“Jersey Shore: Season 5” started its first episode at (surprisingly) a bar, where friends and family of the shore members gather together and set up a surprise party. Vinny’s uncle Nino, Pauly D’s friends, and Snooki’s boyfriend, Jioni, are all there to hang out with their friends and family, and everyone is having a blast. Things are going great until Jonny “The Unit” Manfre, The Situation’s best friend, shows up with his perfectly spiked Guido hairdo, glowing tan, and abs that easily surpass The Situation’s in terms of sheer definition. Last season, The Situation claimed that he and Snooki hooked up and The Unit witnessed this fateful moment between the two pop-culture legends. As tensions at the bar rise, Snooki provokes The Unit to threaten to tell Jioni. They end up yelling at each other, and Snooki is not okay with the idea of The Unit spending the night at the shore house.

Snooki has a lot of fans, which is why Jersey Shore viewers are have started to throw The Unit under the bus and calling him out on what they perceive as his antagonistic ways. The incident has led to The Unit becoming the newest phenomenon on the hugely popular show. Blast had a chance to catch-up with The Unit to discuss his new fame.

John Manfre grew up in New Jersey along with The Situation, where they met and played football together when they were about nine years old. They met again years later at a gym and grew incredibly close. “Mike and I are very similar, our birthdays are almost the same day. We understand each other and we’ve had a lot of really great times,” Jonny said.

Prior to his debut on Jersey Shore, The Unit earned two degrees at Rutgers University before going into sales and real estate. Later, he ended up doing business in Panama. “Panama is a party country. People are getting drunk from morning until night, it’s crazy,” he said. During his time in the Central American country he lost a lot of money in business before becoming a personal trainer.

From there, The Situation invited The Unit to come on Jersey Shore, where his whole life changed. “I was a little tentative at first, but I liked him so I went along. We traveled, did a bunch of appearances, private jets, fancy dinners, everything. Mike put the opportunity in front of me and I’m thankful for it,” The Unit says. From the first episode, the Unit became a hit. Many people loved him instantly because he was so much like The Situation: someone who just wants to have fun. He became more famous as MTV wrote a few articles on him and he even became a trending topic on Twitter, inciting polarizing viewpoints from the public.

On July 24, 2011, while on the set of the show, The Unit was arrested for drug possession. Radar Online claims that he was cited for possession of a Ketamine. Ketamine, also known as “Special K,” is legally used as a horse tranquilizer and causes “dream-like states and hallucinations.” The Unit was released from Ocean County Jail with a $1,000 bail that night. “I want to make a positive out of this. Let’s put it this way, smart people learn from their own mistakes, and wise people learn from the mistakes of others. I hope young kids learn from my mistakes and realize I am a human being,” Jonny says.

The Unit claims that things are going well for him since his arrest. He is now dedicated to his award-winning, porn-star girlfriend, Amia Miley.” She compliments me beautifully and we’re two peas in a pod. It’s like having a best friend, a hot ass girl, and a cool ass girl,” The Unit says.

The Unit has a lot of plans to capitalize on his newfound fame. He states that he has opportunities to pursue in the television industry and music, with a fitness website (and an upcoming fitness book) to boot. “The show is so big that it has opened a lot of doors for me. I’ll look at every opportunity carefully and see what’s best. I want to evaluate new opportunities, but I’m not going to kill myself if I don’t get on TV,” he says.

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The MTV Video Music Awards broke all kinds of records last night, garnering their largest audience ever last night with 12.4 million viewers.

Not only was it the highest watched VMAs, but also the most viewed single telecast in MTV’s history.

The viewership jumped 9 percent from last year and became the most-watched non-sports cable telecast of the year.

It was a big night for the stars, as well.  Beyonce announced her pregnancy, Lil Wayne dropped his newest album and Jo Calderone (Lady Gaga’s alter ego) made his first public appearance.

Here is the complete list of winners of the 2011 MTV Video Music Awards:

Video of the Year:

Katy Perry, “Firework.”

Best Female Video:

Lady Gaga, “Born This Way.”

Best New Artist:

Tyler, The Creator, “Yonkers.”

Best Male Video:

Justin Bieber, “U Smile.”

Best Collaboration:

Katy Perry, Kanye West, “E.T.”

Best Hip-Hop Video:

Nicki Minaj, “Super Bass.”

Best Rock Video:

Foo Fighters, “Walk.”

Best Pop Video:

Britney Spears, “Till the World Ends.”

Best Video with a Message:

Lady Gaga, “Born This Way.”

Best Art Direction:

Adele, “Rolling in the Deep,” art direction by Nathan Parker.

Best Choreography:

Beyonce, “Run the World (Girls),” choreography by Frank Gatson, Sheryl Murakami & Jeffrey Page.

Best Cinematography:

Adele, “Rolling in the Deep,” cinematography by Tom Townend.

Best Direction:

Beastie Boys, “Make Some Noise,” directed by Adam MCA Yauch.

Best Editing:

Adele, “Rolling in the Deep,” edited by Art Jones at Work.

Best Special Effects:

Katy Perry featuring Kanye West, “E.T.”, special effects by Jeff Dotson for Dot & Effects.

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Joining the all-star lineup at tonight’s MTV Video Music Awards will be Kanye West and Jay Z’s new duo, The Throne.

The rappers, who just released the number one album “Watch The Throne,” will join Lady Gaga, Adele, Lil Wayne and many more at the awards.

Their performance is supposed to be a surprise, so few know when they will actually go on.  Billboard.com speculates that they may join Beyonce’s performance, as one of their songs features her on the chorus.

Both Jay Z and Kanye performed at past VMAs.  Kanye debuted a track from his most recent album, “My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy,” and Jay collaborated with Alicia Keys on “Empire State of Mind.”

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Rap powerhouse Lil Wayne will drop his latest album, Tha Carter IV at midnight on Monday, August 29th, after the MTV Video Music Awards.

Wayne, who is performing at the VMAs will make the album available digitally on iTunes, Amazon, and other legal MP3 download sites.  The CD will be in stores on Monday morning.

“I am extremely excited to be the first artist to utilize such an amazing idea. I hope that I can open the door for others,” Lil Wayne said in a press statement, according to MTV news.

Sunday night will be big for Wayne as he is nominated for Best Hip-Hop Video and Best Collaboration at the VMAs, and will perform at the award show, all before releasing his album.

“The MTV Video Music Awards are one of the most watched and respected shows in the industry,” Ronald “Slim” Williams, CEO of Cash Money Records, said in a statement, reports MTV news. “Wayne is one of the most respected and prolific artists in the industry. By pairing the release of Tha Carter IV with the VMAs, it will certainly add to the overall anticipation and excitement for fans everywhere for what will surely be an unforgettable evening.”

The new album features artists such as Drake, T-Pain, Rick Ross, Busta Rhymes and many more.

Lil Wayne is currently overcoming a head injury he got while skateboarding in St. Louis, but appeared in high spirits on Twitter when he said:

“The Lou was good but I busted my … head at the sk8park! 9stitches! Gnarly gash over my left eye! Luv the people.”

His performance is sure to be energetic as usual, despite the injury.

The VMAs will air on MTV at 9 p.m. ET/PT on August 28th.  The pre-show, hosted by Selena Gomez, begins at 8.

On August 28 Selena Gomez (“Wizards of Waverly Place”) will host the pre-show for the MTV Video Music Awards.

Gomez will be joined by other MTV personalities while interviewing celebrities on the black carpet outside of Nokia Theatre in downtown Los Angeles.

“When the Sun Goes Down” is Gomez’s current album with the band Scene. Although the album is No. 17 on the US pop charts, the band will not be performing at the awards show.

Source: Los Angeles Times

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MTV claims that Abercrombie & Fitch waged “a clever PR stunt” when they asked Mike “The Situation” Sorrentino to stop wearing their clothes.

“It’s a clever PR stunt,” said MTV’s Lisa Chudnofsky in statement posted on the network’s blog, “and we’d love to work with them on other ways they can leverage Jersey Shore to reach the largest youth audience on television.”

Chudnofsky continues in a witty reply: “Oh, Abercrombie, what kind of snowball hath y’all set in motion? We hate to add to the avalanche of publicity that A&F is currently eating up at the expense of our innocent reality TV icons (who declined to comment because they were too busy getting more famous) — mostly because that was the whole point of this shenanigan, wasn’t it? — but we’re all family here at MTV, and no one messes with our “Situation.” There are plenty of neon sweatpants in the sea of franchised fashion, so we encourage him to take the money. And donate it all to Ed Hardy. Mike, you look better naked anyway.”

