Snoop Dogg is now the artist formerly known as Snoop Dogg. The rapper announced last night that he’s no longer Snoop Dogg … or a rapper. He will be focusing on creating reggae music under the name Snoop Lion! “Rap is not a challenge to me,” the Doggfather said Monday at a press event in New York City, explaining his transformation to the … Lionfather? “With no disrespect to other rappers, but they can’t f**k with me in rap,” he added. “I’ve won every accolade you can in rap, they call me ‘Uncle Snoop’ in rap. When you’re an uncle, it’s time to find something new … I want to feel like a kid again.” Thus, get ready to hear Snoop Lion roar … or at least drop smooth, Caribbean-influenced beats on his new project called, Reincarnated . “It’s not that I want to become Snoop Dogg on a reggae track,” Snoop reiterated. “I want to bury Snoop Dogg, and become Snoop Lion .” “I didn’t know that until I went to the temple, where the High Priest asked me what my name was, and I said, ‘Snoop Dogg.’ And he looked me in my eyes and said, ‘No more. You are the light; you are the lion.'” “From that moment on, it’s like I had started to understand why I was there.” It’s unclear if he means that metaphorically or literally, but good to know. Check out Snoop Lion’s debut single, “La La La,” after the jump! Snoop Lion – La La La
Former Cincinnati Bengals cheerleader Sarah Jones , a.k.a. the female Sandusky, is firing back at her at critics and the rumors about her personal life despite a request by prosecutors for a gag order in her sexual assault case. Once the captain of the Cincinnati Ben-Gals (get it?!) and a former high school teacher, Sarah Jones is accused of sexually abusing a student and unlawful use of electronic means to induce a minor to engage in sexual activity. “I read on a blog that I was the female Jerry Sandusky . To read those things and not be able to comment, not be able to stick up for myself is not fair,” said the Kenton County, Ky., resident in an interview with ABC News. “There’s blogs and postings out there that I have slept with numerous people. I married my high school sweetheart,” said Jones. “People don’t know the real me. I just asked the general public to maybe hold their judgment a little bit longer until the truth comes out.” Prosecutors asked a judge for a gag order on Monday to stop Jones from talking after she went on her lawyer’s radio show earlier this month. She went on the show to refute the charges against her . Jones’ lawyer, Eric Deters, filed a motion to dismiss all charges due to lack of evidence. “They have no evidence that sexual relations of any type took place in any of the 50 United States of America,” Deters told ABC station WCPO. The judge said she would review the motions. Prosecutors, for their part, say they will be proceeding with their case against Jones as planned. “We won’t be sending out motions, we won’t be going on radio shows. You will be hearing our arguments about evidence in court,” said a spokesman. Last fall, the then-26-year-old Sarah was teaching at Dixie Heights High School and accused of having sex with a 17-year-old student. Jones’ mother, Cheryl Jones – a middle school principal in the same school district – is accused of tampering with evidence in the case. Sarah Jones resigned from her position in November 2011. Both mother and daughter pleaded not guilty in April at their arraignment. Both Sarah and Cheryl Jones were joined by dozens of supporters. Including the family of the alleged victim, no less. The victim’s name has not been released due to his age. “The hardest thing has been having not only me go through it, but to have my mom go through it with me,” said Sarah Jones. “It’s almost kind of a guilty feeling that she is even involved in this because what has happened to her is not fair. My goal is for her charges to be dismissed.” Jones’ lawyer is also demanding the prosecution be sanctioned for saying in court that Jones allegedly sent a text to the victim saying “deny everything.” The prosecution described other texts with the victim as “steamy.” “I think people are taking this whole student-teacher thing… Yes, he was a student but he was not my student,” said Jones. “He was a family friend and I am very close to his parents. Had it not been for their support it would be very difficult to get through this without them.”
It looks like the Jackson family drama may be coming to an end. Kind of. Sort of. But probably not. A day after she returned to her grandchildren in California, and a couple days after TJ Jackson was granted temporary custody of Prince, Paris and Blanket, Katherine Jackson has agreed to share legal guardianship of Michael’s three kids. A court filing is expectde to take place next week. “That pleading will essentially now legally reflect how Mrs. Jackson and TJ have often shared responsibilities of raising the children since Michael Jackson’s tragic passing,” Katherine’s attorney, Perry Sanders, tells TMZ. It looks like the agreement will lead to TJ taking on the daily care of his niece and two nephews – a responsibility that will include speaking with “school personnel and anyone else coming into contact with the children,” Perry explains – while Katherine will still control the family allowance. That figure, courtesy of Michael Jackson’s estate, sits at $70,000 per month. Concludes the lawyer: “Mrs. Jackson is extremely pleased with the prospect of enjoying the pleasure of raising Michael’s children without the day-to-day tedium of items such as managing the large staff that goes with such a high profile family and focus her attention on being a grandmother and raising Michael’s children.”
So, The Dark Knight Rises happened. But as much as Christopher Nolan’s Batman finale tied the themes of the entire trilogy together with emotion and weight, capping what began in Batman Begins and continued in The Dark Knight with a full-circle completion of Bruce Wayne’s journey as a hero and symbol of hope in Gotham City and the world, well, there were just a dozen too many plot holes and contrivances along the way to ignore. Or were there? Let’s dive right into spoiler territory and navigate the WTF-iest of TDKR ‘s more perplexing leaps of logic, shall we? SPOILERS FOLLOW, OBVIOUSLY. Bane’s Overly Complicated 5-Month Plan Let’s start with the dastardly terrorist plot that sets TDKR in motion. Bane gets slimy exec guy Daggett to hire Selina Kyle to steal Bruce Wayne’s fingerprints to make some fraudulent deals (via very public hostage-taking assault on the stock exchange) in order to force Wayne Enterprises into Miranda Tate/Talia al Ghul’s hands, so they can bankrupt the billionaire superhero whose identity they already know and then manipulate him into giving them the technology that can be fashioned into a nuclear bomb. *Gasps for breath* Then Bane destroys Gotham with a few neat set pieces (the football stadium explosion and the simultaneous bridge attack are superb, I’ll admit) thereby cutting Gotham City off from the rest of the world, unleashing the prison population into the streets, and imposing chaos on the citizenry… but only for about 5 months, until his bomb will nuke the city anyway — conveniently enough, the perfect amount of time to leech hope from the people of Gotham AND allow Bruce to recover from a broken back, climb out of the pit, trek across the globe with no ID and no money and no smart phone, sneak back into Gotham City, and save the day! Bruce Wayne and Miranda Tate’s Out of Nowhere Hookup If The Notebook taught us anything, it’s that two attractive people caught in the rain will get to boinking sooner or later. That’s just what happens. So of course Bruce, who’s been grieving the loss of his beloved Rachel for 8 years, will fall into sexytime with the pretty board member who he’s never so much as locked eyes with until like two days ago, let alone had any meaningful chemistry with. IT’S SEX RAIN. GET OVER IT. There must be missing footage on the cutting room floor that sets up Bruce and Miranda’s chemistry better, and maybe even shows us a bit of the action, so to speak. There must . Why would Gotham’s preeminent costumed detective superhero let down his guard enough to leave a strange lady sleeping in their fireside bed, alone in his house of secrets, where the push of a button on a desk opens the door to the Bat-cave? Especially since she herself has mysterious scars and secrets of her own? Probable answer : The back-on-the-saddle hubris that led Batman to ruin the cops’ pursuit of Bane in his first return to crimefighting also makes him underestimate Talia. Bedding her is a step forward in his return to life and becoming a whole man once again after nursing his broken heart (and likely being a celibate creepy old mansion hermit). And maybe he spent a few hours offscreen in his Bat-cave Googling Miranda and doing an extensive background check on her before going there, only the League of Shadows has really, really good hackers and fake identity engineers on their payroll, in addition to prison doctors and Mongolian-chic wardrobe stylists. Terrible Hand-to-Hand Fight Action That Makes No Damn Sense Bane’s a hulking, physically superior adversary who can kill people with his finger and batters Batman (admittedly, an over-the-hill, hasn’t hit the gym in 8 years Batman) around like a rag doll — which explains why their first fight in the sewers is so awkwardly one-sided. But once Batman recovers from his broken back, does a few prison push-ups, and then suits up after focusing his anger into his workout regimen for months… their fist fights look pretty much the same. There’s a shot on the City Hall steps where Batman leaps ahead of Bane, then turns to face him like a kid on a