LOCKED OUT

Nicki Minaj Makes Excuses For Being Skipped Over For Grammy Nod

By Jacob Wittich

NICKI MINAJ DIDN’T RECEIVE ANY GRAMMY nominations for her album Pink Friday: Roman Reloaded, which was one of the best selling hip hop albums of 2012.

Although Pink Friday: Roman Reloaded received great commercial success, it wasn’t well-received critically. The Los Angeles Times‘ Randall Roberts praised the album’s “minimal bouncy hip hop tracks” but lamented its pop “drives off a cliff.”

PROVING THE WRONG POINT

Beyonce Admits She Lip Synced One Of Her ‘Proudest Moments’

By Elizabeth C.

ANY QUESTIONS?

Well, as a matter of fact Beyonce, yes: Why didn’t you do that at the Inauguration?

Beyonce opened a press conference Friday ostensibly about her upcoming Super Bowl halftime performance with a rousing (bordering on overwrought) two-minute rendition of the national anthem. After the applause from the assembled throng quieted down, she opened the Q&A with ‘Any questions?’ As if her performance would quiet questions surrounding why she lip synced her performance at Obama’s second inauguration.

STOLEN LIGHT

In Life — And Death — Hadiya Pendleton Impossible To Ignore

By Elizabeth C.

HER BRIGHT SMILING FACE MAKES IT HARD TO IGNORE the war waging on the South Side of Chicago. In life — and now death — Hadiya Pendleton commands your attention.

“A lot of people are saying, ‘Why Hadiya? Why did it have to be her?'” said Jayla Rufus, 16, a classmate of Pendleton at King Prep High School, one of the city’s elite selective high schools.

“She was an amazing person — always positive,” classmate Bria Carter told the Chicago Tribune. “She was one of those people everyone loved. She was the sweetest thing.”

The high school sophomore had performed at President Obama’s second inauguration in Washington, D.C. just eight days before she was gunned down Tuesday while hanging with friends under a canopy at a city park.

She was a majorette, a volleyball player, a lover of Maroon 5 and and Coldplay who dreamed of attending Northwestern University to study journalism or pharmacology. “She was destined for great things,” her father Nathaniel Pendleton told reporters.

DOESN’T PASS THE SNIFF TEST

Credit: ABC

Is Diane Sawyer Getting Pushed Out The Door?

By Elizabeth C.

IS DIANE SAWYER THE TARGET OF A PASSIVE-AGGRESSIVE PUSH OUT ABC’s DOOR?

ABC News is disputing a report in the New York Daily News that the longtime newswoman is nearing retirement. “That is not true,” SVP Jeffrey Schneider told ET in a statement. “And had the Daily News actually asked us if Diane was considering retiring, we would have told them yesterday that it wasn’t true.”

That’s, of course, if someone inside the company didn’t leak the rumor deliberately. Pay attention, kiddies: that’s how some bigwigs operate when they want to undermine a fading talent.

FIERCE

Credit: Beyonce.com

Beyonce Will Be The Final Authority On Super Bowl Sunday

By Elizabeth C.

HERE’S BEYONCE ANNOUNCING SHE’LL BE THE FINAL AUTHORITY ON WHAT YOU’LL WATCH THIS SUPERBOWL SUNDAY.

Standing in satin hot pants, with football tucked under one arm, the other arm outstretched, the referee is ready to deflect anyone who dares to challenge her power, block the limelight.

FROM DOWN ON HIGH

Is Breezy’s Career on Hova’s Hit List?

By Jacob Wittich

WHAT’S IT TO JAY-Z?

Media Takeout is reporting that the Hip-Hop impresario is the reason Frank Ocean wants to press charges against Chris Brown for throwing a punch at him Sunday night at an L.A. recording studio.

BITE-SIZED TIPS

Whack Wednesday: Kim’s Reality Backtrack, Rihanna’s Self-Deception & Erasing Facebook Regret

By Miz J

SO KIM KARDASHIAN GOES ON JIMMY KIMMEL to talk about how the Kimye spawn will not be pimped out across various media: “It’s a tough decision …From the start, as of now, that’s just a personal choice that Kanye and I have made…we’re going to try to keep it as private as possible.”

HAPPY BIRTHDAY

Snooki & JWoww: Arriving Screaming & Kicking

By Karen Malmquist

THE MOST IMPORTANT BIRTH OF THE COMMON ERA IS HAPPENING: baby Lorenzo is arriving on Snooki & J-Woww! We’re picking up where we left off last week, with Nicole scared and in tears as she enters the final stage of labor. Her giant Miss Piggy eyelashes flutter in frenzy as she realizes that this child will not be born the same shade of orange as his parents.

Oh god, here come the tears. Nicole is almost done pushing, and everyone is in the waiting room with their ear to the door, sobbing as they hear Lorenzo enter the world.

USUAL TALES OF WOE

Credit: TMZ/SplashOnline

Lindsay Lohan’s Too Sick To Fly But Not Shop?

By Jacob Wittich

LINDSAY LOHAN WAS SUPPOSED TO APPEAR IN COURT WEDNESDAY for a probation hearing, but her new lawyer Mark Heller reportedly told the Los Angeles County judge the troubled tart is too sick to fly out to Los Angeles.

Heller presented the judge with a note from a doctor stating that Lindsay has an upper respiratory infection and shouldn’t be flying for the safety of herself and the safety of the public, reports. His evidence? A New York Post article on the city’s influenza outbreak.

MEMORIES OF EDDIE

Real Housewives Of Beverly Hills: Of Slimy Things & Steel Rods

By Karen Malmquist

TONIGHT’S THE REAL HOUSEWIVES OF BEVERLY HILLs is mostly foreplay as the ladies prepare to wrap their legs around hard rods of steel. Brandi happily shoves slimy food down Kyle’s throat, while Adrienne only shows up briefly to shower five seconds of negativity. How long will the good feelings last?

Yolanda has her dear friend Suzanne Somers over to teach Kyle and Lisa about health and Bellinis. “Why not embrace aging, let’s just hold onto it gracefully,” Yolanda encourages. Kyle says she didn’t know she’d be having lunch with Chrissy Snow, but Lisa hasn’t seen Three’s Company and doesn’t get the reference. Suzanne takes 40 vitamins a day and plans on living to be 110, and Lisa doesn’t get that, either. She doesn’t like the idea of a 110-year-old having a sex life.