Ever since I heard the slowed beat of Ghost Town DJ’s “My Boo” drop, I instantly had Ciara’s latest single “Body Party” on repeat. I knew the video would feature her slithering and sliding in moves that would keep EMTs busy for weeks as women across the country blew out their backs and pulled hamstrings trying to imitate the moves for their men.

I wasn’t disappointed when Ciara scissored her legs in the air for boyfriend Future as they play out how they first met for the video, but it was like deja-vu as I saw her relationship slowly steal the spotlight from her first two singles. Is it me, or does something happen to a recording artist when they fall in love and choose to flaunt it in their work? After watching Ciara’s steamy video for “Body Party,” I couldn’t help but wonder if she’s risking the buzz she’s worked so hard to build back by allowing boyfriend, Future, to make so many appearance.

Mixing business and pleasure is a risky move.  There’s something about when celebs turn the camera on to their personal lives that causes their careers and their relationships to fall apart.  Here are a few celebs who might want to think about leaving their boo behind-the-scenes in the future.

Source: krwetatnt.net

1. J.Lo

J.Lo had a pretty good buzz going as a singer even if her “hits” were only heard in the clubs, but as soon as Ben Affleck took J.Lo from the block to the yacht in her Jenny From the Block vid, Jenny’s singing career went man down for a minute and she was left man-less and a little embarrassed.  Not to mention Ben credited the cameo with almost ruining his career. And who can forget how clearly sprung she was on the track “Dear Ben,” in which she sings,” I love you, you’re perfect.” Well apparently the feelings weren’t mutual; Ben quickly married another Jennifer after their break up and made like 11 kids with her.  Sting. Word of advice for the former fly girl: You can sing all the love songs you want about your boo, just don’t name them after him and throw said boo in all your videos.

Adriana M. Barraza/WENN.com

Jenny from the Block is starting to act more like Jenny from the Bourgeoisie these days. Though we know the Bronx-born Latina is hardly “on the six (train)” anymore, it seems she still hasn’t quite got what it takes to demand a private plane just to do a show. That’s the demand that reportedly got the singer/dancer/actress booted from a huge gig recently.

As the Huffington Post tells it:

The singer and actress was in the running for the opening ceremonies of India’s Premier League cricket tournament, an event the New York Post says comes with a viewing audience of 60 million people.

The massive opportunity, however, seems to have evaporated when organizers received Lopez’ rider. Among the big asks that reportedly came through manager Benny Medina: a private plane and a host of hotel rooms for her cadre of stylists and handlers.

Among those handlers were a number of assistants and even a personal chef, and according to one of the NY Post‘s sources, the audacity of that demand turned officials at the Pepsi IPL all the way off.

“The demands made on behalf of Jennifer were outrageous. She effectively priced herself out of the event. It was an idiotic move because the audience for this event is huge. It’s like the Super Bowl halftime show. Last year it drew 56 million viewers.”

Jenny’s rep is denying that these demands are what caused the singer-dancer to back out, claiming she was simply “busy,” but this isn’t exactly the first time we’ve heard J Lo is getting a little too big for her britches. According to the Post, “In 2001 she arrived for a BBC interview with a 90-person entourage and ordered nine dressing rooms for the group.” And remember when Wendy Williams said Jennifer doesn’t allow anyone else to go into a public bathroom with her at the same time? Sounds like she could’ve jumped on a “Diva” remix with Beyonce and been dead serious about that line “I’m a diva best, believe her.”

In this case, one Latino’s loss is another’s gain, as Pitbull has been chosen to take J. Lo’s place. In response to this news, Huff Po hilariously stated, “it’s hard to know if J.Lo or cricket fans are more deserving of your pity,” but I say congrats to Pitbull. Who ever thought he’d become so big globally? J Lo might wanna take a lesson. These aren’t exactly her Selena Bidi Bidi Bom Bom days.

It seems as if every week a Hollywood star gives birth then pops up on a magazine cover or runway a few months later flaunting their slender frames and sleek abs. Although some women lose baby weight faster than others, here are 15 celebs that snapped back to their pre-baby bodies in no time.

WENN

Mariah Carey

Diva and R&B singer Mariah Carey shocked the world when she announced she married her husband rapper, actor and entertainer Nick Cannon. After struggling to conceive, the happy couple surprised everyone one more time when it was revealed that Carey was pregnant with twins. Once Monroe and Morocco were welcomed into the world, the “Butterfly” singer went to work right away to lose the baby weight. Because she gave birth via Cesarean, Carey was unable to exercise right away. The current “American Idol” judge signed on to be the spokesperson for Jenny Craig and ended up dropping 70 lbs. in six months. “I realize that 90 percent of losing weight is my diet,” Carey said in an interview with Shape magazine about how she lost the extra pounds.

