Golden Globes Best Dressed for 2012
This year’s 69th annual Golden Globes featured Hollywood’s most stunning women in the hottest designer fashions. If you missed all the fun you can still see the top clips here at NBC.
Check out our picks for the best dressed, we consulted the fashion experts at Spontaneous Chick and the Isn’t She Lovely Store. They chose some beautiful celebs from the red carpet photo collection…
Reese Witherspoon in Zac Posen
Reese Witherspoon in Zac Posen Photo by Getty Images
Who is Harry Belafonte?
Although Harry Belafonte is no longer a household name, many of a certain age fondly remember him as a shining star of Hollywood films whose career was in its prime in the mid part of the 20th century. Aside from being a film star, his considerable contributions to the entertainment industry also include music. While he made recordings in various music genres, he is most noted for Calypso, and is attributed for popularizing this appealing Caribbean music style. Belafonte is also credited with introducing multiculturalism and world music to the entertainment arena.
Belafonte hails from Harlem, New York, where he developed a love for the theatre early in life. In the 1940s, he took acting lessons along with other aspiring actors who would later experience success, such as Sydney Poitier and Tony Curtis. He starred in several films in the 1950s, but took a hiatus from acting during the 1960s to concentrate on his singing career. Belafonte later returned to the film industry in the 1970s, and over the next decades appeared in films, costarring in several with top actors, such as Poitier and John Travolta.
He started singing in New York clubs to provide funding for his acting lessons. However, due to his substantial talent, this activity that began as a means of equipping him for a film career led to his success in music as well. Although Belafonte’s specialty was considered Calypso, he also made recordings in blues, folk and gospel, as well as show tunes and American standards. His most popular recording was The Banana Boat Song. This tune was such a hit that even decades later people are still familiar with it. Belafonte’s versatile singing talent sustained his success until the early 1960s.
So who exactly is this Hollywood legend personally? This famous African American celebrity is a fascinating mix of good looks and talent, along with articulate speech and an aristocratic demeanor. During his long career, he has been a most vocal advocate for humanitarian and civil rights causes he feels passionately about. In the area of politics, he has been equally vocal and is known for expressing controversial, polarizing opinions. Read more
GZA Goes to Harvard
For those who believe that hip-hop is little more than mindless drivel that caters to boys without belts and girls with thick eyeliner, prepare to be amazed. Not only is this characterization far off the mark for many hip-hop artists, it’s particularly off the mark for GZA, one of the founding members of the Wu-Tang Clan, a group known for its intellectual lyrics.
GZA—a.k.a. Gary Grice, or simply “The Genius”—has long referenced more academic subjects, such as astronomy, philosophy and chess, among other things. In December, while in Cambridge to lecture at the Harvard Black Men’s Forum, Grice went on a three-day tour to meet scientists from Harvard University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, during which time he learned about oceanography, biology and quantum physics.
On his first day of learning, Grice visited with Philip Richardson, a physicist studying how albatrosses fly without flapping their wings. After this, he had dinner with a group of young biologists from Harvard, during which conversation varied from whether it was healthy to eat wheat grass and Chia Pet seeds (it is), to what RNA was, to information about water. Grice is working on a follow-up to his classic “Liquid Swords”, so water was of particular interest to him.
After dinner, Grice visited the Broad Institute, a joint Harvard and MIT biomedical research center, where he was shown a genome sequencer and taught how DNA makes proteins. He was also shown robots that the institute uses to screen chemicals that may become new drugs.
The following morning, Grice was up bright and early to meet with Penny Chisholm, an MIT marine biologist. As he looked at a small bottle that contained a billion bacteria, Grice said, “It’s just amazing to hear how things work.” After a discussion with Chisholm about the importance of the sun in which Chisholm declared, “I think people ought to bow to the sun every day, and then bow to a plant,” Grice admitted, “I’m always touching plants and vibing with them.”
Following this visit, Grice made it a point to visit Pulitzer-winning novelist Junot Díaz; David Kaiser, author of “How the Hippies Saved Physics“; and a group of MIT’s Media Lab that is working on an “Opera of the Future”, in addition to Harvard, dughgghis presentation at the Black Men’s Forum, where he discussed rapping and how he learned to flow from nursery rhymes, along with some of the information he had learned during his educational tour.
The moral of this story is that, if you consider yourself to be a nerd, and worry that you will never be taken seriously, stop worrying. The world is in dire need of young people who are studying for their physics, marine biology, or biology degree, and RZA has shown that it’s cool to be smart again. So keep up with your studies, and if you have some downtime, get to know the Wu-Tang Clan.
Martha Stewart Gets Cancelled
Yes, you heard that right! After seven seasons, the Hallmark Channel has opted to discontinue shooting “The Martha Stewart Show.” Despite garnering two Daytime Emmy Awards during its first season, the show has since been besieged with poor ratings; when combined with high production costs, the Hallmark Channel has decided that it is in its best interest that the show stops taping in April, and re-runs end after the summer.
