{blackbabes} Nichelle Nichols Remembers Leonard Nimoy: He Made Star Trek into TV History

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Leonard Nimoy and Nichelle Nichols

 

Actress Nichelle Nichols, whose role as Uhura on the original Star Trek broke barriers for the representation of people of color in television, on Friday remembered costar Leonard Nimoy as "a true force of strength and his character was that of a champion."

"Leonard's integrity and passion as an actor and devotion to his craft helped transport STAR TREK into television history," Nichols, 82, continued. "His vision and heart are bigger than the universe. I will miss him very much and send heartfelt wishes to his family."

Nimoy died Friday morning after battling chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. He went public with his diagnosis in 2014.

Nichols released her statement during an appearance at the 2015 Pensacon, in Pensacola, Florida.

Star Trek costars have said Nimoy repeatedly stood up for them, including Nichols.

Walter Koenig told the Las Vegas Sun last year, "When it came to the attention of the cast that there was a disparity in pay in that George [Takei] and I were getting the same pay but Nichelle was not getting as much, I took it to Leonard and he took it to the front office and they corrected that."

Nimoy confirmed that incident to TrekMovie and added, "There was also the case where George and Nichelle we're not hired to do their voices in the animated series. I refused to do Spock until they were hired. Mr. Roddenberry started calling me the conscience of Star Trek." 

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{blackbabes} Calvin Klein -- We Never Said Lupita's Oscars Dress was Real

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It's turning into the greatest Oscar story in years. Lupita Nyong'o's stolen Oscar dress -- which was reportedly worth between $150,000 and $10 MILLION -- appears to be all smoke and mirrors.

TMZ broke the story ... the thief called us Friday afternoon and said he took 2 of the pearls down to the Garment District in L.A. and learned they were fake. That's when he returned the dress to the hotel.

Law enforcement sources tell us ... Calvin Klein's people never told them if the pearls were real or fake. We're told the only person who represented the pearls as real and valued the dress at $150K was Lupita's stylist.  

A source directly connected with the Women's Creative Director of Calvin Klein, Francisco Costa, put it this way to TMZ, "Did anyone ever say they were real from Calvin Klein? I always assumed everyone knew they were fake, but I guess not."

The source awesomely adds, "Do they really make dresses out of real jewels since Cleopatra died?"

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{blackbabes} Swizz Beatz and Alicia Keys Introduce Son Genesis Ali

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The Keys-Dean family are clearly falling … for Genesis Ali!

Proud new mama Alicia Keys took to Instagram on Friday to share a sweet snapshot of the group gazing at the new addition, who was born in December.

"Blessings and love!!" the musician, 34, captioned the black-and-white picture.

While the "Girl on Fire" singer sported a turban and appliqué gown for the photo shoot, her main men — husband Swizz Beatz, the couple's son Egypt Daoud, 4, and Kasseem Jr, Beatz's son from a previous relationship — all looked dapper in matching tuxedos.

"The joy of joy is joy!! It's a boy," Keys announced on social media after her now 9-week-old son's arrival.

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{blackbabes} Chris Meloni & 3 Others Cast, Kanye West Eyes Music Involvement As 'Underground' Gets WGN America Series Order

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WGN America is moving forward with its Akiva Goldsman-produced drama Underground, giving the Underground Railroad project a 10-episode straight-to-series order with Christopher Meloni, Jurnee Smollett-Bell, Aldis Hodge and Jessica De Gouw set to star. The pickup comes weeks after NBC at TCA announced Freedom Run, an eight-hour miniseries set against the background of the underground railroad, which was put on a fast track with Stevie Wonder executive producing and writing the score for a Broadway musical based on the mini.

Underground, originally announced by WGNA in August, also is expected to have a top music name involved. I hear Kanye West is in talks for a role on the music side of the series.

Underground, from Sony Pictures TV and Tribune Studios, follows a group of slaves who plan a daring escape from a Georgia plantation to cross 600 miles to freedom, aided along the way by a secret abolitionist couple running a station on the Underground Railroad, as they evade those tasked with bringing them back, dead or alive.

