Pirate versions of Half Of A Yellow Sun hit Lagos

Pirates have begun to rip off  Half of A Yellow Sun, which premiered on August 1, as they have begun to sell N150 bootleg DVDs of the film in Lagos, reportsPM NewsThe pirated DVDs are being hawked in the traffic of  major areas in the city.Moses Babatope, an executive with The Film One Distribution, the sole distributor of Half of A Yellow Sun in Nigeria, said that it is tragic and a serious breach of the movie’s copyright.Babatope said that they have sent a petition to the Inspector General of Police and the Censors Board so as to take action. The production of Half of A Yellow Sun  gulped over $10 million (N1.6 billion) and was largely financed by private funds raised by Yewande Sadiku, CEO, Stanbic-IBTC Capital Limited, who also doubles as the film’s executive producer.The public screening was controversially delayed for months in Nigeria by the National Film and Video Censors Board, (NFVCB).The film features Oscar nominee Chiwetel Ejiofor, Thandie Newton, Anika Noni Rose, Onyeka Onwenu, Genevieve Nnaji, O.C. Ukeje and Zack Orji.

Saidi Balogun is a debtor!

Actor and film maker Saidi Balogun is owing a debt that runs into millions of naira after pirates dashed his hopes of making money from his latest film, reports Pulse.ngThe Yoruba actor said that he has incurred heavy  debt for his new film titled You or IThe estranged husband of Yoruba actress Fathia Balogun said that the cautiousness of himself and the movie marketer failed.He said that he had borrowed money to invest in the movie because it was a big budget film.Balogun has produced  Gbogbo Ere, Sako Jiya, Modupe Temi, Eti Keta, and most recently You Or I.” Balogun also produced Africa Magic TV series Oriki Yoruba

October 1 comes out on Independence Day

Kunle Afolayan’s latest work October 1, will be released in all Nigerian cinemas on October 3 2014,  but with special  screenings from Wednesday October 1, 2014.The movie was made with over N200million, and was shot in Lagos and Ondo state for over forty days, after four months on pre-production.
 The cast of the movie include veteran actor Sadiq Daba (hit 80’s TV drama series Cockrow At Dawn), Kehinde Bankole, David Bailie, Nick Rhys, Fabian Adeoye Lojede, Kanayo O. Kanayo, Bimbo Manuel, Kunle Afolayan, Femi Adebayo, Demola Adedoyin, Kayode Olaiya, and Deola Sagoe.
October 1 is a  psychological thriller that follows Danladi Waziri (Sadiq Daba), a police officer from the North who is posted to the remote town of Akote, to solve a  series of female murder cases before the Nigerian flag is raised on October 1, Nigeria’s Independence Day.A grand premiere has been slated for Sunday September 28th, 2014 at theEko Hotel and Suites, Victoria Island, Lagos. October 1 is the third film from Kunle Afolayan after The Figurine and Phone Swap

Ebola: Davido cancels Cameroon concert

Musician Davido has cancelled his Cameroonian concert a day after the country announced that it was closing its borders with Nigeria.The "Aye" hit-maker had to cancel attending a concert  organized by the First Lady Chantal Biya's Foundation (CERAC) to promote education and health among young people. He was also scheduled to perform at the famous Safari Night club in Yaounde on Sunday along side DJ Arafat.The singer made the sad announcement of the cancellation  on his Instagram page. He also promised to return when the Ebola scare subsides."Je suis triste de ne pas pouvior etre present ce soir a Yaounde pour le show avec mes fans. Mon absence est due aux restrictions causees par le virus Ebola. Une date sera reprogrammes tres vite. Je vous aimes.O.B.O."(In English): "I'm very sad for not showing up this evening in Yaounde for the show with my fans. My absence is due to restrictions caused bt the Ebola Virus. Another date will announced soon. I love you all. O.B.O"

Psquare hire Donjazzy for sixth album

Singing duo P-Square who are presently recording songs for their sixth album, have hired music producer Don Jazzy.

The announcement was made by Peter Okoye on his Instagram page with a picture of themselves with Don Jazzy in the studio, where he wrote “U don't expect anything less when u see us in dis kitchen with @donjazzy #6thalbum”


The twin brothers started recording in the United States in a studio most likely owned by Akon’s Konvict Muzik record label, because they are signed to Square records and the Atlanta based music label.

They also hired elder brother of the late pop icon, Michael Jackson, Jermaine to be part of their yet to be named album.


There is no word yet on if Jermaine Jackson is collaborating, or producing a track.

