Murder Inc. Records star Ja Rule told LAUNCH that he isn't surprised that his labelmate Ashanti landed at Number One on the Billboard 200 albums chart, but he was shocked by how well Ashanti's album sold.
"I'm not surprised, you know? It kinda shocked, you know, the number 503 (503,000), you know, but we knew she was going to do pretty well, so we're all very happy and she's crushing them right now," he said. "I really think it's the biggest first-week debut ever for a female R&B artist, so we're holding some weight over here right now, definitely."
Ja Rule also shared that he hopes to tour this summer with Mary J. Blige, but if that doesn't pan out he might tour with Ashanti and the rest of the Murder Inc. roster.
In related news, Ja Rule recently penned an untitled duet for City High's Claudette Ortiz and Enrique Iglesias. He will also begin filming The Fast And The Furious 2 in the coming weeks, hopes to release his next album, The Last Temptation, in early 2003.
-- Yves Erwin Salomon, New York
Posted by Jen on Sunday, April 14, 2002 @ 03:46 p.m.
BEVERLY HILLS, Calif. (AP) - 'N Sync (news - web sites) member Joey Fatone says that it seems like he is living his life backward. He already has a daughter and one of these days he thinks he'll get married, but only when he knows can do it right.
Fatone says that having a daughter is a huge source of joy in his life. He says his daughter is always happy and he tries to spend as much time with her as he can.
"I try not to miss anything now that she's getting older," he says. "Being on the road makes you grow up fast and now being a dad made me grow up even more."
Posted by Jen on Sunday, April 14, 2002 @ 03:42 p.m.
Four young men accused of burglarizing Britney Spears and her former sweetie, 'N Sync (news - web sites) crooner Justin Timberlake, are off the hook.
A Florida judge sentenced Salvador Martinez, 19, Richard Olivarez, 20, Marcus Cook, 19, and Matthew Daily, 18, each to three years' probation Thursday after they pleaded no contest to raiding the ex-couple's rented vacation home in the Panhandle town of Destin, Florida, the Northwest Florida Daily News reports.
The four had been facing up to 20 months in jail but managed to avoid the harsh penalty.
And they can literally thank their lucky stars.
Circuit Court Judge G. Robert Barron signed off on the reduced sentence after lawyers representing Spears and Timberlake offered the crook quartet a deal. To avoid jail time, the young men would have to plead no contest and sign a "nondisclosure agreement as it pertains to B. Spears and J. Timberlake."
In other words, the foursome won't be giving away pop secrets anytime soon or selling their story to the Enquirer. They're not allowed to talk about what they saw inside the house or the items they swiped.
Not that what they might reveal is very juicy, anyway. According to Okaloosa County Sheriff's office spokesman Rick Ford, the stolen goods included a cell phone, a scarf, a "Gilligan-style" blue-and-white hat, a $30 pair of shoes, a few articles of clothing, a martini glass, a bottle of Jack Daniels and a bottle of Bacardi. (While Britney and Justin were both underage, they were vacationing with their families, which might explain the booze.)
The most expensive items swiped were a couple of camcorders--worth $1,000 and $3,000, respectively--a videocassette deck and some videotapes of "personal footage."
Ford says much of what was stolen didn't belong to Spears and Timberlake and wasn't very revealing anyway (to the dismay of those hoping the self-proclaimed virgin and her boyfriend were the second coming of Pamela Anderson and Tommy Lee).
"I've spoken many times to the deputy who watched the tape the whole way through, and he insists that there's nothing outrageous or scandalous on the videotape whatsoever. It's just like anyone else's vacation video," said Ford.
All told, the thieves made off with about $5,000 worth of stuff. One of the accused reportedly told police they just wanted to nab a "souvenir" of Britney's, although they didn't specify what kind of keepsake they were looking for.
As for Britney, the 20-year-old popster has apparently broken up with her former Mickey Mouse Club mate. Last month, she declared she's not "in an intense relationship with anyone" right now. Instead, Spears has got her mind on other things--like food.
The singer is planning to open her own Manhattan eatery, Nyla (formerly Pinky's, after Tiberlake's pet name for her), in May with the aid of New York dining-scene impresario Bobby Ochs before setting out on yet another tour, which kicks off in Las Vegas on May 24 and wraps in Dallas on July 22.
Timberlake, meanwhile, is out on the road with his 'N Sync pals. Their current trek is due to wind down April 28 in their hometown of Orlando.
Posted by Jen on Sunday, April 14, 2002 @ 03:40 p.m.
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Don't Blame it on Rio -- James Brooks, executive producer of TV comedy "The Simpsons (news - Y! TV)," apologized to Rio de Janeiro this week for a recent episode of the long-running animated show in which the city was depicted with rats and monkeys teeming on its streets.
"We apologize to the lovely city and people of Rio de Janeiro," Brooks said in a statement on Friday.
"If that doesn't settle the issue, Homer Simpson offers to take on the President of Brazil on Fox Celebrity Boxing," he added, clearly unable to resist having a little fun.
"The Simpsons" is a satirical look at a modern American family. It airs on the Fox network, which has a reputation for pushing the envelope in programming, and "Celebrity Boxing" is one of its more recent shows to do so.
A recent episode had stars of 1970s TV sitcoms "The Partridge Family" and "The Brady Bunch" battling each other in the ring.
But the people of Rio de Janeiro weren't laughing at "The Simpsons" episode, titled "Blame it on Lisa," a play on the title of a 1984 movie, "Blame it on Rio,"
Rio's tourist board said on Monday it was considering legal action against "The Simpsons" producers for undermining its $18 million tourism campaign.
In the episode, bumbling family head Homer Simpson is robbed by street kids and kidnapped by an unlicensed taxi driver after his family ventures to Rio to find a missing orphan that daughter Lisa sponsored.
The family runs across rats and monkeys while looking for the orphan. When they find him, he has grown rich working on a television show and pays for Homer's release in gratitude for shoes Lisa had bought him to escape monkeys at the orphanage.
Rio tourism board president Jose Eduardo Guinle asked the board's legal team to look into what action could be taken.
"He understands it is a satire," tourism board spokesman Sergio Cavalcanti said at the time. "What really hurt was the idea of the monkeys, the image that Rio de Janeiro was a jungle. ... It's a completely unreal image of the city."
Posted by Jen on Sunday, April 14, 2002 @ 03:38 p.m.
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