Congratulations are apparently in order to comedienne
Mo'Nique. The plus-sized "Queen of Comedy" has to skip
this year's ESSENCE Music Festival where she was slated to perform because her
doctor has asked her to streamline her schedule. According to a statement from
ESSENCE this is because Mo'Nique is pregnant with twins.
![Black Voices Entertainment BV Buzz photo]()
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BV Buzz has learned that Mo'Nique is pregnant with twins, and singer
Claudette Ortiz, formerly of the Wyclef Jean group City High, is pregnant with
her second child.
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Last Week's BV Buzz
Yes, the star of 'The Parkers' is expecting two little
bundles of joy. Details of the pregnancy were not released, but BV Buzz can
definitely tell you that the child is not by Gerald Levert. The two stopped
dating months ago, and Mo'Nique had began a relationship with a gentleman whom
she introduced backstage at the NAACP Image Awards as a "hometown sweetheart."
Mo'Nique already has two teenage sons -- Mark Jr. and Shalon -- from previous
relationships.
No replacement has been named for Mo'Nique at the
Essence Festival, where she was to perform alongside
Kem,
Lionel Richie,
The Black Eyed Peas and
Maze featuring Frankie Beverly during the Mainstage
concert on July 3. "Mo'Nique deeply regrets that she is unable to perform this
year," ESSENCE said in the statement.
Speaking of expecting, singer
Claudette Ortiz,
formerly of the
Wyclef Jean group
City High, is pregnant with her second child. The singer
is married to her one-time City High group member
Ryan Toby, and the two
are expecting their second baby boy in the coming months.
X-Rated Eve?
There's yet another sex scandal plaguing rapper-actor
Eve. There is a video circulating on the Internet that
allegedly shows the star of the UPN self-titled sitcom having an unidentified
man pleasure her with a sex toy while he masturbates. The person on the sex tape
does resemble Eve; however the footage only streams for 30 seconds before
cutting off.
It's obvious the tape is a home movie and the female
featured looks down at the camera several times in between moans. Additionally,
the video has the date (Nov. 20, 1999) and time code (12:26:50AM) shown as
well.
If the person depicted on the video is Eve, then the
date shown would be around the time she was dating Bad Boy Entertainment
producer Stevie J.
In 2003, a picture that was supposed to be Eve during
her days as a stripper surfaced online. That image showed Eve-sans her signature
paw print tattoos-receiving oral sex from an unidentified female.
"I used to strip, so it could be me or it could not be
me," Eve then told the New York Daily News. She also claimed a man was trying to
extort her with the photo.
Eve's reps could not be reached by press time to
comment on the video.
Real World
The "Godmother of Comedy," Thea Vidale, is
helping to give privileged suburbanites a reality check on the Si TV series
'Urban Jungle 2.' Vidale joins the second season of the English-Spanish
network's reality series as a life coach, counseling the contestants who are
transplanted from their posh lives to South Central Los Angeles.
"The show is funny! I'm just being me, keeping it real
and telling their bourgeois asses, 'Welcome to the ghetto,'" said Vidale, who
had just returned from performing at the Amsterdam Comedy Festival when we
caught up with her.
'Urban Jungle 2' is being shot in a small two-bedroom,
one-bath home and follows the 13 contestants as they adapt to life in the South
Central neighborhood. "They didn't even have a toilet when they got to the
house. They had to put their money together and buy one. Things only got better
from there," added Vidale.
![Black Voices Entertainment Image: Miles Davis]()
Miles Davis was one of the most famous and influential musicians of all time,
but, look around you: how many people have him on their T-shirts, as the
wallpaper on their desktop, or on their iPod? Jazz obviously isn't dead, it just
needs to step into the 21th Century.
For three weeks contestants face harsh manual labor and
are forced to pick strawberries in the fields, remove graffiti, sell oranges on
freeway off ramps and clean houses in Beverly Hills. In addition to tough-living
and hard labor, participants will volunteer their time working with children at
the neighborhood community center. They ultimately aim to win $50,000 in cash
and prizes.
