In the cutthroat world of show business, sometimes it’s comforting to have a familiar face and someone you can trust as part of the team. These 15 celebrities left their fate and careers into the hands of their parents and it served them well — very well.

WENN

The Kardashians

Perhaps the mother of all momagers, Kris Jenner helped her Kardashian daughters become household names. In addition to launching the careers of Kim, Khloe and Kourtney as reality television stars, the Kardashians have segued into the world of fashion design. Ready to have the limelight to shine on her, Jenner has inked a deal for her own talk show. In 2011, it was reported that she was worth an estimated $20 million.

Source: WENN

It’s like deja vu all over again in the entertainment industry right now as reports suggest Kelly Rowland may be heading to the “X Factor.” But wait, didn’t she already do that? Technically, yes. But this time, the former Destiny’s Child singer is slated to join the panel of the singing competition in the U.S., taking over Britney Spears’ current spot, despite being cut from the UK show last year.

The Daily Mail is reporting the news, saying:

Former Destiny’s Child star Kelly Rowland is set to join Simon Cowell on the X Factor USA – despite being booted off the UK show.

Cowell, 53, remains a ‘big fan’ of the singer even though she was replaced by Nicole Scherzinger on the X Factor UK last year, a source told MailOnline.

And Kelly, 32, is now ‘most definitely in the mix’ to replace Britney Spears on the third season of the Fox talent show, which airs later this year.

It’s not yet known whether Cowell will appear with three women on the judging panel – or hire another man to replace L.A. Reid.

I wouldn’t be surprised if there were a lot of truth to this rumor. For one, these singing competition shows are running out of female talent to go through. Almost, everybody and their mama has at least been a guest judge on “American Idol,” “The Voice, ” or “X Factor” — except poor Aretha Franklin (why do they keep playing her like that?). And let’s be honest, networks are thirsty for black entertainers right now, with Nicki Minaj and Mariah Carey on “Idol,” this show is going to need someone who’s popping right now if they want to up their ratings, and though everyone is talking about this being the year of the Bey (again), Kelly isn’t doing so bad herself.

We’ve seen Kelly kill red carpet after red carpet this year, work as an E! correspondent for the Oscars, host BET’s Rip the Runway, and let’s not forget tearing up the stage at SuperBowl alongside Beyonce and Michelle. If there was a right time for this new gig to happen, it would be now. The question is, will Kelly joining the team make you watch?

So after Pepsi’s latest commercial dropped with Beyonce, I happened to overhear a coworker exclaim, “that was the best commercial I’ve ever seen.” Umm, it was a good commercial and all — great maybe — but the best? I wasn’t so sure. So, I had to dip back into my Pepsi inventory and recall some of the cola brand’s spokespersons over the years and after checking out a few videos, I have to say there have been a lot of commercials that could give this latest a run for its money — not that this is a competition or anything. But Pepsi has had some excellent commercials over the years. Here are 10 of the best.

You would think this would be obvious, but being an award winning musician does not automatically qualify you to suddenly become an actor. In fact, there really is no connection at all; but for some reason, these artists have fooled themselves into believing there is.  Sure there are the few exceptions like Will Smith, who was able to cross over into acting without any acting training at all; but let’s be real, most musicians are NOT and will NEVER be Will Smith. Somehow, that didn’t stop them from trying. Here are 10 singers or rappers who tried their hand at acting… and failed:

Photo Credit: PNP/ WENN.com

50 Cent

Sure the autobiographical movie, Get Rich Or Die Tryin’ had something of an interesting story line, and some might say it was worth it just to see 50 cent’s booty alone; but when you actually look at more than 50 cent’s behind, he is a not so good actor. This was another case of “acting” like yourself…and even though the movie was about him, he still had a hard time making his own storyline seem convincing.

WENN

Maybe listing the 15 worst reality shows ever made is sort of stating the obvious. Even the ones that have been on for years (Toddlers & Tiaras, we’re looking at you) are so bad and so ridiculous that we should really be ashamed that we plop ourselves down to watch them. But we do, because in their complete awfulness, hilarity ensues. But which reality shows put more of an emphasis on awful than hilarity? Check out this list.

