Photo Credit: Michael Rozman/Warner Bros.

Seal bears his broken heart on today’s episode of the Ellen DeGeneres show, which airs here at 4 p.m. weekdays on WXIA.

“You go into these things with the greatest intentions when you say ‘I do’ and you say ’til death do us part.’ Those vows hold value. They are not just words,” he said, according to an excerpt of a transcript released by the show. “The thing that I’m most proud about this great woman who I married, and I really do mean that from the bottom of my heart, is that together she has given me four incredible gifts…four beautiful children. .. When you have four children, you hope and pray that the rest of the world will respect that we have four children and that their little hearts are at stake, too.”

The artist, who has split with model turned reality show star Heidi Klum, still wears his wedding ring.

“I think it’s just pretty much a token of how I feel about this woman,” he said. “We have eight years. Eight …

Continue reading Seal discusses split from Heidi Klum with Ellen DeGeneres »

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Paula Deen’s health is back in the news. The blogosphere, anyway.

The Daily, which seems to have a source with access to Deen’s medical records, as it was the first outlet to report Deen’s diabetic diagnosis, suggests a second health revelation is in the ether.

Deen was taping a segment with Dr. Mehmet Oz the other day when he asked, “You have another secret, don’t you? You have high blood pressure.”

This sent Team Deen into “a tizzy,” The Daily reports, with a publicist leaping in to stop the interview with the admonition: “You can’t air that.”

Actually this isn’t exactly breaking news. The Daily links to a story that our former AJC colleague Jim Auchmutey wrote in 2007, in which Deen told him she took blood pressure medication. She also shared details of a recent day’s worth of dining.

“Yesterday was so bad,” Deen said in that 2007 interview. “I started off the day with a sausage, egg and cheese biscuit from Hardee’s. For lunch, I had a fabulous …

Continue reading More health revelations from Paula Deen? »

“Red Tails,” the George Lucas film that tells the story of the Tuskegee Airmen, enjoyed a robust debut weekend, claiming the #2 spot by bringing in more than $19 million at the box office, according to the Hollywood Reporter and other industry reports.

The strong showing follows a push in numerous markets, including Atlanta, where Tuskegee Airmen attended an advance screening to reminisce and urge support for the film. President and Mrs. Obama hosted a group of Tuskegee Airmen at a private screening in the White House theater.

In metro Atlanta, a crowd of supporters including many proud veterans attended an advance screening at the AMC Southlake 24 in Morrow.

“This is an awesome film. Please tell at least four people,” chapter president Zellie Orr urged the packed theater just before the movie began. During the pre-screening reception, Orr, a researcher and historian, said she became active with the chapter in 2004. She contacted the Lucas film folks more than two years …

Continue reading “Red Tails” soars at the box office »

They found out last fall but had to keep quiet for a while.

Finally, they were able to share the news, and the Powder Springs couple is now hearing from friends near and far.

Rufus and Jenny Triplett have been honored as Ebony Magazine’s couple of the year.

“It’s absolutely exciting,” Jenny Triplett said. “We’re getting calls from across the country.”

They learned they’d be featured in the magazine the Monday after Thanksgiving but had to keep things under wraps until recently. The magazine featuring them is on newsstands now. They’re on page 94 of the February issue.

The parents of three adult sons, the couple own Dawah International, which publishes Prisonworld Magazine, distributes Prisonworld Records. They co-host a radio show called the Prisonworld Radio Hour (which airs at 1 p.m. Mondays at 1100 AM. They have made numerous print and broadcast media appearances and often speak to audiences at correctional facilities, non-profit organizations.

They’ve also written a book …

Continue reading Local couple honored »

David Oyelowo portrays Joe "Lightning" Little "Red Tails." Movie still from 20th Century Fox.

Are you going to see “Red Tails” this weekend? Reviews are rolling in.

Movie critic Roger Ebert: “‘Red Tails’” is entertaining. Audiences are likely to enjoy it. The scenes of aerial combat are skillfully done and exciting. It makes the point that the airmen were skilled and courageous, and played a historic role in the eventual integration of our armed services. ‘Red Tails’ could have done more than that, by more firmly establishing the atmosphere of the Jim Crow South that surrounded most of the airmen in their childhoods. They had a higher mountain to climb than many white pilots and reached higher on its slopes.

Jake Coyle (AP): ”Red Tails” reduces a historical story of deep cultural significance to merely a flyboy flick. Instead of creating something authentic and new, “Red Tails” superimposes the tale of the black World War II pilots on a dated, white genre of 1940s patriotic …

Continue reading What did you think of “Red Tails?” »

A still from "Good Deeds," which will be released next month. It's one of many films Tyler Perry has in the works at the moment.

