Frank Ocean’s Manager Issues Apology To Target Frank Ocean’s manager did some damage control after recently posting a tweet that had fans in an uproar over Target’s decision not to carry the recently-outed singer’s new album . A manager for R&B singer Frank Ocean, who publicly came out of the closet last week, apologized to retail giant Target after suggesting that they would not be selling his clients CD because of his sexual orientation, according to a report from Billboard magazine. Target revealed that it would not be carrying Ocean’s debut studio album “Channel Orange,” due to the label’s decision to sell it digitally on iTunes ahead of its scheduled release date. But while Ocean’s manager Christian Clancy, announced via his Twitter page that they would not carry the disc due to the iTunes exclusive, he also implied that the decision had something to do with his admission about his sexuality. “Target has refused to carry Frank’s album because of iTunes exclusive,” Clancy initially tweeted.. “Interesting since they also donate to non-equal rights organizations.” But Target later issued a statement to Billboard magazine, denying that Ocean’s sexuality played any role in the matter. “The claims made about Target’s decision to not carry the Frank Ocean album are absolutely false. Target supports inclusivity and diversity in every aspect of our business. Our assortment decisions are based on a number of factors, including guest demand.” Clancy later backtracked on his tweet, saying “I apologize for my comments about Target. They are not carrying Frank’s album because it went digital first. Not for ANY other reason. … My response was simply an emotional knee jerk reaction. … Stop. Breath. Do the best you can. Be honest. Keep it moving.” Interesting turn of events. Do you think Target had ulterior motives for not carrying the album? Source
Are Sofia Vergara and Nick Loeb back together … and engaged? The actress received an early birthday present on Tuesday when she got engaged to her longtime businessman boyfriend, according to E! News. Loeb popped the question in Mexico, where Vergara is in the midst of a week-long celebration of her 40th birthday with family and friends. However, People Espanol tells something of a different story . One source says that there was a ring given to Sofia, but other sources say the actress “does not consider herself engaged.” An unnamed Mexico-based rep for the star also told People Espanol that “As of today, Sofia Vergara is not engaged.” So consider yourself as confused by this story as Jay is by her accent in some of those always-hilarious Modern Family quotes . In any case, she and Nick broke up in May, but reconciled in June. Says a source, “There are compromises to work out on both sides.” Like the fact that Nick Loeb … well just read the link earlier in this sentence. Possible congratulations to the couple and keep us posted! [Photo: WENN.com]
After a week and a day of waiting, the second part of the America’s Got Talent quarterfinals arrived with a bit of a whimper. There were only five strong acts overall, while a majority were clearly not prepared for the big stage. But let’s give them all a grade anyway, shall we? LionDanceMe – There was an awkward fall in the practice but the group performed a clean act. The routine still looked like a lot of the same. I’m not discrediting that jumping on small posts takes talent and accuracy; there should be more. Grade: B- Turf – I would have been more impressed if the producers had the endless camera as he was performing during the whole routine instead of just during one section. The moves continued to be great, the only problem was when he casually walked from the side of the stage to the center. I agree with Sharon that there needs to step up, I’m not sure if that means better dancers or better pants. Grade: B+ The All Ways – They took a chance with “Telephone” and I got to say that their version doesn’t work for me. Both “Rolling in the Deep” and “Fighter,” their previous songs, had a better sound. It was the rock undertones to the prior songs. The lead singer this time sounded out of his league. If they went down half a step then it would have helped a lot. Grade: C+ Hawley Magic (pictured)- The act seemed pretty standard: place a woman on a pole and “magically” float her around. There’s a few magic based waving and stabbing of the partner. After the “Floating Wife” act from the Vegas round, this illusion was okay, but a bit too old school for me. Grade: B- Lisa Clark Dancers – Whoever decided to give the group Jedward hair did a disservice to them. The act felt like a recital even though the group’s movements were clean. The bubble popping sound effect in the song threw me off. I was shocked that only Howie buzzed the group, they didn’t deserve to finish their whole routine. The girl saying “America loved it” was wrong. Grade: D- Aurora Light Painters – They claim to be doing “something different” by doing a “Monsters under the bed” theme. The setup of the bed and the sleeping girl was interesting. The eyes took a bit too long to load. The balloon eyes at the end didn’t work. Aurora was original, but this time I didn’t get it. I liked the mermaid and the more spaced out themes, but the monster theme didn’t work. They lacked pizazz. Grade: D Danielle Stallings – I give Danielle credit for singing with braces without her lips being ripped off. She chose “It Will Rain” and she had fear in her voice. She didn’t have her breath right and she didn’t have the attack on her high notes. The song choice threw me off the most. On a night of crappy acts, she stood out. Grade: B Donovan & Rebecca – The act started off pretty simplistically with a swing, until Donovan got on and was hanging. There was something ironic about choosing a song about “laying” and flying on stage. There was something special about watching the degree of trust from the couple and the final trick was both dangerous and beautiful to watch. Grade: A Big Barry – Big Barry was given a package that emphasized his short stature. He sang “Feeling Good” and immediately Howard buzzed him; Sharon followed. A modeling runway show didn’t help. He ended up getting sympathy claps. Watching Nick lift him up was the funniest part. Grade: D- Tom Cotter – After 25 years, Tom still needed his breakthrough; he emphasized having a lot of laughs per minute. He tried a “break a leg” joke and then decided to analyze other phrases. Some jokes like the “party pooper” worked while “bend your ear” didn’t. The fact that he went so rapid-fire with the jokes covered the weaker ones. Grade: A Ben Blaque – The adventure junkie started over the judges’ table, but it was such a huge balloon that it wasn’t an issue. While the rose was a nice middle section, he spent way too much time setting up his 4x crossbow and his balloons grew in size from his practice shot where he missed two normal-sized balloons. Grade: B+ Tim Hockenberry – The traveling singer/rehab survivor has a great story even though he sounds a lot like Michael Grimm. He decided to pick an anti-Joe Cocker artist: Katy Perry. His take on “Part of Me” was interesting, but now he sounded like Michael Bolton. Grade: B+ Of the acts I can see Donovan & Rebecca and Tom Cotter automatically making it through. The final two spots could be between Tim Hockenberry, Ben Blaque, Turf or Danielle Stallings depending on how America judges danger and bone-breaking. If they can’t stand either, Danielle and Tim would grab votes.
Finally, it was all about the music for Frank Ocean this week. Following the artist’s much- publicized gay admission – which was followed mostly by notes of support, most recently from Beyonce – Ocean left the controversy behind this week on Late Night with Jimmy Fallon … and he simply killed it. With his first-ever solo album, “Channel Orange,” available in hard copy on July 17, the singer gave fans a taste with the following rendition of “Bad Religion.” It marked his debut television performance. Give it a look and give it a listen now. What do you think?
As BSB begins recording in London, Richardson tells MTV News, ‘We want it to be authentic to us and who we are.’ By Jocelyn Vena Kevin Richardson Photo: Yamila Lomba/ Getty Images
Ocean’s coming out has led to increased visibility and a potential sales increase for his Def Jam debut Channel Orange. By Nadeska Alexis Frank Ocean Photo: Karl Walter/Getty Images
No blood donation for Frank Ocean ? The American Red Cross says power outages created by recent storms in the East and Midwest cut blood donations, which were already low this summer. In June there was a nationwide shortfall, with donations down more than 10% across the country. “We are asking people to please call 1-800-RED-CROSS or visit us at redcrossblood.org to find a way to donate if they can,” said Stephanie Millian, Red Cross director of biomedical communications. “We need people’s help.” One group that would like to help, but legally can’t, may be moving one step closer to eligibility. Since the 1980s, when the AIDS epidemic decimated their community, gay men — or MSMs (men who have sex with men) as they are called by federal agencies — have not been allowed to donate blood. In June, a group of 64 U.S. legislators led by Rep. Mike Quigley, D-Illinois, and Sen. John Kerry, D-Massachusetts, sent a letter to the Department of Health and Human Services encouraging it to move forward with a study that may lead to the end of the decades-old ban. “We remain concerned that a blanket deferral of MSM for any length of time both perpetuates the unwarranted discrimination against the bisexual and gay community and prevents healthy men from donating blood without a definitive finding of added benefit to the safety of the blood supply,” the letter said. “This is a matter of life and death and we are turning away over 50,000 healthy men who want to donate blood,” Quigley told CNN. “A straight person who has unsafe sex with multiple partners can give blood, and that creates a greater risk than a gay person in a monogamous relationship.” The policy started at a time when people didn’t know how the deadly virus that causes AIDS spread. At the time, there wasn’t a good test to detect whether HIV was present in donated blood, and HIV was getting into the nation’s blood supply. They knew this because hemophiliacs who were getting blood transfusions started showing symptoms of AIDS. What scientists also knew was that a disproportionate number of gay men were affected by the virus. To eliminate risk, the Food and Drug Administration added a screening question to the federal guidelines. Blood banks were instructed to ask male donors if they had had sex with a man, even once, since 1977. The FDA regards 1977 as the beginning of the AIDS epidemic in the United States. If the potential donor responded “yes,” he would automatically be removed from the donor pool for life. No similar questions were asked to screen out donors who engaged in other potentially risky sexual behavior. Donors weren’t asked about the number of partners they had, nor were they asked if their sexual partners had engaged in unprotected sex with other HIV positive partners. “While the Red Cross is obligated by law to follow the FDA guidelines, we continue to work with the AABB (formerly known as the American Association of Blood Banks) to push through policies that would be much more fair and consistent among donors who engage in similar risk activities,” Millian said. Scientists can now screen for most instances of HIV within days of infection, and the nation’s blood banks have called a lifetime ban “medically and scientifically unwarranted.” Men who have sex with men still are disproportionately affected by the virus and account for nearly half the approximately 1.2 million people living with HIV in the United States, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. But it is a person’s behavior, not their sexual orientation, that puts them at risk say health experts. While he is a gay man, Adam Denney thinks he would be the perfect candidate to donate blood. He doesn’t use IV drugs. He practices safer sex. He even educates people on how to prevent new HIV infections as a regular volunteer educator with AIDS Volunteers Inc. in Lexington, Kentucky. He thinks his exclusion is unfair. “Yes, gay men are still a high-risk community, but so are minority women, and there are no standards prohibiting them from donating. There would be rightful outrage against that kind of blanket population ban,” Denney said. “I am banned based on one reason only, my sexual orientation. It’s totally discriminatory.” When Denney went to donate at a blood drive on the Eastern Kentucky University Campus a few years ago, he said he knew what likely would happen when the nurses asked the sexual history question. “I did know what I was getting into, but I was shocked by how it felt to be rejected,” he said. “It was almost like they thought I wasn’t important enough to give blood, like because I was gay I didn’t count. It was a horrible feeling.” Nathan Schaefer with GMHC, an AIDS service organization, said Denney normally would be the type of donor blood banks are hungry for. Studies show those who give blood when they are young become regular lifetime donors, something most blood banks are struggling to find these days. GMHC has been fighting to change the ban for years. In 2010 GMHC joined a coalition of other nonprofits