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{blackbabes} Alicia Keys on Fighting HIV/AIDS with Love: We Must 'Talk to Our Kids About Having Compassion'

 
Alicia Keys Opens Up About Fighting HIV/AIDS, Black Ball Fundraiser
 
Alicia Keys was a young girl when she was first affected by HIV/AIDS.

"My mother's friend passed from AIDS," the singer, 34, tells PEOPLE. "I think I was 8 or 9 years old. I was old enough to know that he wasn't there anymore and to ask for him. My mother, of course, couldn't really explain to me what it meant."

Keys discovered the epidemic's impact first-hand over a decade later, when a visit to South Africa inspired her to co-found
Keep a Child Alive in 2003.

In this week's PEOPLE, the "Girl on Fire" hitmaker shares her deep-rooted passion for the organization, which helps children and families in Africa and India cope with the devastating affects of HIV/AIDS.


While her favorite part of her work is connecting with the people Keep a Child Alive benefits – "There's so much love and I feel so welcomed," she says of her trips to clinics abroad – she's also a masterful philanthropist. The Black Ball, her organization's annual fundraiser in New York City, raised a whopping $2.4 million last year, and she's set to take it a step further at this year's event on Nov. 5. (Find out how to get tickets here.)

Keep reading for more on her emotional connection to the cause and how it influences the way she raises
her sons – Egypt, 5, and Genesis, 10 months, – with husband Swizz Beatz.

You were born in 1981, just as the HIV/AIDS epidemic was gaining attention in the U.S. How has the evolution since then impacted you?

I have always related my age to the beginning of the awareness of the epidemic. There's been so much ignorance around the topic, especially in the beginning, when people were unaware of how it's contracted. There's this idea that you can't be friends with someone who has AIDS or can't choose to love someone who has AIDS. That's obviously becoming clearer now, but even still, the stigma and judgement around it is so saddening.

Alicia Keys on Fighting HIV/AIDS with Love: We Must 'Talk to Our Kids About Having Compassion'| Good Deeds, Music News, Why I Care, Alicia Keys


What sparked your passion and moved you into action when you co-founded Keep a Child Alive?

I befriended this really powerhouse, incredible woman named Lee Blake, who has been an AIDS activist for over 30 years. Near the beginning of my career, she was getting
Bono and a group of artists together to sing a remake of "What's Going On" that focused on the AIDS epidemic. I was brand new and they reached out to me, and I said of course. I can specifically pin that day to what changed everything; it was the beginning. She was the first person that started to open my eyes to what was happening globally with AIDS. I had barely left New York at that point, and so I wasn't aware.

Fast forward over a year later, MTV invited me to South Africa to do a program called Staying Alive, on which they talked about the AIDS issue. Lee and I visited clinics where women were either pregnant or had just given birth to babies with HIV or AIDS. At the time, a lot of women didn't realize that if you are positive and you breast feed your baby, your baby will contract it. The moms just wanted medicine to keep them alive. That was the first time as a 20 year old that I was aware of the injustice. I thought, "How can something be available, but you can't have it because you're poor?" I just felt like that was a death sentence. That's what outraged me and motivated me. When I came back, I was never the same.

You've become a mom in the years since. How has that changed the way you approach your work?

I could never imagine if my kids were sick and I couldn't get them medicine that could make them better. Or if I was sick and they had to watch their mother die because we couldn't get access to something that exists. I couldn't even imagine that pain. I've always felt the empathy and I've always felt outraged about it, but now that I have kids of my own, you just feel the devastation of it. That's why it's so important for us to press forward and talk about how important it is for people to have access to the ARB medicines that will keep them alive. Because it changes the community, the household – it changes everything. And it's available, it's possible.

When you leave for a trip abroad, how do you speak with your kids about what you're going to do?

My oldest is only 5, so I definitely talk to him about being compassionate for people in different circumstances. When I leave, he'll say, "Mommy, where are you going?" or "When are you coming back?" I'll tell him, "I'm helping some kids who are just like you and they need us to help them because they'd be really sick if we didn't." That's the best way I can put it without burdening him with things that could be too much right now. Also, I show through example – it's absolutely part of my life's work and puts everything in perspective. As a culture, sometimes we feel overwhelmed, like we think, 'What's changing?' because every day it's a new travesty, a new devastation. But things are changing and things can move forward. Even from when we started, when I was just 20 years old to now, we've been able to service 300,000 people. That's not just me. I'm part of it, but so is everybody who donated any amount of money; anybody who did a lemonade drive for their school; any college chapters that let their school know this is important. That's an important message, too; it's not just all horror stories.


