ACDC’s Final Challenge to Channing Tatum & Jenna Dewan’s M&M Cru

‘Step Up 2‘ and ‘Step Up 3-D‘ director and ACDC leader Jon M. Chu has one final message for the M&M Cru that he would like to share with world. Although his dance crew may have surprisingly lost the dance battle he started with Adam Sevani last April against Miley Cyrus’ M&M Cru at the 2008 Teen Choice Awards, he’s still fighting the war to help children in need around the world.

Watch the video and read his message below to see how you too can help…

Here’s the message that accompanied the video on YouTube:

---

One last challenge to Miley and Mandy Cru!!! oh and Adam and I are in Norway…come say hello!!ACDC and Invisible Children have been paired up from the beginning to help raise awareness and money for the forgotten kids of Northern Uganda. So far, through the ACDC TShirt sales, we have made over $50,000 dollars for the charity. Now it’s Miley and Mandy’s turn!

We CHALLENGE Miley and Mandy to put their M&M Cru tshirts on sale online and throw 100% of the profits to whatever charity they choose.

We believe dance can change the world. And since this battle has begun, and the tshirts started to sell, we are proving that it is true. More kids are getting educated, more kids have books, dorms, clean water because of YOU guys and girls!! Thank you for all your support.

The battle is over, but the war wages on.

Stay tuned in the coming weeks for ACDC updates….

Visit invisiblechildren.com to get tShirts and learn more…

and SUBSCRIBE to CHU PICTURES to stay in touch with the ACDC videos!!

-Chu

---

I also found a really great interview that M&M Cru director Cole Walliser did with Wired prior to the final battle at the 2008 Teen Choice Awards a few weeks ago. It explains how Cole (who also happens to be friends with Jenna Dewan and Channing Tatum) and the M&M Cru were able to recruit Chenna to their side of the dance battle. Enjoy!!!

M&M Cru, ACDC Take YouTube Dance Battle to Prime Time

By Angela Watercutter August 04, 2008
When the Teen Choice Awards air Monday night, the show will feature the final showdown of the “biggest online dance battle in YouTube history.”

That’s right. The online clash between director Jon Chu and Adam Sevani’s ACDC dance troupe and Miley Cyrus and Mandy Jiroux’s M&M Cru will finally be decided in prime time based on the decibels of ear-bleeding screams at the awards show, which Cyrus is hosting. (The show was taped Sunday and, for those who don’t mind spoilers, MTV.com reported the winner.)

It’s taken a lot of trash-talking, celebrity cameos and ice cream shenanigans to get to this point. But in the last few weeks, both sides have remained fairly quiet as they meticulously prepared for the face-off — except for the video tease (embedded) from the ACDC team showing aspiring member (and premier danseur) Little Demon.

In an attempt to get up to speed — and get a few details about what’s in store for the show — Wired.com asked M&M Cru members Cole Walliser (the director and an M&M dancer) and Teresa Espinosa (the choreographer) for a quick oral history of the throw-down.

“We’re really excited this thing has exploded,” says Walliser. “We obviously knew that people would watch these videos because Miley has a fan base and Jon has a fan base, but this has really helped both groups grow [beyond that]. Now people see these videos and say, ‘Miley’s kind of cool, look at this stuff that she’s a part of.’”

After the jump get the skinny on being friends with the competition, making dance videos on a shoestring and what surprises are in store for the final battle. (Hint: There is more than just fancy footwork involved.)

Wired.com: So how did it all get started?

Cole Walliser: Teresa has been Miley’s choreographer since Day One. Her and Alison Faulk [the producer and also one of the dancers] are good friends, so for bigger projects Alison was brought on as assistant choreographer. I’ve known Teresa for a number of years and Alison is actually my roommate. We’re all good friends in that circle. Then how the whole battle came about was Alison actually worked on Step Up 2 — she was in the 410 crew — so she got to know Jon and Adam last summer. It got to the point, I think, where Miley saw Step Up 2 and was like, “Oh Adam’s cool, Adam’s cute” or whatever. Alison said that she knew them and then word got back to Jon and Adam. So Adam obviously thought that Miley was cute and Jon started thinking, “Oh I’ve got to start getting some action going between these guys.” Just lighthearted stuff.

So Jon had the idea to use his YouTube blog to be like, “Hey, I’m going to call you guys out to an online dance battle.” He was talking to Alison at the Idol Gives Back thing that Miley performed at. And Alison was like, “This doesn’t exist, what are you talking about?” Then Miley grabbed the phone or maybe they were texting or whatever then they just started trash-talking just for fun like, “We’re going to smoke you” and “We’re going to get these dancers from this crew” and stuff. Basically, at first, we didn’t know what they were doing, we just knew they were going to call us out (video embedded). Then when Alison and Teresa knew they had to make a video, they called me. To be honest, I think we kind of impressed them with our production value and finesse on our first video (embedded below). It sort of jumped up from video to video from there.

Teresa Espinosa: I’ve been Miley’s choreographer since 2006. We did her concert choreography for the first Hannah Montana season. It’s a totally different ballgame working with her for this kind of thing. When I work with her, she’s the artist, so she can never do wrong. She can do the routine or she can go off and ad lib. But this is a dance-off — if she’s not involved in it she’s not really part of the crew. She’s never done a two-and-a-half-minute dance number [like the one for the Teen Choice Awards]. She’s had dance sections in her songs, but not a number where she has to do all the choreography.

Wired.com: How did both sides assemble their crews?

