NYE Tweets From Your Fave Celebs!

It's almost 2014, which means stars big and small will be out and about on both coasts.



For those brave (and foolhardy) enough to grapple with the crowds, you can try and see Miley Cyrus in Times Square.



Britney Spears will be performing in Las Vegas. And Pharrell will be in Miami.



But of course, Twitter is the great celebrity equalizer. A few of our favorite 2014-related Tweets:



Katie Couric

That last sunrise of the year! What are your resolutions? #Tulum pic.twitter.com/bcTnDT7H0e

— Katie Couric (@katiecouric) December 31, 2013

Justin Bieber

Have a fun New Years

— Justin Bieber (@justinbieber) December 31, 2013

Miley Cyrus

Yo 2014! If you ain't scuuuurd of me just ask 2013 what's up ❤️ pic.twitter.com/qbb4m4NVeC

— Miley Ray Cyrus (@MileyCyrus) December 31, 2013

Lena Dunham

Let's just cancel New Year's Eve

— Lena Dunham (@lenadunham) December 31, 2013

Alessandra Ambrisio

What are your #NYE traditions? In #Brazil we eat 7 fruits for good luck!

— Alessandra Ambrosio (@AngelAlessandra) December 30, 2013

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Happy New Year, ONTD! Let this post be ur FFA! What are ur plans??

Miley Cyrus is Bisexual Says Reports

...

New reports claim that Miley has been 'experimenting with women' and is 'definitely bisexual'.







According to Life & Style magazine, Miley has embarked on a mission to explore her sexuality following her split from fiance Liam Hemsworth in September.



'She’s been experimenting with women and even brags that she’s had threesomes,' an insider close to the star told the U.S. publication.



Miley was only recently linked to actor Kellan Lutz, and prior to that to her producer, Mike WILL Made It.



However a second source told the magazine that the 21-year-old has not limited her romantic pool.



The source said Miley 'is definitely bisexual. She has women over to her house all the time and hooks up with them.



'Lately she is more interested in women than men. She was completely brokenhearted after Liam and is kind of over men for the time being.



'I wouldn't be surprised if a woman came out and said she has hooked up with her soon.'



But despite the reports, Miley certainly didn't seem to be hiding her behaviour as she shared a kiss with a backing dancer at Britney Spears' concert on Friday.



At the opening night of Spears' Vegas residency she twerked with two scantily clad dancers before pulling one towards her for the kiss, which was caught on video.







Miley also tweeted a picture last week of herself kissing English model Cara Delevingne, writing: ''LOVE!!!!! We finally got the filmed developed Mush!'



A rainbow symbol was pasted over the photo.



Despite her apparent desire to embrace an edgy new image, there are said to be some aspects of her life that Miley is not so keen to publicise.



'Engaging in bad behavior in front of people the way Miley does is like playing Russian roulette,' an insider told Life & Style.



'It’s just a matter of time before one of her so-called friends attempts to sell her out.'



S O U R C E

Music Industry Winners 2013: Beyonce, Streaming, Rap DJs

Earlier today I offered up a few big names in the music industry who’ve seen better years than 2013. Now it’s time to outline three of the biggest winners.

There were certainly other success stories in the music business over the past year, but these three struck me as being particularly notable:

Beyoncé

As discussed in my previous post, 2013 was supposed to be the Year of Gaga. It wasn’t. Instead, three other pop divas stole the spotlight—first Miley Cyrus, then Lorde, and, most boldly of all, Beyoncé.

That’s not to discredit the cleverness of Cyrus and her team in hijacking the VMAs, not to mention the national discourse on popular music. And it’s no knock on Lorde, who came from nowhere (rather, New Zealand) to deliver music that seems to have made people truly excited about, well, music.

But the surprise launch of Beyoncé’s self-titled album is perhaps most revolutionary not for what it did, but for what it didn’t do. Mrs. Carter is one of the biggest pop stars on the planet, signed to one of its more storied labels. Yet she didn’t make use of any of the perks of such an arrangement—the “machine” we’re told is so necessary. There was no radio promotion, no single, no advance press of any kind.

“The fact that nearly 900,000 customers were willing to pay full price to buy this album is testament to the passionate dedication of Beyoncé’s legions of fans,” one veteran entertainment attorney told me. “Most artists have to pre-sell or hype albums by giving away singles on various websites, or streaming the album.”

The result: an opening week total that was more than Gaga’s and Katy Perry’s, combined. Is her success replicable? Probably not. Would it have worked for someone else? Perhaps five or ten other stars. And it’s worth noting that the album, only available as an iTunes download for its first week, was pirated extensively. But having the gumption to take such a risk? That’s what it takes to run the world.

Streaming

The first six months of 2013 saw 50 billion audio and video streams, a 24% increase over the same period last year, according to a Nielsen report. Meanwhile, a study by Siemer & Associates revealed that industrywide streaming revenue increased by 40%, to $1.1 billion, in 2012.

That’s bad news for MP3s—indeed, individual track sales slipped industrywide in the first half of the year. The trend should continue in 2014, and the beneficiaries are the likes of Spotify, Pandora, Songza, Rdio and iHeartRadio. Who emerges from this crowded field is another question.

The streaming revolution is also bad news for piracy. The aforementioned services have made the user experience so easy that downloading illegally—or legally—is comparatively cumbersome and undesirable (unless, of course, it’s an album like Beyoncé’s that is only available as a digital file).

Streaming services and rights holders still have plenty to sort out, but if and when they do, music could be well on its way to solving one of its biggest problems.

Hip-Hop Producer-DJs

Electronic Dance Music has been heating up—and has perhaps been overheated—for a couple of years now. One need only take a glance at the nightly grosses for some of the world’s highest-paid DJs, many of whom often pull in six figures for a single performance.

It’s a frothy market that is spilling over to some names that might be familiar to hip-hop fans: Lil Jon, Jermaine Dupri and Questlove of the Roots, to name a few. These turntablists can easily earn $20,000-$40,000 per night to spin at clubs looking for a different flavor of music than the ever-present EDM.

“A lot of these EDM dudes have their sets already recorded,” explained Dupri, who DJs about 100 shows per year. “So they don’t really be doing nothing when they get on the stage, they’re just faking the knobs and putting their hands in the air.”

Look for more veteran hip-hop producers like Dupri—and perhaps even bigger names, like Timbaland and Swizz Beatz—to augment their income in a similar fashion during the new year.

A continuation from this post



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The King of Pop Will Be Performing at Dick Clark’s New Year’s Rockin’ Eve!!

Enrique Iglesias will be joining other big name artists this New Year’s Eve to bring in 2014.



The Latin superstar will be rocking alongside Miley Cyrus, Macklemore & Ryan Lewis, Blondie and Icona Pop as they all help count down the new year during ABC’s “Dick Clark’s New Year’s Rockin’ Eve.”



Iglesias forms part of the East Coast cast of stars performing. Other performers will be live three time zones away as Black Eyed Peas singer Fergie hosts from the West Coast. They’ll include performances from Capital Cities, Daughtry, Ariana Grande, The Fray, Robin Thicke, Jennifer Hudson, Jason Derulo and Fall Out Boy.



TV Personality Ryan Seacrest will return for his ninth time to host the special. Jenny McCarthy has also been confirmed to return as Seacrest’s co-host.



