Lil Wayne's "Tha Carter IV" falls short with critics (Reuters)

NEW YORK (Reuters) – Rapper Lil Wayne released his newest album, "Tha Carter IV," just after midnight on Monday to huge media hype following MTV's Video Music Awards, but early reactions show the record falling short of high expectations from fans and critics.

After several delays, "Tha Carter IV," hit digital music retailers at midnight, almost immediately following Lil Wayne's rowdy, rocked-out performance at VMAs.

The MTV honors show, where trophies are handed out in categories for best video among others, annually draws top stars in music and is a key promotional stop for singers trying to boost sales. Sunday's show drew a record 12.4 million viewers to the network, up from 11.4 million last year.

Fans watched Beyonce reveal she was pregnant with her first child, Lady Gaga dressed in male drag, Jay-Z and Kanye West perform a song from their new record "Watch the Throne," and the late singer Amy Winehouse remembered in a moving tribute.

Wayne closed out the show with his top 10 hit "How to Love," which with Weezy's crooning vocal, sounds as much R&B as hip-hop, and he performed "John," remixed over Black Sabbath's rock tune "Iron Man."

The crowd went crazy, and the show likely was a key factor in helping lift the album's 19-track deluxe edition, featuring an exclusive bonus track, to a fast start at No. 1 on iTunes.

Wayne's label mate and protege Nicki Minaj tweeted her support with a simple, "Buy the Carter IV."

Veteran rapper Busta Rhymes, who is featured on the album, was in a more celebratory mood tweeting that Wayne had "smashed the Vma's KRAZZZZYYYYYY!!!" Adding, "By the way CARTER 4

AVAILABLE EVERYWHERE RIGHT NOW!!!"

Critics, however, were not so enthusiastic.

HARD TO TOP 'CARTER III'

"Tha Carter IV" is the ninth studio album from the New Orleans rapper born Dwayne Carter, but the fourth in his career-defining Carter series.

Wayne, aka Weezy, released two albums last year, "I Am Not a Human Being" and his rock experiment, "Rebirth." Neither album came close to the first-week sales of 1 million copies for 2008's "Tha Carter III" whether due to a break from formula or to Wayne's being unavailable to promote the records while serving an 8-month stint for a weapons charge.

Billboard.com wrote that Wayne's most recent effort may have had unrealistically high expectations, saying in its review that "Tha Carter IV" "is not a bad album," but adding that it may be "may be more easily digested and supported by those largely unfamiliar with Weezy's antics and unaware of his previous highs (pun intended)."

Rollingstone.com gave the album a respectable 3-1/2 out of 5 stars but admitted, "Weezy doesn't have the same speed-demon intensity he had five years ago."

In its review, HiphopDX.com noted that more attention was being paid to a new lyrical jab Lil Wayne took at rap impresario and music mogul Jay-Z, who was a featured guest on "Tha Carter III," than on the album's music.

"The fact that most of us have spent a week debating what the fallout will be from Wayne's Jay-Z diss on "It's Good," instead of the album's wins, was probably a bad omen," HiphopDX.com wrote.

And a comical trending topic emerged on Twitter Monday with the hash tag, #ThingsBetterThanTheCarterIV. The answers offered ranged from a colonoscopy to "Watch the Throne."

(Editing by Bob Tourtellotte)

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Music Charts: Jay-Z & Kanye fall short (Reuters)

LOS ANGELES (TheWrap.com) – Does nearly a half-million copies sold constitute the glass being half-full or half-empty? That's the question with Jay-Z and Kanye West's enormously ballyhooed joint project, "Watch the Throne," which debuted with first-week sales of 436,000, a strong but less-kingly-than-expected tally.

But the news was much better for Katy Perry: She finally assumed a throne she's had her eye on for a while.

The take for "Watch the Throne" will be spun in different ways, taking into account the peculiarities of its release. For the first four days of the week, the Jay-Z/West album was an iTunes exclusive, so you could argue a mere three days of brick-and-mortar sales isn't enough to tell the tale.

On the other hand, because of the unusual lack of advance leaks, anticipation for the project should have been at enough of a fever pitch to make for a day-one blockbuster.

But even strong reviews and word-of-mouth didn't add up to "Throne" debuting as mightily as either of the rappers' most recent solo efforts.

The New York Post reported that Jay-Z spent $95,000 on a single bottle of champagne at a Miami party celebrating the album's launch last week. Until next week's results offer a better picture of the album's legs, he may want to switch to sparkling cider for a few days.

As for Perry, her "TGIF (Last Friday Night)" song finally hit No. 1 on the Billboard 100, marking the first time a female artist has had five singles from one album reach that mark. Leaving gender out of it, she's now tied with Michael Jackson, whose "Bad" album generated five No. 1 hits back in the day.

