I have nothing against, Katharine McPhee. She is pretty, talented, and very charming. Here is the thing, she is also very dull on screen.

She simply doesn’t pop, there’s no fire, no passion, no thing. She is just as pretty and talented as that sweet girl who goes to your church, or lives in your neighborhood that a really sweet voice.

For a show that advertises in the commercial , Debra Messing saying “she just glows”, it just doesn’t seem like any of the face time Katharine is given adds up to anything more than ‘average’ to ‘okay’. Where is this supposed glow? Does Katharine McPhee make you feel like you can soar when you hear her sing like Christina Aguilera, or Jennifer Hudson? Are her dance moves so astounding that you simply cannot take your eyes off her?

No, that is not gonna happen, sorry guys, but they should have casted someone with more punch, who had that factor “X”, that undeniable thing that easily shows the audience watching there is no question your a star and stand apart from all others.

Maybe once the show premieres I will change my mind, and if I do I will own up to it. But I predict a painfully short run of Smash, unless they immediately switch lead actresses. Just my opinion, but something about her just isn’t gonna sell.  The tag line “Stars aren’t born, their made ” would be a pretty honest way to describe this mess.

Watch the full pilot episode for Smash and tell me what you think?

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The only thing that could possibly upstage the fun, flirty and ultra sexy lingerie and swimsuits from Etam’s Spring/Summer 2012 fashion show would be a hefty dose of diva!

And indeed there was.

On Monday night style icon and actress Grace Jones was joined by the legendary Chaka Khan, Sister Sledge and Gloria Gaynor in Paris where the ladies turned the Etam Spring/Summer 2012 runway show into a modern day Studio 54.

The 1970′s disco queens belted out the songs that made them stars, as models ripped the runway in hot pink afros and intimates that left little to the imagination. And if that wasn’t wild enough–some models carried snakes around their shoulders like pashminas and strutted out with technicolored poodles.

It’s to be expected that models working a lingerie show are in tip-top shape, but can someone please tell us how Grace Jones, who is 63-years-old, can still rock the heck out of a leotard? Her body defies logic and biology. You go girl!

To close out the show, Sister Sledge was joined onstage by the rest of the 70′s songstresses to perform their mega hit “We Are Family.”

Check out all the groovy moments in the slideshow below…

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While Keys talked about being pregnant and empathic when filming her documentary about AIDS in Africa, the U2 singer chimed in and said: “She’s scary, isn’t she? She’s scary.”

 

Bono went on to say that Keys has “lioness energy” and that her role as a new mother won’t allow her to “let other mothers suffer.”

He made the comments at the premiere of “Keep a Child Alive with Alicia Keys,” a documentary which followed a visit to South Africa during last year’s World Cup with a pregnant Keys and five Americans. It airs on Showtime on Dec. 1, which is World AIDS Day.

Bono said he met Keys when they recorded a cover of Marvin Gaye’s “What’s Going On” – with dozens of other musicians – in 2001.

“I was terrified the moment I met her. I was shaking in my boots,” he said. “I was very moved by her singing of course, but what was interesting was the hard questions afterwards, and I think it’s those hard questions that she asks that lead her.”

Keys started her charity, Keep a Child Alive, in 2003. It assists those affected by HIV/AIDS in Africa and India.

She says she hopes the film reaches out to those who want to help, but can’t make it to Africa.

“Even if you never have been able to travel there, or if you never can, that doesn’t mean you can’t travel with us and really see it for yourself,” she said.

Bono says Keys has what it takes to make a difference in Africa, and around the world.

“Everyone’s got heart, but actually you have to have the head for this,” he said. “You have to be tough and strategic, you have to be demanding, (and) the money has to be spent well.” If the money isn’t spent well, he said, people get annoyed, “and so all these things take a certain intellectual rigor.”

Keys has composed music for the Broadway play “Stick Fly,” which debuts next week. When Bono – who along with the Edge wrote the music for “Spider-Man: Turn off the Dark” – was asked what advice he could give Keys, he said: “You know, it’s an amazing American tradition, Broadway, and she can do anything she wants.”

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At around 11:25 a.m., a 911 call was reportedly made, reporting an unconscious male outside.

TMZ reports that the “Now That We Found Love” rapper was conscious and talking when he was taken to the hospital.

There are reportedly no signs of foul play. Heavy D appears in the Ben Stiller and Eddie Murphy film “Tower Heist” and performed an old school set at the BET Hip-Hop Awards in October.