to encourage Congress to send a letter to HHS to end the ban, which some members of congress did. In June of that year, HHS brought together an independent panel of experts. The Advisory Committee on Blood Safety and Availability reviewed the policy and decided to keep it and concluded the ban was “suboptimal,” because it allows high-risk individuals to donate while keeping low-risk donors out. However, the expert committee also concluded “available scientific data are inadequate to support change to a specific alternate policy.” The panel suggested the policy not be changed and recommended further evaluation. HHS then promised to conduct feasibility studies to determine if there was a subset of the gay male population that would pose little or no threat to the blood supply. “We finally got them to stop defending the policy at the very least, which was pretty significant,” Schaefer said. The HHS is still determining the criteria for which part of the population to study. GMHC suggested the population to consider should include gay men who have had only one sex partner in the past six months. Spain and Italy, two countries with more progressive donor policies, hold everyone to that standard regardless of sexual orientation. Schaefer takes the point one step further. “A straight person could donate today after having unprotected sex with hundreds of partners, and in the United States they won’t ask about that behavior,” he said. He added that four out of five gay men are HIV negative, which he estimated means 2 million additional people could be blood donors. A 2010 study by the Williams Institute at the University of California-Los Angeles estimated that if gay men who had not had sexual contact for the past 12 months were allowed to donate blood, more than 53,000 additional men would likely make more than 89,000 blood donations. That number may seem small, but blood banks say it could help enormously, especially now, when blood supply shortages are common. After Denney was denied the chance to donate, he asked some of his friends to help him demonstrate outside the blood drive. They produced signs to raise awareness about the ban and distributed educational material. They also escorted people to the drive, because they wanted people to continue to donate. “A lot of people in the Bible Belt assume you have AIDS if you are a gay man,” he said. “We wanted them to understand that is not the case. We are banned based on an outdated policy. When people questioned us, I told them about how I always heard that people who donate blood are heroes. Gay men want to be heroes, too.” What do you think? Should this ban be lifted? Source
Following his admission that he has shared a sexual experience with a man, R&B star Frank Ocean has received plenty of support from the music community. Both Russell Simmons and the rapper Trina have offered Ocean their best wishes. Now, Lil Scrappy has also gone on record and given Ocean props… but for a very different reason. “I’m glad that he came out,” Lil Scrappy told TMZ. “So all the real women that love to mess with real men, straight men, we can keep the AIDS situation down, you feel me?” This artist – who says he would work with Ocean against in an instant – also believes “[homosexuality] is a doorway to AIDS, scientifically.” Well… according to 2009 data from the Center for Disease Control and Prevention, man-on-man intercourse results in 61% of all new HIV infections. Yes, that’s a majority. But Lil Scrappy might be surprised by how small of a majority his scientific data actually spits out.
The baddest b**** lends her support to the man of the hour… Trina Shows Her Support For Frank Ocean Coming Out Of The Closet According to TMZ reports : Frank Ocean isn’t being met with resistance from the entire hip hop community — rapper Trina tells TMZ, she fully supports Frank coming out, claiming, “He’s extremely talented and that’s what matters.” As expected, Frank’s revelation this week — that he is sexually attracted to men — has received a mixed reaction in the hip hop community … a notoriously homophobic sector of the music industry. But Trina tells us, “I don’t think [Frank’s] music sales or the level of support his music obtains should be judged based on his sexual preference.” She adds, “If he’s happy and comfortable with his sexuality then so be it. I feel his decision to come forward was bold and honest. It’s his life. Let him enjoy and live it. I wish him much success and happiness.” We can dig it Trina, but even Frank gotta be tempted by all that azz. Image via WENN
Frank Ocean is a gay man in a very masculine world. As a result, the hip hop artist – who collaborated with Kanye West and Jay-Z on their joint album – has faced a bit of scrutiny over his announcement earlier this week, in which he opened up about an affair with a man four years ago. Fortunately, music mogul Russell Simmons came to Ocean’s defense, and now a rapper named Trina has done the same. “He’s extremely talented and that’s what matters,” Trina tells TMZ. “I don’t think [Frank’s] music sales or the level of support his music obtains should be judged based on his sexual preference. “If he’s happy and comfortable with his sexuality then so be it. I feel his decision to come forward was bold and honest. It’s his life. Let him enjoy and live it. I wish him much success and happiness.” [Photo: WENN.com]
