*Whitney Houston's drawers and other personal belongings are up for grabs after a New Jersey storage facility has decided to get rid of her things that have been sitting there without payment since 2005.
The company Speed Of Sound applied for a court order to auction off Houston's items after the singer's company, Nippy Inc., failed to pay the storage bill, which now totals about $200,000.
Among the 400 or so items up for bid during the Jan. 9th auction are designer clothing from Houston's 1999 "My Love Is Your Love" tour; a custom-made, transparent grand piano that cost between $300,000 to $400,000; a chair described as "Whitney's Throne"; gowns by Donna Karan and Bob Mackie; 13 Dolce Gabbana bustier bras adorned with animal prints and sequins; four velvet bodysuits with "WH" logos; six black stretch pants; several gold, black, white and red evening dresses; and 16 wardrobe cases.
"It's a warehouse full of stuff from her shows," auctioneer Steve Newmark of A.
J. Willner Auctions told the New York Daily News. "There's some pretty personal stuff in there.
Even her underwear is in there. I was marveling at the waist of some of these clothes. They were pretty small.
" In addition, Houston is selling off musical instruments and props used in her stage shows over the years, including pianos, keyboards, drums, synthesizers, speakers, amplifiers, a forklift, a concert stage set and sound equipment. A slot machine and leather whip are also featured in the lot, as are some of her soon-to-be ex-husband Bobby Brown's possessions, including "16 assorted Bobby Brown music awards."
"The auction is open to the public, but only for qualified buyers," Newmark adds.
"We're probably going to combine a lot of the individual items, like the costumes. It's not for a teenage fan hoping to buy one of her trinkets." Houston's spokeswoman Nancy Seltzer claims many of the items are "not needed any more" and that, "She is selling equipment, as many artists do, that is out of date.
" Once the storage company gets its $200,000, the rest of the proceeds will go to Houston. As previously reported, Houston's $6 million New Jersey estate was to be auctioned off after she was sued for not paying her mortgage or taxes for a year. According to the Daily News, the singer paid off those debts last week.
BEYONCE RULED INELIGIBLE FOR BEST SONG OSCAR: Academy rules limit number of songwriters honored; 'Listen' has one too many.
*Should Beyonce's song "Listen" from the "Dreamgirls" soundtrack win an Oscar for best original song, the former Destiny's Child leader will not go home with a golden statue as one of the four writers of the tune. According to Academy rules: "No more than two statuettes will normally be given in the Original Song category.
A third statuette may be awarded when there are three essentially equal contributors to a song." Although Beyonce is credited as one of the four songwriters for "Listen," the Academy announced that it would qualify only the other three - Henry Krieger, Anne Preven and Scott Cutler - and offered no explanation as to why Bey was left out. The Golden Globes - on the other hand - has no restrictions on the number of songwriters it can honor, and announced last month that Beyonce is among the nominees for Best Song, as well as Best Actress in a Musical or Comedy.
DENZEL SECRETS REVEALED IN NEW BOOK: Actor nixed love scene with Julia Roberts out of respect for black women; other tidbits in 'Off the Record.'
*In new book "Off the Record," a collection of celebrity interviews conducted by Newsweek reporter Allison Samuels, Denzel Washington reveals that he refused to do a love scene with Julia Roberts in 1993's "The Pelican Brief" out of loyalty to his female African-American fan base.
Washington explained to Samuels: "Black women are not often seen as objects of desire on film.
And they have always been my core audience."
The Oscar-winning actor also said he turned down a starring role in the 1992 film "Love Field" opposite Michelle Pfeiffer because of the N-word.
"It was ni**er this and ni**er that.
I wasn't going to be but so many ni**ers in a film," said Washington, who was replaced in the film by Dennis Haysbert.
Also included in "Off the Record" is Eddie Murphy, who says he wasn't thinking straight when agreeing to star in the last two sequels for "Beverly Hills Cop."
"There was no reason to do the third and fourth ones.
I could tell they were bad - I read the script," Murphy said. "But when you never had money, you always want more, and you're worried you're going to run out."
Samuels told the Daily News that Murphy "is a sensitive guy about criticism," having once tossed a friend of Samuels' out of the room for saying that she didn't like his music.
