The glam pop singer won eight prizes at Sunday’s ceremony and donned the raw, red meat dress with a matching purse to accept one of her statuettes. It became one of the most debated moments of the televised show.

“If we don’t stand up for what we believe in and if we don’t fight for our rights, pretty soon we’re going to have as much rights as the meat on our bones,” the 24-year-old performer told talk show host Ellen DeGeneres on her television show broadcast on Monday.

“And, I am not a piece of meat,” she added.

Sunday was not the first time Lady Gaga had worn a meat-based outfit, she adorned the cover of Vogue Hommes Japan’s September issue wearing a meat bikini.

Animal rights protesters People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals said that “wearing a dress made from cuts of dead cows is offensive enough to bring comment”.

Lady Gaga reassured DeGeneres she didn’t meant any disrespect to vegetarians or vegans and went on to describe herself as “the most judgment free human being on the earth”.

Lady Gaga, who has sold over 10 million records in the past two years, knows how to grab attention and get the world talking about her.

Her eccentric outfits, numerous hit records such as “Let’s Dance”, “Bad Romance” and “Telephone” and startling live stunts including setting her piano on fire, have made her a global pop culture phenomenon.

The haul saw her end the night as the second most honoured act of all time, putting her on a par with the big winners of 1986, Norwegian rock group a-ha. British rocker Peter Gabriel still holds the record of nine competitive wins for his innovative video “Sledgehammer” in 1987.

The majority of Lady Gaga’s awards were for her “Bad Romance” video.

“I was so nervous for tonight that I would let my fans down,” she said in a tearful acceptance speech as she won the final award for video of the year.

The 24-year-old led the field with 13 nominations and in each of her three trips to the stage, the other awards were announced off-camera, she wore a different costume, including one that resembled a large black trash bag.

Eminem was the only other multiple winner. The eight-time nominee won a pair of awards for his “Not Afraid” track.

Country-pop sensation Taylor Swift went home empty-handed after receiving one nomination. The 20-year-old provided one of the more provocative moments during the show, debuting a song that recounted her on-stage controversy with Kanye West during last year’s ceremony.

The award for best new artist went to teen pop idol Justin Bieber for his song “Baby”, which also featured rapper Ludacris.

Other winners included actor Jared Leto’s rock band 30 Seconds to Mars for best rock video. Muse, the Black Keys, Jay Z  and Alicia Keys, and Florence and the Machine won in technical categories.

The assassin drama earned $13 million during the three-day period beginning 3 September and took $16.1 million since Wednesday, where it benefited from a two-day head-start on competing movies.

It was a better opening than forecasts expected but is similar to “Leatherheads”, another Clooney-flop which earned $31.3 million during its limited run.

Rock photographer Anton Corbijn directed the film in which Clooney plays an emotionless gun fanatic hiding out in a picturesque Italian town.

Two other new movies which opened on Friday were “Machete”, a 20th Century Fox violent fantasy and a Warner Bros romanic comedy starring Drew Barrymore “Going the Distance”.

The movies opened at number three and number five, earning $11.3 million and $6.9 million respectively.

“Machete” uses the immigration debate as a backdrop and is a bloody homage to 1970s B-movies. It stars Danny Trejo as a Mexican assassin who is characterised by killing people with sharp objects.

“Going the Distance” is the latest in a series of rom-com flops for actress Barrymore, who stars alongside Justin Long as bi-coastal lovers. Other recent turkeys of this ilk starring Barrymore include “Lucky You,” “Music and Lyrics” and “Fever Pitch”.

Sales for the top-12 films fell to their lowest level since the 11-13 September and the number of tickets sold fell to its lowest level since 1997.

The top moves of summer 2010 were “Toy Story 3″ ($408 million), “Iron Man 2″ ($312 million) and “The Twilight Saga: Eclipse” ($298 million).

Notable bombs included “Cats & Dogs: The Revenge of Kitty Galore” ($42 million), “Scott Pilgrim vs. the World” ($29 million), “Jonah Hex” ($10.5 million) and now “Going the Distance”.

The 58-year old actor recently quit his role on “America’s Got Talent” after four years and a public struggle with alcohol abuse.

He will be joined on the show by 19-year-old Bristol Palin, daughter of Conservative powerbroker Sarah.

Since giving birth to her son Tripp in December 2008, single mother Palin has featured in entertainment shows, magazines, and made her acting debut on a U.S. TV show centred around teenage pregnancy.

