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Tuesday, July 5, 2011

Coldplay, Led Zeppelin Album Covers Featured On New British Stamps

Album art from Pink Floyd, Blur and David Bowie also included.
By James Montgomery

Coldplay's new British stamps
Photo: Royal Mail

On Thursday (January 7), the U.K.'s Royal Mail unveiled a series of 10 new stamps, honoring the most iconic album covers of the past 40 years.

The albums featured in the new series are the Rolling Stones' Let It Bleed, Led Zeppelin's IV, David Bowie's The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders From Mars, Mike Oldfield's Tubular Bells, The Clash's London Calling, New Order's Power, Corruption and Lies, Primal Scream's Screamadelica, Pink Floyd's The Division Bell, Blur's Parklife and — the most recent album on to make the cut — Coldplay's A Rush of Blood to the Head.

Meant to honor "the most potent graphic images of modern times, many of which have provided a visual soundtrack to people's lives," the series is the end result of a lengthy research process by the Royal Mail, who looked through thousands of album covers by British artists before deciding on the final list. And, during a Wednesday night BBC Radio broadcast, it was revealed that the queen herself actually approved each design.

Led Zeppelin guitarist Jimmy Page — who helped design the cover for IV — was on hand to celebrate the release of the stamps and recalled the mysterious nature of the album's iconic imagery.

"Almost 40 years after the album came out, nobody knows the old man who featured on the cover, nor the artist who painted him," he said. "That sort of sums up what we wanted to achieve with the album cover, which has remained both anonymous and enigmatic at the same time."

Of course, any great honor is befitting of an equally great contest, so, on the same day the stamps were made available to the general public, Coldplay decided to give one of their Rush of Blood stamps away. In a message on their official site, the band held a contest to send one lucky fan "a letter using a Coldplay stamp, postmarked with today's issue date."

"We visited our local post office earlier today and bought some of the Coldplay stamps," the message read. "Very nice they are too."

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'Transformers: Dark Of The Moon': How To Kill A Decepticon

It shouldn't surprise you that "Transformers: Dark of the Moon" has some pretty big action set pieces, but the one that has all of the cast talking is the epic sequence when leads Shia LaBeouf, Rosie Huntington-Whiteley and Tyrese Gibson end up having to slide down the side of a building.
MTV News caught up with [...]

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Monday, July 4, 2011

Lady Gaga Unveils Panda Alter Ego On Japanese TV

'Gagapanda' jokes she's 'been eating a lot of bamboo this week' before revealing plans for 2012 tour, having babies and more.
By Jocelyn Vena

Lady Gaga appears on the Japanese talk show "Sukkiri"
Photo: Sukkiri

Lady Gaga is currently in the planning stages for her next tour. After wrapping up her epic Monster Ball run earlier this year, Gaga teased her plans on a Japanese talk show on Tuesday (June 28).

"All over the world and I'm already planning," she said of the trek, which she expects to kick off at the top of 2012. "I'm so excited I can't even go to sleep at night."

Gaga appeared wearing a black-and-white dress, with her hair done up in two buns and her eye makeup painted in two panda-like circles. "I really like pandas," she told the hosts of her look, adding, "pandas have paws, and I always tell my fans to put their paws up. I've been eating a lot of bamboo this week," she joked. (Shortly after the appearance, the singer even began referring to herself as Gagapanda on Twitter.)

She then played a little game called "Yes or No," where she was asked questions about her popularity on Twitter, her love of cooking, her clothes and more. She later elaborated on some of the topics. "My dream is to continue to make music and tour and do as much as I can to give as much back to my fans," she said. "Personal dreams? I suppose one day I'll have panda babies."

Gaga owned up to having one major fear, however. "The only thing I really get scared of is missing out on moments with my family 'cause I travel so much, so I call my mom and dad every day," she said. Asked whether she was scared of ghosts, Gaga said, "No, we can be friends." She went on to add, "I love Japanese monster movies. I actually believe in ancestors. I have a lot of family in my past like my Aunt Joann and my grandfather that have passed on and I talk to them."

What do you think of Gaga's panda-inspired look? Tell us in the comments!

