Exclusive: Jennifer Lawrence Officially Cast In 'Hunger Games'

Author Suzanne Collins gives Oscar-nominated actress her blessing to play Katniss Everdeen.
By Kara Warner


Jennifer Lawrence
Photo: id-pr.com

At long last, after seemingly endless debate, speculation and rumors, MTV News has received exclusive confirmation that Jennifer Lawrence has landed the highly coveted role of Katniss Everdeen in the big-screen adaptation of "The Hunger Games."

According to Lionsgate, the 20-year-old actress is a fitting choice due to her "meteoric ascent" to Hollywood stardom with her Oscar-nominated role in "Winter's Bone," to be followed by roles in Matthew Vaughn's "X Men: First Class" and "The Beaver," directed by Jodie Foster.

"Hunger Games" author Suzanne Collins has already given Lawrence's casting her blessing, via a statement from the studio.

"Jennifer's just an incredible actress," Collins said. "So powerful, vulnerable, beautiful, unforgiving and brave. I never thought we'd find somebody this perfect for the role. And I can't wait for everyone to see her play it."

Director Gary Ross also praised his lead actress: "I'm so excited to work with Jen and see her bring this character to life. Katniss requires a young actress with strength, depth, complexity, tenderness, and power. There are very few people alive who can bring that to a role. Jen brings it in spades. She's going to be an amazing Katniss."

The movie, based on Collins' dystopian best-seller about children forced to compete in a fight-to-the-death battle, is slated to hit theaters March 23, 2012.

What do you think of the casting? Share your thoughts in the comments!

For young Hollywood news, fashion and "Twilight" updates around the clock, visit HollywoodCrush.MTV.com.

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L.A. Reid Resigns From Island Def Jam Records To Join 'X Factor'

Legendary record executive steps down from chairman position for a spot on the judges' panel.
By Jocelyn Vena


L.A. Reid
Photo: Jason Merritt/ Getty Images

L.A. Reid resigned from his post as chairman of Island Def Jam Records on Thursday (March 17) and will join Simon Cowell's "X Factor" as one of the show's judges, according to a statement from the label sent to the BBC.

A memo from Reid obtained by MTV News opens with a quote from Colin Powell: "Great leaders are almost always great simplifiers, who can cut through argument, debate and doubt, to offer a solution everybody can understand."

Reid goes on to say, "After much consideration, I have decided to leave my position as Chairman of the Island Def Jam Music Group. I have always thrived on growth and the next great challenge, and I look forward with much enthusiasm to what the future holds.

"I am extremely proud of our beautiful roster and all we have accomplished in my seven years with IDJ," the note continues. "We continue to have incredible success together with today's most phenomenal superstars — Rihanna, Justin Bieber, Mariah Carey, Kanye West, Bon Jovi, Jennifer Lopez, Ne-Yo, Rick Ross, The Killers, The-Dream, Chrisette Michele, Jeezy and Ludacris to name a few. I want to thank all of you for your amazing contributions."

Reid joined Island Def Jam in 2004 after a successful 15-year run at LaFace and Arista records in the late '80s through the early part of the millennium. He helped launch the careers of a wide array of superstars like Usher, Pink and Avril Lavigne, and is credited with revamping Mariah Carey's career in 2005.

Reid's contract with Universal Music Group was set to expire this December, and now that he has left the position early, he is free to take a position with Sony Music, the label that will provide the "X Factor" winner with a recording contract.

When reached by MTV News, a rep for "X Factor" had no comment on the judge choice.

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'American Idol' Report Card: Stefano Langone Wins The Week

The rest of the top 12 are letting their grades slip performing songs from the year they were born.
By Eric Ditzian


"American idol" finalist Stefano Langone
Photo: FOX

Before we dive into this week's "American Idol" report card, we need to pause and award a special gold star to Steven Tyler, whose commentary on Wednesday night — replete with rhyming phrases, butchered metaphors and one instance of nonsensical, if oddly well-intentioned, racial profiling — keep us glued to the telly through some snooze-inducing performances. Who cares if his commendations didn't always line up with objective reality? We'd tune in any day of the week to hear the Aerosmith frontman suggest that one singer has a "sorcerer's grasp of melody" and highlight another singer's "ethnic what-it-is-ness."