Walliser: The professional dance community is pretty small — especially street dancers. It’s kind of funny because half of our close friends are in ACDC. It was really a matter of who called who first. There were a couple of people that we called first and ACDC called them after and they were like, “Sorry guys, we’re already signed up for this Miley Cyrus thing.” For the other side, we called some of our close friends, who we thought were totally going to be down, and their response was, “Oh, Jon and Adam called me already.” It’s a favor, but this also what we love to do.

That was one of the reasons we put names on the videos, just to give everyone a shout-out. Because normally, as a dancer, you’re just dancing behind an artist. You’re behind Mariah Carey. You’re behind Janet Jackson. That’s why everyone jumped on board without asking for any money. It’s exciting that now that all these dancers have donated their time and energy to make these videos we can actually give a job back to them and it’s cool for us, because everyone’s getting paid [for doing the awards show].

Wired.com: What’s with all the one-upping each other?

Walliser: I think it’s always in the mix with dancers. It’s a part of the culture. So if some dancer has a move, you’re going to want to do it cooler. You always have to be like, “I’m going to top you.” So, we brought in a celebrity, we brought in Channing Tatum. Alison is good friends with him and Jenna Dewan because they were on a Janet Jackson tour together back in the day. So we called them because we thought it would be fun opportunity because they were the stars of the first Step Up. Jon thought it was pretty funny. Then, of course, he’s thinking, “If you’re bringing people in, I’m bringing people in hard-core.” So they had tons of [famous] people in their second video (embedded below). No matter what the other person does, be it cameos or production or music or anything, as dancers you try to one-up them on every single level you can.

Wired.com: Yeah, like helicopters.

Walliser: You know, a lot of the things that we did just came about from us sitting around saying, “What do we have access to?” People talk online saying, “Oh, well, Miley can just buy this or buy that,” but in terms of production funding we had zero dollars. We had money to cover insurance and we gave the location crews a little money so they could be there and pay for some lights. But other than that we had no money and were basically just pulling in favors from everywhere.

What happened with the helicopter was that Mandy’s dad owns a helicopter school. So when we were talking about what we could do for that next video, Mandy said, “Well my dad owns helicopters.” We were like, “Are you serious?!” But that was also a huge logistical problem, too. It was a pretty big thing to work around. We were just a bunch of friends with a camera trying to make a video destined for YouTube. So we just took all precautions necessary. We basically shot it in a way that they were actually 30 feet away. It wasn’t running when they were near it.

Wired.com: How did you pick your locations?

Espinosa: Actually, some of our rehearsals right now are at a studio in Silver Lake [in Los Angeles], which is the same location we used for our first video, the place that has the giant radio as the backdrop that says “Respect” on it.

Walliser: Actually, that club in the last video (embedded right), Boulevard3, actually hires a bunch of dancers every weekend. I’ve performed there a couple of times and so have some of our other dancers. We just called them and said, “Hey, we’re doing this thing, it’s guaranteed millions of views on YouTube.” They were supercool about it; eventually they started kicking us ideas and saying, “We could do this or we could do that.” They didn’t charge us for the venue at all. We basically just had to pay someone to run their lighting system for the day.

Wired.com: How do you go from YouTube to live?

Walliser: It’s definitely tricky, because we still want to have interesting components. It’s way more complicated and there are way more logistics to get it all to happen in the time allotted. Basically, each crew is getting two minutes and 30 seconds. But we had free reign. We just had to come up with a concept that would allow us to do interesting gags and tricks, back to back to back. With the videos, there was some stuff we shot in New York, there was some stuff we shot in L.A., but we shot it over a couple weeks and were able to edit together. This all has to be organized and choreographed in time to happen right after each other. Teresa has a lot of experience choreographing for stage so she’s planned this really well, Alison too. So, we have an edge. We’re really excited about this, but it is a little different. It’s all new choreography, all new music, so we’re also not interpreting something that’s been performed before.

Espinosa: We have to create transitions. It has to flow together, whereas with a video you can cut and paste. You have to make things stand out. With a video, the camera creates the focus for you, but on a stage you don’t have that. We’re going to have to be really organized and focused.

Wired.com: What are the surprises going to be?

Walliser: So our opening song is Chromeo’s “Fancy Footwork.” All I can say about the performance is that there are going to be some celebrity guests involved in the musical aspects of our performance. The whole thing about it is that, even though we hear things through the grapevine from the other dancers, we have no idea what ACDC is doing and they have no idea what we’re doing. We’re going to see it live for the first time. So it’s important to keep things under wraps.

Wired.com: Will this really be the end?

Walliser: Jon’s in preproduction for Step Up 3, and I have other projects to work on too. I don’t feel like it can get any bigger either. We already had a helicopter, what are we going to have a spaceship next time? [Laughs] I think it’s sort of capped itself. I don’t think that’s the end of what you’ll see of us, but the big production dance videos will probably come to an end.

Wired.com: Any final words?

Walliser: People are under the impression that these crews already existed and that we hate each other, and that’s totally not true. It’s a battle, we are out for blood. But it’s all for fun.

Espinosa: We have the solid core group from the first core group from the first couple videos will be there at the battle. We have the best people so it’s not hard to pick. We have amazing dancers — I’m not even worried about the competition.

CTU EXCLUSIVE: Channing Tatum and Girlfriend Jenna Dewan at the 2008 Teen Choice Awards

In the first of 4 articles recapping my 5-day trip to Los Angeles, California last week, you all learned about my awesome visit with ‘Stop-Loss’ director Kimberly Peirce.