“Our expensive studio lease is expiring next year, and we will either bring television in-house or find lower cost space, which will significantly reduce our TV operating margins,” Lisa Gersh, president of Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia (MSLO), said in a statement.
Gersh, who joined MSLO last June, sounded optimistic in an internal company email:
“The daytime block on Hallmark demonstrated year-over-year ratings growth and ‘The Martha Stewart Show’ earned two Emmys in its first season,” she wrote. “The show will continue on Hallmark through the end of this season and we are currently exploring programming concepts for Martha Stewart and other MSLO brands beyond this fall.”
In addition to the upcoming demise of “The Martha Stewart Show”, The Home Depot will no longer sell Martha Stewart Living brand paints, although they will continue to allow customers to use her color palette with Glidden paints. In a statement, The Home Depot explained this decision: “The response to the paint base has not been as strong with consumers who are looking to mix the colors with our other paint brands.”
In the same internal email, Gersh defends MSLO: “As just a reminder of the power of our audiences and brands, a recent study conducted in August last year by Public Strategies indicated that Martha Stewart remains a strong brand with incredible awareness. Unaided, meaning without being prompted, 53% of women name Martha Stewart as the first person who comes to mind for providing lifestyle ideas and information in the home.” Read more
Michael Jordan Engaged to Yvette Prieto
Hopefully the holidays brought everyone a little cheer and quite a few presents. Many people like to take advantage of the season for giving by giving the ultimate gift: an engagement ring and a promise of happily-ever-after. Yuletide has always been a magical time, and Christmastime sees more proposals than any other time of the year. It is especially attractive for procrastinators, people who are nervous about proposing and people who are getting married out of a sense of duty. I am guessing Michael Jordan might fall into the latter camp.
Good old Michael Jordan—the Babe Ruth of Basketball—may not be as spry as he was when he carried the Bulls to championship after championship in the 90’s, but he’s still got enough spring in his step to spring the question!
Yes, this Christmas MJ popped the question to his long-time girlfriend, Yvette Prieto—the gorgeous Latin model. Haven’t heard of her? Neither did we until we heard she was dating Michael Jordan, but really once you’ve worked your way into his Air-ness’s heart, what else do you have to do? The man’s autograph is worth more than most people’s paychecks! The couple has only confirmed details of their engagement through Jordan’s publicist, but rumor has it that Jordan proposed on Christmas, and that the couple celebrated their happiness on a private yacht on the French Riviera.
Prieto is a Cuban-born model who has done work for designers such as Alexander Wang. She is a principal with Miami-based companies Aqua Management and Beet the LBS. This 32-year-old beauty has formerly been romantically linked to Julio Iglesias, Jr., who described her as “fantastic”, “loving”, “simple”, and “a very good person”.
Jordan played for the Chicago Bulls from 1984 until 1993, and then again from 1995 to 1999. He briefly signed with the Washington Wizards in 2001, although this proved to be short-lived. Named “the greatest basketball player of all time” on the NBA‘s website, Jordan has earned countless honors, including Rookie of the Year, five-time NBA MVP, six-time NBA champion, six-time NBA Finals MVP…and on and on.
The two started seeing one another in 2008, two years after Jordan’s divorce from his wife of 18 years, Juanita. They moved in together the following year, into a modest, three-bedroom home in Florida. Unlike many celebrity couples, the two have chosen to keep details of their relationship private.
In his heyday, Jordan epitomized Chicago to many. From Chicago Boystown to the trading floor of the commodities exchange, he made Chicago proud, and Chicago pride is something special! Whether he was doing his famous flying slam dunk at United Center or raising money for the CharitaBulls, Make-A-Wish Foundation, or any of the other sundry charities that Jordan has worked with, he has become a true Chicago icon.
So let’s raise a glass to the happy couple, and wish them a lifetime of happiness and love. Who knows? Maybe some of their bliss will rub off on the rest of us, and we’ll find a little New Year’s love, as well.
Celebrity Spotting
Celebrity spotting is one of my favorite pastimes. When I lived in LA, I worked at a record store on Sunset Boulevard where I saw celebrities all the time. I used to hang out with Jason Schwartzman before Phantom Planet shows. (Didn’t know that the star of I Heart Huckabee’s was in a band? You’re not the only one!)
When I lived in DC, I worked as a line-stander in the Russell building and saw all the politicians up close. What I noticed about Republicans is that their make-up looks like it was applied by an undertaker. What I noticed about Democrats is that they’re shorter than I thought they were on TV.
Now I live in Chicago. Here’s where I go to see celebrities:
Fernanda Rocha
This Brazilian beauty, the first lesbian housewife to appear on The Real Housewives of Orange County, is known for her magnificent abs and strenuous workout routines. She was recently the grand marshal at the annual Chicago Pride Parade. “It was so exciting, just being there and being Fernanda,” she gushed in a recent interview. “Any opportunity that I have to go and support [GLBT causes], I’m 100% there.”
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