Florida Sentinel Bulletin

Comedian Chris Tucker doesn’t have a lot to laugh about these days considering Uncle Sam and the Peach state are after him.

Georgia is now getting in on the act for a 2007 tax lien and has reportedly added yet another $592.594.82 to the actor’s already whopping IRS debt of $11,571,909.26.

Tucker owes the feds taxes for 2001, 2002, 2004 and 2006 and even got rid of two Florida homes to help lessen the debt.  Last October, Tucker unloaded one of his Florida homes for $1,050,000 even though the asking price on it was $1.5 million.  Before the bank planned to foreclose on his 8,861 square foot Lake County, Florida home back in November of last year, Tucker had a short sale on it and sold the mansion for a reported $2 million even though he still owed $4.4 million on it.

Back in 2001, the funnyman reportedly took in a $20 million payday for “Rush Hour 2? and scored $25 million for “Rush Hour 3? which hit theaters in 2007.  Now there is talk that Tucker might resurrect his role in Ice Cube’s “Friday” movie franchise which could also help chip away at his compounding tax debt.

LOS ANGELES  — A black velvet dress that belonged to Whitney Houston and a pair of earrings she wore in “The Bodyguard” will be sold to the highest bidder next month.

Celebrity auctioneer Darren Julien said Sunday the pieces and other Houston items became available after the singer’s unexpected death on Feb. 11 and will be included among a long-planned sale of Hollywood memorabilia.

A five-minute sex tape featuring the late rapper Nate Dogg and an unidentified female is allegedly being shopped around by an unnamed individual to a number of porn outlets.

The Nate Dogg video, which contains various sexual positions accompanied by a soundtrack from crooner Luther Vandross is just the latest of many tapes starring Hip-Hop performers that have leaked out over the last few years.

Last year a bidding war erupted over rapper extraordinaire Tupac Shakur‘s sex tape. One porn site was willing to cough up a reported $150,000 for the XXX tape which features the Hip-Hop megastar receiving an oral favor from a female admirer while rapping, drinking and smoking a joint at a house party. The company that owned the rights to the video actually held off until they received a higher offer.  The tape eventually sold last December for an undisclosed amount to a private collector but reportedly the music that accompanied the tape was an original unreleased cut worth at least $1,000,000.

Nate Dogg, whose actual name was Nathaniel Dwayne Hale, died in March of last year at age 41 after having suffered complications from several strokes. Thus far there have been no offers for the Nate Dogg video.

Jay-Z and Kanye West have announced that they will be taking their ‘Watch The Throne Tour‘ to Europe this summer.

The tour kicks off in London at the O2 on Sunday, May 20th and will hit 11 more dates in countries including Norway, Sweden and France before the final show in Birmingham at the LG Arena.

C.J. Senter has six-pack abs, loves to exercise and has his own brand under which he produces a line of fitness DVDs. This sounds like your typical fitness instructor, except for one thing. Senter is only 10 years old.

Known as “the Workout Kid,” Senter grew up playing football and playing outside with his friends in Atlanta. He was an encouraging leader on his football team and figured that he could motivate kids all across America to exercise. Today, what was a pastime for him has become a full-fledged business. Through his series of DVDs featuring 40-minute workout sessions, Senter has become a motivation for kids everywhere.

The biggest names in entertainment clapped hands, swayed to gospel hymns and sang along with the choir at Whitney Houston’s hometown funeral Saturday in the church where the future pop star once wowed the congregation as a young girl.

Mourners including singer Jennifer Hudson and Houston’s mother, gospel singer Cissy Houston, stood, swayed and clapped along in the aisles as gospel singers CeCe and BeBe Winans and the Rev. Kim Burrell joined with pop stars like Alicia Keys, Stevie Wonder and R. Kelly in paying tribute to the 48-year-old pop superstar who first began singing in the Newark church.

