Comedian Eddie Griffin is officially divorced, just six months after marrying Nia Rivers in Las Vegas.
The couple wed on September 8, 2011, and were already filing a joint divorce petition by October 29, citing “irreconcilable differences,” according to TMZ. They reunited to try and work the marriage out, but ultimately finalized the divorce in Nevada last month. The couple agreed to share joint custody of their two-year-old child, King Edward Griffin, and Rivers will receive $2,500 in monthly child support. They also agreed that they would never disclose the reason for their split.
This was Griffin’s third marriage. He married his first wife, Carla, in 1983 when he was 16-years-old and divorced one year later. Griffin married his second wife, Rochelle, in 2002. The actor reportedly has nine kids.
Maroon 5 is making moves like Jagger in 2012 with the announcement of their fourth record, due out June 26. Lead singer Adam Levine told Rolling Stone fans should expect Overexposed to be "one of our most diverse and poppiest albums yet." With an ever-evolving sound, Maroon 5 is sure to impress with the new 10-track record.
Already announced is "Payphone," a surprising (but promising) track featuring Wiz Khalifa that hints that this album will be heavy on collaborations. From working with Rihanna to Christina Aguilera, the group has plenty of experience experimenting with different sounds and genres. But "Payphone" seems like it could become the group's most distinct collaborative work yet. 2010's Hands All Over was the first time the group had worked with an outside writer, and they liked it enough to try it again this time around.
The group's guitarist, James Valentine, told Rolling Stone, "At this point in our career I think it was a good thing to completely mix up our process and it yielded good results, as well as a more collaborative spirit within the band. We wanted to make something that sounded contemporary with the elements of a lot of early eras of pop music. This is our most 'pop' record ever and we weren't shy about really going for it."
With nine Grammy nominations and three wins behind them, it will be exciting to see what they're like when they're not being shy.
He wants it all, chico. Pitbull is a proven hitmaker, so it's no wonder that he was tapped to record "Back in Time," the first single from the upcoming "Men in Black III."
Who knows? Maybe the union will lead to a future Hollywood collaboration. Not only is Pit a fan of the "Men in the Black" franchise; he's a big fan of star Will Smith as well.
"I think he's the blueprint of what any artist in the music business would look up to and idolize what he's done," Pit told MTV News on Monday night from the L.A. set of his "Back in Time" video. "As far as not only in the music business, but also in Hollywood, how he's gone from not only one of the best artists musically [to] also one of the best actors, I would say, around the world."
It was Big Willie himself who recorded the theme songs for the first two installments of the "MIB" trilogy (1997's "Men in Black" and 2002's "Black Suits Comin' "). Now, Pit takes the reins and looked to a sample of Mickey and Sylvia's 1950s classic "Love Is Strange" for inspiration. According to the Miami rap artist, the song falls right in line with the upcoming film's time-traveling plotline.
Pitbull is looking forward to the day he and Smith can collaborate again.
"I think in every way, shape and form, we'd love to follow in Will Smith's footsteps," he said. "We're working on the music for the movie, and hopefully, one day, we'll work in a movie together."
Nas, who is in large amount of debt-- he reportedly owes around $6 million in unpaid taxes, will now have his music wages garnished by the United States government.
Documents were filed in the state of Georgia to have Nas' wages garnished, via the music publishing organizations BMI and ASCAP, until his debt is payed off.
Lil B has been invited to speak at New York University. Lil B will grace NYU to give a lecture on April 11th. The event listing appropriately reads, "Cultural icon Lil B will treat NYU to a very rare speaking engagement."
NYU Students with a valid I.D. can purchase advance tickets for 5$, or 10$ with a government issued I.D., to hear the BasedGod speak.
Lil B has since tweeted about the event,
"THE ONLY WAY TO GET RESPECT LIKE LIL B AND MAKE HISTORY AND PROB BE THE FIRST #HISTORICAL RAP ARTIST TO SPEAK NYU IS TO BE POSITIVE - Lil B"
DMX could be on the hook for several hundred thousand dollars after being sued by a concert promoter for failing to make good on contractual obligations, TMZ reports. According to a suit filed by Heavy Rotation booking, X's myriad of legal problems in 2011 killed a massive comeback tour the two parties had planned, costing the agency $749,285.
