Jennifer Hudson writing book about weight loss

(Hollywood Reporter) – Add author to Jennifer Hudson's resume.

The Academy Award-winning actress and singer has inked a deal with Dutton, an imprint of Penguin Group, to pen a memoir detailing her struggles with weight. The still-untitled book, due in January 2012, will also expand on how she shed 80 lbs (36 kg)



Hudson has had her share of weight issues. Dubbed "the big girl" as a contestant on season 3 of "American Idol," she transformed her body for her Oscar-winning turn as Effie in "Dreamgirls" by gaining more than 20 lbs (9 kg). She signed on as a Weight Watchers spokeswoman last year and has since gone from a size 16 to a svelte size 6.

"I'm in the best shape of my life!" she recently gushed to People. Still, she admitted, "In my head, I am still the same weight I was before, It takes a while to get used to it." But one thing is certain. Said Hudson, "This is the way I want to be and the way I want to stay!"

Hudson released her second album, "I Remember Me," in March. The set has sold 338,000 copies, according to Nielsen SoundScan.


*We are so happy for J.Hudson! She has is really doing the damn thing in hollywood and everywhere else. We wish her all the best in everything she does.*

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Our Best Barbecue Sides Don’t miss some of these staff-favorite recipes to round out your next low-and-slow gathering.

Check out! It's a Southern Living thang@   www.southernliving.com

Barbecue Deviled Eggs

This is the best of both worlds – deviled eggs kissed with smoky chopped pork. One of our favorite make-ahead tips: place yolk filling in a zip-top plastic bag, and the egg white halves in another container (especially handy if taking to barbecue). When you’re ready to fill egg white halves, simply snip a corner of the zip-top plastic bag and pipe away.

Tomato-and-Onion Salad

We love this recipe for its simple, summer pleasure. Fresh sliced tomatoes paired with sweet Vidalia onions and a little chopped fresh, fragrant basil. This recipe is actually better if prepped a few hours ahead, which allows all the flavors to get cozy.

Peanutty Coleslaw

This zesty Asian twist on classic slaw is wonderful with smoked chicken and pork. Wasbi paste and fresh grated ginger give this colorful mix a delightful eye-opening kick. And the surprising peanutty crunch takes it right over the edge. Don’t worry about leftovers, it’s even better the next day piled high on a leftover pulled pork sandwich.

Watermelon, Mâche, and Pecan Salad 

Take two Southern icons, watermelon and toasted pecans, and combine them with slightly sweet, nutty mâche (a tender lettuce), and you have one out-of-this-world salad. And crumbled Gorgonzola adds an unexpected layer of creamy richness. Feel free to substitute your favorite baby lettuce for mâche – it’ll work just fine.

Bacon Potato Salad

Jazz up your presentation by serving this salad in paprika-rimmed glasses. (Simply dip the rims in lemon or lime juice, then into paprika.) We found this recipe works best with round white potatoes. You can reduce calories from fat by using light mayo and light sour cream.

Fipps Family Potato Salad

One of the staff’s all-time favorite potato salads. The secret to this 6-ingredient star is Duke’s Mayonnaise (a Greenville, SC culinary institution), a touch of spicy brown mustard, and boiled eggs, which are grated on the largest holes of a cheese grater. The recipe calls for baking potatoes, but we also love it with red-skinned potatoes.

Mississippi Hush Puppies

While these golden deep-fried gems are often paired with fried fish, Kentuckians and Carolinians think of them as natural partners to any plate of barbecue. These light-as-feather balls start with a combo of self-rising cornmeal and flour (for extra fluffiness) and a chopped jalapeno for a spirited, but not too hot, kick.

*Yum!*

Big Daddy's Grilled Blue Cheese-and-Bacon Potato Salad

Filled with red onion, blue cheese, bacon, and a sweet-tangy dressing, this reader recipe earned top honors at our test kitchen tastings. Grilling the potatoes in an easy-to-fold aluminum foil packet adds a subtle note of smoky flavor—plus it makes cleanup a breeze.


*When it comes to grilling and or bbq, nobody knows how to make it stand than "Southern Living" mag! From the recipes to the food description; but most of all, the recipes are true to what southern living prints and they come out amazing! So the next time you want a summer recipe head on over to southern living@ http://www.southernliving.com/ for recipes that will make your bbq come alive!


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Lots of Palin, no bombshells in Alaska emails

(Reuters) – The state of Alaska on Friday released more than 24,000 pages of former Governor Sarah Palin's emails, shedding some light on how the possible Republican presidential contender conducted business.

