Michelle Williams continues to expand her brand and make a name for herself in the entertainment industry with a new reality series, My Sister’s Keeper. Produced and distributed by Entertainment One (eOne), the series will follow Williams’ journey of writing and recording her third Gospel album, and other aspects of her life.

“I am very thrilled about this opportunity, to extend into television with the eOne family as well, with this series,” she said in a release.

“Working together on my new gospel album and television series, I am excited to share with everyone a behind-the-scenes look at the inspiration and journey of recording for the album, performing, fun family times and other unforgettable experiences out together with my dear sisters.”

One of those sisters sang alongside Williams in a gospel group, United Harmony. Destiny’s Child fans may remember a mini reunion that Williams had during an interview with Ananda Lewis on MTV’s TRL. Fans will have to watch the show to see what musical surprises, if any, the Williams sisters may be cooking up.

“We’re very excited to expand upon our relationship with Michelle on this new collaboration that will provide fans with a peek into her everyday life,” said Tara Long, Senior Vice President of U.S. Alternative Programming.

“eOne’s versatility across all pillars of entertainment from music, film and television through development, production and distribution enables us to offer comprehensive multi-platform opportunities for our partners.”

Williams’ career in entertainment spawns more than a decade. She got her start as a background singer for R&B singer Monica in 1999 and joined Destiny’s Child in 2000.  Alongside Beyoncé Knowles and Kelly Rowland, Williams traveled the globe, selling out shows and collecting major music awards. In 2002, however, she branched out and forged a solo career.

On April 16, 2002 Williams released Heart to Yours via Sanctuary Records and Columbia Records. The album was well received by critics and performed marginally well on the music charts. Do You Know followed in 2004 and featured appearances by former band mates Knowles and Rowland. Knowles and younger sister Solange also wrote and produced on the album. Again, the album received positive reviews. The album did not perform as well as its predecessor though. In 2008 Williams ventured from gospel music and issued a dance/pop album titled Unexpected.  The album was a commercial disappointment. It is Williams’ lowest selling album to date.

In 2003 Williams made her Broadway debut in Aida, replacing Grammy-winning singer Toni Braxton in the lead role. The year 2007 saw Williams star in Oprah Winfrey’s The Color Purple, followed by a ground breaking, historical portrayal as Roxie Hart in Chicago in 2009. Williams is the first woman of color to take on the lead role. In 2011, Williams made a brief departure from the Broadway stage to act in a David E. Talbert play, What My Husband Doesn’t Know. Broadway fans saw Williams return to them in 2013 with a role in Fela!

In addition to being a singer, songwriter and actress, Williams is also a philanthropist, designer and a minority owner of the WNBA’s Chicago Sky.

Image Courtesy : Michelle Williams

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Lance Armstrong, through winning seven Tour de France titles, brought the sport of cycling into the eyes of thousands of fans. When Armstrong battled and overcame testicular cancer, forming the Livestrong Foundation, he won the hearts of many. Throughout his career he denied doping accusations, and fought back against anyone who began the rumors. In a January 2013 interview with Oprah Winfrey, Lance Armstrong finally admitted to doping during his cycling tours. He is now being attacked on all sides –  from other cyclists, fans, family and the United States Anti-Doping Agency (USADA). But Armstrong is facing another round of attacks, this time from readers.

Rob Stutzman, aide to former governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, along with chef and amateur cyclist Jonathon Wheeler feel betrayed by the portrayal of Armstrong as an inspirational figure after he admitted to lying on Oprah’s show. The two books, It’s Not About the Bike and Every Second Counts, published by Penguin and Random House, were labeled as “true memoirs” of Armstrong’s battle with cancer as he won seven Tour de France titles. Readers claim they were misled and would not have bought the books.

According to the Daily News, the suit says “Plaintiffs and class members would not have purchased the books had they known the true facts concerning Armstrong’s misconduct and his admitted involvement in a sports doping scandal that has to his recent and ignominious public exposure and fall from glory.” It also “includes long passages from the books in which Armstrong denies doping or claims his athletic accomplishments were achieved without the use of performance-enhancing drugs.”

Stutzman, who says he is not normally a reader, even recommended the book to friends who were battling cancer. When he had the chance once to meet with Armstrong and thank him for the inspirational books, Armstrong merely thanked him.

The case is being filed in Sacramento federal court. While it is not clear how much the defendants are suing for, it will be more than the price of the book. Penguin believes the case should simply be dismissed.

This suit is only the tip of the iceberg for Lance Armstrong as more people and organizations claim they were cheated by the cyclist. Some papers, like the Sunday Times of London, plan to sue for the money lost in libel cases that Armstrong brought to them for publishing an article about Armstrong’s doping allegations, which he vehemently denied at the time. Former teammate and close friend of Armstrong’s, Floyd Landis, filed a whistle-blower lawsuit claiming that accepting the $30 million from the U.S. Postal Service as a sponsorship was fraud because the team was fueled illegal methods.

