Many were thrilled to learn that the young and talented Willow Smith would be starring in the Jay-Z affiliated Annie remake. Unfortunately, that won’t be happening. Last week, news broke that the youngest Smith child would no longer be starring in the production due to the Sony Pictures believing that she had “outgrown” the part and was now too old to play a nine-year-old Annie. Will Smith, however had a fairly different story as to why his baby girl pulled out of the remake, reports Necole Bitchie. Check out what he had to say.

“In the past 18 months,  I have spent a lot of time focusing on the emotional aspect of my life and my family. In 2010, in one year, our family had the ‘Karate Kid.’ we had ‘Whip my Hair,’ we had Hawthorne, and at the end of the year, we did the Nobel Concert when Barack Obama won his Nobel Peace Prize. Don’t be clapping yet, that wears you out. The thing that had become very clear to me is the danger of a material world and focusing so hard on coming up with money or a house or a job. You focus so hard on those things, and sometimes you can lose focus on why you are doing it in the first place. The only reason to do any of that is to have love,” he expressed.

It seems that Willow needed a break from show biz.

“Willow was supposed to be doing ‘Annie,’ we got Jay-Z to do the movie, got the studio to come in and Willow had such a difficult time on tour with ‘Whip my Hair’ and she said, ‘You know Daddy, I don’t think so’ and I said, ‘Baby, hold up! I said no,no,no, listen, you’ll be in New York with all of your friends and Beyoncé will be there. You will be singing and dancing,’ and she looked at me and said, ‘Daddy, I have a better idea, how about I just be 12.’”

“I’m really learning through Willow the necessity that we have to snap ourselves back and refocus on the emotional needs of the people that we love. Someone’s emotional needs can be very very different from your dreams and what you think they should be doing and where they are supposed to be.”

Since the success of “Whip My Hair”, Willow was certainly pushed into the spotlight and one can only imagine how much pressure that could be on a 12-year-old. It seems that she has made a wise decision.

What do you think of Willow’s decision to pull out?

Photo courtesy of WENN

Jazmine Denise is a news writer for Madame Noire. Follow her on Twitter @jazminedenise

Remember the shows All That and Kenan and Kel, starring friends Kenan Thompson and Kel Williams? Well, don’t expect to see them do any other work together anytime soon because according to Kel, Kenan wants nothing to do with him.

TMZ caught up with Kel when they found out his former partner in comedy is working on a new pilot with NBC.  Since they worked together in the past, TMZ asked Kel if he would be making an appearance on the show.  Kel reportedly told the crew, “The truth is, Kenan does not want to be seen with me in any form of media or even have my name mentioned around him.”  Further, he told TMZ that the guys, who at one point were the epitome of best friends, were supposed to reunite for a magazine interview. However, Kenan pulled out at the last minute.

Kel insists he isn’t upset about it and understands that Kenan is probably trying to distance himself from Kel so he can make a name for himself.  It seems he’s been fairly successful because he’s been part of theSaturday Night Live cast for quite some time.  Kel, on the other hand, has remained very lowkey in Hollywood.

Finally, Kel says he’s not opposed to a reunion of some sort because he knows that many fans are always asking when that will happen.  But he says he doesn’t see it ever happening because of how Kenan really feels.

Interesting.  Usually when there’s bad blood on one or both sides, both parties know why there’s such tension. Kel seems to be a little oblivious as to the true reason Kenan doesn’t want to be bothered. It’s possible that something else happened and Kel doesn’t want to say and Kenan has just moved on.

celebsecrets4u.com

We’ve watched a lot child actors grow up right before our eyes (some make us realize just how old we are, lol) blossoming into beautiful young men and women.  Let’s check out a few that we don’t get too see too often.

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In part two of our interview with the very delightful Cherie Johnson, the actress and film producer talks about her experience on Punky Brewster, why she played a character with the same exact name on that show, and clears up the rumors about her Playboy ambitions.

More on Madame Noire!

• What’s Black Enough For You?
• Confession: I Felt Joy Hurting a Man
• Well, Hiya To You! Shouting Out Some Of Our Favorite Black Imports From Britain
• Why I Think Natural Hair is Indeed a Political Statement
• Where You Been Cherie Johnson?
• Grieving Over a Girlfriend: 7 Ways to Move on After a Break-up…Between Friends
• What’s Black Enough For You?

Here at Madame Noire, we often wonder about the stars of our childhood days like Brenda Jenkins’ boyfriend on 227 or Laura Winslow from Family Matters. What happens to them after the spotlight fades? Can they work a normal job after that? How do they support themselves? Oh, the questions! In any case, in our new series “Where You Been” we track down some of our favorite stars of back in the day to see what’s up with them.

