Fashion and television icon Sarah Jessica Parker sat down with Net-A-Porter’s The Edit magazine to speak about more than just personal style, and she decided to open up about the road Sex and the City paved for Girls, and how she really feels about the CW bringing you a whole different version of Carrie Bradshaw via The Carrie Diaries (are you even watching?).

While The Carrie Diaries is a cute show, it doesn’t seem that Sarah Jessica Parker is a big fan of it. She didn’t outright tell the magazine that she didn’t like it, because she’s a fan of the young lady who plays a young Bradshaw, AnnaSophia Rob, but it’s definitely not what SJP was expecting. When asked how she felt about the new portrayal of her iconic character, Parker says, “I’m not so sure.”

“You know, I think it’s one of those tests of your generosity,” Parker continued. “[Robb] is a lovely girl and I want her to feel good about it, but it’s… odd.”

Just as a reminder to all though, The Carrie Diaries is of course from the book of the same name by Sex and the City writer Candace Bushnell, so it’s definitely not a random out of the blue concept (and in fact, the book is pretty good–bought it for my diehard SATC stan sister). Therefore, Parker just might be creeped out by watching another person embody the character she brought to life. As for the legacy of Sex and the City, Parker says she’s hesitant to say it gave a voice to a generation of women, but it definitely let the stories of many women be told in a more frank manner.

“I think it certainly encouraged women to share more candidly,” she said. “I don’t know if it empowered women. I hesitate to say whether we were the pioneers or whether we gave voice to something that was there, but I recognize there was a connection.”

And this candid way of doing things definitely influenced Lena Dunham and the whole Girls series (and honestly, it probably also did so for shows like Girlfriends, movies like Bridesmaids and more). SJP says the influence is specifically around women playing a larger role in production of these stories on these shows, like Parker having a behind-the-scenes role outside of just being Carrie Bradshaw on Sex and the City. It definitely allowed other women to do more than just be a small-screen star.

“HBO was very encouraging of the beyond-camera role I played, and I feel that had we not done it, I don’t know that would have existed for ‘Girls.” It’s a such a different way of thinking and it’s not conventional. I also think Dunham came along understanding her voice and with the support of a producing partner Judd Apatow experienced enough to say she is capable of this, she needs to be in charge of the story as it’s her voice. I do feel ‘Sex & The City’s’ success made that possible, and it would have been different otherwise.”

She definitely has a point. But what do you think? And what do you think about the prequel to SATC, The Carrie Diaries?

Jimi Celeste/Patrick McMullan/Sipa USA (Sipa via AP Images)

While people have been been giving Beyonce back-seat advice about overexposure, Mrs. Carter  just keeps rolling — and promoting herself. And she proved the naysayers wrong. According to The Hollywood Reporter, she was the television ratings queen last week, with her documentary and Oprah Winfrey interview topping the ratings charts.

The two Beyonce TV specials pulled in big numbers for HBO and OWN. In fact, the singer’s documentary, Life Is But a Dream, is HBO’s most-watched documentary effort in nearly 10 years, reports THR. And her sit-down with Oprah had 1.3 million viewers earlier that same night.

Beyonce’s Life Is But a Dream pulled three times the ratings of recent first-runs for HBO’s Sunday series Girls. Over at OWN, the Beyonce episode of Oprah’s Next Chapter topped all of ad-supported cable’s non-sports programs in the targeted women 25-to-54 demographic for the time period.

Beyonce was the director and executive producer for the autobiographical television film. It was released on February 16th on HBO , in conjunction with Parkwood Entertainment, Knowles’ management company.

Did you watch both specials? And share your thoughts on this story: Is Beyonce a mogul?

Beyonce at the NBA All-Star game this weekend in Houston. AP Photo/Eric Gay

An hour before the television premiere of Beyoncé’s HBO documentary on Sunday, Oprah called the budding icon the “preeminent mistress of the universe” in their exclusive sit-down interview. This ridiculous group of words barely exaggerates Beyoncé’s place in pop culture. Over the past few years, the media has elevated her to the Queen of Pop, in a lane all her own.

Life Is But A Dream is meant to be film about a pop star finding herself.  But it also documents a woman the public associates with perfection and power, in the vulnerable position of starting a new phase of her career.

