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03-26-07 EUR ALL ON ONE PAGE
SNOOP DENIED VISA TO ENTER UK: Last year’s drama at Heathrow may ruin his current European tour with Diddy.
*Sean "Diddy" Combs may have to enter the UK leg of his One Love Peace Tour without co-headliner Snoop Dogg after British authorities made a last minute move to keep the Long Beach rapper out of the country.
On Friday, Snoop was told that he has been denied a visa to enter Britain for the tour’s scheduled performance tomorrow (3/27) at London’s Wembley Arena. The 35-year-old, whose real name is Calvin Broadus, was also prevented from entering Britain last May due to his involvement in a fracas last year at London’s Heathrow airport.
"Snoop still sincerely hopes that the British Government will reconsider their decision and UK shows will be allowed to go on as planned," said his rep, referring to scheduled shows in Cardiff, Manchester, Glasgow, and Nottingham later this week. "Many routes are being explored to the prime minister to have the decision reversed," she added.
Earlier this month, police in Stockholm arrested Snoop and a woman in her early 20s for suspected narcotics use. Aside from that drama, the tour has played “to about 100,000 fans without incident, without one arrest or any trouble of any description," said his rep.
“He has toured here before and sees the UK as being the highlight of the tour. He has asked how he can help rectify the situation and would happily talk to and give assurances to the officials," she continued.
Last April, Snoop and his entourage were at Heathrow waiting to board a plane to Johannesburg, South Africa when they got into a skirmish with police. Seven officers said they were injured. Snoop and several members of his crew were arrested and held in police cells until they were bailed out.
TONY YAYO ARRESTED FOR PUNCHING 14-YEAR-OLD: G-Unit rapper accused of assaulting son of industry rival; boy’s mom responds.
*Rapper Tony Yayo, who will celebrate his 29th birthday this Saturday, was arrested and detained in New York for the alleged assault of a 14-year-old boy.
According to Allhiphop.com, the victim was the son of Jimmy “Henchmen” Rosemond, the head of record label/management firm Czar Entertainment. The company handles the career of 50’s rival The Game. Also, 50 and Rosemond have been on opposite sides of a court battle over the release of “The Infamous Times - Volume I: The Original 50 Cent,” a Czar-produced DVD about a deceased drug kingpin known in Brooklyn as the "original 50 Cent."
The alleged assault took place Tuesday (3/20) after Rosemond's son left school and was headed to his internship at his father's offices on West 25th Street. The building is located near Violator Management, the company that handles 50 Cent's career.
Sources close to Czar tell Allhiphop.com that 50 Cent, Tony Yayo and several associates were leaving Violator Management and saw the boy walking down the street dressed in a Czar T-shirt. They reportedly had no idea that the teen was Rosemond's son.
According to sources, Yayo backhanded the boy then screamed profane words towards Czar Entertainment.
Violator wasn't available for comment on the charges, but sources within the company tell the Web site that 50 was not present at the alleged assault.
Yayo, born Marvin Bernard, was reportedly taken to a precinct in downtown Manhattan along with his associates to be identified by the teen. The boy’s mother, Cynthia Reed, was to accompany her son to the station. She has released the following statement in response to the alleged assault:
"As a mother I am concerned that my son (who is a fan of hip hop) would be attacked by the same artist whose music he listens to. It's a shame that 50 Cent and Tony Yayo could feel comfortable slapping and physically attacking an innocent 14 year old minor that they market and promote their records to. This is a cowardly act on my son who has done nothing to warrant the verbal and physical abuse he received. This issue should not be taken lightly and these men should be looked upon as a serious threat to society, having taken their relentless public rants towards their rivalries to a level of extreme. This should be looked as a step away from child molestation. I seek justice in the form of restoring my son's dignity and making sure any child can wear whatever they want without fear of bodily injury."
Yayo’s rap sheet includes two consecutive sentences on weapons-possession charges stemming from a Dec. 2002 arrest and a sentence for jumping bail.
AMERICA HAS A BLACK MISS USA: Crown passes from controversial Tara Conner to Miss Tennessee, Rachel Smith.
*The Miss USA tiara has seen some rough days in the past 12 months. But it all came to an end Friday as the crown waived buh-bye to the sex scandals, club hopping and rehab stint endured under the reign of Tara Conner and found itself atop the coiffed hairdo of Rachel Smith, a bi-racial journalism grad from Clarksville, Tennessee who beat out 50 other contestants to win the annual competition.
"I'm speechless at this point, I really am," said the 21-year-old alumnus of Nashville’s Belmont University after the pageant, which included contestants from all 50 states and the District of Columbia.
In the final stretch of the competition at Hollywood’s Kodak Theatre, Smith edged out African American finalist Meagan Yvonne Tandy of California; Cara Renee Gorges of Kansas; Helen Salas of Nevada; and Danielle Lacourse of Rhode Island, who was named the first runner-up.
