Lady Gaga leads the nominees for this year’s MTV Music Video Awards with a record-breaking 13 nominations, including the Video of the Year and the Best Choreography categories for both her Bad Romance and Telephone music videos.  She is also the first female artist to have two nominations for the Video of the Year category.  Eminem, who is scheduled to give the opening performance, comes second with eight nominations.

Nominations for Lady Gaga include best pop video, best female video, best dance music video, best collaboration, and best choreography.  She is the artist to have the most number of nominations in a single year in MTV history.  According to her, since she received 13 nominations, she is even prouder that it is an unlucky number.

The MTV Video Music Awards will be held this September 12 at the Nokia Theater in Los Angeles. Also scheduled to perform during the awarding ceremonies are teen sensation Justin Bieber, Usher, Paramore, Mary J. Blige, Linkin Park, Bruno Mars, B.o.B., Drake, Swiss Beatz, Florence and the Machine, and Kayne West.

Last year’s MTV Music Video Awards, which was held at the Radio City Music Hall in New York, got controversial when singer Kayne West interrupted and took the microphone from singer Taylor Swift, as she was accepting her Best Female Video award, and said that Beyonce should have won the award.  Last week, West poured his emotions via his Twitter account and acknowledged that he was wrong for what he did and apologized.  He also tweeted that he wrote a song for Swift and that he wants her to have it.  Furthermore, he tweeted that if Swift won’t take it, he will perform it for her.  However, West has not personally approached Swift after the MTV VMA incident a year ago.  There are reports that Swift feels that West is only using her to promote his new album.

Last year’s MTV Music Video Awards is not the only time when the awards ceremonies got controversial.  Madonna kissed Britney Spears in 2003 and Eminem fought a puppet in 2002.

The MTV Video Music Awards or the VMA is awarded by MTV to celebrate the best music videos of the year. The VMA was first awarded in 1984.  The awards are presented annually and broadcasted live on MTV.  Winners are presented s statue of an astronaut on the moon, being one of the earliest representations of MTV.  To date, Madonna holds the record of having the most number of wins in the VMA.

Britney Spear’s former bodyguard has accused the pop star of sexual harassment yesterday with a lawsuit filed in the Los Angeles Superior Court. Former policeman Fernando Flores, who started working as Spear’s bodyguard in February 2010, said that he suffered emotional distress and felt sexually harassed during his 5-month employment. He is seeking unspecified damages and attorneys fees.

According to 29-year old Flores, Spears have repeatedly paraded herself around naked and have performed sexual acts in front of him.    He also alleged that the 28-year old pop star had made several unwanted sexual advances and had summoned him to her room to expose her nakedness.  He also accused his security firm employers of mocking or ignoring his complaints about the alleged behavior of Spears.

A friend of Flores revealed that Spears has been seducing her bodyguard and that he felt that he could lose his job is he did not reciprocate her advances.  Furthermore, Flores’ friend said that working for Britney is a difficult job as her emotions are out of control and there were times when she runs around the house in the nude and yells at her staff.  According to reports, things became very unbearable for Flores especially when Jamie Spears, Britney’s father, chided him for allowing the pop star to leave the house without a bra.

Flores has also accused Spears of abusing her children on several occasions.  According to the lawsuit, there was a time when Spears demanded Flores his belt and hit her son Preston with it.  There was also a time when Spears fed her children crab meat despite the children’s allergies and alleged that the pop star prevented anyone from seeking medical help when the children started vomiting.  Flores has reported this incident to the L.A. Country Department of Children and Family Services and the investigation that followed said that the claim has no merit.

The statement released by Spear’s camp dismissed the lawsuit as an attempt of Flores to make a name for himself and to take advantage of the Spears family.  The statement also stated that Britney and her lawyers are expecting the lawsuit to be dismissed by the courts.  His long-time boyfriend, Jason Trawick, is yet to comment on the issue.

Spears shot to worldwide fame 10 years ago but has chosen a much lower public profile ever since undergoing the much-publicized personal and career meltdown in 2007 and 2008.  She has sold more than 100 million records worldwide and has ranked sixth on Forbes’ Most Powerful and Influential celebrities in the world for 2010.

