D'banj Sympathies With Dr. Sid

Tiwa Savage Set To Cancel Wedding With T-Billz

Devastated by schooling revelations from her man’s past Sexy Singer, Tiwa Savage, may call off her wedding plans with her fiancé and manager, Tee Billz, if the feelers reaching us are to be believed.

Sources close to her told us that the kelekele Love exponent is right now devastated, no thanks to some shocking discoveries she just made about her man.

For instance, she didn’t know until recently that Billz used to be an item with 2Face Idibia’s wife, Annie Macaulay. Not only that, she also didn’t know that he has children from about two women. All these and some attributes of her man were only made manifest after their Tuesday, February 5, 2012 marriage proposal for which she allegedly got a ring worth 2000.

A good friend of hers told us that she’s been asking herself two questions since all these things came to the fore: ‘Should I continue or should I not?’ Tiwa, 33, according to the friend, is in a dilemma right now in spite of the buzz her marriage proposal has been generating in the media ‘even though she’s been carrying that cross quietly!’

Winners At The 2013 Brit Awards

British music put on a brash, confident show at the Brit Awards last night, celebrating a resurgent industry whose bands and artists are topping charts around the globe.

Winners ranged from established acts such as Coldplay and Adele to world-conquering boy band One Direction, who won in the new Global Success category.

One Direction's Louis Tomlinson called the prize "absolutely mind-blowing".

American artists Frank Ocean and Lana Del Rey were among the non-British winners at a ceremony that embraced the mainstream while rewarding artists with distinctive personalities.

Surfing English folk singer Ben Howard and chanteuse Emeli Sande each won two awards.

Sande was named best British female artist and won the album of the year prize for her debut Our Version of Events, which has been in the British charts for more than a year. Scotland-raised Sande got a big boost in 2012 when she performed at both the opening and closing ceremonies of the Olympics.

"This is a dream, really," said Sande, who beat Alt-J, Mumford & Sons, Plan B and Paloma Faith to the album prize.

She thanked everyone "who made me feel like I'm part of something much bigger".

Howard was named British breakthrough act and British male artist of the year.

"I'm not very good at speeches," the 25-year-old singer said, accurately - though he may have to get good at it if his career continues to take off.

Long derided as dull, the Brits have become a lively celebration of Cool Britannia music and style, featuring a dinner for hundreds of artists and industry figures followed by a televised concert and awards show for thousands of paying fans.

Hard rockers Muse opened the show at London's O2 Arena with a typically robust performance of their song Supremacy - all thundering music, dazzling light show and 60-piece orchestra. Other performers ranged from tween-pleasing One Direction to American artists Taylor Swift and Justin Timberlake.

Timberlake, dapper in a tuxedo as he performed Mirrors, was described by host James Corden, in a nod to Europe's horsemeat scandal, as "95 per cent beefcake with just a little touch of horse".

One Direction performed a mashup of post-punk classics One Way or Another and Teenage Kicks, their single for Britain's Comic Relief charity.

Mumford & Sons were named best British group. The banjo-twanging band topped UK and US charts with their second album Babel, which was named album of the year at the Grammys earlier this month.

Soul singer Amy Winehouse - who died in July 2011 from alcohol poisoning - was among the other nominees for British female artist, eligible thanks to her posthumous Lioness: Hidden Treasures album. Her father, Mitch Winehouse, arrived for the awards ceremony at London's O2 Arena wearing a waistcoat emblazoned with a picture of his daughter.

Coldplay was named best British live act, beating nominees including The Rolling Stones, who celebrated their 50th anniversary with a series of sold-out shows last year.

Adele won the best British single prize for her James Bond theme Skyfall. The soulful singer sent a message from Los Angeles, where she is rehearsing for Monday's Academy Awards.

There was no repeat of last year, when she was cut off mid-speech because the show was running late - an incident Corden referred to in mock-embarrassment several times.

The Black Keys were named best international group, while Del Rey took the trophy for international female solo artist. The US singer, who began as an Internet sensation, won a breakthrough Brit award last year and thanked Britain for supporting her.

