Tuesday, September 30, 2008

SANAA GRACES JEWEL

Actress Sanaa Lathan graces the pages of Jewel Magazine

This is a gorgeous look





GV Says: She really looks fab

CELEBS HIT UP MUSIC IN MOTION

Salute the King....T.I. hit up the Music In Motion Tour Party at Marquee in the NYC last night.


JD was there... just before JJ was admitted to the hospital

Fabolous was there...what has he been up to

Trey Songz

My favorite DJ, Wendy Williams....How you doin'

Now...MTV VJ, Julissa

JANET POSTPONES CONCERT DATES

Bad news for JJ...the songstress has postponed two concert dates this week on her nationwide Rock Witchu Tour due to an undisclosed illness


Janet, 42, has delayed her Wednesday show in Boston and a Thursday performance in Philadelphia until further notice. She will resume her tour Saturday in Greensboro, N.C.
The postponements come a day after she suddenly fell ill during a sound check in Montreal and was rushed to the hospital, forcing her to cancel her Monday night show. She was released a couple of hours later. The nature of her illness wasn't reported.
Jackson kicked off her tour promoting her latest album, Discipline, in Vancouver on Sept. 10.
GV Says: Get well soon JJ.

Monday, September 29, 2008

LIL WAYNE JOINS THE BLOG WORLD

Lil Wayne is one of us....


Wayne has joined forces with sports channel ESPN talking sport and not so much music.

In his first entry he says “I don't watch nothing but sports—no movies, no news, no television shows—so I thought this would be fun.”

The rapper writes in the blog that his favourite teams are the Red Sox, the Lakers and the Boston Bruins.

"I also love tennis. I had a lot of people over to my place to watch the Wimbledon final this year, and we went crazy. I love Federer but Nadal is my favorite. He's the man.”

The blog can be found at ESPN
GV Says: Now if only we could work on those little grammatical errors....I'm just saying.

JENNIFER SPORTS HER RING

Look who's out sporting their engagement ring...J. Hud




Ashy fingers and all (sorry had to call it out. You know better girl. Even I don't go out the house looking like that...come on).

Here's her engagement story:

“It was a big deal… I got a beautiful ring and I got him. I had no clue at all… We went to the beach during the day and he blindfolded me… and he gave me a purple shovel, because purple’s my favorite color… and I had to dig. I ended up digging through all this sand. When I found it, it was like a bunch of beautiful cards… one related to the other, and the last one said, ‘Look around, take the moment in, turn around and I have a gift for you.’”

JESSICA ALBA BOUNCES BACK

Speaking of Hollywood chicks who bounce back after having babies....I had to post this pic of Jessica Alba. She just had a baby late June.


She showed off her post-baby body Tuesday while frolicking on the beach in Los Cabos, Mexico, where she has been vacationing with husband Cash Warren.
GV Says: That's crazy.

J. LO LAUNCHES NEW MEN'S FRAGRANCE



With a successful women's fragrance under her belt, a newly slim Jennifer Lopez keeps her momentum going Monday at a launch event for her new scent for the opposite sex, Deseo for Men, in New York City.

GV Says: These Hollywood chicks pump out a baby and bounce back like it's nothing.

JD LETS IT OUT

So JD can't handle his liquor huh....


The NY Post reports:

JERMAINE Dupri had a little too much of a good time celebrating his 36th birthday. The other night, Dupri and his squeeze, Janet Jackson, went to Tenjune, where, spies say, they shared bottles of Jay-Z's Ace of Spades Champagne and PatrĂ³n tequila with Ne-Yo, Busta Rhymes and Ice-T - until Dupri "vomited in Janet's lap. Ms. Jackson bolted out of the scene and sped off in her chauffeured Maybach." A rep for Jackson and Dupri didn't return calls. A rep for Tenjune declined to comment. Meanwhile, we hear Dupri is under some stress at work. The head of urban music for Island/Def Jam put out his lady's last album, "Discipline," which flopped. Our insider said, "[IDJ head] L.A. Reid had wanted to make changes to the album, make it fresher with some newer artists added in, but Janet said no - and Jermaine backed her up. He looks silly right now."

