Dr. Jan Adams, the unlucky (to say the least) surgeon who performed the breast reduction and tummy tuck that may have caused Donda West’s death, just got unluckier. The Discovery Health Channel decided to stop airing Plastic Surgery the show that Adams hosted for five years.

With talk show appearances and his own show, Adams had been riding the wave of plastic surgery popularity until his bubble very publicly burst early this week. According to a story in the Washington Post a few months ago, plastic surgery is getting more and more popular within the black community, with black plastic surgery patients rising from 16 percent in 2002 to 23 percent in 2004. Blacks are seeking out surgeons who specialize in “ethnic plastic surgery” — meaning they preserve ethnic characteristics when they do facial work and pay special attention to issues such as scarring and keloids during procedures like breast reductions and tummy tucks.

This is possibly why Donda West sought out Adams, a prominent/well-known black surgeon. Who knows? Adams might have performed the surgery by the book, and West might have met the same fate no matter who she had gone to. But as evidence builds against Adams, you’ve got to wonder what would have happened if Adams was a plastic surgeon with a board certification on his resume instead of television credits.

Alicia Keys and Common are playing a game of trade-the-cameo. She appeared as his love girlfriend/wife in the video for “I Want You,” and now Common is playing Alicia’s ill-fated man in her “Like You’ll Never See” video. Not bad at video-acting, these two, but their videos are kind of depressing me.

Those of you who were rejoicing when Page Six reported that Jennifer Hudson had dumped James Payton, her pre-fame ball and chain, for easy-on-the-eyes NY Jet Kerry Rhodes will no doubt be disappointed to see that J-Hud was cuddled up with Payton, not Rhodes, at a NYC party last night. Those first loves are hard to shake. _{[Image Source: WI]}

Russell Simmons, who has done PSAs about animal cruelty in the past, appeared in a clip about dog fighting that was released on YouTube yesterday. I’m waiting for the one starring Michael Vick.

Keisha Whitaker, my favorite wife of an Oscar winner (sorry Pauletta Washington), just launched her makeup line — Kissable Couture — in LA. Her daughters and famous hubby came out to support, of course, along with some famous (and semi-famous and not-so-famous) women of color. Pics after the jump.

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Larry David and Tina Fey understand race humor. When you watch Curb Your Enthusiasm and 30 Rock, it’s understood that the majority of their jokes about race are used to make fun of stereotypes, racial tension, or even the writers’ own white liberal discomfort with racial topics. A story in the today examines the two shows and how Fey and David (to a lesser extent, in my opinion) and the writers of The Office have managed to successfully pull off the sort of racial humor that could get a less capable writer thrown off the air.

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A new from the Pew Research Center says black people are more pessimistic today than they have been since the 80s. I wonder why?

Maybe it’s this stupid war. Or our stupid president and his incompetent appointees and unfair justice system and idiotic reaction to a major hurricane. Stupid Supreme Court decisions? I’m just throwing some stuff out there.

It found that just one in five blacks, or 20 percent, said things were better off for blacks compared with five years ago; that is the smallest percentage since 1983, when 20 percent also made that claim. In-between, the percentage of blacks who said things had gotten better had grown, only to drop back to 20 percent.

Another 29 percent of blacks said things had gotten worse as opposed to staying the same, the largest number since 32 percent made that claim in 1990.

In addition, fewer than half of all blacks, or 44 percent, said they expected their prospects to brighten in the future. That’s down from 57 percent in 1986, during the height of the Reagan administration when the Justice Department actively sought to curtail affirmative action in favor of race-neutral policies.

Conversely, most whites pretty much think that things are just peachy or on the upswing for blacks. No need to wonder why.

Oh, and the income gap has grown between whites and blacks. So that probably doesn’t help.

• Columnists at the venerable New York Times are fighting over whether Ronald Reagan was a racist or at least appealed to racists in order to win elections. Uh, he was a Republican president, so we all know the latter is true. [E&P]

• Google tells the Anti-Defamation League it can’t/won’t censor anti-semitic or racist search engine results. And why should they? [Ynet]

• All Hip Hop lists the top 10 rappers-turned-actors. What, no Beanie Sigel? [AHH]

• If only all educators understood that black students can’t handle themselves in class because their church traditions are so raucous, it would be a much happier place. [BC]

The Luniz “I Got 5 On It” was one of those songs I loved on the radio, but it never really inspired me to buy the Luniz CD. This is my only excuse for believing that the song was called “I Got Vibe On It” until I got to college and tried to download it on Napster. Anyway, the lyrics made a lot more sense when I found out the title.

• Our kids could learn some lessons in global awareness from Nigerian kids. [BBC]

• Bloggers of color getting some mainstream play. [BG]

• 50 Cent really requires a lot in his concert riders. []

• And the Frank Lucas hate parade continues… [AHH]

• Jay-Z likes being the richest person in his crew. [SH]