The Other Side
Comedian
Arnez J. denies the accusations made by
fellow comic
Rickey Smiley and the story about
Alex Thomas in the
BV Buzz on June 13.On squashing his beef with Smiley, Arnez told columnist
Lee Bailey: "I haven't talked to Rickey. I haven't heard one thing from
him. But it's ironic... I get a call from his lawyer stating that Ricky wants to
call me and apologize."
On comic Alex Thomas calling Arnez J. a joke thief he
countered to Bailey: "Alex Thomas never approached me in my face and asked me
about a bit, nor do I bite off of anybody's material. I don't have to, only
because number one, I'm a physical comedian."
Arnez J. concluded: "In this business, everybody's just
not gonna like everybody, and that's just the way it is," he said. "You're gonna
have people who like to follow suit and join the monopoly. More or less, I'm a
loner, so I don't really clique a lot. I don't have time to backstab and talk
about people. But unfortunately in this business, a lot of times, that's what
happens."
BV Buzz must note that prior to the story run on June
13, we contacted Arnez J.'s management of note via telephone and sent e-mail
correspondence to no avail. The comic explained that he had recently changed
managers and the former representation had not passed along the
requests.
In other gripes, the UPN network took issue with last
week's lead story. Despite being contacted prior to the story running and only
being serviced with a generic press release, in typical fashion, now the network
would like to respond in more detail and challenge a portion of our
report.
Despite the fact that we stand by our story, as a
courtesy we're sharing their better-late-than-never reply. "Reporting that
Elise Neal is leaving 'All of Us' as a result of UPN's
instructing all of its sitcom producers to cut costs across the board is
blatantly inaccurate. License fees for television series are negotiated prior to
the first season and are contractual. The network cannot and did not ask for
expenses to be cut on any show. As UPN said in a joint statement with studio
partner, Warner Bros., Neal's departure was due to a change in the creative
direction of the series," said
Joanna D. Massey, UPN's senior vice
president of media relations.
Can't Say Names...
... Sources say things are a little awkward on a
current summer tour scene with two performers who share something in common --
they both dated the same man. We hear that things are tense between the two
singers, as one of the singers had an affair with the other singer's boyfriend
and things got messy. The whole ordeal included a breakup, a makeup and the
purchase of an expensive SUV to make good on the drama. Both have moved on,
apparently, but the ill feelings still remain.
Buzzworthy
...
Destiny's Child member
Michelle Williams will join
John Legend as one of the new faces of Gap. Williams, who
replaces the short-lived campaign by blue-eyed soul singer
Joss Stone, recently shot her new Gap campaign ads and
recorded a remake of
Al Green's 'Let's Stay Together' that will be featured in
the show's commercial.
Sarah Jessica Parker,
Missy Elliott and
Madonna have also been featured in recent Gap
campaigns.
...Good news for fans of the R&B trio
Next. The group --
RL (Robert Huggar),
Tweet
(Raphael Brown) and
T-Low (Terry Brown) -- have apparently worked through
their differences and plan to head to the studio to work on a new album. We'll
keep you posted...
...Sources say that
Brian McKnight has left the Motown label. McKnight has
recorded for the legendary record company since 1998, when his previous label
Mercury Records was dissolved. The crooner released five albums for Motown,
including the multi-platinum 'Back at One' and his most recent release 'Gemini,'
but opted to leave the label after, according to a source, feeling as though he
wasn't a priority anymore. Sources now tell BV Buzz that McKnight has already
inked a new recording contract with Virgin Records.
... According to the National Enquirer, 'Saved by the
Bell' star Lark Voorhies is apparently suffering from cocaine addition.
The beautiful actress was apparently admitted to Las Encinas Hospital in
Pasadena, Calif. after family and friends staged an intervention. The tabloid
also reports the 31-year-old actress is bipolar as well.
June 27, 2005
About the Author
Jawn Murray is a nationally recognized celebrity
journalist and a contributor to the New York Daily News' Rush & Molloy and
Lloyd Grove's Lowdown columns. He's also been featured on 'Court TV,' 'E!
Entertainment' and 'VH1.'
