Eddie Murphy, Prince, Will Smith
Hollywood's starter wives aren't finished yet.
VH1 will debut its new series Hollywood Exes this summer. The show will follow the ex-wives of Eddie Murphy, Prince, Will Smith, Jose Canseco and R. Kelly, the network announced Wednesday.
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Alicia Keys, Whitney Houston, Stevie Wonder
Some 1,500 invited guests descended upon Newark, N.J. to pay their final respects to music legend Whitney Houston on Saturday, with Kevin Costner, Tyler Perry, Stevie Wonder and Alicia Keys paying tribute to the pop diva. The funeral, called her "homegoing" ceremony on the invitations to the service, took place at New Hope Baptist Church, the same church where Houston first sang as a young girl.
"Whitney...
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Amy Poehler and Maya Rudolph
Maya Rudolph loves Amy Poehler, but not the way an average person loves Amy Poehler.
Rudolph told the crowd at Variety's 2011 Power of Comedy, which honored the Parks and Recreation star, that the two are good friends — they did Saturday Night Live together, not to mention "all that heroin," Rudolph deadpanned.
But Rudolph went a step further, declaring that's she's also in love with Poehler. "I'm actually in love with Amy, and I want to do her. Really hard... And if I...
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R. Kelly by Brian Ach/WireImage.com
R. Kelly has been acquitted on all counts at his child pornography trial.The pop singer, who was first charged six years ago, had faced a maximum 15 years in prison on charges he videotaped himself having sex with a young girl, whom prosecutors said was 13 at the time.Both Kelly and the girl, now 23, denied that they appeared on the videotape, which was shown to the jury at the start and end of the trial.A prosecution witness claimed she had three-way sex with Kelly and the girl while the defense argued the man on the tape did not have a large mole on his back, as Kelly does. — J.R. WhalenRelated:• Watch R. Kelly's music video, Trapped in the Closet
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Jay-Z by Alexandra Wyman/WireImage.com
Rap bigwig Jay-Z is giving up his post as president of Def Jam Records, officially to expand his nightclub empire but presumably to spend more time deflecting questions about whether he's secretly married to Beyoncé.... An R. Kelly fan has been sentenced to five days in the clink for taking cell-phone pics of the hip-hop bad boy while he was in court on kiddie porn charges. — Ben Katner
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Trapped in the Closet: Chapters 13 - 22, DVD box art courtesy Jive
At last! Two years after the hip-hop bad boy released the uncategorizable soap opera/music video/freaky indie flick Trapped in the Closet Chapters 1-12, he's finished with Chapters 13-22. Starting Aug. 13, a new chapter a day will go live; the DVD collection of the new webisodes will hit stores on Aug. 21. Don't know what the hell I'm talking about here? Not a problem. IFC.com will be running Chapters 1–12 beginning Aug. 6, and the cabler will broadcast the entire series as a feature on Sept. 7 at 9 pm/ET. This will be followed by a 30-minute Q&A with Kelly.
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George Clooney's Smokehouse shingle is developing for Showtime Doubting Thomas, an hourlong drama about a family of televangelists, eyed for a possible 2008 premiere.... Also per Variety, IFC will air all 12 original episodes of R. Kelly's "Trapped in the Closet" "hip-hopera," as well as collaborate with the recording artist on 10 new installments.... HBO Sports' Costas Now returns with a mid-season baseball special on July 24 at 10 pm/ET.... Hallmark Channel has commissioned 30 original movies for 2008, its biggest slate ever. And only 24 of them star Stacy Keach!.... As scooped by the Ausiello Report, Lifetime has ordered a second, 18-episode season of Army Wives, to launch next spring.
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A shiver just went down my spine. No, I didn't listen to my birthday message from Mariska Hargitay again. OK, yes I did — but that's not where the shiver came from. I just finished reading a first draft of the script for Heroes, NBC's fall pilot about everyday folks blessed with superpowers, and, well, to answer the question I posed in the title, yes, I believe a new Lost-like phenomenon is about to be born. And here's why:
THE CAST ROCKS: In addition to one of my FFPOTP Greg Grunberg, the ensemble boasts Gilmore guy Milo Ventimiglia and teenage wunderkind Hayden Panettiere. The show's behind-the-scenes pedigree is equally as impressive. Dave Semel, whose credits include directing the American Dreams p
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Believe it or not, Michael Jackson has managed to recruit a handful of singers to perform on his Hurricane Katrina charity single. According to reports, Jackson has received firm commitments from Mariah Carey, Snoop Dogg, Jay-Z, James Brown, Lenny Kravitz, Missy Elliott, Yolanda Adams, R. Kelly and Mary J. Blige. Jacko’s calls to the Chuck E. Cheese's Boys Choir have yet to be returned.
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Video Music Awards
The VMAs hadn't even started yet, and Suge Knight had already been shot in the leg at a preshow party. Fortunately, the Death Row rec exec is expected to be OK, but it wouldn't be a bling-bling bash in Miami if shots weren't fired somewhere in town. It sure is a different show than it was in the late '80s, when Arsenio Hall was the go-to host, the performers actually sang and the biggest drama was Vince Neil punching Guns N' Roses' Izzy Stradlin backstage. Ah, the good old days… Still, the gala is always worth watching, if only to gape in amazement at who wore what, who said what and, oh yeah, who won.
But honestly, no one remembers who won. What matters is what kind of impression the performers made with their stage time, and this year only a few acts made me feel like I was seeing something special. Green Day proved that rock is still relevant when they opened with "Boulevard of Broken Dreams." No lip-syncing and no dancing, just
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