January 2009

Saturday, January 31, 2009

Singer Jennifer Hudson to perform publicly for first time since family tragedy

Academy Award winning actress/singer Jennifer Hudson will step back into the public eye in a big way tomorrow when she sings “The Star Spangled Banner” to kick off the Super Bowl in Tampa, Florida. Hudson’s performance of the national anthem at Sunday’s match-up between the Arizona Cardinals and Pittsburgh Steelers will be her first since the murders of her mother, brother, […]
Friday, January 30, 2009

Super Bowl MVP life story bought by Hollywood

  No matter who wins the Super Bowl on Sunday, the Steelers or the Cardinals, it will probably be a super weekend for former NFL star quarterback Jim Plunkett. A movie deal, which involves the life rights for Plunkett’s story, was announced in Variety today.  Plunkett, who is Mexican-American,  was raised by blind parents who struggled to make a living in San Jose, California. Plunkett went […]
Thursday, January 29, 2009

Day Nine: President Obama signs groundbreaking equal pay bill

Photo from www.whitehouse.gov   Today, less than two weeks into his administration President Barack Obama signed his first bill into law and it’s a groundbreaker. President Obama put his signature on the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Restoration Act of 2009. Among the supporters at the signing ceremony, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, and Lilly Ledbetter. Ledbetter worked 19 […]
Thursday, January 29, 2009

SAG and big studio representatives to meet next week

Representatives for the big Hollywood studios and the Screen Actors Guild announced jointly tonight that they will meet face to face next week. The statement below appears on both the SAG and Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers websites.  Screen Actors Guild and the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers will meet February 3 and 4, at the AMPTP […]
Wednesday, January 28, 2009

Day Eight:President Obama’s $819 Billion stimulus plan clears first major hurdle

 Late today, the House of Representatives passed President Barack Obama’s $819 billion economic stimulus plan aimed at creating jobs and providing tax cuts to individuals and businesses. The vote was 244-to-188. Despite the president’s efforts over the past few days to rally support among Republicans, not one voted for the plan. Only 18 Democrats voted against it. The president is trying […]
Wednesday, January 28, 2009

Screen Actors Guild drama continues

More drama today for Hollywood’s largest actors union. The President of the Screen Actors Guild, Alan Rosenberg, sent out an e-mail to the membership late yesterday blasting the National Board of Directors for its firing of Doug Allen on Monday. Allen, the union’s National Executive Director and Chief Negotiator, was ousted by the Guild’s National Board of Directors on Monday. Rosenberg praised […]
Tuesday, January 27, 2009

Distraught Wilmington man reportedly killed self & his family

 A man distraught over the loss of his job reportedly shot to death his wife and five children, before killing himself in their Wilmington home today. Wilmington is a Los Angeles suburb. The man has been identified as Ervin Lupoe who was apparently terminated from his job at Kaiser Permanente Medical Center in West Los Angeles last week. Lupoe’s wife, Ana, had been fired from […]
Tuesday, January 27, 2009

Big shake-up in the Screen Actors Guild

For weeks now the rumors have been flying about the ouster of the National Executive Director and Chief Negotiator of the Screen Actors Guild, Doug Allen. Despite all the denials, there was something in these rumors that suggested Allen’s days were numbered. And so it is, Allen is no longer working for SAG today, after being given his walking papers by the Guild’s National Board of Directors […]
Monday, January 26, 2009

A huge demand for Aretha Franklin’s inauguration hat

FLLewis/A Writer’s Groove Legendary singer/songwriter Aretha Franklin belted out “My Country ‘Tis of Thee” at the swearing-in ceremony for President Barack Obama, last Tuesday January 20. Franklin is known for her over-the-top outfits that some feel are not always, ah, flattering. Well, the “Queen of Soul’s” inauguration outfit won her a multitude of praise, especially, that fabulous hat. I loved it! […]