Shyne and Diddy earlier this year – Source: globalhiphopbattles.com

I know you guys remember Shyne! “That’s Gangsta”? “Bonnie & Shyne” (“On the telephone, she heard my voice, tell me to pick her up in my Rolls Royce…”)? Anywho, Shyne (nee, Jamal Michael Barrow, aka, Moses Michael Levi) was of course a burgeoning rapper under Bad Boy Records, and during that time, he was cool with Diddy and then-girlfriend, Jennifer Lopez. Shyne and his own then-girlfriend, as well as Diddy and J.Lo, infamously went to Club New York in Manhattan where they were involved in a shooting that injured three people. The end results included Shyne facing 10 years in prison for his involvement, Diddy going free, and J.Lo chucking the deuces at him. But what also happened, according to Shyne, was that Diddy betrayed him. The mogul and Shyne were supposed to be co-defendants, but he went ahead got his own lawyers, only looking out for D-I-D-D-Y. Diddy’s lawyers even called witnesses that would pin everything on Shyne. Only 20 at the time, the Belize-born, Flatbush raised rapper had to do his time. While incarcerated, he was in talks with a label or two (but couldn’t really sign) and throughout it, spoke to the media about his career and beef with Diddy…who was still Puffy back then:

“How do you call a witness to testify against your comrade?” wonders Shyne, who called Myers’ testimony more damaging than any witness the prosecution called. “That don’t make no sense. I’m telling you this woman is lying and you’re saying, ‘Eh, you know, well, she’s helping me.’ But I’m facing 25 years and you’re looking at probation. You don’t have to hold my hand, you don’t have to do nothing, but don’t try to hurt me. That’s intentional, when I tell you that she’s lying, when every witness that you call said that they didn’t see her where she said she was at.”

But eventually, after a name change,  finishing his time, being deported and drastically changing his style, the two men squashed their beef. They even appeared front row at fashion shows together early this year during Paris Fashion Week. But the real reason the two were getting chummy again was because, according to Shyne, Diddy was supposed to be helping him get back into the United States since he was deported back to his native Belize due to his conviction. But Diddy hasn’t done that, and now Shyne’s got beef with him again.

Source: Sohh.com

After conversing with Missinfo, she says Shyne, who is now residing in Europe, owes the people who went down for him so that he could keep his freedom and his luxuries. Ironically, Shyne passed on Diddy’s effort to give him money, because all Shyne wants is for him to lobby for U.S. residency on his behalf. Allegedly, even if Diddy tried and failed, the effort would just be enough. But he hasn’t even tried. “Homeboy did me dirty, he knows that, he apologized. He’s said he’s gonna spend the rest of his life helping me get my life back…so how you don’t help your man come back to America?!”

On top of that, he says that Diddy owes the family of his former bodyguard’s family. Anthony “Wolf” Jones was Diddy’s bodyguard and friend to both men for years, but was killed in 2003. Shyne claims the mogul hasn’t done enough to help take care of Jones’s mother, and only dropped a little bit of money when Shyne asked him to:

“Don’t give me any money, I don’t need it. But take care of Ms. Jones. [Diddy] gave her $10k when I started talking to him, but that was it. But while we were in Paris, he spent half a million on his chick, Cassie…If it weren’t for Wolf, if it weren’t for me, things would be very different. There would be no Ciroc deal, he wouldn’t be worth close to a billion…”

Though all seemed to be fine just a week ago (kidding), it’s not anymore. Shyne even decided to drop a previously-recorded diss for Diddy entitled, “You’re Welcome” so he can air a few things out. Lyrics include the following:

This kid got millions, that’s how he talks/Should’ve took that paper, made his soul walk./Talking about he ain’t responsible for my actions
/Man, if I was yapping the world, would know what happened/Them kids was about to wrap him/Shyne, they should thank him. But nooooo, they hate him

Hmmm…looks like ish just got real.

Does he have a point? Do you think Diddy needs to help him get back in the States or should Shyne move on by himself?

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Fairy tales serve as a great means to teach us lessons when we’re children, but when we’re still expecting stories Disney brought to life when we were 4 to come into fruition when we’re 40, it might be time to ditch the make-believe, or at least readjust our expectations.

Today Jennifer Lopez and Casper Smart sat down with “Good Morning America” to discuss J Lo’s upcoming world tour with Enrique Iglesias (and their relationship) and the actress/singer/dancer said something that was very interesting to me.

