Billy Payne
Male
24 years old
Atlanta, LA, New York, Chicago, United States
Macaulay Culkin’s Sister Killed in Traffic Accident December 12, 2008
Macaulay Culkin’s sister, Dakota, was struck and killed by a car in Los Angeles this week, police confirm.
The 29-year-old stepped in front of a car in West L.A. just before 11 p.m. on Tuesday and was rushed to UCLA hospital with massive head trauma, according to LAPD spokesman Richard French. She died the following day.
“The driver stopped, rendered aid, and identified himself as required by law,” said French. “Detectives determined that the driver was not under the influence of drugs or alcohol and that no crime was committed.”
Macaulay Culkin, 28, has five other siblings: Shane, 32, Kieran, 26, Quinn, 24, Christian, 21, and Rory, 19.
“This is a terrible tragic accident,” said the actor’s rep, Michelle Bega. “We ask that the media respect the family’s privacy during this difficult time.”
The accident was first reported by TMZ.com.
Suspicious Dating Patterns- Vol. 1 December 12, 2008
By The Fly Guy
Periodically, I’m going to share with you some red flag behavior that should make you think twice about diving into deeper relational waters with a potential significant other. Let’s call this section “The Behavior Police.” First up, we have a disturbing pattern of behavior that I’ve seen in some men (I was actually guilty of this offense once upon a time.)
So here’s the scenario:
The two of you are on the phone enjoying a nice “get-to-know-you” session. As the conversation starts to really get good, he ends things abruptly by saying, “Hey, I just pulled up to my house. Let me call you back after I get settled.”
The Fly Diagnosis:
Now maybe he doesn’t like to talk and unlock the door at the same time. (Hey it happens.) Or perhaps his voice-activated alarm system might trigger if it picks up your voice through the receiver (even more unlikely.) No matter what the case may be, his behavior is suspicious. If it happens on a fairly consistent basis, then you’re more than likely dealing with a guy who has a secret on the other end of the door (i.e. girlfriend, wife, mother, halfway house desk attendant.) Whatever his reality, just know that it’s something that he’s trying to keep from you.
Am I trying to instigate a confrontation between the two of you? Absolutely not. But I wouldn’t be doing my job if I failed to share with you some of the early warning signs that you need to be aware of.
Stay tuned for next week’s edition of “The Behavior Police” as I call out some suspicious behavior by women.
**If you have any anonymous tips for the BPD (Behavior Police Department) then email them to flyguychronicles@gmail.com. Remember: we’re here to protect and serve.
AKON CLARIFIES CRIMINAL PAST December 12, 2008
Akon spoke to Access Atlanta recently and addressed allegations that he fabricated much of his criminal past to create a marketable gangster image.
In April, under the headline Akon’s Con Job, the Web site Smoking Gun reported that the artist was not behind bars for a three-year stretch as he had claimed in media interviews.
Akon told Access Atlanta that his mention of “three years” represented the accumulation of all of his run-ins with the law, not one long sentence.
“I got caught up in cars and this and that. Kept going in and out of jail. Three months here, six months there, two weeks here,” Akon said. “And it was to a point where I was like, ‘This really doesn’t make any sense. What am I doing?’ And the last stretch I did was six months in Dekalb County (Georgia) after I was pulled over in a stolen car.
“So I guess when I was being interviewed, and I would say, ‘Yeah I did about three years,’ I wasn’t saying I did a three year stretch, I was calculating the time from when I started to get in trouble to the time when I said, ‘Enough is enough.’ And I think that was mistranslated in the Smoking Gun article and other stories.”
Akon also dismissed the story of him being jailed for being a leader of a car theft ring, revealing his time in prison was always for receiving stolen goods.
“The majority of the time I was in jail was for theft by receiving. I was always receiving stolen cars,” Akon states. “I mean, honestly, if I was, they would have had enough to make it stick. They tried to convict me as (a) ringleader and they didn’t have enough evidence.”
Akon’s interview was conducted to promote the Dec. 2 release of his third studio album, “Freedom.”
RZA BOOKS ROLE IN APATOW FILM December 12, 2008
Wu-Tang Clan founder RZA is gearing up for a major splash in 2009, which includes adding additional dates to its current winter tour through the United States.
On Jan. 27, the artist will release “Afro Samurai: The Resurrection,” a soundtrack to the second season of the animated Spike TV series that features Samuel L. Jackson as the voice of the title character.
The album features guest turns from Sly Stone, Kool G Rap, Rah Digga, Killah Priest, Inspectah Deck, Ghostface Killah, Rah Digga, and the late Ol’ Dirty Bastard’s son Boy Jones.
In Summer 2009, RZA will appear opposite Adam Sandler, Seth Rogen, and Leslie Mann in “The Funny People,” a comedy from writer/director Judd Apatow (“The 40-Year Old Virgin,” “Knocked Up”). The film follows a famous comedian coping with a near-death experience.
