ANDRE 3000 SUED OVER ‘CLASS OF 3000′ December 10, 2008
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A former art student is suing Andre 3000 for copyright infringement after accusing the rapper of stealing his idea for the Cartoon Network series “Class of 3000.”
Timothy McGee is seeking $2 million from the artist, born Andre Benjamin, the Cartoon Network and its parent company Turner Broadcasting, reports the Boston Herald.
McGee claims to have submitted a show idea in 1997 to then Cartoon Network vice president of programming Michael Lazzo about a series following the lives of a group of young musicians, “as they try to break into Atlanta’s burgeoning music scene.”
The lawsuit says the “characters, artwork, storylines and concepts” McGee developed for his show were heavily borrowed upon for Dre’s show, which aired from November 2006 to May 2008.
McGee’s show proposed Babyface as the young musicians’ mentor and included “a young corporate type” who aspired to be a music producer, a “tough full-of-attitude female executive, a young techno-whiz sound engineer, a talented young Asian singer and a central energetic young singer/rapper,” according to the suit.
“Class of 3000″ featured Andre as Sunny Bridges, a musical genius who left his hometown of Atlanta to pursue a recording career, only to return after experiencing the corruption of the business.
Sunny is hired as the new music teacher at the Westley School of Performing Arts where his students include a would-be music producer, a “tough, brash full-of-attitude” female student who plays the harp and guitar, a “technological genius bass player, and talented twins of Asian ethnicity,” McGee’s lawsuit said.
McGee’s lawsuit cites copyright infringement, breach of contract and misappropriation of trade secrets in the creation of the award winning show. He is requesting compensation in the form of all the profits from the show, as well as court fees and any other payment the courts may see fit.
“We’ve requested $2 million in damages thus far,” said McGee’s attorney Jerrold Neeff. “The rest remains to be seen.”
STEVIE WONDER’S COUSIN CAUSING TROUBLE December 10, 2008
Police were called out to Stevie Wonder’s San Fernando Valley home Monday after his cousin reportedly showed up with a refrigerator and other personal items and dumped them onto the property.
TMZ.com is reporting that the cousin first dropped by Wonder’s house last Friday in an ongoing dispute. Cops were called and ordered the relative off the premises.
But Monday, the cousin returned – this time with the refrigerator and other personal belongings that he placed on the grounds, TMZ reported. Security called the LAPD again, but Wonder, who was not there at the time, called in and asked the police to leave, calling the situation a “family matter.”
When the police left, Stevie’s cousin had entered the guest house “and was holed up there,” according to TMZ.
JAMIE FOXX PREPARES TO DROP ‘INTUITION’ December 10, 2008
Jamie Foxx says his upcoming album “Intuition,” due Dec. 16 via J, was crafted as a departure from his chart-topping, double-platinum 2005 release “Unpredictable.”
“‘Unpredictable’ was more, like, slow, bedroom things, which was great but when I went on the road we had all these ballads, so sometimes I had to work a little harder to keep people’s attention,” the singer tells Billboard.com. “With (‘Intuition’), we’ve got all these legitimate club, international hits and the tempo is up. People hear this record and go absolutely nuts for it.”
Guests and producers on the project include T.I. (on the first single, “Just Like Me”), Kanye West, the-Dream and Tricky Stewart, Ne-Yo, Fabolous, Timbaland and Floetry’s Marsha Ambrosius.
“Number One,” with Lil Wayne, is currently being “floated” into the clubs, while “Blame It,” with T-Pain, is slated to be worked in mid-January.
“I think people are slowly wanting to work with me more as far as music is concerned,” notes Foxx, who studied piano on a scholarship to United States International University. “I do run into a lot of roadblocks. I’ve been trying to break down those sort of preconceived thoughts that this is just a hobby to me or … ‘He’s already got enough.’ People want to work with you, but sometimes they don’t take it seriously until they hear the records and see the direction I’m going with. I think it’ll be even easier to get people to feature with me for the next record.”
Foxx says he will promote “Intuition” with a spring tour, after he finishes a 10-week shoot for “Law Abiding Citizen,” a drama with Jerry Butler. His next film, “The Soloist” — the true-life story of homeless cello virtuoso Nathaniel Ayers — is due in theaters this March.
“I just see something really high-energy,” Foxx says of the shows. “I see myself probably with Ne-Yo, out on the road, a little different demographic than what ‘Unpredictable’ was. A high-energy, great show — just hit ‘em and quit ‘em.”
DAVIS, HENSON NOMINATED FOR BFCA AWARDS December 10, 2008
Viola Davis and Taraji P. Henson will compete for best supporting actress trophies at the 14th Broadcast Film Critics Association’s Critics Choice Awards, which will broadcast live on VH1 Jan. 8 from the Santa Monica Civic Auditorium.
Davis co-stars with Meryl Streep in “Doubt,” which was nominated for best picture along with “Changeling,” “The Dark Knight,” “Frost/Nixon,” “Milk,” “The Reader,” “Slumdog Millionaire,” “Wall-E” and “The Wrestler.”
