Madame Tussauds installs barriers around Nicki Minaj's wax statue

Madame Tussauds installs barriers around Minaj’s waxwork, to prevent visitors from taking provocative photographs

Los Angeles: Rapper Nicki Minaj's waxwork at the Madame Tussauds in Las Vegas is now protected with barriers.

The museum has taken the action to prevent visitors from taking sexually suggestive photographs with the 32-year-old rapper's wax figure.

A Twitter user had reported on August 28 an obscene photograph taken with the wax work to the museum.


Nicki Minaj 

The user said: "@TussaudsVegas this needs to stop right now." The image showed a middle-aged man opening up his mouth near the statue's posterior.

Another user posted the same photograph and wrote: "It's time for @TussaudsVegas to either rope off the Nicki Minaj wax statue or redesign it. Folks are just rude."

The museum was quick to respond to the report. "We have updated the set. This photograph was clearly taken before the updates occurred."

Taylor Swift bags four awards at MTV VMAs

Los Angeles: The 2015 MTV Video Music Awards was a starry affair, with singer Taylor Swift raking in four awards.


Taylor Swift. Pic/AFP 

Swift took home several of Sunday night's biggest awards, including Video of the Year, Best Female Video and Best Pop Video, winning for both "Bad blood" (featuring Kendrick Lamar) and "Blank space", reports variety.com.

Mark Ronson and Bruno Mars won Best Male Video for their "Uptown funk". Other big winners include Nicki Minaj for Best Hip-Hop Video, Fetty Wap for the Artist To Watch, and Fall Out Boy for Best Rock Video.

Miley Cyrus hosted the festivities of the gala night, which began with a performance by Minaj, where she was joined by Swift, and Pharrell, Demi Lovato, Justin Bieber and more also performed.

Here's the full list of the nominations and winners:

Video of the Year:
Taylor Swift ft. Kendrick Lamar - "Bad blood" (Winner)
Beyoncé - "7/11"
Ed Sheeran - "Thinking out loud"
Mark Ronson ft. Bruno Mars - "Uptown funk"
Kendrick Lamar - "Alright"

Female Video:
Taylor Swift - "Blank space" (Winner)
Beyoncé - "7/11"
Nicki Minaj - "Anaconda"
Sia - "Elastic heart"
Ellie Goulding - "Love me like you do"

Artist to Watch:
Fetty Wap - "Trap queen" (Winner)
Vance Joy - "Riptide"
George Ezra - "Budapest"
James Bay - "Hold back the river"
FKA Twigs - "Pendulum"

Hip-Hop Video:
Nicki Minaj - "Anaconda" (Winner)
Fetty Wap - "Trap queen"
Kendrick Lamar - "Alright"
Wiz Khalifa ft. Charlie Puth - "See you again"
Big Sean ft. E-40 - "IDFWU"

Male Video:
Mark Ronson ft. Bruno Mars - "Uptown funk" (Winner)
Ed Sheeran - "Thinking out loud"
Kendrick Lamar - "Alright"
The Weeknd - "Earned it"
Nick Jonas - "Chains"

Pop video:
Taylor Swift - "Blank space" (Winner)
Beyoncé - "7/11"
Ed Sheeran - "Thinking out loud"
Mark Ronson ft. Bruno Mars - "Uptown funk"
Maroon 5 - "Sugar"

Rock video:
Fall Out Boy - "Uma thurman" (Winner)
Hozier - "Take me to church"
Florence + the Machine - "Ship to wreck"
Walk the Moon - "Shut up and dance"
Arctic Monkeys - "Why'd you only call me when you're high?"

Video with a social message:
Big Sean ft. Kanye West and John Legend - "One man can change the world" (Winner)
Jennifer Hudson - "I still love you"
Colbie Caillat - "Try"
Rihanna - "American oxygen"
Wale - "The white shoes"

Song of the summer:
5 Seconds of Summer - "She's kinda hot" (Winner)
Fifth Harmony - "Worth it"
Major Lazer - "Lean on"
OMI - "Cheerleader"
Taylor Swift - "Bad blood"
David Guetta ft. Nicki Minaj - "Hey mama"
Fetty Wap - "My way"
Jack U ft. Justin Bieber - "Where are u now"
Silento - "Watch me"
Demi Lovato - "Cool for the summer"
The Weeknd - "Can't feel my face"
Selena Gomez ft. A$AP Rocky - "Good for you"

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Justin Bieber stopped by police for alleged over speeding?

Los Angeles: Pop star Justin Bieber was reportedly stopped by police while driving on a residential street in Beverly Hills, California.


Justin Bieber. Pic/Santa Banta 

Law enforcement sources said that "speed was a factor, but Justin was cited for unsafe passing on the right," according to TMZ.

He reportedly was given an equipment violation for window tint as well. A representative for the 21-year-old singer did not provide a comment.

Bieber has not addressed the alleged incident on social media.

Instead, the "What Do You Mean" singer has been focusing on the positive-- namely, the debut performance of his new single at 2015 MTV Video Music Awards.

He last appeared on the VMAs back in 2010, performing a medley of "Baby", "Somebody to Love" and "U Smile".

