Chris Rock adds Broadway to his funny resume

NEW YORK – How do you top a winter in which you've made fun of Oprah Winfrey to her face, gleefully butchered a classic Simon and Garfunkel song during a telethon and made a guest appearance on Kanye West's mega-selling CD?

If you're Chris Rock, the next stop is Broadway.

"I always look for everything," says the comedian, sitting at a table at the theater-district hangout Sardi's before rehearsals of his new gritty play by Stephen Adly Guirgis.

"You want to give your audience something funny or something good — that can be anything. It can be a play, it can be a movie," he says. "Hey, I was on Kayne's record! That's funnier than probably anything I've done in a couple of years. You know what I mean? How can I be funny this year?"

The answer now is "The Motherf----- With the Hat," a play that Rock describes as "`The Honeymooners' with drugs." It's about a man on parole and trying to live clean with his volatile girlfriend, who is far from sober. Rock, making his Broadway debut, plays the man's drug counselor.

"Honestly, it was the best thing I read all last year. It was better than every movie script, every book — it was better than everything," he says. "I read a couple of other plays and thought, `This is easily the best one I've read.'" (AP)

Chris Brown Leaked Photos Fully Exposed by Ex-Girlfriend

Chris Brown leaked photos are nothing new. But in this case, the Chris Brown leaked photos are in a far different context. The last time he was connected to Internet pictures, it involved the aftermath of his domestic dispute with Rihanna. This time, he is the star of these new pictures, which thankfully have nothing to do with domestic violence. However, these photos do reveal quite a bit more of Brown than he would have liked.

Once again, a celebrity has taken a nude picture of himself and wrongfully thought that it would stay private. In this case, an ex-girlfriend found the image and posted it on the Internet. It was posted as part of a video, hosted by World Star Uncut.

The photos are recent since they show him with his new dyed blonde hair. He is posing naked in the bathroom, likely as part of a "sexting" session. However, one of his ex-girlfriends took the image and exposed him to the online world.

Two years ago, the R&B singer was exposed in other ways after pictures got out from his fight with Rihanna. Her bruised and battered face turned him into a pariah, although things seemed to have finally died down now.

However, the leaked photos aren't the only ones to involve him lately. Days earlier, just as Rihanna's restraining order against him was rescinded, new pictures of her swollen face were posted online. This made the singer go on Twitter and call it a "strategic chess move" by his enemies since "The Devil is always busy."

Yet since those words were ill advised, he took them down from Twitter and replaced them with a message about how "The beauty is inside you." But this didn't stop him from going off on Twitter again.

After the photos went up, he went back to Twitter and wrote "WTF!!! Here we go!!!" But just like before, he deleted his words before they could make him look worse, although it was about eight minutes too late. By then, other blogs had gotten a hold of it and the pictures as well.

The various photos and his responses on Twitter prove social media has not worked well for him. But not much else has worked well for him in the last few years, usually due to his own mistakes. This incident is far from his biggest mistake, although he is still the latest celebrity to be naïve about taking nude pictures. (Robert Dougherty via Yahoo's Contributer network)

Usher 'troubled' about Gadhafi concert link

NEW YORK – Usher said Friday he's "sincerely troubled" to learn he appeared at a concert in St. Bart's linked to Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi's family and plans donate his concert fee to human rights organizations.

Earlier this week, Mariah Carey, Beyonce and Nelly Furtado all renounced their performances at private concerts later revealed to be linked to the family of Gadhafi, whose country is openly revolting against him and who faces an investigation for possible war crimes.

All the singers have promised to give their fees to charity or said they have already done so.

Usher did not perform but was paid to appear at the private concert featuring Beyonce in 2009.

"I am sincerely troubled to learn about the circumstances surrounding the Nikki Beach St. Bart's event that took place on New Year's Eve 2009, " he said in a statement released to The Associated Press.

"I will be donating all of my personal proceeds from that event to various human rights organizations."

The statement said Usher made a contribution Friday to Amnesty International, which the organization confirmed. The group said Usher requested the donation amount be private. (AP)

Suge Knight drops lawsuit against Kanye West

MIAMI – Rap mogul Marion "Suge" Knight has dropped an appeal in a lawsuit he filed against hip-hop star Kanye West over a 2005 shooting in Miami.

Knight's attorney filed the dismissal last month in Miami federal court. The judge had granted a summary judgment in November for West and his companies, but Knight appealed the decision in December.

Knight was seeking millions of dollars in damages from West. Knight was shot in the leg at a 2005 Miami Beach party hosted by West, whom Knight blames for lax security. The shooter has never been identified and the case is unsolved. The judge concluded there was no evidence that a shooting at the party was foreseeable.

Both sides have reached a confidential agreement to settle court costs. (AP)

NY Public Library getting Maya Angelou's papers

NEW YORK – More than 300 boxes of Maya Angelou's personal papers, including letters from Malcolm X and James Baldwin and several scribbled revisions of the poem she wrote to celebrate President Bill Clinton's inauguration, will be made public at a New York library.

The Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture plans to announce the papers' acquisition this week.

Angelou, 82, said she sought out the Harlem institution — a research unit of the New York Public Library — as a home for works that include notes for her acclaimed autobiography "I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings" and the 1993 inaugural poem "On the Pulse of Morning."

Angelou said Tuesday that she revised the poem about 10 times before getting it right.

"I had to continue to go back for the melody of the language," she told The Associated Press in a telephone interview.

"People all over the world use words; the writer comes along and has to use these most-in-use objects, put together a few nouns, pronouns, verbs, adjectives ... and pull them together and make them bounce, throw them against the wall and make people say, 'I never thought of it that way.'" (AP)

Audrina Patridge signs up for VH1 reality series

LOS ANGELES (Hollywood Reporter) – Freshly eliminated "Dancing With the Stars" contestant Audrina Patridge isn't spending too much time feeling sorry for herself.

Staying true to her roots, Patridge has signed a deal with VH1 to star in and produce a still untitled reality project following the aspiring-actress and her family as they navigate through celebrity and Hollywood.

The former star of sister channel MTV's "The Hills" teamed up last year with "Survivor" svengali Mark Burnett to develop the series. Filming will begin early next year.

The announcement came a day after MTV confirmed it had canceled "Hills" alumna Whitney Port's reality spinoff "The City" after two seasons. (AP)

Madonna to open 'Hard Candy' health club chain

NEW YORK (AFP) – Pop music icon Madonna will launch a chain of fitness clubs, with the first to open in Mexico City next month, her business partners in the new venture
announced on Monday.

"Our goal is to create an environment inspired by Madonna's vision and high standards of what the ideal gym would be," said Mark Mastrov, chairman of New Evolution Ventures (NEV), which is launching the clubs in partnership with the Material Girl and her manager Guy Oseary.

"Hard Candy Fitness will be a reflection of Madonna's point of view and will reflect her input on every detail including music space, light and other design cues.

Madonna's touch will be everywhere," Mastrov said.

The first "Hard Candy" club -- named after the last album by the pop singer -- will open in a 30,000 square foot space in the Mexican capital.

Madonna is to attend its unveiling on November 29, according to the press release.
The statement said that Hard Candy Fitness promises "the very best in innovative training methods," including "state of the art cardiovascular equipment," and an array of classes "including yoga and capoeira.