The White House Releases Situation Room Photos From The Bin Laden Raid

With all of the important news going around in the past few days regarding the death of terrorist mastermind Osama bin Laden, I feel it’s important to pass along at least some bit of new info as it gets released. These are historic days, it’s kinda hard not to comment on them. The White House [...]

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Ke$ha, Adam Lambert, Ne-Yo Have A Few Royal Wedding Gift Ideas

From 'guyliner' to American delicacies like Uncrustables, Kathy Griffin, Mike Posner and more tell us what they'd get Will and Kate.
By Terri Schwartz


Kate Middleton and Prince William
Photo: Ben Stansall/ Getty Images

What kind of wedding gift do you give the royal couple who has everything?

The wedding of Prince William and Kate Middleton is on Friday (April 29), so MTV News reached out to some of our favorite Hollywood celebrities — from Ke$ha to Adam Lambert. Fortunately, they had some solid ideas!

"I haven't met them, so it would be kind of awkward," the "Tik Tok" singer admitted to MTV News. "I might paint them something. Maybe I'll paint them a guitar."

Like Ke$ha, other celebs had suggestions that were from the heart, even if they weren't the most practical.

"I will go out on a limb and say these two individuals maybe haven't had Uncrustables before in their life. I would get them a strawberry Uncrustable," Mike Posner said about the pastry.

David Cook followed up on the all-American food idea. "I feel like they have everything except maybe they probably don't have an Applebee's gift card. I'll go [with an] Applebee's gift card," the "American Idol" alum said.

Other stars said they'd gift the British prince and soon-to-be-princess with an item they were personally best known for.

"I'd probably buy William some eyeliner," Lambert said. "He could do that, he could rock that look. I think."

Ne-Yo was more empathetic, saying he would give gifts that could help shield them from photographers and blend in with everyday people. "Three years' supply of sunglasses. Yeah, put them on. A bunch of baseball caps, throw those on, and try to move around like regular people," the singer said. "I can't imagine what it would be like having to live under that big of a magnifying glass your whole life ... and fake mustaches, that's what I'd give them."

Brooke Burke went the more traditional route, saying she would get Will and Kate a journal to record the big event. "I would ask them to really take the time to write down thoughts and phrases and wishes," Burke said. "And not really to lose sight of how they feel about each other now and to really hold on to that feeling."

Kathy Griffin had good intentions but the comedian couldn't resist a puke joke.

"If I had to get the royal couple a gift, I would get them the Royal Couple Vomit Bag, which someone sent me a photo of," Griffin told us. "So you can actually buy vomit bags with their image on it, and I think that that is an honor and I hope that they see it as such."

What would you give to William and Kate? Share your ideas in the comments section!

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Source: http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/1662928/royal-wedding-gift-ideas.jhtml

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Deadmau5 Brings Dance Music To The 'Masses,' Wolfgang Gartner Says

'He has a major role in the younger generation to this music,' producer/DJ tells MTV News of his collaborator.
By Adam Stewart


deadmau5
Photo: Charley Gallay/ Getty Images

It's no secret that 2010 was a pivotal year for electronic dance music here in the States. With deadmau5 and Swedish House Mafia becoming household names, the genre's momentum shows no signs of slowing down. Using a conduit of collaboration, artists such as deadmau5 (a.k.a. Joel Zimmerman) have paired up with various underground acts to further the rapid expansion of the genre.

Perhaps one of the most notable movers and shakers of the year is now-Grammy-Award-nominated producer and DJ Wolfgang Gartner, who recently sat down to chat with MTV News about deadmau5 and dance music's rise to the top.

"He has a major role in the younger generation to this music," Gartner says, "but there have been certain artists that have been instrumental in helping it cross over and reach the mainstream — which I think is a good thing. I think rap artists using dance beats is a great thing. I think it just brings more people towards this music that we all love."

Thanks to several key moments, such as deadmau5 taking the helm as house DJ (well, technically "House Artist") for the 2010 VMAs, dance music has been thrown into the forefront of America's youth, a key demographic for any genre.

"Everybody knows who he is now and he's kind of exposing the masses to dance music. These little five-, six- and seven-year-old kids latch on to this 'mau5head' logo — they get into the music and he's bringing this tiny young generation into this music that probably wouldn't be exposed to it."