When asked whether she was ready to take over for Conner, Smith admitted it would "be a little bit of a challenge," but quickly added she was up to the task. "I'm excited to see what this year will hold," she said.
Smith also praised the way Conner handled her various challenges.
"I definitely learned a lot," Smith said of Conner's tenure as Miss USA.
Asked how she would behave during her reign, Smith said: "I'm going to be honest and open."
The 5-foot, 11-inch tall daughter of African American and Caucasian parentage was a “military brat” who was born in Panama and raised in Clarksville after her parents were reassigned to Fort Campbell.
While studying at Belmont, she served an eight-month internship at Oprah Winfrey’s Harpo Productions in Chicago. In January 2007, Winfrey chose her to volunteer for one month at her newly-opened Leadership Academy for Girls in South Africa.
HALLE SCREENS NEW FILM IN OHIO HOMETOWN: Hundreds of fans brave drizzle to greet Oscar winner.
*Halle Berry returned to her hometown of Valley View, Ohio Thursday night to attend a special screening of her new film “Perfect Stranger,” a thriller co-starring Bruce Willis.
Under a steady drizzle, the 40-year-old Academy Award winner greeted fans, posed for pictures, stopped for interviews with local media and signed autographs as she made her way into the cineplex.
"I'm so happy to be home," she told the packed theater in the Cleveland suburb. "I swear this is true. No matter how many countries I've been to, no matter how many warm receptions I've gotten, my heart was beating when I pulled up. Nothing feels better. The voices all sound familiar in some weird way. I'm of here. I'm from here. And I'm one of you."
Cleveland’s mayor Frank Jackson referred to Berry as “homegrown and beautiful” when he introduced her to the crowd before the film began. Also attending the screening was Browns wide receiver Braylon Edwards.
"I'm a big fan of Halle Berry's," he told AP. "I think every man in America is."
"Perfect Stranger" opens nationwide on April 13.
EUR FILM REVIEW: Pride
Philly Role Model's Inspirational Life Story Turned into Formulaic Hollywood Bio-Pic
*When Jim Ellis (Terrence Howard) arrived in Philadelphia in the summer of 1971, it was with high hopes of landing a teaching position.
Instead, the only employment the recent college grad could find was a dead-end job closing down a rundown recreation center located in a disadvantaged area of North Philly known as Nicetown.
But after discovering that the gymnasium had a swimming pool, instead of preparing the dilapidated facility for the wrecking ball, Jim decided to try to renovate it. For, he knew that if he carried out his original assignment, the neighborhood kids would be losing their only local outlet for constructive, supervised exercise.
Furthermore, as a former competitive swimmer on the university level, Jim figured he had some worthwhile advice to share with the rudderless boys just hanging out on the sweltering, rimless basketball court. So, rather than allow them to get into trouble on the streets, he invited them inside for a chance to cool off in the pool. Then, he put them on a serious training regimen in order to turn them into a team capable of holding their own against the best swim clubs in the area.
In the end, Ellis not only succeeded in his efforts to resurrect the Marcus Foster Recreation Center, the program he created has continued to flourish for the past 35 years, providing a healthy environment for aspiring young athletes in the inner city. This admirable achievement is the subject of Pride, a bio-pic based on the exploits of a real-life role model.
Unfortunately, the movie is flawed in a couple of glaring respects, the first, in terms of its infuriating use of the N-word. In the film, the slur is never employed by whites, not even by Ellis' squad's racist cross-town rivals, the Main Line Academy Barracudas. But it is repeatedly used by blacks, a glaring anachronism ignoring that the embracing of the offensive term by African-Americans is a relatively-recent development.
Why would a movie both about and entitled Pride, feature characters demeaning themselves in such a fashion? Perhaps the answer lies in the fact that first-time director, Sunu Gonera, was born in Zimbabwe and lived in South Africa until he came to Hollywood to make this picture. So, he was probably simply unfamiliar with American history, and that once upon a time it was whites who primarily hurled the ugly epithet, not blacks.
Another annoying aspect of the production is its indulgence in homophobic humor, referring to gays as "fruitcakes" and "Captain Panties" while generally intimating that it is not a safe thing to be a homosexual in the black community. Again, this is uncalled for in a PG picture designed for impressionable tykes. What is it teaching them, "Aim high in life while reserving doling out disparaging remarks to gays and fellow blacks?"
Otherwise, Pride unfolds in fairly formulaic fashion for a sports flick, with Terrence Howard turning in one of his typically captivating performances as the charismatic coach. An afroed Bernie Mac is almost as memorable as a marble-mouthed janitor/assistant coach/buddy/political lobbyist/matchmaker. And Kimberly Elise co-stars as hoop earringed Sue Davis, another combination character who is conveniently a love interest, a city councilman, and a child advocate all rolled into one.