Today’s post is all about my amazing experiences at the 2008 Teen Choice Awards on Sunday, August 3, 2008. Before the event, my best friend and I had breakfast at a popular Santa Monica farmer’s market, went home to get ready, and then took part in an age-old awards show tradition of getting my makeup done before we headed over to the venue.

As I mentioned before, getting tickets to this particular event is really difficult because of the popularity of it. In the end, I was able to get a ticket from my best friend’s company and 2008 Teen Choice Awards sponsor, Neutrogena. They had 65 tickets in total, and from what I understand, ten of them were VIP. Once we arrived, we had to meet up with the person who had what I thought was going to be my general admission ticket to the event. For whatever reason, when I opened the envelope, it had a VIP pass and ticket inside instead. Can’t even explain how excited I was!!!

You’re probably asking what is the difference between a General and a VIP ticket. Well, I now know that there’s a world of difference! The people with General tickets enter the venue from the front door and are restricted from entering in certain areas in the arena (generally the ones where celebrities are sitting or congregating).

On the other hand, VIP ticket holders get to enter the venue from a guarded back entrance with celebs, get to walk the red (blue in this case) carpet if you want, get to hang out with the celebs outside before they take their seats, get to go into the heavily-guarded pit-o-celebs at the foot of the stage where you all saw people sitting on the white couches on TV, and most importantly, get access to the ever-popular, goody-packed gifting retreat that you see Channing Tatum and Jenna Dewan in with American Idol’s Randy Jackson on the right.

When we arrived, we decided to bypass the blue carpet. We figured the photographers would not be too interested in us no-celebs and decided to save us all a little embarrassment when their cameras would have gone silent as we made out way down the carpet.

Once we entered the outside backstage area, I started spotting stars like Minka Kelly form “Friday Night Lights”, Josh Duhamel from “Las Vegas”, Hayden Panettiere from “Heroes”, Mandy from the M&M Cru, Jon M. Chu and the entire ACDC crew, Selena Gomez from Disney’s “Wizards of Waverly Place”, and the list goes on. It was like I was standing smack dab in the middle of an issue of US Weekly. I was loving every bit of it and still not believing my luck with the VIP pass!

Not knowing when Chan and Jenna would arrive, I decided to go inside the venue. I took a short video from my seat in the Gibson Amphitheater at Universal City to give you all an idea of the atmosphere of the event. You can check it out below:

Although there was a lot of activity, it took awhile for the show to actually start taping. In the meantime, I was able to star watch as the celebrities continued to arrive at the event and sit in the white couch area in front of the stage.

From Fergie to Will Smith and his kids to Zach Efron and Vanessa Hudchens to David Beckham, Posh, and their kids to the Gossip Girl cast to Channing Tatum and Jenna Dewan, the stars were showing up in droves and the fans in the audience were screaming for all of them like crazy.

If you even looked like you were going to say the words Miley or Jonas Brothers, the crowd erupted into eardrum-piercing screams. The energy in the room was insane and contagious!

The show finally began with Miley singing her new hit single ‘7 Things’, and I have to say that I was even singing along to it. It’s what happens when you have a 3 and an 8 year old that watch the Disney Channel 24/7.

Later on, Mariah Carey also performed her song “I’ll Be Lovin’ U Long Time” to the delight of the very excited crowd. How she did not fall in those insanely high yellow heels, I’ll never know, but the performance was great.

As I mentioned in a previous article, your hard work and votes helped Channing Tatum win Choice Dramatic Actor for ‘Stop-Loss‘ and helped his movie ‘Step Up 2: The Streets‘ win Choice Drama. Channing Tatum and Jenna Dewan’s M&M Cru also won the BIGGEST online dance battle known to mankind. Although we did not get Choice MySpacer, thanks to everyone who took the time to vote for all of the categories that Channing was nominated in, and as far as I’m concerned, 3 out of 4 is nothing to sneeze at!!!

During one of the commercial breaks, my magical VIP pass allowed me to cross the sea of stars sitting on the white couches to get to Channing Tatum and Jenna Dewan. With Will Smith and his kids sitting in the couch in front of them and the Beckhams not far away on their right, I honestly felt like I was in an alter-world or something.

Chan saw me and bounced off the couch to give me a big hug and kiss on the cheek (I’m looking into how to preserve my face at this time). I was even more excited, because after emailing for months, I finally got to meet Jenna Dewan in person for the first time, and she gave me a big hug too. We did not get to talk all that long, because I had to return to my seat before the commercial break was over, but we did make plans to meet for dinner before I left LA (more on that in LA-recap post #4).

Later in the night, I made another venture into what I affectionately call the “Celeb Pit” to finally meet Jon M. Chu and Adam Sevani in person. Jon was awesome and very nice. And if you watched the “So You Think You Can Dance” finale this week, then you know that ‘Step Up’ and ‘Step Up 2′ executive producer Adam Shankman (who was also at Teen Choice) announced that Jon will return to direct ‘Step Up 3-D‘ and that Adam Sevani will also be starring in the film. I want to send out a huge congrats to both of them!!!

After the show, most of the celebs headed home or to other destinations, but before he left, Channing and numerous other celebrities at the 2008 Teen Choice Awards autographed Texas Instruments gear for City of Hope, a leading research and treatment center for cancer, diabetes and other life-threatening diseases. The autographed TI-Nspire graphing calculators will be given to patients at City of Hope for use in their math and science courses.

