She Forever With Us.
Celebrating the life of Phyllis Hyman!
Phyllis Hyman (July 6, 1949 – June 30,
1995)
Phyllis Hyman was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania,
and grew up in the St. Clair Village, the South Hills section of Pittsburgh.
Born to an African American family, she was the eldest of seven children and a
third cousin of actor Earle Hyman (best known for his recurring role on TV's The
Cosby Show as Cliff's father, Russell Huxtable). After leaving Pittsburgh, her
music training started at a music school.
Phyllis Hyman began her career as a silky voiced,
jazz-influenced singer and gradually moved into slick, heavily produced urban
contemporary ballads and light dance numbers. Hyman won a scholarship to music
school and then began her professional career with the group New Direction in
1971. When they disbanded after a national tour, Hyman joined the Miami ensemble
All the People. She also worked there with another local group, the Hondo Beat,
and appeared in the film Lenny. That was followed by a two-year stint heading
Phyllis Hyman & the P/H Factor, before relocating to New York. Hyman did
background vocals on Jon Lucien’s Premonition LP and built her reputation
performing in New York clubs. Hyman was discovered in 1975 by internationally
known pop artist and music industry veteran Sid Maurer, and former Epic Records
promoter Fred Frank, and signed to their Roadshow Records/Desert Moon
imprint.
Norman Connors made her his featured vocalist in the
mid-’70s, and she was highlighted on a cover of the Stylistics‘ “Betcha By Golly
Wow,” which appeared on Connors’ You Are My Starship LP. Hyman also sang with
Pharaoh Sanders & the Fatback Band while cutting two singles as a lead
artist. Buddah released Phyllis Hyman in 1977, but she really began making an
impression when she was signed by Arista the next year. The songs “Somewhere in
My Lifetime” and “You Know How to Love Me” both made the R&B Top 20. Hyman
got her lone Top Ten hit in 1981 with “Can’t We Fall in Love Again,” but her
albums did consistently well through the ’80s.
The production teams of Mtume/Reggie Lucas and Narada
Michael Walden/Thom Bell gave her material that showcased her skill with
sophisticated ballads. Hyman had more success when she left Arista for
Philadelphia International in 1986, with the single “Living All Alone” putting
her back in the R&B Top 20. She also sang on fusion and light jazz dates by
Joe Sample, Ronnie Foster, and Grover Washington, Jr., a more conventional jazz
session for McCoy Tyner, and a pop date with the Four Tops.
On the afternoon of June 30, 1995, Hyman committed
suicide by overdosing on pentobarbital and secobarbital in her New York City
apartment. She was found unconscious hours before she was scheduled to perform
at the Apollo Theater with Whispers and I was at this concert and I like the rest of the audience was simply SHOCKED and saddened. She died 3 hours later at St. Luke's-Roosevelt Hospital.
Her suicide note read in part: "I'm tired. I'm tired. Those of you that I love
know who you are. May God bless you” She was 45 years old. A memorial service
was held at St. Peter's Lutheran Church in Manhattan. The following week would
have been her 46th birthday. Her Last 2 CD’s “I Refuse To Be Lonely” and
“Forever With You” was issued posthumously.
Lets take a walk down Memory Lane…shall
we?...ENJOY!
But Phyllis lives on in her music. She is Forever with
us!
Poor Usher has got 99 problems and a b*tch
is definitely one. The singer is being stalked by a woman who among other things
claims that she is his wife.
According to TMZ, Usher fears that his life
may be in jeopardy and has secured a temporary restraining order against
26-year-old Darshelle Jones-Rakestraw who is listed standing at 5’2″ and
weighing in between 140 and 180 lbs. Court documents say that Rakestraw
allegedly showed up without an invitation to Usher’s Georgia home on June 23rd
to harass him and his family. She apparently pounded on his door and demanded to
be let in, according to Hot 107.9.
Usher called the cops who showed up to tell
Rakestraw to leave and not come back. She obeyed, but it didn’t end there. She
came back the next day, prompting Usher to call the cops yet again. When they
arrived, Rakestraw told them that she was Usher’s wife and had misplaced her
keys. Cops didn’t buy it and arrested her. Afterwards, Usher immediately got a
temporary restraining order, saying that his faux-wife “placed [him] in
reasonable fear for his own safety and/or the safety of his immediate
family.” Usher is hoping to make the arrangement more
permanent in a hearing next month.
Rakestraw took to YouTube, putting up a
video claiming that Usher has been handing her cash under the table since last
year, promised to provide her with comfortable living arrangements, and that
he’d help her launch her music career. She insists that “I’m not a stalker …
[Usher] has officially slandered me and defamed my character,” and is planning
on filing defamation charges against the singer soon, if only to be close to
him. Strangely, Usher’s reps haven’t commented on
the video, which you can watch below:
Video:
Do you think Rakestraw’s story about Usher
measures up or is she a classic case of celebrity stalker?
Last Week rumors circulated that Tamar
Braxton served K. Michelle with a cease and desist order over threatening
remarks K made about Tamar during a radio interview. K. Michelle is from Memphis. She jumps
gates. She is not afraid of a piece of paper...
