Florida Sentinel Bulletin

WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court has turned away the latest attempt by actor Wesley Snipes to get his conviction and prison sentence on tax charges overturned.

The high court refused Monday to hear an appeal from Snipes, convicted in 2008 on three misdemeanor counts of willful failure to file income tax returns.

Snipes started a three-year term in a federal minimum security prison in December. He has appeared in dozens of films, from “White Men Can’t Jump” and “Demolition Man” in the early 1990s to the blockbuster Blade trilogy.

Snipes wanted his trial held in New York City, where he says he lived, but the government brought charges against him in Florida, where Snipes held a driver’s license. The lower courts refused to let him have an evidentiary hearing on this issue.

Hip-hop royalty joins New Jersey’s Hall of Fame as Dana “Queen Latifah” Owens accepted her induction with her mother, Rita Owens by her side.

The rapper/actor/singer was one of 13 new members inducted in the hall at the New Jersey Performing Arts Center in Newark, New Jersey. John Travolta, Bruce Willis and Martha Stewart are just a few of the names joining Latifah.

Fans of Lauryn Hill might have to wait a bit longer for a new album.

During a concert over the weekend, Hill announced to her audience that she is pregnant with her sixth child. She told the crowd at Detroit’s Chene Park on Saturday that she was performing in the last show on this leg of her tour, “I’m going to be taking time off to give birth.”

Hill and her long-term boyfriend Rohan Marley are parents to Zion, 14, Selah 13, Joshua, 9, John, 8 and Sarah, 3 years old.

For months rumors have circulated that the former Fugees star was pregnant and she has hinted that there is a baby on the way.

The 36-year-old Hill hasn’t released an original solo studio album since 1998’s The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill, which won her five Grammy Awards.

Since returning to touring, Hill’s performances have been plagued with tardiness and erratic behavior. Earlier this year angry fans walked out of her concert at the Center Stage in Atlanta, GA, after she arrived three hours late and performed unfamiliar remixes of her classic songs. During the concert the singer declared that she was tired of “playing the same music night after night.”

BEVERLY HILLS, CA — The jacket Michael Jackson wore in his “Thriller” video is hitting the auction block.

Auction administrator Darren Julien says the red and black leather jacket is “the most recognized and significant piece of pop culture” to come up for sale, and he expects it to fetch at least $200,000 at the Music Icons auction on June 25 and 26 at Julien’s Auctions in Beverly Hills.

HOUSTON — A West Point cadet is suing R&B diva Patti LaBelle, saying she ordered her bodyguards to beat him up as he waited for a ride home outside a Houston airport terminal.

The lawsuit alleges the cadet, Richard King, was waiting for his brother and father to pick him up outside one of the terminals at Bush Intercontinental Airport, when three of LaBelle’s bodyguards attacked him. King was in Houston, his hometown, while on spring break from West Point.

“Apparently, defendant LaBelle believed King was standing too close to her luggage, even though he was oblivious to her presence and the danger he was in,” according to King’s lawsuit, which was filed in Houston civil court last Wednesday and also names the bodyguards, the airport and a taxi dispatcher as co-defendants. “LaBelle lowered the window of her limousine and gave a command to her bodyguards. They sprang into action.”

Sean Kingston’s injuries from a Miami jet ski crash should be healed in about six weeks. Kingston, 21, suffered a broken jaw, fractured wrist and water in his lungs.

A publicist for Epic Records, which distributes his music, issued a statement last Tuesday morning saying Kingston was in “critical but stable condition” in the intensive care unit of a Miami hospital.

Cassandra Sanchez, 23, was riding on the Sea Doo jet ski with Kingston when it crashed into a Miami bridge Sunday night, according to an accident report from the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission. Sanchez was also injured and hospitalized. Kingston had just bought the jet ski days before, as he was moving into a new house in Miami.

His life vest apparently fell off during the crash, causing Kingston to sink below the water.

On the heels of sub-par and canceled live performances, Whitney Houston now has a much more serious low to battle on her hands.

According to a report, doctors informed the singer that she is suffering from early stages of emphysema, which would be an obvious culprit to Houston’s poorly received vocal performances as of late.

“She’s developed emphysema — and her doctors are warning her she’ll die a horrible death,” a friend of the singer said.

After staying silent most of the day, Whitney’s rep Kristen Foster responded, saying that  the story is “completely untrue.”

LOS ANGELES — “Camp Rock 2” actor Matthew “Mdot” Finley is recovering from a motorcycle accident where he lost control of his motorcycle and plummeted off a cliff last Thursday.

Finley’s manager, Eric Ortner, said the singer-actor is undergoing surgery Wednesday on his leg at UCLA Medical Center.

Ortner said that Finley suffered multiple injuries to his face, head and legs and was expected to be in the hospital for several weeks. He said Finley hoped to fully recover and return to performing, including a possible stint on ABC’s “Dancing with the Stars.”

Finley played rival Luke Williams in the Disney Channel sequel starring the Jonas Brothers.

It seems Rihanna as taken out a page of Nicki Minaj’s book and is giving away free lap dances.

During her “LOUD” tour kickoff at Baltimore’s 1st Mariner Arena last Saturday night (June 4), RiRi dressed in a white bondage-inspired outfit invited a female fan onstage and straddled her and then they disappeared, as part of the stage dropped down and out of sight.