Rapper Lil Wayne suffers seizure

Los Angeles (CNN) -- Grammy-winning and multiplatinum-selling rapper Lil Wayne suffered a seizure and "is recovering," his record label's publicist said Friday.

The New Orleans artist arguably occupies the highest rungs of the hip-hop world, but he shares them with fellow rapper Drake, who hails from Toronto.

Drake appeared at the Los Angeles hospital, where Lil Wayne is being treated, with an entourage of Wayne's friends. They pulled up chairs in the hallway near his room and set up a vigil.

Twitter has lit up with rumors, spreading fears of the worst for Wayne's outcome, but a Tweet in his name attempted to calm the tempest.

"I'm good everybody," read a message from Lil Wayne's Twitter account. "Thnx for the prayers and love."

While acknowledging a medical issue, members of the New Orleans' artist's camp have shot down reports that he was near death.

"Dont believe the nonsense about comas and tubes to breathe ... that's false!!" tweeted Mack Maine, the president of Lil Wayne's Young Money label, around 5:20 p.m. (8:20 p.m. ET) Friday.

Sarah Cunningham, a publicist with the Young Money record label, acknowledged that Lil Wayne had a seizure.

The public relations department at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, the Los Angeles hospital where the rapper is reportedly being treated, did not confirm or deny that Lil Wayne is there, per its policy.

Maine didn't offer much detail, though he did say that he and Lil Wayne had been watching the Syracuse University Orange play Georgetown in the Big East men's basketball tournament.

"Wayne is alive and well!" the record label president wrote on Twitter.

The rapper's independent publicist, Kia Selby, said only, "Lil Wayne is doing well." She strongly denied reports he was in a medically induced coma, as reported by TMZ.

Born Dwayne Carter, Lil Wayne is one of the rap world's most successful artists. He won best rap album for "Tha Carter III" at the 2008 Grammy awards, and took home three more Grammys the following year.

Beyond winning over critics, he's also been a commercial success. Last September, Billboard reported the rapper had tallied 109 hits on its Hot 100, surpassing the record previously held by Elvis Presley.

But he's also run into trouble outside the studio and stage.

Via: Rapper Lil Wayne suffers seizure

Review: 'Incredible Burt Wonderstone'

(EW.com) -- In the "Incredible Burt Wonderstone," Steve Carell and Steve Buscemi play world-famous Las Vegas magicians.

Carell wears spangled red velvet and a poufy wig that makes him look like Barry Manilow, and Buscemi sports an even more unreal-looking lanky mop. Each night, they kick off their act by doing a smiley little dance to ''Abracadabra,'' that cheesy-catchy Steve Miller Band classic.

This trademark fanfare places the two somewhere between Siegfried & Roy and the head-bopping Butabi brothers from "Saturday Night Live," and I chuckled, with mild pleasure, at the dopey kitschiness of it. I assumed (or at least hoped) that the dance would be a warm-up for the much bigger laughs to come.

Carell's Burt Wonderstone and Buscemi's Anton Marvelton have been partners ever since they were childhood geeks who began inventing their own magic tricks back in the early '80s.

They've been doing their sold-out show at Bally's for so long now that they're sick of it, and sick of each other, too. Burt, off stage, is a toxic diva who makes groupies sign contracts and treats Anton like an indentured servant. One night, the two are working with a brand-new assistant, Jane (Olivia Wilde), performing a classic trick that requires Burt and Jane to huddle inside a box, which Anton jabs with swords. Squeezed inside the compartment, Burt asks Jane to sleep with him that night, and when she turns him down, he throws a hissy fit.

It should be an over-the-top funny moment, as Carell lashes out with a faux-aristocratic hauteur. He's going for a Will Ferrell meltdown, yet there's something a little too controlled about Carell's bombastic nuttiness. The effect isn't hilariously insane. Once again, it's just kind of mild.

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"Burt Wonderstone" seems to be reaching for the tone of early Farrelly brothers movies like Kingpin, and also for the madcap hostility of Zoolander. Yet in too many scenes, the comedy doesn't quite ignite.

