James Brown
Photo: Chris Walter/WireImage.com

Three days after his death at age 73, soul legend James Brown's body will return to the place where the singer made his stage debut, New York's Apollo Theater. According to The Associated Press, the public will be allowed to view Brown's body on Thursday at the legendary Harlem venue, followed by a private burial Friday in Brown's hometown of Augusta, Georgia. Another public ceremony will follow a day later at Augusta's James Brown Arena. Variety reports that Spike Lee has signed on to direct a biopic about Brown that is tentatively scheduled to begin in 2008. Brown played an active role in the project's development and gave producers access to his music rights. ...

The twin sister of Eminem's ex-wife, Kim Mathers, is in police custody after allegedly attempting to kidnap her son, AP reports. Kim Mathers, who is the legal guardian of her sister's 7-year-old, filed a parental-kidnapping complaint on Tuesday. Mathers' sister — whose name was not released by police — was arrested after she fled a local gas station. The boy has been returned to Mathers' custody. ... A former Sprint Nextel employee has filed a lawsuit claiming that she was fired unjustly for hiring Ludacris to perform at a company event — even though her boss was aware of her activities. According to the Kansas City Star, Elizabeth Henry said she was given permission to secure talent for a Las Vegas party. Henry said her boss green-lit two entertainers, Luda and LL Cool J. After booking 'Cris, however, Henry alleges that she was interrogated for five hours, despite assuring management that Luda would perform according to "PG-13 standards," and was fired later that same day. "Her boss approved it and didn't think anything of it until somebody said, 'Hey, have you ever listened to their music?' " Henry's lawyer, Brendan J. Donelon, told the newspaper. Sprint officials had not released a comment as of publish time. ...

Willie Nelson and Jessica Simpson are re-forming an onscreen family bond for "Blonde Ambition," according to The Hollywood Reporter. Nelson, who co-starred as Uncle Jesse to Simpson's Daisy Duke in 2005's "The Dukes of Hazzard," will play her grandfather in the "Working Girl" update. ... Look out, Cameron Diaz — JoJo's got an eye on your man. In the spring issue of Seventeen Prom, the singer encourages girls to get out there and ask someone to the prom ("This is 2006, babe ... I'm all for being the one to initiate") and admits her own dream date. "Well, I knew it was unattainable, but I always thought Justin Timberlake was so cute, especially when he was in 'NSYNC and had that blond Afro. He gets finer with age!" ...

Jessica Alba and Johnny Depp top a poll of fantasy New Year's Eve dates, with Scarlett Johansson and George Clooney also ranking high in the Blockbuster Inc. survey. And while they want beautiful stars holding their arm when 2007 arrives, respondents said they were more interested in hanging out than hooking up. Seventy percent of those polled said their pick was someone who would be fun to spend time with, and only 15 percent admitted to choosing someone they'd want to kiss at midnight. ...

Before heading on a two-week trek through Australia in late March, Dave Matthews Band will headline a two-night stand at the MGM Grand Hotel in Las Vegas on March 23 and 24. The Fray will open the Vegas shows. ... TV on the Radio have mapped out a 28-city tour that will kick off March 1 in Providence, Rhode Island. Opening acts have not been confirmed, but are expected to be named in the coming weeks. The tour will run through an April 21 stop in Poughkeepsie, New York. ... Brand New will hit the road this spring for a U.S. headlining run that launches March 15 in Buffalo, New York, and wraps up April 25 with a show in Philadelphia. ...

Two new untitled demo tracks from Evanescence drummer William "Rocky" Gray's Soul Embraced side project have been posted to the band's MySpace page. Gray plays guitar for the Little Rock, Arkansas, outfit, which is fronted by his brother-in-law Chad Moore and features Living Sacrifice's Lance Garvin on drums. The band — which released its The Fleshless EP in 1999, followed by the LPs For The Incomplete (2000), This Is My Blood (2002) and Immune (2003) — is compiling material for its next studio effort. ...

An album cover signed by all four members of the Beatles — as a gift for George Harrison's sister Louise — sold Friday at an auction in New York for more than $115,000, AP reports. The winning bidder was not identified, but the sale set a record for a signed Beatles album purchased at a public sale. On the cover of the copy of Meet the Beatles, the Fab Four's first U.S. release, Harrison had written above his signature, "To Lou with love from 'Brother'!!" while John Lennon wrote, "To Lou many love from John Lennon X." ...

Want to pre-order Norah Jones' forthcoming Not Too Late? Well, you've got many options. iTunes is sweetening the deal with five tracks from her iTunes Live Session; Amazon if offering an exclusive live video performance of "Rosie's Lullaby," one of the tracks featured on the artist's third release; and getting the set through Walmart.com will grant you instant access to the first single, "Thinking About You." ... Winger fans unite! The founding members of the hair-metal band will take flight for their first tour in more than 10 years on Sunday in Pittsburgh. Winger, which recently issued Winger IV, will end the six-week U.S. jaunt on March 9 in Houston.

12.26.2006

As 2006 draws to a close, the R&B charts have crowned their queen. Mary J. Blige's The Breakthrough was #1 on Billboard magazine's year-end R&B/Hip-Hop Albums chart and she's at the top of 2006's R&B/Hip-Hop Songs chart thanks to her single, "Be Without You." Blige was followed on the R&B albums chart by Jamie Foxx's Unpredictable, while newcomer Chris Brown also made some noise, landing at #5 on the R&B albums chart and topping the pop lists for Top Artists, Top Male Artists and Top New Artists. In the latter category, he was followed by Ne-Yo, the Fray, James Blunt and Carrie Underwood. Ne-Yo also fared well on the R&B albums chart, where In My Own Words, landed at #4. T.I.'s King finished at #1 on the Top Rap Albums count, and Underwood makes history by becoming the first "American Idol" winner to have the #1 entry on the year-end Billboard albums chart. Her country album, Some Hearts, has never left the Billboard 200 since its debut, holding off the year's surprise smash seller, the #2-selling soundtrack to "High School Musical." ...

You won't have to call him "Sir Bono," but U2's frontman was awarded an honorary British Knighthood over the Christmas weekend for his work in music and humanitarian efforts, according to a posting on the band's Web site. A statement on the site said the 46-year-old singer was, in his typically straightforward manner, "very flattered to be honored, particularly if the honor ... opens doors for his long standing campaigning work against extreme poverty in Africa." Because the Irish rocker is a not a British national, the honorary award does not entitle him to use the title of "Sir." ...

Turns out the faux-fur detail on two jackets from Diddy's Sean John line isn't so faux after all. The Associated Press reports that an investigation by the Humane Society of the United States found that nine out of 10 jackets tested were made from a species of undomesticated dog known as "raccoon dog." The garments were removed from Macy's stores, with a company spokesperson noting that the retailer has a policy against selling dog or cat fur. "I was completely unaware of the nature of this material," Diddy said in a statement. "I have instructed our outerwear licensee to cease the production of any garments using this material immediately." ...

More bands have being added to the lineup for this year's Bamboozle festival, which will be held May 5 and 6 at the Meadowlands Sports Complex in East Rutherford, New Jersey, with My Chemical Romance closing out the fest's first night, and Linkin Park tapped to wrap up the second. The newest additions to the bill include Muse; Thrice; Whole Wheat Bread featuring Rob Base and DJ E-Z Rock; Saves the Day; the Early November; Hot Rod Circuit; Men, Women & Children; Haste the Day; Lordi, It Dies Today and the Devil Wears Prada. ...

