The Wiz Surpasses 11 Million Viewers For NBC NBC’s live broadcast of the 1975 musical “The Wiz” eased on down the road to millions of ratings according to NY Daily News : Sure CBS’ NFL game between the Green Bay Packers and Detroit Lions bested NBC’s third live musical, but “The Wiz Live!” flew past last year’s “Peter Pan Live!” “The Wiz” delivered the best numbers in the sought-after 18 to 49 demo for all networks — excluding sports — for a Thursday night network show since the Jan. 17, 2013, “American Idol.” The first of NBC’s live musicals, “The Sound of Music Live!” attracted an astounding 18.6 million viewers and “Peter Pan Live” drew about 9.2 viewers. “The Wiz” delivered 11.1 million viewers. With a terrific cast of Queen Latifah as The Wiz, Mary J. Blige as the Wicked Witch of the West, Uzo Aduba as the Good Witch of the North and newcomer Shanice Williams as Dorothy, David Alan Grier as the Lion and Common as The Bouncer, the nearly three-hour production garnered nearly universal raves. It’s based on the 1975 Tony winner and was far better than last year’s “Peter Pan Live!” when people were ridiculing it live. Congrats!!!!
ISIS Praises San Bernadino Mass Shooting By “Followers” The FBI is looking into the shooting in San Bernadino as an act of terrorism after a Saturday ISIS broadcast praising the massacre — which followed the recent revelation that Tashfeen Malik pledged allegiance to the Islamic State in a Facebook post just before she and husband Syed Farook killed 14 people and injured 20 others before dying hours later in a shootout with police. According to Washington Post reports : In an online radio broadcast Saturday by the Islamic State, the group said that two “supporters” had carried out the attacks in San Bernardino but stopped short of referring to the couple as members. The group praised the attacks but didn’t claim responsibility for it, according to the Associated Press. The FBI said Friday that it is investigating the San Bernardino, Calif., massacre as an act of terrorism, with officials revealing that the Pakistani woman who teamed with her husband in the slaughter went on Facebook afterward to pledge her allegiance to the leader of the Islamic State. Investigators are trying to determine if the husband-and-wife killers acted alone — inspired, but not directed, by foreign Islamist radicals — or were involved in a more elaborate plot. Hundreds of federal agents, in the United States and overseas, are looking for any contacts that the shooters — Chicago-born Syed Rizwan Farook, 29, and his wife, Tashfeen Malik, 27 — might have had with terrorist groups. “The investigation so far has developed indications of radicalization by the killers and of potential inspiration by foreign terrorist organizations,” FBI Director James B. Comey said Friday. But he said that, so far, there is no evidence that they were part of a larger group. By all accounts it seems that Tashfeen was the more radical of the pair. Family members describe her as being so conservative that she would not even allow her brother-in-law or father-in-law to see her face. Two criminal defense lawyers representing Farook’s mother, three siblings and brother-in-law held a news conference Friday and offered insight into the shooters, describing the husband as a loner and the wife as extremely conservative religiously, so much so that she would not be in the same room as her male in-laws. Malik’s brother-in-law had never seen her face. “She did maintain certain traditions in terms of prayer and fasting. She chose not to drive voluntarily. She was a very, very private person. She kept herself pretty well isolated,” family lawyer David Chesley said. “Syed didn’t want any fathers or brothers or brothers-in-law in the same room when she would also be there,” said another family lawyer, Mohammad Abuershaid. “The family was not that close to him,” he added. “He was kind of like the lone wolf.” Looks like the family is definitely trying to make it clear they had nothing to do with the attack. And obviously they couldn’t have been close because based on what authorities found at Farook’s home they should have known if they’d visited. There are a host of unknowns in this case, including whether the shooters had other targets in mind, a possibility suggested by the dozen pipe bombs and the thousands of rounds of ammunition in their apartment. The shooters also sought to cover their tracks by damaging some of their personal electronic devices. Authorities found two crushed cellphones near the apartment and were examining other evidence that the shooters “attempted to destroy their digital fingerprints,” said David Bowdich, assistant director in charge of the FBI’s Los Angeles office. What do you think? Was ISIS directly involved or is this just the result of how extremism can influence people. And if that’s the case, are we in even more danger than we already anticipated? APImages
Rick Ross and Lira Galore For Paper Magazine Amber Rose isn’t the only one stunting in Paper Magazine. So are Rick Ross and Lira Galore. The rap sex symbol and his fiancee are featured in Paper’s Fandemonium issue looking like a bag of money. Peep more pics below!