Yet just as we hand out that gold star to Tyler — and plan to dole out a few more — there are far too many contestants who earned themselves some demerits on Wednesday. It doesn't matter if they were sick or sleepy or just simply misguided in their song choices from the year they were born — there's no hiding from our "Idol" report card. Let's get on with it!

Excellent

Stefano Langone: On a generally weak evening in "Idol" land, Stefano finds himself at the top of the class, despite his pretaped diss of "Funky Cold Medina." Harsh! Stefano's got a silky smooth voice, confidence for days, and he popped off some top-notch runs during Simply Red's "If You Don't Know Me By Now." Then he went ahead and sealed the deal with that bear-hug with his mom. Now, all he's got to do is apologize to Tone Loc.

Good

Pia Toscano: From judges to Jimmy Iovine to the voting public, everyone has been waiting for Pia to bust out something that isn't a capital-B ballad. Who knew the moment she'd finally go up-tempo-ish would be with a rendition of Whitney Houston's "Where Do Broken Hearts Go"? Sure, it had a bit of a cruise-ship cabaret feel, and her outfit would have been a better fit on "The Love Boat" than "American Idol," but her vocals were, as always, on point

Scotty McCreery: Iovine spoke up for an army of frustrated viewers when he said he's not trying to change Scotty, just have him grow and get better. If only! Nothing approaching growth took place during his version of Travis Tritt's "Can I Trust You With My Heart." One note at the end snuck out of Scotty's comfort zone before he reeled the vocals back in. The North Carolina native can probably coast into the finals without growing in any meaningful way, but where's the fun in that?

Lauren Alaina: Wacked-out on Nyquil though she may have been, Lauren showed no ill effects once she stepped up onstage (the same cannot be said for her pre-performance interview, when the only thing she seemed to be able to giggle-slur at Ryan Seacrest was, "Look at yooooooooooooou!"). Precocious and confident, Lauren bounced back from a subpar performance last week and solidified her fan-favorite status during Melissa Etheridge's "I'm the Only One."

Satisfactory

James Durbin: He got off to a very shaky start and never really recovered; we blame the absurd tail/scarf thingamabob James once again attached to his hiney. Last week, when he left that piece of flair in his dressing room, the guy slayed us with an emotional ode to Paul McCartney. This time around, he split the difference between vulnerable rocker and hair-metal circus act, and it didn't work. Oh, and he seemed to hint that he'd be around until the finale several months down the road. Cocky ain't a good look. Be humble and be great. On Wednesday, James, you were neither.

Paul McDonald: We know Paul was sick, but was he also suffering from vertigo? Perhaps chronic dizziness is the key to explaining that marionette-meets-drunken-sailor dancing style. More distracting than those moves, though, were his lackluster vocals. He's still got the most distinctive voice on the show, and we hope he doesn't land in the bottom three this week. We hope by next week, Paul's on the mend and ready to wow us again as he did earlier in the month with Rod Stewart's "Maggie May."

Haley Reinhart: Randy Jackson echoed what we've been wondering for a while: What kind of artist is Haley? She seems the least fully-formed of anyone on the show. Perhaps the pressure of trying to figure out exactly who she is got to her. Haley was nervous from the get-go and couldn't keep up with the tempo of Whitney Houston's "I'm Your Baby Tonight." Will that lipstick debacle earn her some sympathy votes? Fingers crossed! Because we continue to think she's got a lot of potential and a beautiful instrument, and if she sticks around long enough, she just might surprise us one of these days.

Casey Abrams: Man, we loved the song choice of Nirvana's "Smells Like Teen Spirit" before we even heard a note. We thought we were in for a creative arrangement — perhaps something as inspired as Andrew Garcia's re-jiggering of "Straight Up" last year. What we got instead was a cover you'd hear in any basement in any suburb, where a bunch of middle-school kids are rocking out before dinnertime. We won't even get started on his singing, if we can call it that, because we're still haunted by that crazy-eyed look on his face as he raced to keep up with this grunge classic.

