JB’s Body To Lie In State At The Apollo

It turns out the Godfather of Soul will take center stage in New York City one more time, and at a venue he helped revolutionize during his storied career. James Brown will lie in state at the Apollo Theater on Thursday where his faithful will be given an opportunity to say their goodbyes.

The viewing will take place from 1 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. at the theater, located on 253 W. 125th Street in Harlem.

Reverend Al Sharpton organized the public viewing and will give a celebratory sermon following the viewing to honor the legendary singer, who was originally scheduled to perform at B.B. King’s Blues Club in the city on New Year’s Eve.

Brown’s body will then be brought back to Augusta, Ga. for a private service on Friday, before another public viewing and his burial on Saturday.

Brown died of heart failure in an Atlanta hospital on Monday at the age of 73 after being admitted for pneumonia days earlier. The statue of him in his native Augusta was draped in an American flag and a red scarf after news of his death became public.

It’s Naked Calenders for Charity time AGAIN …

Chandra Gates decided the Humane Society of Jefferson County was a worthy enough cause for her to bare it all — well, some of it — for a nude-calendar fundraiser.

“I’m shy about the picture but definitely proud of the cause,” said 39-year-old Gates, an animal caregiver there. “I was big on the fact that the cat was tame and wouldn’t be running off.”
The Humane Society in the city of Jefferson, about 50 miles west of Milwaukee, is one of many nonprofit organizations from Australia to Wisconsin selling tastefully nude 2007 calendars, although one philanthropy expert says the practice is, er, overexposed.

A group of women ranging in age from mid 50s to early 70s in Yorkshire, England, pioneered the idea in 2000 when they sold a calendar of discreet nude photographs of themselves to raise money for cancer research. The women, whose story inspired the 2003 movie “Calendar Girls,” raised $2.55 million through sales of 800,000 calendars as well as book and film royalties.
The women have released a 2007 calendar, the group’s third, that has a photo of the women — clothed — with Prince Charles.

In Gates’ black-and-white photo in the Humane Society calendar, she is pictured from the waist up, holding a cat against her bare chest as she stands in a snowy yard.

Humane Society executive director Lisa Patefield said the calendar’s other pictures are equally artistic. Her group expects to raise $30,000 through the sale of 1,500 calendars.

“For nonprofits, it’s getting tough to raise money,” Patefield said. “In order to be competitive in fundraising, you have to come up with something new, something exciting.”

But one philanthropy expert suggests calendars are only a short-term solution for charities looking to maintain long-term viability.

“From a fundraising point of view, it’s probably more appropriate to look for people who care about the (charity’s) mission — people who can help financially or with time, with talent,” said Peter Rea, a business professor at Baldwin-Wallace College in Berea, Ohio.

Some customers say they buy nude calendars to support a cause even though the calendar will sit in a drawer.

Bill Collar, the president of the Muehl library board in Seymour, Wis., bought a calendar last year featuring six local librarians au naturel but strategically covered by oversized books.
“We put it away as a keepsake. I’m not really comfortable with putting it up in the living room,” said Collar, 63. “We purchased it for the purpose of supporting the library.”

Rea said such an example shows that charities might be better off selling products their customers would actually want and use.

Some groups, including the Jefferson County Humane Society, said they don’t plan to make calendars in subsequent years because the originality factor is gone. But the Calendar Girls in England are still getting strong demand for their latest run of calendars, said Clare Lipscombe, press manager for Leukaemia Research in London, the fundraiser’s beneficiary.

“It might be difficult for other groups but we haven’t found people losing interest,” Lipscombe said. “Maybe because these girls were the original ones who started it all.”

Humane Society of Jefferson County HERE.

Leukaemia Research calendar HERE.

James Brown’s wife out on her "Hynie"

James Brown’s lawyer said Tuesday that the late singer and his partner were not legally married and that she was locked out of his South Carolina home for estate legal reasons.
“It’s not a reflection on her as an individual,” lawyer Buddy Dallas told The Associated Press. “I have not even been in the house, nor will I until appropriate protocol is followed.”

Brown’s partner, backup singer Tomi Rae Hynie, was already married to a Texas man in 2001 when she married Brown, thus making her marriage to Brown null, Dallas said. He said Hynie later annulled the previous marriage, but she and Brown never remarried.

“I suppose it would mean she was, from time to time, a guest in Mr. Brown’s home,” Dallas said.
On Monday, after the 73-year-old “Godfather of Soul” died at an Atlanta hospital, Hynie, 36, found the gates to Brown’s Beech Island, S.C., home padlocked and said she was denied access.
Hynie argued that she has a legal right to live in the home with the couple’s 5-year-old son.
“This is my home,” Hynie told a reporter outside the house. “I don’t have any money. I don’t have anywhere to go.”

Dallas said legal formalities need to be followed now, adding that Brown’s estate was left in trust for his children. He declined to elaborate on Brown’s final instructions.

“It’s not intended and I hope not interpreted to be an act of unkindness or an act of a lack of sympathy,” Dallas said. “Ms. Hynie has a home a few blocks away from Mr. Brown’s home where she resides periodically when she is not with Mr. Brown. She is not without housing or home.”

Dallas said Brown and Hynie had not seen each other for several weeks before his death.
The couple had had a sometimes tumultuous relationship. Brown pleaded guilty in 2004 to a domestic violence charge stemming from an argument with Hynie and was let off with a $1,087 fine. He was accused of pushing Hynie to the floor at the home and threatening to kill her.
Hynie could not be reached Tuesday for further comment. A lawyer who has represented her in the past, Robert Rosen, was out of the country and could not be reached, according to a receptionist in his Charleston, S.C., office.

Brown, whose classic singles included “Papa’s Got A Brand New Bag” and “I Got You (I Feel Good),” died of heart failure less than two days after he had been hospitalized with pneumonia, his agent said. Funeral details had not been set Tuesday morning.

Beyonce’s hairy situation…

When it comes to glue, Beyonce seems to have trouble avoiding sticky situations.

Earlier this month, she appeared at the Dreamgirls premiere with a patch of oddly marked skin on her cleavage which seemed to be the result of overzealous application of sticky tape.

Now during a performance at a concert in Florida, she appeared onstage with bizarrely bunched up skin by her hairline, after glue had been applied too tightly to hold her hair in position.

The 25-year-old singer is believed to favour a special type of hair extension-where real human hair is woven and glued into her own locks.

But if the hair is fixed too tightly, this unsightly ‘varicose vein’ effect can result.

Although Beyonce’s hair extensions have been badly fitted on this occasion, other celebrities have suffered far more in their quest for a long flowing mane.

Earlier this month for example, actress Kate Beckinsale was pictured with bald patches on the back of her head-an unfortunate hazard of hair extensions.

And celebrities including Victoria Beckham and Nancy Dell’Olio have also suffered baldness when their real hair was ripped out along with the extensions.

Commenting on the danger of this practice, expert Glen Lyons of the Philip Kingsley

Trichological Clinic in London said: “Although techniques have improved, the potential damage caused by traction- the pulling of the attachment from the glue-remains.”

Beyonce performed a number of songs at the Florida concert earlier this month, which was televised for the World Christmas Day Parade and aired in the US yesterday.