• What’s the hand doing, Janet? [MG]

• African American is a perfectly nice thing to be, in my opinion, but Beyonce (who shouts her Creole heritage from the damn mountaintops at every opportunity) kind of wishes she had been born a Latina. Maybe in the next lifetime, chica. [Latina]

• Can a black women’s magazine besides Essence get a foothold in the market, please? [Jezebel]

• Jamaica’s not the most gay-friendly country? I never would have known… [QT]

• Thanks to everyone who came to Full Throttle Fashion on Saturday to celebrate The Fashion Bomb’s anniversary with yours truly, The B-Life, Hourglass Events, Pieces Boutique, and the JI Group (phew). Plus, a special thanks to Boutique Finesse and the Rum Cake Fairy (for the insanely delicious and much-needed late-night dessert)!

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.

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It wasn’t until I saw a picture of these two again that I realized how nice it was to not see them for a while. Even if they’re back for good, it was a smart move on their part to lay low for a while. They came out for the opening of Jermaine Dupri’s new club, Studio 72, along with JD and Janet (of course), Nelly, some Flavor of Love girls (not pictured), and a bunch of your typical Atlantans.

[WI]

I haven’t seen Poetic Justice in a long, long time — maybe since 1993, when it came out. Tupac wasn’t as legendary as he would later become, but even at a young age I realized that the woman I knew as an international pop star pulled off her role well. I thought this clip would be fitting considering the trailer for Janet Jackson’s latest movie, Why Did I Get Married, is generating buzz on the internet. Something tells me Tyler Perry’s script didn’t require her to say punany.

I’m not really a Tyler Perry or Madea fan — yes, I know many of you love him — so I was surprised when I watched the trailer for Why Did I Get Married, starring T.P., Janet Jackson, Sharon Leal, Jill Scott, Malik Yoba, Michael Jai White, etc., and didn’t want to shut the window before it was over. It doesn’t necessarily look like a movie I would love, but I’m not mad at it either. Baby steps.

Whether the rumor is that Jay-Z is fleeing Def Jam for Apple or for Columbia, the rumor always entails him fleeing, so we can bet that’s probably going to happen. Today, the New York Daily News speculates that Jay is heading to Columbia to be closer to Bey and Rick Rubin and, apparently, further away from Jermaine Dupri.

Other insiders say the arrival of Jermaine Dupri as president of the Island Urban music division in February is the reason.

“There isn’t room for two kings at one label,” says a source. “Why would Island bring in another power-hitter urban guy?”

Dupri’s main squeeze, Janet Jackson, followed him to Island two weeks ago. And Columbia is the home of Jay’s girlfriend, Beyoncé.

For businessman, Jay-Z and Jermaine Dupri sure do seem to be making a lot of decisions based on their girlfriends. Although, when your girlfriends are Beyonce and Janet Jackson, that’s probably unavoidable.

[]

• Even on a tour of Africa, the black man is expected to perform on cue. []
• Is a little color in the Sex and the City movie too much to ask? []
• It’s looking like the LA Fire Department is pretty racist and homophobic. [QT]
• Janet Jackson and Jermaine Dupri are looking very, I don’t know, content on their Miami vacation. [SR]
• Rihanna and Beyonce go head to head for an unimportant award. []

• Aging pop icons are all supposed to be best friends now? [MG]
• Sorry, but it’s really not this serious. []
• When a crime involves victims and criminals of different races, don’t we always make it about race? [RCLCS]
• The locals in hoity toity Sag Harbor need money from Homeland Security to protect Diddy, Russell Simmons, and Billy Joel’s boats from terrorists. [SR]
• Tips to help you find an outfit for this summer’s annoying, yet obligatory, white parties. [FB]

Michael Jackson isn’t the only one put out when his belongings were auctioned off last month. A Nevada court is in possession of about 35 items belonging to Janet Jackson, which are being held, along with a bunch of her brothers random stuff, while the court figures whether the items still legally belong to the Jacksons.

Michael Jackson is seeking the return of 25 items, including some autographed “We Are the World” sheet music, a collection of Three Stooges memorabilia, a notebook containing sketches, legal documents and a piece of Aboriginal art he was given in 1987 in honor of his record-breaking Thriller sales in Australia.

The items on his sister’s list include her marriage certificate from her short-lived union with singer James DeBarge, script pages from a 1984 Diff’rent Strokes appearance and high school notes and doodles.

Basically, a lot of trash. Who cares about this junk? I can’t imagine anyone, unless Janet wanted to keep her marriage certificate to DeBarge as a reminder of something never, ever to do again.

[]

Plastic surgery for blacks used to mean making your features whiter (see every single member of of the Jackson family’s before and after nose pictures), but there is a growing trend of cosmetic surgery treatments for ethnic woman and men that have nothing to do with making them look less like their race.

At the black-owned, DC-based Cultura Medical Spa, which specializes in “ethnic plastic surgery,” two-thirds of the patients are non-white. Clinics like Cultura cater to the special needs of minority patients, most notably concerns about scarring and hyperpigmenation. Despite these concerns, the number of minority plastic surgery patients is growing. According to the Washington Post, in 2002, 16 percent of plastic surgery patients were minorities. By 2006, that number had jumped to 23 percent.

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