The rest of us walked to the show’s after party at a place called Jillian’s in Universal City. At the party, they gave away blue Teen Choice Awards cooler bags with swag from sponsors Dr. Pepper, Neutrogena, Fox, and more.

Although you all may not have been able to attend the event with Chan, Jenna, and I, one lucky CTU reader is not only going to be able to win the bag that you see me holding in the photo on the left, but I also had Channing autograph the all-important VIP pass that allowed me to rub elbows with the celebs at the event. It did not hit me until after I got home from LA that I should of had Jenna sign it too, but I promise I will not make that mistake again.

If you would like to win the exclusive, autographed VIP pass and 2008 Teen Choice Awards goody bag, then here’s what you need to do to enter the contest:

1) CLICK HERE to quickly signup for the Channing Tatum Unwrapped newsletter where you will get a daily email with any articles I have posted in the last 24 hours. If you don’t want to miss out on any juicy Channing Tatum and/or Jenna Dewan news, then the newsletter is the best way to go. If you are already subscribed to the newsletter, then you can skip to step #2.

2) Send me an email from the address you used to sign up for the newsletter to contests@channingtatumunwrapped.com with “Teen Choice” in the subject and your mailing address in the body of the email. I have another contest that will start in a few days, so it’s important that you have the correct subject on your email.

Each fan can enter the contest one time. Please do not submit multiple entries, because only your first submission will be used. The winner of the contest will be announced on this Saturday, August 16, 2008 (the 1 year anniversary of Channing Tatum making CTU his official site), so please submit your entries by the end of the day on Friday, August 15, 2008 to try to win the prize. Good luck everyone!!!!

I had an amazing time at the 2008 Teen Choice Awards. My only regret is that I completely forgot to go to the gifting retreat, and I heard that they had some really awesome swag in there. Let it be known that I will NOT make that mistake twice.

I know that Channing and Jenna have plenty more awards shows, premieres, and sets that they will be involved with for many years to come. If given the opportunity, I hope to be able to cover some of them too so I can share the experience with all of you. Well, that’s it for this show, but fans can CLICK HERE to check out tons of photos from the event.

Stay tuned for tomorrow’s post where I will recap my awesome day with Channing Tatum’s mom Kay. Yet another one I promise fan’s won’t want to miss.

NEWS FLASH: Channing Tatum Wins BIG at 2008 Teen Choice Awards

If you watched the 2008 Teen Choice Awards last night or have read any of the entertainment sites today, then I’m sure you all know the results of last night’s star-studded awards show.

If you haven’t heard yet, then its my pleasure to let you all know that all of your hard work and votes helped Channing Tatum win Choice Dramatic Actor for ‘Stop-Loss‘ and helped his movie ‘Step Up 2: The Streets‘ win Choice Drama. Channing Tatum and Jenna Dewan’s M&M Cru also won the BIGGEST online dance battle known to mankind.

Although we did not get Choice MySpacer, I’m truly grateful for the nomination and thankful to everyone who took the time to vote for all of the categories that Channing was nominated in. Great job everybody!!!

I’m still in LA, but once I get home later this week, I promise to give you all the details about the awards show and my very special visits with ‘Stop-Loss‘ director Kimberly Peirce, Chan’s mom Kay, and Chan and Jenna. It’s been an unforgettable trip and I really can’t wait to share it with everyone!!!

In the meantime, you can all check out the photos and video of Channing Tatum, Jenna Dewan and other stars that I have added to the Channing Tatum Unwrapped Photo Gallery. Hopefully they will tide you over for a bit until I can give you all the juicy details. CLICK HERE to check out the photos!!!

You can also read a really cute interview below that Chan did on the red carpet for TeenHollywood.com where he lets his fans know that he does not have a personal MySpace profile. Enjoy!!!

Channing Tatum On Miley Cyrus As Teen Choice 2008 Host

Hunky Channing Tatum, looking comfy casual in white shirt and jeans won “Choice Movie Actor: Drama” for his touching role in the Iraq war movie Stop Loss. He admitted that, yes, he does surf a bit when he’s in California but the award board he won is a little too short for a great surfing experience. A tiny, very young reporter approached the star…

Channing: What’s up, little man? You’re the cutest thing I think I’ve ever seen.. So you want to know what’s the best advice I ever got? Okay, probably, keep people around you that can keep you yourself. Hold on to the people you love dearly.

Q: What kind of an influence does the internet have on teens?

Channing: Huge! And I think it can be bad as well. I’m one for getting off of the internet and getting outside. I’m not a big internet guy. I don’t have a MySpace. I think they can be great if they are used right and incredibly bad if they’re used wrong.

Q: After your dramatic experience on Stop Loss will you seek more dramatic roles or go back to more dance stuff?

Channing: No more dance stuff for at least a little while. I haven’t done a love story and I really want to do a love story and see that side of me. I’m tired of being with all the guys [in films].

Q: Which dance crew did you root for tonight?

Channing: It shouldn’t be one or the other. They’re all amazing. That’s one reason I didn’t dance tonight is I can’t dance with those kids. They’re unbelievable. I think I chose the M&M crew because I thought it would be funny to get back at the Step Up crew and it was great.

Q: What do you think is a big problem for teens today?

Channing: The education system. I didn’t do very good in school. As a teen that made me go off and figure out something else to do. How do we fix it? I think if we can streamline a multi-billion dollar company, we can definitely figure out how to straighten out a school so it works better. I think it’s just going to take money.