Heavy Rotation says it had an exclusive contract with the Ruff Ryders rapper to book shows all over the world. But when he was cited for a traffic violation last year and sued twice for child support disputes, the rapper was saddled with a passport lien that prevented him from traveling.
Compounding the legal troubles, according to Heavy Rotation, was DMX's efforts to hire separate management to book shows in the U.S., even though those rights belonged to HR under their contract.
Responding to the lawsuit, X's manager says Heavy Rotation has it all wrong— the rapper did reach out to other companies, but only after he had severed ties with HR over poor business practices.
As it stands, the company is insisting on $630,000 in lost revenue.
Bangladesh has already clocked a few hits with Cash Money Records. Now, the maestro behind Lil Wayne's "A Milli" and "6 Foot, 7 Foot," as well as Nicki Minaj's "Did It on 'Em," may want to consider naming his next YMCMB contribution "No More Drama."
Bang cried foul after he wasn't properly compensated for producing "A Milli" in 2008 and then again last year after he produced "6 Foot, 7 Foot." "It's just hard to keep working for free," the producer told MTV News in an April 2011 interview, before admitting that he waived his upfront fee for "6 Foot, 7 Foot" and worked out another form of payment with the company.
The powerhouse record label and Bangladesh have since straightened out their business, the producer revealed to MTV News on Tuesday. "We just did some nice business together. They just bought a whole bunch of tracks, that's about it," Bang said. "They gave me a song deal, basically, first song deal I ever had, so shouts out to Cash Money."
Fans can now expect to hear more of the Atlanta beatmaker's pounding production on upcoming YMCMB releases. "Everybody respects each other, and real recognizes real. At the end of the day, the work is solid, so everybody wants to be in business with each other," he said. "Our issues, we resolved the issues, so it was time to move on past that and do other business."
"I think it's really big," Bangladesh added. "It's a big step, because it went from negative to positive, so you could show people that you can always work things out."
Hilary Duff is now a mom! The former Disney star and her husband, Mike Comrie, welcomed baby boy Luca Cruz Comrie into the world on Tuesday. Duff took to her Twitter page to break the happy news.
"Welcome to the World Luca Cruz Comrie!" she tweeted. "Tuesday evening, we became proud parents of a healthy 7 pound 6 ounce beautiful boy."
She followed it up by tweeting, "We are overjoyed and feel like the luckiest parents in the world. He is surrounded by so much love!! Mom and baby are both doing extremely well."
Ricky Martin's got some good genes! The proud papa showed off his 3-year-old twins, Matteo and Valentino, on the cover of Spanish Vanity Fair's April issue.
In his candid interview with the mag, the 40-year-old Latin superstar opens up about his sexuality, gay marriage and his relationship with the mother of his children...
"I have slept with women and I fell in love with them and I felt wonderful things," he says. "There was a lot of love [and] passion."
He publicly came out in 2010, but learned "a lot" from his relationships with "both men and women." Martin and Carlos González Abella, his partner of four years, are raising Matteo and Valentino together. But it was a woman Martin describes as "so angelic, so transparent" who made it possible for them to have children.
"I would give my life to the woman who helped me bring my children into the world," Martin says, adding that he rejects the term "surrogate."
"I [did] not rent a womb," he explains. "This expression is used by fundamentalist conservatives."
So will Martin and Abella be saying "I do" in the near future? He tells the mag: "If they touch [the same-sex marriage law], now as a Spanish citizen, I would stand up and unite with my community."
Watch out, world. The Wolf Pack is going on a binge.
E!News has confirmed that key cast members Bradley Cooper, Ed Helms and Zach Galifianakis will reunite for The Hangover Part III after Warner Bros. has set May 24, 2013 as the release date for the trilogy-capper.