How cheeky!

Fans of MTV’s “The Hard Times of RJ Berger” may know Caitlin Crosby as Amy the Tutor. Others may recognize the California-native from various episodes of “That’s So Raven” and “Malcolm in the Middle”, but we know her as a juggler, switching back and forth between making music, acting, and maintaining her passion for pushing teenagers to embrace their flaws and helping homeless families stay off the streets.

Crosby grew up singing in a youth group and musical theater during her younger years. Overcoming her bad case of the nerves on stage assisted in bringing her to where she is now.

“I was always really nervous,” she said in an interview with Blast. “I actually still do get nervous.”

Stage fright has not kept Crosby from singing, especially as she reflects on her first album FLAWZ and her recent project Crosby Skills and Nash, a musical tour with Jay Nash in which the duo took advantage of their famous surnames to spark the interest of music enthusiasts in the Southwestern states.

Crosby described the main message within the music, “It’s about different places that we’re raised in, how it conditions us to see life in a certain way, and not wanting to conform to what the surroundings say is true.”

“Living a Lie,” Crosby’s personal favorite track from the EP, encompasses the idea of finding truth and observing the way people live.

Inspired by Jon Foreman of Switchfoot and Bono of U2, Crosby follows in the footsteps of artists who represent what they stand for as she continues to write lyrics solely based upon personal experiences.

“Every verse is about a different state I’ve been in,” she said. “It’s about painting a picture of the way people in that particular town live and how that mentality is considered normal.”

The lyrics highlight important issues such as racism, whether it’s coming from a mid-west point of view or if it originates from deep within Hollywood.

A lack of direction poses as a problem for moving forward within the music industry for Crosby.

She said, “It’s challenging because there’s no formula, but on the positive side it’s wonderful because there is no formula. Different people can find success in new creative ways.”

The musician aspires to write another album in hopes that it will inspire people to help people, but in the meantime Crosby looks to acting when the opportunity presents itself.

“Whenever I need a break from music I go to acting,” Crosby said. “I took a break from music for three years and got offered an indie movie about a singer and songwriter.” Crosby will be starring as Glennis alongside Bug Hall, Spencer Locke, and James Denton in the romantic comedy “Karaoke Man”.

Crosby spoke with enthusiasm about her latest role in “The Hard Times of RJ Berger”.

“I love the cast and crew. I love the character I got to play as well,” she continued. “It was fun to play a tutor and wear glasses and be kind of a bad ass.” Crosby also admitted to her love for Paul Iacono, Mr. Berger himself.

Crosby hopes to work on more film productions, but her busy schedule composed of running her two charity websites The Giving Keys and Love Your Flawz in addition to writing her next album, and attending auditions, hardly allows for the multi-tasker to even sleep.

At this point in time Crosby hasn’t found herself leaning more towards music or acting, but rather towards helping young people with issues like eating disorders and expanding her charity websites.

As she reminisced on her tour with Jason Castro, she said, “It was an amazing experience to meet and talk to all the girls at the merchandise tables and being able to help them through their issues like peer pressure and bullies.”

Crosby said she likes to connect with these younger people one-on-one and help them through their issues. She continues this hospitality with The Giving Keys and Love Your Flawz.

She describes the magic behind The Giving Keys, “I pay homeless people to engrave keys and the profit goes to keep those same homeless people off the street. You can get whatever word you want on the key and on whatever necklace you want.”

On the other hand, Love Your Flawz encourages people of all ages to upload a picture of themselves to Crosby’s photo community holding a sign which depicts a unique flaw of their own that they love. Scrolling across the banner of the website one can see words of wisdom like “Cellulite Happens”, “My Scar Saved My Life”, and “My Flaws Make Me Real”.

For more information on Crosby’s music, acting, and her passion for charity, visit her homepage or check out The Giving Keys and Love Your Flawz.

American television has been attempting to imitate popular British programming for decades, from a failed remake of Fawlty Towers in 1978 (renamed Chateau Snavely and starring Harvey Korman and Betty White) to the more recent success of The Office in 2005. Though the list of transatlantic programs is rife with failures that didn’t resonate with the American public, there has been a recent string of successes, mostly in the form of game shows (such as the classic Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? and Weakest Link) and a motley of reality series, including Supernanny, Top Gear, Undercover Boss, and American Idol. However, the translation from British to American culture was relatively smooth for most of these shows, considering the lack of artistic license in contest and reality television. Drama, and specifically teen drama, is another story entirely.

Skins, a wildly popular British drama on E4, has made the Mayflower journey like so many before it, yet many are skeptical of its appeal to American audiences. Its attraction to British viewers came from not simply the story, but the reality, and consequently the relatability, of the characters and their lifestyles. Because of the watershed on British television, “adult” content can be shown at any time between 9:00 P.M. and 5:30 A.M. This includes nudity, “foul” language, drug use, etc. Such a policy allows for a more realistic portrayal of teenage life, as expletives and drug use are frequent occurrences among the young.

However, the F.C.C. still bans “obscene” material during the American Watershed that occurs after 10:00 p.m. This includes all nudity and any swear words like “f**k” or “c*nt,” etc. that might find its way through the character’s lips. As a result, there is a systemic problem with American television that would discourage the American viewership from enjoying Skins.

In the pilot episode, a seasoned Skins fan will notice from the outset that the show will be a shot-for-shot remake of the original series. This is not necessarily a bad thing; the original show is popular for a reason. It opens with the series’ main character and group ringleader, Tony, going through his morning routine, among which is a timed observation from his window into a neighbor’s bedroom. In the original series, he witnesses an older, perhaps forty-five or fifty year old woman in the nude. The scene is voyeuristic in nature; the woman is going through her own morning routine. However, the American pilot features Tony looking from his window to find an early thirties “bombshell” blond waiting expectantly at her window with her *ahem* “sensitive areas” strategically covered by the window panes. The difference in the series reveals the systemic habit in American television of injecting sex into culture to counteract censorship. Instead of suggesting that the character is a voyeur, it suggests sexuality. Nudity is not necessarily sexual, but producers continue to equate the two in this series.

Furthermore, the scene is unrealistic, and thus, unrelatable. Many teens could confess to perpetrating voyeurism at some time in their youth (but probably wouldn’t), but few could claim having the relationship that the American series insinuates.

The second difficulty that the American series faces is language censorship. Although the American watershed allows most expletives, they still bleep particular language. Nothing provides a more realistic teen conversation than a well-placed f**k, but instead of listening to a well-performed dialogue, the viewer’s ear is assaulted with censor bleeps. There is no evenness or reality to the dialogue, but we do know that they said something naughty.

The final problem with the series itself is that, like The Office, it is a near word-for-word remake. Save the second episode, where Maxxie’s American counterpart is presented as a snarky lesbian, nearly 90 percent of the script remains unchanged. Although natural and even clever in the mouths of British youth, the writing sounds awkward and improbable coming from their American counterparts. The general storyline may resonate with American audiences, but the script deserves to be re-written to better fit its characters.

With only three episodes yet aired, it will be interesting to see if any further Americanization of the series changes the dynamic between the characters, or if there are any story or script changes that are distinctly original to this reincarnation. However, it might be too late. Despite all the advertisement and anticipation over its jump to the American television, few believe that Skins will maintain the viewership to finish out the season.

MTV’s new drama “Skins” premiered last night, based off of the controversial UK hit with the same title. Like the name states, the show is filled with the flesh of the hedonistic teenagers it follows. These trucker-mouthed teens are drugged up booze hounds, that are addicted to sex, with major emotional issues. Basically, they are the more depressed version of “Jersey Shore.”

The first episode revolves around Tony (James Newman) on a quest to make sure his friend Stanley (Daniel Flaherty) finally loses his virginity one night. The way to achieve that goal is to get a girl so drunk that she won’t even care it’s Stanley she is having sex with. I mean, how else would you lose your virginity? The night ends in fist fights, excessive pill popping and a car at the bottom of a river. Just a typical night in the lives of American teens, my friends.

The show is purposely trying to be every parent’s worst nightmare, and it succeeds. While all the drugs, alcohol and sex may shock those living under a culture rock, most realize that teens usually experiment with these factors and sometimes even indulge. What is shocking is the lack of remorse or fear of the consequences these teens have. Their lives center around the next time they get laid or score some weed, and school just happens to be a back drop.