Q: How is Miley doing as host tonight?

Channing: She’s killing. I get nervous every time the cameras roll and she’s just talking with somebody and then next thing [she’s back on and faces the camera] So,… dah, dah dah… Her and Will Smith have the most charisma I think I’ve ever seen in front of the camera, saying and doing whatever.

And finally, you can check out a HollyScoop.com video that Fabulous Channing Tatum Fan Naz sent me which highlights some of stars that were on the 2008 Teen Choice Award blue carpet before the show:

REMINDER: Watch Channing Tatum on the 2008 Teen Choice Awards TONIGHT!!!

Thanks to an awesome VIP ticket and backstage pass from sponsor Neutrogena, I was able to attend the 2008 Teen Choice Awards last night. I had a blast and saw more celebrities than I can even believe up close and personal!!! More importantly, I’m so excited that I got to hang out with Channing Tatum and his girlfriend Jenna Dewan during part of the event.

Stay tuned to Channing Tatum Unwrapped and I promise to post an article all about my experiences here in LA, which included eating dinner next to Davie Spade, having Sharon Stone spark up a conversation with me in the restroom of all places, getting some inside scoop from ‘Stop-Loss‘ director Kimberly Peirce, finally meeting director Jon M. Chu and Adam Sevani in person after watching the dance battle go down, seeing Mariah Carey and Miley Cyrus perform, having the Jonas brothers fly over my head before meeting their mom (who is extremely sweet by the way) and hanging out with a few very special people that I know you all will be extremely interested in hearing about. Check back later this week for all of the inside scoop I promise you will not want to miss.

I will be adding a ton of pictures and video from inside the event and the after party later today. Make sure to watch Channing on tonight’s 2008 Teen Choice Awards at 8pm Eastern/Pacific on FOX to see if he wins his three award nominations and to see who runs away with the dance battle title!!!

CHANNING TATUM VIDEOS OF THE WEEK: From Online to Primetime…Live Dance Battle Announcement

Today’s Video of the Week is another dance battle teaser video, but this time, it being released by both Miley Cyrus and Mandy Jiroux’s M&M Cru and Jon M. Chu and Adam Sevani’s ACDC dance crew to promote their final dance battle that will play out at the 2008 Teen Choice Awards next Monday. Enjoy!!!

You can CLICK HERE to watch the video or you can check it out below:

Here’s what the crews have to say about the highly-anticipated battle finale:

It’s finally here, our OFFICIAL announcement of the LIVE FACE TO FACE dance battle between The Adam/Chu Dance Crew (AKA THE ACDC) and the Miley and Mandy Cru (AKA M&M CRU).

On Monday, August 4th 2008 there will only be ONE standing. Be a witness to history as the BIGGEST ONLINE DANCE BATTLE IN THE HISTORY OF YOUTUBE becomes the BIGGEST LIVE DANCE BATTLE IN THE HISTORY OF MANKIND.

TEEN CHOICE AWARDS is the event.
Gibson Amphitheater is the venue.
And there WILL be a winner determined that night.

What began as a fun dance battle ends face to face. So mark it in your calendars as the ACDC and the M&M CRU go head to head.

Millions will watch as we finally take this battle from ONLINE to PRIMETIME.

MONDAY AUGUST 4th 2008, FOX
8pm/ 7pm Central

I can’t even explain how excited I am to see this all go down in person. I truly can’t wait, and I hope that Chan and Jenna make an appearance as a part of the M&M Cru!!!

Need to catch up on your dance battle history? Fans can CLICK HERE to watch all of the previous videos from the biggest online dance battle in the history of mankind. Who do you think is going to end up on top?

If you have a favorite video that you would like me to consider, send a link to the video to votw@channingtatumunwrapped.com and tell me why you like it. I will post it and your explanation on the blog.

NEWS FLASH: Channing Tatum to Appear at 2008 Teen Choice Awards!!!

Make sure to set those Tivos, because the 2008 Teen Choice Awards has officially announced that Channing Tatum will definitely make an appearance on the upcoming show.

Fans who tune into the show will be able to see if Channing and his films win the Choice Dramatic Actor, Choice MySpacer and Choice Dramatic Movie awards.

Choice MySpacer Award nominees are even featured on the homepage of MySpace today. And don’t forget that you’re all still able to vote everyday at Teen Choice Award.com to help Channing and his films win all of the nominations.

Like shows in the past, this year’s event continues the star-studded tradition. In addition to her hosting duties, Miley Cyrus is also set to perform her new hit single “7 Things” and as previously announced, multi-platinum artist Mariah Carey will also perform her new single “I’ll Be Lovin’ You Long Time”.

In addition to Channing Tatum and his girlfriend Jenna Dewan, fans can look forward to seeing other stars like Shia LaBeouf, Rachel Bilson, David Cook, David Archuleta, Lil Mama, LL Cool J, Demi Lovato, James Marsden, Katharine McPhee, Leighton Meeste, Jordin Sparks, Sophia Bush, Josh Holloway, Ryan Sheckler, Steve Carell, Chris Brown, Scarlett Johansson, Zac Efron, Pink, Jaime Pressly, Danica Patrick, Selena Gomez, JoJo, Minka Kelly, Jesse McCartney, Chad Michael Murray, Chace Crawford, Kristen Bell, Drake Bell, Mischa Barton, Brittany Snow and Hayden Panettiere on the red carpet and throughout the event.

