Florida Sentinel Bulletin

Singer Fantasia Barrino may lose her role as Mahalia Jackson in the late gospel singer’s biopic because producers feel her status as an unwed mother contradict the values of the gospel film.

According to reports, producers may already be searching for a replacement for the former American Idol winner in Missy Elliott.

The family thinks if Fantasia plays the role, it’s going to sully the name of Mahalia.  They think she’s got the wrong image, having a child out of wedlock.” said the movie’s executive producer, Adrian Taylor, according to the New York Post.

According to sources, producers are also livid with Barrino for lying about her pregnancy, initially saying her weight gain was for the role.

Production on the film has been halted until Fantasia’s child in born. The stoppage in production may force director Euzhan Palcy to drop out of the film.

Yet, according to Dino Gankendorff, who represents Mahalia Jackson’s estate, Jackson’s family has little knowledge of the situation, “I’m not really aware of any objections that the heirs have to the casting of Fantasia. I understand that they were getting ready to film and that she is pregnant, and I don’t know who is she pregnant by.”

Fantasia’s due date is December 27.

WASHINGTON – Pop star Shakira said early childhood development was key to improving education for US Hispanics, as she began work on a new commission created by US President Barack Obama.

There is no better investment than investment in our kids, especially when they are very little,” Shakira said at the White House on Thursday.

“I can share a little bit of what I learned in the past 15 years working with Latino kids in Colombia and Latin America,” the Grammy award-winning Colombian diva said. “I am convinced that promoting early childhood development strategies and initiatives is the way to ensure that our kids, our Latino kids especially, will stick to their secondary education.”

Shakira was among four people named to the President’s Advisory Commission on Educational Excellence for Hispanics, a committee created by Obama last year that aims to expand access to high quality education for Hispanics.

Tionne “T-Boz” Watkins revealed that she has been waging a secret battle against a brain tumor that was diagnosed in 2006.

In the Oct. 12 edition of People magazine, the 39-year-old said that she underwent a seven-hour surgical procedure back in 2006, during which doctors peeled the tumor from her brain stem by making a cut behind her ear.

The divorced single mother of one said she was battling the tumor earlier this year during filming of NBC’s Celebrity Apprentice, but didn’t want to make it known to the public. “I didn’t want pity. I was there to help sick children,” she told People.

T-Boz, who also suffers from the blood disorder sickle cell anemia, competed on Donald Trump’s reality series to raise funds for the Sickle Cell Foundation of Georgia.

She said people are “shocked” when she tells them the news, but added, “I won’t let you feel sorry for me.”

First Ice Cube went from gangsta to friendly icon, we saw Ice-T transform from “cop killer” to full-time onscreen officer, and now Snoop Dogg is taking his Doggfather role to the small screen after landing a sitcom deal with NBC.

Following in the footsteps of the Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, Snoop will star and produce the family show but he will star as a father.

The D-O double-G had his real parental experiences captured on television on his E! reality series Snoop Dogg’s Father Hood  where cameras followed him and his wife and three kids for two seasons.

Don Reo, who worked with Snoop on the sitcom Brothers and also co-created My Wife And Kids is writing the show.

Deadline Hollywood noted that Will Smith’s successful sitcom was the extreme case of musician’s with programs on NBC, while Sisqo had a 2001 pilot co-starring Bob Newhart that never debuted.

CEO Peter Edge and COO Tom Corson told The Hollywood Reporter in an interview that they were shutting down Jive and Arista immediately, and focusing on the RCA brand. Well as they cleverly put it, “the artists are the brand.”

Which is a good way of saying they’re going to downsize and they have no clue how to continue to thrive in the business so they’d much rather keep the heavy hitters and get rid of the excess.

“The concept is that there is value in branding RCA and not having it confused or diluted by other labels,” Corson said.

Jive, which was the home to Britney Spears, Justin Timberlake and A Tribe Called Quest was run by Barry Weiss for years, who is now over at Def Jam. Arista gave birth to Usher, Whitney Houston and the Bad Boy label at one point. Even the J Records roster is falling under RCA.

There was no full list of who is staying and who’s going, but they were a bunch of employee cuts and of course some acts were let go. American Idol season 9 winner Lee DeWyze was one of those artists that got the axe.

Edge said, “The big initiative here is to spend more money on artist development, making more records and making better records and less on all of the other stuff.”

A bidding war has reportedly erupted now that a rumored Tupac sex tape has come to light.

Two potential buyers have expressed interest in the tape that was reportedly filmed in 1991 and shows the rapper being orally serviced by a woman.

One of the potential buyers is said to be an adult website called YouPorn whose owner Corey Price confirmed that the site has made an official offer to pay $150k for the tape.

LOS ANGELES — An emergency room physician told jurors Monday that Michael Jackson’s doctor never mentioned that he had given the singer the powerful anesthetic propofol.

Dr. Richelle Cooper recounted her conversations with Dr. Conrad Murray on the day Jackson died, telling jurors that he told her that he had only given the singer the sedative lorazepam.

Cooper resumed testifying Monday as Murray’s involuntary manslaughter trial began its second week.

Murray, 58, has pleaded not guilty and his defense lawyers claim Jackson gave himself a fatal dose of sedatives and propofol, which is normally administered in hospital settings.

Authorities say he administered the fatal dose and acted recklessly by providing Jackson the drug as a sleep aid. Cooper testified she never asked Murray to sign a death certificate because, by the time he was brought to Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center, Jackson became her patient.

Diddy has apologized for a rant he gave during the BET Hip-Hop Awards weekend in Atlanta.

The mogul was spotted alongside T.I. and Jeezy at Atlanta’s Club Compound when he suddenly lashed out at clubgoers for not drinking his Ciroc vodka. “Put that sh** down! It’s Ciroc Boys in The buildin’. What you gonna do b*tch?!”

Now that video of the incident has circulated across the net, Diddy is stepping up to apologize for his actions and released a series of tweets asking his followers for forgiveness.

According to reports, Fox has decided to pull the plug on comedy Affion Crockett’s sketch comedy show In The Flow.

Although the Fox network hasn’t given an official word, the Jamie Foxx produced show, which premiered on August 14th, 2011 and has aired just six episodes, more than likely the show won’t be seen on Fox again.