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:

Swizz Beatz tells us that he may have said that he'd be going it alone on his new album -- which now features Kanye West, T.I. and E-40 but he's got a good reason for changing his mind. [article id="1562996"]"I didn't want to beg anybody for anything," Swizz explained[/article]. "Now with my songs out, I'm getting approached from people I respect." ...

[article id="1562926"]We talked to Franz Ferdinand at Bonnaroo[/article], and the band revealed that their next album (due in 2008) will put a synth-heavy spin on their dance rock sound -- all because of bandmember Nick McCarthy's choice of accessories. "[He] bought himself a new velvet cape and we needed an excuse for him to wear it, so we had to get him a big bank of synthesizers to play," Alex Kapranos said. ...

And bringing the story of a real person to life onscreen isn't a new experience for Angelina Jolie, but she told us that starring in "A Mighty Heart" as Mariane Pearl -- whose husband, reporter Daniel Pearl, was killed while following a lead in post-9/11 Pakistan -- has been the most challenging. [article id="1562974"]"The responsibility of [telling Pearl's story] became really daunting and more pressure than I've ever had on anything," Jolie said[/article].

Quote of the Day: "If a girl's hot and her mama's ugly then she's gonna be ugly in a couple of years." [article id="1562949"]Will.I.Am[/article]

Here's what everyone else is talking about:

50 Cent spilled big movie news to New York's Daily News. Gossip column "Rush & Malloy" reports that the rapper's upcoming film with Robert De Niro has a new castmember &38212; Al Pacino. "I'm not even sure they know yet," 50 said of the "Righteous Kill" change. "Me and Robert were supposed to shoot a film where I played a police officer, but now Al and Robert play the cops." ...

Britney Spears "is not listening to anyone and doing exactly what she wants" according to New York Post's "Page Six," but while the source says "sometimes she doesn't know best," the independence may prove to be the ticket to a solid comeback, as another source tells the column that Britney has "four definite hits on the next album. It's amazing." ...

Spoiler alert! Reuters reports that a hacker who claims that he's busted into a computer at London publisher and knows the fate of Harry Potter and his comrades in the boy wizard's final chapter has posted details of "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows" online a month ahead of its July 21 release "to make reading of the upcoming book useless and boring." A rep for Scholastic wouldn't say whether the hacker's revelations were accurate. ...

Bon Jovi, White Stripes and Brad Paisley could end up in a photo finish for the top of Billboard's albums charts, according to Hits Daily Double's one-day sales reports. Bon Jovi are the projected winners, with 230,000, thanks to their LP/ ticket sales deal, but the Stripes and Paisley are close behind with a projected 210,000 each. ...

Are Aerosmith and the surviving members of Run-DMC reuniting onstage this weekend? World Entertainment News Network (via Blabbermouth) reports that Rev. Run and DMC will join the band Sunday for their set at London's Hyde Park Calling festival. ...

A missing Homer Simpson has been found in Malaysia. A life-sized statue of the cartoon giant stolen from a movie theater in Kuala Lumpur was tracked down by police on Thursday, The Associated Press reports. Two college students are allegedly behind the theft. ...

It's been up since Tuesday, and no names has been posted yet, but blog Thou Shall Not Leak (via Idolator) is threatening to post "the names, indelible and set out for all to see" of people who leak advance copies of albums. The blogger only goes by JP ("I work in the industry and people's lack of care or respect for the hard work artists and the people who put out records appals me") and has received 20 comments as of Thursday morning (June 21), some applauding the idea, some wondering if JP is prepared for any libel claims and one music blogger outing himself. ...

PerezHilton.com was back in business Wednesday night, but if you wondered why the site was eerily quiet all day, there's a reason. The PerezHilton.com Web host took the site offline Wednesday, after repeated warnings over Mario Lavandeira's use of copyrighted images, Variety reports. The site was dark for a few hours while it moved to a new host. "He has a skeleton or temporary situation where he can still post," said Matt Lum, owner of the company that manages the site. Eight photo agencies have sued Lavandeira for posting celebrity photos without permission. ...

And Wes Craven is suing Pauly Shore, TMZ.com reports. And while it would be a whole lot more fun if it was a case of the horror master accusing Shore of somehow ripping his Weasel persona from "The Last House on the Left," the dispute is of the standard bad-neighbor variety. The suit claims that Shore didn't keep up his pool and sprinklers, and water from his property caused a landslide near Craven's home.