Amy Robach asked J Lo if she would ever get married again and she said yes.

“For me, the biggest dream is the fairy tale and I will never give up on that,” she added.

On one hand it was refreshing in the time of people throwing out the 50 percent divorce rate as evidence no one should ever get hitched to hear someone who has been down the aisle three times say they still believe in marriage. On the other hand, I thought maybe the reason you’re other situations, i.e. marriages, didn’t work out is because you expected them to be fairy tales.

I’ve never been one for the whole idea of fairy tale romance, much like I never dreamed of being a princess on my wedding day. Those just weren’t ideas that were ingrained in my head as a child and I’m not sure whether that’s a bad or a good thing. I used to get teased by a friend in college every time I’d say something about the type of man I wanted to marry though. I can’t even recall what that description was at the time but she’d always blow it off and tell me I was holding on to some fantasy of a white picket fence alluding to the American dream of year’s past. Unfortunately, seeing that a man who embodied those characteristics wasn’t coming to me I abandoned a lot of those expectations and standards and admittedly went off the no-good-for-me  deep-end, which certainly wasn’t a good thing, but holding on to fairytale-like visions of a matrimonial agreement is equally dangerous.

The only times I ever hear marriage referred to as a fairy tale is when I’m watching Lifetime or WE TV and listening to a woman who is longing to walk down the aisle—not someone who has already done it. No one I know personally has every described their marriage as a fairy tale. That isn’t to say that it’s not a happy union or that they’re not in love, fairy tale just isn’t a description of what it is and anyone going into what’s expected to be a lifetime commitment thinking that’s what it will be will likely be disappointed and find themselves changing husbands multiple times (J Lo) rather than changing their expectations.

What I have heard of marriage is that it’s work. Rather than having someone sweep you off your feet every day, you might have to hold the family down while your husband struggles to get back on his own two feet. In contrast to being wined and dined you may now find yourself making dinner for two every night after a long day of work when all you want to do is collapse. Instead of holding standard Saturday night dates, you may go weeks without any real quality time. Things that were so simple when you were dating become complicated by work schedules, shared  bills, house issues, and children, and if you assumed these things would just fall into place without tough decisions and difficult discussions being had, then yes, by all means you did not attain the fairy tale. The thing is, no one does.

Fairy tales are just that, tales. Has anyone ever noticed how Disney movies and rom coms always end on the good note? It’s usually right when a couple gets together, is reunited, or jumps the broom. Of course everything is lovely then. It’s like celebrating graduation unemployed. After the festivities comes the real work of finding a job. Anyone can fall in love, anyone can get married, and anyone who has gotten to the age where they are legally allowed to be married should know no season lasts forever. The fairy tale part of your relationship and possibly subsequent marriage is temporary and will ebb and flow like anything else. If you’re expecting things to always be up, it’s not surprising that you’ll run when they’re down.

Fairy tales have a place in fantasies but when it comes to crossing the marriage threshold, expectations need to be based more on the reality of you and your soon-to-be spouse’s current situation, not some antiquated idea of what it means to be husband and wife that you’ve been holding on to ever since you saw Snow White and The Seven Dwarves (the first time, not one of the re-releases). It’s absolutely fine to still want to be catered to and find someone who induces butterflies in your stomach and makes your heart flutter and your knees weak , just know those feelings won’t last forever and they aren’t the makings of a stable relationship anyway. What will create a solid foundation is a man who is loyal, honest, trustworthy, reliable, dependable, responsible, who wants to honor his wife and their commitment and the children they choose to bring into the world. If you fantasize about finding that type of man and have the good fortune of him actually coming into your life, you could never be disappointed.

Photo courtesy of Shutterstock.com

Brande Victorian is the news and operations editor for madamenoire.com. Follow her on twitter @Be_Vic.

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usmagazine.com

First of all, round of applause for Jennifer Lopez’ new boo, Casper Smart.  This young man has stepped in like a thief in the night and has made Jenny lose any tiny bit of sense she once had.  Secondly, will someone please tell Jenny that the rebound guy is almost solely used for a couple of good dates and some “hits out the park.”  He is not to be introduced to the children or weigh in on your work affairs. And he is definitely not the one to marry (okay, this isn’t all cases but it is in most cases).

But leave it to Jenny to switch it up.  According to “sources” who spoke to US Weekly, Jennifer is ready to marry her boyfriend of just a few short months and can hardly wait until October, the earliest her divorce from Marc Anthony could be official.  Another reason for the rush? She wants to have at least one more child with Casper and she doesn’t have “all the time in the world.”  It seems Jennifer was so excited to meet a man so different from Marc Anthony that she can’t even see clearly.