GV Says: Perhaps JD and JJ don't need to work together. There's obviously no synergy there.

Sunday, September 28, 2008

JAY-Z HIT WITH LAWSUIT

Another day, another dollar.....to be spent that is. Jay-Z has been hit with copyright infringement suit.



A copyright infringement lawsuit was filed against Jay-Z and the owner of his Rocawear clothing line by a company who claims they took its trademarked name, "I Will Not Lose."

In March 2007, Iconix Brand Group bought the rights to Jay-Z's Rocawear for $204 million. However, the rapper was named in the suit because of the plaintiff's belief that he still oversees the line's product development, licensing, and marketing.

Last year, Rocawear launched an international “I Will Not Lose Campaign,” where celebs gave accounts of how they overcame personal challenges before reciting the “I Will Not Lose” phrase from Jay-Z's 2001 hit single "Change the Game."

Reggie Tucker, CEO of I Will Not Lose, LLC, claims that his company trademarked the phrase first and was subsequently ignored throughout 2007 after attempts were made to settle the matter out of court.

The company's Sept. 18 filing in Georgia Northern District Court seeks an undisclosed amount of damages for the dilution of their trademark.
GV Says: Now Reggie needs to stop.

50 CENT HATES ON HOV

Looks like No Cent is taking swipes at Jay-Z since no one is talking about him outside his baby-mama-drama


The rapper has been quoted as saying, "I'm a big fan of Jay-Z, but outside of the States and hip-hop circles, no one really knew who he was until he married Beyonce."
He also took a swipe at Jay-Z's reported $1 billion fortune,

"I don't believe he's worth that much! It's all been exaggerated. I'm comfortable. I don't want for anything so I'm not in a race."
GV Says: 50 Cent is such a hater.

KANYE SKIPS FELONY CHARGES

Surprise, surprise....no felony charges for Kanye.



Looks like the sources who speculated that Kanye would get off scott free were right.

Instead, the L.A. City Attorney's Office is reviewing the case for a possible misdemeanor charge, office spokesman Frank Mateljan said.

Kanye was arrested on a felony vandalism charge for allegedly damaging a photographer's equipment. Also arrested was West's road manager, Don Crawley, 32, who's also accused of breaking photographers' equipment.

BABYFACE WELCOMES BABY GIRL

Looks like Babyface had his new baby girl



The singer/ songwriter/ producer was spotted with his girlfriend Nicole Pantenburg this week. Daughter Peyton Nicole Edmonds was born in Los Angeles at 6:55 p.m. on Sept. 9, weighing 5 lbs., 7 oz. "Nicole and I couldn't be happier to have a new baby girl in the family," Edmonds said in a statement. "And my two sons are thrilled to have a little sister."

Babyface is also the dad to Brandon, 12, and Dylan, 7, with ex-wife Tracey Edmonds.

Friday, September 26, 2008

NELLY & ASHANTI IN THE SAME BOAT

Looks like Nelly and his boo are in the same boat....Both are having disappointing sales.


Nelly capped his long hiatus with a disappointing No. 3 debut for Brass Knuckles, his first new album in four years, which moved a relatively meager 84,000. His last albums, 2004’s simultaneously released Sweat and Suit, debuted in the top two spots with a combined 738,000 first-week copies.
GV Says: Who didn't see this coming. He should have struck while the iron was hot. I hate that for him.

DMX TO LIVE

Surprise, surprise....DMX lives.


A lawyer representing DMX confirmed that the rapper missed a court date in Arizona because he was admitted to a hospital in Florida, but the attorney would not confirm media reports that the reason was for “fear of stroke.”
“It was serious enough for him to be brought and taken into a treatment facility,” his lawyer Bradford Cohen told Billboard. “He spent the night there last night, and he will probably spend tonight there as well. I don’t think it’s going to be an ongoing thing or a life-threatening situation. He’s going to be alright.”
GV Says: Stay off the rocks X.