My Girl The Christian Progressive Liberal over at Jack and Jill Politics
put me on to something I had been thinking about lately in this season of
political campaigning.
I’ve been reading a lot about some Democratic elected officials not
attending the DNC Convention in Charlotte this year.
Yet, they expect to be
supported in their own re-elections. As Democ-RATS.
Some are begging off,
saying they have to worry about campaigning in their own districts. (Cough,
Claire McCaskill, Cough). I’m sorry, but you’re sending the wrong damned
message, to the POTUS as well as your Democratic colleagues by your absence from
the convention, the formation of the campaign platform going into November, as
well as probably shooting your own campaigns in the foot.
Here’s a few more “Democrats” that should be given the side eye:
McCaskill joins a growing list of Democratic senators and representatives
who face tough re-elections who have said they will not attend the convention in
Charlotte. West Virginia’s Democratic Gov. Earl Ray Tomblin, along with the
state’s Democratic Sen. Joe Manchin and Rep. Nick Rahall, said earlier this
month they will not attend the convention. Two Democratic New York
representatives – Rep. Kathy Hochul and Rep. Bill Owens – also said they would
not attend. Pennsylvania Rep. Mark Critz also said he would skip September’s
event.
On Tuesday, Montana Democratic Sen. Jon Tester and Utah Rep. Jim Matheson
both confirmed they would not attend the Democratic convention. Tester’s
campaign spokesman said the senator would be working in Montana during the
convention and has proposed a debate during that week. He refused further
comment on why the Tester won’t be going to Charlotte.
They all have
something in common and it stinks.
They’re all “ConservaDems” or “Blue Dog”
Democrats – these are individuals that could not get elected in their districts
UNLESS they ran as Democrats.
They should be given the side-eye because at
some point or another, they give in to their baser instincts, which are those
usually reserved for their ReThug colleagues in both Houses of Congress.
I don’t care what excuse they make for not going – and the excuses they’re
giving are pretty lame. Your campaigns are not going to get any more easier
whether you miss the convention or not – and especially if your district is
about to kick you out of office because you haven’t been representing their
interests.
Granted, McCaskill’s in a tight race, but so is Tim Kaine, who’s running
against George “Macaca” Allen, who lost that Senate seat in Virginia six years
ago when he coined that “Macaca” phrase and directed it at an Indian student who
also just happened to be an American-born Citizen. That shyt tanked Allen’s
campaign – and Virginians are thinking about giving him his seat back, because
Jim Webb is retiring.
But, to my knowledge, I haven’t heard anything about Kaine skipping the
convention and his race is as tight as McCaskill’s, if not more. So, there
really is no excuse about these Democrats skipping the convention, and if they
do, they have no room to complain if the campaign platform of the POTUS does not
include their issues or concerns, because, just like VOTING, you cannot complain
about the representation, if you didn’t participate in the process.
You also
know about them holder Eric Holder in contempt of Congress. Well meet the 17
Demo-Rats who voted to hold him in contempt! 17 Democrats voted yes — with most
Republicans — to hold Holder in criminal contempt.
A * denotes a previous NRA
endorsement: Jason Altmire (D-Pa.) * John Barrow
(D-Ga.)* Dan Boren (D-Okla.) * Leonard Boswell (D-Iowa) * Ben Chandler
(D-Ky.) * Mark Critz (D-Pa.) * Joe Donnelly (D-Ind.) * Kathleen Hochul
(D-N.Y.) Ron Kind (D-Wis.) * Larry Kissell (D-N.C.) * Jim Matheson
(D-Utah) * Mike McIntyre (D-N.C.) * William Owens (D-N.Y.) * Collin
Peterson (D-Minn.) * Nick Rahall (D-W. Va.) * Mike Ross (D-Ark.)
* Timothy Walz (D-Minn.)*
THOSE DAMN BENEDICT ARNOLD’S WITH FRIENDS LIKE THESE??????
Tyler Perry and cast celebrate Madea's Witness Protection
premiere
Tyler Perry and the cast of Madea's Witness Protection
were in New York City to celebrate with a special premiere Monday.Romeo Miller and his family, walked the red carpet. Denise
Richards, Eugene Levy, Gayle King, Chrisette Michele, Eric West, Tika Sumpter,
Corbin Bleu, Tom Arnold, Marla Gibbs, John Amos, Marlon Jackson and more also
made appearances at the premiere
Due in theaters today, the movie centers on
Madea taking care of a family that must enter witness protection after an
unfortunate chain of events.
Perry stars as Madea and Uncle Joe in the flick. Should be fun
because Madea will be in competition with The Beefcake that is Magic Mike this
weekend as well!
British Rocker Takes Aim at Jay Z and Kanye West
British rocker Bernard Butler trashes Jay Z, Beyonce and Kanye
West's Hackney apperance. British rocker Bernard Butler has taken aim at rap
heavyweights Jay Z and Kanye West, branding them old men "who can't
dance"
The former Suede guitarist was watching TV coverage o
f London's
Hackney Weekend concert on Saturday (23Jun12) but was left baffled when
headliner Jay Z called his pal West onstage to perform several songs with
him.
