Justin Timberlake and Seann William Scott will co-host the 2003 MTV Movie Awards, which will be taped at the Shrine Auditorium in Los Angeles May 31 and airs June 5. Jack Black and Sarah Michelle Gellar handled emcee duties last year. ...

If you began salivating a few weeks ago when 50 Cent's plans to release a tell-all book came to light (see [article id="1470811"]"50 Cent Looking To Tell His Life Story"[/article]), you might want to close your mouth now. According to a source close to the project, hip-hop's hottest rapper, afraid that fans would soon experience a 50 overdose, has shelved the project indefinitely. He was also said to have been crabby that details about the project had already leaked to the press. ... Jay-Z, Beanie Sigel, Trick Daddy and Donell Jones are among the guests slated for Memphis Bleek's new record, M.A.D.E., due June 24. Producers on the album include Kanye West and Just Blaze, who did the first single, "Everything's a Go." ...

The debut from Eminem protégé Obie Trice will be titled Cheers. Em, Dr. Dre, Rockwilder and Timbaland are producing tracks for the record, due in the summer. ... Vishiss, who plays rapper Versis on the UPN's new hip-hop drama series, "Platinum," is recording an album of his own for DreamWorks Records. A release date has not been set, but it will drop before year's end. ...

Rarely one to keep his opinions to himself, Washington, D.C., punk icon and Dischord Records co-founder Ian MacKaye will give a spoken-word performance and take audience questions at this weekend's Coachella Festival in Southern California. Meanwhile, MacKaye's band Fugazi is reportedly enjoying an indefinite hiatus. ... On a related note, Dischord is releasing the first demo ever recorded by Minor Threat -- the seminal punk group MacKaye fronted before forming the bands Embrace and Fugazi and which coined the term "straight edge" -- on CD and 7-inch single. Recorded in a basement just four months after the band formed, the demo includes the songs "Minor Threat," "Stand Up," "Seeing Red," "Bottled Violence," "Small Man, Big Mouth," "Straight Edge," "Guilty of Being White" and "I Don't Want to Hear It." There is also a Minor Threat live DVD in the works, which could surface as soon as the fall. ...

Go-Go's guitarist Charlotte Caffey and singer/guitarist Anna Waronker are penning songs for a musical about former porn star Linda Lovelace, who starred in "Deep Throat" and died last year in a car accident. Former Red Kross member Steven McDonald (Waronker's husband) is co-musical director. The production will star Tina Yothers, who played Jennifer on "Family Ties." The show will premiere June 20 at Hollywood's Theatre of NOTE. ... Lots of siblings in the music biz fight all the time. Just look at Oasis, the Black Crowes or the Kinks for proof. But Backstreet Boy Nick Carter and his little brother Aaron want you to know that's not always the case -- they'll be appearing on "Sesame Street" on May 12 to sing about brotherly love. ...

Sure, Tommy could play a mean pinball, but could the deaf, dumb and blind kid vault Snake River Canyon in a rocket-bike? So it's only right that stuntman extraordinaire Evel Knievel get his very own rock opera. Jef Bek (not to be confused with former Yardbirds guitarist Jeff Beck), a Los Angeles musical director and composer, secured the rights to the story of the frequently fractured Knievel's life, during which he accrued 37 broken bones. The show will be called, what else, "Evel Knievel: The Rock Opera." ... The Dixie Chicks have been targeted as anti-American and boycotted ever since they took a few potshots at President Bush. Well, icon of Americana Bruce Springsteen has had enough, so he's posted a message on his Web site defending his favorite Chicks. "To me, they're terrific American artists expressing American values by using their American right to free speech. For them to be banished wholesale from radio stations, and even entire radio networks, for speaking out is un-American." ...

Gorillaz mastermind Dan "The Automator" Nakamura is producing the next record from New Orleans funk ensemble Galactic. The follow-up to 2000's Late for the Future is due in the fall. ... The Suicide Machines, who will head out on their sixth Vans Warped Tour this summer, will release their fifth album, A Match and Some Gasoline, on June 17. ...

Chimaira, who escaped injury recently when their video set for "Down Again" caught on fire, missed Monday's show in West Springfield, Virginia, after their tour bus slid out of control and crashed into construction barricades on the way to the gig. No one was hurt in the accident and the band will make Tuesday's show in West Columbia, South Carolina. ... In support of their third album, Blackout, (Hed) Planet Earth have lined up six weeks of tour dates, beginning with a headlining show Tuesday (April 22) in Grand Rapids, Michigan. On several of the dates, which run though June 14 in Baltimore, they are opening for Godsmack or playing radio-station festivals. ...

The Bouncing Souls will drop Anchor's Away, the follow-up to 2001's How I Spent My Summer Vacation, on August 26. The long-running punk band recently released the double DVD set "Do You Remember? Fifteen Years of the Bouncing Souls" through Chunksaah Records. ... With his brother Chris now gone solo, the Black Crowes' Rich Robinson has resurfaced in a new outfit called Hookah Brown. The band plans to enter the studio in May to begin work on its full-length debut. ...

04.21.03

Blink-182 are in San Diego's Rolling Thunder studios recording the follow-up to 2001's Take Off Your Pants and Jacket with producer Jerry Finn, whose credits include that album and the eponymous debut by side project Box Car Racer. Slated to drop in August or September, Blink's fifth album is expected to include the tentatively titled "Down," "Obvious," "I Miss You" and "I Should Have Got Caught." ... Good Charlotte guitarist Benji Madden will sing on "Jaded," the first single from Mest's self-titled LP, due in June. Madden will also appear in the video for the song. A Benjiless Mest will hit the Warped Tour trail this summer. ...

Whitney Houston's latest stop on the comeback circuit is a guest spot on the season finale of "Boston Public," in which she attends prom with a student and performs "Try It on My Own" in an effort to allay Aisha's Whitney-induced stage fright. Prom night is May 12 on Fox. ... Interpol drummer Sam Fogarino, who had recently been plagued with the flu, suffered a stressed nerve in his arm during a club date in Bologna, Italy, on April 16, forcing the band to cancel the show. After allowing him two days to recuperate, Interpol played the show and continued their tour. ... Tenacious D have always been about being bigger and better, so instead of releasing a single DVD like most everyone else, they're working on a double-DVD extravaganza. The package will include all of their music videos, comedic episodes shot for HBO, a half-hour band rockumentary, behind-the-scenes footage and a 90-minute concert shot in London. The still-untitled set was directed by Liam Lynch and will be released by year's end. ...

Pet Sounds mastermind Brian Wilson will receive an honorary degree at the June commencement ceremony of Boston's Northeastern University. Despite composing songs like "Be True to Your School" in 1963, the Beach Boys genius never went to college. ... He couldn't hide behind his Internet service provider, and now a man suspected of engaging in illegal file sharing may not be able to hide behind the Constitution, either. The Department of Justice filed a brief on Friday that said the subpoena requested by the Recording Industry Association of America for ISP Verizon Communications to surrender the name of a subscriber allegedly involved in copyright infringement does not violate the constitutional amendment that defines one's right to privacy. Verizon is contesting the subpoena on grounds that it does. A federal judge will ultimately determine the legality of the court order. ...