In this installment, we interview Punky Brewster’s sidekick Cherie Johnson, who also played Laura Winslow’s BFF on Family Matters. Surprisingly, Johnson is still working in Hollywood albeit behind the scenes as a producer. Watch and hear how she took the experience of a real life cheating boyfriend and made it into a movie in part one of our interview.

More on Madame Noire!

• What’s Black Enough For You?
• Grieving Over a Girlfriend: 7 Ways to Move on After a Break-up…Between Friends
• Bet You Didn’t Know: Secrets Behind the Making of “Poetic Justice”
• Am I The Problem? Finding Accountability Within
• Don’t Look Back: Are You Spending Too Much Time Obsessing Over Your Past?
• Where Are They Now? 10 Black Actresses Who Should Have Blown Up Big…
• What About Ciara? Knicks Star Amar’e Stoudemire Proposes To Mother of His Children

by Marissa Ellis

There are some child stars that aren’t a mystery…like Jurnee Smollett, who has a bigger career these days than she did as a child star on Full House, and Jaleel White aka Steve Urkel who…well, let’s just say he’s always on the radar. But what about the others who may not be so recognizable to the untrained eye? You may have not realized that certain working Black actors today were child stars of yesterday, or maybe you wonder why certain child stars never rode their talents into adulthood. We’ve gathered just a few cases of child stars to see what they look like now and what they’ve been up to.

Kellie Shanygne Williams (36) played Laura Winslow on the beloved ABC sitcom Family Matters for nine seasons. She acted only in a couple of other projects after the show wrapped in the late 1990s including the ABC show What About Joan.

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The Washington DC native married Hannibal Jackson in 2009 and had her first child Hannah Belle in 2010 at the age of 34.

Having the mind of a child and the money of a grown up—a very, very rich grownup—is usually a bad combination. I’m talking about child stars. It doesn’t help that most laws are just “laws” to them. What’s the drinking age for a child star? Something like…14, right? Then add the fact that they have just as many responsibilities as a 30-year-old, so they end up dating 30 year olds, and it turns out to be very hard for a child star to grow up a healthy, normal human being. Lindsay Lohan is the new poster child for child stars gone wrong these days. But for all the Lohans out there, there are those who somehow manage to transition seamlessly into adulthood. Check out the 10 who did just that.

Just because a child’s cute enough to land a role in a film doesn’t mean he or she is exceptionally talented. But on the flip side a child actor’s performance can be so moving he or she can steal the show away from the adults. Check out the talented child actors who managed to do this and then some. See which ones are still acting and those who have gone on to pursue other things…

1-Jurnee Smollet

We’ve watched little Jurnee since her days on Full House. While she was a cute and spunky sidekick to the Olsen twins but she really debuted her talents in Eve’s Bayou as Eve Baptiste. It was refreshing to see that she hadn’t lost her skills when she played “Samantha Booke” in The Great Debaters.

(New York Times) — China Anne McClain, 12, was taping a scene for her new Disney Channel comedy here recently, when fiction and fact collided. As the cameras rolled, her character — heading off to start big, bad high school — got some parental advice.  “Just be prepared, Sweetie,” her television mom warned. “There’s going to be a lot of temptations here.”  The same counsel applies to Ms. McClain in real life, as she prepares to make a full-tilt, Disney-backed charge for the title of Next Tween Queen. Pretty and talented yet nonthreatening, Ms. McClain, as an actress and singer, clearly has the potential to commandeer prepubescent culture. “A.N.T. Farm,” the series Disney tailor-made for her, will have a preview on May 22; the premiere is in June. She also has a record deal.

Children’s television is at a transitional moment when it comes to female stars. At Disney, the Big Three — Miley Cyrus, Selena Gomez and Demi Lovato — have all moved on. Miranda Cosgrove, the star of “iCarly” on Nickelodeon, turns 18 this month. Both companies are feverishly trying to mint new headliners capable of drawing the attention of tweens, roughly defined as viewers 9 to 14.  But the manufacture of child stars is not as easy as it used to be. There was a time when all it took was a perky personality, a little talent and a slot on the Mickey Mouse Club. Now child stars have to anchor TV series and movie spinoffs, churn out hit songs, write books and headline global concert tours — when they’re not introducing their signature line of clothing at Wal-Mart.

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(The Grio) — The Jacksons. The Osmonds. The Winans. And now let’s add the Smiths to the list. In the tradition of showbiz families, looks like Will and Jada Smith are in fast pursuit to transform their family into an entertainment dynasty.  Will Smith’s newest stage dad project is remaking the classic Hollywood film Annie, starring his ten-year-old daughter, Willow. Jay-Z (who signed Willow to his label) is on board to help develop the film.  The Smiths are obviously following the typical recipe for merchandising and branding a 10-year-old…

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