Demi Lovato has a message for her fans: “Sometimes you just gotta have a little bit of…” she Tweeted last night, followed by a picture of her latest tattoo: The “faith” insignia is just the latest ink donned by this young singer. She also has a feather behind her ear; the words “Stay” and “Strong” on her wrists; and the phrase “You make me beautiful” on her side, along with a cross on her hand. Last week, Demi stopped by the same treatment center where she resided for a few weeks in 2010. She offered inspiring words and prayers to the troubled women there.
Angelina Jolie is shedding pounds like a madman, according to a new tabloid report, and unlike many anorexic, waifish celebs, it has zero to do with vanity. It’s all about making a political statement, says a source. The 36-year-old U.N. goodwill ambassador, who travels the globe meeting the poor, “puts herself on fasts to make statements for the children she visits.” “She says, ‘If they can’t eat, I can’t eat,'” the source adds. “She does different cleanses from around the world. It’s very dramatic, but that’s how she is.” Angelina Jolie: Wasting away to nothing? The actress, currently promoting her directorial debut, In the Land of Blood and Honey , has Brad Pitt worried about her health, according to other insiders. “He’s worried about her and has made her see a zillion doctors,” the alleged experts say , but despite the concerns of some, “they just tell her she’s fine.” So … is she really starving herself in that case? Probably not. But she can’t hide the fact that she’s looking thinner these days … and she certainly can’t hide the crazy , according to made-up nannies. [Photo: WENN.com]
No, Denise Vasi isn’t a Rihanna look-alike, she’s the new star of VH1′s “Single Ladies.” The former “All My Children” actress will be playing a new character on the show named Raquel. Denise won’t exactly be replacing Stacey Dash, but her character is going to be a close friend of Keisha, who’s is played by LisaRaye McCoy. Charity Shea, who co-stars in “Single Ladies” as April, will also return for season two. Executive producer Queen Latifah says, “Denise is the perfect addition to the ‘Single Ladies’ cast. She is bringing a fun, new element to the show.” Filming will begin next month in Atlanta, and the second season of “Single Ladies” is scheduled to premiere this summer. Get the rest of the story about the addition of Denise Vasi right here . RELATED POSTS: What’s Next For Stacey Dash Now That She’s Single?: Life After “Single Ladies” Meagan Good Replacing Stacey Dash On VH1′s “Single Ladies”? 7 Women Who Could Replace Stacey Dash On “Single Ladies”
Note to Farrah Abraham: stick to being a bad teen mom. Because you make a really awful Twitter combatant. Over the weekend, this MTV reality star randomly got into a war of online words with Kourtney Kardashian and Scott Disick, taking the couple to task for having a second baby out of wedlock and comparing their situation to that of various single parents on Teen Mom … nevermind Kourtney and Scott’s age, stable relationship and financial well-being. Kourtney Kardashian Pregnant – The Pulse Now, in light of the backlash against her critique – seriously, Farrah, it takes A LOT to force people on to the side of the Kardashians. Well done! – Abraham has Tweeted a defense of her viewpoint, writing: 4 all who misunderstood: regards to kourtney K.~ I hope she takes her relationship w/her boyfriend more serious 4 their children-takecare. Okay. Whatever. Case closed, right? Not quite. Farrah then learned of Disick’s response to her initial set of insults, which included a reference to her as “some s-it stain,” and non-sensically added: caught wind of these dramatic articles, w/ loser scott disick or some boyfriend of kourtneys , is Sh-t Stain< racist 4 black? Great dad!NOT. We can at least say this: Abraham herself is an expert on NOT being a great parent: she left her child with her parents in Iowa in order to attend school in Florida; and she dumped her baby daddy prior to his death, only to then act on Teen Mom as if he'd been tragically taken from her. Moreover, if you hear the word "s-it" and you think of African-Americans... you're the one who is racist, Farrah. We hate to do it, readers, but we're obligated to ask: Which side are you on in this feud?