DonJazzy is the CEO of Mavin Records and is responsible for the hit tracks Dorobucci, Adaobi and Surulere

The Headies to be held in October

One of Nigeria’s biggest annual urban and hip-hop culture awards, The Headies will be held on Saturday, October 25, 2014, reports Pulse.ngThe Headies which started in 2006  recognizes the achievements of artists and entertainers in a number of categories including rap, RnB, dancehall and alternative. According to the convener of the event, Ayo Animashaun, the 2014 event will be  elevated to show how the brand and Nigeria’s growing music industry has reached an international scale.The organizers of the awards are yet to reveal this year’s hosts, nominees and special artist performances.In 2013 The Headies introduced a new category, Best Alternative Song, which gave a wider playing field for contenders.The organizers said that they are receiving entries for nominations into the various categories.

Van Vicker’s film production goes on Ebola outbreak

- Ghanaian actor Van Vicker has announced the postponement of shooting a film in Liberia over the Ebola outbreak, reports Nigerian Entertainment Today (NET)In a recent interview Vicker said that he had been to Liberia several times for casting and production meetings.The actor turned film maker was scheduled to go shoot the movie in Liberia in August but put it on hold because of the Ebola virus.Van Vicker said that he did not want to take chances shooting in Liberia, until the infectious virus was contained.Vicker was born to a Ghanaian Liberian mother and a Dutch father.He is the CEO of Sky + Orange Productions, a film production house.

Julius Agwu starts 'Crack Ya Ribs' UK tour with skit

- Comedian Julius Agwu will hold the 'Crack Ya Ribs' Uk Tour from August 22.

The United Kingdom tour will hold from August 22 to August 30, and will hold in Glasgow, London, Manchester and Aberdeen.

Is Weird MC dumping music for politics?

Veteran Musician Weird MC maybe kssing music goodbye for politics according to recent online posts.

The musician retweeted a post that announced that she would be named the Commissioner for Arts and Culture in Osun state.

The musician, who was at the forefront of the Rauf Aregbesola campaign, could be getting her reward for all her support or it might just be a hoax.

The news was shared via Twitter, and Weird MC’s  retweet might be a sign that there is truth in the story

This comes after stars like 9ice, Julius Agwu and Kate Henshaw have announced their political intentions.

Weird MC is a rapper, songwriter, and producer, popular for her use of English and Yoruba lyrics.

She is one of the few Nigerian women associated with Afrobeat.

#Osun has Decided : Commissioner 4 Art and Culture to @weirdmcofficial ur struggle has finally laid to rest. Indeed u need a vacation.

Davido’s secret lover exposed!

A female fan snuck a love letter into Davido’s pocket during his musical tour in Ivory Coast.

The singer got a pleasant surprise when he found the love letter in his  pockets

In the letter, the girl asked him to follow her on Instagram which Davido did after he read the letter. Davido posted a picture of the letter which he captioned, “ @ebonyspirit God bless you!!“

The superstar singer has been in the news recently because of his recent Twitter war with fellow musician Wizkid.

The Aye crooner also received criticism for his recent photo on Instagram were he shared a picture of himself  flanked by soldiers with the caption, “Protected!! 0 EBOLA!!

Robin Williams, boisterous comedy star, dead at 63

Robin Williams, a brilliant shapeshifter who could channel his frenetic energy into delightful comic characters like Mrs. Doubtfire or harness it into richly nuanced work like his Oscar-winning turn in Good Will Hunting, died on Monday in an apparent suicide. He was 63.

Williams was pronounced dead at his San Francisco Bay Area home on Monday, according to the sheriff's office in Marin County, north of San Francisco. The sheriff's office said the preliminary investigation shows the cause of death to be a suicide due to asphyxia.

The Marin County coroner's office said Williams was last seen alive at home at about 20:00 on Sunday. An emergency call from his house in Tiburon was placed to the Sheriff's Department shortly before noon on Monday.

"This morning, I lost my husband and my best friend, while the world lost one of its most beloved artists and beautiful human beings. I am utterly heartbroken," said Williams' wife, Susan Schneider. "On behalf of Robin's family, we are asking for privacy during our time of profound grief. As he is remembered, it is our hope the focus will not be on Robin's death, but on the countless moments of joy and laughter he gave to millions."

Williams had been battling severe depression recently, said Mara Buxbaum, his press representative. Just last month, he announced he was returning to a 12-step treatment programme he said he needed after 18 months of nonstop work. He had sought treatment in 2006 after a relapse following 20 years of sobriety.

From his breakthrough in the late 1970s as the alien in the hit TV comedy Mork & Mindy, through his standup comedy act and such films as Good Morning, Vietnam, the short, barrel-chested Williams ranted and shouted as if just sprung from solitary confinement. Loud, fast and manic, he parodied everyone from John Wayne to Keith Richards, impersonating a Russian immigrant as easily as a pack of Nazi attack dogs.

He was a riot in drag in Mrs. Doubtfire, or as a cartoon genie in Aladdin. He won his Academy Award in a rare dramatic role, as an empathetic therapist in the 1997 film Good Will Hunting.

He was no less on fire in interviews. During a 1989 chat with The Associated Press, he could barely stay seated in his hotel room, or even mention the film he was supposed to promote, as he free-associated about comedy and the cosmos.

"There's an Ice Age coming," he said. "But the good news is there'll be daiquiris for everyone and the Ice Capades will be everywhere. The lobster will keep for at least 100 years, that's the good news. The Swanson dinners will last a whole millennium. The bad news is the house will basically be in Arkansas."

Tributes pouring in

As word of his death spread, tributes from inside and outside the entertainment industry poured in.

"Robin Williams was an airman, a doctor, a genie, a nanny, a president, a professor, a bangarang Peter Pan, and everything in between. But he was one of a kind. He arrived in our lives as an alien - but he ended up touching every element of the human spirit. He made us laugh. He made us cry. He gave his immeasurable talent freely and generously to those who needed it most - from our troops stationed abroad to the marginalised on our own streets," President Barack Obama said in a statement.

Following Williams on stage, Billy Crystal once observed, was like trying to top the Civil War. In a 1993 interview with the AP, Williams recalled an appearance early in his career on The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson. Bob Hope was also there.

"It was interesting," Williams said. "He was supposed to go on before me and I was supposed to follow him, and I had to go on before him because he was late. I don't think that made him happy. I don't think he was angry, but I don't think he was pleased.

"I had been on the road and I came out, you know, gassed, and I killed and had a great time. Hope comes out and Johnny leans over and says, 'Robin Williams, isn't he funny?' Hope says, 'Yeah, he's wild. But you know, Johnny, it's great to be back here with you.'"

In 1992, Carson chose Williams and Bette Midler as his final guests.

Like so many funnymen, Williams had dramatic ambitions. He played for tears in Awakenings, Dead Poets Society and What Dreams May Come, which led New York Times critic Stephen Holden to write that he dreaded seeing the actor's "Humpty Dumpty grin and crinkly moist eyes".

But other critics approved, and Williams won three Golden Globes, for Good Morning, Vietnam, Mrs. Doubtfire and The Fisher King.

"Robin was a lightning storm of comic genius and our laughter was the thunder that sustained him. He was a pal and I can't believe he's gone," Spielberg said.

Personal life

His personal life was often short on laughter. He had acknowledged drug and alcohol problems in the 1970s and '80s and was among the last to see John Belushi before the Saturday Night Live star died of a drug overdose in 1982.

Williams announced in 2006 that he was drinking again but rebounded well enough to joke about it during his recent tour. "I went to rehab in wine country," he said, "to keep my options open." The following year, he told the AP that people were surprised he was no longer clean.

"I fell off the wagon after 20 years and people are like, 'Really?' Well, yeah. It only kicks in when you really want to change," he said.

Born in Chicago in 1951, Williams would remember himself as a shy kid who got some early laughs from his mother - by mimicking his grandmother. He opened up more in high school when he joined the drama club, and he was accepted into the Juilliard Academy, where he had several classes in which he and Christopher Reeve were the only students and John Houseman was the teacher.

Encouraged by Houseman to pursue comedy, Williams identified with the wildest and angriest of performers: Jonathan Winters, Lenny Bruce, Richard Pryor, George Carlin. Their acts were not warm and lovable. They were just being themselves.

"You look at the world and see how scary it can be sometimes and still try to deal with the fear," he said in 1989. "Comedy can deal with the fear and still not paralyse you or tell you that it's going away. You say, OK, you got certain choices here, you can laugh at them and then once you've laughed at them and you have expunged the demon, now you can deal with them. That's what I do when I do my act."

He unveiled Mork, the alien from the planet Ork, in an appearance on the comedy Happy Days and was granted his own series, which ran from 1978 to 1982 and co-starred Pam Dawber as a woman who takes in the interplanetary visitor.

"I am completely and totally devastated," Dawber said in a statement. "What more can be said?"

Following his success in films, Williams often returned to television - for appearances on Saturday Night Live, for Friends, for comedy specials, forAmerican Idol, where in 2008 he pretended to be a "Russian idol" who belts out a tuneless, indecipherable My Way.

