Dark Knight Movie Poster

Aw, shucky ducky!

New Release Tuesday

Huge release day in the Hollywood Nation offices today as two of our favorites, The Roots and Amy Winehouse, have new albums/CDs/downloads/8-tracks out today. I haven't gotten to listen to The Roots' Undun yet, but you know it's gonna be on point. I did get to hear Amy's posthumous release and it is fantastic. Standouts include a remake of Donny Hathaway's "A Song For You", "Our Day Will Come", and "Half Time". Check them out!

Morning Joe Promo

Check out this hilarious promo for my favorite morning show, MSNBC's Morning Joe.

Here We Go...

On last week's Raw and Smackdown, WWE showed a link to a mysterious video on You Tube with the title "It Begins". It appears that someone is coming back on January 2nd, 2012. Could it be Undertaker? Batista? If you rearrange the letters of "It Begins", you can spell out "I Be Sting". Intriguing, like last year's videos that led to the Undertaker coming back. Let the guessing games begin.

Thoughts From Last Night's American Music Awards

- Christina. Oh, Christina. You've got to stop selecting clothes from the "Genie In A Bottle" side of the closet. Those days are long gone. Face the facts that you've put on a little weight (hey, I like it!) and put on something a little less form fitting. For all of our sakes. It looked like you were coming onstage at the AVN Awards to accept the award for best three-way.

- Christina was the highlight of the show for me. She never fails to cause excitement at these shows. I was waiting for her to bust out of that dress like dough popping out of a can of biscuits. You just know Britney is sitting somewhere on her throne made of gold, with a tiara on her head, telling her minions "Look at this fat bitch!". She then took a bite from a Snicker bar and kept rewinding it.

- J-Lo and her ridiculous Fiat product placement was a close second. I guess she's grabbing all of the money while she can. Maybe her ex left her broke. His performance was painful to watch. He had more veins in his head than the Incredible Hulk.

- Also, when J-Lo is winning awards for music, doesn't that pretty much kill the credibility of the entire show?

- Justin Beiber looked like his outfit was made of aluminum siding. This paternity suit has clouded his judgement.

- It's like Katy Perry is testing our patience at this point. Her square pink hair is an indication that she is now surrounded by yes-men who will let her do anything she wants.

- I wanted to hate the LMFAO peformance at the end, but it was really fun. Especially with Beiber and The Hoff joining in.

(Photo from Getty Images)

Raw Gets Rocked

Even though the show was 95% crap, including two truly atrocious lengthy skits, somehow an appearance by The Rock on WWE Raw made everything okay. His Rock Bottom on Mick Foley and his exchange with John Cena at the end were magic. Whether this translates to buys on Sunday at the Survivor Series is a different story, but for now, it was just good to have some fun back on the show.

Heavy D.

Sorry to hear about the untimely passing of rapper/actor Heavy D, one of the most popular rappers of the late 80's/early 90's. I was a big fan of his work, especially songs like "We Got Our Own Thing", "Black Coffee", "Jam" with Michael Jackson and "Alright" with Janet Jackson. R.I.P.

Joe Frazier

Sorry to hear about the passing of boxer Joe Frazier. In addition to all of his well documented boxing accolades, he was the special referee for the Dusty Rhodes vs. Ric Flair main event at Starrcade 84. A true legend.

Spice Girls Update

As you may know, the Hollywood Nation was huge fans of the Spice Girls in the 90's so we like to update you on their whereabouts from time to time. Ginger Spice has started her own lingerie line. And she decided to model the product firsthand to give you, the consumer, a chance to see how it looks. A wise marketing decision. For more information, you can click here.

World Champs!

Congratulations to Hollywood Nation's hometown team, the St. Louis Cardinals, for

becoming the unlikely world heavyweight champions of baseball last night. Thank goodness I got on the bandwagon just in time (with about a week left in the regular season). Never before has a team reaped more benefits from a squirrel running across home plate. Congrats, team!

Survivor Series

Well the opponents have finally been named for the mega-team of The Rock and John Cena at Survivor Series: it will be the upper mid-card team of R-Truth and The Miz. Even with recent WWE programming being full of bad announcing, major storyline inconsistencies, pro-bullying, and their bizarre obsession with Twitter, I'm still excited about The Rock returning (although next week's Muppet appearance should promptly kill that enthusiasm).

(Photo from wwe.com)

New Champ

Congratulations to James Storm, who was crowned the Impact Wrestling World Champion on last night's show. I've been pushing for this for years and they finally did it. Granted, they did it in the most ass-backwards way with no build, but they did do it. Baby steps.