Todd Phillips, who helmed the first two installments, will take the reigns again on the latest adventure. No word where the gang will get into trouble this time, but may I suggest Amsterdam?
One recent night, concertgoers at a Tyga show in Omaha, Nebraska proved just how much of a careless world it is, indeed. Shots were fired at the Young Money rapper and his affiliates as they boarded a tour bus after the show, reports Hip Hop DX.
One female rapper from Tyga's crew, Honey Cocaine, was actually struck by a bullet but appears to be fine, tweeting, "What happened, happened.. God Loves me and he loves you. Got shot and I'm not dead. #LoveLifeAndGod."
Witnesses at Sokol Auditorium speculate that Tyga might have incited the attack after he challenged audience members who were throwing garbage on stage to meet him outside.
Either way, Tyga is known to bring out some pretty rowdy fans, a group of which got the Young Money star banned indefinitely from a San Diego night club this past January after his failure to appear at a schedule performance led to a violent and destructive riot.
Charlize Theron has become a mom via adoption. The Oscar-winning actress has adopted a baby boy named Jackson. Announcement of the adoption was made Wednesday by a spokesperson. No further details were given. However, UsMagazine.com is reporting the child is African-American.
The Monster star had publicly expressed her desire to have a child without being married in a 2008 interview.
More bad news fo Oprah Winfrey's OWN. The network announced it has let go 30 employees i.e one-fifth of it's work force ,from their New York and Los Angeles offices today.
“It is difficult to make tough business decisions that affect people’s lives,” said Winfrey in a statement. “But the economics of a start-up cable network just don’t work with the cost structure that was in place. As CEO, I have a responsibility to chart the course for long-term success for the network. To wholly achieve that long-term success, this was a necessary next step.”
Not even Oprah's pal Rosie O'Donnell was spared a pink slip. The media mogul and chief executive of OWN canceled The Rosie Show, which was meant to revive the struggling network, after six months of "humiliating ratings," according to the Daily Beast.
The news comes after weeks of speculation about O'Donnell moving her show from Chicago's Harpo Studios, former home of The Oprah Winfrey Show, to her native New York.
According to the Daily Beast, O'Donnell was courted by Winfrey and turned down offers from major networks to join the OWN family, but ultimately couldn't get her viewers to follow her. The comedian once pulled in five million viewers on her daytime talk show, but sunk to an all-time low of 60,000 on OWN. Changes in the show's format and its evening time slot are partly to blame, say insiders.
Staff members revealed that O'Donnell "frequently lost her temper" as her ratings slipped. Her time at OWN was a "disaster" according to another insider.
The news isn't doing much to silence those who predict the network's demise is imminent.
The Barbados princess and superstar stripped down her superstardom-status to spend some quality time with her grandparents this past weekend. Riri threw her Caribbean grandmother, Dolly, a birthday party. She went shopping for groceries and even cooked.
The Birthday Cake singer posted a chunk of Instagram pictures on her Twitter page on Friday night, giving fans a squint at her family-downtime.
Ugandan superstar, Navio, was in South Africa last week shooting a music video for One and Only, the first single off his upcoming studio album Girls and Whips. To shoot the vid, he chose to work with the team from Tough Sunday production.Channel O had a brief chat with the rapper and got the low-down on the video, his soon to be released album and we got to find out about some of the South African artists he likes.
Tell us about One and Only… It’s a love song. I don’t do many of those, I don’t do commercial, but this is more party.
You recently shot the video in Durban, what was the concept behind it? It was a two day shoot. I was more like a ‘bachelor on steroids’. I got to bungee jump, gorge-dive, go quad biking with models. On the vid, I start off with four girls, going on different dates with them, right down to my ‘one’. We used South African models, we wanted to get girls from Milan, but (shrugs and laughs).
What should people expect from Girls and Whips? There’s two sides to the album. We played around on the good and bad contrasts of things. From the songs to the art work (cover). There’s a little more party and because of my nature I couldn’t do a full commercial album. My roots are in battle- I’m a conscience rap revolutionary, it’s hard to shake that off. We thought it would come out in September, but it’s actually good to go.
