Lin-Manuel Miranda Stars in Vanity Fair Holiday 2018 Cover Story
The multi-talented Lin-Manuel Miranda takes the cover story of American Vanity Fair‘s Holiday 2018.19 edition captured by fashion photographer Ethan James Green. In charge of styling was Samira Nasr, with beauty from hair stylist Jessica Ortiz, makeup artist Hannah Murray, and manicurist Gina Edwards. Set design is work of Julia Wagner. For the story Mary Poppins Returns actor is wearing selected pieces from the likes of Dolce & Gabbana, Giorgio Armani Made to Measure, and Brunello Cucinelli among other.
“I couldn’t get through ‘Feed the Birds,’ I was very sensitive to minor-key music, and that song was so sad that I don’t think I saw the ending of Mary Poppins until I was grown, because I would just cry. I loved ‘Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious.’ I loved Dick Van Dyke. I loved the whole movie but then that one song was so sad I kind of never survived it.
My family had so many stories about that, about how Stevie Wonder’s ‘I Just Called to Say I Love You’ would come on and they’d have to change the channel because I would burst into tears. You know what? I actually remember the feeling. I remember it was so many ‘nos’ in the lyrics. ‘No New Year’s Day to celebrate’—it felt apocalyptic to me as a little kid. ‘No songs to sing’—I was like, ‘Turn it off!’ I was very sensitive. ‘Bridge Over Troubled Water’ apparently just laid me out when I was an infant. My parents have all kinds of stories like that.” – Miranda for Vanity Fair US on his relationship with Mary Poppins movie, and having a strong emotional response to music at a young age.
#RHoA: Uh Oh? Ya Girl Nene Leakes Throws Shade At Her Younger Co-Stars & Says They ‘Look Old’?
NeNe Leakes thinks she looks so good at 50 that she’s outshining her younger ‘RHOA’ co-stars. She says ‘they look old’ in a shocking new interview.
NeNe Leakes has always brimmed with self-confidence. But she might have just pissed off her younger Real Housewives of Atlanta cast mates — and young women in general — with shocking comments calling them out for looking old. The 50-year-old is appearing on the new episode of BET’s Raq’s Rants airing on Nov. 27 to talk up the current season 11 of RHOA and ended up dissing her cast mates. When asked how long NeNe plans to stay with the show, she said she’s up for another 11 seasons before adding, “Girl, I can hang with the best, honey. A lot of these chicks, they might be a little bit younger, but they don’t look as good. They look old!
Ouch! That’s a total swipe at the show’s new younger cast mates, 34-year-old Eva Marcille and 38-year-old Shamari Fears. More of the longstanding housewives are also younger than NeNe, as Kandi Burruss is 42 and Porsha Williams is 37. The only member of the current RHOA lineup that is not younger than NeNe is Cynthia Bailey, who is 51. So she pretty much insulted nearly all of her co-stars.
Then NeNe took on younger girls in general for looking too old. “You know, a lot of these young girls look old today,” she continued. She wouldn’t even elaborate on who she was talking about or get more specific, as when interviewer Raq Harper pressed her for a less vague comment, Nene just shot back “All of them. All the young girls, to me, look old.”
“And all the older women look younger,” NeNe added. ‘First of all, we’re African-American, so it’s not like we’re aging like that,” she said at the end of the clip, agreeing with Raquel that “Black don’t crack” when it comes to getting wrinkles. Wait, her RHOA cast mates are also African-American too! We can’t wait to see what her younger co-stars think of NeNe dissing them for looking old.
Thoughts?
#Empire: Here’s the trailer for Taraji P. Henson's ‘What Men Want’!
Not sure who thought the world needed a remake of What Women Want, but we have to admit that doing a gender-swap and turning the story into one about a woman getting a secret advantage on her misogynistic colleagues is reasonably clever. The trailers we’ve seen have still been weirdly male-centric, as if Taraji P. Henson (the woman taking Mel Gibson’s place in the lead) is one of the few women who even exists in this world, but at least it’s clear that nearly all of the men here—save for Josh Brener from Silicon Valley—are big idiots. Anyway, we’ve seen trailers for What Men Want before, but this one has the great addition of dirty words. People say “fuck,” people say “fuck” some more, and then maybe they
say “fuck” again in a funny way. Fuckin’ great stuff.
