Critics may claim Bristol Palin didn?t deserve to make it to the finals on Dancing With the Stars, but the young single mom has a defender in eliminated contestant Audrina Patridge?s pro partner, Tony Dovolani. ?I tell her to hold her head up high. She is not the one voting for herself, everybody else is!? Tony told In Touch at the American Music Awards in LA on November 21 about the 20-year-old, who will dance off against Kyle Massey and Jennifer Grey this week for the Mirror Ball trophy. ?The audience decided that she should go to the finals, so they?ve got nothing to complain about.? Nearly a month after he and Audrina were voted off the ABC dance competition series? 11th season, Tony believes Bristol is taking the pressure in stride. ?Everybody loves to bash her, so she has to deal with that much hatred,? Tony explained. ?I think she handles herself really well!? Watch Bristol and partner Mark Ballas hit the dance floor tonight at 8 p.m. EST on ABC.
Two "Talent" show singers top the charts, while Rihanna's Loud debuts at #3. By Gil Kaufman
Rihanna Photo: Matt Harper/ MTV News
Though it's an American holiday, Thanksgiving must be turning into Susan Boyle's favorite. After setting records last week with her second album, The Gift, former "Britain's Got Talent" runner-up Boyle will retain the #1 spot on the Billboard 200 chart next week thanks to sales of another 335,000 copies, and despite challenges from nine new competitors, according to figures provided by Nielsen SoundScan.
Last week, Boyle became the first woman, and only other artist besides the Beatles and the Monkees, to land two straight #1 albums within a calendar year in both England and the U.S. She retains the crown as another reality singer from a Simon Cowell-produced show, 10-year-old "America's Got Talent" runner-up Jackie Evancho, comes in just behind with her debut EP, O Holy Night (#2, 239,000).
That means Rihanna has to settle for a #3 debut for her fifth album, Loud, which sold 207,000 copies. It marked her best U.S. chart sales debut to date, besting the #4 bow of last year's Rated R, which came in with sales of 181,000. She leads a parade of new names in the top 10 which also includes Josh Groban's Rick Rubin-produced Illuminations (#4, 191,000), Kid Rock's Rubin-produced Born Free (#5, 189,000), Rascal Flatts' Nothing Like This (#6, 165,000), Keith Urban's Get Closer (#7, 162,000), the "Glee" Christmas album (#8, 161,000) and Nelly's 5.0 (#10, 63,000).
The only other hold-over from last week's top 10 is Taylor Swift, whose Speak Now figures dropped by more than 30 percent to 146,000 as her first month of sales crossed the 1.7 million mark. Pink's greatest-hits collection, Greatest Hits So Far!, comes in at #14 (53,000), just beating out the Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band's Darkness on the Edge of Town outtakes collection The Promise (#16, 47,000).
Season nine "American Idol" winner Lee DeWyze set a new record for "Idol" champs, just not the kind he probably wanted. His first major-label effort, Live It Up, is officially the poorest-selling debut from an "Idol" champ in history, notching a lowly #19 chart bow on anemic sales of 39,000. The title was previously held by season-eight winner Kris Allen, whose debut hit the charts in 2009 at #11 on sales of 80,000.
It was a very rough second week for Kid Cudi, whose Man on the Moon 2: The Legend of Mr. Rager plummets nearly 80 percent to #21 on sales of 34,000, while Eminem's Recovery drops 12 spots to #23 while holding steady on sales at 34,000 and crossing the 3 million mark. It was also a big comedown for Cee Lo, as his solo album The Lady Killer nosedives 30 spots to #39 after sales shriveled by 40 percent to 25,000.
Despite selling 2 million digital tracks and 450,000 digital albums in their iTunes coming-out party, the Beatles have only one album in the top 50, with Abbey Road slipping in at #50 (19,000). Thirteen other digital albums chart in the lower regions of the top 200.
The Fab Four are having better luck on the iTunes album chart, where Abbey Road comes in at #6 and a special box set closes out the tally at #10. But it is all Rihanna on that chart, as Loud holds the #1 slot, followed by the "Glee" Christmas album, Rascal Flatts, A Day to Remember's What Separates Me From You, Urban, Swift, Groban and Kanye West's My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy.
iTunes doesn't release sales figures, but "Glee" rules the singles countdown thanks to guest Gwyneth Paltrow's cover of Cee Lo's "Forget You," followed by Ke$ha's "We R Who We R," Cee Lo's own sanitized version of his profane hit single, Katy Perry's "Firework," Pink's "Raise Your Glass" and the "Glee" cast's recording of "Singing in the Rain/Umbrella." The rest of the singles chart includes #7 song "What's My Name?" by Rihanna and Drake, the Black Eyed Peas' "The Time (Dirty Bit)," Rihanna's "Only Girl (In the World)" and Far East Movement's "Like a G6."
Things will get shuffled all over again next week with chart debuts from Kanye, Justin Bieber, Nicki Minaj, My Chemical Romance, Ne-Yo, Jay-Z, Akon, Alan Jackson, Ke$ha and the "Burlesque" soundtrack.
With his acoustic album hitting stores on November 26 (seriously, go download it. We'll wait here...), Justin Bieber has now released the official music video for "Pray."
The only new single off "My Worlds: The Collection," this song is one of Bieber's more emotional ballads. As the following video depicts, it asks fans to consider issues around the world, such as war and poverty.
It also comes on the heels of Justin's anti-bullying PSA, as this 16-year old continues to prove his maturity and perspective in a number of ways. Turns out, the causes for Bieber Fever aren't simply shaggy hair and an adorable smile...
The Media Computing Group -- otherwise known as the dudes and dudettes responsible for making multitouch hip again -- is back, and some might say better than ever. The BendDesk is an outlandish new concept workspace for the future, relying heavily on a curved multitouch display to bring the wow. The desk is the Group's vision of merging multitouch with a common physical area, and it's probably the best implementation we've seen yet. A full ten touch points are supported, but the lower portion is also designed to be used as a standard desk, holding your laptop, paperwork and ink pen collection if you so choose. Shockingly enough, the whole thing looks exceptionally ergonomic, too. Head on past the break for a glimpse of it being used, but don't hold your breath waiting for a ship date and price -- something tells us it'll be awhile before either of those are published.
