R. Kelly Sets Stage for Tour Damages
John Shearer/Getty Images
R. Kelly believed he could win, and he did.
The legally blessed R&B star has been awarded nearly $3.4 million in damages from concert promoter Leonard Rowe after a court-approved arbitrator determined that Rowe had been selling investment shares in Kelly's Double Up tour without the singer's permission.
Georgia-based Rowe Entertainment was also ordered to foot the bill for the lawsuit Kelly filed in February, in which he charged that Rowe had failed to pay him several million dollars in tour proceeds, per court documents filed Monday in Los Angeles Superior Court.
"I agreed to let Leonard Rowe promote my tour because he convinced me he was an underdog who deserved a chance to prove himself," Kelly said in a statement released by his rep, Allan Mayer.
"Like the saying goes, no good deed goes unpunished."
Is Marriage Costing Mariah Carey Serious Money?
Lester Cohen/WireImage.com
Mariah Carey's first single from E=MC² was a smash, but two follow-ups—released after her marriage to Nick Cannon—bombed. Is marriage costing her?
—Estian, Cape Town
No. It's your tiny, tiny attention span. It's ruining everything. That's why "Bye Bye" only peaked at 19. It was all you. "This year, it's been harder for big superstars to keep the spotlight shining on them after the run-up to their album is over," Idolator editor Maura Johnston tells me.
"Look at the way singles by Usher and Madonna have performed—you'll see a similar pattern," Johnston says. Usher's "Love in This Club" went to No. 1, but its follow-up single, "Moving Mountains," peaked at No. 67. As for Madonna, "4 Minutes" peaked at No. 3, while "Give It to Me" only reached No. 57.
I hope you're pleased with yourself.
Why does Rosie get her own show—again—after she blew it so badly on The View?
—Kate, Washington
Housewives Offer Some Southern Exposure
Bravo / Virginia Sherwood
Is this the beginning of a Real Housewives feud?
Kim Zolciak, one of five women starring in Bravo's new The Real Housewives of Atlanta, says she and her pals are ready to take down their Orange County and New York City counterparts.
"Our show rocks," Zolciak (above, in pink) told me earlier today. "I think the personalities and the diversity in the show supersede all of the other Housewives shows."
Burning Q's: Tara-Level Cash & Cheapy Music Videos
PacificCoastNews.com
The cost of living in L.A. is stratospheric, and if you're Tara Reid or Selma Blair, do you live off of food stamps in between horrible movies? Thanks, and keep bitchin'!
—Economically Jealous in Georgia
One word: residuals. According to the Screen Actors Guild, typical middle-class performers get more than half of their earnings from residual payments—money from TV repeats, cable broadcasts, DVD rentals and sales. Character actor Vic Polizos told the L.A. Times he gets as much as $35,000 a year just from residuals. Combine that with the occasional guest spot on How I Met Your Mother or Ugly Betty, and an actor can make rent with no problem. As for groceries, well, we're assuming that actresses eat.
By the way, you should know that Selma Blair is pretty much constantly working. She has a show now and stuff.
Are stars paid to be on Dancing With the Stars? If so, how much?
—Atchisa1
Update
Ledger Daughter Inherits Estate, Launches Lawsuit
RAMEY PHOTO
From the department of not-so-shocking news: An insurance company is trying like crazy to find a loophole to avoid paying a hefty settlement. The kicker: It's Heath Ledger's policy.
Just days after the late actor's father confirmed that the whole of Ledger's estate would be going, without challenge, to 2-year-old daughter Matilda Rose, comes word that the ReliaStar Life Insurance Company is doing everything it can to make said estate worth $10 million less.
The company is allegedly refusing to pay out Ledger's eight-figure life insurance policy on the grounds that his death could have been a suicide. (View the lawsuit.)
This, of course, despite the fact that the New York Medical Examiner's Office ruled the death accidental in an official report released in February.
Another Papal Grievance Pegged on Hathaway's Ex
Dimitrios Kambouris/WireImage.com
In case Anne Hathaway was having second thoughts about the whole breakup thing...
A Roman Catholic priest in Atlantic City has accused the actress' ex-boyfriend, Italian businessman Raffaello Follieri, of bilking him out of a $110,000 inheritance, claiming he needed the money to pay nuns.
Pay them for what, we're not sure.