playground that made me groan. In no way does Batman seem to have learned from his past failures against Bane; he doesn’t employ strategy or gadgetry to defeat his stronger nemesis. When Bane grabs a shotgun, of all things, to finish the Caped Crusader, it’s Catwoman who offs Bane with a blast from the Batpod. And then we forget Bane was even in this movie for the rest of the film. Sigh. Side note : It’s worth acknowledging that the entirety of TDKR ‘s final act is constructed so that the people around Batman must step up individually to help save Gotham. The fact that Batman can’t do it all by himself, and can’t even defeat Bane alone, reinforces the theme. Maybe he’s getting too old for this shit after all. Still, it’s not very satisfying when the individual parts don’t make total sense on their own, is it? Batman’s Superhuman Time Management Before zooming off in the Bat with nuclear bomb in tow, and shortly after returning to the city after five months in the middle of nowhere prison with about a day to save the world, Batman somehow manages to put all of his legal affairs in order, leaves the pearl necklace for Selina (heh) and detailed instructions to Blake in a duffel bag at his lawyer’s office, sets a gasoline fire on the bridge in the shape of the Bat, saves Gordon in the nick of time, saves Blake in the nick of time, and fixes the Bat-symbol. I don’t know how he does it! Literally. Best explanation: He’s Batman. Enough said? Bruce/Batman’s Coincidental Death Are you telling me that nobody notices that Batman “dies” in a blaze of glory the same day that Gotham’s most famous billionaire playboy also dies, leaving his estate to a bunch of orphans and willing his duffel bag of spelunking gear to some junior cop? Which brings me to… Bruce and Selina’s European Vacation I don’t believe that A) Emo Alfred would sit there on his fancy-sad vacay, see Bruce at the next table, alive and well, and not go give him a huge weepy hug, or B) a presumed dead billionaire playboy like Bruce Wayne can just go brunching in the open in France or whatever Florence and not be recognized. I kinda dig the idea that with nothing left in the Wayne coffers Bruce and Selina have retired to the French Riviera Italy to live off of her burgling money. Possible answer: This is just Alfred’s fantasy version of what he’s always wished to see, and Batman/Bruce Wayne is really dead, and Chris Nolan has Incepted us all over again. Selina’s Special Friend, Wink Wink Presuming Selina Kyle has a more than friendly relationship with Juno Temple’s minx-in-training is a stretch, though they certainly seem to be BFFs/roommates/collaborators, ladies from the wrong side of the tracks trying to hustle their way up the food chain. That said: What’s up with that one hug? You know what I’m talking about. Temple pretty much disappears once the movie gets going, but maybe she has additional scenes that flesh out their relationship that didn’t make the edit. Discuss. Possible answer that I hope isn’t the case: Selina is bisexual and uses her sensuality as a tool against male marks… until she falls for Bruce/Batman and runs away with him to live happily ever after, leaving her girlfriend behind in Gotham. Ten bucks says this comes into play in the eventual TDKR XXX porn parody. Good luck, Robin! The good news: You’ve got a cave full of fancy toys and extra Bat-suits. The bad news: There’s no money left to finance the operation. At least you know where the Bat is parked, on top of some building under some camo tarp. No one else will find it there, obviously. Probable answer: Blake will take up the Batman cowl and figure out his own way of doing things, thus launching an entirely new Bat-series which I’ll totally watch because Joseph Gordon-Levitt was the best thing about TDKR . Room For The Justice League? So WB wants to carve out a superhero super-team up, a la The Avengers , around DC’s Justice League. Fair enough. But if folks like Wonder Woman, Green Lantern, and Superman exist in the same universe, where the hell are they during Batman’s five-month absence from Gotham City? If the Justice League is possible in this film world — and maybe it’s not, since Nolan’s said to be done with his Batman storytelling, and despite his involvement in Man of Steel perhaps the two franchises aren’t designed to co-exist just yet — then you have to think some other superhero out there would have swooped by to prevent the total destruction of one of America’s biggest metropolitan populations, especially given that even the U.S. government has been rendered useless, leaving the entire city in the hands of a madman. Does it really matter? Either any potential Justice League spin-off will not connect to the TDKR world, or it’ll conveniently take place after the events of TDKR . This will likely be explained away or disregarded if/when the Justice League movie moves forward. — Phew . All that said, TDKR was visually breathtaking and thematically resonant. Plus, it was Batman! At least there were no codpieces or Schumacherisms to complain about. So there will inevitably be two kinds of people: Those who can’t help but be irked by the plot holes riddled throughout TDKR , and those who don’t care and love it anyway. Where do you stand? Was this the movie Bat-fans deserved, or the one they needed? Follow Jen Yamato on Twitter . Follow Movieline on Twitter .