Lance Armstrong had admitted doping with the hope of resuming his cycling career once more. According to the New York Times, “Armstrong has hopes of competing in triathlons and running events, but those competitions are often sanctioned by organizations that adhere to the World Anti-Doping Code, under which Armstrong received his lifetime ban.”

Oprah Winfrey believes that this is not the end for Armstrong. “If he is willing to do the work … he can be a real hero” she told USA Today. “Everybody has the ability within them to rise again. What really matters in the world is what kind of human being he chooses to be.” As more people react to the truth about their fallen idol, fans can only hope that he can redeem his name.

Image Courtesy : jdegenhardt

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Oprah Winfrey Network (OWN) and O, The Oprah Magazine announce the newest Oprah’s Book Club 2.0 selection, The Twelve Tribes of Hattie by Ayana Mathis (Knopf). In her extraordinary debut, Mathis tells the story of the children of the Great Migration through the trials of one indomitable heroine (Hattie) and her unforgettable family. The novel has earned starred pre-publication reviews from Publishers Weekly, Kirkus and Booklist.

“The opening pages of Ayana’s debut took my breath away,” said Winfrey, OWN CEO, “I can’t remember when I read anything that moved me in quite this way, besides the work of Toni Morrison.”

In addition to being available in bookstores nationwide, special Oprah’s Book Club 2.0 digital editions of The Twelve Tribes of Hattie, with exclusive content including a reader’s guide and Winfrey’s notes on her favorite passages, will be available for Amazon Kindle, NOOK by Barnes & Noble, on the iBookstore and everywhere e-books are sold.

The cross-platform book club’s second selection kicks off with Winfrey’s interview with Mathis in the January issue of O, The Oprah Magazine, where Mathis shares her reaction upon receiving the call from Winfrey revealing that her book had been chosen. “Really?” asked Mathis in disbelief, “This is really Oprah Winfrey?”

As readers complete their journey through The Twelve Tribes of Hattie, an exclusive interview with Winfrey and Mathis will simulcast Sunday, February 3 at 11 a.m. ET/PT on OWN’s Emmy Award-winning series “Super Soul Sunday,” on Oprah.com and OWN’s Facebook page and on Oprah Radio’s “Oprah’s Soul Series” (Sirius 204, XM 111).

Throughout December and January, readers can further engage online at the book club hub and through a variety of digital and social media platforms:

• Oprah.com will feature a series of original webisodes with Winfrey and Mathis, a reading guide as well as Winfrey’s personal thoughts about her favorite passages from the book.

• Readers will also have the opportunity to answer weekly questions via Twitter, Facebook and Instagram using the Mass Relevance platform. A stream of reader tweets (#OprahsBookClub), Facebook posts, and Instagram photos from around the world will provide a snapshot of what participants are thinking, feeling and sharing as they read the book together.

• Mathis will answer readers’ questions via the popular VYou social video platform.

• The official Oprah’s Book Club 2.0 group on Goodreads, one of the largest websites for book lovers with 13 million members, will feature content and encourage discussions about the new book club selection.

• Using the mobile messaging application GroupMe, Oprah’s Book Club 2.0 will encourage readers to create personal mobile book clubs with their friends.

Click here for a message from Oprah.

Image Courtesy : OWN: Oprah Winfrey Network

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Washington, U.S.A. — In response to a recent episode of “Our America” with Lisa Ling on the Oprah Winfrey Network (OWN), the Native American Financial Services Association (NAFSA) issued the below letter commending the show and network for highlighting the problems that plague reservations across the United States. NAFSA’s members include many tribes which have found a solution to these problems through online lending.

The full text of NAFSA’s letter is below:

An Open Letter from the Native American Financial Services Association to Lisa Ling and the Oprah Winfrey Network

Dear Ms. Ling and Ms. Winfrey:

We want to commend you on your recent episode of Our America with Lisa Ling, which highlighted the startling realities happening on the Pine Ridge Indian reservation and throughout much of Indian country. This Our America episode illustrated to the rest of America what those of us who are active tribal members know all too well – that life in Indian country is riddled with a host of problems. Furthermore, these problems put at risk our culture, which has existed on this continent for thousands of years.

Reservations today face very serious and systemic problems that can only be addressed through economic development and job creation. Faced with untenable unemployment rates and extreme poverty on our lands, many of us do not benefit from the revenue streams that some tribes enjoy. Harsh geographic challenges, severe underdevelopment and dwindling populations make traditional business models unsustainable for many tribes.