Smollett-Bell (Friday Night Lights) plays Rosalee, a shy house slave with a powerful inner strength and courage; Aldis Hodge (Turn) is Noah, a brave and clever slave on the plantation with dreams of freedom and a dangerous plan to escape; Law & Order: SVU alum Meloni is August, a secretive mercenary who walks a tightrope between survival and morality; De Gouw is Elizabeth, a socialite who shares her husband's abolitionist ideals.

The series was created and written by Misha Green and Joe Pokaski (Heroes), who also serve as executive producers with Goldsman from Weed Road Pictures, along with Tory Tunnell and Joby Harold from Safehouse Pictures. Anthony Hemingway (Treme) is set to direct the series' first two episodes. Production is set to begin this spring for a 2016 premiere.

Underground is WGN America's fifth straight-to-series order to date.  The first two, Salem and Manhattan, already have been picked up for Season 2. Also starting production this spring is new drama Outsiders, also from Sony TV and Tribune Studios. Ten Commandments, co-produced by The Weinstein Company, is in pre-production.

Meloni, repped by Gersh and Industry Entertainment, is filming Wet Hot American Summer for Netflix. Hodge is repped by Paradigm. Smollett-Bell is repped by ICM Partners, Storefront and Darrell Miller at Fox Rothschild.

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{blackbabes} Lupita Nyong'o -- Dress Returned to Scene of the Crime!

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Lupita Nyong'o's Oscar gown was returned to The London West Hollywood Friday afternoon where it was taken 2 days earlier ... and the thief called TMZ to tell us where it could be found and added it was a worthless fake.

A guy called us at around 2:30 PM Friday and said he had taken the dress from Lupita's hotel room after he noticed the door was ajar. He said he and others took 2 pearls off of the dress and took them to the garment district in downtown L.A. ... where we're told they weren't real.

The thief says he decided to take the dress back to the London in a garment bag that was inside a trash bag that he deposited in a 2nd floor bathroom adjacent to a fitness center. 

We contacted the L.A. County Sheriff's Dept. and gave them the info. They went over to the hotel and retrieved the bag and they found a garment bag with the dress inside.

Law enforcement says they were told the Calvin Klein dress was worth $150K, but the thief says it's almost worthless. 

The thief told us he returned the bag and called us because he wanted the world to know "Hollywood's fake bulls**t." 

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{blackbabes} Viola Davis Reveals How to Get Away With Murder's Alternate Twist Ending

Video: http://youtu.be/zCUtMxZ2zu8

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{blackbabes} Gotham First Look: Jada Pinkett Smith's Fish Mooney Has a Brand New Eye

 

Jada Pinkett Smith (as Fish Mooney) on Gotham

 

In an attempt to gain control of her dire circumstances, Fish Mooney (Jada Pinkett Smith) stabbed out her own eye on Monday's episode of Gotham.

Now, PEOPLE has your exclusive first look at what Fish will look like once Dr. Dulmacher (Colm Feore) has his way with her, and the results are striking.

Now sporting a brand new electric blue eye, we have to wonder from which prisoner the good doctor borrowed from – and what his intentions are.

As Pinkett Smith revealed in an exclusive chat with PEOPLE, Fish's storyline on this upcoming Monday's episode, "Everyone Has a Cobblepot," will begin to reveal a whole new villain.

Fans of the DC Comics universe may be able to get a clue from the doctor's name, but we won't spoil it for you!

While the doctors inside Fish's prison certainly could have gone for her right eye after she stabbed out her left one, Pinkett Smith reveals that they decided that anyone who "behaves in such a manner" could be "put to some use."

"I think she's figured out a way within the prison to have a certain amount of control," says Pinkett Smith, "which is one of the reasons why she takes her eye out. Fish is all about control, but at the end of the day, she's still very vulnerable."

To find out whether Fish's dire actions were all for naught, Gotham airs Mondays (8 p.m. ET) on FOX.

 

Promo: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P1XMPnc1SqY

 

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{blackbabes} Pearls on Lupita's missing dress could be worth up to $10M

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Lupita Nyong'o showed up to the Oscars this year looking like a bag of money.

At least that's what one enterprising thief saw —€” because Tuesday, the custom Francisco Costa for Calvin Klein Collection gown was stolen from the actress' hotel room at the London West Hollywood Hotel.

