MTV

It's true! Nick Cannon, from MTV's "Wild 'N Out," is being honored today at the Cannes Film Festival. Apparently, someone feels that his performance in "Bobby" was groundbreaking -- and qualifies Canon as the "Breakthrough Actor of the Year."

That's quite an accomplishment for someone whose prior memorable moments include improv fart noises and "yo mama's so fat" jokes.

TMZ has learned MTV is set to announce tomorrow that the 2007 Video Music Awards will be held in Las Vegas on September 9 at the Palms Hotel and Casino. Not only will the awards show air that Sunday, but MTV plans on turning Vegas out that entire weekend. Time to book that Southwest flight!

In addition, what happens in Vegas really will stay in Vegas. The network, notorious for running its awards shows over and over ad nauseum, has changed its tune. This year's VMAs will only be seen once, broadcast live in its original form. Remixed versions of the show will be run, created by and for you -- the viewer. If you only want to watch the rap-related awards -- that's what you'll get.

We're told MTV thought the Palms' owners, uber-celebufriends the Maloofs, would be a perfect fit for this year's event.

The relationship is over, but the drama has just begun -- and it looks like Cameron Diaz is hooking up to make Justin Timberlake jealous.

According to TMZ spies, Cameron is currently camped out on the North Shore of Oahu, Hawaii with super surf stud and current ASP World Tour champ Kelly Slater.

We're told the couple shared a romantic oceanfront dinner at Haleiwa Joe's restaurant before heading back to Slater's place. Indeed, we're told Cameron is staying with Slater. The two have been friends for years; Slater even appeared on Cameron's MTV show "Trippin" in 2005.

Other TMZ spies tell us that during the Golden Globes, Cameron kept coming up to Justin's table, trying to engage him in conversation.

Each time she left, a frustrated Justin made it clear he just wanted a clean break.

What happened to that innocent, quiet girl from MTV's "8th & Ocean?" --Evelyn

Evelyn, people might not remember her name, but they'll sure remember her face. Britt, the innocent, naive model on the show, has continued with modeling and actually appeared in Maxim's Hottest Women of Reality TV issue (along with twins Sabrina and Kelly). It seems she's found a way to balance her love for the lens with her religious beliefs.

Although the romance is new, the pair already seem to be tired of each other; talking on their cells while having lunch. Usually camera-friendly, Nicole hid under a hood and behind giant sunglasses. Talan was later seen carrying her purse. Salamat, baby.

It was a big day for little men yesterday on TRL, elfin funnyman Robin Williams and tiny Elijah Wood. The pair were making the rounds promoting the animated hit, "Happy Feet," and as always, Williams was more animated than most toons. Snoop Dogg took time out from his legal troubles to push the penguin flick, along with Panic! at the Disco.

Robin, not to be outdone by his own shirt, which said, "1001 Insults, Putdowns, For all Occasions," clowned it up as usual. Elijah Wood appears to be wearing a pair of jeans from Baby Gap.

It appears that all the talking was just for show. Brooke has been making numerous publicity rounds with lots of flesh -- most notably wearing next to nothing on her recent cover of notorious man mag, FHM. The reality TV singer has also been walking red carpets in barely-there outfits. In a recent appearance on MTV, The Little Hulk wore a Britney Spears-inspired schoolgirl outfit ... just after dad kvetched about manager Larry Rudolph, not wanting him using Brookie's sex appeal like he did with former client Britney. Who's zoomin' who?!

Do the celebs get paid to be on "Dancing with the Stars"?

As it turns out, Frances, the celebs who appear on ABC's "Dancing with the Stars" do get monetarily rewarded for all of the blood, sweat and tears they put into those grueling practices. However, according to past celebs, like season two winner Drew Lachey, the payoff is pocket change compared to the big ratings the network receives. It is reported that they get a measly (if that's what you want to call it) $245,000 for up to eight weeks of dancing. And for those of you too lazy to do the math, that breaks down to $30,625 a week. Do with that what you will.

