NYDailyNews Reports
A baby boy born 16 weeks prematurely was declared dead by doctors at a hospital in Paraguay only to wake up in time for his funeral wake hours later.
Dr. Ernesto Weber, head of pediatric care at the state-run hospital in the capital of Asuncion, said the baby weighed just 17.6 ounces when he was born.
"Initially, the baby didn't move, he practically didn't have any respiratory reflexes, nor did we hear a heartbeat and, as a result, we declared a premature fetus of 24 weeks dead," Weber told Reuters Television.
The family was given a death certificate and a cardboard box with the baby's name scribbled on the outside which served as a makeshift coffin.
But when the family took him from the hospital to prepare him for his funeral, the unbelievable happened.
"I opened the box and took the baby out and he cried. I got scared and I said "the baby's crying" ... and then he started moving his arms, his legs and I got scared, we got very scared," said one member of the family, Liliana Alvarenga.
Hours after the baby's death had been declared he was found to be alive. The hospital has begun an investigation and the baby is now in a stable condition in an incubator.
Read more…
LATimes Reports
Ryan O'Neal admits that he was so frazzled at Farrah Fawcett's funeral that he hit on his own daughter, Tatum O'Neal.
“They had just put the casket in the hearse and I was watching it drive away when a beautiful blonde woman comes up and embraces me," Ryan tells Vanity Fair. "I said to her, 'You have a drink on you? You have a car?' She said, 'Daddy, it's me -- Tatum!' I was just trying to be funny with a strange Swedish woman, and it's my daughter. It's so sick."
But the bigger question is whether Ryan's devotion to Farrah in her last days was just an act.
His son Redmond thinks it was.
"All those crocodile tears! ... My dad's only goal was to make sure he would be in the will,” Redmond tells Vanity Fair. "It was so disgustingly transparent as soon as he found out she was terminal. I consider him a vulture presiding over a carcass. Ryan thought he was going to get everything."
Farrah reportedly left almost her entire estate to Redmond. And nothing to Ryan.
Both Tatum and her brother Griffin O'Neal also speak to Vanity Fair of Ryan's failures as a father, his rages and his drug use.
"My father is afraid of me because I know the truth," Griffin says. "That's the part that absolutely scares him to death." Griffin suggests that the family's problems might have something to do with the fact that Ryan plied his children with drugs -- "My father gave me cocaine when I was 11 and insisted I take it. ... He was violent all the way through my upbringing," says Griffin. "He was a very abusive, narcissistic psychopath. He gets so mad he can't control anything he's doing."
Tatum wrote a book about her childhood, much to her father's annoyance.
"No parent wants to hear their kid saying [awful] things about them. ... But what I wrote in the book was true. I've got a battle with drugs, but I'm a strong, independent person, and I fight for myself, and my father and I butt heads. When I was 16 years old, he and Farrah moved in together, and after that I saw my dad periodically, and that took a long time for me to get over."
About being hit on by her dad, Tatum sighs and says: "That's our relationship in a nutshell. You make of it what you will." It had been a few years since we'd seen each other, and he was always a ladies' man, a bon vivant."
The documentary, "Farrah's Story," about the actress' fight against anal cancer, has been nominated for an Emmy and there will be a tribute to her during the Sept. 20 awards show.
Will Ryan and Farrah's friend and documentary producer Alana Stewart appear together?
Are they living off Farrah's limelight? What do you think?
Read more…
XXL Reports
The price tag on 50 Cent’s Connecticut mansion has taken another slash, this time by nearly 25 percent.
According to the Associated Press, the rap mogul has dropped $3.6 million from the $14.5 million asking price of his 50,000-square-foot home of five years. The estate—originally owned by former boxing titleholder Mike Tyson—is now on selling for $10.9 million.
As XXLMag.com previously reported, the 19-bedroom property originally hit the market for $18.5 million in May 2007. In December, 50 cut $4 million from the initial valuation.
The AP says Fif is tired of frequent two-hour commutes to New York City. His fourth solo LP, Before I Self Destruct, is slated for a September 29 release.
Read more…
NYDailyNews Reports
Glenn Beck Wednesday defended calling President Obama a "racist” and saying the President must be held accountable for his actions.
Beck told his radio audience that he would exercise his right to free speech whether or not he had a radio or television show.
"Just know, you are never going to shut me up,” Beck told his listeners.
The comments came after the combustible host ignited a firestorm Tuesday, when, during an appearance on FNC's freewheeling "Fox and Friends,” he said the President's reaction to the Henry Gates Jr. arrest situation in Cambridge, Mass., suggested a "deep-seated hatred for white people or the white culture."
"Fox & Friends" co-host Brian Kilmeade immediately responded, saying that most of the faces people see of the Obama administration are white, such as spokesman Robert Gibbs or chief of staff Rahm Emanuel.
"I'm not saying he doesn't like white people. I'm saying he has a problem," Beck responded. "This guy is, I believe, a racist."
Beck took to the radio airwaves Wednesday with an emotional defense of his comments. "Ever notice the one making the charge of racism is never the one on trial until it's a conservative making the charge,” Beck said.
