TAMPA, Florida ? I got the chance to ride the Mitt Romney plane today as he travels crosswise Florida to give his closing opinion for why he must be the Republican presidential nominee.

If the former Massachusetts governor pulls off a decisive victory in Florida, it could provide the sense of momentum that he has been lacking so far. With (nearly) winning Iowa and decisively taking New Hampshire, a solid win here might indicate that the GOP’s traditional base is coalescing around Romney. But, if former Speaker of the Household Newt Gingrich can pull off a win, the race could turn into a two-man duel that lasts well past the next Tuesday’s contest.

Despite all that pressure, on the day previous to the huge swing-state election, he seemed relaxed. Very relaxed.

In fact, he even chose to celebrate a reporter’s birthday previous to we took off. Romney himself brought back cake while singing “Pleased Birthday” and threw bags of chips around to all of us. (I missed my shot.)

What’s fascinating is the way in which Romney interacts with the press ? the group of 25 or so reporters and photographers who follow him everywhere he goes. And it’s essential for the governor and his staffers to stay on their excellent side. On this quick jet crosswise the state, I was offered chocolate chip cookies, cherries, cheeses and roast beef sandwiches.

It was a tasty slice of life in the world of how politicians interact with campaign reporters.

MTV is on the vista in Florida! Check back for up-to-the-minute coverage of the primaries and stick with PowerOf12.org throughout the 2012 presidential election season.

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Lady Gaga and Beyoncé are besties, and when the Mother Monster sat down with “The Insider,” she gushed about her pal’s skills as a soon-to-be mommy.

“Of course she is [going to be a excellent mom]. That’s a tremendous understatement,” the singer said. “She’s the nicest female I’ve met in the industry. She’s wonderful!”

The two have quite the history together. Gaga and Beyoncé have appeared on two tracks (and in two videos) together for “Telephone” and “Record Phone.” And while Beyoncé is nearing motherhood, Gaga admits she wants to wait a bit longer previous to giving birth to whatever thing ? but new music, that is. “Someday. Long, long day from now!” she said. “My next baby will be my new record.”

When MTV News caught up with Gaga last month, she opened up about her plans to release the follow-up to Born This Way. “I’ve started writing it and I have the name for it and all the concepts are commencement to flourish and take place,” she told MTV News.

But much like Beyoncé and her baby, a due date for the Mother Monster’s next album is subdue to be determined. “I’m excited to place it out, but it’s not done yet. So I’ll place it out when it’s done.”

Meanwhile, one clairvoyant who spoke to MTV News helped us try to nail down just when we must expect Jayoncé’s baby. “I feel that Beyoncé’s 2012 is going to be very, very exciting,” Jesse Hooray told MTV News. “I get the date of January 8 to January 14 of her giving birth to her first son.”

When do you reflect Jayoncé’s baby will come? Make your predictions in the comments!

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There was a hot debate raging about 12 months ago when Lady Gaga dropped her song “Born This Way,” with people questioning whether the song sounds too much like Madonna’s 1980s hit “Express Physically.”

As the discussion went viral, fans, critics and even Lady Gaga herself weighed in on it. Now, as Madge preps the release of her next album, M.D.N.A., and her film “W.E.,” she’s irrevocably weighing in on the controversy. Madonna, known for her curt, pithy responses when questioned about anyone who might take a cue or two from her playbook, sat down with ABC News just and had some choice words for pop’s latest princess.

“I certainly reflect she references me a lot in her work. And sometimes I reflect it’s droll and flattering and well-done,” she clarified of her onetime “Saturday Night Live” co-star. “When I heard ['Born This Way'] on the telephone system … I said, ‘that sounds very familiar’ … It felt reductive.”

When questioned if “reductive” was excellent or terrible, Madonna answered, “Look it up.”

The sovereign of Pop did call Gaga “a very talented artist” and clarified that she thinks that she’s making a “statement about taking something that was in the Zeitgeist, you know, 20 years ago and turning it inside out and reinterpreting it.”