Luckily, we have found one model that works – e-commerce. Through e-commerce, we are able to provide new and sustainable pathways to economic prosperity for tribes across the nation. By enabling tribes to pursue these new initiatives, we provide jobs and incomes to those in Indian country that need it most.

If, for any reason, these exciting new initiatives were to be threatened, the result would perpetuate the unforgiving cycle of poverty many tribes are facing. Recently, several tribes banded together to form the Native American Financial Services Association (NAFSA) to address this issue and to ensure Native Americans are allowed to freely enjoy the economic independence which has evaded us for far too long.

Through the protection of consumer rights and sovereign immunity, NAFSA allows tribal governments to serve the under-banked with better short-term financial services, furthering the economic development opportunities which have shown so much promise throughout Indian country.

Our efforts are already showing tremendous potential. Montana’s Rocky Boy reservation – home of the Chippewa Cree tribe – has benefited greatly from online financial services, providing hope for the reservation. We produced a short documentary on these efforts, which can be viewed at www.vimeo.com/nafsa. We hope you will take the time to see how we are proactively addressing the needs of our people.

We want to thank you again for highlighting this most troubling problem and for allowing us to shine a light on how it may be solved. We would welcome you on any of our reservations at any time to see how these problems are being addressed in a responsible manner.

Thank you again for your continued advocacy.

Sincerely,

Barry Brandon

Executive Director, Native American Financial Services Association

Image Courtesy of  s_bukley / Shutterstock.com

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It seems only a short time ago that Tom Cruise was jumping on Oprah’s couch screaming about how much he loved Katie Holmes; but alas, Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes’ marriage has come to an end. The marriage between the famous couple has lasted for six years, and there is now speculation about what could have broken up their marriage; some sources claim the reason is Scientology.

Holmes turned down the invitation to Cruise’s fiftieth birthday party. He is currently in Iceland filming the movie ‘Oblivion.’

This is the third failure marriage for Tom Cruise. His first marriage was to Mimi Rogers in 1987 and lasted only three years. A few months later, in December of 1990, Cruise married actress Nicole Kidman and stayed with her for eleven years. Kidman and Cruise adopted two children before their divorce. In 2006, Cruise married Katie Holmes, another actress who is sixteen years his junior. Strangely enough, all of Cruise’s wivese were thirty-three years old when they divorced him. Even stranger is that the number 33 has significance in the church of Scientology because it is a number that represents an “increase of the positive energy”.

Katie Holmes filed for the divorce from Cruise. The reason has a name: Suri, their six years old daughter. It appears as though Holmes was worried that Cruise was sending their daughter to the Church of Scientology’s Sea Organization which is a religious order within the church. Holmes and her extremely Catholic parents prefer to have Suri raised in a different environment. Holmes is filing for sole custody of Suri.

Katie Holmes has recently hired body guards after some of the neighbors of her Chelsea apartment noticed unidentified men surrounding the building, possibly members from the church of Scientology. According to the Daily Mail it is possible that Holmes has been followed by these individuals for weeks. They may also be private investigators that Cruise has hired to keep tabs on Holmes. The lawyer for the Church of Scientology International, Gary Soter, stated, “there is no truth whatsoever to the TMZ.com report (or any other report) that the Chruch of Scientology has sent anyone to follow or surveil Katie Holmes.”

Holmes originally filed for divorce in New York, a state where judges seem to favor sole custody cases because it prevents the children from ending up in the middle of parental arguments. However, Cruise is trying to move the proceedings to California where joint custody is preferred.

Written in part by Francisco Fajardo.

Image Courtesy of  Phil Stafford / Shutterstock.com

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Most actors and actresses on the small screen start off on TV, then end up on the big screen in Hollywood as A-Listers starring in major motion pictures.

Think about Jennifer Aniston and Will Smith, who both got a jump start to their now-flourishing acting careers in ‘Friends’ and ‘The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air respectively. This past TV season it seems that it has been the other way around, with already established movie stars making guest appearances on TV sitcoms.

Over the past decade, there have been several guest appearances on some of TV’s hottest sitcoms, some that improved a celebrity’s or show’s rating, and then some appearances that didn’t fare as well as the show had predicted. Paste Magazine made a list of the ten best guest appearances over the past decade, and some of them are shocking.

Reality Stars Kim Kardashian, Spencer Pratt, and Heidi Montag starred in one episode of “How I Met Your Mother” in 2009. These stars, which have faced a lot of scrutiny and criticism from the press, actually did an exceptional job on the episode. They weren’t taken too seriously as they talked to Marshall about his cover in a Tabloid Magazine, something the real life reality stars can relate to.

Comedian Bob Saget also made a hilarious appearance on Entourage where he played himself, and brought a lot of added humor to the episode. Cher made an appearance on the hit show, “Will & Grace” where she sang her pop chart-topping hit, “If I Could Turn Back Time.” Viewers tuned into that episode where Cher shows she is the real deal. And who better to make a guest appearance than the world-renowned savvy entrepreneur, Oprah Winfrey?