Unsatisfactory

Naima Adedapo: Uh-oh. We've been rooting for Naima, if only because she offers up a sense of artistic unpredictability in a season that is sorely lacking it. We even defended her take last week on Rihanna's "Umbrella"; it was a mess, but at least it was a compelling mess. This week, her homage to Tina Turner was too sloppy to endorse, and we suspect she'll end up in the bottom three. Her flavor may be crazy, but her vocals, alas, are cuckoo.

Thia Megia: Back in the day, we used to fall asleep when someone popped "Pocahontas" into the living room VCR. Visions of those somnolent evenings came tip-toeing back to us when Thia voluntarily — voluntarily! — chose to sing a tune from that Disney flick. Last year, we used to ding Katie Stevens for insisting on becoming the oldest, mustiest teenager the world has ever seen. Thia is giving Stevens a run for her money in 2011. Oh, and enough with the ballads! We have a feeling she's safe for a few more weeks, so we hope she takes a cue from Pia and shows us some artistic range.

Karen Rodriguez: Looking like the lovechild of Snooki and General Zod, Karen insisted again on toggling between English and Spanish, as if lingual dexterity might mask her vocal shortcomings. After a trip to the bottom three last week, Karen just might be the odd woman out on elimination night.

Jacob Lusk: Listening to Jacob sing is like riding a rickety roller coaster: kinda fun, mostly terrifying. There's no denying he communicates genuine emotion while singing; the problem is that the emotion he often inspires in listeners is fear.

Don't miss "Idol Party Live" every Thursday on MTV.com, following the "American Idol" results show, for analysis, celebrity guests and even some karaoke — get in the conversation by tweeting with the hashtag #idolparty! In the meantime, get your "Idol" fix on MTV News' "American Idol" page, where you'll find all the latest news, interviews and opinions.

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Robert Plant And Alison Krauss Win Grammy Album Of The Year

Raising Sand, from Led Zeppelin vet and bluegrass superstar, wins five Grammys on Sunday night.
By James Montgomery with MTV News staff


Alison Krauss and Robert Plant accept the award for Album of the Year at the Grammy Awards on Sunday
Photo: Kevin Winter/ Getty Images

"I'm bewildered," Robert Plant said onstage as he accepted the Grammy Album of the Year award with Alison Krauss on Sunday night. "In the old days we would have called this selling out, but it's a good way to spend a Sunday."

He was probably one of the few who were surprised, because Raising Sand, which won five trophies at Sunday night's show, is in many ways the perfect Grammy album. It features two respected veterans, a critically lauded producer, some sandpaper-and-velvet vocals and a baker's dozen of time-tested standards.

You're probably familiar with Robert Plant from his Led Zeppelin days, and you might be aware of producer T-Bone Burnett's work on the "O Brother, Where Art Thou?" soundtrack (it won the Grammy for Album of the Year in 2002). And if you don't know who Alison Krauss is, she possesses a haunting set of pipes and is one of the meanest fiddle players in the world. Oh, and she's won 21 Grammys, more than any other female artist and the seventh-most in history.

Really, she's the key to Sand's success, and not just because of her voice (or her fiddle playing). She and Plant first met in 2004, at a Rock and Roll Hall of Fame tribute to legendary bluesman Leadbelly, and the former Zeppelin man was amazed by her knowledge of American Roots music — so much so that they began kicking around the idea of recording an album together. Three years later, Sand was released.

And while Plant possesses the more famous voice, the album's finest moments radiate from Krauss. Whether she's getting bluesy on Little Milton's "Let Your Loss Be Your Lesson" or entwining with Plant's husky voice on songs like "Please Read the Letter" and Roly Salley's winsome "Killing the Blues," she more than carries her end of the bargain.

And perhaps that's also due to producer Burnett, who handpicked the 13 songs the duo cover on Sand. His arrangements are sparse — giving the two voices ample room to breathe — yet dense, warm and crackling at the same time. It's a testament to his work that he's often given just as much billing as Plant and Krauss on the project ... and it's certainly justified.