"Utilizing the exact same scheme and behavior, the same confidence man that separated one of this country's richest men from his money, also separated this priest from his trusting nature," William Hughes, attorney for Monsignor William Hodge, wrote in a letter to federal prosecutors in which he urged that his client be added to the list of Follieri's alleged victims.
A-List Secrets: Who Gets Paid Most for Commercials?
American Express
What determines what a celebrity will get paid for endorsing a product? Is there like a minimum wage?
—Macaela, New Zealand
Minimum wage. That's cute. But no. A-listers can choose to shoot a craptastic Michael Bay flick or do a national ad campaign—either way, if the client is a giant brand, their pay can start at $5-$10 million.
Jerry Seinfeld charged $10 million to star in those ill-fated Microsoft commercials, and whatever Tina Fey's making for those AmEx ads should be 10 times that. Natalie Portman reportedly has turned down campaigns worth tens of millions of dollars.
Those offers depend on a mix of box office, visibility and the Q Score, a number calculated by Marketing Evaluations Inc. It's a go-to reference for advertising companies looking to hire the most desirable faces.
So who has the highest Q Score? The lowest? The answer will surprise you:
Spielberg Makes Like Pitt, Supports Same-Sex Marriage
Jeff Vespa/WireImage.com
As goes Brangelina, so goes Hollywood.
Less than a week after Brad Pitt donated $100,000 to fight a California initiative to ban gay marriage in the state, Steven Spielberg and wife Kate Capshaw have followed equal rights suit, announcing they will match the six-figure donation to the "No on 8" campaign.
Proposition 8 is due to hit the California ballot this November and, if approved, would render unconstitutional the swapping of same-sex vows.
"By writing discrimination into our state constitution, Proposition 8 seeks to eliminate the right of each and every citizen in our state to marry regardless of sexual orientation," Spielberg and Capshaw said in a statement.
"Such discrimination has NO place in California's constitution, or any other."
A-Rod Covers the Bases in Divorce Settlement
AP Photo
Alex Rodriguez apparently doesn't want anything to think about once the season ends.
The baseball star and his estranged wife, Cynthia, have called a truce and nipped in the bud what had the potential to be a pretty messy divorce, considering how it all began.
"Cynthia and Alex Rodriguez have amicably resolved their dissolution of marriage proceedings," A-Rod's attorney, Alan Klug, said in a statement to the New York Daily News.
"They deliberately engaged in a private negotiation. This was and remains a personal family matter for both of them."
"All of their decisions were based upon and guided by the best interests of their daughters," Klug added. Alex and Cynthia are parents to Natasha, 3, and Ella, 5 months.
Ed McMahon Allowed to Follow Suit
AP Photo / Tammie Arroyo
The suit fits for Ed McMahon.
A Los Angeles judge ruled Thursday that the famed Tonight Show sidekick can move forward with his negligence and elder abuse lawsuit against Cedars-Sinai Medical Center.
In so doing, L.A. Superior Court Judge John P. Shook denied the defense's motion to require McMahon to provide more evidence in order to pursue his lengthy list of accusations.
Brad Pitt Shells Out in Support of Gay Marriage
image.net
Brad Pitt must have really burned after reading about Prop 8.
The actor-activist has donated $100,000 to fight an initiative to ban gay marriage that is headed for the November ballot in California.
If approved, Proposition 8 would overturn the California Supreme Court's landmark May ruling that it is unconstitutional to prevent gay couples from swapping vows.
And Pitt—who along with Angelina Jolie drew a few raised eyebrows after saying that they have no intention of tying the knot until everyone in the United States has the same right—wants to make sure that California, at least, remains a place where anyone can say "I do" and have it stick.
A-List Secrets: Why Selma & Simon Bank on TV Green
Flynet
Why are prominent film actors, like Simon Baker & Selma Blair, starring in TV series? Isn't it in their interest to stay in movies?
—Jess, West Hollywood, Calif.
No offense to Selma Blair—after all, no one does puckered and bitter better than her, even when she's engulfed in flames—but prominent? Really? She has a solid history as a supporting actress, ranging from Hellboy to tripping along behind Cameron Diaz in The Sweetest Thing. But in showbiz, that's not really prominent—more like slightly convex.
In fact, it's that lifelong status as a B-lister that may have attracted Blair to her new TV role in Kath and Kim, where she is a clear costar alongside Molly Shannon. Blair is now a titular character—the Kim to Shannon's Kath. And there's another, much greener, reason why Blair likely agreed to the role. Think that sitcom actors make chump change? Think again ...
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