Michael Jackson has filed a lawsuit against his former accountants, charging they made unauthorized business deals for which they later charged the pop star millions. According to the Associated Press, Jackson claims that Bernstein, Fox, Whitman, Goldman & Sloan withdrew $2.5 million a year from his bank accounts and failed to keep him apprised of his financial affairs. The suit, which alleges negligence and breach of fiduciary duty, also claims the firm failed to pay his bills properly. Jackson is seeking unspecified damages and a full accounting of all money the firm received for services. The singer hired the Los Angeles-based accounting firm in 2003 for bookkeeping, opening bank accounts and filing personal, corporate and real estate taxes. ...

The dates for Killswitch Engage's upcoming tour with Dragonforce, Chimaira and He Is Legend have been revealed. The 35-city jaunt kicks off in Atlantic City, New Jersey, on February 21. Stops in Philadelphia, Boston, New York, Washington, D.C., Atlanta, Houston, Denver, Los Angeles, Las Vegas, Seattle and Detroit follow, with the tour winding down April 8 in Chicago. ... Senses Fail and Alexisonfire will be hitting the road together next month, on a 21-stop tour that will launch January 10 in Hartford, Connecticut. Dates are booked through February 3 in Cordova, Tennessee. ... The Number Twelve Looks Like You, From a Second Story Window, Cancer Bats, Speakerfire and Send the Dawn will be teaming up next month for a brief, 12-gig road trip that gets underway January 24 in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, and runs through February 6 in Seattle. ...

Carl Blaze, a DJ for New York hip-hop station Power 105, died Saturday of gunshot wounds sustained earlier this month, The New York Times reports. He was 30. The DJ, born Carlos Rivera, was shot 13 times outside an apartment building in Upper Manhattan on December 7 and had been in critical condition at Harlem Hospital Center since he was wounded. No arrests have been made in connection with the shooting.

• In Focus: Jessica Simpson
• In Focus: JoJo
• In Focus: Jessica Alba
• In Focus: Johnny Depp
• In Focus: Scarlett Johansson

• James Brown
• Eminem
• Ludacris
• Jessica Simpson
• Justin Timberlake

50 Cent
Photo: Frazer Harrison/ Getty Images

Yeah, yeah, yeah — another new year is staring you in the face and you're once again telling everybody that you're going to quit smoking, lose 10 pounds and learn to play the glockenspiel.

Since we all know that none of that stuff is gonna happen, let's instead make our New Year's resolution to force resolutions upon famous people, and see if they can better themselves in 2007. Listed below are some well-meaning pledges aimed toward our favorite Hollywood personalities and institutions — and we hope they'll listen, because then we could make our own resolution something realistic: seeing more movies in 2007.

50 Cent: Pledge to do a full-on action film. It's time.

Julia Roberts: You are still a movie star, right? How about a pledge to actually make a movie, then?

Michael Bay: We know you've worked the phrase "More than meets the eye" into an actor's lines for next summer's "Transformers" movie, which is awesome. Now, pledge to go out and get a tongue-in-cheek pop-culture band (Weezer? Gym Class Heroes?) to record a new version of the theme song.

Sylvester Stallone: You're about to start making your fourth "Rambo" film and "Rocky Balboa" is back, so why not pledge to take things to the next level? Announce "Rocky vs. Rambo," a "Freddy vs. Jason"-like flick that will allow the two characters to finally go toe-to-toe. Just figure out a way to get a boxing ring set up in an Iraq desert, and the script will write itself.

Hollywood: Are you still insisting on doing remakes? Pledge to bring back "Pete's Dragon," "The Phantom Tollbooth," the "Thin Man" series — plus other nearly forgotten, flawed near-classics like "The Black Hole," "The Rapture," "Miracle Mile" and "The Last Starfighter." Leave in-development classics like "The Wild Bunch" and "The Birds" alone — you'll never even come close.

Steve Carell and Sacha Baron Cohen: Pledge to immediately fire anyone in your employ who tries to steer you toward "family-friendly" movies like "Doctor Dolittle" or "The Majestic" in the upcoming year. Be confident enough to simply grow as a comedian.

Brian De Palma: Pledge never to let yourself be billed on a movie poster again as "the Director of 'Scarface' " — that was 23 years ago! Does Spielberg hype his films as being "from the director of 'Jaws' "?

Eugene Levy: Pledge to say no to a script every now and then. Moviegoers have supported you for years, but there's only so many times we can get burned by "New York Minute," "Cheaper by the Dozen 2," "The Man" and umpteen-million straight-to-DVD "American Pie" sequels.

John Travolta: Remember how you used to be the king of comebacks? Well, how about a pledge to find that next "Pulp Fiction" script this year?

Meagan Good, Jordana Brewster and Josh Lucas: You've each been "the next big thing" for a half decade now. Pledge to become the "big thing" in 2007.

JoJo: After taking some big movie strides in 2006, could we hear you pledge one more time that you won't be going Lindsay Lohan on us?

Mel Gibson: Pledge to retire. Seriously. Just take all your money and go away.

Tom Cruise: See Mel Gibson.

David Hasselhoff, Christopher Walken and Snoop Dogg: Pledge to stop taking roles that have you poking fun at your own image. Pick a good movie, be yourself and let the moviegoers find the humor in it if we want to.

Lindsay Lohan: With "Bobby" and "A Prairie Home Companion" you showed that you're determined to use your Hollywood clout for good and not evil. Pledge to keep throwing away scripts for "Confessions of a Teenage Herbie Queen," and then take your acting as seriously as you want your fans to take you.

Francis Ford Coppola: Can you please pledge to make your "On the Road" movie, already? You've been working on this thing for 39 years!

Brandon Routh: Pledge to hurry up and make a second, completely different movie — or risk battling the same closed-minded casting that hounded Christopher Reeve for decades.

Sharon Stone: No more "Basic Instinct" movies, please. And also, pledge that you won't make sequels to ... oh, that's right, "Basic Instinct" is the only movie of yours that would even warrant ill-advised-sequel talk.

Justin Long: Your interviews are funnier than any movie you've been a part of — pledge to sit down and funnel that humor into a script for yourself to star in.

Steven Spielberg: Pledge to remember how to properly end a film. From "Artificial Intelligence: A.I." to "The Terminal" to "Munich," nearly a decade of your career has been marred by almost-brilliant films with clunky, indecisive conclusions. In a town where everyone loves you, it must be hard to find someone who'll say "that doesn't work," but your 2007 goal should be to find some tough love and endings that are as powerful as your concepts.

Keanu Reeves: Pledge to find more scripts that cast you as a wide-eyed innocent in over your head ("The Matrix," "Point Break," the "Bill & Ted" movies), and admit that roles as well-informed architects ("The Lake House"), scientists ("Chain Reaction") or saviors (the "Matrix" sequels) aren't working.

Robert Redford and Paul Newman: Everyone says you're the greatest buddy-movie co-stars of all time, and for good reason — so stop teasing us. Pledge to finally give us one more classic movie while you guys still can.

Harrison Ford: Pledge to stop being Hollywood's grumpy old man, and embrace the rascal qualities that made you famous. Instead of "Indiana Jones 4," get George Lucas to change his mind about "Star Wars" and make Episodes VII, VIII and IX. Get them set 30 years after "Return of the Jedi," so Mark Hamill, Carrie Fisher and yourself can embrace your ages rather than run from them. Finally, talk Lucas into some kind of plot revolving around bounty hunters, the recruitment of young Jedi warriors and the tragic extinction of Jar Jar Binks and the Ewoks.

George Clooney, Matt Damon and Brad Pitt: Pledge to keep doing what you're doing, but lay off the "Ocean's" movies after this next one, OK?

Check out everything we've got on 50 Cent, "Transformers" and Lindsay Lohan.

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• Jessica Biel, 50 Cent, Samuel L. Jackson, More At The Premiere Of "Home Of The Brave"
• In Focus: JoJo
• In Focus: Jordana Brewster
• In Focus: Tom Cruise
• In Focus: Lindsay Lohan

• 50 Cent
• Lindsay Lohan
• JoJo

J.R. Rotem
Photo: Charley Gallay/ Getty Images

Producer J.R. Rotem says he doesn't party. Judging by the schedule he's keeping these days, he probably wouldn't have time for it anyway.