Henson plays the mother of Brad Pitt’s title character in “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button,” which tied “Milk” with eight nominations apiece to lead all nominees.
Joining Davis and Henson in the supporting actress category are Penelope Cruz (“Vicky Cristina Barcelona”), Vera Farmiga (“Nothing But the Truth”), Marisa Tomei, (“The Wrestler”) and Kate Winslet (“The Reader”).
Founded in 1995, the BFCA has nearly 200 members reviewing pics for TV, radio or web outlets. Click here to view the entire list of BFCA Critics Choice nominees:http://www.bfca.org/ccawards/2008.php
FANTASIA AFFECTED BY ECONOMY COLLAPSE? December 10, 2008
The New York Post is reporting that Fantasia Barrino is in a bad way financially. She’s accused of defaulting on a $58,000 loan to pay back taxes that she reportedly owed the IRS, and one of her homes in North Carolina is heading to the auction block.
The Broadway star’s $1.3 million 6-bedroom, 6,232-square-foot mansion has been foreclosed on and will be auctioned on Jan. 12 unless she can come up with the payments, the Post reports.
Records show she took a $1-million mortgage on the property in Charlotte from the Bank of America. But Barrino never answered the complaint against her and a judge ruled for the plaintiff by default.
The Post is quoting someone claiming to be Barrino’s relative who said the whole thing is just a misunderstanding and her former lawyer is responsible for the mess because he never showed up in court to challenge the judgment against her.
News of the home auction was revealed during a lawsuit against Fantasia from Broward Energy Management, who claims she has yet to repay the $58,000 loan given to her to pay back taxes, according to the company’s lawyer Laurence Goldman.
According to the Post, Barrino’s home in jeopardy “is located in one of Charlotte’s ritziest neighborhoods on a golf course. The two-story stucco home boasts a large arched wooden front door and is decorated throughout with exotic art. A duel sweeping staircase greets visitors in its front hall, while tropical fish frolic in a massive fish tank upstairs that is visible from the front hall. A large, glass dining room table is adorned with what appears to be a statue of a cougar.”
OPRAH ‘EMBARRASED’ BY HER WEIGHT GAIN December 10, 2008
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In the January issue of “O” magazine, Oprah Winfrey comes clean about her weight gain – saying she has “fallen off the wagon” in terms of healthy living and currently weighs 200 pounds.
“I’m mad at myself,” Winfrey writes in an article provided early to The Associated Press by Harpo Productions. “I’m embarrassed. I can’t believe that after all these years, all the things I know how to do, I’m still talking about my weight. I look at my thinner self and think, `How did I let this happen again?’”
In the “O” issue, out Tuesday, Winfrey writes about her recently-diagnosed thyroid condition that has made her develop “a fear of working out.” She says she’s added 40 pounds to her frame since she weighed 160 pounds in 2006.
“Yes, you’re adding correctly; that means the dreaded 2-0-0,” Winfrey writes “I was so frustrated I started eating whatever I wanted — and that’s never good.”
In the “O” article, Winfrey writes that she hit rock bottom when she wanted to skip out on an April 26 taping with Cher and Tina Turner in Las Vegas.
“I felt like a fat cow,” Winfrey writes. “I wanted to disappear.”
Winfrey writes that her goal is no longer to be thin; instead, she wants to be strong, healthy and fit. The new goal comes 20 years after she famously wheeled a wagon loaded with fat onto the set of her talk show to represent a 67-pound weight loss while wearing a pair of size 10 Calvin Klein jeans. She had lost the pounds with a liquid protein diet.
“I had literally starved myself for four months — not a morsel of food,” Winfrey recalled in 2005. “Two hours after that show, I started eating to celebrate — of course, within two days those jeans no longer fit!”
Winfrey’s weight has fluctuated wildly ever since, ballooning to as much as 237 pounds. By late 1990, she admitted she had regained most of the 67 pounds, saying “I’ll never diet again.”
In 1994, she trained for and completed the Marine Corps Marathon and by 1996 hired her trainer Bob Greene and proclaimed that her weight saga was over.
Winfrey’s current weight and height put her body mass index at 31.8, which is obese, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The CDC says people who are obese are “at higher risk for chronic conditions such as high blood pressure, diabetes and high cholesterol.”
Winfrey says she hopes to turn things around with the Jan. 5 launch of her “Best Life Week” on “The Oprah Winfrey Show,” where she is expected to talk about her recent weight gain. She’ll take an all-hands-on-deck approach to the issue by featuring Greene and Dr. Mehmet Oz to her show during the first week of January, as well as spirituality experts, sex therapists and financial expert Suze Orman.
Winfrey also is expected to discuss her weight on her XM satellite radio station’s “The Gayle King Show” on Jan. 5 and will host interactive live Web casts at Oprah.com the week of Jan. 12 to 16 every night at 9 p.m. EST.
Winfrey, an admitted food addict, sounds almost apologetic in her article.
“I definitely wasn’t setting an example,” she writes. “I was talking the talk, but I wasn’t walking the walk. And that was very disappointing to me.”
