Remember the first day Goo Goo, real name Thomasina Atkins, introduced Erica and Tina to Justin on an episode of “Mary Mary?” The sisters put ol’boy through the ringer immediately, but that didn’t stop Goo from making things official — for over a year. But now the couple has confirmed that they’ve called it quits.

If you’re anything like us, you might be saying “Good!” Not that we’re happy at the thought of two people breaking up, it’s just that Justin seemed like a bit of a jerk, especially when he overstepped his relationship bounds and rolled up on Mitch questioning him about Goo’s work as a stylist. Regardless of outsider opinion of him, Goo insists the split was amicable, telling AlwaysAList things just simply didn’t work out.

“Justin and I are no longer together. It’s nothing horrible or bad or anything like that. It just kind of didn’t work out. There were some things we needed to work on and they just kind of didn’t work themselves out.

“I pulled back and looked at the overall relationship and I just thought it would be best if we went our separate ways just as friends,” she said before adding that Justin is a “good guy!”

Goo was also quick to defend Justin’s image on “Mary Mary,” and said “demanding schedules” and “her inability to travel to Atlanta as much” were a big part of the reason the relationship ended.

“I feel like the show didn’t paint him in the best light,” she said. “Justin has been the most supportive man I’ve ever had in my life. Very warm, very kind, very helpful. Never threatened by anything. He didn’t have an issue with me being me, he always supported that and that was something I just wasn’t used to. If there was something that was important to me, it was important to him.”

Likewise, Justin had only good things to say about Goo after the split, saying:

“I’d like to thank Goo for being the very best woman in the world,” he said. “She is the classiest and most-caring individual I have met to date, and I will always love her!

“I’d just like to express my deepest gratitude to everyone who supported me and Goo and our relationship. It was not in vain. We are still great friends and I hope that our relationship can just be an example of how mature adults handle life and its seasons.”

We shall see. What do you think about Goo and Justin’s split?

Bruno Mars’ four sisters (left to right) Jamie, Presley, Tahiti, and Tiara. (AP Photo/We TV)

Bruno Mars is a star—and now his four sisters will be stars on television too. They will appear in a WE tv reality series documenting the process of recording their debut album. The sisters perform as The Lylas. The show will air this fall and include eight hour-long episodes, reports Black America Web.

For the show Tiara, Tahiti, and Presley Hernandez are moving from Hawaii to Los Angeles to join their older sister Jamie. It is produced by Asylum Entertainment.

“‘The Lylas’ are fierce, independent women, leaving their home — and in some cases, their relationships and kids – for a chance at pursuing their love of music,” said Lauren Gellert, SVP of production & development at WE tv, in a press statement. “Their story is one filled with all of the drama and chaos that comes from making a major life change, with the added spice of doing it alongside your sisters.”

Grammy winner Mars, who was born Peter Hernandez, moved from Hawaii in 2002 to live with Jamie in Los Angeles after he graduated from high school.

In 2010, Mars released his platinum-selling debut, “Doo-Wops & Hooligans,” followed by “Unorthodox Jukebox”  last year.

D. Salters/WENN.com

With already Braxton Family Values and Mary Mary on WE tv (and oh yeah, if you were watching, Tamar & Vince), you can say that the cable channel for women is becoming the reality TV channel for black singers. And with all the success they’ve had with just those programs in just a few years, who can blame them for wanting to keep the money train going? That’s probably why the folks at WE tv have decided to help SWV, the very huge girl group from the ’90s (now extra grown women) with their comeback, as the ladies, or Sisters With Voices, are getting their own reality show on the channel. The show doesn’t have a name as of yet, but according to the site AlwaysAList.com, what you can expect is that viewers will finally find out why the ladies, Cheryl “Coko” Clemons, Tamara “Taj” Johnson-George, and Leanne “Lelee” Lyons, parted ways musically in the first place in 1997. On top of that, it will also follow the ladies in their quest to become relevant once again in the new R&B scene, and we’ll also get a glimpse into their personal lives. They reportedly filmed a pilot for the reality show last fall.