The first topic Beyonce tackles in the film is her professional split from her father and manager Matthew Knowles, a pivotal moment that marks the official beginning of Beyoncé’s career as a mogul. Moguls don’t just make a living. They architect the deals and strategies that build their empire. The fate of Beyoncé, Inc. now rests entirely on the shoulders of its namesake.

Following the March 2011 announcement that she would take over managing her career, Beyonce sounds like any other new entrepreneur, telling MTV:

“My focus is not bigger; it’s quality, and I want to make sure it’s something I’m proud of years from now,” she says later on. “It’s very difficult managing myself. Every night when I go to sleep, I ask hundreds of questions. I’m making mistakes, and I’m learning from them. I’ve never been afraid to fall — and I say all these things, but now I’m being tested.”

The senior Knowles wasn’t just another stage dad. He was a high-level marketing executive at IBM before leaving the company to market his daughter’s career. From the beginning, the infrastructure and the strategy to maximize Beyoncé’s talent for mass consumption was in place.

Beyoncé talks a lot about her artistry in her film’s narration, but her success can be credited just as much to her ability to view herself as a product. Beyoncé isn’t a person for her audience to get to know. She is an experience to be bought and aspired to. She may have been born to entertain, but she was brought up to be a business.

And just like any other new entrepreneur, her time in business has been marked by highs and lows. Here’s a recap of what Beyonce has accomplished since striking out on her own. How do you think she did?

Sales & Income

• “4” is her first album not to go multi-platinum
• Comes in at number 16 on Forbes 2012 “Celebrity 100″ list, having earned $40 million in the past year.

Strategy

• Releases “Run The World (Girls)” as first single from album “4,” igniting a debate on whether Beyonce is good for feminism.
• Announces pregnancy during her performance of “Love On Top” at the 2011 MTV VMAs; breaks the “most tweets per second recorded for a single event” Twitter record and makes the “Love On Top” the highest charting single of the album.
• Settles scandal over pre-recorded vocals for the inauguration by singing the national anthem live at Super Bowl press conference.

Partnerships

• Partners with First Lady Michelle Obama to boost her campaign against child obesity.
• Becomes an ambassador the 2012 World Humanitarian Day campaign; her song “I Was Here” becomes the campaign theme song.
• Partners with Pepsi in $50 million creative development deal; critics believe this deal goes against work with First Lady.

Accolades

• Receives two nominations at the 54^th Grammy Awards; Best Rap/Sung Collaboration for “Party”, and Best Long Form Music Video for I Am… World Tour
• Receives Millennium Award at the 2011 Billboard Awards
• Wins for Best Traditional R&B Performance for “Love on Top” at the 55^th Grammy Awards.

Performance

• Takes the stage at New York’s Roseland Ballroom in “4 Intimate Nights with Beyonce.”
• Became the first solo female artist to headline the Pyramid stage at the 2011 Glastonbury Festival in over twenty years.
• Stages “Revel Presents: Beyonce Live” over four nights as a comeback after giving birth
• Sings the national anthem at the second inauguration for President Barack Obama.
• Serves as half-time performance at Super Bowl XLVII.

So the question is: Can we call Beyonce a mogul? How do you define a mogul these days?

—

C. Cleveland is a freelance writer and content strategist in New York City, perfecting living the fierce life at The Red Read. She is at your service on Twitter (@CleveInTheCity) and Facebook (/MyReadIsRed). 

Source: Instagram

After months of waiting, Beyoncé’s documentary, Beyoncé: Life Is But A Dream, is finally premiering tonight on HBO. Oh, and Oprah threw the fans and stans an even bigger bone when she revealed last weekend that she would be interviewing Bey and it would also air tonight, an hour before the documentary. That’s pretty much Bey overload, right? Well, here’s the thing: because we know that “Beyoncé” is a brand and a bit of a machine, there have been some things that she’s managed to avoid talking about. But tonight, we want answers! Even if you aren’t a big fan, you’ve probably heard some things about her that have piqued your interest and you’d like to hear what she has to say too. So check out some of the things we’re hoping Bey addresses – if the interview and documentary are no holds barred.

That’s right, Baddie Bey isn’t the only one with a documentary debuting today. While HBO airs Beyonce Knowles’ “Life is But a Dream” special tonight, her Siamese twin sister, Keyonce Bowles, will be premiering her own documentary right here on Madamenoire.com: “Life Is But a Scream.”

