13 Pop Stars Who Sang for Dictators

Jennifer Lopez is feeling the heat this week for singing “Happy Birthday” to the authoritarian ruler of Turkmenistan. The former Soviet state is considered “one of the world’s most repressive countries”; it once shut down the entire Internet in order to stop a video of its president falling off a horse from disseminating. Lopez’s publicist has said the party was a corporate event put on by China National Petroleum for its executives in oil-rich Turkmenistan — it just happened to fall on the president's birthday — and Lopez never would have attended “had there been knowledge of human right issues of any kind.”

Naive as it sounds, we're inclined to believe it. Say what you will about Dennis Rodman schmoozing with Kim Jong-un or Naomi Campbell accepting “dirty-looking stones” from Charles Taylor. Who among us could have picked Turkmen president Gurbanguly Berdymukhamedov out of a lineup? Let alone named his human rights abuses?

Nor is J.Lo the first pop star to sing before googling, unwittingly bringing international human rights abuses to the attention of the Us Weekly crowd. From Sting to 50 Cent, the music industry’s free speech beneficiaries are the preferred American and British export of cash-flush dictators everywhere. Rather than pile on this Fourth of July weekend, discover what pop stars can teach you about repressive states the world over.

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Even Sports Stars Get Salty About Being Unfollowed on Twitter

By Sam Laird2013-05-06 20:08:34 UTC

It's one of the most severe passive-aggressive disses of the social media age. It's a belittling gesture of another human being's insignificance. It can lead to introspection, self-doubt and vindictive muttering.

We're speaking, of course, about the Twitter unfollow.

And, it turns out, even sports stars are susceptible to the antisocial action's power to peeve.

ESPN The Magazine's latest issue features a profile of 20-year-old tennis phenom Sloane Stephens, who surged to prominence in January after beating Serena Williams to win the Australian Open. The piece, which hit the web Monday, goes into some detail about a falling-out between Stephens and Williams since the upset victory, and here's part of what Stephens has to say:

"She's not said one word to me, not spoken to me, not said hi, not looked my way, not been in the same room with me since I played her in Australia," Stephens says emphatically. "And that should tell everyone something, how she went from saying all these nice things about me to unfollowing me on Twitter."

Her mom tries to slow her down, but Sloane is insistent. "Like, seriously! People should know. They think she's so friendly and she's so this and she's so that — no, that's not reality! You don't unfollow someone on Twitter, delete them off of BlackBerry Messenger. I mean, what for? Why?"

But that's not all the Twitter drama. Stephens also responded to this alleged subtweet Williams posted two days after the open:

I made you.

— Serena Williams (@serenawilliams) January 26, 2013

"I was like, 'You really don't think I know that that's about me?'" Stephens tells the magazine.

Interestingly enough, back when she won the Open, Stephens was already thinking social media.

"I hope to have a lot more Twitter followers," she said in a televised interview immediately following the match.

She ended up getting that wish, and then some. Stephens' followers more than doubled in the hours following her win and she received congratulatory tweets from Shaquille O'Neal, Dirk Nowitzki, John Legend and other celebrities.

Between the high hopes and unspoken snubs, it seems, Stephens is truly a sports star for the digital era.

Photo by Julian Finney-Pool/Getty Images

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Knicks Star's Wife Tweets to Rival: 'You on the Bench for a Reason'

By Sam Laird2013-05-03 17:28:37 UTC

Vines, subtweets and over-the-line insults. This Knicks-Celtics NBA playoffs series was made for the Internet.

Players talking trash on the court, or even Twitter, is obviously not unheard of. But players wives talking smack to opponents via Twitter? That's next level.

Here's our dramatis personae for this entertaining bit of beef between the Knicks and Celtics, who meet again for the sixth game of their series on Friday night:

Carmelo Anthony: Knicks star. Big ego.

La La Vazquez: Anthony's wife. MTV personality and reality star.

Jordan Crawford: Celtics benchwarmer. His ego outpaces his talent.

Kevin Garnett: Aging Celtics star. Fierce competitor and major trash talker.

At the end of Friday night's Game 5, Crawford and Anthony got into a little dustup and had to be separated by teammates. Crawford, by all appearances, said something rhyming with "that mothertrucker pucked your wife," and Anthony tried to go after him. Here's a Vine of the situation, taken by Sean Dutton:

Crawford was, of course, referring to Vazquez, who then on Thursday morning responded with a stinging subtweet that belittled his lack of playing time (The Instagram reads, "Strong women only intimidate weak men."):

Try again. You on the bench for a reason. instagram.com/p/Y0QM3-xjT5/

— LA LA(@lala) May 2, 2013

And because this is the NBA, where amazing happens, the little tiff gets even better once you're filled in on the backstory. The "He" Crawford was (apparently) referring to was Garnett. Anthony and Garnett nearly fought during a January Knicks-Celtics matchup, then Anthony tried to confront Garnett in front of the Celtics bus post-game, after Garnett reportedly talked some out-of-bounds trash during the game. Vazquez, Garnett apparently told Anthony, "tastes like Honey Nut Cheerios."

