Britney Spears Hosts Private Event To Benefit New Orleans

Kim Kardashian, Hilary Duff and other celebs attended the Southern-style dinner in support of the St. Bernard Project.
By Matt Elias


Britney Spears at the St. Bernard Project event on Wednesday
Photo: David Livingston/ Getty Images

BEVERLY HILLS, California — When Britney Spears supports a charity, Hollywood comes calling. On Wednesday night, the femme fatale and her family hosted a private event in Beverly Hills that was attended by Kim Kardashian, Selena Gomez, Kellan Lutz, Hilary Duff and others — all in support of the St. Bernard Project. The Louisiana-based nonprofit aims to rebuild homes of those affected by Hurricane Katrina, as well as helping rebuild their lives.

Just a few days before the event, Brit called out to her devoted fanbase via Twitter to support the cause. "Text BRITNEY to UNITED (864833) to donate $10 to the St. Bernard Charity, which is dedicated to rebuilding homes after Katrina," she tweeted.

Once she arrived at the event, all eyes were on Spears as she graced the red carpet in a form-fitting, lime-green cocktail dress, along with a ring and earrings from the event's title sponsor, Geraldo Jewelry. She looked vibrant, posing for photogs, who snapped away in a frenzy.

Hilary Duff, standing just a few feet down from Britney, couldn't help but take in the action.

"Gosh, I'm such a huge Britney Spears fan, I'm kinda freaking out that she's right over there," Duff told MTV News. "I love the whole 'Toxic' thing, I really like 'Womanizer' — she's just talented all around and I'm a huge fan, excited to be here. And she keeps it going, you know, like all of her new songs are just as good as the last, and I'm impressed by her career.

"I've actually met her a few times before and she's really sweet, and I'm sure we're gonna be talking about food more than anything tonight," Duff continued.

Once inside, Britney wasn't the only Spears spreading Southern hospitality: Her dad, Jamie, was manning the kitchen. Guests were treated to a Southern-style sit-down dinner with all the fixin's. Of course, it wouldn't have been a proper Southern meal without some sweet tea, and guests sipped on the pop princess' special recipe of lemon and peach tea.

Britney serves as an ambassador of the St. Bernard Project, whose volunteers number around 32,000. Together, they've rebuilt homes in the New Orleans area for 350 families and counting.

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Taylor Swift, Rihanna Dress To Impress At Billboard Awards

Nicki Minaj, Ke$ha, Selena Gomez also make fashion splash on red carpet, as showgirl style rules at the Las Vegas event on Sunday night.
By Jocelyn Vena


Taylor Swift at the 2011 Billboard Music Awards
Photo: Jordan Strauss/ Getty Images

On Sunday night, some of the biggest names in the music industry hit up the Billboard Music Awards in Las Vegas and decided that sparkles and sequins make for the perfect additions to any red carpet get-up. Well, it is Sin City after all.

Taylor Swift always seems to bring some of that Nashville sparkle to any red carpet. She arrived at the show in a pale-hued, sequined Elie Saab gown. Nicki Minaj showed off her signature sense of style in her baby-blue, body-hugging spandex Mark Fast catsuit.

Selena Gomez turned up the style dial in a sexy, cut-out black Dolce & Gabbana gown that she paired with red strappy sandals with sparkly bow detailing. Like Gomez, Ke$ha opted for some cut-out detailing in her sparkly, slate-gray dress with tulle skirt. Rihanna looked white hot in her men's tailored Max Azria suit, which she kept sexy and feminine by not buttoning her shirt all the way.

Fergie went S&M chic in her little black bandage-type dress by Hervé Léger. Nicole Kidman also wore black. She paired a casual braid hairstyle with a long black gown and Keith Urban. British pop cutie Kyle Minogue looked funky in her little black lacey dress. Inside the show, Britney Spears sat in the audience wearing a skimpy black dress of her own, her hair in loose curls, with little-to-no accessories.

While some stars kept the color scheme low-key, Keri Hilson decided to stand out in her billowy little yellow dress paired with a turquoise-colored belt. Kelly Rowland showed off some of her best assets in a body-hugging, bright pink bandage dress.

The fellas also looked tight on the carpet. Joe Jonas wore all black with white sneakers, Ne-Yo paired his periwinkle suit with a Yankees cap and Justin Bieber wore black tuxedo pants with a gold-lamé tuxedo jacket.

Which stars' styles caught your eye at the Billboard Music Awards? Tell us in the comments.