WATCH HERE
Anyway, the movie will be out on February 8.
#MusicNews: The ICON Marvin Gaye and Gregory Hines to Receive Forever Stamps
Entertainment icons Marvin Gaye and Gregory Hines will be tributed on the 42nd stamp in the Black Heritage series. The United States Postal Service has announced that the two legendary African-American entertainers will be receiving the honor of having their likenesses placed onto Forever stamps.
Gaye’s stamp, which is designed to look like a classic 45 rpm record sleeve, will be featured in the collection’s Music Icons series. Instead of a photograph, the stamp depicts a painting of Gaye on one side. The other side will feature a brief write-up on Gaye’s impact in American music accompanied by the image of a portion of record slipping from its sleeve and the signature Music Icons series logo.
Hines will appear in the Black Heritage series as a full body shot. In the image, the sole of his formidable tap shoe is presented to the camera, a nod to how he reignited excitement surrounding the style of dance in the 90s.
The tradition of honoring American individuals, occasions, and cultural touchstones by commemorating them on stamps is a long-standing one. It began in 1847.
“The miniature works of art illustrated in the 2019 stamp program offer something for everyone’s interest about American history and culture,” said U.S. Postal Service Stamp Services executive director Mary-Anne Penner. “This program is diverse and wide-ranging and tells America’s story on stamps.”
The stamps will debut in 2019. Great for the culture!
#HipHopNews: Meek Mill Announces ‘The Motivation Tour’
To celebrate the release of his upcoming album Championships, Meek Mill is headed on a victory tour.
The Philly rapper has announced his return to the road on “The Motivation Tour.” Produced by Live Nation, the 16-city U.S. trek kicks off Feb. 19 in Miami and travels to L.A., Chicago, New York, and his hometown of Philadelphia, before wrapping March 24 in Atlanta.
Tickets go on sale to the general public starting Friday, Nov. 30 at 10 a.m. local time. TIDAL subscribers will have access to a pre-sale beginning Monday, Nov. 26 at 12 p.m. PT, while Citi cardmembers can purchase pre-sale tickets on Tuesday, Nov. 27 at 10 a.m. local time.
Championships, Meek’s first full-length album since 2017’s Wins & Losses, is due Nov. 30. Last week, he debuted two tracks off the project, “Oodles O’Noodles Babies” and “Uptown Vibes” featuring Fabolous and Anuel AA.
Following his appearance on “The Tonight Show” last week, Meek will sit down for an interview on “The Ellen DeGeneres Show” on Wednesday, Nov. 28.
THE MOTIVATION TOUR DATES
Feb. 19 – Miami, FL – The Fillmore Miami Beach at Jackie Gleason Theater
Feb. 22 – Dallas, TX – South Side Ballroom
Feb. 23 – Houston, TX – Revention Music Center*
Feb. 26 – Phoenix, AZ – Comerica Theatre
Feb. 28 – Los Angeles, CA – Hollywood Palladium
March 1 – San Francisco, CA – The Masonic*
March 5 – Denver, CO – Fillmore Auditorium*
March 8 – Chicago, IL – Aragon Ballroom*
March 9 – Detroit, MI – The Fox Theatre
March 12 – New York, NY – Hammerstein Ballroom*
March 15 – Philadelphia, PA – The MET*
March 19 – Hartford, CT – XFINITY Theatre
March 20 – Lowell, MA – Tsongas Center at UMass Lowell
March 21 – Washington, DC – The Anthem
March 23 – Raleigh, NC – The Ritz
March 24 – Atlanta, GA – Coca-Cola Roxy
#RIP ‘SpongeBob Squarepants’ Creator Stephen Hillenburg Dies at 57
Spongebob Squarepants creator Stephen Hillenburg died on Monday at the age of 57. The cause of the death was the neurodegenerative disease ALS.
Hillenburg revealed publicly last year that he had been diagnosed with the disease. In April of this year, He was honored with a special Emmy Award for “his contribution and impact made in the animation field and within the broadcast industry.”
