Mark Hoppus/ Pete Wentz Octopus Mystery Solved ... Sort Of

It's a mystery that has plagued the Twitter-verse for nearly a week now: What do Blink-182's Mark Hoppus, Fall Out Boy's Pete Wentz and an octopus have in common?

Well, we have the answer. Sort of.

But first, a refresher: For fans not in the know, on Friday, at 10:53 a.m., Pete Wentz posted a link to a photo on his Twitter account, showing what appears to be a USB flash drive (or a very fancy Zippo) emblazoned with the image of an angry-looking octopus. A scant three minutes later, Hoppus responded by posting a photo of his own, showing the reverse side of that same USB drive, emblazoned with the Fall Out Boy logo.

Considering that all of this followed a week of spirited Tweeting (that will always sound gross) between Hoppus and Wentz, which resulted in the former remixing a version of the latter's song "America's Suitehearts," many believed that the octopus USB drive is the final resting place of that remix. (For reasons not exactly clear to anyone, Hoppus has spent most of the past month posting photos of the same octo on his blog — like this one of Wentz wearing an octopus shirt, or this one of a pair of plastic octopi.)

Confused — and determined to get to the bottom of the cephalopod chicanery — MTV News decided to reach out to both parties to see what the heck was happening.

We e-mailed Wentz, who, when asked if the flash drive contained Hoppus' remix of "Suitehearts," told us, "That's some of it." He then added that "only 50 will be made, with other content, then will be distributed one at a time."

We asked him for clarification but didn't receive a response. Still confused, we reached out to Hoppus for clarification, only he wasn't about to divulge any additional secrets.

"Everything will be known very soon. I am the Octopus," he wrote. "That's all I can say right now."

So there you have it, straight from the guys themselves. The octopus flash drive contains Hoppus' remix, plus some mysterious additional content. Only 50 of them will be made, and they'll somehow be distributed one at a time. Oh, and Hoppus is the Octopus.

That's all we've got for now. Solving mysteries is tough work.

Eminem Posts Relapse Cover Art On Twitter

Never one to employ subtlety when a sledgehammer will do, Eminem released the cover art to his upcoming Relapse album through his Twitter account on Tuesday (April 21).

The image that will grace the MC's first disc of new material in more than four years features a headshot of Slim Shady staring out with eyes narrowed composed entirely of thousands of pills. The not-at-all-veiled nod to the rapper's struggle with addiction to prescription medication is in keeping with Em's career-long habit of putting his personal struggles on display in his art, from his problems with twice-ex-wife Kimberley Mathers to his disputes with his mother and beating at the hands of a bully in high school.

The iconic backward E that has been a part of Em's graphic persona makes another appearance in the lower right-hand corner at the end of the album's title in a sticker made up to look like the label on a pill bottle. It lists the patient's name as Mathers, Marshall, with an address in his old stomping grounds, Detroit's 8 Mile Road, and counsels him to take one tablet once a day at 3 a.m.

The refill date on the prescription reads 5-19-09, the album's release date, and the prescribing doctor is, of course, Em's mentor and beatmaster, Dr. Dre. In a recent cover-story interview with XXL magazine, Em explained that the death of best friend and D12 member Proof in 2006 was part of what put him on a downward spiral of prescription drugs after he'd already visited rehab to work on an addiction to sleeping medication that scuttled his 2005 European tour.

"I think it kind of hit me so hard," Em told the magazine about Proof's shooting death in a Detroit bar. "It just blindsided me. I just went into such a dark place that, with everything, the drugs, my thoughts, everything. And the more drugs I consumed — and it was all depressants I was taking — the more depressed I became, the more self-loathing I became."

The cover has a decidedly more serious look than the first video for the album, the celeb-slamming "We Made You," which has drawn fire from right-wing talking head Bill O'Reilly for its digs at former Republican vice-presidential candidate Governor Sarah Palin. Relapse will be followed by a sequel album tentatively slotted for later this year titled Relapse 2.

Lakers Player Andrew Bynum Says He's Not Dating Rihanna

Basketball player Andrew Bynum is denying that he and Rihanna are dating after rumors began circulating that the pair went on a date in Los Angeles.

"Nope," the Lakers center told TMZ when asked if the two were dating and if their friendship had the potential to ever become anything more.

Rihanna was linked to Wilmer Valderrama after reconciling with Chris Brown following their alleged altercation in February.

Then, last month, Rihanna had been romantically linked to "The Hills" and "Bromance" star Frankie Delgado. Delgado later denied the romance rumors, saying the two are "just friends." Delgado said he thinks the chatter got started because "she's been out, hanging out, I guess. It's Hollywood, people talk a lot. ... She's good."