The rest of the principal cast of recognizable stereotypes is rounded out by Tom Arnold as Bink the bigot, Diana Ross' son, Evan (ATL), as Reggie the retard, Regine Nehy, as Wilhemina, the token girl, and Alphonso McCauley, who played bucktoothed Bucky in Fat Albert, as another awkward dork.
Well-intentioned, at best, Pride, regrettably, doesn't show enough brotherly love for anyone to be proud of it.
Fair (1 star)
Rated PG for mature themes, violence, profanity and ethnic slurs.
Running time: 104 minutes
Studi Lions Gate Films
VIVICA FOX CHARGED IN DUI CASE: Actress could get jail time for recent drunk driving arrest in Los Angeles.
*Things just got real serious for Vivica A. Fox.
The actress is now facing a maximum of six months in jail after the Los Angeles city attorney on Friday charged her with misdemeanor counts of driving under the influence of alcohol and driving with a blood-alcohol level above the legal limit.
Fox, 42, was arrested late Tuesday after whizzing past a patrol car on the Hollywood Freeway at 80 mph and subsequently failing a field sobriety test, authorities said. Breathalyzer tests indicated her blood-alcohol level was greater than .08 percent, the legal limit for a driver. Fox spent a night behind bars and was released early Wednesday.
Her arraignment is set for May 17. In addition to a six-month jail term, Fox is also facing a $1,000 fine, city attorney spokesman Frank Mateljan said.
The former “Dancing with the Stars” contestant is set to star in Je’Caryous Johnson’s new stage play “Whatever She Wants,”
http://www.imreadyproductions.com/ which begins its spring run on April 20 in Macon, GA.
NAOMI EXITS MOP DUTY IN DOLCE & GABANNA: …And drives off into the sunset via Rolls Royce.
*It’s evident that Naomi Campbell knows how to make an entrance, as evidenced by the model’s daily catwalk arrivals to her court ordered community service last week. But Friday’s 4 p.m. completion of her cleaning stint at the Department of Sanitation facility in Manhattan proves she knows how to make an even bigger exit.
Gathered paparazzi and residents of the Lower East Side apartment complex across the street clamored and snapped pictures as the British runway diva walked out of the building in a sparkly, bare-shouldered Dolce & Gabbana gown and stiletto sandals.
She made her way to a silver Rolls Royce that promptly whisked her off to a 60th birthday bash for singer Elton John, which explains her formal getup.
"Miss Campbell completed her service successfully," said her boss for the week, sanitation Deputy Chief Albert Durrell. "From what I understand, she was pleasant the entire time."
Although she arrived to work every day in stylish outfits, on time at 8 a.m. notes Durrell, she shed the expensive clothing once inside and donned an orange, reflective Department of Sanitation vest, stretch pants, combat boots and a dust mask. During lunch breaks, she and co-workers ordered pizza, Durrell said.
In January, Campbell pleaded guilty to misdemeanor assault for throwing her cell phone at her maid, Ana Scolavino, over a missing pair of jeans. In an agreement with prosecutors, the Manhattan Criminal Court judge sentenced Campbell to perform five days of community service, take anger management classes and pay $363.32 in restitution to Scolavino, as well as covering her hospital bills.
Her chores at the Manhattan District 3 Garage on the East River included sweeping garage floors, mopping and sweeping hallways, and scrubbing toilets.
"She was on her hands and knees at some point," said Durrell. "She did scrub the bathrooms."
LIL JON’S NEW BLING SETS GUINNESS RECORD: Latest order is officially world’s largest diamond pendant.
*To promote his upcoming CD “Crunk Ain’t Dead,” producer Lil Jon literally bought his way into the Guinness Book of World Records by purchasing what has turned out to be the largest diamond pendant in history.
Purchased for $500,000 at Jason of Beverly Hills, the “Crunk Ain’t Dead” pendant is 7.5 inches tall, six inches wide and one inch thick. The piece weighs 5.11 pounds and features 73 carats of diamonds. The total stone count is 3,756 genuine round-cut white diamonds, set in 18-karat yellow and white gold.
“I’m glad the Guinness World Records folks acknowledged me and my Crunk Ain’t Dead piece,” Lil Jon said. “I grew up on reading and hearing about people and celebrities who break records in the Guinness World Records book and it always fascinated me. Now that I’m on the list, it feels great. Let’s just see how many rappers try to outdo my pendant and break my record. They don’t call me the King of Crunk for nothing!”
The album, due sometime in the fall, features guest collaborations from Good Charlotte, Ciara, Lil Wayne, R.Kelly, Three 6 Mafia, Rick Rubin, Green Day, and Korn's Jonathan Davis.
LAWRENCE HILTON-JACOBS: The Sublime Interview with Kam Williams Whatever Happened to Freddie "Boom-Boom" Washington?
*Born in New York City on September 4, 1953, Lawrence Hilton Jacobs was the fifth of nine children hailing from a family with West Indian heritage.
