A new digital single for 4minute… or for Mario?

Earlier, the rumor that 4minute would release a digital single on December 2 started to circulate. It seems that the situation got even more confusing as their labelmate, Mario, is said to release a digital single on the same day. And since nothing was stated by any Cube representative, speculations have been running : the digital single would be a duet… maybe a featuring or none of those.

4minute has recently promoted “What a Girl Wants” from their first mini-album and has been on stage for nearly 5 months of non-stop promotions whereas, on his side, Mario has been away from the music scene since his “Superman” promotions, back in 2008 and has eventually featured in a Color Project with K.Will last summer.
So who will release the digital single ? The answer will be certainly known on December 2nd

Pictures crredit : allkpop + Newsen
Reporting : Meeli @ 4-minute.com

One of Jerri’s best singers in the world, is apparently pregnant.

This is the second time a rumour about her being pregnant has surfaced…

Possibly this time its true…

It would make sense, a rushed wedding, in a secret location. And it would explain all the floral over sized dresses…

Either way, I still think she would make a lovely mother…

Lets just hope she wont pull a Celin Dion on us, and release a Lullaby Album…

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Rumours about American artist, Bow Wow are flying…

Apparently he will be touring South Africa in December…

Is it true?

If so, I know a certain queen sized bed, I could help him tour…

If you are in PE, you will know about Busta’s concert… Yes Busta is performing this weekend at the Bay Summer Concert…

Clint Barton, or Hawkeye, has been one of the mainstays of the comic book Avengers. A man with no superpowers but a talent with a bow and arrow. He was inspired to turn hero by seeing Iron Man in action and had a team up with Black Widow, before breaking into Avengers Mansion to join the team.

Like most comic book characters he has died, had amnesia, yadda yadda yadda. Last I heard he was running around the normal Marvel Universe as a character called Ronin (basically all ninja type stuff) and in the Ultimates Universe he was totally bad ass but had his family wiped out and he went all out balls nasty on the bad guys (I’ve used a pic of this version as I think they’ll go the more realistic looking route in the film version).

Okay, hope that brought you up to speed at least a little on the character – Wikipedia have a lot more detail.

Jeremy Renner is the American actor who starred in S.W.A.T., 28 Weeks Later and blew the house down in Kathryn Bigelow’s The Hurt Locker where he portrayed the lone wolf devil may care SSgt William James who I figure could be a similar kind of character, in some aspects, to Hawkeye.

The reason he could be Hawkeye is that The Playlist spotted an interview with Empire where he said, “Hawkeye could be interesting. They’re going to send me some stuff on it, see what it is. But I think they’re pretty awesome, trying to make superhero movies almost plausible and not just some fantasy thing.”

Looking at the recent Marvel Studio films I reckon Hawkeye could be a cameo in either Thor, Iron Man 2 or Captain America (as Iron Man 2 has finished shooting I doubt it will be that one, unless they are super sneaky) and then we see him more in The Avengers film. Just a theory.

Do you want to see Hawkeye on the big screen? Is Renner the man to play him? How could he appear as a cameo in Thor?

4Minute v.s Lollipop, what is the implication?

4Minute is really going to Mainland China! If not, Hong Kong, Taiwan, or other large Mandarin-speaking countries. If you can still remember, those artists that are going to the Hallyu Showcase in Shanghai are those that have been promoting in Mandarin-speaking communities for a while, or have huge fanbases in China. For instance, 2PM no doubt is very well-known even in places like China; f(x) has their leader Victoria, who was already quite famous in China before she joined the group; U-Kiss has been promoting in Mainland China for quite a while. So, where does 4Minute fit among this group of artists? They will in time to come.

On Mnet Asian Music Awards 2009 (MAMA), 21st November, there was this special stage whereby 4Minute battled out with Taiwanese boy group Lollipop (棒棒堂*), with their hit songs Muzik and Between Us(我们之间) respectively. What really caught my attention is the fact that this special stage is the only section which has all the Mandarin-speaking guests that evening, and that include the MC from China, Zhu Dan(朱丹), as well as MingDao* (明道) who was in charge of reporting on Lollipop at the Taiwan stage. Think about it, the whole section was filled with Mandarin-speaking guests, except for the Korean MC at the actual scene of MAMA, so what was 4Minute doing there? It can only tell us two things. One, 4Minute is very popular in Mandarin-speaking communites, or two, they are going to reach out to these places. The first option is still in, as seen from earlier reports of their popularity in Asia, although I was quite disturbed at the fact that ZhuDan said she has never heard about 4Minute or listened to their songs, but she felt that they must be awesome.

