Source: Vibe.com

Since Whitney Houston’s death, we’ve heard from Fox’s president about plans to continue with the sequel to “Waiting to Exhale,” and even Angela Bassett and Loretta Devine have spoken out about the project, but the one person we haven’t heard from is the author of the original book, and sequel, “Getting to Happy,” on how she thinks things should proceed.

The Huffington Post recently spoke to Terry McMillan about her forthcoming projects and when they asked her about a “Waiting to Exhale” sequel without Whitney Houston or her character Savannah, she said she’s not sure what’s best:

“Myself and [screenwriter] Lori Lakin Hutcherson wrote drafts for the film and then Whitney passed away and so now the studio is trying to take a moment to think about how best to proceed. They’ve made it crystal clear that they want to proceed, but it’s just a matter of how. I have mixed feelings about which way might be best to tell the story. I have critics who feel like they are casting directors, and they know more about what should happen. You have no idea. People have said that we should just kill off the Savannah character, or have her go get a job somewhere and move out of the state. I mean, all kinds of things. And then I have people who think they have in mind who should play Savannah. And right now I’m not in a position to be an advocate one way or the other, with the exception of the fact that it’s hard to imagine the story without the Savannah character in it.

“Even though I know how other people may feel the opposite. I feel terrible about Whitney, just like everybody else, but there’s a part of me that also feels that she would want the film to go on. That’s just my gut feeling. And it has nothing to do with me not having an allegiance to her or respect for her. I just have a feeling that Whitney would love from heaven, to sit up there and watch who else can do the character.”

Oprah’s name is one that has been thrown into the mix as a possible replacement for Savannah, and Terry said she’s not for or against that possibility—although she did mention another possible option.

“Someone told me this and I said, ‘Oh, really?’ I mean, I don’t have any thoughts one way or the other. I love Oprah. I know that I heard that she would like to be able to act again. When she would possibly have the time, who knows? But I haven’t thought that far, because again, I am not a casting director. That is not my area. I mean, I also love Viola Davis, but we’re not there yet. I’m still wrapping my head around the fact that Whitney is no longer here with us.”

Terry definitely threw another interesting possibility into the mix. Could you see Viola Davis as Savannah?

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

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Source: North Jersey Blog

Paula Deen is loved by many for her down home southern cooking but a former general manager at Paula’s Savannah restaurant says there’s some shady business cooking in the kitchen.

Lisa Jackson filed a lawsuit in the Chatham County Superior Court claiming her physician encouraged her to quit working at Uncle Bubba’s Seafood and Oyster House because of panic attacks she was suffering due to the stress of the job. Lisa says sexual remarks made by Paula’s brother, Bubba Hiers, who co-owns the restaurant with his sister, and racial slurs made by both Paula and Bubba were the cause of her stress. She also claims to have witnessed Bubba violently shake a black employee and says Paula invited the man to her home to smooth things over rather than address her brother’s behavior which created an environment of intimidation.

In addition to racially insensitive remarks, Lisa, who is white, claims black staff had to enter the restaurant through a back entrance, and that they were forbidden to use a customer restroom that white staffers were allowed to use. As for the sexual harassment claim, Lisa says Bubba kept making unwanted advances and also watched pornography in the office they shared. She says he also distributed pictures of two women having sex at an office meeting and complained about heavier staff members.

In the most shocking allegation, the complaint states that in 2007 Lisa asked what the attire for a catered event should be and Paula responded:

“Well what I would really like is a bunch of little n***ers to wear long-sleeve white shirts, black shorts and black bow ties, you know in the Shirley Temple days, they used to tap dance around… Now, that would be a true Southern wedding wouldn’t it? But we can’t do that because the media would be on me about that.”

Wow. Lisa was hired at the seafood restaurant in 2005 but she says she reached her breaking point in 2010 when Bubba supposedly grabbed her face during a dinner for vendors at the restaurant and said “I love you,” then later screamed at her and spit in her face. A few days later she quit her job after her doctor told her it would significantly improve her health. Despite having been gone from the job for more than a year, she states in the lawsuit that she “continues to endure immense pain and has suffered greatly at the hands of Defendants’ outrageous and intolerable conduct.”

I wonder how Paula’s going to explain this one.

Does it sound like Lisa Jackson has a case?

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

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If you are a Girl Scout Cookie lover, you will be excited to know that this year marks their 100^th anniversary and they are celebrating by introducing a new lemon flavored cookie called – Savannah Smiles. The new name is in honor of the organization’s founder Juliette Gordon Low, who heralds from the Georgian City (Savannah). While the other half of the name reflects the cookie’s half-moon shape, which is meant to represent a lemon wedge and “Brownie Smile”. Learn more about here…

Who is placing their order ASAP?