This show is so desperately trying to be edgy and raw that it comes off like it’s trying too hard. It was as if the writers of the show decided to put all the taboo activities teenagers are not suppose to partake in and see what happens. What happens is you get a bunch of hormonal teenagers with exaggerated issues no one cares about.

What made the UK version a hit was not the shocking behavior but how relatable the characters were. This is what is severely lacking from the MTV one. The show tries but fails to capture the essence of what it is like being a teen. While it is totally believable for teens to be sex crazed with serve mental issues, the teens that were scantily dressed on the TV were not believable. “Skins” is the over dramatic Hollywood version of what it is like to be a teen.

At one point when Stanley thinks he is going to get his cherry popped by the sexually alluring Michelle he says “I am going to park my Chevy in Michelle’s garage?” Now, I will admit that it has been awhile since I have been in high school but who the hell talks like that? No one, that’s who.

While “Skins” is filled plenty of shock and awe moments that will initially grab a viewer’s attentions, it lacks the substance to hold it.

Joe, Kailyn and Isaac at MTV's "16 and Pregnant" Season 2 reunion (Media Credit/Scott Gries via MTV.com)

When Jamie Lynn Spears, then 16, and Bristol Palin, then 17, announced their pregnancies, magazines rushed to put their young faces on their covers, and TV news shows were quick to jump into the discussion. Turn on the TV and chances are you’ll catch a glimpse of reality shows like MTV’s “Teen Mom” and “16 and Pregnant” or the true-story-based Lifetime drama “The Pregnancy Pact.” Teen moms and dads are everywhere – even getting spreads in “Playgirl” if you’re Levi Johnston, who became a dad at 18.

But is all this media attention sending the message that it’s “cool” to be a teen parent? Or is it instead highlighting the difficulties surrounding parenthood? New research says it’s the latter.

According to a poll of adolescents ages 12 to 19 commissioned by The National Campaign to Prevent Teen and Unplanned Pregnancy, 79 percent of girls and 67 percent of boys “agree that when a TV show or character they like deals with teen pregnancy, it makes them think more about their own risk of getting pregnant or causing a pregnancy and how to avoid it.”

A nationwide telephone poll of 1,008 adolescents conducted by Social Science Research Solutions found similar statistics. Eighty-two percent of the adolescents polled who have seen “16 and Pregnant” think that the show helps them to not only understand the challenges of teen pregnancy and parenthood, but also how to avoid it. To teens’ credit, a recent study by Indiana University found that teens are in fact using protection more often than older generations.

Additionally, it seems that this media attention may be opening a doorway for parent-teen conversation. Seventy-six of the adolescents polled said that seeing sex, love, and relationships in the media can be a good way to begin conversations about sex with parents, and 48 percent said that they have actually done so because of the media’s attention to the topics.

In a separate study of 162 young people ages 10 to 19 conducted by The National Campaign to Prevent Teen and Unplanned Pregnancy and the Boys and Girls Clubs of America, 93 percent of those who watched and discussed several episodes of “16 and Pregnant” said that the show helped them learn that teen parenthood is “harder than they imagined.”

Despite the fact that national teen pregnancy rates recently rose for the first time in over a decade, these findings support the idea that the media may not necessarily be a negative influence on teen behavior.

The 17th annual MTV Europe Music Awards ceremony was held in Madrid on Sunday.

Here are the winners:

Best Song: Lady Gaga for “Bad Romance”

Best Live Act: Linkin Park

Best European Act: Marco Mengoni

Best New Act: KE$HA

Best Female: Lady Gaga

Best Male: Justin Bieber

Best Push Artist: Justin Beiber

Best Pop: Lady Gaga

Best Rock: Thirty Seconds to Mars

Best Alternative: Paramore

Best Spanish Singer: Enrique Iglesias

Best Video: Katy Perry for “California Gurls”

Best Hip Hop: Eminem

MTV Global Icon: Bon Jovi

World Stage: Tokio Hotel

And best video winner Katy Perry, who recently (and finally) married Russell Brand, performed her latest single “Firework.” She literally sparked onstage. Perry was tied with Lady Gaga for the most nominations at the EMAs so her performance had been highly anticipated. People have been saying both good and not-so-good comments on her performance but she sparked. Can you tell she is very happy?

So what did you think of this year’s VMAs? The pre-show opened with the performance by Nicki Minaj and head-to-toe black Will.i.am. Did it have something to do with stereotypical images of African American? I had no idea was simply surprised at how he looked but obviously he got some feedback about his costume and tweeted, "1st. just because I where all black including head mask as expression and emphasize my outfit, it shouldn’t be looked at as racial…" "Let go of the past. there are far more important things 2 bark about. (Jobs, health, education) not a black man wearing all black everything." "Are you guys serious? my outfit set “black people back 100 years” choose your twits wisely. no education sets people back, no jobs, bad health." Sounds like he got no-so-good feedback? But it was ALL BLACK costume and we couldn’t even see his face, which was kind of sad.

Justin Bieber won Best New Artist VMA. His fans went insane while his performance. Was I the only one who thought his voice has slightly changed due to puberty (not in a bad way though)?

Bieber’s mentor, Usher did not do lip-sync with all that choreo, and it was truly amazing.

A catchy medley performed by B.o.B, Hayley Williams and Bruno Mars was appealing but it was sort of a media-centered agenda (No offense!).

Lady gaga won 8 awards and completely dominated the VMAs! I loved when Gaga said, "I never thought I d be asking Cher to hold my meat purse" during her acceptance speech. She cried twice on the stage, which was so sweet and touching because it wasn’t a lie. She appreciated her fans a.k.a. "little monsters." Whatever other people say, these little monsters always have her back.

Taylor Swift’s emotional new song "Innocent" was probably about Kanye West based on the lyrics saying "Who you are is not who you’ve been. You’re still an innocent. Thirty-two and still growing up now. Who you are is not what you did." So if I understood correctly, she forgave this guy who is 32 and still growing up!

The program ended with this guy’s performance. After West’s performance "Runaway," the audience repeatedly called his name, "Kanye! Kanye! Kanye!"

People’s reactions on Twitter are really mixed and it totally depends on you how to see, digest, and evaluate it. However, I definitely think that overall it was so much better and more creative than last year.

Oh, here is my last question. Why was Ke$ha’s dress made out of garbage bags that she got from Home Depot?

So we just wondered what would happen at the VMAs tomorrow and here is the up-to-date info regarding the possibly crucial moment this year?

According to the Associated Press, Taylor Swift has written a song about last year’s Kanye West incident and will unveil it with a surprise performance tomorrow night.

Both Taylor Swift and Kanye West are set to perform but probably they won’t perform together then?

According to People magazine, weeks before the ceremony, this year’s host, Chelsea Handler, said she’d love to reunite the pair on the show since "we’ve never really seen them together since then."

Well, that would be really interesting because as we already know, West tweeted that he had written her a song for Swift but she is actually going to sing the song that she wrote for the hurtful accident that he caused. MTV declined to comment about the news, but we would love to witness the reunion tomorrow night, wouldn’t we? Stay tuned.

The 27th annual MTV Video Music Awards will be broadcast live from the Nokia Theatre in Los Angeles on Sunday.

So, what will happen this year? Let’s go back and refresh our memory on VMA. The most memorable moment at the last year’s VMA was definitely when Taylor Swift won the Moonman for Best Female Video over superstars like Beyonc©, Pink, Katy Perry, Kelly Clarkson and Lady Gaga. While surprised Swift was giving the audience her acceptance speech, Kanye West suddenly appeared on stage. He took the microphone from her and said, "Taylor, I’m really happy for you and I’mma let you finish, but Beyonc© had one of the best videos of all time … of all time!" After West left the stage, Swift was left behind on stage, totally being spaced out and unsure about what just happened.

So, this week, just ahead of this year’s show, West has been tweeting to apologize to Swift for interrupting her VMA speech last year: "I wrote a song for Taylor Swift that’s so beautiful and I want her to have it. If she won’t take it then I’ll perform it for her." "We’re both artists, and the media and managers are trying to get between us." "I became George Bush over night." "I’m sorry Taylor."

Whether or not it is an appropriate way to apologize, what will happen this year? Here are some nominees for this year’s VMA.

According to MTV News, Lady Gaga’s got 13 total nominations such as in a single VMA year, and she’s also the first female musician nominated for two different videos in the Video of the Year category for "Bad Romance" and "Telephone" featuring Beyonc©.

Eminem got eight VMA nominations, including "Best Male Video," and "Video of the Year" for "Not Afraid."