TERRENCE HOWARD MOURNING LOSS OF MOTHER

Terrence Howard is mourning the death of his mother


His publicist said in a statement, "Terrence Howard's mother, Anita Williams, has sadly passed away after a long battle with cancer. Terrence will take some time to privately grieve with his family. He appreciates everyone's support during this difficult time."
GV Says: Our prayers go out to Terrence.

Wednesday, September 24, 2008

IT'S OFFICIAL FOR JAY-Z

So it's official.....


It seems rumors of Hov launching a record label have come to a head to be true.

StarRoc, pairs Hov with Norwegian songwriting/production duo Stargate (Mikkel S. Eriksen and Tor Erik Hermansen), the pair who've given us everything from Ne-Yo's "So Sick" to Rihanna's "Unfaithful" and "Take a Bow" to Beyoncé's "Irreplaceable."

According to a spokesperson for Jay, the new venture will be located at the rapper's Roc the Mic recording studio in Manhattan and will develop new talent through the kind of 360 deal — covering everything from touring to record sales and merchandise — that he signed with Live Nation earlier this year for a reported $150 million. The label is a 50/50 partnership between Jay's Roc Nation company and Stargate. The rapper is slated to deliver The Blueprint 3, his 11th and reportedly final album for Def Jam — where he stepped down as president last December — before the end of the year.

A small mention of the deal appeared in The New York Times on Saturday, noting that the new venture will also include a music-publishing arm.

CIARA SETS THE RECORD STRAIGHT

Well here is an interesting turn of events.



Ciara would like to set the record straight about the photo spread she shot for the October issue of Vibe magazine: She was not nude, and YES she's very upset by the magazine's depiction of her as such — but NO she is not planning any legal action against rag mag.

MTV reports:

"I think, at this point, I'd rather just be quiet about things such as that but I definitely want to make it clear that I was going in to do something artistic, and I was upset that when I saw the photos, everything was gone," the singer told MTV News last weekend, from the set of her forthcoming music video for "Go Girl," which features a cameo from T-Pain. "It's very, very upsetting and somewhat misleading."

Online rumors have suggested that the singer was not nude during the photo shoot but instead wearing underwear, which the magazine allegedly airbrushed out. Vibe Editor in Chief
Danyel Smith recently commented to New York's KISS-FM radio station that not only was Ciara shot au natural, the entire idea behind the spread was the singer's.

"I'm actually really sad," Smith said. "Almost any photo you see on the cover of Vibe or any magazine is airbrushed [to some degree]. What I was thinking of doing, actually, was releasing the untouched photos [on Vibe's] Web site, so people can see what the hullabaloo is all about. I have so much respect for Ciara, and Ciara was so happy when she pitched this idea to us, and the photos are actually striking and beautiful. It was pitched to me in a way that it was time [for her] to grow up and be beautiful and be free and be all the things she wanted to be."

Ciara said she's still hurt by the photos and was quite shocked when she finally got her hands on the October issue.

"I walked into the Vibe photo shoot very excited about making an artistic expression," she said. "And when I saw the photos, I was a little bothered because the photos appear as if I was nude, and I wasn't nude. I reached out to [Smith] — I sent her a letter — and I was a little upset, too, in the fact that she didn't respond to me, and that happened prior to me reading her quote on the Internet. That definitely bothered me, just because of the fact that I wasn't nude. I walked into the photo shoot to do an artistic photo shoot, so I was excited about that. I just didn't like the fact that I saw the picture and now, stuff is gone."