We'll still continue to watch, though. And make sure you tune in tonight at 8pm for the results show! For more TV news, read this.

It's Second Life meets Laguna Beach as MTV tries to expand its presence online. MTV is giving users the ability create their own personal hot-bodied, fashionable avatars. (Avatars are the virtual representation of a user, in this case the character created for use in a virtual world) The idea is to create a virtual online community akin to MySpace which allows users to interact at the hot spots made famous by the TV show.

If the idea of missing "Laguna Beach: The Real OC" because you're too busy mingling with your Virtual Laguna Beach avatar gives you cold sweats, never fear. You can watch video clips from the show in virtual theaters.

The only drawback is that the avatars only have the ability to kiss- nothing more. "The lips touch, but the bodies don't," according to MTV's Senior VP Matt Bostwick.

Unfortunately, you'll have to virtually keep it in your pants.

Justin Timberlake may have brought sexy back to the Video Music Awards, but, unfortunately for MTV, he didn't bring the viewers back.

According to preliminary data from Nielsen Media Research, this year's VMA telecast pulled in an average of 5.77 million total viewers over the course of three hours, down 28% from the 8 million viewers last year. Just two years ago, the show brought in nearly double the audience -- 10.3 million viewers.

It's not all bad news for MTV. The net's broadband video channel, Overdrive, saw user traffic for the awards up 200% from last year with a total of 3.9 million video streams -- not too far off from the number of viewers the actual show took in. The site was packed with performance videos, behind-the-scenes clips, backstage interviews and red carpet fashions.

This year was no exception. Despite having the best hair in the business, MTV's longtime architect and current Viacom CEO Tom Freston has been canned.

Freston's departure from Viacom is such a bombshell, one hardly knows where to begin. On the one hand, it's fantastic theater, with classic - almost cliched - melodramatic trappings of business soap opera. (One imagines a scarlet-to-purple faced Redstone bellowing at his well-coiffed lieutenant, "I told you to make that deal, and you didn't! You're fired!")

On the other, it clearly shows where traditional media is headed: On-line, dummy.

As "The Wall Street Journal" remarked last week,

"MTV Overdrive, a free video Web site featuring music videos, news and MTV's hit programming, attracts fewer than four million unique visitors a month, a small fraction of MTV's 82 million monthly U.S. television viewers. More worrisome: MTV's Web sites are being whipped by rivals such as MySpace, the new home of the MTV generation. MySpace gets nearly 55 million unique visitors in the U.S. a month. YouTube, a fast-growing video Web site, draws 16 million."

In other words, in a world with a brand like MTV, why does MySpace even exist? Indeed, why wasn't social networking simply part of MTV.com?

But in examining the firing of Tom Freston, we should begin with what loaded the gun, and then move on to what pulled the trigger.

Two weeks ago, "Daily Variety" correspondent Jill Goldsmith filed a story that would have been the writing on the wall, were it not for the vigorous denials of an unnamed corporate flack.

Viz,

"...[recent] headlines over MySpace.com were the latest in a series of media stories touting its triumphs, including a lucrative pact with Google, a deal to download movies and the seven trillionth subscriber.

All this attention has made Viacom execs eager to explain why they didn't snap up MySpace. At media conferences, Viacom execs have said it's simple: The price was too high, and MySpace just didn't fit with Viacom's financial metrics. According to one company insider, however, Viacom CEO Tom Freston was asked by chairman Sumner Redstone to go to San Francisco to get the deal done but never went. [itals ours]

A company spokesman said, 'That's patently untrue.' "

Now, class, compare and contrast:

In Viacom's own CBS MarketWatch coverage of Freston's firing, what does Viacom chairman Sumner Redstone say?

That Freston successor Phillipe Dauman would "never, ever, let another competitor beat us to the trophy."

(As Bloomberg.com recognizes, "Dauman's background is in mergers and acquisitions, not in media programming.")

And so as of 2005, clearly, the bullet was in the chamber.