Now let’s give Casper the benefit of the doubt: he could be a wonderful man.  But at 24 years old, this young man has got to be soaking in all the publicity he’s getting and professional opportunities (he co-directed her latest video and allegedly sits in on her business meetings) that have surfaced since dating Jennifer. I doubt he’s ready to marry a woman almost 20 years older than him who has [soon-to-be] three ex-husbands and two children.

Something tells me Jenny doesn’t really know how to be single.  You can read the rest here.

What do you think?  Can you see Jennifer marrying Casper Smart?

Even though celebrities and real-life acquaintances remind us every day that love (fifty percent of the time) doesn’t last forever, we’re still sad to see couples that we really love break up – especially ones that we believe would’ve made it for the long haul.  For one reason or another, these celeb breakups blindsided us!

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Seal & Heidi Klum

I just…don’t know where “we” went wrong here, people.  Of course, not “we” literally but Seal and Heidi just seemed so good together. Yes, they gave us PDA and multiple wedding ceremonies but it was more than that; they just seemed so cool with each other. I still feel some kind of way that it is really over between them.

straightfromthea

Hey loves! Time for the weekend wrap-up…just a few things we didn’t get to tell you about during the week that you might find entertaining. I’m always chitchatting away on Twitter (@DrennaB)  so…enjoy!

Read the rest of this entry »

It’s been painfully obvious that Jennifer Lopez barely waited for the word divorce to leave Marc Anthony’s lips before she started dating again, and for the most part her soon-to-be-ex-hubby took her public displays of affection with Casper Smart on the chin, but the tables are starting to turn just a bit.

Last week, Marc Anthony posted photos of him loving up on Venezuelan model Shannon De Lima, and over the weekend they went “public” with their relationship by sending each other “look at me” tweets and retweeting congratulatory messages about their new relationship from followers. Meanwhile, J Lo was busy setting up a weekly $10,000 allowance transfer for her 24-year-old beau and back-up dancer so that he could feel like a man when they went out in public together.

Initially, both sides just seemed to be attempting to make the other jealous—which suggests they aren’t really over each other anyway—but now Marc has reportedly said J Lo needs to see a psychologist to figure out why she can’t stand to be without a man. It’s clear this divorce is about to get ugly—first comes psych eval, then comes full custody of the kids.

While bopping around town with their new lovers, neither J Lo nor Marc Anthony appears to have thought too much about their twins who are in the middle. Sure Jennifer took her children on vacation to Hawaii with Casper but that’s not exactly a good look. Most people wait a little while to expose their children to new father figures, and in some ways it’s just irresponsible to bring a bunch of side pieces around your kids. Yeah, mama has to have a life too, but mama also has to set a good example. Having uncle Casper’s and uncle Bradley’s rolling in and out of the house on rotation is not it.

And if Marc is about to play dirty, he should think about the repercussions of speaking too ill of his children’s mother. If you’ve already decided to split, there’s nothing else to say, go your separate ways and do it quietly. There’s never really any good way to get divorced but there’s definitely a better way than what these two are doing and I think it all started with J Lo’s dating. Separate, about to get a divorce, filing for the divorce, and anything similar means that you are still currently married and you should still carry yourself like a married woman. Marc Anthony could easily try to prove she’s an unfit mother and take the kids away from her, would that be worth her cougar rendezvous? I know being civil and actually waiting til things are final before you date again may not be the Hollywood way of doing divorce (or a lot of other American’s) but maybe they should try it. If they had, they wouldn’t be making a media spectacle of themselves and setting their children up to be right in the middle.

What do you think about the way J Lo and Marc Anthony are handling their divorce? Do you think they’re both just trying to make each other jealous? Are they both wrong for dating again so soon?

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

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There are three types of celebrity couple photos that the paparazzi captures: each person either looks blissfully in love or each person looks completely pissed off/annoyed at the other. But, what about the third type of photo? The photos of totally ballbusting females laying the law down on their men—wagging their finger at them and making them carry their purse? Surely they exist. We suspect they exist of these women and their submissive sidekicks:

Angelina Jolie

Brad Pitt—rated one of America’s hottest men by countless publications—was buzzing around, being a hottie, breaking hearts and then BAM. Angelina locked him down and got him to adopt a few dozen kids with her. It takes a strong woman to convince Brad that fatherhood will be more fun than being the most sought after bachelor…or adulterer.