The game sure has changed. SMH S lim Jesus just started off his tour and his first show in Ottawa looked pretty hype. Everything seemed to be going smooth… Until a guy in a captain’s hat came on stage. The captain’s name is “Black Jesus” and apparently… He is not feeling Slim Jesus. Slim didn’t put up much of a fight, but did try to play it off smooth like. SMH. Turn the page to see Slim Jesus… Before the blow-up.
Witnesses Mistake Stabbing At Art Basel Event As Performance Art Miami’s annual Art Basel draws thousands of celebrities, artists, art enthusiasts, and partygoers from all over the world every December — making for an interesting mix of characters on the streets of South Beach. Two women got into an intense argument while attending an exhibit on Friday night…but since the women were positioned so near to other pieces of contemporary art, no one realized the heated exchange was indeed real. Not even when one woman pulled out a sharp object and stabbed the other repeatedly in the arms and neck. Via PageSix : One woman stabbed another during a fight at world-famous Art Basel Miami Beach, causing at least one patron to think he was watching performance art. Miami Beach Detective Kathleen Prieto told the Miami Herald the suspect stabbed the victim’s arms and neck during Friday’s fight. She said the victim is being treated for non-life threatening injuries. The suspect was arrested. The fight happened near an exhibit by artist Naomi Fisher. She told the Herald one witness thought it was a performance with fake blood until he realized the blood was real. The paper says others thought the police tape cordoning the area was an installation. Art Basel Miami Beach spokeswoman Sara Fitzmaurice said in an email to The Associated Press Friday, “The attack was an isolated incident that was immediately secured. Our thoughts are with the victim.” Damn!!! Hopefully she will be alright. We wonder how many people walked by without helping, or even took pics with their phones while this attack took place?? SMH.
Stripper Puts Wild Night With Apollo Nida On Blast It seems that there may be a huge dose of truth to the stories Phaedra Parks alleges of Apollo Nida spending all his nights and days leading up to prison holed up in ATL shake joints and away from his wife and children. A stripper has stepped forward with her own story of a day filled with dollar bills, g-strings, shopping trips, and alleged thot-ivity in Apollo’s home while Phaedra and the boys were out of town — just weeks before he headed off to serve his 8-year sentence. Via RadarOnline : A self-described “nude exotic dancer,” Cashaun Sidney, describes a raunchy night with Nida in 2014 — when he was still living with Parks — in her new book, Sordid Panties: Celebrities, Thots, Money & Scandal. Sidney claims she met Nida, 37, through a mutual friend in “late 2014” at Atlanta strip club Follies, before he headed to prison to serve time on fraud charges. “He drove up with his brother, Michael, and they escorted us and two other young ladies into the club,” she claims in the book. “We entered the bar and had a few drinks and Apollo asked us if we wanted to go to Lenox Mall, a popular mall in Atlanta that held some of the most high-end stores in the city. Of course we were game.” “We went to the mall and later as we were sitting in Bloomingdales, Apollo asked us if we wanted to accompany him to a night club where he would be heading later to meet up with a few other celebrity friends of his. We obliged.” “We went back to his home to get dressed …” she writes. “It was evident that his wife was not in town.” The strip club THEN the mall?? How early in the day do Apollo and his homeboys check in at the booty bar??? Of Course, once the crew arrived at the Nida home, things really began to turn up. Hit the flip for more…
Alpha Phi Alpha was founded as the first African-American, inter-collegiate Greek-lettered fraternity 109 years ago. The oldest of the college Black fraternities, its ranks are a virtual who’s who of great men in business, sports, entertainment and more. Continue
