A Taste Of Talent
Words: Malika S. Flowers

Despite being a visual Odd Couple Terry Walker and Gardy Balerme know what it takes to be a winning team. Gardy has a teddy bear-like quality that matches his baby face and bright smile. Terry, on the other hand, is slightly more slender with a manly face and bedroom eyes that belie his alert nature. Together, they make up Tastemakers Management Group.

Tastemakers is a company that prides itself on its star making ability. Walker and Balerme use their marketing and promotional skills to provide artists with the complete package to make themselves hit-worthy.

The two are responsible for arming artists with the sounds, looks, promotions, graphics and anything else to make them marketable in an ever-evolving music industry. (continue reading…)

Actress Lindsay Lohan has decided to bring a $100 million dollar lawsuit against E*Trade for using her name and characterization without her permission in a commercial.

According to the suit, Lohan is among celebrities such as Madonna and Oprah that are well recognized by only their first names.

The ad, which first aired during the Super Bowl, features a baby chatting with his girlfriend over the internet. At one point, the girlfriend asked him about “that milkaholic Lindsay” when another baby girl pops up on his screen and shouts “Milka-what?!”

E*Trade, a company used for online trading, has issued no comment on the lawsuit.

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Markice “Kesan” Moore, known for a small role in the movie, “ATL,” and most infamously as a troubled soul on the MTV show, “From G’s to Gents,” is currently being sought for abusing his daughter.

Police in Marietta, Georgia are looking for Moore because of multiple fractures on his young daughter that he allegedly caused. The one-year-old girl has a broken leg, two broken arms, a broken collar bone, three broken ribs, and bruising.

Moore claims that the only injury he’s responsible for is a broken wrist that she suffered when falling out of bed in July, and that the injuries are the result of someone else. He also claims that it was never his intention to run from the authorities, he merely wanted to “get everything in order” before being taken into custody. Moore says that he plans to turn himself into authorities soon.

Moore, more famously known as “Kesan,” became well known on reality television while a cast  member of “From G’s to Gents” which was hosted by Farnsworth Bently. Kesan was known as the most troubled of the group and was forced to leave the show when other cast members began to fear for their own safety.

Lady Rerun Vs. The Internet

Have you ever had a moment where you do something very simple without putting much thought into it, yet it ends up changing your life? That’s what happened to Portia “Lady Rerun” Allen, when she decided to enter two online contests.

Portia, who is the daughter of Fred “Rerun” Berry from the 1970’s sitcom, “What’s Happening!!” decided to follow in her father’s footsteps by becoming an entertainer. At 4’9 320 lbs, she is a plus sized model, radio & event host, and actress. She’s found that while her size does sometimes give people the wrong impression of her, she enjoys proving those same people wrong by showing a huge heart and spirit also exists inside of her large frame.

Having a father that was in the entertainment industry taught her early on that any publicity could be good publicity, that even negatives could be spun into positives. That being the case, Portia knows that her size can help her reach out to women of all shapes, sizes and races, because nearly all women face body image issues.

Because she is constantly grinding to reach the next level of success, Portia decided to enter Safe Auto’s DoTheJingle.com contest and she entered to be the spokeswoman for the Eyes Lips Face cosmetics line.
For the Safe Auto entry, Portia was lounging poolside as she talked about Safe Auto and sang their jingle. In the E.L.F. entry, she simply submitted a few pictures of herself, as the rules stated. Things started out innocently enough as her supporters rallied around her, leaving positive comments and her voting to the top in both contests nearly from the beginning. But then things got strange.

For the Safe Auto ad, people began leaving comments saying things such as “pool’s closed,” a statement she later learned was to indicate that because AIDS was in the pool, no one swam in it. They also started leaving lewd comments about her weight, a situation that Portia is unfortunately all too familiar with.

For the E.L.F. ad, she also got negative comments about her weight. On both websites, people claiming to be her supporters went on the pages of other contestants, claiming to be a fan of hers, and bashing others. Users began to complain that Portia was obviously rigging votes (the notion was that an overweight woman couldn’t possibly have as many supporters, especially for the cosmetics line).

One band that was close to the lead in the Safe Auto ad quit the contest because they felt that there was clearly some type of unfair voting advantage to her. She also found an Encyclopedia Dramatica website about herself. On it, they insulted her Internet radio show, her game show appearance on the short-lived Fox show “Hole In the Wall,” her movie appearance and pretty much every other project that she has worked on.

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On December 23 hitmaker and new jack swing pioneer, Teddy Riley, allegedly attacked his 18-year-old daughter Taja, and her older sister. He is accused of stomping and punching his daughters and threatening to kill them with guitar from the video game “Rock Band.”

Taja claims that the assault resulted in multiple injuries, including “bashes to temple, (and) contusion on face.”

A restraining order has been granted and Riley is ordered to stay at least 100 feet from Taja.

Riley is well known as an 80’s and 90’s hip-hop/r&b innovator, and is behind such hits as “Make It Last Forever” by Keith Sweat and “Remember the Time” by Michael Jackson. He was also the producer in his hit groups Guy and later Blackstreet.

If this is how he reacts when someone beats his high score, his daughters will probably never want to play video games with him again.