Prolific filmmaker Tyler Perry fears movies starring all-black casts are “on the verge of becoming extinct,” he said in a message posted on his web site.

Perry, who has just finished filming “The Marriage Counselor” and has just cranked up work on “Madea’s Witness Protection,” has another movie, “Good Deeds,” about to be released next month.

His message, though, deals with the release of “Red Tails,” a George Lucas film about the Tuskegee Airmen. It opened today.

(Here’s our blog post about an advance screening attended by members of the Tuskegee Airmen Atlanta Chapter.)

“Red Tails is an important story about, not just black history, but American history about the Tuskegee Airmen,” Perry said. “It has an all-star African American cast, including Cuba Gooding Jr. and Terrence Howard.”

Perry noted that Lucas financed the movie himself.

“What a guy! For …

Continue reading Tyler Perry: Movies with all-black casts “becoming extinct” »

I’m chasing down a few odds and ends today, but for now here are some star sightings to tide you over.

Actress Sally Struthers, right, in town for her role as Miss Hannigan in “Annie,” checked out the Buckhead Diner Wednesday night.

Actor Will Forte, who’s been in town filming “Neighborhood Watch,” dined at Publik Draft House this week. He’s been seen a number of times at the Punchline Comedy Club during his time here.

Atlanta Braves pitcher Jair Jurrjens stopped by Spice Market for dinner over the weekend.

I’m also running down some details on the Clint Eastwood movie that’s going to be filming here, “Trouble With the Curve.” Sit tight.

- Jennifer Brett/The Buzz/jbrett@ajc.com

Continue reading A few star sightings with a promise of more to come »

Ben Stiller and Vince Vaughn cheered on the Atlanta Hawks Wednesday night.

Ben Stiller and Vince Vaughn are about to bid Atlanta farewell, but not before taking in an Atlanta Hawks game.

The two comic actors, who have been here filming “Neighborhood Watch,” sat courtside Wednesday night to cheer the Hawks on to victory over the Trail Blazers. We caught up with them during halftime.

“I’m having the Atlanta experience,” Stiller told us. “It’s been fun.”

In his downtime, he and his family have enjoyed Atlanta’s cultural amenities including the High Museum, where he toured the Picasso/Warhol exhibit the other day. He also said he was able to visit Atlanta’s historic Ebeneezer Baptist Church on the Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. holiday.

Ben Stiller and Vince Vaughn with their "Neighborhood Watch" co-star Richard Ayoade

“It was amazing, just the history there,” Stiller said. “(King) has always been a hero of mine.”

He’s also spent quite a bit of time at “Church,” (actually a bar …

Continue reading Ben Stiller and Vince Vaughn at the Atlanta Hawks game »

Nina Dobrev gets cooking with Le Cordon Bleu Chef Dan Harrar, left, and Dr. Glenn Mack. Photos by Lorrie Dallek

“Vampire Diaries” cast member Nina Dobrev plays a double role, starring as both nice girl Elena Gilbert and ruthless vampire Katherine Pierce.

While in character she’s has conquered love triangles, werewolves, vampires and assorted supernatural activities.

To celebrate her 23rd birthday off-camera, Dobrev really stirred things up – in the kitchen.

Dobrev, whose film credits include roles in “The Roommate,” with Leighton Meester and Minka Kelly and “Chloe,” with Julianne Moore, Amanda Seyfried and Liam Neeson, joined the culinary experts at Le Cordon Bleu Atlanta to ring in the big 2-3 this past weekend.

With Le Cordon Bleu’s help she was able to learn the art of cooking with seafood and truffles and prepared a five-course meal for a group of friends.

She’s shown at left with the finished product, a lovely presentation of seared salmon and tuna salad.

Happy birthday …

Continue reading “Vampire Diaries” star Nina Dobrev celebrates a birthday »

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“I’m nervous,” Angelina Jolie said in a small voice. “I’ve never been nervous about a film.”

This film is different.

“In the Land of Blood and Honey,” a searing fictional account of life during the Bosnian War of the 1990s, is Jolie’s directorial debut. It is a hard movie to watch.

“It should be, because war is horrible,” Jolie told us during a recent phone interview. The film was nominated for a Golden Globe award in the foreign language category; “A Separation,” about Iran, won in that category.

Jolie and her partner Brad Pitt struck a glamorous pose on the Golden Globes red carpet but didn’t stick around long after the event ended. She told Hollywood Life they aimed to get home early to their kids.

For our interview and no doubt others she has conducted promoting “Blood and Honey,” personal questions were off-limits.

“It’s been really nice” not to be asked about the subjects that would delight a tabloid-magazine audience, Jolie said. …

Continue reading For directorial debut, Angelina Jolie revisits Bosnian War »