It had seemed like Perry had missed her chance at being able to thank God for a fifth chart-topper, since "TGIF" was showing signs of fading last week. But her label, Capitol, had some tricks up its sleeve, goosing the tune by releasing a Missy Elliott-helmed remix, sales of which were counted together with the old version.

iTunes also put the different versions of the song on sale for 69 cents. It also happened that the previous long-time No. 1, LMFAO's "Party Rock Anthem," finally shed a little momentum at an opportune moment for Perry.

Decamping far away from any kind of throne room was the soundtrack to "Glee 3D," which entered the album chart at No. 16 with a shockingly modest 20,000 copies. All eight previous full-length "Glee" TV soundtracks had entered in the top 5, and three of them bowed at No. 1 (including last year's "Journey to Finals" disc, which had first-week sales of 152,000, more than seven times as many as this one managed). Maybe Sue Sylvester's warning in the trailer was taken literally by music consumers as well as moviegoers.

Luke Bryan has plenty to be gleeful about, coming in at No. 2 with his sophomore album, "Tailgates & Tanlines."

Bryan's is the second-best country bow of 2011, trailing only Brad Paisley's. He sold 145,295 copies, beating the opening tally for Eric Church three weeks ago by just 300 units.

Country men are well represented on the album chart right now, claiming six of the top 20 spots. Church moved down three positions to No. 5, still ahead of Jason Aldean at No.6, Blake Shelton at No. 14, the Zac Brown Band at No. 19, and Trace Adkins, who took a 17-spot tumble to No. 20 in his second week.

Putting the lie to the idea that 45 million viral-video views are a predictor of album sales, 13-year-old web phenom Greyson Chance fell to No. 65 in his second frame, selling 7,000 of his Ellen DeGeneres-mentored album for a two-week total of 21,000.

Although Perry rules the roost on this week's Billboard 100 song chart, "TGIF" didn't top the digital singles sales chart. That honor belonged to the Maroon 5/Christina Aguilera collaboration "Moves Like Jagger," which picked up plenty of steam from finally having a video released. It sold 219,000 downloads, generating the kind of upward chart movement even Jagger could envy.

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Rihanna cuts Dallas concert short because of fire (AP)

DALLAS – A small fire above the stage has forced pop star Rihanna to cut her Dallas concert short.

The Fort Worth Star-Telegram reports the fire broke out near a lighting truss as Rihanna was finishing the ballad "California King Bed" and descending below the stage for a costume change. The newspaper says the production crew quickly extinguished the fire, but the Friday night show was canceled anyway.

About 12,500 people were in the audience. American Airlines Center spokeswoman Jenny Walker says an evacuation was orderly and no injuries were reported.

The fire cut a short show even shorter. Rihanna was about an hour late taking the stage after her flight from New York to Dallas was delayed.

The singer later tweeted that "We set the stage on FYAH tonight!!!"

___

Information from: Fort Worth Star-Telegram, http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/ap/ap_on_en_mu/storytext/us_people_rihanna/42181162/SIG=10u17o3cb/*http://www.star-telegram.com

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Fire near stage cuts short Rihanna concert in Texas (Reuters)

DALLAS (Reuters) – R&B singer Rihanna cut short a Dallas concert on Friday after a fire broke out near the stage, the artist said in a post on Twitter, and video of the incident showed sparks falling down from above.

"DALLAS!!! We set the stage on FYAH TONIGHT!!! LITERALLY!!!" Rihanna wrote on Twitter. "I was havin so much fun wit yall too!!! I gotta come back man!!!"

"Heading into a production meeting to find out exactly what happened," she later wrote, saying she was glad her fans were safe and promising to come back.

Videos posted on YouTube of the incident showed a light above the stage appear to catch fire, sending sparks spraying down toward the stage at the American Airlines Center in Dallas.

Spokesmen for the Dallas police and fire departments could not immediately be reached for comment. Representatives for Rihanna were also not immediately available for comment.

(Writing by Cynthia Johnston)

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"Green Lantern" falls short at box office (Reuters)

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – The costly superhero movie "Green Lantern" flickered at the weekend box office in North America, while a Jim Carrey family comedy got a lukewarm reception.

According to studio estimates issued on Sunday, "Green Lantern" earned about $52.7 million -- at the lower end of expectations -- during its first three days of release across the United States and Canada.

The Warner Bros. 3D release will need to make up ground overseas to recoup its reported $200 million production budget and its $125 million worldwide marketing tab. (The studio said those numbers were too high, but declined to give its own figures.)

