Ladies, is it just us, or could the man who left us with four kids, including a newborn, never get so much as the time of day from us again in life? Laura Govan clearly doesn’t ascribe to that way of thinking. ESSENCE.com: You refer to Gilbert as your fiancé. You two are back together? GOVAN: Yes, we are, and we plan to get married soon. When and where, I don’t know yet. I feel like we’re already married though, ten years, four kids later. People say he’s a mess, and I’m a mess. You know what, we’re each other’s messes. Everybody has breakup and make-up moments. It just so happens that ours is out in the public. You learn to grow. At this point in our lives Gilbert and I have been there, done that; the drama, the chaos. We’re older now, and we’re more mature. Now we’re better parents, and we’re taking the steps to make things better. Regardless of our past, we want our kids to see a good future. Ooooh… sounds a little enabler-ish, doesn’t it? ESSENCE.com: Gilbert had a lawsuit trying to stop you from being on the show. Why do you think he didn’t want you on it and why was it important for you to be on it? GOVAN: A lot of people don’t know that Gilbert is really shy. He didn’t want things about our family to be out there. But at the end of the day, things about our family are already out there so I thought let’s take control of the things we can. It was also important for me to do the show because, one, I wanted to do something on my own. I’m always in his shadow. Had it been to get a job at Target, I would have taken it, but since I was offered this opportunity, I took it. Yeah. She’s right: those two definitely belong together. Source
SMH: An Atlanta vegan couple whose malnourished 6-week-old son starved to death after they fed him a too-limited diet of soy milk and apple juice will have to serve their life sentences for murder, Georgia’s top court ruled on Monday. The Georgia Supreme Court’s unanimous decision rejected appeals by Jade Sanders and Lamont Thomas. The two first-time parents in their 20s at the time lived in Atlanta’s Buckhead neighborhood. They rushed their infant, Crown Shakur, to the hospital in April 2004 after he began to have trouble breathing. Doctors who couldn’t resuscitate him determined he died because of extreme malnourishment or starvation. Police searching the couple’s apartment found a soy milk bottle, an apple juice bottle and a rancid-smelling baby bottle caked with debris. At the 2007 trial, prosecutors said the soy milk cartons in their apartment stated that it wasn’t to be used as a substitute for baby formula. They also contended that the couple intentionally neglected their child and refused to take him to the doctor even as his body wasted away. He was just 3.5 pounds when he died, about as much as a baby weighs at 7 months into a normal pregnancy. A jury convicted them of malice murder, felony murder, involuntary manslaughter and cruelty to children. “No matter how many times they want to say, `We’re vegans, we’re vegetarians,’ that’s not the issue in this case,” prosecutor Chuck Boring said during the trial. “The child died because he was not fed. Period.” Defense attorneys countered that the parents did the best they could while adhering to the lifestyle of vegans, who typically use no animal products. They said Sanders and Thomas did not realize the baby was in danger until they rushed his emaciated body to the hospital. “I loved my son—and I did not starve him,” Jade Sanders said at her May 2007 sentencing hearing. In her appeal, Sanders’ attorney argued the evidence wasn’t strong enough to support the verdict. And Thomas’ lawyer claimed his trial attorney was ineffective because he failed to call an expert to support his theory that his son’s death was linked to cystic fibrosis and not starvation. These people could not have been that dumb to think that their baby could survive on just soy milk….especially since it states clearly on the carton that soy milk does not replace baby formula. If they were so natural and wholesome, why didn’t she breastfeed the baby?? Do you think they deserve life?? Source
