The news happens all the time, even while you're catching up on beauty sleep. Check out this brief rundown to bring you up to speed this morning -- a quick heads up from your friends at MTV News.

Here's what we've got:

Andre 3000 tells us that his guest verses on songs by everyone from UGK to Lloyd just happened. [article id="1559967"]"It wasn't like a divine plan or anything."[/article] Now the next Outkast album, that's going to take some planning. "I gotta find out what I'm tryin' to say," he said. "It's almost like a picnic -- you call your auntie and say, 'You bringin' some greens? Yeah? OK, I'm not gonna bring any greens.' I gotta find out what I gotta cook up."

Think Avril Lavigne is topless on the cover of Blender? Think again. "I was wearing a tube top, and they just kind of put a banner on top of it," [article id="1559938"]Avril revealed to us Wednesday night[/article]. She also told us that she's ready to dig into some major acting roles.

"I would want to go for a more serious drama, something darker that would take a lot of emotion." Avril said she will soon be starring in a movie, but wouldn't give up the title. ...

And if you notice a similarity between [article id="1559965"]Chicago instrumental post-metal band Pelican[/article] and Weezer, you might want to keep that to yourself. "I couldn't believe it," guitarist Laurence Lebec said, telling us the story of a "You guys look like Weezer" shout during an opening set for Opeth. "These guys were coming to see Opeth, this really progressive band, yet they were still locked in such rudimentary middle-school kind of nonsense attitudes." ...

Quote of the Day: "I've seen the kid, and I love him." -- [article id="1559904"]"Original Human Beatbox" Doug E. Fresh on "Idol" beatboxer Blake Lewis[/article].

Here's what everyone else is talking about:

The Killers pulled the plug on their Thursday night show at Red Rocks in Morrison, Colorado, after just two songs. Brandon Flowers walked off following "When You Were Young," and a doctor later stepped onstage to announce that the singer's throat had been injured and singing would harm his voice, local NBC affiliate KUSA reported. Drummer Ronnie Vannucci promised the crowd that the band would make it up to them. The concert has not yet been rescheduled. ...

Evanescence have rounded out their lineup by grabbing two members of Dark New Day, the band announced Thursday. Drummer Will Hunt and guitarist Troy McLawhorn replace [article id="1558881"]Rocky Gray and John LeCompt[/article] in the lineup. "I am a big fan of Dark New Day and can't wait for the fans to see what the guys bring to our live show," Amy Lee said in a statement. The new Evanescence will debut Saturday at the Rock on the Range festival in Columbus, Ohio. Meanwhile, Rocky Gray is unloading the gold and platinum discs he was awarded with band on eBay. There are no bids yet on the six auctions, which open at $500. ...

Lindsay Lohan won't be following Paris Hilton to the slammer. The Los Angeles District Attorney has thrown out a claim that Lohan stole clothing from a woman's home, citing insufficient evidence, The Associated Press reports. ...

Samuel L. Jackson is in negotiations to star in Frank Miller's big-screen adaptation of "The Spirit." The ultimate badass would play ultimate bad guy the Octopus, a lab-rat-turned-tentacled-menace described by The Hollywood Reporter as "a psychotic nightmare that kills anyone unfortunate enough to see his face." Awesome.

Linkin Park are a lock for #1 on the next Billboard albums charts, according to one-day sales reports gathered by Hits Daily Double, which predicts Minutes to Midnight will sell more than 550,000 copies its first week in stores. ...

Elsewhere on the charts, T-Pain scores his first #1 on Billboard's Hot 100 with "Buy U a Drank (Shawty Snappin')." Maroon 5 drop to #2 after two weeks on top with "Makes Me Wonder," while Avril Lavigne's "Girlfriend" climbs one spot to #3. ...

The Pentagon defended restricting [article id="1559521"]Army access to MySpace, YouTube and MTV[/article] on Thursday, after Representative Ed Markey -- chair of the House of Representatives subcommittee on telecommunications and the Internet -- asked that the policy be reversed. "We just simply cannot accommodate the growth in the bandwidth demands of this newer technology for both official reasons and recreational sites," Rear Admiral Elizabeth Hight, deputy head of the Defense Information Systems Agency, told Reuters. ...

Those [article id="1558212"]Virgin Festival[/article] two-day passes are great, unless you love Smashing Pumpkins but can't stomach the Police -- or Stewart Copeland makes your heart sing while Billy Corgan makes your skin crawl. Now you're in luck: organizers have announced that single-day tickets for the event go on sale Saturday. ...

Bo Diddley was up and walking around on Thursday after suffering a stroke Sunday, AP reports. Doctors are encouraged that the 78-year-old guitarist, whose speech has been impaired by the stroke, would be able to perform again. ...

And Westboro Baptist Church, an anti-gay organization best known for picketing soldiers' funerals -- and inspiring 34 states to enact laws restricting such demonstrations -- is branching out into music ... and possible copyright infringement. They've remade "We Are the World" as "God Hates the World," only they didn't get permission to use the original song. Warner/Chappel Music Inc. has issued a letter to the church alleging copyright infringement, according to an AP report. The church claims the song and video are parodies protected under the First Amendment.