Chinese 4nias are clenching fists at ZhuDan’s statement. It’s not just because that she doesn’t know about their idols, but more importantly, her inappropriate language use. As a famous MC in China, she definitely should not say in a manner so blunt that she doesn’t know about any artist, because that is probably the worst comment that can ever be made.

Also, with Lollipop’s performance longer than that of 4Minute’s, and the not-up-to-expection kind of standard they showed us, a lot of bashing was received from 4nias. I just want to say… give them a chance! They must have been very nervous, and 2 of their best singers were not with them, so the 4 poor guys left have to cover the parts of the absentees. Actually, other than them being out of sync at some points, and making some minor mistakes, their performance as a whole was watchable. Anyway, they got the ‘Most Attention-Grabbing in Asia’ award.

Check out Lollipop and 4Minute’s performances!

So, to wrap everything up, here are some comments by Chinese 4nias and netizens (including those from Mainland China, Hong Kong, Taiwan and Singapore):

“ZhuDan, why don’t you listen to Muzik?”
“Let’s wait for next year..”
“We will anticipate Golden Disk then T_T”
“It’s ok.. I’m already happy seeing the girls having fun on stage.”
“Our 4Minute… no awards?… But their performances are super hot, I like it!”
“I hope they can perform with Wonder Girls when they come back next year.”

Video credits: bwmow3 + V4Minute@Youtube
English Reporting + Compilations: kueensora@4-minute.com
Special thanks: HK_4MIN_FANS@4-minute.com for informing me about the sentiments of Hong Kong 4nias

As most of you know, Mashonda is Swizz Beats ex-wife and their marriage allegedly ended because Swizz had an affair turned relationship with Alicia Keys.   Well apparantly there are some A&R’s from the larger record companies that feel this gives her an edge and a story to tell that will popularize her music.  We’ll see.  Thank Illseed for this intel.

First of all, this is NOT intended to offend anyone! If it does I’m sorry!

But, after watching Paranormal Activity a couple weeks back, it had me aware of things that probably doesn’t even exist… but whatever!! You know?!

Moving on, a couple days ago, on my way to work I picked up a copy of the Metro Newspaper as I usually do before jumping on a train.

Above is a picture of part of the front page. I kinda skimmed the story to this ‘Bad Dream killer’ and then went on to read the rest of the newspaper, picking out the articles with pretty pictures and striking headlines otherwise, next!!

So what’s so spooky?? I’ll tell you!!

Well after skim reading it and breezing my way through to the ‘This Life‘ and ‘Nemi‘ along with the horoscopes I remembered something. If you have not seen Paranormal Activity then look away now if you don’t want any spoilers. In the film, most of the ghostly / demonic activity happens at or near 3.15am. Which is apparently the ‘witching hour‘.I remembered reading something in the first page article.

Now, take a look at this;

“At 3.49am, Thomas made the 999 call saying he thought he had killed his wife.“

OK, fine. Fair enough, this is like 34 minutes past the 3.15am spooky time but it is very close. Not only that, if he called them at 3.49am then maybe the event actually took place much closer to 3.15am. Remember he was sleepwalking so who knows when he woke up and came to his senses..?

In Paranormal Activity, [SPOILER ALERT] near the end the lady gets possessed by the demonic force haunting her and kills her partner at 3.15am. Now, I’m not actually trying to convince you guys that the same thing has happened here, but it’s awfully coincidental. However, maybe watching this has just made me develop an excessive imagination open to the unexplainable. On the other hand, it is not just Paranormal Activity. The Amityville Horror and the Exorcism of Emily Rose have the same concept regarding the 3.15am time where all the s*** goes down.

I don’t know, but like I said it’s awfully coincidental.