As I previously posted, the epic online dance battle between Miley Cyrus’ and Mandy Jiroux’s M&M Cru and ACDC, the dance crew featuring Jon M. Chu and Adam Sevani of ‘Step Up 2: The Streets‘ is about to declare a winner when the two crews face-off at the popular award show that is broadcast to millions of viewers all over the world.

In April 2008, Chu and Sevani (Adam/Chu Dance Crew) challenged best friends Cyrus and Jiroux to a video dance battle. Since then, the competition has escalated as each crew retaliates with new dance videos that have attracted millions of fans. As promised, the M&M Cru and ACDC will battle in-person during the final showdown at this year’s Teen Choice. For those who don’t know, both Channing Tatum and his real-life girlfriend Jenna Dewan are one of the many talented members of the M&M Cru, so I hope to see both of them “duking” it out with ACDC in the highly-anticipated battle.

In a recent post, I also mentioned that I may be able to attend the event. I now know that I will be attending this year’s Teen Choice Awards, and I could not be more excited about it!!! From hopefully being able to see Chan accept his awards to seeing the final dance battle unfold, I can already say that this is going to be one of the most incredible experiences that I’ve ever had. In addition to the results, I will now be able to give you some of the inside scoop on the event after the show airs on August 4th, and I truly can’t wait!!!

Teen Choice celebrates the hottest teen icons in film, television, music, sports and fashion. The coolest stars will receive coveted Teen Choice surfboard awards when Teen Choice 2008 airs Monday, Aug. 4 (8:00-10:00 PM ET/PT) on FOX. Fans can still vote once each day for their favorite Teen Choice nominees at www.TeenChoiceAwards.com.

NEWS FLASH: ACDC vs. M&M Cru Final Dance Battle Showdown at the 2008 Teen Choice Awards!!!

For fans of the ongoing online dance battle of the century between Channing Tatum and Jenna Dewan’s M&M Cru and Jon M. Chu’s ACDC Crew (which pretty much includes everyone reading this post right now), I have some really great news!!!

E! News just announced where the final live dance battle that will end it once and for all is going to go down and I’ll explain in a bit why I could not be more excited about it. Check out the article below for all of the details:

---

Miley Taking Dance-off to Teen Choice
by Whitney English and Ashley Fultz

Take your unicycle and get lost, Carolla, it’s time for Dancing With Miley.

Miley Cyrus and pal Mandy Jiroux’s ongoing online dance contest is stepping up to network television, E! News has learned exclusively.

Multiple show sources confirm that Cyrus, who is hosting the Teen Choice Awards on Fox, has arranged to do a series of dance battles against her and Jiroux’s rival ACDC male dance crew.

Miley, who debuts songs from her new album “Breakout” tomorrow on Good Morning America, had been pushing to settle the popular YouTube competition on network TV. “She knows fans want to see more, and this seemed like a perfect way to do it,” says a show source, adding that producers are still working on how voting will take place.

At Monday night’s Step Up 2: The Streets DVD release party, actor/dancer Adam Sevani, lead member of the rival dance group ACDC, told E! News where the next dance battle would take place: “It’s the Teen Choice Awards.”

Asked who will win, Sevani replied, “We’ll see.”

Cyrus will lord over the ceremony Aug. 3 in L.A.; it will air on tape-delay the following day. A Fox rep declined to comment.

Sources say Cyrus had been shopping around the dance-off, taking it to at least one other network besides Fox.

The dance battle so far has been viewed more than 18 million times on YouTube.

The high-stepping showdown began after the ACDC crew challenged Cyrus and best friend/backup dancer Jiroux to a friendly competition.

On April 10, a group formed by Jon Chu (director of Step Up 2: The Streets) and Sevani challenged the girls to “the biggest dance battle in online history.” ACDC posted a dance video on YouTube and asked M&M to respond with one of their own.

On April 13, the “M&M Cru With a U” released a video to the Madonna and Justin Timberlake song “4 Minutes.” It was an instant YouTube smash, with more than 1 million views in the first 24 hours. The video even included Step Up stars Channing Tatum and Jenna Dewan.

ACDC responded with an April 30 clip featuring Lindsay Lohan, Adam Sandler and Chris Brown and telling M&M to “step your game up.”

And step it up they did. On June 10, the girls released their “Final Dance Video,” featuring Jenna Dewan, Carson Daly, Joey Fatone and Ryan Seacrest, who showed off his best chicken dance.

---

This battle and I go way back…I’ve been following it religiously since Jon Chu contacted me to let me know about the first video he and Adam made. The reason why I’m extremely excited about this newest development goes beyond the fact that I can’t wait to see the two crews battle it out live on stage.

What I haven’t mentioned to many of you is that I have a planned trip to LA the weekend of the 2008 Teen Choice Awards, and I may be able to attend the ceremony. I’m not really into westerns, but it should be no surprise to anyone who’s been reading this site for a while that this is one showdown that I would give my right foot to see in person.

I’m horribly excited about the possibility of being able to give you all and in depth report on the awards show from the inside. Whether I’ll be at the awards show is not definite yet, so everyone keep your fingers crossed that the stars align.

The 2008 Teen Choice Awards airs on Monday, August 4 (8:00-10:00 PM ET/PT) on FOX. Fans can continue to vote for Channing everyday at TeenChoiceAwards.com.

In the mean time, if you need to get caught up on all of the dance battle related videos that have been released by both crews and others who have gotten involved in the battle, you can watch many of them in the YouTube playlist I created below. Enjoy!!!

