Last night tweens of all ages convened at the Gibson Amphitheatre in Universal City here in LA for the 2009 Teen Choice Awards. While the show doesn’t air on TV until tonight, the whole shebang was filmed last night. Britney Spears was on hand to receive a Lifetime Achievement Award, the Ultimate Choice Award, from the Teen Choice folks but it was Twilight that cleaned up … taking home 11 surf board trophies. Here are a few photos from the red carpet arrivals and some deets from last night’s affair:

“Twilight” struck a vein at the Teen Choice Awards. The adolescent vampire drama dominated Sunday’s ceremony with 11 wins, including choice movie drama, romance, liplock, rumble and soundtrack. Kristen Stewart won the movie drama actress category while Robert Pattinson picked up two surfboard-shaped trophies — one for movie drama actor, another for male hottie. “We’ll see you guys in theaters November 20th,” co-star Taylor Lautner teased the squealing crowd. Lautner and Ashley Greene, who will appear alongside Stewart and Pattinson in the upcoming “Twilight” sequel “New Moon,” were honored as the male and female movie fresh faces while Cam Gigandet was crowned movie villain. “Twilight” director Catherine Hardwicke joined the cast on stage to accept the adaptation’s pack of trophies. The Teen Choice Awards, which were selected by over 83 million votes cast online, honor celebrities in TV, film, music and sports. Several winners — including 16-year-old Miley Cyrus and show hosts the Jonas Brothers — took home multiple trophies at the 11th annual ceremony at Universal Studios Hollywood’s Gibson Amphitheatre. Cyrus sailed away with six awards, winning for comedy TV show and actress for “Hannah Montana;” music/dance movie actress and hissy fit for “Hannah Montana: The Movie;” music single for “The Climb” and summer song for “Before the Storm” with the Jonas Brothers. Cyrus also presented Britney Spears the ultimate choice award. “I’m a huge fans of hers,” Cyrus said before a subdued Spears accepted her own surfboard. The Jonas Brothers won five trophies, including choice male red carpet icons. They kicked off the show performing on a tiny stage that moved through the audience. Throughout the taped ceremony, the trio completed dares submitted by fans. At one point, younger brother Nick was challenged to hug a lineup of female fans. “It’s just hugs,” Joe cautioned the women. “You’re not going for long-term relationships here, girls.” Other big winners included “Gossip Girl” and Zac Efron. Chace Crawford, Leighton Meester and Ed Westwick picked up TV drama actor, actress, villain and TV series awards for the sudsy CW show while Efron won for music/dance movie actor in “High School Musical 3″ and comedy movie actor and rockstar moment in “17 Again.” The ceremony itself was peppered with several odd moments. Kathy Griffin arrived on the red carpet with Levi Johnston, the teenage ex-fiance of Bristol Palin, daughter of former Alaska governor Sarah Palin. Mike Tyson took shears to Joe Jonas’ head as part of stunt. And before presenting the choice hottie awards, comedian Dane Cook pleaded to Vanessa Hudgens to keep her clothes on. The Teen Choice Awards is scheduled to air Monday at 8 p.m. EDT on Fox.

LOL! Yes, it was Dane Cook’s shout-out to Vanessa Hudgens’s nekkid pics that was the TRUE highlight of the show … which you can watch HERE just in case FOX decides not to air the interaction on TV tonight. After the jump, check out pics from the show of some of the winners collecting their surf board awards and check out the FULL VERY LONG LIST of Teen Choice Award Winners …

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As the Twilight movie is released on DVD this weekend … well, tonight at midnight actually, (as is evident from all of the advertising on the site today), new interviews about the film’s creation are being published all over the place this week. Twilight director Catherine Hardwicke talks to Life & Style magazine and reveals how she went about casting Robert Pattinson as Edward Cullen and Kristen Stewart as Bella Swan. While some directors will have actors enact scenes in sterile offices and conference rooms, Hardwicke opted for a more intimate setting … her bedroom:

There’s no denying the chemistry between Twilight stars Robert Pattinson and Kristen Stewart. And, as Twilight director Catherine Hardwicke tells Life & Style, finding co-stars with that special spark was all part of her plan! “[During casting] I did the whole scene in my bedroom to be sure that these two people had sparks,” Hardwicke told Life & Style at the launch of Twilight: Director’s Notebook in Santa Monica on March 17. “Are they intense? Are we going to believe it and love it?” And this director didn’t just stop at filming them in the bedroom; she wanted them to lock lips! “I said, ‘Yes, we really want you to kiss. I want to see if this works,’” she reveals. “Because at the end of the day, if it just doesn’t work, then it’s not going to work for the whole movie. So I made them go ahead and kiss, and the sparks did fly!” Will Rob and Kristen have the same passionate flame in New Moon?