Stephen Hill, BET president of music programming and specials, said Heavy D was in good spirits when he performed at the hip-hop event. ” I’m so glad that we got to work together for his performance at last month’s BET Hip-Hop Awards,” Hill said in a statement. “Hev was focused, energetic and happy; he worked HARD, as he always had, to excite the crowd.”

Heavy D collaborated with a number of artists over the course of his career. He appears on the remix of Janet Jackson’s song “Alright” from her “Rhythm Nation 1814″ album, and on Michael Jackson’s “Jam” from his “Dangerous” set. His biggest single was his 1991 song “Now That We Found Love” that reached No. 11 on the pop charts.

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When a then 17 year-old Rihanna scored a hit song with 2005′s “Pon De Replay,” no one could have predicted the course the young singer’s career would take. Upon releasing her first number one single, 2006′s “SOS” from the album A Girl Like Me, she wasn’t regarded as much more than Beyoncé-lite, lacking both the vocal force and strong sense of showmanship that have defined the megastar’s ascendancy to pop music icon.

Rihanna performs for her ‘Loud’ tour at The O2 Arena on October 5, 2011 in London, United Kingdom. (Photo by Dave J Hogan/Getty Images)

But no matter how many critics she has had, and there have been plenty, Rihanna has remained steady and established herself as a force to be reckoned with in the world of contemporary popular music.

theGrio: 15 most telling moments in Rihanna’s ‘We Found Love’

With her latest single “We Found Love” off the singer’s forthcoming sixth studio album Talk That Talk, Rihanna has scored her 11th number one Billboard Hot 100 single, breaking a three-way tie between herself, Stevie Wonder, and Whitney Houston and placing her behind only The Beatles (20), Mariah Carey (18), and Elvis Presley (17). Not only that, but she broke Madonna’s record for fastest solo artist to achieve 20 Top 10 singles in their career by a whopping five months, managing to do so in only six years and four months.

Not Beyoncé. Not Britney Spears. Not Lady Gaga. Not Christina Aguilera. Not even the interminable Janet Jackson. It’s the 23 year-old from Barbados that has surpassed all of her contemporaries and influences in the hit record making arena.

For some perspective, she hasn’t sold as many records worldwide as Madonna or Jackson or even Aguilera. She has never been regarded as magnificent vocalist in the vein of Beyoncé or Houston. She isn’t nearly as a theatrical a performer as Gaga. Artistically, she’s much closer to the sort of disposable glam rock influenced pop style of Katy Perry. So just how then has she managed to forge not only a sustainable and flourishing career but one that is record setting and has launched her into the icon stratosphere?

Rihanna has played to her strengths. She hasn’t attempted to wow anyone with her vocal range or elaborate stage show, because she doesn’t have a great voice and she can’t dance very well.

What she is very adept at is being a rock star. The tattoos, the devil may care attitude, the ever changing hairstyles and eye opening outfits all serve to create a persona that is at once identifiable, relatable, and just out of the reach of most ordinary people. She is endearing and likable, but edgy enough that she isn’t considered bubblegum pop any longer.

She has used her good looks and sexiness to draw audiences in that would be less likely to be receptive to her musical output. It’s no fluke or surprise that Rihanna was named “Sexiest Woman Alive” by Esquire magazine. She has embraced her sex appeal in a way that rivals her idols Madonna and Janet Jackson and pushes the boundaries of what is considered acceptable sexual behavior for a young woman in today’s society.

She hasn’t sold sex so much as a healthy sense of sexuality, and it has made all the difference. When she sang about chains and whips exciting her in the aptly named and produced visuals to match in the corresponding video, she made her declaration of sex-positivity and caught the backlash that typically comes with it.

But Rihanna has not just weathered the controversy, she has embraced and courted it, like any true rock star would. Whether through the provocative rape revenge thriller “Man Down” or the kinetic frenzy of the drug induced romance in “We Found Love,” the imagery in her videos has not shied away sensitive and taboo topics, causing widespread discussion on their impact and, perhaps more importantly for her own career, kept her name in the mouths of critics and taste-makers.

And of course there is the now infamous domestic violence incident with former boyfriend Chris Brown. The details of the 2009 Grammy night incident are well known by now, but beyond etching Rihanna permanently into the pop culture consciousness, it has provided her an opportunity speak on some very touch subjects, however subtly, and become a role model for other victims of abuse by coming out on the other side healthy and seemingly stronger.

