*BET and Paramount Home Entertainment will release the horror DVD "Nite Tales" on Feb. 3. Written, directed and produced by Deon Taylor, the disc's two films are hosted by Flavor Flav and star Tony Todd, Sticky Fingaz, Fredro Starr and Tyrin Turner. In “Karma,” a bank heist turns into a life and death struggle. In "Storm,” a group of college students take refuge from a violent rainstorm. After they offer a stranger shelter, one of them turns up dead and as the rain continues to fall, so do the bodies.
*The Four Tops and the Blind Boys of Alabama are among the honorees for a lifetime achievement Grammy award on Feb. 7, organizers announced. Other honorees include jazz pianist Hank Jones, late crooner Dean Martin, late singing cowboy Gene Autry, country-pop singer Brenda Lee and folk singer/songwriter Tom Paxton. The awards will be handed out in Los Angeles, the day before the 51st annual Grammy awards ceremony.
*The New York Post's Page Six is reporting that Oprah Winfrey has booked the $15,000-a-night Royal Suite at the Four Seasons Hotel in Washington D.C. for five nights during Barack Obama's Inauguration week. The news comes on the heels of Winfrey's rep denying reports that she was thinking about purchasing a $50 million, nine-bedroom Georgetown mansion to be closer to the Obama White House.
*Singer Rihanna earned a place on Maxim’s Young Hot Hollywood List, which appears in the January 2009 issue of the men's magazine. She joins seven other celebrities who were chosen for their potential to be "Hollywood’s new guard of A-list icons.” Others on the Hot Hollywood list include Scarlett Johansson, Blake Lively and "House's" Oliva Wilde. Rihanna earned her spot for becoming “the hottest pop star of the decade.”
*Madonna is reportedly about to adopt another child from Malawi. According to Star magazine, the pop icon is said to have signed paperwork to adopt four-year-old girl Mercy James from the same African country where she adopted her son David Banda in 2006. The girl's grandfather has allegedly confirmed the exchange will occur early next year. "It breaks our hearts to know she will leave us, but adoption is best for her," he told the magazine. James' mother Mwandida died at 18, just days after giving birth to her daughter.