He began auditioning for acting gigs while still attending the High School of Art and Design, and after graduation, he supported himself by taking a series of menial jobs, honing his skills at Al Fann's Theatrical School and with the Negro Ensemble Company.
Later heading to Hollywood, Lawrence appeared in a handful of feature films, Death Wish, Claudine, The Gambler, and Cooley High, before landing the role of a lifetime in 1975 as Freddie "Boom-Boom" Washington on a new TV series called Welcome Back, Kotter. Though fated to be associated with that lovable character forever, he has, nonetheless, gone on to enjoy an enduring career, evidenced by a resume' which boasts over 50 big screen and television credits, plus work as a director, as a scriptwriter, as a composer, and as a producer.
Here, he talks about his latest movie, Sublime, recently released on DVD, a thought-provoking, sci-fi thriller, where he plays a man with suspicious motivations who goes by the name of Mandingo.
Kam Williams: Hi Laurence. The first thing I want to ask you is whether you remember my cousin, Maurice Sneed, an actor who came up around the same time as you.
Lawrence Hilton-Jacobs: Oh, man, to death! Are you kidding me? What a small world man! I haven't seen Maurice in a million years.
KW: I can't wait to tell him that we spoke, although we all call him Brother. That was his nickname as a kid.
LHJ: Here's just a little interesting piece of trivia. See if you can find a movie called Youngblood. It was made in 1978. Maurice and I did that movie together. It's a street gang movie.
KW: I'll check it out. Weren't you also in the Chicago production of What the Wine Sellers Buy back in the Seventies with him? If so, I might have met you when he brought me backstage to meet the rest of the cast.
LHJ: No, I only did that play with the New York company. I think every black actor did Wine Sellers…at some point in their career back then. But say "hi" to Maurice for me.
KW: Will do. Is it true that you did an assortment of odd jobs after high school?
LHJ: Yeah, I had a lot of jobs, because I wanted to be an actor, and I had this bad habit of wanting to eat regularly. So, I had to make some money somewhere. I was everything from a stock worker in an Alexander's department store to flower delivery person to a messenger to a grocery clerk to a gas station attendant. I even worked in Macy's dusting off fur coats for two weeks.
KW: How old were you when you got bit by the acting bug?
LHJ: Early, just like your cousin. Sneed was around 13 or 14 when he started. We were both out of New York. I bounced around then, trying to get work while still going to school, which is a little tough. And then, when I became 18, I just started studying with the Al Fann Theatrical Ensemble and with the Negro Ensemble Company. Work started to flourish from that, eventually.
KW: What was one of the early productions you remember appearing in?
LHJ: Al Fann had a famous play back then called King Heroin which everyone who came to the ensemble did. In the late Sixties and early Seventies, as you know, the heroin epidemic was exploding. I also did Cora's Second Cousin, The Dean, and The Exterminator, where I played a guy who lands in purgatory where he gets put on trial by the bugs for trying to kill them.
KW: You made your screen debut in Death Wish, the original vigilante movie. Did you die in that flick?
LHJ: Yep, I was killed, shot by Bronson [star Charles Bronson] with a gun. It's kind of funny, because when we were doing that scene over by the Hudson River, which took two days to shoot, it was so cold I couldn't believe it. And then some of the spray from his blank gun hit me in the face, man. I just sprung back from it, and the director thought I was overacting, but it had burned my face.
KW: People forget that even shooting blanks is potentially lethal. I remember how the actor Jon-Erik Hexum accidentally killed himself on a movie set with a blank.
LHJ: Yeah, he put the gun to his head and he took himself out, which is a drag, man.
KW: Would you say that Cooley High was your breakout role?
LHJ: Oh, big time! Yet, it's funny how these things can overlap. Back in those days, when a movie came out, it might stay in theaters for a year or even longer. So, I had done Claudine and Cooley High, and then Welcome Back, Kotter. And they were all out at the same time. So, I was all over the place.
KW: What was it like to have that degree of fame all of a sudden?
LHJ: It was like an explosion. You just don't get ready for it. I don't even know how you can, because you just don't expect it. For me, up until that point, you would do a gig, and then you'd go out and try to find the next job. So, I had no idea what effect something blockbustering would have. To me, it was just a job that I was trying to do the best I could. We had shot the first five shows before it went on the air. Then, it was this firecracker hit, and people were recognizing me, so it was just nuts. It was overwhelming, insane, wonderful and scary all at the same time. It's really peculiar that people see you on television and then think they have a personal relationship with you. So, they want to touch you, and grab you, and sit down and have lunch with you. It's strange, and you never get used to that.
KW: I guess they know who you are, but they don't really know you. Did you have a hard time handling that aspect of fame?