And Butler was even more annoyed when he saw footage of the Big Pimpin'
hitmaker's wife Beyonce dancing in front of the stage with her friends and
aides, calling the Crazy in Love singer an "insincere PR trip". In a series
of tweets, the guitarist-turned-producer wrote, "I'm decades behind music and
all popular culture. I see Beyonce as a nonstop insincere PR trip... How does
anybody fall for that b**locks?... (She is) standing in the security pit
surrounded by 100 sycophants."
He also criticised Jay Z's performance,
insisting it was poor compared to a previous appearance on Bbc Tv show Later...
With Jools Holland, adding, "Jay Z on 'Later' had an amazing drummer, live
guitar player, and on the Radio 1 (Hackney Weekend) thing it was him and Kanye
like a pair of 40 year old A&R (record company) men who can't dance shouting
'London oh yeah', whilst an iPod played Otis Redding. I can do that at home. But
without them 2 falling around the front room."
Gospel Singer James Fortune, Wife Respond To Lawsuit For Child
Abuse!
Well My God…Bishop Jones shook the earth beneath me..NOW
THIS???? Reports began to surface Monday that the gospel singer James
Fortune (pictured) was being sued for a reported $5 million for abusing his
then-4-year-old stepson back in 2001 and disfiguring him. Fortune pled guilty to
the felony charge of injury to a child and received a six-year deferred
adjudication. Now the biological Father of the victim, who is now 15 years old,
wants Fortune to pay for the plastic surgery that could correct the
disfigurements, reports My Fox.
According to the lawsuit, the tragic turn of
events began when Fortune picked up his wife Cheryl‘s son from preschool. When
the teacher told Fortune that the child misbehaved, he allegedly became
infuriated. The man of God reportedly yelled and berated the child for his
mischievous behavior, gave him time out, then prepared a scalding bath for
him.
The lawsuit, which also names Cheryl, contends that Fortune
then demanded that the little boy remove his clothing so that he could “whip the
child with a switch.” The man then forcefully submerged the boy in extremely
hot water and held him down. The boy sustained second- and- third-degree
burns over 47 percent of his body. The child’s injuries were so extensive
that he had to be flown to two hospitals for treatment. The permanently
disfigured child remained at a hospital in Galveston, Texas, for 63 days, where
he received various skin grafts for his hands, buttocks, genitals, and
legs.
Watch the James Fortune’s child abuse case here:
Now, in response to his reignited scandal, the man who
believes his mission is to draw lost souls to Christ has issued a response:
I
recently became aware of a civil suit pending against my wife, Cheryl Fortune,
and I, for an incident that occurred in 2001 involving my stepson. There was a
criminal investigation and all matters were resolved in 2003. Since that time,
my family and I, including my stepson, have continued with family traditions and
always have a loving family environment.
We are shocked by this lawsuit but understand people are free
to use the court system to pursue claims, whether they contain merit or baseless
matters. We are confident through this process, if it proceeds to a judge or
jury, the ultimate decision maker will render a decision that is favorable to
the circumstances and timing surrounding this situation. We believe in our
American justice system and know it will work for us as it has for millions of
other Americans. I love all my children, including my stepson, and I ask for
your prayers as we deal with this matter privately. Thank you for your continued
support for me, my family, and ministry.*
Fortune is the former Minister of Music for Houston’s
mega-church Higher Dimension. Besides being a recording artist, Fortune is a
songwriter and producer. He and his group Fiya have received multiple Stellar
Awards and are recognized for their songs “I Believe” and “I Trust
You.”
And this little nugget came to me from someone in the Houston
area. QUOTE ” I know all the parties in this case, the father is a respected
educator in the Houston Community and owns a private school. He’s a hard worker
and is loved by the students at his school. James Fortune is a selfish SOB who
has preyed on people for years because church people are sooo stupid and
vulnerable. So let me drop another bomb on you all…James has another mentally
disabled child that they keep hidden away because its not a love child…its a
rape child. That bastard participated in a gang rape at a church and it was
determined by DNA he was the one who fathered the child. I can’t stand him or
his fake wife!!! The news media needs to investigate that as
well…UNQUOTE!
The question now remains, why isn’t this monster under a jail
and why is Cheryl STILL with him??? Somebody say, “WHAT THE
HELL?”
Oprah To INTERVIEW LeBron James, Dwyane Wade & Chris
Bosh
Next up, Oprah will sit down with NBA superstars of the Miami
Heat, including 2012 NBA Finals MVP LeBron James, Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh at
Miami’s American Airlines Arena, on Oprah’s Next Chapter Sunday.
From
Oprah.com: Talked to the HEAT yesterday. Wow was that interesting – getting
to talk to LeBron James, Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh just a few days after their
great NBA victory. Was sitting in front of my TV during Game 4 of the finals and
thought if they win, this will be triple sweet for them after all the naysayers
and hoopla surrounding last year’s defeat.
So we called and they said Yes; Come on down to Miami after
the parade. It was clear to me, and will be to you too, that this
Championship is not just about basketball but so much more. We talked about how
sweet it is to prove “I told you so” to yourself.