How do people at clinics and orphanages react when you visit them?

Oh man, it's so beautiful. It's such a phenomenal energy. There's so much love and I feel so welcomed. I feel so grateful to be able to meet the young girls. There's this one particular girl named Cecy. I've checked up on her through the years. When I first met her, she had lost both of her parents. It was and continues to be such a difficult thing; in child-headed households, you lose both parents and then oldest person in the home is the one who raises all the kids. It's crazy. She was a child of a child-headed household. I saw such a light in her and an energy. She was always very poetic and she just had something about her. I always asked, "What's happening with Cecy? How's Cecy doing?" A few years ago, she was working at a radio station in South Africa and she interviewed me. I was so happy to speak to her. She's a survivor who hasn't let anything stop her from being a phenomenal woman who is working hard and growing.

How did you feel knowing that you played a part in Cecy's success?

I was bursting with pride. It was the best feeling. She was talking to me about important issues and she was so smart. I was excited for her because it's like, look at this: it could have gone any number of ways, and because of the support of Keep a Child Alive, she is going to be such a powerful force in society.

I knew she would [succeed] when I met her about a decade ago during a visit at a beautiful organization, Ikageng Itireleng AIDS Ministry, in Soweto, South Africa. The woman who runs it is called Mama Carol. She saw this need in her community. She saw all these children who needed parents because they had lost all their parents, and she ended up being like a mother to 900 kids. I met a portion of them and Cecy was one of them. I knew they were all going to change the world.

Last year's Black Ball raised $2.4 million. What does that money do for children and families living in Africa and India?

The Black Ball is our main event and biggest fundraiser for the year. It really is a special, special night. Not only is it so heart felt, emotional and powerful, but it's also this coming together of artists and people from different walks of life. We bring our voice to this issue and make sure it's not ignored. It's empowering to be with all these different artists who would never share the stage [otherwise]; it represents how everything is possible when we come together.

For more on Alicia Keys' fight against HIV/AIDS, pick up the latest issue of PEOPLE, on newsstands Friday.

The money that's raised goes to fund our projects and clinics. It helps us hire the doctors and make sure we can provide food. You can't take the medicine if you don't have food to eat. The simple things can be big problems, so the clinics are full service and often about creating sustainability, helping women find work or learn how to create businesses for themselves. [That way], they can be productive and really change the community.

That reminds me of the spirit in your song "Girl on Fire." How often do your experiences inspire your music?

All the time, actually. Sometimes a song is written about that specific moment. Sometimes all the life experiences put together create the songs. Speaking of "Girl on Fire," it's a recognition of so many girls, women and friends that I've met; people who are trying to find their way. The world is a tricky place to navigate, but there is this power within us to stand and find our way. Even if that song is about us as women and humans, it's Cecy's experience that inspires the understanding of what that means. Or it's my best friend as a single woman raising her daughter that inspires me.

What do you want people to know about the fight against this epidemic?

It's important to talk to our kids about having compassion and not ostracizing people who are infected or affected by AIDS. We must understand this is something we still are fighting and we can make tremendous strives if we keep this at the top of our list. We've come so far, and it would be such a shame not to take it all the way. My dream – the dream we all have – is to know we have created an AIDS-free generation. And we can do that. I hope that people who read this will be inspired to join us, learn more and be part of the end.

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{blackbabes} Mariah Carey Says She'll Never Renounce Her Ways: 'I'm Still Always Going to Be a Diva'

 
Once a diva, always a diva!

Mariah Carey is directing and starring in the new Hallmark Channel movie, A Christmas Melody, airing in December. And while she may be working behind the camera, the singer reveals she'll never stop her famously glamorous ways.

"I'm still always going to be a diva in certain ways, and I don't mean that in the bad sense of the word," Carey told
Entertainment Tonight. "I just mean, like, if there's a makeup artist there and they don't mind touching me up while I'm directing."

Mariah Carey Says She'll Never Renounce Her Ways: 'I'm Still Always Going to Be a Diva'| Hallmark, News, Around the Web, Movie News, Music News, Mariah Carey

Mariah Carey

In the Christmas movie, the star plays a music teacher who takes a stressed-out young singer under her wing, according to Hallmark Channel.

Although the project will mark her first directorial feature in a movie, this isn't her first time in the director's chair.

"I've been directing so much of my own work for a really long time," Carey told Entertainment Tonight. "A lot of music videos that I didn't take credit for."
 
As for her diva-directing, Carey says, "Why not just be yourself?"

