After some pretty good promotion and some very captivating trailers (“He’s going to take you straight to hell…”), I’m sure you know that Temptation was released yesterday, and everybody and their mothers will be in the movie theater watching it. While promoting the film, one of the film’s very fine stars, Lance Gross, opened up to the Huffington Post about all the early backlash the movie received (back when it was still called The Marriage Counselor) because of Perry’s choice to allow Kim Kardashian to be in it. But Gross says that while he can understand why people might be upset about her being in the movie, she actually did a great job so people should give her and her performance a chance before they talk crazy.

So what is the movie about? Clearly its center is the fight to resist the temptation to cheat. While no one would dare cheat on Gross in real life, his character of Brice doesn’t have the same luck:

“He’s a small town guy, very passionate about his career, on his way to becoming a pharmacist. And he’s just a very regular guy. He married his childhood sweetheart, “Judith,” played by Jurnee Smollett-Bell. Along the way, as far as his relationship, he becomes comfortable and stops doing the things that he used to do to make her feel special. And then she meets this guy and the temptation comes in. He shows her a whole new world that she’s just not used to. So I spend most of my time in the movie fighting for my marriage.”

He also discussed how Perry is also starting to target a wider audience with his films and what kind of director Perry is:

“It’s definitely different. Tyler has his thing. He appeals to a certain type of audience, but Tyler really targets the African-American, church going community. And actually, it’s really growing now. Tyler works very quickly, he knows what he wants and he executes. It’s like a good boot camp for an actor, because it’s just puts you on your “A-game.” It prepares you for other directors who tend to take their time. But it’s depends on who it is, because some directors work fast like Tyler Perry and some like to take their time and do 17 takes.”

As for Kim K…

“I’ve been working with Tyler since 2007 and he has a great business mind. He knows what he’s doing and he knows what he wants for his films. So I don’t really question his decisions in casting people. To Kim’s defense, she did a great job. The role that he gave her was well thought out. It was something that he believed she could execute. And I think she brought her “A-game.” I get what all the fuss was about, but at the end of the day you got to give people a chance. And I feel like she really proved herself.”

I guess we’ll see now won’t we?

Are you catching Temptation this weekend? 

 

 

Today while Goggling Kandi Burruss’s name for accuracy, a rather interesting/hater-worthy article on The Huffington Post, popped up at the top of my search page: “Kandi Burruss’ Engagement Ring Is Not What It Appears to Be.”

Huh?

What follows that headline is a 550-word article by diamond industry veteran Ira Weissman that, for what reason I don’t know, attempts to discredit Kandi, her fiance Todd, and even US Magazine all because her engagement ring isn’t as expensive as he and apparently the one other person who thinks like him — the editor who approved this piece — thought it was. Confused? Here’s what Weissman wrote:

According to the US Magazine report, Tucker proposed to Burruss with a “a gorgeous two-carat white diamond sparkler by ring designer Gregg Ruth.”…

At first glance, the ring looks like a stunning (and HUGE!) two-carat oval diamond. In a fine pave setting like this from a high-end designer like Gregg Ruth, one would expect the diamond quality to be rather high. In my professional estimation, a large oval in a setting like this would need to be at least a G color. A diamond like this would likely cost at least $25,000 for the diamond alone. A designer setting like hers could easily add another $4,000 to $5,000. At full retail from a high-end Las Vegas jewelry store, this ring would likely cost well over $40,000.

But at closer inspection, this is clearly not what we’re dealing with here. A quick look at Gregg Ruth’s website brings us to this ring’s specific page.

The MSRP listed there is about $11,000….

US Magazine is perhaps deliberately misleading us. The ring is not a “two-carat diamond sparkler” — it is a two-carat total weight diamond sparkler. The face of her ring, which is in the shape of an oval, is filled with much smaller round diamonds that when clustered together give the illusion of a much larger diamond.

Now I am the last one to disparage creative ways to save money when buying diamonds. Diamond clustering is a fantastic way to get a stunning ring at a fraction of the price of a single large diamond. Her ring, for example, costs $11,000 instead of approximately $40,000 for the same ring with one large oval-cut diamond.

