Britney Spears shares a rare glimpse into the lives of sons Sean Preston, 16, and Jayden James, 15


Britney Spears is sharing rare insight into the lives of her teen sons.

Sean Preston and Jayden James — the boys she shares with ex-husband Kevin Federline — turned 16 and 15 respectively earlier this month. Now back on Instagram, the pop star revealed how she celebrated their birthdays as well as some tidbits about their lives, making a point not to overshare.

Alongside a quote about the bond between mother and son, the 39-year-old wrote, "My boys' birthdays were last week … and unfortunately they are growing up and want to do their own things .... I have to ask their permission to post them because they are extremely independent little men!!! Anyway we had a small party and the coolest ice cream cakes!!!"

She said her "babies" are now "so tall" and "still growing." Last week, they attended a dance, wearing suits, "and I cried for two days... Girls get ready cause my boys are so handsome!!!"

Spears said that "there's a lot I can’t share" about her sons because they're "very private, which I love." However, "I will tell you they are both extremely talented and I’m so incredibly blessed to have these two little men in my life."

She ended by writing that if Preston and Jayden are reading her post, "which I’m pretty sure they're not," she wants them to know: "I love you two little devils so much!!!"

Spears and Federline, a former backup dancer, married in 2004, welcomed Preston in September 2005, Jayden in September 2006, then filed for divorce in November 2006. Spears reportedly suffered postpartum depression following her back-to-back babies, contributing to personal woes that ballooned. The singer — who had said it was her dream from childhood to become a mom — lost custody of her sons in November 2007. That factored into two involuntary hospitalizations and then Spears being placed in the conservatorship, under dad Jamie, in 2008.

While Spears and Federline eventually worked out a 50-50 custody arrangement, that was scaled back in 2019 when Spears's time was reduced to 30 percent. The boys spend 70 percent of their time with Federline, who has six children with three women. In 2018, Federline asked Spears for a raise in child support from $20,000 a month to $60,000 and a confidential agreement was reached with her paying "thousands" more a month.

In court fighting her conservatorship in June, Spears heartbreakingly detailed being apart from her sons one holiday, thought to be in 2018, while being medicated against her will. Months later, she said she was involuntarily put in a mental health treatment facility and said she was told if she didn't comply she wouldn't be able to see her children.

While addressing the court, she also said she wants to have a baby with her now-fiancé Sam Asghari but has been forced to use a birth control device, an IUD, against her will.
When Spears got her first iPad in August amid her conservatorship battle, she noted that her sons had the devices — presumably purchased with her money — but she didn't. Under the conservatorship, she wasn't allowed unmonitored usage of the internet. She also wasn't allowed to have an iPhone, only a cellphone that restricted callers.

While Spears said in her birthday post that the boys probably wouldn't see her message, they do go online. In 2020, Jayden made headlines for doing an Instagram Live in which he was flooded with questions amid the #FreeBritney movement — and told one fan that his mom might "quit" music, as she's been on an indefinite work hiatus until her father is removed as conservator. Jayden's Instagram account was shut down immediately after.

Also providing insight into the family dynamic, in 2019, Federline filed a restraining order against Spears's dad after he allegedly had a physical altercation with Preston at Spears's home. No charges were filed.

The most recent new photo Spears posted of her "independent little men" was in March when they were all on a hike. The boys have also been photographed out with their mom and Asghari.

Spears's next conservatorship hearing — which will center around removing her father as conservator — is set for Sept. 29.

#entertainment #asghari #spears #britney #britneyspears #celebrity #bintoday Princewill Dickson @praise kayceejane Didi Stone

The Link Up Between Tems & Rihanna is a Must-See!


American award-winning singer and fashion entrepreneur Rihanna held a SavageXFenty showcase on Wednesday night and Nigeria’s very own Alternative R&B sensation Tems made an appearance at the event.

Since her feature on Wizkid‘s summer anthem “Essence“, Tems has gained a wider international audience, linked up with Adele, collaborated with Drake on “Fountain“, one of the tracks off his new album “Certified Lover Boy“, and now, she gets to meet one of America’s A-list celebrities, Rihanna.