In the new artist category, both Florence + The Machine and B.o.B. are up for five VMAs respectively, Ke$ha‘s up for three Moonmen and Justin Bieber is nominated as a Best New Artist for “Baby.”

MTV is happy.

“Jersey Shore,” a show about non-Italians who pretend to be Italian so that they can make fun of Italians, has set a new series record and is now one of the top three cable shows of 2010 among people ages 12-34.

The third episode of season three delivered a rating of 5.3 and brought in 5.5 million total viewers, making it the top overall cable episode watched among that demographic.

And for three weeks in a row, “Jersey Shore” has been Thursdays No. 1 telecast of the day among those 12-34 people.

SAN DIEGO — There is a small patch of green known as the “Park in the Park” that exists near San Diego’s Petco Park, where the city’s baseball team usually plays to a cheering crowd. Park in the Park is a designated area for attendees who want to catch a game without breaking their wallets; it’s a picturesque space with a wonderful city view. And during Saturday night’s lunar eclipse, San Diegans lined up to celebrate the upcoming movie "Twilight Saga: Eclipse," which hits theaters nationwide on Wednesday, June 30th.

San Diego is one of several cities (see our coverage in Phoenix and Denver) chosen nationwide to host Summit Entertainment’s "Twilight Night." It’s free event that includes a double feature of the first two movies ("Twilight" and "New Moon"), guest appearances from the cast, live music, and exclusive sneak peeks of "Twilight Saga: Eclipse."

Whether you’re a fan or not of Stephanie Meyer’s explosive vampiric series, there is little doubt as to the significant impact its followers have in pop culture right now. An event such as "Twilight Night" is proof positive the franchise is not slowing down any time soon. In San Diego, fans camped out the previous night just for the chance of being inches closer to a Cullen or to support the Quileute werewolf tribe known as "The Wolf Pack."

The Park closed its iron gates off to the public after reaching maximum capacity in less than an hour. Several families who arrived late stood (literally) on the outside looking in. Some pleaded by explaining, "I left work hours early for this…" or "I won’t get too close." Children cried; parents threw tantrums, but all were rejected admission.

Usually a fanaticism left for rock stars and concert tours, "Twilight" is one of the few pop phenomenons which continues to bring in droves of people and cause hysterics. Proper planning at events like "Twilight Night" is crucial in maintaining safe crowd control and ensuring a good time. The organization at Park in the Park from all parties involved was great, and easily could have turned into mayhem without their efforts. As for the fans, their energy added to the electric atmosphere as they waited for the cast appearances. Many walked around proudly in black shirts with the words "Twilight Saga: Eclipse" written across their chests in the trademark "Twilight" font face. Whispers and sighs from many of the younger fans could be heard as they debated over their favorite characters. Some even took it a step further and wore the "bite mark" prosthetics which showed more than the classic two, small dotted marks of a vampire; it looked as you would expect a real bite to appear: bloody, fleshy, and slightly gory.

Hosting the event was Jenna Busch from Moviefone and Quddus best known for his previous work in MTV’s "Total Request Live (TRL)." Fans even cheered them on as they set up for their live event, showing their love isn’t just left for the stars of the films. Local San Diego band War Stories set off festivities playing a live set to a frenzied crowd which could be heard easily within several city blocks, perking the curiosity of many locals who stepped over to the gates to catch a glimpse. The music of War Stories is reminiscent of band Interpol but with the lead singer, Evan Robinson, blasting out amazing vocals it feels as if he were channeling Michael Hutchence from INXS. Their song "Insecure Boyfriend" was a highlight, and judging by the audience reaction they’ve got themselves a whole slew of new fans.

As War Stories’ performance came to an end, the focus quickly shifted to the main stage area where Busch prepared to go live on air. Meanwhile Quddus connected with several select attendees whose questions were sent to Taylor Lautner, Robert Pattinson and Kristen Stewart.

It was worth the wait as members of the cast made their way onto the red carpet, and fans reacted with a swirl of ardent screams. Edi Gathegi (vampire Laurent) was originally schedule to appear but could not attend at the last minute. In his place was the lovely Christian Serratos, who plays Forks’ human resident, Angela Weber. Joining her was none other than Dr. Carlisle Cullen himself: Peter Facinelli.

Serratos wore her long brown hair in a simple braid. Dressed in a white strapless gown, she looked exquisite despite the chilly weather.

Peter Facinelli followed shortly afterwards sporting a dark ‘do, a change from Dr. Cullen’s trademark blonde hair. He dressed casually in dark denim and leather jacket while carrying a smile for all the fans. When Facinelli was asked about making it to San Diego, the crowd burst into screams, and the actor couldn’t help but note the audience attendance was as enthusiastic as the "Twilight: Eclipse" LA premiere days ago.

As soon as their time on camera was finished, both Serratos and Facinelli took an extended amount of time to sign autographs, and chat briefly with some of the people at the front. It’s the cast’s patience and respect for fans that makes the film so successful. There was even a moment were Facinelli held a baby, making him appear more like a politician than actor.

Yet the most dramatic turn was about to unfold as a sudden stillness spread through the crowd, and a stretcher was brought in by some medics. Although it’s uncertain exactly the cause for the situation, it appeared one of the fans may have passed out while Facinelli came by to sign autographs. After the situation was resolved, and no serious injury caused, the crowd returned to its excited state, proving again that nothing holds back a good time at a "Twilight" event.

"Twilight Saga: Eclipse" will be the last film of the year as the final installment "Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn" won’t start production until 2011.

"Eclipse" hits theaters and IMAX June 30.

It seems as if we say it every year, but the 2010 Electronic Entertainment Expo, E3 2010, is sounding like it’s going to be the show for publishers, developers and fans.

E3 is a trade-only show however, and being a super-huge-Halo-fan, does not get you in.

Thankfully, Microsoft today announced a partnership with MTV (that channel that used to play music videos) to air, commercial-free, the Microsoft press briefing as well as their Project Natal event.

That Project Natal event is being dubbed as  “a spectacular live performance imagined by Cirque du Soleil,” and from what that performance is known for, it’s going to be a spectacle indeed. According to the press release, it’ll include “cutting-edge technology, pulsating music, amazing puppetry, futuristic video projection, and unbelievable physical dexterity.”

You're invited!

I’ll be at the show, but if you aren’t, take a look at the programming schedule below and line up those sick days now!

Xbox 360: The Future Revealed airs live on Monday, June 14, from 1:30–3 P.M. ET.

The World Premiere Project Natal for Xbox 360 experience, as imagined by Cirque du Soleil airs commercial-free on MTV, Tuesday, June 15 at 3:30 P.M. ET, and on Nick at Nite, mtvU, MTV Hits, and Logo, Tuesday, June 15, at 9 P.M. ET.

ABC starts its now thriller “Happy Town” tonight at 10 p.m. WE tv has the premiere of “Sunset Daze” — which is like “Real World” with old people

The only finale tonight is “High Society” on The CW at 9:30.

MTV has its new series “Downtown Girls” about girls in downtown New York City premiering June 1 at 11 p.m.

HBO will please fans of “True Blood” when it puts out six original online mini episodes on Yahoo! TV before the June 13 season premiere.

Two reality premieres tonight on MTV. “The Hills” is on at 10, and “The City” premieres at 10:30.

“Southland” was marked for death on network television, but it found a new life and a new audience on cable. Now TNT has announced it will renew the cop drama for a third season, with 10 episodes to start airing in January. TNT got the series for a bargain after NBC dropped it quickly. About 3 million people watch it every week.

ABC will air a two-hour sixth season finale of “Grey’s Anatomy” on May 20 at 9 p.m.

History Channel’s “America: The Story of Us” premiered on Sunday, drawing 5.7 million total viewers. It was the highest-rated, most watched special in the cable network’s history, and there are five more episodes to come until the finale on Memorial day.

Happy first of February. Tonight is all about food. The premiere of “Ultimate Cake Off 2″ is on TLC at 10, and the season finale of “Worst Cooks in America is on Food Network at the same time.

Other premieres tonight include Showtime’s “Secret Diary of a Call Girl,” Bravo’s “Kell on Earth,” and “Blood, Sweat & T-shirts” on Planet Green — all at 10 p.m., so set the DVR.

NBC announced that “Parks and Recreation” was good for a third season. The show averages 5.1 million total viewers per week.

MTV is allowing us to experience “Jersey Shore” for a second season of 12 episodes. Pauly D, Mike, Snooki, Jenni, Sammi, Vinny, and Ronnie will be there. An uncensored DVD of season one will be available late this month.