The show’s official twitter feed has been counting down the days until the everyone’s eyes are on the New Year’s ball.

This yearly special brings together some of the biggest names in music to watch the ball drop at Times Square.



Just two hours before the ball drops, Seacrest will showcase some of the year’s best artists, groups and songs for “Dick Clark’s Primetime New Year’s Rockin’ Eve with Ryan Seacrest 2014.” This is when you can see Enrique Iglesias perform some of his biggest hits, no doubt one of them being his newest song “Heart Breaker.”



Finally, starting at 11:30 and going on for the rest of the night, the live countdown to midnight begins with “Dick Clark’s New Year’s Rockin’ Eve with Ryan Seacrest 2014, Parts 1 & 2.” The party will rock on until 2:12 a.m. ET.



The countdown begins on December 31st at 8 p.m. ET on ABC



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The Grey Lady Pans Britney, Stans for Miley

LAS VEGAS — For the last six years, the state of Britney Spears has been summed up best — and most frequently — by the simple phrase she intoned at the top of “Gimme More,” from 2007, that has since become a catchphrase: “It’s Britney, bitch.”



Not a tease, nor a boast, nor a taunt, it’s almost apologetic, an apt tagline for a star whose power is self-evident, but also blank and tautological. It’s what might appear on the business card of a performer with nothing left to add.



No surprise then that at 32, with more than two decades of performing under her belt, Ms. Spears has already arrived at the laurel-resting portion of her career, landing in a greatest-hits production so winning that it barely needs her at all.



Mostly, she’s a pinball during the 90-minute extravaganza “Britney: Piece of Me,” her new residency at the Axis Theater at Planet Hollywood Resort & Casino here that had its debut on Friday. Magical things are happening all around her — ornate sets, clever video displays, fiery dancing — but Ms. Spears is there mostly to activate memories, to be a souvenir for the eyes. Rarely did the voice booming out over the speakers appear to be coming directly from Ms. Spears’s mouth. Always a notch or three less committed than her backup dancers, she was at times downright listless.



But that’s not new: Ms. Spears has long been the pop star most obscured by her own songs. Especially in the second half of her career, since the mid-2000s, the period that followed her tabloid-documented meltdowns, she’s been putty for producers, who give her muscular tracks that ask little of her vocally — and even less emotionally — but leave her with an air of power and control.



Judging by the show’s narrative, she was invested with that power by dark forces. Early in the night, during the melancholic “Everytime,” she was a winged angel falling to earth, swarmed by vampiric dancers in all black when she landed. When they fled, Ms. Spears was remade. Now in a goth dominatrix outfit, she shifted gears to a medley of “...Baby One More Time” and “Oops!...I Did It Again,” the two early hits that cemented Ms. Spears’s image as knowing naïf.



This was Ms. Spears at her toughest during this show, which covers about two dozen songs from the whole span of her career, and which she’ll repeat some 100 times over the next two years. In general, the set design was more imposing than she was. At points she performed from inside a ring of fire, on top of a rolling pyramid, jumping off a huge prop tree and under a sheet of water falling from the ceiling. Even during “Freakshow,” when she had an audience member — in this case, the “Extra” host Mario Lopez — bound in a harness so she could walk him like a dog, she came off playful, not salacious. (Ms. Spears then signed a T-shirt for him.)



“Britney: Piece of Me” comes on the heels of Ms. Spears’s energetic but rarely inspiring eighth album “Britney Jean” (RCA), which sold only about 107,000 copies in its first week, the lowest opening of her career. She may have the name recognition of a global superstar, but not the drawing power she had even a few years ago. Performing here, in this 4,600-seat hall, is a relatively low-risk proposition, and doesn’t demand that she extend her relevance. (The first single from “Britney Jean” was “Work Bitch,” a nod to “It’s Britney, bitch.”)



This is also a transitional moment for Las Vegas, a town becoming less reliant on older-audience-skewing musical revues and leaning more heavily on nightclubs. Ms. Spears’s show is a midpoint between the then and now, a legacy act with cross-generational appeal offering a show that might as well have been run by a D.J. (This newly renovated theater, too, is a hybrid, with two standing-room pits and a row of V.I.P. bottle-service tables abutting the stage’s lip.)



“Piece of Me” is probably the least staid of the single-artist Vegas residencies; everything about it, save Ms. Spears, is splashy and top volume. The costumes, by Marco Marco, were vibrant, and the choreography, by the Squared Division, was powerful, particularly during “Scream & Shout,” when dancers maneuvered a pair of circular hamster-wheel-like structures. As for Ms. Spears, the version of her displayed on screen — from old videos and the like — almost always looked more confident and more comfortable than the Ms. Spears who was onstage.



That contrast was only heightened by the fact that throughout the night, one of Ms. Spears’s disciples, Miley Cyrus, was at a front row V.I.P. table, dancing enthusiastically and singing along. If Ms. Spears is one of the last Stepford pop stars, Ms. Cyrus is a new model — unpredictable, self-determining, actually fun.



Ms. Cyrus has long pledged loyalty to Ms. Spears as her childhood idol, and even collaborated with her on a song from her Ms. Cyrus’s album, “Bangerz” (RCA), though Ms. Spears sounds robotic, especially up against Ms. Cyrus’s natural effervescence. But Ms. Cyrus’s presence in Las Vegas — she was one of a handful of celebrities at this show, along with Katy Perry and Selena Gomez — wasn’t wholly to display her devotion to Ms. Spears.



Later that night, she hosted the opening of Beacher’s Madhouse at the MGM Grand, an extension of the rowdy Los Angeles post-vaudeville nightclub of the same name. What had seemed, up close, like a night for Ms. Spears’s coronation as the latest of this city’s marquee names was in fact just a prelude. Ms. Spears may have hosted a cool party, but the night went on without her.





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Music Industry Losers 2013: Lady Gaga, Rock, iTunes Store

There are only a couple days left to take a look back at the year that was before we careen into the new one. And when it comes to the music industry, it’s a fascinating glance—2013 has brought more than its share of change to a business already in flux.

Some in the industry have adapted better than others. As part of a series of year-end posts, I’ll begin by pointing out a few who didn’t fare so well over the past 12 months before moving on to the winners. Away we go.

Lady Gaga

This was supposed to be the year of Gaga—the time when the Queen Monster regained her throne after a self-imposed quiet period. Instead, Miley Cyrus twerked her way into the spotlight this summer, Lorde dominated the airwaves this fall, and Beyoncé shocked the world as much any superstar could with her surprise album earlier this month.

Gaga’s highly-anticipated album, however, got lukewarm reviews from many critics even though it was actually not that bad. Worse yet, it failed to generate anywhere near the buzz of the aforementioned trio. For an artist who’s all about buzz, that’s a problem. From a business perspective, so is her recent split with tech-savvy manager Troy Carter.

Still, Gaga is one of the top-earning acts in the world and has millions of incredibly loyal fans. Even if some don’t care for ARTPOP, she has built a fairly extensive catalogue of hits to go with her considerable talents as a performer—and shouldn’t have trouble filling up arenas when she hits the road this spring. That could make 2014 quite a lot better for her than 2013.

