[Afrochic]

411 for the week of January 12th, 2004

Is there a feud going on between Janet Jackson and Beyonce? Esssence Magazine is planning to do a music issue and they wanted to feature Janet, Beynce and Mary J. Blige on the cover of the magazine. Beyonce said she would only do it if she got to pose in the middle of the photo well Essence has already promised it to Janet. What are the divas going to do? Beyonce is the hottest thing out right now with 4 Grammy nominations and No.1 singles back to back, and Janet is getting ready to retake her claim this year with a new LP and a movie. Will the photo shoot happen?

Singer Johnny Gill has found love with a dentist. Johnny has been in Atlanta recording with New Edition and he is dating a lady from there. Johnny needs some good luck. He recently lost his home in Los Angeles and he had to take up residence at boxer Sugar Ray Leonard's home in Las Vegas. Johnny was living in the pool house. Hopefully he will find a new home with his new love.

Jamie Foxx pleaded not guilty last week to battery charges in New Orleans. Last year Jamie was arrested along with his sister after getting into a fight with police at a New Orleans Casino. Jamie was in New Orleans filming the Ray Charles Movie Unchain My Heart. The movie opens in theatres later this year.

Actor Ron O'Neal will be buried this week. Ron died last week at the age of 66 after a long bout with cancer. Ron is best known for his role as "Priest" in the Superfly movies. Ron was a big star in the 70's during the black exploitation movie era. One of his most recent roles was that of "Whitley Gilbert's" dad on the show A Different World. Actress Jasmine Guy played "Whitley."

Puffy and Nelly have been added to the lineup of entertainment for this year's Superbowl. Janet Jackson and Outkast are also on the bill and Beyonce will be singing the National Anthem. Superbowl 38 is Sunday, February 1st in Houston. The New England Patriots will be playing the Carolina Panthers.

The movie Rocky is coming to the Broadway stage as a musical and the producers of the show would like R. Kelly to do the musical score. In other R. Kelly news a lot of people are upset that he has been nominated for an NAACP Image Award. R. Kelly is nominated for "Outstanding Album" for Chocolate Factory. A cloud of suspicion still hangs over the singer involving a sex scandal with him and an underage girl. The big question is how could he be nominated for an Image Award? Will he win? The NAACP Image Awards will air March 11th on Fox.

Tyra Banks the singer! Yes, the hot supermodel is singing the theme for her hit UPN show America's Top Model. The show airs on Tuesday nights at 9pm and Tyra sings the show's theme song. The song is called "Shake Your Body" and Tyra has picked a guy who looks just like her to star in the video.

Nicole Richie the star of the Fox reality show The Simple Life has finally revealed who her biological father is. Nicole was adopted at the age of three by singer Lionel Richie and his first wife Brenda. Nicole's biological dad is bandleader Peter Michael Escovedo III. He is Sheila E's brother. Nicole would not talk about whom her biological mother is. Nicole says she has contact with her biological dad, but she considers the Richies to be her real parents because they are the ones who raised her. Nicole is 22 and last year she completed a 30-day stint in rehab for drug abuse. Nicole says rehab was like a 30-day vacation. She realizes she was out of control and she had to get better. Nicole says now she doesn't even drink. Later this year look for Nicole to return with Paris Hilton for new episodes of The Simple Life on Fox.

McDonald's is severing its ties to basketball star Kobe Bryant. Bryant was a spokesperson for them for many years, but with his rape trial scheduled for later this year McDonald's has decided to end the business relationship. Sprite and Nike are still being endorsed by Kobe despite his legal problems.

Sources say Diana Ross is devastated about the tragic death of her ex-husband Arne Naess. Naess was killed earlier this week while mountain climbing in South Africa. Diana had hoped to reconcile with her ex. During their marriage they had two children together, two sons. When he left her Diana's world fell apart and this is when she started drinking heavily. Diana loved this man and she did not want the marriage to end. Now he's dead and her hopes for reconciliation are gone.

Cuba Gooding, Jr. has a problem with Will Smith. In a recent interview Cuba complained that it's hard to be a black actor in Hollywood because all the good roles go to Will Smith, and he can't get any good parts. Cuba won an Oscar for his performance in the movie Jerry McGuire and became famous for his breakout role in Boyz in the Hood. Cuba can't get any good roles because he continues to play buffoonish characters. His movie choices have been awful and he's always jumping around like a nut. He should stop hatin' on Will.

Top record executive and former Babyface partner, L.A. Reid is out at Arista Records. Reid was hired in a controversial move four years ago when Arista fired their head guy, Clive Davis. Clive went on to form his own label, J Records, and he has had hit after hit ever since. Clive has Alicia Keys and Luther Vandross. While at Arista, Reid had success with Outkast and Avril Lavigne, but he had major disappointments with projects from Whitney Houston, TLC and Toni Braxton. The Whitney Houston project was a $20 million mistake. He also had disappointments with Santana, Aretha Franklin, Pink and Babyface. What goes around comes around. When they shoved Clive Davis out the door a lot of people were shocked because even though he's older Clive knew his music and he knew how to get the best out of his artists. Sources say Clive will now be back in charge at Arista under a new merger with other record labels. What will happen to L.A. Reid? He will probably wind up at another company.

Gerald Levert opens up in the new issue of Sister2Sister Magazine. Gerald opens up about his love life. He says he no longer dates Kandi from the group Xscape because he was tired of competing with her. She felt her career was better than his because she won a Grammy Award for writing TLC's biggest hit "No Scrubs." Gerald says she got too cute. He also talks about growing up with a famous dad, singer Eddie Levert, of the O'Jays and his baby mommas. Gerald also talks about two women in his life, actress/comedian Monique and Kym Whitley. Gerald says he is not with anyone exclusively, but he does date and he is friendly with both women. He also talks about his past. In 1989, he thought he had four women pregnant at the same time. After the DNA test came out, he found out only two were his.

Whitney Houston is off to Moscow! Whitney is getting a million dollars to do three concerts in the Soviet Union.


Isabel Sanford who played "Weezy" on the television show The Jeffersons was honored with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame last week.

Are J-Lo and P. Diddy back together again? The two were spotted at a Miami nightclub together. Spokespeople for Jennifer and Puffy say it was just a coincidence. So where was Ben Affleck, J-lo's Fiance? Ben was in London promoting his new movie Paycheck. Puff's lady Kim Porter was not at the party. Puff says he would always love Jennifer and be there for her.

New Edition returns with a new Lp on May 11th. They are now signed to Bad Boy Records. Maxwell is supposed to have a new album out by June.