Hey everybody! Hope yall had a great Christmas. I took a few days off, as you can see, you know to spend some time with the fam and just relax and all that. But I'm back and here's the next story.

Past supermodel and creator and judge of the hit show America's Next Top Model Tyra Banks will be ending her talk show after this season. "This will be the last season of The Tyra Show,” Tyra told PEOPLE. “I’ve been loving having fun, coming into your living rooms, bedrooms, hair salons for the past 5 years.” The show's last episode will premiere in spring 2010.



With the end of her show, Tyra will be focusing more on the launch of her film production company based in NY, Bankable Studios (that's catchy), working on different projects. Of course, Top Model will still be going, as well as Tyra's other ABC reality show True Beauty, which she produces along with Ashton Kutcher.

“There’s a lot cooking right now and a lot of fire burning in my heart,” Banks wrote on her Web site. “And I salute you my amazing family of viewers; without you there never would have been a Tyra Show. I really love you all.”

Gotta be honest, I never really kept up with the show on the regular, but the episodes I did watch were very interesting. It seemed like she was doing quite well, but hey, I don't blame her for wanting to branch out into other fields. She's Tyra. She can do that. And, of course, I wish her well. Judging from her past production projects, she will do great in producing films.

PEACE.

~Brittany Shawnté


Ok, this may be seem kind of stupid, and I'm really not the one to celebrate "half anniversaries" like that, but it's officially been six months since I started In The Spotlight! Six months ago today, I was bored at work, and decided to do something somewhat productive with my time. So I decided to start a blog about entertainment news, celebrities, fashion, music, movies and all. You know, things that I'm really interested in. While it still has a long way to go, I never knew that Spotlight would get to the level it has. More important than the recognition is that this blog gives me the chance to do what I love, TO WRITE! As a budding entertainment journalist, I gotta start somewhere right? And Spotlight gives me that opportunity.

I'm seriously appreciative of all the feedback and all of the support of my followers and faithful readers. I really really could see this blog going somewhere, reaching a national level. Without yall, it would be nothing. So thanks for supporting me, and thanks for supporting the blog!

PEACE.

~Brittany Shawnté



Well, I heard rumors that rapper T.I. was going to be released early from his prison sentence, just in time for Christmas. T.I. was set to serve three more months at the Arkansas Forrest City Prison.

Well sources at Atlantic Records have confirmed that T.I. was released and that he will be spending the rest of his time in a half-way house in Atlanta, according to BET.com.



“You live within this house that is broken into areas for living, and you are permitted to leave during the day for certain reasons of which would be employment, medical reasons, things of that nature, and you return to the halfway house in the evening,” T.I.'s attorney, Steve Sadow, told XXL concerning T.I's release. “So it’s a restriction on your liberty but it’s a way for you to reenter into society and not be confined within a jail type institution 24-hours a day.”

I'm happy...I mean, I know he could've and maybe should've stayed that extra three months, but it's T.I. He's one of my favorite rappers out right now, so I need him to get to the studio like yesterday. But I'm glad to hear that he's been released, especially in time to spend Christmas with Tiny and the rest of the fam! Welcome back Tip!

PEACE.

~Brittany Shawnté


I just woke up to this terrible news....Brittany Murphy, actress best known for her roles in Clueless, 8 Mile, and Just Married, passed away at the age of 32 from cardiac arrest. A spokesperson for the Los Angeles County Coroner’s Office confirmed the news to Access Hollywood.

A rep for the actress also confirmed the news, telling Access Hollywood, “In this time of sadness, the family thanks you for your love and support. It is their wish that you respect their privacy.”

I seriously just woke up about an hour and a half ago and got on Facebook and people's statuses were saying RIP Brittany Murphy. And I screamed "What?!!" This is crazy, and so incredibly hard to believe. Life is incredibly short, and I feel like we have seen that with all the huge losses suffered in the entertainment business this year, as well as maybe even in our own lives. I don't want to preach a sermon, so I'm just going to say this. Live your life and enjoy yourself. You never know when it will be your time.

RIP Brittany...Keeping your loved ones in my thoughts and prayers.

PEACE.