LHJ: You learn to roll with it. I'll talk to anybody and everybody. I learned that from Jack Albertson years ago. When he was doing Chico and the Man with Freddie Prinze, we were doing Kotter right next-door to them. We all used to hang out on the lot together. And Jack, Red Foxx and Scatman Crothers were like the elder statesmen, telling us the vaudeville stories from their early days. But Jack is the one that told me, "Larry, you should talk to everybody, that's how you learn life." It was a simple thing to say, but I got it. It's also a way of keeping yourself down-to-earth, so you don't think of yourself as all that.
KW: Tell me a little about this new sci-fi thriller Sublime. I watched it, I liked it, but I still need someone to explain it all to me.
LHJ: What was happening is that you were taken on a journey with a man who was going through his own early midlife crisis. He was re-examining his self-worth when, by accident or misfortune, he had the wrong operation performed on him in the hospital. This made him think further about who he really was, but being under sedation he had hallucinations which blurred the line between what was real and what was not real, as we sometimes experience in our nightmares or in our subconscious.
KW: Into which genre of film does Sublime fit? I found it sort of hard to pigeonhole.
LHJ: They classify this movie under the horror/sci-fi banner, but I saw it as a psychological drama about a heightened reality, which can be horrific in itself. But this isn't a slasher flick or anything like that.
KW: Was playing a character like Mandingo new to you?
LHJ: Yeah, I'd never played this kind of role before. I'd never done a person absolutely committed to trying to scare the hell out of you. That's all this guy wanted to do. And he has no remorse. He's pretty out there, man.
KW: Do you have any plans to direct again?
LHJ: Yes, I just set up a pickup scene for a movie starring Sarah Jessica Parker that's untitled for the moment. That was a long, long day, like an 18-hour shoot. There were a lot of action sequences we had to cover in a day, but we did it. That's being edited as we speak. That was my sixth time directing. But yeah, I want to direct a lot more, especially feature films as opposed to television. With a film, you get a chance to tell a story the way you envision it and how you feel it. It's pretty exciting to bring the collaborators and components together, and then to pull off the images to achieve the effect that you're going for. When you make a film, you're creating the illusion of a natural experience. But everything is created on purpose. If I want you to be scared, I'm trying to scare you. If I want you to cry, I'm trying to make you sad. If I want you to laugh, I'm trying make you laugh. So, how I get you there is what makes it interesting, because I also want it to feel seamless, and not forced. That kind of constant experimentation is just fun to explore, and I love it.
KW: What do you attribute your having an enduring career to?
LHJ: It's been interesting that a diversity of roles have come my way, and that I've had the opportunity to do them. To me, it's about going for a good role that has something to say, and that's a challenge. I've been lucky enough to play everything from a homeless guy to this crazy male nurse.
KW: He's not a stalker, but Jimmy Bayan, this friend of mine in L.A. always wants me to ask celebs where they live.
LHJ: I live in the Hollywood area. The same, old tired Hollywood.
KW: What advice do you have for aspiring young actors?
LHJ: Anybody who wants to go into any business, I always say that you have to make a commitment to yourself to make it a part of your nature like the air you breathe. I don't mean that lightly. It's hard. You have to do the work, and a lot of it is going to be during your own personal downtime. And you have to be interested in it. You can never study enough, and you can never learn enough.
KW: Well, thanks for a great interview, Lawrence.
LHJ: You're welcome, I appreciate it.
COSBY TAPS YOUTUBE FOR SLAVERY MUSEUM DONATIONS: No one listened to plea of $8 per American; fundraising now moves to Internet.
*A new YouTube-inspired campaign is allowing Web surfers to create homemade videos featuring entertainer Bill Cosby soliciting donations toward the building of a $200 million slavery museum in Fredericksburg, VA.
Amateur videographers are encouraged to visit www.eightbucks.org to download a video of Cosby and later insert their own backgrounds, pictures and sound effects. They can use links to post the finished product on YouTube.com, which in turn helps to promote the museum.
"We've been trying to get everybody in the United States of America to send in $8. Everybody didn't," Cosby deadpans in the video. "So we're asking again."
The "Bill Cosby Green Screen Challenge" uses chroma key video compositing, a Hollywood device that allows directors to separate performers from their background. Later, they can replace the background with something else -- putting actors amid exploding wreckage or on battlefields, for instance.
"I keep my fingers crossed that people will see it as something that is very, very serious," Cosby, a key fund raiser for the museum, told The Associated Press. "We need people to think seriously that their donation is crucial."
The 290,000-square-foot museum, spearheaded by former Virginia Gov. L. Douglas Wilder, will feature more than 5,000 historic relics of slavery, galleries and a full-scale replica of a Portuguese slave ship.
In September, organizers launched the campaign that urged every American to donate $8 -- a number symbolizing slave shackles. The effort raised $50,000 in one weekend, but so far has yet to reach its target of a half million. Cosby blamed the lack of donations on apathy among black Americans.
