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Halle Berry is taking a left turn into television. She’s been there before with her movie Their Eyes Were Watching God. And HBO’s Introducing Dorothy Dandridge, for which she took home an Emmy, a Golden Globe and a SAG Award, was a successful project. But this time she will develop a Hannibal miniseries for the History Channel, according to The Hollywood Reporter, serving as executive producer for the project, which will focus on one of history’s greatest generals. Hannibal and his archrival Scipio Africanus went head-to-head in the Second Punic War and it was an epic battle.

“Hannibal was not only the greatest African general to ever live,” said Berry in a statement, “he may have been the greatest general, period. His story is an intricate and captivating ride, and I’m thrilled to get this project off the ground with our partners at History.”

The Hannibal miniseries will begin in Carthage, in 264 B.C., at the beginning of his life in North Africa and will cover the second Punic War between Carthage and Rome including his rival with Scipio Africanus which eventually tuns into a friendship.

Hannibal will be Berry’s latest trek into television. Earlier this year it was announced the Oscar winner will star in CBS’ 13-episode summer series Extant from executive producer Steven Spielberg, and she signed a two-year first-look deal with CBS Television Studios.

Which could indicate that Berry is going to focus her career a little more on television. Although her X-Men flicks are guaranteed winners, most of her other big budget films as of late have been major flops, such as Cloud Atlas, which also had the star power that Tom Hanks usually affords.

Berry’s Hannibal might have some competition from Vin Diesel’s own project on the famed general. For years Diesel has been trying to get backing for his own trilogy. According to Indiewire, his project was still alive as of August 2013. Diesel called his project “the first history-of-the-universe trilogy,” and told Variety he was taking his time to get it right. It has been four-plus years since he first announced the concept. There was even interest from Denzel Washington to be in the project as Hannibal’s father. Some big names directors have met with Diesel as well about the trilogy.

Seems like a slightly obscure thing for so many Hollywood types to be jumping all over. Will you check it out?

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Despite what society likes to say, it seems that women in Hollywood are proving everyone wrong when it comes to when and how women should bear children. Halle Berry recenlty gave birth to her second child at 47, Kim Fields also just gave birth to her second child at 44. Now actress Sherri Saum, 39, has announced that she’s expecting for the first time, and she’s pregnant with twins! In a statement released by her rep on Tuesday, they had this to say according to Us:

“The actress and her husband Kamar de los Reyes are so thrilled to welcome the little ones into the world in early summer.”

Saum is currently starring on the ABC Family show, The Fosters, and is known for her past recurring role on Rescue Me, her soap work on One Life To Live (as Keri Reynolds) and starring on the old-school NBC soap, Sunset Beach. Her husband, Kamar de los Reyes, is an actor and her former castmate from One Life To Live (as Antonio Vega). The couple, who according to Us, split their time between New York and Los Angeles, have been married since 2007 and as previously mentioned, these twins will be their first children together.

I’ve never been a One Life To Live buff (All My Children and Passions were more up my alley…), but I know Saum from her recurring roles and guest work on shows like Law and Order: SVU. Congratulations to the beautiful couple!

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Pregnancy can sometimes be the least glamorous time in a woman’s life, but there’s a lot to be said for the pregnancy glow when it comes to these expectant celebrities. From Beyonce to Alicia Keys to Halle Berry, here’s a look at some of the cutest pregnant celebrities.

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Celebrity hair trends come and go. Sometimes styles that seemed like a good idea in the moment quickly become a cringe-worthy reminder of a very particular time and place. But other times, celebrities who take a hair plunge emerge as newly-minted style icons. And the latest track to beauty icon status? The pixie cut. It definitely takes quite a pair of cojones to chop off long, luscious locks, but these celebrities were certainly rewarded with quite a pay off for their risk. Here are our favorite pixie-haired celebs.

Famous people do everything bigger and celebrity engagement rings are no exception! Beyonce said “Put a ring on it” and the fellas lined up, with their wallets of course. Engagements are a symbol of love and commitment, but they can be costly, ranging from $70,000 to $5 million if you’re a celebrity. Check out 15 celebs who literally have million dollar homes on their ring fingers.

Ciara

Future knew what he was doing when he chose a beautiful 15-carat emerald cut diamond ring by Avianne & Co for Ciara. Yes, she had the birthday celebration that many girls dream of. Her man got on one knee in front of everyone to pop the question with a three-stone cut ring made of flawless diamonds with a price tag of $1 million to 1.5 million.

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For Better or Worse actress Tasha Smith recently stopped by The Wendy Show, where she discussed her rather large blended family. The 42-year-old actress also revealed that she and her husband of three years, Keith Douglas, are trying to get pregnant. The interview opened with Wendy’s favorite topic these days, Kanye West and Kim Kardashian. When asked what she thought of their recent engagement, Tasha offered nothing but positivity.

“Everybody deserves to be happy. I mean, we got our men right? You know, so hey, good luck! Good luck! Stay in therapy. I hope that they do well,” she said.

She went on to discuss the five stepchildren that she has been blessed with as a result of her marriage to her hubby.

“I don’t call them stepkids, I call them bonus kids. Aren’t they beautiful? They call me Mom. Well, actually, the oldest one, Roy, calls me Mama Love. And then everyone else calls me Mom. Dhalia calls me Mama. They all have their different way of communicating.”

As for the children’s mothers, Tasha had nothing but nice things to say.

“That is a beautiful thing. I don’t have no baby mama drama, honey. Sis, the truth is, I give my husband all of the credit. If he wasn’t the man that he was, we would have drama. I mean, we have a great time together. We’re all great friends. Even for Thanksgiving, I’m spending Thanksgiving with my daughter, her mother, her grandmother, her great grandmother, my husband, my older son’s mother. This is the new normal baby!”

