Toni Braxton Hospitalized for Chest Pain in Las Vegas

Toni Braxton is on the mend and in "good condition" following a health scare. The 40-year-old "Un-Break My Heart" singer was admitted to Las Vegas' St. Rose Dominican Hospital for chest pains Monday night. The six-time Grammy winner, in Vegas headlining a five-nights-a-week show, "Toni Braxton: Revealed," at the Flamingo Hotel and Casino’s vintage 720-seat Flamingo Showroom., is currently listed in good condition and was expected to be released later Tuesday. Her two-year run at the Flamingo began in August 2006. Though several reports have erroneously claimed that Ms. Braxton was taken to the hospital immediately after a performance, there was no “Revealed” scheduled for Monday. (The show is dark on Sundays and Mondays.) Officials for Flamingo Las Vegas Hotel-Casino and Harrah's Entertainment Inc. also clarified that Ms. Braxton was not at the casino at the time.

While there hasn't been any further details released on her present ailment, Toni Braxton has previously admitted suffering from a condition called pericarditis, a viral inflammation of the lining of the heart, which she was diagnosed with four years ago. In a January interview with Newsweek, Braxton said she periodically suffers from heart flutters and high blood pressure. Since her disclosure, Toni Braxton has since been named a spokeswoman for the American Heart Association.

Known for her husky alto voice, in addition to winning six Grammy Awards, Toni Braxton has sold over forty million records worldwide. Her number-one hit "Un-Break My Heart" is the second biggest single by a female artist ever. With her 1993 self-titled debut album she topped the Billboard charts and continued that streak with her second studio album "Secrets" which spawned the number one hit "Un-Break My Heart". In addition to performing in her successful Las Vegas act, Toni is in the studio working on her sixth studio album. Her father was a clergyman, and the Braxton children were raised in a strict religious household. She attended Bowie State University (an HBCU school) to obtain a teaching degree but decided to pursue a musical career. Toni and her four sisters (Traci, Trina, Towanda, and Tamar) began performing as The Braxtons in the late 1980s and were signed to Arista Records in 1989. Their first single, "Good Life", was released in 1990.[2] Though the song was not successful, it attracted the attention of Antonio "L.A." Reid and Kenneth "Babyface" Edmonds. With Braxton's low register sounding similar to that of Anita Baker, Reid and Babyface recruited her to record a demo of "Love Shoulda Brought You Home", a song that they had written for Anita Baker for the soundtrack of Eddie Murphy's film, Boomerang. Baker, who was pregnant at the time, didn't record the song but suggested that Braxton record it. Her recording was later included on the soundtrack along with "Give U My Heart" - a duet by Braxton and Babyface. Braxton, meanwhile, was signed to Reid and Edmonds' Arista-distributed imprint, LaFace Records, and immediately began recording her solo debut album.

In 1998, she filed for Chapter 7 protection from a reported $3.9 million debt. All of her personal household possessions were tagged and marked for sale to pay off her creditors, including her prestigious awards. The humiliating and highly publicized bankruptcy taught her a lesson, she says. In the middle of the bankruptcy proceedings, Braxton was able to pursue her acting dreams when she was offered the role of "Belle" in Disney's musical, Beauty and the Beast, a role she played on Broadway on September 1998 through February 1999. Toni Braxton was the first Black woman to play a Disney character leading role on Broadway.

On May 19, 2006, the Flamingo Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas announced that Braxton would replace Wayne Newton as the casino’s new headlining act starting August 3, 2006. The show, "Toni Braxton: Revealed", will be performed six nights a week and run through March 2007. Later she confirmed that she was extending her show through August 2007. The show has become the first headlining show from a Black performer in Vegas to enter the top 10 Vegas show's charting. Due to the success of the show Toni extended her show through August 2008.