(Photo from impactwrestling.com)

New Ring of Honor Wrestling TV Show

Don't forget the new ROH Wrestling show debuts this weekend in syndication (as they say, check your local listings). More information is available at rohwrestling.com. What fun it will be to see good matches, logical booking, and Michael Cole not announcing.

HBO 24/7

HBO has done it again with another outstanding installment of its 24/7 series. This time they are promoting the upcoming fight between Floyd Mayweather Jr. and Victor Ortiz on September 17th. It's the classic story of the humble, hard working challenger going against the brash, confident champion. Steamboat vs. Flair all over again. As usual, HBO put together a compelling behind the scenes presentation of the lead-up events to the fight. The only problem is that the fight we really want to see is Floyd vs. his father. The argument that they had at the end of episode one was nothing short of incredible. I literally watched the thing about five times. I haven't seen a reality show fight like that since the Rock of Love reunion show.

Notes on Last Night's MTV Video Music Awards

A review of last night's MTV Video Music Awards:


- I heard the show was going to start with one of my favorites, Lady Gaga, so I was excited about that… until she actually hit the stage. She was dressed like a guy. She looked like the guy from Karate Kid. She give this speech where she went on and on and pretended to be Lady Gaga's boyfriend. This thing went on ten minutes too long-- and the segment was only five minutes. She then played “You and I”, which is just not the same without the boots and without her ass hanging out. She was joined by the guitarist from Queen. I’m sure he was sorry to be dragged into this mess. I hated this segment with a passion.

- And we’re off!

- There was no official host for the show, but comedian Kevin Hart introduced the show and did skits throughout. His monologue was hit and miss. He did a joke about the cast of Jersey Shore spreading STDs and they actually seemed happy about it. Maybe they didn’t understand. Earlier this week, I read that Pauly D of the Jersey Shore said he wouldn’t consider going on Dancing with the Stars until his career was on the decline. Um, holmes, that would be right about now.

- Nicki Minaj and Jonah Hill presented the first award of the night, Best Pop Song, which went to Britney Spears for her song that sounds like it should be in a Six Flags commercial promoting a new ride. BTW, Britney’s back to being hot. It was a slow road back. It’s almost like the head shaving days never happened.

- A big test for me was seeing if I could recognize the names of any of the nominees for Best New Artist. I got one out of five. I’m so old.

- Kanye West and Jay-Z hit the stage for a surprise performance of their song “Otis”. This was hip hop its finest. I should have stopped watching the show right here and ended on a happy note.

- Was this Kanye’s first award appearance since the Taylor Swift fiasco? You know the one thing that was lost in that whole debacle? He was absolutely right! I have never seen a Taylor Swift video (and with any luck, I never will) but there’s NO WAY it could have been better than Beyonce’s epic “Single Ladies” video. Ain’t no way! Sure, he shouldn’t have stormed the stage, but that’s a different story.

- Nicki Minaj won the Best Hip Hop Award (dear Lord) and declared that Lil Wayne was the best rapper alive. Poor delusional girl…

- Adele performed. I know she’s supposed to be the big thing, but I’m just not down. Maybe someday.

- Kim Kardashian and Her Ass co-presented the Best Male award to Justin Beiber. He looked goofy as ever and got all religious on us.

- Chris Brown performed. How is this happening? I’m astounded every time I see the guy back on stage. I would have bet money that his career was over after the Rihanna incident. His performance was good and he got a standing ovation-- except from Jay-Z, who sat and sipped from a cup as if nothing was going on. Phenomenal.

- Lady Gaga, still dressed as a man, came out to present the career achievement award to Britney. They teased what would have been a very awkward kiss and thankfully they didn’t go through with it. Britney’s voice was deep as hell. She sounded like she should be doing AM drive-time radio. And it was weird, because although she looked really nice, she looked like a linebacker when standing next to Gaga.

- Beyonce gave a nice little performance and showed off her baby bump at the end. Somebody commented on the Entertainment Weekly live chat that “Kelly Rowland will be the aunt that no one likes”.

- There were a bunch of presenters throughout the night that I didn’t recognize. I just figured they were all from Twilight or Glee.

- The girls from Jersey Shore came out to present with Cloris Leachman. The girls were all orange and not very attractive. Cloris was using their lingo and said she was DTF. The crowd went wild. Since I am no longer hip, I had to go look this up…

- Dear God…

- They gave an award to Gaga, still continuing this “I’m Lady Gaga’s boyfriend” character, which was beyond annoying by now.

- Russell Brand gave a longwinded intro to the Amy Winehouse tribute, which included words from Tony Bennett, footage from earlier this year of a recording session between Tony and Amy (she looked wonderful), and Bruno Mars singing “Valerie”.