“We are incredibly saddened by the news that Steve Hillenburg has passed away,” Nickelodeon said in a statement. “He was a beloved friend and long-time creative partner to everyone at Nickelodeon, and our hearts go out to his entire family. Steve imbued Spongebob Squarepants with a unique sense of humor and innocence that has brought joy to generations of kids and families everywhere. His utterly original characters and the world of Bikini Bottom will long stand as a reminder of the value of optimism, friendship and the limitless power of imagination.”
Born Aug. 21, 1961, in Lawton, Oklahoma, Hillenburg took an unlikely path to creating one of the most successful American animated series of all time. He attended Savanna High School in Anaheim, California, where he remembered, “I would have teachers in high school say, ‘You should just draw fish.'” Instead of pursuing art, he went to Humboldt State University in northern California to study science, graduating in 1984 with a bachelor’s in Natural Resources Planning and Interpretation major.
“I blossomed as a painter in Humboldt,” he said once in an interview. “I had art faculty members saying ‘Why are you studying science? You’re an artist!’ I had no idea how my interests were going to converge.”
Following graduation, Hillenburg taught marine biology at the Orange County Marine Institute (today known as the Ocean Institute) in Dana Point, California, before deciding to study animation in 1987 at Calarts. He entered the school’s Experimental Animation program, earned a master’s degree in fine arts in 1992. Along the way, he produced student films like Wormholes and Green Beret, the latter of which appeared on MTV’s Liquid Television.
While still at Calarts, Hillenburg started his professional career as an animation artist on the CBS Saturday morning series, Mother Goose and Grimm. His subsequent tv job was on the Nickelodeon series Rocko’s Modern Life, where he eventually became a director on the series.
When Hillenburg decided to create an idea of his own, he wanted to find a way to combine his passion for marine biology with animation. Earlier, he’d created a mini-comic about how tide pools work (The Intertidal Zone) while still working at the Marine Institute, and after Rocko colleague Martin Olson noticed the comic in his office, Hillenburg recounted, “It started me thinking if I’m going to do a show, I would do it about these invertebrates and these crazy animals that exist in the ocean, and it will be the perfect fusion of the things that I did.” Hillenburg tells a more complete history of how the show began in the video below, and for even deeper reading, an oral history of the series can be found here.
When he first pitched an idea for an animated series to Nickeodeon, Hillenburg called his bubble-loving, absorbent optimist Spongeboy. The key idea, he said, was “to follow the life of an innocent.” (The name had to be changed during production because The Flaming Carrot comic creator Bob Burden had already trademarked a character by that name. The “bob” in the eventual Spongebob is reportedly a reference to Bob Burden.)
The ideas was picked up as a series and premiered in 1999, but no one anticipated that the series would become a pop culture phenomenon or a cornerstone of Nickelodeon’s corporate success over the last 20 years. “I didn’t know it was going to be popular, but I knew it was going to be good,” said Spongebob’s voice Tom Kenny back in 2001. “I wasn’t prepared that it would break out of that box and be this cross-demographic phenomenon.” In fact, animation industry lore has it that a big reason for the show’s initial success was that the executives weren’t paying close attention to the production.
The studio’s resources at the time were focused on the nightmare production of Catdog, which had a much larger episode order, allowing Hillenburg and his band to fly under the radar and work in relative isolation with excessive network interference. Not that the execs didn’t try to add their input. During the production of the first season, they made demands like wanting Spongebob’s parents to be an important part of the show and wanting Spongebob to attend school (Hillenburg compromised by having Spongebob attend boat-driving school).
Hillenburg believed that the atmosphere of the studio changed once it moved into a custom-built building in Burbank, California. He described the mid-’90s atmosphere of Nick as being more conducive to the creation of a wacky concept like Spongebob: “I originally worked for Nickelodeon when we were renting offices. There’s a certain garage spirit in that environment.…There is a different atmosphere when you create a fancy building. It becomes more corporate and I think it does affect things to a degree.”
