Mark Malkin over at E! has confirmed that Robert Pattinson will be a presenter at this year’s Academy Awards. They’re also confirming Zach Efron. They speculate it’s to get more younger viewers to tune in. Now the question is, why isn’t E!’s Ryan Seacrest quoted about Madonna being in New Moon? Well the answer to that one is in our next story.

Entertainment Weekly has tracked down the Madonna rumor of today! It looks like Madonna’s involvement with New Moon will be limited, if at all, to the soundtrack. Thank you EW (and TY to Ana who pointed the coverage out to us!).  We know Madonna hasn’t been in the limelight as much as she has been in a couple of years, but we were really, really sure she wasn’t at the point where she was going to do Mrs. Cope, or a walk-on as a member of the Volturi coven.

Also kudos to Variety. They asked Summit directly, and they got confirmation that Madonna will not be acting in the movie.

I think the Lexicon speaks for many fans when we say that we are so tired of the wild rumors. We get it: everyone under 25 in Hollywood wants in as a vampire and every band/artist wants in on the soundtrack. Seriously guys, at this point it wouldn’t surprise us to hear that Elvis is making a comeback as Aro.

Robert Pattinson’s How to Be, a project he completed prior to his work on Twilight, has finally gotten a distributor to pick it up in the US. The film has been doing fantastically at the film festivals, which up until now was the only way you could see it. It won over the hearts of the audience at the New Orleans Film Festival where it received the audience award. The film’s soundtrack is also to release shortly.

How To Be Trailer from How To Be on Vimeo.

By all accounts Jackson Rathbone’s band 100 Monkeys gives an awesome live performance.

At the Chicago Flashback Convention, when we asked Ashley Greene, who can be seen in the audience at one of his shows totally rocking out, whether Jackson was better as a solo artist or with the band, Ashley’s response was an enthusiastic, “OH! He’s better with the band!”

If you want to keep track of the band, make sure you friend them on MySpace. Fortunately the band has a bunch of upcoming gigs including one that’s going on as we post this:

According to the Canadian site Contactmusic, Joan Jett is happy that Kristen Stewart is playing her in the upcoming film The Runaways.

It looks like Kristen joins the list of Twilight actors with musical talent. According to Joan Jett, “She sounded great and played well. She has the passion for it, which you can’t really be taught.”

It will be a packed year for Kristen as she’ll be shooting this film around New Moon. Now that Kristen is 18 she has a lot more flexibility in her filming schedule.

OK, here’s the latest rumor, and we’re thinking this is a potential no brainer. It all starts with a post over on the Oh No The Didn’t community where someone read on the Madonna message boards that Ryan Seacrest said on his E! News program that Madonna might be in New Moon in the cast or on the soundtrack. Now if that last sentence doesn’t sound like the rumor mill on the 4th grade playground, we don’t know what does.

Now a bunch of media sites, who of course haven’t contacted the Ryan Seacrest show producers because they apparently haven’t heard of this thing called the telephone, or this other new fangled thing called email, have somehow morphed this into “Madonna cast in New Moon”.  Pel’s response was, “As who? Mrs. Cope?”

WE ARE NOW PAUSING FOR THE SCREAMING FOR THOSE THRILLED OR NOT THRILLED.

OK, now that you are focused again. Here’s where you can help out. Did anyone who reads our blog actually hear Ryan Seacrest’s show and actually hear him mention this info? There is zip, nada, nothing to substantiate this over on E! (though various sources cite E!) and given the voracious way they have covered Twilight it seems odd that they wouldn’t put this front and center especially if one of their own correspondents got the scoop.

Usually when Ryan Secrest says something Twilight related we got a bunch of fans who email us about what they heard, and frankly we haven’t gotten a single tip from a fan who actually heard Ryan say this.  So unless Ryan has suddenly lost a significant portion of his Twilight listeners, this is seeming kind of fishy to us.

Hot Topic finally added to their online catalog the PJ’s that have been in their stores for awhile. They also have added a new shirt to the collection.

Well, action figure that is. Alice is joining the Edward and Bella action figures.  No news if she comes with a predict the future upgrade. NECA had her out at the 2009 toy fair.

It’s time for the 2009 Dazzle Awards. We are eligible in several categories:

• Best Twilight Fansite- The highest Dazzle Award. This Catetgory is open to all Twilight Fansites (with the exception of Myspace and Facebook Groups)
• Best Twilight Forum- Open to all websites which have forums.
• Best Twilight Blog- Open to everyone with a twilight-themed blog.

Go over and nominate us since the sites with the most nominations are who gets represented in the actual voting.

Sam Bradley talks about his music and Rob

My Prom Style has a Q&A with Taylor Lautner about his school, his prom and who he took with him.

Several sources are reporting that HIllary Duff has shown some interest in being in New Moon.  Deadbolt has a great article on the topic.

HitFix has exclusively revealed that Robert Pattinson will be presenting at the Academy Awards.

Digital Backlot Magazine has a feature on everyone’s favorite human Mike Welch.  He talks about his new movie Rough Hustle in which he plays a a fast moving, womanizing, car-aholic, that “just wants to get his hustle on”.