Again, I don’t intend to disrespect anybody in this post, just wanted to share something I found quite wierd and spooky. **Goosebumps**

The “Star Trek” DVD/Blu-ray release party was at the Griffith Observatory in LA. The sequel is still being written by Roberto Orci and Alex Kurtzman so nothing is known regarding plot and what characters will be in it. J J Abrams still isn’t sure if he will direct it.

Fans seem to want Khan to be in it, but I’m not sure if I do. I think they should go with an all new story with new villains. However, if Khan is in it then Nestor Carbonell (the awesome Bat Manuel in The Tick, the mayor in The Dark Knight and Richard Alpert in Lost) appears to be the favourite to play him.

Most of the cast attended the Blu-Ray launch party and MovieWeb managed to speak to Nimoy (Spock) and Bruce Greenwood (Captain Pike).

First up was Leonard Nimoy:

“I am very happy with the direction J.J. took this particular film. He has a great cast, and he’s in great shape. I was fortunate enough to work with an exceptional group of actors, and the fans really seemed to enjoy the film.” Nimoy went on to say, “I don’t think there is room for me to return in a sequel. I don’t think they need me. I am happy to see Zachary continue on with the role. I don’t believe a second film would benefit from me being a part of it. If J.J. asked me to come back, I would consider it. But I don’t think it is necessary, nor do I think that is part of J.J.’s plan.”

“I know they’re writing the film right now, but I’m not sure if we’ll see Pike or not,” Greenwood said. “He was mainly there to bring Kirk aboard the Enterprise and it’s hard to say if he’ll be popping up in the sequel.”

Greenwood also spoke about his history with the series and what he learned from his predecessors who played Captain Pike in the past.

“I did go back and look at Jeffrey Hunter’s performance in the original series,” Greenwood said about his preperation for the role. “This is obviously a very different kind of Star Trek, but it was nice to see the history of the character unfold.”

Would you want to see Captain Pike or Spock return in the sequel? How about Khan?

What story or characters do you want to see?

The New York Post recently spoke to actor Kevin McKidd (Dog Soldiers, Rome, Journeyman), who voices the Captain “Soap” McTavish character in the video game Call of Duty: Modern Warfare. They talk about the possibility of a film.

“They were looking for a rough, Scottish actor in Hollywood they probably couldn’t get Gerard Butler, so they got the No. 2 Gerard Butler, me. I had no idea it would be so huge, and now there are talks of a feature film,” he revealed to PopWrap. Then came the kicker, when asked if he would be bringing Soap to life in the movie, he said, “if the script is good, and Gerard isn’t available [laughs], then absolutely.”

Well it is nothing solid and looks like it is just talks at the moment but with the massive success of Modern Warfare 2 I imagine a film will soon follow.

McKidd, also went on to say that a film based on the TV series Rome is in the works as well.

“There is a script that is being shopped and it’s supposedly very good, I haven’t seen it, but I am definitely going to be a part of the movie,” Kevin told PopWrap. He then went on to say that his character, soldier/politician Lucius Vorenus, is not dead despite what happened in the show. “He very much alive, so that should be a fun story to tell.”

If there is a Modern Warfare 2 film who would you rather see play Soap – Mckidd or Butler?

The developers behind Star Wars Battlefront 1 + 2, the Mercenaries games, Full Spectrum Warrior and more are rumoured to be closing. They were rumoured to be closing a while ago but nothing came of it; hopefully nothing will come of it this time.

This hasn’t been confirmed though. If it is true, the majority of Pandemic’s employees will be fired (Roughly 200 people) but a few of them will be moving to other EA teams.

They made some great games last generation. Star Wars Battlefront 1 and 2 were great, Mercenaries was also great and Full Spectrum Warrior was pretty good too. However their latest efforts haven’t been so good with Mercenaries 2 not being anywhere near as good as the original and The Lord of the Rings: Conquest being average at best.

Their upcoming game, The Saboteur, is looking really impressive though. Apparently it will be given to EA’s Montreal Studio who made Army of Two. Hopefully this isn’t true as I still think they have potential to make some good games.

