Florida Sentinel Bulletin

LOS ANGELES — Whitney Houston is negotiating to return to the big screen in Sony’s remake of the 1976 film Sparkle.

Jordin Sparks will make her feature film debut in the movie. Mike Epps also stars.

Houston hasn’t been in a movie since she traveled to Portland, Maine to make Penny Marshall’s 1996 The Preacher’s Wife. She starred opposite Denzel Washington in that film.

“Sparkle focuses on three sisters who form a musical group and then have to contend with the ups and downs of stardom. Think the Supremes.

Well…in case you had any doubts after her Twitter-shattering VMA performance, Beyoncé…it’s really, real. King B is having a baby!

While getting a little R&R on a recent trip to Hvar, Croatia, Beyoncé was spotted by the paparazzi looking positively fly in a white bikini and a visibly bare rounded belly.

Although her camp has been tight-lipped about a possible due date, some estimate that Beyonce could have her a little Knowles-Carter by the beginning of next year.

Robert Zemeckis is getting back into the live-action business, directing Flight, starring Denzel Washington, Paramount Pictures said Friday.

The movie is a redemption tale about Whip, an airline pilot who lands a damaged plane, saving 98 lives on a flight with 106 people — think Chelsey “Sully” Sullenberger with star power. The world considers him a hero, but he struggles with the label, “as he is forced to hold up to the scrutiny of an investigation that brings into question his behavior the night before the doomed flight.”

John Gatins, who wrote Dreamer: Inspired By a True Story and Real Steel, wrote the script.

LONDON — Jermaine Jackson says his family had secretly arranged to fly Michael to Bahrain if the pop icon was found guilty of child molestation.

Jermaine was quoted as telling The Times magazine out Saturday that a private jet financed by a friend was on standby to whisk his late brother to the Gulf emirate if the 2005 court case ended with a conviction.

Bahrain does not have an extradition treaty with the U.S.

Jermaine says his brother did not know about the escape plan but Michael would have “done it in a heartbeat” because “why should he go to jail for something he didn’t do?”

The singer was found not guilty on all charges. He later spent a year in the emirate as a guest of a son of Bahrain’s king.

Nothin’ like getting arrested — and then bragging about it on Twitter!

Rappers Paul Wall and Baby Bash (real names Paul Michael Slayton and Ronald Ray Bryant) found themselves in hot water on Saturday night when they were arrested for marijuana possession in a — wait for it! — drug-free zone in El Paso, TX.

El Paso County Jail Records show the two were arrested at 1:30 a.m. and were released around 1:30 p.m. after posting $300 bail. They were charged with possession of marijuana in a quantity of less than 2 oz.

ATLANTA — Rapper Lil Wayne easily topped the charts this week with his latest album. Now the self-proclaimed “Best Rapper Alive” has the most nominations for the BET Hip-Hop Awards.

His 18 nominations include MVP of the Year, Best Live Performer and Hustler of the Year.

Lil Wayne’s album Tha Carter IV debuted Aug. 29 at No. 1 on Billboard’s Top 200 charts, selling 964,000 for the second-best first-week sales of the year behind Lady Gaga.

Lil Wayne Cleared Of $5.6 Million Tax Lien

Lil Wayne apparently used some of that baby money to get himself out of trouble with the IRS.The Young Money CEO has squared a $5.6 Million debt to Uncle Sam over a tax lien filed back in March, according to Detroit News.

As previously reported, Weezy was hit with the lien back in March. The millions owed stem from his $12 million dollar mansion, currently up for sale.

LOS ANGELES — Actor and comedian Eddie Murphy is in talks to host the 2012 Academy Awards Show.

Murphy was nominated for an Oscar in 2006 for Dreamgirls and had previously hosted the MTV Video Music Awards in 1985.

The Oscars will be produced by Brett Rattner who directed Rush Hour and X-Men: Last Stand,  and recently worked with Murphy on Tower Heist which will be released later this year.

T.I.’s  wife, Tiny is calling out Arkansas prison officials after she says they posed for pictures near T.I.’s lavish tour bus that’s apparently landed him back behind bars.

T.I.’s wife said that multiple prison officials actually saw the tour bus that picked up the rapper and even took photos with T.I. in front of it without raising an issue. According to Tiny, when the bus rolled up to the Arkansas prison, officials “Walked him over, took pics and told him good luck in life.”

Officials now say, however, that the rapper only informed officials he would be traveling in a van and not a tricked out tour bus.

It hasn’t been a good two weeks for Jada Pinkett Smith.

Last week, the actress/metal singer had to fend off a report that she and husband, Will Smith were separating, with one report claiming that she had an affair with Marc Anthony.

Now, she’s announced that the TNT medical drama has been canceled after three seasons.