Yes, Honey Nut Cheerios.

So ... yeah. Friday night's Game 6 should be highly entertaining.

Photo by Donald Bowers/Getty Images for Samsung Galaxy S III

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For Sports Stars, Instagram Dominates in Photo Engagement

Sam Laird2013-04-20 20:27:08 UTC

It wasn't so long ago, really, that Twitter became the go-to platform for sports stars looking to connect and interact with fans in new ways. Opinions, news, photos — athletes could share their lives with fans as never before.

That's still the case, but a comparison of photos posted by some of the sports world's biggest names reveals that onetime Twitter ally Instagram now dominates in photo-sharing engagement.

It sounds logical, given that Instagram is a photo-specific platform — and may have something to do with side effects of the two companies' increasingly hostile relationship. But a look at the data gives insight into the ever-evolving world of social media for big names.

For example, below is a photo posted recently by Kobe Bryant. It was his second Instagram post ever since joining earlier this month.

The post has since received 121,000 likes and more than 13,000 comments. Bryant has 610,000 Instagram followers, so that's a pretty high ratio. When he posted the Instagram link to Twitter (where he has 2.1 million followers), it was retweeted 12,500 times and favorited 5,300 times. On Facebook, where Bryant has 16 million fans, the post has received more than 450,000 likes.

Those high engagement numbers could have lots of explanations. A "like" is a much more passive action than retweeting a post to one's own Twitter timeline, for example. And Instagram killing its support for Twitter cards may have some effect on fans not clicking through links.

Nonetheless, the difference in engagement is interesting to note. Other Bryant posts on both Twitter and Instagram tell a similar story. Here's one in support of Boston terror victims (Twitter and Instagram), and a motivational post of a newspaper front page (Twitter and Instagram).

Global soccer star Cristano Ronaldo, meanwhile, often posts duplicate photos to Instagram and Twitter as well, but uses TwitPics instead of links to Instagram. But we see a similar story. Last weekend, for example, he posted a shot of his new signature shoe from Nike. On Instagram, where he has 750,000 followers, the photo was liked 113,000 times. On Twitter, where he has 17.5 million followers, it was retweeted 5,400 times and favorited 3,100 times.

More photo posts from the world's most famous athletes further bear out the trend. Here's Ronaldo after a big win (Instagram and Twitter), and hyping an important match (Instagram and Twitter). And here's LeBron James after a training session (Instagram and Twitter), sharing some crazy weather (Instagram and Twitter), and posting a shot from GQ magazine (Instagram and Twitter).

Why do you think sports stars see such higher photo engagement on Instagram? Let us know in the comments.

Photo by Alex Livesey/Getty Images

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'Jurassic Park' Stars: Where Are They Now?

Christine Erickson2013-04-05 19:38:21 UTC

It's been 20 years since Jurassic Park hit theaters. The first film in the franchise has just been revived for a 3D experience, and you can now relive the nightmares of your youth in HD.

If you were around the first time Jurassic Park released, you might be feeling pretty prehistoric yourself right now. The good news is you're not nearly as old as the stars of this film. (No, not Sam Neill, the dinosaurs!)

SEE ALSO: 'Jurassic Park 3D' Trailer Will Leave You Feeling Rapturous

What have these giant monsters been up to all of these years? A whole lot of nothing. The dinosaurs may have won the battle, but the joke's on them. We even survived a meteor!

Image courtesy of Universal City Studios, Inc. and Amblin Entertainment, Inc.

Image via Kevork Djansezian/Getty Images

Image courtesy of Universal City Studios, Inc. and Amblin Entertainment, Inc.

Image via VANDERLEI ALMEIDA/AFP/Getty Images

Image courtesy of Universal City Studios, Inc. and Amblin Entertainment, Inc.

Image courtesy of Flickr, frogDNA

Image courtesy of Universal City Studios, Inc. and Amblin Entertainment, Inc.

Image via Alexander Hassenstein/Getty Images

Image via STEPHANE DE SAKUTIN/AFP/Getty Images

Image courtesy of Universal City Studios, Inc. and Amblin Entertainment, Inc.

Image courtesy of Flickr, Chris Conroy

Image courtesy of Universal City Studios, Inc. and Amblin Entertainment, Inc.

Image courtesy of Flickr, happy via

Image courtesy of Universal City Studios, Inc. and Amblin Entertainment, Inc.

Image courtesy of Flickr dlanham

Image courtesy of Universal City Studios, Inc. and Amblin Entertainment, Inc.

Image courtesy of Flickr, Chris Blakely

Image courtesy of Universal City Studios, Inc. and Amblin Entertainment, Inc.

Image courtesy of Flickr, Lisa Andres

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