Ciara said the idea behind the entire shoot — at least on her end — was a celebration of the human form and that she'd walked away from the shoot thinking that everything had gone great. "When I saw the pictures, that wasn't what was discussed or what we were going in to do, so that definitely bothered me," she said. "I think the body is something beautiful, and I wanted to celebrate that. And unfortunately, it wasn't exactly what it was in the photo shoot, and I'm looking forward to moving forward."

No matter what Smith or anyone from Vibe says about the shoot, Ciara said she knows exactly what went down that day.

"I know what was there, I know what was taken, and I know what was done. And then to look at the book and go, 'It's gone' — it was just very upsetting to me," she said.


GV Says: I thought more of VIBE. It will be interesting to see how this shakes out

KANYE TEAMS WITH THE MUPPETS

Kanye West is adding yet another title to his already full résumé: puppet master?


Well, kind of. Kanye is teaming up with Comedy Central for a show that The Hollywood Reporter describes as "hip-hop meets the Muppets." A representative for the network confirmed the report Tuesday morning (September 23).

The show, tentatively titled "Alligator Boots," is from the same team behind Comedy Central's puppet show "Crank Yankers": Jackhole Prods., which was founded by Jimmy Kimmel, Adam Corolla and Daniel Kellison. A half-hour pilot has already been shot for the show.

Currently under consideration for 2009, the show would feature music by West and Chicago-based rapper and Kanye collaborator Rhymefest, who would also work alongside Kellison as executive producers. Each week the show would have a different celebrity host and employ a format similar to that of "The Muppet Show." West is the host for the pilot.

Tuesday, September 23, 2008

MINORITY REPORT: CLAY FINALLY OUT OF THE CLOSET

So...I know most of you probably don't listen to Clay Aiken, but I felt compelled to finally post the obvious. Clay Aiken is finally confirming what many people suspected: He's gay.



The cover of the latest People magazine shows Aiken holding his infant son, Parker Foster Aiken, with the headline: "Yes, I'm Gay." The cover also has the quote: "I cannot raise a child to lie or hide things."

The magazine has an interview with Aiken and confirmed that he was on the cover but refused to release the article until Wednesday.

The baby's mother is Aiken's friend and record producer Jaymes Foster.

Aiken, who gained fame as the runner-up on "American Idol" in 2003, rarely addressed the frequent rumors about his sexuality. He said two years ago, "I don't really feel like I have anybody to answer to but myself and God and the people I love."

CELEBS HIT UP THE EMMYS

Little color invaded the Primetime Emmy Awards...but here the few that hobnobbed w/ the best of.

Yes...that's Janice Combs looking elegant! I can't believe it either. She traded in that hood look. Let's hope this lasts.


Actress Taraji Henson. This dress is certainly a throwback, but it works.

Tracey Morgan and date....I guess there's someone for everyone. This guy has had quite a few run ins with the law lately.

Tichina Arnold....no maam.

Alfre Woodard

Oprah opened in true Oprah style.

Eva Longoria-Parker and hubby Tony hit the red carpet as well. That big bow is effectively distracting from her tummy....I'm just saying. Looks good on her though.

And Vanessa always looks great.

CHRISTINA JOINS MYSPACE

It's official. Christina Milian is on the Myspace record label and here's her album cover to prove it.



This was rumored back in January that Myspace would be her new label home after Def Jam dropped her. Her label debut is due next spring. The first single, “Us Against The World,” is a “cinematic power ballad” and will be available via Mypace on October 6.

“I’ve been out of the game for one and a half years, and I think I’m long overdue for a comeback, so I’m treating this album like it’s my last chance to make an impression. I’m competing with myself and being very detailed,” the 26-year-old Cuban-American told Billboard. “Before, I had a label telling me what direction to go in. Now, it’s my choice, so I’m being very particular about it and I’m really excited.”

GV Says: This will be an interesting endeavor. One I hope is successful. She's a sweet girl.

JANET JACKSON LEAVES DEF JAM

Surprise, surprise...JJ is leaving Def Jam.


