Dancehall star Beenie Man, who has recorded anti-gay songs in the past, was yanked from a concert associated with the MTV Video Music Awards this weekend after gay groups planned a protest, the network said Wednesday.
MTV pulled the Jamaican singer from the roster Tuesday after South Florida gay activists announced plans to protest Saturday’s concert in Miami over some of his past lyrics, including “I’m dreaming of a new Jamaica, come to execute all the gays” and “Queers must be killed.”
A foot short with the baton. Eight inches short in the sand.
Hoping to win a pair of gold medals Friday, Marion Jones was shut out instead. After finishing fifth in the long jump, a botched relay handoff ended her chances of winning even a single medal in Athens — a disastrous finish to her tumultuous summer.
“It was an extremely disappointing performance for me. It exceeded my wildest dreams in a negative sense,” Jones said. “I looked for great things this year. It didn’t happen for me and it didn’t happen for the team this year.”
Jones was trying to do in a few hours what few elite athletes can achieve in a lifetime — win two Olympic medals, one on the track and one on the field.
With the fastest time in the world this year, the U.S. 400-meter relay team had taken gold for granted and was aiming for a world record. But they could only watch as Jamaica won in 41.73 seconds. Russia won the silver medal in 42.27, and France got the bronze in 42.54.
Jones, running the second leg an hour after her final long jump, was close to the lead as she approached Lauryn Williams, the 100-meter silver medalist. But Williams started running her leg too soon. Jones reached once, then shouted “Wait up! Wait up!” as she reached a second time.
Williams was left grasping at air while Jones reached desperately for her younger teammate.
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The Americans won’t be the Olympic basketball champions for the first time since 1988, beaten by an Argentine team that lacks stars but simply knows how to play together better.
Manu Ginobili scored 29 points to lead Argentina to an 89-81 victory in the semifinals Friday night, humbling the nation where the game was invented and perfected.
Bronze is now the best the Americans can do with their hastily assembled assortment of NBA stars that showed weaknesses almost from the moment it began practicing in late July, a month after its opponents.
Indeed, the Dream Team days are long gone. It’s the first time since pro players were added for the 1992 Olympics that the United States will not go home with gold.
“We fought as hard as we could,” Allen Iverson said. “We couldn’t get it done for whatever reason. They were a better team than us.”
I spent the last few days down in Miami looking for a new office location to shoot our new material. It was slow going, but we will work it out. We have some exciting new projects around the corner. I wanted to get the bikini contest rolling, but we didnt have enough complete entries to launch it. I got a lot of females who filled out the forms, but didnt submit their photos. We will work that out.
I have all of the plots/storylines for our new 4 movies already written and ready to go so I will be really out in the streets recruiting in the next couple weeks. Once I secure the new office we will move the props/furniture and start shooting immediately.
If you are ready to get down. Let me know and I will be in touch. I will not be flying anyone in right now, but still get at me so I will have your info on file.
Peace,
The story of the soon-to-be First Emperor of China who is on the brink of conquering a war-torn land during the violent dawn of the Qin dynasty over two thousand years ago.
In a distant war torn land, a ruthless emperor is rising to power with an iron fist and his massive armies. To control everything, he will stop at nothing. International action star Jet Li is a fearless warrior with no name on a mission of revenge for the massacre of his people.
Movie looks GOOOOOOD
Watch the trailer: CLICK HERE
Quarterback Quincy Carter signed with the New York Jets on Tuesday, three weeks after his surprising release by Dallas.
Carter, who started every game for the Cowboys last season, was released Aug. 4, before the team’s first exhibition game. Reports said he failed a drug test and the NFL Players Association has filed a request for arbitration in the case.
Gene Upshaw, the union’s executive director, told The Associated Press that the NFLPA will continue to press the case. “We have to,” he said, adding that part of the grievance involves potential salary loss to Carter.
With the Jets, Carter will back up Chad Pennington, giving the team an experienced second-stringer. Neither of the other two quarterbacks, second-year man Brooks Bollinger nor Ricky Ray, who played in the Canadian Football League, has ever taken an NFL snap.
Ironically, Carter; successor is 40-year-old Vinny Testaverde, who was released this spring by the Jets after starting 57 games in six seasons.
Carter, a second-round draft choice by the Cowboys in 2001, started all 31 games in which he played for Dallas, including 17 last season — 16 in the regular season and one in the playoffs. In his career, he has 507 completions in 902 attempts for 5,839 yards with 29 touchdowns and 36 interceptions.
Known for his mobility, he has run 140 times for 498 yards.
AP Football Writer Dave Goldberg contributed to this report.
The U.S. men’s basketball team went on a 10-0 run to start the fourth quarter and finally showed signs of hitting top form to beat Australia 89-79 in the men’s Olympic basketball tournament Thursday.
Sharply criticized around the world for being a selfish group of individuals, the U.S. team once again fell behind and trailed after three quarters despite having far more firepower than their opponents.
But the Americans came out for the final quarter and finally showed they could play team defense, pass the ball efficiently and utilize their athleticism on the fast break to notch their second win in three preliminary round games.
