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A diva is the female version of a hustler. – Beyonce

Looking at celebrities, it’s quite easy to see the glitz and glam, but not the hard work it took to achieve success. There definitely are some who have it a little easier as they might come from wealth, or had a guaranteed foot in the door. There are, however, many who had to work hard to build their brand after failed ventures, personal struggles, or whatever else made their road to success bumpy.

The name of the game is longevity and it often comes by diversifying both your talents and reach. If you have been looking for ideas to grow your business opportunities, take a look at these celebs and how they grew their empires.

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From BlackVoices

Before announcing to the public that he is gay, NBA athlete Jason Collins was engaged to be married to his college sweetheart, former WNBA player Carolyn Moos. The two were together for eight years before Jason called off the wedding in 2009, leaving Carolyn heartbroken and confused as to why the relationship ended. The truth wouldn’t be revealed to her until years later — just a few days before Jason publicly announced his homosexuality in Sports Illustrated.

In this clip from his interview with Oprah for “Oprah’s Next Chapter,” Jason opens up about being engaged to Carolyn while struggling with his sexuality, explaining that he was still working through several different emotional stages that prevented him from accepting the truth about himself.

“At that point, I hadn’t reached acceptance in myself yet,” Jason tells Oprah in the clip. “Being in the closet… it really is going through the 12 steps of denial and shame and anger and all of that. I hadn’t reached acceptance yet.”

Read more at BlackVoices.com

Another new face is gracing the cover of ESSENCE this month!

Though Tyler Perry typically gets a cover once every other year or so, Oprah is a new addition to the magazine’s arsenal of cover ladies and she’s looking pretty darn great.

Inside, the pair who is currently involved in a major partnership — TP’s developing two new series for Oprah’s OWN network — talk about leaning on each other and how unique their friendship is in the industry.

“We both know how rare this is,” Oprah told the mag. “Where else in the history of our African-American culture have two really, really successful people who can do whatever they want said, ‘Let’s come together and be even more powerful—let’s take it to the tenth power?’”

Some would say it’s risky business for Oprah and Tyler to work together, but the screenwriter and director said they’re not afraid to mix business and friendship.

“…The most important thing about coming together was making sure we would not lose our friendship because of the business. We had to establish ground rules. The main one: Both of us have to continue to live in our truth. If she doesn’t like something, say it. If I don’t like something, I’ll say it. And we’ll figure it out and keep moving on…”

It sounds like Oprah followed the rules, as Tyler told ESSENCE working with the media mogul on his new series, The Haves and the Have Nots and Love Thy Neighbor, “challenged me to push myself in terms of my writing and level of thinking. I’m hoping that the energy of our coming together will go out to other people.”

We’ll see if it does on May 28 and 29 when the series’ debut. What do you think of their cover?

Source: OWN

Oprah Winfrey and Tyler Perry have been hinting for for months that they’ve been working on something big. Now we finally we get to see two of the top secret projects that they’ve been working so hard on! So in case you haven’t heard it through the grapevine yet, Tyler has been in the process of producing two new scripted series for OWN.

The first series, which is titled The Haves and the Have Nots seems have a soap opera-ish type feel to it. It also appears to be loosely based on Tyler’s 2011 stage play that bore the same title, with a few elements from his 2008 film, The Family That Preys sprinkled in . Starring in the television drama is Tika Sumpter, Crystal Fox, Renée Lawless, John Schneider, and a host of other talented actors and actresses. A brief description of the tele-drama found on the network’s website reads:

“Set in Savannah, Georgia, Jim and Katheryn Cryer, a wealthy couple, become intimately involved with the families of their hired help, creating a web of controversy as the worlds of “The Haves” and “The Have Nots” collide.”

Perry switched gears a bit with the second series, taking a more comedic approach. Love Thy Neighbor seems to follow the formula that we are used to seeing when it comes Tyler’s scripted series. OWN describes the show as “a wonderfully fresh show about a middle class family, and their daily joys, struggles, triumphs and fumbles.”

The Haves and the Have Nots is scheduled to premiere May 28th at 9/8c and Love Thy Neighbor is set to premiere May 29th at 9/8c.

Check out a preview of The Haves and the Have Nots below. Turn the page to for a preview of Love Thy Neighbor. Will you be checking out either of these shows? 

WENN

From Essence

It’s been nearly two years since Oprah finished up her uber-popular daytime talk show—4,561 complete in shows in fact, according to People. But there’s one thing she simply misses the most—the audience.

The OWN creator sat down with Steve Harvey on his network talk show, also based in Chicago, and explained her feelings “I got a little choked up seeing you guys today, because what I really miss is the camaraderie with the audience every day… I did that for 25 years,” said Oprah.

She told Harvey she decided to end her show while she was still on top. “When I look back at the body of work, those of you who watched us for years, it’s astounding,” Oprah explained.

Awww, Oprah!  Many people miss you too! You can read more over on essence.com.  Perhaps it’s time for a new talk show on OWN? Would you watch?

With a new batch of television talk show hosts set to grace the boob tube this year — shout out to Queen Latifah — we can’t help but long for these old-time fav shows of yesteryear from time to time.

WENN

The Richard Bey Show

Before there was the “Jerry Springer Show” we had Richard Bey. For nine seasons, “The Richard Bey Show,” (known in the early days as “9 Broadcast Plaza”) entertained its audience with raunchy, slapstick segments such as the “Miss Big Butt” contest, the “Mr. Puniverse” contest, “Dysfunctional Family Feud” and “Blacks who think O.J. is guilty vs. Whites who think he is innocent.” Despite its success and huge ratings, “The Richard Bey Show” was canceled in December 1996 after a nine-year run.

There are some actresses (i.e,. Halle Berry, Thandie Newton, Kerry Washington) who get all of the glory, and there are some that don’t get nearly as much recognition. Phenomenal acting abilities have gone with a lack of praise while mediocre performances by non-black women are seen as unparalleled (even when they’re just okay…). You can Google lists of top black actresses, and find that while those women are great at what they do, a great deal of them haven’t even had a leading role in years (if at all). Maybe they’ve decided to take a break from acting, or maybe they are just struggling to grab those big roles, but it’s about time that Hollywood is reminded that there are strong black actresses in Hollywood, and these women need to have their faces back in somebody’s movie sooner than later.

Yesterday, we showed you this photo of Oprah dressed as her epic character “Sophia” from The Color Purple and Tyler Perry dressed as his most famous character Madea. Who ever thought that’d we see these two together?! Anyway once we got past the shock of the picture, we wondered what those two were up to. Well, today friends you’re going to find out. Sophia and Madea met up to promote Oprah’s network OWN. And let me tell you, it’s quite funny. I love when Oprah lets loose and has fun (like she did with surprising Jimmy Kimmel Book Club Fight Club skit).

Now Oprah’s back to the comedy with her good friend, Tyler Perry. Check out the skit and let us know if you chuckled a bit like I did.

What do you think? Funny, right?