NEXT CHAPTER this Sunday
night at 8/7c.—Oprah
VIDEO FABULOSITY! Tamia's "Beautiful Surprise" VIDEO Featuring
Grant Hill
Tamia has dropped the video for "Beautiful Surprise," the lead
single from her upcoming album of the same name. It also features a romantioc
cameo from her hubby Grant Hill.
One of our favorite fab
chicks, Tamia, just released the official video for her single "Beautiful
Surprise." Tamia's album Beautiful Surprise will hit stores in August, while
the single hits iTunes today. The bona fide basketball wife and mom of two
proves once again that she's still got it--whether she stays in the spotlight or
not.
Nora Ephron, an essayist and humorist in the Dorothy Parker
mold (only smarter and funnier, some said) who became one of her era’s most
successful screenwriters and filmmakers, making romantic comedy hits like
“Sleepless in Seattle” and “When Harry Met Sally,” died Tuesday night in
Manhattan. She was 71. The cause was pneumonia brought on by acute myeloid
leukemia, her son Jacob Bernstein said. In a commencement address she
delivered in 1996 at Wellesley College, her alma mater, Ms. Ephron recalled that
women of her generation weren’t expected to do much of anything. But she wound
up having several careers, all of them successfully and many of them
simultaneously.
She was a journalist, a blogger, an essayist, a novelist, a
playwright, an Oscar-nominated screenwriter and a movie director — a rarity in a
film industry whose directorial ranks were and continue to be dominated by men.
Her later box-office success included “You’ve Got Mail” and “Julie & Julia.”
By the end of her life, though remaining remarkably youthful looking, she had
even become something of a philosopher about age and its indignities.
“Why do people write books that say it’s better to be older
than to be younger?” she wrote in “I Feel Bad About My Neck,” her 2006
best-selling collection of essays. “It’s not better. Even if you have all your
marbles, you’re constantly reaching for the name of the person you met the day
before yesterday.”
Nora Ephron was born on May 19, 1941, on the Upper West Side
of Manhattan, the eldest of four sisters, all of whom became writers. That was
no surprise; writing was the family business. Her father, Henry, and her mother,
the former Phoebe Wolkind, were Hollywood screenwriters who wrote, among other
films, “Carousel,” “There’s No Business Like Show Business” and “Captain Newman,
M.D.”
“Everything is copy,” her mother once said, and she and her husband
proved it by turning the college-age Nora into a character in a play, later a
movie, “Take Her, She’s Mine.” The lesson was not lost on Ms. Ephron, who seldom
wrote about her own children but could make sparkling copy out of almost
anything else: the wrinkles on her neck, her apartment, cabbage strudel, Teflon
pans and the tastelessness of egg-white omelets.
She turned her painful breakup with her second husband, the
Watergate journalist Carl Bernstein, into a best-selling novel, “Heartburn,”
which she then recycled into a successful movie starring Jack Nicholson as a
philandering husband and Meryl Streep as a quick-witted version of Ms. Ephron
herself.
When Ms. Ephron was 4, her parents moved from New York to Beverly
Hills, where she grew up, graduating from Beverly Hills High School in 1958. At
Wellesley, she began writing for the school newspaper, and in the summer of 1961
she was a summer intern in the Kennedy White House. She said later that perhaps
her greatest accomplishment there was rescuing the speaker of the house, Sam
Rayburn, from a men’s room in which he had inadvertently locked himself. In an
essay for The New York Times in 2003, she said she was also probably the only
intern that President John F. Kennedy had never hit on.
After graduation from college in 1962, she moved to New York,
a city she always adored, intent on becoming a journalist. Her first job was as
a mail girl at Newsweek. (There were no mail boys, she later pointed out.) Soon
she was contributing to a parody of The New York Post put out during the 1962
newspaper strike. Her piece of it earned her a tryout at The Post, where the
publisher, Dorothy Schiff, remarked: “If they can parody The Post, they can
write for it. Hire them.” Ms. Ephron stayed at The Post for five years,
covering stories like the Beatles, the Star of India robbery at the American
Museum of Natural History, and a pair of hooded seals at the Coney Island
aquarium that refused to mate.
“The Post was a terrible newspaper in the era I worked there,”
she wrote, but added that the experience taught her to write short and to write
around a subject, since the kinds of people she was assigned to cover were never
going to give her much interview time. In the late 1960s Ms. Ephron turned
to magazine journalism, at Esquire and New York mostly. She quickly made a name
for herself by writing frank, funny personal essays — about the smallness of her
breasts, for example — and tart, sharply observed profiles of people like Ayn
Rand, Helen Gurley Brown and the composer and best-selling poet Rod McKuen. Some
of these articles were controversial. In one, she criticized Betty Friedan for
conducting a “thoroughly irrational” feud with Gloria Steinem; in another, she
discharged a withering assessment of Women’s Wear Daily. But all her
articles were characterized by humor and honesty, written in a clear, direct,
understated style marked by an impeccable sense of when to deploy the punchline.