We know that the group reunited in 2005, have been touring sporadically and just this past November they performed together during Black Girls Rock! They put out a new album early last year called I Missed Us, and it actually did well on the Billboard charts, coming in at number one on the R&B charts, so they still have a strong fan base. Now will the fan base tune in to watch their reality show? We’ll have to wait and see, but there’s no doubt that the ladies are ready to be seen once again by all.

Are you excited for the new series?

Source: WENN

When gospel music duo Mary Mary announced that they would be taking a musical hiatus from one another to focus on solo music, spending time with God and catering to their families, many wondered what that would mean for the fate of their popular reality show, which is generally based on their careers as a gospel group. It appears that whatever the ladies will be doing as separate entities, We TV wants in on it, as it was recently announced that Mary Mary would be returning for a third season, reports Deadline.

“During the current season of Mary Mary, viewers witnessed two incredible births: Tina’s baby boy and Erica and Tina’s hit single, ‘Go Get It,’ which went on to win the duo a Grammy Award. It’s exactly this type of dimensionality that WE tv spotlights in women,” said We TV’s Lauren Gellert.

The network will begin production of 10 one-hour episodes in Los Angeles next month. As of yesterday, viewership of Mary Mary‘s second season is up 16% from the first season, with 5.2 million total viewers. It will be fairly interesting to see the ladies doing their own thing next season. Erica, who recently discussed the group’s hiatus in an interview shared that although she’s a bit nervous about doing music without her sister, she’s also excited.

“You can expect music from me, possibly a children’s book and children’s music from Tina. I think she wants to just take a break and breathe. So, that’s what we’re going to do. Of course there’s anxiety with us stepping out to do different things. We’ve been joined at the hip for the last twelve years, and so now we’re taking chances and doing different stuff. You gotta flip it up every now and again. It’s been twelve years so it’s time to flip it around,” she revealed.

Mary Mary’s Season 2 finale airs tonight at 9/8 c.

Check out a sneak peak of tonight’s episode on the next page. Have you been watching the show this season?

Rex Features via AP Images

We like the sound of this!

WE TV has partnered with the NAACP for a campaign that will give it up for black women who are doing things great and small to make the world a better place.

Part of the NAACP’s  ”Unsung Heroes” project, WE TV already has a page set up on its site to drum up interest and gather stories for the project. You can add your video and information about your “hero” here.  To get the ball rolling, members of the Braxton family talk about their heroes here. This Tumblr has been showcasing the project for some time.

In addition to the Braxtons, Mary Mary, and stars from WE shows including My Fair Wedding: Unveiled are participating in the campaign, according to Multichannel News. The media outlet says public service announcements will be made, incorporating the submissions.

Johnny Louis/WENN

From ESSENCE

In December 2012, the internet began buzzing that Mary Mary was breaking up. Since then, there’s been much speculation about their future and if they would be ending a 12-year career. ESSENCE.com caught up with the ladies to find out what their plans are.

“I will say this, we are not breaking up,” said Erica Atkins-Campbell. “But we’re taking a break. I’m going to do some solo music. Tina’s going to vacation and travel the world. We’ve been joined at the hip the last 12 years and I think in order for us both to be our healthiest selves, just as women, in the group, [we will] take some time to think and re-assess. We’ve been going constantly year after year, baby after baby, tour after tour and now season after season on TV.”

They will do more than rest during their time off — the ladies say they are also planning to reconnect with God. “We’re singing about Christ, we’re singing about God. I can’t sing about God and I’m not taking the time to talk to God,” said Erica.

Well, that’s that. Check out ESSENCE for more, including Tina’s point of view and what they will be doing together while on hiatus.

Do you think this the sugarcoated way of Mary Mary saying this is the end?

Source: WENN

If you’ve ever even watched a commercial or trailer for the latest season of WE TV’s Mary Mary, which follows the lives of gospel duo Tina and Erica Campbell, you know that subject of splitting up or going solo is being explored unlike ever before. Although this talk of splitting up after twelve years is one that many devoted fans don’t want to entertain, I don’t believe anyone can fault the sisters for considering it. In a recent interview with the Huffington Post’s Black Voices, the ladies discuss the option of a Mary Mary hiatus as well as a breakup. Check out what they had to say.