To date, Sand has sold more than 1 million copies, heaped tons of acclaim and actually earned a Grammy last year — "Gone Gone Gone (Done Moved On)" took home the award for Best Pop Collaboration With Vocals.

One expert was surprised not by the album's success, but by the fact that it's actually quite a good album.

"At first, the album seemed like a vanity project. ... Two names, clearly a one-off record, didn't have to be any good, you know?" New York Times music critic Jon Caramanica said. "Led Zeppelin fans would buy it because of Robert Plant, Alison Krauss would get a check. But it actually turned out to be a really thoughtful, really good record. So when you combine all that with the fact that the Grammys love to lionize one of their own, I could really see it taking home some awards."

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Tom Hanks Is Hard At Work In New York City

Tom Hanks walked the streets of New York yesterday while working on the set of his new film ‘Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close‘. According the IMDB, the movie is about “A nine-year-old amateur inventor, jewelry designer, astrophysicist, tambourine player and pacifist, … Continue reading

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Michael Jackson's 'Thriller': Story Behind The 'Glee' Cover

MJ classic is mashed up with the Yeah Yeah Yeahs' 'Heads Will Roll' for post-Super Bowl episode.
By Aly Semigran


"Glee"
Photo: FOX

Madonna, the Beatles, the Rolling Stones and now, finally, Michael Jackson. The cast of "Glee" has covered plenty of icons during their first two seasons, but it's taken 33 episodes to get around to the King of Pop.

With a huge catalog of Jackson songs, the singing, dancing students of McKinley High paid homage to the late singer with one of his biggest staples (and, arguably, the greatest music video of all time) with their take on "Thriller."

The groundbreaking single from Jackson's best-selling album of the same name was mashed up with the Yeah Yeah Yeahs' "Heads Will Roll" for the post-Super Bowl episode (titled "The Sue Sylvester Bowl Shuffle"), featuring a zombie-fied "Glee" cast.

Bound to become a smash all over again (though with its nonstop rotation at Halloween parties and wedding receptions until the end of time, it's never truly gone away), here's a brief history of the dance/pop classic.

Released on January 23, 1984, "Thriller" was the seventh, and final, single to be released from Jackson's smash record. According to the RIAA, the album (released by Epic Records) has gone gold 29 times, narrowly edging out the Eagles' Greatest Hits 1971-1975 for the title of best-selling album of all time.

In 2009, MTV News estimated that the Thriller album was poised to go triple diamond, meaning 30 million records sold in the U.S. alone.

After Thriller's other singles (including "Billie Jean," "Beat It" and "Wanna Be Startin' Something") dominated the charts, it was time for the spooky, undeniably original track to take over. The song "Thriller" also appeared on many of Jackson's other albums, including the compilations HIStory and Number Ones.

Clocking in at a little under six minutes (though the radio edit was closer to four-and-a-half), the song features pop-music mainstays like synthesizers but shakes things up with its spooky sound effects, including creaking floors, howling and thunder.

The song was produced by Quincy Jones and written and composed by Rod Tempterton and spent 14 weeks on the Billboard Hot 100, peaking at #4.

But it's the music video for "Thriller" that truly made it the phenomenon it was in the '80s and continues to be today. Less a music video than a mini-motion picture, the video (over 13 minutes long and directed by John Landis) won three MTV Video Music Awards and has been named the best music video of all time by many outlets, including VH1 for the special "VH1: 100 Greatest Videos."

The chiller features Jackson in that iconic red leather jacket on a date with his girlfriend (played by Ola Ray) before things go terribly awry. After all, as Jackson (whose disclaimer at the start of the video reads, "This film in no way endorses a belief in the occult") sings in the opening line, "It's close to midnight and something evil's lurking in the dark." Cue werewolves, zombies, Vincent Price's soliloquy and one of the most memorable dance sequences ever.

The video was (no pun intended) a monster hit. As the Los Angeles Times notes, "At the height of the song's popularity, MTV would run the 14-minute 'Thriller' video twice an hour."