(Many of her articles were assembled in the collections “Wallflower at the
Orgy,” “Crazy Salad” and “Scribble Scribble.”) Ms. Ephron made as much fun
of herself as of anyone else. She was labeled a practitioner of the New
Journalism, with its embrace of novelistic devices in the name of reaching a
deeper truth, but she always denied the connection. “I am not a new journalist,
whatever that is,” she once wrote. “I just sit here at the typewriter and bang
away at the old forms.”
Ms. Ephron got into the movie business more or less by
accident after her marriage to Mr. Bernstein in 1976. He and Bob Woodward, his
partner in the Watergate investigation, were unhappy with William Goldman’s
script for the movie version of their book “All the President’s Men,” so Mr.
Bernstein and Ms. Ephron took a stab at rewriting it. Their version was
ultimately not used, but it was a useful learning experience, she later said,
and it brought her to the attention of people in Hollywood.
Her first screenplay, written with her friend Alice Arlen, was
for “Silkwood,” a 1983 film based on the life of Karen Silkwood, who died under
suspicious circumstances while investigating abuses at a plutonium plant where
she had worked. Ms. Arlen was in film school then, and Ms. Ephron had scant
experience writing for anything other than the page. But Mike Nichols, who
directed the movie (which starred Ms. Streep and Kurt Russell), said that the
script made an immediate impression on him. He and Ms. Ephron had become friends
when she visited him on the set of “Catch-22.”
“I think that was the
beginning of her openly falling in love with the movies,” Mr. Nichols said in an
interview, “and she and Alice came along with ‘Silkwood’ when I hadn’t made a
movie in seven years. I couldn’t find anything that grabbed me.” He added: “Nora
was so funny and so interesting that you didn’t notice that she was also
necessary. I think a lot of her friends and readers will feel that.”
Ms. Ephron followed “Silkwood” three years later with a
screenplay adaptation of her own novel “Heartburn,” which was also directed by
Mr. Nichols. But it was her script for “When Harry Met Sally,” which became a
hit Rob Reiner movie in 1989 starring Billy Crystal and Meg Ryan, that
established Ms. Ephron’s gift for romantic comedy and for delayed but happy
endings that reconcile couples who are clearly meant for each other but don’t
know it. “When Harry Met Sally” is probably best remembered for Ms. Ryan’s
table-pounding faked-orgasm scene with Mr. Crystal in Katz’s Delicatessen on the
Lower East Side, prompting a middle-aged woman (played by Mr. Reiner’s mother,
Estelle Reiner) sitting nearby to remark to her waiter, indelibly, “I’ll have
what she’s having.” The scene wouldn’t have gotten past the Hollywood
censors of the past, but in many other respects Ms. Ephron’s films are
old-fashioned movies, only in a brand-new guise. Her 1998 hit, “You’ve Got
Mail,” for example, which she both wrote (with her sister Delia) and directed,
is partly a remake of the old Ernst Lubitsch film ‘The Shop Around the Corner.”
Ms. Ephron began directing because she knew from her parents’
example how powerless screenwriters are (at the end of their careers both became
alcoholics) and because, as she said in her Wellesley address, Hollywood had
never been very interested in making movies by or about women. She once wrote,
“One of the best things about directing movies, as opposed to merely writing
them, is that there’s no confusion about who’s to blame: you are.” Mr.
Nichols said he had encouraged her to direct. “I knew she would be able to do
it,” he recalled. “Not only did she have a complete comprehension of the process
of making a movie — she simply soaked that up — but she had all the ancillary
skills, the people skills, all the hundreds of things that are useful when
you’re making a movie.”
Her first effort at directing, “This Is My Life” (1992), with
a screenplay by Ms. Ephron and her sister Delia, based on a novel by Meg
Wolitzer about a single mother trying to become a standup comedian, was a dud.
But Ms. Ephron redeemed herself in 1993 with “Sleepless in Seattle” (she shared
the screenwriting credits), which brought Tom Hanks and Meg Ryan together so
winningly that they were cast again in “You’ve Got Mail.”
Among the other
movies Ms. Ephron wrote and directed were “Lucky Numbers” (2000), “Bewitched”
(2005) and, her last, “Julie & Julia” (2009), in which Ms. Streep played
Julia Child. She and Ms. Streep had been friends since they worked on
“Silkwood” together. “Nora just looked at every situation and cocked her head
and thought, ‘Hmmmm, how can I make this more fun?’ ” Ms. Streep wrote in an
e-mail on Tuesday.
Ms. Ephron earned three Oscar nominations for best screenplay,
for “Silkwood,” “Sleepless in Seattle” and “When Harry Met Sally.” But in all
her moviemaking years she never gave up writing in other forms. Two essay
collections, “I Feel Bad About My Neck: And Other Reflections on Being a Woman”
(2006) and “I Remember Nothing” (2010), were both best sellers. With her sister
Delia she wrote a play, “Love, Loss, and What I Wore,” about women and their
wardrobes (once calling it “ ‘The Vagina Monologues’ without the vaginas”) and
by herself she wrote “Imaginary Friends,” a play, produced in 2002, about the
literary and personal quarrel between Lillian Hellman and Mary McCarthy.
