FRIDAY R&B CRUMBS (CATCH-UP)

Don't you just love it when all these pre-events take place in preparation for the big ceremony? All the A-Listers come out looking glam, and then they have you running to all the high street stores trying to duplicate that same look or to find a similar looking attire, even if it's nowhere near as pricey as the original. Even if it looks tacky and stinky and cheap at least you can say "Ooooh, Janet rocked a similar outfit to this" which would give your tacky outfit more appeal on that fact alone. LOL! The Ebony 2007 Pre-Oscar Celebration took place this week. Halle Berry and Janet Jackson definetely killed it in the fashion and glam stakes:

Two of the hottest 40 year-olds in black Hollywood were happy to spread all their hotness in one picture and who could blame them? Proceed with the rest of the post to see who else was there and to see more fabulous R&B appearances and your latest R&B news scoop.
And here's all the other celebrities that attended the glitzy event:

Janet Jackson attended the event with her older brother Jackie who STILL had appeal dare I say it. Maybe because he's the only Jackson who doesn't look ridiculously artificial. Is he the ONLY Jackson to keep the original nose that he was born with? Hmmmm. Looks like it to me. Another brother of Janet's who attended the event was Jermaine Jackson and his wife, and he looked all sticky and plastic-y. Everything about him is so wrong. His face looks like chiselled wood and his hair looks like a plastic ice-cream. You know those big moulded ice-creams that you see on top of those ice-cream vans with the annoying nursery tunes blaring out of it in the summer? That's exactly what he reminds me of. When Jermaine appeared on Celebrity Big Brother UK last month, he told Bollywood actress Shilpa Shetty that his wife was a BLACK woman. She doesn't look black to me. Halle Berry also arrived with her mama so it was a right lil family affair. Raven Symone looked gorgeous. Rappers Ludacris and Bow Wow were also at the event.

Vanity Fair's Sixth Annual Amped Concert saw Chris Brown sport a short cut mohican which I wasn't really feeling. But that Skeleton hoodie was just dope:

Still, it's good to be different than boring.

This week, the gorgeous Christina Milian attended a Stars & Strikes Celebrity Bowling event hosted by A Place Called Home Charity. Christina Milian has also written a new blog message on her Myspace giving us lots of explicit new details on her upcoming new album. She is going back to the R&B/pop route like she did on previous records, and STILL doing her thang on the songwriting side, her co-wriiten track with Ne-yo, Paula Deanda's "Walk Away" has now become a top 10 smash.

Christina writes: I'm recording this week some more with JR Rotem. So far we have written 2 very dope records. I am haaappy. Same thing gos with Cool & dre. We have some FIRE records on the way. This time my musical approach is an infusion of Pop/Urban again. I am really enjoying it cause most of the songs so far are uptempos. Plus I will be working with a few Latino writers and producers as well. I'm excited. Everyone has been showing madd love. Soon I will also be in the studio with The Runners (Hustlin) and DanjaHandz (Nelly Furtado, Justin Timberlake albums) and the Matrix. I'll let you know how it's going. And don't forget that your girl loves Song Writing! The record I cowrote with Neyo called "Walk Away" on Paula Deanda has been doing extremely well and has reached the top 10 as well!!! So Support ya girl!! I'm sure very soon i'll be letting u know about some other song placements cause I have been working on alot of that too lately. Well, I'm out. I gotta hit the gym before i throw on this dress.. LOL...Lots of love! Big hugs and Kisses! FOLLOW YOUR DREAMS. NOBODY CAN STOP YOU!

Anyway, also at the Stars & Strikes Celebrity Bowling event was Marques Houston and step-brother Omarion:

Methinks Marques should refrain from skinning his head entirely because he looks like a right light bulb, giving Pinkie a right run for his money. Ya'll know the cartoon character Pinkie? Not everyone has the right shaped head to rock that look.

