invisioner | Trance producer

'It's fun to talk about it and make jokes about, but in all reality, that didn't even exist,' Wiz tells us about alleged altercation.
By Steven Roberts

Wiz Khalifa
Photo: MTV News

EAST RUTHERFORD, New Jersey — Wiz Khalifa is riding high — pun not intended, even though it kind of works — off the success of his debut album, "Rolling Papers," and a stage show that is quickly garnering a lot of praise. But Wiz can't seem to escape the gossip that doggedly follows him and girlfriend Amber Rose around.

Rumor has it that Wiz confronted Kanye West over a jab West took at Rose during his show-stealing set at Coachella. During his performance of "Stronger," West slightly altered the lyrics from "I'll do anything for a blonde dike and she'll do anything for the limelight/ We'll do anything when the time's right" to "I did anything for a blonde dike and she did anything for the limelight/ And we did anything when the time's right."

An altercation allegedly occurred after West's performance, but when MTV News caught up with Wiz before his set at this weekend's Bamboozle Festival, he said the entire backstage incident was fabricated.

"I did my set and we hung around for a bit, but we weren't even there when fam was onstage," Wiz said. "Somebody made that up. I think they just wanted it to be that type of situation or they wanted to see something go down. It's fun to talk about it and make jokes about, but in all reality, that didn't even exist."

Wiz said he did hear Kanye's lyrics though. He thought it was a low moment, that many people who look up to West may have been turned off by his lyrical alteration. He harbors no ill will, however.

"It is what it is, and I'm doing my business and she's doing her business and he's doing his business and that's what it is. I'm all about positivity and I'm going to keep it that way."

Wiz kept things moving, co-headlining Bamboozle Friday night along with 30 Seconds to Mars. Wiz is currently on the College Consciousness Tour with fellow Steel City native Mac Miller, and he plans to head out with the Motor City's own Big Sean next month for the Rolling Papers tour. But he's happy to perform wherever his fans — or soon-to-be-fans — may be.

"I think my crowd, they kind of just go everywhere and wherever I'm at. I kind of just entertain them as well as make new fans. Some of the people that come to my shows, they just know me for one or two songs, so even the people that don't know me at all at shows like Bamboozle, I get to make them new fans."

• Get Bamboozled In New Jersey

• Bamboozle Festival Performances

• Wiz Khalifa
• Kanye West

By Zachary Swickey
We’ve been longing for a new Modest Mouse record for a while now, and it appears our cries have been answered through Twitter (truly the the hotspot for collaboration reveals these days.) Sir Lucious Left Foot himself — aka Big Boi of OutKast — is keeping this fad alive by tweeting about his trip to the studio of the indie icons:

"Been camped out in the Lab with Modest Mouse all week, workin on the new mouse LP, coolest cats ever. Long Live the Funk."

Long live the funk, indeed! That’s all the evidence we have for now (not even a Twitpic, Daddy Fat Sax?!?), but any of sign of a new Modest Mouse record is well-received by us. And while this collaboration may sound pretty out there to some music fans, rap/rock collabos of the WTF-nature are abundant in years past. Here’s four that might have you raising your eyebrows:

"Judgment Night: Official Soundtrack"
Helping Emilio Estevez establish some street cred, this ’93 soundtrack is chock full of — what were considered at the time — to be positively groundbreaking collaborations. Cypress Hill team up on two tracks with Sonic Youth and Pearl Jam. Ice-T's epically awesome Body County join forces with Satan's favorite minions, Slayer. Helmet get together with House of Pain, Mudhoney get down with Sir Mix-A-Lot, Living Colour spazz out with Run-D.M.C. ... nearly 20 years later, this album still rules.

Chef Aid: The 'South Park' Album
A 1998 "South Park" episode featuring a music benefit for character Chef (voiced by the late Isaac Hayes) spun off a soundtrack of its own. "Nowhere to Run" features electronic outfit the Crystal Method providing the music and DMX, Ol’ Dirty Bastard and Ozzy Osbourne providing the growl. "Will They Die 4 You" features the unlikely tandem of System of a Down and Diddy (not to mention Mase and Lil' Kim). Oh, and somewhat fittingly, the whole thing was produced by Rick Rubin.

Handsome Boy Modeling School, White People
In theory, little more than a throw-off collaboration between Dan the Automator and Prince Paul, Handsome Boy Modeling School is also so much more. Cat Power, Jack Johnson, and Mike Patton all show up here, as does Deftones' Chino Moreno (who teams with El-P and Cage on "The Hours") and the RZA and Cedric Bixler-Zavala, on a track that tens of people were probably clamoring for.

Blakroc, Blakroc
Spearheaded by Damon Dash (late of of Roc-A-Fella Records), Blakroc’s ’09 debut is a collaborative project between the Black Keys, and a variety of rappers. Ludacris, ODB, Jim Jones, Mos Def, and Raekown all make appearances here. The songs are a mix of Blues and rap, and word on the street is that a follow up is currently in the works.

'I was in junior college because it was my only option,' actor tells MTV News.
By Eric Ditzian

Tom Hanks with Julia Roberts in "Larry Crowne"
Photo: Universal Pictures

The first time Tom Hanks stepped behind the camera on a big-screen production, he captured a story set in the early 1960s, a period he had lived through as a preteen. But the particulars of "That Thing You Do!" — a rock band that rides a hit song to fame but can't follow through on their initial promise — couldn't have been further from Hanks' California childhood.

His second directorial effort, however, was inspired by events from his past, even if it does not seem so at first glance. In "Larry Crowne" — the upcoming comedy he also co-wrote and in which he stars with Julia Roberts — Hanks plays the title character, a guy fired from his job at a big-box retail store and forced to go back to college, where he meets a professor named Mercy Tainot (played by Roberts). But as Hanks told MTV News as part of our Summer Movie Preview week, he actually relates to his character's plight.

"My first years in college were much like Larry's," he told us. "I was in junior college because it was my only option — if I didn't enroll right after high school I would have had no path to any future. Two years in junior college became the jumping-off point for everything that came later and I think this was the same for others — not just kids out of high school, but guys back from Vietnam, wives going back to school after their kids were older, and folks who were looking to change their lives for the better."

While the genesis of the film came from Hanks' early college years, he enlisted Nia Vardalos, whose "My Big Fat Greek Wedding" he'd produced in 2002, to collaborate on the script.

"Nia and I talk all the time and laugh constantly, and I wanted a woman's voice to be a part of the movie, since Mercy Tainot is in a comparable life situation as Larry," Hanks explained. "Nia worked exclusively on the screenplay, based on meetings she and I had, for a number of drafts. Then the script sat in a drawer for a couple of years. I then worked exclusively on the screenplay through the complete production. The story evolved through both of us, though, and what I was shooting for was built up with every draft."

Roberts and Hanks have worked together before, on the political drama "Charlie Wilson's War," but they hadn't shared the screen on lighter material. He does, though, see a connection between that earlier film and "Larry Crowne" in that "we were playing real people in real circumstances." Similarities aside, Hanks simply knew Roberts was the perfect person for the role.

"Julia is Mercy Tainot — funny, wicked intelligent, driven and not one to suffer fools at all," he said. "But make no mistake of Julia's ability to find what is funny in a scene smack up against what is authentic."

For all the comedic elements of the film, there is a dramatic arc for both characters. Larry, for instance, essentially has to reinvent himself in middle age. And if Hanks had to refashion his own life, he joked that he'd strike out in a rather unexpected direction: "I'd go for the Iggy Pop look and gravitas."

Check out everything we've got on "Larry Crowne."

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

• 2011 Summer Movie Preview Week: Exclusive Photos

Fox News pundit singled out the song, performed on 'Glee' in February, during his broadcast Thursday.
By James Montgomery

My Chemical Romances' Gerard Way and Glenn Beck
Photo: Getty Images

Having apparently run out of things to terrify your parents (and your aunt in Arizona) with, conservative radio host/Fox News pundit Glenn Beck is now turning his attention to My Chemical Romance and their song "Sing," which he describes as "propaganda."

During Thursday's broadcast of his self-titled daily Fox News show, Beck — who in the past has vilified everyone from Barack Obama to "reform rabbis" — launched into an attack that was, at first, about the content of the TV show "Glee" (which he admitted he watched in "stunned horror and admiring awe"), but then quickly segued into a dissection of "Sing's" lyrics, which Beck read aloud with fervent terror.

"Pay attention to the lyrics," he cautioned. "This is propaganda ... it's an anthem saying 'Join us.' How can you and I possibly win against that?"

Beck was bringing up "Sing's" lyrics (which he attributed to "Chemical Romance") because, as he warned his viewers, our children "are not tethered to anything" and parents "have to be über vigilant" about the shows they watch, since "our whole culture right now is set up for you and the values you grew up on to lose."

"You don't have to live by the standards that society has set," he said. "You know what is right."

"Sing" was performed on an episode of "Glee" back in February, and My Chemical Romance has since reissued the song to raise money for the Red Cross' ongoing disaster relief efforts in Japan, in part because, as they told MTV News last week, they noticed their fans had begun using the lyrics to send messages of hope to the nation.

"We talked about something that we could do, and at first we were thinking about writing a new song to raise money for charity," MCR guitarist Ray Toro said. "And on Twitter, something we had seen was #SINGitforjapan, and it was kids starting this Twitter feed, writing messages of hope. And that really inspired us, and we just set to work, and after a couple weeks, we were able to pull this thing together."

A spokesperson for the band did not respond to MTV News' request for comment on Beck's statements, but in a tweet Thursday, Toro wrote simply, "Mission accomplished," and included a link to Beck's segment on the song. Guitarist Frank Iero was less polite, tweeting, "Yay! F--- that dude's face with Obama's birth certificate."

• My Chemical Romance