B13 Peer Review

After being accepted into a business program, the producer has his eyes on campus housing. Harvard is, once again, proving that it’s a hotbed for nurturing hip-hop culture. Last summer, the school kicked off a fellowship program in honor of Queens’ finest, Nasir “Nas” Jones . Then, just months later, the school crowned L.L. Cool J, “Artist of the Year,” during the Harvard Foundation’s annual ceremony. And now, producer Swizz Beatz is getting ready to pack his bags and head to the prestigious university for a summer course focused on all things business. “This might be one of the happiest days of my life. From the [Bronx] to Harvard,” Beatz, who’s real name is Kasseem Dean, wrote on Instagram on April 16, after posting a photo of an email sent from school officials  letting him know he was accepted into the Harvard Business School’s Owner/President Management Program . The nine-week course, taught in three-week sections over three years, costs accepted “clien...

Duo could join Idris Elba on vocal duties Jon Favreau's adaptation of The Jungle Book could be about to land some more star power, with Heat Vision reporting that Disney is in talks with both Scarlett Johansson and Lupita Nyong'o. Both actors have been lined up to lend their voices to the forthcoming project, which already has Idris Elba in place to voice the tiger, Shere Khan. Johansson is expected to lend her sultry tones to Kaa, the hypnotic python, while Nyong'o has been earmarked to voice Rakcha, the mother wolf who looks after Mowgli. Favreau's film will be a hybrid of live-action and CGI, although it remains unclear whether the film will make the same use of motion-capture as is being favoured by Warner's competing adaptation, to be directed by Andy Serkis. Production is set to get underway in the coming months, with The Jungle Book set to open in the US on 29 October 2015. Source: Heat Vision Would Johansson and Ny...

More actresses join Abrams' cast   Lupita Nyong'o and Gwendoline Christie have joined the cast of J.J. Abrams' Star Wars: Episode VII , Lucasfilm has confirmed. Nyong'o saw her profile rise stratospherically after her turn in 12 Years A Slave , for which she earned an Oscar. She has been rumour-linked to the mega-sequel for some time, with early reports suggesting she'd be playing a Sith. Christie, meanwhile, is best known as the imposing Brienne of Tarth in TV phenomen Game Of Thrones . Star Wars won't be her first big blockbuster movie though, as she has already secured a key role in The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Parts 1 & 2 . No word on who Christie will be playing, but given her GOT stature, expect it to be someone thoroughly badass. The pair join the likes of Adam Driver, Domhnall Gleeson and John Boyega alongside franchise stalwarts Harrison Ford, Mark Hamill and Carrie Fisher. Star Wars: Episode VII will open in th...

D r. Maya Angelou, the renowned poet, author and civil rights activist with the unmistakably regal voice, has died. The author of the celebrated autobiography "I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings" was 86 years old.         Officials in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, where Angelou lived, confirmed her death to NBC News.   Her death comes less than a week after Angelou announced she would not attend the 2014 MLB Beacon Awards Luncheon, where she was to be honored, citing "health reasons." Last month, she also canceled an event in Fayetteville, Arkansas, because she was recovering from an "unexpected ailment" that left her hospitalized. MARK LENNIHAN / AP, file Newly sworn-in U.S. President Bill Clinton reaches out to hug poet Maya Angelou after she delivered her inaugural poem on the west steps of the Capitol during inauguration ceremonies in Washington, D.C., Jan. 20, 1993. "The mayor is very saddened to hea...

Lifetime has confirmed a Whitney Houston movie. Inevitable, but also inevitably interesting: Lifetime is doing a Whitney Houston movie. Because of course they are. When Lifetime’s press release hit our inbox, the first question that sprang to mind was: They’re not already doing a Whitney Houston movie? Adding extra intrigue: Oscar nominee Angela Bassett will direct the film. Bassett and Houston co-starred in 1995′s Waiting to Exhale together. We’re told Bassett will not star, but she may have another role in the film. Here’s Lifetime’s plan for its take on the pop singer, who died two years ago at the age of 48: “Whitney Houston chronicles the headline-making relationship between the iconic singer, actress, producer and model, and singer, songwriter Bobby Brown — from the time they first met at the very height of their celebrity, to their courtship and tumultuous marriage.  Throughout it all, difficulties followed the superstar couple while they dealt with the...

Hedge-fund manager Steven Lamar says he deserves four percent of Beats Entertainment's royalties. Recently, Dr. Dre and Jimmy Iovine both became billionaires after their Beats Entertainment company was bought by Apple for $3.2 billion, but as anyone who's been watching HBO's  Silicon Valley  knows, there are always those who think they deserve a piece of that new money pie. According to The Hollywood Reporter , Dre and Iovine are being sued by hedge-fund manager Steven Lamar, who claims that he is one of the company's co-founders and deserves four percent of its profits. Lamar says in 2006, when he was the president of SLS International (another audio equipment company), he had the idea of celebrity-endorsed headphones, which he took to Iovine, the co-founder of Interscope Records. According to Lamar's suit: “Lamar’s concept envisioned a partnership between technology that would provide a superior audio experience and an iconic product des...

50 Cent's website says that the bundle that allows fans to hang out with him is sold out. 50 Cent’s website says that it is sold out of the $4,999.00 bundle that allows the purchaser and two of his or her friends to hang out with the rapper at his Connecticut mansion for the weekend. The bundle also comes with five copies of the deluxe version of 50 Cent ’s Animal Ambition CD and DVD; three limited edition T-shirts; five limited edition signed posters from 50 Cent; a pair of black SMS Audio STREET by 50 On-ear headphones; and a pair of black SMS Audio STREET by 50 On-ear headphones.  50 Cent announced the bundles last month.  The other bundles were still available at press time, according to 50 Cent's website . Bundle 1 features the album on CD and T-shirt featuring an image of a lion. Bundle 2 includes the items from Bundle 1, as well as a signed poster. Bundle 3 comes with the three Bundle 2 items, as well as a pair o...