Archive for July 14th, 2009

Confirmed! David & Courteney Cox-Arquette Have Signed On For ‘Scream 4’

With or without Neve Campbell, 'Scream 4' is a go!
Tuesday, July 14th, 2009

Woot!! Great news for fans of the Scream movie franchise! Altho we learned a few weeks ago that Neve Campbell would NOT be appearing in a proposed 4th movie in the series, E! News’s Marc Malkin is reporting that married couple David and Courteney Cox-Arquette have signed on to reprise their roles in the film!! It looks like Scream 4 is now officially on again:


It’s official! David Arquette and Courteney Cox have signed on to reunite with the Ghostface killer. “We are going to be doing Scream 4,” Arquette just told me from New York City, where he’s hanging out in plastic box over Madison Square Garden for Feeding America (more on that later). “Kevin Williamson is writing the script at this moment, and hopefully Wes Craven is going to direct.” In the original horror trilogy, Arquette played Deputy Dewey Riley with Cox as a tabloid television reporter Gale Weathers. Rumors began several months ago that the two were in talks for the fourth installment. “I fell in love with my wife on Scream, so the opportunity to bring [Dewey] back to life and for my wife to play that really bitchy character again, it’s just going to be really fun,” Arquette said. “It’s just great.” While Williamson recently revealed that Neve Campbell has turned down the chance to reprise her role as Sidney Prescott, Arquette said, “I hope Neve does it. I really hope so.” As for a new storyline, Arquette laughed: “Kevin has sort of put out the broad strokes, but I don’t think I’m at liberty to share any of that.”

OMG! OMG! OMG! OMG! I LOVE the Scream series! While I have some worry that they may be beating a dead horse with another film, I’m relieved that Kevin Williamson will write and perhaps Wes Craven will direct. Having the Cox-Arquettes on board bodes very well for the film. I love that David and Courteney fell in love while making the Scream movies together … I’m sure this return to the franchise will be really fun for them. Neve Campbell better get her shizz straight and sign on to come back. Hopefully she’s just playing hardball and is workin’ on a big payday. Whatevs, they just need to get her back. This is great news!!! Who else is excited? Woot!!

[Source]

Debbie Rowe Takes Issue With ‘The New York Post’

Demands a retraction of their assertion that she is after money over children
Tuesday, July 14th, 2009

The New York Post published a scathing story in their newspaper today asserting that Debbie Rowe, the presumed biological mother of Michael Jackson’s children, accepted a cash settlement of $4 million in lieu of seeking custody of her children (who are currently under the guardianship of the children’s grandmother Katherine Jackson). In response to the claim made by the NYP, CNN reports that Rowe accepted no such claim and is still intent on appearing at the children’s custody hearing in SoCal on July 20. Additionally, TMZ obtained a letter written by Rowe’s attorneys demanding that the NYP retract their original story. Here is the cover of today’s NYP highlighting their Rowe story and a portion of their report:


Michael Jackson’s baby mama Debbie Rowe has sold her kids again — this time squeezing about $4 million from her former mother-in-law in exchange for giving up her parental rights, a family source told The Post yesterday. “It’s one final payday,” the disgusted Jackson confidant said. The family isn’t happy about the mega-payout — which was set to be sealed in Los Angeles yesterday afternoon — but they consider it a necessary evil, the source said. “They felt it was like a ransom-type thing. [Rowe] jumped back into the picture because she wanted money,” the friend said.

In response, here is a copy of the letter that Rowe’s attorneys sent to the Post:


Debbie Rowe’s lawyer just fired off a letter to the New York Post demanding a retraction of its story that Rowe has accepted $4 million to walk away from Michael Jackson’s two eldest kids. The letter — written by Rowe’s lawyer Eric George — says “Among the several contenders for overzealous and inaccurate sensationalism, the New York Post has now seized top honors.” George says “Ms. Rowe has not accepted — and will not accept — any additional financial consideration beyond the spousal support she and Michael Jackson personally agreed to several years ago.” This is a very significant statement and we’ve confirmed it with another Jackson source.

It remains to be seen if the Post will retract their story but something tells me that they prolly won’t … just this afternoon, the NYP published a new story online that claims that Rowe sent emails that claim she does not want the children but also doesn’t want to be seen as the woman who doesn’t want her kids:

Michael Jackson’s ex-wife Debbie Rowe said “Hell no” when discussing the possibility of gaining custody of her two kids, according to a series of bombshell e-mails made public this afternoon. Rebecca White, a close friend of Jacko’s baby mama, revealed to the syndicated TV show “Extra” a series of emails and text messages written by Rowe to her regarding the custody of Jacko’s kids — Michael Jr. 12, and Paris, 11 — just days after the King of Pop’s death. “My lawyer is telling me I have to take some responsibility about the welfare of the children,” Rowe wrote in a July 5 email to White. “Do I want the kids? Hell no. Does it look good for me to ask for them? Absolutely. I don’t want to look like the woman who gave away her kids and just forgot about them.” The e-mails bolstered The Post’s exclusive story today revealing that Rowe had made a $4 million deal to dump the kids — a “secret deal” White said Rowe told her was in the works. “In one text message [Rowe] had just said, ‘Just wait until [July] the 14th. Everything will be done after the 14th.’ There’s definitely going to be a secret deal. There’s definitely going to be a settlement that’s going to come out of this,” said White. The Post reported that Rowe squeezed the money from her former mother-in-law, 79-year-old Katherine, as part of a mega-payout. In a bogus letter to The Post earlier today, Rowe’s lawyer Eric George had the audacity to claim there had been no secret deal reached. “Particularly insidious is your misrepresentation that Ms. Rowe has accepted money to give up custory rights,” George said in the letter. “That statement is unequivocally false” … In an earlier email dated July 2, Rowe said “These kids are not mine. They were never mine. They were always Michael’s. I was Michael’s best friend.”

HMMM … it looks like the back-and-forth fighting between the NYP and Debbie Rowe is only going to continue … and possibly get nastier. To be honest, I don’t know which side to believe … both are equally valid. I guess we’ll find out soon enough if Debbie Rowe really wants her children or if she will be happy to take a cash settlement and go on her merry way.

[Source, Source, Source]

Whitney Houston Brings Her Fabulousness To London

Diva
Tuesday, July 14th, 2009

Whitney Houston has taken her faboo ass to London, England this week to do a bit of early promo for the release of her new album I Look To You which hits stores in September. Here are a couple pics of Ms. Thang emerging from her limo lookin’ all kinds of fierce:


Whitney looks STUNNING, y’all! I am so happy that she is back on the scene. She has been away for far too long. I am anxiously awaiting the release of her new album — as are many of you, I’m sure. Keep on bringing the fierceness, Whit Whit. And welcome back!!

[Photo credit: WENN, thanks Marcus]

Channing Tatum Does ‘GQ’ Magazine

Model Behavior
Tuesday, July 14th, 2009

Channing Tatum, who can be seen in a brief cameo as Pretty Boy Floyd in Public Enemies now and can be seen as Lt. Duke Hauser in G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra next month, is featured in the new issue of GQ magazine. Tatum, who just wed his longtime girlfriend Jenna Dewan here in SoCal last weekend, was photographed by Mario Testino for the GQ spread. In his interview, he talks about he went from a perfume spritzer at Dillard’s to a Hollywood heartthrob:


I’m not expecting a cell-phone message from Channing Tatum when I land in Montgomery, Alabama, on a sweet day in June. The plan was to hook up at his uncle Bruce’s ranch, forty-five minutes from the airport, each of us arriving separately. But Chan (”Nobody calls me Channing”), being at that stage of celebrity when he doesn’t mind spending time with a reporter, has taken it upon himself to redo the plans his publicist made. Even if that means sitting in the Montgomery airport, where he has flown from L.A., an extra hour until my flight gets in from New York City. “I hope it’s okay that I canceled your car so you can ride with me,” he says. “There’s only one bar in the airport, so you should be able to find me.” That’s easy. He’s the only person there. Well, aside from the bartender and a lovely woman in her forties with one arm who, much to his embarrassment, has just paid for his fourth Coors Light. (It is close to five o’clock Alabama time.) “Aw, man, you shouldn’t have done that,” says Chan, going over to her table, where she is sitting alone with her Subway sandwich. “But, um, thanks.” It’s hard to tell whether she knows he’s somebody or just thinks he’s cute. He has her all shy and giggling, though. His driver, from Touch of Class limo service, is waiting by the door. “This is Thomas,” says Chan. Thomas, who’s decked out in a pressed black suit and cap befitting the royal guard, and who speaks with a proper Scottish accent, tips his hat. “He just moved here from Scotland,” says Chan, clearly impressed. “It’s quite…different,” says Thomas. Chan slouches down in the backseat of the black town car. He has an iPhone in his hand and a Kindle poking out of his bag. What are you reading? “I got two books on this thing,” he says, “about the start and finish of the Roman Empire. I don’t have to read this stuff, but I love it.” (It’s in preparation, he says, for a role.) He’s wearing the standard young-guy-in-Hollywood uniform—ripped jeans hanging off his butt, sideways baseball hat, cotton button-down shirt—which, oddly, also turns out to be pretty close to the standard young-guy-in-rural-Alabama uniform. “You ready to get all country?” he asks. We’re headed thirty-three miles northeast, to what Chan calls his “favorite place on the planet, by far”: his uncle Bruce’s ranch. Three hundred acres in the middle of nowhere. Wetumpka, to be precise. It’s where his mama was raised. And though his formative years were spent in Tampa, Wetumpka is what Channing Tatum calls home. He escapes here every chance he gets, and that’s not bullshit. ” ‘Cause it’s real, you know? You’ll see.” But first, he needs to “take a pee” and pick up a couple of six-packs for his uncle Bruce. Thomas steers the town car into a Citgo station with a minimart. While Chan is in the loo, a few truckers buying chew at the cash register size up his ride. “Good-lookin’ black car sittin’ there,” says one. “Is that there yer limo-zeen?” says the other. Not mine, I say. It’s Channing Tatum’s. “Hmmph. We don’t see a whole lotta those round here. Who’d you say that was?” Channing Tatum. He’s an actor. Blank stares. You ever see A Guide to Recognizing Your Saints? Or…Step Up? Blank stares. He’s gonna be in G.I. Joe this summer. Ah, okay, him they’ve heard of.