- The little broad from Dawson’s Creek came out to present the Video of the Year award to Katy Perry. At this point, I didn’t even want to know why she had a big yellow box on the top of her head.

- Lil Wayne got the closing slot. Man was this terrible. I have to give the guy credit for being so obviously dreadful, but convincing the general public that he’s this terrific rapper. It’s fascinating. I was greatly hoping that he would pull his pants up, but it was to no avail. He did the worst lip synching this side of Milli Vanilli in 1990. He ended the performance by saying his new album went on sale at midnight. Yeah, I’ll get right on that. This was wretched.

As was most of the show. They need to bring back Chris Rock and Madonna in her wedding dress next year.

Killer Mike: "Ric Flair"

This is my new favorite song. There might be hope for rap music after all.

Catching Up

After taking a little summer hiatus, Hollywood Nation is back! Did I miss anything? Here's my take on some of the things that went down during the break:

The Summer of Punk: What a summer it's been for C.M. Punk in WWE. He had perhaps the match of the year with John Cena at Money In The Bank. He won the WWE title-- twice. He managed to get Vince McMahon to pay the rights to a real entrance song. He got mainstream press on such outlets as Jimmy Kimmel and espn.com. And he ate Kevin Nash alive on the mic on Monday's Raw. Damn! All I did during my summer was sleep and not update my blog.

Amy Winehouse: I was so sad to hear about the passing of one of my favorite singers, Amy Winehouse. It's unfortunate that her substance issues overshadowed her great musical talent. Click here, here and here for some of my favorite Amy songs.

Stacey Kiebler: Former WWE Diva Stacey Keibler is making the rounds on the gossip sites and entertainment shows because she is dating George Clooney. Well, if you're gonna date a wrestler, that's probably the one you want to pick. Plus, he'd look kinda weird showing up at a movie premiere with Kane.

C.M. Punk on Monday Night Raw

I loved C.M. Punk's promo at the end of WWE Raw last night where he ripped on everything from Stephanie McMahon to USA Network's shows. It's this kind of stuff that makes putting up with leprechauns and John Cena's corny interviews worth it.

Coming Soon

Check out the trailer for the new movie Beats, Rhymes and Life, about one of the greatest rap groups of all-time, A Tribe Called Quest. It hits theatres in New York and LA on July 8th, then gradually hits other cities over the summer. I haven't wanted to see a movie this bad since Showgirls came out.

New Britney Video

Britney is back (and in fine form) with the third video from her her Femme Fatale album, "I Wanna Go". There are references to The Terminator, Thriller, Kill Bill and a marquee showing the sequel to her movie Crossroads. It's a fun little clip. Check it out here.

The New Jill Scott

It's out! You gotta pick up Jill Scott's new CD The Light of the Sun, featuring the hottest jam of the summer, "So In Love" (with Anthony Hamilton). It's the bomb. And she looks great in the video! Check it out here.

Team Christina Turns It Out

I've really been enjoying The Voice on NBC. The show got even better last night with the live Quarterfinal Round. I thought most of the contestants did very well but the performance by Team Christina stole the show. You can check it out here. I'd advise watching it twice because the first time you see it, you're going to sit in amazement wondering how Xtina's boobs didn't pop out of that dress.

Happy Anniversary, Nexus!

It's hard to believe that it was one year ago when one of WWE's greatest angles ever took place. The frustrated rookies of the NXT show (calling themselves Nexus) took over Monday Night Raw and kicked the natural ass of anybody who moved including top dog John Cena (above). Of course a few days later, Brian Danielson was fired for choking the ring announcer with a tie (we still don't really know why) and it was all downhill from there. All of the steam was taken out of the group and now it is just a collection of scrubs led by C.M. Punk. Ah, what might have been. At least we have the memories of that first night.

Beyonce's New Single

Just when I thought Beyonce had derailed her career with "Run The World (Girls)" and "1+1", she came back strong with this new song, "Best Thing I Never Had", from her new album. Thank goodness Jay-Z doesn't have to carry this broad just yet.

The American Idol Season Finale

It was perhaps the worst final two ever in American Idol history, but the season finale is always star-studded and loaded with surprises, so I decided to give it a try. Good show. The highlight of course was the booty shaking showdown between Sasha Fierce and J-Lo. Gotta give the night to Beyonce (although she almost killed it later in the evening with that wretched new song). Gaga was fantastic as always; I think she jumped to her death at the end of her song at the prospect of Scotty or Lauren winning this season. I also liked TLC, Judas Priest, Steven Tyler and the always great Gladys Knight. I was also glad to see Randy Jackson maintain his streak of wearing his worst outfit of the year at the season finale. In the end somebody had to win by default and predictably it was Scotty. If his limited range doesn't kill his career, that awful first single certainly will.