Mitch Winehouse believes his daughter died during alcohol detoxification. By Gil Kaufman Amy Winehouse Photo: Marc Broussely/ Redferns The results of an official inquest are still pending, but Amy Winehouse ‘s father, Mitch, revealed to Anderson Cooper that he believes his daughter died while trying to detox from alcohol. In an interview slated to run on Monday on the CNN anchor’s new syndicated daytime talk show, “Anderson,” Mitch Winehouse said Amy, who died on July 23 at age 27 of as-yet- undetermined causes , approached getting clean like she did everything else in life: with gusto. “Everything Amy did, she did to excess,” budding lounge singer Mitch told Cooper. “She drank to excess and did detox to excess.” Winehouse explained that he believes Amy died as a result of a seizure caused by alcohol detox . He also revealed that while an initial autopsy showed no sign of illegal drugs in the “Rehab” singer’s system at the time of her death, there were traces of the prescription drug Librium, which is commonly used to relieve anxiety and control agitation caused by alcohol withdrawal, according to The Associated Press . Winehouse had fought against drug and alcohol addiction for years, and Mitch said that when she suffered her fatal seizure, there was “nobody there to rescue her.” The singer’s family also said that toxicology tests indicate that there was alcohol in her bloodstream, but that it was unclear if it contributed to her death. One of Mitch Winehouse’s regrets, he told Cooper, is that Amy was trying to kick her alcohol addiction without the help of a doctor. He said she suffered from seizures and would lose consciousness in the time before her death and that “the periods of abstinence were becoming longer, and the periods of drinking were becoming shorter,” he said. “It was headed in the right direction.” Though Mitch was merely speculating on what killed the singer, the full details may be revealed soon, as the inquest is slated to begin next month. Amy’s boyfriend at the time of her death, Reg Traviss, said they spent a quiet evening at home looking at pictures and watching DVDs two days before she passed and that they were making plans to attend a friend’s wedding a few days later. He told Cooper he struggled to find the right time to speak to Amy about her drinking without coming off as a nag. “She was a really clever girl,” he said. “She knew what she was doing. I would sometimes choose my moments when there was something that was needed to be said.” Related Videos VMA 2011: Amy Winehouse Tribute Related Photos Amy Winehouse: A Life In Photos Related Artists Amy Winehouse
Young Muslims and Arab-Americans tell MTV News about their lives as Americans in the decade since the September 11, 2001, attacks. By James Montgomery, with reporting by Tami Katzoff Photo: Robert Nickelsberg/ Getty Images Life changed for every American on September 11, 2001, but perhaps no group felt that change so profoundly as Muslims and Arab-Americans, who, after spending decades living largely under the radar, suddenly found themselves the target of scorn, harassment, discrimination and, in some cases, violence — and all because of the color of their skin. In the months following the attacks, as reports of anti-Muslim hostility circulated and protests outside of mosques became a regular occurrence, MTV News’ Sway Calloway worked on a story that attempted to document the lives of young Muslims in post-9/11 America, in part because he saw parallels between their ordeal and the ongoing civil-rights struggles faced by African-Americans. “The country was in fear, people were scrambling, no one trusted anyone, no one knew what was coming next,” Calloway said earlier this week. “At the time, there were a lot of racially motivated crimes that were starting to take place against Muslim-Americans … so, it was important to go into the Muslim community and talk to our audience. “It was something that I truly wanted to do, because I could, in some way, relate to it. There were kids who were school-age, kids who were college-age, parents and grandparents, who all had horrible stories to tell. It definitely divided us as a people.” But, 10 years later, has that division grown or has time helped heal the wounds? Sadly, given recent events like the fervent debate over the planned Park51 Muslim community center , the answer appears to be the former. MTV News recently sat down with a group of young Muslims and Arab-Americans, who have spent the past decade growing up in a society that has fundamentally changed, to hear their experiences in this very new America. Adil Ibrahim, 26, student “I remember: It was physics class and … we were watching [the aftermath of the attacks] on TV, and immediately, I felt people around me giving me a look. Twenty minutes later, the teacher asked me, ‘Hey, you’re from Pakistan, right?’ And my global knowledge grew eons in, like, a week. I became an educator for my religion. “I think, in some aspects, things have gotten worse since, and in some aspects, they’ve gotten better. People are more aware of the religion of Islam, and some people are more aware of what the Middle East is, and the differences between the regions and the people there. … People have become more knowledgeable. But, at the same time, people have become more angry, people’s relatives and sons and daughters have died in the war, so there’s a hatred there, and I understand that. We need to educate people even more.” Nadine Sfeir, 24, law student “[On September 11, 2001,] I was 14 years old, in high school, in drama class, and I remember my mom pulling me out, crying, because she thought it was going to be just like when America detained all the Japanese [after the attack on Pearl Harbor]. And I remember, distinctly, on the drive home, hearing on our local radio station: ‘It’s the Palestinians.’ And I was like, ‘Oh my God.’ Because if our local radio station was saying it was the Palestinians, we were in deep trouble. … It was very scary. “I think people are starting to get more numb to the whole issue of Muslims in America. … The ignorance is still there, of course, in many ways, but I feel most people aren’t as scared anymore.” Ramy Youssef, 20, artistic director, New York Arab-American Comedy Festival “I was in fifth grade [on September 11, 2001], and I remember, pre-9/11, I was just a kid, and then after 9/11, I was a kid on the defensive. … It became a positively defining thing for me in a lot of ways, because it became the cause I was fighting against, as opposed to fighting against, like, my parents. “I feel like I grew up in a very fear-based society, and I feel like we’re at a breaking point. I don’t know if things have gotten better. For a while, like in 2007-2008, I thought they had, then a taxicab driver gets stabbed for being Muslim, then a mosque can’t be built in New York City. … I don’t think things have gotten better, I think people’s perceptions have just settled.” Cyrus McGoldrick, 23, civil rights manager for the New York chapter of Council on American Islamic Relations, rapper/singer performing as “The Raskol Khan” “I was 13 [in 2001]. 9/11 was in my first week of high school, so it was a pretty dramatic coming of age. I was in a small town near Pennsylvania, and, at first, it was just fear. As soon as the news started zeroing in on ‘These were Muslims, and they did it because of Islam,’ we were getting calls from my aunts and uncles who were getting yelled at on the street, were getting flipped off by cars, were getting chased in the city … and I think Muslims were terrified. “A lot of things have changed. … Back then, the hate was just directed at individuals, but now, I see it more formalized in police. Now we see this anti-Muslim bigotry being formalized in law-enforcement policy and so-called ‘counter-terrorism policy.’ It’s almost a harder battle to fight now. We have a lot of work to do, as Muslims and Americans.” Share your comments on the 10th anniversary of the September 11 attacks in the comments below. Related Videos Commemorating The Tenth Anniversary Of The September 11 Attacks
Damn, somebody sure knows how to open wide. Serena Williams was spotted enjoying her time away from the courts with Chris Bosh and his wife Adrienne and another friend Friday. Serena just whooped her way through the U.S. Open quarterfinal and we’re hoping she wins the whole dang thing. Looks like Serena is rocking the big curly look these days too. You likey? Fame Pictures