According to recent reports, Rihanna will be hitting the stage this May at a still unconfirmed-concert in the popular resort locale of Dubai. "Rihanna will be performing on May 28," Mary Rachelle Cherpak, a spokeswoman for Alba Hotchkiss of the Dubai Department of Tourism and Commerce Marketing North America, told MTV News.

She went on to say that if the reported concert comes together it will be "a concert for 25,000 audience members. This is another example of how Dubai tourism is attracting the best of the best and is one of the world's hottest destinations. ... She chooses to do that in Dubai, which I think is a great credit to the destination that it has support of these top artists."

Source :http://www.mtv.com/

Adam Lambert Got 'American Idol' Training At Wild 'Zodiac Show

For most "American Idol" fans, Adam Lambert is the wildest, most unusual contestant they've ever seen on the show. But to his friends and castmates in Los Angeles' long-running variety extravaganza "The Zodiac Show," the Adam you see on the "Idol" stage every week is nothing compared to what they've witnessed back home.

Lee Cherry, "Zodiac" co-creator and director, first met Lambert in Europe in 2003, when the singer was touring with the musical "Hair," and he directed Lambert in his "Zodiac" stage debut in 2004. "He did [Sam Cooke's] 'A Change Is Gonna Come' and as Randy would say, he blew it out the box, dog," Cherry said. "That was pretty much the first time in L.A. anyone saw him being Adam in all his full fabulousness, and everybody lost their minds."

Several years later, at the most recent "Zodiac" show in December, Cherry said Lambert wrote some songs with Madonna collaborator Monte Pittman, and he got a real sense of how far the 28-year-old singer could go. "That was a big collaboration and a big production number, where he had the whole outfit and the dancers and the whole thing. ... We love seeing Adam do his thing how he loves to do it, and you've only seen the half of it on 'American Idol,' " Cherry said.

The six-year-old "Zodiac Show" started as an underground, after-hours monthly party hosted by Los Angeles' dance and glam-rock communities that grew into an irregular series of big, one-off productions at the city's Avalon Theatre. The events revolve around a sign of the Zodiac, and they include every kind of performer imaginable, from singers, dancers and actors to comedians, jugglers, fire-eaters and high-wire acts. It's been described as a "rock 'n' roll Cirque du Soleil."

Part of the reason Cherry thinks Lambert is doing so well on "Idol" is because of the experience he's had onstage at the "Zodiac," performing his own outrageous glam-rock songs, as well as creative covers of other songs and learning how to be part of an ensemble. "Before 'American Idol,' [he] didn't really have an outlet for his talent, to do it the way he wanted to do it," Cherry said. "Every time he was working, he had to fit into some kind of box. He was doing it because he had to do it, he had to live. But on our stage is where he got to ... bring the black nail polish, bring as much glitter as you can bring, what's the craziest outfit you can. It's never too much, except for when it is. Because sometimes, sometimes we ... "

Scarlett, the show's other co-creator and co-lead singer, interrupted Cherry: "We have to tone him down," she laughed.

Like, for instance, the time he wanted to perform a song with a flaming headdress, and they had to convince him it was too dangerous.

Cherry, Scarlett and co-creative director and former Pussycat Dolls member Carmit Bachar said they are all immensely proud of Lambert's success on "Idol," but they're not surprised he's doing so well on such a mainstream national stage.

"I think that it's really been beautiful on the show to see him grow and take in all the comments and the constructive criticism and really add it to his performances, and he's so humble and so beautiful, and he means it and he's real," Scarlett said.

That doesn't mean they weren't a bit worried that America wouldn't know what to do with a eyeliner-wearing, banshee-wailing, glam-rock, emo theater kid who didn't exactly fit the more traditional style of an "Idol" front runner. "He's really cut out for this on every level," Cherry said. "[But] we ... honestly didn't know how he was going to be received. We thought he was either going to get kicked off right away or he was going to win. We figured it was going to be one or the other. We knew he was going to be the best singer of the bunch by far."

After conferring with Lambert early on, Cherry posted a number of the singer's "Zodiac" performances on YouTube, including the very David Bowie-esque glam-rock original "Crawl Thru Fire" from last September, which has garnered more than 400,000 views to date. While each "Zodiac" revue is full of performances from a variety of Hollywood artists at the top of their respective games (choreography, dancing, songwriting, makeup, singing), he said Lambert has that indescribable "it" factor that sets him apart even on a stage with other super-talented performers.

Scarlett said despite Lambert's unusual background and flamboyant (for "Idol") style, she's not surprised America is embracing him. "They heard somebody breaking through," she said of the early embrace of Lambert. "When you're witnessing something like that, it's undeniable, even if you're from, like, Arkansas. You're like, 'Oh, my god, I'm watching a star. This is incredible!' "

Source :http://www.mtv.com/