Julianne Hough not 'banned' by CMT for racy video, still isn't engaged

Julianne Hough, the "Is That So Wrong" video star, technically isn't banned from CMT, though you won't find her video there. She's still not engaged to Ryan Seacrest either.

OK, where's the fun in that?

"We world premiered the video back in July," a CMT representative told OnTheRedCarpet.com. "We took it down shortly thereafter due to ongoing contract negotiations with Julianne's label, Universal Music Group." So, no ban, but also no video.

Hough told an East Coast concert crowd on Friday night that the video had been "kinda banned" by Country Music Television. So, kinda, yeah. Kinda no, too.

And despite a National Enquirer article alleging Seacrest and Hough got engaged during a Paris vacation in November, "Dancing With the Stars" trophy winner Derek Hough, sister of Julianne, shot that down almost immediately early in December.

The not-yet-a-bride-to-be, 22, had dismissed the engagement idea at least once before, telling "Access Hollywood" in October, "Well, that's news to me, and I think it's news to him." Sometimes dinner with the parents is just dinner with the parents, yes?

The singer did indeed bring Seacrest, 36, as her date to the "Burlesque" premiere, and is in fact pretty sexy in the official video for "Is That So Wrong." Make your own fun from there?

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Julianne Hough 'Is That So Wrong' official video is 'kinda banned' by CMT [poll]

-- Christie D'Zurilla

Photo: Julianne Hough at the 2010 American Music Awards in Los Angeles on Nov. 21 Credit: Mark Ralston / AFP / Getty Images

Julianne Hough 'Is That So Wrong' official video 'kinda banned' by CMT [poll]

Julianne Hough told a concert crowd Friday in Maryland that her "Is That So Wrong" official video had been "kinda banned" by CMT, the Washington Post reports.

"Apparently I was taking off too many clothes as I was dancing across my bedroom," the "Burlesque" actress said, pausing. "But I don't know — I kind of liked it."

Of course we had to look, and fortunately the video falls well within the Ministry's never-super-high standards, so you can check it out too, above. But, for example:

Nobody gets beaten, and nothing gets burned down.

The official video in no way features Miley Cyrus grinding, smoking or dancing like a loon.

It's not shot in a women's prison, with performers in scanty underthings — and there's no mass murder.

So — are you scandalized by a beautiful woman dancing in short shorts and a bra that covers up just about everything? Even if she is Ryan Seacrest's 22-year-old girlfriend?

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— Christie D'Zurilla

 

Ryan Seacrest, Alicia Keys, Lady Gaga still dead -- do you know why? [poll]

Celebrities who staged their own digital deaths last Wednesday are still "dead" on Twitter and Facebook, with a little less than $300,000 raised at 9:30 a.m. PST Monday toward their $1-million goal -- the magic number that will bring them back to social-media life.

A commenter noted the campaign that celebs such as Alicia Keys, Lady Gaga, Justin Timberlake, Ryan Seacrest, Kim and Khloe Kardashian, Usher and more are participating in is not just about the money, but also about awareness of the issue that has them sworn off social media.

So -- the money part's not there yet, but is the awareness coming along? No Googling before voting in the poll! And if you vote "yes," please tell us in comments what you believe the issue to be. Check out previous posts linked below for more info on the effort.

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As celebs stay 'dead,' Digital Death campaign cuts minimum pledge

Lady Gaga, Ryan Seacrest and more swearing off social media for charity

-- Christie D'Zurilla

Photos: Ryan Seacrest, left, did not tweet from KIIS-FM's Jingle Ball 2010 at Nokia Theatre in L.A. on Sunday. At right, the picture of his "digital death." Credits: Angela Weiss / Getty Images, left; BuyLife.org, right.

 

As celebs stay 'dead,' Digital Death campaign cuts minimum pledge

Lady Gaga, you've been marked down.

With celebrities still "dead" on social media three days into a charitable campaign some thought would be a quick hit for a million bucks, Keep a Child Alive has cut its minimum Digital Death donation in half, to $5.

Wednesday and Thursday, $10 was the least a supporter could pledge to bring the likes of Usher, Ryan Seacrest, Kim Kardashian, Justin Timberlake, Jennifer Hudson and Serena Williams back to Twitter and Facebook.

Even with the cut, as of 2 p.m. PST Friday, Alicia Keys' campaign was still short about $800,000 of the million bucks being sought in the interest of helping AIDS victims in Africa and India -- and that's after being stalled in the high $100K range Thursday.

Danny Bonaduce spoke out Wednesday, calling the campaign "emotional blackmail," even though he deemed the cause a good one.

Any bets on how long it'll be till the celebs participating all pool their cash and split the difference, so they can get back to conducting business on social media?

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-- Christie D'Zurilla

Photo: Lady Gaga's Twitter stream had only donation requests as updates Dec. 3. Credit: Twitter.com

Danny Bonaduce: ‘Emotional blackmail’ for World AIDS Day

Danny Bonaduce spoke up for the "I don't really think that will work like they thought" crowd Wednesday, criticizing a World AIDS Day fundraising effort in which celebs such as Lady Gaga, Alicia Keys, Kim Kardashian and Ryan Seacrest have sworn off Twitter, Facebook and the like until fans donate $1 million to the Keep a Child Alive foundation.

"Isn't it sort of emotional blackmail?" Bonaduce said on a local news broadcast, according to Philly.com. "Ryan Seacrest isn't going to tell me he just pet his cat until I offer some money?" He made his points, incidentally, after making it very clear that he was criticizing the fundraising method, not the cause.