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It has been a rocky road for some of Hollywood’s most notable names when it comes to their children. Custody battles aren’t exactly a rarity in Hollywood, but it it’s not often that judges rule in favor of men and award them custody of their children while offering their ex-wives visitation and sometimes no rights at all. That’s the situation all of these celebrity women found themselves in as they had to relinquishment their position as sole guardian and try their best to co-parent from afar.

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It’s tough being a celebrity. Why you ask? I mean how are you supposed to choose from the many, many attractive men and many, many smokin’ hot women who throw themselves at you? Easy, you can’t. Celebrities are only human, after all. And while their inability to keep their lust to themselves could cause some problems in their personal life, it provides endless entertainment for the rest of us. So for your viewing, thank God I don’t have all that drama going on, pleasure, here are 15 of the craziest celebrity love triangles.

In Hollywood, changing hair is like changing clothes. Celebs want to be able to perfect and tweak their hair on the daily and with the use of weave, it’s plenty possible. Though you only seem to hear about black female celebs and their amazing weaves, here are 14 white female stars who have some notable weave game.

Daniel Tanner/ WENN.com

Kim Kardashian

It’s no surprise that Kim’s luscious locks aren’t completely her own, but she does rock some good weave.

Nicki Minaj at this year’s MTV Video Music Awards. Image: B.Dowling/WENN.com

Big news for American Idol: Nicki Minaj (along with country singer Keith Urban) is coming on board as one of  the talent show’s newest judges, joining newcomer Mariah Carey and longtime Idol judge Randy Jackson, who will be a “mentor” going forward.

But will the addition of Minaj boost ratings, especially in the African American community? The judge’s seats are now filled with three African Americans, and with blacks watching more TV (210 hours per month) than whites (about 153 hours), Latinos (131 hours) and Asians (100 hours), it could be a smart move by AI producers. TV/radio producer Derrick Mack thinks so.

Mack, founder of MACK-Nificent Enterprises, LLC, produces the upcoming show Release Your Inner MC, in which celebrity old-school hip-hop artists judge amateur MCs. “In my opinion, I think having Nicki Minaj and Mariah Carey on American Idol will offer an immediate boost in ratings in the black community,” he told us via chat. “Because the two ladies have such a different appeal from each other, they should attract a diverse cross-section that would surely reach outside of our communities to the general audiences as well.”

But Mack adds, “How long will Nicki be able to keep those new audiences tuning in considering the ‘here today, gone tomorrow’ trend that exists in modern rap music? …Nicki Minaj doesn’t really represent the black community accurately or completely. While her popularity is obvious, she’s not going to draw the loyalists that say, Salt-n-Pepa or Queen Latifah might draw. But then again, Idol’s main target is not the real hip hop audience, it’s a general audience.”

According to an article in USA Today, adding a judge that appeals to the urban audience has worked once before for AI. “’Idol is hoping for the kind of success it had when it hired Jennifer Lopez and Steven Tyler in 2010 and saw ratings rise for the first time in five seasons,’ says analyst Brad Adgate of ad firm Horizon Media. Ratings dipped significantly, however, in their second and final year,” the newspaper says.

But the new celebrity talent boost in the ratings didn’t work for The X Factor when it added Britney Spears.  Spears “[hasn't] provided a straight-out-of-the-gate ratings bump,” the article continues. “I don’t think if Jennifer Lopez and Steven Tyler were introduced now that they would drive up ratings the first year even.” USA Today  blames the “saturation” of singing shows and celebrity judges. In addition to AI and X Factor, there’s also Duets, The Voice and America’s Got Talent, to name a few.

There’s only so much TV anyone can watch.

Source: Globalgrind.com

In the day of celebrities like Halle Berry wanting President Obama to crack down on the way paparazzi is allowed to invade their lives, it always amazes me how many entertainers feel the need to divulge one of the most  private aspects of their lives: who they’re sleeping with—or not.

I thought about this odd coming out of sorts looking at Teyana Taylor’s remake of Janet Jackson’s iconic Rolling Stone cover today. The photo shoot, shot by Lance Gross, has garnered mixed reactions for a lot of reasons.  Some are wondering why she even messed with Janet’s ‘90s masterpiece, others are curious why she sexed the image up even more than it was originally with her red lips, garter belts, and the see-thru stockings attached to her cut-offs (not to mention those breast tattoos), and still others are curious how this type of end-product comes from a virgin of all people. Had she never made her sexual lifestyle public knowledge, she could have nixed at least one of those concerns, but unfortunately like many other famous people she assumed that was knowledge the public wanted and needed to know.