Thirty years ago, a mysterious illness swept the country. Doctors couldn’t find anything to proscribe for the mystery illness because nobody knew what it was. We soon discovered the silent assassin was called HIV/AIDS. Once given a name, people who had contracted the disease were ostracized by many. The disrespect and lack of compassion for those HIV/AIDS patients caused some people to help in finding a cure. One of those people was a veteran actress of stage and screen, . The Urban Daily caught up with the singer/actress while she was in New York City promoting the “Fight HIV Your Way” contest. During our conversation, Sheryl Lee Ralph shared stories of how she feels about sex education in schools, how the attitude towards HIV/AIDS has changed, and how she approached the sex talk with her children. TUD:December 1st is World AIDS Day. Didn’t you write an open letter about World AIDS Day recently? Sheryl Lee Ralph : Oh my goodness, did you actually read it? Of course! That’s my job. Oh, wow! Thank you. Now I really give you points. Thank you so much for reading. I appreciate that. You know folks don’t read anymore. You send them information and they haven’t got a clue. People come up and they’re supposed to be working with you and they have no idea what you’ve done. I find it really fascinating. So I really rate you for reading. Thank you. Why has AIDS awareness become such a big part of your mission in entertainment? Why choose that cause? It’s so interesting that thirty years ago as an original company member of Dreamgirls on Broadway, I stood witness to what I call “The Ugly Time in America.” I saw my friends literally drop dead. They got sick and they died. There was no dying process, not like the one we’ve become used to. They just got sick and died and it was awful because I saw them die under stigma, shame, and silence. I saw people who could’ve helped turn their backs on AIDS victims and act as if they didn’t know any AIDS victims. I thought, “This is horrible that we, the people who say, ‘We will do unto others as we would have them do unto us,’ found it so easy to ignore our friends and people who suffered.” That’s when I made up my mind to, as a young woman, that we have got to do better. I remember clearly thirty years ago, people told me to shut up. They told me not to talk about it. They said, “People will not like you.” I couldn’t understand this. I said, “How can we just be quiet in a time like this?!” Now, some thirty years later, people are asking, “Why are you suddenly involved in this?” They just don’t realize I’ve been doing this for a long time. It may have fallen on deaf ears over the past thirty years, but I’ve been doing it for a long time. My Divas Simply Singing is the longest consecutive running musical AIDS benefit in the country. Sheryl Lee Ralph At 2009 Divas Simply Sing How do you feel the attitude towards HIV/AIDS has changed within those thirty years? There are still a lot of people who are ignorant about it. To tell you the truth, I’m shocked, as I travel across this country, at how little people know or don’t want to know about HIV/AIDS. There are a lot of people who don’t know that HIV is one thing and AIDS is another. Those people just think it’s one big old alphabet of a disease. Some still want to hold on to the myth that it’s a gay disease of little consequence to the general population. People don’t even want to admit that the number one way to contract HIV/AIDS is through heterosexual sex. I’m even shocked at the number of people who can’t even say the word ‘sex’ out loud. People act as if others don’t have it. They always say, “Young people are not having a lot of sex.” They always say, “Old people aren’t having a lot of sex.” Trust me, they are having sex. Teenagers are having sex as well as old people. Cialis and Viagra changed everything. What are your thoughts on sex education in schools? Do you believe that schools should teach abstinence or safe sex? They should teach everything! It’s school! That is where you give children all of the information. You teach them about safe sex. You teach them about abstinence. There is nothing wrong with having a complete, age appropriate conversation. I cannot believe that my generation may very well have been the last one to have sex education in schools that was truly the complete and total package. I mean what are we doing? Are we in the future, but acting like it’s The Dark Ages? You can’t have lyrics in music where every time you turn on the radio you fee like you’re being sexually abused and turn around and act like people aren’t having sex. Come on! You integrate things about AIDS awareness into a lot of the work you do like Divas Simply Singing, A lot of people know you as Dee from Moesha . How come there was never a blatant spotlight put on AIDS awareness when you were on the show? Yes there was! How’d you miss that episode? We talked about everything on that show. We talked about HIV/AIDS, birth control, smoking weed, and we talked about young boys having stiffys in the middle of the night. You missed it. I must have because the sex episode I remember was when Dee found out about Moesha’s birth control. I’ll have to go watch them again. Anyway, how did you come up with the concept of “Divas Simply Singing” instead of another type of benefit event? I love that question. Thank you for asking it. I figured if we had a subject that was so important, like HIV/AIDS, what could I do to grab people’s attention. I figured you need a woman with big hair and an even bigger attitude. You need a woman who can wear the lipstick and the lashes to get on the stage and belt out a big song. A woman like that could get on the stage and say, “Look at me!” and have people actually look at them and listen to what they were saying. That’s how I came up with the concept; a light, a mic, and a diva simply singing. If your folks want to make a donation, they can go to The Diva Foundation’s website and get their doggone t-shirt. Buy a DVD while you’re there. We need the help, baby. Tell them to come on. At this past Divas Simply Singing, you reunited with Loretta Devine and Jennifer Holiday on stage. Was this the first time you did so since doing Dreamgirls on Broadway? No, that was the second or third time. You know I have a way of bringing people together. We are like sisters. We are dysfunctional, but we love each other. I may pull your wig off, but that doesn’t mean I don’t love you. So I’ve gotten us together on several occasions and we just have the greatest time together. We may cry and fight, but we definitely love each other. Aren’t you doing a one woman show called Sometimes I Cry . See that. You really do read! I’ve been performing my one woman show which I perform all around the world. The show happened because ten or twelve years ago, I started hearing so many stories from women surrounding HIV/AIDS. Nobody was telling these stories. It was 2002 and the disease had just taken a turn and I was like, “Whoa!” I remember specifically, in the summer of 2002, the rate of women infected with HIV/AIDS was beginning to match the rate of men and nobody was talking about it. It was as if it was on nobody else’s radar. I had made up my mind to do something about it. I wanted to bring light to these women’s fight and that’s when I sat down and wrote Sometimes I Cry . It’s all about real women’s real stories surrounding the disease. As a parent, how did you approach the topic of sex and HIV/AIDS awareness with your children? I just talked about it. I talked about safe and appropriate sex. I talked about what is the right thing and what is the wrong thing. Don’t let people touch you and you don’t touch anybody else. Your stuff is private and their stuff is private. When the dogs start doing that action, that is how they have puppies. You’ve got to figure out these answers because when kids ask you, you can’t say, “Oh well, we don’t want to have that conversation with you.” Be ready to talk to your children. I spoke so much about it with my son that when he went away to college, he sent me a picture of him with a condom taped to his forehead and he had typed in, “Uh, what is this for again, Mommy? LOL” You got to have these conversations with your kids and you’ve got to be in a place where your kids feel comfortable enough to come talk to you about these things. Do find that parents are more uncomfortable talking about sex than their children are? I know for a fact that mine were. I was a freshman at Rutgers University and I came home and said to my mother, “Why didn’t you talk to me about sex?!” My mother responded in her thick Jamaican accent, “Because I didn’t think you needed to know.” So was I supposed to be pushed out there to learn on my own? You talk to your children first because if you don’t somebody else will and that is not the conversation you want them to have. I noticed you write a blog for The Huffington Post . Do you write a piece for them every year for World AIDS Day? Boy, you really do read. I like you. Every year I do something to raise up the memory of my friends because anybody that can help you with your wig, weave, and wardrobe problems deserve to be remembered. In fact, I’ve got a book coming out in March of 2012 published by Simon & Schuster . It’s called “Redefining Diva.” It’s a memoir which gives the reader lessons I’ve learned through the experiences in my life. I talk about HIV/AIDS awareness in there also. Do you have any suggestions for those who want to become part of HIV/AIDS awareness. How do they mix AIDS education, activism, and the arts? I’m glad you asked me that because I’m involved in a wonderful project called Fight HIV Your Way . This is a project developed by Bristol-Myers Squibb . It’s another way to add the arts into the good fight against AIDS. The way the contest works is people send in photos or essays of how HIV/AIDS has affected their lives. This year, the prize is to come to New York City and watch a performance of the show, Home , choreographed by Rennie Harris . The show was inspired by the submissions to Fight HIV Your Way. So the best way to mix the arts, activism, and AIDS awarness is to take a picture. Maybe next year, they will be here in New York City. Infected or affected, we each have a story to tell surrounding this disease. For more information on Sheryl Lee Ralph’s work and charitable endeavors, visit The Diva Foundation’s website. To find out more about the mission of Fight HIV Your Way, head over to their site . RELATED POSTS: Nicki Minaj & Ricky Martin Team Up With Viva Mac Glam World AIDS Day: Alicia Keys & Bono Discuss The Battle Against AIDS
J.R. Martinez’s victory tour brought him to Anderson this week. There, he talked about his experience in Iraq as well as winning Dancing With the Stars , and being included in People magazine’s Sexiest Men Alive issue. “After 33 surgeries, I better be!” Martinez joked, referring to the burn treatments and skin graft operations he’s endured since being badly hurt in Iraq. Since 2003, his life story has been one of triumph over adversity. J.R. Martinez on Anderson Martinez began counseling other wounded veterans, then working as a motivational speaker all across the country before landing a role on All My Children . Now, he’s one of 2011’s big breakout stars, winning DWTS , being honored by the Defense Department , Grand Marshaling the Rose Parade and so forth. Martinez said he embraces the opportunities he has, with his newfound fame, to be an advocate for veterans, and says he will always serve our country. “You can take away my camouflage, you can take away my M16, which is my weapon, but I look at it now… my new weapons are my words and my new uniform is my scars,” he explained. “I’m going to continue to serve in a bigger way.” “I feel this is going to be needed with the talks of pulling our guys out of Iraq and Afghanistan and bringing them home … it’s important for me to be that voice.” After driving over a landmine, he spent the next “two and a half years in and out of the hospital” undergoing the never-ending procedures to restore his person, adding details about the journey of self-discovery he embarked on in his recovery. “It was a tough road at 19 years old, to look at your body and your face, and say, ‘What am I going to do about this now? How am I going to move forward?’” he said. “Thinking you’re completely alone and no one in the world understands or can relate to you, but luckily, I was able to see a side that I can use my second chance at life as an opportunity to help people with their first chance at life.” It’s not often you look at a celebrity and see a true hero among us, but J.R. may be that person. We wish him the best in all of his continuing endeavors.
Tameka Foster is not seeking to strip Usher of custody of the former couple’s two children. At least not according to a Tweet by the singer’s ex-wife. A day after TMZ published court documents that outlined a number of complaints Tameka has issued concerning Usher’s treatment of her
Usher’s ex-wife Tameka Foster is taking taking him to court for sole custody of their two sons. Tameka has filed court papers asking for him to lose joint physical custody of their children. According to TMZ , Tameka filed court papers in Georgia, asking a judge to strip Usher of joint physical custody of their children ASAP. She’s claiming that Usher has broken several agreements they have in place. A number of allegations are made against Usher in the legal documents. Tameka claims Usher should seek her permission before taking their kids out of the state, but has consistently failed to do that. She also alleges they are supposed to agree before hiring a nanny, but he has not approached her before doing so. Usher is apparently meant to ask her to care for the boys if he is ‘away for more than eight’ hours, with Tameka claiming that hasn’t always happened. Tameka also claims Usher closed her Saks 5th Avenue credit card – which he specifically said he wouldn’t do – and now she can no longer take advantage of the ‘special benefits’ the card offers.’ According to the docs, Usher also promised to pay $5k per month so Tameka could hire her own nanny for the kids – but he hasn’t paid in months, and now owes $34,000 worth of payments.’ She is also alleging Usher’s income has increased after their split, meaning she should get more child support from him. A court hearing is scheduled to take place tomorrow. Usher just can’t get this woman off his back! I’m hearing that the children are with him more than they are with Tameka! Tameka Foster Never Thought She Would Lose Usher Jay-Z, Will Smith & More Attend Heavy D Funeral Service [PHOTOS] Usher’s Brother Arrested For Beating Baby Mama & Abusing Child Usher Attacked By Woman In Atlanta Over Parking Space [VIDEO] Usher On His Marriage: “It Just Was Never Going To Work Out 100%”
We still love you, Scotty McCreery and Lauren Alaina. Neither of these former American Idol finalists enjoyed a great Thanksgiving yesterday, as each was given a prime spot to perform – and each suffered through an embarrassing mishap. FIRST, McCreery stood atop a float during the Macy’s parade and prepared to sing a version of “The Trouble with Girls.” But a recording of the track started a few seconds before the young crooner started to lip synch, resulting in the following awkward start to the performance: Scotty McCreery Thanksgiving Parade Flub NEXT, Alaina sang the national anthem prior to the Lions/Packers game, forgetting a few words and going silent for a few seconds after “What so proudly we hailed, through the twi…” But she did recover in time to finish strong, similar to Christina Aguilera at the Super Bowl . Watch now: Lauren Alaina National Anthem Mistake
SueLyn Medeiros simply can’t believe it. She’s aghast. She’s angry. She’s truly stunned that a sex tape featuring her and a loved one has hit the Internet. And the Brazilian model says she plans on taking legal action against whoever had the audacity to release it. Get to Know SueLyn Medeiros “I am very upset and angry with all this and the way it was released and what was said about me,” Medeiros tells TMZ. “I am in a loving relationship, and me and my boyfriend took a few personal private videos doing things I’m sure every couple does. “Someone stole these files from us… My family is very upset and disappointed. My mother can’t stop crying. I want justice.” Well, we’ve convinced. What about you? Do you think SueLyn Medeiros is behind her sex tape release?
