Cheryl Burke: Rob Kardashian Is "Turning into a Man" on 'DWTS'

Cheryl Burke: Rob Kardashian Is "Turning into a Man" on 'DWTS'

He may not be dropping pounds like Ricki Lake, but Rob Kardashian is going through his own kind of Dancing with the Stars transformation. In a new blog post for People, pro dancer Cheryl Burke describes the change she's seen in her celebrity partner over the past few weeks.

"Rob is turning into a man," says Burke, 27, of Kardashian, 24. "It's definitely changed his way of thinking about himself and his confidence level. He's realizing that he can be great at something if he focuses on doing well."

At the beginning of the competition, writes the two-time DWTS champ, Rob "didn't know what he was getting into" and wasn't even sure he could dance! Now he's improving week to week -- surprising the audience, the competition and even the other Kardashians, including older sisters Kim, Kourtney and Khloe.

"I think his family is shocked to see how serious he's taken this," Burke writes. "His sisters are super supportive, and his mom tries to come every single week."

And Burke is convinced that Rob will continue to win more fans over to his cause the longer he survives on the show. "He's super competitive and wants to do well," she writes. "I think he's turning his reputation around, and people are really starting to like him and root for him."

Last week, Rob and Cheryl scored a solid 24 with their flirty fox trot to Frank Sinatra's "Fly Me to the Moon." (Watch the clip below.) This week they'll be doing the paso doble (a.k.a. the Spanish two-step), and dancing to a mystery movie theme song that Rob is "really into."

"He learned his whole routine in one day," brags Burke. "The competition is more than just a show for him. He's not trying to promote anything. I think it's just something he's genuinely doing, and it's changing his whole life."

Source: http://www.ivillage.com/cheryl-burke-rob-kardashian-turning-man-dwts/1-a-389790

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Rihanna Named Esquire's Sexiest Woman Alive

'At the end of a concert, I don't feel like I've been this sexy thing,' she tells the mag, also opening up about Chris Brown.
By Jocelyn Vena


Rihanna on the cover of <i>Esquire</i>
Photo: Esquire

Emma Stone, Beyoncé and Mila Kunis have nothing on Rihanna. The editors of Esquire magazine have named the singer the Sexiest Woman Alive.

The mag's photos of the Talk That Talk singer are certainly sexy: She appears on the cover completely nude. In fact, she appears in many of the pics completely nude. But she claims she's not that aware of her sexuality.

"At the end of a concert, I don't feel like I've been this sexy thing," Rihanna told the magazine about how she feels after her seemingly sexy stage show. "Really, I don't even think about it."

The November cover girl said she thinks her show is only sexy when it has to be. "Unless it's a song that really calls for it, like Skin or S&M, or when I cover [Prince's] Darling Nikki. There's a section that's called Sex in the show, which is the obvious section for sexuality," she said of getting frisky during her act.

Not only did Rihanna address her sexiness, but she also opened up about her former boyfriend, Chris Brown, saying she has moved on from the 2009 assault and is now, actually, a fan of his music.

"It was too much anger. I'm really excited to see the breakthrough he's had in his career," she explained. "It's incredible to see how he pulled out the way he did. Even when the world seemed like it was against him, you know? I really like the music he's putting out. I'm a fan of his stuff. I've always been a fan. I would never wish anything horrible for him. Never. I never have."

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Source: http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/1672327/rihanna-esquire-sexiest-woman-alive.jhtml

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Lady Gaga And Cher's 'The Greatest Thing' Is 'Timeless'

'It's an event,' co-writer/producer RedOne tells MTV News.
By Kara Warner


Lady Gaga and Cher
Photo: WireImage

While we anxiously await the release of Lady Gaga and Cher's duet, "The Greatest Thing" — which, according to Cher's Twitter, is supposed to drop in roughly two days — we can while away the hours with a few insider details about the song from co-writer/producer RedOne.

When MTV News caught up with the mega-producer recently, we did our best to get an early listen of the track, but no dice. Instead, we asked him to tell us specifically what kind of song "The Greatest Thing" is and whether we'll want to dance to it or sing along — or both.

"I think it's timeless. The beautiful thing about this song is, it's very uplifting, very uplifting. It's emotional, but it has dance on it, and it has a dance vibe on it," he explained. "It's just a timeless song. You can play it with the guitar, the piano, with whatever instrument you want. You can sing it a cappella, you know what I mean, it's that kind of song.

"I'm very excited about that song," Red added. "And it's an event. Cher and Lady Gaga: How big can it get?"

RedOne said Cher and Gaga were ecstatic with the finished product, and he couldn't be happier to have helped connect the two stars.

"Everybody loved it," he said. "Gaga on it, Cher, two big icons. [They are] part of music history. So it happened. I'm very happy to be a part of this."

What are you expecting from "The Greatest Thing"? Let us know in the comments!

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Source: http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/1671744/lady-gaga-cher-the-greatest-thing.jhtml

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HGTV, LA and Dining Room Tables

I've been watching a lot of HGTV since coming to LA. My favorite shows are House Hunters and House Hunters International. There's also another show I like to watch called For Rent, but only because it makes me angry.

When it comes to apartments/homes, I think living in New York for the past eleven years has made me bitter because there was this whiny broad on For Rent a few nights ago who was looking at a huge place—A HUGE PLACE—and was like, "There's no place for a dining room table..."

B*TCH, YOU'RE LUCKY TO GET A KITCHEN IN NEW YORK.

I hated her.

Now there's some stupid lady on House Hunters who wants a townhouse with a fireplace that she can turn on with a light switch. IT HAS TO BE A LIGHT SWITCH because she doesn't want to bend down and flip a switch on the floor.

WHO DO THESE PEOPLE THINK THEY ARE?

Anyway, I know my LA update is WAY overdue (and truth be told I wrote a long one last week but for some reason it didn't save so I lost the whole thing and I was so angry that I just said, "Ah, f*ck it," and closed the computer instead of rewriting) but to give you a quick update, I AM SO HAPPY HERE. I MEAN, I'M REALLY, REALLY HAPPY. And I think living here and watching HGTV—both of these things combined—has made me realize that New York was just beating me down. I mean, the fireplace lady—yes, she's an idiot. But there's nothing wrong with wanting a dining room table. Why did I get so mad at that lady?

Since being here, at least once a day I ask myself why I have lived in New York for so long. (It's like I had Stockholm Syndrome or something.) CALIFORNIA IS AWESOME. It's like the promised land. It's sunny all the time and there are birds and flowers everywhere. I have space out here. I have a sofa on the patio out here. I HAVE A SOFA OUTSIDE. I haven't seen one rat since I've been here. But hummingbirds? THEY ZIP BY MY HEAD EVERY DAY. I am so happy.

I'm supposed to go back to New York in November, but truth be told, I'm not sure I will.

Source: http://www.prettyinthecity.com/blog/2011/7/15/hgtv-la-and-dining-room-tables.html

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Liv Tyler's Mom Feuds with Lindsay Lohan's Mom

Liv Tyler's Mom Feuds with Lindsay Lohan's Mom

Popular '70s fashion model and singer Bebe Buell is the mother of actress Liv Tyler -- but she wants to adopt Lindsay Lohan! (For one year, anyway.) In a new interview with Steppin' Out magazine, Buell, 58, rips into Dina Lohan, 49, for enabling daughter Lindsay's self-destructive behavior.

"What her mother has done with Lindsay is morally wrong and disgusting," Buell declares in the magazine. "She should back off. Lindsay is the one with the talent. She's the star."

And Buell believes LiLo would benefit from some other maternal influences. "If Lindsay spent a year with me, I could turn her around. I could have her winning her first Oscar in two years."

Buell says she feels strongly about the Mean Girls actress because Lindsay and Liv "were practically born on the same day. So I look at Lindsay and I see my own child in her because there's a great talent there." (Tyler, 34, and Lohan, 25, were born on July 1 and 2, respectively.) But Buell says that if she were Lohan's mother, she would be doing things quite differently.

"If my baby girl got that screwed up I would not allow her to make her own decisions," claims Buell. "I'm sorry! Anybody can think what they want. But I would abduct my child and I would make sure that I didn't leave her side until she didn't have those problems anymore... But she also has to be responsible for her own actions. Her mother needs to start being a mother and not 'yes' her to death."

The former model, who has clearly given this some thought, suggests that Lohan should gain 10 pounds ("she needs a more kittenish quality"), ditch the bleached blonde hair ("it ages her") and spend some time out of the spotlight.

"(Lindsay) needs to stop going out and not being seen for a while," Buell advises. "The mother going with her to events and witnessing her throwing drinks and stuff like that infuriates me! It makes me angry! She's driven by money, not spirituality. I gave up the desire for money to be there for my daughter. I feel that's what Dina should be doing."

Buell knows she's opening herself up for criticism from Dina; after all, the legendary rock girlfriend famously lied to Liv about her biological father, saying it was Todd Rundgren and not Steven Tyler. But as she explained to New York magazine recently, she didn't want Liv to know her dad until he gave up drugs. And Buell did make sacrifices for Liv; she gave up a promising music career so that Liv could go to school and not be raised on a tour bus. That's why she has a zero-tolerance policy for mothers who don't put their children first -- whether it's Dina Lohan or a certain other infamous celebrity mom.

"I’m not Courtney Love," Buell told New York of the mother of 19-year-old Frances Bean Cobain. "I don't throw my daughter under the bus for my career."

Source: http://www.ivillage.com/liv-tylers-mom-feuds-lindsay-lohans-mom/1-a-389558

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Britney Spears Remix Album 'Shines New Light' On EDM

B in the Mix: The Remixes Vol. 2, out Tuesday, features Tiësto's 'timeless' take on 'Piece of Me.'
By Jocelyn Vena, with reporting by Damian Vaca


Britney Spears
Photo: Ethan Miller/ Getty Images

On Britney Spears' latest release, B in the Mix: The Remixes Vol. 2, which dropped Tuesday (October 11), a group of dance music's biggest names have put their stamp on some of the singer's most-popular tunes from the past few years.