The movie rarely climbs out of the chuckle zone, except for a few times when Jim Carrey is on screen as Burt and Anton's rival, a stringy-haired, tattooed street magician who specializes in cable-TV stunts that represent the new era: He's like Criss Angel as a Zen pain freak. The gleam of madness in Carrey's eye finds a perfect home in this role, which has him upping the ante on how far he'll go (holding in his urine for 12 days, spending a night on hot coals), all as a way to bedazzle jaded audiences.

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He beats Burt and Anton at their own game, and their act starts to fall apart. And so, in a way, does the movie. Instead of getting wilder, it turns earnest and mushy, as Burt, humbled by failure, starts performing at a retirement home, where he befriends Rance Holloway (Alan Arkin), the cranky magician whose VHS tape first inspired him as a kid.

Burt Wonderstone has a real affection for the world of illusionists, a showbiz demimonde it treats with simultaneous snark and awe. Yet the movie itself is too cautious and unimaginative to bring off what a great magic trick or comedy should do: make us laugh out loud with surprise. B-

See the original article at EW.com.

Via: Review: 'Incredible Burt Wonderstone'

'Big Bang' cast shares secrets

(EW) -- Sheldon Cooper, Leonard Hofstadter and Raj Koothrappali may not be doctors of the medical sort, but they still know how to serve up a heaping dose of the best medicine (a.k.a. laughs lots of them) to a sold-out audience.

At least, that's what their real-life counterparts along with other cast members and writer/producers of "The Big Bang Theory" did Wednesday evening for the CBS comedy's PaleyFest panel in Beverly Hills' Saban Theatre.

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The event, presented by the Paley Center for Media, was pretty short on spoilers. The production schedule is currently not that far ahead of viewers, who will get to see the 19th episode of season six tonight, but there were plenty of entertaining and funny behind-the-scenes stories and playful moments among the talent on the panel, which was moderated by "NCIS" actress Pauley Perrette.

Read on for 10 highlights from the "Big Bang Theory" panel:

1. The scene when Penny first tells Leonard "I love you" was shot in only one take

Kaley Cuoco (Penny), whose face brightened with a big grin when asked about this scene, revealed that she and Johnny Galecki (Leonard) pulled it off in just one "very special take."

Executive producer Steven Molaro recalled telling the two actors, "'That was beautiful. It's never gonna be better than that,' and then Kaley said to Johnny, 'I don't know about you, but we started the scene, and it was like the audience went away and the cameras went away and it was just us.'" That got a big "awww" out of the PaleyFest crowd.

2. Everybody loves Lucy

The cast and writers seem to be having a fun time with Kate Micucci aboard the show playing Raj's (sort of) girlfriend, Lucy.

"It's really fun playing opposite an actress that is talented and really listens and reacts," Kunal Nayyar (Raj) told EW in the press tent before the panel. Inside the Saban Theatre, he told the crowd that he has enjoyed this storyline "because you play a character for six years, and in my case, you grow affection for that character. You really want to see that character succeed. It's really lovely to see him explore that side, which I think has been missed for so long while he's been seeing the growth of his friends."

Co-creator Chuck Lorre told EW that Raj and Lucy's recent texting date won't be the last time we see them come up with a creative way to communicate, but Raj will also "continue to rely on demon rum to help him overcome his shyness." He's not going to let that pesky selective mutism get in his way!

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3. That spanking scene

Sheldon went old-school with his punishment for Amy when she lied about being sick. Though "punishment" isn't exactly how the delighted Amy thought of the near-BDSM experience.

Jim Parsons (Sheldon) revealed that while the spanking was always in the script for that December 2012 episode, it was originally planned to be off-camera. The original gag had Amy's spanking, along with two other points of the episode, paired with the image of Amy's monkey mimicking the image of "see no evil," "hear no evil" and then "speak no evil." Ultimately, once the writers decided to put the spanking on-camera, Parsons found the scene "one of the hardest things I've had to do because it was so amusing."

After Cuoco and Galecki recalled the shot needing several takes, Mayim Bialik (Amy) confessed, "There was some redness!"