The music stars chatted, took photos, shared hugs and couldn’t hide the awe in their eyes as they were visibly thrilled to finally meet each other. So much, we couldn’t tell who was actually more excited about the meetup.

From what we can see, the super-talented artists were having a swell time at the moment. Watch till the end to see Asap Rocky join in as well.

Identifying Opportunities in the Entertainment Industry


There is an assumption that the creative and media/entertainment industries are the same thing, but they are not. The creative industry is a range of economic activities which are concerned with the generation or exploitation of knowledge and information. The creative industry encompasses businesses with creativity at their heart: design, music, publishing, architecture, film and video, and so on.

The media and entertainment industry, on the other hand, has to do with the sharing of information, communication, and entertainment. Media and entertainment comprise segments such as film, television, radio and print. The media and entertainment industry offers many investment opportunities, but the landscape is also lined with pitfalls.

I’m reminded of a friend who invested N15 million in his brother’s music career. Several months passed before he learnt the hard truth: his brother had spent N3 million to shoot a music video, he used another chunk to refurbish his car, and spent the rest hanging out in nightclubs. Alas, the investment was gone! All he had to show was a few songs and a music video. There was no business plan or objectives, except to “blow.”

My friend and many others like him might not know any better, but the single artist record label business that he had started is risky. Serious record labels take a portfolio approach to mitigate risk and avoid making a huge loss on artists.

So how does one know whether to invest or run?

The Nigerian media and entertainment industry has a myriad of opportunities for investments, what is lacking is knowledge. Equipped with the right knowledge, one can navigate the terrains of these industries and reap good profits. The global media and entertainment industry derives about 2.1 trillion US dollars annually. The American industry alone is reported to be worth over 720 billion US dollars.

Alphabet, the owner of Google, dominates the media and entertainment market with a revenue worth over $59.62 billion. Some other big players in the global media and entertainment industry are the Walt Disney Company ($22.45 billion revenue), Comcast, whose media revenue came from its NBC universal cable networks and broadcast TV divisions ($19.72 billion revenue), and 21st Century Fox ($18.67 billion revenue).

Motion picture and music recording accounted for about N730 billion (roughly 1.8 billion U.S. dollars) of Nigeria’s GDP in 2020. Zeroing in on the music industry, the top record labels in Nigeria, DMW (Davido Music Worldwide), Mavin Records, and StarBoy Entertainment, are worth $50 million, $45 million, and $43 million respectively.

According to PwC’s entertainment and media outlook for Nigeria from 2020-2024, the Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) for music streaming (Boomplay, Spotify and UduX) is 33.74% from 2019 to 2024, 18.25% for OTT video (Netflix, Showmax and Airtel TV), and 6.79% for internet advertising.

These numbers are encouraging, especially since we are in the era of digital advancements, with Nigeria having one of the biggest entertainment hubs in the continent. The creative sector is also the fastest growing sector in Nigeria’s economy, which means when done right, investors stand to gain handsome returns.

Obviously, there is still so much untapped potential but the risk factors are too high for investors to not be wary. The coming years will see the extinction of TV, radio and newsprint players, an influx of international actors, the acquisition, consolidation and formalisation of older practitioners plus a plethora of new entrants. Those that find ways to harness the raw talents and zeal of young creatives will build sustainable businesses in and around the ecosystem of creation and consumption of music, video, TV and film. To solve this problem, one needs to bridge the gap between creative entrepreneurs and market realities. Investors have to learn the language and fundamentals of the industry and creatives need to be able to speak in terms that investors can understand.

Another concern is that in the media and entertainment industry specifically, the lines bordering value chains from pre-creation-production to post-creation-production are often blurred. When one person plays multiple roles within this value chain, it translates to a lack of specialization, which in turn poses more risks.

Unlike the creative and media industries that require upfront capital, investors make their money back from the revenue generated from these bodies of work, and without a clear path to their returns (which usually depends on factors such as sales, collaborations with brands, advertising, streaming, and so on), investors have no choice but to back out.