To add oomph, the celebs posed dead in coffins for pics visible at the Digital Death website.

As of 5 p.m. PST Wednesday, a little over $100,000 had been donated to the cause, presumably on the day when awareness of the effort was at its peak. 

At this rate, it could be awhile before we hear anything from Gaga, Seacrest and friends.

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Lady Gaga, Ryan Seacrest and more swearing off social media for charity

-- Christie D'Zurilla

Photo:  Danny Bonaduce on March 12, 2007. Credit: Rene Macura / Hard Rock Cafe / Associated Press

Lady Gaga, Ryan Seacrest and more swearing off social media for charity

While the notion of quitting Twitter and Facebook cold turkey is strange and terrifying to some, a handful of powerful celebs are doing it for charity -- including Lady Gaga, Justin Timberlake, Jennifer Hudson and Ryan Seacrest.

The effort is fronted by singer and new mom Alicia Keys, for her cause Keep a Child Alive. The massive sign-off, or so-called "digital death," will remain in effect until donations reach $1 million.

"It's so important to shock you to the point of waking up," Keys said. "It's not that people don't care or it's not that people don't want to do something, it's that they never thought of it quite like that."

In addition to not touching the social networking sites, stars including Kim Kardashian and Keys' husband Swizz Beatz will present "final tweet and testament," videos in which they explain the charity's message while lying in coffins (a not-so-subtle reference to the concept of digital death). 

Funds will be raised via text message donations and bar-code technology through the organization's Buy Life campaign. 

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-- Matt Donnelly
Twitter.com/MattDonnelly

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Photo: Ryan Seacrest in his official Buy Life campaign shot. Credit: BuyLife.org

Shocking news! Jennifer Lopez, Steven Tyler are the new 'American Idol' judges [poll]

Jennifer Lopez and Steven Tyler have been officially unveiled as the new "American Idol" judges, an announcement that was shocking only in that the universe pretty much thought it had already happened.

OK, so it was all just rumors and "from a source" stuff in the weeks before the news conference at the Forum in Inglewood on Wednesday, but really, the only "news" here is the picture of the newbies hanging out on the same stage with Randy Jackson and Ryan Seacrest.

Good thing most folks knew the answers to the questions ahead of time, because there was a little audio problem that temporarily rendered Seacrest inaudible, TMZ noted.

Larry King and Ryan Seacrest brutalize Lady Gaga

Something very, very wrong is going on in this exchange between Ryan Seacrest and Larry King, taped during Seacrest's Thursday broadcast.

Unfortunately, Lady Gaga is the victim of the wrongdoing.

We apologize in advance for any trauma this video may cause.

— Christie D'Zurilla

TV salaries: Jeffrey Donovan should buy Jon Hamm a beer

Attention aspiring television celebrities: Syndication pays, and it's good to be Oprah Winfrey.

If the numbers on TV Guide's annual list of the small screen's top earners are accurate, it's more lucrative to be funny than to be dramatic -- and news anchors and chat-show hosts stand to get much richer than anyone wasting time memorizing words off a script.

Then there's Oprah, who at an estimated $315 million a year should just go get a list of her own, and stop hurting all the other TV kids' feelings.

Unlike Forbes, which fully explains the methodology used to compile its various power and salary lists, TV Guide has chosen a "just trust us" approach as it delivers this ranking, making us wonder if a few salary numbers might have been gleaned from, say, actors' Internet dating profiles. (Perhaps that's the out for the producers of "The Big Bang Theory" when Jim Parsons demands to know why he's reportedly making a third less per episode than costars Kaley Cuoco and Johnny Galecki?)

So, taking the numbers at face value, we have a few observations: For example, if Jon Hamm and Jeffrey Donovan were to go out to dinner, we think the "Burn Notice" star should grab the check, as he apparently earns double the "Mad Men" star's $100,000 per episode.

Charlie Sheen, at $1.25 million per show, still makes more than double what costar Jon Cryer does. About which we will say no more.

Punching in at $45 million a year, Judge Judy makes triple what Katie Couric does. Heck, that's triple Ryan Seacrest's paycheck as well. Plus she gets to yell at people on her show, which is worth a lot.

Bill O'Reilly probably doesn't care too much when he's Keith Olbermann's worst person in the world ...

Reaction to the end of 'Larry King Live': almost entirely gracious

Nancy Reagan called, and Regis Philbin, and Diane Sawyer, and Anderson Cooper via video, all to check in with Larry King on Tuesday after he announced that he'd be leaving his 25-year-old CNN show come fall.

"Nothing is forever, but there's new things ahead," King told Reagan. 

"Well good, as long as it's better, that's fine," she replied.

Ministry readers responding to our nonscientific online poll were, at the time of this post's publication, also tilting in favor of "Yes, I'll miss 'Larry King Live' when it's gone." (You can vote at the end of this post.)

King's cable competitors from MSNBC chimed in as well: Rachel Maddow with well wishes, and Keith Olbermann with some tweets that were, surprisingly, all about Keith Olbermann.

After alerting his followers that King would be stepping down, the "Countdown" kid explained who he was talking about — "Larry King is a lovely, generous man who tried, for eight years, to convince his bosses to hire me to be his 8 p.m. lead-in at CNN" — and then trifled with a world-record reference from Larry's "I'm outta here" statement: