Blue Light Special!!! Nicki Minaj just signed a new deal with Kmart and it seems you won’t have to covet her style anymore! Via The Grio : The lifestyle brand will include her own fashion and accessory line, as well as housewares. The American Idol judge commented on the new deal, saying: “I am so excited to work with this iconic, mass retailer and to bring affordable fashion to my beautiful barbz all across the U.S.” Minaj made the announcement alongside Maroon Five lead singer, and co-host of NBC’s “The Voice,” Adam Levine, who also has a new Kmart clothing line. Sears Holdings, which owns Kmart, says it hopes the two new lines will drive more traffic to their online shopping destination, ShopYourWay.com. “We are thrilled to align Kmart and Shop Your Way with two of America’s superstars,” said Imran Kooma, executive vice president and president of Marketing & Online at Sears Holdings. “We welcome Adam and Nicki into our world and look forward to capturing their energy and creativity on ShopYourWay.com and translating it into unique apparel, accessories and other merchandise.” Nicki Minaj brand products will hit Kmart store shelves before the end of 2013. We can’t wait for the first shots from her line to be released! Images via tumblr
They’re blaming the Government for “too stringent terms”?!?! And to the tune of $25 billion! Via Gawker : A.I.G., the backbone that runs one inch beneath the surface of the global economy, has gotten itself millions of dollars worth of free PR today by just considering joining a lawsuit against the U.S. government. To sue, or not to sue? To be ungrateful bastards, or to potentially miss a payday? It’s not a complicated question, really. The background, as far as it goes, is that A.I.G. was woven ever so tightly into the fabric of the financial system that when it all came crashing down in 2008, the U.S. government chose to bail the company out to the tune of $182 billion, rather than to let it go bankrupt, pulling down many, many of the little people with it. A classic case of Too Big to Fail. A.I.G. subsequently paid back the bailout, with interest. Now, Hank Greenberg—A.I.G.’s flinty, sour-faced former chairman who’s still the company’s largest shareholder, and who almost certainly sits at home all day stroking his evil cat and counting golden doubloons—is suing the government for $25 billion, claiming that the government’s terms were too stringent. A.I.G. itself is reportedly contemplating whether or not to join this lawsuit, and possibly reap some of those billions. The terms of these deals are complex, and there are fairly high-level financial and legal claims at play. But for A.I.G., the entire decision really comes down to this: Will the money potentially won in the lawsuit outweigh the damage in good will the company will inflict on itself by joining the lawsuit? Because A.I.G. is, of course, fresh off becoming one of the most infamous symbols of greed and outrageously insular corporate conduct (some good background on the company’s various PR outrages during the financial crisis can be found here). Is the possibility of bringing in several billion dollars enough to make up for saying, in effect, “Fuck you” to A) the government legislators and regulators who crafted the company’s bailout package and B) the general public, which suffered without a bailout of any sort while A.I.G. executives reaped bonuses? The moral answer is “no, of course not.” The practical answer is “maybe, depending on how likely you think the revolution really is.” (Unlikely, considering the fact that even at the height of the financial collapse, no A.I.G. executives were lynched by angry mobs.) How likely are Americans to even organize a boycott against such an amorphous and massively connected company? Is such a thing even possible? A few hundred million in PR spending and several million more in lobbying fees could make everyone forget, anyhow. Americans have short memories. The moral of this story: Don’t bail out corporations. Now take your ungrateful azz and sit the fawk down! SMH. Images via AP
You likey?? Kerry Washington went from off white geometrics to a colorful floral print in a single day! And the stunner looked bangin’ in both looks. What’s your take? Are you feelin’ all of the boxy shapes she’s been rockin’ lately? Images via WENN
When keepin’ it “real” goes wrong… ESPN Will Not Renew Rob Parker’s Comments Via ESPN ESPN will not renew its contract with commentator Rob Parker, who was suspended last month following remarks he made on “First Take” in which he questioned Redskins quarterback Robert Griffin III’s “blackness.” “Rob Parker’s contract expired at year’s end. Evaluating our needs and his work, including his recent RG III comments, we decided not to renew his deal,” an ESPN spokesperson said in a statement Tuesday. During a Dec. 13 episode of “First Take” on ESPN2, Parker was discussing Griffin’s answer to a question about Griffin’s role as an African-American quarterback. In questioning Griffin’s “blackness,” Parker cited that Griffin has a white fiancée and is rumored to be Republican. Among his comments, Parker, who is black, said: “Is he a brother or a cornball brother?” Parker later issued an apology on his Twitter account. A day later, on Dec. 20, ESPN announced he was suspended for 30 days. Smooth move Rob, apparently ESPN would rather you and your ugly suits stay away from their airwaves before you embarrass them any further, sayonara sucka. Image via ESPN
“A little something extra came out”… SMH. Al Roker gave us all too much information during his ‘Dateline NBC’ interview and, while we appreciate his honesty, there are some things a grown azz man should just keep to himself. …seriously though, don’t act like you’ve never done it before! Images via youtube/tumblr
Don’t you just love twitter ?? According to the Huffington Post , Dallas never ‘officially’ come out until he tweeted his announcement this past Sunday: Dallas came out as gay with a simple tweet on Sunday night. The former “Kyle XY” actor revealed he is happily engaged to his boyfriend, musician Blue Hamilton, according to Towleroad. The 26-year-old Dallas had not publicly come out as gay…but there had been speculation about his sexuality for years. In early 2009, he was linked to “Mean Girls” actor Jonathan Bennett, from whom he reportedly split that same year. In September 2009, Dallas and Hamilton were spotted together grabbing food in West Hollywood. Dallas’ coming-out is in line with what appears to be a trend of celebrities addressing their sexuality in remarkably subtle ways — really, nothing more than “I’ve never been in.” “White Collar” hunk Matt Bomer came out while accepting an award last February. “Star Trek” actor Zachary Quinto revealed he is gay during a profile with New York Mag in October 2011. “Gone are the days of the ‘Yep, I’m Gay’ magazine covers,” notes HuffPost Gay Voices Editor-at-Large and SiriusXM host Michelangelo Signorile, “with celebrities making a spectacle of coming out, and thus focusing on the fact that they were in the humiliating and painful gay closet… The closet isn’t going away any time soon. But one step toward dismantling it among public figures it to make it a difficult and embarrassing place to be. From the looks of the latest celebrity self-outings, that’s perhaps starting to take hold.” You think he told his Mom first??? Images via twitter
A Gallery Of Blue Ivy’s Photos One year ago today, the world was captivated by the announcement that Jayonce’s firstborn Blue Ivy Carter touched down from her Illuminati villa. It was only a few days later that the first pics of the first lady of showbiz surfaced on the Internet. Now, on her first birthday, we look back at all the pics of the infamous Blue we were able to see so far. Take a look and go awwww.
Remember them love letters we told you Mick Jagger’s former black boo thang sold for a fortune last month? Apparently the rocker is all in a rage at Marsha Hunt over having his private thoughts become so public. But it’s not the first time he’s gotten heated with Hunt, the former couple were at odds for a number of years over his unwillingness to acknowledge or support his daughter Karis. The Daily Mail did a thorough break down of the drama: But it was this auction that reopened old wounds with Mick, who is said to be furious that his private thoughts have been sold to the highest bidder. American Miss Hunt, who now lives in a dilapidated house in rural France that urgently requires repairs, candidly admits she sold the letters to a mystery collector because she needs the money. ‘I’m broke,’ she says. ‘Anyone who has the impression that I have money knows nothing about me. I had friends who came to visit from Pennsylvania and there was no electricity in the house because the bill had been too high. ‘One of my friends said: “Surely you’ve got something you could sell?” ’ Back in the late Sixties, Mick announced his affair with Miss Hunt in typically public — if heartless — fashion. Two days after the band’s ex-guitarist Brian Jones was found dead in the swimming pool of his Sussex home, the Rolling Stones played a tribute concert to him in front of 250,000 people in London’s Hyde Park. This being Mick, the solemnity of the occasion on July 5, 1969, would not be allowed to interfere with his raging libido. For sitting in the crowd, just yards from his live-in girlfriend of three years, Marianne Faithfull, was singer Marsha, the latest celebrity notch on the Jagger bedpost. And, as if inviting both rivals for his affection was not brazen enough, Mick tactlessly, and tastelessly, opened the musical part of the show by belting out a cover version of the rock song I’m Yours And I’m Hers. Its not-so-hidden-meaning spoke volumes about Jagger’s monumental ego and his callously flippant approach to his female conquests. Certainly, it was a cruel public humiliation for the 22-year-old Marianne, given that she — along with half of London — was already well aware that her singer boyfriend was cheating on her with Hunt. But Faithfull wasn’t giving up so easily, she flew to Australia to be by his side and after he rejected her she tried killing herself by taking barbiturates. She was in a coma for several days, during which Mick stayed busy writing letters to Marsha Hunt. Some of the letters, which were included in the auction last month, were even written on headed hotel notepaper in the room at the city’s Chevron hotel, where Miss Faithfull had tried to kill herself days earlier. Jagger had first spotted Miss Hunt when she appeared as the female lead in the controversial musical Hair. Mick, who had developed a taste for beautiful black girls, got his PA to contact Marsha to ask her to appear on the cover of the Stones’ new single, Honky Tonk Women, dressed as a tart. She refused, but a few nights later, Mick turned up at her flat in London’s Bloomsbury. Within days their clandestine affair was in full swing. Born into a poor family in Philadelphia, Marsha had studied at the prestigious Berkeley University in California, before coming to Britain in 1966 at the age of 20. Her stunning looks quickly attracted a string of famous suitors, including Marc Bolan and her co-star in Hair, Paul Nicholas. Jagger, in a testament to those politically incorrect times, nicknamed his new lover Miss Fuzzy. And, while in Australia the following year, it was for her that he wrote Brown Sugar — his provocative eulogy to interracial sex and drugs that he had crudely originally titled Black P***y. Within months, his faltering relationship with Marianne Faithfull was over and Mick moved Marsha into his house overlooking the Thames on Chelsea embankment. Already missing Marianne’s son, Nicholas, to whom he had become a surrogate father, he took Marsha out to Mr Chow restaurant in Knightsbridge, where he asked her to have his child. She quickly became pregnant and a misty-eyed Jagger talked about wanting a son, whom he had decided, in typical flower-power fashion, to call Midnight Dream. The social-climbing Jumpin’ Jack Flash also decided he would send the boy to Eton. But within three months, Jagger was already going cold on the relationship — and was casting his roving eye over the latest of a carousel of girls he had marked down to share his bed. Stung by Mick’s coolness towards her, Marsha moved out. He wasted no time in installing another beautiful American — 22-year-old Californian model Catherine James into his Chelsea home. Despite Marsha carrying his child, practically all references to her and the baby were quickly airbrushed out of his life. Catherine James told me: ‘When I moved into Mick’s house, I knew about Marsha, but his relationship with her was already over. It didn’t seem a big deal to him. He just mentioned that she was a girl he had met who had got pregnant. He said he wasn’t in love with her, but she was very talented. ‘I felt he was not encumbered by anything, not by Marsha or the baby. He was young, and I didn’t get the impression he was thinking seriously about becoming a father and being part of this child’s life.’ Hit the flip for more details.
Slaves for sale! Django Unchained Slave Action Figures Released Via NewsOne reports: The criticism levied at Quentin Tarantino for his so-called humorous take on slavery in “ Django Unchained ” has been intense as critics claim that he is exploiting a traumatic, ugly period in this nation’s history so far reaching, that the effects are still felt today. Last fall, the National Entertainment Collectibles Association, Inc. (NECA), in tandem with the Weinstein Company, announced a full line of consumer products based on characters from the movie. First up are pose-able eight-inch action figures with tailored clothing, weaponry, and accessories in the likeness of characters played by Foxx, Kerry Washington, Samuel L. Jackson, Leonardo DiCaprio, James Remar and Christoph Waltz. The dolls are currently on sale via Amazon.com. Do you find these action figures off the chain or just plain ole’ offensive??