Groundbreaking comedian Phyllis Diller died at her L.A. home surrounded by family at 95, TMZ is reporting . She had recently fallen, injuring her wrist and hip and her health had been deteriorating since the incident. Diller received a pacemaker following a 1999 heart attack. She began her long career in 1952, rising to fame with her television specials, starring with Bob Hope in the 1960s. Her signature laugh became a staple of her various appearances. In 1998, Diller provided the voice for the queen in Disney/Pixar’s animated movie A Bug’s Life and in 2005, she was one of the contemporary comics featured in the indie box office hit documentary The Aristocrats (2005). But she’ll be most remembered for her onstage persona. Diller typically combined her wild-hairdos and act as an eccentric housewife as a backdrop to self-deprecating jokes about her age and appearance, terrible cooking, and a husband named “Fang.” She also would don a cigarette she’d pretend to smoke from a long holder. In 2005, she wrote her autobiography titled Like a Lampshade in a Whorehouse / A screenplay based on her early years as a stand-up is in pre-production with Patricia Clarkson slated to play Diller, according to Wikipedia. Diller was born Phyllis Ada Driver in Lima, Ohio on July 17, 1917. [ Sources: TMZ , Wikipedia ]
Let’s give Amanda Bynes credit: the actress didn’t merely get arrested for DUI early this morning. She made her arrest count!* As first reported by TMZ, Bynes was busted around 3 a.m. in West Hollywood after she attempted to pass a police car in hew BMW… and ended up side-swiping the vehicle! Following this incident cops pulled the 26-year old over, determined she was not fit to be driving and hauled her into the station. She was released hours later on $5,000 bond. * We are just kidding. No DUI arrest ever “counts” for anything positive. Stay alive, readers. Don’t drink and drive.
LeAnn Rimes, country star and wife of Eddie Cibrian, is reportedly mulling a tell-all book in which she speaks candidly about romance, marriage and divorce. The 29-year-old has been a celebrity gossip staple since her affair with now-husband Eddie Cibrian – a tryst that broke up both of their marriages at the time. Rimes and Cibrian first fell in love in 2009 on the set of the Lifetime’s Northern Lights . After a scrutinized courtship, LeAnn and Eddie married last April. Rimes’ rep is ” putting out feelers ” to find the right person to help write her autobiography and “tell LeAnn’s side of the story in her own voice.” How juicy will it be? A publishing source says she “wants it to be a very honest book so she can speak directly to her fans and tell her side of the story.” “She’s been through a lot of changes over the past few years,” the insider adds, “and this is LeAnn’s chance to speak candidly to her fans.” Also planning to write a book? Cibrian’s ex-wife Brandi Glanville . The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills star tweeted last month that her story “has been a long time coming [and it’s] about surviving divorce.” Will both ladies take the literary high road? Or would this reignite what has been an ongoing, intermittent feud for years? We’ll have to stay tuned. [Photo: WENN.com]
Reality star and businesswoman Kim Kardashian and ex Reggie Bush can’t seem to get each other out of their systems. The pair were spotted in Beverly Hills this past weekend having lunch. Witnesses reported them smiling and enjoying each other’s company like they were back together. Bush and Kardashian still signed autographs and took pictures with fans who approached them during their meal. It’s still unclear if they are officially back together. If Reggie got back with Kim, his mom isn’t going to be too pleased. We reported late last year, Mama Bush didn’t want her football star son making the same mistakes twice. The main mistake, in her eyes, is dating Kim Kardashian. Reggie, do what you feel is right, but proceed with caution. Source RELATED POSTS: Does Reggie Bush’s Mom Hate Kim Kardashian? Amber Rose On What REALLY Happened With Reggie Bush [VIDEO] 5 Reasons Why Reggie Bush Should Marry Kim Kardashian [ORIGINAL]
