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This Just In…: Vivica A. Fox and Emmy-nominated actor/rapper Mos Def have been tapped to host the first ever VH1 Hip Hop Honors. Expect the official announcement to come later this week. My sources say that Vivica was the network’s first pick and as a host and pulled out all of the punches to make it happen. The star of Lifetime’s "Missing" has become so popular among the hip-hop community and after her recent cameo with Lil’ Jon on MTV’s VMAs, the brass at VH1 had to have her.

In addition, performers slated for the show include Nas, Kid Rock, The Beastie Boys, Public Enemy, Sugar Hill Gang and Chic. The show will also honor DJ Kool Herc, DJ Hollywood, KRS-One, Public Enemy, Rock Steady Crew, Run DMC, Sugar Hill Gang, Tupac Shakur (posthumously), and The Graffiti Movement. The show will air on Tuesday Oct. 12 at 9pm on VH1.

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Face Forward: Seems as though singing sensation Alicia Keys is having another serious bout with her acne. Alicia, who is one of the nicest entertainers in the business, is apparently suffering yet again from an unfortunate acne explosion.

Sources say that Alicia’s pimple parade was digitally airbrushed away in the music video for her and Usher’s duet "My Boo." The source adds that’s why Alicia’s participation in the behind-the-scenes show "Access Granted" was also kept to a minimum.

MSNBC’s Jeannette Walls is also reporting that Alicia was camera shy during last week’s World Music Awards due to her acne invasion. A source told Jeannette, "She was really avoiding the cameras. She’s quite beautiful, but her face was all broken out. She looked like a teenager going through a rough adolescence and whenever the cameras approached her she’d drop her head or look away."

Alicia’s camp should make the best of her breakout brouhaha and get her an endorsement deal with ProActiv.

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Couple’s Corner: Page Six of the New York Post is reporting that "the love affair between Ashanti and rapper Nelly is heating up — so much so that the songbird is planning a trip to Glen Cove, L.I., so Nelly can meet her parents." Well that doesn’t even make sense. Anyone who knows anything about Ashanti knows her mother is with her all of the time. They went on to report "Unfortunately, the plans have deeply upset Irv Gotti — the president of her label, Murder Inc. — who used to be involved with [Ashanti]." My sources tell me that this whole story is "spin, spin, spin!" I have it on good authority that Ashanti and Nelly have been over and that the singer is definitely back involved with Irv. I’m even told that Ashanti is living with Irv at his apartment in New York City’s trendy Tribeca community.

Speaking of couples… I’m hearing that new pop star JoJo is dating So So Def rapper J-Kwon. The 14-year-old pop tart apparently met up with the 19-year-old rapper while on the road and the two have apparently been kicking it ever since. Let’s see how this ends up.

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A Day Late…: Waiting until Tuesday to break news sometimes is a disadvantage for me. Too often I learn about big news on a Friday or over the weekend and I have to hold my breath and pray it doesn’t show up elsewhere. Well I must not have sought the Lord long enough about this one because Fox News columnist Roger Friedman broke the news first on Sunday that The Fugees have reunited.

On Friday, a reliable source phoned to tell me that their party invitations had been held up because the same company they were using to do them was also working on a photo shoot for The Fugees. After making a few phone calls, another source told me that they heard the group was scheduled to make their first appearance together again on Dave Chappelle’s "Chappelle Show" for Comedy Central.

Well it did happen. Wyclef Jean, Lauryn Hill, and Pras Michel did reunite Saturday night and performed together on a taping of the "Chappelle Show." No word on how the performance went or when the group will head back into the studio, but I’ll keep you posted on how this all develops.

The Fugees' 1996 sophomore album "The Score" featured their version of the Roberta Flack hit "Killing Me Softly" and sold over 17 million copies. They also earned two Grammy Awards.

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Family First: "The View’s" Star Jones was supposed to be joined by her daily cohort Meredith Vieira on the red carpet for E!’s red carpet coverage of the Emmy Awards. Star and Meredith would have replaced Joan and Melissa Rivers, who left the network to work for the TV Guide Channel. But Meredith, who also hosts "Who Wants To Be A Millionaire," backed out of the deal with E! to attend her daughter’s recital which is scheduled for the same day. "I told her that I may be in Los Angeles and tears welled up in her eyes. I decided then that I couldn’t do it," said Meredith. Star was joined by Robert Verdi, host of E!'s new weekly series "Fashion Police," instead.

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Unbearable: "Without A Paddle" stars Dax Shepard and Matthew Lillard had been looking forward to working with their co-star, Bart the Bear, while shooting in New Zealand. The four-year-old, Alaskan born bear had starred in "Dr. Dolittle 2" and the two actors were hoping to wrestle it like Brad Pitt did in the documentary "Growing Up Grizzly."

