Source: WENN

Terrence Howard’s shocking comments about how much he enjoyed acting out a love scene with Oprah Winfrey during filming of upcoming flick, The Butler left many astonished, bewildered and even a bit appalled. I mean, this is Oprah we’re talking about. Winfrey, however, appears to have found humor in it all. The multimedia mogul made an appearance during a recent taping of Steve Harvey this past Tuesday, during which she discussed shooting the scene with Howard and why she wasn’t offended by his comments.

“It was supposed to be like a little scene and because Terrence Howard misbehaved, it turned into a bigger scene and then a bigger scene,” she told Harvey.

“Oh, he misbehaved,” repeated Harvey.

“Yeah, well he’s a misbehaving kind of boy,” Oprah said. “I heard him. He was on Twitter the other day talking about my breastasis.”

She went on to say that she didn’t really get bent out of shape over Terrence’s comments.

“Some people called me saying they were all offended and I go, ‘Well, I do have big breastasis,’” she expressed before slapping Steve a hi-five.

Oprah is a mess! But on a more serious note, it’s amazing to see her supporting Steve by making an appearance on his show. Many suggest that her departure from daytime television made for a smooth transition that allowed him to follow in her footsteps.

“Oprah introduced me to a whole new audience when she had me on her talk show years ago. So to now have her as a guest on my own show, in my first season, is a dream come true,” Steve said of Winfrey’s appearance on his show.

“This feels like the ultimate role reversal!” she told him during taping.

Oprah’s interview with Steve Harvey is scheduled to air on April 26th.

Turn the page for a video clip of Oprah discussing Terrence Howard.

Source: Whosay.com

I cannot even imagine how hilarious next Sunday’s episode of “Oprah’s Next Chapter” is going to be. Oprah, who has finally realized Black talent is where it’s at, is going to have the entire Wayans clan on her show in a couple Sundays. That means, Kenan, Kim, Shawn, Marlon, and even Damien, Craig, and Damon Jr. — the second generation of the funny family.

We already saw in person how hilarious Marlon is when he came into the office and was all types of inappropriate, and Oprah said she laughed so hard it hurt when she was interviewing everyone at once. The episode, which airs March 3 at 9, is expected to be hilariously candid as the crew talks about mixing family and business and we cannot wait to see it.

Watch the video below as Oprah recaps her experience during the sit down, plus check out a couple of preview shots on the next pages. Will you be watching?

Oprah on the red carpet for the “Life Is But a Dream” premiere. Photo by Evan Agostini/Invision/AP

Every year Essence magazine honors some of Hollywood’s most influential African-American women in television and film. The sixth annual Black Women in Hollywood Luncheon will take place today as part of Oscar Week.

According to Essence,  Oprah Winfrey will be honored  with the Power Award; Alfre Woodard will be given the Vanguard Award; Gabrielle Union will receive the Fierce and Fearless Award; and Mara Brock-Akil will be celebrated with the Visionary Award. Newcomer and 2013 Oscar nominee Quvenzhané Wallis will also be honored with the Breakthrough Performance Award during the star-studded lunheon.

This year, Essence has partnered with Lincoln, making the 2013 MKZ the official vehicle for the event. Writer, producer and creator Mara Brock Akil and James Bond ‘s latest “Bond Girl,” Naomie Harris, will arrive to the event in the MKZ.

Akil’s company, Happy Camper Productions, partnered with Kelsey Grammer ‘s Gramnet Productions and CBS Paramount to create the groundbreaking series Girlfriends. In 2012, she produced Sparkle and is now preparing to debut her new show Being Mary Jane starring Gabrielle Union.

Lincoln will present Harris, who starred in the last Bond installment, Skyfall, with the Lincoln Shining Star Award. Harris will star in the upcoming Nelson Mandela biopic, Long Walk to Freedom opposite Idris Elba .

I haven’t heard this much criticism of a television character… ever. Kerry Washington’s role in the hit prime time drama Scandal as Olivia Pope, the boss yet internally conflicted “fixer”/mistress to the President of the United States has EVERYONE talking. And when I say “everyone” I do mean everyone. On Thursday nights at 10 pm EST, my Twitter timeline is rockin’ with Scandal hashtags by family, friends, politicians, athletes and actors alike, raving about the twists, the turns, the brilliant writing, the fashion, the flashbacks, the very different funky 70s soundtrack… Every aspect of the show seems to be something of a phenomenon, especially since it’s the first primetime drama with a black female lead role on a major network in years. Some of us see progression in that. Some of us see off-the-charts talent and entertainment.

Still, the show has its vehement critics. Those not unlike CBS, Atlanta reporter Mo Ivory who breaks down Washington’s role as “no different than Joseline from “Love & Hip Hop Atlanta” or Kim from “Real Housewives of Atlanta” – she just has more expensive clothes, a higher paying job and tighter security.”

I don’t agree or disagree with Ivory’s thoughts. I’ve been so focused on Washington’s accurate portrayal (no matter how messy) of just a WOMAN in general that I haven’t had the time to bust down a list of the horrible characteristics.

I watch Kerry beast through her performance as Olivia Pope every week and think to myself that I have NEVER seen such a consistent powerhouse performance in primetime, week after week. As Pope, Washington peels back the layers of a very human woman who can clean up anyone’s, EVERYONE’S mistakes and hiccups around her but is just barely holding together the steadily unfolding mess that is her own life. I don’t see a black woman who is a mistress when I watch Olivia Pope. I see a woman in general who has issues just like the rest of the world and is trying to get clarity and peace of mind in the midst of a crap storm of confrontation and seemingly buried secrets. Kerry Washington executes the human-ness of the role flawlessly. That’s what I’m tuned in for.