His show quickly became a hit after premiering in 1999, and supplanted Nick’s previous ratings king, The Rugrats. By 2002, it was the top-rated cable show for children, the show that every other children’s animation producer was trying to replicate, and a gigantic marketing juggernaut. An article from that year highlighted a few of the ways that Spongebob was being marketed:
[Spongebob] is now [Target’s] No. 1 character property. He’s also in the shape of Cheesenips, specialty crackers that Nabisco is now stocking in such nontraditional places as college bookstores. He’s been a Burger King prize, a popular Gameboy title, and the first Good Humor ice-cream pop to outsell Snoopy. His t-shirt outsold South Park’s on music.com. He was the first milk ad to feature an animated character.
The series is currently in production on its 12th season. Over 240 Spongebob episodes have been produced through its first eleven seasons.
Spongebob also spawned two theatrical features that have grossed $465.3 million globally. The third feature, currently in production, will be released in 2020. It also inspired Spongebob Squarepants: The Broadway Musical, which recently closed after 356 performances, but will continue as a touring show across the United States in 2019.
More difficult to quantify is the far-reaching impact of the show on the popular culture: so much could be written about how the cartoon is responsible for launching thousands of memes, or how it is often targeted by attention-seeking activists, or how it is appreciated by unlikely audiences, including the Russian military, which often marches to the tune of Spongebob.
Amanda Bynes opens up about quitting acting, her public downfall and being four years sober
It Seems that Amanda Bynes seems ready to move on from her troubled past.
In a new interview with Paper Magazine, Bynes opened up about her public downward spiral, including her infamous tweets directed at family members and other celebrities, and how life has been since getting sober almost four years ago.
Bynes said despite her "good girl" image when she was younger, she started smoking marijuana at 16 and that eventually escalated to her using harder drugs like molly and ecstasy. She said she also started using Adderall on a regular basis after "faking the symptoms of ADD" so a psychiatrist could write her a prescription.
The 32-year-old fashion student said she thinks her use of Adderall played a major role in her public downfall, which the world first got a glimpse of in 2010 while she was filming the movie "Hall Pass."
"When I was doing 'Hall Pass', I remember being in the trailer and I used to chew the Adderall tablets because I thought they made me (more) high (that way)," she told the magazine. "I remember chewing on a bunch of them and literally being scatterbrained and not being able to focus on my lines or memorize them for that matter."
Bynes eventually quit "Hall Pass" and then made an impromptu announcement on Twitter that she was retiring from acting. She said her sudden desire to leave acting was due to her being high all the time and criticizing the way she looked on film during a screening of her 2010 movie "Easy A."
"I literally couldn't stand my appearance in that movie and I didn't like my performance. I was absolutely convinced I needed to stop acting after seeing it," she said. "I was high on marijuana when I saw that but for some reason it really started to affect me."
Suddenly out of work, Bynes said her drug use increased.
"I just had no purpose in life. I'd been working my whole life and (now) I was doing nothing," she told the magazine.
She added: "I got really into my drug usage and it became a really dark, sad world for me."
Bynes said she is "'really ashamed and embarrassed" by what she did during that time, telling Paper Magazine that there are still some things — like the tweets — that she doesn't like to talk about.
"I can't turn back time but if I could, I would. And I'm so sorry to whoever I hurt and whoever I lied about because it truly eats away at me," she said. "It makes me feel so horrible and sick to my stomach and sad. Everything I worked my whole life to achieve, I kind of ruined it all through Twitter."
Now, Bynes is focusing on other things. The former child star is getting ready to graduate with her Associate of Arts degree in Merchandise Product Development from Fashion Institute of Design and Merchandising in Los Angeles and hopes to one day return to acting.
"I have no fear of the future," she said. "I've been through the worst and came out the other end and survived it so I just feel like it's only up from here."
Miguel and His Love, Nazanin Mandi, Are Married at Hummingbird Nest Ranch in California
“The engagement in D.R.—it was an adventure,” says model, actress, and artist Nazanin “Naz” Mandi. “For sure, it was an adventure. Long story short, we were there for a week—right? Probably, the fifth day there I drank the water, and I got really sick.”
“This was early!” the Grammy Award–winning singer Miguel Pimentel interjects when he realizes that his longtime love is launching into the tale of how the two became engaged. “She just passed out; the sun is starting to come up. She’s completely knocked out . . . drool coming down her face. I was like, ‘Aw, poor thing.’ ”
“I think you’re being dramatic,” Naz says with a laugh.
