Credit: WENN

From HelloBeautiful

Another day another jumpoff coming out of the woodwork. One of Dwyane Wade’s jump-offs just put spilled the tea and wiped it up one with of Gabrielle Union‘s panties. In a letter sent to MediaTakeOut, one of the NBA baller’s alleged jumpoffs wrote a letter to Gabby and based on the facts, I think it’s safe to say she was definitely in Wade’s house.

Read more at HelloBeautiful.com.

theybf.com

From Huffington Post

For Dwyane Wade, neither love nor life beyond Chicago nor even a career in the National Basketball Association was certain. But one thing was, according to his new book, “A Father First: How My Life Became Bigger Than Basketball” – being a good father.

“Given my history and the examples set for me, my sense of responsibility as a parent and spouse was already well developed,” Wade writes in one introspective passage of the book, which candidly details both his rise to the NBA and the long legal battlewith his former wife, in which he ultimately gained full custody of his two sons.

For Wade, breaking the cycle of “babies having babies” — one that he says ran in his family and his community — was at first a priority and then a challenge to be the best full-time dad he can be and to get out the word to other men about how they can do it too.

Read more at Huffington Post

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Source: Whudat.com

When I was in high school, there was a guy we’ll name Kevin who was dating a girl we’ll call Tracy. One day, Kevin and Tracy were together and out of nowhere he began dating a girl we’ll call Kim.  Tracy cried “foul” but Kim said she had no hand in breaking them up and most people believed her. I asked a sensible male friend his take on the drama and was completely floored when he responded: “Kim probably did break them up, but it doesn’t matter. Kim looks better than Tracy so no one cares.”

Granted, this was high school and most of those dating relationships are about as reliable as MediaTakeout’s latest scoop anyway, but it seems that people apply this same juvenile thinking to marriage.

And the first thing we want to know when we hear about cheating is what does the “other woman” look like. Then, whether we admit it or not, we judge from there whether the cheater was really in the wrong.

Obviously, pretty girls have the privilege in this situation, but if that pretty girl is famous too then the general public automatically thinks she can do no wrong.

The most obvious and in-your-face example of this Pretty, Famous Girl Privilege phenomena is one of my favorite actresses Gabrielle Union and my former favorite NBA player’s ex-wife Siohvaughn Wade.

[Sidenote: I don’t know all the facts regarding what went down in that situation, but whichever side of the line you fall on, you don’t know what exactly went down either. So let’s just get that straight from the outset.]

Though she would have us to believe otherwise, it’s pretty hard to believe that Gabrielle Union is the victim in the Dwayne/Siohvaughn/Gabrielle situation. Every time, I hear her say she “took the high road”, I wonder if she is clear on what that phrase even means. Whether she was the “first girl he looked at” or not, Gabrielle Union entered into that situation before DWade’s divorce was finalized, there’s no disputing that. As Kobe and Vanessa Bryant have made evident, a separation is not a divorce and without third parties entering the picture, there is still opportunity there to reconcile.  Gabrielle volunteered to traipse around Miami with DWade pre-divorce and then balked at the idea that she had anything to do with their divorce. Maybe she really didn’t. The actress endured a divorce herself, so I would hope that she didn’t play a part in that hardship being experienced by someone else.

Even if she did, it doesn’t seem to matter though because she’s pretty and famous.

In contrast, Siohvaughn is painted as “crazy” over and over again as if she should be able to flip her hair and walk away from her highschool sweetheart like they were never married while he publicly and callously replaces her. He’s a certified jerk for his actions and even if he didn’t want to honor his vows, I would think he would show a little more respect to the woman that’s been there for him since high school.

For her part, Siohvaughn could certainly afford to dial down the “crazy” in pursuit of gaining custody of her children, but would we be all so quick to call her psycho if Gabrielle weren’t pretty and famous?

I wondered this same thing when Alicia Keys started dating Swizz Beats. Their relationship and wedding were covered in mainstream tabloid magazines with no mention of the fact that their “Unthinkable” romance began as an affair because Swizz was married to Mashonda when they first hooked up.

We’re all willing to look the other way though because Alicia Keys is pretty and famous and she made beautiful music to complement that adultery.

Marriage is serious, yet when there is a pretty and famous face involved, we equate marriage to adolescent dating relationships that “just don’t work out” or ascribe ghetto names like “babymama” to someone’s ex-wife. Maybe it’s the whole “better the devil you know than the devil you don’t” thing that keeps us from calling a situation what it is and causes us to give the benefit of a doubt to our favorite gorgeous faces instead.

In my opinion, you can be as pretty as you wanna be and still be wrong.  You can do as many interviews and cover as many magazines as you can insisting what you have is “real” and still be “real wrong”.

And as long as Gabrielle Union is on her “I took the high road” nationwide tour, I’m going to wonder if anyone would even be listening if she weren’t pretty and famous.

What do you think? Do you think pretty and famous women get a pass for otherwise questionable actions?

