This year was a pretty CRAZY year in entertainment. It it taught us anything, it’s that virtually nothing is private anymore, from elevators to a global corporation’s digital archives.
While more celebrity babies were being created (Congrats to Ciara, Eva Marceille, Zoe Saldana and Kelly Rowland, all of whom became mothers for the first time in 2014), celebrity relationships were falling apart.
Ciara and one-time fiancee, rapper Future, haven’t been seen together since before Baby Future’s birth, Eva Marceille and her daughter’s father, Kevin McCall, broke it off shortly after her birth, and Wiz Khalifa and Amber Rose broke up while baby Bash was still in diapers.
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So much happened in 2014, it was hard to get it down to 10 stories. But these, according to social media and what you read the most, were this year’s biggest.
Sure, Beyonce stopped the world when she dropped an album nobody knew about beforehand late in 2013, but when Solo put them paws on brother-in-law Jay Z, the entertainment world shifted on its axis. We’ll never know what sparked the fight, or how much truth there were to Beyonce-Jay Z breakup rumors, but who could have figured Solo would be in the spotlight again this year at her own fly wedding to longtime boyfriend Alan Ferguson?
Bill Cosby’s legacy was irrevocably tarnished by multiple allegations of sexual assault including drugging and raping underage women. It all stemmed from a court case Cosby settled years ago, that originally resurfaced around the Woody Allen case. (His adopted daughter, now grown, came forward this year to say that allegations that he molested her as a child were true.) Those allegations were referenced by comedian HannibalBurris in a routine that went viral, leading over 20 women to come forward to say they had been assaulted by Cosby, dating back to 1965, including models Janice Dickinson and Beverly Johnson.
As Chris Brown could tell you, it’s been a rough year for Black men in and out of Hollywood. Former gladiator Columbus Short knows that all too well. On the morning after Scandal’s Season 3 finale, Short appeared on the Tom Joyner Morning Show and well, the rest is history. Not long after his rambling interview, which included the “n” word directed at Tom, he was let go from Scandal. After several domestic violence allegations, a pending divorce and a bar fight, Short admitted to both alcohol and cocaine use, brought on by the his personal issues and the pressures of success.
Kim Kardashian may not have broken or even scratched the Internet, but she sure stayed on it. Her marriage to Kanye West earlier this year become Instagram’s most liked picture – ever. She and West even made the cover of Vogue, though fashion purists cried foul. While Kim is well known for her fabulous style, when she took off ALL her clothes for Paper Magazine, we saw everything she was working with. We’re not mad at you, Kanye.
Apollo Nida looked like he’d turned his life around, starring on Real Housewives of Atlanta with his wife Phaedra Parks, with whom he’s had two sons. Although he’d spent time in jail, it didn’t appear that he’d ever do the things that led him there again. News flash – things don’t always look as they seem. Nida is now doing 8 years in federal prison for the very same thing that got him there before – fraud and ID theft. Phaedra is divorcing him. Well, at least he’ll still be relatively young, and so will his kids, when he gets out.
Writer/actress/poet/author/activist/mother Maya Angelou died this year. Given the state of race relations, the world, the economy and politics, it seems like some kindness and wisdom in the universe died with her. Still, she served her time here on earth with authenticity and grace and hopefully someone inspired by her words, will, if not replace her, than at least take up her mantle of of service. Thank you Maya, for selflessly sharing your many gifts.
T.I. and Tiny seemed to end 2014 on a good note, but it was touch and go there for a while. There was nothing quite as dramatic as an elevator fight but between the two sniping at each other via social media and Tip and boxer Floyd Mayweather getting into a brawl reportedly over Tiny, no one was sure what was going on. Then, Tiny sparked more rumors when she told appeared on The Wendy Williams Show without wedding ring and acknowledged the two were having their issues. Man, The Family Hustle was about the only VH1 reality show we could watch with the kids. Work it out, y’all.
Did you notice something…different about hip-hop and soul music this year? We did. When Iggy Azalea and Sam Smith are the hottest rapper and soul singer of the year, we wonder just what’s going on here. We love Sam, but his single, “Stay” was better than his album and in a soul sing-off, sorry, Anthony Hamilton blows him back over the pond. As for Iggy, well, at least T.I.’s getting paid. And let’s not even forget about Macklemore, who personally told Kendrick Lamar he didn’t deserve the Best Rap Album Grammy win over him. Is Iggy really the best that rap has to offer? Fancy that!
The year in Chris Brown – probation, jail, arrest, Instagram, Twitter, graffiti, Karruche, no Karruche. We’re sure Brown can’t wait to ring in 2015, if only to start with a fresh new slate. It looked like he was heading for a maturity breakthrough until he went in on ex-girlfriend Karruche via social media (of course) accusing her of dating Drake and participating in threesomes. Then, the next day, he said he was wrong and was sorry because “Everyone knows he loves that girl.” Karruche’s response? #Unbothered and moving on.
As we close out 2014, there’s a reminder that black history is always being made. That reminder came with the news that Ava DuVernay, a longtime entertainment publicist with a dream to direct, has become the first African-American women ever to be honored with a Golden Globe nomination for Selma. With the kind of critical acclaim Selma’s getting, an Oscar nod, which would also be a first, is probably on the way. It’s yet another reminder to follow your heart and your dreams because you never know where they will take you. DuVernay, on just her third film, and her first major studio film, is living proof.