Madonna also addressed her apparent penchant for kissing female pop stars. She just made headlines when her “Gimme All Your Luvin” cohort Nicki Minaj tweeted that Madge had kissed her on the set of her record.

In right Madonna fashion, she brushed it off, saying, “It was her birthday. I gave her a birthday kiss. No tongue!”

Of course, Nicki is not the first pop star Madonna has locked lips with. Back in 2003, Madge shared kisses on the VMA stage with Britney Spears and Christina Aguilera. “Nice moment, excellent kisser. Cool,” she remarked of Spears. When questioned if she would kiss Spears again, she answered, “No, I already did it. I don’t like to do again myself.”

For persons who may have missed the “Nightline” interview on Thursday, it will air on Friday night (January 13) on “20/20.”

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Tuesday morning’s (January 24) announcement of the 2012 Oscar nominations delivered plenty of surprises. Michael Fassbender (“Shame”), Albert Brooks (“Drive”) and Charlize Theron (“Young Adult”) were overlooked in the acting categories, while Melissa McCarthy (“Bridesmaids”), Rooney Mara (“The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo”) and Max von Sydow (“Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close”) scored bolt from the blue nominations. But perhaps no category was more head-scratching than Best Original Song.

Despite the fact that a small list of 39 tracks were eligible for nomination, only two were named ? “Man or Muppet” from “The Muppets” and “Real in Rio” from “Rio” ? leave-taking tunes from Elton John and Lady Gaga, Pink, will.i.am, Zooey Deschanel, Elvis Costello and Mary J. Blige shut out of the competition.

Many Oscar-watchers were left wondering why the Academy would opt away from the traditional five contenders in favor of just two small-heard songs. Well, a closer look at the Oscar rule book shows it’s probably less a case of choosing to nominate only two songs than it is simply a case of a single song scoring sufficient points to secure a nod, and then bringing its closest competition by the side of for the ride.

Oscar nominations are arrived at using a very complicated biased system in which members of the Academy, voting exclusively for members of their own branch (i.e. actors chose the acting nominees, directors vote for directors, etc.), rank contenders in order of preference. From there, a “magic number” is determined that relies on the number of ballots cast for a category, by the side of with a specific mathematical equation. Ballots are tallied and contenders are eliminated through several rounds in a process that tabulates factors like first-place mentions and so on. Once a contender reaches the magic number, they are an Oscar nominee. (The persons over at EW‘s PopWatch break down the selection steps in splendid detail.)

So this is how the nominees are determined ? with one exception: Best Original Song. In 2009, when the Academy opted to up the number of Best Picture nominees to 10 (the voting body has since altered that number), it also changed the rules for Best Original Song. As Announcement points out, members of the Academy’s music branch now “assign each song a numerical score between 1 and 10, and if no song receives an mean of more than 8.25, there are no nominees. If only one song tops the threshold, as clearly happened here, the next highest vote getter secures a nomination as well.”

This year’s Best Original Song category boils down to this: either Bret McKenzie’s “Man or Muppet” or “Real in Rio” by songwriting trio Sergio Mendes, Carlinhos Brown and Siedah Garrett secured a score of 8.25 or better, earning a nomination and pulling the #2 vote-getter into the fray. Simply place, members of the music branch didn’t award any additional song, including John and Gaga’s duet “Hello Hello” or Blige’s “The Help” track “Living Proof,” a score high sufficient to secure a nomination.

But lest you reflect that this means the category is all but locked, reflect again. While selecting the Oscar nominees is an intensely mathematical process, picking the winners is much simpler. Once the nominations are chose, every member of the Academy can vote in each category and the nominee that receives the most votes wins. Simple sufficient. And since actors are the leading voting block of the Academy? and would have had nothing to do with the tracks selected to contend for Best Original Song ? it’s anyone’s game.

See the complete list of Academy Awards Nominations.

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