In October, Keyonce came forward with her story of what it’s like to be the unknown sister of King Bey, now we uncover how her life has changed since she entered the spotlight. Watch the trailer for her special and check back for her documentary at 10:30 pm right here.

Ivan Nikolov/WENN

Before you all get mad at me, let me point out that “Bey season” has officially begun and there will likely be a rise in talks about Beyonce. Just bare with us, okay? This is entertainment news and Bey is…an entertainer. Still mad at me? Well, I tried. Let’s move on!

We’re starting to hear more and more about Beyonce’s documentary Life Is But A Dream which will premiere in February on HBO.  USA Today was able to get an advanced screening and apparently, Bey decided to be extremely candid when speaking about pregnancy. By now, most of us have seen the trailer for the doc and know that we get a quick glimpse of her belly in the very early stages of her pregnancy with now one year old Blue Ivy.

But it goes deeper than that. She speaks on her miscarriage and how one week there was a heartbeat and the next week, she heard nothing.  If you recall, we first learned about the Carters’ miscarriage on Jay-Z’s song dedicated to Blue, “Glory.” Beyonce says the studio became an outlet for her to deal with the loss.

Oh and about that rumor that she didn’t actually have a baby? Here’s what Bey had to say:

“There’s a stupid rumor. The most ridiculous rumor I think I’ve ever had about me. It’s crazy. To think I would be that vain – I respect mothers and women so much and to be able to experience bringing a child into this world, if you’re lucky and fortunate enough to experience that, I would never, ever take that for granted. It’s the most powerful thing you can do. Especially after losing a child, the pain and trauma from that just makes it mean so much more to get an opportunity to bring life into the world. It seems like people should have boundaries.”

I’m sure this does nothing for those of you who believe she didn’t carry Blue but she’s finally addressed it directly.

It’ll be interesting to see what else she has to say or share because as we learned in the GQ interview, she is filmed 16 hours a day.  As much as people may love her, the struggle in her fame is that people still don’t feel like they know her and I’m not exactly sure the filming schedule will make her seem more believable. Still, there’s got to be something in all that footage that makes her feel more relatable, right?

Life Is But A Dream premieres on HBO on February 16th at 9pm.

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Fans of The Wire are undoubtedly sad about this.

Actor Robert Chew, best known for his role as Proposition Joe (or Prop Joe, for short), was found dead in his Baltimore home on Thursday, according to The Baltimore Sun. He was 52 years old.

His sister Clarice told the newspaper he died of heart failure.

As word quickly spread of his passing, former cast members of The Wire extended their condolences. Actor Michael K. Williams, who played Omar in the series, tweeted, “RIP to the talented Mr. Robert Chew.

Actor Jamie Hector tweeted, “I don’t want to believe this #RIP Robert F. Chew. Prop Joe will always be remembered Robert Chew will always be loved and missed.” Fans of the show will remember that Hector’s character Marlo Stanfield was responsible for the death of Prop Joe on The Wire.

Creator David Simon sang Chew’s praises, saying:

“Robert was not only an exceptional actor, he was an essential part of the film and theater community in Baltimore.  He could have gone to New York or Los Angeles and commanded a lot more work, but he loved the city as his home and chose to remain here working. And apart from that, he was a fine and generous man.”

Born and raised in Baltimore, Chew was a teacher and mentor at Baltimore’s Arena Players. He was responsible for having the series hire 22 young actors for season four of The Wire, which was known for its focus on the Baltimore school system.

Chew was not married and had no children. He is survived by his mother and three sisters.

Our thoughts and prayers are with his family.

Source: blogs.indiewire.com

By the time Stick Fly completed its two plus month run on Broadway last year, critics had expressed varied opinions about the play. Some said likened the play about a emotional and drama-filled weekend at Martha’s Vineyard to a soap opera; while others, like myself, felt it adequately touched on issues of race, class, wealth and family dysfunction pretty well. I know it kept me engrossed and Condola Rashad was nominated for a Tony for her performance. You know, everything ain’t for everybody.

Luckily,  someone felt strongly enough about Lydia Diamond’s work to turn it into an HBO movie.

Just like the play, Alicia Keys will produce, alongside Nettie Nugent as well as the people at HBO. Though Diamond and Keys are still on board, there’s no word on whether or not the cast will come along and how the final product will look once it comes to television.

Did you see Stick Fly on Broadway? If not, do you plan to check it on HBO?