The late Tupac Shakur, also included in the book, told Samuels how much he loved Shakespeare, J.D. Salinger and the films "Ordinary People" and "Terms of Endearment.
"
SNIPES OPENS FILM SCHOOL IN NAMIBIA: Actor leaves parting gift after wrap of "Gallowwalker."
*Wesley Snipes has shown good will toward the film industry of Namibia, where he has just completed filming his upcoming movie "Gallowwalker," and where he famously chose to remain as tax fraud charges were filed against him in the U.S.
late last year.
According to The Namibian newspaper, Snipes and the film's producers have launched the country's first On-set Film Training project (Noft) in Swakopmund just before Christmas. The main purpose of the venture, according to Noft national coordinator Moses Mberira, is to teach locals the necessary skills and knowledge to meet international film production standards.
"This is how we want to thank Namibia for the use of a fantastic location," said 'Gallowwalker' producer Joanne Reay. "We intend to return to Namibia for future productions and we're confident that this training program will flourish." Snipes jumped at the chance to participate when the idea was first presented to him, Mberira said.
The 44-year-old Orlando native reportedly insisted on giving an opportunity to as many local citizens as possible in the making of "Gallowwalker." "The industry can help to return the African culture to Africa. You have a very young country; at 16 years you can't even apply for a driver's license yet," Snipes reportedly said, "but you have a wonderful future - also in the film industry.
"
PRODUCERS GUILD NOMINATES 'DREAMGIRLS': Musical in the running for group's best film category; 'Grey's' gets TV drama nod.
*The Producers Guild of America is the latest group to count "Dreamgirls" among the year's best films. The group - consisting of film and television producers - announced Wednesday that the musical is among their nominees for 2006's best film.
The organization has also nominated "Grey's Anatomy" for best U.S. TV Drama, along with "House," "24,""The Sopranos" and "Lost.
" In the Best Theatrical Picture category, "Dreamgirls" will face competition from "Babel," "Little Miss Sunshine" and "The Queen." The Producers Guild, one of the industry's top organizations, will announce winners on Jan. 20 during a ceremony in Los Angeles.
Along with the Golden Globes, the group's annual picks are also used to gauge future Oscar . Nonfiction television: "The Amazing Race 9," "American Idol," "Dancing with the Stars," "Project Runway," "60 Minutes." .
Episodic television, comedy: "Arrested Development," "Curb Your Enthusiasm," "My Name is Earl," "The Office," "Weeds." REPS DISMISS NELLY/ASHANTI ENGAGEMENT RUMORS: Artists are not heading anywhere near a chapel.
*Another wedding rumor has been put to rest.
Representatives at Universal Records have come forward to deny recent reports that their artist Nelly and his girlfriend, R B singer Ashanti, had gotten engaged during the holidays.
Ashanti's people at Huff Entertainment have also announced that the reports are false.
"Contrary to current rumor and gossip on websites and other media, Ashanti is not engaged," the Huff Entertainment rep stated to Vibe.
com.
Reports of wedding bells began circulating last week amidst rumors that Nelly had popped the question sometime over the Christmas holiday.
The St.
Louis rapper, instead, has been working on a new studio album due later this year. He's also working with Avery Storm, a white R B singer from New Jersey who has already appeared on tracks from Nelly, Paul Wall, P. Diddy and Murphy Lee.
*Edward Wilson (Matt Damon) was lucky enough to be born with a blue-blooded WASP lineage. As a consequence, he was not only able to follow in his father's footsteps to Yale, but to join Skull and Bones, the college's secret society which has, for generations, served as a breeding ground for captains of industry, presidents and other powerful leaders.
While still in college, Edward was quietly recruited to serve his country overseas undercover, in order to monitor the rise of the Nazis in the late Thirties.
However, he had mixed emotions about accepting the offer, primarily because his dad had also been a spy for the government, and had ended up committing suicide under mysterious circumstances while his son was just an adolescent.
But due to the not so subtle pressure from his fraternity brothers, Edward capitulated. He even dumped the deaf girl (Tammy Blanchard) he was dating to marry Clover (Angelina Jolie), the well-connected daughter of a senator (Keir Dullea), and sister of a fellow Bonesman (Gabriel Macht).
