BY DC CUEVA
Through our original storytelling franchise ExtraTime - which appears during our weekly episode coverage, one of these instances is to link the current pop culture landscape to the hundreds of people who are part of this family. Everyone from Floyd Mayweather and Jerry Springer to the Jersey Shore cast and our President have all been featured in our posts... if you have any favorites from TV, music, movies or the sports world, chances are they have met up with an MTV cast member or alum - and we feature them regularly here to help broaden this site's appeal.
For this first instance this summer of pop culture colliding with the MTV family, there are three: one - one of the world's biggest pop stars and who proved that girls can rock; two - a eccentric man who was part of one of MTV's most controversial & successful series; and three - a man at the heart of the latest internet craze which helped to fuel the #1 album on earth.
GWEN STEFANI
So much would happen for the band who would become No Doubt - Gwen & Tony breaking up, a bombed debut album, Eric leaving the group and adding punk rock & grunge influences to its ska pop sound. But it wasn't until 1995 that all their hard work and patience would pay off: Tragic Kingdom may have been the band's third overall album, but it was the first to have the kind of success they would have for the rest of their career. And the musical story of Gwen & Tony's breakup, "Don't Speak," turned No Doubt into bona fide superstars with chart-topping singles, Grammy and VMA awards, and 33 million copies in global album sales... not to mention her successful solo efforts.
Gwen now has joined the many great superstars in the entertainment industry who have also crossed off a prestigious item off their bucket lists: headlining a residency show or gig on the Las Vegas Strip. It's something Jennifer Lopez, Britney Spears, the Backstreet Boys, Mariah Carey, Celine Dion, Pitbull, Ricky Martin, Calvin Harris, The Chainsmokers, Elton John and, of course, Wayne Newton -- and Lady Gaga and Blink-182 will join them in Sin City later this year. And this summer, Gwen is playing at the L.A. showbiz-themed Planet Hollywood resort.
Over a week ago, the one member of Team MTV who now has a knack for telling true crime stories in a totally twisted & hilarious way, Real World Austin & Challenge alum Melinda Collins, got to meet Gwen backstage when she and her husband flew out for a weekend trip to Vegas (a month before this blogger makes the trek there). She also got to meet the hotel's most well-known bartender in what was once the Aladdin hotel, RW Back to Vegas & Challenge veteran Leroy. She posted on Instagram below, "Such an amazing experience!! The best days of my life!"
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STEVE-O
Friends Chris Pontius and Dave England joined Johnny for this journey as did director Spike Jonze, which led them to Philadelphia skateboarder Bam Margera, his family and Ryan Dunn, as well as Dave's friend Ehren McGhehey and Preston Lacy. And the guys found the fitting cherry on the sundae at a Florida flea market who had worked as a circus clown in Stephen Glover - better known as Steve-O. Together, they became the cast of Jackass, and these stuntmen and friends got to perform self-injuring stunts and pranks that were so dangerous and so crude that it shocked everyone.
Something like what these guys got to do was so unprecedented and so offbeat to air on a basic cable channel than on premium or adult-vision that, by far, it was MTV's most controversial series (until Jersey Shore). The excess behavior and indecency ignited much conversation, leading to costly consequences for those who wanted to be like them, and the cast to struggle to cope with censorship and leading to a a movie franchise and numerous spinoffs. Nonetheless, the show is part of MTV's great history and whose influence will be in Zach Holmes' Too Stupid To Die coming next month.
For Steve-O, not only was he a vital part of Jackass, he had his own show Dr. Steve-O, appeared on Dancing with the Stars and UK Love Island, and had a run-in with Mike Tyson at Charlie Sheen's Comedy Central Roast. He has dealt with his own personal drama with many brushes with the law, but nothing matches his low point of mid 2000s drug use and an attempted suicide which led him to rehab... and ten years later, Steve-O has remained sober through all of this.
This past week, this MTV alum got to meet a relatively new member of this community: Malcolm Drummer from Season 6 of Are You The One?, who also calls South Florida home. He captioned on Instagram @MackemDrummer, "I told him We're both jack asses."
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"IN MY FEELINGS" w/ SHIGGY
When it dropped just after the finales of Jersey Shore and Ex On The Beach that late June Friday, the online world erupted as Scorpion set all-time worldwide streaming records with a collective one-day total of over 300 million streams on Spotify and Apple Music, and it grew to nearly 750 million in America alone after the 4th of July holidays. It was no surprise that the album debuted at #1 in America, Canada and around the world, but what made Scorpion a massive hit was that all of its 25 tracks entered the Billboard Hot 100 chart the same week and four of them debuted in the Top 10.
Just this week, Drake scored his sixth Billboard #1 single: "In My Feelings," which jumped from when it debuted at #6 to now having the attention thanks to the latest viral sensation to join the likes of the Mannequin Challenge, ice buckets, Harlem and Call Me Maybe. There, it's a dance challenge inspired by that track, with the hashtags #InMyFeelingsChallenge and #DoTheShiggy collecting over 800,000 total Instagram mentions and a YouTube clip that's been seen 6 million times. It is the product of comedian and online personality Shiggy, creator of his self-titled online show, who was a big fan of Drake's and liked Scorpion so much that he thought about creating a dance to "In My Feelings."
He didn't have any idea that he would meet the Canadian icon, no less have the latest viral sensation whose hashtags were created by the NY Giants' Odell Beckham (who, himself, is known for his dances on & off field besides getting to meet Cory). And his newfound celebrity led him last week to L.A. to partake in ESPY Award activities including a celebrity basketball game at UCLA in the run-up to the annual sports awards show, and he gained two notable fans at Pauley Pavilion: the one who had just gotten sent home for a fight in the Final Reckoning house Kailah, and Challenge champ & part-time boxing ring girl Ashley from RW Back to San Diego.
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These are the only notable celebrity sightings amongst the MTV community: at midweek, we'll look at when two of sports' most-sought after trophies came into sight: a 125-year-old silver cup and a smaller trophy as golden as ever. Until that, follow me on DCNOW @DC408DxNow tonight for Floribama Shore as things get more dramatic in Panama City Beach... enjoy your Monday.
- I AM DC
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