Toni Braxton met musician Keri Lewis in 1997, when the group Mint Condition (which he was a member of at that time) opened up for her while she was on tour. On April 21, 2001, they married. On December 2, 2001, she gave birth to their first child, a son named Denham Cole Braxton-Lewis. The couple's second son, Diezel Ky Braxton-Lewis, born March 31, 2003, was recently diagnosed with autism. The couple currently lives in the in Las Vegas. As well as being a spokeswoman The American Heart Association she is also a spokeswoman for Autism Speaks.

Senator Obama New Ad: The Women in His Life

Senator Barack Obama recently released a campaign ad airing on Philadelphia stations, serving southeast Pennsylvania. The ad runs for 30 seconds and features his half sister, Maya Soetoro-Ng, his grandmother, Madelyn Dunham and his wife, Michelle Obama. The script follows:

Senator Obama: "I'm Barack Obama and I approve this message."

Maya Soetoro-Ng (Obama's half sister): "People recognize themselves in Barack, and they feel understood by him. In part, that's because he listens so well."
Madelyn Dunham (Obama's grandmother): "Well, I think it's given him a lot of depth and a broadness of view."

Michelle Obama (Obama's wife): "Barack and I talk all the time about making sure that our girls can imagine any kind of world for themselves, with no barriers."
Soetoro-Ng: "He wants to make sure that everybody's children have the opportunities that his daughters have."

The key images: The ad opens with a still photo of Senator Obama kissing one of his daughters. As Soetoro-Ng speaks, images appear of Obama in small groups and hugging an elderly woman. His grandmother and wife speak on camera amid spliced footage of Senator Obama with his children and in a classroom talking to youngsters.

The goal: Senator Obama the family man. The ad provides a personal touch to Obama's image, continuing an ad mix in Pennsylvania that balances policy and biography. This is the first ad to feature some of the women in his life — an outreach to women voters who form a core support group for Senator Hillary Clinton, the other Democratic presidential nomination candidate. The ad also illustrates Senator Obama's diverse family tree. Soetoro-Ng's father was Indonesian, their grandmother is White and his wife is Black.

The ad serves as something of a public debut for Obama's grandmother — a woman some may only know because of Obama's reference to her during his speech on race. Then, he described her this way: "A woman who helped raise me, a woman who sacrificed again and again for me, a woman who loves me as much as she loves anything in this world, but a woman who once confessed her fear of Black men who passed by her on the street, and who on more than one occasion has uttered racial or ethnic stereotypes that made me cringe."

Angela Bassett Stars in Tyler Perry’s Meet The Browns

Angela Bassett stars as Brenda, a single mother living in inner city Chicago who has been struggling for years to make ends meet and keep her three kids off the street. But when she is laid off with no warning, she starts losing hope for the first time - until a letter arrives announcing the death of a father she's never met. Desperate for any kind of help, Brenda takes her family to Georgia for the funeral. But nothing could have prepared her for the Browns, her father's fun-loving, tactless small town Southern family. Brenda struggles to get to know the family she never knew existed...and finds a brand new romance that just might change her life. The story is adapted by Tyler Perry from his stage play "Meet the Browns." Perry will portray Madea and Uncle Joe in a small cameo role. Other cast members include: Rick Fox, Lance Gross, David Mann, Tamela J. Mann, Sofia Vergara, Jenifer Lewis, Margaret Avery, Irma P. Hall and Frankie Faison.

Angela Bassett has built her career around playing some of the most celebrated real-life, pioneering Black women of the twentieth century. She was Oscar-nominated and won both the Golden Globe for Best Performance by an Actress in a Motion Picture-Comedy/Musical and the NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Motion Picture for her star-making performance as Tina Turner/Anna Mae Bullock in What's Love Got to Do with It. She won an NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Motion Picture for her work as the late-Dr. Betty Shabazz (widow of the slain civil rights pioneer Malcolm X) in Spike Lee's Malcolm X. She would later play Dr. Shabazz in a cameo appearance in Mario Van Peebles' Panther. She delivered the only three-dimensional performance in the 1992 ABC miniseries about The Jackson Five and their family, The Jacksons: An American Dream. In 1999, she played Janet Williams--the principal of the school where Roberta Guaspari taught in Music of the Heart. She was also in the running to play Dorothy Dandridge, until Halle Berry beat her to the punch with HBO's Introducing Dorothy Dandridge. Her first and only Emmy nomination to date was for her lead role in The Rosa Parks Story. Angela Bassett turned down the role of Leticia Musgrove in Monster's Ball because she did not want to perform nude.

In 1974 she began to consider acting as a career choice after an 11th-grade class trip to Washington, DC during which she saw actor James Earl Jones perform in a Kennedy Center production of the play "Of Mice and Men". With the assistance of an academic scholarship, she received a B.A. degree in African-American studies from Yale University in 1980. In 1983, she earned a Master of Fine Arts Degree from the Yale School of Drama. It was at Yale that Angela met her husband, Courtney B. Vance, an '86 graduate of the Drama school. Soon after graduating from Yale, she appeared in her first film Doubletake in 1985. However she is more recognized for her role in the F/X TV series in 1986. I first saw her in the TV series "Tour of Duty" as Lieutenant Camilla Patterson. But it was not until 1990 that a spate of TV roles brought her notice. Her breakthrough role wasn’t until 1993, when she earned widespread recognition for her portrayal of Tina Turner in What’s Love Got to Do With It. Angela Bassett had never seen Tina Turner perform before taking the role. Captivating, gifted, and sensational, Angela Bassett's presence has been felt in theaters, stages, and television screens throughout the world. A native of New York City, New York, Bassett & her sister D'nette grew up in St. Petersburg, Florida with their mother Betty. As a single mother & social worker, Betty stressed the importance of education for her children. Angela and her husband, Courtney B. Vance, became the parents of twins, Bronwyn Golden and Slater Josiah, on January 27, 2006 in California through a surrogate. Other memorial roles played by Angela Bassett include: Akeelah and the Bee, Ruby's Bucket of Blood, How Stella Got Her Groove Back, Waiting to Exhale, and Boyz n the Hood.

Beyonce & Jay-Z Married?

Power couple Beyonce Knowles and Jay-Z, whose real name is Shawn Carter, reportedly got married last night at his New York Penthouse. They wanted it to be a really private affair – close friends and family, a source close to the couple told People magazine. News of the reported wedding comes after days of speculation following reports, which surfaced on Tuesday, that Jay-Z and Beyonce had taken out a marriage license in Scarsdale, New York. The couple reportedly followed their private ceremony with a star-studded reception that included former Destiny’s Child members Kelly Rowland and Michelle Williams, close friends actress Gwyneth Paltrow and her husband Coldplay singer Chris Martin, and Oscar winner Forest Whitaker among others. Beyonce’s family, parents Matthew and Tina Knowles, and sister Solange, and Jay-Z's close friends were there.

Jay-Z's favorite man on the turntables, DJ Cassidy, was at the reception spinning, according to the source. "Cassidy mentioned a week ago that he was really excited for the Jay-Z and Beyonce's wedding party to happen," the source said. Speculation of the couple was marrying reached a new high as a host of media including four live trucks were stationed outside Jay-Z’s Tribeca building in preparation for coverage of the suspected wedding. More than three dozen reporters and paparazzi were outside with the numbers growing. Kelly Rowland and Michelle Williams hid behind an umbrella when they arrived while Gwyneth Paltrow and Chris Martin were mobbed by paparazzi on the scene. A fight broke out between paparazzi as Beyonce's father arrived and dozens of them surrounded the vehicle he was being carried in. Solange, arrived shortly after her father, dressed in a white dress. A SUV believed to be carrying Forest Whitaker also turned up. The rooftop penthouse, owned by Jay-Z was adorned in flowers and tented scaffolding. A Maybach luxury vehicle arrived at the location shortly before 7 PM and drove past as it was mobbed by paparazzi. Jay-Z reportedly owns one of the super high-priced cars.

It is believed the couple chose this date 04-04 because the number four has particular significance to the couple. Both Jay-Z and Beyonce were born on the 4th - Jay Z was born on December 4, 1969, while Beyonce was born September 4, 1981. The couple have been "dating" for six years, though they have never publicly acknowledged they are together. It was a big week for the hip-hop mogul. On Thursday, concert promoter Live Nation Inc. said it was in talks with Jay-Z over a potential business deal. The Los Angeles-based company stopped short of confirming reports that the deal would give Live Nation a stake in virtually every aspect of Jay-Z's career and land him a potential windfall in excess of $100 million.
A person familiar with the negotiations between Live Nation and Jay-Z told The Associated Press that the proposed 10-year deal was worth about $150 million and would cover three albums. Live Nation is currently producing a tour with Jay-Z and Mary J. Blige.

40th Anniversary of Dr. King’s Murder

On this day 40 years age the world lost a great man when Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. was murdered in Memphis, Tennessee. And as I look back I wonder what would be the mind set of Dr. King if he were still alive: if he would say that his dream had been fulfilled. After all there have been many improvements in race relations in the past 40 years. A Black man is closer than at any point in the history of the United States to becoming president. The Secretary of State is a Black woman and the Secretary of State before her was Black. One of the justices on the Supreme Court is Black. In fact Black people can be found in positions of leadership all over the country. There is a M. L. King Street in almost every city and town in the U.S., but would he be proud that in many of these cities that street is found in worst section of town. One day I want to drive through a city and see M. L. King Street in the middle of the business district or be the street where the court house or civic center is. That does not happen even in Black towns such as Grambling, Louisiana.

All three presidential candidates spoke to crowds today concerning their memories of Dr. King. Senator John McCain and Senator Hillary Clinton were both in Memphis. Senator McCain spoke at a ceremony at the Lorraine Motel where Dr. King was murdered and Senator Clinton spoke at the church where Dr. King delivered his final sermon on the day before he was murdered. Senator Barack Obama decided against a personal pilgrimage to the city of Dr. King’s murder and spoke from the campaign trail in Indiana, where he said Dr. King’s pleas have yet to be answered fully. "You know, Dr. King once said that the arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice. ... But here's the thing — it does not bend on its own. It bends because each of us in our own ways put our hand on that arc and we bend it in the direction of justice," said Senator Obama. "So on this day of all days let us each do our part to bend that arc. Let's bend it toward justice. Let's bend that arc toward opportunity. Let's bend that arc toward prosperity for all."

Senator’s McCain and Clinton felt the need to be closer to Black crowds for political reasons. McCain intended to demonstrate an eagerness to appeal to Black voters who have long shunned Republicans. There was a scattering of boos as McCain spoke in front of the balcony where King was murdered. Many remember that Senator McCain voted against legislation making Dr. King’s birthday a holiday to which he apologized by saying, "We can be slow as well to give greatness its due, a mistake I made myself long ago when I voted against a federal holiday in memory of Dr. King. I was wrong and eventually realized that, in time to give full support for a state holiday in Arizona." (Yeah right, after the state had to be dragged to the decision by the NFL threatening to remove Phoenix from the Super Bowl site.) Clinton has struggled to gain Black votes since prominent Black figures criticized her last winter for saying that it took a White man, President Lyndon B. Johnson, to finally win passage of the 1964 Civil Rights Act. Senator Obama's political agenda was different. He knows that he does not have to go to Memphis or Atlanta to honor Dr. King, because he honors him every day by striving to be a better person and doing things for the betterment of mankind. Senator Obama frequently recalls Dr. King's use of the phrase "the fierce urgency of now" as a motivation for his own candidacy for president. He has sought to avoid narrowing his electoral appeal by being seen solely or even predominantly as a Black candidate, but as a candidate of all the people.