British-American actor Andrew Garfield landed the much-coveted lead role as Peter Parker/Spider-Man for the upcoming and still untitled Spider-Man movie.  The 27-year old actor will take over the reins as the Marvel superhero Spider-Man in the franchise reboot to be directed by Marc Webb.

The Peter Parker/Spider-Man role was previously played by Tobey Maguire in three blockbuster movies.  It was Maguire, three-time Spider-Man director Sam Raimi, and Sony Pictures who decided that the storyline be rebooted in a scaled-back configuration starting 2010.  However, Maguire and Raimi backed out amid story and scheduling issues over a fourth movie.

The fourth Spider-Man film by Sony Pictures is reported to focus on a younger Peter Parker, at the time when he was in high school, and how he grapples with contemporary human problems and the crises that come with being a super-human. Spider-Man is a Marvel Comics superhero who gained his superpowers after getting bitten by a radioactive spider. The fourth Spider-Man film will start production in December with a screenplay written by James Vanderbilt.  The movie will be produced by Avi Arad and Laura Ziskin.  This action-adventure film will be shot in 3D and is expected to hit the 3D and 2D theaters on July 3, 2011.

According to Spider-Man producer Avi Arad, Garfield is “the perfect choice” for the role of Peter Parker who is sensitive, smart, and cool.  It was reported that Garfield bested other actors like Jamie Bell, Aaron Johnson, Logan Lerman, and Josh Hutcherson for the role.

In an interview with Garfield, he revealed that he has been ready to play the role of Spider-Man for over two decades.  According to him, he has been wearing the Spider-Man costume every Halloween since he was four years old.

Garfield’s career has been steadily gaining momentum ever since his appearance in the three Red Riding films released in the United Kingdom in 2009.  He also starred in the critically-acclaimed British dramas Boy A and Lions for Lambs.  He was also seen in Heath Ledger’s film The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus last year.  This 2010, Garfield starred in I’m Here, a film by Spike Jones that was released at Sundance.  This September, he will be seen in theaters in a lead role in Fox Searchlight’s drama movie Never Let Me Go.  He is also in the film The Social Network, a film about the founding of the popular networking site Facebook, which is set to hit theaters on October 1.

Natalie Portman in Black Swan

This year’s Venice International Film Festival is the 67th since it was started in 1932 by Count Giuseppe Volpi as the “Esposione Internationale d’Arte Cinematografica.”  With Kill Bill director Quentin Tarantino as head of this year’s Festival jury, the Leone d’Oro or the Golden Lion trophy will be awarded at the closing ceremonies of this year’s festival to the best screened of the 22 featured films.

Aside from the Golden Lion, the jury will also chose the recipients of the Coppa Volpi or the Volpi Cups, which will be awarded to the festival’s best actor and actress.  The jury will also pick the film to receive the special jury prize.  The members of this year’s Festival jury are Mexican author/screenwriter/director/producer Guillermo Arriaga, Lithuanian actress Ingeborga Dapkunaite, French director Arnaud Desplechin, American musician Danny Elfman, Italian director Luca Guadagdino, and Italian screenwriter/director Gabriele Salvatores.

The Venice International Film Festival is considered the oldest and the most prestigious film festival in the world.  It has promoted international cinema as art, as industry, and as entertainment.  This year’s Festival is chaired by Paolo Baratta and organized by Biennale di Venezia, with Marco Müller as the Festival’s director.  The Festival is a part of the Venice Bienalle, a major biennial festival and exhibition for contemporary art in Italy.

Scheduled to run from September 1 to September 11, 2010 in Venice, the 67^th Venice International Film Festival opened with Darren Aronofsky’s Black Swan, a dark psychological drama-thriller set in the world of the classical ballet, with Natalie Portman at the starring role.  Aronofsky won the Golden Lion award in 2008 with his film, The Wrestler.

Italian actress Isabella Ragonese hosted the opening ceremonies held at the Palazzo del Cinema.  A total of 79 films are expected to premiere at the Festival.  Prior to the showing of films in the Festival, award-winning Asian and Hollywood director-producer John Woo was awarded the Golden Lion for Lifetime Achievement.