"When you try to go out and get $8 from every African American, you do the math and you come up to this whopping millions of dollars," Cosby said. "But you never really take into consideration that this project, this campaign, needs followers."
MICHAEL VICK OPENS WINE SPOT IN THE A-T-L: Falcons QB hopes venture can turn tide of negative press.
*Is there room enough in Atlanta for two celebrity-backed wine establishments? Three months after Usher opened The Grape in Atlanta's Inman Park neighborhood, Falcons quarterback Michael Vick introducies The Tasting Room in the Atlanta suburb of East Point.
To promote his new venture, the athlete spoke publicly for the first time since being cleared of possible drug charges following a water bottle incident at the Miami Airport. However, Vick kept the conversation on the restaurant, and had less to say about football, or his new head coach, Bobby Petrino.
“I’m happy that he is a part of the staff. I’m hoping that we can win some games,” Vick told reporters during Wednesday’s grand opening. “But tonight is not about the upcoming football season, it’s about raising the Atlanta spirit with this new restaurant.”
Vick hopes his first-ever business venture can deflect some of the negative press he has generated in the past two years. In addition to the Jan. 17th water bottle mishap, the quarterback was blasted in the press for a Nov. 26 incident in which he gave Atlanta fans his two middle fingers. There is also the March 2005 lawsuit from a woman who claimed he knowingly gave her genital herpes.
With the opening of his new establishment, Vick told reporters: "Maybe this will offset some of that attention I've been getting, whether positive or negative. It's good for people to see that I'm giving back to the community, where people can see me trying to do something that's positive. There's a lot of people speculating about things I do that are not so positive."
SIMPSON’S BOOK TO HIT THE AUCTION BLOCK: Proceeds will go directly to Goldman family to satisfy civil judgment.
*A judge on Friday ordered the Sacramento County Sheriff's Department to schedule an auction of O.J. Simpson’s scrapped book, “If I Did It,” in which the former NFL star explains how he would have murdered his ex-wife Nicole Brown Simpson and her friend Ron Goldman.
The book was supposed to be published by HarperCollins, a division of News Corp, along with an accompanying TV special in which Simpson would discuss the book. But both projects were cancelled amidst public outrage.
As previously reported, a Los Angeles County Superior Court judge ordered the book rights to be auctioned off with proceeds from the auction and any subsequent book profits turned over to Goldman's family, who won a wrongful death civil lawsuit in 1997 and has been trying unsuccessfully to collect on a $33.5-million judgment ever since.
Judge Gerald Rosenberg also ruled the rights of Lorraine Brooke Associates, a Florida-based company that struck the book deal with HarperCollins, be included in the auction. Goldman's father, Fred, had accused Simpson in a separate federal lawsuit of creating Lorraine Brooke so he could hide money from the book and TV deal and not allow the Goldmans to seize the profits. The suit was dismissed and is under appeal.
The judge ordered the auction be held by the Sacramento County Sheriff's Department since HarperCollins' California offices are located there. But after his March 13 ruling, the sheriff's department raised concerns over whether it had jurisdiction over Lorraine Brooke since the company was in Florida.
Rosenberg ruled Friday that he considered the company a Simpson "surrogate" and ordered the sheriff's department to set a date as soon as possible for auction.
Simpson's attorney, Yale Galanter, said he planned to appeal the judge's order.
SLY STONE’S SISTER HINTS AT RETURN: Keyboardist says new music from reclusive brother ‘more of a probability than a possibility.’
*Despite being out of the public eye for decades, with the exception of a brief appearance at the 2006 Grammy’s, Sly Stone has been “working continuously” on music, says his sister Rose Stone.
The singer/keyboardist, born Rosemary Stewart, tells Billboard that diehard fans may soon get their wish of new material from Sly and the Family Stone in the near future.
"I think that's more of a probability than a possibility," Rose tells the magazine. "My personal feeling is it's not over. It's just not over. We're on a pause as far as the original group goes, but we've expanded from where we were and we're all still very hot at doing what we do."
“He's doing music, and that's one of the reasons I believe we're going to be hooking up again,” she continued. “We'll just see what happens. Everything looks promising."
Until then, fans can feast on the April 10th release of a new Sly and the Family Stone box set featuring seven studio albums released between 1967-74, all of which feature unreleased songs, demos, alternative versions and single mixes as bonus tracks.
"There's a few on each album that were a surprise to me -- some I had totally forgotten about," Rose tells Billboard. "I thought they'd gotten lost. It just made me happy all over again to hear them."
MUSIC BITS: DG Yola shot in the face; Styles P joins KOCH; Carl Thomas’
‘Better’; Yolanda Adams radio show.
*Rapper DG Yola (Power Hittas/Atlantic) is currently recovering in an Atlanta hospital after he was shot in the face Friday night during a failed robbery attempt. According to his label, the artist was in his vehicle stopped at a red light when the incident occurred. The bullet reportedly went through one cheek and out the other. Doctors, however, are optimistic that he’ll make a full recovery. "He is already up and about and writing. Yola ain't gonna let up," his family said in a statement. His debut album, "Gutta World," is scheduled to be released this June.
