Things are not looking good for Mathew Knowles, the father of superstar Beyonce. According to TMZ, a woman has filed a suit in court this week, submitting that she is pregnant with Papa Knowles’ child!

TMZ has learned a woman has filed a paternity case against Beyonce’s dad, Mathew Knowles.

We’ve learned Alexsandra Wright filed the case in L.A. County Superior Court. Wright lives in L.A. — she works in the name-branding business. We’re told she’s in her late 30s.

Wright, who is 6-months pregnant, filed the case last week, alleges Knowles is the father. Sources say Wright is repped by Neal Hersh, who is currently repping Lamar Odom in the prenup negotiations with Khloe Kardashian.

Mathew has been married to Tina Knowles since 1980.

Mathew could not be immediately reached for comment. Ditto Neal Hersh.

If this turns out to be true, which for his sake it needs not to be, then a whole lot of folk will be saying “I told you so” about Papa Knowles. After working so aggressively to carve out a relatively wholesome image of his family, this would throw that all out of the window and into the street, if it proves true. SMH…

Your thoughts?

In news that will no doubt come as a shock to many, TLC’s T-Boz has revealed, in an exclusive interview with PEOPLE magazine, that she has been battling a brain tumour. The article below, in which she confirms that the grapefruit-sized tumour has been removed, is a long, but ultimately engaging read:

Looking at her now, you’d never know that Tionne Watkins, better known as T-Boz of the 90’s girl group TLC, has secretly battled a brain tumour for nearly three years. She hid her struggle (which took away her ability to speak for months) on The Celebrity Apprentice in March. “I didn’t want pity – I was there to help sick children,” says Watkins, who also has sickle-cell disease, an often-fatal blood disorder marked by chronic fatigue and organ failure. “I was told I wouldn’t live past 30 or have children.” Watkins, who lives with daughter Chase, 8, in Atlanta, shares her story for the first time with PEOPLE’s “Jessica Herndon.

Because of my sickle-cell disease, I have a high tolerance for pain. By 2006, I’d have headaches for six years. I thought it was stress. But when my vision went blurry, I got an MRI.

Turns out, she had a grapefruit-size acoustic neuroma (which are noncancerous) on her vestibular nerve, which affected her balance, hearing, sight and facial movement.

I thought, “God, why now?” I told the doctor my goal was not to die – I had to be there for Chase.

Watkins consulted many doctors who refused to remove the tumour, citing sickle-cell-related complications, like lung or heart failure. The alternatives (like burning her brain stem) were grim. Keith L. Black, M.D., and Rick A. Friedman, M.D., of Cedars-Sinai Hospital in Los Angeles, thought surgery was possible if they worked with a blood specialist.

Dr Black asked me in what order did I want to save these three things: my hearing, balance and facial movement. I said save my facial control first and hearing second, because you wouldn’t be able to tell if I can’t hear well just from looking at me. At least I’d have hearing on one side. Then save my balance last. But I worried about it. What if I couldn’t sing or dance? Music is my heart.

During the November 7th, 2006, surgery, Dr. Black cut behind her ear and peeled the tumour from the brain stem. The surgery took about seven hours. (I had written my will – I might not have made it.) When I woke awoke, I could hear and looked normal. But then I had a sickle-cell crisis. With the pain meds and steroids, they said I kept flopping and hitting my head. They gave me IV fluids in order to stop it.

After I was released, more than a week later, the ride to my L.A. apartment was like vertigo to the 10th power. I had to sit up in bed for two months. They propped me up, but I kept sliding down, which made my head swell. It was so painful. At one point, fluid poured out my nose. I was readmitted. I couldn’t walk or really see. I heard screeching noises. They said “We may have to cut you open again” I was like, “No!” I prayed, and the fluid stopped, so I got out.

When I was eating pancakes four days later, they fell out my mouth. I couldn’t feel my cheek. I couldn’t blink, walk or form words. When I saw my face was distorted — I cried. Two weeks later Chase, who stayed with my aunt in Atlanta, and I were on iChat and she was like, “Mom, you look pretty.” I don’t know what she saw, but it made me feel better. In rehabbed, I had to relearn how to walk and how to say my ABCs. I can relate to deaf people: You think you’re saying “where” but your mouth goes “whaa”. When Chase visited me, she’d hold my cheeks and kiss me. She didn’t treat me like I looked funny.

Though self-conscious about her face, Watkins’s speech improved within a year, and she performed with TLC at the June 2008 BET Awards.

I knew I wasn’t ready. I couldn’t talk straight or keep my balance, and my lungs were weak. Fans asked if I had a stroke. It was not a good night.

Now, with dance therapy, Watkins hasn’t fully regained her balance, but she feels ready to perform. TLC will play at Justin Timberlake’s charity concert in Las Vegas Oct. 17.

If you say “sick kids,” you always get me. People like Justin have shown me love. He’s excited. So am I.

To this day, the headaches are unbelievable. My facial nerves jump, and I want my smile back. But if that’s all? No problemo. I fight to be here daily because I want to see Chase get married and have kids. I want to party and laugh. I’m doing a solo album, and I want to tour. I have to see if I can do it. I’m still here. It will take way more to stop me.

Wow! Her story is so, so inspiring. I pray that God grants her many more years on this earth; she really deserves it. More power to her.

Your thoughts?

Usher’s record label Jive sent out the above pic to select sites, That Grape Juice included, earlier tonight, announcing that the singer’s new single ‘Papers’ is set to première this coming Monday (October 5th). Our good friends over at Rap-Up.com shed a little more light on the song itself:

Usher is airing out his dirty laundry. The R&B superstar will address the end of his marriage on the first offering from his new album, set to debut Monday.

The title of the song, originally reported to be “Filing Papers,” has been confirmed as “Papers” by Jive Records. It was penned by Sean Garrett.

The new single was supposedly written before Usher announced his divorce from Tameka Foster. “Let’s say I wrote a record for Usher three or four months ago where I really didn’t have any idea of what he was going through personally,” Garrett told MTV News in June. “I felt that was the direction we needed to go. I felt that was the question everyone wanted to know: Was [his relationship] good or was it bad? Was it right? Are you happy or you’re not?”

“Papers” will premiere on Monday, October 5, at 2:02 p.m. EST, unless the Internet gets its hands on it earlier. Usher’s sixth studio album Monster is due in December.

It seems Usher is looking to address his much publicized marital issues with this record, the motives of such an action I feel is quite suspect. Nonetheless, his best work in recent years was ‘Confessions’ and we all know the story with that one. Roll on Monday!

Your thoughts?

Diva Mariah Carey held a promotional concert in support of her new album ‘Memoirs of an Imperfect Angel’ on ABC’s Today Show early this morning in New York’s Rockefeller Plaza. Peep her performance of her classic ‘Make It Happen’, as well as ‘H.A.T.E U’, ‘Obsessed’ and ‘I Want To Know What Love Is’ below:

While ‘Obsessed’ is such an awful song, that a Mimi live performance was expectedly just as terrible, I quite enjoyed her renditions of ‘Make It Happen’, ‘I Want To Know What Love Is and ‘H.A.T.E U’ to a lesser extent (as I don’t like the song). Yes, her voice did gradually (by the end) sound like she had been gargling gravel; however she held her own in terms of what we know she is capable of doing these days. So not a bad effort at all (lip-synching at the end aside).

Whether this ends up helping her sales is anyone’s guess. Hits Daily Double have revised their sales prediction (which is based on how much the album is being purchased each day this week, so as to forecast its overall first week sales) and have seen likely contenders for #1, Paramore, EXTEND their lead over Ms. Carey-Cannon with 190,000 in comparison to Mariah’s 160,000. Regardless of whether she ends up selling a bit more, a #1 debut looks out of the question. Instead Mariah will, despite a relatively successful hit in ‘Obsessed’ as well as her name power, end up coming in at #2 with the lowest first week sales of her career. Her place in the public and media’s hearts (following ‘Emancipation’) is what IMO made for the relative tanking of ‘E=MC2’ to be brushed under the carpet. Yet, nothing speaks louder than her sales right now. Clearly, there is a problem – be it the material, her live performances or whatever. Folk just aren’t checking for Mariah as they once were. If only she’d take a big sip on whatever she was drinking when she recorded ‘The Emancipation’, because with each day since she released the follow-up to that, it feels like that album was – as much I don’t want to say it – a fluke. SMH…

Tidbit: Is it me or did she look like she wanted to cry during the whole concert? I hope all is well with her personally.

Your thoughts?

In a revealing new interview in the latest issue of Marie Claire magazine, Alexandra Burke opens up about her troubled family life, as well as the downsides of fame:

X Factor winner Alexandra Burke has confessed that her new-found fame has had a devastating effect on her family.
The 21-year-old singer admitted that her success on the show has led to clashes with her mother and indirectly to her brother Aaron’s attempted suicide.

Burke said her mother Melissa, who sang with 80s group Soul II Soul, finds it hard to cope with her daughter’s fame since she won the show.

In a revealing interview accompanied by a stunning photoshoot for Marie Claire Alexandra said: ‘She had Soul II Soul but it didn’t last as long as she wanted it to last.

‘Then I get this big new show, I win it, and it’s weird for her to see this.

‘Although she’s proud, it’s like she wants to rewind time to when she was younger, when she didn’t have kids.

‘I’ve never talked about this by the way. We’re not a perfect family. Things p*** me off.’

That includes being kicked out of the house at the age of 16 – she admits for the next two-and-a-half years she barely talked to her family.

The singer and her mother made up and were further reconciled during the X Factor auditions, which Alex needed persuading to attend.

She ended up winning the whole thing, starring in a duet with Beyonce in the grand final, but still the family came under strain as jealous neighbours subjected them to a campaign of harrassment in Islington, north London.

Thugs threw stones at her car and smashed a window in their block of flats and even used the name of her No.1 hit – which sold a record 105,000 copies in one day – as they abused her.

She said: ‘Every time I come out it’s abusive names. They start singing Hallelujah and shouting “Alexandra the Bitch’. It upsets me.’

The attacks became so bad that brother Aaron, now 16, attempted to take his own life in July this year, and Alex said she still fears for his well being.

She added: ‘He wanted to die. He’s going off the rails. He needs a father figure.’

Alex has now moved to Barnet and is a regular visitor to mentor Cheryl Cole’s home in Surrey.

She said: ‘I am very open with her and she is with me. I tell her lots of things I wouldn’t even tell my sister.’

Despite all the problems, however, Burke is determined to carry on with her pop career and has a new single, Bad Boys, coming out in stores on October 12 (October 11 online). {Source}

While I’m not sure Simon Cowell and co will be pleased with the whole ‘X-Factor blew my family apart’ undercurrent the interview has (and the media are already wrongly having a field day with), I applaud Alex’s realness about the situation. For all those looking to break into the industry, interviews like this really reinforce the fact that it’s really not all glitz and glamour. Not in the slightest.

Your thoughts?

The UK’s biggest boy band (sad, but true) JLS have finally addressed the rumours about their sexuality in October’s Gay Times Magazine. UK’ers, unless living under a rock, will have no doubt been aware of the mass suggestion that some, if not all, of the four-piece are interested in guys. Here’s what the guys had to say about it:

Talking to Gay Times magazine about the rumours that one or more members of the band are gay, Aston says, “We always get the same thing from straight guys. Just because we like to take care of ourselves and get a lot of female attention, they’re first response is ‘you’re gay’.”

Marvin: “I met a girl in a club recently who was convinced that we were all gay – just because none of us tried it on with her! We were like ‘yeah whatever baby…’ We don’t care, though. We’ve got loads of gay friends anyway. All of mine fancy JB!”

Aston chips in with “whenever we do meet do meet and greet with gay fans, I’m the one they sling over their shoulders and run off with.”

Kudos to their PR team; it was actually an ingenious idea to combat the rumours – which they didn’t actually deny – by doing a feature with this magazine.

While their sexuality shouldn’t be as big a deal as folk are hyping about, my gripe centres solely on the fact they are crap lol; IMO their brand of crappiness represents all that is wrong with the industry today (shoddy music at the top of the charts). Perhaps contradicting myself, however, is my stance that I can’t hate on the guys for trying to live their dream…even if it has been pre-formatted to last approximately 15 minutes.

Your thoughts?

It appears the ramifications of Kanye West’s actions a few weeks back at the MTV VMA’s spelled the end of his much anticipated co-headlining tour with Lady GaGa, before it even began. It has been confirmed tonight, by the tour’s promoters Live Nation, that the shows have been completely cancelled:

NEW YORK — Kanye West and Lady Gaga’s highly anticipated tour is over before it even began.

Just days after announcing dates for an ambitious joint show that was to kick off next month, the tour was canceled.
Live Nation announced the news in a brief statement Thursday that did not offer any explanation. Refunds are available for those who brought tickets for the tour. It was to kick off Nov. 10 in Phoenix and was scheduled to run through at least January.

The name of the tour was to be “Fame Kills” — a sentiment West may have been feeling in recent weeks. The Grammy-winning rapper has endured a firestorm of negative publicity since he hijacked the award-winning moment of country-pop sweetheart Taylor Swift at last month’s MTV Video Music Awards.

Swift had made history as the first country act to win at the VMAs, and was giving her acceptance speech after nabbing a trophy for best female video. West — who has a long history of awards-show meltdowns — grabbed the microphone and declared that Beyonce’s “Single Ladies (Put a Ring on It)” was one of the “best videos of all time.”