A week after their ostensibly arranged, if ill-advised wedding, Edward was whisked away from her to Germany to begin a career of espionage and counter-espionage so covert it was virtually impossible to sort the good guys from the bad guys. Almost never in the U.S, he persevered out of a blind sense of patriotism, despite the fact that the price for that loyalty is a loveless marriage and a resentful son (Eddie Redmayne).
So unfolds the thought-provoking premise established at the outset of The Good Shepherd, an intricately-plotted political potboiler which makes the idea of working for the CIA seem anything but romantic. Its prevailing theme is strikingly reminiscent of Steven Spielberg's Munich which, a year ago, examined the emotional toll tracking down Palestinian terrorists exacted on the Israeli agents assigned the task.
This flashback flick opens in 1961 during the badly-botched Bay of Pigs operation in Cuba, and alternates frequently between that pivotal moment in American history and assorted critical touchstones in Edward's life.
What is ultimately of most interest is that Ed, Jr. eventually also attends Yale, joins Skull and Bones, and appears poised to embark on his own career as a CIA. Thus, the question becomes whether Ed, Sr.
will intervene or allow his boy to make the same mistake as his father and grandfather.
The Good Shepherd was directed by Robert De Niro who co-stars and has assembled an A-list ensemble to execute Eric Roth's (Munich) brilliant script. The cast includes Alec Baldwin, John Turturro, Joe Pesci, Billy Crudup and Michael Gambon, though this is mostly a Matt Damon vehicle.
Tautly-edited to make nearly three hours pass imperceptibly, this intriguing meditation on the pitfalls of privilege is not to be missed.
Rated R for sex, expletives, ethnic slurs, violence, and female frontal nudity. WILL.
I.AM TURNS FULL ATTENTION TOWARD MIJAC ALBUM: Black Eyed Pea to help shape King of Pop's new musical direction.
*will.
i.am of the Black Eyed Peas says his 2007 will focus largely on production of the anticipated comeback album from Michael Jackson, which is tentatively due later this year on the Bahrain-based Two Seas Records.
The artist finished up a successful 2006 behind the boards producing hits for Justin Timberlake, Fergie, Snoop Dogg and The Game, among others.
Jackson's project will be his most ambitious undertaking to date.
will.i.
am tells Billboard.com he has been doing "a lot of talking on the phone, a lot of brainstorming" with Jackson so far, including advice on how the superstar can take advantage of new technology, particularly social networking sites and download Web sites. As far as the musical direction for the album, will.
i.am says of Jackson: "Man, he still sings like a bird. He could go anywhere.
I think we have a real opportunity to do something here. It's either gonna be really big or nobody's gonna care. Ain't no middle ground on this one.
" Other artists rumored to be contributing to the Jackson project are Akon, who told Billboard.com last month that he was not at liberty to disclose details, and R B teen Chris Brown. "We got a chance to meet at the World Music Awards and we're talking to his management about when we can set up a date to begin working on his album," Brown tells Billboard.
com. "It would be an honor and a blessing for me to work with my idol. He's one of the reasons I do my music.
"
ESPN, ABC ALREADY TRYING TO HIRE TIKI BARBER?: Retiring New York Giant rumored to be in negotiations.
*The New York Post reported Tuesday that New York Giants running back Tiki Barber, who has announced that this year would be his last, has already signed a four-year, $10 million contract to join Disney-owned networks ABC News and ESPN upon his retirement.
The Post story has Barber eventually working as a contributor to "Good Morning America" as well as covering football for ESPN. However, sources tell the Hollywood Reporter that reports of a deal are not true. Both ABC and ESPN, according to the trade, have declined to comment on the story.
The Giants are currently preparing for their playoff game Sunday against the Philadelphia Eagles. Therefore, any announcement regarding Barber's post-NFL opportunities would have to wait until his season ends.
The athlete has reportedly drawn interest from several other networks; he has made regular appearances on Fox News Channel's "Fox Friends" in the past year.
RADIO ONE ACQUIRES GIANT MAGAZINE: Editor Smokey Fontaine to become publication's CEO and part owner.