*Rapper Styles P, a solo MC and member of hip hop trio The Lox, has just signed with KOCH records and is preparing for the summer release of his new album, "5 Star General." Styles announced the deal during a recent interview on Angie Martinez' show on New York's Hot 97. "I look forward to embarking on this exciting new phase of my career along side KOCH Records, a company best known for their unyielding interest in supporting the vision of the artist,” said the rapper. “It feels good to be a part of a team that appreciates hip hop in its truest form. I am ecstatic about being in control of my own destiny."
*R&B star Carl Thomas, best known for his 2000 hit “I Wish,” has signed with Jheryl Busby's Umbrella Recordings and Mike City's Unsung Entertainment for a one-off deal to release his new album, "So Much Better," set for release this summer. City produced "I Wish" and "You Ain't Right" from Thomas’s first album "Emotional" and has produced seven songs on "So Much Better." Other producers on the disc include: Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis with Big Jim Wright, Brian Michael Cox, and new producing team, Pitch Black. Guest artists include Brandy, Dave Hollister, and Lalah Hathaway.
*Gospel great Yolanda Adams has her own nationally-syndicated gospel talk show with one of Houston, Texas’ most beloved and respected air personalities, Brother Larry Jones. The Yolanda Adams Morning Show airs weekdays from 5 to 10 a.m. CST through Radio One. The show seeks to uplift, entertain and inform listeners through the thread of contemporary inspirational music. It’s filled with star-studded celebrity interviews from all areas of entertainment, music, movies, and television. The show can be heard in the following markets on these stations: WPZE Atlanta, WTHB Augusta, WPZS Charlotte, WJMO Cleveland, WJYD Columbus, KROI Houston, WTLC Indianapolis, WPPZ Philadelphia, WNNL Raleigh-Durham and on WPZZ Richmond.
FILM/TV BITS: Oprah’s book club; Sidney Poitier honored; ‘Baller’ reality show on TV One; film vet Northington joins Codeblack.
*Oprah Winfrey will unveil her new book club pick on Wednesday’s episode of her daily talk show following the dinner in honor of her current book club subject, Sidney Poitier. In January, Winfrey chose Poitier's memoir, "The Measure of a Man," ending a year-long hiatus for her club.
*Poitier, meanwhile, was among this year’s winners of the Common Wealth Award, created by a Delaware businessman to recognize people who demonstrate both excellence in their fields and serve as an inspiration to others. The 80-year-old actor, an Oscar winner for “Lilies of the Field” in 1963, will be honored at an April 28 dinner along with fellow recipients Polish President Aleksander Kwasniewski, journalist Cokie Roberts and author Ian McEwan. Each recipient is also awarded $50,000.
*“I Married A Baller,” a new reality show about the day-to-day activity of former NFL running back Eddie George and his wife Taj, formerly of the R&B group SWV, will premiere on TV One Saturday, April 21 at 10 p.m. The series will follow the couple’s management of two careers, two kids and often two completely different ideas of what to do and how to do it.
*Codeblack Entertainment, the vertically integrated entertainment company run by Jeff Clanagan, is announcing that Angela Northington has been tapped as Vice President of Acquisitions, Development and Licensing for the company. Northington most recently worked as a consultant and producer’s rep under her own Distribution Advisors Group banner, guiding independent filmmakers through all stages of production as well as advising on distribution through home video, DVD, pay cable, pay-per-view and digital/emerging media markets. Prior to that, she served as Vice President of Acquisitions & Co-Productions at Simmons Lathan Media Group. “Angela’s background in the urban film space is as successful as it is extensive,” said Clanagan. “As Codeblack continues to grow she will be a vital part of our strategy for 2007 and beyond.”
EVENT CALENDAR: Raven-Symone and Robi Reed honored; CTC conferences with Sudan; Winfrey’s dad at Pasadena Playhouse.
*Entertainer Raven-Symone and veteran casting director Robi Reed will receive top honors at the 13th Annual NAMIC Vision Awards, to be held tomorrow (3/27) at the Beverly Wilshire in Beverly Hills, Calif. The NAMIC Vision Awards is the only entertainment industry event recognizing achievements in multi-ethnic, original cable programming. Raven will be presented with the 2007 North Star Award, which is presented annually to an individual or organization that has demonstrated a long- standing commitment to promoting ethnic and cultural diversity. Robi Reed will receive the 2007 Legacy Award, which pays homage to a trailblazing individual or body of work that has made an indelible impact on the diversity landscape. Actress Niecy Nash will serve as host. Tickets can be purchased at the Beverly Wilshire hotel on Tuesday at 5:30 p.m.