The international male trophy went to R&B star Frank Ocean, who said it was "definitely a long way from working fast food in New Orleans" - and was the only winner to thank artist Damien Hirst for creating the polka-dot Brit Awards statuette.

Style standouts included Swift, who performed I Knew You Were Trouble in a hoop-skirted white number - more wedding cake than wedding dress - that she shed to reveal black undergarments. Jessie J drew attention in a deeply low-cut black dress.

Most of the awards are chosen by more than 1000 musicians, critics and record industry figures, with several decided by public vote.

Winners of the 2013 Brit Awards:
 
British Female - Emeli Sande
British Group - Mumford & Sons
British Breakthrough Act - Ben Howard
British Male - Ben Howard
Critics' Choice - Tom Odell
International Female - Lana Del Rey
British Live Act - Coldplay
British Single - Skyfall, Adele
International Group - The Black Keys
International Male - Frank Ocean
Special Recognition Award - Warchild
British Album - Emeli Sande, Our Version of Events
Global Success - One Direction

Ben Affleck Knows The Truth About Argo

Ben Affleck's Argo is the favourite to win best picture at the Oscars on Sunday (Monday NZT), yet he is still fielding questions on the film's accuracy.

It's been a long conversation for the director and star of the film, as the truth of the matter was Affleck's first question as well.

Affleck says when he received the script "I read it and it had this incredible nail-biting thriller, and this really funny comedy, and this incredible CIA spy story, all written you know into one, I just couldn't believe it. The fact that it was true completely blew me away. So, as soon as I read it, I looked on the internet. Like, did this stuff really happen? I've got to do this movie".

Despite being a story "based on fact" with no claim to documentary status, the movie has been criticised for its historical inaccuracies, particularly playing down the role of the Canadian government in facilitating the extraction of six US diplomats from Iran disguised as a fake science fiction film crew and reimagining their adrenalin-charged departure from Tehran's Mehrabad airport.

For Affleck, these are essentially insignificant changes, necessary to adapt the true story for the screen.
"The majority of the characters are exactly real people," he explains.

"They have the same names. They do the same things. It's what happened. It's absolutely true that these people, with these names, were working at the US embassy. It got taken over. They hid out with the Canadians. And one of them was Kent Taylor. Then John Chambers, Hollywood make-up artist, and Tony Mendez, CIA agent, came up with an idea to get them out, rescue them using the cover of a movie story location scout. That's completely true. All of those characters are completely real.

"The stuff that we had to do to sort of help make a three-act structure was kind of tertiary."
Even when it came to digital effects, the key for Affleck was that any changes were unnoticeable.
"There's no real footage in the movie except some news footage.

"What we did was we used special effects. Usually people use that to make Harry Potter's wand turn into fire or what-have-you. We used it to change things to Farsi letters or take off the new McDonald's logo off something and make everything period, but not obvious and not funny. We didn't want the clothes to be like Shaft and all the stuff to just be endlessly about like 'Remember this brand?'. We wanted to layer it in so that it was in the background and it felt convincing. But we spent a decent amount of special effects time doing stuff that you would never know was special effects because it was just basically 1979 special effects."


Far from trying to rewrite history, Affleck hopes the film's success will provide a hook to audiences to learn more about what happened.

To that end, special features included in the home entertainment version will mean "you'll be able to see a bunch of the interviews with people who are involved in this, who you didn't get to see in the movie, because it's this incredible story that would have taken me 10 hours to tell. And because I couldn't do that, I still wanted the audience to be able to see some of the documentaries and to be able to hear the voices from the real people who were there. So we have these incredible interviews with hostages at the embassy and all kinds of people who participated in the actual event".

Affleck is receiving accolades and awards for his efforts on Argo, but he admits to having worked just as hard on his equally famous flops such as Gigli.

"It's always hard trying to make a movie good," he says. "I've never been in a situation where I felt that it was easy. Movies that I've done that I think have worked OK and the ones that I'm not as happy with, they're just as hard, both of them. They're equally difficult."

