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EXCLUSIVE! Juanita Bynum Interview
Tuesday 08-12-2008 11:26am CT
Destinee's Dance Recital
Monday 08-11-2008 3:30pm CT
Here a few pics from my daughter Destinee's dance recital over the weekend
Flight attendant: Osteen's wife pushed co-worker
Friday 08-08-2008 10:41am CT
The wife of
renowned evangelical pastor Joel Osteen
got physical when her demands that a small spill on her seat be cleaned up were
not immediately met, a flight attendant testified Thursday at a civil trial
over the incident.
Continental Airlines flight attendant
Maria Johnson testified that Victoria Osteen grew increasingly agitated and
pushed her co-worker Sharon Brown, though the flight attendants had remained
professional and reassured her a crew had been called to clean the spill, which
was about the size of a 50-cent piece.
"She was demanding that attention be
given to her immediately," Johnson said. She added that Victoria Osteen
kept saying: "This is ridiculous. I'm a first-class passenger."
Brown is suing Victoria Osteen, alleging
that she threw her against a bathroom door and elbowed her in the left breast
before the start of a 2005 flight to Vail, Colo.
Johnson confirmed Brown's claims that
Victoria Osteen became so upset she tried to get into the cockpit and had to be
physically restrained.
"She took Sharon by the shoulders and pushed her out of
the way. Sharon
stumbled," Johnson testified.
Rusty Hardin, Victoria Osteen's attorney,
said the lawsuit is simply a money grab.
"This is nothing more than an
attempted extortion," Hardin told jurors during opening statements in the
civil trial in which he said his client did nothing wrong.
Victoria Osteen is co-pastor of Houston's Lakewood
Church, a converted
basketball arena where about 42,000 people flock each week for services where
her husband preaches.
Joel Osteen, who was by his wife's side
in court Thursday, has written books that have been sold around the globe, and
his weekly television address is broadcast nationally and internationally.
Brown's attorney, Reginald McKamie, told
jurors during his opening statement that his client was simply doing her job.
"Sharon was attacked by someone in the
community who supposedly represents a higher degree of human decency," he
said.
Brown's suit claims the flight attendants
asked to have Victoria
Osteen removed from the plane. Hardin told jurors Victoria Osteen and her
family left voluntarily. The incident delayed the flight about 2 1/2 hours.
Hardin admitted that Victoria Osteen can
be a "very excitable and expressive person," but that she was never
out of control.
"Victoria Osteen never attacked her,
never tried to get in the cockpit," Hardin said. "The aggressor and
the person who was out of control, who flipped out, was Ms. Brown."
The Osteens were both expected to testify
during the trial.
Brown wants an apology and punitive
damages amounting to 10 percent of Victoria Osteen's net worth as part of her
suit.
"They will say this is about money.
But that is the only remedy a jury can offer," McKamie said.
McKamie said Brown, who had undergone reconstructive
surgery before the incident on her breasts due to illness, was injured when she
was hit on her chest. Brown also suffers from anxiety because of the incident
and that her faith was affected, her attorney said. Brown is also suing
Victoria Osteen for medical expenses for counseling.
But Hardin told jurors there is no
evidence Brown sustained any injuries, including claims she now suffers from
hemorrhoids.
The Federal Aviation Administration fined
Victoria Osteen $3,000 for interfering with a crew member.
Hardin told jurors Victoria Osteen paid
the FAA fine not because she was guilty but as a way to conclude the matter and
avoid any embarrassment for her church.
MORGAN FREEMAN AND WIFE FILE FOR DIVORCE: Publicist says split was planned before his accident in another woman's car.