It seemed that Button was on the verge of signing for McLaren, but the newspaper The Times is tonight reporting that Brawn GP have offered Button what he wanted – an £8mill deal to keep him at the team which will run under the Mercedes name next season.

It was expected that Mercedes had their driver line-up sorted for next season with many speculating that the German owners would want German drivers – with Nick Heidfeld and Nico Rosberg favourites for the Mercedes race seats, with Jenson Button off to McLaren and Kimi Raikkonen out of F1 completely.

However earlier on today the head of Mercedes’ motorsport activities Norbert Haug hinted at ’some surprises’ in the Mercedes 2010 line-up, and will Jenson Button staying on at the team be the surprise?

Big news on Kenneth Branagh’s Thor is that the Warriors Three have been cast. None of them are Jude Law, Dominic West or Robert De Niro.

Instead the word on the street is that that Ray Stevenson (Punisher: War Zone, Rome), Stuart Townsend (League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, Queen of the Damned) and Tadanobu Asano (Mongol) are to play the trio. Apparently, Stevenson will take on the role of “Volstagg the Valiant”, Asano will be “Hogun the Grim”, and Townsend will portray “Fandral the Dashing”.

Now this news has come from Variety, but every link I follow on other sites takes me to a dead page on Variety and looking at the list of movie news on their site I just can’t see it listed. It is probably just me being a bit blind today. I am assuming it was on their, but has since been removed. If that is the case then that could mean the news isn’t true or someone has messed up somewhere down the line.

I thought I would share the news anyway. It doesn’t quite ring true to me though as none of these actors have been linked to the film before now. Although Stevenson would be great (I am assuming Volstaag won’t be as big as he often is in the comic) and Asano already looks like Hogun, I feel the week link is Townsend. Just a personal thing, but he doesn’t cut it for me. He was naff as Dorian Gray in the naff LXG and he was down to play Aragorn in The Lord of the Rings but after a few days shooting he was replaced.

There you have it some news which may not actually be correct (hopefully Variety will sort it out), but it may be. Who knows!

UPDATE: Marvel is now confirming the casting – “Fandral will be played by Stuart Townsend. The job of Hogun goes to Tadanobu Asano. And Volstagg will be portrayed Ray Stevenson.”

What do you think of the casting? If not them who would be better in the roles?

Mercedes Benz have today bought a 75% stake in the Brawn GP team.

On the official Brawn GP website they explained the details of the transaction:

Daimler AG together with Aabar Investments PJSC will take over 75.1 per cent of the Brawn GP team, with Daimler taking 45.1 per cent and Aabar 30 per cent. The rest of the 24.9 per cent will remain with the current stakeholders. With 9.1 per cent, Aabar is the biggest single shareholder of Daimler AG. This transaction is subject to the approval of the EU and the Swiss cartel authorities.

Despite head of Mercedes motorsport and the McLaren team boss saying a while ago that McLaren and Mercedes were to remain partners in the sport for the forseeable future, it seems that this move from Mercedes will change the Mercedes and McLaren partnership quite significantly, with the McLaren group planning to buy back the 40% the Daimler group currently hold by 2011, although Mercedes could well supply engines to McLaren up to 2015.

Dr. Dieter Zetsche, CEO of Daimler AG and Head of Mercedes-Benz Cars said on the matter:

“I want to thank McLaren for a successful collaboration over the last decade and a half. For the benefit of both Mercedes and McLaren, we will continue our partnership cooperation in future. We will be rivals on-track but, off-track, we will cooperate with McLaren and the other teams in order to create the best possible product for spectators worldwide.”

And Norbert Haug head of Mercedes motorsport said:

“We look back on 15 successful years of great collaboration with McLaren; in that time, we won four world-championship titles and finished ten times as runner-up in the drivers’ and constructors’ rankings. Since the first victory in the 1997 Australian Grand Prix, the modern Silver Arrows have achieved a total of 60 victories in 223 races to ensure that our brand symbol, the star, stands for the greatest successes in Formula 1. We thank our partner and will continue to work with McLaren based on an excellent partnership.”