“So, you know, I kind of slide out stealthily,” Miguel explains. “Grab the ring, get her hand, and delicately slide it on and then get back in bed until she wakes up. It takes her a minute to notice it and then she notices it.”
“I turned over and was like, ‘Oh my god, I did not expect this at all!’ ” Naz says with a smile.
She and Miguel met back when they were both 18 years old. She was interviewing him for a behind-the-scenes DVD he was putting out to promote his very first music video. “I asked him a question that wasn’t on my Q&A, which was: ‘All the ladies want to know, do you have a girlfriend?’ And he smiled and said, ‘No, but I’m looking for one.’ We exchanged numbers, and he called me the next day to ask me out on a date . . . and ever since then, it’s been one hell of a ride!”
Most recently, that ride has included a whirlwind of wedding planning, from florals and cake to the last dress fitting at Monique Lhuillier. “I always knew I wanted Monique Lhuillier to design my wedding dress for the ceremony,” Naz explains. “Something formfitting and lace with a long train. My veil is a classic Spanish-style mantilla.” After the ceremony, the bride changed into a reception outfit designed by Carly Cushnie. “We went with classic cuts with a modern edge,” Naz says. She also wore Cushnie for the rehearsal dinner, that time opting for a sleek, sexy pantsuit. Meanwhile, Miguel kept it dapper—he and his groomsmen wore custom tuxedos styled by Van Van.
The wedding took place on Saturday, November 24, at Hummingbird Nest Ranch outside of Los Angeles and was an intimate affair that somehow, perhaps because it was right at the end of the Thanksgiving holiday, managed to fly under the radar of prying paparazzi and press. “Our wedding planner, Myra Harbour, from Celebrate Flowers and Invitations, had a huge hand in picking our venue,” Naz explains. “We described to her what we were looking for—a Spanish-style estate that we could book out for the entire weekend—and the Hummingbird Nest Ranch immediately came to mind. We saw the location and knew right away.” The traditional outdoor ceremony was led by the couple’s friend Chris Dickens, and even though it took only 30 minutes, his words perfectly blended humor and charm.
After the couple were officially pronounced husband and wife, guests were treated to a dinner of traditional Mexican food with a twist by chef Eduardo Ruiz. The couple then did their first dance to “Always and Forever” by Heatwave before everyone joined them out on the floor. The free-flowing tequila and the musical stylings of DJ Mick kept the party going all night, and at the very end, in true Cali style, an In-N-Out Burger truck pulled up to satiate any late-night cravings.
Congrats to them!
Jerry Springer Court Show ‘Judge Jerry’ To Premiere Fall 2019
Jerry Springer is headed back to television, but instead of hosting foolishness, he’ll be presiding over court cases.
Springer’s forthcoming syndicated court show, “Judge Jerry,” is set to premiere in the fall of 2019 and will air in 75% of the country.
Tracie Wilson, executive VP creative affairs at NBCUniversal Television Distribution said:Judge Jerry will merge Jerry’s talent for connecting with people, his incredibly relatable and funny personality and his legal training and governing experience to bring viewers a more entertaining court show.
We are so happy to continue our fantastic partnership with Jerry, who is a proven TV icon with a dedicated and broad fan base.
Jerry Springer, who has a degree in law, feels like his career is now coming full circle.
For the first time in my life, I am going to be called honorable.
My career is coming full circle, and I finally get to put my law degree to use after all these years.
Much like the other court shows, Judge Jerry will preside over small claims in court and render his verdict with a few words of wisdom.
Director Ava DuVernay Just Scored a $100 Million Deal With Warner Brothers
Ava DuVernay is about to have a very good year. The multifaceted director of 2014’s Selma and this year’s big-screen adaptation of A Wrinkle in Time, has signed a deal with Warner Bros. Television Group that hovers in the $100 million dollar range, according to Deadline.
Besides giving DuVernay a considerable amount of power and access, the deal, which goes into effect in January, also affords her the opportunity to sell her projects to different studios, as opposed to being bound to a single platform like Amazon Prime or Netflix.
In fact, Warner Bros. is explicitly fighting back against Netflix with its DuVernay deal. The streaming giant recently inked a five-year contract with Glee and American Horror Story maestro Ryan Murphy to the tune of $300 million greenbacks, and has proven itself ready and willing to go to great lengths to court auteurs.