On considering what the next phase of life offers:

“Now that we’re evolving as women, we feel like we’ve made a pretty substantial mark with Mary Mary,” Tina, 38, said. “It’s part natural. It’s part being prepared for the next phase in life. We may just need to take some time to reassess, to pray and seek God and find out what we can individually offer to the world.”

 On the difficulty of balancing work and home life:

“Tina has her 3-month-old with us, which means she’s not getting that much sleep on schedules where we have to wake up at 4:45 in the morning to be ready for 5 o’clock glam calls and be on absolutely all day,” her sister Erica, 40, explained, adding that she, too, struggles to keep up appearances without missing milestones in the lives of her three children at home. “I’m on the phone constantly … to check on them and make sure making sure my daughter doesn’t start walking while I’m gone,” Erica said.

“We always knew that we wanted to work and have kids,” TIna said. “We never looked at the kids or the husbands as a reason to not be a group. That’s not the motivation for either of us. It is 12 years — time to reassess, reevaluate, take a moment, breathe, inhale, exhale, all of that.”

I never thought I would see the day that I would actually not be annoyed by Tamar Braxton.

She is probably the only person on television, who I actually, as Jazmine Denise Rogers says, took personally. In fact, I used to have a visceral reaction to her big mouth and her even bigger ego. And both (the mouth and the ego) were major reasons why I got turned off to watching “Braxton Family Values.” That’s why I am so surprised by how much I actually enjoy her spin-off reality show, “Tamar & Vince,” which is currently about 2/3 into its first season. Unfortunately, judging by the chatter in my social networks, It looks like I’m probably the only one.

It’s a shame because the show really has potential. There is something so familiar, so classic television, about this couple. It’s like I’ve seen their image before on television. And somewhere around the sixth episode, it hit me: this show is like a modern day version of the “I Love Lucy” show.

I know that this seems like the most unlikeliest, and somewhat dated of comparisons to make, but just ride with me for a moment.  For those not familiar with the show, “I Love Lucy” was a black and white sitcom from the ’50s, which starred Lucille Ball as Lucy Ricardo and her real life husband Desi Arnaz as her television husband, Ricky Ricardo.  Basically, Lucy, a bored newlywed housewife with stars in her eyes, tries to become famous in Hollywood, mostly through the unauthorized connections of her husband Ricky, who is an up and coming Cuban-American singer and bandleader.  Through her zeal for celebrity, Lucy often finds herself in precarious situations (i.e. trouble), which usually keeps her at odds with her husband, who doesn’t take too kindly to his wife’s childlike and sometimes cartoonish behavior. Each episode usually involved Ricky, at one point, storming after his wife, fist waging and screaming in his Cuban infused English accent, “Luuucy…”

Like Lucy, Tamar dreams of stardom. And also like Lucy, she has considerable flare for clowning and getting herself stuck in drama. Like Ricky, Vince is a successful man in music who has to somehow balance his other work with his wife’s constant clamoring for the spotlight. Both have equally funny and dysfunctional best friends by way of LaShawn and April Daniels, a married songwriter and designer who are confirmed by the WE tv website to be the “Tamar & Vince” version of Fred and Ethel Mertz.  If you can learn to not take Tamar’s over-the-top personality so, well…personally, you might just find yourself literally laughing out loud at the constant stream of one-liners, which this show delivers.

But besides the comedy aspect, both shows also showed us the difficulty of navigating relationships, particularly marital life, in the face of individual goals and ambitions.

As noted by the book, Encyclopedia of Television by Horace Newcomb:

“In episode after episode Lucy rebels against the confinements of domestic life for women, the dull routines of cooking and housework, the petty humiliation of a wife’s financial dependence, the straightjacket of demure femininity. Yet her rebellion is forever thwarted. By entering the public sphere she inevitably makes a spectacular mess of things and is almost inevitably forced to retreat, to return to the status quo of domestic life that will begin the next episode.

Most time, Lucy would get caught up in her own undoing, but sometimes it would be Ricky’s dominating hand, which would spoil Lucy’s attempt for glory and freedom. In fact, in some episodes, we literately see Ricky physically spanking Lucy across his knee after committing some form of disobedience (be it whine, speaking back or pouting). Despite the threat of violence and ridicule from a disapproving Ricky, Lucy would continue on, persistent with her quest for personal validation. That was until the second and third seasons of the series, which brought about the birth of Little Ricky. Then, the show stopped focusing on Lucy and her dreams of stardom, and became mostly about Lucy, the mother of Little Ricky (who wound up getting more shine with Ricky Ricardo’s band as an up-and-coming drummer than Lucy coincidentally).