A video I made for Justin Bieber using the song “We Ride” by Rihanna. Lyrics: [Chorus:] Ride when we ride we ride It’s ’til the day that we die When we ride we ride It’s ’til the day that we die [Verse 1] It’s real late ‘Bout a quarter to 1 I’m thinking about everything we’ve become And I hate it I thought we could make it But I’m ready to dead this Just wanna forget about it I saw her pictures And the letters she sent You had me thinking You were out we your friends I’m so foolish Play me like I’m stupid ‘Cause I thought it was just you and I (oh) [Hook:] Now I look back on the time That we spent and I see it in my mind Playing over and over again ‘Cause boy right now You got me breaking down And I just can’t figure out why But this is what you say [Chorus x2] [Verse 2] Visions in my mind Of the day that we met You showed me things That I’ll never forget Took me swimming In the ocean You had my head up in the clouds Made me feel like I’m floating (yeah) You think I’m playing When you know it’s the truth Nobody else can do it Quite like I do All my kisses And my loving But ain’t nobody Better than us [Hook] [Chorus x2] [Verse 3] I guess it’s over Indefinitely But you and I know It’s not that easy To let go Of everything (everything) that we planned And start all over again Just blame yourself cause you blew it I won’t forget how you do it Sweet baby This is where the game ends now Somehow wanna believe you and me We can figure it out [Chorus] You finna make me say boy I … http://www.youtube.com/v/_VGkkgdQdx4?f=videos&app=youtube_gdata Excerpt from: We Ride (Justin Bieber Video) with lyrics
My name is Rachel and I am 13 years old. Back in June, I was lucky enough to win passes to the MMVA’s in Toronto. I was in the car one day listening to CHUM FM (they were running the contest) thinking “never say never”. Then they told me please hold and that I had won the passes! No one knew that Justin was going to be there but we all had a feeling that he would show up. When I got to Toronto that day I had to wait for almost 4 hours but it was worth it! When the show started I had an awesome view. I was right in the front row! Then Justin came out to accept his first award with Drake on the stage further from me and I thought, well he isn’t that close but I am closer to him than I ever thought I would be! After that I thought Justin wouldn’t be coming out on stage anymore but I was wrong. Near the end of the show, Justin won a second award and this time he was going to accept it on the stage right infront of me! When they announced his name I started to freak out! As he walked onto the stage he touched everyone’s hand and then stopped right beside me to get his award. I could not believe that my inspiration and role model JUSTIN BIEBER was right there. When Selena Gomez was introducing Lady Gaga, he looked over at me for like 5 seconds which isn’t very long but I still can’t believe that I was able to be so close to him! Justin if you ever read this I just want to say one thing THANK YOU for everything you do for your fans and how you care about them no matter what! – Rachel Visit link: My name is Rachel and I am 13 years old. Back in June, I was…
She’s bared it all in movies like The Reader (2008) and Holy Smoke! (1999), and she’s even been known to encourage onscreen nudity in her co-stars, but it turns out actress Kate Winslet isn’t a big fan of peeling down on screen. In a new interview with V magazine, Kate discusses the, ahem, ins and outs of the topic: “I hate it! Listen make no mistake, I just get on it. I just go in and say ‘Oh f*ck’ let’s do it.’ and boom. If you complain about it or procrastinate it’s not going to go away.” Stiff upper lip, eh? How very British of you, Kate. She goes on: “Its a profoundly bizarre thing to do. As actors you talk about it all the time. You can literally be tangled in sheets, and you turn to the other actor and say ‘What the f*ck are we doing?’ Dear Mum, at work today I had so-and-so’s left nut sack pressed against my cheek. It’s sort of unethical if you think about it in those terms.” Which film has Kate pressing nut sacks to her cheek? We haven’t seen that one, but we’d sure like to! You’d never know Kate Winslet was uncomfortable with nudity from her skin-filled resume- members can check out her voluptuous, scrumptious figure in 12 mam-azing nude roles right here on MrSkin.com!