Jennifer Gray, star of eighties dance movie “Dirty Dancing” has also been lined up to participate, although she played down any advantage from receiving professional dance training for the 1987 film.

“I’m 50″ she said. “It’s been a lot of years since then”.

Fans of the TV family sitcom “The Brady Brunch” will welcome the inclusion of Florence Anderson, 76, who played mom Carol Brady in the popular 1970s show.

From the reality TV world, Mike “The Situation” Sorrentino will look to enhance his growing profile along with actress Audrina Patridge from fellow MTV hit “The Hills”.

Singers Michael Bolton and Brandy, former NFL quarterback Kurt Warner, retired basketball player Rick Fox, comedian Margaret Cho and teen U.S. actor Kyle Massey from Disney show “Cory in the House” complete the lineup.

“Dancing with the Stars” was the second most popular show on television last season, behind “American Idol” with an average audience of 20 million viewers.

The reigning champion is Pussycat Dolls singer Nicole Scherzinger who teamed with dancer Derek Hough.

Her early discharge follows media reports that doctors treating the actress do not believe she suffers from previously diagnosed drug or psychiatric problems.

The 24-year-old was also released from jail this month on the grounds of good behavior and to help alleviate overcrowding after serving just 13 days of a 90-day sentence for violating her probation in a 2007 drunk driving and cocaine possession charge.

Lohan immediately entered a residential rehabiliation program in Los Angeles for a 90-day period stint as part of her sentence.

However, the prosecutor in her case stated a fortnight ago that health care professionals were likely to recommend an early release with follow-up treatment as an outpatient for Lohan.

The actress admitted she was addicted to alcohol and drugs in 2007 and went to rehab three times.

She was ordered to wear an alcohol monitoring anklet in May this year and was jailed for missing multiple alcohol education classes imposed as part of her probation three years ago.

Lohan began her career as a promising actress, starring in “Mean Girls” and “The Parent Trap”, but she has floundered in the past three years, hitting the headlines repeatedly for nights out and strange behaviour.

Her legal problems have delayed the shooting of her next movie in which she will take up the role of 1970s porn actress Linda Lovelace. Lohan was last seen in movie theatres with “I Know Who Killed Me”, which flopped in 2007.

Gaga recorded 5,635,460 followers earlier today, while Spears had 5,646,028, according to Famecount.com, a social media statistics service.

If this trend continues, the singer of hits such as “Poker Face” and “Telephone” should surpass Spears by Thursday or Friday this week.

Spears’ brief run at the top of Twitter began less than three months ago, when she overtook actor Ashton Kutcher for the top spot.

Gaga is the most popular entity online with 5.6 million Twitter followers, 16 million Facebook friends and YouTube popularity, but the singer’s Twitter crown is far from secure.

Teen singer Justin Bieber added 800,000 new Twitter followers in the past month to his existing 4.5 million and could pass Gaga within six months.

Ashton Kutcher now finds himself as Twitter’s third most followed with 5.57 million followers and chat show hostess Ellen DeGeneres is fourth with 5.07 million followers.

US President Barack Obama has broken the 5 million barrier and his following of 5.05 million sees him in fifth place.

Justin Bieber is sixth overall but is being hotly pursued by Kim Kardashian in seventh who has a following of 4.5 million.

Talk show legend Oprah Winfrey is at number eight with a following of just over 4 million and singer Taylor Swift is close on breaking that barrier herself at nine with 3.97 million followers.

Completing the top 10 is singer John Mayer who has 3.6 million followers.

Singer Katy Perry, actress Ashley Tisdale and television presenter Ryan Seacrest are all close to Mayer’s total and could break into the top 10 soon.

The publishers of a book featuring a cartoon cat going by the name of “Snooky” have retained the rights to the name which was first trademarked in 2004 for the children’s book “Adventures of Snooky”.

Despite the difference in spelling, the government office refused Polizzi’s request to trademark her name for print media because of a “likelihood of confusion with the animated feline”.

Polizzi has the option to appeal the U.S.P.T.O.’s decision.

Born, in Santiago, Chile, Polizzi was was adopted and raised by Italian American parents and her nickname, “Snooki” was given to her by her friends in middle school.

Her nickname is based on the character “Snooki the cootchie crook” from the film “Save the Last Dance” because she was the first of her friends to make out with a boy.

MTV first introduced Polizzi in the first season of “Is She Really Going Out With Him”, a show that tells the story of “sweet girls” and the “douchebags” they date. Season 1, Episode 14 tells the story of Nicole and Justin the “Jerz Pud”.