~Brittany Shawnté


Dang...I knew it was coming! I knew it was coming! I knew it was coming! And to tell you the truth, I'm not that sad about it! Que (center) from Day26 has been kicked out of the group! That's right! In the video below, Willie (on the right of Que)confirms it!



For those of you who watched the last season of Making the Band 4, you saw that Que was acting a dag on fool, acting like he didn't have any type of common sense. Walking around giving everybody the stank eye and all of that, yelling and screaming, trying to fight people. Now the group is preparing for their third album, and since Que can't be reached, HE'S OUT!

Me and my friend were just talking about Day 26 the other day! I love the group, and I think they have a bright future ahead with or without Que. What I think he failed to realize was that his behind could be cut at any moment, and that he should've got cut after that season! Now this is just Brittany Shawnté's logic, but I would think that after showing your ass on national television, you would want to get back into people's good graces. But no, NOT QUE! NOT QWANELL! Now you ain't got no job no more, and maybe Day26 will be better because of it. Diddy said NO BITCHASSNESS QUE!!!!

Love to MediaTakeOut, always shocking me with the best news! I wanna write for them one day LOL

PEACE.

~Brittany Shawnté


Yooooo...WHAT?!!!!! That headline is right. America's Best Dance Crew judge and So You Think You Can Dance choreographer Shane Sparks was arrested early Friday morning on eight counts of child molestation, according to E! Online.

Los Angeles Police Department spokesman Bruce Borihanh stated the 40-year-old choreographer was taken into custody by detectives at about 8 a.m. at his North Hollywood home on a felony warrant. "Sparks has been the subject of an ongoing child-molestation investigation," Borihanh said. Shane was booked into Van Nuys jail and is being held for a $590,000 bail.

Apparently, the incident took place about a decade ago, and the victim is now coming forward, according to Jane Robison, a spokeswoman for the Los Angeles County District Attorney's Office. "There's one victim, and it occurred in the '90s. I believe it started in '94 and went on for several years," Robison said. "It's an underage girl. She was under 15 when the alleged crimes occurred. She is an adult now and came forward to authorities."

Danggggg.....Shane really?!!! Wow....I have no words. Just a crazy situation. I hope that everything works out for him.

PEACE.

~Brittany Shawnté


I swear to goodness, reading MediaTakeOut will shock you sometimes. This morning, I made one of the biggest gasps in my life when I saw that Tina and Mathew Knowles, the parents of Beyoncé and Solange Knowles, are divorcing! Yep I said DIVORCING!!!

I mean, there have been rumors floating around all over the place about them splitting, but now it's official. The official papers (provided by MTO, because they're amazing! Don't let nobody tell you different) are below (Click the image for a better view). I guess this whole business with Mathew getting or supposedly getting a 36 year old pregnant was too much for Tina, or maybe there were some other issues as well. But dang! Not Mathew and Tina!!!





I mean, it's Mathew and Tina Knowles. I've been reading about them since I was little watching Destiny's Child and Beyoncé. Mathew was the dedicated manager who even quit his job to make sure the group was on track. Tina designed the absolute hottest outfits for them, making sure they looked good in videos, on the red carpet, etc. They seemed like such the power couple. I know that that doesn't mean that they're perfect, but good goodness. I just would have never expected that. That's sad.



Not even just looking at celebrities, there are sooooooo many divorces in this nation yall. For real. I mean, sometimes it's best for people to get divorced, because they're going through hell and high water being together, and I know people are going to say divorce and happens, and it does, but it's getting crazy now. Here goes my little rant on divorce LOL, but some people divorce after a year or two. And I'm just like well what was the point of somebody dressing up and seeing your behind at the ceremony? What was the point of yall going through that when yall could've just stayed in a regular relationship and broken up and gone yall separate ways, without having to deal with courts and divorce lawyers and all of that? I think that people just get married just to do it sometimes, and it's really a bigger commitment than that. You're talking about spending or planning to spend the rest of your life with this person. It just makes me see that this is a big commitment that I want to make with the ABSOLUTELY right person, you know?

BUT....I digress. Wow. No more Tina and Mathew. That's crazy. Well I wish them the best, and hopefully Beyoncé and Solange are all right.

PEACE.

~Brittany Shawnté