Rock Music

Remember the 1990s? Rock was still dominating the charts, thanks to acts like Nirvana and Pearl Jam and the Stone Temple Pilots. Even the poppy rock acts like Everclear and Third Eye Blind that rose to prominence later in the decade couldn’t have been mistaken for representatives of another genre.

Lately, it seems good old-fashioned rock has been gobbled up and incorporated into the musical Frankenstein that is modern pop. You can find elements of it in the efforts of radio-friendly country acts like Eric Church and Jason Aldean, or on EDM prodigy Avicii’s smash “Wake Me Up,” co-written by Mike Einziger of Incubus. (Incorporating other kinds of music into EDM is “a way to advance the genre so it doesn’t get stuck,” Avicii told FORBES earlier this year).

The grunge legends of the 1990s have even been popping up in mainstream hip-hop, thanks to Jay Z’s and Justin Timberlake’s Kurt Cobain sample on “Holy Grail” and the former’s live collaboration with Pearl Jam on “99 Problems.” But as a standalone genre, rock has gone missing on the pop charts.

Tastes change, of course, and perhaps the pendulum will swing back sometime soon. Still, it’s going to take more than, say, a new album from the Foo Fighters to return pure rock to its former prominence on the charts. But that would be a start.

The iTunes Store

Apple’s digital music flagship turned ten years old earlier this year to much fanfare, but in this writer’s opinion, it’s unlikely to last another ten. That’s because MP3s are already heading the way of the CD on account of the rapid rise and adoption of streaming.

“People have built up libraries,” BTIG’s Walter Piecyk explained to me earlier this year. “But the functionality of something like Spotify and the fact that it works across multiple devices reduces the interest in buying songs through iTunes and reduces that as a point of differentiation for Apple.”

Apple knows it, too—that’s part of the reason the company finally launched iTunes Radio earlier this year. Though the streaming service seems to be doing well, it’s got plenty of competition from the likes of Pandora, Spotify, iHeart Radio and, soon, Beats By Dr. Dre’s Beats Music. All of those should erode the iTunes Store’s music sales going forward. Fortunately for Apple, the company has a few other things going for it.

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Miley Cyrus is edgy in case you forgot: p!nk mohawk, compares herself to Madonna, etc

Miley Cyrus sports a pink mohawk on the cover of Love magazine’s latest issue!



The 21-year-old singer recently opened up to The New York Times about how she is a visual artist and compared herself to Madonna.



“I went from people just thinking I was, like, a baby to people thinking I’m this, like, sex freak that really just pops molly and does lines all day. It’s like, ‘Has anyone ever heard of rock ’n’ roll?’ There’s a sex scene in pretty much every single movie, and they go, ‘Well, that’s a character.’ Well, that’s a character. I don’t really dress as a teddy bear and, like, twerk on Robin Thicke, you know?” Miley said.



“Last night, I was talking about some Madonna performances, and I said, ‘At some point, everything becomes irrelevant.’ Like, no one even thinks about when she did ‘Like a Virgin’ at the V.M.A.s. That just becomes a standard, where it’s just like, ‘Oh, that’s her thing.’ So, I feel like now that I did the V.M.A.s, that just kind of became a standard for me, and then anytime I do anything else, they’re like, ‘Miley kept it tame tonight,’” she added.



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Miley Cyrus says Kellan Lutz is ‘using her’ for her fame

Everyone in the universe has noticed that Miley Cyrus, 21, is the “it girl” of the moment, and apparently her rumored beau Kellan Lutz is no different. Sources close to Miley told HollywoodLife.com EXCLUSIVELY that Miley thinks the 28-year-old former Twi-hunk is using her for her fame!



Looks like Miley and Kellan’s hookup might not be as serious as we initially thought. Despite the fact that Kellan joined Miley in Vegas for the Dec. 27 opening of Beacher’s Madhouse in Las Vegas, sources close to the star told HollywoodLife.com EXCLUSIVELY that all of that relationship talk is just that — talk.



“The timing of these hookups are suspect to Miley,” the sources says. “She thinks that he might be using her for the media aspect of things. He has a movie coming out next week and a lot of late night shows and other places will cover [their relationship], and will want to book him on their shows. So she is very suspect of his true intentions, that is the main reason she isn’t diving into a relationship with him.”



Miley Cyrus Exposes Nipples In 'Adore You' Teaser



Sounds like Miley has really grown up since that “Wrecking Ball” of a relationship with Liam Hemsworth took so much out of her. Good for you, Miley, for playing it safe!



Of course, Miley did send a pretty solid message to Kellan at the Beacher’s party on Dec. 27. She showered him with affection, sure, but he wasn’t the only one — Miley also kissed a lingerie-clad female dancer, appeared to be flirting with her assistant, Cheyne Thomas, and even chatted up a mystery man wearing a bow tie before she finally acknowledged Kellan’s presence. Now that’s how you play the game.



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Britney Spears: 'It's in my blood to perform'

LAS VEGAS — The big white snake and that awards show kiss. The electric professional highs and those crushing personal lows.



All traces of that particular tabloid queen have vanished from an airless backstage room at Planet Hollywood Resort & Casino, leaving behind only a tired, sweaty yet still smiling 32-year-old working stiff named Britney Jean Spears.



"I didn't sleep last night because I'm excited," Spears tells USA TODAY, her soft Louisiana drawl peeking out as she plops down on a leather couch after another grueling rehearsal. "But today I'm dying. I feel like I'm drunk, I'm so tired, you know?"



It's not hard to imagine the stress and strain Spears is under. For the past four months, the onetime queen of teen pop has been laboring on her new stage show, Britney: Piece of Me, a two-year, 98-gig residency that kicked off Friday at the custom-tweaked, 7,000-seat Axis theater here.



Beyond the inevitable scrutiny of a pop-culture kingdom she once ruled, there's the sheer rigor of blasting through 24 largely uptempo hits with countless costume changes and wild set pieces that include her leaping off a massive fake tree.



But for Spears, whose at-home dramas — ranging from divorce to hospitalization — sometimes appeared to threaten her onstage dreams, it was never really if she was going to clamber back on the showbiz diving board, but when.



"It's in my blood to perform," says Spears, dressed in black dancer's tights and a football-type jersey bearing the number 25. Her bleached-blond hair is pinned to the top of her head; one hand fusses with her upper lip.



Most stars in this decidedly un-starlike state would simply refuse to be seen, but Spears seems as confident as your neighbor coming back from a jog.



"I'm a hometown girl, and my personality at home is the opposite of the performer in me," she says. "But then, when I'm home and haven't done anything for a while, I get really itchy and nervous and weird-feeling. Performing is my therapy, to become different people onstage.



She pauses, her voice but a whisper. "It gives me confidence. I don't have that much confidence in myself. But when I'm onstage, it's my alter ego, and it kind of does adjust my personality."



Vegas offered the perfect outlet for those dueling personas.



"I'm a family girl and (like) being in one place. Traveling around the world is really strenuous for me, being in a different bed every night, flying and everything," she says, shaking her head. "I look back now, and I don't see how I did it. This (residency) just seems ideal. It's an hour from L.A., from my home, and it's perfect."