A few years ago, Rotem was your average Joe, sitting at home in his boxer shorts wondering if anybody would actually pay for his tracks one day. Now Rotem has everyone from the Game to Rick Ross to JoJo shelling out top dollar for his beats. He's working with two artists a day, with Britney Spears and 50 Cent being the biggest names on his roster.

"Within a 24-hour time period I was in with 50, then Britney," Rotem said. "Whoever I'm in the studio with, I try to bring the best out of them and let them bring the best out of me. I just try to make the best possible song."

Although he's very secretive when it comes to Spears (see "Britney's New Music Is 'The Next Level,' Producer Says") — including those recently leaked tabloid photos that allegedly captured the two locking lips — he opens up just a little bit about 50's music. Just as 50 told MTV News a few weeks ago, he says the leader of the G-Unit is indeed looking to soul music for inspiration.

"I just sat down with him and we went through tracks," Rotem said. "He's definitely into soulful stuff. He's at a level where he doesn't have to put an album out for money or anything — he's in it for the love of hip-hop. For the next album, he's trying to bring a very powerful new sound. He's an innovator. He puts out a sound and people will copy it. He wants to set a trend. At this point I can't give any more details, but it's definitely going to be a remarkable project."

This year alone, Rotem has worked with Rihanna ("S.O.S."), Rick Ross ("Push It") and the Game ("The Doctor's Advocate," "California Vacation"). His latest projects include new tracks by Jennifer Lopez, JoJo, Mya, Natasha Bedingfield, Ashley Tisdale and Jesse McCartney.

Oh yeah, he's also worked with Dr. Dre on the Detox album (see "Meet Super-Producer J.R. Rotem: The Man Game Calls 'The White Dr. Dre' ").

"He's gotten a few tracks from me for it, and I've heard vocals on some of my tracks," Rotem said. "But with Dr. Dre, he might record 100 tracks and choose his favorite 15 or something. I don't want to jump the gun and say I'm going to be on the album."

Rotem also just inked a deal with Epic Records for his new imprint, Beluga Heights.

"We sat down with everybody," the producer said of the courting process for his label. "I learned that when you get into business with somebody on an exclusive level, you need to really connect with the point people. In this situation, there was no contest as to who we connected to the most. It just felt right to go with them."

First on his roster is 16-year-old Miami rapper Sean Kingston.

"He's incredible," J.R. boasted of his protégé. "I'm giving him his own sound, his own identity. When I work with established people, there's already precedents to their sound, so I have to step it up some and give the J.R. twist to it. With Sean, I'm the one who's actually establishing his sound."

• 50 Cent
• Jennifer Lopez
• JoJo
• Mya
• Jesse McCartney

JoJo celebrates her 16th birthday with "Seventeen" magazine
Photo: MTV News

Think your 16th birthday was sweet? JoJo got the royal treatment Thursday night when Seventeen threw a bash for her at the boutique Carnaval in New York's East Village. The event was also held to honor the pop prodigy for gracing the magazine's prom issue cover. Her fans, along with a fab fashionista — Heatherette designer Richie Rich — sang "Happy Birthday" as she blew out the candles on four raspberry-and-chocolate-vanilla mousse cakes. On Friday night (December 15), JoJo will hit the stage at Z100's Jiggle Ball at Madison Square Garden. ...

(Check out pics from JoJo's b-day bash right here.)

A Los Angeles police officer who filed a lawsuit claiming sexual misconduct against a former deputy chief is also charging she was targeted by the same official after he allegedly confiscated her computer containing critical information about the investigation of the Notorious B.I.G. murder case. According to the Los Angeles Times, a probe has been launched by the internal investigation arm of the Los Angeles Police Department to look into both matters. Attorney Bradley Gage, who is representing Sergeant Ya-May Christle in her case, is also one of several lawyers who sued the city and police department on behalf of the estate of the late rapper. Police Chief William J. Bratton issued a statement saying his precinct will comply with the investigation and turn over all relevant documents requested. ...

The final album recorded by D12's Proof, Time a Tell, will be released next year, according to The Detroit News. The 18-track effort by the rapper, who was killed during a dispute at a Detroit nightclub on April 11, was written and recorded in a single day in January. The LP will be released via Iron Fist Records, the label founded by Proof. ... Ex-Phish major-domo Trey Anastasio is facing a variety of charges after a police officer pulled him over early Friday morning in a town in upstate New York near the Vermont border, The Associated Press reports. Police are charging him with possession of a controlled substance, driving while intoxicated and — because he was driving with a suspended license — third-degree aggravated unlicensed vehicle operation. Police found painkillers and an anti-anxiety drug that was prescribed to someone else in his vehicle. Anastasio was released and will appear in court at a later date. ...

In just 35 minutes, Muse sold all 150,000 tickets to the massive concert they have planned for London's Wembley Stadium on June 16. An additional 42,000 tickets have been sold for the recently added show to be held the following day at the same venue. Muse are the first band announced to play Wembley since it was rebuilt. ... The Rolling Stones' A Bigger Bang tour was the highest-grossing one of the year, according to Billboard. Tickets for the trek, which started in August 2005 and lasted until November 25, 2006, amounted to about $437 million. Second was Madonna, whose Confessions tour made $195 million and was the top-grossing trek ever by a female artist. ... The Nintendo Wii has been a smashing success, but not in the way the company had intended. After a rash of reports of the straps breaking on the wandlike game controllers, causing them to fly off user's hands and smashing TV screens, Nintendo announced Friday that it would recall and replace 3.2 million straps for the unit's controllers. According to AP, the worldwide recall will replace the current slim strap with a beefier one, costing the company several million dollars. ...

Linkin Park guitarist Brad Delson recently donated 36 electric guitars to Little Kids Rock, a program providing free instruments and instruction for public school students. Delson hand-delivered the guitars to Los Angeles' Nightingale Middle School. ... The Roots — who were recently nominated for two Grammys — are heading to South Africa for the first time as part of their ongoing world tour. The group is taking an unusual approach, following its Thursday performance on a flatbed truck in Johannesburg with shows in Cape Town on Friday and Durbin on Saturday. In February, the Roots will come back to North America for a three-month outing with Lupe Fiasco. That jaunt begins February 1 in Vancouver, British Columbia, and concludes with a two-night stand in Philadelphia on April 3-4. The collective is off to Australia after that. ...

The Internet was atwitter late Thursday night thanks to one phone number: (866) NEON-BIBLE. Why? That's the way the Arcade Fire chose to debut "Intervention" — the first song from their hotly anticipated new album, due in March on Merge Records. Fans who called the toll-free number were greeted with the sound of a creaky organ followed by a voice telling them to enter extension 7777 to hear "an important message from the founders of the Neon Bible program." After dialing the extension, "Intervention" — which has been a staple of the band's live set for a few years — plays. Influential BBC Radio 1 DJ Zane Lowe played the song on the air Thursday night. Friday morning, several music blogs began, um, "reporting" that the Arcade Fire's new album will be called Neon Bible — though a spokesperson for Merge told MTV News there is no album title yet, and the band is still mastering the record in London. ...

Ozzy Osbourne fans can expect to see the self-proclaimed Prince of Darkness on tour this spring, wife and manager Sharon Osbourne said during a recent appearance on the "Dr. Phil" show. Ozzy has been working on a pair of albums, the first due in February. The second will serve as the soundtrack to his long-in-the-works musical about Russian monk Grigori Rasputin. ... Meanwhile, Jack Osbourne is among the stars of the new CBS reality series "Armed & Famous," which follows five celebrities through the police academy and on patrol in Muncie, Indiana. "CHiPs" star Erik Estrada, "Jackass" wild man Jason "Wee-Man" Acuña, La Toya Jackson and WWE wrestler Trish Stratus are also featured. ...

