‘Red Hook High’: The Anti-’Gossip Girl’
Watch a few episodes of “Gossip Girl” or “Laguna Beach: The Real OC,” and you’d think high school was all about sex at your parents’ summer home, going to galas and getting wasted while looking like an Abercrombie and Fitch model, not the “Before” kid in a Clearasil ad.
“Red Hook High” may be the antidote to all that. Instead of stick-thin blondes toting $3,500 Hermes bags, there are black boys toting bags of drugs. Instead of postcard-perfect mansions and cityscapes, there are cramped apartments and construction zones.
Part drama, part documentary, “Red Hook High,” a new pilot that premiered at the New York Television Festival (NYTVF) this week, shows a high school experience few network and cable series touch on, one that unfolds in a gritty Brooklyn community among teens with the odds stacked against them. Forget prom queens and valedictorians. “Red Hook High’s” stars include a budding drug dealer, an emerging gay crusader and a possibly pregnant teen.
“It’s the opposite of ‘Gossip Girl,’” said director Trac Minh Vu. “It’s not a glossy Hollywood fashion show. There are probably people who actually live lives like what is portrayed on ‘Gossip Girl’ and ‘The OC.’ But they’re fantasy shows. They’re about showcasing high fashion and the small population of people who can live like that.” Continue reading
Girl Power Stands Up To Cancer
Some of today’s hottest female singers posed for a memorable group photo for the “Stand Up To Cancer” telethon. Click photo to enlarge

From left to right – singers Keyshia Cole, Leona Lewis. Fergie, Ciara, Mariah Carey, Beyonce, Mary J Blige, Rihanna, Carrie Underwood, Miley Cyrus, Ashanti, Natasha Bedingfield, and Nicole Scherzinger pose after performing “Just Stand Up”, the worldwide charity single benefiting Stand Up To Cancer. The song was created and produced by LA Reid and Kenny “Babyface” Edmonds, pictured in the center.
Humiliated sprinter Marion Jones released from prison
SAN ANTONIO (AP)—Disgraced sprinter Marion Jones was released Friday from federal prison after completing most of her six-month sentence for lying about her steroid use.
Jones left a halfway house in San Antonio around 8 a.m., said LaTanya Robinson, a community corrections manager for the federal Bureau of Prisons. Jones, who has a house in Austin, will remain on probation.
Jones’ attorney did not immediately respond to a call or e-mail from The Associated Press requesting comment.
The sprinter admitted last October that she used a designer steroid known as “the clear” from September 2000 to July 2001. The drug was linked to the Bay Area Laboratory Co-Operative, the lab that became the center of a steroids scandal that touched numerous professional athletes, including baseball star Barry Bonds. Continue reading
Santana a “Multi Dimensional” valentine
NEW YORK (Billboard) – Guitarist Carlos Santana says his new compilation, “Multi Dimensional Warrior,” is “a love letter to fans” — as well as a reminder that his repertoire includes more than the hit duets he’s been releasing since 1999′s “Supernatural.”
“For me it’s very clearly something that comes from my heart,” Santana told Billboard.
The artist personally supervised the compilation of the two-disc, career-spanning “Warrior,” as well as the artwork and package design. Due September 30 on Columbia/Legacy, the set features 28 songs from 1970 to 2002.
“I basically turned it all in, the complete finished work,” Santana said. He also added some new overdubs to five of the songs, putting guitar on “Spirit” and “Right Now,” while Santana band member Chester “C.T.” Thompson played new piano parts for “Let There Be Light” and Barbara Higbie played fresh harmonica for that song and “Praise.”





