She
also became an enthusiastic blogger for The Huffington Post, writing on subjects
like the Las Vegas mogul Steve Wynn’s accidentally putting a hole in a Picasso
he owned and Ryan ONeal’s failing to recognize his own daughter and making a
pass at her.
Several years ago, Ms. Ephron learned that she had
myelodysplastic syndrome, a pre-leukemic condition, but she kept the illness a
secret from all but a few intimates and continued to lead a busy, sociable life.
“She had this thing about not wanting to whine,” the writer Sally Quinn said
on Tuesday. “She didn’t like self-pity. It was always, you know, ‘Suck it up.’ ”
Ms. Ephron’s first marriage, to the writer Dan Greenburg,
ended in divorce, as did her marriage to Mr. Bernstein. In 1987 she married
Nicholas Pileggi, the author of the books “Wiseguy” and “Casino.” (Her
contribution to “Not Quite What I Was Planning: Six-Word Memoirs by Writers
Famous and Obscure,” edited by Larry Smith, reads: “Secret to life, marry an
Italian.”) In addition to her son Jacob Bernstein, a journalist who writes
frequently for the Styles section of The Times, Ms. Ephron is survived by Mr.
Pileggi; another son, Max Bernstein, a rock musician; and her sisters Delia
Ephron; Amy Ephron, who is also a screenwriter; and Hallie Ephron, a journalist
and novelist.
In person Ms. Ephron — small and fine-boned with high cheeks
and a toothy smile — had the same understated, though no less witty, style that
she brought to the page. “Sitting at a table with Nora was like being in a
Nora Ephron movie,” Ms. Quinn said. “She was brilliant and funny.” She was
also fussy about her hair and made a point of having it professionally
blow-dried twice a week. “It’s cheaper by far than psychoanalysis and much more
uplifting,” Ms. Ephron said.
Another friend, Robert Gottlieb, who had edited her books
since the 1970s, said that her death would be “terrible for her readers and her
movie audience and her colleagues.” But “the private Nora was even more
remarkable,” he added, saying she was “always there for you with a full heart
plus the crucial dose of the reality principle.”
Ms. Streep called her a “stalwart.” “You could call on her
for anything: doctors, restaurants, recipes, speeches, or just a few jokes, and
we all did it, constantly,” she wrote in her e-mail. “She was an expert in all
the departments of living well.” The producer Scott Rudin recalled that less
than two weeks before her death, he had a long phone session with her from the
hospital while she was undergoing treatment, going over notes for a pilot she
was writing for a TV series about a bank compliance officer. Afterward she told
him, “If I could just get a hairdresser in here, we could have a meeting.”
Ms. Ephron’s collection “I Remember Nothing” concludes with
two lists, one of things she says she won’t miss and one of things she will.
Among the “won’t miss” items are dry skin, Clarence Thomas, the sound of the
vacuum cleaner, and panels on “Women in Film.” The other list, of the things she
will miss, begins with “my kids” and “Nick” and ends this way: “Taking a
bath Coming over the bridge to Manhattan …Pie.”R.I.P Nora
WTF!?! "Real Mistresses Of Atlanta" TOMFOOLERY Hits The Net
If you were ever wondering where the line between exploitation
and pure entertainment lies....this new "Real Mistresses of Atlanta" show could
be the prototype for unnecessary foolishness showcased just for the sake of
ratings and shock value. These people on this show can't believe the bullsh*t
they're spitting out their mouths themselves. But anything for fame
right?
Check out which demeaning things a white video chick has to
say about black women, how a stripper justifies why she's a better woman than
most, and how other self proclaimed mistresses move in ATL....
Apparently,
this 8+ minute trailer is being shopped to different networks for the show to be
picked up. I have a few guesses on who will happily pick up (and I'm not even
talking about BET) content that shows black women and others in the worst light
possible...and a white woman who vocally demeans black women as
well.
Sarah Oliver is a white "video vixen"/booty model who takes
the cameras into her plastic surgery appointments to document her ass shots.
And she explains why she only dates married men. She also called black women's
genitalia "gross" and says, "A brown skin pu**y with a pink inside...who would
want that?!"
I guess white women who purposely parade themselves as side hos
(that's essentially how Sarah describes herself) and demean ALL black women's
genitalia is OK for creator Memphitz Wright and whoever is producing this....as
long as it brings in the viewers. Two thumps up.
Maliah Michelle is a proud stripper who has dated several
celebs...married and single. And she dishes on all the material things she
gets...so it justifies why she's a better person than most apparently. Sadly,
she's the most articulate one, but is clearly misguided.
MJ is trying to become a rapper apparently...and we're going
to leave it at that. Brandan speaks on the athletes, actors and other celebrity
men he gets down with. And Rosee Divine is a French "model" who is at the beck
and call of NBA players and celebrity men.
Watch this shyt here:
The end quote from the trailer voiced by one of the cast
members: "If a b*tch got a pu**y and she aint got a million dollars, she needs
to see a psychiatrist."