‘I think our generation has grown,’ the 25-year-old Arab-American tells MTV News of the decade since terrorist attacks. By Gil Kaufman, with reporting by Tami Katzoff Rima Fakih Photo: WireImage On Sept. 11, 2001, Rima Fakih was a student at St. John’s Prep High School in Astoria, Queens. She was in a social studies class when a student behind her said that the World Trade Center had been hit, and from the window of the school, she could see that he was right. “All you could see was just some big black smoke,” she said, noting that her teacher’s husband worked in the buildings at the time and that the students had to bring their instructor water to try and calm her down. It was a defining moment in the life of Fakih, a Lebanese immigrant who last year became the first Muslim and first Arab-American to win the Miss USA crown. “It was kind of a nightmare, to be honest with you, because the principal came on the speakers and was saying, ‘Attention, students: Please everyone report down to the basement. We need you all in shelters.’ I just couldn’t move because my older brother Rabih worked across the street from the World Trade Center, he worked with Goldman Sachs.” In addition, her older sister worked in tower seven of the WTC and her father was on his way to work at the time. When Fakih got home, her mother was on the ground in tears, barely able to breathe because the vivid memories of the attacks evoked the 15-year Lebanese civil war that had forced the family to flee their homeland. “I was born in South Lebanon during the war and I remember vivid memories [of] hiding in shelters during the shelling,” Fakih told MTV News. “At that moment, it felt just like that.” With her father stuck on the Queensboro Bridge and her mother unable to reach Fakih’s siblings, the tension mounted during the day. Her father eventually made it to safety at an uncle’s house, while, luckily, her newlywed brother, just back from his honeymoon, had taken a few extra days off at his new wife’s request. Unfortunately, nobody could reach her sister. “It was very terrifying. I remember my little brother was a baby and he was asking my mom to change the channel because he couldn’t watch the scary movie anymore,” she recalled. The images of the planes hitting the buildings kept playing all day, with the building Fakih’s sister worked in clearly visible in the footage. Finally, though, they got word that her sister had spent 12 hours in a shelter, wearing a gas mask, a scenario so haunting that she ended up in therapy for more than a year. “She saw people jumping out of the buildings … on fire, from the top,” Fakih said of her sister Rana. “She was in a meeting when the first plane hit and the windows shattered.” A veteran observer of the war in Lebanon, Rana counseled her co-workers to take shelter and stay away from the windows. Some, however, didn’t take her advice and ended up dying that day. “I remember how hard it was for my family and I at the time to not only live around the atmosphere of New York City, but to receive a lot of stereotypes,” Fakih said of her family, which owned a Middle Eastern restaurant on New York’s Upper East Side for 20 years. Bricks were thrown through the restaurant window and business tanked in the wake of the attacks as a result of the some of the post-9/11 anti-Muslim sentiment, with Fakih remembering how she was bullied at a her Catholic high school by some students who made rude comments. “Every time something would happen, I would be scared. I’d watch TV and … [think], ‘Please God don’t let this be a terrorist act; don’t let this be Arabs or Muslims.” The family moved to Dearborn, Michigan, in 2003, a city that boasts the highest concentration of Middle Eastern immigrants in the U.S., and they felt much more at ease. Rima began attending the University of Michigan, but unlike some of her Arab-American peers, she did not change her name in order to fit in and escape greater scrutiny. She held fast to her identity, even when some fellow Muslims warned her not to enter the Miss USA pageant because they believed she could never win. Ten years later, though, she thinks things have gotten better. “I think I’m a great example to that,” she said. “Winning the crown of Miss USA, being the first Arab American, the first Muslim-American and possibly the first immigrant to win the title of Miss USA just testifies to the fact that there is freedom in this country and there is justice and there is freedom of religion and freedom of choice and this is what America is based on.” Fakih said the 9/11 attacks planted fear in a lot of people in her generation, including her. “I might be an Arab and a Muslim, and I might get on a train sometimes and see a man leave a bag and I just don’t want to touch it, I want to get off at the next stop,” she admitted. “Now, I think our generation has grown. My generation especially has seen so much fear and then so much change and growth in the [last] 10 years that it planted this fearlessness inside us and this ability to feel like we live in a country where you can do anything and we can overcome.” And when people asked whether she could win the Miss USA title, she’d say, “If Barack Hussein Obama is in office, then Rima Hussein Fakih can win Miss USA.” As part of the “I Will” campaign to commemorate the 9/11 attacks as a national day of service and remembrance, we asked Fakih how she’ll mark the anniversary on Sunday. “On September 11, I will call to check on my sister and my older brother, who worked at the World Trade Center, to make sure that they still love and trust this county as much as everyone else.” What will you do to remember 9/11? Share your thoughts below, and visit 911day.org to upload your video response. Related Photos First Arab-American Miss USA Rima Fakih: A Year In Photos
