Eminem

Three months ago, the rapper called Proof stood and gave the best man's toast at the wedding of Eminem, adding another scrapbook moment to a long friendship that had begun when both were children in Detroit dreaming of stardom. That toast would be one of the pair's last shared moments. Proof, whose real name was Deshaun Holton, died early Tuesday morning after being shot in the head at a club on Detroit's Eight Mile Road, a thoroughfare he and Eminem made famous to rap fans. Police had few details on Tuesday -- department spokesman James Tate said that the shooting at the Triple C nightclub began after an argument and that an unidentified man was also shot in the head but had survived.

The MTV Movie Awards has cultivated a reputation for being one of those "anything can happen" awards shows, and on Sunday night, the incident that everyone was talking about was Aubrey Plaza's attempted "Kanye-ing" of Will Ferrell. Ferrell was on stage to accept the award for comedic genius when Plaza, known to most people as April from the NBC comedy "Parks and Recreation," appeared next to him, drink in hand, and attempted to wrest the golden popcorn from his grasp. Ferrell appeared confused, didn't let go of the award and asked, "What is happening?

Eminem is undergoing treatment for dependency on sleep medication, his publicist said this week after the Grammy-winning rapper canceled his European tour, citing exhaustion. In a brief statement, Dennis Dennehy said Eminem, whose real name is Marshall Mathers III, "is in the hospital under doctors' care." Eminem wrapped up his nationwide "Anger Management" tour last week, then on Tuesday canceled 10 European concerts that were to kick off Sept. 1 in Hamburg, Germany.

EXCLUSIVE: “Southpaw,” the Antoine Fuqua movie about a boxer whose life takes some rough turns, has followed a path not unlike that of its hero. DreamWorks was going to make the gritty drama back in 2011 , then dropped it. Soon after, MGM picked it up and was set to distribute the film via Sony -- then put the project in turnaround. Now the movie will live to fight another round courtesy of the Weinstein Co., which has bought rights to the scrappy project, according to Fuqua.

Re "Grammy Duet by Elton John, Eminem Puts Spin on Uproar," Feb. 10: It seems that Elton John, rock legend and ardent champion of all causes gay, has brought anathema upon himself by his decision to perform with Eminem. John's willingness to mingle with the top pop gods and goddesses of this first decade of the new millennium is one of the reasons he remains fresh and relevant. Of course, he's no longer at his creative apex. However, Eminem is in the midst of his afflatus, and who can blame John for wanting to share in the glory and controversy?

The hits, the confrontations and more. April 2000 The bawdy, "The Real Slim Shady" lands as an instant radio and video hit, generating more heat for the upcoming "The Marshall Mathers LP," Wwhose producers include Dr. Dre, left. Eminem muses about a million youngsters who want to look, sound and act like him. It also boasts the now-famous line: "You think I give a damn about a Grammy?" May 14 In an interview with The Times, Eminem defends himself against accusations that his music is dangerous.

Re " 'Stan' Carries the Night" (by Robert Hilburn, Feb. 22): In order to begin to appreciate Eminem's work, the listener must hear past the offensive language to detect the self-mockery and rampant emotions expressed in his songs. Those willing to do this (mostly adolescents) can enjoy the songs as wonderfully expressive and funny recordings. In a way, his colorful language helps to filter out the listeners who are unwilling to face the heat. Beyond the lyrics, however, is yet another level that challenges and piques the avid listener.

Re Geoff Boucher's interesting article "Will the Real Slim Shady Show Up at Grammys?" (Jan. 23): I found the quote by C. Michael Greene, president of the National Academy of Recording Arts & Sciences, very strange. As to whether Eminem was a sure-fire jackpot with viewers, he was reported as saying: "I think we would lose as many 34- to 54-year-old viewers in Dubuque and Ames, Iowa, as we will gain in a more hipper audience." Does Greene think no one over 54 watches the Grammys?

Rap star Eminem and his high school sweetheart divorced for a second time Tuesday, less than a year after they remarried. Eminem and Kim Mathers agreed to divide property and to share custody of their 10-year-old daughter, Hailie Jade Scott. Eminem, 34, and Mathers, 31, remarried Jan. 14. He filed for divorce April 5. They first married in 1999 in a secret ceremony in Missouri and divorced in 2001.