She's been in the public eye for decades, but the singer told the TV show that this time in her life is "a new start for me." Carey is enjoying filming, her
billionaire beau James Packer and hanging with her costar in the Christmas movie, Mean Girls' Lacey Chabert.

"I was so obsessed with Mean Girls, you have no idea," she told Entertainment Tonight. "We've worn pink on Wednesday – on Wednesdays, we wear pink."

A Christmas Melody airs on Dec. 19 at 8 p.m. (ET) on the Hallmark Channel.

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{blackbabes} Photo: Val Vogt, Kelly Rowland, LaLa Anthony, Beyoncé, Serena Williams and a pal as superheroes

{blackbabes} Photo: Little Mix as KISS

{blackbabes} Vampire Diaries' Kat Graham Teases Bonnie's 'Huge' Romantic Reveal

Vampire Diaries Season 7 Spoilers
 

Fresh off this week's insane reveal about Alaric's future, The Vampire Diaries is preparing to blow fans' minds once again on Thursday (The CW, 8/7c) — this time with a peek at Bonnie 2.0.

"The inspiration behind future Bonnie was sort of Helena Bonham Carter in Fight Club — a little more of a bad girl, as well as someone who's hiding a secret," Kat Graham tells TVLine. "It's very different from the other flash-forwards you'll see. Oh, and this one has the huge reveal of who I end up with!"

But it isn't just Bonnie's love life that's going to throw you for a loop; Graham also says that Thursday's episode contains a major Lily-centric twist.

"We don't find out everything that Lily has done, and all the ways she's effed everybody over, until Episode 5," she says. "There's a huge reveal for Bonnie and Damon in that way."

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{blackbabes} Steffans book: Ex-music video vixen takes on domestic abuse

 

NEW ORLEANS (AP) — For years, Karrine Steffans was one of the most sought after video vixens in the hip hop industry. In the late '90s and early 2000s she had roles in more than 20 projects by multiplatinum-selling rap artists, appearing alongside the likes of Jay Z, Puff Daddy, Mystikal and R. Kelly.

Then in 2005, she harnessed her celebrity status to write "Confessions of a Video Vixen," a stark account of her hard life growing up in the U.S. Virgin Islands with an abusive mother to her days atop the music field and the abusive relationships she had endured throughout. She also chronicled her trysts with several of the artists she worked with, landing on The New York Times Best Seller list as two more books followed.

Nowadays, Steffans no longer performs on a video set. She stands at a lectern, telling her story to students on college campuses, hoping this time around people will look beyond the celebrity and hear her out about the ongoing fight against domestic violence and abuse.

In June, the 37-year-old published "Vindicated: Confessions of a Video Vixen, Ten Years Later," her latest memoir. The book newly explores her personal journey, this time in a more toned-down manner. And it focuses on her on-and-off relationship with her famous child star ex-husband and the continued cycle of abuse she said she withstood.

"This is not a metamorphosis," said Steffans in an interview with The Associated Press during a recent visit to New Orleans. "I haven't morphed into an advocate against domestic violence. I've always been this way."

She said when she wrote "Confessions" and talked about the domestic violence she faced as a child — no one cared. "Why? Because a woman's life isn't valued, especially if she is also a sexual being," she said matter of factly. " ... I've been talking about this since 2005 but no one's been listening."

In "Confessions" Steffans describes the hardships she suffered as a child of an abusive mother and the abuse she suffered later in life, including a severe beating that left her with cracked ribs.

Steffans was a guest lecturer at Dillard University in New Orleans as part of the university's acknowledgment of National Domestic Violence Awareness Month. She said she's been developing a college curriculum based on "violence as a language" for years, primarily at California State University-Dominguez Hills.

"The question everyone wants an answer to is 'Why don't we just leave?'" she said of abusive relationships. "It's very difficult to explain to someone the psychological phenomenon. I wanted to find a way to help people understand why victims stay, sometimes until their death."

One of the issues she's focusing on now is social media and how "violence as a language" feeds into domestic abuse. She said obvious signs of abuse — busted lips, broken bones — are easy to recognize.

"I think people are less aware of the seeds they plant that lead to those more grotesque forms of violence. And I wanted to start and center my lectures around judgment and the idea of people thinking they have the right to share their opinions on everything all the time," she said, adding social media can be harmful in that way.

"We have millions of people shouting angry things into the ether and they're not thinking about the seeds they're planting and the cracks they're creating in other people's armor. That violent language creates cracks in people's esteem, allowing aggressors and abusers to sneak in."

She said she hopes her views will help people "be kinder to each other."