Hahahaha … while this info is funny it’s also a bit creepy. I can’t imagine that it was all that comfortable for the pair to get all smoochy with one another in Catherine Hardwicke’s bed. The chemistry between the two must’ve been really palatable for it to show thru in the director’s bed room. I envision a lot of frilly, floral and lace pillows piled on the bed. ::Shudder::

And so … at last … Twilight will be available for purchase so that all y’all rabid Twilighters can watch the movie over and over and over to your heart’s content. I suspect there will be a lot of folks making their way out to the various midnight release parties that are happening all over the country. If YOU venture out tonight to pick up your copy of Twilight on DVD, send in your pics from the DVD release parties. I’ll be sure to post as many of them as I can on the blog tomorrow! Happy shopping!!

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Yesterday we learned that Twilight director Catherine Hardwicke has been fired from any future directing duties of any of the forthcoming Twilight Saga films (which many Pink readers were happy to learn) and today we get to see pics of Hardwicke with Twilight stars Robert Pattinson and Kristen Stewart smiling pretty for the cameras at a photocall for the film which took place at the Hotel Crillon in Paris, France last night:

I must say … it really looks like Catherine is being a good sport in these photos. I bet it’s difficult for her to continue to promote the film after learning her fate from the movie studio. That being said, she worked really hard on Twilight and I can understand why she would want to do everything she can to make her film as successful as possible. Good on her for keeping her head held high.

[Photo credit: Splash News]

Bummer news for fans of the Twilight movie (possibly) … Catherine Hardwicke, the woman who directed the film (which made $70+ million at the box office on opening weekend) and was on track to direct the movie’s sequel New Moon (and possibly the rest of the franchise), has been fired by the movie studio! Clearly this was a big shock to Hardwicke who, just a few days ago, was giving interviews where she was already talking about her plans for directing the next movie (ie. she was planning to begin filming New Moon around March of ‘09 with a 2010 release for the film). I understand that Hardwicke is currently still on the road promoting Twilight as news of her firing is making the rounds. No word yet on who has been chosen to replace her but one thing’s for sure … Catherine Hardwicke will not be making any more films for the Twilight saga:

So the rumors are true. I’ve confirmed that Summit Entertainment is taking Twilight director Catherine Hardwicke off the sequel in this big new franchise. No doubt my news will speed up the studio’s announcement, and Summit will surely scramble to spin this as all going down amicably along the lines that she “couldn’t fit the film into her time frame”. But this terrible news for Hardwicke comes just as she and the Twilight cast are on their European press tour. No doubt, tomorrow’s interviews in France will now focus entirely on what, if anything, Catherine did to deserve this treatment. This also could blow up into a scandal for Summit if it chooses a male director over Hardwicke, whose Twilight easily beat Mimi Leder’s 1998 Deep Impact box office gross as the biggest opener for a female director. That was a record embraced by Hollywood feminists as a sign of growing gal power. Now Hardwicke’s career will surely be damaged by this very public firing because, even though the pic was skewered by critics, it is already a $160M low-cost blockbuster. Summit has started preparing the sequel New Moon, based on Meyer’s second book in the series, and, to contain costs, the studio is considering making third book Eclipse back to back). The word from inside Summit is that Hardwicke, the acclaimed Thirteen director, “was ‘difficult’ and ‘irrational’ during the making of Twilight,” one insider explains to me. “That doesn’t mean anything when you’re talking about a filmmaker because they all are, but still…” (Indeed, Joe Roth and Sony kept saying those things about Julie Taymor on Across The Universe. Yet she made a cult classic and is now directing Marvel/Sony’s Spider-Man for Broadway.) From another of my sources, “Summit didn’t like her. They’re saying the DP [director of photography] Elliot Davis is the one responsible for the film’s sumptuous visual look, that the editor Nancy Richardson had to save the film in post-production, and Summit thought Hardwicke’s [CAA] agent Beth Swofford was alternately ineffectual and hysterical [when it came to controlling her client].” In fact, I’m told that the studio has even had quiet talks with other CAA directors for the last week. “And Swofford never told Hardwicke about that and that she was about to get kicked to the gutter,” an insider tells me. “To add insult to injury, Hardwicke can now look forward to being grilled by the press for days on end, in front of the cast, about why she’s getting shit-canned.”