Stephen Colbert and Decemberists multi-instrumentalist Chris Funk will compete in a guitar solo contest on "The Colbert Report" on Wednesday. The contest stems from a feud Colbert started when he accused the band of riding his coattails with a contest that asked fans to contribute animated footage for the Decemberists' new video. ... They Might Be Giants, Harry Shearer ("The Simpsons," "For Your Consideration") and "Late Show With David Letterman" musical director Paul Shaffer are among those converging at New York's Canal Room on Friday for Judith Owen and Harry Shearer's Holiday Sing-Along, put on by Shearer and his wife. A portion of the proceeds will benefit Tipitina's Foundation to aid the rebuilding of New Orleans' music culture in the wake of Hurricane Katrina.

12.14.2006

Rihanna, Ludacris and KT Tunstall have been added to ABC's "Dick Clark's New Year's Rockin' Eve 2007." All three acts will perform at Nokia Theatre Times Square in New York. In the meantime, Lady Sovereign has hopped onto the roster for "MTV Goes Gold: New Year's Eve 2007," for which she'll join other performers Nas, Gwen Stefani, Ciara and more. The show airs live December 31 at 11 p.m. ET, with a tape delay on the West Coast. And last but not least, Ruben Studdard is playing a free New Year's Eve show in Hawaii. The Honolulu Symphony will join the "American Idol" winner for the event, dubbed Gospel Goes Classic. ...

Kelis hosted Trace magazine's 10-year anniversary bash Wednesday night at Room Service nightclub in Manhattan. The R&B vixen was joined by her husband Nas, "Project Runway" winner Jay McCarroll and current Miss Universe Zuleyka Rivera as they all toasted to the cultural mag reaching its diamond mark. Kelis, Snoop Dogg, supermodel Iman and Mya are set to appear in Trace's 10-year anniversary issue. ...

Harry Potter has a home in Georgia after all, The Associated Press reports. On Thursday (December 14), the state's Board of Education upheld a Gwinnett County school board decision denying a mother's request to have the volumes removed from library shelves. "It's mainstreaming witchcraft in a subtle and deceptive manner, in a children-friendly format," said Laura Mallory, the mother in question. She might challenge the board's ruling. ... Trick Daddy is hosting Christmas toy drives in Miami on the next two Saturdays in conjunction with his Trick Luvs Da Kids Foundation. Pitbull will also be in attendance. ...

Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt aren't done adopting children, the actress told "Good Morning America" on Thursday, according to AP. "Now the questions are more when you have a mixed-race family, do you balance the races so there's another African person in the house for Z? So there's another Asian person in the house for Mad?" Jolie said, referencing Zahara and Maddox, two of the couple's three children. ... Katt Williams pleaded no contest to a misdemeanor count of carrying a concealed weapon and was sentenced to three years of probation on Thursday, AP reports. The Los Angeles judge also told him to pay restitution but gave him credit for the three days he spent in jail early last month. ...

Taking Back Sunday have recorded a version of "12 Days of Christmas" for AOL Sessions. A fan-made animated video is also circulating. ... Editors have released an EP of remixed tracks from The Back Room exclusively on iTunes. The U.K. rockers are currently recording their proper follow-up. ... The ultra-rare copy of The Velvet Underground & Nico that was "won" by a hoax bid last week is about to be up for auction on eBay once again. The LP, which was to be sold for $155,000, was expected to be back on the site Thursday afternoon. ...

After months of legal wrangling, a federal judge ruled Wednesday that "Alpha Dog" — a crime thriller starring Justin Timberlake — can be released in theaters January 12 despite objections from murder suspect Jesse James Hollywood, on whom the movie is based. According to The Hollywood Reporter, an attorney for Hollywood said he will file an appeal on the ruling based on his belief that releasing the film will make it impossible for his client to get a fair trial. The film, which also stars Bruce Willis and Sharon Stone, changes the characters' names, but Hollywood's attorney is concerned that the big-screen retelling of his client's alleged kidnapping and murder of California teen Nicholas Markowitz over a $1,200 drug debt could taint a jury pool. ...

According to a post written on Nine Inch Nails' Web site, not only is Trent Reznor hard at work on a new NIN album, but it's "possible" he's finished already. "We begin mixing in January," Reznor wrote on NIN.com. "Juggling fifteen all-new tracks around. Testing sequences. No leftovers from [2005's] With Teeth. Highly conceptual. Quite noisy. F---ing cool." ... Less than a week after an album's worth of demos she recorded as a gift for her pal Dave Sitek were leaked to the Internet, Yeah Yeah Yeahs frontwoman Karen O has weighed in on the situation. Her take: "Sh-- happens." Writing on the YYYs' site, O took the high road — as opposed to Sitek, who practically wished karmic castration on those responsible for the leak of the KO at Home album. She said she felt "a little grossed out" by the idea of her song sketches hitting various file-sharing sites but shrugged the whole thing off and even ended her post with some advice for curious fans. "If you happen to get your mits on one of those old demos ... my personal favorites and the only ones I would have released for anyone to enjoy [are] 'Pumpkin' and 'Snakes and Worms,' " she wrote. "The rest I would have pitched or buried." ...

Slash and Chris Robinson were among the guests who popped up onstage with Jet at a Los Angeles club show over the weekend. Former Sex Pistols guitarist Steve Jones also took part in the show, which ended in an all-star jam of the Faces' "Ooh La La." ... Army of Anyone will headline the 2007 installment of the annual SnoCore Tour, which kicks off in Houston on January 18. Hurt have been tapped to open. Dates are currently scheduled through February 8 in Hartford, Connecticut, with a full run of shows to be announced in the coming weeks. ... Hinder have rolled out a whole host of tour dates for the coming year. Two dozen stops have been scheduled from January 13 in Ketchum, Idaho, through February 23 in St. Petersburg, Florida. Black Stone Cherry and Finger Eleven will open on most of the dates. ...

Yoko Ono alleges that her chauffeur threatened to release private audiotapes and photographs and to kill her and her son, Sean Lennon, if she didn't give him $2 million, The New York Times reports. Koral Karsan, 50, who worked for Ono for 10 years, was arrested at his home in Amityville, New York, on Wednesday and was charged with attempted grand larceny, which carries a maximum sentence of 25 years in prison. Following his arrest, Karsan claimed that Ono had fabricated the charges to stop a sexual harassment suit. Police said the charges followed a confrontation with Ono in her apartment on Friday, in which Karsan presented Ono with a list of his complaints along with a photo of her in her pajamas and a tape that contained her "personal opinions on people and events." During a meeting on Tuesday, Karsan met with Ono's lawyer and allegedly demanded $2 million and threatened to kill Ono, Sean Lennon and himself if his demands were not met.

• JoJo Celebrates Her 16th Birthday With "Seventeen" Magazine
• Remembering DeShaun 'Proof' Holton: 1973-2006

• JoJo
• Proof Of D-12
• Notorious B.I.G.
• Muse
• Linkin Park

JoJo on the set of her "How To Touch A Girl" video
Photo: MTV News

There's something JoJo wants everyone to know right away about "How to Touch a Girl," the next single from her sophomore LP, The High Road.

"It's not the way it sounds," the 15-year-old pop star said during a break from shooting the video. "It's kind of about how to win a girl over and the things you can do to get to her heart."