4. How did last fall's flash mob come together?

When the cast and crew surprised their studio audience and their producers with a flash mob dance last October, it was the result of two weeks of rehearsals. The idea was Cuoco's, who recruited her sister to do the choreography. As for that back-spin of Galecki's, the actor had originally expressed no interest in participating, but "I saw their last rehearsal, and after rolling my eyes for two weeks, I said, 'I really want to be a part of this,'" Galecki recalled. He didn't have time to learn the whole dance, but he contributed his move that he "usually save[s] for weddings."

5. We may see Sheldon's Meemaw in a future episode

When an audience member questioned the producers about Sheldon's oft-talked-about but yet-to-be-seen grandmother, Molaro said, "We've talked about [having her appear on the show]. I certainly don't rule it out. I don't know how she'd feel about Amy." When that last comment was met with nervous laughter and hmms from the audience, Molaro quickly followed up: "She loves Amy! She will love Amy!"

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6. How does one call up George Takei to ask him to do that scene?

When the writers created the scene in which Howard has a dream about "Battlestar Galactica" hottie Katee Sackhoff that is soon interrupted by George Takei, the task of calling up the celebrated "Star Trek" actor about the guest spot fell to co-creator Bill Prady.

"We wrote a line of Howard saying, 'I'm so confused' and thought it'd be really funny if George Takei said, 'Confused? Perhaps I can help.'" Prady said. "How do I say to this guy that he's a possible homosexual fantasy? ... Finally I said, 'Alright, so you know you're gay, right?' and he said," cue George Takei accent "'That's news. I'll tell my husband.'"

7. Tonight's episode is a touching and emotional one

Tonight's episode, titled "The Closet Reconfiguration," centers around a discovery Sheldon makes when reorganizing Bernadette and Howard's closet:

He unwittingly opens a letter from Howard's father (who abandoned Howard and Mrs. Wolowitz when he was a kid) that our favorite diminutive engineer has never braved reading since he received it at age 18. It's an emotion-filled episode, the cast said, that features each character supporting Howard through the tough situation in their own way.

"You get to see how good [Howard's] friends really are and how kind of fallible they are and yet unflappable. They don't change. But everybody is coming from a sweet, good place," Simon Helberg (Howard) told EW.

"They're all put in a position to figure out how to best support their friend," Galecki told EW. "It's a sensitive issue, and I think the conclusion that they come to is really smart and unique and has never been done on television before. It's one of my favorite episodes, I swear to God. I'm not just saying that ... It really is."

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8. How will the season six finale compare to last season's big closer?

"That was pretty big," Lorre said to EW of the season five finale. "A wedding and a Russian rocket into space is pretty big. I think we can safely say this [year's finale] will be smaller, more intimate."

9. The tale of Melissa Rauch's "Smurfette"

The biggest applause of the night was saved for the hilarious Melissa Rauch (Bernadette). The audience raved when she impersonated Howard's mother's voice, and when she told a story about getting her makeup removed following the day of shooting this season's Halloween episode.

Getting off all that blue Smurf makeup required some hot towels and the work of Rauch's regular makeup artist and two assistants, both of whom were men.

"It was getting late, and I'm starting to fall asleep," Rauch recalled, "and I lifted my legs up to get the rest of the makeup off and heard the guy laugh and thought, 'Oh, they're just telling jokes.' But then I looked in the mirror and thought, 'What's that?! Dear Lord Jesus, that's my business!' I had totally exposed myself! I put my legs down and just said to them, 'Long night!' That is the tale of my Smurfette!"

10. Where did 'bazinga' come from?

Sheldon's catchphrase now beloved by fans and nerdy T-shirt companies everywhere got its start as now-showrunner Steven Molaro's catchphrase.

Prady told the audience that during the show's second season, Molaro would use the word to mean "gotcha" when he pulled a trick on a fellow writer.

A "bazinga" was in order, for example, when Molaro gave Prady a grapefruit that turned out to be hollowed out then carefully taped back together. And that's how the catchphrase of smug, trickster Sheldon was born.

See the original story at EW.com.

Via: 'Big Bang' cast shares secrets

'Oz' 'Great and Powerful' at box office

Los Angeles (CNN) -- Families and couples flocked to theaters to see Disney's "Oz the Great and Powerful," raising opening weekend ticket sales around the world to $150.2 million, according to box office estimates released Sunday.