DuVernay, who is represented by CAA, earned raves for Selma, which told the story of the 1965 voting rights marches from Selma to Montgomery, and her Oscar-nominated 13th, a 2016 documentary about the interplay of race, justice and mass incarceration in America. She already has a strong relationship with Warner Bros. because of her Warner Horizon Scripted Television–produced series Queen Sugar, which has been renewed for a fourth season on Oprah Winfrey’s OWN network, and her CBS event series Red Line, which she executive produces with Greg Berlanti and Sarah Schechter.
Dolce & Gabbana’s Racist Chopsticks Ad Is Just the Latest Awful Thing They’ve Done
In response to public outcry over what many are calling a racist and discriminatory advertisement on Instagram that’s since been removed, the Italian fashion house Dolce & Gabbana has elected to cancel an upcoming runway show in Shanghai.
In addition to the offensive messaging from the brand’s official account itself, comments made via Instagram DM by creative director Stefano Gabbana have also emerged in which Gabbana allegedly dismisses the backlash. However, Gabbana insists that his account was hacked and that the quotes are not his own.
“It was deleted by Chinese social media because my office is stupid as the superiority of the Chinese,” a screenshot of Gabbana’s alleged comments reads in part.
Whether or not Gabbana is telling the truth, Dolce & Gabbana has courted intense criticism for years by embracing a devil-may-care attitude that scoffs in the face of political correctness. In other words, both creative directors say incredibly offensive things constantly, seemingly without remorse, and their “we don’t care who we piss off” ethos has extended outwards to contaminate the rest of the brand.
In 2017, when Melania Trump expressed her love of D&G, Gabbano displayed just how fine with this he was by reposting pictures of the First Lady wearing Dolce & Gabanna on his Instagram account.
When non-Trump-supporter customers expressed fury about Melania’s affiliation with the company, Dolce & Gabbana reacted by manufacturing tongue in cheek “#BOYCOTT Dolce & Gabbana” T-shirts. Nice! Very subtle.
But that’s far from the brand’s only instance of courting controversy. Dolce & Gabbana once tried to get away with selling a $2,935 shoe they labeled a “slave sandal;” another time, a shoe manufactured by the brand was instantly rejected because of the words “thin and gorgeous” written on the side.
In 2012, D&G showed a collection littered with racist mammy images and fabric patterns.
Gabbana once dismissed children born via IVF as “synthetic.” In another instance, he opined that sexual assault is “not violence.”
In other words, this brand is trash, and has been for a very long time. Maybe it’s time to boycott Dolce & Gabbana for real.
Oprah Winfrey Breaks Her Silence on Mother’s Death: ‘She Lived a Good Life’
Oprah Winfrey‘s mother Vernita Lee passed away on Thanksgiving Day and since then, fans have been sending positivity and kind words. Winfrey, pictured with her family, made a touching post thanking everyone for their thoughts and prayers.
In her caption she wrote, “Thank you all for your kind words and condolences regarding my mother Vernita Lee’s passing. It gives our family great comfort knowing she lived a good life and is now at Peace.🙏🏾✝️”
The fans continued to send love and support to the media mogul.
“Praying for you and your family. I know all to well this type of loss and pain, but it was God that has gotten me through it. God will give you a peace that surpasses all understanding. Be bless!”
“Sending love, peace, comfort and prayers your way ♥️”
“Blessings for her journey home. And for your heart.”
“My condolences to you and your family. I will keep all of you in my prayers❤️”
On Nov 22, Lee passed away at the age of 83 in her home in Milwaukee. Winfrey hosted a private funeral service for her mother. The family also released a statement with more details: “Born May 2, 1935, she is survived by her daughters Oprah Winfrey and Patricia Amanda Faye Lee, grandchildren Alisha Hayes, Chrishaunda Lee Perez, Aquarius Lofton and Andre Brown and great-grandchildren Jaxon Praise Perez, Chai Theresa Perez, Donovan Hayes and Trinity Hayes. She was predeceased by son Jeffrey Lee (1960-1989) and daughter Patricia Lee Lloyd (1959-2003).”