The printed emails to and from Palin, who abruptly quit as governor of the oil-rich state nearly two years ago, were made available to those willing to pay $725 for copies and hundreds of dollars more in delivery fees.

Nine hours later, almost one half of the emails had been scanned and posted online by various media websites.

Most of the emails so far reviewed concern fairly dry day-to-day workings of the governor's office, punctuated by the folksy language she has become known for: "You bet!"

Much of the correspondence comes from one of Palin's Yahoo accounts -- gov.sarah@yahoo.com -- which she often used from her BlackBerry. Some of the emails posted online include:

* Palin asks aides in May 2007 if there is time in her schedule for a June 2007 event by Pastor John Hagee, the Texas evangelist whose controversial comments about the Holocaust prompted Republican presidential candidate John McCain, to repudiate his endorsement in May 2008. "I should try to get back to juno for this one," she writes.

* A request that aides set up a meeting with McCain's team as he campaigned, several months before he chose Palin as his running mate. "Is it possible to get hooked up (maybe by Nick Ayers?) with someone from the McCain campaign?" Palin wrote. "I want to talk to McCain's people about his ANWR (Arctic National Wildlife Refuge) and resources positions."

* Palin's initial tentative support for Mike Huckabee in the 2008 Republican primaries: "He called. Very cool. Unless McCain calls, Huck's a good pick for me, just fyi. He says he's all for gasline and anwr- very cool," Palin wrote.

* Aides planning to send emails to the Anchorage Daily News complaining about treatment of Palin by a blogger on the newspaper's site. "Guys, I may be pretty wimpy about this family stuff but I feel like I'm at the breaking point with the hurtful gossip about my family," Palin wrote "I hate this part of the job and many days I feel like it's not worth it ..."

* An aide suggesting a meeting with Pete Rouse, then chief of staff "for a guy named Barack Obama". "I'm game to meet him," Palin replied.

* Opposition to hunting bears in the McNeil River Bear Sanctuary. "I am a hunter. I grew up hunting - some of my best memories growing up are of hunting with my dad to help feel (sic) our freezer," Palin wrote. "I don't know any Alaskans who do support hunting the McNeil bears that frequent the viewing area.

The emails, some heavily redacted to remove private or privileged information, come from the first two years of Palin's governorship, from December 2006 to September 2008. Requests by news organizations to see emails up to Palin's resignation as governor in July 2009 are still pending.

The six cartons of documents include emails from Palin's official account as well as two private Yahoo accounts she used to conduct state business, a practice that critics said circumvented Alaska's open-records law.

Dozens of reporters descended on the state capital, Juneau, to get earliest access to the documents, which were first requested in 2008 shortly after Republican presidential nominee McCain chose Palin as his vice presidential running mate.

At that time, Palin was the subject of a legislative probe into accusations she abused her power as governor to seek revenge against a state trooper who had been married to her sister.

After the Republican loss to President Barack Obama, Palin quit the governorship with more than a year left in her term to embark on a more visible national career as a television commentator and author. She has not said whether she would run for the Republican presidential nomination in 2012.

The New York Times and The Washington Post started scanning and posting the e-mails on their websites. MSNBC is working with data research firm Crivella West to produce a searchable database online, some of which is available at http://palinemail.msnbc.msn.com/.

About 2,400 pages are being withheld because state attorneys have deemed them to contain privileged information.

The emails "show a very engaged Governor Sarah Palin being the CEO of her state," said Tim Crawford, treasurer at SarahPAC, Palin's political action committee. "The emails detail a governor hard at work. Everyone should read them."

Alaska's open-records law mandates a 10-day deadline for delivery of public documents when requested, but Alaska officials argued the request overwhelmed state resources and received numerous extensions.

*This is so ridiculous! No one cares about stupid emails that this "no governor" wrote and sent to others.  I think this is a waste of time for America to put time and energy into, when we other things that are far more important to worry about.  Sarah Palin, especially, to us here at Diva's Nation is old news and it should be to the rest of America.  This chick is all about the green backs and doesn't care about this country.  It's time to put this chick and her ridiculous antics to rest and say "we've officially moved on."*

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REMEMBER WHEN...ZHANE!

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NY girl, 12, says she was raped at YMCA, had baby

(AP) A lawyer for a 12-year-old girl said Friday that she was raped in a YMCA sauna by a day camp counselor, became pregnant and contracted a sexually transmitted disease.