Navio in studio recording One and Only
Since you are in South Africa, do you listen to any of its artists? I actually battled it out with PRO (Prokid) once, we went all the way to top two and he won. He switched on some vernac on me. So Pro, Proverb, Zubz. I’m all old skool. The new guys, I Like a bit of AKA, Khuli Chana.
You understand Khuli Chana ‘s lyrics? It’s the way his rhyme flows, the way he puts it across, his rhyme pattern is intricate. He has an effortless relaxed thing about him.
When you're a single guy in your 30s making more than $700,000 per episode on a sitcom, there isn't much that's out of your financial reach. Wanna go out and buy a car today with cash? Go for it. Hell, buy two!
That and the actor's "whatever, dude" attitude might explain why British adventure billionaire Richard Branson announced on his blog this week that Ashton Kutcher, 34, has signed up to be the 500th space tourist on Branson's Virgin Galactic airlines. The suborbital spacecraft will give passengers a few minutes of weightlessness at a cost of $200,000 per ride.
"I gave Ashton a quick call to congratulate and welcome him," Branson wrote. "He is as thrilled as we are at the prospect of being among the first to cross the final frontier (and back!) with us and to experience the magic of space for himself."
Branson expects to launch a test flight beyond the Earth's atmosphere this year and possibly start sending commercial passengers into space in 2013 or 2014 on its six-passenger jets.
Wow, Nicki Minaj lands yet another cover. Complex unveiled its first cover for their 10th Anniversary Edition on March 19, which featured Justin Bieber, and yesterday they let go their Nicki Minaj cover.
50 took to Twitter to announce the release date for his fifth studio album. July 2nd is the date, he tweeted, "My album is coming out july 2. I got some heat trust me I'm ready"
"My birthdays july 6 so that's a cool date for ME. Its gonna be july2 album, july4 independence day, then july6 my birthday."
He also tweeted about the album, "I kicked it with EM after the show i told him how I feel about my new album. I'm gonna get on the phone with DRE today about it."
Forbes.com reports that Nicki Minaj has inked a new deal with Pepsi. Minaj will be the face of a new Pepsi product, "Pop," from which she will earn millions.
Derek Jackson, who brokered the deal for Minaj as a Glu agency chief, says that a commerical has already been filmed for the product in South America last month.
"You’ll see the commercial probably in the next two months," Jackson says, "That’ll be a segue into a new beverage Pepsi has, called ‘Pop,’ and she’ll be the face of the brand … it’s going to be explosive."
This pact was one of two major partnerships with Pepsi and Young Money, the other being the already publicized DEWeezy campaign, with Lil Wayne and Mountain Dew.
Cash Money Records is being sued by EMI Records, according to Courthouse News Service.
Cash Money has neglected to pay royalties which they agreed upon in a 2009 settlement between the two parties. Now Cash Money owes a reported $491,000 in royalties to EMI, for sampling songs from EMI's catalogue.
EMI stated the following, "Because Defendant has ignored numerous communications from EMI regarding Defendant’s contractual obligations, EMI once more is being forced to commence a lawsuit against Defendant to recover royalty payments. The sales of Defendant’s products have far exceeded the payments that EMI has received."
"It is clear from Defendant’s conduct that it has no intention of honoring the Agreement."
Kareem “Biggs” Burke, former business partner of Jay-Z and co-founder of Roc-A-Fella Records, has pled guilty to drug charges.
Burke, who was allegedly part of a massive pot trafficking ring, spoke before U.S. District Judge Laura Taylor Swain in Manhattan on Thursday (March 16) and pled guilty to a single count of conspiracy to distribute and to possess with the intent to distribute more than 100 kilograms of marijuana.
As a result of the plea, the 38-year-old rap mogul, who helped launched the career of Jay-Z, faces a mandatory minimum sentence of five years and up to 40 years in prison when he returns to court on May 18. Under his plea agreement, Burke is also required to forfeit $660,000, his residence, $15,000 in cash that was seized from his home when he was arrested last year, and his 2010 BMW.