Now, some housekeeping and some other delicious behind the scenes details. As to housekeeping, the Wall Street Journal notes that "the 60-year-old Mr. Freston has been under pressure because of Viacom's sluggish price, down 7.6% since separating from CBS Corp. on Jan. 3."

But it also notes, as yours truly did two weeks ago, that Freston's authority within Viacom appeared seriously undermined after Redstone shot Tom Cruise out of a cannon in August. in a recent City of Industry post entitled "Now Who's Running Amok?" we pointed out that the ancient Redstone had gone on the warpath against his CEOs many times before whenever he felt marginalized.

Viz,

"his castigation of Cruise is said by knowledgeable insiders to have taken both Viacom co-CEO Tom Freston and Paramount Pictures chairman Brad Grey by complete surprise...Some posit that the rationale for Redstone's indelicate (and apparently, unadvised) harangue was to take back the limelight he'd lost earlier this year. In essence, his Cruise missile was fired to reassert himself into the running of a company he'd split in two in January and divided between Tom Freston of MTV and Leslie Moonves at CBS. Based on Redstone's previous behavior, it's not such a wild theory: Redstone has gotten into fisticuffs with major Viacom execs before, including former Viacom CEO Frank Biondi, who Sumner fired because he wanted to run the company, and with Mel Karmazin, who so tired of being co-opted that he decamped Viacom's CBS for Sirius Satellite Radio."

So, now what?

Well, if the future is any indication at all, Dauman would be wise to open his checkbook and just buy YouTube.

As a July think-piece in Variety observed, "it's new media that Viacom and particularly MTV really need to focus on. With a median age of 21, MTV's viewership is most likely to fall into the category that spends more time logged on than tuned in; a recent study noted people ages 13-24 now spend as much as 25% more time online than watching TV.

Rumors of an impending engagement have started to swirl around the couple after "EXTRA" reported that the Hard Rock Cafe heir purchased a diamond sparkler at Cartier in Beverly Hills.

The couple spent Thursday relaxing by the pool on the first day of their vacation. And if it doesn't get any better than enjoying the tropical weather, the couple also received back and foot massages on the beach. Hawaii is known for getting people in the mood to get down on one knee, if you know what we mean -- so is Harry planning to do the same?

The biggest names in music rocked Radio City Hall in New York last night for the 2006 MTV Video Music Awards. While some critics have already panned the show as one of the worst in years, you can't blame the stars.

A leather clad Beyoncé rocked the house with her new single "Ring The Alarm," Shakira gyrated all over the place in belly dancing garb and Fall Out Boy's Pete Wentz even brought a monkey to the red carpet.

Check out TMZ's gallery of the hottest people, moments and on stage performances from the evening. It might be easier than sitting through the three-and-a-half hour show again.

Cleverly referencing the trailers for any number of teen horror flicks you may have seen -- "Scream," "The Texas Chainsaw Massacre," "The House of Wax," and so on -- "Summer of Stupid" preys upon the sometimes less-than-searing intellect displayed by the denizens of Laguna Beach, and uses a "voice-of-God"-like narrator, David Egan, to play up (and tweak) the highly familiar editing rhythms of the movie trailer form in the service of MTV's teens.

But for the Los Angeles-based Dow and Eisner, the pitch-perfect parody of "Laguna Beach" isn't the first time that the NYU film-school classmates have taken a certain well-known property and given it a snarky spin.

On the heels of Nick and Jessica's and Dave and Carmen's split, another MTV reality show couple has called it quits.

According to PEOPLE magazine, blink-182's Travis Barker has filed for divorce from his "Meet the Barkers" co-star and wife, Shanna Moakler.

The couple were married in 2004 and have two children: son Landon, 2, and daughter Alabama, 7 months. Moakler, a former Miss USA, also has a 7-year-old daughter, Atiana, from her previous relationship with Oscar de la Hoya.

Moakler released a statement saying "My only concern right now is for the welfare and best interests of my children."

Monday, TMZ reported that Moakler has been added to the latest cast of ABC's "Dancing with the Stars."