Magic Johnson raised $70,000 for the Saginaw Promise, a scholarship fund for students from Magic’s hometown of Saginaw, Michigan. In addition to donating $60,000 of his own money, the former NBA star turned business mogul auctioned off $10,000 packages to Laker game, and offered to take the auction winners to dinner. Magic addressed an audience of 1,200 at Saginaw’s Temple Theater, sharing stories from his childhood and letting them in on the first time he saw his wife Cookie. “I saw a pair of jeans walk past me, and I had to follow those jeans,” he said. “She said, ‘My name is Earlitha Kelly, but you can call me Cookie.’ ” {MLive}
Bishop TD Jakes will executive produce Winnie, the love story of Nelson and Winnie Mandela. Actress/singer Jennifer Hudson and Terrence Howard play the leading roles. TD’s company TDJ Enterprises/ TDJ Independents also produced the movies Jumping the Broom, the upcoming Sparkle remake, and A Million Colours, which opened the Hollywood Black Film Festival last month. {Hollywood Reporter}
NFL star DeMarcus Ware spoke to The Shutdown Corner about how fatherhood changed his life. He said: “Fatherhood is always about responsibility “” you’re just trying to teach them the great morals of life, and that’s just putting Christ first, and being a good person.” He and wife Taniqua adopted two children, daughter Marley and son Bryce, after suffering two miscarriages and one stillbirth, and welcomed their son DeMarcus Jr. to the world in 2010. {Black Celebrity Kids}
Chris Rock headed to Vegas this week to promote Madagascar 3 at the CinemaCon convention of theater owners. The comedian has provided the voice for Marty the Zebra for the films since the first one premiered in 2000. He also spoke about the success of the movie “Think Like a Man” and its $33.6 million at the box office saying “That’s a big number. That’s not an only-black-people number. The black audience is looking for movies, but this movie is really good….You can put anybody in a good movie. And this movie happened to have some black people in it.” {LA Times}
Rev. Run took his spot on StyleCaster’s list of the most stylist DJ in the game. He broke out his Adidas sweatsuit, sneakers included, for a photo shoot with one of his stylish listmates DJ Rukus. {Global Grind}