Black Eyed Peas, Usher, Slash Light Up Super Bowl XLV Halftime Show

Foursome is joined by special guests and tons of lights for smash-hit medley.
By Mawuse Ziegbe


Black Eyed Peas perform during the Super Bowl XLV halftime show
Photo: Getty Images

The Black Eyed Peas promised a party at the Super Bowl halftime show on Sunday (February 6), and the pop supernovas definitely delivered, with a performance teeming with lights, dancers and surprise appearances from celebrity pals.

Following a Chatter.com commercial that showed animated versions of the Peas showing off their social-media skills, the group kicked things off with their 2009 smash "I Gotta Feeling," descending from the ceiling on illuminated platforms onto a stage surrounded by a cluster of dancers clad in white bodysuits. The foursome led the team of fist-pumping troops in "Tron"-like getups, with Taboo sporting an outfit covered in flashing lights, will.i.am rocking a shiny hairpiece, Apl.de.ap wearing huge bright studs and Fergie vamping it up in bling-laden shoulder pads.

When the speaker-busting bass of "Boom Boom Pow" dropped, the dancers dispersed across the field to create arrow-shaped formations as the glow-in-the-dark lights on their suits illuminated the stadium. Then rumored surprise guest Slash of Guns N' Roses rose from below the stage for a "Sweet Child O' Mine" duet with Fergie. The GNR great rocked a finger-searing solo in a studded version of his signature black top hat as more angular platforms and dancers moved across the gridiron. The platforms were bearing scores of marching-band musicians who blasted their horns and pounded away on their drums as the Peas went into "Pump It" and blue lights splashed across the production.

Quick streams of fog heralded the arrival of the Peas' second surprise guest, Usher, who swooped in on a long chain to bust out his will.i.am-assisted joint "OMG." Rocking a sparkly collar on an otherwise all-white ensemble, the R&B hitmaker cranked out several counts of energetic choreography, enlivening moves from his "OMG" video and at one point jumping over Will and landing in a split.

A spray of pyro ushered in the collective's breakout 2003 hit "Where Is the Love?" as the oddly shaped platforms spelled out the word "Love" in bright-red letters. The team of dancers, which appeared to have multiplied to over 100, formed hearts across the field as will updated the lyrics of the smash with lines like, "Obama, let's get these educated."

Then the group jumped ahead to their most recent single, 2010's "The Time (Dirty Bit)," as several back up hoofers rocking cubed helmets joined the Peas onstage and dancers lined up along the gridiron to simultaneously bust out the Running Man, a move which drew cheers from the crowd.

The platinum-selling Peas wrapped up the performance with a reprise of "I Gotta Feeling," as the quartet triumphantly signed off amid of blitz of fog, firepower and flashing lights.

Ripping the halftime show was clearly a touching moment for will, who tweeted beforehand, "Me and apl started the peas when we were 16 yesterday we were dreamin now were livin it. Wow. I'm not crying out of sadness or nervousness its joy and pride and memories and the journey."

And once the crew left the stage, the frontman was not only proud, but pumped. "That was so freakin sick," he wrote. "Wow...!!!"

What did you think of the Black Eyed Peas' Super Bowl performance? Let us know in the comments!

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Los Angeles

I'm here! I'm here! And I saw my first gang-banger get arrested yesterday so I feel like a total Angeleno.

I'm getting ready to go to the gym (again, like a total Angeleno!) so I will update later about my run-ins with Alexander Skarsgard, Pauly Shore, and Jeremy or Jason London (I'm not sure which one it was and seeing if I could force him to do drugs to find out seemed unfair. Besides, as it turned out, he was telling the truth?)

Anyhoo, I've got a lot to tell you about gardening! (Did you know if you get dirt wet it turns into mud? Yuck.)

And bumpers! (They don't bump off anything... they go, "Scraaaaaaaatch!")

And there's probably more but, again, I have to go because I have to get to the gym!