Glorifying mistresses and those who make a career off
selling ass for a pair of Louboutins? Gotta love the progress. Keep it classy
bitches???
Beyonce Fans Furious Over Kim Kardashian Friendship
Beyonce fans are outraged over the pop superstar's budding
friendship with Kanye West's new girlfriend Kim Kardashian. Beyoncé and Kim
Kardashian hung out and RadarOnline.com has exclusively learned the Single
Ladies singer's fans are outraged.
The two were front and center at Jay-Z
andKanye West's Birmingham, U.K. "Watch The Throne" concert supporting their
significant others, and the two girls bonding over their men has already put a
kink in Beyoncé's reputation. "Kim Kardashian is not the sort of
girlfriendthat Beyoncé fans envision the new motherhaving," an insider told
RadarOnline.com. "Beyoncé has an air of class and sophistication to her,
while Kim is famous because of a sex tape and a failed marriage."
But with
Beyoncé's husband and Kim's boyfriend touring together, the two girls are sure
to be spending more time together and it won't do any favors for Beyoncé's
reputation. "Beyoncé and Kim Kardashian in the same picture let alone the
same sentence is tragic," one fan tweeted. Another fan tweeted, "if your role
model is Kim Kardashian, I can't take you seriously, Beyoncé is a way better
role model. She's respectful of herself." "Beyoncé tries to stay out of the
tabloids, while they're Kim's livelihood," the source said. "It's an odd
pairing."
Mariah Carey is a Lady in Red in London + She Teases Her Fans with
New Album Details
Mariah Carey was spotted at the famous Dorchester Hotel in
London, England donning a bright red tight-fitted trench coat. She matched the
ensemble, which complimented her curvy waistline, with a pair of platform
Louboutin platform heels, large shades and a black dress. Meanwhile, the
mother of twins has reportedly been in the lab working on new material with
heavy hitters such as DJ Clue, Randy Jackson, Jermaine Dupri and
Bryan-Michael-Cox.
While remaining coy with the details, the R&B diva has
also been dropping heavy hints via her Twitter. Last week, she teased her fans
about a mysterious “project,” which she apparently plans on releasing sometime
this summer.
“So.. Summer 2012.. Been in the lab, mixing up some
concoctions for you, hope you like it!! #MCSummer2012,” MC tweeted, along with
an image that read “MC: Summer 2012.” Nick Cannon confirmed back in January
that his wife was working on her first album since 2009′s “Memoirs of an
Imperfect Angel.” He said, “She’s rejuvenated and ready to start sharing some of
the amazing new music she has been making in the studio.”
Adding more “mystery” to the mix, Mariah tweeted
Sunday: Still working in the studio with friends o plenty! I love love this
new song: )Mariah Carey (@MariahCarey) June 24, 2012
Terrell Owens Sex Photos Being Shopped
As if you didn’t already know, former NFL star Terrell Owens
loves himself. He loves himself so much, he pleasures himself on camera and the
photos are being shopped to various media outlets. A woman is trying to sell
photos of Terrell Owens pleasuring himself to any media publication who’s
interested. The woman, who remains unidentified at this time, claims she met the
former football player on Twitter and began a series of conversations. Once the
two were comfortable enough with each other, they took their exchanges to Skype.
Owens and the woman’s conversations turned sexual and they began a cyber-sex
relationship. During a time they were engaged in cyber-sex, she snapped a few
photos of Owens touching himself.
At this point, it’s not clear whether the
woman has received any offer of compensation for the racy photos. One thing we
know for sure is cyber-sexing is a little to risky to be out here to be shaking
your love muscle at any person who shows interest. As a person with some
notoriety, T.O. should have a little more sense than that. But then again, this
could be one of those celebrity sex tape fake outs we’ve experienced in the
past.
Mimi Faust OPENS UP About Her Business Deal With Stevie J.,
Joseline Hernadez & Why She's Not Feeling Karlie Redd!
Controversial reality star Mimi Faust chatted it up with V103
radio personality Egypt about "Love & Hip Hop: Atlanta," her relationship
with Stevie J, and what she thinks about Joseline Hernandez and Karlie Redd.
Mimi & Stevie’s daughter below
Stevie J's baby momma is finally having her say OFF CAMERA
about the drama being exposed on VH1's hit show "Love & Hip Hop: Atlanta."
She talked to radio personality Egypt about her business deal with Stevie J
(where he basically tried to pay her off for his affairs), the house he gave her
(she gave it back) and she revealed they "may not" be a couple anymore.
See the
highlights:
Egypt: So I watched your face when you found out on camera
that Joseline said she was having a thing with him (Stevie J), that she was in
love with him. How did that feel in the middle of a room with people and why do
it? Mimi: Um, I think Joseline she just says whatever out
of her mouth with no regard and I mean… (pauses and gets
emotional)
Egypt: There were a lot of questions when people knew you were
coming on the show, like how long were you guys really dating? I heard you say
15 years on tv. Mimi: I want to clear this up. I’ve known
him for 15 years. We have dated off and on. I have not been with Stevie straight
for 15 years. I was absolutely not with Stevie when he was with Eve. I wasn’t
with Stevie when he was with Alex, Whoopi Goldberg’s daughter. I was not with
Stevie when he was in any other relationship. So I’ve known Stevie for 15 years
and we’ve dated off and on but for the past 3.5/4 years we have been
together.