What I am vehemently against, however, is that she has tried to hide this fact. She had a great opportunity to make a difference by explaining what her ring was really all about and telling the world she didn’t care — that this ring made her extremely happy because of how much her man loves her, not because of how much he spent on it. US Magazine’s reporting unfortunately just perpetuates the unreasonable expectations held by many women, and the sense of obligation their men feel in fulfilling them.

Nice job using a woman you have no real knowledge of to try to make a larger point about the financial burden placed on men at the time of engagement, but let me tell you where you failed, Weissman.

It’s clear this man has no knowledge of who Kandi Burruss because if there’s one thing we know about her, she is not afraid to talk about where she saved a few pennies. Kandi is the epitome of ballin’ on a budget and I didn’t gather that she was trying to pass off her ring as more than it was from her US mag exclusive at all.

And not to get all racial, but I’m not surprised this white jeweler HuffPo dug up isn’t familiar with this Black woman known for her time in Xscape and for being an Atlanta housewife. Had he actually done a little background and perhaps tried to speak to Kandi first, I’m sure she would have given him the rundown on her ring. Or, she would have slammed the phone on his ear because it’s tacky as hell to be all up in somebody’s bank account, pricing their ring like that. The only one concerned with how much Kandi’s ring cost is Weissman, so don’t be mad at her because you bought into the hype and were so surprised at this Black woman’s ring you had to investigate it. Go keep up with some other Joneses, please.

 

From Black Voices

 

The body of 10-year-old Jade Morris was found in a Nevada desert on Thursday, according to family members.

The discovery was made by a man walking his dog near an unfinished housing development in the northern stretches of the Las Vegas Valley, Las Vegas Metro Police said.

Family members told the Black and Missing Foundation that they visually identified the remains for police, who have not yet released a statement positively identifying the body.

Read the statement from the family and the rest of the story surrounding Jade’s disappearance and subsequent death at Black Voices.com

Dreams of retiring early are becoming nightmares. According to a new study, Americans feel they won’t be able to retire—at all. “Thirty percent of middle-class Americans, or nearly one in three, say they plan to work until their 80s because they can’t afford to retire earlier,” reports The Huffington Post.  This means people are planning to work their entire lives—as the average American dies at age 78, according to the World Bank.

Harris Interactive on behalf of Wells Fargo surveyed 1,000 Americans about their retirement goals. The middle class is basically disappearing, say some experts, leaving little room for people to save for retirement. “The U.S.’ real median household income, at just $50,054, is roughly at the same level where it was in 1989. While worker productivity has risen 69 percent since 1979, median hourly compensation rose just 6.5 percent during the same time period, according to the Economic Policy Institute,” write HuffPo.

Americans seem to feel they won’t have enough to retire on. And this may be true. Americans need about $1 million in retirement savings to maintain a decent standard of living in retirement, according to Kiplinger.

And even if workers do retire from one job, most say they plan on getting another. “Thirty-nine percent of middle-class Americans said in the Wells Fargo survey that they plan to work in retirement out of financial necessity, according to the survey,” states the article.

There are ways, however, to try to save for retirement even if you have a low income, according to  US News & World Report:

•  Set up a direct deposit. Have a portion of each paycheck automatically deposited into a 401(k), IRA, savings, or investment account.
• Redirect your tax refund and tax break. If you don’t need your tax refund for immediate expenses or debts, consider saving a portion of it for retirement.
• Take advantage of tax breaks. Saving in a retirement account has the added bonus of reducing your current or future taxes.
• Don’t spend your savings early. Once you begin to build a nest egg, try not to spend any of it before retirement.

OWN will not go down without a fight—if at all. Arianna Huffington and her team have come to Oprah’s aid with a new joint venture for the launch of Oprah Winfrey’s very own section on The Huffington Post. The collaboration between the Post and the Oprah Winfrey Network will launch in August, and according to a press release:

“The special section on the website will feature content created and curated by writers and producers from OWN and Oprah.com specifically for The Huffington Post. Additionally, the section will call upon The Huffington Post’s vast network of bloggers and community to have a conversation around Oprah.com content….