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Coldplay, Led Zeppelin Album Covers Featured On New British Stamps

Album art from Pink Floyd, Blur and David Bowie also included.
By James Montgomery


Coldplay's new British stamps
Photo: Royal Mail

On Thursday (January 7), the U.K.'s Royal Mail unveiled a series of 10 new stamps, honoring the most iconic album covers of the past 40 years.

The albums featured in the new series are the Rolling Stones' Let It Bleed, Led Zeppelin's IV, David Bowie's The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders From Mars, Mike Oldfield's Tubular Bells, The Clash's London Calling, New Order's Power, Corruption and Lies, Primal Scream's Screamadelica, Pink Floyd's The Division Bell, Blur's Parklife and — the most recent album on to make the cut — Coldplay's A Rush of Blood to the Head.

Meant to honor "the most potent graphic images of modern times, many of which have provided a visual soundtrack to people's lives," the series is the end result of a lengthy research process by the Royal Mail, who looked through thousands of album covers by British artists before deciding on the final list. And, during a Wednesday night BBC Radio broadcast, it was revealed that the queen herself actually approved each design.

Led Zeppelin guitarist Jimmy Page — who helped design the cover for IV — was on hand to celebrate the release of the stamps and recalled the mysterious nature of the album's iconic imagery.

"Almost 40 years after the album came out, nobody knows the old man who featured on the cover, nor the artist who painted him," he said. "That sort of sums up what we wanted to achieve with the album cover, which has remained both anonymous and enigmatic at the same time."

Of course, any great honor is befitting of an equally great contest, so, on the same day the stamps were made available to the general public, Coldplay decided to give one of their Rush of Blood stamps away. In a message on their official site, the band held a contest to send one lucky fan "a letter using a Coldplay stamp, postmarked with today's issue date."

"We visited our local post office earlier today and bought some of the Coldplay stamps," the message read. "Very nice they are too."

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Hilary Duff Fired From ?The Story of Bonnie and Clyde? After Announcing Pregnancy

Hilary Duff has reportedly been fired from her new film, The Story of Bonnie and Clyde . She just announced her pregnancy, so is this a coincidence? I just love Hilary Duff, she is sweet, talented and seems to be in touch with who she is as a person now. One of the few Disney stars that didn?t grow up to be a train wreck. When she announced her pregnancy, I was super excited for her. It is fun to watch these kids grow up, especially when they turn out like Hilary. She hasn?t done many movies as of late, and her next gig was The Story of Bonnie and Clyde where she was to play Bonnie. It would have been very interesting to see her take on such a role. She has been a goody goody in so many of her films and television roles that seeing her play a bank robber would have been epic! I definitely would have seen the film. But it looks like she may have forfeited her role by getting knocked up. TMZ says, ?The director is already shopping for a new Bonnie, and the split was amicable. As one source put it, ?Hilary [...]

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Kate Winslet Saved Richard Branson's Mom from Fire

Kate Winslet Saved Richard Branson's Mom from Fire

Kate Winslet proved this past weekend that she is just as much of a heroine in her real life as she is on screen. Yesterday, news broke that the actress and her family had escaped a fire that destroyed Virgin Group CEO Richard Branson's private-island home in the British Virgin Islands early Monday morning. Now, Branson is singing Winslet's praises for carrying his 90-year-old mother to safety.

"Around 20 people were in the house and they all managed to get out and they are all fine," Branson, 61, blogged on Monday. "We had a tropical storm with winds up to 90 mph. A big lightning storm came around 4 a.m. and hit the house. My son Sam and nephew Jack rushed to the house and helped get everyone out and many thanks to Kate Winslet for helping to carry my 90 year old mum out of the main house to safety - she was wondering when a Director was going to shout CUT!

Winslet, 35, her boyfriend Louis Dowler, and her two children, Mia, 10, and Joe, 7, were guests of Branson on Necker Island, the media mogul's private isle in the Caribbean.