Thursday 08-07-2008 4:08pm CT
*Morgan Freeman and his wife of 24 years, Myrna Colley-Lee, have filed for divorce, according to the actor's longtime business partner. Bill Luckett, who co-owns a restaurant and blues club in Clarksdale, Miss. with Freeman, says the split was in the works way before Freeman's Sunday night car crash with female passenger Demaris Meyer, 48. A tabloid reported that Freeman, 71, and his wife have been separated since December 2007. The National Enquirer claims Colley-Lee consulted a divorce attorney after hearing that Freeman cheated on her with "a close family friend." “Myrna was terribly upset when she heard Morgan had become intimate with a woman who had been her friend,” a source told the National Enquirer. Yesterday, Luckett told USA Today that he and the actor have been friends with Demaris "for some time." Freeman was driving her Nissan Maxima when he lost control of the vehicle and it flipped over several times before landing in a ditch near his home in Tallahatchie County, Miss. Bill Rogers, a retired police officer who was the first to arrive at the scene, said Freeman managed to relay that he and Meyer were headed to his home in Charleston, a small town some 90 miles south of Memphis. "He said that they were friends and she had offered him a ride home and she didn't really know the way and so he was going to drive the vehicle," Rogers told the Associated Press Tuesday. "They said they were coming from Clarksdale." Freeman and Luckett's Ground Zero Blues Club and Madadi restaurant are in Clarksdale. Norris, the manager of Ground Zero, said Wednesday that Freeman had not been there the night of the accident. No one at Madadi was available for comment, according to the AP. Freeman suffered a broken arm, broken elbow and minor shoulder injuries during the crash. He had surgery Monday on his left arm and hand, but his recovery is expected to take months. Luckett says Freeman will have to wear a neck brace for six to eight months, and his arm will take several months to heal. Luckett also said earlier reports of Freeman having a severed nerve in his arm were not true. "Nothing was severed. A nerve can be bruised or stretched. It was injured but not severed," he said. Freeman could be released in the next few days from the Elvis Presley Memorial Trauma Center at the Regional Medical Center in Memphis.
For a mom's 103rd birthday, her Chicago church celebrates
Wednesday 08-06-2008 3:57pm CT
 "Mother" Annie Parker is welcomed at West Point Missionary Baptist Church on Chicago's South Side on Sunday 'Mother' Annie Parker still lives by the can-do spirit and faith that got her and her kids through tough times Mother" Annie Parker has always treated others with brotherly love—though she gets riled up when people say "I can't." On Sunday, the South Side church she has been part of for more than 80 years honored how her spirit has paved the way for generations in her community. Parker will turn 103 on Friday and, on Sunday, West Point Missionary Baptist Church celebrated her longevity and her help for the Oakland neighborhood church. During a church-sponsored birthday party after services, Parker and her two surviving children said she would tolerate most anything—except an attitude of defeat. "That is not in her vocabulary. Don't say, 'I can't,' " said Mabel Parker Smith, 81, Parker's oldest child. Her mom said: "They should say, 'I'll try,' because you don't know what you can do unless you try. I never allowed my children to say 'I can't.' " Parker's husband died two years after the youngest of their five children was born in the 1930s, but even when she struggled financially after his death, she always tried to contribute to the congregation. Most weeks, she brought home-baked bread or a jar of homemade jelly to share with others at church, said her youngest daughter, Zelma Davis, as she and her mother sat in West Point's social hall, originally an 1865 church building. "When we were children, we had fresh bread every morning and before Sunday school," Davis said. "So all the kids would come with us and have breakfast. So she didn't have much, but she was sharing everything she had." A native of Greensboro, Ga., who attended Central City College in Macon, Parker moved to Chicago with her husband in 1926. Within a few months, after trying a few other churches in the area, she and her family began attending West Point, and they have been going ever since. Parker, who Davis said exercised regularly until she turned 100, said she had "no idea" why she has "received so many blessings." Parker said she always worked with the church, organizing social gatherings and annual fellowship events. Always cooking fresh food and using few processed foods certainly contributed to her longevity, Parker said. She gardened for years and also canned fresh fruits and vegetables. "I used to go to farms and gather stuff up, and put it up at my place," preserving it for later use, Parker said. In the Sunday morning ceremony during church services, several hundred congregants rose to their feet to applaud Parker as she entered the sanctuary at 3566 S. Cottage Grove Ave. After she was handed a bouquet and a balloon, West Point's pastor, Rev. L. Bernard Jakes, told Parker that he could always count on her "to keep me straight, but do it in love. . . . We want to wish you another 103 years." After the service, Jakes pointed out that honoring elders is part of African-American culture. "The longer you live, the more it shows that God has shown favor to you. And so we honor that," Jakes said.
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