Rihanna's "Diamonds" tops Hot 100‚ "Unapologetic" to debut big

R&B star Rihanna scored her 12th chart-topping single on the Billboard Hot 100 on Wednesday, as her seventh studio album "Unapologetic" raced toward a big debut after its release this week.

Rihanna's "Diamonds," the lead single from "Unapologetic," notched the top spot on the Hot 100, tying the Barbadian singer with Madonna and The Supremes for the fourth-most chart-topping singles in Billboard history.

Only Michael Jackson, Mariah Carey and The Beatles have had more hit singles.

The 24-year-old singer has just wrapped up a seven-day mini-tour across seven world cities to promote "Unapologetic," her seventh studio album, which was released on Monday and shot to the top of the iTunes album charts in 43 countries despite garnering mixed reviews.

"Unapologetic" scored 65 out of 100 on review aggregator site Metacritic.com, with some critics unsettled by the singer's harder sound and close-to-home lyrics. Others have embraced it.

The New York Times' Jon Caramanica called Rihanna's latest "one of her best albums yet," adding that the singer's presence made her "without peer when it comes to her image, which is steely and unforgiving and bulletproof."

But BBC Music's Natalie Shaw found the album a difficult listen, calling it "the sound of a human dragged headfirst into a breakdown," and criticizing the singer for using "pop music to inadvertently condone abuse."

The track that Shaw refers to and has everyone talking is Rihanna's collaboration with ex-boyfriend Chris Brown, who was charged with assaulting her three years ago.

In a 90's pop-inspired track called "Nobody's Business," the singers further fuel speculation that they have rekindled their romance, singing lyrics such as "your love is perfection" and "you'll always be mine."

Critics have found more evidence of Rihanna drawing on her tumultuous relationship with Brown on "Love Without Tragedy/Mother Mary," which follows "Nobody's Business" on the album. In it, Rihanna sings "felt like love struck me in the night," and makes references to "one drive, injured us fatally," possibly alluding to the night Brown assaulted her.

Rolling Stone magazine's Jon Dolan gave "Unapologetic" three and a half out of five stars, noting that Brown was "like a co-writer throughout."

Rihanna made sure to capitalize on the success of her biggest hit to date, last year's Calvin Harris electro-dance production "We Found Love." On "Unapologetic," the singer brings French DJ David Guetta on "Right Now," a thumping dance track.

The singer also reteamed with rapper Eminem on "Numb," following their 2010 hit song "Love The Way You Lie." Unlike the emotional content of domestic abuse on their previous collaboration, the Barbadian singer and Detroit rapper lightened the tone for "Numb," singing about love in the club scene.

The songstress also softened up for two intimate piano-led ballads, "What Now" and "Stay," in which she recruited newcomer singer Mikkey Ekko for an stripped-down performance, using the opportunity to showcase her voice.

Larry Hagman dead at 81‚ portrayed notorious TV villain J.R. Ewing

 Larry Hagman, who created one of American television's most supreme villains in the conniving, amoral oilman J.R. Ewing of "Dallas," died on Friday, the Dallas Morning News reported. He was 81.

Hagman died at a Dallas hospital of complications from his battle with throat cancer, the newspaper said, quoting a statement from his family. He had suffered from liver cancer and cirrhosis of the liver in the 1990s after decades of drinking.

Hagman's mother was stage and movie star Mary Martin and he became a star himself in 1965 on "I Dream of Jeannie," a popular television sitcom in which he played Major Anthony Nelson, an astronaut who discovers a beautiful genie in a bottle.

"Dallas," which made its premiere on the CBS network in 1978, made Hagman a superstar. The show quickly became one of the network's top-rated programs, built an international following and inspired a spin-off, imitators and a revival in 2012.

"Dallas" was the night-time soap-opera story of a Texas family, fabulously wealthy from oil and cattle, and its plot brimmed with back-stabbing, double-dealing, family feuds, violence, adultery and other bad behavior.