“It’s kind of life and death for us right now,” said 19-year-old LeBron James who came off the bench to provide much needed spark, scoring eight points and handing out five assists.
“I’m not used to coming off the bench, but when we represent your country we have to respect our coach’s decisions. So it doesn’t matter for me not to be a starter. I can contribute from the bench and I think today we brought some energy in the court and we helped our team recover and finally get the victory.”
The days of a hip-hop fest have come and gone at Paramount’s Kings Dominion.
Black Entertainment Television and the theme park have discontinued their annual College Hip-Hop Fest, which featured big-name rap, hip hop and music talent and drew students from historically black colleges up and down the East Coast.
According to a news release, a decline in attendance was the primary reason for the spring event’s demise after seven years.
“We are disappointed but unfortunately, the number of students participating has declined to the point where it doesn’t make sense for us to host it,” said Richard A. Zimmerman, executive vice president and general manager of Kings Dominion.
The statement made no mention of two fatal shootings in the past two years related to after-concert partying.
Last year, three people were shot – one fatally – after the daylong festival.
Two men were shot in the Kings Dominion parking lot during a fight as thousands of people were leaving the theme park in Hanover County.
Later that night, 20-year-old Ka-Mel Loftin of Chesterfield County was fatally shot in the head in the 300 block of East Broad Street. He was one of thousands of people who drove from the theme park to downtown Richmond for late-night partying.
This year, Hanover assigned 100 deputies to work inside the theme park and in its parking lot. And in Richmond, police were out in droves with three or four times the regular number of patrol officers.
In addition, event planners made admission more difficult by requiring a valid college ID to purchase tickets at the theme park.
But even with the extra security, another man was killed in Richmond after the event.
Jose Andujar, 21, a Virginia State University student from New York City, was fatally shot in the head at about 1:10 a.m. as he sat in the driver’s seat of a red Ford Explorer. The vehicle came to a rest against a stop sign at Pine and Broad streets, across from a Virginia Commonwealth University student apartment complex.
No charges have been filed in either homicide.
Richmond authorities did not comment on the festival’s cancellation.
Lt. Doug Goodman, Hanover Sheriff’s Office spokesman, said, “This is just a example of how Kings Dominion is a good corporate citizen.”
Officials from BET and the theme park said they would “continue to seek opportunities to partner on future projects.” Although declining attendance was cited as the main reason for canceling the event, the park refused to release attendance numbers.
“The relationship with our sister Viacom company Paramount’s Kings Dominion has been a mutually successful one, and we’re grateful for all of the hard work and dedication shown over the years,” BET President Debra Lee said in a statement.
During Kings Dominion’s seven-year hosting of the event, the festival raised $250,000 for black colleges and universities, plus an additional $50,000 for “Rap-It-Up,” BET’s campaign for HIV awareness in the black community.
“Because of BET’s support and promotion of this event,” Kings Dominion’s Zimmerman said, “we have been able to provide a fun-filled day of quality entertainment for a group of college students.”
Tim Duncan had fouled out, Allen Iverson was playing with a broken thumb, and Greece had just passed the ball inside with a chance to pull within two points with 18 seconds left.
Lamar Odom defended the play perfectly, holding his hand steady and high and getting a piece of Dimitris Pipanikoulaou’s layup attempt. Odom, playing despite severe dehydration, rebounded the miss and made two free throws to lock up the U.S. team’s 77-71 victory Tuesday night in its second game of the Olympics.
In a much closer contest than expected, the Americans bounced back from their embarrassing opening loss to Puerto Rico and avoided dropping to 0-2, which would have matched their loss total from the previous 68 years at the Summer Games.
The big plays down the stretch came from Odom and Carlos Boozer after Duncan fouled out and Iverson cooled off following a strong start. The Americans didn’t have a great game, but that didn’t matter much to them.
They needed a win and they got one.
Lucky for us we didnt really feel the wrath of Hurricane Charley. That shit just popped up out of no where and caused some serious damage to a lot of people. I had to put the Porn convention on hold to make sure my spot was taken care of.
I feel for those who did get hit by the storm. I mean starting over from scratch has got to be stressful.
I will be in Miami this week for a couple days so if you females want to get down on camera for me, let me know. I wont be back down there again until October sometime. So lets make it happen.
BOSTON (AP) — The Los Angeles Lakers resumed their makeover Friday by trading Gary Payton and Rick Fox to the Boston Celtics for Chucky Atkins, Marcus Banks and Chris Mihm.
The Celtics also received a conditional first-round draft pick and cash in the deal and sent a second-round pick to the Western Conference champions.
The teams were once among the NBA’s fiercest rivals, but Boston has fallen on hard times since winning its 16th championship in 1986. Since then, the Lakers have won five titles and lost three times in the Finals, including this year’s upset by the Detroit Pistons.
Payton and Karl Malone took a large pay cut to join the Lakers as free agents last summer, each All-Star hoping to win his first championship.
Despite struggling through his first year with the team, the 36-year-old Payton exercised a $5.4 million option to come back for another season.
Fox was a Celtic for six seasons before joining the Lakers and winning three NBA titles. He has averaged 9.6 points, 3.8 rebounds and 2.8 assists over his career.