JJ announced Monday that she has parted ways with Island Def Jam Records after just 14 months on the label. According to Billboard.com, Janet’s publicist noted that the label agreed to dissolve the relationship upon Jackson's request.

"Now more than 20 years after the release of her iconic album, Control, Janet will have autonomy over her career, without the restrictions of a label system," Jackson's publicist said in a statement. "Always known to break new ground and set trends, Janet's departure from Island makes her one of the first superstar artists to have the individual freedom to promote their work through a variety of avenues such as iTunes, mobile carriers and other diverse and innovative channels."

In March, Jackson released Discipline, an album that reflected a return to her Control era in more ways than just its title. But after debuting at #1, the album has sold a disappointing 415,000 units, according to SoundScan. The singer's unhappiness with the label was reflected in recent interviews. "I can't say if we'll be working with them in the future," Jackson told Billboard last month. "I don't know what the future holds between the two of us."

Janet will continue her current Rock Witchu Tour, which is scheduled to continue through October 22 with supporting act LL Cool J.
GV Says: Isn't it ironic that she's touring w/ LL....Read HERE

Monday, September 22, 2008

MINORITY REPORT: TRAVIS BARKER AND DJ AM SURVIVE PLANE CRASH

Travis Barker and DJ AM were among six people aboard a Learjet that crashed upon takeoff from a Columbia, South Carolina, airport after midnight Friday.The four others onboard were killed.



Barker, an ex-drummer for the rock band Blink 182 and the star of the MTV reality show Meet the Barkers, had performed at a free Friday-night college event with former Jane's Addiction singer Perry Farrell, Gavin DeGraw and DJ AM.
Barker, 32, was taken to a burn center in Augusta, Georgia, about 75 miles southwest of Columbia, and was listed in critical condition Saturday morning – as was DJ AM (real name: Adam Michael Goldstein), 35, say officials at the facility. "Both Travis Barker and Adam Goldstein are in critical but stable condition," Beth Frits, spokesperson for the Joseph M. Still Burn Center reports. "Goldstein was airlifted here and Barker was brought by ground transportation. So they arrived separately."

According to South Carolina's Lexington County coroner, Harry Harman, and deputy coroner, Brian Setree, the four others on the plane were killed. They are: pilot Sarah Lemmon, 31, of Anaheim Hills, Calif.; co-pilot James Bland, 52, of Carlsbad, Calif.; security guard Charles Still, 25, of Los Angeles; and Barker's assistant Chris Baker, 29, also of Los Angeles.

"The plane crashed on takeoff and went through a fence near Highway 302, then crossed the road and went up an embankment before being filled with flames," she said. "There was debris all over the runway. We are closed now and hope to reopen later today."

Both are being treated for second- and third-degree burns. Mullins says recovery from such burns can take as long as a year but says that the men suffered no other injuries, adding: "Since both Barker and Goldstein are in overall good health and didn't suffer from any other crash-related complications, a full recovery is expected."

Mullins says Barker was burned on his torso and lower body, while DJ AM, was burned on his arms and a portion of his head. The doctor described both as remaining in critical but stable condition and in the intensive-care unit of the hospital. Regarding their emotional state, he declined to discuss specifics, but said of burn victims that "45 percent of all patients have some emotional trouble."

Friday, September 19, 2008

ANGELA TURNS LEGAL

A slim, trim Angela Simmons celebrated her 21st birthday this week at Butter in NY. Family and friends including D. Wade, DJ Clue, and Dawn Richards came out.




Danity Kane's Dawn Richards
DJ Clue

KELLY CHILLS IN LONDON

Kelly Rowland was spotted suited up (literally) in London last night at a Vodafone event.



GV Says: Poor Kell. It so crazy to me that after selling all those records w/ Destiny's Child she has absolutely no fan base.

USHER BABY & WOMAN HIT THE PARK

Usher was spotted with his son, Usher Raymond V, in a Beverly Hills park on Thursday.


Along w/ an unidentified woman