The girl was assaulted twice by the 17-year-old camp counselor last July when she was 11, attorney John Elmore said. She gave birth to a son in March.

The family's civil lawsuit in state Supreme Court claims the Y was negligent, especially because the second assault was witnessed and reported by a co-worker, who worked as a lifeguard.

"The lifeguard reported it to management. The management did not report it to police," said Elmore, who didn't name the girl. "They believed the perpetrator, who claimed he didn't do it."

A statement from the YMCA to WIVB-TV, which first reported the case, said an employee was removed because of inappropriate conduct between a camper and the worker.

"There was no report of rape or pregnancy to the YMCA until late April 2011 upon the arrival of a summons from the law firm," the statement said.

The YMCA didn't immediately return a message left after hours Friday.

Elmore said a criminal case is pending against the counselor, whom he declined to identify. He referred a reporter to the Erie County district attorney's office, which didn't return a message left after 5 p.m. Friday, when the WIVB report on the lawsuit aired.

Elmore said the girl's parents were only told by the Y that there had been an incident but did not know it involved sexual contact.

"Her mother did not know she was pregnant until December, when she noticed her stomach was large," the attorney said.

Elmore said the girl went months without prenatal care and contracted a sexually transmitted disease, which also went untreated.

*This is a Hot "A** Mess! A twelve year old gets raped and the "Y" basically says nothing happened! That is not right! It seems to me like, the "Y" is try to protect their image more so than the girl who is only twelve.  Even if their was no report of a pregancy, it doesnt mean the girl wasn't raped. She was probably scared to tell anyone, especially her parents.  The "Y" should be ashamed of themselves and the parents should sue the pants off of them for failing to protect their daughter!*


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Avaya planning a $1 billion IPO filing: report

(Reuters) Private equity-backed Avaya Inc plans to file for a $1 billion initial public offering as early as this week, marking the latest in a rash of technology sector IPOs, according to a Wall Street Journal story.

The offering could value the maker of telecommunications equipment at $5 billion or more, according to the Tuesday story which cited unnamed people familiar with the matter. A spokesman for Avaya declined to comment.

Avaya was taken private in 2007 through a $8.3 billion purchase by a private equity firms Silver Lake Partners (SILAK.UL) and TPG Inc. Silver Lake and TPG were not immediately available for comment.
Underwriters involved in the IPO are Goldman Sachs Group Inc, Morgan Stanley, JP Morgan Chase & Co, Citigroup Inc, Barclays Capital and Credit Suisse Group, according to the story.

Barclays, JP Morgan, Citigroup and Credit Suisse declined to comment while Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley were not immediately available for comment.

In 2000, Avaya was spun off from Lucent Technologies and was traded on the New York Stock Exchange until its 2007 takeover. Lucent, itself a spin-off from AT&T Inc (T.N), is now a part of Alcatel-Lucent (ALUA.PA).

If the Avaya IPO does go ahead it would follow a host of technology companies that have filed to go public recently or have gone public.

Chip maker Freescale Semiconductor Holdings (FSL.N) had a weaker than expected debut when it went public late last month but LinkedIn (LNKD.N) shares more than doubled on their first day of trading on May 19, surpassing many expectations.

High-profile daily deals site Groupon Inc filed for an IPO just last week.


*Get your paper ready folks you might want to get in while you can.*


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Rapper Ja Rule due to go to prison in NYC gun case

(AP) Multiplatinum-selling rapper Ja Rule is set to go to prison, but he's leaving fans with an album on the way.




The rapper-actor — whose gravelly voice, thuggish tough talk and duets with R&B divas made him one of rap's stars in the early 2000s — is set to be sentenced Wednesday to two years in a New York prison.
"My last day out," he Tweeted Tuesday afternoon, adding that he was spending it at the movies with his family.

Ja Rule, 35, pleaded guilty in December to attempted criminal possession of a weapon, resolving a nearly four-year-old case.

Police said they found a loaded .40-caliber semiautomatic gun in a rear door of his $250,000-plus Maybach sports car, which they'd said they'd stopped for speeding as he left a star-laden concert at Manhattan's Beacon Theatre on July 22, 2007. Rap superstar Lil Wayne was arrested separately after headlining the same show. He later pleaded guilty to the same charge, spending about eight months in a city jail last year.

"Laws are laws," Ja Rule said Monday on "Good Day New York," which airs on New York's Fox 5 TV station. "There's nothing I could really do but own up to the situation."
"You know, I try not to regret anything I do in life, because you go through life and you do things, and you man up to them. You own them," he added.