Mel B says Eddie Murphy will always be the ‘great love’ of her life
Mel B to enter rehab for PTSD
Spice Girl Mel B revealed she’s entering rehab following her post-traumatic stress disorder diagnosis. She will also address her alcohol and sex addictions.
Mel B is spilling details about her past relationships — and revealing some surprising secrets in the process.
In an interview with “Good Morning Britain” the Spice Girls star said Eddie Murphy is the “great love” of her life and that she is talking about it for the first time in her new book “Brutally Honest.”
“He always will be [my great love],” Mel B, whose full name is Melanie Brown, told hosts Piers Morgan and Susanna Reid. “I mean, I’ve never really spoken about it before, so this book, I wanted to address it because a lot of people have a misconstrued thing of how everything actually did happen.”
She added, “At the end of the day we have a beautiful daughter together, Angel, who is 11 years old, and she’s actually staying with him [Murphy] right now whilst I’m here working.”
Mel B and Murphy began dating in 2006, before the “Wannabe” singer called it quits nine months later. Mel B said they were attracted to each other from the moment they met.
“Well, I went for a dinner party at his house. It was very intense, that attraction, and I left actually because it was a bit too much,” Mel said. “But he’s such a lovely person, he’s all about family and he’s very respectful and very old school and we courted for quite some time before anybody knew.”
The 43-year-old added that their relationship was “like a love story that didn’t have a perfect ending.”
When asked if she would consider reigniting their relationship, the Spice Girl member said Murphy is in a “lovely, committed relationship” with pregnant fiancée Paige Butcher.
“His lady’s got her second baby that she’s expecting in like a few weeks,” she said about Butcher. “So, I’m not going to say anything else about that.”
After ending her relationship with Murphy, Mel B married movie producer Stephen Belafonte and they stayed for nearly 10 years before filing for divorce. She also details their “unfortunate 10-year marriage” in her new book.
“I had an unfortunate 10-year marriage, where I was in a very coercive, very abusive relationship, and it’s something that we don’t usually talk about – it’s seen as being taboo,” the singer said. “So, I wanted to address all these different situations that I’ve been in, due to living such a life for 10 years. And, I wanted to own it and take back my power.”
Ray J Says Kim Kardashian Was Not On Ecstasy During Sex Tape, Kim Says She Has No Reason To Lie
Back in 2007, a sex tape, featuring the friend and stylist of Paris Hilton, Kim Kardashian, and child star/singer, Ray J, was made public. Although the tape ultimately catapulted the Kardashian family to fame, the shame lingered, as Kim worked to make a name for herself outside of the pornographic home movie.
But now, with international success as a socialite, a famous husband, and three beautiful kids, Kim has managed to turn the negative into a positive. In fact, in a recent episode of “Keeping Up With The Kardashians,” Kim opened up about the sex tape, and revealed a shocking detail about the experience – she was high on ecstasy.
“I got married on ecstasy the first time,” Kim said of her 2000 marriage to music producer Damon Thomas. However, the two divorced four years later, citing “irreconcilable differences.”
“I did it again. I made a sex tape,” she said, adding, “Like, everything bad would happen.”
According to reports, the tape was filmed sometime in 2003, but wasn’t released until ’07, ahead of the premiere of the now-famed, “Keeping Up With The Kardashians.”
But since the new revelation, which ultimately helped fans coupe with Kim’s decision to film the tape in the first place, sources close to the other involved party say Kim is lying.
According to TMZ, sources close to Ray say Kim took no hard drugs nor did she drink during the filming of the tape, but she did, however, smoke weed from a penis-shaped pipe.
And in regards to Kim’s claim that her jaw was shaking from the drug, Ray’s sources say it was “because she was getting *****!” However, Kim’s sources maintain her claim, adding that she has nothing to gain from lying about it at this point.
But, Ray J’s sources say he’s offended that Kim would even suggest she was in a “significantly altered state’ during the tape because she was down with it from the very beginning.
Tyler Perry has Announced his Final ‘Madea’ Stage Play
Get ready to say goodbye to Tyler Perry's signature character Mabel "Madea" Simmons...