The film stars James Franco as a carnival magician swept into the land of Oz by a tornado, a prequel to the 1939 classic "The Wizard of Oz," which starred a teenage Judy Garland.

"Oz" sold an estimated $80.3 million in tickets at U.S. cinemas on Friday, Saturday and Sunday, according to Exhibitor Relations, a company that gathers box office estimates as they are self-reported by studios.

Another $69.9 million in box office receipts were collected outside the United States, bringing the global take to $150.2 million, the company estimated.

The movie and its promotion cost Disney about $300 million, according to several media reports.

Via: 'Oz' 'Great and Powerful' at box office

'Idol': Five things we learned backstage

(CNN) -- "American Idol" revealed its top 10 last night, but after the lights dimmed on the live show, the new crop of contestants and the judges had a chance to speak to the press about the big night and preview the competition to come.

So what did we learn? Here are some highlights:

1. Keith Urban thinks Lazaro could upset the Year of the Girl

Since the early audition rounds, producers and judges have said the girls have a strong chance of breaking the male-winner streak. But while Keith Urban notes the strength of the female lot, he's not counting out the boys, especially Lazaro Arbos. "There are some really good girls singers, but when you see a guy like Burnell [Taylor] or even more so Lazaro and the way he connects with an audience he comes out and sings and they go crazy. They love him and the votes have really reflected that," Urban told reporters.

So could Arbos be the one to upset what's been referred to by some as the Year of the Girls? "He certainly could be," says Urban. "But I love that there's a few in here who could do that if they get the right song and the stars line up. The timing is everything. I hate that [that's the case] for them. It's like you might be the best football team ever, but if you don't have the game on Super Bowl day that you need, you don't win. But you could [have] won the day before if you'd played the day before. This show is like that."

Meanwhile, Arbos admits that his "Bridge Over Troubled Water" performance may have not been his best showing: "Yeah, I was a hot mess with my song tonight. I didn't get a chance to rehearse it. Therefore, I walked on stage and found out I have to sing, I was like, 'Oh My God! Uh-Oh.' So from now on, I just want to get comfortable with performing."

'American Idol': Here's your Top 10

2. That reveal was awkward for the contestants, too.

EW recapper Annie Barrett wasn't a fan of the awkwardly formatted top 10 reveal show, saying it lacked suspense and tension for the home audience. But backstage, the biggest problem was an overload of emotions. "I think that was the ugliest walk I've ever made because I was in the middle of crying and laughing and just thinking of what's going on back home right now," Amber Holcomb joked. "But it was great." Spanish-speaking singer Devin Velez also admitted to being a little overwhelmed after the big moment. "I got a little woozy, and Ryan had to shake me, 'Devin, Devin, you have to go on stage.' And the moment the doors open on stage, I just walked out, and I had to put my face in my hands. I just couldn't look. It was unbelievable that all those people were clapping for me because they voted for me," he said. "It was just confirmation of, 'Devin, you're here to sing. You were born to sing. We need you to do this.' So it was like, 'Alright. I have to do it now.'"

3. A change will do you good

Speaking of Velez, who has made it a point to show off his Spanish skills during his performances thus far, he's going to skip the Spanish twist next week in an effort to keep his offerings fresh. "I'm not going to make it predictable; I want to catch them by surprise. If you make it predictable, you will get voted off. But I definitely think there will be more coming, just not right now. We're going to take a break," he said. "I might [eventually] do a whole Spanish song, too, but I don't know yet. It's all up in the air right now."

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4. Even contestants fear the Nicki

Minaj's side eyes aren't the only scary thing about this season of American Idol. As contestants prepare to head into the more intense rounds of competition, Minaj's razor-sharp tongue and bluntness have some of them sweating. "She's always so honest but it's so necessary," Burnell Taylor told us, after confessing Minaj was the judge whose critiques he's most fearing. "I can always count on her when it comes to honesty." Country singer Janelle Arthur echoed the statement, saying despite being Minaj's beloved "Marshmallow," she doesn't consider herself safe. "Even though I know Nicki loves me, I always know that she's looking for that certain thing that makes her love me. So when she doesn't see it, I know she's going to bring it up and she's going to say, 'What happened? I didn't see what I wanted to see,'" said Arthur. "She's also so unpredictable. I never know what she's going to do. So, yeah, I'm probably most apprehensive about her."