Born Jeffrey Atkins, Ja Rule emerged as a hardcore rapper in the late 1990s but then became known for his collaborations with female pop singers, including Jennifer Lopez and Ashanti. He scored a best rap album Grammy Award nomination in 2002 with "Pain Is Love." He also has appeared in movies, including the 2001 film "The Fast and the Furious" and 2003's "Scary Movie 3."

He's recently been wrapping up a new album, "Pain Is Love 2," but he told "Good Day New York" he's also been trying to prepare himself mentally for prison. He lives in Upper Saddle River, N.J., with his wife and three children.

Meanwhile, he also pleaded guilty in a New Jersey federal court in March to failing to pay taxes on more than $3 million in income. He faces up to three years in prison in that case, though his lawyers are expected to try to arrange for his sentences to be served at the same time.

Ja Rule had some previous brushes with the law, including pleading guilty to assault for punching someone at a Toronto nightclub in 2004. He was fined $1,200.

He recently told TMZ.com he plans to keep busy behind bars by writing a book, getting his GED and possibly taking up the guitar.

"I'm gonna try to make good of my time while I'm inside," he said.

His expected sentence will make him the latest in a long line of rappers to do time. Hip-hop stars including
Tupac Shakur, Lil' Kim, Foxy Brown, Shyne, Mystikal, Gucci Mane and T.I. have been in jail or prison for periods ranging from months to years.

Under state prison policies, Ja Rule might be able to shave up to six months off his sentence by meeting requirements for good behavior and other standards.


*Not surprised another hip hop star is headed to prison for doing something so stupid in the first place.  When you think about all the things that rappers (entertainers) sing about it's a bunch of mess. However, then they try to live what they are singing about.

On top of that, Ja Rule is successful and had mega opportunity to do the right thing. Now it's bye bye behind the prison gates.  How dumb can you be? When will these rappers learn that just because you rap about it, it doesn't mean you have to go and live it. 

All in all reading this article, it seems like Ja Rule may be reflecting before he gets behind bars; interms of writing a book or taking up guitar lessons.  One would of thought he would of been working on those things before going to prison.  That just goes to show that most people don't think about how valuable their lives are until their freedom is taken away from them; ie...Ja Rule.


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DREAM!

Check this out! This is a classic!





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ALL THAT SWAGGER BY: Miles Franklin!

The novel's hero, Irish immigrant Danny Delacy, is modelled upon Miles Franklin's paternal grandfather, Joseph Franklin, and the exploits and adventures of four generations of Delacys on the land around the headwaters of the Murrumbidgee River follow roughly the fortunes of the Franklin family from 1833 to 1933. 'Fearless Danny's' story begins in 1833 by the Shannon in County Clare when he and his Johanna elope and take ship for the Antipodes. In Sydney, discovering that land grants had ceased in 1831, Danny sets out as a hired man for Bandalong, one of the most remote stations, far beyond the already-populated Goulburn plains, past Lake George, Gounderu (Gundaroo) and the Limestone Plains. Always the mountains further south beckon Danny 'as the Lorelei', so after a spell of hired labour to accumulate fifty head of cattle and a dozen horses he finally makes his way to a valley that the Aborigines call Burrabinga. As the seasons pass, the station, Burrabinga, is carved out of virgin land and Johanna produces sons and daughters who go to school in Sydney and become the second Delacy generation. Significant Australian events dot the narrative, conveying a sense of historical continuity - the gold rushes, the Robertson and Duffy Land Acts, free selection, self-government, the Boer War. From its cohesive opening the narrative falls away (especially after the first generation) into a discursive series of episodes and events, broken only by the favourite Miles Franklin device of 'possuming' or yarning - meandering, conversational reflections on the rapidly changing scene. Generations merge, each leaving its imprint on the others. Themes become interwoven, the focus of attention shifting easily from one to another. The novel's canvas becomes crowded with more and more participants as the century gradually moves to its ending in the modern day (1933) when the fourth generation Brian Delacy, aviator, lifting his plane into the Murrumbidgee sky, glimpses in his mind's eye 'the spectral forms of bullock transport and receding Delacys moving against ancient unfamiliar apparitions on the palimpsest of Time'.


(Diva's House of Literary Coffee Blog) *This book is a must read! It shows how generations can be caught up in living life that's much more full of this is and that than what their parents had.  Note the characers in each generation as they move away the normal way of life into and into a life of having more and being more.  Get this book today and see why we here at Diva's House of Literary Coffee really love this story.*



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