Steffans said she endured the backlash of music artists and others she wrote about in her first book, but she still doesn't understand all the outrage. After all, she said, she was just telling her story.

"When rappers talk about their life, the drug use, the women they run through, it's all good. When I do it, there's a problem. I'm telling the exact same story," she said.

Those stories are now helping her transition to another career. Several of her books have been optioned for film and television.

Ten years later, she said, she's in a healthy, happy relationship and finally comfortable in her skin: "My destiny has nothing to do with anybody else's ideas of me. If God has a plan for me, what man can ruin that? No one is strong enough. That's what I want people to understand."

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{blackbabes} Glamour's Women of the Year: Witherspoon, Jenner, Copeland

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NEW YORK (AP) — Caitlyn Jenner, Reese Witherspoon, Misty Copeland and five women touched by the South Carolina church massacre and lauded in the aftermath as "The Peacemakers of Charleston" are among this year's honorees as Glamour magazine's Women of the Year.

Victoria Beckham, billionaire entrepreneur Elizabeth Holmes, Planned Parenthoood's Cecile Richards and the women's FIFA soccer Team USA round out the Class of 2015, announced Thursday. They will be honored at a gala on Nov. 9 at Carnegie Hall.

Witherspoon was selected for the magazine's December cover, to hit newsstands Nov. 10, while Jenner, Copeland and Holmes will be pictured on foldout covers.

This year is the 25th anniversary of the awards celebrating the achievements of diverse women in entertainment, fashion, politics and business. Amy Schumer will open the ceremony that draws a star-studded crowd each year. Former honorees Madeleine Albright, Serena Williams and Billie Jean King will be among the guests to help mark the awards' quarter-century. Jennifer Hudson and Ellie Goulding will perform.

The honorees announcement came just a few days after word of Jenner's inclusion leaked, prompting a backlash on social media with criticism of her inclusion as a transgender woman of wealth and privilege. Some apparently thought Jenner was THE woman of the year, as opposed to one of many.

"Where there is hateful chatter on Twitter, there is just as much, if not more, love and support. We prefer to focus on the positive," Jenner said through a spokesman ahead of the announcement.

Cindi Leive, Glamour's editor-in-chief, said in an interview that criticism of Jenner's inclusion "certainly gives you an appreciation for the hostility to the trans community that still exists out there." The awards, she said, are intended to honor diversity among women leaders and trailblazers who are as "diverse as the population of women in this world."

"We're proud of that and we're proud of what Caitlyn Jenner has done to illuminate what so many in the trans community go through," Leive added.

Actress Laverne Cox, also a trans woman, was among last year's honorees.

To mark the 25th anniversary, the Empire State Building will be lit in Glamour's signature pink the night of the awards, and Mayor Bill de Blasio will proclaim Nov. 9 the Women of the Year Day, the magazine said.

Among the honorees' achievements as noted in the Glamour spread:

— Witherspoon: She co-founded a production company, Pacific Standard, and started buying up books and scripts featuring female protagonists as a way to fight the gender gap in Hollywood. By 2015, the company's "Wild" and "Gone Girl" earned Oscar nominations for Witherspoon, Laura Dern and Rosamund Pike.

— Copeland: She became the first female African-American principal at the American Ballet Theatre in June. It had been a long struggle. She began dancing relatively late in childhood and had gotten used to being the only woman of color in the room. Then late-onset puberty brought on curves and a more muscular build that took her physique beyond the tiny ballet ideal. She fought back from injuries and prevailed.

— Jenner: After years of hiding her true self, the Olympic hero and Kardashian-Jenner family reality TV parent has faced her share of critics since coming out as a trans woman earlier this year, including some within the trans community who felt her wealth and privilege made her an outsider in their world, too. Jenner, who turned 66 on Wednesday, vowed to educate herself while educating others through her docuseries, "I Am Cait," which was just picked up by E! for a second season.

— Charleston Strong: The June shooting at the black Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church in Charleston, South Carolina, brought on mass protests over racial injustice. For these Glamour's honorees, it was personal. Alana Simmons, Nadine Collier, Bethane Middleton-Brown, Felicia Sanders and Polly Sheppard lost loved ones and two nearly their own lives, but all, one by one, stood up in a courtroom at the bond hearing for the young, white defendant and declared their anger but not their hate.

— Beckham: She came to the fashion world as a Spice Girl celebrity but rolled up her sleeves to make her own way as a designer as she balanced life as the wife of David Beckham and mother of their four children, some of whom have followed her into the industry. She has also helped raise several million dollars for AIDS research.