Finally this morning, TBS ordered a pilot for an hour-long comedy called “Glory Daze” about four college freshmen in the 1980s who pledge a fraternity in Wisconsin.

Tonight we have the premieres of ABC’s “Better off Ted,” MTV’s “Teen Mom” and SyFy’s new idiot box series, “Outer Space Astronauts.”

Add those to the finales of “The Biggest Loser” at 8 p.m. on NBC and “Scare Tactics” on SyFy at 9.

Sunday night’s series finale of “Monk” drew the largest audience ever seen on a basic cable drama with 9.4 million total viewers. The success carried over to White Collar, where the fall finale right after “Monk” drew 5.55 million viewers.

NBC picked up the full season order for “Community” and “Parks and Recreation” and scaled back the new sitcom “100 Questions” from 13 episodes to six.

CBS is making a drama based on the upcoming James Patterson novel, “Private.” Twentieth Century FOX will produce the drama about Jack MOrgan, a former Marine and CIA operative to takes over his father’s private detective business.

“Charlie Brown Christmas” is on ABC tonight!

A big night for USA Network with the series finale of “Monk” at 9 p.m. and the fall finale of “White Collar” at 10.

On Sunday, CBS has the finale of “The Amazing Race” at 8 p.m.

ABC will return “Flash Forward” on March 4, several months before its anticipated summer airing.

MTV gave “The Hills” a sixth season and its spinoff series “The City” a second, Variety reported.

Two very different season finales tonight: “America’s Next Top Model” at 8 p.m. on The CW and “South Park” at 10 on Comedy Central. No premieres on this Wednesday.

In the news, MTV will have exclusive US television rights to Michael Jackson’s “This Is It.” The movie concert will start to air on MTV’s networks in 2011, so don’t hold your breath.

Discovery has another epic series coming out in March. “Life” is an 11-parter and will be narrated by Opray Winfrey.

Lorraine Bracco from “The Sopranos” was cast in a TNT drama pilot called “Rizzoli.” She will play the mother of police detective Jane Rizzoli, who will be played by Angie Harmon.

Rihanna spilled her guts to Diane Swayer this morning on “Good Morning America” — a move likely choreographed to sync with Chris Brown’s tell-all MTV interview.

According to MTV.com, Rihanna said her relationship with Chris was just too intense. They started out as close friends, and their love bordered on obsession. Rihanna also admitted to feeling guilty for reconciling so quickly with Chris because of the message it sent about domestic violence victims. But now, she says, it’s really over.

“I went through … a host of emotions,” she told Sawyer. “It was confusing for me. I was still attached by love. But I wasn’t thinking about … the reality of the situation. You start lying to yourself. … This is a memory you don’t want to have ever again. … The physical wounds go away, you put it in the back of your head and you start lying to yourself subconsciously.”

Long interview short — she still loves and cares about Chris, but doesn’t think they’ll ever get back together. She hated him for a while, yet felt bad that he was facing so much hatred. Now, she just wants to move on.

“I don’t want that five years from now — every time they see Rihanna, they think of Chris Brown beating me,” she said. “That’s not who I am. It’s just one thing that happened to me.”

You can tune in to MTV tonight at 6:00 to here Chris’ side.

MTV will air a tell-all interview with Chris Brown this Friday, Nov. 6 at 6 p.m. ET/PT.

According to MTV.com, Brown will answer questions about his fight with Rihanna, including “What caused the singer to lash out against his former girlfriend in the first place? Why has he tweeted old photos of the two of them and released music inspired by her? What does he think about, nine months later, when he recalls that fateful night?”

Brown told MTV that he has been using therapy to deal with his anger and understand his behavior. He also said, “My thoughts [when I look back on it now] is like, why did it happen? Like, what was I thinking? What is wrong with you? That’s what I’m thinking with myself. That’s what my thoughts are, basically, now.”

Tune in Friday for the full, hour-long interview.

Football is on today. And baseball.

But besides that, there are two finales to keep in mind. MTV has the closer of “P. Diddy’s Starmaker,” and VH1 has “My Antonio,” both at 10 p.m.

We also know today that Bravo is renewing “Top chef Masters” for a second season. It’s a cooking show where famous chefs battle it out for charity.

Tonight is another big cable night. “DeGrassi: The Next Generation” wil fulfill all your melodrama fantasies on TeenNick at 8 p.m.

SyFy jumps in at 10 with the season premiere of “Sanctuary,” the Amanda Tapping post-Stargate project. DIY Network premieres “Kitchen Impossible” at 10, and we can’t forget “Dog Whisperer” at 9 p.m. on NatGeo.

The only big finale this weekend is MTV’s “Making His Band” at 9 p.m.

On Monday, you can expect premieres of “Little People, Big World,” on TLC at 8 p.m., “100 Mile Challenge” on Planet Green at 9 p.m., and “Gone Too Far” on MTV at 10.

Southland is D E D dead, even though it never was officially alive. NBC pulled the plug on the drama before its anticipated season debut on October 23. No reason has been given, and six episodes were already finished and ready to air.

Southland was going to be aired on Fridays at 9 p.m., which has been a dead zone for television lately, with Dollhouse dying there.

ABC has ordered the full seasons of “Modern Family,” “Cougar Town” and “The Middle.”

The three shows have done well in the ratings, but no news has been announced on the Kelsey Grammer comeback “Hank” or the new show “Eastwick.”

Showtime announced a new webisode about Dexter called “Dexter: Early Cuts.” The series will premiere on October 25 on sho.com.

CBS may be bringing back “Hawaii Five-O” with a plot commitment for a revival of the series, written by Alex Kurtzman, Roberto Orci and CSI: New York executive producer Peter Lenkov. The original ran from 1968-1990.

Finally, Ellen Page is working with HBO to both write and produce a new comedy series called “Stich N’ Bitch” about two cool girls who move from New York to Los Angeles to try and become artists — and kind of artists. Page is working with actresses Alia Shawkat and Sean Tillmann, both of whom stared with her in “Whip It.”

Tonight marks Kelsey Grammer’s hopefully triumphant return to primetime with the premiere of “Hank” on ABC at 8. “The Middle” follows at 8:30.

That’s it for the networks tonight, but TLC has two new ones: “I Didn’t Know I Was Pregnant,” at 8, followed by “King of the Crown” at 9.

MTV starts a new “The Real World/Road Rules Challenge” at 10 p.m., and BET has the premiere of “First In” also at 10.

In news, Kate Gosselin proves she’s at least as much a publicity whore as her ex, because she has signed on to continue exploiting her eight children on cable television. “Kate Plus Eight” will launch November 2 on TLC. We’re even hearing that Jon Gosselin will make appearances on the show.

We’re giving it 10 years before one of these kids is locked up for laying waste to a classroom.

TLC also said it’s working on a new project featuring just Kate for 2010.

Maybe five years.

The premiere season has just about wound down at this point, but we have a few cable shows on tap tonight.

Animal Planet premieres “Weird, True and Freaky” at 9 p.m., with “Lost Tapes” to follow at 10. MTV has some reality shows starting tonight; most notably is the reality-drama “The Hills” at 10 with “The City” to follow at 10:30.

Actor Omar Miller is joining CSI: Miami as a regular starting with the October 5 episode. Miller will play Walter Simmons, an art chief from Louisiana who joins the crime fighting CSI team.

CBS had the best night on Friday, according to Nielsen, with premieres of “Ghost Whisperer,” “Medium” and “Numb3rs” scoring big on the ranking charts. We predict that will continue tonight as CBS has new episodes of three of its biggest shows, “NCIS,” the new “NCIS: Los Angeles,” and “The Good Wife.”

We wonder how long “NCIS: Los Angeles” will continue to air on Tuesdays. The two NCIS shows are hits, and we have to assume one will get moved to bolster a slower weekday.

“Dancing with the Stars” is on ABC tonight and “So You Think You Can Dance” is on FOX.

Finally, no it’s not the 90s, but new episodes of the new “90210,” and “Melrose Place” are on The CW tonight.

By the way: Because of a reporting error, we said “NCIS: Los Angeles” aired on Mondays. It airs on Tuesdays.

NBC's Trauma premieres tonight at 10

Not a lot of new stuff on the tube tonight, but there’s some news to discuss below.

On network TV, FOX premieres “Lie to Me’ at 9 p.m. tonight, while NBC debuts its “Trauma” at the same time. MTV premieres another reality show, “Disaster Date” at 6 p.m., and truTV has the premiere of “Operation Repo” at 10. Tonight is also the season finale of A&E’s “Hoarders,” which is also on at 10.