Meanwhile, the Wu-Tang Clan has added a few more dates to their 2008/09 winter tour.
The hip-hop icons hit the road at the end of November, and are currently working their way through an itinerary that stretches into mid-January. Since last check, they’ve tacked on stops in Pittsburgh and the Boston area, as well as in Jacksonville and Tampa, FL. Details are included below.
December 2008
14 – Chicago, IL – House of Blues
15 – Minneapolis, MN – First Avenue
17 – Cleveland, OH – House of Blues
18 – Rochester, NY – Main Street Armory
19 – Philadelphia, PA – Trocadero
20 – New Haven, CT – Toad’s Place
21 – Sayreville, NJ – Starland Ballroom
23 – New York, NY – Hammerstein Ballroom
26 – Pittsburgh, PA – Mr. Smalls
27 – Lancaster, PA – Chameleon Club
31 – Baltimore, MD – Sonar
January 2009
1 – Washington, DC – 9:30 Club
2 – Providence, RI – Lupo’s
3 – Worcester, MA – Palladium
4 – Burlington, VT – Higher Ground
7 – Norfolk, VA – The Norva
8 – Richmond, VA – National
9 – Greensboro, NC – N Club
10 – Charleston, SC – Music Farm
11 – Charlotte, NC – Amos’ Southend
12 – Raleigh, NC – Lincoln Theatre
13 – Columbia, SC – LEVEL
15 – Jacksonville, FL – Plush
16 – Tampa, FL – Jannus Landing
VIBE HONORS YEAR’S ‘BEST AND WORST’ December 12, 2008
Vibe magazine’s second annual “Tabloid Issue,” on newsstands Dec. 16, shouts out the “Best and Worst of 2008″ in such categories as Most Disastrous Fashion; Hottest MILF; Worst Beat Down; Juiciest Male Bodies and Most Beautiful Booty.
“Rumored couple” Rihanna and Chris Brown grace the January 2009 cover as well as married superstars Jay-Z and Beyoncé, and the “Hot Bodies” of tennis champion Serena Williams and rapper Nelly.
The following are results in some of the categories featured in the issue:
VIBE’S HOTTEST NEW ARTISTS?
The Golden Girl: Santogold
• The Showman: Ryan Leslie
• The Songstress: Jazmine Sullivan
• The Bombshell: Keri Hilson
• The Mailman: Flo Rida
VIBE’S HOTTEST SONGS OF 2008?
1. “Lollipop” – Lil Wayne feat. Static/Major
2. “A Milli” – Lil Wayne
3. “Put On” – Young Jeezy feat. Kanye West
4. “American Boy” – Estelle feat. Kanye West
5. “Can’t Believe It” – T-Pain feat. Lil Wayne
6. “Sexual Eruption” – Snoop Dogg
7. “Closer” – Ne-Yo
8. “Need U Bad” – Jazmine Sullivan
9. “Low” – Flo Rida feat. T-Pain
10. “Creator” – Santogold
VIBE’S FASHION BUZZ: DOPE OR NOPE?
Zoë Kravitz (daughter of Lenny Kravitz and Lisa Bonet), Pharrell Williams and Andre 3000 were Certified Dope. Ashanti and Kelly Rowland unfortunately had their Dopeness Denied.
VIBE’S SEXIEST MILFS
Actress Jessica Alba, mother of 6-month-old Honor Marie with husband Cash Warren; Mashonda Dean, mother of 2-year-old Kasseem Jr. with hitmaker Swizz Beatz; Alani “LaLa” Vasquez, mother of 21-month-old Kiyan with NBA superstar Carmelo Anthony and Solange Knowles, mother of 4-year-old Daniel Julez with TK.
VIBE-RATED BEST BOOTY?
Kim Kardashian, Serena Williams, Alicia Keys, and Meagan Good show us the most luscious bodies of the year.
GERMAN FILMMAKER SHARES OBAMA’S BACKGROUND December 12, 2008
A filmmaker has chronicled his experience trailing Barack Obama throughout his historic presidential campaign for a new documentary currently screening at the fifth Dubai International Film Festival.
“We’re men of the same generation,” 44-year-old Rahman Satti tells the Hollywood Reporter of his self-funded film “Gobama 2008.”
“His mother was from Kansas, mine is from East Germany. My father was from Sudan and his was from Kenya,” he says.
In his documentary, Satti follows a path of self-discovery as he trails Obama’s presidential campaign from New Hampshire to Los Angeles to Berlin — the director’s home — and back to Chicago for Election Night.
Satti said he was inspired to make the film after reading the president-elect’s memoir “Dreams From My Father.” Satti’s parents, like Obama’s, were divorced, their marriage a “victim of the Cold War.” His pharmacist mother was barred from leaving East Berlin to join his father, a doctor.