Others were more mournful; singer Ray J., who spent time with Houston during her last days, broke down crying. His sister, singer Brandy, put her arm around him. Cissy Houston and Whitney Houston’s daughter, 18-year-old Bobbi Kristina, clutched each other in the front row.

Filmmaker Tyler Perry praised Houston’s “grace that kept on carrying her all the way through, the same grace led her all the way to the top of the charts. She sang for presidents.”

Wonder and Oprah Winfrey were among the biggest names gathered to mourn Houston, along with Hudson, Monica, Brandy and Jordin Sparks — representing a generation of big-voiced young singers who grew up emulating her. Houston’s voice, a recording of “I Will Always Love You,” was to close the funeral.

Houston’s cousin, singer Dionne Warwick, presided over the funeral, introducing speakers and singers and offering short comments about Houston between them.

Houston’s mother was helped by two people on either side of her as she walked in and sat with her granddaughter and other family to begin the service.

Houston’s ex-husband, Bobby Brown, briefly appeared at her funeral, walking to the casket, touching it and walking out. Security guards said Brown was upset that he would have to sit separately from the people he arrived with, and left.

After all the testimonials from relatives and friends, the songs from legends and pop stars, the preaching and even laughter, the raw emotion of Whitney Houston’s funeral came down to just one moment: The sound of her own voice.

As the strains of her biggest record, “I Will Always Love You,” filled the New Hope Baptist Church at the end of the nearly four-hour service Saturday and her silver-and-gold casket was lifted in the air, the weight of the moment was too much for mother, gospel singer Cissy Houston, to bear. As she was held up by two women, she wailed, “My baby! My baby!” as she was led out of the church behind her daughter’s body.

A few steps behind her was the pop icon’s daughter, Bobbi Kristina, also crying uncontrollably as she was comforted by Houston’s close friend, singer Ray J.
Houston was buried next to her father, John Houston, in nearby Westfield, N.J.

LOS ANGELES — “The Help” collected three prizes at the NAACP Image Awards, including top actress honors for Viola Davis, the supporting actress prize for Octavia Spencer and outstanding motion picture.

Davis and Spencer have collected armloads of accolades for their work in the film about black maids who speak out against their white employers during the Civil Rights Movement. Both are up for Academy Awards next week.

Davis said the film has “just been the joy of my life.”

“I found my voice,” she said. “I just emerged through `The Help.’”

The ceremony Friday at the Shrine Auditorium, which honored diversity in the arts, was punctuated by moving tributes to Whitney Houston, the Black Stuntmen’s Association and George Lucas and the Tuskegee Airmen.

Suave blue-eyed soul singer Robin Thicke was arrested for marijuana possession on Friday afternoon in New York City after police allegedly claimed they saw him light up a joint inside a black SUV.

The multi-award winning crooner and husband of actress, Paula Patton was sitting in a parked Cadillac Escalade with another passenger.  He was the only one whom police spotted lighting up a joint.  Police took Thicke, who is the son of famed television sitcom actor Alan Thicke, into custody.  The other unidentified passenger was not arrested.

According to police, Thicke put up no resistance and was actually good-natured throughout the entire arrest process.  The 34-year-old agreed to take pictures with several officers and even handed out a few autographs.

Thicke, who recently debuted his fifth album “Love After War” was issued a desk appearance ticket and then allowed to leave.

There is a new football documentary that is generating substantial buzz and rave reviews from film critics.

The Oscar-nominated ‘Undefeated’ tells the story of a struggling, inner-city, high-school football team that beat the odds on and off the field.

Filmed during the 2009 football season of the Massilon Tigers of North Memphis, Tennessee, Undefeated is an intimate chronicle of three underprivileged student-athletes from the inner-city and the volunteer coach trying to help them beat the odds on and off the field.

The Massilon Tigers once went almost 14 years without winning a game, which mirrored the crumbling, forgotten neighborhood surrounding the high school.

The Oscar-nominated documentary is directed by Dan Lindsay and T.J. Martin and is now showing in select theaters nationwide.