*The Children's Theatre Company (CTC) and Al McFarlane, editor-in-chief of Insight News, will join forces today (3/26) to facilitate a video conference using art and journalism as the basis for a conversation about the plight of Southern Sudanese refugees. The video conference will link Minneapolis, Minn., Washington, D.C. and Juba, Sudan. The participants include John Ukec Lueth Ukec, Sudan's Ambassador to the United States; representatives from the American Refugee Committee International; the artistic director of The Children's Theatre Company; representatives from United Nations' programs in Juba; and 60 high school students. The conference will be held today from 11 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. CST. The first hour will be carried live on the internet at http://www.KFAI.org in Minneapolis.
Streaming video coverage of the entire 90 minutes will be provided by IMPLEX at http://shows.implex.tv/Qwikcast/router.aspx?WebcastID=677 (the link will go live at 11 a.m.).
*California’s Pasadena Playhouse Community Outreach Program invites the public to attend "Conversation... Cuttin' Up: Wit and Wisdom," a discussion with "Cuttin' Up" playwright Charles Randolph-Wright, Pasadena Playhouse Artistic Director Sheldon Epps, Vernon Winfrey (Oprah Winfrey's father and veteran barber), and cast members. The event will be held Saturday, March 31 at 1 p.m. at the Pasadena Playhouse (39 S. El Molino Avenue - between Green Street and Colorado Blvd.). The play "Cuttin' Up" is based on the bestselling book by Craig Marberry, "Cuttin' Up: Wit and Wisdom from Black Barber Shops." Mr. Winfrey was interviewed for the book and is portrayed in the play as well. The speaker event is free but RSVP required. E-mail gparker@pasadenaplayhouse.org or call 626-792-8672 ext. 213. To purchase tickets for "Cuttin' Up,” call 626-356-PLAY or purchase online at www.pasadenaplayhouse.org.
JESSE BEHIND EFFORT TO HELP YOUNG BLACK MEN: Rev. Jackson launches task force in Prince George’s County, MD.
*In an effort to curb the illiteracy, teen fatherhood, crime, imprisonment, unemployment, poverty and high school dropout rate plaguing America’s young black males, Rev. Jesse Jackson has launched an initiative in a Maryland county to serve as a laboratory to address the problems.
According to the Washington Post, Jackson is teaming with Prince George's County Executive Jack B. Johnson in an effort that will use county officials and Jackson's RainbowPUSH Coalition to create a task force of educators, parents, lawyers, business leaders and elected officials to help turn the tide.
Jackson hopes the solutions developed under the task force -- with the resources and leadership of a well-educated, black middle class – could eventually be adopted across the country much as Selma and Montgomery, Ala., were used as staging grounds for civil rights fights in the 1960s.
"The problem of young black males in this country is a national crisis," Jackson told the Post. "We will convene a group consisting of leadership and parents to work on a focused initiative to break the cycle affecting these youths."
The announcement of the new initiative came on the same day Jackson spoke at Central High School in Capitol Heights, where students are dealing with last week’s slaying of 2006 graduate Maurice Powell, 19, shot in a robbery near the Addison Road Metro station. Another Central student, Khiry Montay Moore, 16, is in custody as the prime suspect.
Jackson told the students to keep striving for excellence despite the many obstacles in their path.
"No matter how deep life's hole may be for you, you can dream your way out," he said before leading a call and response of his famous "I Am Somebody" mantra. "Repeat after me, 'Respect me! Protect me! Never neglect me! I am somebody!" The students repeated every phrase and reacted with enthusiastic applause.
After addressing the rising rate of HIV/AIDS, gun violence and rampant drug and alcohol use among young black males, he invited all the students who were 18 and older to come forward; then registered them to vote on the spot.
"This is a crisis that requires all of us to get involved in the struggle," Jackson said. "This month is March Madness, and many of the players you will see on the basketball courts winning games are African American males. But it will be May Sadness at graduation time."
EUR MOTIVATIONAL NOTE
"We are at our very best, and we are happiest, when we are fully engaged in work we enjoy on the journey toward the goal we've established for ourselves. It gives meaning to our time off and comfort to our sleep. It makes everything else in life so wonderful, so worthwhile." — Earl Nightingale
CELEBRITY BIRTHDAYS
March 26: Singer Diana Ross is 63. Actor Ernest Thomas ("What's
Happening") is 58. Singer Teddy Pendergrass is 57. Rapper Juvenile is 32.
Rapper J-Kwon is 21.
WEBSITE OF THE WEEK
*FullBlown Entertainment specializes in delivering spoken word poetry and comedic entertainment to public and private venues. They present clean, Christian, black comedy: www.fullblownent.com/.
Submit your favorite Web site to us along with a 15-20 word (or less) description to info@eurweb.com.
BLACK HISTORY
Mar. 26, 1872: Thomas J.Martin is awarded a patent for the fire
extinguisher. (Source: www.BlackFacts.com)
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