Lip Sync Battle preview videos are here! This week, Malin Akerman (forever Silk Spectre II) silently mouths words against Stephen Merchant, executive producer of the show, and all around hilarious writer of such shows as The Office and Extras. The clips show Malin Akerman performing “Pour Some Sugar On Me” by Def Leppard in a catsuit (Meow!), and Stephen Merchant showcasing his derriere to Christina Aguilera’s “Dirrty” (NOT Meow!). Now don’t let the fact that you may not know who Stephen Merchant is deter you from watching. I too, had no idea, until one fine day on YouTube, looking up lip sync battle clips from Jimmy Fallon shows, and came across a gem of a three-way: Joseph Gordon-Levitt vs. Stephen Merchant vs. Jimmy Fallon. I was hooked immediately.

Watch the two preview clips plus the aforementioned gem below.

Rock of Ages
Directed by Adam Shankman
Starring Tom Cruise, Julianne Hough, Diego Boneta, Russell Brand, Paul Giamatti, Catherine Zeta-Jones, Malin Ã…kerman, Mary J. Blige, Alec Baldwin
Warner Bros. Pictures
Rated PG-13 | 123 Minutes
Release Date: June 15, 2012

“Ain’t lookin’ for nothin’ but a good time, and it don’t get better than this.” – Poison

Disclaimer: I am a 27-year-old man with an affinity for musical theatre and ’80s glam rock. I am not ashamed to admit I have shed a tear or two during Glee or the occasional off-Broadway production of Rent. Musicals aren’t for everyone, but for all the Drama Nerds, Band Geeks, and Glee Kids out there, this one’s for you.

From director Adam Shankman (Hairspray) comes Warner Bros. Pictures’ big screen adaptation of the Broadway musical Rock of Ages. The year is 1987. Movies like Fatal Attraction, Moonstruck, and Beverly Hills Cop II blow up the box office while Mötley Crüe, Def Leppard, and Bon Jovi play to sold-out stadiums across the country. In this alternate reality of 1987, however, rock god Stacee Jaxx (Tom Cruise) is responsible for every ’80’s anthem and power ballad – an amalgam of every legendary front man in rock’n’roll history.

Rock of Ages features Julianne Hough (Footloose, Burlesque) as Sherrie Christian, a small-town girl who leaves Tulsa, Oklahoma to follow her Hollywood dreams. There she meets rock’n’roller Drew Boley (Diego Boneta), a bartender at The Bourbon Room, one of Sunset Strip’s hottest concert venues.

After leaving the rock band Girl in the early 1980s guitarist Phil Collen got the break of his life when he was asked to join Def Leppard. For the past 30 years Collen has been one of the most talented, successful, and underrated axeslingers on the planet.

Recovering from a British tour and festive period, Collen is back in warmer climes chatting to me on the phone from his garden in an “unseasonably hot” California. The Def Leppard and Manraze guitarist had much to talk about including milestone anniversaries for “˜Lep, fantastic second Manraze album Punkfunkrootsrock and, erm, Tom Cruise. No Foolin’.

Geeks of Doom: First of all I want to say Happy New Year!

Phil Collen: Thank you, you too. Cheers!

Geeks of Doom: How was your Christmas and New Year?

The official website for Gibson guitars has released what they perceive to be the top 50 metal songs of all time. Gibson.com’s writers and editors worked on compiling the list over several weeks, releasing 10 entries at a time, and recently released the top 10, which declared the number one metal song to be “Master of Puppets” by Metallica.

In some ways, the number one spot for Metallica is fitting, considering 2011 is the 25th anniversary of the release of their Master of Puppets album. Having said that though, metalheads are notorious for having fierce and strong opinions about what they consider to be their “top songs,” on top of their fierce and strong opinions about what bands are or are not even metal.

In 1992, Vivian Campbell joined the mega-success rock group Def Leppard, stepping into the second lead guitarist slot left vacate by Steve Clark, who had died the year before. At the time, Campbell had gone a few years out of the spotlight after leaving David Coverdale’s rock supergroup Whitesnake before signed on with the Leps, a position he’s had for nearly 20 years that remains his most high-profile gig to date.

The Irish-born Campbell, who got big break back in 1983 as Ronnie James Dio’s hot-shot lead guitarist in the former Black Sabbath frontman’s newly created solo band, Dio, has always said that the guitar parts in Def Leppard weren’t really challenging to him and he was fine with that. Now, the guitarist is finally bitching about it, complaining that fellow Lep guitarist Phil Collen gets all the good guitar parts. Let’s just say, I told you so.