A MAC Luncheon took place yesterday which had honoured Jennifer Hudson and Sharen Davis at SoHo House:

Jennifer has been getting honoured a lot lately. How long will it be before her bed comes crashing out of the sky? I know she must be thinking all this is too good to be true. I know damn well that when she got robbed from American Idol I didn't think I would be seeing her again so soon because most talented acts fade away after a while. And since we're on the subject of American Idol, did ya'll know that R&B singer Bobby Valentino auditioned during season 2? It was during the Atlanta auditions and he got past round one. But then, he got cut during round two. He says, Simon gave him a stern "Valentino, NO!" Hahaha! You can watch the interview [HERE].

Here is Beyonce on Jay Leno last week talking about her Sports Illustrated cover. Man, that Jay dude has a chinny chin chin something serious. The type of chin that you only see in cartoons:

Anyway, let's talk Oscars. Beyonce stands to pick up half an Oscar if songwriter Scott Cutler wins gold for Best Song on Sunday (25 Feb 2007) - he'll cut the statuette down the middle. Oscar rules limit the amount of nominees in the Best Song category and, as one of five writers credited with Dreamgirls hit Listen, Knowles missed out on a nod. But Cutler insists the singer/actress won't be left out of he wins gold. He says, "Beyonce helped that along a lot - little lifts in the melody, little lifts in the song that we hadn't thought of. She just kept sending back ideas, thoughts, what she wanted. "I'll cut my Oscar in the middle and give her half."

Oh you mean rifts like "Ooooohhh" and "Ahhhhhh" OK. Because if that is songwriting, I'll cut off my left leg and maybe I'll get a songwriting credit for Ahhhhing out in pain.

So it has been alleged that Usher finally popped the question to his on-off much older lover Tameka Foster on Valentine's Day.

As I were saying it truly must be lurve. He is 28 with the rest of his career ahead of him and a bright future to go with it. She is a 40 year-old woman with two children and hasn't even allowed the ink on her divorce papers to dry before saying "yes" to another hand at marriage. To me, she has baggage whilst he is still young, rich and CHILDLESS. Recipe for disaster? Don't know. But one things for certain. You know his mama gon get in that ass to make her sign a prenup. But once this is made official, we'll have to see how it all pans out.

Jennifer Lopez and hubby Marc Anthony attended the Premio Lo Nuestro a la Música Latina 2007 so check out her show and red carpet moment:

Same ole same ole. But she did look nice in her Dolce & Gabana dress.

What the fuck is going on with our Britney Spears? I am at a lost for words. Apparently the HIT ME ONE MORE TIME singer became the HIT-THIS-CAR-ONE-MORE-TIME maniac as she went completely berserk last night and attacked the parked car of a photographer. The distressed singer was completely outraged that K.Fed wouldn't let her in the house to talk to him because he SNATCHED HER KIDS and he wouldn't let her see them. Kevin told her to go back to rehab or face losing her kids for good. She chose to go to rehab:

One word of advice to Britney. NEVER allow a man to fuck with your state of mind or allow him to see you in that way. No matter how hard you fall for him, just get on with your life. As time goes on, it gets easier. Also, Kevin also insists that he never called for an emergency hearing on the custody of his children and believes someone was playing a vile prank. Michael Sands, a publicist for Federline's attorney, claims someone made up the news of the hearing and then told Los Angeles Superior Court spokesman Allan Parachini about it. Federline and his attorney, Mark Vincent Kaplan, say they never called for a hearing and that no court papers for a hearing were ever filed.

Even so, she still stands a good 50% of losing her children. Actually, the percentage has now risen to 90%. This custody battle in my opinion, could be the first time where her fame and fortune will NOT be taken into account. Her recent behaviour has been purely ERRATIC. Here's to old times:

They seemed so happy and stable in this picture. Who'd have thought things would have turned so nasty and vile a few years later? Britney's other ex Justin Timberlake has something to celebrate though. His 'Futuresex/Lovesounds' album is proving to be a super hit generator - the third single released from it has hit number one. "What Goes Around, Comes Around" joins "Sexyback" and "My Love" after leaping up the singles chart from eight to number one.