Williams could handle a script, when he felt like it, and also think on his feet. He ad-libbed in many of his films and was just as quick in person. During a media tour for Awakenings, when director Penny Marshall mistakenly described the film as being set in a "menstrual hospital," instead of "mental hospital," Williams quickly stepped in and joked, "It's a period piece."

Winner of a Grammy in 2003 for best spoken comedy album, Robin Williams - Live 2002, he once likened his act to the daily jogs he took across the Golden Gate Bridge. There were times he would look over the edge, one side of him pulling back in fear, the other insisting he could fly.

"You have an internal critic, an internal drive that says, 'OK, you can do more.' Maybe that's what keeps you going," Williams said. "Maybe that's a demon. ... Some people say, 'It's a muse.' No, it's not a muse! It's a demon! DO IT YOU BASTARD!! HAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!! THE LITTLE DEMON!!"

In addition to his wife, Williams is survived by his three children: daughter Zelda, 25; and sons Zachary, 31, and Cody, 19.

Annie Idibia gets 24kt gold iPhone

Nollywood actress and wife of music super star, Annie Idibia has acquired a gold plated iPhone from the luxury good expert Malivelihood. 

The mother-of-two who recently skipped going for an event due to the fear of the Ebola virus, shared her latest trove on Instagram.

“Woo owe thanx brov!! I loveeeee it!” was the caption for the photo of the 24kt Gold plated mobile phone.

Annie Idibia’s husband- 2face Idibia got a  gold plated customized microphone from Malivelihood in March this year.

Nollywood actress Genevieve Nnaji and musican Davido both got gold plated, diamond encrusted iphones in the last quarter of 2013.

 Malivelihood,  whose real name is Michael Awujola  is believed to be  dating Nollywood actress — Tonto Dikeh.

Cher: I can't even look at myself in the mirror

Cher claims she hasn't looked in a mirror in years.

The Believe hitmaker admits she is "not a confident person" and hates getting older.

The 68-year-old star told the August/September issue of AARP The Magazine: "Every once in a while I think, 'Jesus, you're so old! How did this happen?' I haven't looked in the mirror in years. The only time I was happy with the way I looked was when I was, like, 40 to 45.

"Older men rarely liked me. If it wasn't for younger men, I would never have a date."

She added: "I'm not a confident person, and I'm really not a Cher fan. But I want to make sure I'll do a great job, so I go balls to the wall and try to do every single thing I can."

But Cher has no plans to step back from the spotlight and retire.

She said: "I don't intend to step aside. This is the first generation that's said, 'We're not going to roll over and play dead because we're a certain age.' "

Meanwhile, the Strong Enough singer says she initially struggled when her 45-year-old son Chaz Bono - formerly Chastity Bono - first began transitioning from a woman into a man in 2008.

She said: "He'd forgotten to erase his old outgoing message, I thought, 'I'm never going to hear my daughter's voice again."

Asked if she had any advice for other parents going through similar experiences, she said: "Have faith and hold on. It's scary because you don't know how you're going to feel."

Bacardi Breezer enlists three musical acts as ambassadors

Three Nigerian singers have been given the task to push a new liquor brands into the homes of millions of consumers with a lot of financial incentive.

Singers Seyi Shay, Yemi Alade and Sean Tizzle have been unveiled as the ambassadors for  Bacardi Breezer.

Seyi Shay shared the pictures of the unveiling on her Instagram page with her fellow musicians.

"Congratulations guys! Let's take Bacardi Breezer all over Nigeria! #ambassador #redpassion #youthfulyellow #funorange #livelifeincolour @livelifecolours" she wrote on Istagram.

 All three stars are billed to perform at this year's What Colour Are You Music Concert  on Friday night at Oriental hotel in Lagos.

The artists join the likes of Ice Prince, Tiwa Savage, MI, Davido, Wizkid  and Flavour who are all brand ambassadors for different consumer products.

Ejike Asiegbu is back!

After a long stay away from the screen,  Nollywood star actor, Ejike Asiegbu is back, reports PM News

Asiegbu is making his return  in a big budget movie produced by  Zik Zulu Okafor and  directed by fellow actor Desmond Elliot.

He  spent his years absent from infront of the camera running the affairs of Actors Guild of Nigeria, AGN, and dealing with all the politics surrounding the body.

He was  later appointed Special Assistant to the Abia State Governor on Entertainment after stepping down as president of AGN. 

Asiegbu  was later appointed an ambassador to an NGO advocating for the rights and welfare of premature babies.

He also revealed that pressure from friends and family was part of the reason he was staging a comeback.