Egypt: Ok. What is it about this man? Just keep it real. What
is it about him that has these women going crazy? Because it’s not the singing-
what is it? Is it the… pow pow Mimi: If you watch the
first episode I clearly stated I have never met a… that has made me do
cartwheels. I clearly said that in the first episode. What I think what it is
for me the connection that him and I had and also I’m just flat out he lies to
me a lot. I mean that’s just the bottom line. He’ll say one thing to me and
he’ll say one thing to her or whoever else but and im not with him when he’s out
with anyone else. I only know what goes on when we’re
together.
Egypt: Most of us have either been there or have been there,
where we love someone so much they tell us the right things we wanna hear. They
lie to us just enough for us to say okay and sleep at night. But now you’ve seen
it on tv. What has changed now that you actually see it for what it
is.
Mimi: A lot has changed. You guys, when you’re
in a relationship and things happen, it’s a process of getting out. One thing
will happen and you just don’t leave your family because one thing happened. So
it’s definitely a process of a transition and process stage that you go through
so that’s what I’m going through right now.
Egypt: Is it that you want to keep your family together? I
know you have a two-year-old. Mimi: I would love to keep
my family together. But at this point I don’t see that happening so I’m willing
to just let this do what it do.
Egypt: I was a little upset with you last night when you
decided to take a commission of Stevie’s business in exchange…well it felt like
you were accepting all of the mess that had happened on the prior episode. That
everything was forgiven as long as you got 10% or 20% What did you get? 10 or
20? Mimi: No no no no no. What it was was I wanted to be
more involved in the business. It wasn’t I was accepting a payoff. I actually
wanted to be involved. If I put in this work and I have been dealing with this
this long I want to be more hands-on with the situation as far as making the
money and everything that goes along with it.
Egypt: There was one thing I wanted to address. You said
Karlie last night surprised you on the show. Why? Mimi:
She kinda threw me under the bus last night. Joseline came to see her and it was
a gym scene and she told Joseline that I was talking about her or something
along those lines and said it more than once and I’m like were we watching the
same show?!
Raz B hopped on Twitter to speak with Chris Brown, Marques
Houston and Ray J...
Gurl…GIVE IT UP!
Rodney King’s Family Needs Your Money For The Funeral Costs
Rodney King’s family is asking for help with donations, as his
funeral costs are expecting to run about $22,000, and his family is now asking
the public for donations via a memorial fund to help give King a proper burial.
His three daughters and other family members are “desperately” trying to secure
funding for the funeral, but the family’s said, “They need the
money.”
Information on donating to the memorial fund, however, has yet
to be released. The funeral, which will be open to the public, is slated for
June 30th at 2pm at the Hall of Liberty. King’s fiancée is not on the guest
list. King will be buried later that day at the Forest Lawn cemetery in the
Hollywood Hills.
Chroniclers, NO SHADE don’t you think it’s a little odd they
don’t have donation info available yet?
Chrisette Michele Honored by The Vision Community Foundation &
Jennifer Holliday Performed.
Recently in Atlanta, The Vision Community Foundation honored
Grammy Award Winning Artist Chrisette Michele for the diligent work she does in
Community Service. She has assisted the Vision Community Foundation in
feeding on the streets of Atlanta and in offsetting a youth mentorship program
where youth plant gardens nationwide and will learn how to sell the items they
grow.
Chrisette’s passion for the community is often unpublicized. She has
implemented such a major innovative impact with the grassroots organization,
that the Vision Community Foundation wanted to take a moment and appreciate the
beautiful artist for her work that she does on behalf of The Vision Community
Foundation and throughout the world. Deputy Director, Avian Watson gave a
heartfelt speech sharing the facts and figures of this grassroots non profit
that has fed over 4000 people, equipped over 1000 with their HIV/AIDS status,
graduated 10 adults from their GED Program all of which are in their second year
of college, mentored and motivated Youth, and offset a Women’s health and
Wellness Initiative with a primary focus on Breast Cancer, Obesity, Heart Health
and Stroke Prevention. VCF CEO, Oliver Clyde Allen presented the award to
Chrisette. After she recieved her award Chrisette publically thanked Avian
Watson and The Vision Community Service sharing that our passions are one in the
same. Chrisette sang a song in which event attendees joined in.
The Black Tie Affair was MC’d by Rashad Burgess who is the
Center of Disease Control Chief Capacity Branch Director of HIV/AIDS, STD, TB.
The event also honored several Individuals who regionally oversee the mission
and goals of organizations nationwide. I was so lost for words hearing Jennifer
Holliday sharing her testimony of how she had been blind and cripple I had never
heard that before and will now be staring in Dream Girls in New York AGAIN full
story coming.
AND FINALLY FROM “THE CRAZY PEOPLE SHOPPING AT WALMART”
FILES “Side Butt”
I see you wear a size 2…small. Ehhh ohhh! Count
it.