One thing that can describe this year’s festival is “youth”.  The festival director opted for youth with the choice of directors for the competition films. In this year’s main line up, the average age of filmmakers is at 47 years old, including 41-year old Arnofsky and 39-year old Sofia Coppola with her comic drama Somewhere.  Aside from this, the story of many of the films in this year’s Festival also has “youth” as a theme and features many young and promising actors and actresses.

Justin Bieber, a pop-R&B singer from Canada, is only 16 years old but he has become so popular the world over that some people say that Bieber reminds them of the late musician and King of Pop, Michael Jackson.  He started out as an internet sensation, has released a very successful album and chart-topping hits, and is already penning his life story via the book Justin Bieber: First Step 2 Forever: My Story to be published by Harper Collins.

A product of technology, Bieber made splashes in YouTube first before being discovered.  In 2007, his mother posted his video in a singing contest where he only placed second.  Her mother continued to upload Bieber’s videos singing different R&B songs and Bieber’s popularity on YouTube grew.  It was also this year when So So Def’s former marketing executive and current business partner of Usher, Scooter Braun, came across one of Bieber’s videos by accident.  Braun is said to have been very impressed with Bieber that he sought to find the young singer.

He was soon signed to Braun and Usher’s joint venture, Raymond Braun Media Group or RBMG.  It was reported that Justin Timberlake was also interested in signing Bieber in but lost to Usher in the bidding war.  Bieber was then signed to Island Records in 2008 with Braun as his manager.

Justin was raised single-handedly by her mother Pattie Mallette but he maintained contact with his father, Jeremy Bieber, as he grew up.  His father is still currently based in Canada while his mother moved with him to the United States and travels with him all the time.  Justin is said to have taught himself to play the drums, piano, guitar, and trumpet.

In 2009, Bieber’s debut single One Time was released and immediately charted within the top 30 in more than ten countries.  His debut release My World was a certified platinum hit in the United States by November 2009 and it made Bieber the highest debut by a new artist that year.  He is also said to be the first artist to have seven songs from a debut album chart to be in the Billboard Hot 100, four of which were included in this list even before the album was released.  In March 2010, his full studio release, My World 2.0 became certified platinum in the US in less than two weeks.

It was reported that Bieber’s fan base has reached more than 10 million Facebook fans, more than 5 million Twitter followers, and less than a million YouTube subscribers.

When New Moon, the second installment of the Twilight series, was filmed in British Columbia, the producers were reported to have called in the Canadian Mounties to protect its lead star, Robert Pattinson, from the barrage of female fans. Constables Brandon Builziuk and Brendon Baillant were enlisted to make sure that the filming went without a hitch.

The two cops are said to have encountered many overzealous teen fans while on assignment.  They were said to be tasked to keep the fans off the set.  Part of New Moon was filmed in the tiny island of Tofino on Vancouver Island in British Columbia.

According to the two constables, the fans were annoyed with them because they won’t allow them to get closer.  Moreover, the constables said that the fans’ spirits lifted when Pattinson’s co-star, Kirsten Stewart, came over and posed for a few photographs with them.

The money donated by the New Moon producers, amounting to more than $3000 because of the service rendered by the two Mounties while the crew was filming, was used to purchase for two local school’s sporting equipment.

It has been reported that female fans kept on visiting the set even though it had been raining hard the whole time.  On the other hand, the producers are said to have loved the rains because it helped make the scenes gloomier.

Robert Pattinson is an English actor, musician, model, and producer who started out with his career portraying the role of Cedric Diggory in Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire.  He eventually landed the leading role as the vampire Edward Cullen in the film adaptations of Stephanie Meyer’s Twilight Novels and gained international fame.

Pattinson has been cited as one of the highest paid actors in Hollywood and one of the biggest movie stars in the world.  This year, Forbes has ranked him as one of the most powerful celebrities and is one of Time magazine’s “100 Most Influential People In The World.”  He has also been named as “Best Dressed Man” of 2010 by both GQ and Glamour and included in the People’s list of “World’s Most Beautiful.”

In 2009, Pattinson was one of the “Sexiest Men Alive” by both People and Glamour.  He was also included in the “Top Hollywood Earners of 2009.”  In the same year, he was also named by Vanity Fair as “the most handsome man in the world.”