*Radio One has a big toe in the world of publishing following Wednesday's announcement that it has acquired "certain assets and assumed certain liabilities" of Giant Magazine for approximately $270,000.
The urban-themed lifestyle and entertainment periodical was re-launched in March 2006 with a glossy redesign and new editor-in-chief Smokey Fontaine.
Under Radio One, Fontaine has been named Giant CEO and was given an ownership stake in the magazine, while retaining day-to-day editorial oversight.
"I'm thrilled to see Giant become part of the Radio One family of urban media assets," Fontaine said in a statement. "I have a strong vision for this magazine as it is similar to Radio One's overall goal of speaking directly and intelligently to a sophisticated new urban audience.
With the passion, support and infrastructure Radio One provides, I am optimistic Giant is now in a position to reach new heights." Radio One says it will preserve Giant's editorial content while enhancing its advertising sales, promotion and distribution functions. The publication and staff will remain in New York City while certain back-office functions will be consolidated into Radio One's corporate offices.
Furthermore, it is expected that Giant's online presence will be expanded and eventually integrated into Radio One's comprehensive online strategy.
"This is a good strategic deal for us," said Radio One CEO and President Alfred C. Liggins, III.
"For a limited amount of capital, we have now established a presence in the print media world and should be able to leverage our other media assets in various ways to increase the likelihood of success in what is unquestionably a challenging, but important, business. Furthermore, I am excited to have yet another relevant platform to help us build what we believe can become a significant online business, in the not too distant future."
FOREST WHITAKER DISCUSSES HIS CRAFT: Actor participates in Hollywood Reporter roundtable with Kidman, Affleck and Norton.
*Forest Whitaker, the best actor standout of award season 2006/07, joined fellow distinguished actors Ben Affleck, Nicole Kidman and Ed Norton for a roundtable discussion about their profession.
Moderated by The Hollywood Reporter (THR), the actors were asked about their process of choosing scripts and what, at this stage of their careers, drives them creatively. Forest Whitaker: It is a struggle to maintain being open, to look inside yourself, go inside the dark rooms inside of yourself or the light rooms and uncover the truth.
When you reach toward the truth, there is always some sort of trouble. There are obstacles that obscure it when you move toward something that is honest and true. That is a struggle for me, at times.
It is a struggle for me to feel like I am being completely honest. There was a period of time where I felt, every time I looked at myself onscreen, "This was false." Inherently, it was false because it was me playing somebody else.
At a certain point, not so long ago, I started to figure out how to vibrate a little differently so that I could at least trick my own mind into believing I was this other person. Now, I am trying to work on something different as I continue.
Whitaker: Yes.
Because I have been through times where it was painful for me -- you have no point inside of yourself where you are enjoying what is actually occurring. And I started to work on that.
Whitaker: I am trying to grow.
I am trying to become a better artist and a better person. So, I am looking to work on something that is going to push me to understand more about myself and others. If I go into a project, I do hope I can find an environment of trust, an environment where I don't have to wonder, when I ask someone if that was OK, if they are telling me the truth or whether they are really saying, "We need to move on.
" I do have certain needs in that. You have a director who is leading the environment, and hopefully you trust him enough to maybe even make it a Eucharistic experience, where he gives you something that you take in, and (something better) comes out.
Whitaker: I think so.
A lot of our time is spent doing our work, and if our work doesn't allow us to grow as people, then we are lost.
Whitaker: Someone who tries to commit, tries to connect and is willing to give and live in that space and reach for the truth.
Whitaker: You are mapping out a character; you are figuring out how he thinks, how he feels, what he looks like, what way he behaves toward this person or that person.
There has to be a process of analyzing the script and then hopefully making it organic. And sometimes, that means talking with the director about something that may be missing in the script.
Whitaker: I don't choose to excuse anything that's said in art as being OK (just because it is art).
As much as they have the right to do it, I have the right to judge it. There have been many times in history when people have been beat down and oppressed and abused -- and art reflected that (positively). And I am not going to say that is OK.
BET STARTS TAPPING HBO's 'WIRE' NEXT WEEK: First season to make its basic cable debut next week.
*You got sucked into the recently-wrapped third season of HBO's critically-acclaimed original series, "The Wire," and now you are anxious to catch up on seasons one and two.