“The Huffington Post Oprah section will contain a mix of articles, blogs and interactive content that will connect with the audience on an emotional and spiritual level. The site will provide practical advice and resources encouraging people to discover their best selves and to lead happy, fulfilling lives by taking steps to attain their goals. Topics covered will include personal growth, spirituality and aspects of physical and mental health.”

This may have been something Oprah should have done from the beginning, although the talk show legend has always been able to stand on her own until now. The Huffington Post has been widely successful, with stats as of February showing that the site receives 36.2 million unique monthly visitors. Oprah could definitely use that type of exposure but whether reading about the media mogul and her network of experts will translate to more viewers of her television channel is a toss-up. The OWN folks are going to have to get creative.

Do you think this Huffington Post section will give Oprah and OWN the boost they need?

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

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Just when you think you can’t love Zoe Saldana anymore she turns around and does something else to make us do just that.

On the red carpet at the Cosmopolitan for Latinas launch party Wednesday night, Zoe was showered with praise for being the face of the mag’s first issue and when The Huffington Post asked the actress why she chose to cover Cosmo Latina when she can cover any magazine in the world she had to correct the interviewer just a teeny little bit.

“First of all I can’t yet pose for any magazine. I wish I could,” she told the Huffpost. “There are a lot of magazines that are still sort of…that only cater to a certain demographic and only put certain people on their covers,” she added. “And that’s fine – I never lose hope that one day certain big magazines can broaden their exposure of what is an American face.”

Don’t let the cute face and the petite stature fool you, though. Zoe’s just about done with white-washed magazine covers.

“I never like to get political, but when you have the ability, through your media, to influence a large mass of people, I would want to be a part of the evolving cycle of progress versus keeping things the way that they are. That said, I think that I speak for a lot of us, Americans, that I would want to see a little more diversity.

“It is happening, but not at the pace that it should be,” she added. “For the love of God, we have a Black president. That should’ve set the tone on a lot of things that should’ve been a little quicker, and it’s not enough.”

The good thing, Zoe said, is that there are magazines like Cosmo Latina who are celebrating diversity on their own terms.

“For me to have been invited to be the first on their cover, I feel so honored and grateful. To be seen and to be respected for my work and acknowledged as a true American Latina…means a lot to me.”

Check out more of her red carpet interview here. What do you think is the answer to more cover diversity in a non-print friendly market?

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Christina Norman’s stock went up when she was first hired by Oprah Winfrey to head her cable network OWN. Soon thereafter, however, Norman’s name became even more popular in industry circles when news broke that she was asked to leave OWN in the face of dismal ratings.

Norman followed up her CEO gig with a surprising position: that of executive editor of Huffington Post’s Black Voices. For many, it seemed like a step down for the woman who was once the president of MTV and credited with turning VH1 around. But she has proved to be a secret weapon for HuffPo and its monstrous momentum as a top content site. “At the heart of it, I’m a content person. I just needed to wrap my head around content for an online audience,” Norman told AdWeek.

Since joining the team in October, BlackVoices has registered some strong numbers according to AdWeek. “Daily visitors have surged by 73 percent to 318,000, while monthly pagesviews have spiked by 19 percent. And much like the mothership, BlackVoices has embraced being a social publisher, with referrals from social networks climbing by 42 percent.”

Since BlackVoices is such a stronghold in the online Black news sphere, it is primed to grab up the dollars dedicated to African-American marketing and advertising. And that’s where Norman’s impact is most felt.

 

Beyonce’s been unusually open about her personal life since she’s become pregnant, and that has left media outlets salivating at the possibility of being the first to show pics of her and Jay Z’s new baby (don’t worry, he/she isn’t here yet). But according to The Huffington Post, Bey isn’t even entertaining the idea.

“They are one of the most private couples,” one magazine editor said. “We have made several offers to their people about running exclusive images of mother and baby and no one has responded.”

They had to try right?

It’s not surprising that Beyonce would refuse to go the exploit-my-child-for-money route. It took her nearly 10 years to acknowledge her relationship with Jay, and as another industry insider revealed, “They have an estimated net worth of over $700 million. It’s not like they need the money.”