Polizzi presented an award at 2010 CMT Music Awards and her rise to prominence in the public eye has led to an appearance on Jay Leno.

On July 27, 2010, the cast of “Jersey Shore” appeared at the New York Stock Exchange and Polizzi rang the opening bell.

The movie is set to give the veteran action hero one of the biggest openings of his career and should easily out-muscle “Eat Pray Love” starring Julia Roberts and “Scott Pilgrim vs The World”.

The all-star action movie, also starring of Mickey Rourke, Jason Statham and Dolph Lundgren, is expected to earn upward of $30 million from Friday through Sunday.

“The interest level with our core audience of male moviegoers is extremely high” said David Spitz, president of distribution at Lionsgate. “So we have a real shot at having a very solid weekend”.

“The Expendables” revolves around a team of hired mercenaries being paid to overthrow a dictator in South America. Making cameo appearances are Bruce Willis and Arnold Schwarzenegger, while Mexican actress Giselle Itie is the lone female co-star.

This is Stallone’s first movie appearance since “Rambo” in January 2008 with “Rambo,” which opened to $18.2 million. His most successful opening, was the $33.4 million start, adjusted for inflation, for “Spy Kids 3D: Game Over” in 2003.

“Eat Pray Love” is Columbia’s adaptation of writer Elizabeth Gilbert’s memoir about a woman’s post-divorce global journey toward self-discovery.

Pre-release tracking suggests the movie will match other successful, female-orientated titles such as “Julie & Julia” ($20 million last August) and “Mamma Mia!” ($27.8 million in July 2008).

“Scott Pilgrim” is a comic book adaptation which should travel well into the teen millions through Sunday and cost approximately $60 million to make.

The movie stars Michael Cera who battles for his new girlfriend’s affections by defeating her seven former lovers.

The opening marks the second-highest of Ferrell’s career and a huge turnaround from “Land of the Lost” which flopped last summer.

Wahlberg achieved his best opening since 2001′s “Planet of the Apes” remake which began with takings of $68.5 million in a rare foray into comedy.

In “The Other Guys,” Ferrell and Wahlberg play mismatched underdogs hunting down a con artist, played by English comedian Steve Coogan.

Reviews were strong for the $85 million film which was good news for Ferrell who suffered poor openings for both “Land of the Lost” ($18.8 million) and 2008′s “Semi-Pro” ($15.5 million).

His most successful opening remains the 2006 comedy “Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby” which took $47 million.

Following three number one weekends, DiCaprio’s dreams thriller “Inception” fell to number two with $18.6 million, taking the total for the hit release to $227.7 million after four weekends.

Walt Disney release “Step Up 3D,” opened in third position with $15.5 million but that figure was well below its predecessors, even with the additional revenue from 3D screenings.

Also in the top five were Angelina Jolie spy thriller “Salt” with $11.1 million, and Steve Carell comedy “Dinner for Schmucks” with $10.5 million. Their respective totals grew to $92 million after three weekends, and $46.7 million after two.

The acclaimed comedy-drama “The Kids are All Right” finally broke into the top 10 after five weekends, rising two places with $2.6 million.

Industry body Rajar stated the show had 8.48 million listeners per week which was down from the record of 9.53 million who tuned in last quarter.

However, this lower figure was still the second highest total of listeners recorded by Rajar for a show.

Rajar said Evans had added more than one million listeners to the breakfast show in May after he replaced Sir Terry Wogan at the beginning of 2010. Evans’ show broadcasts for 30 minutes more every day than Sir Terry’s did.

“This is another good set of figures for the radio industry” said director of BBC Audio & Music Tim Davie.

The BBC Trust had earlier rejected plans to close digital station 6 Music and their decision was justified after it recorded a record 1.19 million listeners, a figure that doubled last year’s audience.

The general election period also saw BBC Radio 4 and 5 live record their biggest ever audiences, with the “Today” programme also attracting a record number of listeners.

Radio 4 reached 10.4 million people per week, an increase from last quarter’s figure of 10 million while the “Today” programme attracted an extra 540,000 weekly listeners.

5 live pulled in 6.76 million listeners per week.

“I’m delighted to see our speech networks attracting record audiences”, Davie said “fuelled by interest in the general election and illustrating the public’s enduring demand for high quality news, analysis and discussion on radio”.

However, despite the record figures, BBC radio’s overall reach dipped slightly from 34.88 million in the last quarter to 34.59 million.