Follow Alissa on Twitter @AlissaInPink

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The 19-year-old pop star Miley Cyrus recently announced her engagement to 22-year-old Hunger Games star Liam Hemsworth. While you would expect most folks to be happy that she’s walking down the aisle and doing things in order, there’s been a lot of blowback that she’s too young. But don’t it twisted, she wouldn’t be the first to get a head start on happily ever after in Hollywood. Or getting that first divorce out of the way quickly…Here are 9 couples who were 25 and under when they jumped the broom.

eurthisnthat.com

Solange Knowles

Solo has always been in her big sister’s shadow but she crossed the threshold into womanhood in two ways before Beyoncé did. At the tender age of 17, Solange became pregnant by her boyfriend Daniel Smith. They married in the Bahamas’ on February 27, 2004 and welcomed their son Daniel Juelz Smith Jr. that October. The couple divorced when she was 21 but continue to co-parent their son.

Source: Theybf.com

Last week we were just talking about the lack of diversity in women’s magazines and here comes Vogue with a cover featuring Serena Williams and all her pro athleticism for the magazine’s June Olympic hopefuls issue.

Representing Team USA alongside the tennis pro is soccer star Hope Solo and swimmer Ryan Lochte showing off bodies only Olympians can achieve. With famed photographer Annie Leibovitz on the job, it’s no wonder these athletes look so amazing.

There’s another bonus inside as well. Miami Heat star Dwayne Wade is featured along with model and ballet dancer Karlie Kloss for a spread on the 2012 Olympians, and he talks about what it means to be apart of the American Dream Team and to have a chance to recover from their semi-finals loss in Athens four years ago.

Check out the behind the scenes footage of the photo shoot here as the athletes talk about the work they put in to making it to the pinnacle of pro sports. What do you think about the cover?

Brande Victorian is a blogger and culture writer in New York City. Follower her on Twitter at @be_vic.

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bossip.com

In the past, we’ve talked about how you should proceed in terms of dating if you’re in the process of divorcing someone.  Some of you say “you’re married until you’re divorced” and others say, “What are you going to do? Sit around and just wait on paperwork?”  Well no matter what you think, these celebs didn’t wait for the ink on their papers to dry.  No, these folks hit the ground running…unsigned divorce papers be damned!

Read the rest of this entry »

From StyleBlazer.com

An athletic build is a thing of beauty.  What some athletes put on that athletic build… well, let’s just say a lot of those outfit selections are side-eye worthy (cough-cough, Michael Jordan).  Although it definitely took them some time, there are seven male athletes that we’ve noticed are polished now.  Thanks to a good stylist (or a good woman), a few tailors, and a few prayers they started doing it how it should be done.  In short, they went from hot mess to just HOT!

For a peek at the seven miraculous male athlete style transformations, visit StyleBlazer.com.

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dictcradio.com

Beyonce’s ‘Single Ladies’ anthem might have given some folks a hint, but for a few Hollywood couples that song gets put on mute!

These famous pairings aren’t bothering with the paperwork and the bells and whistles of a wedding. They are living in love and it works just fine for them.  Let’s take a look at the couples who don’t need to put a ring on it…

Read the rest of this entry »

Source: Terezowens.com

Ever since Dwyane Wade won sole custody of his sons last March he’s become the poster child of single fatherhood among celebrities. There’s no doubt the Miami Heat player’s situation is a rare one, and he’s decided to share more personal aspects of his experience in an upcoming book, “A Father First: How My Life Became Bigger Than Basketball.”

Dwyane will talk about his transformation as a child of a single parent and playing basketball in Chicago where he grew up, to becoming a single father of two young boys as a part of the Heat’s Big Three and an American Olympics Team.

The book will be published by William Morrow of HarperCollins Publishers in September, and falls in line with the need for positive examples of fatherhood Dwyane says he observed, particularly in the past few years. While he was going through his custody battle with ex-wife Siohvaughn, he says so many people came up to him asking why he fought for custody of his kids and why he thought he could handle being a single parent. For him, it was pretty much a no brainer.

“As a child, I grew up with aspirations to one day be a professional basketball player, and I am living that dream every day as a proud member of the Miami Heat,” he said. “However, the daily role I play in the lives of my two children is the single most significant undertaking of my life, and the job I take most seriously.”

Gabrielle Union’s found herself a good catch. This book definitely sounds like a great read. Will you check it out?

Brande Victorian is a blogger and culture writer in New York City. Follower her on Twitter at @be_vic.

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Gabrielle Union’s February Essence cover with Dwayne Wade caught a few side eyes considering the couple’s history, but for the most part people supported the celebration of black love and marveled at their gorgeous photos.

The shoot was the first time we’d seen the two so open with their relationship, and when Sister 2 Sister asked the actress why she and D Wade accepted the offer to cover the magazine, Gabrielle said they wanted to model proud dark-skinned love.

“We didn’t realize that what people were thinking was that we were being kept off of covers and that we were being shunned because we were a darker-skinned African American couple, and when we realized that—and people were like, ‘We want more images of darker-skinned African Americans,’ and also to know that a man of his stature would choose an older woman and a browner woman—we want to see those images, and we were like, ‘Are we being a little selfish?’”

Gabby definitely has a point, I’d only thought about the couple being kept off of covers because of the “homewrecker” allegations, but in this day and age, it’s definitely important to see that ballers aren’t only choosing young, light-skinned or white women. Gabrielle Union is a proud brown-skinned woman who will turn 40 this year and I think most people are happy about what they represent (ex-wife shenanigans aside).

Check out more of the interview here. Do you think Gabby and D Wade’s relationship is a necessary example of not just black love, but dark-skinned love?

Brande Victorian is a blogger and culture writer in New York City. Follower her on Twitter at @be_vic.

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