Mixed response would be an understatement to describe the public reaction to Lebron James popping the question to his long-time girlfriend, Savannah, over the weekend. For the most part, people were genuinely happy that two kids and ten years later, Bron was finally going to move Savannah from side kick to wife, but that didn’t stop a whole lot of “what took you so long” reactions, as well as comments that at 27, Lebron was too young and too sought after to make such a commitment.

But perhaps that’s the very thing that kept him waiting for 10 years, as so many common men do as well—with women who let them. To be honest, I didn’t give much thought to Lebron’s proposal, other than feeling happy that Savannah was finally getting something I’m sure she’d been wishing for for some time.  But watching Jim Jones give Chrissy a ring on “Love and Hip hop” last night did cause me to feel some sort of way, and it wasn’t exactly joy. I think part of it had to do with the fact that Jim didn’t even get down on one knee—which I didn’t notice until my third time watching (don’t judge). But then I remembered he was the one who had been proposed to so I guess it was OK for him to just pull out the box like he did. I was more so annoyed that it took Chrissy saying she needed a break from him and actually leaving, albeit for a weekend trip to Miami, for Jim to get it.

It’s safe to say Jim Jones and Lebron James probably don’t have a whole lot in common, but they do have access to a lot of money and a lot of women, which doesn’t make the prospect of settling down with just one lady particularly desirable. But something else they seem to share with each other, and tons of men in the general population, is a need for a woman to prove her loyalty, and even “wifeability” (made that up) by sticking with him through thick and thin for inordinate stretches of time.

It’s no secret men and women operate on different time tables, and that’s especially true when it comes to relationships.  Men are more willing to let a good thing ride while women are constantly wondering when things are going to move to the next level, and the question that becomes hard for women to answer is how long should they wait for their man to be ready? I don’t think there’s any concrete number you can stamp on any relationship, although personally I think if we’re at the five-year mark we need to figure out what we’re doing in the long-run. Chrissy surpassed that mark by a year or two and Lebron and Savannah doubled that—while making babies in the process. Some would take that as a sign of building a family but it could’ve just as easily been the result of a faulty prophylactic. I don’t agree with those who say if Lebron is old enough to make babies, he’s old enough to get married. Fifteen-year-olds can have babies. But if you’re man enough to decide to create babies with someone intentionally, you ought to be man enough to marry her—if that’s what you both want. Creating children without a family structure is not OK, especially if you don’t know that the person mothering your children is someone you want around for the rest of your life.

But there’s a fine, and sometimes painful line, between waiting for a man to be ready and wasting your time.  I thought Chrissy was doing the latter, but it seems there’s no better reality check for a man like the threat of being left that gets those engagement wheels in motion.  Despite waiting a long time to give her a ring, Jim’s love for Chrissy never seemed to be in question, it was just a matter of them being on the same page about their future. Still, the smack upside the head that’s needed to make a man realize it’s time to step up seems far too common for men in long-term relationships. Perhaps the women have already stayed around too long without demanding more of a commitment that the men see no immediate need to progress but there also seems to be a need for men to feel totally supported before they agree to walk down the aisle.

When a friend of mine talked about the reason he married his wife, he said that she was the only one who stuck with him through all of his “BS.” While my first inclination was to ask, why did you put her through that BS in the first place, his narrative is a similar one I’ve heard from many men. They want to be assured that the woman they are with will be down for them no matter what, and after six to 10 years, I imagine you would’ve seen your man at his ultimate low. The question is, do you want to stand beside someone through all of that when you haven’t even made a marital commitment to them or would you rather find someone who doesn’t feel the need to make you prove just how long-suffering love is to get him to say “I Do.” And more importantly, while you’re proving your loyalty to him what does his hesitation to step up say about his commitment to you?

Every relationship has its own issues, and Chrissy, Savannah, (and let’s give T.I.’s wife, Tiny, an honorable mention here) definitely win the gold medals for sticking it out. In the end, these women appear to have gotten what they’ve spent many years waiting for, but only time will tell if the wait was worth it.

How long do you think a woman should wait for her man to be ready to marry her? What do you think are the signs that a man just isn’t ready versus he’s not the one?

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

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(Atlanta Business Chronicle) — Savannah is Georgia’s best performing large city, according to the Milken Institute’s 2010 Best-Performing Cities Index.  Savannah ranked 40th in the United States, down from 39 in 2009. Columbus came in at No. 45, compared with 112 the year prior. Augusta placed 71st, bettering its No. 82 ranking in 2009. Atlanta ranked 126th, falling from 106 in 2009.Click here to see more details in the report about Atlanta.  The report includes both long-term (five years) and short-term (one year) measurements of employment and salary growth. There are also four measurements of technology output growth.

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