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"How to Touch a Girl" is the first single the singer had a hand in writing, so when it came time to put it to film, she stayed heavily involved. "I'm very hands-on," JoJo said. "I cast everyone in my videos, I work closely with my stylist and my makeup and hair and I just make sure that everything is as I want it. Sometimes I don't know what I want, but I do know what I don't want, so if someone proposes an idea to me, I will say, 'No, let's do it this way' or 'This makes me uncomfortable.' "

For "How to Touch a Girl," JoJo decided to tell the story of the song, but not through herself. "We hired another couple so we could narrate the story through them," she explained. "I'm performing, and there are a lot of different vignettes and a lot of beautiful lighting techniques that we're using. We hired a band, and there's a performance shot and a lot of interactions and it all ties in at the end with my performances and the couple. And at the end, my guy comes."

Now that the video is finished, JoJo plans to spend much of December playing holiday radio festivals — in September, she told MTV News she'd put together her first band for those gigs (see "JoJo Assembles First Band, Plans To Hit The High Road This Winter"). She's also got a little celebrating to do on December 20, her 16th birthday. "I'll probably just stay home," JoJo said. "Really, what is most important to me is being with my family and friends, so if I get that, then that would be great. And if I get a car, that's just an added bonus."

JoJo's already thinking about her third album, although the sometime actress, seen this year in "RV" and "Aquamarine," plans to make a movie or two in between. "I don't know what yet, because I am focused on the music right now, but I am reading some scripts and there are some really cool ones out there," she said. "I love doing it, and it just keeps your face out there."

• On The Set of JoJo's "How To Touch A Girl"

• JoJo

Diddy's <I>Press Play</I>
Photo: Bad Boy Records

It's been five years since the release of Diddy's last studio LP, The Saga Continues. And although he hasn't spent that time resting on his laurels — he's been busy overseeing his Sean John and Bad Boy empires, performing on Broadway, running the New York City Marathon, developing his own line of commercial fragrances, toiling to promote voter registration and many other endeavours — there's a lot riding on this long-in-the-making LP, which debuts at #1 on next week's Billboard albums chart.

"This #1 right here is probably the most heartfelt one to me," Diddy told MTV News on Tuesday evening. "Because this is the only album where it wasn't about the extra drama that was going in my life; it was about the music. Also, being away for five years and the climate of this industry, nothing is a given. And to come out and have a #1 album on my fifth album, it's definitely one of the greatest feelings. I'm just appreciating it more and understanding it, after all the ups and downs in my career."

Press Play — which features contributions from Mary J. Blige, Brandy, Keyshia Cole, Christina Aguilera, Ciara, Nas, Big Boi and Cee-Lo, among others — scanned 170,500 units in a rather tepid week at retail outlets, but it was more than enough to earn Diddy the third #1 of his solo career: 1997's No Way Out topped the charts with 561,000 scans, and 2002's We Invented the Remix opened at #1 with 255,000-plus scans. (The Saga Continues and 1999's Forever both debuted at #2.)

Diddy's was one of 18 new releases to make it into next week's Billboard albums chart, according to the latest SoundScan totals. This chart's #3 belongs to JoJo's latest, The High Road, which sold more than 108,000 units its first week in stores. Also debuting in the top 10 are country musician Dierks Bentley's Long Trip Alone, which scanned more than 82,000 copies, and "American Idol" season-two champ Ruben Studdard, whose latest, The Return, opens at #8 with more than 70,000 sold.

Evanescence's The Open Door will spend a second week at #2 with 112,000 scans, while Justin Timberlake's Futuresex/ LoveSounds climbs three spots with 99,000 in week-six sales. Rod Stewart's Still the Same ... Great Rock Classics of Our Time falls five slots from #1 to #6 with 79,000-plus scans, while Hinder's Extreme Behavior climbs two spots to #7, selling close to 76,000 units. Tony Bennett's Duets: An American Classic slips to #9 with 68,000 scans, and the Killers' Sam's Town rounds out the top 10 with nearly 62,000 copies sold.

Other debuts include Vince Gill's These Days (42,000 scans to land at #17), Frankie J's Priceless, which bows at #30 with sales of 26,000, and Devil's Got a New Disguise: The Very Best of Aerosmith which enters at #33 with 23,000 scans. Meanwhile, Hi-Tek's Hi-Teknology, Vol. 2 bows in the #38 slot, chalking up 22,000 in first-week sales, and Sarah McLachlan's Wintersong lands at #42 with sales at 19,500. Just making the top 50 is Xzibit's latest, Full Circle, which enters at #50 on 16,700 scans.

Checking the debuts further down the chart, Cradle of Filth's Thornography lands at #66 with 13,000 copies sold, followed at #72 by the latest Swishahouse collection, The Day Hell Broke Loose, Vol. 3, which sold 12,700 units in its first week. Primus pops up at #105 with They Can't All Be Zingers: The Best of Primus selling to the tune of 9,100, while the Shiny Toy Guns debut at #131 with 6,900 copies of their We Are Pilots being carried away from the nation's record shops. Me First and the Gimme Gimmes land at #169 with Love Their Country racking up 5,400 in week-one sales, and It Dies Today's Sirens follows at #174 with 5,300 scans.

• MTV News RAW: Diddy

• Diddy
• JoJo
• Evanescence
• Justin Timberlake
• Ruben Studdard

Diddy's <I>Press Play</I>
Photo: Bad Boy Records

Mo' Diddy: It's been five years since we last heard a batch of new material from Diddy — even though he's been doing just about everything else in the meantime, between the clothing lines, record-label signings and humanitarian efforts. The mogul/artist/fill-in-the-blank is re-entering in style, getting big names to help with the Press Play festivities: Christina Aguilera ("Tell Me"), Nas and Cee-Lo ("Everything I Love"), Mary J. Blige ("Making It Hard"), Jamie Foxx ("Partners for Life"), Mario Winans ("Through the Pain (She Told Me)"), Brandy ("Thought You Said"), and Pussycat Doll Nicole Scherzinger. Plus, behind the boards he's got Kanye West, Will.I.Am, Big Boi, Mobb Deep's Havoc, Timbaland and the Neptunes. Now there's a guy with a few friends.

This week's second most impressive guest list belongs to Hi-Tek, who roped in Nas, Busta Rhymes, Common, Talib Kweli, Jadakiss, Papoose, Bun B and Ghostface Killah for Hi-Teknology 2: The Chip. Going above and beyond the call of duty, he tapped Snoop Dogg, Mos Def, Slim Thug and Raphael Saadiq for three tunes that appear on a special edition only available at Best Buy stores. That set also comes with a bonus DVD loaded with videos, a documentary and more.

JoJo's Mojo: Expect to see a lot of JoJo this week — on MTV, "The Today Show" and beyond — as she hops back from the big screen to the music world for The High Road. Her "Too Little Too Late" single is skittering up the charts, but — shocker! — there are other tracks on the album as well: "Let It Rain," "Good Ol' " and "Note to God," among others. Oh, and there's a bonus DVD with plenty of JoJo fruits as well.

Circling Around: Xzibit has some mighty hip-hop competition this week in the form of Diddy, but his fans should be coming around for Full Circle. Too Short ("Movin' in Your Chucks"), Kurupt ("Say It to My Face," "Movin' "), DJ Quik ("Poppin' Off") and T-Pain ("On Ball") have all hopped onto the affair, which furthers Xzibit's pattern of releasing an album every two years since he burst onto the scene in '96.

Murder Is the Case: Also in the rap mix is C-Murder, the criminally prone younger brother of Master P who is reservicing his LP The Truest Sh-- I Ever Said with five additional cuts he laid down after getting out of prison: "I Want It," "I Live in the Ghetto," "Calliope," "On My Block" (featuring Bootleg of the Dayton Family) and "Die for Mine" (featuring B.G.). There's also a bonus DVD with a 60-minute documentary hosted by B.G., plus behind-the-scenes material and videos to boot.

			MTV News RAW: Diddy The rapper/producer tells MTV why listeners have no choice but to 'Press Play', and explains why there's a bed in his studio.