Gartner certainly doesn't mind the exposure either. Unless you were living under a rock for the past six months, you probably heard one of this past summer's hottest anthems, "Animal Rights," a collaborative effort brought forth by deadmau5 and Gartner.

"It was interesting because I kind of had a preconceived notion about how he would be to work [with]," said Gartner. "I think our sounds are really similar, so I figured he would work in a similar way to me, but the way that he writes music is actually completely different to me. But he achieves kind of the same sound through a completely different process."

Recorded in deadmau5's favorite Los Angeles studio — that would be rocker Tommy Lee's House — "Animal Rights" is a thumping progressive house anthem that melds Wolfgang's unmistakable harmonics and funk riffs with the driving bass line and wobbly synths that make deadmau5 one of the unique forces in the dance music world.

"[Deadmau5] writes these rich complex chord progressions and he does it by drawing these little bars on a grid, which is just amazing that you can do that and get that result," Gartner goes on to say. "It just proves you don't have to be able to play keyboards to write amazing music."

The two sound pioneers never cease to stop pushing the limits on what they are able to produce. Using drastically difference production approaches, deadmau5 and Gartner had the ability to play off each other's strengths while recording the track.

"I'd say the biggest thing is that I play everything in on a keyboard, like even my drums," says Gartner. "I play everything in live and he draws it in with notes on a mouse, which blew me away because his music is very musical."

What do you think 2011 will hold for deadmau5 and Gartner? Let us know in the comments below!

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Source: http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/1654857/deadmau5-brings-dance-music-masses-wolfgang-gartner.jhtml

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Osama Bin Laden's Death A 'Poignant Moment For America,' Students Say

New York and Pennsylvania student journalists tell MTV News where they were when Obama addressed the nation.
By Gil Kaufman


Students celebrate at Ground Zero on May 2
Photo: Getty Images

Every generation has signature moments that will never be forgotten. For the current crop of students at New York University, the killing of al Qaeda mastermind Osama bin Laden by U.S. special forces presented a bookmark to the first event that shaped their lives, the September 11 terror attacks.

"I think that 50 years from now, I will remember that I was in the NYU newsroom when that news broke," Katie Thompson, 19, deputy managing editor of the Washington Square News, said about where she was when she saw President Obama announce that the terror leader had been killed.

"When I was listening to President Obama's speech, I personally teared up a little bit. I think it was a very poignant moment for America. We've had this baggage of 9/11 for so long. This is a big step forward for us in the war on terror. This will be a seminal moment in American history following those attacks and President Obama's election."

As soon as President Obama finished addressing the nation Sunday night, Massachusetts native Thompson knew she would have to rip up the front page she had planned for Monday morning and hit the streets to get reaction. She first went to New York's Union Square around midnight, where she found a split reaction to the news, and then to Ground Zero, where there was also some joy mixed with trepidation.

"We found from the students we talked to at both locations that there was a bit of a mixed reaction," the journalism major said. "There were a lot of students who were ... I would say jubilant was the overall mood at Ground Zero. There was a lot of American pride, people chanting ... people who thought that Osama bin Laden deserved to die for what he did and happy that America had finally taken care of him."

But there were also students who were concerned that the types of celebrations that were taking place at Ground Zero and the celebratory mood were not appropriate and might perpetuate the cycle of violence. "That taking the life of this one man didn't necessarily make up for the lives that were lost in the wars in the Middle East and the September 11 attacks," she said of the response. "Especially for NYU students who know people who were affected or have loved ones who were either wounded or passed away in the attacks that us killing bin Laden is never going to bring those loved ones back. And that was a big concern for some students."

The excitement at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia was similar, but with finals looming, it provided not just an excellent reason to take a study break, but a major tension reliever for a campus that goes into virtual hibernation when the end of studies approach.

Lauren Plotnick, 20, executive editor of The Daily Pennsylvanian, happened to be in the paper's offices on Sunday night studying when a friend told her about a Twitter alert in advance of the president's speech. Though the paper has ceased its print edition for the year already, the enormity of the moment quickly dawned on Plotnick and she scrambled to coordinate coverage.

