Celebrities Exposed: Celebrity Gossip & Hollywood Gossip

Hip-hop mogul P. MILLER is launching his own family-friendly cable network to provide “positive” viewing for the black community.

The star, formerly known as Master P, announced on Thursday (14 Aug) that the new network - titled Better Black Television (BBTV) - will focus on general entertainment, ranging from drama, comedy, movies, animation, politics and sports, as well as entertainment news.

And Miller has brought a number of celebrities on board BBTV - Oscar-winner Denzel Washington, rap pioneer DJ Kool Herc and NBA basketball player Derek Anderson are among the network’s board members.

BBTV CEO Miller says, “I believe that there is a market in our community for a new diverse network that provides a new brand of superior programming that caters to all aspects of television, from reality to original programming.”

The new channel will be in direct competition with the existing U.S. network Black Entertainment Television (BET), which also caters for the African American community.

But Miller insists he still has “a great relationship with BET and MTV” and has vowed that he and his rapper/actor son Lil’ Romeo “will continue to do work with them and support their networks”.

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Last night, LL Cool J performed at LQ in New York City, NY. Above is a picture of Brandy with Heavy D.

Brandy also has new single called, “Right Here” which is slated to be her first single and a video is being created very soon.

LL Cool J

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Gas prices are going up, but Young Jeezy sure can afford a gallon. Interestingly, the trapper, who usually leans more towards drugs tales than social commentary, titled his third solo album, The Recession to mixed responses. On one hand, fans are applauding Jeezy for addressing the common man’s struggle. On the other hand, skeptics think Jeezy, a millionaire who isn’t subjected to company-wide layoffs, is using the country’s bad economy as a marketing tool.

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Photo by Derek Blanks/DBlanks.com

In a cover interview with Billboard magazine this month, Ciara revealed her break up with longtime manager Phillana Williams. I reached out to several of my sources for the details on what happened between the two longtime friends. What I learned surprised me because, apparently, Ciara is not the person we thought she was.

It’s beginning to look like Ciara’s sweet public persona was a carefully cultivated front for something darker.

When I first heard these allegations about Ciara, I thought long and hard about putting them out there. Ciara is a friend of this site and she was one of the few celebs whose reputation seemed infallible. But on the other hand, I can’t show favoritism while dishing dirt on every other celebrity, can I?

According to one of my sources, Ciara fired Williams mainly because she failed to create the “supermodel” image that Ciara so desperately wanted. My source said Ciara is “obsessed” with the successes of both Beyonce and Rihanna, and get this, Ciara believes she’s bigger than both of them.

Friends say Ciara has gone “beyond Hollywood” and that her unrealistic desire to be a superstar on the level of Beyonce, is beginning to distance her from her closest friends. “All of Ciara’s people were brought in by Phillana,” said the source, who added, “Ciara’s people LOVED Phillana. They are heartbroken that she’s gone”

The source, who belongs to Ciara’s close circle of friends, puts the blame for Ciara’s change in attitude squarely on the shoulders of her boyfriend, rapper 50 Cent. “She really believes she’s doing something by dating him,” said the source. “She sees the both of them as a superstar couple on the level of Jay Z and Beyonce or Chris Brown and Rihanna. They can’t even leave the house because [he’s afraid] people are out to kill him,” said the source. “Who would want to date a man who has to wear a bulletproof vest everywhere he goes? Ciara has lost her mind!”

The source described the atmosphere surrounding Ciara as “tense” and her entourage as “walking on egg shells around her.” As an example of Ciara’s fragile ego, the source described an incident during Riihanna’s Good Girl Gone Bad tour late last year.

Ciara, who didn’t have a stylist with her on tour, called her management from the road angrily demanding that a stylist be hired for her and a whole new wardrobe sent to her hotel. Ciara was livid at all the attention Rihanna was receiving from the blogs and Ci thought Rihanna’s style was the reason.

“She obsessed with [the blogs],” said the source. “She stays on the blogs 24/7. [Ciara says] ‘why am I not on here? Why aren’t they talking about me?’”, said the source. According to the source, other celebrities don’t know what to make of Ciara’s dark side. “Big time celebrities don’t want to work with her because she’s a beast. They’re wondering what’s wrong with her,” said the source.

Ciara is set to release her third album,“Fantasy Ride” in November. But, according to my source, Ciara’s last album, 2006’s Ciara: The Evolution, flopped because she tried to take her image in a completely different direction. “Her fans knew Ciara for her dancing, her baggy jeans and her Timbs, but she wanted to be Beyonce,” said the source. “Ciara picked the songs [for Evolution]. She sat down with Phillana and Phillana asked, ’so, what are your goals for this album?’ and Ciara said, ‘I want to be a supermodel’”.