BET is here to keep you from spending money on the DVDs.
The network will broadcast the series premiere of "The Wire" next week. The first three episodes will be shown in a three-day marathon beginning Wednesday, Jan. 10 through Friday, Jan.
12 from 9- 10:30 p.m. ET/PT each night.
Beginning Jan. 18, "The Wire" can be seen every Thursday night at 9 p.m.
ET /PT with an encore run on Saturday nights at 9 p.m. ET/PT.
The series centers on a single drugs-and-murder police investigation from the point of view of both the police and their targets. As episodes unfold, a probe by Baltimore homicide and narcotics detectives results in a complex sprawl of wiretaps and surveillances, revealing a universe in which the national war on drugs has become a permanent, self- sustaining bureaucracy, and distinctions between good and evil are routinely obliterated.
TRUCKER APOLOGIZES FOR BREAKING LEG OF STYLES P: John Hudson says he was just trying to drive away, but 'was a foot off.
'
*The truck driver who broke the leg of rapper Styles P in a traffic accident just before Christmas has apologized to the artist and said the incident was unintentional.
As previously reported, Styles was driving his 2003 Mercedes-Benz on Saw Mill River Road in upstate New York on Saturday, Dec. 23 when he was cut off by 50-year-old John Henson.
Styles, born David Styles, exited his vehicle to throw napkins at Henson's window. When Styles went to get back into his car, Henson drove into the artist, breaking his leg. In court Tuesday, Henson said he was trying to drive away from the scene after the napkin episode when he saw Styles reach into his coat, reports The Journal News.
"I didn't know if he had a gun or something else he was going to throw at me," Henson told the newspaper. "I feared for my safety, so I tried to get around him on the left side. I guess I was a foot off.
I was all shook up."
Hudson, a divorced father of five from Waterbury, Conn., said he had not heard of Styles P before the incident.
"I don't listen to rap too much, but I do have respect for those people," he said.
The trucker spent Christmas day in jail before posting $1,500 bail. Exiting court Tuesday, Hudson said he has been suspended from his trucking company because of the incident and is now in danger of losing his house because he can't keep up with the mortgage.
He's due back in court on Jan. 26.
*Rapper Slim Thug and the Boss Hogg Outlawz have joined forces for a new album, "Serve Collect," due Feb.
27 via Koch. The 17-track set features Thug alongside Hoyz N Blue members PJ Tha Rap Hustla, Sir Daily, Chris Ward and Killa Kyleon. Also featured are J-Dawg and Young Black.
Meanwhile, Slim Thug is also working on the follow-up to his 2005 debut, "Already Platinum," which opened at No. 2 on The Billboard 200.
*"Rwanda Rising," a documentary produced and written by CB Hackworth and former U.
N. ambassador Andrew Young that chronicles current changes taking place in the country, has been selected to open the 15th annual Pan African Film and Arts Festival, set for Feb. 8-19.
Forest Whitaker will serve as host of the opening-night screening and after-party at the DGA in Los Angeles.
*Yohane Banda is back in the headlines. The father of the Malawian boy adopted by Madonna says he has no way of contacting the superstar to find out how his son is doing.
"I don't have her phone and mailing addresses. All I want is to find out how my son is but I don't know how I can do it," Malawi's Daily Times newspaper quoted Banda as saying. "I only talked to her once at the High Court and I want to talk to her now and find out about my child.
" To put his comments in context, Banda's words came only after the newspaper presented him with a 400 pound ($788) check from Scottish nun, Christine Webster, who told the paper she believes Banda would have been better off staying in Malawi, reports Reuters.
*Two-time Tony Award nominee Ernestine Jackson will play the lead role in the musical "Ethel Waters, His Eye Is On the Sparrow," which runs Jan. 23-Feb.
11 at Bristol Riverside Theatre in Bristol, PA near Philadelphia. The play's title is also the title of the late Waters' autobiography - as well as the title of the famous spiritual, which was a Waters signature. Bristol Riverside Theatre is located at 120 Radcliffe Street, in Historic Bristol Borough.
For information call (215) 785-0100, or visit .