Damn, that really does suck. Here is a report from MTV just a few days ago where Hardwicke was talking about her plans to begin filming the next movie:

“Well, right now we’re trying to figure out if the studio people, and me, and everyone’s on the same page,” the “Twilight” director explained exclusively to MTV News, addressing the fans who’ve already begun debating where — and with whom — the franchise should go from here. “I want to do ['New Moon'] better than we did ‘Twilight,’ and do it really cool. I definitely don’t want to do it as something just tossed off, like a ‘Saw II’ or something like that. We want to be sure that it’s really going to be great and that everyone’s on the same page. “I would say that the film could be finished by the end of 2009, if not the beginning of 2010; cameras could be rolling in about five months,” Hardwicke said of her March/April timetable, should she return to helm the pic. “We spent about a year and three months getting ['Twilight'] ready, between writing the script and casting. We could probably do things a little bit faster this time, but who knows? It depends. And sometimes you can do things really fast. You can get two editors on, and you can just zip through.”

The report goes on HERE and talks about her vision for the way she was planning to handle the logistics of bringing Jacob’s character to live in New Moon (read on if you dare but beware of spoilers) but it looks like, at this point, all of her comments are moot. Personally, I think Hardwicke did a great job adapting the book into movie. I agree that it would look very suspicious if the movie studio decides to hand the director’s chair over to a male director. It seems to me that the woman responsible for setting the new box office record for the biggest opening weekend gross by a female director should be allowed to direct the next movie in the franchise. I suspect fans that weren’t happy with the way the movie was adapted might be pleased by this news. I dunno … it seems very wrong to me. What do y’all think? Should Catherine Hardwicke be replaced?

[Photo credit: Bauer-Griffin; Source, Source]

After enjoying a record-breaking stellar opening here in US theaters, Twilight is about to take the UK by storm. The film’s protagonist star Kristen Stewart and Twilight director Catherine Hardwicke were among the guests on hand at the Vue Cinema in Leicester Square in London, England last night for the UK premiere of their film:

Teenage fans braved the cold to catch a glimpse of Robert Pattinson at the premiere of his new fanstasy film Twilight. The 22-year-old English actor plays vampire Edward Cullen in the film, which has been touted as the “girl’s answer to Harry Potter”. He was joined on the red carpet by co-star Kristen Stewart, who plays his teenage love interest Isabella Swan. Stewart, 18, arrived at the West End Vue Cinema in London’s Leicester Square wearing a single-strap blue dress, apparently unconcerned about the bitter temperatures. Twilight is based on the series of books by Mormon housewife-turned-author Stephanie Meyer which have sold around 14 million copies across the world. The film, which raked in £24 million ($35.7 million) on its opening day in the US last month, is expected to catapult Pattinson – who played Hogwarts pupil Cedric Diggory in the Harry Potter films – to international heart-throb status. Pattinson was raised in Barnes, west London, and first trod the boards in Guys and Dolls at his local theatre group seven years ago. In Twilight he stars as Cullen, a 108-year-old vampire who looks like a teenager and wins the heart of Stewart’s character when she moves to his hometown of Forks, Washington. The film, directed by Catherine Hardwicke, opens in cinemas in the UK on Dec 19.

Something tells me that Twilight mania is going to hit the UK about as forcefully as it did here in the US … especially considering that Robert Pattinson is a native Brit. Lest you think R. Pattz was not in the hiz last night for the UK premiere of the film, I do have a very special photo of the lad on the red black carpet last night. After the jump, check out a pic of Pattinson with a few new friends …

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