Oprah made a guest appearance on “30 Rock” where she sits in an airplane next to a young lady as the woman complains about the problems she is having in her life, one of which is not receiving her monthly subscription to “O” Magazine. To top off the “best of the best” TV appearances, who could forget Brad Pitt guest starring on “Friends” with then-wife, Jennifer Aniston? The adoringly cute episode became a smash hit and exposed the lives of the changing celebrity culture.

And now for the worst…While Jennifer Aniston’s ex-husband was a hit on her show, Aniston didn’t make the guest appearance viewers were hoping for on one of the episodes of “Cougar Town.” On www.Tv.Com, critics stated that, “the woman is so desperate for attention-and so limited in her acting range, that it’s impossible to separate the actress from the characters she plays on screen.”

Many Americans have the Bieber Fever right now. But did he really make an appearance on the show “CSI?” Bieber and CSI do not even belong in the same sentence, and when critics were asked why he was voted as one of the worst guest appearances of all-time, they responded with, “do we really need to give a reason?”

Critics felt that Sasha Grey’s appearance on Entourage was awful where she played a porn-star. Critics believe Grey is “not really known for her acting,” and for another, her appearance started “a weird and unnecessary Twitter frenzy.” The most shocking to make TV’s worst guest appearance was America’s favorite golden girl, Betty White, where she played a professor and librarian on the show, “Community and the Middle.”

Critics thought that her “giggle-inducing grandma schtick started to feel like geriatric gimmick.” Ouch Betty! Luckily for White, she still took home an Emmy for her stint on SNL, which aired right before her guest appearance on the show.

So what does the near future hold for Hollywood guest appearances? WeLoveSoaps.net is positive this will be a big year for Hollywood guest appearances on several TV series by calling the year of 2012, “The Year of the Soap!” Lindsay Lohan recently announced that she will be acting as herself as a guest star on the hit singing show, “Glee.”

But there are several other very famous celebrities that will also be hitting the small screen for an episode, or even a few. For the month of April alone, several big names will be appearing on some of TV’s hottest series. Luke Perry, former stud of the hit show “Beverly Hills 90210” will show his face on “Body of Proof.”

Georgia Engel will stand next to Ashton Kutcher in one of TV’s most popular comedies, “Two and a Half Men.” TV dramas including Criminal Minds, CSI: New York and NCIS: Los Angeles will also be seeing some famous faces including Erica Gimpel (appearing on Criminal Minds), Blake Gibbons (appearing on CSI), and Christel Khalil (appearing on NCIS: Los Angeles). Additionally, Hollywood hunk Mark Consuelos might appear on Law & Order’s, “Special Victim’s Unit,” but it has not yet been determined.

WeLoveSoaps.net might be right when they say this is the year of the soap considering the guest appearances are for this month alone! It’s going to be exciting to see what A-Listers will be making appearances, both good and bad, in the following months. To see celebrities that will be making guest appearances on your favorite TV shows go to www.welovesoaps.net.

Image Courtesy of Featureflash / Shutterstock.com

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After a decision to upload pictures of their sextuplets, the McGhee family became an internet sensation. Via the social network site Facebook, a cybernaut charity set up in the family’s name has been able to aid the parents through their financial difficulties.

Their story goes to show that with today’s spread of social media, people are able to achieve amazing accomplishments through the internet. The possibilities seem endless if a certain cause is looking for support from the wider society.

In this case, the Afro-American couple Rozonno and Mia McGhee, had their life turned around with the arrival of their six sons. Their story began when the couple, unable to conceive a child on their own, decided to undergo a fertility treatment. Mia McGhee became pregnant with twins but before she could deliver them, the pregnancy was lost.

Undeterred by their loss, the couple persisted and kept trying to conceive a child. Soon, Mia was pregnant again but it turned out that she was to give birth to sextuplets. Despite the threat of financial problems, the McGhee’s decided to continue the pregnancy. After their birth, however, the economic issues became apparent.

That was when they decided to share their picture and story with the rest of the world through their Facebook profile. Shortly after that, things started to move fast – many facebook users were moved by the little family.

The pictures were so sensational that when they reached the famous American TV personality Oprah Winfrey, she gave the McGhee family and their miraculous sextuplets  a $250,000 credit at Walmart as well as a honeymoon in Las Vegas, despite the fact the couple got married 11 years ago.

The couple, who are both from impoverished backgrounds, started dating when they were in high school and married when they were 18 and 19 years old.

They were determined to create the kind of family they never had. With the help of the internet, it looks like they have.

To learn more about this amazing family visit: The McGhee Sextuplets

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