Pattinson already has a wax statue of him in Madame Tussauds collection both in New York City and London.  He will be seen in his upcoming films Water For Elephants, Bel Ami, Unbound Captives, and the parts 1 and 2 of The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn.

If the September 1 cover story of Star Magazine is to be believed, 32-year old Ashton Kutcher is cheating on his wife, 47-year old Demi Moore, and that their marriage is in danger of falling apart because of this.  The actor, in response, lashed out at the magazine in his Twitter account saying that calling him a “cheater” would qualify as defamation of character.

On Thursday, Marty Singer, Kutcher’s lawyer, said that the story in question is a lie and demanded that the magazine issue a retraction and an apology.  In the event that the magazine will not issue a retraction, Singer revealed that Kutcher is prepared to evaluate his legal options.

According to the magazine report, an eyewitness has seen Kutcher making out with a 20-something sexy and gorgeous blond girl in the hallway bathroom of Italian restaurant Madeo in Los Angeles.  This alleged incident is said to have happened in July.  Kutcher’s lawyer denied that the actor had ever been to Madeo in July.

Demi Moore has backed up his husband’s Twitter tweets by re-tweeting them and adding her view.  Moore wrote ‘No question!” in response to Kutcher’s tweet “I think Star magazine calling me a “cheater” qualifies as defamation of character.  I hope my lawyer agrees.”   Also, she wrote “Excellent point my love!” in Kutcher’s tweet “Star magazine – you don’t get to stand behind “freedom of the press” when you are writing fiction.”  The spokesperson for Star, on the other hand, said that the magazine is standing by its story and that Kutcher’s rep denied the said rumor in their version of the story online.

The same magazine reported in May that Demi Moore is worried that her husband may cheat on her.  Moore is said to have been jealous of the kissing scenes between Kutcher and Natalie Portman while filming the movie Friends With Benefits.  Earlier in April, it was also reported that Moore’s jealousy of Kim Kardashian was the reason behind the cyber war on Twitter between the two women.  The 15-year difference between Kutcher and Moore’s ages is said to be a reason for Moore’s insecurity.

The May-December love affair of Ashton Kutcher and Demi Moore was scoffed at during its initial stages mainly because of their age difference.  They started dating in 2003 and got married in a traditional Kabbalah ceremony in Beverly Hills in 2005.  They will be celebrating their 5^th wedding anniversary come September 25.

Hollywood actor Michael Douglas appeared Tuesday night on Late Night and talked about his stage-four throat cancer in a candid interview with host David Letterman.  The two men hugged each other at the end of the interview.  The 65-year old movie star only discovered he has a late-stage throat cancer three weeks ago.

Looking gaunt but remarkably good-spirited, Michael Douglas looked healthy considering his condition.  He announced his condition last August 16.  He just completed his first week of chemotherapy and radiation treatment.  According to him, his cancer remains above the neck area and it has not metastasized to other parts of his body so he is still optimistic that he can still be cured.  Moreover, he said that expectations are good with at least 80 percent chance of recovery.

His wife, Catherine Zeta-Jones, expressed her frustration that doctors were not able to diagnose the cancer months ago.  Douglas is said to have complained of a persistent sore throat and ear pain earlier this summer and saw the doctors about it but the test he underwent failed to find a cause.  So he and his wife went ahead on a planned summer vacation traveling to Russia and Spain with their two children, 10-year old Dylan and 7-year old Carys.  Since Douglas’ condition did not improve upon his return, the doctors did a biopsy of a tumor they found at the base of his throat.  The biopsy results revealed that Douglas has a stage four throat cancer.

According to Douglas, his unhealthy lifestyle and recent personal problems may have contributed to the disease.  He admitted that he smoked and drank.  He also acknowledges stress due to his son’s, Cameron, imprisonment on drug charges and the demand of his ex-wide, Diandra, to have half of his Wall Street salary.

According to the National Institutes of Health, the use of either alcohol or tobacco puts a person at risk for developing throat cancer.  The combination of the two is said to increase the risks.  Moreover, men, especially those who are older than 50 years old, are more likely to develop throat cancer than women.

Douglas starred in blockbuster hits like Fatal Attraction and Basic Instinct.  He won an Oscar for his role as the greedy Gordon Gekko in the 1987 film Wall Street.  He is currently promoting  Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps, a sequel directed by Oliver Stone.  The film is set to be released in September 24.