Well, almost. Comfortable onstage since her pre-teen Mouseketeer days, Spears made a name for herself in the early 2000s as a dancing force in the model of her heroine, Madonna. But the body of a teenager is forgiving, less so the one of a thirtysomething mom. Spears recently hit the spa at a neighboring Strip hotel and confesses that she never wanted to leave, a take-me-away luxury that rivals disappearing into a favorite movie (Bridesmaids) or book (Emily Giffin's Heart of the Matter).



"These intense workouts have really been excruciating," she says, sighing. "It's probably the hardest workout I've ever done, ever in my life, getting ready for this show. I look back at my other tours, and I'm doing more songs here than I've ever done. And it's just way more, the speed of the dancing throughout."



That tempo is thanks to a catalog of hits that a much older performer would envy, ranging from her teen-vixen breakout smashes, 1998's ... Baby One More Time and 2000's Oops! … I Did It Again, to the will.i.am-helmed dance grind Work Bitch off her just-released album, Britney Jean. While this eighth effort is her slowest-selling to date — just 107,000 copies in its first week — there's enough depth to the past decade and a half of chart success to fuel the show.



"Let's remember it's been almost 15 years since her first album, and that's an anniversary to celebrate, one that makes it feel right to have a retrospective show like this," says her manager Larry Rudolph, taking direct aim at a criticism that his client (he also represents Miley Cyrus) might be too young for a Vegas residency.



"Very few performers have 15 years in the business, let alone that many years with lots of hits," he says. "Miley called me the other day and told me, 'I've just spent the past few days watching all of Britney's (music) videos, and she's unbelievable. She just murdered it every time.' This (run) is more than warranted."



While there's no debating that Spears is far younger than her Vegas residency compadres — notably Celine Dion, 45, Shania Twain, 48, and Rod Stewart, 68 — her youth is an asset when it comes to producing a high-energy, club-oriented spectacle aimed at a new and younger breed of Vegas visitor lured by the Strip's burgeoning commitment to electronic dance music. Here, Britney billboards do battle with ads for sets by all-star DJs such as Tiesto, Steve Aoki and Calvin Harris.



"My guess is this (residency) is a good bet for Vegas, as there are enough people who were teens with (Britney) and now are in their 30s and revisiting their love of her dance hits," says Gary Bongiovanni, editor of concert industry magazine Pollstar.



He adds that while any new act in town faces the challenge posed by "Vegas being, arguably, one of the busiest entertainment cities in the world," he notes that any show offering "a lot of eye candy is basically addressing what most visitors there come to expect."



But Britney could well be shooting for something far greater than simply being just another fun Vegas night out, says Rolling Stone columnist Rob Sheffield.



"With this show, she's making a bold claim on her place in pop-culture history," he says. "Everyone's always predicted a flame-out from her, but the new album shows she can expand her sound. She'll have to be bold, but this is a chance to shine."



For Spears, staying busy will be its own reward.



"I know nearly 100 shows sounds like a lot, but I'm excited," she says. "I'm the type of person who, if I don't have enough to do, I go crazy. I have to stay busy. It's a good thing to stay busy."



The plan is to do four or so shows a week, then head from a penthouse suite here back to her Los Angeles home and overseeing her boys' (Sean, 8, and Jayden, 7, with Kevin Federline) school and sports schedules, a working-mom juggling act she credits to the efficiency of a trusted assistant.



"I love my family," says Spears, whose father and conservator, Jamie, is never far from sight backstage. "I get excited being around them. For me, it's about relatives and cousins, as much as they can drive you crazy. It's about them."



If she is feeling the pressure to demonstrate that she still has what it takes professionally, she's not showing it.



"I love what I do, and at this point in my career, I don't feel like I have anything to prove," she says. "I didn't do much promotion for the new album for that reason. I don't feel like I have to do every TV show. I just want to perform and inspire people. When I'm tired and I see one of my dancers pick up my part, they inspire me. I think that's why we're here, to inspire each other."



She sips a drink from a straw. "Performing gives me a fearless feeling, like you can conquer anything. I guess it's a false confidence, actually."



In fact, certain things scare Spears.



"A lot of things do, yeah. Um, like I'm not good in social settings," she says. "And I'm not good with heights. Or any animals other than my animals. I'm scared of dogs. I have dogs, but they're tiny. I'm scared of other dogs. I got attacked by two dogs when I was younger."



Clearly, snakes are exempt from that fear, as evidenced by her memorable cultural moment, akin to Miley's MTV Video Music Awards twerk-a-thon: draping herself with a massive white python for the 2001 VMAs performance of I'm a Slave 4 U.



Spears smiles at the memory. That was a lifetime ago. A teenage dream. Her thirtysomething reality lies ahead.



"I'm happy with where I am," she says. It comes off as a statement, not a plea. And for the next two years, the world can come to Las Vegas and see for themselves.



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LA Times: "Britney's "Piece Of Me" Vegas Show Demonstrates Only Loss"

LAS VEGAS -- The show is called “Piece of Me,” and that’s exactly what it delivers -- no more, no less.

Clad in a version of the bedazzled bodysuit she wore a decade ago in the video for her song “Toxic,” Britney Spears launched her much-discussed two-year residency at Planet Hollywood Resort & Casino by emerging from a giant metal globe suspended over the stage of the Axis Theater. “Work Bitch,” the lead single from her latest album, thumped through the venue’s booming sound system as an army of masked dancers marched around her. Smoke swirled, fans hoisted miniature bottles of Moët & Chandon.

For a few tantalizing moments Friday night, Spears -- the one-time teen-pop queen who’s spent much of the last few years inching back from the brink -- seemed ready to reclaim her once-vivid form. Then the bubble burst.

Scheduled to run through 2015, with Spears playing approximately 50 shows a year at the 4,600-seat Axis, “Piece of Me” represents a potential pivot point for the singer and the state of entertainment on the Las Vegas Strip.

For Spears, 32, the steady gig promises a path out of the turmoil and disappointment that have surrounded her since 2007, when she attacked a paparazzo’s car with an umbrella after shaving her head at a Tarzana salon.

Though Spears’ personal life appears to have stabilized, her career is still hurting: This month her album “Britney Jean” opened with the lowest sales of the singer’s 15-year career; it sits at No. 27 on the Billboard 200, well behind records by Katy Perry and Miley Cyrus, both of whom showed up Friday night as a sign of respect to a trailblazer.

Filling the Axis, the thinking seems to go, might restore some of Spears’ luster without her having to engage in direct competition with her younger successors.

Las Vegas, meanwhile, stands the chance to further dismantle its reputation as a home for has-beens. Successful casino shows by the likes of Celine Dion and Elton John have advanced that effort, but with its jackhammering dance beats and recent-vintage radio hits, “Piece of Me” bridges the gap between those old-school extravaganzas and the superstar DJ sets that have increasingly come to define the city’s night life.

In terms of show-business strategy, it seems to make sense. Yet as a concert experience Spears’ opening-night performance came up awfully short.

Like most Vegas revues, “Piece of Me” moves briskly, packing two dozen of Spears’ songs -- from early smashes such as “… Baby One More Time” and “Oops! … I Did It Again” through last year’s “Scream & Shout” and the new album’s “Perfume” -- into a 90-minute sprint that offers the star only a few opportunities to catch her breath.

