My beloved Hudson River Cafe has closed.....

This news comes via the Harlem + Bespoke Blog

Word on the street has it that The Hudson River Cafe (located behind the Fairway Market) has closed.  This is most unfortunate as I loved the brunches & the live bands that played there....I even sang there once (courtesy of Petawane & Bill Foster pulling a fast one on me...lol).  There was always a really cool vibe there.  The last time I was there I was with Marco Mays & Morris Grey....we had a blast.

Perhaps another restaurant will open there....it was (is) a really cool location....sigh....

For the full deets go here:  http://harlembespoke.blogspot.com/

All changes, even the most longed for, have their melancholy; for what we leave behind us is a part of ourselves; we must die to one life before we can enter another.    ~Anatole France

Lindsay Lohan to portray 70's Porn Star Linda Lovelace?

What the HEEZY??

Word on the street is that trouble actress Lindsay Lohan has just signed on to portray 70's porn actress Linda Lovelace in a biopic about her life.

Folks are saying that Lindsay's daddy, Michael Lohan is none to happy about his daughter's latest move and thinks that it (the film) will be the final nail in the coffin of her career.

Who knows? It MIGHT actually turn out to be the thing that turns her career around....lol...it's not like it hasn't happened before......Ya know?

I'mma keep on praying for Lindsay......

From the Guardian UK:

The LA Times quotes a producer on the independent production, to be titled Inferno, who confirms that Lohan has signed on the dotted line to play the star of infamous 1972 film Deep Throat. The official announcement will most likely be made at next week's Cannes film festival, which the actor is likely to attend.

"We've all thought that Lindsay would be a great choice for a while now, and we're all convinced that she is going to do it," Wali Razaqi said. "For at least a year, the director and I have gone back and forth imagining how awesome of a performance she could give if she was in the movie."

One of the first pornographic films to feature a plot, character development and reasonably high production standards, Deep Throat made a huge impact upon its release, though it was banned in the UK and was the subject of a number of obscenity trials in the US. It has been suggested that the film made more than $600m (£395m) from box office receipts and home video sales, putting it among the highest-grossing films of all time, though such figures are impossible to confirm.

Lovelace, real name Linda Susan Boreman, later denounced the film and its makers, becoming an anti-pornography activist. She said she had been forced into the career – often at gunpoint – by her sadistic first husband, Chuck Traynor.

CLICK HERE to read the full article.

Beth Ditto to do a second collection for Evans in the Fall!!!

Looks like UK Rocker Beth Ditto is not only changing the landscape of the music game....she has her sights set clearly on the fashion industry as well.

Word on the street is that her newly launched fashion line for Evans is doing so well that they've given her the go-ahead for a second collection.....which is set to debut for Autumn/Winter 2010-11 in September.

Still in the process of being designed, the line is set to feature an eclectic mix of 1908's punk, vintage styles from the 1940's with current trends.

Kewl.

Source

Project Runway's Daniel Vosovic to dress Gabby Sidibe?

According to NYMag.com's The Cut....Season 2 Project Runway contestant Daniel Vosovic recently approached the Academy Award Nominee's people with the possibility of dressing her in the future....from The Cut:

"He hopes that even as a small label he'll be able to dress celebrities for red-carpet appearances. "I’m a little obsessed with Zoe Saldana, but that’s too easy. You could throw combat boots and a paper bag [on her], and I guarantee she’d rock the shit out of it," he told us last night at the premiere of Breaking Upwards. "But I did approach Gabby Sidibe’s stylist, and we are going to hopefully be working in the future on something."

Finally! A designer with balls big enough to take on the challenge of dressing someone who isn't a size two! I hope they take him up on his offer....I would love to see what he would design for her!

New Music from Toni Braxton & Mo'NIque?

Could it be that Academy Award winning actress Mo'Nique is trying to add a Grammy award to her already crowded mantelpiece of awards?

Word on the street is the full figured comedienne/actress has teamed up with diminutive Grammy award winner Toni Braxton on a new single called "Caught".....

To listen and/or download the new single....CLICK HERE!

Bomb found at Harlem's Metro North 125th Station

Word on the street is that someone planted an explosive device at the Harlem-125th Street stop on the Metro North Line.

CLICK HERE to get the full story.....

So THAT'S why the bus I was on that was crossing 125th street had been rerouted....and while I was walking back up 125th street I noticed that the ENTIRE station had been evacuated and roped off.

Interesting.

New Reality Show for Toni Braxton & Co?

Word on the street is that Toni Braxton and family have a new reality show in the works called "Braxton Family Values"....Hmmmm...this sounds familiar....didn't The Jacksons have a show with a similiar title (Jackson Family Values)....or is it just me? No word on who's producing....

RuPaul will NOT be at New York's Fashion Week Festivities....

Legendary Drag Queen RuPaul has declined to participate in next week's NY Fashion Week festivities....He tells NY Magazine's The Cut.....

"When asked if (s)he'll participate in Fashion Week, RuPaul replied, "I don't. I cannot stand the people. I think the fashion people are so nasty and so pretentious. One thing that I am not is pretentious and I cannot stand pretentious people. I love fashion, love color, love texture, love all of that. But all of the people who surround that are rot-ten."

Womp. Womp.

Season two ofRuPaul's Drag Race premieres on February 1.

Source

Sly Stone files $50 Million Dollar Lawsuit Against His Former Manager

The BV Buzz says....Rock & Roll Hall of Famer Sly Stone (Please do NOT ask me about that hairstyle dude is rocking...lol) of the legendary funk collective, Sly & The Family Stone, filed a lawsuit on Thursday Jan. 28 for approximately $50 million against his former manager Jerry Goldstein citing fraud related charges over more than 20 years.

CLICK HERE to read the rest!

SOURCE

Gabby Sidibe Joins the cast of The Big C

Gabourey Sidibe will star alongside Laura Linney in a new show that was recently picked up by Showtime called The Big C. The drama follows a school teacher, played by Linney, who finds out that she has cancer.

According to Access Hollywood, Sidibe will appear in the show as Andrea, one of Linney's students. The show is scheduled to debut later this year.

You GO Girl!!!

Jennifer Hudson & Queen Latifah to Appear at The White House

According to USA Today, artists who are booked to play the concert at the White House in the East Room include Bob Dylan, Jennifer Hudson, John Mellencamp, Smokey Robinson, John Legend, Seal, the Blind Boys of Alabama and more. Morgan Freeman and Queen Latifah will both be emcees for the night. The event will also feature readings from celebrated speeches and authors that have made an impact during the civil rights movement.

The concert’s official title is

currently “A Celebration of Music from the Civil Rights Movement” and will be held on February 10 then air on CBS on February 11.

Source

Tyra Launches The Fiercely Real Teen Model Search for Plus Sizes!!!

Well, it certainly took her long enough didn't it? The word on the street is that Tyra Banks is FINALLY launching a plus-sized alternative to her wildly popular America's Next Top Model phenomenon!

Miss Tyra recently announced that she is launching the Fiercely Real Teen Model Search. (lol at the name of the show...it's funny to me, sorry.)

Says Tyra "I've always felt is was my mission to expand the narrow perceptions of beauty," she recently told US Magazine. Teens with dress sizes between 12 and 20, who stand 5'9" to 6'1" are eligible to compete for a one-year modeling contract and a spread in a major fashion magazine.

She goes on to say that she "wants young girls to realize that what's considered plus sized is the average American woman," "That woman is healthy, fit and beautiful."

Well if ANYONE can make this happen and perhaps GET IT RIGHT for a change....it would be Tyra and company. I am looking forward to seeing what this competition will be about. And I REALLY want to see if they are truly going to allow a size 18-20 to actually make it through the preliminaries....heh-heh....it's one thing to SAY it....and totally another to actually DO it....

CLICK HERE to register and to get more info on Tyra Banks Fiercely Real Teen Model Search.

Source

Lee Daniels To Shoot MLK Biopic?

Word on the street is that the family of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. has agreed to allow "Precious" director, Lee Daniels, to shoot the biopic of their father's life story.

Right now Lee Daniels is THE DIRECTOR that every actor & actress in the world (including myself) wants to work with, and I personally think he'll do an excellent job of telling the story of this most important black man.

Folks are all up in arms because they fear that Daniels will air Dr. King's dirty laundry by filming a scene with him that involves a prostitute. Daniels is currently reviewing the script and vows that he won't be shooting that scene because it "isn't necessary".

He also states "This project is still in an embryonic stage, but I can tell you my story focuses on the civil rights marches. It's not about tapes and prostitutes. It's about the African-American man who changed history."


Source

Queen Latifah & Diddy to host BET Haiti Benefit

Word on the street (via The YBF..lol) is BET has announced that Queen Latifah & Diddy will be the co-hosts of a concert benefit for Haiti on February 5, 2010.

The show will be shooting live from Miami, Fl.

