• Meagan Good will star opposite yet another non-actor in the Mike Myers film Love Guru, which has a plot that made me dizzy. []

• Remy Ma seems to think she has been blessed with both personal style and intelligence. []

• Geez, how long ago did I show y’all “Read a Book“? The MSM is just catching on. [C&D]

• I know it’s a slow news day, TMZ, but this is just ridiculous. [TMZ]

• No way. Did I really just admit to liking the TV show Dirty Jobs? []

What do you do when everyone is criticizing you for having too little political experience? Take that criticism and flip it into a positive. Short resume = short time spent in Washington = anti-Washington = trustworthy. Hey, don’t knock it until it’s proven not to have worked.

Campaigning in Manchester, N.H. today, Barack Obama unveiled his plan to make the federal government more transparent, including national broadband town hall meetings — he’s calling them “21st Century Fireside Chats” — that he says his Cabinet will hold with the American people…

“The American people want to trust in our government again — we just need a government that will trust in us,” Obama said, according to his campaign. “And making government accountable to the people isn’t just a cause of this campaign — it’s been a cause of my life for two decades.”

21st Century Fireside Chats? How quaint. But really — what do you have to say about your skimpy political experience?

[BG]

Sometimes courtroom artists wow me with their ability to capture their subjects with such realism. Sometimes, not so much. Let’s see how up you are on which black celebs are undergoing court proceedings. Can you guess who the man on trial is?

At first glance, my friend though it was Bill Cosby.

Hint: It’s not Bill Cosby.

Rolling Stone has picked up on the battle between Kanye West and 50 Cent, both of whom will be plastered on the magazine’s next cover. So, I know that this has nothing to do with hip hop, but one point to Kanye for smoother skin. He’s already halfway to victory!

It was the era of the Supermodel — you know, when they all went by their first and last names but certainly didn’t need to — think Naomi, Christy, Linda — and claimed they didn’t get out of bed for less than $10,000 a day.

New York Fashion Week shows were more glamorous (read: they weren’t sponsored by Olympus or Mercedes Benz and were held in lofts, clubs, and restaurants instead of tents). And Sam Fine was behind the scenes — at Geoffrey Bean, Fernando Sanchez, Tracy Reese, Todd Oldham, Isaac Mizrahi, etc. — giving the models faces to match their designer looks or rushing from show to show with Naomi and Tyra.

It was the first half of the ’90s when Sam Fine both assisted the late Kevyn Aucoin and worked the shows on his own. Those were the good ol’ days… that he doesn’t really want to go back to.

“It’s a fun gig, but I leave it to the young at heart and the ones that really love fashion,” he told Stereohyped.

And it’s not like being a celebrity makeup artist, which is the the job Sam Fine graduated to when he left the fashion show world, is any less glamorous. Or that much different.

CONTINUED »

Because she’s infinitely cooler than me (actually, I just let her think that), Debbie, editor extraordinaire at our sister site, Jossip, crashed “snagged an invite” to Alek Wek’s party for her new book, Alek, which no one there actually read.

Or so Debbie says.

I actually did read it, and will be sharing my thoughts with you on it a bit later.

After the jump, peruse her astute party observations, which cover everything from Kimora Lee Simmons formidable height, to gift bags, to Nigel Barker, noted fashion photographer.

CONTINUED »

Mariah Carey showed up to a recent recording session with will.i.am wearing a ball gown. But he doesn’t want you to get the wrong idea about what kind of person she is, oh no!

The hip-hop super producer insists that Carey wasn’t trying the make a statement - she just couldn’t be bothered to change.

The My Humps hitmaker explains, “Mariah was cool. She came into the studio wearing a big ball gown. She was like, `I’m so sorry! I know everybody thinks I’m a diva, but I’m wearing this because I’ve just come from a party and I didn’t want to go home and change.’ She’s a real diva in her own right, but she is real cool.”

Isn’t saying that you can’t be bothered to change out of your ball gown somewhat of a statement in and of itself? I can’t say I care what she wears in the studio, but that is certainly not normal. Well, this is Mariah we’re talking about.

[SP]

No, Beverly Johnson wasn’t the first black woman on a Vogue cover. That distinction belongs to Donyale Luna (born Peggy Ann Freeman in Detroit), whose wide eye and long fingers graced the cover of British Vogue in 1966.

Donyale Luna was eccentric, rewriting her simple Detroit upbringing for the public and seriously fudging her racial background — she claimed her mom was Mexican, her dad was actually a man named Luna, and her Irish grandmother had married a black interior decorator. She was the toast of Europe for a time. She died in 1979.

Beverly Johnson, who was definitely more of the all-American supermodel type, became the first black woman to grace an American Vogue cover in August of 1974, and her face stayed splashed on the magazines for a decade after.

What’s she up to now? Well, in addition to the occasional appearance on ANTM and in Page Six, if you ever have need of an wig, she’s your ex-supermodel!

Prosecutors in Jena should really be given a medal for sound judgment and generosity. They’ve reduced the charges for two more of the Jena Six, most likely because the attempted murder accusation wasn’t really going over well with, well, the entire world. But they didn’t do the boys any real favors; they could still spend 22 years in prison for a school yard brawl.

On Tuesday, charges against Carwin Jones and Theo Shaw were reduced to aggravated second-degree battery and conspiracy. That same reduction was made earlier for Mychal Bell, who was tried and found guilty and could be sentenced to 22½ years at a hearing Sept. 20.

Also awaiting trial are Robert Bailey Jr. and Bryant Purvis, who still face attempted murder charges, and the unidentified juvenile.

Mike Nifong, the Durham, NC, District Attorney who was in charge of the Duke rape debacle, has been convicted of contempt of court. If there’s any justice in the world, and, I suppose the Jena Six proves there isn’t much, some similar fate will befall the prosecutors in Jena. But I’m not holding my breath.

Take action at www.colorofchange.org.

[]

Its the end of an era for Shaquille O’Neal and his wife Shaunie. What could Shaunie have done for Shaq to be the one to instigate divorce proceedings, considering her status as a long-suffering (if infidelity rumors are true) NBA wife? Not to say that I am completely shocked to hear she could be involved in shadiness — of the financial variety, it seems — but they are probably both guilty.

The petition reveals that the couple has a prenuptial agreement, according to the Herald, which also reports that should the court agree, a copy of the agreement “will be filed … under seal.”

The agreement “contains extensive provisions providing for confidentiality and non-disclosure.”

O’Neal also says in the petition that Shaunie has been “secretive about her assets … particularly with respect to certain properties owned or titled in either [her] name alone or in other entities” and requests that the court require Shaunie to give a “correct accounting of all money, funds, stocks, bonds, and other securities (including bearer securities)” acquired during the marriage.

I don’t get it. Unless Shaunie had some secret stake in the Vitamin Water deal, what the hell does he care about her assets? Anyway, although the marriage, according to his lawyer, is “irretrievably broken,” he was nice enough to give her the kids.

[People]