Plenty happens in that hour and a half. In “I Wanna Go” she danced with digitized versions of herself seemingly reflected in several faux mirrors -- think Snow White in Sin City -- while “Scream & Shout” featured a pair of neon-clad dancers running on gigantic hamster wheels.

For “Toxic” the stage transformed into a lush jungle tableau, a convincing attempt to keep up with the various eye-popping Cirque du Soleil shows in production across Las Vegas. And “Everytime” found Spears suspended over the stage again, a stories-tall gown flowing beneath her.

Smaller moments complemented the elaborate set pieces, as when Spears did a stripped-down rendition of “Lucky” set to a forlorn music-box arrangement.

Whatever the scale of the number though, the singer’s presence felt so diminished -- her dancing a tentative shadow of what it used to be, her vocals apparently lip-synced for the majority of the show -- as if to make the production’s title seem a taunt.

That was never more true than in the song “Piece of Me,” which on 2007’s “Blackout” -- perhaps Spears’ best album, released right in the thick of her public meltdown -- arrived like a searing indictment of the tabloid surveillance state. On record the track still stings, yet here it flat-lined, with none of the intensity, energy or strut that made Spears such a focal point of mainstream pop.

Throughout Friday’s concert the singer seemed merely to be marking the type of moves she once nailed to the stage; her boilerplate banter (“What’s up, Vegas? I can’t hear you!”) had a similarly uncommitted quality. To the extent that Spears had anything to say, it was overpowered rather than accentuated by the lights and the sets and the clips from her iconic music videos that played each time Spears ran offstage for a costume change.

You can understand her difficulty in meeting these demands. A decade (and two children) after her commercial peak, she’s in a dramatically different position than she was during the days of “Me Against the Music” and “I’m a Slave 4 U.”

Her life, one presumes, no longer allows for leaving it all on the stage.

But then why put her in this show, which neither revisits her old mode effectively nor presents a compelling new approach? “Piece of Me” demonstrates only loss; it suggests that instead of looking forward, Spears (and her handlers) are playing a dangerously cynical short game, exploiting the interest her name still inspires without regard for how the act’s shoddiness may limit her future options.

Spears’ game needn’t be over, yet she’s cashing in all her chips.

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Who inspires Britney Spears? Beyonce, Bruno — and her ex JT.

LAS VEGAS — Roaring into an opening weekend for Britney: Piece of Me, her new two-year residency at Planet Hollywood Resort & Casino, the onetime fixture on the charts and in tabloids romped through a 24-song spectacle that brought out fans such as Katy Perry and Miley Cyrus, both of whom owe Spears a rump-shaking debt.



But backstage prior to Friday's kickoff, Spears pointed admiring fingers anywhere but at herself, telling USA TODAY that she "looks up to Beyoncé, what she did with her (surprise release) album was genius, really brilliant."



As for Cyrus, with whom she shares her longtime manager, Larry Rudolph, Spears says: "She's cool, she's fun to be around. You know, she's got really good energy."



And her admiration for the King of Pop, Michael Jackson, was made evidence during her "favorite part of the show, where it's just me in the spotlight (during Me Against the Music) with a hat on, which is really a tribute to Michael



She's also a fan of New Zealand teen sensation Lorde, "who is really different and cool … This generation is hungry for new sounds. Bruno Mars is so different and fresh, and (ex-boyfriend) Justin Timberlake is, too. It's inspiring for me, and it makes people eager to listen to music, which helps everyone."



The only thing that bums Britney out? The demise of the CD and an album-oriented music business.



"We're too smart for our own good," she says backstage at the Axis theater, which was redesigned to suit her spectacle-heavy show. "We're at the point where the simplicity of buying a CD and the specialness has gone. I think it's a shame. The whole process of buying a record was so special."



Source

This humble Queen. Always giving other artists respect and praise when it's due.

Lil' Kim releases new single; announces Miley Cyrus collaboration; covers Rolling Out magazine

Kanye West and Kim Kardashian named worst neighbours of 2013

Kanye West and Kim Kardashian have been named as the worst neighbours of 2013 in a new survey.



The rapper and his TV personality wife had the dubious honour of taking first place in the poll by real estate website Zillow in their Celebrity Neighbour Survey. A quarter of Americans surveyed in the list named West and Kardashian as the least desirable neighbours of the year, putting them ahead of the cast of the show Here Comes Honey Boo Boo.



Zillow's Chief Marketing Officer Amy Bohutinsky said: "No one wants to live next door to a family who has cameras following them everywhere and seems to seek out as much attention as possible. However, with more than one-third of surveyed Americans preferring a non-celebrity neighbor, what remains clear is that many people don’t want to live next to any celebrity, regardless of why they are famous."



16 per cent of people surveyed claimed that Miley Cyrus and Justin Bieber would be the worst neighbours imaginable, with 4 per cent plumping for Lady Gaga instead. Comedian Jimmy Fallon was chosen as the most desirable neighbour, meanwhile, with 11 per cent of the vote.



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Neighbors from hell stories?

Beyonce On Course for Third Week at No. 1

Beyonce is on course to score her longest-running No. 1 album on the Billboard 200 chart. Based on sales forecasts from industry sources, her new self-titled set should stay put atop next week's Billboard 200 for a third consecutive week. Sources suggest the album could sell upwards of 250,000 copies by the end of the tracking week on Sunday, Dec. 29. This past week, it spent its second frame at No. 1, moving 617,000 according to Nielsen SoundScan. In the album's first 10 days of release, it sold 991,000 copies. If "Beyonce" is No. 1 for a third week, it will mark the diva's longest-reigning chart-topper. While all five of her studio albums have reached No. 1, her longest rule atop the list is two weeks (for both "Beyonce" and "4").



As for the rest of the top 10, expect to see familiar faces like One Direction's "Midnight Memories," Eminem's "The Marshall Mathers LP 2" and Katy Perry's "PRISM." The three albums are among the many that are experiencing a surge in sales after Christmas. It's traditional to see lots of albums earn increases in the week after Christmas, as consumers redeem newly-acquired gift cards (for digital download stores, especially).



Another release that's selling well is Justin Bieber's new collection, "Journals," which bowed on Monday, Dec. 23. The 15-song set contains 10 previously released tunes (made available as part of his weekly Music Mondays series) and five new cuts. The project -- exclusively sold through the iTunes Store -- could sell over 100,000. However, Billboard has been informed that iTunes will not be reporting sales for the set to Nielsen SoundScan, therefore it will not appear on Billboard’s charts.



On SoundScan's Building chart, Beyonce sits atop the list, while One Direction is at No. 2. The Building tally is a precursor to the final Billboard 200 ranking -- reflecting the first four days (Monday through Thursday) of SoundScan's tracking week as reported by six major merchants.



As for the rest of the top 10: Eminem and Katy Perry are Nos. 3 and 5, while Garth Brooks' "Blame It All On My Roots" is No. 4. The soundtrack to "Frozen" is No. 6, while two Christmas albums are up next: Kelly Clarkson's "Wrapped In Red" (No. 7) and the Robertsons' "Duck the Halls" (No. 8). It would be surprising to see "Wrapped In Red" or "Duck the Halls" album among the top 10 next week, since this tracking week only has two days of sales pre-Christmas (Dec. 23 and 24).