— Team USA: Early on, the U.S. national team had been written off as having no chance of taking the FIFA Women's World Cup. They dominated and became vocal advocates for women in soccer.

— Holmes: She founded her fledgling blood-testing company, now called Theranos, in her dorm room after dropping out of Stanford as an undergraduate but convincing an engineering professor to admit her into his graduate research lab. Her mission: to democratize access to potentially lifesaving lab testing by making it painless, accessible and affordable.

— Richards: The president of the Planned Parenthood Federation of America is the daughter of a civil rights lawyer-dad and a politician woman, the late Texas Gov. Ann Richards. She has been an organizer since her days at Brown, where she missed graduation to protest South African apartheid. She admits she almost didn't go to her interview at Planned Parenthood, fearing she wouldn't measure up. Today, she is responsible for more than 10,000 employees at 700 Planned Parenthood centers across the country.

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{blackbabes} Halle Berry amends divorce after using fake names 1st time

 

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Halle Berry has amended her divorce filing from actor Olivier Martinez, this time using their real names.

The Oscar-winning actress filed for divorce on Monday using the names "Hal Maria" and "Oliver Martin," but her new filing Wednesday lists their legal names. Martinez filed his own divorce petition on Tuesday, hours after the couple issued a joint statement confirming they were getting divorced.

Aside from listing their legal names, Berry's new petition lists the same details. She cites irreconcilable differences for the breakup and states the pair has a prenuptial agreement and the actors should share the costs of raising their 2-year-old son equally. Both actors are seeking joint custody.

Berry's attorney, Stephen Kolodny, did not return a message Wednesday about why the divorce was initially filed using false names.

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{blackbabes} Raven-Symone on Spring Valley High School police incident: ‘Get off your phone’

 

Raven-Symone has embarrassed herself on "The View" yet again with her comments about the Spring Valley High School incident of police brutality.

While the debate is about whether a recently-fired school police officer in South Carolina should be prosecuted for throwing a student across the room, Raven seems to think that the student's cell phone use in class — which was the reason the officer, Ben Fields, was called to the classroom — somehow prompted the offense.

In Raven's words, "You are in school, get off your phone. What you doin' on Instagram?" She adds, "You gotta follow the rules in school."

Video: https://youtu.be/x2k40i1Kwfk

This comes less than a month after Raven-Symone had to apologize about comments she made regarding hiring discrimination, saying that she'd never hire someone who was named "Africanisha" or any other stereotypically "ghetto" name.

The strangest part of Raven's comments is that the incident wouldn't even have made the news if not for several other students in the class filming Officer Fields' arrest, making her anti-phone tirade seem out of place.

Raven did acknowledge that the officer's use of force was unwarranted, saying "There's no right or reason for him to be doing this type of harm; that's ridiculous."

But she seems to believe that the responsibility of avoiding the assault was on the female student, and claims that if the student had followed the rules "this shouldn't even be a problem to begin with."

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{blackbabes} Lark Voorhies Says She Is 'Not Aware' of Existence of Sex Tape Amid Claims Estranged Husband is Trying to Sell Video of Her

 
Lark Voorhies is responding to reports that her estranged husband Jimmy Green is attempting to sell a sex tape of the two of them a little over a week after she filed for divorce.

"There were irreconcilable differences that we could not overcome," Voorhies says in a statement to PEOPLE. "I wish him the best and look forward to moving on with my life. As far as a sex tape I am not aware of nor have I consented to any sex tape or nude recordings."

Green allegedly claims to have a sex tape of him and Voorhies and is trying to sell it to the highest bidder, according to
TMZ. PEOPLE's attempts to reach Green for comment were unsuccessful.

Lark Voorhies Says  She Is 'Not Aware' of Existence of Sex Tape Amid Claims Estranged Husband is Trying to Sell Video of Her| Breakups, Divorced, Saved by the Bell, Nasty Breakups and Divorces, TV News, Lark Voorhies 
The Saved by the Bell alum, 41, and Green, 32, met in 2014 and immediately started dating. They wed in a private ceremony in Las Vegas in April. Shortly after their wedding, court documents revealed a 2012 arrest warrant for Green for disorderly conduct and threatening to intimidate in Tucson, Arizona. Voorhies' rep told PEOPLE at the time they were "looking into the matter and are obviously concerned about these allegations."

On Oct. 19, Voorhies
filed for divorce, citing irreconcilable differences, according to court documents obtained by PEOPLE. The documents also indicate the couple separated Sept. 2.

