Beyonce

Beyonce and Shakira to shake it together

(KP International) – A duo of Bootylicious singers whose Hips Don't Lie are reportedly conspiring to
croon together.
Beyonce Knowles told MTV that she's always been a fan of Shakira. "I've always loved her and I've
always wanted to work with her and the song fits perfectly," she said.
Beyonce explained the premise of the song: "It basically talks about two women. The same guy is trying
to get at both of them but instead of them fighting, they're saying, 'He's a beautiful liar, let's not fight,
let's stick together - forget him!' I think it's a great concept."

Not So Much: State of the Nation; More: State of Beyoncé

If there is one thing I can say for the Bush Administration, it's that it has trained me to practice, daily, the skill of quietly counting and deeply appreciating my blessings, to relish whatever good in the world I can see. I knew this was a habit to live by before 2000, but by now it's become, as for so many of us, an absolute, everyday necessity in order to retain sanity.

For every sadistic illegal legislation, Halliburton payday, creationist idiocy, and senseless loss of life, we can either go numb, despondent, or furious, or, we can gather a little hope as it comes along to keep our spirits up for fighting the good fight.

This is all to say that Tuesday night, I blew off you-know-who on TV because I didn't want to squander my happiness from hearing the Oscar nominations. Two of my favorite films of the past several years, the powerful documentary Jesus Camp and the irresistible, slyly deep, and far-reaching Little Miss Sunshine (not to mention the revolutionary Al Gore movie) were honored, but that wasn't my only glee: I must confess, part of my little pool of hope was that Beyoncé didn't get nominated for Best Actress. Yes, I feel a little guilty, but I realized quickly that it's more than just that dependable old American love of Schadenfreude. The truth is that Beyoncé freaks me out. The rest of our nose-jobbed young TV women dancing half-naked and styled to the gills--they are what they are. They are as superficial, as messy, as silly, as uneducated, as "adequite" as they can't help but come across. Sure Jessica Simpson is smarter than she looks, naive yet savvy, funny, has a creepy relationship with father and is overly dependent on her hairdresser--fine, but she adds up. The played-up "dumb blonde" earns her gazillions, fine--we get it that she's not that dumb. But Beyoncé--Beyoncé has never made an undignified or unscripted move. There was never any thinking Chicken of the Sea was actually chicken for her. Beyoncé never looks like crap in the tabloids. (In fact, she's so disciplined about posing in a way that makes her look thinner that blogger Perez Hilton has recently catalogued photo after photo of her with her arms held aloft, elbows out, in a sort of elegant-pin-up manner that only looks ridiculous when you see how she's done it on every red carpet she's ever walked). Beyoncé's public image is so perfectly controlled there has never been a snafu: she speaks mostly modestly and quietly and isn't flashing her pantilessness out of the limo, has never been called "Firecrotch" by an heiress's armcandy or photographed exiting a Scientology center. Her business sense, endorsement deals, hit singles just expand and expand and expand. The only boyfriend we hear of, mogul rapper-king Jay-Z himself, has been with her for years and is as solid and successful as they come. The girl not only simply doesn't seem to have an ounce of the Courtney Love in her, she has barely made a stumble. I do not understand this. The thing is: for someone who has worked this hard for so long in an industry so famous for gobbling its young, by now she should either be like an emaciated Olson twin running around the East Village in a granny schmatte, barely able to carry her Starbucks, or she should be as seamless, careerist, and dead-eyed as Tom Cruise before he jumped the couch. What freaks me out most is that when she talks, most of the time, you can still see a sliver of a very real girl in there. She seems a little shy, and a little concerned about everyone liking her, and her voice sounds down to earth in a way, even when she's just spilling out an obvious, practiced, bland soundbite. We are so used to the unbelievably superficial by now that anything polite and normal and compassionate stands out in high relief: she's still got this in her. It's sort of astonishing. We are so used to Paris Hilton as a new, dependable norm, as our reliably trashy contrast from the horrors of what is actually going on (and the coffins we're not allowed to see), that anything real, compassionate, earnest, is so upsetting to us on the television they barely even show it to us anymore. (Except on HBO. Oh, and that amazing new British psychic on Lifetime.) I think I see this old-fashioned thoughtfulness and compassion in Beyoncé. I think. I can't totally tell, of course, from snippets I catch on the TV once in awhile. Despite her unbelievable grip on her career, the uber-attended-to styling and makeup and the canned quality of her remarks, there is something deep and real in there. When she talks about God I don't think she's lying to boost her brand. Sure, on television she seems a little bit deadened, rehearsed, convinced of her bland soundbite, but not totally: and that is what gets my attention. The stark contrast of this groundedness just does not compute with the sheer scope of her ambition, with the Warrior Glam Queen of All Media that she has become by the age of 25.

Baldwin's Got An Eye On Beyonce

LOS ANGELES, CA Friday Jan.26.2007 /netmusiccountdown.com/ -- Alec Baldwin has announced a new career path.

The actor wants to take a crack at being a music producer, and has set his sights on superstar Beyonce Knowles.

Baldwin says, "[I regret] that I never developed any musical ability, because musicians are purely talented people. Acting is the things you do when you can't sing or play the guitar or play the drums.

"Music is something that just really haunts me. Even to have been involved tangentially, as a producer. I get these delusions where I think I'm gonna produce an album.

"Me, Alec Baldwin, who has no credentials whatsoever in the music industry, I'm going to contact Beyonce Knowles and say to her, 'Beyonce, you're going to re-sing the entire Shirley Bassey catalogue. And we are going to make so much goddamn money.'"

Beyonce almost rejected for role for being too sexy

Beyone Knowles was almost overlooked for the role of Deena Jones in Dreamgirls - because she was
too sexy.
Director Bill Condon has revealed he had reservations about casting the 25-year-old star as the Motown
singer, even though she made it clear she desperately wanted the part.
He told BANG Showbiz: "Beyonce did come after us, it wasn't the over way round. We met, I loved her
but I still had to question two things.
"One of them was it was a level of acting she had never attempted before, but more than that when you
have got such a well developed stage persona, I wondered whether she could adapt to something that
was so different.
"If you think of the way she is sexually on a stage. She is so powerful and contemporary, and this was
about something very different. It was about withholding.
"She volunteered to audition. She did a screen test, I didn't even have to put it together. It was very
quick, we didn't see anybody else. She really wanted the part."

Condon also revealed Beyonce - who has previously starred in The Pink Panther and Austin Powers in
Goldmember - had no trouble getting to grips with the adult language in the film.
When asked about the strong vocabulary, he joked: "I think she liked that."

Hudson Clears Up Beyonce Feud Rumors

NEW YORK -- Hot on the announcement Tuesday of her Best Supporting Actress Oscar nomination, "Dreamgirls" star Jennifer Hudson is telling of the highs and lows of her sudden stardom in a new magazine interview.

In the cover interview for the February/March issue of Giant magazine, Hudson tackles, among other things, the rumored feud with "Dreamgirls" co-star Beyoncé Knowles.

“I’m too busy trying to enjoy my blessings to be dwelling in mess. It's not about that. It's supposed to be about enjoying it," Hudson told Giant. "But then again, when something is good, people are always gonna try to find something wrong with it and try to throw a monkey wrench in there somewhere.

"We support each other as much as we did on day one," Hudson added. "I mean, come on! That’s Beyoncé! We'd rather see people focus their attention on our work.”

Hudson, who was a top 10 finalist on "American Idol" in 2004, also discussed with the magazine her jitters of being a newcomer working opposite Jamie Foxx while filming the scene featuring the song "And I'm Telling You I'm Not Going."

In the film, Hudson plays Effie White, the lead singer of the '60s girl-group trio The Dreams, whose life becomes a nightmare when the group new manager, Curtis Taylor Jr. (Foxx), makes her soulful voice take a back seat to the demure beauty of Deena Jones (Knowles).

While Effie's looks are at issue in "Dreamgirls," Hudson told Giant that she has no apologies for who she is.

"Look, I used to be a size 22. Now, I’m a size 12. When I go to Hollywood stuff, I’m the biggest girl there. And I could care less," Hudson told Giant. "I still feel sexy and pretty whoever I'm standing next to because when I’m out in the real world, I’m the size of the average woman. And there is nothing wrong with us. There's something wrong when you’re just skin and bones. It's not cute. I love my size, period. You gotta be comfortable in your own skin!"

Hudson also told the magazine that she's happily in love with her boyfriend -- a childhood sweetheart whom she's been dating since 1999 -- who lives his life outside of the movie business.

"It's crazy. I’m the dreamer and he supports my dreams -- always has. He’s happy to be my rock and let me fly," Hudson told Giant. "I think it makes more sense to date someone outside of showbiz. He is stationary, stable, a home base."

Hudson's nomination for her Best Supporting Actress Oscar is the latest honor in a string of many since "Dreamgirls" debuted in December. Among other organizations, she's been named Best Supporting

Actress for the film by the Golden Globes and Broadcast Film Critics Association.

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