Today marks ten years since we were struck with the devastating news that one of music's most talented artists, Aaliyah, had died in a small plane crash in The Bahamas.
To those who were dear and close to 22 yr. old baby girl, her passing was unbelievably heartbreaking. One of those close was her boyfriend, music mogul, Damon Dash. "My heart was broken. Nothing prepares you for that," Dash tells Billboard.com's The Juice.
Dame and Aaliyah's relationship grew from a friendship that had sprung when they met through his accountant close to 2000. Soon thereafter the couple was inseparable, smooching in snapshopts and roaming from movie premieres, softball games to the Hamptons....click to continue reading
SEE LIONSGATE'S ABDUCTION ALONG WITH THE LIVE STREAM OF THE HOLLYWOOD PREMIERE IN YOUR TOWN
ABDUCTION IN THEATER EXCLUSIVE VIP FAN PREMIERES TO BE HOSTED IN 20 CITIES ON SEPTEMBER 15th
Lionsgate and local theater partners will be offering Exclusive VIP Fan Premieres for the upcoming action-thriller ABDUCTION, starring Taylor Lautner. On September 15th at 6pm PST / 9pm EST, ABDUCTION will screen at VIP Fan Events in 20 cities across the United States where event attendees will be treated to a live stream of the Hollywood red carpet premiere on a big screen near them, followed by a sneak preview screening of the film before it hits theaters on September 23rd.
19 of the 20 cities have already been selected, but the final host city will be determined by Facebook fans. If there isn't a VIP Fan Event already scheduled nearby, fans will be able to demand one in their city by voting on the ABDUCTION VIP Fan Premiere tab on the Facebook page. The final city will be chosen at random and announced on September 6th - cities are entered into the drawing once for each vote they receive, so the most enthusiastic city demanding their own screening has the best chance of winning.
Tickets for the VIP Fan Premieres will go on sale Monday, September 12th at 10am PST / 1 pm EST through the VIP Fan Premiere Facebook page. The cost for the event is $30, and includes a ticket to the streaming of the premiere from Hollywood followed by a screening of ABDUCTION before it comes out in theaters, plus a VIP Fan Pack including a Limited Edition VIP Locker Poster, Limited Edition VIP Lanyard, an ABDUCTION t-shirt and an ABDUCTION iPhone skin.
The 19 announced cities are:
Atlanta, GA
Boston, MA
Chicago, IL
Dallas, TX
Denver, CO
Detroit, MI
Houston, TX
Las Vegas, NV
Miami, FL
New York, NY
Orlando, FL
Philadelphia, PA
Phoenix, AZ
Pittsburg, PA
Sacramento, CA
San Diego, CA
San Francisco, CA
Seattle, WA
Washington DC, VA
About the film
Taylor Lautner stars as a young man unwittingly thrust into a deadly world of covert espionage in Lionsgate's action-thriller, ABDUCTION, directed by John Singleton.
For as long as he can remember, Nathan Harper (Taylor Lautner) has had the uneasy feeling that he's living someone else's life. When he stumbles upon an image of himself as a little boy on a missing persons website, all of Nathan's darkest fears come true: he realizes his parents are not his own and his life is a lie, carefully fabricated to hide something more mysterious and dangerous than he could have ever imagined.
Just as he begins to piece together his true identity, Nathan is targeted by a team of trained killers, forcing him on the run with the only person he can trust, his neighbor, Karen (Lily Collins). Every second counts as Nathan and Karen race to evade an army of assassins and federal operatives. But as his opponents close in, Nathan realizes that the only way he'll survive ÃÆ'¢â‚¬" and solve the mystery of his elusive biological father ÃÆ'¢â‚¬" is to stop running and take matters into his own hands.
ABDUCTION stars Taylor Lautner, Lily Collins, Alfred Molina, Jason Isaacs, Maria Bello, Denzel Whitaker, Michael Nyqvist and Sigourney Weaver. The film is directed by John Singleton and written by Shawn Christensen. Lionsgate presents, a Gotham Group / Vertigo Entertainment / Quick Six Entertainment production, a Lionsgate Production, in association with Mango Farms.
In a week that saw other worldwide rulers being run out of their palaces, it was pretty clear that Jay-Z and Kanye West would be keeping their jointly held throne. And, sure enough, the rappers' collaborative album dominated the Billboard/SoundScan album chart for a second week, even with a 59 percent decline in sales.
"Watch the Throne" sold 177,000 units in its second week, after moving 436,000 the week before. The album probably would have sold even more the first week - and fewer the second week - if not for an odd release pattern that had the long-awaited set available only at iTunes for the first four days of its release.
The latest numbers reflect the first full seven-day frame where "Throne" could be found in retail stores as well as online.
Jay-Z and West certainly weren't facing any opposition from well-armed rebel forces. It could hardly have been a slower week for new album releases, with the only top 10 entries being a No. 6 bow for country's Eli Young Band, whose "Life at Best" entered with a career-best 35,000 copies, and a No. 8 debut for Blue October, which represented 27,000 in sales for the independent art-rockers' "Any Man in America."
Even less threateningly, a greatest-hits set from the band Breaking Benjamin came in at No. 22 with 14,000 units. Oscar winner Jeff Bridges' first post-"Crazy Heart" musical effort, produced by T Bone Burnett, came out of the box with a mountain of media attention but just 13,000 in sales to debut at No. 25.
