WOW! See Blake Griffin’s amazing dunk

Video: Blake Griffin dunk over Kendrick Perkins needs to be seen to be believed LA Clippers beat OKC Thunder 112-100 but Griffin slam is highlight (NYDN) Blake Griffin is pretty athletic. Oklahoma City Thunder center Kendrick Perkins learned that first-hand Monday night. In the Clippers’ 112-100 victory over OKC, Griffin added another highlight dunk to his ever-expanding reel. Taking a Chris Paul pass off a pick and roll, Griffin went up from just outside the paint on the left side. He went to floor 13 and left Perkins at 8. And, by the way, he got the foul. Twitter went crazy after ‘Blake Superior‘ threw the hammer down. Even the King himself, LeBron James tweeted about the slam. And if you remember, James had a…

Simon Cowell cleans house at ‘X Factor’: report

Simon Cowell cleans house at ‘X Factor’: Paula Abdul, Nicole Scherzinger and Steve Jones reportedly won’t return (NYDN) Simon Cowell has cleaned house at “The X Factor” – with a fire hose. Reports in rapid succession Monday night had host Steve Jones, then judges Nicole Scherzinger and Paula Abdul not returning for next fall’s second season of the Cowell-produced Fox show. “I won’t be hosting next seasons X Factor which is a shame but I cant complain as I’ve had a great time,” Jones posted on Twitter. “Good luck to everyone on the show.” A source in Scherzinger’s camp told E! News that the decision to leave the show was the singer’s. The purge seems to answer the question of exactly how…

Gingrich’s campaign may be near the end

Newt Gingrich races across Florida in bid to keep floundering campaign alive (NYDN) TAMPA, Fla. - Newt Gingrich appears headed toward a crushing defeat in Florida Tuesday, with devastating consequences for his flailing campaign. Gingrich raced across the Sunshine State Monday in a last-minute bid to reclaim the momentum he enjoyed just days ago after his stunning South Carolina upset victory. “Let me be clear: we really need your help,” Gingrich pleaded with a small crowd at a Tampa rally. A Quinnipiac poll released Monday showed the ex-speaker trailing Mitt Romney by 14 points, while a Suffolk University survey had him behind by 20 points. And given the upcoming primary schedule, a blowout loss could send Gingrich’s White House hopes…

Viola Davis wins lead actress SAG award

Viola Davis accepts the Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Leading Role award for ‘The Help’ onstage during the 18th Annual Screen Actors Guild Awards at The Shrine Auditorium on January 29, 2012 in Los Angeles, California. (Photo by Kevin Winter/Getty Images) LOS ANGELES (AP) – The Deep South drama “The Help” won three prizes Sunday at the Screen Actors Guild Awards, including best actress for Viola Davis and supporting actress for Octavia Spencer. “The Help” also claimed the guild’s ensemble award, the show’s equivalent of a best-picture prize. Davis and Spencer won as black maids going public with uneasy truths about their white employers in 1960s Mississippi. Jean Dujardin won the lead-actor honor…

Gingrich, Romney and the politics of anti-Obamaism

(theGRIO) Republican presidential candidate Newt Gingrich refers to President Obama as “the food stamp president,” and a “Saul Alinsky radical” and says the president takes advice from people who “don’t like the classical America.” He constantly promises to take on Obama in Lincoln-Douglas style debates if he wins the nomination and jokes he will let the president use a teleprompter, a regular GOP attack line that implies Obama can’t give a speech without help. On the other hand, his chief opponent, former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney, barely can stomach calling Obama a socialist as other Republicans do and rarely invokes the sharp, anti-Obama rhetoric of the Tea Party. Is Romney too meek in his Obama-bashing to win the GOP primary? Since Obama’s…

50 Cent to tweet nude photo if Giants lose Super Bowl

(HuffPost) Rapper 50 Cent is a betting man and he’s about to make this year’s Super Bowl a little more interesting. The 36-year-old rapper, whose real name is Curtis Jackson, reportedly won a $500,000 bet on the New York Giants in the NFC Championship game, but he’s wagering even more on the Giants’ ability to take down the New England Patriots on Feb. 5. The Hollywood Gossip first pointed out that Fiddy recently accepted a bet from Twitter follower@MyBestAssets that will cost him more than cash if the Giants lose: The rapper quickly responded to the bet agreeing that he’ll post a nude photo of himself and@MyBestAssets said she’d post photo of both her “boobs and face” if the Giants win. Will…

Common explains hip-hop feud with Drake

(theGRIO) –PARK CITY, Utah (AP) – The Sundance Film Festival became the unlikely center of hip-hop’s latest feud when actor-turned-rapper Drake and rapper-turned-actor Common came to town. Common was promoting his role in upcoming family drama “LUV,” while Drake was performing at one of the many late-night parties. The two have traded insults recently via their raps, but Common said he didn’t want to say anything else about Drake not in rhyme form. “I feel like I said everything I really needed to say on the record. I just looked at it as like ‘Hey, it’s just a hip-hop battle,’” he explained in an interview this week. “The time to talk is on record as far…

TV anchor & NYPD Commissioner’s son accused of rape

Woman accuses Greg Kelly, son of police comissioner, of raping her ‘Good Day New York’ co-host is no-show on program (NYDN) “Good Day New York” co-host Greg Kelly — son of Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly — was a no-show on the program Thursday morning after reports that a Manhattan woman had accused him of rape. The woman told cops she had drinks with Kelly, 43, at the South Street Seaport Oct. 8 before he sexually assaulted her in the law office where she worked, sources said. The accuser, who is around 30, did not report the alleged assault until Tuesday night, when she walked into the 13th Precinct stationhouse and gave her account, sources said. Cops interviewed the woman, but…

Mom who survived tragic fire in CT tries to kill herself

Madonna Badger, who lost three daughters and both parents in Christmas Day fire, tried to kill herself (NYDN) The tragic mom who lost her three young daughters and parents in a Christmas Day blaze in Connecticut tried to take her own life. Madonna Badger, one of only two survivors of the fire at her waterfront mansion in Stamford, was hospitalized last week after injuring herself in a bid to end her terrible personal pain, a relative confirmed to the Daily News. “She is okay. . . . She is out (of the hospital) and somewhere safe,” the relative said. “It’s just terrible — nobody could really hold up well under the circumstances.” The suicide attempt was first…

Obama gets in fight on tarmac with Gov. Jan Brewer

Obama, Arizona governor Jan Brewer have tarmac dispute (theGRIO) President Obama and Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer had a tense exchange on an airport tarmac on Wednesday afternoon after Air Force Once landed near Phoenix. Obama, who was in the area for a speech, is often warmly greeted by elected officials when he lands. Brewer, who in 2010 signed a controversial immigration law the president has opposed, gave Obama a handwritten letter inviting him to have lunch with her and visit the Arizona-Mexico border. The president in turn, according to a White House official, “said he’d be glad to meet with her again, but did note that after their last meeting, a cordial discussion in the Oval Office, the…