Studly Efforts: He's won "Idol," Grammy-nomination honors and sold more than 3 million albums, but Ruben Studdard clearly has an appetite for more. On The Return, he redoes "If Only for One Night" — Rube's version has more in common with Luther Vandross', as opposed to original singer Brenda Russell's — as well as three songs he co-wrote: "I'm Not Happy," "Blow Ya Mind" and "To Tha Crib." The velvet teddy bear gets some production boosts from Scott Storch, Ne-Yo, Bryan-Michael Cox and Dre & Vidal. As it turns out, Ne-Yo and Cox also lend support to Latin R&B prince Frankie J with his Priceless album, which is peppered with guests Chamillionaire, 112's Slim and Bone Thugs-N-Harmony.

Weird Stuff: This week's crop of new releases is a strange one indeed:

When it comes to being odd, no band does it better than Primus, and they don't fall short this week with their Primus Singles: They Can't All Be Zingers CD and "Blame It on the Fish" DVD releases. On the DVD is a 30-minute documentary in which leader Les Claypool, playing a 102-year-old, talks about what life has been like for Primus into the year 2065.

Badly Drawn Boy is also pretty batty, and to coincide with the release of his Born in the U.K. LP this week, he's put up a contest on his Web site that asks viewers to choose their favorite fish-and-chips restaurant in England. Or, more specifically, "the chance to vote for your favourite local 'Batterie' and gamble the fishy reputation of your regular chish 'n fip shop." The contest prize? Nothing.

It Dies Today haven't exactly made a reputation for themselves as a family-friendly band, after touring as part of Ozzfest and with Trivium, Machinehead and other brutal bands. But as it turns out, "Sacre Coeur" — a song featured on their new release, Sirens — is actually named after a Parisian church where singer Nick Brooks says, in a press release, "I hopefully plan on proposing to someone there someday."

A mishmash of "Whatever Happened To ... ?" musicians — including members of Jellyfish, the Candy Butchers, Self, Semisonic and Papas Fritas — have joined forces for L.E.O. It isn't exactly a cover band but tries its best to channel prog-rock legends ELO all the same with Alpacas Orgling. It's doubtful that when those guys headed to the studio they limited themselves to ingesting only bread, water, eggs, coffee and whiskey, but that's exactly what Denison Witmer did for Safe Away, which is being reissued this week with a bonus EP.

To close out a 30-year career that has seen way too much hair and too many half-hearted reunions, Twisted Sister are regrouping one last time for ... a Christmas album? Yes, it's true: With singer Dee Snider leading the pack, the band bizarrely runs through "I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus," "Heavy Metal Christmas (The Twelve Days of Christmas)" and other selections that will lead fans to say, "Uh ... OK." Can you take it?

Toronto quartet the Sadies have crafted the soundtrack to "Tales of the Rat Fink," a film that lives up to its odd mantle: It revolves around cartoonist/custom-car designer Ed "Big Daddy" Roth and his anti-Mickey Mouse character, Rat Fink. The soundtrack is heavy on instrumental surf music, while the film features vocal contributions from "Stone Cold" Steve Austin, the Smothers Brothers, John Goodman, ZZ Top's Billy Gibbons and other people you wouldn't expect.

Also getting back together — a whopping 27 years after issuing their last studio LP — are all-women punks the Slits, with frontwoman Ari Up leading the pack. Equally surprising is that they've only come up with enough new material for an EP, Revenge of the Killer Slits, although it does feature appearances from such question-mark contributors as Sex Pistols drummer Paul Cook and Adam and the Ants axeman Marco Pirroni. Oh, three daughters also help out: Cook's child Holly, Mike Jones' daughter Lauren, and Phoebe, who calls Slits guitarist Tessa Pollitt mom. Even if it's just an EP the Slits are putting out, it'll give them a good excuse to tour with Dmonstrations next month. That San Diego band has a CD of its own coming out this week — Night Trrors. Shock! Songs include "Hair Pretzel," "Polyp" and "Coelcanth Shower" and, according to the press release, lyrics revolve around "food, sexual politics and international playgirls."

On the subject of unusual lyrical subject matter, Houston trio the Scattered Pages invoke children's authors Lewis Carroll and J.M. Barrie on Lazy Are the Skeletons, which features "Alice to Wonderland" and the less whimsical "Annie Get Yer Gun" and "You Were Depressing Me." And Sharam — one-half of Grammy-winning electronic duo Deep Dish — spends his double-disc Sharam GU29 - Dubai focusing on a country that usually comes up in a conversation about port security, not dance music. Paul van Dyk, Felix Da Housecat and Armin van Buuren lend him a hand. And Doleful Lions obsess over pro wrestler Terry Gordy on "Oriental Spike," featured on their album Song Cyclops Volume Two, which also features Beach Boys and Misfits covers.

Other strange highlights: KT Tunstall's Acoustic Extravaganza finds the singer/songwriter covering Beck's "Golden Age," of all things; Jack White has called neoclassical musician Dexter Romweber a major influence, and Romweber's 13-track Piano was produced by Le Tigre collaborator Chris Stamey; clothing designer Todd Oldham is really into the Changes, who drop their debut LP, Today Is Tonight, this week; and Anticon one-man-band Dosh — who courted Andrew Bird and members of Tapes 'N Tapes for his LP The Lost Take — was raised by a onetime priest and mother who almost became a nun. And last but not least there's the imitable Glenn Danzig, whose Black Aria II is a classical operatic piece based on the mythological first wife of Adam. Why bother being normal?

Song Title of the Week:

"Gutrot Hogfrenzy" from Regurgitate's Sickening Bliss

Other Notables:

Bert Jansch's The Black Swan: The towering British folk musician has made the surprising leap to Chicago indie label Drag City for his first album in four years. But a cadre of luminaries are helping brighten the set all the same, including Beth Orton and Devendra Banhart. Tracks include "Maddalina's Dance," "Texas Cowboy Blues" and "Bring Your Religion."

Jeremy Enigk's World Waits: Rumors of another Sunny Day Real Estate reunion are floating around again, but in the meantime, fans will have to be satisfied with the second solo effort by the angel-voiced frontman. "Been Here Before," "Wayward Love" and "Dare a Smile" bulk up the disc, although some were written more than 10 years ago, shortly after the release of his solo debut.

Elanors' Movements: Chicago spouses Noah and Adriel Harris have been doing the orchestral-pop thing for a couple of years now, but for this outing, they convinced Judah Johnson drummer Daniel Johnson and bassist Rodrigo Palma to join the fun. Using pre-1960s music as their guide, this political-protest LP features "Counsel of Bodies," "Thieving Kings" and "Drifters."