Lorde's "Pure Heroine" (No. 9) and Miley Cyrus' "Bangerz" (No. 10) round out the top 10.



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Miley Cyrus - Screw Twerking, I've Got a NEW DANCE

Miley Cyrus is giving her ass cheeks a rest ... at least on the dance floor ... where she's traded out her twerking-obsession for a NEW lame white person dance ... and TMZ has the footage!!!





The 21-year-old was gettin' down at LIV nightclub in Miami on Friday when she unleashed the new move -- which involves gyrating and invisible hair washing.



No word on what Miley calls her new move, but we've come up with a few suggestions ...



1) Dude, Where's My Hair?



2) Weave Can't Stop



3) The Dinglehopper Stroke ("Little Mermaid" reference, look it up)



Got a better one?

SOURCE

Miley Cyrus and Kellan Lutz Fuel Dating Rumors in Vegas

The pair were spotted hugging and flirting at the opening of Beacher's Madhouse on Friday night

Britney Spears's Vegas Show Draws Katy Perry, Miley Cyrus

The 21-song set features hits, great dancers and lots of lip-syncing

Katy Perry -- Britney Spears Concert ... I'd Rather Watch Paint Dry

Britney Spears blew everyone away during her Vegas debut last night ... everyone, but Katy Perry.Katy was front and center for the "Piece of Me" show -- rubbing elbows with Miley Cyrus and Adam Lambert -- and while Miley danced her ass off, Katy…

Miley Cyrus -- Gettin' Some at Beacher's After Britney Spears' Concert

Miley Cyrus may have a new guy ... or at least a new guy for the evening.We got pics of Miley at the opening of Beacher's Madhouse in Vegas after Britney's big opening ... which Miley also attended. Miley wasn't coy about it ... she clearly wanted…

Beyoncé and Lady Gaga Face Questions Over Collaborations With R.Kelly and Terry Richardson

It’s been quite the week for entertainment industry creeps. R. Kelly, a platinum-selling R&B artist who has been accused of raping dozens of teenage girls, is creeping back up the charts with his new album, Black Panties. And Terry Richardson, an in-demand photographer and director who has been accused of sexually harassing models, has wielded his creep cam for three of the year’s most talked-about music videos: Miley Cyrus’ “Wrecking Ball,” Beyoncé’s “XO,” and—in a great moment of creep synergy—the forthcoming R. Kelly–Lady Gaga duet, “Do What U Want.” Cue the calls for reining pop stars to stop doing business with alleged sexual offenders. “Beyoncé should not have hired Richardson,” The Gloss weighed in. “It takes away from the message of empowerment that she so effectively spreads, and endorses a man who has made his career crossing lines (running right past them, really).”



That sounds nice, but here is when our pop idols will stop working with creeps:



When the creep dies.

When the creep is imprisoned.

When the creep stops making lots and lots and lots of money.



When we talk about the R. Kelly Problem (or the Chris Brown Problem, the Roman Polanski Problem, the Woody Allen Problem, the Josh Brolin Problem, or the Charlie Sheen Problem), we talk about whether we can separate the artist’s biography from his work, but we rarely talk about whether we can separate the artist from his industry. Why would Beyoncé, proud feminist, work with Richardson, confirmed creep? Why would Gaga, proud feminist, work with Kelly, perennial suspected teen rapist? They all have one thing in common: They are bankable stars in the music industry. Beyoncé's and Gaga’s feminism are undoubtedly important to many of their consumers, but the record industry doesn’t care about promoting women or ending child rape unless that message is selling this year. It simply requires its stars to keep making money and keep working with other people who do. Artists who hope to remain relevant in that industry would be wise to spread the lucrative message of empowerment while overlooking the powerful creeps in their midst. The fact that Kelly teamed up with Gaga to release a song in which she sings, “You can't stop my voice 'cause you don't own my life”—feminist!—“but do what you want with my body”—creepy!—shows how slipshod this construction often is.



That’s not to say that the stars are collaborating with creeps out of calculated greed. In the entertainment industry, it’s practically a requirement. Think about how hard it is to avoid consuming media that has been touched by a creep, suspected or confirmed. You can’t quote Annie Hall, listen to “Ignition (Remix),” dance to Rihanna’s “Birthday Cake,” watch Steelers football, read GQ, wear the clothes of H&M, download BEYONCÉ, watch The Pianist or 12 Years a Slave, or click on this viral wedding video. No matter your pop culture preferences, creeps abound. Still, creep avoidance presents a relatively simple monetary calculation for consumers. If you do reject investing in a piece of media because of its creep association, you get to make a morally righteous move and save yourself some cash. But if you’re a star who refuses to work with a creep, you risk bringing criticism onto yourself from industry executives, other artists, and their fans, while potentially missing out on a lot of money and maybe even compromising your career.



Star-led boycotts of industry creeps are rare. When you are a young R&B star and people ask if you’ll work with Chris Brown, you say yes. Consider what happens when a star makes even a light criticism of her collaborators: In 2007, Knocked Up star Katherine Heigl said she thought the movie was “a little sexist,” and Judd Apatow and Seth Rogen were still bitching about it two years later. “I didn't slip and I was doing fucking interviews all day too,” Rogen said. “I didn't say shit.” Heigl is still considered difficult to work with. And what got Charlie Sheen fired from Two and a Half Men? It wasn’t his history of allegedly beating, strangling, threatening, and (only once!) shooting women. It was the fact that he made anti-semitic and otherwise insulting remarks about series creator Chuck Lorre and began turning in a generally unfilmable performance—in other words, it wasn't his major moral transgressions. It was that he directly crossed someone who makes money while diminishing his capability to make money himself.



Of course, for some stars, selective condemnation is easy and can in fact help boost their brand in their particular market. “There's still a sense that being down with the predatory behavior of guys makes you chill, a girl with a sense of humor, a girl who can hang,” Lena Dunham wrote this week of the public endorsement of Kelly, after his long history of sexual assault accusations resurfaced. That’s easy for Dunham to say—it’s unlikely that any collaboration was ever in the cards for those two. (For the record, I have also made the difficult decision to decline to work with Kelly.) Dunham has, however, been photographed by Richardson; he is a hipster staple and also her friend. (this hypocritical twat, I stg)



In some cases, stars can actually help secure their foothold in the entertainment industry by enthusiastically working with creeps, thereby boosting the industry’s investment in both themselves and the offender. Since Brown beat, choked, bit, and threatened Rihanna with death, she's recorded three collaborations with him, including “Nobody’s Business,” a track about how her ongoing relationship with Brown is a private matter. When asked why she started working with Brown again, Rihanna said, “The hottest R&B artist out right now is Chris Brown.” A song like “Nobody’s Business” is, in fact, big business for the record industry, which can continue to promote Brown with Rihanna’s apparent endorsement. “Historically this is an industry that has shunned nothing, save red ink,” Ta-Nehisi Coates wrote at the time. “And it is powered by the sort of people whose talent are regularly transfigured into moral virtue.”