I don’t think celebrities like Teyana should hide their virginal status out of shame, but I don’t get what they’re trying to prove by announcing it. The bottom line is it’s no one’s business and frankly no one really cares until situations that appear to contradict that lifestyle choice come into play. Unlike Meagan Good’s argument that one can still be swexy and a Christian, Teyana, a 21-year-old woman who claims to not engage in sex at all is selling that straight up and down from this Janet-esque photo to her racy Black Men’s mag cover, and a whole lot more in between. I know the dichotomy of a woman who’s a lady in the street and a freak in the bed is supposedly every man’s ideal, but she’s working that fantasy from the complete opposite angle and it’s hard to decipher what her true image is, let alone her real persona.

The other issue is proclaiming to be a virgin puts a lot of unnecessary pressure on entertainers.  There aren’t too many old-heads, if any, stepping into the spotlight claiming they’ve never gotten it in. It’s the fresh-faced 16- to 20-year-olds who are new on the scene that somehow get roped into answering questions that aren’t the public’s business anyway and who later have to recant those statements or unnecessarily explain themselves even more. Brittney Spears I’m looking at you. Or take Jordin Sparks for example. When we first met her, she boasted about a purity promise ring she wore since she was a young teenager but when people found out she was dating Jason Derulo, naturally they started to wonder if she might be trading in that promise ring for a nuva ring. In an interview with Hoda Kotb that got further in her sheets than Jason likely had at the time, Jordin gave an update of sorts on her celibacy stance and said of the ring:

“You know what, I switch it from day to day — I don’t wear it exactly everyday anymore, but I always have something there. When I was 13 my mom spoke to me about purity and waiting for marriage and different things like that. And, you know, at the time I was like, ‘Sure that’s great,’ but I can’t say what’s gonna happen a couple of months from now. People grow.”

Jordin is absolutely right about people growing but unfortunately once that virgin image is planted in people’s minds, it’s hard to undo. Should she end up having sex before marriage and announcing that to the tabloids, the backlash will no doubt ensue. No one will care that she’s now a mid-20-something-year-old woman, there will be questions of why she didn’t hold out or what type of example she’s setting by going back on her promise, or uncomfortable inquiries into her new bedroom life, much like the case was with Brittney Spears. There will be an invasive line of questioning that could have been avoided altogether by allowing that personal information to remain what it is—personal.

Even thinking of Lolo Jones who has been vocal about how difficult it is to find a man because she’s been so open about being a virgin seems to forget that she brought that struggle on herself. I truly don’t think it’s the fact that she’s a virgin that’s the problem. It’s the spectacle surrounding her virginity that is likely off-putting and intimidating to potential suitors. For some, being a virgin takes on a deep, spiritual meaning; for others it’s a means to avoid heartbreak, unwanted pregnancies, and STDS. Whatever the reason, it’s a state of being just like being sexually active is and there’s no reason for all the pomp and circumstance around it, especially if you aren’t proclaiming yourself to be a role model for others to follow. If that were the case, it would be understandable to be vocal about it, but when your virginity is the only thing that keeps you relevant in a way, it’s awkward, and again, unnecessary.

The thing is, once these celebrities go on record about their sex lives, it follows them for as long as they have the public’s interest, which could be anywhere from 15 minutes to 15 years. In the same way that other sexually active celebs use sex to sell records, the lack of sex begins to define these entertainer’s careers as well and something so personal as their non-existent sex lives becomes the news hook on which their relevance hangs.  It’s rare that celebs succeed in keeping their private lives totally private but one thing they can count on is no one knowing for sure is who is or isn’t in their bed (unless they’re Kim Kardashian, Ray J, Pamela Anderson, Tommy Lee, or Paris Hilton). Perhaps in the same way vocal virgins are naïve to the world of sex, they’re also oblivious to the American obsession with who’s having it and who isn’t and they don’t realize the image they’re forming when they speak on their sexuality. I’m not particularly keen on sexually active celebs giving the rundown on their bedroom booming either, but my advice to virgins in the spotlight would be when it comes to their sex lives, keep their mouths like their legs: closed.

What do you think about celebrities declaring that their virgins? Should they share that with the world or keep it private?

Brande Victorian is the news and operations editor for madamenoire.com. Follow her on twitter @Be_Vic.

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