A crushed Swift did not finish her speech then but did later when Beyonce brought her back on stage after winning video of the year.

Publicists for both West and Lady Gaga did not immediately return requests for comment. A representative for Live Nation said there was no further information. {Source}

Though no official word has been given as to the cancellation, one would be foolish not to factor in the negative press Kanye has been receiving as of late. Whether this impacted ticket sales, sponsor participation or what, is anyone’s guess. However, the suddenness of the tour’s cancellation and the implication that it won’t be resurrected, clearly highlights that something was very wrong behind the scenes. A shame, really, as both Kanye and GaGa are two of the most original acts out at the moment, with the tour – even on paper – looking like a winner.

Your thoughts?

Although the results of Michael Jackson’s autopsy have yet to be made public, new reports have emerged suggesting the findings of the procedure will show that the superstar was in good health at the time of of his death:

LOS ANGELES – Michael Jackson’s arms were covered with punctures, his face and neck were scarred and he had tattooed eyebrows and lips, but he wasn’t the sickly skeleton of a man portrayed by tabloids, according to his autopsy report obtained by The Associated Press.In fact, the Los Angeles County coroner’s report shows Jackson was a fairly healthy 50-year-old before he died of an overdose.

His 136 pounds were in the acceptable range for a 5-foot-9 man. His heart was strong with no sign of plaque buildup. And his kidneys and most other major organs were normal.

Still, Jackson had health issues: arthritis in the lower spine and some fingers, and mild plaque buildup in his leg arteries. Most serious was his lungs, which the autopsy report said were chronically inflamed and had reduced capacity that might have left him short of breath.

However, according to the document, the lung condition was not serious enough to be a direct or contributing cause of death.

“His overall health was fine,” said Dr. Zeev Kain, chairman of the anesthesiology department at the University of California, Irvine, who reviewed a copy of the autopsy report for the AP. “The results are within normal limits.”

Jackson died at his rented Los Angeles mansion June 25 after his personal physician, Dr. Conrad Murray, administered the anesthetic propofol and two other sedatives to get the chronic insomniac to sleep, court documents state. Propofol, normally a surgical anesthetic used in operating rooms, acts as a respiratory depressant and requires constant monitoring.

When Murray realized Jackson was unresponsive, he began frantic efforts to revive him but Jackson never regained consciousness and was declared dead at the University of California, Los Angeles Medical Center.

Though the full autopsy report has not been publicly released, the coroner’s office announced last month that Jackson’s death was a homicide caused by “acute propofol intoxication,” with the other sedatives listed as a contributing factor. They said the standard of care for administering propofol was not met and the recommended equipment for patient monitoring, precision dosing and resuscitation was missing. {Source}

The fact he is gone is still so hard to rationalise. That aside, if there’s one things I’m most hoping for, it’s that the man is left to rest in peace without all the drama (leaked conversations, certain family members cashing in etc).. SMH…

Your thoughts?

Check out the official album cover for 50 Cent’s serially delayed ‘Before I Self Destruct’ LP (due November 14th).

Is anyone even still checking for ol’ Curtis any more? Just asking…

Your thoughts?

The MOBO Awards 2009 took place in Scotland last night at the SECC Area. Ever on point with our award show coverage, we have been in search of performance videos, yet little of substance has popped up Youtube (something in itself I’d imagine folk will read into). In any case, our girl Kelly Rowland performed her smash duet with David Guetta ‘When Love Takes Over’ at the event, however sound issues plagued the performance, something Kelly herself took to her Twitter after her performance to vent about. See Kelly’s Twitter message, as well as the actual performance below:

But, what I will say is the MoBo’s owe me an apology!!!! I was LIVID after the show! I wanted you guys to be the 1st to hear it from me! rehearsals. were fine. soundcheck. was fine. performance, wad a struggle at 1st. But, I got through it! {Source}

Ms. Kelly seemed heated (peep her face when she realised the issue). Not a bad performance, considering. I’m looking forward to seeing Kelly perform new material now, though.

Your thoughts?

While Mariah Carey’s ‘Memoirs of an Imperfect Angel’ LP struggles to set the charts ablaze, a new cut recorded during sessions for the LP has surfaced in the form of ‘Skydiving’. Produced by none other than Timbaland, this busy mid-tempo packs a serious punch on the production tip; and, though Mariah enlists her irritating whisper/breathy delivery for much of the track (and what she sings is inaudible at times), she rides the beat well, sounding progressively better on the verses. I like. Had this been sung more (as opposed to whispered), it would have been a great addition to the album IMO…

Hit or Miss?