Voorhies' mother Tricia told PEOPLE last week the two "can remain friends, but it's best they sever their marriage ties" and that her daughter "is ready to move forward with her life and wishes him well with his life."

In June, Tricia was also granted a temporary restraining order against Green.

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{blackbabes} Kerry Washington to Be Honored at the 2015 Baby2Baby Gala

 

Kerry Washington Baby2Baby Giving Tree award

Kerry Washington will be honored at the 2015 Baby2Baby Gala.

The Scandal actress — who welcomed daughter Isabelle Amarachi in 2014 — will be presented with the Baby2Baby Giving Tree Award in November for her support of the L.A.-based non-profit and ongoing dedication to children in need.

Also in attendance at the annual fête — which raises awareness and funds for Baby2Baby — will be Jessica Biel, Reese Witherspoon, Jenna Dewan-Tatum along with presenters Jessica Alba, Julie Bowen, Scandal creator Shonda Rhimes and Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti amongst many others.

The star-studded event, presented by MarulaOil &
Kayne Capital Advisors Foundation, will feature a cocktail hour with a silent auction and a delicious dinner led by chefs Jon Shook and Vinny Dotolo.

Guests will also be treated to a performance by rapper Ja Rule, and Samantha Ronson is set to deejay the after party.

Baby2Baby, which is led by co-presidents Kelly Sawyer Patricof and Norah Weinstein, helps provide low-income children ages 0-12 with diapers, clothing and all of the basic necessities that every child deserves.

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{blackbabes} Olivier Martinez's 'Explosive Temper' Helped Wreck Marriage to Halle Berry, Says Source

 
 
Olivier Martinez, Halle Berry Divorce: Actor Had Explosive Temper, Says Source
 
Halle Berry and Olivier Martinez have filed for divorce after two years of marriage, citing irreconcilable differences.

Sources have said both of the stars'
fiery personalities led to frequent fights and separations. But a source who knows the couple asserts that Martinez's temper was the last straw for Berry.

"Oliver comes from a world where he was easily intimidated by her ability to work and that she was the breadwinner. He was emasculated by her beauty and her power, and his temper could erupt," the source tells PEOPLE. "He was never physically abusive towards her. He was very possessive in a very kind of caveman way but was never abusive to her or the family."

The source adds: "He had an explosive temper in a way that was profoundly frightening. You never knew when he would explode."

A rep for Martinez did not respond to a request for comment.

Martinez, 49, has a history with violent altercations, including a 2012 Thanksgiving brawl with Berry's ex Gabriel Aubry – who is the father of her 7-year-old daughter, Nahla.

Currently, Martinez is in the middle of a $5 million
lawsuit for allegedly shoving an empty car seat at a Los Angeles International Airport employee.

"Olivier has definite anger management issues. I think this was coming for a long time and [Berry was] not wanting to have to do this," the source says.

Martinez's "unpredictable temper" was the last straw, according to the insider.

"In any sort of situation, you never know what will get his temper up – and it's unnerving to live with that. Imagine that every single day."

The couple announced their divorce publicly on Tuesday, saying in a joint statement, "We move forward with love and respect for one another and the shared focus of what is best for our son."

Both are seeking joint custody of their 2-year-old son, Maceo-Robert.

According to
court paperwork obtained by PEOPLE, Berry, 49, asks for no spousal support for either party, but Martinez has requested that issues of spousal support to be sorted out at a later date.

"She is sad, very sad," the source says. "This is never easy."

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{blackbabes} Rihanna Joins Luc Besson’s Sci-Fi Epic ‘Valerian’

 

Luc Besson unveiled on his Instagram account today that pop superstar Rihanna has joined Dane DeHaan and Cara Delevingne  in Valerian, his sci-fi epic based on the 1970s graphic novels. The singer voiced a co-starring role in DreamWorks Animation's Home last year and also was in Peter Berg's Battleship. 

Valerian is Besson's biggest career gamble: an $180 million-budget 3D interplanetary sci-fi epic that already is slotted for July 21, 2017 release through EuropaCorp's RED. It's based on the adventure comic book Besson loved while growing up in Paris.

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{blackbabes} Serena Williams Is Dating Alexis Ohanian, the Co-Founder of Reddit

https://s.yimg.com/ny/api/res/1.2/nT.NGSMmdM3c_cPZlh.L8w--/YXBwaWQ9aGlnaGxhbmRlcjtzbT0xO3c9NDY3O2g9MzUwO2lsPXBsYW5l/http://media.zenfs.com/en_us/News/USWeekly/1445980270_serena-williams-alexis-ohanian-lg.jpg
 

It's a match! Serena Williams is dating Reddit co-founder Alexis Ohanian. "They met at a lunch," a source reveals in the new issue of Us Weekly. "It's new."