From Vegas News
Actor, playwright, filmmaker, and comedian Tyler Perry has announced the final stage tour for his beloved character “Madea” with Tyler Perry’s Madea’s Farewell Play Tour.
The nation-wide tour will kick off in Oakland, Calif. on Jan. 18, and over the course of four months, Perry will bring his beloved characters to venues across the United States.
Tyler Perry’s Madea’s Farewell Play Tour will be Perry’s 21st stage play. In addition to Perry, the play will star Tamela Mann, David Mann and Cassi Davis.
Perry made headlines last month when he announced that he would be hanging up Madea’s wig in 2019, with the expected final stage play and the upcoming film Madea’s Family Funeral, being released by Lionsgate on March 1, 2019.
Ex-employee: ‘Facebook has a black people problem’
A former Facebook employee claims the social network has a “black people problem” despite its reputation as a haven for liberal politics.
At Facebook’s Menlo Park, Calif., campus, being black meant enduring subtle but shocking displays of racism from other employees, according to Mark Luckie, who left the Silicon Valley juggernaut earlier this month.
“At least two or three times a day, every day, a colleague at MPK [Facebook headquarters in Menlo Park] will look directly at me and tap or hold their wallet or shove their hands down their pocket to clutch it tightly until I pass,” Luckie, who is black, wrote in a memo posted on the social network Tuesday.
Luckie said he also heard stories from other black employees of being “aggressively accosted by campus security beyond what was necessary.”
More broadly, Luckie noted that just 4 percent of Facebook’s 20,000-strong workforce is black, citing company stats.
“Facebook can’t claim that it is connecting communities if those communities aren’t represented proportionally in its staffing,” Luckie wrote.
“In some buildings, there are more ‘Black Lives Matter’ posters than there are actual black people,” Luckie added. “To feel like an oddity at your own place of employment because of the color of your skin while passing posters reminding you to be your authentic self feels in itself inauthentic,” he said.
In response to Luckie’s post, Facebook released a statement saying that it is working to “increase the range of perspectives” at its company.
“The growth in representation of people from more diverse groups, working in many different functions across the company, is a key driver of our ability to succeed,” Facebook said. “We are going to keep doing all we can to be a truly inclusive company.”
Ex-Police Chief Gets 3 Years In Prison For Framing Black Men
A former South Florida police chief has been sentenced to three years in prison for framing black people for crimes they didn’t commit, in order to boost his department’s crime-solving stats.
Raimundo Atesiano, 53, formerly the chief of the Biscayne Park Police Department in Miami-Dade County, was sentenced by a federal judge on Tuesday for conspiracy to deprive individuals of their civil rights.
“When I took the job, I was not prepared,” Atesiano told U.S. District Judge K. Michael Moore before his sentencing, according to the Miami Herald. “I made some very, very bad decisions.”
Atesiano was reportedly given two weeks before having to report to prison, allowing him to spend time with his mother, who is terminally ill.
One month ago, three other former Biscayne Park officers — Guillermo Ravelo, Charlie Dayoub and Raul Fernandez — were sentenced for their participation in the scheme.
Prosecutors said Aresiano on three occasions ordered them to falsely arrest and charge three people for unsolved burglaries. One of those arrested was just 16 years old when he was falsely accused.
Davoub and Fernandez were each sentenced to one year in prison; Ravelo was sentenced to 27 months.
“Putting an arrest statistic above the rights of an innocent man instead of working to protect all our citizens undermines the safety goals of every Miami-Dade police department,” said State Attorney Katherine Fernandez Rundle in a statement on Tuesday. “Miami-Dade’s residents deserve honesty and integrity, qualities that Raimundo Atesiano deliberately failed to deliver.”
One of the three victims, who served five years in prison for a series of burglaries that he was falsely accused of committing, has filed a federal lawsuit that accuses the town and its former officers of violating his civil rights. His conviction was tossed by a judge in September.
AND FINALLY FROM “THE CRAZY PEOPLE SHOPPING AT WALMART” FILES?
‘POP POP POPPIN’
I’d say Mary Poppins is back but Disney is already recycling all of their shit again so they beat her too it.
#EGGPLANT NATION: Meet Papi Suave!
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HAVE A GREAT DAY ALL!!!
EFREM