The lightning storm that struck the house was part of tropical storm Irene, and Branson has posted pictures on his blog of the devastation wrought by the fire. The house burned to the ground and was still smoldering on Monday morning.

But Branson took an optimistic tone on his blog, despite the loss of his office and personal items. "It's very much the Dunkirk spirit here," he wrote, referring to the famous 1940 evacuation of all British and Allied forces from Dunkirk, France, during World War II (the massive evacuation most memorably captured in the film Atonement). The "Dunkirk Spirit" reflects the British tendency to pull together in times of stress and hardship, and focus on getting things repaired and back to normal.

Displaying his Dunkirk spirit, Branson writes: "We will rebuild the house as soon as we can. We have a wonderful staff here and we want them to stay in work. We'll all stay here. There's a lot of damage but we'll create something even more special out of the ruins."

Thankfully, no one was injured. And, thanks in part to Kate Winslet, what could have been a Branson family tragedy was averted. Branson seems well aware of that fact. "Currently just huddled up with family and friends in the continuing tropical storm," he wrote, "realising what really matters in life."

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Lady Gaga's Meat Dress: Peek Behind The Scenes At Last Year's VMAs

On 'VMAs Revealed' MTV staffers recall the reaction backstage when Gaga unveiled her beefy couture.
By Gil Kaufman


Lady Gaga at the 2010 Video Music Awards
Photo: Getty Images

The Video Music Awards have a long history of outrageous, over-the-top and just plain bizarre fashion firsts. Artists tend to think way outside the box when it comes to dressing up for the VMAs, but perhaps no getup in show history has gotten as much attention, caused as much head scratching and turned more heads than Lady Gaga's infamous meat dress.

After walking the white carpet in a flowing gold and burgundy Alexander McQueen dress with a matching headdress, Mother Monster shocked the world at the 2010 awards when she slipped into her third outfit of the night: a dress made out of some choice cuts of beef.

"As soon as I saw her on that white carpet I just knew that this night was gonna be Gaga insanity," said Alycia Belle, VMA wardrobe stylist for the 2010 show, in a new "VMAs Revealed" special that premiered on Saturday (August 20).

Before unwrapping the cow couture, Gaga had merely one wardrobe change during the show — a black Armani leather dress with spiked bustier. But when the time came to announce Video of the Year, the audience had no idea what was about to hit them. The folks working behind the scenes saw a suspicious number of coolers being brought into Gaga's dressing room, so they could tell that something was up.

"I'm getting calls that she needs to be in her seat, we give her kind of a two-minute head's up, the door opens up, and I see she's wearing a red dress," said Ernesto Elias, Gaga's talent escort at the show. "I start to notice people staring a little bit harder than they normally would."

And with good reason. While plenty of stars were wearing leather shoes, or even cowhide skirts, no one expected the eye-popping fashion choice that Gaga was about to unveil.

"I was literally this close to her ... I just remember looking at it and just wondering, 'Is that really ... ?' remembered Sandra Piedra, talent coordinator for the 2010 VMAs. After a harder look, Elias said he realized that it was not a "normal" type of fabric.

Let's call that the understatement of the year.

"People who were on the floor, who are right around her, are like, 'It's meat! Meat! Like, ground chuck meat!' " Dave Sirulnick, executive producer of the VMAs, recalled. "I know that there is nobody who ever heard the two words 'meat' and 'dress' put together before September 12 [2010] at about 11 p.m."

And with the announcement this week that Gaga will be opening the 2011 VMAs, fans of music and fashion everywhere can't wait to see how she'll top herself.

The 28th annual MTV Video Music Awards will air live on Sunday, August 28, from the Nokia Theatre in Los Angeles at 9 p.m. ET/PT. See the list of nominees, revisit last year's highlights and vote for your favorites in the general categories by visiting VMA.MTV.com.

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