Williams helped CiCi secure a contract with the Wilhelmina Model agency, but Ciara still wasn’t satisfied. A recent effort to increase paparazzi interest in her by staging candid photos of Ci at a recording studio, failed. “What celebrity leaves the studio and goes outside to a Coke machine?,” said the source. (source sandrarose)

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According to rapper Yung Joc’s attorney, Joc is seriously behind in child support payments for his 7-year-old son. According to the rapper’s attorney, Yung Joc, real name, Jasiel Robinson, has failed to comply with his court ordered child support obligation and the matter will now be handled in court.

From Randall M. Kessler, Esq. (attorney)

The rapper Yung Joc (Jasiel Robinson) has failed to comply with his court ordered child support obligation to the mother of his 7 year old son. His failure to stay current on child support has caused our client, the child’s mother financial hardship. She has refrained from speaking publicly about this situation for years, but given his failure to pay, combined with his complete failure to respond to her inquiries has left her no choice.

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Halle Berry and beau Gabriel Aubry left baby Nahla Ariela at home to celebrate Berry’s 42nd birthday at a star-studded Robin Thicke concert Thursday.

The Los Angeles House of Blues was packed with celebs (from Britney Spears to Diddy), but all eyes were on the beaming Berry as the evening culminated with Thicke delivering an a cappella version of “Happy Birthday” to the smiling star.

Berry, sipping a glass of chardonnay, looked stunning in a black cocktail dress as she and Aubry hung out with gal pals – and heavy security – at her balcony table across from Spears.

Around 11 p.m., Thicke stopped the band and announced that there was a “very special lady in the audience tonight, who’s celebrating a birthday.” The crooner then busted out “Happy Birthday.” He finished the song imploring the crowd to, “Give it up for Halle Berry, everybody!”

The sold-out audience applauded madly as flashbulbs flashed. The lights where quickly dimmed, as Thicke moved into his hit, “Angels.”

At the end of the evening, Thicke’s wife Paula Patton (sitting with an energy-filled P-Diddy and his buddies who, says an onlooker, “were going crazy!”) gave Berry a big hug before Berry, leading her boy Gabriel by the hand, was led to a waiting black Escalade.

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When Bernie Mac was admitted last month into a Chicago hospital with a fever and trouble breathing, his wife, Rhonda, thought he’d get treatment and would be home in a week. But after no signs of improvement, she faced her biggest fear.

“He didn’t look good to me and I knew this could be it,” Rhonda, his wife of 30 years, tells people in this week’s issue.

The 50-year-old comedian – who suffered from sarcoidosis, an immune system disorder that can affect the lungs – died Aug. 9 of complications due to pneumonia.

The couple had their last exchange a day before his death, as Rhonda stood vigil by his bedside. “I said, ‘Hey Bernard. How are you?’ and I kissed his forehead,” she recalls. “He shrugged his shoulders, like ‘I’m tired’ and I said, ‘I know you’re tired.’ Later on that night, it took a turn for the worse.”

Rhonda and the couple’s daughter, Je’Niece, 30, were ushered into a waiting room, where they received the grim news. “[The doctor] came in and I said, ‘He’s gone, isn’t he?’ and she said ‘yes,’ ” Rhonda recalls.

The family now prepares for Mac’s memorial service, to be held at noon Saturday, Aug. 16 at the 10,000-seat House of Hope in Chicago. His wife says she’s comforted by the support of her family and memories of the man she met when she was a 16-year-old junior and he was a 17-year-old senior at Chicago Vocational High School. She was immediately charmed by his humor.

Memories of Courtship
“He said, ‘You never seen a black man as pretty as me.’ And I said, ‘No, I sure haven’t.’ And he said, ‘Girl, you know I’m so beautiful,’” she remembers.

A few months later, on Valentine’s Day, he asked her to come to his shop class so he could give her something. When she got there, “I said, ‘What do you have for me?’ And he kissed me. That was our first kiss.” The couple wed in 1977 when both were 19-years-old. Daughter Je’Niece was born the following year.

Now facing her life without Mac, Rhonda says her devastation “comes in waves,” adding she still feels her husband’s presence. The day after his death, she listened to the song “Thoughts and Wishes” by Hamilton Bohannon, a tune the couple considered “our song,” Rhonda says.

“I was singing it and a chill just came over me and I knew it was him,” she said. “I get through because I know he’s in a better place now.”

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