Ann Curry to the rescue? Despite all that’s gone down between the anchor and The Today Show , that’s what NBC is hoping. Weeks after Curry was unceremoniously fired , sources tell Radar Online that the program will utilize her on-air more often than originally planned. ” Ann Curry reported for Today on Monday morning from the Syrian border, and she will be featured on a much more routine basis going forward,” a series insider tells the site. “Ann is truly doing what she loves the most now, reporting from war-torn countries and bringing viewers stories of people that are affected by the destruction in the region.” With ratings for Today remaining low and the series continually losing out to Good Morning America , executives are now banking on the woman they fired to save the long-running program. A few days ago, the Today producer took the blame for Curry’s ousting, absolving Matt Lauer from responsibility.
Pay up or get locked up TO Terrell Owens is desperate for a return to the NFL, but it appears he may be closer to spending time behind bars. Owens failed to show up at a child support hearing in Atlanta on Thursday according to reports: The judge, John Goger reset the hearing for July 19, but warned that if Owens fails to show up again, he could be thrown in the slammer. David Hartin, Owens’ attorney, took the blame for the former NFL superstar’s absence, claiming there was a miscommunication. The 38-year-old Owens is $20,000 behind on child support payments. Melanie Smith, the mother of Owens’ 7-year-old daughter, says that he’s stiffed her on child support payments for months. Under the terms of a previous agreement, Owens is supposed to pay Smith $5,000 a month, so Owens is presumably four months behind on payments. “It’s a tragedy, not only that we are here today; this is the third case she has had to file in the last year,” Smith’s attorney Randy Kessler told the TV station. Damn! When you decide to have hella kids, you gotta be responsibly ballin’ enough to be able to pay for them too. Get your life together Terrell! Source
‘I was moreso trying to take the heat for a friend,’ The-Dream tells MTV News. By Rob Markman The-Dream Photo: MTV News Turns out it wasn’t The-Dream who sent the now-infamous “N—as in Paris” tweet from Gwyneth Paltrow ‘s phone, but the Love King still insists that his buddy did nothing wrong. “Well, we were there, of course. We were Patron’d out of our minds, number one. Number two, I was moreso trying to take the heat for a friend because I knew that the reaction was going to be silly,” The-Dream admitted to MTV News on the carpet for Vitamin Water’s Fader concert series in Hollywood on Thursday night. “I know what she meant; I know what she didn’t mean.” Last weekend, while onstage at the Throne’s much-ballyhooed Paris concert , Paltrow tweeted a pic of herself with a few friends and captioned it: “Ni**as in Paris for real @mrteriousnash (the dream) tyty, beehigh.” The tweet caused much controversy, sparking a debate over who should and shouldn’t be allowed to use the N-word. The-Dream says he knows that the actress didn’t mean for the tweet to be derogatory and also suggests that the issue isn’t so black-and-white. “We created a song and titled it like that. It’s one of the biggest songs out, especially [since] Jay and Kanye are two of the biggest rap figures,” he began to explain. “It’s like a catch-22, it’s like a trick, like ‘Yeah we’re gonna say it and we’re gonna sell it to you, but you can’t really use it and you can’t say it.” After Paltrow came under fire, the “Shawty Is a 10” singer came to her rescue and took the blame, claiming that he was the one who sent the message from Gwyn’s phone. Now he admits it was all just a cover-up. “I knew it was going to be silly from the beginning, so I just tried to jump to her defense,” he said to MTV News. “Unfortunately, people were bothered and I understand it to a degree, but you have to still understand that we give the word its own power.” The magnitude of Hov and Yeezy’s historic concert isn’t lost on The-Dream. He hopes that by performing “N—as in Paris” multiple times in Paris, the Throne can eventually change the complexion of the city. “If you know the culture there, then you know it’s not really bound to blacks in that type of a way. It’s soft and gloomy, but it’s not us,” he says of Paris. “So I understand the title of the song, I know what the movement is, and I extremely was touched after they performed in Paris 11 times because I know that’s going to affect the culture 10 years from now.” Was The-Dream justified in defending Gwyneth Paltrow? Sound off in the comments Related Artists The-Dream
Tiger Woods spent 14 minutes this morning apologizing for, it seemed, practically everything he’s ever done. He may have just made things worse. His first mistake, of course, was waiting nearly three months to make his apology. But setting that aside, there is the issue of the actual apology, which was excruciating to watch. It was a string of clichés straight from a 12-step book. He took the blame, it’s true, but he sounded incredibly robotic and forced. (“The issue involved here was my repeated irresponsible behavior. I was unfaithful. I had affairs. I cheated. What I did is not acceptable and I am the only person to blame.”) And the length of the speech worked against him; he should have stuck to the five minutes he was supposedly going to speak for. Because he ended up apologizing for things that people weren’t expecting, and lobbed some accusations that made him seem defensive. He said that the allegations that he used performance-enhancing drugs were “completely and utterly false.” It reminded me of the old, “So when did you stop beating your wife?” question. No one would’ve been talking about performance-enhancing drugs today if he hadn’t brought it up. The other thing Tiger did that drove me crazy was his appeal to the paparazzi to stop harassing his family. “I still believe it is right to shield my family from the public spotlight. I have always tried to maintain a private space for my wife and children. They have been kept separate from my sponsors and my commercial endorsements,” he said. Which is a lie, as Don Van Natta of the Times pointed out on Twitter —Tiger was shown kissing his son in an ad for American Express. He also gave a shout-out to Accenture. Ew. Then there was the weird part where he brought up being raised a Buddhist (his mom looked distinctly uncomfortable at that point), but said he had “drifted away from it in recent years.” (No kidding.) Then he said, “Buddhism teaches that a craving for things outside ourselves causes an unhappy and pointless search for security. It teaches me to stop following every impulse and to learn restraint.” Again, this felt forced and false. The elephant(ess) in the room was clearly Elin, who wasn’t there but whose spectre hung over the proceedings. “Elin has shown enormous grace and poise throughout this ordeal. Elin deserves praise, not blame,” he said. Again—blame? Who was blaming Elin? From what I could tell, people sympathized with her. And her absence was telling. Think of how many men making apologies have had their wives at their sides—and not just politicians, either. Remember that when Kobe Bryant had to make his big apology, his wife Vanessa was at his side. Tiger also said that he wasn’t going to discuss whether he and Elin were going to stay together. Clearly he needs her more than she needs him.