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Gwyneth Paltrow?s Sexy Vanity Fair Flair

She?s no stranger to looking hot for the camera, and Gwyneth Paltrow shows off her sexy side in a new photo shoot for Vanity Fair magazine.

The 38-year-old actress/singer sheds her motherly image for a skin-bearing black and white spread in which she wears nothing more than Louis Vuitton diamond jewelry and fishnet stockings.

Gwyneth confessed that she has to work hard to keep her killer figure. ?I?m really not a morning person at all. It is just sheer determination. I?m very strict with myself. When I practice six days a week and eat clean food, I feel much better.?

To that end, Paltrow is also said to be planning the launch of a chain of gyms with her personal trainer Tracy Anderson.

Dita Von Teese Dominique Swain Donna Feldman Drea de Matteo

Michael Jackson's Legacy, Two Years Later, By the Numbers

Legendary singer's impact continues to blossom in the two years since his death; MTV News breaks down the figures.
By Gil Kaufman

Michael Jackson
Photo: Kevin Mazur/ WireImage

Like Elvis, Bob Marley, Notorious B.I.G. and Frank Sinatra before him, Michael Jackson's influence has continued, and grown, since his untimely death on June 25, 2009.

On the second anniversary of the King of Pop's passing, MTV News took a look at the enduring appeal of MJ's music, videos and imagery, which continue to fascinate and attract fans across the globe thanks to a series of posthumous albums, a movie, video games and two upcoming Cirque du Soleil live shows.

Where Were You Two Years Ago When You Heard the News? Tell Us on Facebook

$72 million: According to Box Office Mojo, Jackson's posthumous concert film, "This Is It," has grossed more than $72 million to date domestically and $189 million in foreign markets for a worldwide take over more than $261 million. It ranks as the #2 music documentary of all-time behind Justin Bieber's "Never Say Never." The film has also generated nearly $45 million in DVD sales in the U.S.

16: In May, Jackson lodged his first #1 on the Billboard magazine Dance/ Club Play Songs chart in 16 years with the latest single from his posthumous Michael album, "Hollywood Tonight."

2: Number of posthumous albums that have been released since Michael's death in June 2009. Last year's Michael has sold just over 510,000 copies to date, while the This Is It collection has moved nearly 1 million copies to date in the U.S., according to Nielsen SoundScan.

15,000: The number of videos submitted by fans since March for the crowdsourced video for "Behind the Mask." After they were edited down by a five-person team over two months, the resulting clip used submissions from more than 1,600 participants from 103 countries.

3 million: The amount of copies sold of the Ubisoft "Michael Jackson: The Experience" video game worldwide.

$57 million: The reported cost of Cirque du Soleil's traveling MJ show, "The Immortal World Tour, which is slated to kick off on October 2.

$1 billion: That gaudy figure is the reported amount the Jackson estate had generated by last June on the first anniversary of the singer's death. According to Billboard, the revenue was generated by a combination of music sales ($429 million), film/TV revenue ($392 million), music publishing ($130 million), licensing ($35 million) and a $31 million recording contract. (A spokesperson for Jackson's estate declined to provide updated figures for this story.)

$310 million: The amount of gross earnings reported by the executors of the estate in a December 2010 court filing detailing the progress made in paying off the $400 million in debt run up by the spendthrift singer during his lifetime.

16.1 million: MJ was always a big singles artist. Yes, Thriller is one of the best-selling albums of all time, but even in death, fans can't resist cherry-picking some of Michael's best songs. That explains why he's sold more than 16 million digital tracks since June 28, 2009, the first sales week following his passing, according to Nielsen SoundScan. To put that in perspective, from the time Nielsen began counting digital tracks in 2004 until the week before Jackson's death, the singer had sold just over 8.1 million digital tracks, a figure that has doubled in just the past two years.

2013: The projected launch for a second, non-touring Cirque show celebrating Jackson. The yet-untitled show is slated to open in the spring of 2013 at a new theater being built at the Mandalay Bay Resort & Casino in Las Vegas.

$25 million to $50 million: That's how much Jackson's estate takes in on an annual basis thanks to his stake in the half-million-song Sony/ATV catalog, which includes titles by Elvis, Lady Gaga, Eminem, Beyoncé and Bob Dylan.

Share your memories of Michael Jackson in the comments.

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