5. Just Say No... to Carrie

While we're talking about Arthur, it's worth bringing up that this blond country singer is well aware of the comparisons being drawn to that other blonde country singer from Idol, and while flattering, she said she has no plans to cover a Carrie Underwood song. "I'm trying to stay as far away from the Carrie Underwood songs as I can because Carrie is incredible," she said. "I don't want to be compared to Carrie but of course I'm going to be because I'm blonde and country. But our styles are so different, and that's the good thing about it. Hopefully Nashville has room for another blonde." One blonde singer's music she definitely wants a chance to tackle, however? "I hope to perform a Dolly Parton song at some point," she said.

See the original article at EW.com.

Via: 'Idol': Five things we learned backstage

The art of Dave Matthews

(CNN) -- He's a Grammy-winning musician, with a band that's brought in hundreds of millions of dollars from touring, and to cap it off, his latest release, "Away From the World," just topped the Billboard album charts.

But Dave Matthews was still frightened when it came to showing his art in a professional New York exhibit.

"I've always drawn and painted, but as my own thing," the musician said. "I've never done anything as ambitious as this."

The result of the singer's ambition is "Itica Pritica" (the "C" sounds like a "K"), an exhibition of more than 20 silk-screened works by Matthews and close friend Beezy Bailey at the Robert Miller Gallery in Hell's Kitchen.

"I'm very afraid of things like this," Matthews said. "For years, Beezy has said, 'Come on, let's do something together.' "

A fellow South African, Bailey knew just what to say to get Matthews over his fears and into the gallery.

" 'No one's ever died making a painting,' I told him," recalled Bailey, an artist with more than 30 years' experience.

The paintings, on display until April 13, may have taken only two weeks to complete, but they reveal some of the singer's personal feelings to the world, according to Matthews. He says his favorite piece, covered with meticulous etchings, displays his compulsive side while other works show his hatred for the poaching of the African rhino.

The art is not all serious. Like classic Matthews lyrics, there are works celebrating the idea of "Eat, drink and be merry." The "fat man," an alter ego for Bailey, appears as an explorer in many of the pieces.

"I just can't get enough of him. I can't. When we did anything, I'd say, 'Let's put the fat man on it,' " Matthews said. "I won't apologize for the fat man. I won't apologize for the fact that we used him so much. He's glorious."

Matthews said getting over this first artistic hump might open the floodgates for more art shows.

"Of the points in my life that I'll look back on as monumental to me, this will definitely be one," he said.

The famous singer might be OK with his mug all over TV and film, but he apparently is a bit apprehensive when it comes to his face on his art. One piece has his face plastered more than 20 times throughout. The work sIts sequestered in the back, and Matthews joked about it coming to an untimely end.

Via: The art of Dave Matthews

'Walking Dead': What to expect next

Editor's note: This article may contain spoilers.

(EW) -- With just four more episodes of "The Walking Dead's" third season to go, this would officially qualify as the homestretch. So what should we expect to see as we head toward the inevitable confrontation between Rick and The Governor?

Is Rick sane again? Has Michonne proved her mettle? And should we assume that not everyone will make it out of the season alive? We spoke with exec producer Robert Kirkman, who offered up some cryptic clues and teases for what lies ahead.

Entertainment Weekly: Is Rick past his hallucinations now? Did that encounter with Morgan refocus him? Where's his head at as we get closer to the big showdown?

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Robert Kirkman: He has started to get a handle on it to a certain extent, and a big thing that helped him with that was his interaction with Morgan in this last episode. He sees this fun house there, who he could eventually be if he keeps going down this path. I think that's going to help rein him in a great deal and set him on the path to healing. Now, he could have a relapse, but I think right now he is getting a handle on what is going on within him.

EW: We last saw Andrea standing over the Governor with the knife and not being able to go through with killing him. How pivotal a role is she going to play going forward?