Ideally, the picture would have opened to about $55 million, said Dan Fellman, the president of domestic theatrical distribution at the Time Warner Inc unit. But it was too early to get an accurate picture of its prospects, he added.

Critics mauled the picture, which stars Ryan Reynolds as an intergalactic space cop. The relatively obscure character originated in a DC Comics book, and is the latest superhero to invade theaters in recent weeks following "Thor" ($65 million opening) and a fifth "X-Men" movie ($55 million).

Carrey's family comedy "Mr. Popper's Penguins" came in at No. 3 with $18.2 million, exceeding the diminished $10 million to $15 million expectations of its distributor, 20th Century Fox.

The News Corp unit was confident about the long-term prospects for its $55 million movie, citing strong exit polls. On the other hand "Penguins" has just a few more days to attract families before they all line up for Pixar Animation's "Cars 2" sequel beginning June 24.

The film, based on a 1938 children's book, stars Carrey as a divorced dad who reconnects with his children with the improbable help of a half-dozen penguins who run amok through his Manhattan apartment and across the city. Critics also gave it the thumbs down.

Carrey has not starred in a major hit since "Bruce Almighty" in 2003. His last live-action wide release, "Yes Man," also opened to about $18 million in 1998; the comedy finished up with $98 million domestically, but production costs alone were about $70 million.

Last weekend's champion, "Super 8," slipped to No. 2 with $21.3 million. The sci-fi mystery has earned $72.3 million after 11 days, according to Paramount Pictures, a unit of Viacom Inc.

(Reporting by Dean Goodman; editing by Mohammad Zargham)

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Painter directs short film starring Lindsay Lohan (Reuters)

VENICE (Hollywood Reporter) – For Commercial Break, one of the most anticipated exhibitions running concurrent to the 54th Venice Biennial, artist Richard Phillips - primarily a painter - tried his hand at filmmaking, creating two short ethereal movies, one starring Lindsay Lohan and former porn star-turned-actress Sasha Grey.

Grey's film is a subdued night scene that follows her walking as if in a daydream through John Lautner's famous Chemosphere house, owned by art book publisher Benedikt Taschen; while Lohan's film shows the starlet plunging out of the crystal blue waters of an infinity pool.

Phillips, who makes bold pop paintings of celebrities usually rendered from imagery culled from magazines and the Internet, tried his first foray into collaboration with these two stars. The result has been two of the most talked about works among the show's 150 artists, all of whom were asked to make 90 second films.

Realizing that with so many people in the exhibition he wouldn't get much airplay, Phillips released the films virally first, to maximize exposure. The Hollywood Reporter caught up with the artist in Venice at the lavish Bauer Hotel to discuss his latest body of work.

The Hollywood Reporter: Had you been thinking about film for a while?

Phillips: I had not a single thought to make a film. I had decided that I wanted to take photographs of two actors, and I had been in communication with both for different projects. When this came up, I said well, if we can go to the trouble of setting up a shoot, why not bring video and try to get some motion footage of that.

Realizing I had no experience, I contacted my friend Taylor Steele, who is a legendary surf filmmaker. We set up our offices in Los Angeles to begin an incredible week of filming. We had the Chemosphere House so we were shooting in a work of art. We had one day each with the talent and we had a day before to practice out of Santa Monica.

THR: Were you actually making those directorial calls when it came time to shoot?

Phillips: Yeah. I made these storyboards that were based on my experiences watching Bergman's "Persona" and Goddard's "Contempt." Those films really matched in a lot of ways the ideas of these young actors in a transformative moment, making a decision to live their lives in art and the consequences that ultimately befall that. With Lindsay, it's very easy to work with her because she is an extraordinarily beautiful woman. She would always get it on the first take. With Sasha, she had a huge career in adult performance and a new career in cinema and television. The melancholy that happens in her film is something that you never see in her former career. In the work she did on "Entourage" and with Steven Soderbergh ("The Girlfriend Experience"), you're still seeing her being positioned in relationship to her past and I wanted to let her be above that.

THR: Do you think both of these women gravitated toward an art related project because they are both trying to shift the idea that people have about their past?

Phillips: I think that could be assumed but the fact really is that the way I initially got in contact with them is about painting. So if you think about it in a film way you could say yes, it was on our mind to present them independently in this state of mind as they are today, as people and not as these media characters.

THR: Was it a challenge to edit down the footage to 90 seconds?

Phillips: I worked with Haines Hall of Spot Welders who had worked with Sofia Coppola on "The Virgin Suicides" and Doug Aitken's big project at MoMa. He was extremely experienced in crushing huge amounts of footage into highly communicative short bursts. We started with Lindsay and the amounts of gorgeous footage we had gave me chills.

(Editing by Zorianna Kit)

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