I am curious what they were offered, though. Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie set the record for baby picture earnings, accepting $12 million dollars for photos of their twins, Knox and Vivienne, which they completely donated to charity. I’m sure Baby Bey could top that.

“If Beyonce and Jay-Z do decide to share their child with the world, they will probably go the same route as Tom Cruise and Katie [Holmes],” the editor explained. “Instead of selling the images to a weekly publication, they would give them away for nothing to lock in a cover of a monthly like Vanity Fair. But knowing this couple, it is unlikely we will ever see a staged picture of the child.”

I agree; and as much as I want to see the new bundle of joy, I think that’s for the better.

Are you secretly hoping Beyonce and Jay Z sell the first pics of their baby, or at least cover a monthly mag as a family?

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

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My gut has gotten super sensitive recently, to the point that I almost have an instant reaction to any circumstance related to money, work, relationships, and anything else important to me, that tells me slow down, proceed with caution. In the past, I’ve mistaken that uneasiness in my stomach for nervous jitters, but I’ve come to realize that most times when I get a funny feeling in my tummy, it means something is not right.

When you meet someone new, butterflies and uneasiness seem to get into a bit of a wrestling match in your stomach and the uneasy feeling your tummy sends your brain as a warning sign gets drowned out by the nervous excitement of flapping butterfly wings. Fast forward a couple of years later and you’re crying on the couch asking how did this happen?

The last relationship I was in, I had an instant vibe from the guy that told me not to pursue anything. I didn’t even want to meet him when I saw him because something told me it wouldn’t be good. Once we met, I thought, well, you will have to keep this casual, at most, and once we dated for a year and a half, where was I? Crying on the couch. Except I didn’t have to ask how it happened, I already knew. I didn’t listen to my gut.

An article on The Huffington Post, says we are socially conditioned from an early age to use reason rather than trusting our gut. For women, this often turns into, he’ll get his act together eventually if I can make him do A,B, or C, or if he can see that I have X,Y,Z—although, that’s not so much reason and it is wishful thinking.

The article says there are 3 ways we can learn to trust our guts better when it comes to picking a partner:

1. Stay conscious. Pay attention to your physical body and the messages it is giving you.
2. Check gut feelings out with a trusted friend. (Just make sure it’s not a friend who has trouble picking out decent partners too.)
3.  Wait. You don’t necessarily have to instantly write someone off if you get a bad vibe—it really could just be nerves you’re feeling. After a little while, see if the feeling goes away. If it doesn’t, take your instinct combined with the knowledge you’ve gained about the other person as a sign it’s not a good match. Then take what you’ve learned and apply it to the next one.

Do you usually have a gut reaction to potential mates? Do you listen to what your instincts tell you? Have you ever had a gut reaction tell you someone was wrong for you and you ignored it only to find out your instincts were right all along?

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

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That headline may make you think that I’m going to talk about ABC poking fun at single black women, but it’s actually to be taken literally. Remember earlier this year when “MadMen” writer Tracy McMillan threw some serious jabs at single women in The Huffington Post piece, “Why You’re Not Married”? Well go figure, that article has been the Post’s most successful piece to date, capturing 2.9 million views — and now ABC has commissioned a comedy show based on it.

According to Deadline, the show will be an “ensemble comedy that explores the current state of modern American love — especially the dynamic between the millions of attractive chicks between the ages of 25 and 45 who want to be married… and the men who seemingly refuse to commit to them.”

Yeah, that sounds hee-larious. And I think they left out the word “black” before “ensemble.” Let’s review this shall we? McMillan is black, black women are the main ones complaining about finding suitable mates, and consequently, black women are the focus of countless books, TV shows, plays, movies, articles, and seminars to tell them how to find love (or why they won’t ever find it). Check, check and check. Yes, an all-black cast (or near-all-black one) is likely.

The project is also described as “a brutally honest look at love,” which isn’t surprising given the six reasons McMillan says women are single: You are either a Itchbay, shallow, Slore, liar, selfish, or not good enough. Ha Ha? Ha? Sigh…