"Fortunately, [Argo] turned out to be what I think is the best movie I've ever been involved with. I just think it's amazing."

The Best Movie Pickup Lines

And the Oscar for best pickup line in a movie goes to - Audrey Hepburn in the romantic thriller, Charade.
That's according to the results from women polled by the UK-based dating site Badoo.com and released before the Academy Awards on Monday.

"I don't bite you know ... unless it's called for," Hepburn told Cary Grant in the 1963 release, and, 50 years later, women still chose it first.

Men, however, had different ideas.

They favoured this Bette Davis line from the 1932 movie, The Cabin in the Cotton, - "I'd love to kiss you, but I just washed my hair."

They preferred humour to suggestiveness, according to Badoo.com

Of course there's no such Oscar, but for its poll, Badoo asked its female customers - from the United States, the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia and New Zealand - to pick from 10 flirtatious openings to break the ice online.

"This is a study of pickup lines in action," Badoo spokeswoman Louise Thompson said in a statement.
When 1,000 interactions were analysed - measuring which lines were most picked by women to approach men and which lines got the highest response rate from the men - the difference between the sexes became evident, Badoo said.

Women rounded out their top three choices with:

Lauren Bacall's famous invitation to Humphrey Bogart in the 1944 film To Have and Have Not: "You don't have to say anything. ... Oh, maybe just whistle. You know how to whistle, don't you, Steve? You just put your lips together and ... blow."

And Kathleen Turner's "You don't know how hard it is being a woman looking the way I do," to Bob Hoskins in Who Framed Roger Rabbit?

Men singled out Shirley MacLaine in Terms of Endearment for the second spot - "Don't worship me till I've earned it," -and put Bacall's 1944 flirtation with her on- and off-screen partner Bogart in third place.
What's your favourite movie pick-up line?

Mercy Johnson's Post Baby Body (PICTURES)

Nollywood Need Serious Prayers - Ibinabo Fiberesima

With the incessant deaths occurring in the entertainment industry this year, it's high time we put a stop to it. We must surrender our lives to Almighty God irrespective of our religious believes. Let's come together and embark on prayers and commit our industry and practitioners to God.

We need serious Prayers. We must reject death in the entertainment industry. Join us irrespective of your status, age, believes,profession, etc, Let's pray.Let's Save Nigeria, Let's Save the Entertainment Industry.

Only God saves.

Ibinabo Fiberesima, President Actors Guild of Nigeria.

Juliet Ibrahim Says She Is Hotter Than Kim K

Ghanaian actress Juliet Ibrahim has said she is hotter than Kim K. A fan reacted negatively to her, after she said paying that much for Kim K to be at a concert wasn't that necessary. Here is her reply to the fan.

‘The fact is and will always remain I, Juliet Ibrahim is 100 times hotter, prettier than Kim k! I have every right to say so Cus I am an African woman without any surgeries and natural beauty is what I brag of. If this is offending u pls kindly walk without your faulty specs and bang your head into a wall’.

Goodluck Jonathan Paid $1Million To Jay-Z And Beyonce To Visit Nigeria

SaharaReporters has uncovered a document indicating that a million dollars of Bayelsa State's poverty alleviation fund was spent by then Governor Goodluck Jonathan on bringing American entertainers Beyonce and Jay Z to Nigeria in 2006 .

In a letter stamped and signed by Bayelsa officials, N150 million (approximately a million dollars in 2006) was released from the state's poverty alleviation fund for the first ThisDay Music Festival in Lagos.

The document came to light after a controversy was ignited over how much money American "reality TV" star Kim Kardashian was paid for a brief visit to Nigeria .

Ms. Kardashian, star of a US TV show about her idle rich family and who shot to international fame after a sex tape featuring her and her rapper boyfriend went viral, was reportedly paid half a million dollars for the 24-hour-visit last week.

The sources who provided the 2006 document for Beyonce and Jay Z's visit told Saharareporters that there was a shady financial link between the producers of some high profile entertainment events and the governors and other officials who control budgets at the state and federal levels. Mr. Obaigbena's newspaper, ThisDay, is a major sponsor of entertainment events that brings US music stars as well as top public figures for flying visits to Nigeria in exchange for gargantuan paychecks.