James Holmes appeared in court for the first time today, and both video accounts and witness accounts confirm that the alleged Aurora, Colorado shooter exhibited extremely unusual behavior while listening to a judge charge him with first degree murder. As you can see, the 24-year old donned organ hair and a red jumpsuit, sitting alongside his lawyer and shifting between wide open eyes and shut eyes. At various time, it appeared as if he had fallen asleep. Holmes remained silent for the duration of the hearing, as the judge informed this suspect that he would be held without bail and forbidden from contacting the families of his 12 victims . Arapahoe County District Attorney Carol Chambers spoke briefly with reporters after the courtroom session and said it’s unknown at the moment whether prosecutors will seek the death penalty against Holmes. His trial is expected to begin in the summer of 2013.
The producers of The Bachelorette are running a tight ship this season, with little or no information thus far about who wins Emily Maynard’s final rose. At the same time, two extended previews airing at the end of last night’s episode on ABC revealed plenty of details for those who paid attention. The first preview, for next Monday’s episode, is comprised of clips entirely from Croatia … with Ryan emerging as the latest of this season’s villains . Or so it would appear. In any case, it gets much more revealing than that. The Bachelorette Episode 806 Promo The second part of the preview involves clips from later this season, and shows the guys rumored to be Emily’s final three with her in Curacao. We’ll withhold names in case you haven’t seen it or really don’t know, but you can see all three different fellas on dates with her in the tropics. Emily has clearly grown close to all three already, so it’s no surprise that she drops the obligatory “falling in love with several people” line. What is surprising? The lack of final rose ceremony clips, even of just Emily. Either all The Bachelorette season finale footage is under total lockdown in a bank vault somewhere, or we’re in for a non-traditional ending. Could it be that the Southern Belle doesn’t even hold a final rose ceremony, and chooses her mate straight from the final three, not two? Just one theory, but it may have merit. As always, stay tuned.
You’ve gotta hand it to Kris Humphries: when things end for him and a female, they REALLY end for him in that female. Already embattled in a legal feud with Kim Kardashian , the NBA power forward might reportedly get sued by Myla Sinanaj, the hotel employee Humphries dated for a few months this year, only to then accuse of extortion and threaten with the FBI . Joe Tacopina, a lawyer for Sinanaj, tells TMZ that Kris cannot prove any of his allegations and is besmirching the name of his client. And he best cut it out. “I defy them to show that she has asked for one red cent,” Tacopina says of claims that Myla is seeking money in exchange for silence over her relationship with the former reality star. “I challenge them to submit Kris Humphries to a polygraph and if he does I will have my client do the same.
Lawyers for incarcerated boxing champ Floyd Mayweather Jr. say the undefeated boxer may never fight again if he’s not released from the Las Vegas jail…
The talk of the Twitter-verse is that Chris Brown is begging for forgiveness from Rihanna in a new song released online. But is it true, and if so, how will she react? The lyrics to Brown’s single “Off That Liquor” (below) include the following line: “Them other girls ain’t got nothing on ya. Patron mixed with … that’s your recipe.” Rihanna is a known fan of Patron tequila, BTW. Also, the line “If it’s loving that you need,” from her 2005 hit “If It’s Lovin’ That You Want” is mirrored in Chris’ new song. He sings, “Come, if it’s loving that you need, from me!” Could it be that Chris, whose fans have been in the news as much as he has lately for their threats against Chrissy Teigen , is really pining for his ex this time? Maybe, maybe not … but it’s hard to believe this was penned for Karrueche Tran . He continues, “Whenever you’re ready, I’mma give you my heart,” to which he almost explicitly demands Rihanna to come back to him … and get naked ASAP. “Right now girl, baby come over, so we can make love,” he croons. “So when you’re leaving that party baby / Come on over, we can get it started baby.” Your move, Rih. Your move. Chris Brown – Off That Liquor