New Releases:

• Alrights - High School (City Canyons)
• Annuals - Be He Me (Ace Fu)
• Avalon - Faith: A Hymns Collection (Sparrow)
• DJ Baby Anne - Baby Anne Rocks! (System)
• Badly Drawn Boy - Born in the U.K. (Astralwerks)
• Barzin - My Life in Rooms (Monotreme)
• Dierks Bentley - Long Trip Alone (limited-edition version with bonus DVD also available; Capitol)
• Blut Aus Nord - Mort (Candlelight)
• Ayla Brown - Forward (CBUJ)
• Cage9 - El Motivo (Long Live Crime)
• Barton Carroll - Love & War (Skybucket)
• Changes - Today Is Tonight (Drama Club)
• Cradle of Filth - Thornography (Roadrunner)
• Glenn Danzig - Black Aria II (Megaforce)
• Kevin Devine - Put Your Ghost to Rest (Capitol)
• Diddy - Press Play (Bad Boy)>
• Dmonstrations - Night Trrors. Shock! (GSL)
• Doleful Lions - Song Cyclops Volume Two (Parasol)
• Dosh - The Lost Take (Anticon)
• Earl Greyhound - Soft Targets (Some)
• Elanors - Movements (Parasol)
• Jeremy Enigk - World Waits (Reincarnate)
• The Esoteric - Subverter (Prosthetic)
• Victor Fields - Thinking of You (Regina)
• Renée Fleming - Homage: The Age of the Diva (Decca)
• Frankie J - Priceless (Columbia)
• Vince Gill - These Days (four-CD box set; MCA Nashville)
• Michael Hall - The Song He Was Listening to When He Died (Freedom)
• Hi-Tek - Hi-Teknology 2: The Chip (Best Buy limited edition features bonus tracks and DVD; Babygrande)
• Imitation Electric Piano - Blow It Up, Burn It Down, Kick It 'Til It Bleeds (Drag City)
• Insomnium - Above the Weeping World (Candlelight)
• It Dies Today - Sirens (Trustkill)
• Bert Jansch - The Black Swan (Drag City)
• JoJo - The High Road (with DVD; Blackground)
• George Jones and Friends - God's Country (Category 5)
• Eartha Kitt - Live From the Café Carlyle (DRG)
• Klaxons - Xan Valleys (enhanced EP; Modular/Interscope)
• L.E.O. - Alpacas Orgling (Cheap Lullaby)
• Layzie Bone - Cleveland (Koch)
• Little Ones - Sing Song (EP; Astralwerks)
• Lonestar - Mountains (BNA)
• Matt Mays + El Torpedo - Matt Mays + El Torpedo (Reincarnate)
• Maria McKee - Maria McKee Live: Acoustic Tour 2006 (Cooking Vinyl)
• Sarah McLachlan - Wintersong (Arista)
• Me First and the Gimme Gimmes - Love Their Country (Fat Wreck Chords)
• Doug Moreland - Doug Moreland (Double Xxposure)
• Regurgitate - Sickening Bliss (Relapse)
• Dexter Romweber - Piano (Orange Sound)
• Sadies - "Tales of the Rat Fink" soundtrack (Yep Roc)
• Scattered Pages - Lazy Are the Skeletons (Three Ring)
• Sharam - Sharam GU29 - Dubai (two CDs; Global Underground)
• Shimmers - The Way You Shine (Transit of Venus)
• Shiny Toy Guns - We Are Pilots (Universal)
• Slits - Revenge of the Killer Slits (EP; SAF)
• Squarepusher - Hello Everything (Warp)
• Ruben Studdard - The Return (J)
• Thunderball - Cinescope (Eighteenth Street Lounge Music)
• Tribaljazz - Tribaljazz (Hidden Beach)
• Trucks - The Trucks (Clickpop)
• KT Tunstall - KT Tunstall's Acoustic Extravaganza (with DVD; Virgin)
• Twisted Sister - A Twisted Christmas (Razor & Tie)
• Unwed Sailor - The White Ox (Burnt Toast)
• Rhonda Vincent - Beautiful Star: The Christmas Collection (Rounder)
• Michael "5000" Watts - The Day Hell Broke Loose 3 (Swishahouse)
  
• Xzibit - Full Circle (Koch)
• Youngblood Brass Band - Is That a Riot? (Layered Music)
• Your Black Star - Sound From the Ground (Wonka Vision)
• Various artists - Infamy: Music Inspired by the Film (Image)
• Various artists - She Was Country When Country Wasn't Cool: A Tribute to Barbara Mandrell (BNA)

Notable Reissues and Archival Material:

• Aerosmith - Devil's Got a New Disguise: The Very Best of Aerosmith (Columbia)
• Davie Allan & the Arrows - Cycle Breed (Sundazed)
• Black Oak Arkansas - The Definitive Rock Collection (Rhino)
• Blind Melon - Live at the Palace - Hollywood, CA, October 1995 (Capitol/EMI)
• Billy Bragg - Don't Try This at Home, England, Half English (with the Blokes; enhanced) Volume II (box set with eight CDs and one DVD), William Bloke and Workers Playtime (Yep Roc)
• C-Murder - The Tru Story ... Continued (limited-edition version with DVD and bonus tracks; Koch)
• Dick Dale and His Del-Tones - Surfers' Choice (Sundazed)
• Dokken - The Definitive Rock Collection (Rhino)
• Esteban - Best of Esteban (Strip City)
• Everly Brothers - 36 Unreleased Recordings From the Late '50s and Early '60s (Varèse Sarabande)
• Fat Jon & Styrofoam - The Same Channel (Morr)
• Feathers - Synchromy (Hometapes)
• Foghat - The Definitive Rock Collection (Rhino)
• Lowell Fulsom - In a Heavy Bag (Sundazed)
• Goldfrapp - We Are Glitter (Mute)
• Gomez - Five Men in a Hut (A's, B's & Rarities: 1998-2004) (two CDs; Virgin/EMI)
• Charlie Gracie - The Best of Charlie Gracie: Cameo Parkway 1956-1958 (ABKCO)
• Earl Hooker - The Genius of ... (Sundazed)
• Love - The Definitive Rock Collection (Rhino)
• Willie Nelson - 54 Songs: Songwriter Sessions (three-CD box set; DBK)
• Primus - Primus Singles: They Can't All Be Zingers (Interscope)
• Todd Rundgren - The Definitive Rock Collection (Rhino)
• Jimmy Smith - Bluesmith (Lilith)
• Sweet - Sweet Chronology (Friday)
• Frank Tovey - Fad Gadget by Frank Tovey (box set with two CDs and two DVDs; Mute)
• Denison Witmer - Safe Away (original CD plus the Are You a Sleeper? EP; Militia Group)
• Link Wray and His Ray Men - White Lightnin': Lost Cadence Sessions '58 (Sundazed)
• Dwight Yoakam - Guitars, Cadillacs, Etc., Etc. (two CDs; Rhino)
• Various artists - Cameo Parkway: The Greatest Hits (ABKCO)
• Various artists - The Ultimate James Bond Film Music Collection (four-CD box set; Silva America)

Music DVDs:

• Cars - "The Cars Unlocked - The Live Performances" (with bonus CD; New Video Group)
• Diplomats - "The Diplomats Present: 140th & Lenox, Vol. 1" (Koch Vision)
• Face to Face - "Shoot the Moon (The Essential Collection)" (two DVDs; Image)
• Kinks - "One for the Road" (Velvel)
• Primus - "Blame It on the Fish" (Frizzle Fry)
• Rolling Stones - "Rock Files: Truth and Lies" (Eagle Vision)
• Neil Sedaka - "The Show Goes On: Live at the Royal Albert Hall" (Eagle Vision)
• Various artists - "Carlos Santana Presents Blues at Montreux 2004" (three DVDs; Eagle Vision)

Coming Attractions:

October 24:

• My Chemical Romance - The Black Parade (Reprise)
• Sparta - Threes (Hollywood)
• Various artists - "The Nightmare Before Christmas" soundtrack (special two-CD edition; Disney)

October 31:

• Deftones - Saturday Night Wrist (Maverick)
• Lady Sovereign - Public Warning (Def Jam)
• Kevin Federline - Playing With Fire (Reincarnate)

November 7:

• James Blunt - Back to Bedlam (limited-edition version with bonus CD; Atlantic)
• Foo Fighters - Skin and Bones (RCA)
• Jim Jones - Hustler's P.O.M.E. (Product of My Environment) (Koch)
• Dave Matthews Band - The Best of What's Around, Vol. 1 (two CDs; RCA)
• Ol' Dirty Bastard - A Son Unique (Def Jam)

• Diddy
• JoJo
• Xzibit
• C-Murder
• Ruben Studdard

JoJo
Photo: MTV News

When it came time to cast a male lead for JoJo's "Too Little, Too Late" video, the bubbly singer — who'll be turning 16 in December — decided it had to be an unknown. Not a model or a trained actor, but a regular Joe.