Chopped, screwed and broken down, the songs reach new extremes. "It's cool that big mainstream pop artists let their music be remixed by people in the underground, like me," Kaskade, who contributed his version of "Gimme More," told MTV News. "It shines a new light on the EDM scene and how far it can reach. I give Britney props for taking chances and letting dance music be heard by the masses."

Kaskade is one of many EDM artists who appear on the album. He and other DJs who contributed say it's been a gratifying experience.

"She's been a pop icon for so long. I appreciate a lot of the values she brings to music," Cobra Starship's Alex Suarez explained. "She sings really well. I appreciate her talents. I definitely respect what she does and why she's successful.

"I'm impressed people stick by her, and when I got the opportunity, I was like, 'Wow.' Britney Spears is huge. She's a huge name worldwide.' "

Suarez remixed "Till the World Ends" and said he didn't want to go too far off course for his take on the Femme Fatale single. "I thought the original was really good to begin with," he explained. "I thought I wanted to make this as special as I can. I tried to stick true to the structure of the song.

"Sometimes, you get remixes and they chop it up and mix it around, which is cool. The thing with a Britney Spears remix is people like to sing along."

Kaskade explained that he was "excited at the chance to get to mess with" "Gimme More," and he wanted to make sure his remix worked with his musical style. "I wanted to make sure that it would be something that would eventually fit into my live set," he said. "That is the true test for me: Taking a huge pop vocal and making it work with my music can be a little tricky, but I find the challenge fun. I really dig what Brit does, and this song is awesome, so I was really excited."

The album is a blend of old and new remixes: EDM superstar Tiësto, who banked his "Piece of Me" remix ages before, said it's cool to be included. "That already happened like four or five years ago. That remix is pretty old, but it's funny they put it on the album 'cause it's a timeless remix," Tiësto told MTV News. "I was always proud of that remix, because the opinions about Britney are different, but what I did with that remix is pretty special. The melody, the atmosphere is totally different than the original. For me, it's always been a special remix. I'm glad they added that on the album."

The track list also includes "Radar" (Tonal Club Remix), "Womanizer" (Benny Benassi Extended), "Circus" (Linus Loves Remix), "If U Seek Amy" (U-Tern Remix), "3" (Manhattan Clique Club Remix), "I Wanna Go" (Gareth Emery Remix) and "Criminal" (Radio Mix).

Share your review of Britney Spears' new remix album in the comments below!

Source: http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/1672287/britney-spears-remix-album-b-in-the-mix.jhtml

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Irv Gotti And Suge Knight Planned To Unionize Artists

James Prince was also involved in plan to organize musicians, Gotti reveals to 'RapFix Live.'
By Rob Markman, with reporting by Sway Calloway


Irv Gotti
Photo: Natasha Chandel/ MTV News

Throughout the course of his 16-year music career, Irv Gotti has served as a DJ, record producer, A&R, video director and label CEO, but when he appeared on "RapFix Live" last week, the Murder Inc. founder revealed that he was at one time also looking to add labor organizer to his already-extensive résumé.

In the early 2000s, it was rumored that Irv, along with Death Row Records co-founder Suge Knight and Rap-A-Lot CEO James Prince, was looking to start a black-owned record distribution company. Gotti, however, revealed that the now-aborted plan was much bigger.

"It wasn't a distribution; it was a union. In the music business, the artists, we have no union. There's no health care, it's nothing like that. It should be done," Gotti said, crediting Suge with devising the plan.

"It was all his plan, and it was a hell of a plan," Irv said of the union that would include all artists of every genre. "He was like, 'OK, say you got a million-dollar budget. We're gonna make the record label make it a million and one.' Now, this will all get recouped back to the artist, but that hundred thousand will go for the union."

Under the plan, record labels would front the union dues to artists by including the extra money in their recording budgets. The artist would then have to pay the label back the recoupable costs, just as they would with any advance when their album is sold. In theory, the deal would provide artists with necessary health care and retirement plan options. "Now you can take your kids to [the doctor] — because we have no insurance, no dental, no nothing," he said. "It'll go towards an annuity, it'll go towards a retirement fund, so now when you're a rapper and you aren't making so many records no more, maybe you got a million dollars that built up when you were hot."

Irv told Sway that he, Suge and Prince even went as far as to meet with the same labor organizers who helped set up the player's union for Major League Baseball, but shortly after, things went awry. "Baseball, football, all the other forms of entertainment have a union, they have representatives, they have pensions, they have all this other stuff. So he was talking everything right, it was right," Gotti said. "The Feds came in shortly after we were talking."

In January 2003, Irv's Murder Inc. New York offices were raided by federal instigators, and the producer and his brother Chris were later charged with money laundering and faced up to 20 years in prison. The Gotti brothers beat the charges in 2005, but despite Irv's claims, there was no documented link to his case and his plans to unionize the music industry.

Do you think artists should have a union? Let us know in the comments!

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Source: http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/1672252/irv-gotti-suge-knight-union.jhtml

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