Dr. Martin Luther King knew that no good cause in this world — however right in principle or pure in heart — was ever advanced without sacrifice. He was accustomed to the nearness of danger. His life was threatened many times and yet he marched and spoke about injustices everywhere. And when death came, it found him standing upright, and unafraid. He was called an agitator, a troublemaker, a malcontent, and a disturber of the peace. These are often the terms applied to men and women of conscience who will not endure cruelty, nor abide injustice. He was a true hero.

President Carter Hints Supports Senator Obama

Former President Jimmy Carter wouldn't officially say it, but he left little doubt this week about who he'd like to see in the White House next year. Speaking to local reporters Wednesday on a trip to Nigeria, the former Democratic president noted that Senator Barack Obama had won his home state of Georgia and his hometown of Plains. "My children and their spouses are pro-Obama. My grandchildren are also pro-Obama," he said at a news conference, according to the Nigerian newspaper This Day. "As a superdelegate, I would not disclose who I am rooting for, but I leave you to make that guess." Carter was in Nigeria for a ceremony celebrating a reduction in Guinea worm disease in West Africa.

President Carter is one of 13 Georgia Democratic superdelegates --- elected officials and party elders who have a vote at the national convention this August in Denver and are free to support the candidate of their choice. Only three of those have not said who they support: Carter, state Representative Jim Marshall, and former Representative Richard Ray, who is president of the Georgia chapter of the AFL-CIO. Among those who have committed, Senator Obama holds a 7-3 lead.

Senator Obama Wins Backing of Lee Hamilton (9/11 Commission Co-Chairman)

Democratic presidential candidate Senator Barack Obama won the support of one of his party's top foreign policy figures, Lee Hamilton, a former U.S. House member from Indiana. Mr. Hamilton praised Obama’s ability to transcend partisan division. ``I read his national security and foreign policy speeches, and he comes across to me as pragmatic, visionary and tough,'' Hamilton said in an interview yesterday. ``He impresses me as a person who wants to use all the tools of presidential power.'' Hamilton, who co-chaired the commission that investigated the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks and headed the House Committee on Foreign Affairs, said he was impressed by Obama's approach to national security and foreign policy. His endorsement could boost the Senator Obama's national security standing. "Barack Obama has the best opportunity to create a new sense of national unity and to transcend divisions within this country, not by ignoring them or smoothing them over, but by working together with candor and civility to meet our challenges," Hamilton said in a statement released Wednesday. On Obama's foreign policy stance, Hamilton said: "He will work with our friends and allies. Obama will strengthen our ability to use all the tools of American power, and relentlessly promote the American values of freedom and justice for all people."

Hamilton is best known as the top Democrat on the panel that investigated the 9/11 terrorist attacks. He also was co-chairman of the Iraq Study Group, a bipartisan commission that assessed U.S. policy in Iraq, and serves on Bush's Foreign Intelligence Advisory Board and his Homeland Security Advisory Council. Although Hamilton is not a Democratic superdelegate, his backing comes on the heels of several high-profile endorsements for Senator Obama, who leads Senator Hillary Clinton in delegates for the party's nomination. Senators Bob Casey Jr. of Pennsylvania and Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota endorsed Obama in recent days. Mr. Hamilton spent 34 years in Congress representing a southern Indiana district before retiring in 1999. Hamilton now leads the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars in Washington. In a speech there last year Senator Obama warned Pakistan that if he knew for sure that they knew where terrorists (as is suspected) were and would not act that he would use military force if necessary to root out terrorists (this has now become U.S. policy). Also, Mr. Hamilton said he agreed with Senator Obama's position on meeting with U.S. adversaries such as the leaders of Iran without conditions.

The endorsement from Hamilton, who was on the short list of former President Bill Clinton's 1992 vice presidential picks, may give a boost to Obama in the May 6 Indiana primary, where polls show a tight race.