Making money affords these creeps the power to abuse, and making more money washes away their sins. In 2002, Kelly and Jay Z teamed up to release an album, The Best of Both Worlds. Then, the sexual assault allegations against Kelly broke, he was indicted on child pornography–related charges, the planned promotional tour was scrapped, and Jay Z distanced himself from Kelly. He didn’t do it to avoid being associated with an accused rapist; he did it to avoid being associated with a suddenly nonbankable star. After Kelly went on to put out two successful solo albums, Jay Z reignited the collaboration for 2004’s Unfinished Business. Kelly was still in and out of court, fighting the same charges. Now, Kelly is passing that message down to future generations of creeps. “I’ve got the utmost respect for Chris Brown,” Kelly said in 2011. “My hat goes off to him. Because why? He got in the studio, he did what he was supposed to do, and he bounced back like a round ball.”



Perhaps someday, the collective outrage of consumers will be compelling enough to make a creep collaboration a serious liability for a star. But until then, creeps will continue to creep. “As much as I love Beyoncé (which is A LOT) I wouldn't have bought her album if I knew I was putting money in Terry Richardson's pocket,” one fan wrote on Twitter this week. But how many among us would actually shun Beyoncé in order to punish Richardson? Not enough to make the calculation relevant.



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I love Bey's album but this shit is depressing.

Miley Cyrus grinds and makes out with Britney Spears' female dancers at Vegas show

MIley Cyrus -- Burglary Looks Like Inside Job

Whoever made off with the $100,000 worth of jewelry and purses from Miley Cyrus' house last month did it from the inside ... at least that's what law enforcement believes.Our cop sources tell us ... they've looked at various surveillance videos from…

Princess Katy Perry and inbred hick Miley Cyrus support Britney @ Planet Hollywood

Soy excited to see @britneyspears baby bottle pop it off tonight at her grand opening @phvegas! We are coming in full lewks to support! 💅👄👅🍼

— Katy Perry (@katyperry) December 28, 2013

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That last outfit is tragic.

Lorde is the Nirvana of today

ONTD Roundup

For Thursday, December 26, 2013:

• Joan Rivers Says Jennifer Lawrence Should 'Grow Up'


• Plus Size Barbie Causes Controversy


• Tom Hiddleston vs. Benedict Cumberbatch: The Dance-Off


• Miley Cyrus' Video for 'Adore You'


• Kanye Paints a Real Birkin for Kim Kardashian


• Selena Gomez tells a fan on Instagram, "You can gladly stop being a fan of me"


• Zayn Malik Determined to Reunite Journey for His Wedding


• Beyonce Releasing New Fragrance In 2014


• Matt Smith Says Goodbye to Doctor Who


• Piece of Me Show Info Opens With Celebrities


• 'I Am Britney Jean' Only Grabs 700k Viewers


• Yesterday's ONTD Roundup


• 
  

The Biggest Flops of 2013

While we like celebrating the biggest comebacks, our favorite songs and albums and all the insanely awesome GIFs, sometimes things are just a flop. This year was filled with a number failures, whether it was albums (sorry, Lady Gaga and Justin Timberlake ), music videos (all Kanye ) or reunions (98 Degrees had nothing on the competition). Unfortunately for these artists, things didn’t work out. Here are the biggest flops of 2013:



6. Britney Spears, Britney Jean

It’s too early to tell if the album is truly a flop but given the mediocre response, it’s certainly a disappointment. Presented as the deepest Britney record, it’s mainly just a shell of what the singer once was. Clearly fans took notice. Britney Jean was the lowest debut for the artist landing at number 4 with 107,000 copies in the first week. “Work Bitch,” her first single failed to connect with fans. Although the singer has a loyal fan base with gays, she still has to produce good music in order to get people to buy what she’s offering.

5. Azealia Banks

After blowing up on YouTube and building a rabid Internet fan base, Banks quickly became the one to watch. For nearly two years, fans and critics have been waiting for an album that never materialized. Then there was that homophobic Twitter feud with Perez Hilton and her last-minute cancellation of a headlining performance at Lollapalooza. Sorry Azealia, time’s up. In 2014, we’re banking on Angel Haze.

3. Justin Timberlake, The 20/20 Experience Pt. II

Even though VH1 listed Justin Timberlake as the year’s biggest comeback, it doesn’t takeaway from the disappointment of his second album this year. Given the strength and success of The 20/20 Experience, it felt greedy (and unnecessary) to release a second album of original music that didn’t hold up to the first.

2. Lana Del Rey, Tropico Short Film

First question: Why? Second question: No, seriously, why? Given the success Lana Del Rey had this year (earning Original Song Oscar buzz for “Young & Beautiful” and scoring her first Top 10 hit with a remix of “Summertime Sadness”), it really makes no sense why she released a 30-minute short film featuring three old songs other than to hold onto people’s attention as she makes fans wait for her next album. If the video had been good, then no one would be bothered but it wasn’t. The film was a bloated, awkwardly literal version of three less-than-stellar tracks. Gaga she’s not and considering Gaga’s year, LDR might want to channel someone else in 2014.

1. Lady Gaga, Artpop

Perhaps in a decade from now, fans and critics alike will look back on this album as something special for the music it delivered. Until then, Artpop will just be regarded as a massive commercial failure focused squarely too much on stunts and not on the music. Given how much Gaga outdoes herself with each new album, it is no surprise that Artpop buckled under the pressure. However no one is feeling the pain more than her record label, which sank $25 million into making this spectacle profitable while Lorde, Katy Perry and Miley Cyrus easily ran away with all the success and the attention.

VH1

5 things we learned from the new Miley Cyrus interview

Miley Cyrus has gotten plenty of attention in 2013, but that doesn't mean she's run out of things to say.

Watch PEOPLE's Most Memorable Videos of 2013

Prince George's royal debut, Cory Monteith's best moments and more from the year that was

Miley's controversial video

Singer Miley Cyrus rolls around on bed sheets, touching herself in her new music video for "Adore You."

Miley Cyrus exposes discrimination against dogs

ONTD, has your dog ever been racially profiled?



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The 10 (5) Instances of Open and Unapologetic Celebrity Culutral Appropriation of 2013

People of color are constantly bombarded with acts of cultural appropriation. Thanks to Halloween, outdoor musical festivals, and the college Greek system having access to social media, and rich and ignorant celebrities, 2013 had to be cultural appropriation’s most visible year yet! So, to those who attempt to add an entire race’s marginalized dress, dance or religious adornments to their own personal walk-in closets for the sake of ‘fashion’ and more importantly, to all the people of color/allies who haven’t been able to enjoy a moment’s peace on Facebook or YouTube this year without having to shout ‘REALLY?!” at your computer screens (be sure you have a pillow to scream into handy), I bring you my Top Ten Instances of Open and Unapologetic Celebrity Cultural Appropriation in 2013!







10. Selena Gomez Refuses to Research the Backstory of the Bindi



When pop singer, Spring Breaker and former Wizard of Waverly Place, Selena Gomez decided her newest boring pop song, “Come and Get It” had an “Hindu, tribal feel,” she thought the best way to celebrate that assertion would be to debut the song with some half-assed Bollywood-style choreography and unceremoniously donning a bindi (a traditional Hindu adornment representing the sixth chakra) on her forehead at the MTV Music Awards. In a pissed off statement released by Rajan Zed, President of the Universal Society of Hinduism:



“The bindi on the forehead is an ancient tradition in Hinduism and has religious significance…[it] was not meant to be thrown around loosely for seductive effects as a fashion accessory aiming at mercantile greed.”