It is our target to develop a model for our Formula 1 activities which will initially be run with significantly reduced budgets by Mercedes-Benz and which, in the foreseeable future, will be self-financing. Furthermore, we naturally want to inspire our faithful spectators and TV viewers worldwide and maximize media coverage for our brand. With Formula 1, Mercedes-Benz can continue to clearly demonstrate its willingness to compete and win on the most important motor sports competition stage in the world.”

Boss of Brawn GP Ross Brawn said:

“Both I and my fellow Directors at Brawn GP are incredibly proud of our staff, drivers and everyone associated with our team and thank them for their commitment, outstanding teamwork and their focus on achieving results in sometimes difficult circumstances. The senior management group will remain in place to lead our team and on behalf of everyone at Brawn GP, we are honoured to be representing such a prestigious brand as Mercedes-Benz in Formula One next year and will be working together to do our best to reward their faith in our team.”

How will this change the drivers market?

Many are speculating that Mercedes will want two German drivers on their team, meaning Nico Rosberg and Nick Heidfeld are likely candidates for the drive with the new team.

This would likely mean that Heikki Kovalainen will leave McLaren, paving the way for Jenson Button to make up an all British, all world championship winning team.

Kimi Raikkonen has previously said that his only option to stay in F1 is with McLaren, but if they opt to go with Button, it will leave Raikkonen without a team, so we could quite possibly see the 2007 world champion without a drive in 2010.

It the most recent twist, according to AHH’s Illseed, it turns out the reason Beyonce caused Jay-Z to cancel some of his tour dates to fly out to her were not due to alleged cheaeting but rather due to her new pregnant status.  Apparently someone has missed their monthly friend plus some other news that may result in an extension of the Carter family.

look, I can’t say this with any certainty, but i’ve talked to people, and the fact that i’m even mentioning it makes me feel odd, but it seems that certain native american tribes are making alot of headway in US governmental terms. Respect is due. They were there first, after all. I can’t say more than that because A) i’m so talking out of turn B) i know little more. I mean, i know more, but i ain’t telling you. The question of ‘how much of a twat is Obama?’ remains debatable. look out for someplace bigger breaking this story, if there is a story to break, because I’m such a pig-farmer blogwise

I’m soooo drunk. Maybe i’m making this all up.

It has been a rumour spreading for a while, especially after Raikkonen himself said:

“If I want to drive [F1] cars, then McLaren in the only option.”

But today it seems that rumour of Raikkonen rejoining the team he competed for from 2002 to 2006 may be one step closer to reality after the Finn’s management team were spotted at McLaren’s base in Woking.

McLaren have already confirmed Lewis Hamilton will drive for them in 2010 but that second seat is still up for grabs with Raikkonen and new world champ Jenson Button possibilities for the drive, as well as the chance Heikki Kovalainen may have of continuing with the British team he has been with for the last 2 years.

Former heavyweight boxing champion Mike Tyson was arrested yesterday (November 11) at Los Angeles’ LAX airport for allegedly assaulting a paparazzi photographer.

The dispute happened in Terminal 7, when the photographer approached Tyson, his wife, and 10-month old daughter to take pictures.

According to statements given to police by Tyson, he struck the man to defend his family after the photographer became aggressive and hit him first.

The photographer’s version is that when he approached the retired boxer, he was punched in the face and struggled to prevent his camera from being taken away.

Tyson was cooperative with authorities, and booked without incident on suspicion of battery.

The former fighter also opted to press charges, and police were expected to officially arrest the unidentified photographer after the hospital releases him.

Last September, Kanye West and road manager Don Crowley were arrested for battery and vandalism when they accosted a paparazzi photographer on film and destroyed his camera.

These charges were finally dismissed last month. At press time, Mike Tyson could not be reached for comment.

It seemed that Campos Grand Prix had secured their driver line-up a while ago, with the rumours circulating that Bruno Senna and Pedro De la Rosa were to drive for the new team in 2010.

Since then, Bruno Senna has been confirmed as a Campos driver for 2010, but is seems that Spaniard Pedro De la Rosa will not be so lucky.

Team boss Adrian Campos has said that the lack of Spanish sponsors for De la Rosa may be a problem, also citing they may have a couple of other drivers on their shortlist. He said:

“I would like Pedro de la Rosa but he is Spanish and Spanish sponsors are in a bad way. There are other options from Russia and Venezuela but it all depends on the sponsor.”