The Ashton Kutcher-produced series “The Beautiful Life” staring Mischa Barton appears to be an abject failure. The CW pulled the show from its fall schedule after just two episodes and ordered production on the show halted after miserable ratings.

Also getting axed is A&E’s “The Cleaner.” The Benjamin Bratt drama will not get renewed for a third season.

ABC announced that the new alien-infused drama “V” will debut November 3, with a four-episode run, followed by a major cliffhanger, followed by nine more episodes next spring.

In other ABC-related news, the always busy Jerry Bruckheimer is working on a pilot for a new series called “Hopscotch,” which Variety says promises to be a “high-concept police procedural” drama. Variety reported several networks were vying for the opportunity to land the new series, which is chock-full of “hit potential.” Chris Levinson will write the series, and Warner will producer.

The CW approved a new, untitled reality series about New York socialite Tinsley Mortimer, because they know you just can’t get enough of watching rich people spend their money. The series is approved for at least eight episodes.

NBC has an interesting-sounding project in the works. In the tentatively titled “Slacker Sons,” Variety reports that two brothers get rich by developing their own energy drink. They buy the family home and end up helping out their divorced dad who gets laid off from his corporate wageslave job.

Finally today, Vincent D’Onofrio is leaving Law & Order: Criminal Intent after eight seasons playing the quirky detective Robert Goren.

Criminals and Al Bundy rule the tubes tonight.

CBS has the most premieres tonight with “The New Adventures of Old Christine” at 8, “Gary Unmarried” at 8:30, “Criminal Minds” at 9, and “CSI: New York” at 10. The drama continues on NBC with premieres of “Mercy” at 8 p.m. and “Law and Order: SVU” at 9.

ABC offers the series premiere of “Modern Family” tonight at 9 p.m., which is Ed O’Neil’s return to primetime. Blast will be running our interview with O’Neil later today, and we’ll continue to talk about our time on-set with ABC.

ABC also has premieres of “Cougar Town” at 9:30 and “Eastwick” at 10 tonight.

FX is starting a new comedy show about fantasy football. “The League” follows a bunch of guys in the suburbs and their shenanigans. That will start-up on October 29 at 10:30 p.m. following “It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia.” FX has ordered six episodes of the new comedy show.

MTV continues the reality shows with “Disaster Date,” a hidden-camera show about people who set up their friends on a blind date with an actor who makes things disastrous for them. The fun times begin September 28 at 6 p.m.

Nielsen says that SyFy’s season finale of “Eureka” gained 2.3 total viewers last Friday at 9 p.m., which is impressive for the cable network.

Syfy’s season three finale of Eureka last Friday at 9p averaged 1.1 million A18-49, 1.2 million A25-54 and 2.3 million total viewers. HBO’s return of “Curb Your Enthusiasm” Sunday night gained 1.1 million viewers on Sunday night. A new show followed, “Bored to Death,” to the tune of about 1 million viewers.

Finally for you Melrose Place fans, Heather Locklear will join The CW‘s version of the show on November 17, reprising her role as Amanda Woodward.

“NCIS” is going the way of “Law and Order,” or so CBS hopes. The show began as a spin-off to “J.A.G.,” and now it’s getting a spin-off of its own. Both “NCIS” and “NCIS: Los Angeles” premiere tonight at 8 p.m. and 9 p.m. respectively. “Los Angeles” starts LL Cool J and Chris O’Donnell.

These are two that we’re excited about since the finale in the sixth season left us with a cliff hanger for the ages. Plus, the two-hour spin-off into “Los Angeles” that occurred toward the end of last season left us wanting more, and it gave us another cliff hanger whereby one of the main characters was the victim of a drive-by shooting.

CBS also has “The Good Wife” premiering at 10 p.m, competing with ABC’s premiere of “The Forgotten.”

On cable, Oxygen has “The Naughty Kitchen with Chef Blythe Beck” on at 10 p.m., and TLC starts “Table for 12″ also at 10.

Two finales to keep in mind tonight: SyFy ends the season “Warehouse 13″ tonight at 9 p.m., and Discovery Channel reality show “The Colony” has its finale at 10.

FOX announced Monday that it has given “Glee” the thumbs up, ordering a full season of the new comedy. It’s the first new show of the fall TV watching season to get picked up for the full season.

Reality network MTV is moving “The Hills” to 10 p.m., and putting “The City” at 10:30 starting September 29, which is also the premiere date for season five of “The Hills.” MTV has also said that a new season of “The Real World/Road Rules Challenge” called “The Ruins” will open September 30 at 10 p.m. This season is set in Thailand.

Beyonce was the big winner at last night’s MTV Video Music Awards, taking home the big prize of Video of the Year for “Single Ladies”. It seemed to be lady’s night at MTV because Lady Gaga took home the honors for “Best New Artist” while Britney Spears took “Best Pop Video”. Green Day beat out Kings of Leon and Fall Out Boy for Best Rock Video, but the awards were ironically a very insignificant part of last night’s show.

Just in case you have been in a coma for the past 24 hours, the first thing you need to know about last night’s awards is that Kanye West should no longer be allowed on the premises. By Blast calculations, this is the third year that Kanye has publicly displayed his outrage at the MTV selection for an award. This year’s victim was America’s country sweetheart Taylor Swift, who won the first award of the night “Best Female Video.” In outrage that Beyonce didn’t win for “one of the best videos of all time” Kanye rushed the stage, took Taylor’s microphone during her acceptance speech, and proclaimed Beyonce should have been the winner leaving Miss Swift in horrified silence. Twitter explosions and blog frenzies after report that Swift was to be seen sobbing backstage after the debacle.

Outside of the dramatics, the VMAs this year contained a lot of W-t-fness, and that isn’t necessarily a bad thing. Every cut to Lady Gaga gave viewers a peak at outrageous outfit after outrageous outfit. Apparently being able to see was not a major concern when making fashion decisions. Equally as twisted was her live performance. Gaga performed her latest mega hit “Paparazzi” on the VMA stage. She lived up to her reputation of a fantastic live performance, but the crowd and viewers alike were a little disturbed by Gaga’s literal perception of the paparazzi killing her when she poured blood over her and then pseudo hung herself from the VMA ceiling.

R&B badass Pink also used a harness for her VMA performance, which may have been the most impressive of the night. Pink performed the entire sang, hanging about 50 feet off the ground, flipping around and somersaulting with her trapeze partner. The most amazing part of the stunt was that she was continuing to sing live “" no lip syncing “" as she continuously flipped head over heels.

In fact there wasn’t a bad musical performance the entire night. Taylor Swift was impressive with her take over of the 42nd street subway station and subsequent Times Square performance. Beyonce amazed audiences not only with her fancy leg work but the fact that she didn’t have a wardrobe malfunction visa Janet Jackson at the Superbowl. Jay-Z and Alicia Keys topped off the night with their new duet, but it was the opening of the show that stole most of the attention.

This year’s VMAs kicked off with a Janet Jackson led tribute to her late brother, King of Pop, Michael Jackson. It was touching and very fitting that this year’s awards were dedicated to a man who took music videos to a new height. Dancers recreated moves from the iconic “Thriller” before Janet arose on stage and re-created the moves from “Scream” while Michael’s mirroring performance played on the screen behind. Intermittently throughout the show, props were given to Michael as well as a full trailer of “This Is It”, the film compiled of all the rehearsal footage before his death, which will appear in theatres nationwide on October 28.

Performances really took precedence at the awards. Only five trophies were given out during the actual aired show. Equally as insignificant was host Russell Brand. While admittedly hilarious in his own right, British stand-up comic Brand fell flat as returning host of the awards. While MTV was probably banking on Brand’s gained notoriety over the past year, his brash humor didn’t translate well to the stage. It seemed that producers spent more time cutting to commercial after Brand’s crude punchlines than letting him speak, and that’s when he was brought on stage to introduce anyone at all. Though Brand has conquered television hosting, movies and even the New York Time’s bestseller’s list with his autobiography “My Booky Wook”, hosting just may not be his thing.

Overall, the show was surprisingly entertaining, especially considering the disappointing past couple of years. There wasn’t a boring moment during the entire two and a half hour runtime. Last night’s show was so well put together that it might have actually succeeded in distracting people from the fact that the ceremony is completely irrelevant. Seriously, when was the last time MTV even played a video?

You just know you’ve fucked up when goody two-shoes Kelly Clarkson calls you an asshole.