The pretty interesting interview can be read in full HERE. I love that Channing has a Kindle but I cannot FOR THE LIFE OF ME call him Chan. Sorry. After the jump, check out a few more photos from Channing’s GQ magazine photospread …

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Fans Gather At The O2 Arena To Mourn Michael Jackson

Fans convene on the date his 'This Is It' Tour was to begin
Tuesday, July 14th, 2009

Yesterday I mentioned that July 13, 2009 was the night that Michael Jackson was scheduled to kick off his 50 date comeback tour titled This Is It at the O2 Arena in London, England. It was reported that fans were planning on convening at the venue in order to pay tribute to the late King of Pop on the night he was to take the stage again after so many years out of the spotlight. Hundreds of fans did gather at the O2 Arena last night to hold vigil and mourn Michael Jackson … here are a few photos from yesterday’s event:


Hundreds of Michael Jackson fans gathered outside London’s O2 Arena on Monday to pay their respects to the entertainer on the day he was to have opened a run of 50 concerts at the venue. Jackson died on June 25, just weeks ahead of his eagerly awaited comeback following years of living as a virtual recluse. The London concerts sold out in record time and some of the 750,000 tickets sold traded hands at hugely inflated prices on the Internet. Underlining fans’ devotion to the “King of Pop”, hundreds turned up to the venue anyway, determined to celebrate their favorite musician. “This was going to be the best summer of my life,” said fan Michael. “I was going to go to five shows altogether, it would have been fantastic. I can’t believe rather than coming here to see him perform I’m here to mourn … It’s devastating, it really is.” Some fans sat quietly beneath a large screen with a picture of Jackson and the words “Michael Jackson 1958-2009″ reflecting on what might have been. Others, including several Jackson impersonators, led sing-a-longs of his greatest hits. Will, another fan, said: “We’ve come here today even if there’s no gig tonight. We’re making our own gig, our own carnival atmosphere, we’re making this what it would have been if Michael had been here.” The man behind chart-topping songs like “Thriller,” “Billie Jean” and “Man in the Mirror” has been mourned the world over since his sudden death at the age of 50, and sales of his records have soared. AEG Live, promoters of Jackson’s planned comeback “residency” in London, have offered fans either full refunds for the canceled shows or the option of keeping their commemorative tickets as keepsakes. Jackson died while rehearsing for the concerts, and AEG has said it hopes to stage a tribute including elements of the This Is It spectacle. Several reports have said organizers are aiming for a date in late August.

As I said yesterday, I can appreciate that fans would want to gather at the site where MJ might’ve pulled off one of the greatest comebacks in musical history. While I had my doubts he’d be able to complete all 50 shows, I absolutely knew he had it in him to put on at least one amazing live performance … under happier circumstances, last night could’ve been that night. I’m sure there will be many more tributes to come but already you can feel that people are starting to move on from the loss. Michael Jackson is finally at peace … now mebbe his fans can find some peace as well.

[Source]

Beyoncé Brings Her ‘I Am . . .’ Tour To Los Angeles

The TV Guide
Tuesday, July 14th, 2009

Beyoncé, the uncontested queen of R&B/Pop, brought her I Am … Tour to the Staples Center here in downtown Los Angeles, CA last night and absolutely made a believer out of me. Now, I had been a fan of her music with both Destiny’s Child and as a solo performer but I had not been able to see her perform live in concert before last night. I can tell you, without question, that Beyoncé made a big fan out of me:


I managed to snap over 600 photos at last night’s concert … from my vantage point, almost all of them are amazing shots. Since I couldn’t possibly post them all, I selected a few to share with all y’all. After the jump, check out some of the photos I took of Beyoncé’s I Am … Tour and read some of my thoughts on the show …

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Les News, 071409

Does Debbie want kids or cash? Clinton for same-sex marriage, Carlin's 'Last Words'
Tuesday, July 14th, 2009