"I am not willing to bow before the king, I will never bow before the king. In America, we do not have kings,” Beck said.
"The President of the United States is not above the law, or above criticism. I will never, ever say the emperor is wearing clothes — if he's not.”
Since the story emerged, Fox executives have made it clear that although they encourage free speech, the "racist” remark was Beck's and his alone.
"During Fox & Friends" [Tuesday] morning, Glenn Beck expressed a personal opinion which represented his own views, not those of the Fox News Channel," Bill Shine, senior vice president of programming for Fox News, said in a statement. "And as with all commentators in the cable news arena, he is given the freedom to express his opinions."
Reaction to Beck's comments on the Daily News Web site ranged from outright approval to dismissing them as coming from a conservative white commentator trying to drum up an audience.
"Glenn Beck is another example of showboating, mostly male, mostly conservative radio and TV commentators who don't speak from fact but rather from their well-considered opinion of how much what they say will rile up their fan base and make them more famous and make them more money," wrote one reader.
Beck was reacting to Obama's initial handling of the Gates case.
Read more…
XXL Reports
While the war of words between Slaughterhouse and D-Block defector J-Hood has recently cooled off, Royce da 5’9″ says the dispute is far from resolved.
In a recent interview with XXLMag.com, Nickel-Nine denied that there’d be any more lyrical fire from his four-man super group, but insisted that the beef could leak off of the wax.
“We’re not going to respond to him because he’s a bum… just like Ransom,” Royce said, who’s digital EP The Revival dropped yesterday (July 7). “He might want to shut his fucking mouth. Detroit niggas don’t play that shit.”
Hood has been taking shots at the entire Slaughterhouse crew for the past few months, name-calling and levying threats on street DVDs. “I’m all for the battle rapping, but when you get to talking about what you’re going to do… I don’t want to fucking hear that,” Royce continued. “I move around New York how I feel. That nigga can’t step a fucking pinky toe in Detroit.”
“He can say what he wanna say,” he added, “but if he brings that shit anywhere near my circumference, I’ma take his fucking head off.”
The dispute began late last year, when J-Hood took exception to a Royce punchline. He told hiphopbeef.com the offending quip was, “I’m the one, really though/you just a J-Hood gun video.”
The Yonkers MC clapped back with “Watch What You Say,” also dissing Jim Jones, 50 Cent and Jadakiss.
In April, Royce responded with his rendition of Red Café’s “Hottest In The Hood” followed by partner-in-rhyme Crooked I’s “Slaughterhouse is a Big Deal.”
Next for Royce is the debut disc from his group , Slaughterhouse scheduled for an August 11 release. His fifth solo LP, Street Hop, is set to drop in September. –John Kennedy
Read more…
Singer Chris Brown may have scared off some women by beating up his ex, Rihanna, but Kanye West's on-and-off girlfriend, Amber Rose, apparently isn't one of them.
Brown and Rose locked lips at the July 4 White Party thrown by Sean (Diddy) Combs and Ashton Kutcher in Beverly Hills, spies tell the Daily News.
Brown, 20, arrived at the party with singer Teyana Taylor, an 18-year-old Rihanna look-alike, but is said to have hooked up quickly with Rose.
"Diddy announced the deejay would do a tribute to Michael Jackson," said a guest. "Chris did an amazing impression of Michael's moonwalk. It wasn't long before he was dancing with Amber."
Later, as the party wound down, the pair nestled on a couch in the backyard of the Beverly Hills mansion.
"They were holding hands and making out in the shadows," said a witness. "She had her hand on his leg."
Taylor is said to have been irked by the amount of time Brown spent with Rose, but still accompanied him to an after-party at the club Guys.
There, Brown again got upclose and personal with Rose, who is 26.
"They were kissing on the dance floor in front of Teyana," said a witness. "But he and Amber left separately."
Some wondered whether the flagrant display was a defiant message both to Rihanna and West. Rihanna dumped Brown, who last month pleaded guilty to assaulting the Grammy winner.
West, who has said he was "devastated" by Brown's attack on a woman who was like "my little sister," has run hot and cold on Rose lately. Although he reportedly broke up with her last month, they came together at last week's BET Awards show.
A rep for Brown had no comment. Reps for Rose and West couldn't be reached.
Source: NewYorkDailyNewsRead more…
Former Roc-A-Fella/Def Jam artist Tru Life turned himself in to authorities last night (June 23) to face a charge of 1st degree murder, according to reports.
The charge is possibly tied to a brutal stabbing incident last week that left one man seriously injured, and an 18-year old teen dead.
As reported by AllHipHop.com, police were initially investigating Tru Life’s brother for a retaliation attack in the non-fatal shooting of Michael Slater.
The individual, whom police suspect is a drug dealer, was shot in the stomach outside of club Pacha.
Several hours after the crime, police claim five gang members ambushed 30 year old Jason Black and the teen at a Manhattan apartment complex.
Both men were stabbed repeatedly in the chest and face. Black survived the assault, while the unidentified teen succumbed to his wounds.
At the time, police theorized that the back and forth violence was the result of a feud between Jason Black and Tru Life’s brother.