In the middle of it all stood Hagman's black-hearted J.R. Ewing - grinning wickedly in a broad cowboy hat and boots, plotting how to cheat his business competitors and cheat on his wife. He was the villain TV viewers loved to despise during the show's 356-episode run from 1978 to 1991.

"I really can't remember half of the people I've slept with, stabbed in the back or driven to suicide," Hagman said of his character in Time magazine.

In his autobiography, "Hello Darlin': Tall (and Absolutely True) Tales About My Life," Hagman wrote that J.R. originally was not to be the focus of "Dallas" but that changed when he began ad-libbing on the set to make his character more outrageous and compelling.

'WHO SHOT J.R.?'

To conclude its second season, the "Dallas" producers put together one of U.S. television's most memorable episodes in which Ewing was shot by an unseen assailant. That gave fans months to fret over whether J.R. would survive and who had pulled the trigger. In the show's opening the following season, it was revealed that J.R.'s sister-in-law, Kristin, with whom he had been having an affair, was behind the gun.

Hagman said an international publisher offered him $250,000 to reveal who had shot J.R. and he considered giving the wrong information and taking the money, but in the end, "I decided not to be so like J.R. in real life."

The popularity of "Dallas" made Hagman one of the best-paid actors in television and earned him a fortune that even a Ewing would have coveted. He lost some of it, however, in bad oil investments before turning to real estate.

"I have an apartment in New York, a ranch in Santa Fe, a castle in Ojai outside of L.A., a beach house in Malibu and thinking of buying a place in Santa Monica," Hagman said in a Chicago Tribune interview.

An updated "Dallas" series began in June 2012 on the TNT network with Hagman reprising his J.R. role with original cast members Linda Gray, who played J.R.'s long-suffering wife, Sue Ellen, and Patrick Duffy, who was his brother Bobby. The show was to focus on the sons of J.R. and Bobby.

Hagman had a wide eccentric streak. When he first met actress Lauren Bacall, he licked her arm because he had been told she did not like to be touched and he was known for leading parades on the Malibu beach and showing up at a grocery store in a gorilla suit. Above his Malibu home flew a flag with the credo "Vita Celebratio Est (Life Is a Celebration)" and he lived hard for many years.

In 1967, rock musician David Crosby turned him on to LSD, which Hagman said took away his fear of death, and Jack Nicholson introduced him to marijuana because Nicholson thought he was drinking too much.

Hagman had started drinking as a teenager and said he did not stop until the moment in 1992 when his doctor told him he had cirrhosis of the liver and could die within six months. Hagman wrote that for the past 15 years he had been drinking about four bottles of champagne a day, including while on the "Dallas" set.

LIVER TRANSPLANT

In July 1995, he was diagnosed with liver cancer, which led him to quit smoking, and a month later he underwent a liver transplant.

After giving up his vices, Hagman said he did not lose his zest for life.

"It's the same old Larry Hagman," he told a reporter. "He's just a littler sober-er."

Hagman was born on September 21, 1931, in Weatherford, Texas, and his father was a lawyer who dealt with the Texas oil barons Hagman would later come to portray. He was still a boy when his parents divorced and he went to Los Angeles with Martin, who would become a Broadway and Hollywood musical star.

Hagman eventually landed in New York to pursue acting, making his stage debut there in "The Taming of the Shrew." In New York, he married Maj Axelsson in 1954 while they were in a production of "South Pacific. The marriage produced two children, Heidi and Preston.

Hagman served in the Air Force, spending five years in Europe as the director of USO shows, and on his return to New York he took a starring role in the daytime soap "The Edge of Night." His breakthrough came in 1965 when he landed the "I Dream of Jeannie" role opposite Barbara Eden.

In his later years, Hagman became an advocate for organ transplants and an anti-smoking campaigner. He also was devoted to solar energy, telling the New York Times he had a $750,000 solar panel system at his Ojai estate, and made a commercial in which he portrayed a J.R. Ewing who had forsaken oil for solar power. He was a longtime member of the Peace and Freedom Party, a minor leftist organization in California.