While law enforcement put the value of the dress at $150,000, pearl experts estimated the individual pearls could be worth anywhere from $1 million to $10 million. Officials reportedly received a call about the missing dress at 11:30 p.m. Wednesday. Nyong'o was gone from her hotel room all day Tuesday. So far, no arrests have been made, and detectives are reviewing the hotel's security footage.

After burning up the red carpets in last year's campaign, Nyong'o's arrival at the Oscars this year was one of the most anticipated, and she did not disappoint, showing up covered in 6,000 natural pearls.

So what happens when a custom-designed Oscar gown goes missing? Hopefully, it's insured. As we well know by now, most award-season gowns are loaned. It's not clear whether the house planned for Nyong'o to keep the dress, or if it was meant to be returned.

Any fashionista would shudder at the prospect of Costa's sculptural work of art being dismantled for the sake of selling the pearls —€” essentially putting it through a sartorial chop shop —€” but it's difficult to see what else thieves could want with the dress. It's not as though you could wait, then have it turn up years later on some oligarch's girlfriend, unrecognized. Can you imagine? It's the one time you might actually want to cop to wearing a knock-off, lest Interpol glamorously haul you away for questioning.

AmericanPearl.com estimated the value of the individual pearls to be much higher than the $150,000 quoted by the West Hollywood sheriff's department.

"Based on our analysis of the size range of the pearls used in the dress, over a hundred 16-inch strands of natural pearls of 4 millimeters to 7 millimeters in diameter would be needed to create this dress," Heidi Cohen, director of marketing for American Pearl, told Women's Wear Daily. "Natural pearl strands of this size and quality are easily valued at $10,000 each for fair market value." That pushes the value to closer to $1 million wholesale or $10 million at auction. WWD was careful to point out that, being a pearl retailer, American Pearl would have an interest in publicizing the higher valuation, so by all means, take your grain of salt with that.

"The $150,000 estimate that many news outlets are reporting would be an approximate estimate for cultured pearls," Cohen continued. "Knowing how rare natural pearls of this quality are, we estimate the value of the dress much higher for just the raw pearls alone, which may be why the dress became a target for theft."

Well, given the minuscule chances that it will be recovered intact, it seems worth mentioning that Vogue has some great pictures of the gown's construction and of Nyong'o being fitted in the Calvin Klein atelier.

"The most important aspect of a red-carpet gown is that it stays true to the woman's spirit and complements her natural essence and personality," Costa, Calvin Klein's much-heralded creative director, told Vogue. "The most successful collaborations bring out the best of both the woman and the house."

Officials from Calvin Klein had no official word on the theft, according to Women's Wear Daily.

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{blackbabes} Azarenka into Qatar Open final after beating Venus

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DOHA, Qatar — Victoria Azarenka reached the final of the Qatar Open on Friday after recovering from one set down to beat Venus Williams.

The two-time champion Azarenka, beat Williams 2-6, 6-2, 6-4.

"Venus was kicking my butt left and right and I didn't know what to do. In the second set I took control," said Azarenka, , who fired 36 winners in the two hour, eighteen minute battle which was watched among others by former England football captain David Beckham.

The Belarusian, who won in 2012 and 2013, was forced to withdraw last year due to a foot inflammation.

She will face Lucie Safarova in Saturday's final, after she beat Carla Suarez Navarro 6-3, 6-2 in the other semi.

The Czech No.3 hardly broke any sweat in the 77 minute encounter in which Navarro committed 21 unforced errors.

"It's so exciting! I've been playing so well in all my matches, so I'm happy. I worked really hard in the off season and my level has been going up, so I'm enjoying playing," said Safarova, who has now won all three matches against Suarez Navarro.

In the first set, the 2014 Wimbledon semi-finalist broke Navarro's serve in the second game. Though she dropped her serve in the seventh game, Safarova broke back in the next game. In the second set, she excelled with her powerful ground strokes.

"I felt confident from the beginning. I was feeling that my game is working against Carla. And that was the plan, to play aggressive and take her time away because she's very good in defence. And she can also, from her backhand side, play very strong. So I was trying to push more through the forehand," added Safarova, who is a member of Czech's triumphant Fed Cup squad.

Victory for Azarenka in the final will see the current world No.48 will become the first player to win three titles in Doha.

Russians Maria Sharapova (2005, 2008) and Anastasia Myskina (2003, 2004) are the others to have won it twice.

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