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Kung Fu Panda 2' Stars Call Voice Acting 'Cushiest Job In The World

'It's cushier because you can do it naked,' Seth Rogen tells MTV News at film's Hollywood premiere.
By Kara Warner


Angelina Jolie
Photo: Kevin Winter/ Getty Images

HOLLYWOOD — From the outside looking in, voice acting seems just a bit more lax than regular acting. MTV News headed to Hollywood on Sunday for the "Kung Fu Panda 2" premiere to find out what the cast thought of the gig.

"It's the cushiest job in the world," Angelina Jolie, who voices Tigress in the film, told us. "You can bring your kids, you can go in your pajamas, [director] Jennifer [Yuh]'s really good about whatever you want to order for lunch, so you end up ordering pizza with your kids, snacking — it's great."

Jolie admitted that it's not all fun and games and pizza, though.

"What's challenging is that you're not with the other actors, and you have to come back sometime to respond to each other," she said. "You don't know exactly what they're doing with your voice, but when it's a great team like this, you can relax."

Naturally, Seth Rogen and Danny McBride, who play Mantis and Wolf Boss, respectively, took the G-rated subject to a more R-rated place.

"It's cushier because you can do it naked," Rogen said. "And that doesn't come across on voice."

"You always want to do roles naked," McBride pointed out.

"I always do. ... I finally found a way to do it," Rogen admitted. "And I also sit in a big bowl of custard when I do it."

"Oh, that's great," McBride added.

"Yeah. Naked in custard," Rogen continued. "I can finally do all the stuff I like doing at home, at work."

Lucy Liu brought us back to logical territory, echoing Jolie's comments that the challenges in voice acting are doing the recording sessions solo.

"What's difficult is that you don't actually get to see your other fellow actors until you get on the red carpet in Los Angeles. That's always fun, but sometimes you would love the energy of someone else reading with you," she said. "Sometimes you don't really know what's going on because they've made massive changes behind the scenes, and suddenly you're reading something, and then you watch it and you're like, 'Oh my gosh, that's what it was about.' "

"It's the same as any acting thing, really," Jack Black assured us. "You're just trying to imagine fairy-tale scenarios and make them as real as possible."

Black also revealed that, much like his regular acting gigs, he doesn't hold anything back even though he's just working with a microphone.

"I definitely let it rip. But when I go blooper reel, I go pretty blue," he said. "I don't think it's anything that's going to be used on the DVD outtakes."

Veteran actor Dustin Hoffman, who voices Shifu in the film, said that he found the recording booth to be pretty intimidating.

"I would rather do regular acting. I'd rather do interviews — and that's not high on my [list], they're difficult — than going in a room by yourself with a microphone," he said. "You feel like a first-year acting student."

Check out everything we've got on "Kung Fu Panda 2."

For breaking news, celebrity columns, humor and more — updated around the clock — visit MTVMoviesBlog.com.

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'Dark Knight Rises' Adds Matthew Modine, Tom Conti And Joey King

Modine will play character named Nixon, but Conti and King's roles are not yet known.
By Eric Ditzian


Matthew Modine
Photo: Rob Kim/ Getty Images

Production on "The Dark Knight Rises" is already under way, and on Friday Warner Bros. released the first photo from director Christopher Nolan's film. Now three new actors have officially joined the cast.

Variety reported that Matthew Modine will play a character named Nixon. Tom Conti and Joey King have also signed on, but the exact nature of their roles is being kept under wraps.

While Modine is new to the world of blockbuster comic-book adaptations, Variety noted that the actor has in fact played a Joker before, albeit Private Joker in 1987's "Full Metal Jacket," the Oscar-nominated Vietnam War film directed by Stanley Kubrick.

The Scottish-born Conti himself nabbed an Oscar nod for his turn as a troubled poet in 1983's "Reuben, Reuben." The 11-year-old King played Ramona last year in "Ramona and Beezus" and will appear in this summer's ensemble comedy "Crazy, Stupid, Love."

These three actors join a production expected to jump from locales in India, England and Scotland to domestic stops in Pittsburgh, New York and Los Angeles. They join Christian Bale, who returns as Bruce Wayne (and his alter ego Batman), and newcomers Anne Hathaway as Selina Kyle (who becomes Catwoman in comic-book lore) and Tom Hardy as the villain Bane, among many others.

On Friday, we got our first look at Hardy as Bane, thanks to a viral marketing campaign that sent fans on an investigative hunt from the film's website to Twitter and back again. The reaction was immediately positive. "Chris Nolan will do it big again," wrote one MTV News commenter. "One image has never made me so excited for one film. Looks to me like Nolan and company are gonna go out with a huge bang and leave people talking."