Howard Stern has flirted with the idea of taking his microphone to satellite radio, but it turns out that Eminem will be the sector's first big-name firebrand. This fall, Sirius Satellite Radio will debut a 24-hour "cutting-edge hip-hop music and lifestyle channel" created by the rap star. While it won't feature Eminem as a daily host, it will have him as a frequent voice and guiding hand.

Eminem's follow-up to his 2010 album, “Recovery,” likely will be released sometime after Memorial Day, Shady Records President Paul Rosenberg has told Billboard . The Detroit rapper and the top-selling recording artist of the first decade of the 21 st century is “far into the process” of making his eighth studio album, Rosenberg said. “We fully expect to be releasing a new Eminem album in 2013. He's been working on it for some time," he told the trade publication.

TV TALK SHOWS The Early Show (N) 7 a.m. KCBS Today (N) 7 a.m. KNBC KTLA Morning News (N) 7 a.m. KTLA Good Morning America (N) 7 a.m. KABC Good Day L.A. (N) 7 a.m. KTTV Rachael Ray 9 a.m. KCBS Live With Regis and Kelly Rosario Dawson; Julie Andrews; Chris Byrne brings wet and wild summer toys. (N) 9 a.m. KABC The View Vanessa Williams; Matt Paxton; "Weird Al" Yankovic. (N) 10 a.m. KABC The Talk 1 p.m. KCBS The Nate Berkus Show Nate helps Dr. Ruth Westheimer transform her home; revamping old jewelry; Angie Harmon.

At most award shows, the tension is typically reserved for the envelope moments — Who will win? Who will lose? — but at the 2010 MTV Video Music Awards on Sunday the drama was bottled up in two questions: What would she wear? What would he say? The "he," of course, was Kanye West, the petulant, tweeting prince of hip-hop culture, and the "she" was Lady Gaga, the plasticized fashion plate of pop who has taken Madonna's costume art one step further with something close to wardrobe architecture.

Eminem "Recovery" Interscope/Aftermath Two and a half stars Ever since Kanye West looped Daft Punk's "Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger," the hip-hop zeitgeist has tilted toward techno. Skinny-jeaned stars Wiz Khalifa and Kid Cudi have rapped over Alice Deejay and Robert Miles, while Power 106 keeps house DJ David Guetta in heavy rotation. Admirably, Eminem has always ignored evanescent trends. Despite an over-reliance on gross-out gags and tired pop culture riffs, his last album, "Relapse," further plumbed the weird depths of his psyche, stringing together Hannibal Lecter fantasies and byzantine rhyme schemes to create something singular but scattershot.

Prognosticators who predicted a 2002-03 pop music revival were in the right this week. With Eminem and Godsmack claiming ownership of the album and singles tallies maintained by Billboard, this week's pop charts looked like a nod to the early 2000s. Godsmack's "Oracle" sold 117,000 copies, according to Nielsen SoundScan, topping Billboard's album chart. This gives the Ozzfest-grads their third No. 1 album on the U.S. chart, reports the trade publication, adding that the act's previous two efforts started with more than 200,000 copies sold.

'Ruined' at the Geffen Lynn Nottage's "Ruined," which won the Pulitzer Prize for drama this year, will have its L.A. premiere at the Geffen Playhouse. A spokeswoman for the company said the drama was scheduled to open the Geffen's 2010-11 season. "Ruined" will be a co-production with Seattle's Intiman Theatre, where it is set to run July 2 to Aug. 8. The Geffen's season usually begins in August or September, but the company said no opening date had been set for the drama.

Top-selling rapper Eminem, known for violent lyrics, entered a not-guilty plea Wednesday on two felony weapon charges stemming from a weekend scuffle outside a Detroit nightclub. Eminem, 27, whose real name is Marshall Mathers, allegedly pulled an unloaded gun and began fighting with a man after he spotted him kissing his wife, Kimberly Mathers, according to prosecutors. He was released on a $100,000 bond after furnishing an itinerary of his upcoming tour.

We tell teenagers to act their age, but who is to tell adults to do likewise? Robert Hilburn has obviously chosen to try to be hip rather than apply his years as a journalist and chronicler of popular music in a believable way. He is a middle-aged man pretending to understand today's youth by--among other inappropriate postures--lauding their temporary idols, such as singing the praises and acknowledging alleged talent of Eminem ("Eminem, On and On,"...