The filmmaker’s fascination with African-American politics was sparked as a youth growing up behind the Berlin Wall, when petitions for the release of imprisoned African-American activist Angela Davis were being distributed to his second-grade classroom. “Who is this powerful woman with the big hair?” he thought.
After attending film school in London, he set off for America, where U.S. Homeland Security detained him on arrival. “They asked me why I had an Arab name and what I was planning to do in America,” he said.
After a 45-minute interrogation and fingerprinting at the Los Angeles International Airport he was left alone. “I got in and my Afro-American friends told me ‘Now’s the time, you’ve got to do the film,’” he said.
When Obama spoke at a spot not far from where the Berlin Wall once divided East from West, Satti recalls he thought, “Maybe he’ll draw 30,000 people, but when we heard 200,000 was the number, we began to hope that it was possible he could win. I’ve got that energy captured on film at the ground level and it could not have been a better moment for my project.”
Back in the U.S., in Chicago on Election Night, Satti filmed and drank with his friends as they watched the votes come in.
“If he didn’t win, I didn’t know what I was going to do,” said Satti, who spent 25,000 euros out of his own pocket to shoot “Gobama” with a Sony EX-1 HDCAM. The film was made in co-production with German producer-distributor Barbel Mauch and film and television production company Hanfgarn & Ufer, both based in Berlin.
Satti said he hopes to find a buyer in Dubai but will have to leave early this weekend to finish postproduction in South Africa.
MARIAH SCRAPS TOUR FOR PREGNANCY? December 12, 2008
The New York Daily News is reporting that Mariah Carey was forced to cancel a planned tour after learning that she is pregnant, but a rep for the singer is denying both the tour and the pregnancy.
The newspaper’s Gatecrasher column quoted a Carey “insider” who said: “Costume designers and dancers were all called Wednesday and told the tour is off. Most were hysterically crying because they were relying on her for a paycheck this holiday season.”
However, a rep for the songstress said “a tour was discussed, but nothing was confirmed,” adding: “I have not been told she’s pregnant.”
BEYONCE UNVEILS OVERSEAS TOUR SCHEDULE December 12, 2008
Beyonce has released her itinerary for a month-long European leg of her world tour in support of “I Am … Sasha Fierce,” her third solo album.
The jaunt kicks off April 26 in Zagreb and will hit such cities as Budapest, Prague, Paris and Madrid before wrapping May 31 in Belfast.
Designer/director Thierry Mugler will serve as the creative advisor and costume designer on the “I AM…” tour, which will hit North America in the summer.
Having already debuted at No. 1 on The Billboard 200, “I Am … Sasha Fierce” has spawned No. 1 hits in Norway, Sweden, South Africa, Korea, Brazil and Denmark, reports Billboard.
Here are Beyonce’s European tour dates:
April 26: Zagreb (Arena)
April 28: Vienna (Stadthalle)
April 29: Budapest (Arena)
April 30: Prague (O2)
May 2: Rotterdam, Holland (Ahoy)
May 5: Paris (Bercy)
May 6: Strasbourg, France (Zenith)
May 7: Antwerp (Sportpalais)
May 8: Berlin (O2)
May 10: Herning, Denmark (MCH Arena)
May 11: Gothenburg, Sweden (Scandinavium)
May 13: Stockholm (Globen)
May 15: Cologne, Germany (Arena)
May 16: Zurich (Hallenstadion)
May 18: Lisbon (Atlantico)
May 19: Madrid (Palacio Desportes)
May 20: Barcelona (Palau St. Jordi)
May 23: Birmingham, England (NIA)
May 25: London (02)
May 27: Manchester, England (MEN)
May 29: Dublin (02)
May 31: Belfast (Odyssey Arena)
PLAXICO’S SIGNING BONUS WITHHELD December 12, 2008
Plaxico Burress will not be receiving his $1 million signing bonus that was due as part of the contract he signed with the New York Giants in September.
According to the Associated Press, the team is refusing to pay the money in the wake of his weapon possession charges relating to the Nov. 29 incident in which he accidentally shot himself in a Manhattan nightclub.
NFL Players Association union spokesman Carl Francis confirmed Wednesday evening that the Super Bowl champions decided to not make the payment, which was due Wednesday.
“We will file a claim in the appropriate forum to enforce his right to receive and keep the moneys entitled to him under his player contract,” Francis said.
As previously reported, the union on Tuesday filed a grievance challenging the Giants’ decision to suspend and fine Burress last week following the shooting incident. The union said the team violated the collective bargaining agreement placing Burress on the reserve-non football injury list, suspending him for the final four games of the regular season and fining him an additional week’s salary for conduct detrimental to the team.
The grievances will be heard by an arbitrator after the season ends. Burress pleaded not guilty to the gun charge and is due back in court on March 31.