"Mr. Obaigbena often lines up financial bonanzas from numerous governors, ministers and other top government officials to finance his jamborees," said one of the sources who is based in the UK and is knowledgeable about such deals.

SaharaReporters obtained a letter from Mr. Obaigbena to the Bayelsa State government soliciting funds from the oil-producing state ahead of Nigeria's 46th independence celebrations in 2006. The publisher wrote, "We invite you to partner with us as co-hosts of the festival." The letter added: "With a total budget of$10 million, the co-host is expected to contribute a minimum of $2.5 million (two million five hundred thousand USD)."

At the bottom of the letter, minuted by hand and signed by then Governor Jonathan's aides as well as the Bayelsa State accountant general are the words, "Release N150,000,000.00 (One hundred and fifty million naira) only to be drawn from the poverty alleviation subhead."

One source told SaharaReporters that Mr. Obaigbena sent similar letters to other south-south states.

SaharaReporters could not ascertain how much of the released funds was paid directly to performers at the festival. There is no indication that Beyonce, one of thefew entertainment stars internationally famous enough to only need one name, was aware that her performance was being subsidized by the poor people of Bayelsa.

But during Beyonce's celebrated rendition of the Nigerian national anthem, pictures of Bayelsa State were projected onto the wall of the Lagos concert venue.

According to the Nigerian Bureau of Statistics, 47% of Bayelsans live in poverty. The World Bank says that per capita gross domestic product in the Niger Delta issignificantly below the country's average. According tothe state's own 2005 development strategy, 80% of rural communities have no access to safe drinking water, a key indicator in judging poverty. In Yenagoa, the state capital and Bayelsa's largest urban area, an estimated two out of every five residents do not have access to safe drinking water.

In 2005, as part of its UN-approved strategy to combatpoverty, the state promised to make a fund of N100 million available as soft loans and micro-credit to Bayelsans. The allocated fund was N50 million less than Mr. Jonathan approved for Mr. Obaigbena's musicfestival. That promise was made in the Bayelsa State Economic Empowerment and Development Strategy, published by the United Nations Development Program and signed by then Governor Diepreye Alamieyeseigha. A civil rights activist in Yenogoa told SaharaReporters that the state "has been a woeful failure in its poverty reduction program."

The letter from Mr. Obaigbena to then-governor Goodluck Jonathan said the concert was necessary to show that the news from Nigeria was "not just…HIV/AIDS, conflicts, poverty, kidnapping, strife and riots."

The publisher added: "This is the longest ever period of democracy in Nigeria, over seven years and counting! And a stable democracy means more investment and economic prosperity for all."
The publisher went on to give reasons why the state government should contribute to the concert.
The stars' performances would "tell the world, throughmusic, that Nigeria's time has come," Mr. Obaigbena wrote. The letter added, "And once the good news catches on with the young and upwardly mobile, music loving new generation it will catch on with the world of investments and bountiful opportunities."

In 2006, Mr. Goodluck Jonathan had just become governor of Bayelsa after his boss, Diepreye Alamieyeseigha, was impeached and convicted on corruption charges. Mr. Jonathan was then elevated toVice President to then President Umaru Yar'Adua. Mr. Yar'Adua's death in 2010 enabled Mr. Jonathan, a zoologist whose PhD focused on tropical fish, to assume the presidency.
Since 2006, Mr. Obaigbena's parent company, Leaders& Company, has produced a number of high-profile events that have seen such American stars as Rihanna, R Kelly, and Usher perform for Nigerians. The ticket prices for these concerts are usually out of reachof the "average" Nigerian. The events feature tickets that cost many tens of thousands of naira, usually reserved for "VIP access." ThisDay has also hosted political luminaries like former US President Bill Clinton and former economic adviser to the Obama presidency, Lawrence Summers. At an Africa Rising concert in London, former US Secretary of State Colin Powell came on stage and danced to the popular Naija jam "Yahooze" by Olu Maintain.