For many years I have sought to prepare myself for this day. Finally it has arrived, and still I am not ready.
And so it is in somber earnest that I limp along terrain truly unfamiliar to me: a world without James Brown. The first time I went to interview Mr. Brown, in the late '80s (you were duly briefed: It was Mr.
Brown, James Brown or Godfather. Nothing else. In turn, he would refer to you as Mr.
or Miss), I was so excited that I shook. His publicist, a white woman, told me to wait in the lobby of the chic Los Angeles hotel while she went up to see if her client was still under the hair dryer.
When the PR lady returned, she gingerly explained that after asking if I was black, Mr.
Brown said he would not be meeting with me. The black press, he contended, had so beat him up over the years for conferring with President Nixon years ago, that he just didn't trust us.
I was still negotiating with the flack when a freshly coifed Mr.
Brown and entourage strode through. "Please try to understand, my brother," he said in a consoling lilt.
"But Mr.
Godfather," I pleaded, "we can discuss whatever you want...
Godfather, please." He kept walking on out the door.
The publicist, embarrassed and sympathetic, tried to comfort me.
But walking briskly like a child in urgent need of a restroom, I made my way to the parking structure, got in my car, locked the doors and sat there sobbing.
I would interview the Godfather several times in the years to come (he didn't remember me), and unlike lesser stars not qualified to carry the man's bags--and though he'd done hundreds of interviews over the years around the world--he'd sit and patiently answer my questions.
The last time I talked with Mr.
Brown, in the late '90s, I kissed his hand. I told him that the single-minded way in which he relentlessly built his magnificent career was an inspiration, and I conjured the nerve to bore him with what many people of all colors the world over have told him time and again: that the first concert I ever attended was the James Brown Revue--in mid'60s Oklahoma City, that Daddy took me and my younger brother Tony.
Mr.
Brown listened, smiled and responded by telling me the venue (Douglass High School football stadium) and the name of the long since deceased KBYE radio DJ who promoted the date (Ben Tipton). As I was leaving the Godfather's hotel suite, another journalist, a middle aged Frenchman talking in broken English, was ushered in. As soon as he set eyes on Mr.
Brown, he began to weep.
I understood how the Frenchman felt: This is The Hardest Working Man In Show Business he's standing before, Mr. Dynamite, Soul Brother Number One, The Godfather of Soul, the Minister of the New, New, Heavyweight Funk.
This is f*cking James Brown. When the man started to cry, I started crying, too.
James Brown was more than a brilliant entertainer.
He and his various bands of gifted, intuitive musicians were innovators who forever set the standard for musicality and showmanship. Mr. Brown influenced nearly all genres of popular music.
He invented modern funk. He altered America, both musically and socially.
And yes, he could be a little loopy, but can you imagine waking up every day of your life as James Brown?
Facing weeping, worshipping journalists and today's pathetic excuses for real music and performance? The man was tired. And perhaps, just a little disgusted at how he could give so much to a culture that ended up settling for so little.
So now James Brown has gone the way of the other greats before him, suddenly leaving the world musically feeling like a dangerous place. Because the ghouls have taken over the laboratory. Bring on the cloned food, to go along with the nasty, soulless, misogynistic, no-singing, no-real-instrument-on-it loop they refer to as music.
Yes, save the whales and the ozone. But don't forsake the divine legacy of generations of great black musicians. Save the f*cking bassline.
Rescue the arrangement; the melody is in desperate need.
We ought to be ashamed at what we let happen to our wonderful music. I know I am.
James Brown has passed away. And he is STILL the Hardest Working Man In THIS Show Business. In the grave.
Steven Ivory's book, FOOL IN LOVE (Touchstone/Simon Schuster) is in stores now or at Amazon.com ( ) Respond to him via or
ASK ADVICE CHICK: Answers to YOUR Dating, Sex, Life, Love Questions! *I am a 45 year old woman and I have a boyfriend that is also 45 (although he is mentally much younger).
He recently went to a strip club with a male friend. This friend (whom just got married) also sends him e-mail with naked girls (mostly young girls). My boyfriend also goes to porn sites on the internet.
This really bothers me and I told him it is an insult to me (his woman) that he needs to look at other naked females.
News RSS