Is she playing a mistress? Yes. I know, I know. That sets black women back hundreds of years and blah blah blah. I don’t agree with all that simply because for years, blacks have had to fight with screenwriters and directors and producers to allow us to be human beings on screen. Not caricatures. Not trumped up stereotypes. Not ALWAYS Mammys and drivers or harlots and drug dealers. Just everyday, normal human beings, whatever that entails. For this particular role, Kerry Washington unfolds a woman’s struggle with loving someone she cannot wholly have, being strong for everyone else all the time, working almost ‘round the clock, trying to cover past mistakes with present goodwill. Who of us haven’t dealt with at least one of the above?! She plays a human being, people! She shows the multi-faceted womanhood that many of us try to deny by criticizing roles like this or even everyday people like this.

About a month or so ago during her interview with Oprah, Washington drew parallels between Olivia Pope and her character of “Broomhilda,” a slave woman in the deep south spaghetti western Django Unchained, which opened as a box office hit with very mixed reviews. She expressed that her goal as an actress is simply to honor humanity by telling these stories in as real a way as possible. Washington also stated that she felt honored to play both roles because it showed how far we had come as a nation. Her ability to be able to play such a multi-layered character like Olivia Pope essentially was an answer to her character Broomhilda’s prayers that one day that kind of freedom would be possible for a black woman. She talked about the timeline of black acting, citing that in the beginning, everything was stereotypical if you wanted to be a black actor. Then, there was the era of “black perfection” where all roles taken on by black actors had to be pristine, no flaws. Now, we live in an age where we are beginning to be allowed to simply be human. Flaws and all.

That idea struck a chord with me as I reviewed Washington’s body of work from Save The Last Dance to Django. She has always chosen roles that some might say have made black folks “look bad,” yet they offered an honest look into the lives of honest characters. And what is a serious actor if not an honest vessel?

During her acceptance speech at the 2012 Black Girls ROCK! event, Washington said, “I get to honor humanity. We are all valuable human beings and all our stories deserve to be told.”

We, as freethinking human beings need to stop being so quick to judge the black artist. What Kerry Washington and Viola Davis and countless other black actresses are doing is monumental if we change our outlook. We cannot whittle down the idea of black art only to what makes us feel comfortable. Was Viola Davis’s role as a 1960s maid too painful a memory for some of us? Is Olivia’s role as a mistress (no matter how classy and fierce) too telling of many a modern day reality for some of us? I see Washington as a brave soul for pushing through and bringing a truth to television that has long been airbrushed to ease internal tensions. I see Washington as an example of the versatility black women have not been allowed to exhibit for so long. The honesty we have not been able to speak on or to portray without feeling some sort of way. I celebrate her courage to honor humanity even in the face of such opposition. If we’re more fixated on the flaws of the character rather than the honesty those flaws bring to entertainment, perhaps we need to do a bit more soul-searching and a little less judging.

La Truly is a late-blooming Aries whose writing is powered by a lifetime of anecdotal proof that awkward can transform to awesome and fear can cast its crown before courage. La seeks to encourage thought, discussion and change among young women through her writing. Check out her blog: www.hersoulinc.com and Twitter: @AshleyLaTruly.

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: WENN

“Bey Day” is soon upon us. As international superstar, Beyoncé Knowles- Carter prepares for the airing of her HBO autobiographical documentary, Beyonce: Life Is But A Dream, in addition to her exclusive Oprah’s Next Chapter interview, which will air a mere one hour prior to the premiere of her documentary, more tantalizing tidbits from the highly anticipated interview leak into the media. In the latest news bit, Bey gushes to Oprah about how much she cherishes her relationship with husband, Jay-Z, as well as what it was like returning to work after giving birth to Blue Ivy, reports Necole Bitchie. Peep a few excerpts from the interview below.

On her love for hubby, Jay-Z:

“I would not be the woman I am, if I did not go home to that man. And it just gives me such a foundation. [He has helped me] On so many levels. We were friends first, for a year and half. Before we went on any date, on the phone for a year and a half. And that foundation is so important in a relationship. And just to have someone that you just like, is so important. And someone that is honest.”

On returning to work after giving birth:

“I did a show three months after giving birth, which was crazy. I had clearly never given birth, and I didn’t know that I would gain 60 pounds—57 pounds. I feel so fortunate to do my job. I love my job. I love singing. I love the way it feels.”

On things she had to endure to get where she is today: 

“My life is a journey. … I had to go through my miscarriage, I believe I had to go through owning my company and managing myself … ultimately your independence comes from knowing who you are and you being happy with yourself.”

Check out a brief clip of the interview on the next page. Will you be watching Bey on Oprah’s Next Chapter and the premiere of her documentary when they air tomorrow?

Source: Instagram

We already know it doesn’t take much to get Oprah excited, but it’s not often that we see Beyonce with so much emotion off-stage when she’s not poppin’ and droppin’ it. That’s what makes this candid shot of the two all the more interesting as we wait in anticipation of Oprah’s Next Chapter special with King Bey this Saturday.

I have an inkling Beyonce might have shared her “aha moment” — one of Oprah’s favorite things in the whole wide world — with the media mogul, but Instagrammers have already come up with some much more hilarious explanations for what’s being said here, like, “they thought they would have a new single by now!” We’re pretty sure you all can come up with some dialogue that’s just as funny to go along with this candid, so caption this photo and tell us what’s really going on.