Source: WENN

I’m just going to get straight to the point. This is a press release we just received from Aretha Franklin’s publicist, Gwendolyn Quinn:

The Queen of Soul Aretha Franklin may have discovered another famous new leaf on her family tree.  Franklin reports that, according to a family member, her grandmother and Oscar-winning actress Halle Berry’s grandmother were first cousins. Franklin is currently investigating the authenticity of the family members’ claim. Franklin has stated in the past that Berry reminds her of the younger version of herself.  Maybe it will turn out to be a family resemblance.

Couple things:

1) Who puts out a press release announcing who they might, maybe, could possibly be related to?

2) Aretha is going too hard to try to get Halle Berry to play her in a biopic.

Yes, point two is what I think this entire news release is about. If you think back just a short while to the beginning of this year, Aretha Franklin appeared on the Wendy Williams show and said she wanted Halle to play her in a film on her life. Hearing the news, Halle responded saying someone should tell Aretha she can’t do her justice because she can’t carry a tune. But not giving two damns about Halle’s singing inability, Aretha continued to petition for the American Academy Award winning actress to take the part. So far the entire prospect of the movie seems to be just one big idea floating around Aretha’s head and something tells me the Queen of Soul is trying to guilt Halle into this role, and in turn, spark Halle’s interest. I mean if they’re family how could Halle not play her big cuz in a movie right?

What makes this even more odd is Halle just came out with an interesting family fact earlier this week with a nearly identical story about a family member informing her she’s related to Sarah Palin. I feel like someone told Aretha, hey, if Halle didn’t know Sarah was related to her, we can tell her she has some other unknown relatives too! Of course, this could all very well be true, but the whole media leak is just…suspect. Thoughts?

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by Marissa Ellis

Culturally, black folks are known for referring to anyone they have a fondness for as their cousin. It’s a term of endearment per se. But it creates problems when it comes to an outsider determining actual blood connections. The outsider here being us, your very own nosy Madame Noire.

Case in point: many people assume that Ludacris and Monica are cousins. In actuality, they are merely connected via marriage. Luda’s uncle is married to Monica’s mom, essentially making Ludacris the nephew of Monica’s stepfather – not cousins. In any case, to the best of our abilities, we have highlighted some Black celebs who are first, second and third cousins.

Martin Lawrence and Christopher Martin 

They were in House Party together back in 1990 when Christopher Martin of Kid n Play was hot stuff and Martin Lawrence had not yet hit it big. Was cousin Chris responsible for getting Lawrence one of his breaks in movies? All we know is that these days, the roles are certainly reversed.