Although Williams, 34, was recently linked to Drake, a second source says it was simply a "flirty friendship." Now, the tennis pro is making love part of her routine, bringing her new guy, 32, to her workout at the Los Angeles School of Gymnastics on Saturday, Oct. 24. Says an onlooker, "He called her babe and they held hands."

Ohanian has even been getting into her sport of choice. Says the source, "He said he'd never been into tennis until they started dating!"

Williams lost her bid for the first Grand Slam in tennis in 27 years on Friday, Sept. 11, to Roberta Vinci. The tennis star's fans were quick to take to the Internet to point fingers at her then-rumored boyfriend, Drake, 29, for her defeat. The rapper had been rooting for Williams from the stands.

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{blackbabes} Serena to face Wozniacki in exhibition at MSG

 

NEW YORK — Serena Williams will play her good friend Caroline Wozniacki in a rematch of last year's U.S. Open final, and Stan Wawrinka will face Gael Monfils in exhibition matches at Madison Square Garden on March 8.

Williams, who came within two match wins of completing the Grand Slam this year, will be participating in the BNP Paribas Showdown for the third time.

The 34-year-old American has won 21 Grand Slam singles titles, including three in 2015, and is currently ranked No. 1. Wozniacki is a two-time major finalist and former No. 1.

Wawrinka owns two major titles.

Tickets for the event go on sale on Nov. 1.

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{blackbabes} 'Fiery Personalities' and Living Apart: Inside Halle Berry and Olivier Martinez's Split

 
Inside Halle Berry and Olivier Martinez's Split
 
From almost the start, it had been a rocky romantic road for Halle Berry and Olivier Martinez. Now, as the couple confirm they are splitting after two years of marriage, sources tell PEOPLE clashing priorities and headstrong temperaments ultimately doomed the pair.

"They have had many issues," a source close to the couple tells PEOPLE. "They both have fiery personalities and don't like to compromise. Halle has threatened to file for divorce several times after arguments."

So what was the breaking point? According to the source, one major issue between the couple was their living situation.

When Martinez and a
pregnant Berry tied the knot in 2013, their plan was to raise their family – including Berry's daughter from a previous relationship, Nahla Ariela – in Europe. But when Berry got locked in a custody battle with Berry's ex-boyfriend, model Gabriel Aubry, the plan changed.

Due to the custody agreement, Berry, 49, had to stay in Los Angeles in order to raise her daughter, forcing Martinez, 49, and their newborn son,
Maceo-Robert, to relocate to L.A.

According to the source, Martinez had a hard time adjusting: "Olivier never loved living in L.A. full time. [He] just isn't happy in L.A."

Another issue, says another source who knows the couple, was Martinez's temper.

"He has a violent temper," the source told PEOPLE this summer. "[Friends say] he has an out of control hair-trigger temper."

In 2012, Martinez got into a brawl with Aubrey at Berry's house on Thanksgiving. This year, cameras caught Martinez shoving an empty car seat toward an LAX employee as he, Berry and the kids exited the airport. The employee is
now suing the couple for $5 million.

The couple were also apparently at odds over how to balance family life with work, the source told PEOPLE just months before the split.

"Olivier is complaining that he and Halle are not spending much time together and that she is working too much," said the initial source. "He never wanted her to sign on for [CBS's Extant] and Olivier was hoping they would focus on family time together after Maceo was born."

With Berry on the road to promote her acting career, Martinez found himself growing lonely.

"He complains he spends his days alone, or with friends," said the first source. "He doesn't understand why Halle wants to work so much and is still so focused on her career. Halle has instead been extremely busy and Olivier, who has not been working, is very bored in L.A."

The second source confirmed to PEOPLE this summer that Martinez "goes to France a lot. He hasn't worked in a long time."


After it became clear that they were both unhappy in their marriage, they tried to make their relationship work for the sake of their children. Their solution? Spend time away from one another, even living apart for extended periods of time.

"They are both aware that they have difficult personalities and have tried to stay in the marriage by not living together. Many times, Halle [had] been staying at the Malibu house and Olivier at the Chateau Marmont. They are much better when they don't spent too much time together," said the first source close to the couple, adding "They have gone weeks without seeing each other, but then has managed to patch things up again.

But with separate living arrangements and Berry's hectic work schedule, the distance eventually drove them apart.

"Even though they are married, they always had very separate lives," said the initial source. "Their marriage has never been what Olivier imagined it to be. It's been a disappointment to him."