I see this same kind of fight for independence within Tamar. She wants to be famous. She wants to put out a number one album, tour the world and basically get her Beyoncé-super diva on. Nothing wrong with that as a life’s goal (especially when you have the talent to back it up as such is the case with Tamar), however, her husband, a popular manager and record company executive, is mostly thinking family. Unlike Ricky, Vince is very accommodating with his wife’s professional ambitions and at times can appear to be the balance to all of Tamar’s extraness. But clearly the topic of children appears to be a sore spot for Vince, which we learn during this season, was put on hold so that they could focus on Tamar’s career.

And because of this underlying tension, he is often snippy and short with Tamar. And while he hasn’t put her over his knee, he does tend to walk away physically and shut down emotionally, thus alienating and invalidating her points in the process.  The two never listen to each other. Instead, they compete and stubbornly stand their ground, even if it means at the expense of their relationship.

Back in the days of “I Love Lucy,” we might have seen a more accommodating and compromising Tamar. One that would say, “Oh screw it, let’s just have a kid” out of love for her husband and at the expense of her own desires. But in today’s culture, one which puts a little more value on a woman’s choice, Tamar is free to pursue the baby of her dreams – her budding musical career.  Some may just see her, and her self-interest, as the main reason why they argue, thus another reason to dislike Tamar, however there is nothing wrong with her declaring her individual interest in a relationship. The biggest problem with modern culture is figuring out whether or not we are all ready to honor an unabashed, determined woman.  In episode eight, Michael Braxton, father to the entire Braxton clan, spoke on a visit with his daughter and son-in-law about the importance of “respect” to a man in a relationship. To which, Tamar replied, “That just sounds 1959. Like, he tried it! We all want respect.” Ain’t that the truth.

Source: Vibe.com

Gabe and Trina have been having problems since we first met them on season 1 of “Braxton Family Values,” and undoubtedly long before. After therapy, infidelity, and everything in between, Trina finally declared that she was going to leave her husband on the last season of the show, but was she for real about it?

In an interview with Vibe.com, she seemed to be proceeding to divorce with (a lot of) caution.

“I am officially separated. I am not officially, or legally, divorced,” she told the site.

“It’s not something that easy to delve into, especially when you have children involved,” Trina added. “So it’s nothing I’m going to jump into lightly. I want to exhaust all of my options, and really think it through and let it be my choice and my decision.

“At the end of the day, people are living their lives and I’m stuck with the decision,” she added.

Can’t get mad at that answer, but it is interesting that all of the sisters (besides Tamar and Traci) seem to have one foot in the divorce door and the other in separation land.

Towanda legally separated from her husband last season but hasn’t made a move toward reconciliation or divorce since, and Toni and her husband have been separated since 2009 and never filed papers. It’s starting to seem like the Braxton sisters may not believe in divorce.

The third season of “Braxton Family Values” kicked off last night so we’ll have to follow the episodes to see just how things go down with Trina and Gabe.

Do you think it’s time for Trina to finalize the divorce?

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Source: article.wn.com

You’ve seen “Bridezilas” before, so by now you know that some of those women really know how to act a fool. Well, Bridezilla Jeanine, took the standard to a whole ‘nother level. Jeanine and her fiance Thomas became the first couple in Bridezilla history to end their marriage while still on the show. The couple got into a huge argument when the groom’s father took the bride’s father home instead of to the reception. Jeanine’s father was the only person from her family that attended her wedding, so she didn’t get to have her father-daughter dance. The couple couldn’t come to a compromise about the issue, emotions escalated and before long, her fiance (because they hadn’t signed the papers yet), took his ring off and started talking annulment. It’s hard to believe but there’s video proof that this actually went down.

Yes. A bit of a mess, right?

Well, we had the chance to speak with this “Bridezilla” to see where the couple stand now, whether she really acts like that in real life and what she learned from the whole ordeal. You can listen to our interview with her in the audio clip below.

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