According to the Associated Press, Jones is on the best actor shortlist for his role in “Cat on a Hot Tin Roof.” [Watch promo below.]

Also among the best actor nominees announced Monday: Jude Law for “Hamlet,” James McAvoy for “Three Days of Rain,” Mark Rylance for “Jerusalem,” Ken Stott for “A View from the Bridge” and Samuel West for “Enron.”

Also, Lorraine Burroughs received a best actress nomination for her role in “The Mountaintop,” a play about Dr. Martin Luther King set in room 306 of the Lorraine Motel, where the civil rights leader was assassinated. Burroughs plays Camae, a woman who works at the hotel. [Watch clip below.]

Burroughs is nominated alongside Rachel Weisz for “A Streetcar Named Desire,” Gillian Anderson for “A Doll’s House,” Imelda Staunton for “Entertaining Mr. Sloane” and Juliet Stevenson for “Duet for One.”

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*No, that wasn’t special effects or CGI trickery that brought Oprah Winfrey together with late night rivals Jay Leno and David Letterman in a Super Bowl promo for Letterman’s “Late Show.”

“According to the talk show’s executive producer Rob Burnett, the spot was put together quickly. And on the down low.

The wheels were set in motion soon after CBS offered “Late Show” a promo slot during the Super Bowl.

“Dave had this idea, ‘What about getting Jay and Oprah together with me?’ and he wrote it,” Burnett explained to the Associated Press. “We said, ‘This is too funny to pass up.’ First we called Oprah.” Then Leno was approached, and he, too, signed on. That was two weeks ago.

Arrangements had to be made to get the Los Angeles-based Leno and the Chicago-based Winfrey to New York for filming — and do it without word getting out.

“Security was a big priority for us,” Burnett said. “We really wanted to keep this under wraps. There were a lot of internal logistical conversations about how to even get Jay and Oprah into our building secretly.”

The spot was filmed last Tuesday at the Ed Sullivan Theatre, home of “Late Show.” According to Burnett, Leno arrived in disguise: hooded sweatshirt, dark glasses and fake mustache. Filming took less than a half-hour, Burnett said.

“It was quick, it was easy,” he said. “The attitude was professional and cordial. Dave and Jay were fine with each other.”

For now. It may be a different story after the Winter Olympics, when Jay Leno returns as host of the “Tonight Show” and his ratings battle with Letterman resumes.

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LOS ANGELES (AP) — Michael Jackson’s doctor was charged Monday with involuntary manslaughter, capping an exhaustive investigation into the pop star’s stunning death last summer and setting up the prospect of another sensational celebrity courtroom drama.

Dr. Conrad Murray, a cardiologist who was with Jackson when he died June 25 at his rented Los Angeles mansion, is accused of acting “unlawfully and without malice” in bringing about Jackson’s death, according to a complaint filed by prosecutors.

The complaint said Murray acted “without the caution and circumspection required” when he administered a powerful sedative to Jackson in an effort to help him sleep.

The charge was expected, and Murray’s attorney, Ed Chernoff, said his client planned to surrender to authorities later Monday.

“We’ll make bail, we’ll plead not guilty and we’ll fight like hell,” Chernoff said before the charge was filed.

Jackson hired Murray to be his personal physician as he prepared for a series of strenuous comeback concerts in London. Officials say the singer died after Murray administered the powerful general anesthetic propofol and two other sedatives to get the chronic insomniac to sleep.

Los Angeles investigators were methodical in building a case against Murray, wary of repeating missteps that have plagued some other high-profile celebrity cases, most notably O.J. Simpson and actor Robert Blake, both of whom were acquitted of murder.

After reviewing toxicology findings, the coroner ruled Jackson’s death at age 50 a homicide caused by acute intoxication of the powerful anesthetic propofol, with other sedatives a contributing factor.

Propofol is only supposed to be administered by an anesthesia professional in a medical setting, because it depresses breathing and heart rate while lowering blood pressure.

Murray appears to have obtained the drug legally and its use is not in itself a crime. To show the doctor was negligent in his care, detectives spoke to more than 10 medical experts to see if his behavior fell outside the bounds of reasonable medical practice.

According to court documents, Murray told police he administered propofol just before 11 a.m. then stepped out of the room to go to the bathroom.

There is some dispute about what happened next. According to court filings, Murray told police that upon his return from the bathroom, he saw Jackson was not breathing and began trying to revive him.

But an ambulance was not called until 12:21 p.m. and Murray spent much of the intervening time making non-emergency cell phone calls, police say. The nature of the calls, which lasted 47 minutes, is not known.

Murray’s lawyer has said investigators got confused about what Murray had told them, and that the doctor found his patient unresponsive around noon.

The investigation included several agencies, including the Los Angeles Police Department, the district attorney’s office and the federal Drug Enforcement Administration.

Many witnesses have been interviewed by police, including those who were present during Jackson’s last days, those who worked with him in preparation for his series of comeback concerts, “This Is It,” and members of his personal entourage, including his security guard and personal assistant.

