By Erin Carlson, Entertainment Writer
NEW YORK (AP) --It’s “Twilight” versus “Slumdog Millionaire” at this year’s MTV Movie Awards.
The vampire blockbuster and Oscar-winning Indian romance have six nominations each, including best movie, MTV announced Monday. “Slumdog” star Dev Patel and “Twilight” vampire Robert Pattinson are both nominated for the male breakthrough performance award. The other contenders are Ben Barnes (“The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian”), Bobb’e J. Thompson (“Role Models”) and Pattinson’s “Twilight” co-star Taylor Lautner.
Mark Burnett, who produces the freewheeling ceremony, said either film has a great chance of winning best picture.
“Twilight” has “certainly touched a part of America and young girls are totally in love with what the movie stands for and (with) romance,” Burnett said in an interview. “And, on the other hand, I have to say, all of my kids loved ‘Slumdog Millionaire.’ There’s just something so uplifting about what that movie stands for.”
Other nominated films include “Iron Man,” ”The Dark Knight” and “High School Musical 3: Senior Year.”
Kate Winslet, who won an Oscar for her dramatic role in “The Reader,” is up for best female performance, along with Angelina Jolie (“Wanted”), Anne Hathaway (“Bride Wars”), Kristen Stewart (“Twilight”) and Taraji P. Henson (“The Curious Case of Benjamin Button”).
Nominees for best male performance are Christian Bale (“The Dark Knight”), Robert Downey Jr. (“Iron Man”), Shia LaBeouf (“Eagle Eye”), Vin Diesel (“Fast & Furious”) and “High School Musical” heartthrob Zac Efron.
Efron’s co-star (and girlfriend) Vanessa Hudgens will challenge Miley Cyrus for the breakthrough performance female award. Their competition includes “Slumdog” beauty Freida Pinto and Ashley Tisdale, another “HSM” star.
The golden popcorn trophy for best kiss — one of the event’s signature unconventional categories — could be handed to one of six big-screen duos, including Efron and Hudgens, Pinto and Patel, Stewart and Pattinson, or Sean Penn and James Franco, who co-starred in “Milk.”
Ledger, who won a posthumous Oscar for his menacing performance as the Joker in “The Dark Knight,” is also nominated in the best villain category.
MTV usually introduces a new category or two each year: This year, a golden popcorn will be awarded to the “best song from a movie.” The nominees are Cyrus’ “The Climb” (from the new “Hannah Montana” film); the “Twilight” song “Decode” by Paramore; the “Slumdog” anthem “Jai Ho”; and the Bruce Springsteen ballad “The Wrestler” from the movie starring Mickey Rourke.
Votes can be cast online at MTV’s Web site through May 27 for all categories except best movie. MTV said voting in that category remains open until May 31, when the show will air live from the Gibson Amphitheatre in Universal City, Calif. “Saturday Night Live” star Andy Samberg is the host.
Burnett said the key to a successful movie-awards show is to let awkward moments pan out. Among last year’s highlights: Franco and Seth Rogen pulled out a bag of fake marijuana on stage.
“I will tell you right now — there are three big things” that are part of the show, Burnett said. “I would say personally in my three years of producing the MTV Movie Awards live, the biggest thing that I can think of is going to be happening this year.”
Google Opens Its Defense In Antitrust Case Alleging Monopoly Over Online Ad Technology
Google opened its defense against allegations that it holds an illegal monopoly on online advertising technology Friday with witness testimony saying the industry is vastly more complex and competitive than portrayed by the federal government.
"The industry has been exceptionally fluid over the last 18 years," said Scott Sheffer, a vice president for global partnerships at Google, the company's first witness at its antitrust trial in federal court in Alexandria.
The Justice Department and a coalition of states contend that Google built and maintained an illegal monopoly over the technology that facilitates the buying and selling of online ads seen by consumers.
Google counters that the government's case improperly focuses on a narrow type of online ads — essentially the rectangular ones that appear on the top and on the right-hand side of a webpage. In its opening statement, Google's lawyers said the Supreme Court has warned judges against taking action when dealing with rapidly emerging technology like what Sheffer described because of the risk of error or unintended consequences.
Google says defining the market so narrowly ignores the competition it faces from social media companies, Amazon, streaming TV providers and others who offer advertisers the means to reach online consumers.
Justice Department lawyers called witnesses to testify for two weeks before resting their case Friday afternoon, detailing the ways that automated ad exchanges conduct auctions in a matter of milliseconds to determine which ads are placed in front of which consumers and how much they cost.
The department contends the auctions are finessed in subtle ways that benefit Google to the exclusion of would-be competitors and in ways that prevent... Read More