CHANNING TATUM FOR DUMMIES…Everything You Ever Wanted to Know

Channing Tatum for Dummies is a series of articles where I try to answer the most frequently asked questions about Channing Tatum that I receive from readers or find on message boards all over the internet.

Here are today’s Channing Tatum frequently asked questions and answers:

Fabulous Channing Tatum Fan Question:

Does Channing Tatum play Ghengis Khan in ‘Mongol‘?

CTU Answer:

As you can see in the promotional still on the right, Channing was originally cast in the role of Ghengis Khan in the movie ‘Mongol‘, but he ended up declining the role because of scheduling conflicts (possibly with his 2006 hit movie ‘Step Up‘). Many websites still say that Channing Tatum is in the film, but they are incorrect. The role of Ghengis Khan in ‘Mongol‘ is now being played by Tadanobu Asano.

---

Fabulous Channing Tatum Fan Question:

What is Channing Tatum’s favorite music?

CTU Answer:
Channing Tatum likes all kinds of music, but when I visited him on the set of his film ‘Fighting‘ last year, he mentioned that he had recently heard some new music created by his Oscar-nominated co-star Terrence Howard and really liked it.

Terrence wrote, produced and performs all of the new music on his debut album called ‘Shine Through It’. It is being released by Columbia Records on September 2, 2008 and fans can listen to some of it in a video below that he recently made for MySpace:

You can listen to more of the songs on the new album at Terrence’s official MySpace page.

---

Fabulous Channing Tatum Fan Question:

How can I send Jenna Dewan fan mail? Does she have an official site or MySpace page?

CTU Answer:

Channing Tatum’s girlfriend Jenna Dewan has confirmed to me that she currently does not have an official site and does not have a MySpace page at all. As a matter of a fact, she does not have a profile on any of the social networking sites.

Anyone on MySpace, Facebook, Bebo, Friendster, etc. saying that they are Jenna are definitely posers, have no association with her, and should not be believed. Jenna is grateful for all of the non-posing fan sites that you all have created for her, so keep up the good work!!!

If you would like to send fan mail to the real Jenna Dewan, she told me that you can send it to her agency, and they will make sure that she receives it. Here is the address where you can send your fan mail and autograph requests:

Jenna Dewan
c/o Joanne Wiles - William Morris Agency
One William Morris Pl.
Beverly Hills, CA 90212

FYI…In case you missed it, fans can CLICK HERE to get Chan’s fan mail address, and I’ll make sure to keep posting any Jenna Dewan news that is sent to me and that I find.

---

Fabulous Channing Tatum Fan Question:

Can I buy the M&M Cru shirts from the online dance battle?

CTU Answer:

I have confirmed with the director of the M&M Cru dance battle videos that they are currently not able to sell shirts for complicated legal reasons around selling Miley Cyrus merchandise. They are hopeful that they will be able to sell shirts to fans at some point to benefit a charity like the ACDC crew is doing with Invisible Children, but they are still working on that arrangement.

Anyone selling M&M Cru shirts has not been given permission to do so and the shirts are not official. Feel free to buy them if you see them for sale online, but know that they are not actually associated with the M&M Cru that includes both Channing Tatum and Jenna Dewan as members.

---

Thanks for submitting these questions! If you want to submit a question about Channing Tatum, email it ctfd@channingtatumunwrapped.com and I will try to get it answered for you in the following Channing Tatum for Dummies article. I cannot guarantee that I will have an answer for every question, but I will tell you what I know (or at the very least give you an opinion on the subject).

Win a FREE DVD & Autographed Poster from Channing Tatum’s ‘Step Up 2: The Streets’

The beautiful mural on this post was painted by professional graffiti artist Paul Nandee to promote tomorrow’s July 15th release of the region 1 DVD for Channing Tatum’s highly successful dance movie ‘Step Up 2: The Streets‘.

The mural, which Paul says took a day and a half to complete, was amazingly done completely in spray paint. He was commissioned by a marketing company to design the artwork for the mural marketing component of the campaign to promote the release of the dvd. You can go to SwankOne.com to check out even more of his work.

In addition to Paul’s mural, he believes there is a plan for murals to be put up across the US with other aerosol artists painting the same design. Fans can see how the movie is truly taking it to the streets by checking out the mural above at 1224 Abbot Kinney Blvd. in Venice, California. If you happen to see other murals across the US, take a photo, and I’ll make sure to add it to the CTU photo gallery.

‘Step Up 2: The Streets‘ director Jon Chu also just released a video today to give us a quick update on the ACDC vs. M&M Cru dance battle and to remind everyone about the DVD release. You can CLICK HERE to watch the video from Jon or you can check it out below:

Jon was also nice enough to send me a large ‘Step Up 2: The Streets‘ poster that he autographed for one lucky fan. I’m giving it and a FREE ‘Step Up 2: The Streets‘ DVD away to celebrate the new release.

Once again, it’s easy to enter the contest. All you have to do is send an email by the end of the day on Sunday, July 20, 2008 to contests@channingtatumunwrapped.com with the subject “Step Up 2 DVD” and with your mailing address. I will announce the winner of the poster and DVD on the blog on Monday, July 21, 2008.

If you need even more incentive to run out and get the movie, you can check out new “making of” videos the movie just released and one of my favorite scenes from the film below…

You can CLICK HERE to check out even more scenes and videos that the ‘Step Up 2: The Streets‘ recently added to their video channel on MySpace.