Watch video of Joe Jackson discussing how MJ’s staff exploited him:

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(AllHipHop News) Queen Latifah’s Flavor Unit has inked a deal with VH1 to produce a made for TV comedic drama about two best friends and their views on relationships.

The untitled flick is set in Atlanta and revolves around two African-American women, Keisha, a former video dancer and Val, an aspiring fashion mogul.

The movie was written by Stacy Littlejohn, who will also serve as executive producer, along with Queen Latifah and Flavor Unit’s Shakim Compere.

Flavor Unit has produced a number of movies, including The Cookout, Beauty Shop, The Perfect Holiday and Just Wright.

According to Variety, VH1 is in the process of developing more original scripted content, to balance out the reality show programming that currently airs on the network.

No release date was available for Queen Latifah’s project with VH1.

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By James Montgomery, with additional reporting by Gil Kaufman

On Monday (February 8), Howard Stern not only confirmed reports that Fox is interested in hiring him to replace departing “American Idol” judge Simon Cowell, but that the interest is mutual.

“There’s not a better job on the planet than judging a f—–g karaoke contest,” Stern told his satellite radio listeners. “It might be possible, we’ll see.”

Stern, who frequently dissects “Idol” on his radio program, joked that the deciding factor in the negotiations might be the size of the paycheck show producers are willing to shell out for his services.

“They’d have to pay me a ton of dough, because I already make a ton of dough,” he said.

Stern’s five-year, $500 million contract with Sirius XM is set to expire in January of next year. And according to some reports, “Idol” producers are prepared to match that deal.

“A $100 million to judge a karaoke contest? Yeah, I think I would do that show for $100 million,” Stern said. “It would be the best thing that happened to me. What a cush job: $100 million for four months. Who wouldn’t take that?”

Stern added that he wouldn’t do a radio show if he landed the “Idol” job, and said that, while the show is “nothing” without Cowell, he had read reports that it was the acerbic Brit himself who suggested the longtime shock jock take his place at the end of this season.

“I’m not going to comment about any discussions I might or might not have had,” he said. “I watch ‘American Idol.’ … people seem to think that if I was on it, because I’m such a foul-mouthed, miserable f—, that I would get them thrown off the air. I know how to judge.”

And to that end, he said that, really, he’s the best man for the job, since he’d be able to replace the acerbic wit the show would be missing without Cowell.

“If I do say so myself, I can’t imagine anyone else but me replacing [Cowell],” Stern said. “I mean, how else are they going to make that show work? Who knows how to broadcast and who knows how to be interesting? And who’s not afraid to speak their mind?”

And what else would Stern bring to the table? Well, judging by the jokes he made about current “Idol” judges Randy Jackson and Ellen DeGeneres, he wouldn’t be opposed to sparring with his fellow judges. And when asked about the kinds of critiques he’d offer up to auditioners, he replied with this hypothetical nugget.

” ‘Hey Fantasia, you’re not getting little boys hard. You look like you stepped out of a cartoon. … They want a Britney Spears or a Rihanna,” Stern said. “Little boys are scared that you are going to sit on them. You’re out. … You’ve got to go clean up your act. Get a haircut like Rihanna if you want little boys [to get excited about] you.”

Should make for an interesting show! A spokesperson for 19 Entertainment, which produces “American Idol,” had not responded to MTV News’ request for comment at press time.

Would Howard Stern make a good replacement for Simon Cowell on “American Idol”? What do you think? Sound off in the comments below!

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The Michael Vick Project

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A quintet of unlikely collaborators joined Mary J. Blige in an L.A. studio this week to record a cover of Led Zeppelin’s ubiquitous 1971 hit, “Stairway to Heaven.”

The R&B diva’s backing ensemble included Blink-182 drummer Travis Barker, American Idol judge/studio bassist Randy Jackson, and Steve Vai and former Michael Jackson bandmember Orianthi on guitars.

A spokesperson for Blige tells SPIN.com that the cover version will be added as a bonus track on the international version of her latest release, Stronger With Each Tear, which hits stores abroad on March 15. No domestic release for her version of “Stairway” has been planned.

“I think this song is not hard at all because it’s based on pure emotion,” Blige told Spinner. “You gotta get lost in the rock ‘n’ roll moment of it all, and once you get lost in the rock ‘n’ roll moment of it all you can do is scream to the top of your lungs or go as low as you need to go.”

Rock covers are nothing new to Blige, who’s taken on U2’s “One” and, most recently, Simon & Garfunkel’s “Bridge Over Troubled Water” at the Grammys, alongside Andrea Bocelli. Watch the video here — fast-forward to the 1:53 mark if you’d like to skip Wyclef Jean’s long introduction. You can purchase the single via iTunes — proceeds benefit Red Cross efforts in Haiti.

WATCH: Mary J. Blige & Andrea Bocelli, “Bridge Over Troubled Water”

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The Academy Award-nominated actress will perform a live concert from the Annenberg Theatre at the Palm Springs Museum in California on April 21, which will air on PBS in August.