Pedro de la Rosa has driven in F1 previously for Jordan, Arrows, Jaguar and McLaren from 1999-2006. His highest ever driver’s championship finish is 11^th and his highest ever race finish is 2^nd, with both of those results coming when he drove the latter half of the 2006 season for McLaren, when Juan Pablo Montoya left the team. De la Rosa has been the test driver for McLaren for the last 3 years.

It seemed that Campos Grand Prix had secured their driver line-up a while ago, with the rumours circulating that Bruno Senna and Pedro De la Rosa were to drive for the new team in 2010.

Since then, Bruno Senna has been confirmed as a Campos driver for 2010, but is seems that Spaniard Pedro De la Rosa will not be so lucky.

Team boss Adrian Campos has said that the lack of Spanish sponsors for De la Rosa may be a problem, also citing they may have a couple of other drivers on their shortlist. He said:

“I would like Pedro de la Rosa but he is Spanish and Spanish sponsors are in a bad way. There are other options from Russia and Venezuela but it all depends on the sponsor.”

Pedro de la Rosa has driven in F1 previously for Jordan, Arrows, Jaguar and McLaren from 1999-2006. His highest ever driver’s championship finish is 11^th and his highest ever race finish is 2^nd, with both of those results coming when he drove the latter half of the 2006 season for McLaren, when Juan Pablo Montoya left the team. De la Rosa has been the test driver for McLaren for the last 3 years.

Hi all. Phil hasn’t been feeling too well for the past few days so he has asked me to step in for a little while. Hope I do okay. Call me Ishmael!

Recent news has mentioned that Black Cat may be featuring in the fourth Sam Raimi Spider-Man film. The original news had Rachel McAdams trying out for the role – funnily enough Live for Films had McAdams in a poll as to who would play Catwoman in the next Batman film. I’ll come back to that in a bit.

Now the great Hey U Guys have confirmation that Black Cat will be in the film, but that a few actresses have been trying out for the role – I vote Eliza Dushku.

HUG also have news on the characters arc in the film:
Apparently she is the daughter of the new editor of The Daily Bugle, a man who is also referred to as ‘a viper’ (more on this in a second). She falls in love with Peter Parker, and uncovers his true identity. Her father then dies, and Hardy becomes a threat to Peter Parker (presumably as The Black Cat).

The source also implied that the word viper has some relevance. We’ve been trying to work out what, and we’re at a loss. Looking through the pantheon of marvel characters the only ones known as ‘The Viper’ are villains in Captain America stories, so it’s unlikely that it’s the name of a baddie, although our source did suggest that Felicia’s father is a villain as well as the editor of The Daily Bugle.

Interesting news indeed. Not sure who the Viper could relate to. Spidey does not have many snake related bad guys but I am no expert in that side of things. Viper..Vulture..Venom? Anymore Vs?

Black Cat is a cat burglar in the Marvel Universe (I think she had some kind of luck based power as well, but I could be confusing that with one of the X-Men), as is Catwoman in the DC Universe.

The story, characters and plot have still to be set for the next Batman film. Catwoman was one of the many characters to be rumoured to be in it. I am wondering whether the news that a similar character appearing in the Marvel film will have an effect on the next Batman film. Does an early appearance by Black Cat knock Catwoman out of the running? Would that be a cat fight anyone else would want to see?

How do you feel about Black Cat appearing in the next Spider-Man film? Any idea who Viper could be? Who would be good to play Black Cat?

Image by Adam Hughes.

Steven Tyler, the lead singer and the main personality in the group, quit Aerosmith.  Basically the group is finished because honestly what is Aerosmith wihtout playboy.  Perry is well known too but still.  That’s like the Justin Timberlake situation, after he left the lights went out and everyone else had to exit stage left.

Looks like J Lo has a naughty tape out there from her first marriage about 12 years ago (Before Diddy).  She is fighting to keep it from coming out and suing for damages but apparently there is no sex but rather sex games are played.  SMH. When will these celebs learn to keep the camera off.  Thaks Illseed 4 this 1.  That being said I most definitely would want to see it.  Why?

Oh, just because.