Choreographed by Jackson and Michael Peters (who, as the LA Times also reported, appears in the video as one of the zombies) and with makeup by Oscar-winner Rick Baker (also an undead "Thriller" extra) was made with a huge budget of an estimated $500,000.

Still, the efforts paid off. Landis (who told the "Today" show back in 2009 that no one wanted to give them the funds to make the risky vid) made the accompanying 45-minute documentary about the venture, called "The Making of Thriller." Featuring the behind-the-scenes wizardry, as well as the music video in full, it would go on to move more than 10 million copies.

Since then, the signature song and video have seen their share fair of tributes in movies (notably in the 2004 comedy"13 Going on 30") and TV ("South Park," "Family Guy," "30 Rock," among others), not to mention the countless flash mobs that have gone viral. (Remember the prisoners in the Philippines who became overnight phenomenons on YouTube?)

Even with the "Glee" number, this likely won't be the last incarnation of "Thriller." Billboard reported in October that a "Thriller" film is in the works. With a plot allegedly revolving around Price's narration, Kenny Ortega, who directed Jackson's last effort, "This Is It," will reportedly helm the project.

Since Jackson's untimely passing on June 25, 2009, the song and video's legacy continue to live on. In the week following Jackson's death, "Thriller" was the best-selling track in the U.S., with sales of 167,000 copies on the Billboard Hot Digital Singles chart.

Then, in December 2009, "Thriller" was the first music video to ever be inducted into the National Film Registry by the Library of Congress. It seems "no mere mortal can resist ... the thriller" after all.

What did you think of the "Thriller" mash-up on "Glee"? Let us know in the comments!

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'Super 8' Trailer Reveals 'Close Encounter' With Characters

The full-length trailer introduces the children and police chief at the heart of J.J. Abrams upcoming alien flick.
By Terri Schwartz


Elle Fanning and Joel Courtney in "Super 8"
Photo: Paramount

Though the title "Super 8" might reference an old school video camera, the first full-length trailer for the film, which was posted on the movie's Twitter feed early Friday morning (March 11), finally shows us that J.J. Abrams' latest is going to be about much more than just a mysterious event accidentally caught on film.

Plot details have been scarce since "Super 8" was first announced, but the latest full-length trailer shows that Abrams and producer Steven Spielberg are ready to give us some context for the film. If the teaser trailer and Super Bowl ad were all about the mysterious story, this latest look at the flick is about introducing us to the characters.

Enter the young children at the center of the film, led by newcomer Joel Courtney. The sparse plot details previously released about "Super 8" told us that the movie would follow these kids after they accidentally capture footage on their Super 8 camera of a mysterious "something" escaping a train crash. The new trailer sets this up pretty blatantly, but with a larger look at the setting for the film.

In addition to Courtney, Elle Fanning is introduced in the trailer as the object of the young boy's affections, and "Friday Night Lights" star Kyle Chandler is shown as Courtney's concerned father, who doesn't want him to hang around too much with his young filmmaking friends as they make a zombie movie. Turns out Chandler also is the police chief in town, and when whatever was in the train escapes, he is the one forced to deal with it as he gradually realizes that the government is hiding something from all of them.

Comparisons have already been drawn between "Super 8" and "E.T.," "War of the Worlds" and "The Goonies," but this trailer hearkens back mostly to Spielberg's 1977 classic, "Close Encounters of the Third Kind." In the same way that the "Close Encounters" aliens were something to be revered and not despised, the "Super 8" creature could possibly be more magical than evil — then again, how to explain all the missing dogs?

Abrams has proven with his previous projects like "Cloverfield" and "Lost" that he is the master of creating five questions by answering one, and the same can be said about this latest, more plot-driven sneak peek. The second half of the trailer raises about a million more questions about the plot of the film. What exactly was released during the train crash? Why is it having a strange effect on the townspeople? And is it really as dangerous as the government would lead the characters to believe?

Unfortunately, we have to wait until June 10 to find out.

Check out everything we've got on "Super 8."

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

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