The 74-year-old New York native will give television viewers a taste of her critically acclaimed one-woman show, titled ‘The Lady…The Music…The Legend.”

The ‘Dynasty’ star’s show was lauded as “historic” by the New York Times, which urged people to “experience her while you can.”

The special will air in three parts over one hour. PBS is also giving stations nationwide the right to run it up to eight times over the next 25 months.

Carroll, who recently starred on ‘Grey’s Anatomy,’ currently appears on the series ‘White Collar’ as a classy widow and landlord named June. Her memoir, ‘The Legs Are the Last to Go,’ was released in September 2008.

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Lil Wayne was vocal about how humbled and honored he was to be taking over folk icon Bob Dylan’s part on Monday night’s remake of “We Are the World.” But at the end of his soft-spoken comments to reporters during the recording session, the New Orleans-bred rapper added one more thought that instantly sent a buzz through the room.

“I think it’s amazing what’s been done for Haiti,” Wayne said, gazing out at the assembled reporters and cameramen in a tent just outside the Jim Henson Recording Studios in Hollywood as he stepped off a stool and lowered the microphone. Then, raising the mic to his iced-out grill once more, he added, “But I also think it’s amazing what hasn’t been done for New Orleans.”

And with that, he walked out without taking any further questions.

The pointed aside from the rapper was a rare ripple of controversy on an otherwise on-message night, during which the other artists who passed in front of journalists praised the efforts to raise money for the victims of the Haitian earthquake and spoke of the importance of giving back.

It brought murmured comments such as “Kanye West” from some of the writers, who appeared to be comparing Wayne’s verbal outburst to the “George Bush doesn’t care about black people” tirade unleashed by West during the all-star 2005 benefit for victims of Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans.

In light of the tens of millions raised privately by texted and mailed donations, the “Hope for Haiti Now” telethon, and the more than $100 million and on-the-ground support provided by the Obama administration since the January 12 earthquake, Wayne’s comments suggested that the Nola rapper feels that the same outpouring of support has not helped rebuild his hometown, which was devastated by Katrina in 2005.

As much as he hates to go up against Weezy, Michael Hecht, president and CEO of Greater New Orleans Inc., told MTV News on Thursday (February 4) that Wayne’s comments don’t accurately reflect what’s going on in New Orleans. “The New Orleans region since Katrina has been the recipient of tens of billions of dollars of assistance, not to mention scores of individuals who have committed their time and effort to rebuilding the city and region,” said Hecht, whose group is the leading nonprofit economic development organization in Southeast Louisiana.

Hecht said that as a direct result of billions of dollars in cash and man hours that have been pumped into the area since 2005, Business Week magazine recently called New Orleans “one of the best places in the country to ride out the recession,” with an unemployment rate that is consistently 3 percent lower than the rest of the country. “Perhaps there’s some frustration on his part because it didn’t arrive quickly enough or took too long to come online,” Hecht said of Wayne’s possible motivation for speaking out on Monday, noting that more than 55 percent of the billions in federal funds allocated for Katrina fixes has gone unspent so far. “But it’s not atypical after a disaster of this size, like something on the scale of 9/11 in New York, where it tends to take three to four years for rebuilding to start because of bureaucracy, insurance claims and literally waiting for the dust to settle,” he said.

A spokesperson for Wayne did not respond to requests for further comment from the rapper for this story at press time.

Hecht also said that certainly some of the more affluent areas of the city have been rebuilt faster because their residents have the means, but he said the notoriously impoverished Lower Ninth Ward, which was devastated by the storm surge following the hurricane, has gotten “remarkable and intense” attention. “Atlantic magazine said the architecture of the Lower Ninth was setting the standard for 21st-century architecture,” he said.

According to the Greater New Orleans Community Data Center, the total recovery investment since the storm is $120.5 billion. “There has been unevenness and things are going too slow, but with all respect to Wayne and his experiences in New Orleans, the city that is emerging today is coming back as a place with massive reinvestment and reinvention,” Hecht said.

Karl Senner, 24, is a lifelong NOLA resident who lived through Katrina, jumping in an airboat with his dad the day after the hurricane and helping rescue stranded residents for days after. He told MTV News that the rush of help for Haiti might actually have everything to do with the slow response to Katrina. “I think the immediate support for Haiti can be credited a lot to the text-messaging giving, which is an avenue that wasn’t really around five years ago,” he said. “Also, I think responses to things like this has become an issue more so since Katrina. It was a learning experience for all of us.”

In some ways, he speculated, the lack of massive immediate response to Katrina was a harsh lesson learned and one that has not been forgotten in the years since. “In some ways, a big plus side of Katrina for New Orleans is that it’s given the city a fresh start, a clean slate.”

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The good folks at NBC decided to have a special menu in order to celebrate Black History month, and when Questlove saw the menu he couldn’t resist tweeting it questioning NBC’s HR policies.

Not long after he would tweet the following:

Hopefully NBC won’t take any actions against Questlove for his breaking the news, cause they were asking for it.

In other news NBC is currently hiring a new cafeteria staff…

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Serena Williams Talks About Her $92k Fine.

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