1st degree murder carries a maximum sentence of life in prison under New York law.
If an official or witness is not the victim, the distinction can also be decreed for murders involving multiple parties or tortuous killings.
Tru Life’s last music effort, “Wet ‘em Up,” was heard as a selection on the soundtrack to Grand Theft Auto IV.
At press time, Tru Life could not be reached for comment.
Source : ALLHIPHOPRead more…
Michael Jackson and nanny Grace Rwaramba along with two of his children
The nanny who became “mother” to Michael Jackson’s three children has told how she regularly had to pump his stomach to remove dangerous cocktails of drugs.
Grace Rwaramba, 42, who flew from London to Los Angeles yesterday in the hope of being reunited with his children, has given a graphic account of the singer’s increasingly desperate final months.
She paints a grim picture of Jackson, sometimes penniless but deluded about his “riches”, leading a nomadic life, moving from country to country and hotel to hotel, before allegedly falling under the increasing influence of the Nation of Islam, the extremist sect.
“There was one period that it was so bad that I didn’t let the children see him . . . He always ate too little and mixed too much.”
The nanny says she once called in the singer’s mother, Katherine, and sister, Janet, to attempt an “intervention”, trying to persuade the singer to come to terms with his addiction. Instead Jackson turned on her, accusing her of betraying him. “He didn’t want to listen; that was one of the times he let me go,” she said.
Rwaramba, who is from Rwanda, worked for Jackson for more than a decade, starting as an office assistant before becoming nanny to his children, Michael Jr, known as Prince, aged 12; Paris, 11; and Prince Michael II, 7, nicknamed Blanket to distinguish him from his brother.
She was dismissed for a final time last December but still went back to see the children. When she visited them in April she claims Jackson was so hard up she had to buy “happy birthday” balloons for Paris on her own credit card.
On a previous occasion he had sent her to Florence to buy antiques for $1m. “We didn’t even have a home to live in. So we had to put the antiques in storage,” she said.
Yesterday an official with the Los Angeles police revealed the singer had become “heavily addicted” to the powerful painkiller OxyContin and had received an injection of Demerol, another painkiller, an hour before his death. It is now almost certain the police will begin a full investigation into the singer’s death and that Rwaramba will be regarded as a witness. Coroners in the case said yesterday there was no suspicion of foul play but toxicology tests would take several weeks.
One theory is that Jackson was taking an increasing amount of drugs to combat the stress of his forthcoming 50 concerts at the O2 in London. The nanny said: “Fifty performances! I told him . . . what are you doing? He said ‘I signed only for 10’. He didn’t know what he was signing. He never did.”
Detectives have made contact with Dr Conrad Robert Murray, a cardiologist who was with Jackson at his rented mansion when he died, and have made clear they want to interview him. Police denied a report that they also want to talk to a second doctor.
Police will also want to know whether early CPR (cardiopulmonary resuscitation) efforts to save the singer’s life were botched. On a tape of conversations between the Jackson home and the ambulance service, one of Jackson’s staff tells the dispatcher that Jackson is on the bed and that a “doctor is here”, meaning Murray.
Medical experts say it is usual for the patient to be on a hard surface because it is difficult to compress the chest on a soft surface. The operator told the caller to “get him on the floor”. A car towed by police from Jackson’s home is registered in the name of Murray’s sister in Texas.
Rwaramba claims the Nation of Islam, the sect that had become increasingly prominent in Jackson’s life, told him it cost $100,000 (£60,000) a month to rent the mansion, but she believes similar properties were on the market for no more than $25,000 a month.
The sect has supplied bodyguards to the singer and allegedly intimidated auction houses that were selling Jackson memorabilia.
“Michael had no idea about money,” Rwaramba said. “He got a proposal to make an appearance in Japan for $1m . . . By the time everyone took their share, he ended up with $200,000.” At one stage Jackson and his entourage flew economy class to Germany. One of the worst periods was after Jackson was acquitted following a five-month trial in 2005 on charges of sexually abusing a boy during sleepovers at his Neverland ranch.
Jackson, Rwaramba and the children went to Bahrain as guests of Sheikh Abdullah, a son of the king, who hoped to make a CD with the singer.
People there described yesterday how they sometimes saw Jackson walking through a mall, his frail body draped in a woman’s abaya, or robe, which covered part of the face. He drew a crowd since he did not walk like a woman.
When the singer and the sheikh fell out, Jackson and his family moved to Ireland to stay with friends of Rwaramba and then in a small house in New Jersey where Jackson slept in a downstairs room while she and the children shared a bedroom.
When Jackson did have money, he hid it in black rubbish sacks and under the carpets at the Los Angeles house. Rwaramba says Katherine Jackson rang her in London at 7am on Friday to ask where the money was, possibly to stop it being stolen.
Sources close to the Jacksons yesterday told the TMZ entertainment website, which broke the news of his death, that the children would stay with their grandmother and grandfather Joe at the family home in Encino, California.
They said: “We’re told the family is 100% behind this - feeling that Katherine and Joe Jackson are the only people who can help the children understand who their father was, help them grieve, and teach them to deal with life in the spotlight.”
Source : Times OnlineRead more…
}