Kirkman: The rest of the season really is about what Andrea is doing and how she's handling this situation. The scene where she stands over him in the bed is really the beginning of her plan and what she's going to be doing and why she's doing what she's doing. The fact that she wasn't able to kill the Governor is really going to play in to a lot of the upcoming story for the rest of the season. Andrea is in a really horrible position. She has relationships with people in Woodbury. She knows there are good people there. She knows that the Governor is instigating a war between those people and other people that she has a relationship with that she also knows to be good people. She's kind of stuck in the middle and can't help either group win because that would mean the destruction of other good people but she's going to have to do something to try to make this situation resolve in a way that not too many people get hurt. So that's really what she's going to be trying to do moving forward.

EW: Tyreese and his group now seem firmly with the Governor. Is Tyreese, like Andrea, a swing character in this conflict?

Kirkman: Tyreese is a character coming into a very explosive situation with not a lot of information. He got a lot of misleading information from Rick and his group, using Rick's behavior as an example of what that group is like. Certainly an inaccurate portrayal of those people, and having that information, he is being easily wooed by the Governor. We've always tried to maintain that Tyreese is this big-hearted character. He's someone who like Dale in the second season still sees the humanity in the world and still sees the need to do what's right as opposed to what will help us survive. And that's something that will either be subverted by the Governor and used to his benefit, or something that may eventually turn Tyreese against the Governor.

EW: Let's talk about the Dixons. Daryl started to seem to realize that maybe Merle was no good for him by going back to the prison, and then Carol told him straight up that Merle was no good for him. Where is the relationship between the brothers headed?

Kirkman: I think now the real question is, can Merle be affected by this group the same way that Daryl has been? That's something that Daryl hopes will happen. He does see that being with these people and being a part of this group has helped make him a better person. He still loves his brother and sees the value in having his brother around, but he's hoping Merle can come around the same way that he did and calm down a bit and be a little bit more of a reasonable person. That's really going to be the main conflict for those two moving forward for the rest of the season.

EW: What about Daryl and Carol? They obviously have had something of a flirtation. Now that Daryl is back and Axel is out of the way, are we going to see some movement with those two romantically?

Kirkman: All I can say is that those two characters are extremely close, and I would imagine that the more time they spend together that they would only get closer and closer. They definitely have a unique bond that is formed over their time together and whether or not that evolves into an intimate relationship remains to be seen, but they do certainly like each other.

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EW: Michonne was able to make a connection with Carl this week. Is she becoming more a part of the group?

Kirkman: Definitely. That was by design. I think Rick took her on that trip to feel her out and get to know her better and test to see if she was the type of person that would be a valuable member of that group, or if she was going to continue to be somewhat problematic. And I think he got a very positive answer out of that and Carl was a big part of that. And coming out of that trip, I think she's going to be a much more integral, welcomed part of this group who will continue to become more invested in this cause and be a contributing member.

EW: You made us wait 30 episodes to bring Morgan back. So now we can reset the clock on me asking you that same question all over again: Are we going to be seeing Morgan again?

Kirkman: We definitely didn't kill him, so he's still alive and still out there. We checked in on him. Whether or not that's the end of Morgan's story, or we check on him again, or he shows up later at some point in a surprising fashion remains to be seen. But he's definitely still out there, so the possibilities are wide open.

EW: You guys are big on there being repercussions so that the action feels real. If there is a big battle or zombie attack, people often die. With this confrontation really gearing up, should we then assume that not every character is going to make it out of the season alive?

Kirkman: I'm afraid there may be a casualty or more still to be experienced by the end of this season. We'll see.

EW: Will this Woodbury vs. the prison storyline be resolved by the end of the season? Season one was the set up and going to the CDC, season two was about the farm, and season three has been the prison and Woodbury. Should we expect a new setting next season?

Kirkman: That would certainly appear to be settling into a cycle. I don't want to give anything away because we have some really cool stuff planned for the finale, but I will say that there is a resolution to the storyline at the end of the season, as people would expect. It becomes a whole complete story that you've been able to experience over the course of season three. And It will set things up nicely for season four. There are new places to go in season four, but whether or not that means a new setting or new story direction or simply new characters I can't really nail down any specifics.

See the original story at EW.com.

Via: 'Walking Dead': What to expect next