While it may seem like an odd way of settling a pending lawsuit but the owner of an RV dealership sued by “Twilight” star Taylor Lautner has indeed dared the actor to do a push-up challenge to resolve the case.

Lautner, 18, filed a breach of contract and fraud lawsuit against 47-year old Brent McMahon, owner of McMahon’s RV in Irvine, California, last August 23 over the dealership’s alleged late delivery of a customized vehicle ordered by the actor.  Lautner claimed that the dealership failed to deliver the RV on time.  The RV is said to cost $300,000 and was to be used as a Lautner’s dressing room on the set of his latest film, Abduction. The vehicle was expected to be delivered last June 21 but was not delivered on time.

In the lawsuit filed by Lautner, it claimed that McMahon’s RV failed to deliver on time the customized RV and that it still needed additional work even after it was delivered.  However, it was unclear on what kind of upgrades Lautner sought.  According to McMahon, he gave the vehicle a custom paint job.

It was reported that Lautner’s camp wants to resolve the case in the tune of a $40,000 settlement and unspecified damages for “annoyance’ and “emotional distress” to the actor.  McMahon, instead, issued his unorthodox proposal to Lautner.  According to him, he will donate the settlement money to Orange County’s Children’s Hospital if he won the push-up contest.

McMahon and his lawyer had already denied any wrongdoing and vowed to defend the case in court in the event that Lautner does not accept the challenge.  Robert Barba, Lautner’s attorney, initially declined to comment on the matter and cited the pending lawsuit.  However, Barba then responded that McMahon is a “moron” and that McMahon just donate the sum to a charity of Lautner’s choice for the issue to be resolved.  Barba further commented that McMahon’s challenge is demonstrative of his lack of professionalism.

Lautner has appeared in various message and shot to fame in the Twilight movie series for his role as the Native American werewolf Jacob Black in love triangle with the main characters of the human Bella Swann and the vampire Edward Cullen.  The movie series is based on Stephanie Meyer’s best selling Twilight series books.

Lautner is currently considered the highest paid teenage actor and has been named the second sexiest man of 2010 by Glamour magazine.

Paris Hilton once again had a brush with authorities when she was arrested in Las Vegas shortly before midnight last Friday for suspicion of felony cocaine possession. She was subsequently released according to her lawyer on Saturday.

Hilton’s lawyer David Chernoff appealed to the public to let the issue be settled in court and not on the media. He also voiced his encouragement for people not to quickly judge his client until all the pertinent facts have been dealt with by the court.

Hilton, the 29-year old controversial celebrity, socialite, TV and movie celebrity, and singer was with his boyfriend, Cy Waits when the incident occurred. Waits is night club mogul and the manager of a club inside the Wynn Las Vegas. The two were aboard a black Cadillac Escalade SUV owned by Waits when they were apprehended by the police at around 11:30 p.m. last Friday.

A police officer was alerted by the smoke wafting from the SUV boarded by Hilton and Waits. The police officer followed the smell and suspected it as the odor of marijuana.

When Hilton pulled out a tube of lip balm from her purse, a bindle of cocaine inside a plastic bag is said to have fell out of her purse. She was then arrested because of suspicion for felony cocaine possession. Hilton’s boyfriend, Waits, on the other hand, was charged with driving under the influence.

Both Hilton and Waits were booked into the Clark County Jail. Sources close to Hilton said that the purse where the police found the cocaine was not hers.

This is the second instance when Hilton was arrested on allegations of drug possession. A few months ago, she was detained in South Africa after a soccer match during the World Cup on suspicion of marijuana possession. South African authorities dropped the charges against Hilton earlier this summer after the local police said that a friend accompanying Hilton to the soccer match was the one in possession of marijuana.

Hilton was charged with alcohol-related reckless driving in 2007 and was sentenced to 45 days in jail. She also spent three weeks in a jail in Los Angeles as penalty for her violation of her probation in the said case.

Paris Hilton is a hotel heiress being a great-granddaughter of Conrad Hilton, the founder of the popular Hilton hotels. She herself runs her own multimillion dollar business including wine, fragrances, and clothing line based on her name.