Tasha also revealed that she’s working on popping out a biological child.

“I’m working’ on it, honey. As a matter of fact, I’ll be ovulating soon. I countdown my days of travel during that time of ovulation. I get home or stay home. I’m serious, Wendy are you kidding me? When you’re 42, you gotta pee on the stick, okay!  I’m taking it honey around the clock. And then, let me tell you this Wendy, after we make love I’ll stand on my head honey. I’m making sure it sticks, it’s dropping down!”

“One day honey, he came in the room after we made love and I was standing on my head butt n*ked and he was like, ‘What are you doing?’”

Too funny!

Check Tasha’s interview on the next page.

After watching this year’s Emmy awards, many people felt as if actress Kerry Washington was robbed. After losing out to Claire Danes in the category for “Best Actress,” the “Scandal” star took it in stride but here is a list of other actors who were passed over for their stellar roles.

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Denzel Washington: Malcom X

Denzel Washington has had a long and stellar career in Hollywood that has spanned almost four decades. In addition to playing various characters, Washington also had to flex his acting skills when it came to playing real-life people. He received critical acclaim for his portrayals of Steve Biko, Rubin “Hurricane” Carter, Melvin B. Tolson, Frank Lucas, and Herman Boone but it was his starring role in Spike Lee’s Malcolm X that should’ve earned the native New Yorker an Academy award. Although he was nominated for Best Actor, Washington lost out to Al Pacino. Lee was very vocal about his feelings saying, among other things, “I’m not the only one who thinks Denzel was robbed on that one.”

We told you yesterday about Vivica A. Fox speaking to BET about her dating standards, and how she won’t date a man 30 and under after splitting with her tenderoni fiancé Omar “Slim” White (the two had a 20 year age difference). But there seems to be a deeper story behind their split, which Viv opened up about with Bethenny Frankel on her talk show. She said that she realized she was trying to marry him and move down to Atlanta so that she could have a family, but she truly wasn’t happy.

“We broke up three months before the wedding. Kids wasn’t the issue at all. It was just that it wasn’t right. I had to be honest with myself, I wasn’t happy anymore. He’s a great guy but he just wasn’t for me. My family, my sister, my brother–my brother lives in Atlanta, and I was about to move my life to Atlanta and they could see that I wasn’t happy. They said, ‘You’re just doing this because you want to have a child and you want to move closer back East to the family.’ My family lives back East. I just had been for the last 20 years so focused on Vivica and my career and what was the next job and what was the next thing I could do to…[breaks down]

You know what I mean? I wanted to do something different. I wanted to have a child. And I wanted to be closer to my family.

You get to that point too where you’re like, you can’t [have a child] and then you get a lot of people who are like, ‘Oh well, you can adopt’ and maybe I can. But I did want to try to have my own child. Because I’ll never forget when I saw Halle Berry one time and how happy I saw that she was with Nahla. I said, ‘Nahla has brought you so much joy.’ And Halle said, Vivica I wish I had did it years ago, I would have had five.”

That’s really deep, and we hope that Viv does try her hand at adoption, because it’s obvious that she wants to be a mom and has enough love to share with a child. Check out that short aspect of her interview with Frankel below and let us know what think.

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As I’m sure you’ve heard by now, 47-year-old Halle Berry gave birth to a baby boy on Saturday in Los Angeles. Little man is her second child (who can forget about little Nahla Aubry from her relationship with model Gabriel Aubry?), but is her first child with new husband Olivier Martinez. Now that the weekend has passed, news of the name picked by Halle Berry and Olivier Martinez has finally been released.

According to TMZ, sources say that the two have decided to name their son Maceo Robert Martinez. The news site says that Maceo, a name of Spanish origin, means “Gift of God,” and they say, “The current version of Maceo is Matteo or Matthew.” Seeing as how Berry was very open in saying that she felt her son at the age of 47 was a miracle, the name fits the baby boy just right.

As for Robert, that’s the name of Olivier’s father, who is Spanish.

Congratulations once again to the couple on their growing family. We’re sure that little Maceo will be a stunner just like his good-looking mom and dad.

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Though summer just ended, you have a reason to look forward to next summer. And it’s not just because of the warm weather and the opportunity to walk the streets half-dressed. You should get excited because Halle Berry is coming to CBS to star in the new drama Extant. 

Steven Spielberg’s Amblin Television and CBS Television Studios will produce the 13-episode drama. Berry will star as an astronaut who comes home after a year by herself in space, and upon her return, she tries to bond with her husband and son again, but what she goes through in space and at home will for some reason lead to some “history-changing events.”

Yeah, I don’t really get the plot that much either, but I’m sure it will all make sense when the show premieres next summer. Berry issued a statement about her excitement to do the show, saying the following:

“I’m always on the lookout for amazing roles, and when you see material that contains this strong of auspices, nuance and complexity, it compels me to run toward it no matter the medium. For five months a year I’ll get to live with and play this incredibly intelligent and vulnerable woman, and for the remainder of the year I’ll continue to look for other roles that move me as deeply as this one.”

Steven Spielberg also shared his thoughts on the show’s development and having Berry in the starring role:

“There’s only one Halle Berry, and we are incredibly honored that she has chosen Extant to expand her illustrious career. As she does with everything she touches, she will bring a deep authenticity to her role and I very much look forward to working with her.”

This is really big news, as another black woman will be leading a cast on network television. Hopefully Berry will have more success than Meagan Good did with Deception on NBC (that wasn’t a bad show!) and that her fan base will tune in. We sure will! This has definitely been a good year for Halle, from her pregnancy, to her marriage, getting her anti-paparazzi bill made into a law, and now news of a new TV opportunity. Congrats, lady!