That all changed when the two were shooting a scene with Bart, who was carrying a fake version of co-star Seth Green in his mouth, and things almost took a turn for the worst. "So, he’s walking with the fake Seth in his mouth and all of the sudden, he turns looks directly at us and starts coming at us," remembered Dax.

Having been warned not to look the animal in his eyes, the two actors panicked. "We’re both trying not to look at him, but we don’t know if it’s time to run yet. We can feel him coming but can’t determine how close he is," said Dax.

The "Punk’d" star realized this was far from a prank on his MTV reality series when the trainers, who normally spoke to the Bart in a kind, gentle manner, also began to freak out. "All of sudden we hear, "No Bart! Bad Boy Bart! Then they started getting their clubs out and they hadn’t used them the entire movie," recalled Dax.

They finally calmed Bart down and the producers kept the cameras rolling the entire time. "They should put the outtake on the DVD of us pissing in our outfits," Dax laughed.

"Without A Paddle" is in theaters now.

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Foolish Flack: My mother always told me I was a tad bit stubborn. She figured it was just me being a Taurus. But while my sometimes stubborn nature can work to my benefit, if occasionally works against me.

Need an example? Well I had been warned by at least five of my colleagues that a certain Los Angeles-based public relations pretender was all bad news. If I’m being completely honest, I should have cut this person off after previously having two run-ins of my own with this character. Me being me however, I gave this person the benefit of the doubt and continued to cover said flack’s clients from time to time. I guess I shouldn’t have been surprised when the publicist got select amnesia and forgot about my ample coverage of his C-list clientele in this column and the numerous national magazines I contribute for. I yeah, this devil decided to act like a fool and really got some crazy stuff started and had me really taking out my aggression towards him on someone who was kind of undeserving.

It’s all good though now. Just another life lesson learned for me.

And for the flack, well I’m one in the ever-growing number of journalists that will never deal with this person again. The sad part is that I don’t know what said publicist is going to do because folks are talking – even the clients that have abandoned the roster to go to more reputable companies – and before you know it, no one will want to do business with the dwindling company.

Maybe there’s life after publicity for you as a Jackson family impersonator.

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Quickies:

~ "As The World Turns" actor Lamman Rucker will do three-episode guest turn on the popular UPN series "All Of Us" starting next week Sept. 28. Lamman will play a character named Rick Harris that is interested in Elise Neal’s character Tia Jewel. This is the daytime star’s debut on primetime television.

~ I was scheduled to attend Tom Joyner’s Family Reunion in Orlando, FL on Labor Day weekend. I arrived in Orlando that Wednesday before for some media activities Disney had arranged, only to learn that the weekend would be cancelled due to hurricane Francis. Disney booked me a return flight home on Friday evening, but that Thursday, we learned that Orlando would closing their airport early Friday morning. I initially began to get nervous, thinking I would spend my Labor Day weekend trapped at Disney and braving a hurricane. But the wonderful folks at Disney came up with an alternative solution. They decided to book all of their guests’ flights out of Atlanta and chartered two buses stocked with blankets, pillows and lots of snacks for our overnight ride to Georgia. The trip, which supposedly normally takes seven or eight hours, took eleven hours. Nonetheless, I made it out of there without having to meet up with Francis.

~ Speaking of Tom Joyner, America’s favorite fly jock is the reason that a new music collaboration was birthed. Crooner Gerald Levert connected with R&B veterans turned music producers Full Force on Tom Joyner’s Fantastic Voyage this past Memorial Day. While on the weeklong cruise, Gerald and Full Force talked about working together on some music. That all became a reality recently when Gerald hooked up with the fellas in New York City to record the track "Can’t Give Up On Love" for Gerald’s upcoming album for Atlantic Records. The song is described as an up-tempo, reggae-fused, R&B track. Also featured on "Can’t Give Up On Love" is Doug E. Fresh, who was also on the cruise.

~ To new ventures coming from Jawn Murray in the coming weeks… Stay tuned!

~ They have dressed Chingy, Free of "106 & Park," Ruff Ryder's deejay Swizz Beatz, Jaheim, actor Lamman Rucker ("As The World Turns"), Kindred The Family Soul and always keep me dapper. A special thanks to Aja Imani for keeping me "GQ." Aja Imani is located at 9244 East Hampton Drive, Suite #622, Capitol Heights, MD 20743. Contact them at 301-324-8300 or at ajaimani@aol.com.

Well I’m Jawn and that’s your Juice! See you next week!

E-mail me directly at GarekNews@hotmail.com because I never read the message board!

© 2002-2004 Jawn’s Juice. All rights reserved worldwide. All information provided by Jawn’s Juice on this Internet site is for personal use only. No commercial exploitation of anything contained herein may take place without prior written permission from the column’s author, Jawn Murray. Material contained herein may not be re-sold, loaned, hired, exchanged, bartered, or in any other way re-distributed in any other manner whatsoever.

* Kendra Story, senior contributing editor of Upscale magazine, edited this column. You may contact her directly at KendraStory@aol.com.

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