Legions of Adele supporters should relish the news that her "21" album crossed the 3 million mark this week, one of the few times in recent memory that's been achieved by someone not named Taylor Swift. The disc registered yet another uptick in sales for the week, increasing 10 percent to move another 80,000 units and nudge the album back up two spots to No. 2.
For any serious debut action, you had to look over to the digital songs chart, where Lil Wayne had an instant No. 1 with "She Will," which sold 255,000 singles, knocking Maroon 5 to second place.
It didn't exactly own the chart, but the only other song to debut in the digital top 30 was Lady Antebellum's "We Owned the Night." The second single the country trio has released to tease their upcoming album came in at No. 22 on sales of 59,000.
Next week's album chart should be a little more interesting, with Twitter wiseguy The Game squaring off against Barbra Streisand, who has not been igniting any emergency-line flash mobs to publicize her new album, but taking the QVC route instead
Songwriter Nickolas Ashford, who penned such rhythm and blues hits as "Ain't No Mountain High Enough" and "I'm Every Woman" with his wife Valerie Simpson, died on Monday at age 70.
Ashford, who had been treated for cancer, died at a New York hospital with his family at his side, publicist Liz Rosenberg told Reuters.
A native of South Carolina, Ashford met Simpson in the early 1960s at White Rock Baptist Church in Harlem, after he moved to New York to pursue a career in entertainment and found himself homeless.
Simpson played the piano and sang in a church choir, which Ashford soon joined. The two began writing songs together and had their breakthrough hit in 1966 when Ray Charles released their composition "Let's Go Get Stoned."
It was the beginning of a partnership that saw the duo marry in 1974 and write a string of hits.
They were signed to Motown Records, where they penned the 1967 classic Marvin Gaye and Tammi Terrell duet "Ain't No Mountain High Enough."
Gaye and Terrell also had hits with the couple's songs "Ain't Nothing Like the Real Thing" and "You're All I Need to Get By."
Ashford and Simpson's other songs include "Send It," "Found a Cure," and "Don't Cost You Nothing."
Their composition "I'm Every Woman" was recorded by Chaka Khan and later by Whitney Houston, and for a time was the opening theme song for Oprah Winfrey's TV talk show.
Ashford and Simpson were inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 2002.
Ashford is survived by Simpson and their daughters Nicole and Asia, Rosenberg said.
By Alex Dobuzinskis: Editing by Dan Whitcomb
(Reporting by Alex Dobuzinskis: Editing by Dan Whitcomb
He won't be wearing a meat dress nor engaged in a same-sex kiss, but rapper Lil Wayne still hopes to create big media buzz after MTV's Video Music Awards by releasing his new CD minutes after Sunday's TV show.
Lil Wayne, the four-time Grammy winner and "Lollipop" rapper, on Monday said he will start selling his new album, "Tha Carter IV," online at midnight after the widely-watched awards show on August 28. The CD hits retail stores on Monday.
The album features 15 tracks and includes collaborations with other artists such as Drake, Rick Ross, John Legend, T-Pain and Tech N9ne. A deluxe edition adds three tracks.
"I am extremely excited to be the first artist to utilize such an amazing idea," Lil Wayne said in a statement. "I hope that I can open the door for others."
While releasing a full CD online just minutes after MTV's Video Music Awards (VMAs) may be new, the rapper is hardly the first musician to use the show to generate media hype.
In 2003, Britney Spears and Madonna famously kissed onstage in what became an instant cause celebre, and last year Lady Gaga showed up in a dress made of raw meat, generating headlines around the world.
The VMAs, which honor musicians and performers in categories such as best new artist and top videos, is among MTV's most watched programs. Last year about 11.4 million viewers tuned in, making the program a strong advertising vehicle to reach a highly-targeted, music-oriented audience.
Aretha Franklin's biopic is "still moving, and we're moving towards closing" according to the Queen of Soul.
"We are still hammering things out, all of the different financial aspects," Franklin tells Billboard.com, adding that the film "will be a chronological depiction of my advent from Detroit to New York as a young, aspiring singer... It's going to be pretty straight-up. People who have followed my career from A to Z, they already know some of the things, but there will be other things that are not known."
Franklin says a director is in place but that, "I don't want to use his name until it's on the dotted line." However, she added, "I can tell you that he's had several blockbusters in the last five to 10 years. Go back to the movie 'Ray.'" She did not, however, say whether she meant Taylor Hackford, that film's director, writer and co-producer.
As for a star, Franklin says she's "still thinking between several ladies" and is also going to take the director's list into account. "There's some people who don't have as big a name as other people, but they definitely have the fit and the ability to pull it off," she explains. But her top choice remains Halle Berry, although the Academy Award winner has expressed reservations about having to sing. "I told her, 'No, no one ever expected you to sing, Halle. I never thought of you as a singer,'" Franklin notes. In fact, she promises, the film will feature her own voice and recordings primarily.
"A lot of movies come out where it's the original artist and their songs are lip-sung to," Franklin explains. "That is how it would turn out if it's Halle. If not, if for instance it's Jennifer Hudson, she might sing one or two, but the rest would still be my original records. We're definitely going to use the original records. I may re-record some things, too."