Regardless of the backlash of more informed people, Selena not only continued to wear a bindi at several other events, she also made some really stupid statements in her defense of doing so, such as this great excuse she said aloud to US Weekly, ”My hairstylist and my makeup artist are actually really big into the whole culture — they’ve been around, they’ve traveled, they’ve gotten me into various books.”



While I’m sure the fact you did the world’s laziest research is really appreciated by the Hindu community, ultimately, you’re not going to teach Hindus about the history and appropriate use of their own cultural and spiritual creation. Also, the fact that other, whiter artists with a richer history of cultural appropriation have done the same thing (i.e. Madonna, Gwen Stefani) is less of an excuse and should be more of a lesson. When you decide to appropriate a symbol of a culture you’re not a part of because of a pop song that you’ve described as “Hindu,” “tribal” AND “Middle Eastern,” you don’t know what you’re talking about. Stop defending your dumbass mistakes, learn your lesson gracefully, and take off the fucking bindhi. You’re embarrassing yourself.





5. Dear Miley, It's Just Not Twerking



By far, the most talked about celebrity campaign of cultural insensitivity this year was the oblivious cultural appropriation parade headed by pop singer and Billy Ray Cyrus seed, Miley Cyrus. Between her famed teddy bear, twerking, foam finger party at the VMAs and her subsequent art installation about emotionally melodramatic relationships, many journalists and bloggers criticized her new found “sexuality” by taking issue with her choices to wear underwear like pants or swinging around naked on construction equipment (hello UTI). The major issue here is not the misinformed “empowerment” of her perceived sexuality. Between using black female dancers as props and her seemingly relentless crusade in the past year to be crowned the Queen of Twerk (a dance she didn’t create nor can she even execute correctly), Miley is attempting to adopt black female sexuality as an accessory while having the privilege of avoiding the racist negatives that go along with it. The very dance Miley is using to elevate her new sexualized image has been used to condemn, criticize and condescend black women when used as a codifier of behaving ‘poor’ or ‘ghetto.’



Another glaring issue with Miley’s attempts at being the spokesperson for this dance is SHE ISN’T EVEN DOING IT RIGHT. Twerking IS NOT just bending over and shaking your ass. If you want to see some real twerking in action for the crazy amazing athletic feat it is, check out the Twerkers Gone Wild YouTube series by Caramel Kitten, in which she twerks by the fish at Walmart and silently twerks in the library.





4. Katy Perry Asian Appropriation at the AMA's



Let me just start this one with uuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuugggggggggghhhhhh. Pop singer, preacher’s daughter and person who once said she was so “obsessed with Japanese people” she wanted to “skin” them and “wear” them “like Versace,” Katy Perry, performed at the American Music Awards this year in what has been described by the media as both an “Asian themed” and “geisha inspired,” performance of some song of hers called “Unconditionally.” Wearing a dress that was a more cleavage-baring knockoff of both a Japanese kimono and a Chinese cheongsam, bowing and flitting about onstage amongst cherry blossoms, dancers with parasols and large fans, and some guys hitting a wadaiko, Perry appeared to present what Kotaku referred to as a “Pan Asian buffet” of images and cultural references.



While many media outlets described this cultural hodgepodge as “beautiful,” I think we need to call it what it really is: hardcore cultural appropriation (with an open possibility of just being straight up racist). I’m sure Perry will at some point release an insincere statement about how the performance was meant to honor all Asian culture (although she missed some countries), because she finds them so “beautiful” and some other comment where she’ll basically refer to Asian history and customs as her own personal fantasy. Turns out Japan and China are not fantasy lands, they are real countries, with real histories and real people who are fully capable of being the spokesperson of their own cultures. Also, Japan and China are not the same country. Meshing their completely separate cultures together is a common racist view by Western society which Katy Perry chose to continue to espouse to the world as a whole at a televised event.





2. Lady Gaga's Sexy Burqa Song





There is a special level of awkward reserved for not only appropriating another culture, but appropriating their religious symbols without having a full understanding of their meaning and history. This cringe-inducing moment was reserved this summer for well-intentioned, but often off her allyship-game, pop singer, Lady Gaga, whose alleged single, “Burqa” or possibly titled, “Aura” was leaked online. The song, along with her recent attempts at starting a trend she called ‘burqa swag’ of wearing non-traditional versions of the traditionally Muslim garment out and about, really just goes to show her overall misunderstanding of the practice as a whole. While seen largely in Western culture as an oppressive form of female disempowerment, many Muslim women wear the burqa, or more commonly in the United States, the hijab, as a form of owning their sexuality and their bodies by not allowing themselves to be visually defined or characterized by these things. Without bothering to fully research or attempt to understand this, Gaga presents the burqa as a form of repression in a country that often correlates female empowerment with female sexuality. With lyrics like, “Do you wanna see me naked, lover? Do you wanna peak underneath the cover?” purposefully meant to sexualize a garment whose sole purpose is to avoid such characterizations is not only ignorant, but harmful. As a larger-than-life pop star whose influence spans the globe, spreading misinformation about a practice largely misunderstood by non-Muslims is not only shitty, it’s destructive.





1. Johnny Depp Cast as Tonto



In a Hollywood landscape of western films and television series being churned out left and right in the 40′s, with studios often using whites, Italians or sometimes Latinos to portray Native Americans, Canadian actor and stuntman, Jay Silverheels, a full-blooded Mohawk Native, began portraying the now iconic Indian sidekick and Potowatomi tribesman, Tonto, on the television series, The Lone Ranger (1949-1957). Of course, Tonto was a stereotypical stoic Native stereotype, who basically played supporting character to the white hero, but nonetheless, having a Native character portrayed by a Native actor at the time was a really big deal and a historic moment of Native portrayal in cinema. In 2013, the Disney corporation decided to introduce these western heroes to audiences once again, but this time packaged with young white actor, Armie Hammer in the role of the Lone Ranger and wild-haired white actor, Johnny Depp in the role of Tonto. Yes. Hollywood was able to cast an actual Native person as Tonto in 1949, but not in 2013. Now you know why this made my number one spot.







With Native people often portrayed as mindless savages or mythical creatures in American cinema, Indigenous people have so, so, few cinematic and pop culture icons to look up to. Though there have been great cinematic achievement in Native representation, such as Pow Wow Highway, Smoke Signals, and Dead Man (another Johnny Depp film in which he rightfully portrayed a white person), the character of Tonto, with all his stereotypical trappings, is still one of the most commonly known and enduring Native pop culture icons to date. When the film was initially announced, many people were excited at the prospect of finally updating the character and for once letting him be portrayed on screen in a big budget family film as a fully realized human being. While Depp (who OF COURSE pulled the Cherokee card in a shit ton of interviews) claimed to be using the role as an opportunity to “salute” Native Americans and to “fix years of Indian misrepresentations in Hollywood,” what he and the producers of The Lone Ranger seem to forget is that history of misrepresentation was the result of the lack of it. The most important part of the process to right this wrong is not to show a white person can portray a non-one-dimensional native character, but that a Native person, not just a character, is not one-dimensional.





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What celebrity cultural appropriations stood out most in your mind this year ONTD?