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Performing at Revel Atlantic City. Image: AP Photo/Parkwood Entertainment, Robin Harper

While I was initially pretty “meh” about this documentary, I can’t lie, seeing Beyoncé showing off her bare belly with a growing child in it got my eyes a little wide and both my curiosity and attention (I stole that line from the Django Unchained trailer *smiles*). “Whaaaaaaaaat!? Now this should be interesting for real,” I said. Knowles dropped an almost 30-second teaser of her upcoming HBO documentary, which she directed and produced herself. In the teaser, the singer flashes a wealth of images that describe her life on camera, and talks about the battle she says she has gone through in her career when it comes to exposing her family and her love life to her fans:  “I always battle with, how much do I reveal about myself?” We’ll also get to see more home videos of a young Beyoncé, as well as video of the singer rehearsing, on stage, moving about in the world as pan–make that, fandemonium ensues and more. But as I hinted to earlier, the most interesting part of this teaser is the glimpse we will get to see of Beyoncé during the early days of her pregnancy, and the baby bump as it grows and grows. I’m just trying to make sure we get to see a full shot of her and her belly, you know, so we know that it’s her. Kidding! But seriously, I’m excited to hear and see what she had to say about going through the ups and downs of pregnancy. I’m also wondering if she’ll respond to the many twisted theories and claims that her pregnancy wasn’t real. Either way, I’ll definitely be tuned in. The doc will premiere on February 16 and is sure to have people (especially the haters) talking.  Check out the teaser below and let us know what you think. Should be good!

Shutterstock

As if you didn’t have enough to look forward to from Beyoncé next year after the announcement of her sure-to-be insane Super Bowl halftime performance and the alert of a new album dropping very soon, Bey stans will be happy to learn that she will premiering the documentary on her life via HBO next February–February 16 to be exact. The doc is being directed, produced and executive produced by the singer, actress, designer, and a whole bunch of other things and will not only give us a close up at Bey the performer and musician, but Bey behind the scenes. According to the press release, which we were able to obtain via Shadow and Act, what viewers will see will include a lot more of the intimate images we sometime are lucky to see in her concert DVDs:

The film is a multi-faceted portrait of the 16-time Grammy Award-winning singer, businesswoman, songwriter, actress, entrepreneur, wife and mother, showing off the extraordinary gifts that have made her a global phenomenon, and stripping away the veneer of stardom. It includes extensive first-person footage, some of it shot by Beyoncé on her laptop, in which she reflects on the realities of celebrity, the refuge she finds onstage and the transcendent joy of becoming a mother last year.

The film sheds light on her childhood in Houston, with home movies revealing the close bond she built with her family and charts the challenges Beyoncé felt when she decided to manage her career and build her own company, Parkwood Entertainment. It also captures the intense physical and emotional demands she goes through in the studio, preparing for live performances, running a business and her family life, including her return to the spotlight after the birth of her daughter, Blue Ivy Carter, in January 2012.

And both Beyoncé and Michael Lombardo, president of HBO’s programming, seem to be excited about the project, which we’re sure will pull in big numbers for the network. As Lombardo says:

“Everybody knows Beyoncé’s music, but few know Beyoncé the person… Along with electrifying footage of Beyoncé onstage, this unique special looks beyond the glamour to reveal a vibrant, vulnerable, unforgettable woman,“

And Bey added her two cents of excitement with the following statement in the press release:

“HBO has a history of pushing every boundary with class and authenticity… Some of my favorite shows are on HBO, so I am excited that my film will be part of its bold programming. This film was so personal to me, it had to have the right home.

I have to be honest in stating that I’m a tad bit worried that this documentary will be more of the same, especially since the press release said that we can expect some exclusives from Bey, which were shot on her computer, and Lord knows we’ve seen a great deal of those already (i.e,, “Why am I so blessed? Why did God give me this life…?”). But seeing as how Beyoncé is being oh so open these days with her awesome Tumblr and Instagram, she might expose a lot more of herself on-screen than we’re used to. And since we’ll see how she adjusted to getting back out there after having baby Blue, it would be dope to see how Bey moves around as a doting mom (they can keep Blue’s face covered, I get it).

But alas, I won’t hold my breath.

So what do you think? Are you going to be checking for Beyoncé’s documentary on HBO in February? What do you hope to see?