Both the investment and creative ecosystems suffer from insufficient government support, funding, and regulation or policy friendliness. The wobbly systems and structures are incredibly risky to navigate, and this is why these industries have to focus on cultivating and upholding regulatory practices by creating bodies and keeping to the stipulated policies, and this also means clamping down on pirates and defaulters of copyright laws.

An influx of funds, which the creative and entertainment industries unquestionably need to grow even bigger, will support the expansion of the creative ecosystem and the creation of jobs, and ultimately help these industries attain the expansion and depth needed to compete on the global standard.

source Link https://www.bellanaija.com/202....1/09/samuel-onyemelu

#business #entertainment #opportunities #bellanaija

Halle Berry says her appearance 'hasn't spared me one heartbreak or heartache': 'I've had loss and pain'

Halle Berry is widely considered one of the most beautiful women in the world, but that doesn't mean she has been "spared any hardship" in life.

The 55-year-old actress talked with the New York Times about her new film Bruised, which also serves as her directorial debut, and how she relates to her character. The film follows Jackie, a former MMA champion who returns to care for her 6-year-old son after abandoning him as an infant. And there are parts of Jackie's story Berry said she connects with.

"This is another battle I fought my whole life. That because I look a certain way that I've been spared any hardship. I've had loss and pain and a lot of hurt in my life. I've had abuse in my life," she explained, referencing previous domestic violence she faced in a relationship. "I get really frustrated when people think because I look a certain way that I haven’t had any of those real-life experiences because I absolutely have."

Berry continued, "This hasn't spared me one heartbreak or heartache or fearful or tearful moment, trust me."

The Oscar winner fought to make and star in the film after Blake Lively passed on the lead role.

"I loved it because fighting is something that I just know so much about on a personal level and on a career level. I understand what it is to fight and not be heard," Berry shared. "I understand the trauma of life that makes one want to fight, need to fight, have to fight."

She added, "I understand being marginalized as a Black woman and the anger, resentment, fear and frustration that comes with all of that. If I could put all of that into this movie, all the things that I know so well, then I knew I could create a character that will not only be real, but will resonate with women of different races, too."

Bruised hits theaters on Nov. 17 before dropping on Netflix one week later.

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https://www.yahoo.com/entertai....nment/halle-berry-ap

And the winner of 'America’s Got Talent' Season 16 is…

As America’s Got Talent prepared to announce its 16th champion Wednesday, it was possibly the most competitive finale ever for the series, with no obvious frontrunner. Host Terry Crews even revealed that it was the closest vote in AGT history.

There were powerhouse singers like 9-year-old opera prodigy Victory Brinker (recipient of the show’s first-ever group Golden Buzzer), Brooke Simpson (a former top three finalist on The Voice), and showman Jimmie Herrod (a man so Broadway-ready, he held his own dueting with Idina Menzel on Wednesday’s finale). There was Aidan Bryant, a small-town teen aerialist who taught himself Cirque du Soleil-level stunts by swinging from sheets tied to trees in his backyard. And there were two edgy comedians, Gina Brillon and Josh Blue (the latter a former Last Comic Standing champ), both of whom seemed to have a shot at becoming the first comic to ever win AGT.

In fact, any of these contestants seemed to have a shot at winning the show’s $1 million prize and a headlining residency at the Luxor Hotel in Las Vegas. But instead, that prize went to magician Dustin Tavella — who definitely wasn’t the obvious frontrunner this year.

Dustin never had a huge breakout moment on the show, and he certainly wasn’t one of the best magicians to ever compete on AGT, or even one of the best magicians to compete this season. But he always incorporated sob stories about his adorable adopted sons into his act (even once having his wife wheel them out onstage in strollers, when one of his tricks was tanking). And apparently this tugged at many viewers’ heartstrings.

But not all AGT viewers were thrilled that Dustin had beaten out so many other worthy contenders — and they of course made their displeasure known on Twitter. However, there were some tweeters who were happy for the 35-year-old doting dad.

https://www.yahoo.com/entertai....nment/and-the-winner