"People are deep in finals and it's difficult to get them covering stuff when we're no longer publishing a print edition," said Plotnick, an econ major from Maryland. She sent out an email to the entire staff and asked to them to start gathering student reaction and send in whatever they got: videos, interviews or tweets.

"The social-media presence just ignited," she said. "We were using Twitter and Facebook to fan out the preliminary reactions ... people were saying how exciting it was for America and how exciting it was they were finding out more through social media than through television."

Even with finals looming, Plotnick said work stopped at the on-campus libraries, students gathered around televisions and laptops and started cheering, and for a little while, it seemed as if everyone in every house and public gathering spot stopped what they were doing to watch the news unfolding.

"On this campus, to see everyone reacting in such an excited way was really remarkable for us," she said. "It really unified the campus and got everyone excited." While she called it one of the most thrilling moments she can remember in her 20 years, she noted that one student who was interviewed said their father is an architect working on the plans for the Freedom Tower in New York and they were scared about him going to work on Monday.

Similarly, living and studying just a few subway stops from Ground Zero in New York, Thompson said a number of students expressed fear of retaliation and concern the city might be a target again. But, in the scheme of news she's covered and experienced in her life, Thompson put Sunday night's events up there with the night of Obama's inauguration as one of the seminal news moments for this generation. She also described how everything in the paper's newsroom stopped the moment it was announced that the president would address the nation.

"We all just gathered around a laptop. ... We didn't know what he was going to address the nation about, and then the news started leaking. ... We knew our whole front page was going to be scrapped and this was that moment," she said.

Plotnick said many of the students who offered their responses also called this one of those moments in life where you will always remember where you were. "For me, it has a whole other dimension. The idea of being in the newsroom and working for a newspaper when events like this occur and having the responsibility to the student body ... it's so special and it transcends time," she said, noting the paper's 126-year history of covering everything from WWI and WWII to the Kennedy assassination and 9/11. "It was really exciting to be in the newsroom and be part of that experience. It felt like a continuation of the role of newspapers and of modern media."

How did the news of Osama bin Laden's death affect you? Let us know in the comments.

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Source: http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/1663099/osama-bin-laden-death.jhtml

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Michael Jackson Estate Rakes In $310 Million To Date

Singer left behind more than $400 million in debt.


Michael Jackson
Photo: Time Life Pictures/DMI/Time Life Pictures/Getty Im

Between album sales, movie profits, licensing arrangements and lucrative deals for Cirque du Soleil shows, the estate of late King of Pop Michael Jackson has raked in more than $300 million since the singer's shocking death in June 2009.

According to TMZ, legal documents released on Thursday reveal that executors of MJ's estate have managed to make a major dent in the more than $400 million in debt that Jackson owed at the time of his death.

The first accounting from the executors shows that they have already spent around $159 million paying back various debts, income taxes and other expenses, which include providing support for the pop star's mother, Katherine Jackson, as well as his three young children.

"Although there remain unresolved creditor claims, pending litigation and additional challenging business, tax and legal issues, and the estate is not yet in a condition to be closed, the executors have made substantial progress in reducing the estate's debt," the documents state, according to a Reuters report. Two of Jackson's longtime confidants, attorney John Branca and music executive John McClain, were named as administrators in a will sign by the pop icon.

In addition to paying to make "substantial improvements" to the Jackson family's Havenhurst estate in Encino, California, the executors also spent an undetermined amount of money on "last illness and funeral and memorial service expenses." Those costs included a $900,000 payment to the Forest Lawn Memorial cemetery where Jackson is buried and $35,000 on expenses described as "costume for memorial."

TMZ reported that not only did the famously cash-strapped Jackson have more than $400 million in debt, but his estate also owed more than $40 million to concert promoter AEG tied to the scuttled This Is It Tour, for which MJ was rehearsing when he died unexpectedly. They've also paid $27.2 million in taxes and $4 million in mortgage payments on Jackson's properties.

Despite the solid sales of the Michael album and millions of units of the singer's back catalog being sold, as well as the box office of the "This Is It" movie and DVD sales, the estate is not nearly out of the woods. TMZ noted that the administrators have received more than 65 creditors' claims, some of which are subject to "extremely high" interest rates, and there are several outstanding lawsuits against the estate in several countries.

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Source: http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/1658290/michael-jackson-estate.jhtml

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