In a post on her blog, Clarkson went on a tirade against Kanye West that can only be described as the musical equivalent of Rocky Marciano’s “kill the body and the head will die” knockout of Jersey Joe Walcott in 1952.

It was a series of relentless jabs and hay-makers.

“What happened to you as a child?? Did you not get hugged enough?? Something must have happened to make you this way and I think we’re all just curious as to what would make a grown man go on national television and make a talented artist, let alone teenager, feel like shit,” Clarkson wrote.

She is, of course, referring to West’s outrageous, arch-asshole attempt to ruin the MTV Video Music Awards night for, of all people, Taylor Swift.

Because she’s such a fuckin gangster. Frankly, I’m surprised Swifty and her peeps didn’t pull out their 9′s and bust a few caps right on the motherfuckin stage, yo.

Clarkson goes on to say that she likes her “asshole ex-boyfriend” who cheated on her better than Kanye, and she admits she never even met Kanye!

Clarkson lost the VMA Moon Man to Swift, but said she was “excited” for her.

Pink, who also lost in the Best Female Video category to Swift, reportedly had to be stopped by security from rushing the stage and knocking Kanye on his ass, which would have been the best publicity stunt MTV could have pulled off, since they still try to call their awards show the “Video” Music Awards, even though all they do is replay episodes of “The Hills” and “The Real World.”

But back on topic:

“Kanye West is the biggest piece of shit on earth. Quote me” Pink wrote to MTV. “My heart goes out to Taylor Swift. She is a sweet and talented girl and deserved her moment.”

Hell, Mr. West, hath no fury.

Should we be surprised?

Kanye pulled another stunt at MTV’s Video Music Awards last night – effectively embarrassing Taylor Swift, Beyonce and himself.

When a stunned 19-year-old Taylor took the stage to accept the award for Best Female Music Video, she only managed to get a few words of thanks and surprise out before Kanye took the mic from her hands. “Taylor, I’m really happy for you, and I’m gonna let you finish, but Beyonce had one of the best videos of all time,” he said. And then he was gone.

Poor Taylor was left in stunned silence on stage and cameras turned to a clearly embarrassed Beyonce, who later won Video of the Year. During her acceptance speech, she invited Taylor on stage to give her another shot at her moment. A very nice gesture, but I doubt Taylor feels much better about the evening.

If the list of winners of the 2009 MTV VMA’s that’s currently circulating entertainment forums and boards is legitimate, someone at MTV probably will be out of a job tomorrow. The leaked list shows all the winners of the major categories, including Best New Artist and Video of the Year.

So who’s racking up the moon-men this year? By the looks of it, Lady Gaga might be going home with six awards tomorrow evening. She will allegedly be collecting awards for most of the major categories like Best New Artist. She should also be receiving Best Pop Video and Video of the Year for her song “Poker Face” while her song “Papparrazzi” earns her Best Direction, Best Cinematography and Best Art Direction.

Rapper Eminem also seems to be winning big with Best Male Video, Best Hip-Hop Video, and Best Special Effects for “We Made You.”

Also according to the list, artists Matt & Kim are the winners for Breakthrough Video. Matt & Kim will be playing Lansdowne Pub on October 7.

With the leakage of a document like this, obviously its validity has been called into question. Could Lady Gaga really win that many awards over rivals Beyonce and Britney Spears? There is much speculation about the Best New Artist award as well because voting for that category is still open to people. Unless based on the number of votes already tallied, Lady Gaga has such a ridiculous lead that she’s already been declared the winner. Or it’s all one big conspiracy and MTV just picks the artist they think should win. Form your theories now.

The Britney and Beyonce fan bases feeling ill at ease about Lady Gaga’s possible domination should know that neither female seems to be going home empty-handed. Spears is supposed to walk away with Best Editing for “Circus” and Beyonce with “ËœBest Female Video’ and “ËœBest Choreography’ for “ËœSingle Ladies (Put a Ring on it).’

The 2009 VMA’s air live tomorrow at 9 p.m. hosted by British comedian Russell Brand. Tune in to see if the leak was real or an elaborate PR stunt by MTV.

CAMBRIDGE — Harmonix Music Systems audio lead Eric Brosius makes his living playing with the soundtrack to your life, and he’s never had more fun than with Beatles Rock Band.

We talked to Eric about crossing Abbey Road, the fleeting nature of fame and the tyranny of two-track recordings.

Blast’s Ben Lindbergh: When you sat down to select the songs initially — I don’t know exactly who was involved in that — how much weight was assigned to the popularity of the song of the song or the success of the song, versus how much fun you thought it would be to play, or how easy it would be to represent with the notes?

Eric Brosius: We definitely considered both of those things, like we always do. Actually, that’s pretty much what we do in all of Rock Band, there’s always this balance between playability and how popular it is, and some songs are in there for different reasons. But yeah, we wanted to find”"pretty much all the Beatles songs are famous, outside of just a few. They’re one of the rare bands where like 80 percent of the catalog is completely famous, and 20 percent is lesser known. So, it was pretty easy to find songs that we thought everyone would just love playing, but that were also giant hits.

But we definitely looked at that, for sure. We also looked out for — you know, we wanted to grab songs from their entire career. From the beginning, and have roughly an equal number of songs from the different periods, just to make sure we hit all of their major albums and all of the time periods, and stuff like that. So it was just balancing those things together. There were some tricky things in the early songs, because some early songs were maybe harder to get, just because of the limited number of tracks that they had. So, we were always balancing that, and then we were talking to Giles Martin, who did all the actual mixing for us, because he knew the track layouts for every single song they’ve ever done, and he would always go, “ËœOh yeah, that’s problematic because of this, but this one I think we could do instead, because there’s some an extra tape of other stuff on here that we can use to make the song work.’

BL: So he had some sort of software that would be able to pick out the instruments individually when there was only a two-track recording, and then separate them somehow?

Harmonix Music Systems audio lead Eric Brosius makes his living playing with the soundtrack to your life, and he's never had more fun than with Beatles Rock Band. (Darcy Hofmann for Blast)

EB: Yeah. And sometimes with a two-track recording, it also depends on even what was on the tracks, because some things are easier to separate, and some things are not, just depending on how it was mixed. If it’s a two-track recording, and they had some things panned to one side, that’s easy to separate from stuff that’s in the middle or on the other side. If it was a two-track recording where the whole thing was a stereo wash right down the center, that makes it a lot harder. So he kind of knew, not just the number of tracks of each song, but kind of where things were, and whether we would have an easier time separating them. Because yes, you can separate stuff, but it’s not a perfect solution. Some songs are kind of easy to get nice, clean separation, and some songs are harder, so we used all of that knowledge together.

BL: So then he would do all the work in Abbey Road, with some assistants, and then someone would come over here with a briefcase chained to his arm?

Sometimes with a two-track recording, it also depends on even what was on the tracks, because some things are easier to separate, and some things are not

EB: Well, he knew all about the Beatles stuff and mixing, so he and his guy, Paul Hicks, were in charge of actually recreating the mixes. Because the first step is just to like bring up the tapes, transfer them to digital, and then recreate the mix. Because what’s on the raw tape doesn’t usually sound like the raw mix in music. So, they spent a lot of time doing that, just making sure it came out, and they can recreate all the effects if there weren’t effects. Because sometimes effects weren’t printed to tape, right, they were this old gear, so they spent a lot of time doing that. And then we would usually fly over there and spend like five days there when we were going to pick up a batch of songs, and where they would bring up the mixes they had, and we would do some further editing, deciding which parts are going to be our playable guitar part, and which parts are not.

And then while we were at the studio, we’d bounce out the actual stems we needed for the game, and then we’d encode them into the final version that the game ships with right there, which was encrypted and high-security and all that kind of stuff. So we did everything there, and then we just brought the finished game assets back with us, because they were pretty keen on leaving all the original assets at Abbey Road, because they’re somewhat protective, as they should be.

BL: Was the fact that the remasters were being developed simultaneously, was there any work that was able to be saved or shared there, or was it just two separate processes?

EB: It was pretty much two separate processes, because on things that we’re doing, we’re going back to the multi-tracks. I’m not sure what was done in the mastering process, but usually remasterings are just, you go back to the two-track mixes, and then you use modern mastering techniques. So it was kind of separate, what they were doing was totally separate. I mean, it’s nice that they’re going to release them at the same time, which kind of shows how enthusiastic Apple and the Beatles are, which is cool, but it was really two separate processes.

Blast editor John Guilfoil: Can you kind of run our readers through the process of taking a song and putting it into Rock Band?