"I thought it brought more of a real feel to the video," JoJo said of the two-timing, soccer-playing scoundrel she pines for — and eventually kicks to the curb — in the clip. "We had great onscreen chemistry too. But the video's just about moving on."

The High Road, the follow-up to JoJo's 2004 platinum, self-titled debut, drops October 17. JoJo debuted at #4 on Billboard's album sales chart the week after its release, selling close to 95,000 copies; the disc has gone on to sell more than 1.3 million units.

JoJo said she wanted to work with just one man to help bring her "Too Little" vision to life on the small screen: director Chris Robinson, who has helmed videos for DMX, T.I., Snoop, Nelly and Jay-Z.

"He was my first choice," JoJo explained. "We collaborated on this idea, and it was his idea to incorporate sports into the video. My first thought was American football, but he said, 'Think about it on an international level. Soccer is the biggest sport in the world.' And I said, 'Perfect,' because I am a soccer fan."

In the video, JoJo spots her boyfriend — played by UCLA student Mike Zaher, a defender on the school's soccer team — flirting shamelessly with a blonde inside a house party. She spends much of the rest of the clip staring out her bedroom window, mulling over the situation as rain trickles down the glass. By the end of it, she's decided it's time to take out the trash and ditches the double-crossing dude.

In creating The High Road, JoJo enlisted songwriters Diane Warren and Billy Steinberg, as well as producers Scott Storch, Timbaland, Swizz Beatz and Jermaine Dupri. About 25 songs were recorded for the effort, which she describes is a mix of hip-hop, R&B and pop (see "JoJo Works Her Mojo, Nabs Jermaine Dupri, Timbaland For New LP").

And, of course, JoJo's just itching to hit the High road either late in the fall or this winter, and can't wait to play the new material live.

"I just put a band together — my first band — and I'm in the process of putting a tour together," she explained. "I'll also be doing a lot of [local] radio station shows. It's just always fun to get back out there."

JoJo's also plotting her next move as an actress. She appeared in two films this year — "Aquamarine," about a mermaid who falls in love with a finless lifeguard, and "RV," in which she starred alongside Robin Williams, who takes his dysfunctional family on a road trip to the Colorado Rockies.

"I'm just reading scripts right now," she said. "I'm really focused on this album, because I spent nine months making it. I don't want to just throw it out there and let it be. I want to take time to do movies, and I want to take time to do music — but I want to take time to do them separately."

• JoJo And Mya Get Pretty For VMA Style And Sound

• JoJo

JoJo
Photo: MTV News

Most 15-year-olds are enjoying summer vacation right now. But not JoJo — the singer is continuing to plug away on High Road, giving literal meaning to the term "sophomore" album.

JoJo's already collaborated with a ton of talent for the album, which follows the self-titled debut she released when she was 13 (see "JoJo Says Being A Teenager Has Given Her A Lot To Write About"). Onboard are songwriters Diane Warren and Billy Steinberg, plus producers Scott Storch, Timbaland, Swizz Beatz and, most recently, Jermaine Dupri. "This is just a whirlwind," she said. "It's very exciting to be working with them. And Jermaine, we just met, and he's just very laid-back."

So far JoJo's recorded about 25 songs, which she describes as a mix of hip-hop, R&B and pop. Some of the songs she's hoping to include are "How to Touch a Girl," which she co-wrote with Steinberg ("that's just how to win over her heart"); "The Good Old" ("that's very urban leaning"); the title track ("that's very inspirational"); and "Too Little, Too Late," written by Steinberg. "It's not angry, like 'Leave (Get Out),' " JoJo explained of the first single. "It's just, you're disappointed, this is your first love, but you have to move on. It's just a big, big song."

JoJo says she feels like she's walking "a fine line" when it comes to love songs, because although she feels mature, she knows she's not mature enough. "So it becomes a question, 'What is acceptable to write about? How would this come across? What would people think about it?' " she said. "I'm not trying to freak anybody out, it's just a young girl becoming a little bit older and getting to know herself. And at the end of the day, I just have to be happy with it, because you can't please everyone. I write about what's real to me and whatever I think, so that's kind of what the process is for me."

Part of the process, too, she said, was trying to just forget about analyzing everything and just do normal things, like driving around with her friends to get Slurpees. "I don't feel like I've missed out on anything," she said. "If anything, I learn way more. I get to see the world."

Next up on her list of things to do: get a driver's license, get a car, get involved, get a Grammy and finish high school — not necessarily in that order. And to make sure she gets an invite to the next VMAs, JoJo's already shooting the video for "Too Little, Too Late." She recorded the clip during the World Cup playoffs, so of course, it has a soccer theme. "It's my favorite sport," she said, "so I thought it would be a great way to talk about it."

• JoJo, Bow Wow, Pink, Nelly, Jesse And More On The 2006 Kids' Choice Orange Carpet

• JoJo

Tom Cruise in "Mission: Impossible III"
Photo: Paramount

Tom Cruise's mission? Get the third installment of the "Mission: Impossible" series to the top of the box-office heap. While Cruise rose to the challenge, leading "Mission: Impossible III" to the #1 spot, the blockbuster didn't top the opening weekend take of the previous "Mission."

"M:i:III," which also stars Philip Seymour Hoffman and Ving Rhames, earned more than $48 million, according to early estimates. In the action flick, Cruise reprises his role as spy Ethan Hunt — except this time, he's retired from active duty to teach new recruits. He's called back into action to go after super villain Owen Davian (Hoffman) (see " 'Mission: Impossible III': Hunt Is On").

While the film pulled in solid first-week earnings, the $48 million take was less than what the film was expected to earn, and nearly $10 million shy of the opening-weekend take of "Mission: Impossible II."

"M:i:III" did earn more than enough to leave last week's #1, "RV," in its dust. The family film starring Robin Williams brought in $11.1 million its second weekend in theaters, slipping to #2. Williams plays a father who rents an RV and takes his brood (including a daughter played by singer/actress JoJo) on a road trip to promote some family togetherness in the comedy (see "Robin Williams To 'RV' Co-Star JoJo: 'You The Man!' ").

The horror flick "An American Haunting" was the only other new release to crack the top five this week. The film, based on 1800s events in which a teenage girl and her family were believed to be targeted by a demon, bowed at #3 with more than $6.3 million (see " 'American Haunting' Isn't Scared Of A Little Tom Cruise Movie").

The cheerier "Stick It" slipped a spot from #3 to #4 with more than $5.5 million. The comedy centers on a teenage former gymnast who, after a series of brushes with the law, is made to join a gymnastics team to clean up her act (see " 'Stick It' Cast Tumbles Into Gymnastics — Neon Leotards And All").

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The dramatic "United 93" bowed at #2 last week amidst a sea of controversy. This week, the film that centers on the passengers of United flight 93 who fought back against terrorists that took over their plane on September 11, 2001 (see " 'United 93' Director Goes For Realism, Vows Not To Mythologize "), slipped three notches to #5 with more than $5.2 million.

"Ice Age: The Meltdown," meanwhile, heated up a bit this week, climbing from #7 to #6. The animated family film about a group of animals who have to escape a quickly collapsing dam earned $4 million.

Rounding out the box-office top 10 are "Silent Hill," which tumbled from #4 to #7 with $3.9 million; "Scary Move 4," which fell from #5 to #8 with more than $3.7 million; "Hoot," which debuted at #9 with $3.4 million; and "Akeelah and the Bee," which dropped from #8 to #10 with $3.4 million.

Overall, ticket sales were up from the corresponding weekend last year.

Next week, look for "Just My Luck" and "Poseidon" to debut on the box-office top 10.

See everything we've got on "Mission: Impossible III", "RV" and "An American Haunting".

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