I also wanted to remind Channing Tatum’s Fabulous UK fans that the region 2 version of the DVD actually released in your country TODAY (July 14, 2008), so I hope you all picked up your copy!!! UK fans can also get the double the dance version that includes both ‘Step Up’ with ton’s of extras and ‘Step Up 2′.

In a previous post, Jon Chu had mentioned that there are a few “Easter Eggs” on the DVD. There are actually two of them and here’s how you find them…

From the Bonus Features screen, go to “Main Menu” at the bottom and click to the right to make bowling pins appear. That will take you to a brief clip of Chu informing Briana Evigan over the phone that she got the lead role. Also, on the second screen of the deleted scenes menu, highlight “8. Jabbawockeez” and click left for more bowling pins. That will take you to another brief clip of Robert Hoffman watching some of Baltimore’s background dancers on set.

In addition to the Easter Eggs, the DVD also includes the following special features:

• Thru Fresh Eyes - Take a look behind the scenes at the making of Step Up 2 the Streets. You’ll also meet the choreographers and dancers who bring it all to life.
• Outlaws of Hip Hop - Meet the 410’s - An exclusive profile of the film’s real life underground hip hop dance crew.
• Robert Hoffman’s Video Prank
• Deleted Scenes and Bloopers
• 5 Music Videos
  - Flo Rida (featuring T.Pain) “Low”
  - Missy Elliott “Ching-A-Ling”
  - Cherish (featuring Yung Joc) “Killa”
  - Plies (featuring Akon) “Hypnotized”
  - Brit and Alex “Let It Go”

We’ve all been waiting for it since the second the credits rolled in the theaters, so make sure to get ‘Step Up 2: The Streets’ when it hits your local store and enter the latest CTU contest for a chance to win an exclusive, autographed poster and FREE DVD!!!

Channing Tatum Videos of the Week: What the Buck Wages Dance War Against Channing Tatum’s M&M Cru

I owe everyone a big apology for not finding today’s Videos of the Week sooner, because they are truly hilarious.

The two videos are a part of the ongoing dance battle between Jon M. Chu and Adam Sevani’s ACDC and Miley and Mandy’s M&M Cru (which includes Channing Tatum and his girlfriend Jenna Dewan).

From what I can tell, the popular YouTube comedian and entertainment “reporter” from What the Buck (who, bless his heart, somehow keeps confusing Channing Tatum with Tatum O’Neal) throws his hat into the proverbial dance ring after the M&M Cru released their teaser video in round 2 of the dance battle.

You can CLICK HERE to watch What the Buck challenge the M&M Cru in a teaser video that also features the afore-mentioned Jon M. Chu and Harry Shum from ‘Step Up 2: The Streets‘, or you can check it out below:

Next, you can also check out the battle video released by the What the Buck crew the same day the M&M Cru released their round 2 video:

After you stop laughing profusely or “pulling shapes” like the crew in the video (whatever suits your fancy…I don’t judge), fans can CLICK HERE to read all of the previous CTU articles on the dance battle, and you can also CLICK HERE to watch all of the videos from the extremely popular battle that has now been covered by every major entertainment media outlet known to mankind.

If you have a favorite video that you would like me to consider, send a link to the video to votw@channingtatumunwrapped.com and tell me why you like it. I will post it and your explanation on the blog.

NEWS FLASH: New Interview, Video, and Movie Update for Channing Tatum’s Girlfriend Jenna Dewan

It’s that time again Chenna fans. It’s been a while since we’ve had an update on Jenna Dewan’s current projects. Channing Tatum’s longtime girlfriend has been very busy shooting numerous movies that are scheduled to release this year, and I have quite a bit of news to share.

In addition to her new Lifetime Television movie “Fab Five: Texas Cheerleader Scandal“, which premieres Saturday, August 2, 2008 at 9pm ET/PT, fans should be on the look out for Jenna in her romantic comedy ‘The Jerk Theory‘ with ‘Step Up’s Josh Henderson and in the dark comedy ‘Six Wives of Henry Lefay‘ with Tim Allen.

Abraham, one of the producers over at ‘The Jerk Theory‘, just let me know that they have added another video of Jenna on their YouTube channel. In the new video, we get to learn a little more about Jenna’s character Molly.

You can CLICK HERE to watch it or you can check it out below:

Abraham also wants all of us Jenna fans to know that the film just launched the movie’s official site at TheJerkTheory.com, so make sure to check it out. You’ll find a ton of promotional photos, info about the film and the characters, and you can even hear snippets of Josh Henderson’s debut album, which is used as the soundtrack for the film.

There’s even more where that came from, because they’ll be releasing the movie poster in a few days and the trailer in the next week or so. Everyone just stay tuned to Channing Tatum Unwrapped, and I’ll post them both as soon as they’re released.

I want to give a big thanks to Abraham for the inside scoop on Jenna’s new film. Fans can CLICK HERE to check out tons of photos of Jenna and Chan on the film set last year.

Next up, we have a new interview that Jenna recently did to promote her film ‘Six Wives of Henry Lefay‘. It’s a short article, but is jammed pack with info on most of her 2008 projects, the dance battle with Miley Cyrus, Channing Tatum, and a new project that we’re hearing about for the first time. Enjoy!

A Whole New Tim Allen in ‘Six Wives,’ Says Rising Starlet Dewan
By Marilyn Beck and Stacy Jenel Smith
Jul 2, 2008