Hagman told the Times that after death he wanted his remains to be "spread over a field and have marijuana and wheat planted and harvest it in a couple of years and then have a big marijuana cake, enough for 200 to 300 people. People would eat a little of Larry."

Halle Berry's ex and present boyfriend arrested after fight

Halle Berry’s ex-boyfriend Gabriel Aubry was arrested for investigation of battery Thursday after he and the Oscar-winning actress’s current boyfriend got into a fight at her Hollywood Hills home, police said.

Police responded to a report of assault at Berry's Hollywood Hills home after Aubry, a model, came to the house and got into a fistfight with Martinez,  according to L.A. Now. Aubry, 37, and Martinez, a French actor, were both injured and taken to a hospital, where they were treated for injuries, the Examiner reports.

Martinez, 46, was reportedly taken to the hospital shortly after the fight.  Police said that Aubry came to Berry's house on Thanksgiving morning to drop off Nahla, his 4-year-old daughter with the "Cloud Atlas" star. That was when he and Martinez got into an altercation in which the two men were trash-talking in French, then came to blows.

Aubry, 37, was booked for investigation of a battery, a misdemeanor, and released on $20,000 bail, according to online jail records. He’s scheduled to appear in court Dec. 13.

A judge issued an emergency protective order that requires Aubry to stay at  least 100 yards away from Berry, Martinez and Nahla until Dec. 3.

Aubry and Berry, 46,  have been embroiled in a custody battle over Nahla for years. The two appeared in court on Nov. 9 regarding the case but did not comment on the hearing's outcome.

Black Friday Sale by Apple

Every year Apple manage a special one day shopping event where you can get all the gadgets for very moderately lower prices and this year is no exception.


Apple's Black Friday sale is now live in the U.S. and internationally, with savings mostly hovering around the 10% mark for more expensive items and climbing to 20-40% for cheaper ones.

This year, one can save $31 on an iPad 2 and iPod touch, $41 on an iPad, $101 on the new MacBook Pros as well as MacBook Air and $7-$21 on a range of gadgets, including the Apple EarPods, Apple Magic Mouse and the Time Capsule.

The hottest Black Friday stores

Victoria's Secret and Pink Stores' sales

People from all over the country flooded around the stores of Victoria's Secret and Pink stores seeking big discounts on bras, pajamas and other stuffs.  Those who spent $65 or more walked away with a free, hot pink tote bag filled with goodies like lotion and perfume.

At North Grand Mall in Ames, Iowa, hoodies and yoga pants were sold out within five minutes, according to a spokeswoman. Two hours after a Lufkin, Texas store opened at midnight, the checkout lines still stretched to the door.

Black Friday tech deals

On Friday morning, Amazon, Walmart, Toys-R-Us, Target, Best Buy, Apple, Sears and Kmart sent out emails to customers about their Black Friday sales, and most have added items to their Black Friday sales including all those incredible tech stuffs.

Due to Black Friday the most of stores will be open late in anticipation of the biggest shopping day of the year.

Amazon is having an online Black Friday sale and tech deals are among the thousands of items on sale today. Black Friday deals GPS systems, golf equipment and clothing, desk lamps, books, clothes, cameras, watches, and much more. Amazon offers free shipping and plans to add additional items to the sale list on Cyber Monday.

Shakira has been sued with a 100 millions

Shakira has been sued with a 100 millions dollar by her former boyfriend or manager Antonio de le Rua for allegedly not palying him his share of her business profits after they broke up in 2011.

In Manhattan Supreme Court suit, Antonio de la Rua said that he transformed the struggling Shakira Mebarak Ripoll into a financial success. The couple started dating in 2000 and the 35-year-old singer asked de la Rua to take over “the business behind the Shakira brand” after her 2004 tour had lost money, the New York Post reported.

The suit claims, that under his management, the Whenever Wherever hitmaker earned “tens of millions of dollars” touring, and signed a 300-million-dollar-deal with Live Nation, the paper said.

The couple broke up in 2010, but their partnership in business continued until October 2011, when she had her lawyer fire him, the suit said.

Shakira has since refused to pay him any of the profits or property he’s owed, the suit claimed.