MTV Video Music

With the 32nd VMAs round the corner, we look back at some of the most contentious moments at awards ceremony. Plus, a prediction of who might win

One of the biggest musical extravaganzas of the year, the MTV Video Music Awards (VMA) will be aired tonight, and it has already generated quite a buzz.

The first jaw-dropper of the awards night: pop princess and controversy's favourite child, Miley Cyrus, is host. The announcement, made a couple of months ago, was followed by a Twitter duel between fans who nominated Taylor Swift and Nicki Minaj as hosts.

And this is the mildest of VMAs controversies. Take a look at some of the most cringe-worthy and iconic moments in the history of this music gala.

Madonna and Britney Spears make out:
It's no secret that Britney considers Madonna her icon. But what happened at the 20th anniversary of the VMAs in 2003 took things to a whole new level. Britney took to the stage in a super-short version of the wedding dress that Madonna donned (none too coyly) for her 1984 song Like a Virgin. As an added incentive to fulfil the paparrazi's dream, Madonna locked lips with not just Britney, but also with Christina Aguilera. We didn't see that coming.

Lady Gaga's meat dress:

Lady Gaga opted to show some flesh for the 2010 VMA's, literally. The singer contributed to substantial eye-rolling and tongue wagging when she strode into the arena in a dress tailored from raw beef. Gaga later explained that her decision to wear the dress was not meant to offend vegetarians but was simply her way of protesting against the military's Don't Ask, Don't Tell policy, which put restrictions on the rights of gay soldiers. Want to know more? Go to Wikipedia, where the dress has its own page.

Miley Cyrus comes of age:
The "most tweeted" about piece of news, and rightly so, came in the form of Miley Cyrus' provo-cative performance at the 2013 VMAs. The singer teamed up with every feminist's nightmare a.k.a. Robin Thicke, for a performance of his song Blurred Lines. What ensued was a shudder-inducing twerkathon, with generous doses of simulated sex moves with several dancers in the background dressed as bears.

Taylor Swift and Kanye West run-in:

When Taylor Swift won the award for Best Female Video at the 2009 VMAs, the Shake It Off hitmaker barely had a chance to accept her award before Kanye West jumped on stage, grabbed the microphone from her hand and spoke the supremely popular rant that goes thus, "Yo Taylor, I'm really happy for you. Imma let you finish but Beyonce had one of the best videos of all time... One of the best videos of all time!" Needless to say, the infamous words became fodder for many a meme and social media jokes. Kanye later apologised saying he had had a "little sippy sippy" before the event.

Nirvana sings 'Rape me':

The posterboys of grunge music, Nirvana, were all about rage and rebellion, which is exactly what they did in their 1992 VMA performance. Kurt Cobain was far from pleased when the organisers asked him to perform the band's mega hit, Smells Like Teen Spirit. Agreeing to sing Lithium as a compromise, Cobain sang the first few lines of the song Rape Me, despite it being banned, much to the horror of the organisers.

 

midday

Nandita Das: 'Festival film' label keeps audiences away from good stories

Award winning actress Nandita Das is "uncomfortable" with labels such as 'festival films' that create a divide among audiences. She believes people are keen to watch such films, but are not able to access them.

Nandita Das

"It doesn't have to be a festival versus audience kind of a film. These regional films while they cut across, while they can be the international thing... finally, a filmmaker who makes it would want all audiences to watch it in their own city, state and all over. This divide is where one is uncomfortable," Das said here.

She was a discussant on the topic 'What is regional cinema, what is national cinema' here on Sunday to commemorate the 60th anniversary of Satyajit Ray's "Pather Panchali".

The "Fire" and "Earth" actress said such labels have affected some really good films, which are human stories, but couldn't reach out to a wider audience.

"When you are making an independent film (for the lack of a better word) and then you are also doing the festival thing and not be labelled as that this is a festival film, this is for the classes, this is not for masses (sic).

"Who is going to decide that the man on the street is not ready to watch it? It's I think our arrogance and the class that we belong to, that we think it is for us and they are not ready to watch it," she said.

The "Firaaq" filmmaker, known for her strong performances in numerous south Indian films, said the common man "wants to watch regional films but will never have access to it".

"That's why we keep coming back to the fact there is too much interference and nexus between the producer, distributor, audience and all of these people, and the director is kind of (caught) between them," she said.

midday

'Plot thickens': Big B's Twitter account hacked

Amitabh Bachchan's official Twitter account has been hacked. The Big B yesterday tweeted, "WHOA !... My Twitter handle hacked! Sex sites planted as 'following'! Whoever did this, try someone else, buddy, I don't need this!"

Amitabh Bachchan

According to the star, the hackers have planted some sex sites in his 'following' list. This implies that someone may have accessed his account and followed Twitter handles of sex sites.

Later yesterday, the Big B tweeted, "OKAAY .. !! Plot thickens ! Had been getting several really dirty abusive sms for a year... just handed all of them to the POLICE!"

Spotted: Aparna Sen, Nandita Das and Sharmila Tagore

From left: Aparna Sen, Nandita Das and Sharmila Tagore during a seminar on 'Indian cinema: What is national, what is regional' to celebrate 60 years of the release of Satyajit Ray's 'Pather Panchali' at Kala Mandir in Kolkata. Pic/ PTI