Burke was one of more than 50 people arrested in late 2010 for their connection to a marijuana trafficking ring that distributed drugs from South Florida to New York. The 18-month investigation, dubbed “Operation Green Venom,” was conducted by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s Homeland Security and the Drug Enforcement Administration, with assistance from police agencies in New Jersey, New York, Florida, Maryland and North Carolina.
Authorities seized nearly $2 million and more than 260 pounds of marijuana during the bust. A raid on Burke’s residence in New Jersey reportedly produced the remains of a marijuana growing operation and $15,000 in cash.
Burke started Roc-A-Fella Records with Jay-Z and Damon Dash in the 1990s. The trio parted ways in 2004.
Over the past year, Lil Wayne's growing passion for skateboarding has been more than apparent. His favorite new accessory accompanied him to Australia on tour in December, and the New Orleans native even sustained a recent shoulder injury from an ollie gone wrong. Now all of those sessions on his board have paid off, because Wayne will land on the May cover of popular skateboard magazine CCS.
Wayne shot his cover story for CCS in Canoga Park, California, on Saturday, and his videographer DJ Scoob Doo captured intimate moments on the set as he bonded with skateboard stars Paul Rodriguez, Shane O'Neill, Torey Pudwill, Theotis Beasley and Chance Eldridge. "I just want to introduce my world to their world," Wayne said as he individually acquainted MTV with each of the skateboarders mentioned above. "I'm trying to bring you into their world so you can see why I wanna do this and I why I love this so much."
In addition to Lil Wayne's cover story in the May issue of CCS, the magazine will also feature an extended spread of his new Trukfit skateboard clothing line, which debuted in January.
Consider this your official introduction to Wayne's world of skateboarding. "The same way the skateboarders are introducing Lil Wayne to their world, he found an opportunity to introduce his world to them," Scoob said.
In the end, Whitney Houston wanted everything for daughter Bobbi Kristina Brown, and nothing for ex-husband Bobby Brown.
According to the 19-page will, obtained by E! News, Houston left her clothing, jewelry, cars, furniture and all personal effects to her lone child. A trust will be set up for 19-year-old Bobbi Kristina, and she be allowed access to some of the money when she's 21, a little more when she's 25 and then the rest at age 30.
Speculation on whether or not Britney Spears will join The X Factor for its second season continues, and although Simon Cowell and L.A. Reid addressed the topic (vaguely) during a conference last month, we were still left wondering the same questions.
Until now. The Hollywood Reporter is claiming that Spears' fiancé-agent Jason Trawick is negotiating the contract, and could possibly close the deal as soon as next week.
So what's the hold up?
Money, of course.
A source confirms to E! News that both camps have "been negotiating for some time," and it seems to be mainly on dollar amounts. Our source says Britney was offered $10 million to do the show, but she's holding out for $16 million.
X Factor star Rachel Crow may only be 14, but that doesn't mean she doesn't have dreams of working with the big boys of the music industry. I'm talking about a certain rapper from Detroit...
Rachel is in the very early stages of putting together her debut album for Columbia Records.
"I would love to have someone rapping in one of my songs," the teen songbird told E!News the other day while filming her new gig on Nickelodeon's Fred: The Show. "Eminem! Please, Eminem! I love him so much. He's awesome."
Good things come to those who wait. It's true for Jessica Biel, who not too long ago scored a proposal from Justin Timberlake, and now it's true for the adoring ogling public. After weeks of playing hide-and-seek with the paparazzi, the actress finally dropped the pretense and proudly bared her engagement ring for all the world to see.
She finally flashed the custom-designed display while strolling around Los Angeles with her fiancé one afternoon while leaving the Tavern. And the paparazzi was apparently in for a real treat of a photo op—the usually PDA-shy couple also didn't try to hide their affection for each other. As for the rock, no details have been released (nor are there likely to be any) though the humongous square-cut diamond bling pretty much speaks for itself. Timberlake popped the question to Biel over the holidays. Unsurprisingly, no wedding date has been publicly announced.
