The Scoop

the scoop

rolling out star power

MTV is rolling out the gold carpet — and the star power — for its 2008 Movie Awards. Sarah Jessica Parker, Ben Stiller, Will Ferrell (above), Edward Norton and Liv Tyler are among the celebrities set to serve as presenters at the June 1 ceremony, the network said. They’ll join previously announced presenters Lindsay Lohan, Steve Carell, Jack Black, Robert Downey Jr., Mark Wahlberg, Seth Rogen and Megan Fox, among others.

Viewers can choose which films and stars will take home the golden popcorn trophy by voting for their favorites online. “Superbad” leads the nominees with five nods, followed by “Juno” with four. Other multiple nominees include “Enchanted,” “Knocked Up,” “Transformers” and “Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End.”

Voting ends today. Hosted by Mike Myers, the MTV Movie Awards will be broadcast live from the Gibson Amphitheater in Universal City.

clean up, help out

Next time you take a shower or bath, remind yourself how lucky you are to have clean water. Then, thinking of those who don’t, log on to noodleandboo.com. You can get clean and help impoverished children at the same time.

Noodle & Boo, a company specializing in products for ultra sensitive skin, is asking you to join its Raise Your Hand Campaign. Through sales of its Belief Honey Bar, the company is attempting to raise funds to help bring clean water to needy towns. The first town Noodle and Boo is sponsoring is Heerrara, a village with a school of 200 children in Ethiopia. The Believe Honey Bar costs $12.50.

robot championships

A new breed of athlete — composed of circuits, switches and sensors — will take to the soccer field at the RoboCup 2008 US Open at Pittsburgh’s Carnegie Science Center, Saturday through Tuesday. The robotic soccer tournament will take over the second floor of the Science Center with teams from universities competing in four categories of robotic soccer — from autonomous, soccer-playing Aibo robotic dogs to small cylinder robots less than six-inches tall, which are capable of “kicking” a soccer ball more 30 miles-per-hour. Some of the robots are so small they require a microscope to see them.

The RoboCup 2008 US Open is included in general admission to Carnegie Science Center.

new video games

In stores this week: This week, Nintendo wants to pump you up with “Wii Fit.” ... The PlayStation 3 gets a couple of exclusives, Ubisoft’s futuristic shooter “Haze” and Sony’s karaoke game “Singstar.” ... EA Sports brings the Union of European Football Associations — that’s soccer to you, yank — stateside in “UEFA Euro 2008” (for the Xbox 360, PS3, PS2, PSP).

song of the week

The Black Kids’ single “I’m Not Gonna Teach Him How to Dance With You” (Columbia) was such a blog sensation last year there’s already a backlash before the band’s debut even comes out.

That won’t really matter though once the mainstream gets a load of the Jacksonville band’s indie-poppy hooks and enough John Hughesian lyrical drama in less than four minutes to spawn an entire season of “The Hills.” All Reggie Youngblood has to do is sing in his best Robert Smith voice and it’s nearly impossible not to get sucked in and just as impossible to get it out of your head.

xbox preview

The E3 Media Business Summit, the video-game industry’s biggest North American event, is two months away. While a few companies — Vivendi and Activision — have bailed out of this year’s show, most game publishers are planning their parties and getting their booths ready. And some of the biggest companies have taken the time to give reporters previews of what they have in store.

Microsoft seems to be emphasizing the number 2: The major Xbox 360 titles for the 2008 holiday season are “Fable 2,” “Gears of War 2” and “Ninja Gaiden II.” There’s also “Viva Pinata: Trouble in Paradise,” the sequel to the colorful sim about a ranch inhabited by candy-filled critters.

The highlight of Microsoft’s Gamer’s Day 2008 was the long-awaited third installment of a series that began 10 years ago on the Nintendo 64. Rare’s “Banjo-Kazooie: Nuts & Bolts” marks the return of one of gaming’s more amusing animal combos: Banjo is a big, dopey bear that can fly (or at least glide) with help from Kazooie, a high-strung bird.