Black history, our history, American history is a complicated matter riddled with facts that make us proud and others that make us cringe. It is a story of a nation built by men and women who sacrificed their lives to force America to live up to its promise. These men and women were also full of contradictions. Frederick Douglass was one of those contradictions. He is remembered as a writer, abolitionist and orator. He was a human rights activist before the label existed. Yet, he also vehemently opposed the Great Migration of blacks from the South to the North to escape the crippling shackles of Jim Crow. Read Douglass’ bio . Douglass was born in February in the early 1800s in Tuckahoe, MD. In his autobiography, “Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, An American Slave,” he wrote that he did not know his exact birthdate. Most references to Douglass focus on Douglass’ post-slavery life as an influential abolitionist and a human rights activist. Before he became the great statesman, and the first African American to be nominated for vice-president, Douglass was an educator. He secretly taught himself to read and write and then he taught fellow slaves. He was traded to several different slave owners in Maryland, including a brutal farmer known as a “slave breaker.” Douglass finally escaped to New York. It is ironic that Douglass — who so believed in equality and who himself escaped North — lamented the black exodus from the South in the late 1800s during the early years of Jim Crow. He urged blacks to tough it out. Below are a few quotes from Douglass, compiled by the Gilder Lehrman Center of the Study of Slavery, Resistance & Abolition , regarding the black exodus North. The Negro, long deemed to be too indolent and stupid to discover and adopt any rational measure to secure and defend his rights as a man…. He has, discovered and adopted a measure which may assist very materially in, the solution of some of the vital problems involved in his sudden elevation: from slavery to freedom, and from chattelhood to manhood, and citizenship . . . he has adopted a simple, lawful and peaceable measure. It is emigration—the quiet withdrawal of his valuable bones and muscles from a condition of things which he considers no longer tolerable. This exodus has revealed to southern men the humiliating fact that the prosperity and civilization of the South are at the mercy of the despised and hated Negro . . . . We have the story of the emigrants themselves, and if any can reveal the true cause of this Exodus they can . . . They tell us with great unanimity that they are very badly treated at the South . . . [As a strategy, however] it is a surrender, a premature, disheartening surrender, since it would make freedom and free institutions depend upon migration rather than protection; by flight, rather than right . . . It leaves the whole question of equal rights on the soil of the South open and still to be settled . . . it is a confession of the utter unpracticability of equal rights and equal protection in any State, where those rights may be struck down by violence . . .
Former California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger is writing an autobiography titled, predictably but still awesomely, Total Recall: My Unbelievably True Life Story . The actor will reportedly touch on his breakup with Maria Shriver while covering his childhood in Austria and careers as a bodybuilder, film star and politician. However, “This book will not be a tell-all,” a source stressed. The recently-embattled Schwarzenegger, 64, will work on the book in between shooting scenes for his next film The Expendables 2 , with Sylvester Stallone. “He has been keeping notes and working on the book for over a year,” his spokesman said. “He didn’t want to write his autobiography while he was governor.” Adds Jonathan Karp of publisher Simon & Schuster: “Nobody has a life story even close to his. Truly, Arnold is one of the most fascinating figures of our time.” And that was true even before Mildred Patricia Baena !
N.O.R.E. contradicts account of events in Prodigy’s autobiography. By Rob Markman Capone N Noreaga Photo: MTV News The accounts in Prodigy’s newly released book “My Infamous Life: The Autobiography of Mobb Deep’s Prodigy” (Simon and Schuster) has fellow Queens rapper N.O.R.E. up in arms about P’s recollection of things. On Wednesday, Noreaga spoke to MTV News and questioned why his longtime friend would bring up already-settled street beefs that eventually left two men shot. The “Super Thug” rapper is also refuting Prodigy’s claim that “L.A., L.A.” — a 1996 dis song aimed at Snoop Dogg, Tha Dogg Pound and Tupac Shakur — was originally a Mobb Deep track. Noreaga goes on to say that originally, Prodigy wanted no parts of the much-hyped East Coast/ West Coast beef. “Now, is he delusional?” Nore asked. “Have you seen the