Musically, she doesn’t deal with anything out of her vocal comfort zone. Her songs are pre-packaged guarantee hits because they are infectious on a number of different levels and are generally built for causing excitement on the dancefloor of nightclubs where not much else matters besides bass lines that are able to put bodies in motion. It’s often formulaic, but it’s a formula that works.

One could argue that it’s simply the time that we live in, that Rihanna benefits from a weak pop music scene that trots out so many would be stars with even more lackluster songs that hers simply stand out in a field of mediocrity.

It’s not an unfair assessment, but there’s also something to be said for the way Rihanna has been able to capitalize on that. She could have just as easily been one of those here today gone tomorrow types, but she has played the game better than all the others and won handsomely. As she gears up for the release of this next album, she is poised to continue building a legacy to last far beyond what any early doubters would have anticipated.

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This come after Tyrese was kicked out a Delaware radio station for expressing his concern during an on-air interview. He was told to leave by the programming director who later demanded an apology after threatening to ban his music.

In an exclusive interview with HelloBeautiful, Tyrese got very personal on why his stance remains secure and why he will never apologize for simply saying something about a world-wide issue with which everyone should be concerned!
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Today, Sly Stone — one of the greatest figures in soul-music history — is homeless, his fortune stolen by a lethal combination of excess, substance abuse and financial mismanagement. He lays his head inside a white camper van ironically stamped with the words “Pleasure Way” on the side. The van is parked on a residential street in Crenshaw, the rough Los Angeles neighborhood where “Boyz n the Hood” was set. A retired couple makes sure he eats once a day, and Stone showers at their house. The couple’s son serves as his assistant and driver.

Inside the van, the former mastermind of Sly & the Family Stone, now 68, continues to record music with the help of a laptop computer.

“I like my small camper,” he says, his voice raspy with age and years of hard living. “I just do not want to return to a fixed home. I cannot stand being in one place. I must keep moving.”

Stone has been difficult to pin down for years. In the last two decades, he’s become one of music’s most enigmatic figures, bordering on reclusive. You’d be forgiven for assuming he’s dead. He rarely appears in public, and just getting him in a room requires hours or years of detective work, middlemen and, of course, making peace with the likelihood that he just won’t show up.

There was a time when Sly was difficult to escape. Stone, whose real name is Sylvester Stewart, was one of the most visible, flamboyant figures of the late 1960s and early 1970s.

The multiracial, multi-gender band that Stone assembled fused funk, soul and psychedelic rock and became one of the most influential acts ever. The San Fran-based group released a string of hits beginning with the 1968 album “Dance to the Music,” followed by “Everyday People,” “Family Affair,” “Thank You (Falettinme Be Mice Elf Agin)” and “Stand!”

The group’s costumes and showmanship were just as memorable. The members favored giant afros, flashy capes, Beatle boots, neon vests and leopard-print jumpsuits.

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The Associated Press reported that Jackson’s estate had generated more than $310 million since his death. Jackson’s executors noted that they were able to reduce debt obligations by $90 million and also refinanced loans with lower interest rates. The release of the concert film “This Is It” also benefited the estate.

The $30 million is a preliminary distribution to Katherine Jackson and the pop star’s three children, and more is likely to be dispersed in the future. A judge is scheduled to approve the plan on Sept. 28.

When Jackson died in June 2009, he owed creditors close to $500 million. He was preparing for a series of London concerts designed to help him revive his career and pay off some of his debts.

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The tribute may remind some of Staten Island’s PS 22 choir’s version of “Somewhere Over the Rainbow” at the most recent Academy Awards.

This version of “Empire State of Mind” was conducted by James Davis Jr. The spot first appeared online several days ago. It then aired during Sunday’s Eagles-Rams NFL game. Now it is quickly going viral. Web searches for “empire state of mind lyrics” and “empire state of mind song” are starting to soar. Watch Now

Concrete jungle where dreams are made of,
There’s nothing you can’t do,
Now you’re in New York!
These streets will make you feel brand new,
The lights will inspire you,
Let’s hear it for New York, New York, New York.

Proceeds for the song, which you can buy on iTunes, go toward the National Fallen Firefighters Foundation.

If these videos don’t make you feel soft inside, then your not human. This is so touching and very inspiring.

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