EB: Sure. So, for old songs like this, a lot of them are stored on magnetic tape. So the first thing to do is to transfer them to a digital format like Pro Tools, which is the standard that everyone uses. So you digitize all the tracks, and then the next step would be to take those and remix the song so it sounds like the original. Once the song is sounding good, with all the effects and levels balanced, then we bounce out stems, according to our specific needs, the ones we need in the game. Because we have one guitar player in the game, so if there are several guitars playing, at every given moment through the song, we decide which one is going to be the part you’re going to play. And that ends up being a composite of, maybe a little of John’s guitar here, maybe a little of George’s here, and that kind of thing.

And we bounce out the stems that we actually need for the game, then we basically encrypt them, interleave them into a single file that our game reads. So we have that, and that’s the audio part of it, it’s fairly straightforward. And then we have a team of people here that kind of transcribe all the music, putting down all the gems that you see, laying down all the tracks and putting the lyrics in. And that’s basically kind of like transcription using MIDI files, basically.

BL: So for someone who grew up listening to the ’80s pressings of the CDs, or compressed .mp3 versions of the songs and hasn’t heard the remasters yet, would this be the cleanest and the best they’ve ever heard the Beatles, even though it’s meant for playing as well as listening, and so there are compromises that have to be made there?

Blast spent the day at Harmonix learning about the game and its development. (Darcy Hofmann for Blast)

EB: I think so. And the thing that’s going to — yes, because part of the thing with Rock Band is, we’ll sometimes make some changes to the mixes. Sometimes, if there was a guitar part that was pretty buried in the original mix, but we want that to be the playable one, sometimes we’ll boost it a little bit so you can hear it more, because you want to hear the notes that you’re actually playing. So we always try to walk this line between — we don’t want to change history or anything like that, but with Giles’ approval, we would sometimes alter things. You know, “ËœLet’s bring that up a little bit, because that’s going to be the playable part.’ So there are some things like that.

And the other really cool thing about the game is that, because most of our game is kind of featured around live stuff, most of the songs, we don’t have fadeouts in them, usually. And many times they went back to the way they actually played it in the studio, that usually had a proper ending. Because they’ll usually do the fade-out later, right in the mix. So in our game, a lot of times you get to hear the proper endings, which is really cool. So it’s like a little bit of extra material in most songs. And probably the biggest one is in “ËœHelter Skelter’ we don’t do the big fade back in, so you get to hear the way they played it through, which is pretty cool, and I think Beatles fanatics will love that stuff.

BL: Did you sit down initially and say, “ËœWe know we’re going to have forty-five songs’ and then get a list of the catalog and cross things out, or did you start with a blank page, and say, “ËœWe have to have this one, and we have to have that one?’

EB: Well, we knew that we were going to have roughly forty to fifty songs, but we didn’t know exactly until the whole deal was worked out. So basically, everyone wrote down sixty or seventy of their favorite songs, and it was a bunch of the higher-ups at Harmonix, and the people at Apple, and Giles, and everyone, and we all kind of got together and came up with about forty-five, and then once in a while Giles would say, “ËœOh, I know this one can’t work, because this was actually just recorded on one track’ and we would just kind of work it out.

And then there would be a little bit of back-and-forth, of course, about, “ËœLet’s make sure that we have a good balance of Paul and John songs, so that we don’t just by accident have too many John songs and too many Paul songs’ and “ËœMake sure that we include the important George songs’ and all this balancing. Same thing we do when we select songs for Rock Band. You balance out a bunch of things”"we want to have songs from different decades, different styles, different things, so the same kind of process went through. And then we presented what we thought was our song list to the shareholders, who were Yoko and Paul and Ringo and Olivia Harrison, and they would give us their two cents on it, and we would make some adjustments. The song list was fairly easy to do.

BL: So they weren’t dictating anything, like “ËœThis song has to be in there, this one’s off-limits.’

EB: No. And the good thing is that Giles has worked with them before. He did the “Love” show, which is the big Cirque du Soleil thing in Las Vegas, he’s already kind of gone through this process with them, and he knows them very well, and they trust him. So that was one of the best things. Because we could kind of make all of our musical decisions, and if we got them blessed by Giles, then we were pretty confident that he could get them blessed by the important people. So, it made things very smooth.

Three-part vocal harmony is part of what makes Beatles Rock Band different from all other music games

BL: Were there any specific challenges that you faced as a result of the Beatles’ experimentation in the studio, or using somewhat exotic instruments that might not conform to the four-instrument mold? I know you have songs like “ËœBecause’ or “ËœShe’s Leaving Home’ coming out soon”"how do you face those challenges, or how do you conform to this set-up?

EB: Well, in some songs”"in the Beatles game, one of the cool things is we’re doing the harmonies, so that’s a big thing, because there’s so much importance on that. On other things where they had, maybe not a prominent guitar, but they had different instruments, we would probably swap them around, which we do in Rock Band once in a while. Like in, I think in “ËœStrawberry Fields’ you might end up playing the string parts a little bit on the guitar. And in a song like “ËœBecause’ which has no drums, right, that would be a song where the drummer just kind of sits out and relaxes for a while. We’re not going to add anything to it, because we don’t want to change the song.

BL: I know you wanted to span the whole career and represent each part accurately”"was there any thought that maybe the early Beatles or the late Beatles would appeal or connect to the modern audience more? Your first three downloadable albums coming out are from the middle-to-late period”"is there any consideration given to emphasizing that period?

EB: We didn’t really think about that too much. I think that we wanted to”"different fans have their different favorites, of course. So we really just wanted to tell the whole story of their career, so we wanted to just do that. As far as the downloads go, we know that technically we have an easier time with the later albums, because they tend to be cleaner, on four-track, where it’s easier, and harder times on the earlier albums. So it would be difficult to do Please Please Me as a full album, because while we could probably do a lot of the songs, it might be difficult, there might be some there that we’re just like, “ËœI don’t know how we’re going to get the separation.’

But that being said, if we choose to do more albums, I’m sure we’ll do some early ones too, because we want to do as much as we can. It just also happened that I think the first three albums that we picked are three of the pretty big, iconic ones”"Abbey Road, Sgt. Pepper’s. And we were going back and forth between Rubber Soul and Revolver, because we wanted something from that period, but we were debating back and forth.

BL: Would most of the team working on the game have described themselves as Beatles fans coming into it, or just sort of passionate music fans who came to appreciate the Beatles more during the process?

EB: Well, everyone’s a passionate music fan. I don’t think we had everyone was a passionate Beatles fan — certainly a fan in some ways — but we have a few people who were just obsessive. And so we set those guys on all the research. They’re the ones who spent hours poring over things, and making sure that the right person was playing the right guitar part, and they would look up, “ËœOkay, is John playing this lick, or is George playing this lick?’ And they would try to figure it out to make sure the animations looked right, because we can kind of control that. So we had at least a half a dozen Beatles fanatics, which was really good.

John M. Guilfoil and Marc Normandin of the Blast staff and Blast correspondents Steve Bagley and Darcy Hofmann contributed to this report.

MTV announced this week that it will develop a U.S. version of the British hit television series “Skins.”

The US version will retain one of the British show’s creators, Brian Elsley, as a writer and executive producer. But perhaps more importantly, MTV will maintain the unique writing and casting model that made “Skins” a success across the pond. This means MTV will select a group of unknown teenagers to be both the writers and stars of the show, which will be set in Baltimore.

“We intend to preserve the authenticity of the British version and are excited to collaborate with the original team to develop stories that will speak to American youth,” said Liz Gateley, Senior Vice President, MTV Series Development.

Like most teen dramas, “Skins” is about all the of the good and bad teenagers encounter growing up and looking for love. Since it’s premier in January 2007, it has made a major cultural impact on British teens, who are now sometimes referred to as the “Skins Generation.”

In the UK, “Skins” was the third highest-rated show of the year on the channel E4.‚  It also won a 2009 British Academy of Film and Television Arts Audience Award and Best Drama Series at the 2008 Broadcast Awards — the former of which is voted on by the public.

If you need a hit of video games in the morning to recover from last night’s session of… video games, you may just be an addict. But hey, all isn’t lost. MTV, which is barely a‚  music television station anymore, wants YOU to try out at casting calls being held nationwide to maybe, just maybe, join the ranks of reality TV on True Life.

MTV describes their search the best as such:

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So if you’re between the ages of 18 and 29 and have a serious addiction and a unique personality (MTV loves those) head on over here to the casting call directory to start your journey to reality television stardom.