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{blackbabes} Halle Berry and Oliver Martinez File Dueling Divorce Papers, Disagree over Spousal Support

 
 
Halle Berry and Oliver Martinez File Dueling Divorce Papers
 
Olivier Martinez and Halle Berry have officially filed for divorce.

Both have cited irreconcilable differences and listed their date of separation as Monday, according to court paperwork obtained by PEOPLE. The couple
announced their divorce publicly on Tuesday, saying in a joint statement, "We move forward with love and respect for one another and the shared focus of what is best for our son."

However, while Berry asks for no spousal support for either party, and for the costs of raising their child to be shared as per terms of their prenup, Martinez asks for issues of spousal support to be sorted out at a later date. The actress states that all of her earnings and assets are her property per their prenup.

Both are seeking joint custody of their 2-year-old son, Maceo-Robert, but Berry's filing has an attached form about visitation, saying they will "share custody as is in the best interest of the child" but that Martinez should provide transportation to and from visits and need permission to take Maceo out of California.


The French actor is represented by Hollywood divorce guru Laura Wasser, who has previously handled divorce cases for the likes of Kim Kardashian, Heidi Klum, Ryan Reynolds, and many more.

Berry and Martinez met in 2010 on the set of Dark Tide. They
tied the knot on July 13, 2013, at the rustic Chateau des Conde in his native France. Their son Maceo-Robert was born on Oct. 5, 2013.

According to sources, the split was in part caused by disagreements over their living situation. Berry had planned to raise her two children (she has a daughter,
Nahla, from another relationship) in Europe, but was never able to make the move because of ongoing custody issues with Nahla's father, Gabriel Aubry. Meanwhile, Martinez "never loved living in L.A. full time," according to a source. "[He] just isn't happy in L.A."

Martinez's temper also allegedly played a role in the split. "He has a violent temper," the source told PEOPLE this summer. Martinez got into a Thanksgiving brawl with Aubry in 2012, and was caught shoving an LAX employee with a baby seat earlier this year. The employee is now
suing the couple for $5 million.

Ultimately, a source tells PEOPLE that the relationship between the two "fiery personalities" had "run its course," adding: "They are keeping it amicable now. She is okay."

This is Martinez first divorce, and the third for Berry, who wed baseball player David Justice in 1993 and singer Eric Benét in 2001.

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{blackbabes} ‘Scandal’ Stars Kerry Washington & Katie Lowes To Produce Nanny Dramedy For Shondaland & ABC

 

Scandal stars Kerry Washington and Katie Lowes are among the executive producers of an untitled comedic drama from Shonda Rhimes and Betsy Beers' Shondaland, which has been set up at ABC through ABC Studios where Shondaland is based.

The project involves a lot of thesps. Written by actress-writer Bess Wohl, it is described as an edgy and comical upstairs-downstairs look at the insanity of modern child-rearing and focuses on a clique of young nannies, a trio of interconnected families and their various support staffs, all trying to help the kids grow up when they haven't quite grown up themselves. Wohl executive produces alongside fellow actors Washington, Lowes and Adam Shapiro as well as Shondaland's Rhimes and Beers.

Washington plays the lead, Olivia Pope, and Lowes plays fellow Gladiator Quinn on ABC/ABC Studios hit drama Scandal, created/run by Rhimes.

Wohl, repped by CAA and Untitled Entertainment, wrote another drama project for ABC and ABC Studios last year, Broad Squad, which went to pilot. She also recently wrote the play American Hero, which premiered on Broadway last year.

Rhimes is repped by ICM Partners and attorney Michael Gendler; Beers is with UTA; and Washington with CAA, manager Kathy Atkinson and attorney Gretchen Bruggeman Rush.

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{blackbabes} Halle Berry and Olivier Martinez call it quits after 2 years

 

Halle Berry and Olivier Martinez are calling it quits after two years, TMZ reports.

Berry has filed the paperwork citing irreconcilable differences and TMZ sources say the couple's personality differences have come to a boiling point.

Martinez will not face criminal charges for assaulting an LAX employee with a car seat earlier this year but is being sued for the offense, which may have been the couple's breaking point.

The couple have a son together, Maceo, who is 2 years old. Berry also has a daughter, Nahla, from a previous relationship. Martinez is her third husband.

TMZ further reports that the couple have a prenup so money should not be an issue. Berry did not file for sole or shared custody of their son with hopes of instead doing what is in "the best interests of the child."

In a joint statement, the couple says they "move forward with love and respect for one another and the shared focus for what is best for our son."

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