she preps to walk down the aisle with Kroeger in the near future. "That's how we ...

At this point it's safe to say that the Nicki Minaj/Mariah Carey experiment was a dud. While producers certainly got their money's worth from the turbulent twosome as far as on- and off-screen tension
 is concerned, neither diva has helped pull the graying show out of what appears to be a fairly predictable 12th season slump.

Ratings are on a steady slide,
 this year's remaining three female contestants have little-to-no buzz and viewers appear to be tuning in to a variety of other shows after making "Idol" appointment viewing for the past 11 seasons.

So, what do you do? According to Radar Online, you go back to the same drawing board again, roll the celeb judge dice one more time and hope for a lucky seven this time around. Quoting anonymous sources, the site reported on Monday (May 6) that producer Nigel Lythgoe's desperate plan to boost ratings is to assemble a "dream team" of new judges that includes former (and maybe current again
) couple Justin Bieber and Selena Gomez, Pink and Sean "Diddy" Combs. That would indicate that not only are Minaj, Carey and Keith Urban headed for one-and-done status, but that after 12 seasons sole original judge Randy Jackson might be on his way out as well. In this scenario, only host Ryan Seacrest's job is safe. While a spokesperson for "Idol" offered a no comment at press time on the rumor, the anonymous source told Radar that after a lackluster season, "Everyone involved with the show is well ...

Even without his teammates, Iron Man can still take down the bad guys, even breaking box-office records around the world at the same time.

"Iron Man 3" blasted into North America with one of the biggest opening weekends ever, second only to "Marvel's The Avengers," which opened over the same weekend last year. Robert Downey Jr.'s third solo outing as the armor-clad comic book superhero brought in $175.3 million at the domestic box office. Only the $207.4 million opening weekend for "The Avengers" — which, of course, also featured Downey as Iron Man — stands in front of "Iron Man 3" in the record books.

The "Iron Man 3" opening was in line with the higher end of industry projections, which put the film somewhere between $150 million and $175 million. BoxOfficeMojo.com's Ray Subers and Entertainment Weekly's Grady Smith came close in reports on their respective sites; IMDb.com's Keith Simanton was right on the money when speaking with MTV News.

3-D showings accounted for roughly 45 percent of the "Iron Man 3" gross in North America, with IMAX screenings accounting for $16.5 million.

The top 10 openings of all time are now "The Avengers," "Iron Man 3," "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2" ($169.1 million), "The Dark Knight Rises" ($160.8), "The Dark Knight" ($158.4), "The Hunger Games" ($152.5), "Spider-Man 3" ($151.1), "The Twilight Saga: New Moon" ($142.8), "Breaking Dawn, Part 2" ($141) and "Breaking Dawn, Part 1" ($138). Of course, once adjusted for ticket-price inflation, the top 10 all-time openings are "Gone with the Wind," "Star Wars," "The Sound of Music," ...

Baz Luhrmann raised eyebrows last year when he released a trailer for that eschewed Jazz-Age standards in favor of, well, Jay-Z.

Of course, in the months since, fans of the book — and HOV — have come to understand why Luhrmann made the musical choices he did; namely, to prove a point: that the songs of the Jazz Age aren't all that different from the songs of the hip-hop era. And he wasn't the only one who bought into that premise, either.

"Jazz was this almost underground music at the time, like hip-hop started out. I like to think of it as a character, because it's so interwoven into the storyline," Jay-Z said. "[He's] seamlessly shifting different eras of music together, which I thought was genius process. That's one of the things Baz has a reputation for: Treating the music like another star."

And so, as he's done on all of his iconic films, Luhrmann has assembled a scintillating soundtrack for "Gatsby," one that includes a who's-who of today's stars — Jay-Z, Beyonce and Andre 3000, Florence and the Machine, will.i.am, to name just a few — bringing the Jazz Age to the 21st century. He worked closely with Jay-Z on the project, bringing an idea that began during the recording of Watch The Throne full circle.

"Baz and Leo [DiCaprio, who plays Gatsby in the film] came to a recording session, and I was working on a song called 'No Church in the Wild,'" Jay-Z said. "We just talked about the art of collaborating. I guess that ...

One Direction fans already know that the guys are prepping a new album for Christmas, working with the same production and songwriting teams that created their first two albums, 2011's Up All Night and last year's Take Me Home. And from the sound of things, those sessions have been doing swimmingly.

In fact, according Ed Sheeran, the album's already finished. Though, for the first time, it won't feature any of his tunes — not because he wasn't asked to contribute, but because he's just been too busy trying to wrap up his new record.

"I haven't done any songs on this one; I've actually kind of cut myself from giving any people songs at the moment, because I want to make my album," Sheeran said. "I was approached, and it wasn't so much a 'No,' it was just a 'I want to write tunes for myself at the moment.'

"Once my album's done, then we'll see," he added. "But their album is already finished."

Of course, it bears mention that Sheeran could be talking about the soundtrack to 1D's film — since completing an album seven months before its set to be released doesn't make a lot of sense. A spokesperson for One Direction did not respond to MTV News' request for clarification, and, at press time, there's still no firm release date for the group's new album. Though we do know 1D will once again be re-teaming with McFly's Tom Fletcher and producer Julian Bunetta on the disc. Last month, Bunetta told MTV News that he'd spent ...