"Macho Man" Randy Savage

I was stunned like everyone else to find out about the death of "Macho Man" Randy Savage last week. He was one of my all-time top 5 favorite wrestlers and he will truly be missed. I always thought his athleticism and intensity always brought a little a realism to the art. Here are some of my favorite Macho Man moments:

- The Introduction of Miss Elizabeth: Savage joined the WWF in 1985. He wrestled for a few weeks, winning squash matches, back when they had such things. They did an angle where all of the managers of the day like Mr. Fuji, Bobby Heenan and Jimmy Hart were trying to sign him. Finally one week he decided to announce who his manager would be. He praised all of the heel managers but then brought out the stunning Miss Elizabeth. This was so great because the announce team of Vince McMahon and Bruno Sammartino made such a big fuss over her ("what is she; a movie star or what?"). Jimmy Hart tried to hold the ropes for her to enter the ring, but Savage was having none of it, thus starting the dynamic of Savage being mean to Elizabeth, which drove the fans crazy.

- Randy Savage vs. Ricky "The Dragon" Steamboat at WrestleMania III: Everyone came to see Hulk Hogan vs. Andre the Giant, but it was Savage vs. Steamboat that stole the show. It was perhaps the best WWF match of that era. I remember seeing this match at the Kiel Auditorium in St. Louis in the dying days of closed circuit TV. I think even my Dad, who is not a wrestling fan at all, enjoyed it.

- Megapower Meltdown: Who could ever forget the night that the team of Hulk Hogan and Randy Savage fell apart? They had built for this for months with Savage showing slight signs of being jealous that Hulk Hogan was friendly with Elizabeth. It came to a head on a Friday night on NBC when Savage slapped Hogan across the face to tag him into a match, then destroyed him in a backstage skit. I just remember how intense Savage was. I believed he was really mad. I always remember him saying to Hogan "you make me so sick, I can't even stand to look at you".

- Savage vs. Ultimate Warrior at WrestleMania VII: This match always gets overlooked for some reason when people talk about great matches of the 80's. Despite the Warrior being involved, this was a great, dramatic match. The ending with Savage and Elizabeth reuniting at the end was a great moment. People were even crying in the audience.

Gaga Day

It was a big day for Little Monsters and big butt aficionados alike, as Lady Gaga's Born This Way CD was finally released today. It was available in two versions: the deluxe (above) and the standard, which features her head on a motorcycle; perhaps the most ill-advised album cover since Snoop Dogg's debut. The music is solid though so that's what counts. Happy Release Day!

Stewart vs. O'Reilly

I loved Jon Stewart's appearance on last night's O'Reilly Factor where he debated Common's invite to the White House. He owned Bill O'Reilly. The dude came prepared. Check it out here.

The Divas at WWE Axxess

More pix from WrestleMania weekend:

Eve

Kaitlyn


Kelly Kelly

Maryse

The Bella Twins

WWE Axxess

Photos from WWE Axxess during WrestleMania weekend in Atlanta:

A replica of Vince McMahon's office

The Undertaker's Graveyard

Stone Cold's vehicle

Hornswoggle's House

Vince McMahon's limo that blew up

WrestleMania 27

I attended WrestleMania 27 a couple of weeks ago. Here are some pix from the big event:

The Georgia Dome!

The opening fireworks display


The Rock!

Rey Mysterio makes his big entrance

The Undertaker

Shimmer Wrestling

Photos from last Sunday's Shimmer Wrestling show in scenic Berwyn, Illinois. These ladies put on an outstanding wrestling show, so be sure to check them out and get the DVDs!

The and only MsChif!

Mia Yim (ROH's Princess Mia) and a charming young fellow.

Cheerleader Melissa (a.k.a. Alyssa Flash)

Streamers before the 3s vs. Nikki Roxx & Ariel match

Nikki Roxx!

Jessie Spano Makes Good

When I saw that Elizabeth Berkley was going to be on the Today Show yesterday, I did a short prayer in the hopes that it would be an announcement about the filming of Showgirls 2. Alas, it was not to be. It turns out that Berkley (most famous for playing Jessie "I'm So Excited" Spano on Saved by the Bell-- and for being in the cult classic Showgirls) is now an author. It's an advice book for girls (Chapter One: Don't do movies where you're naked for the 3/4's of the film). I can't knock it because it's a good topic and it's good to see someone doing something to help others. That's good and all, but damn, give us that Showgirls sequel, woman!