Source

Steve Harvey is the new host of Family Feud

Word on the street is that Comedian/Author/Radio Personality Steve Harvey has just been tapped to be the new host of the long running game show "Family Feud", when it enters it's 12th season in the fall.

Steve will be replacing John Hurley, who said in a statement that he's leaving to focus on his role in the touring production of "Chicago" and other ventures he's working on.

Well!!! This is about to be GOOD!!! I haven't really watched the Feud on the regular since Richard Dawson left the show.....Steve is HILARIOUS and I can hear the jokes coming already....lol....SO looking forward to this one y'all...

And while we are on the subject of game shows, I turned on my TV this morning and checked

out Wayne Brady in his new job as host of "Let's Make A Deal".... Wayne works well going off the top of his head (improvising....case you didn't understand what that meant...lol) so this show and all the crazily dressed contestants is a perfect fit for him.

Congrats to both of these brothers for adding a little more color to daytime television!

Continued success y'all!!!

"If you were happy every day of your life you wouldn't be a human being, you'd be a game show host." - Gabriel Heatter

Australia's Top Model Judge Rejects Plus Size Contestants

Australia's Next Top Model judge Charlotte Dawson (yeah..the bird on the right)

has slammed Australia's plus-size modeling industry, labeling it "non-existent" and declaring no curvy model wannabes will win the reality show on her watch.

Read the rest HERE

I don't know which is the dumber move - Her actually allowing someone to quote her silly butt saying this ish or her NOT realizing that those words are probably THE QUICKEST WAY to bring forth the changes she is so desperately trying to prevent from happening....(lol..ask Karl Lagerfeld)

Can't wait to see how she's gonna like how those words taste when she has to eat them! Watch and see y'all F.A.T. Chicks are gonna come out of the bushes of Australia like crazy now...lol.

NY1's Dominic Carter Fired from Anchor Position

Word on the street is ....NY1's Dominic Carter, The stout host of the hugely popular "City Hall" segment has been fired from his anchoring position allegedly over that domestic abuse charge that his wife filed on him last year.

Apparently, she's had a change of heart and tried to retract that statement....Too late tho', dude has been thoroughly dragged through the mud now and the likelihood of them getting that paycheck back is slim to none now.....apparently folks are coming out of the wood work to get a good kick in on him now that he's down.....

Dating site BeautifulPeople.com expels 5,000 people for gaining weight over the holidays

Apparently it's not easy staying slim and beautiful over the holidays...

About 5,000 members of a popular dating site found that out the hard way, when they were booted from BeautifulPeople.com - the site is a dating and networking site for attractive individuals that has a "ban on ugly people" (WTF?) - for putting on a few pounds over the holidays.

"As a business, we mourn the loss of any member, but the fact remains that our members demand the high standard of beauty be upheld. Letting fatties roam the site is a direct threat to our business model and the very concept for which BeautifulPeople.com was founded," Robert Hintze, founder of BeautifulPeople.com, said in a statement.

So how did these "fatties" get flagged? Other members, angry that the now-plumper members were still on the site, demanded action from the company.

"We responded to complaints by moving the newly chubby members back to the rating stage. This is the same as having them re-apply," Greg Hodge, managing director of BeautifulPeople.com, said in a statement.

CLICK HERE to Read more...

I scanned through the comments after reading this post and one person's comment said it all for me....uh...

"If you are THAT beautiful...why are you searching on the INTERNET for a date?"

Nuff said.

In addition to that...c'mon people....a few meals over the Thanksgiving and/or Christmas holidays isn't enough to make you fat....unless you already are there OR you are eating the ENTIRE holiday menu (and I mean ALL of it..nothing for anyone else mind you...)...and the plates and silverware too...lol...and you gotta wonder what is really considered "fat" to them....

Ignorant people crack me up....they really do.

BET to honor Whitney Houston in February

Word on the street is....

Comeback queen Whitney Houston will be the the recipient of the ‘Entertainment Honor’ at the 2010 BET Honors, it has been revealed. The show, which takes place on February 1st (ironically a day after the Grammy's who snubbed her), will see Houston tribute performances from the likes of Jennifer Hudson, Patti Labelle and Mary J. Blige...

Source

Ray J's Danger gets a new haircut (and I like it!)

Word on the street is that "For The Love of Ray J" alum "Danger' (She smashed the homie) just got released from a mental institution, where she was checked in from symptoms from post partum depression (I think.)....anyway...I just posted this because I am really digging the new close cut haircut she has. Although I think that face tattoo is a little ridiculous...there's no denying that this chick is really beautiful....