record ever been [credited as] Mobb Deep featuring Capone-N-Noreaga?” The original “L.A., L.A.” was recorded in 1996, and a remixed version later appeared on Capone-N-Noreaga’s 1997 debut album The War Report. The track was a direct response to Tha Dogg Pound’s “New York, New York” and its video, which famously featured larger-than-life versions of Snoop Dogg, Kurupt and Daz kicking over New York skyscrapers. While N.O.R.E. does admit that Prodigy originally had a verse on the C-N-N song, he says that P had his record label, Loud Records, request to have his verse removed. “Loud called us and said, ‘You have to make sure that Prodigy verse doesn’t exist,’ ” Nore said. “What happened was in between that time ‘Pac dropped [‘Hit ‘Em Up’] and said, ‘Mobb Deep, don’t one of you dudes got sickle-cell.’ ” “L.A., L.A.” provided a notable moment in the mid-’90’s East Coast/ West Coast feud, when rappers from both New York and California hurled disses at each other. The late Notorious B.I.G. and Tupac Shakur were the principal players, but rappers like Nas, Jay-Z, Mobb Deep and Snoop Dogg were also called out at one point in the coastal rivalry. In his book, Prodigy criticized Jay-Z for not standing up to ‘Pac’s slander, but Nore contends that originally Prodigy also had some apprehension in involving himself in the war of words. “So, even when he said he was mad at Jay-Z for not representing New York, he’s delusional,” he says. “[‘L.A., L.A.’ wasn’t him; that wasn’t his idea. That was a Capone-N-Noreaga, Tragedy thing.” N.O.R.E. also points out another discrepancy in the autobiography that was released earlier this week. Prodigy claimed that his Mobb Deep counterpart Havoc once punched veteran Queensbridge rapper Tragedy in the face for having an affair with his girlfriend while Nore looked on. “When he says that [Havoc] stepped to Trag and I was there, it was all fabricated,” he says. “All I know from Havoc and Trag’s relationship was that they were cool. So, when I read the book, and he’s actually saying things that he’s heard, maybe from his perspective, but he’s definitely not speaking the truth when it comes to me.” Related Artists Prodigy of Mobb Deep
In an excerpt from his autobiography “My Infamous Life” rapper Prodigy recalls confronting Jay-Z during a trip to Justin’s restaurant in 2001. The Mobb Deep member says he was dancing with raptress Queen Pen, who he had done a song together in the past, when the DJ announced that Jay-Z and Jermaine Dupri were in the restaurant. Prodigy and Jay were in the midst of a little “feud” a so P said that he wasn’t “going to let Jay-Z leave without dealing with us first.” RELATED: Prodigy Used To Think Biggie Was Corny Prodigy writes that one of his cohorts Kiko had a gun on him and wanted to shoot Jay-Z, but Prodigy insisted that they were only going to beat Mr. Carter up. Jay-Z and Jermaine Dupri had their body guards in tow but Prodigy and his friends lined up at the door waiting for him. Jay-Z has spoken about this meeting before in interviews but listen to the audio of Prodigy giving his side of the story CLICK HERE for the exclusive at Allhiphop.com . RELATED: REWIND: Better Run Dun! Prodigy Critiques MC Hammer’s Jay-Z Diss [HUMOR]
Immediately upon being released from prison last week, Prodigy of Mobb Deep said that he was going into the studio for the first time in several years. Later that day a picture was released. Now we’ve got video footage! Antonio “Huggy Bear” Fargas On Snitching & Blaxploitation Top 9 Must-See Black Films The Queens duo, known for hits like “Quiet Storm” and “Shook Ones (Part II)” hit the studio with producer The Alchemist. Check out the video! Spotted @ ThisIs50.com RELATED: Prodigy of Mobb Deep Released From Prison [PIC & VIDEO] RELATED: Prodigy Of Mobb Deep Lands Book Deal; Autobiography Due In April 2011
Early this morning, Prodigy of Mobb Deep was released from Mid-State Correctional Facility in upstate New York after serving 3 years for gun possession. Antonio “Huggy Bear” Fargas On Snitching & Blaxploitation Top 9 Must-See Black Films Prodigy’s G-Unit family was on hand to welcome home the “Shook Ones Pt 2″ rapper as he exited the facility on a snowy morning. ThisIs50.com posted an exclusive photo of Prodigy just moments after he walked out. What are your favorite Mobb Deep or Prodigy solo songs? Let us know in the comments! RELATED: Prodigy Of Mobb Deep Lands Book Deal; Autobiography Due In April 2011 RELATED: Better Run Dun! Prodigy Critiques MC Hammer’s Jay-Z Diss [HUMOR]