Check out everything we've got on "The Dark Knight Rises."

For breaking news and previews of the latest comic book movies — updated around the clock — visit SplashPage.MTV.com.

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Drake Wasn't Dissing Jay-Z, Rick Ross Says

'I know he wouldn't disrespect Jay,' the Boss tells 'RapFix Live.'
By Alvin Blanco, with reporting by Sway Calloway


Rick Ross
Photo: Sohyung Kang/ MTV News

Rick Ross is making it clear: Drake was not dissing Jay-Z on any of his new verses. Ricky Rozay, along with a few of his Maybach Music Group infantrymen (Meek Mill, Wale, Pill), stopped by "RapFix Live" and made the clarification while heaping praise on Hova.

After telling MTV News' Sway Calloway that he and Drake converse often, and sometimes via iChat, Ross spoke highly of Jay-Z, who was president of Def Jam when the Miami rapper first signed to the label as a solo artist.

"We all gotta give it up to Jay-Z," Ross told MTV News. "When it comes to this music game, Jay is the exception to the rule. That's the big homey that put me on; that's the big homey that showed young black entrepreneurs how to move. He gave us so many classic gems and so many classic maneuvers. He also showed us how we can carry ourselves as bosses."

According to Rozay, Jay-Z's ascension from the street corner to the boardroom serves as inspiration for people from the "jungle," meaning ghettos and poor neighborhoods. "We rarely see a young, black, rich, wealthy young dude carry [himself] with a certain level of class and still get the job executed," he said. "I think that was something if you was black and from the 'hood, it was something that you could relate to and respect outside of music."

The Boss then squelched any notions that certain Drake lyrics on DJ Khaled's "I'm On One" and the Toronto rapper's own "Dreams Money Can Buy" were thinly veiled shots at Hov.

"I know when those records are released and those vibes are in the air, I know the certain excitement that people anticipate and want to make it into," Ross explained. "But I know Drake, and I know when he's writing, he's most definitely being the most creative, but I know he wouldn't disrespect Jay."

Do you think Drake was going after Jay-Z in his verses? Tell us in the comments.

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Selena Gomez, Kat Graham Reveal Fave Britney Spears Tunes

Victoria Justice, Christina Milian and more pick a range of Brit classics like 'Slave 4 U' and new-school bangers like 'Till the World Ends.'
By Jocelyn Vena, with reporting by Matt Elias


Selena Gomez
Photo: MTV News

On Wednesday night in Los Angeles, Britney Spears' supporters gathered to help the star raise funds for the St. Bernard Project. The Louisiana-based nonprofit helps those affected by Hurricane Katrina to rebuild their homes and their lives. And while much of the talk focused on the good the charity does, MTV News also asked the celeb guests which of Spears' songs would make the final cut on their playlists.

Britney fanatic Selena Gomez said, "Oh goodness! 'Slave 4 U,' that will always be, 'cause that was when it was like, 'Oh, she's not a girl anymore, she's a woman.' The controversy, I loved it!"

Christina Milian preferred one of Brit's more heartfelt songs. " 'Everytime,' it's emotional, and she's beautiful," Milian told us on the event's red carpet, where we saw a number of stars, including Kim Kardashian and Kellan Lutz. "She sang it great."

Spears' "Crossroads" co-star Taryn Manning knew Spears way back when, but her favorite song is a more contemporary Britney tune. " 'Till the World Ends' is incredible," she dished. "I think it's seriously one of her best songs, probably the reason why she went platinum like that."

Sabi, Spears' "(Drop Dead) Beautiful" collaborator, who's set to hit up some Femme Fatale Tour shows this summer, said, "Really, my favorite song had to be 'Toxic' or Slave 4 U. It's between those two. I just think those two are like so sexy, badass songs."

Hilary Duff found it hard to narrow it down. "I like everything," she said. "I liked the whole 'Toxic' thing. I really liked 'Womanizer'."

When Victoria Justice listens to Spears, she likes to kick it old school. "I'm a really big fan of her older stuff," she told us, "So, like, 'Overprotected' and 'Lucky'."

"Vampire Diaries" star Kat Graham enjoys both old and new Britney Spears. "I like 'Hold It Against Me,' I must say. I'm just kind of in with the times right now," she said. "But '... Baby One More Time' is always a classic."

What's your all-time favorite Britney song? Let us know in the comments!

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