35 year-old British actor Jude Law has been gradually losing his hair and has been seen out with a much more prominent widows peak as the crown of his head is exposed. That’s nothing to be ashamed of and since my mid 20s I’ve been attracted to men who are bald or balding for some reason - not the paunchy type with wisps of a comb-over, but the proud guys who cut it short or shave it off and don’t try to hold on to their hair. Law is kind of in between and has cut it short at times but has also grown it back and hasn’t rocked a bald head like Bruce Willis.

In Law’s latest ad campaigns for Dior and Dunhill he’s had either some cosmetic or Photoshop help with his hair. The Daily Mail points out that he’s sporting much more growth at the top. It’s not really his decision whether advertisers chose to make his hair look like it did five years ago, but it’s pretty obvious that it’s not the same. Law’s rep says there hasn’t been any retouching done, though:

The widow’s peak so starkly evident in more recent photos has been filled in.

The style makes 35-year-old Law look a little more as he did when he first became famous in movies such as The Talented Mr Ripley.

While women in the public eye often have imperfections airbrushed out, Law has had perfection brushed in - either through artful hairstyling or plain artistry.
Airbrush expert Chris Bickmore said: ‘I wouldn’t say it was hairstyling as they can’t style hair that isn’t there.

‘It’s definitely been retouched to bring hair into the gaps where he’s receding.
‘It’s not really that difficult a procedure, no more than one and a half hours.’

A spokesman for Jude Law said: ‘I can categorically say there has been no digital enhancement. It is nonsense.’

[From The Daily Mail]

Law was most recently spotted out with model Lily Cole, 20. He’s definitely trying to turn back the clock in his personal life as well as with his hair.

There’s nothing shocking about airbrushing, though. Women in magazines are subject to it constantly so men may as well be worked over too.

Picture note by JayBird: Here’s Jude Law’s high profile advertising campaign for Alfred Dunhill and Dior. The campaign was shot by acclaimed photographer Greg Williams, who was responsible for behind-the-scenes stills of the recent Bond and Bourne movies. Images thanks to Splash.

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Presumptive Democratic US Presidential nominee Barack Obama and his wife Michelle have a new interview with People Magazine in which they speak candidly about their family life. They primarily talk about how they work together to create a normal life for their daughters, Malia, 10, and Sasha, 7. The Obamas received some slack earlier in the month for allowing their children to talk on camera to Access Hollywood. It was a casual and low-key interview that seemed harmless to many people. We’ll have to see what kind of fallout they get from the TV pundits for being so open with a celebrity glossy. They come across as a normal and close knit family who try to teach their daughters the value of hard work. They don’t reveal anything incredibly personal, and if anything show that they don’t mind talking about their family and what works for them:

They don’t give their daughters birthday presents and do parties instead

PEOPLE: Someone told me today that you don’t do birthday presents.
Michelle: No, because we spend hundreds of dollars on a birthday party and movie tickets and pizza and popcorn …
Barack: That sleepover is enough. We want to teach some limits to them. And their friends bring over presents.
Michelle: They get so much stuff that it just becomes numbing. Malia believes there is still a Santa Claus even though she’s a little wary because some of her friends are non-believers. But Malia says, “Ma, I know there is a Santa because there’s no way you’d buy me all that stuff.” [Laughing]

[From People.com]

10 year-old Malia gets a dollar a week allowance for chores

Do you give your girls an allowance?
Michelle: Sorta, kinda. [Laughs]
Barack: I’m out of town all the time, so Malia will say, “Hey, you owe me 10 weeks!” … Originally, we were giving her a dollar a week as long as she did all her chores. It turns out that she’s been doing her chores even without prompting from the allowance, which makes me feel guilty that she’s been carrying on her end of the bargain and I haven’t been as consistent.

Daughters are worried if their dad becomes President because they’ll have to leave their friends

Last year, when we first met, Malia said that she sometimes wished maybe you wouldn’t win. Do you think they still have those mixed feelings?
Barack: I am absolutely certain because we’ve talked about it – that they are not looking forward to moving. They have a wonderful life in Chicago, they have lifelong friends in Chicago and the prospects of having to make new friends, that’s never something that kids are looking forward to. So I’m sure that there’s a part of them that says we won’t be heartbroken if things don’t work out.

And if they said tomorrow, “I don’t want you to be President, I want you to be Daddy”?
Barack: Well, so far those issues haven’t been mutually exclusive. We talked about this before we started and Michelle and I monitor their attitudes pretty closely.
Michelle: They’ve been stable. Their lives just haven’t changed that much.
Barack: And our job, more than anything, is to make sure that in addition to monitoring whether or not they’re feeling sad or neglected at all, that they’re also not feeling special because their dad is running for President.
Michelle: That’s right.
Barack: One of the things I’ve been really happy about is how nonplussed they’ve been by the whole thing. They don’t bring it up, they don’t talk to their friends about it. If anything, they’re actually more courteous and more careful with other people now than they were before I ran….

How are you preparing them for possible life in the White House?
Michelle: Slowly. We talk to them about it as they are curious. … They ask about schools and making friends. … Their anxiety has nothing to do with the White House; it has everything to do with what kids think about: “If I have to go to a new school, will I make friends and what about my old friendships?”

On teaching their daughters to be humble and to empathize with other people

Did you talk about that, their behavior in a fishbowl?
Barack: It was more just like making sure the same standards we set before we were in the public eye were maintained.
Michelle: Be considerate of how other people might feel, you know, empathize. Put yourself in the place of other people.
Barack: And just never think that you’re better than anybody else. Or worse than anybody else.
Michelle: That’s also one of the reasons why we don’t campaign with them a lot. Because no matter what you do at a campaign setting, they are special, right? It’s Fourth of July and everybody is singing “Happy Birthday” to Malia. … And everybody loves the kids so they get special treatment. That’s nice for a day or two, but they need to go back home, just so they realize that this isn’t life.
Barack: Which is good when they’re doing activities like soccer. Malia loves soccer, but she’s still so tall and gangly compared to some of these little kids who are zipping around her, although she’s getting better. The fact that she’s not good at everything right away – and Sasha’s not good at everything right away – means learning lessons about having to work hard at something and improve.

On the difficulties of balancing everything for their family and in their marriage

Can you tell me how this experience has changed your marriage?
Barack: It’s made it stronger. The tough times for us were when the kids were real small, I was away a lot and Michelle was still working. So, the burden on her was enormous, and I think there’s a feeling that maybe I didn’t fully appreciate that burden. That was something we worked through. And I think we’re both more patient with each other. We both know how to avoid making the other person feel aggravated. And I’m so proud of her and I think she knows how much I love and appreciate her. So, she puts up with me.
Michelle: I think it has made us stronger. Time and love and sacrifice and hard struggles, I think, make you stronger.
Barack: I also think that she knew at the beginning when I was doing this that if she came to me and said don’t do it, I wouldn’t have done it.
Michelle: That’s the key, for sure.
Barack: And if I ever thought that it was ruining my family, I wouldn’t do it.
Michelle: We’re constantly balancing each other. I know that if I were to say, “I can’t take this,” it would be over.

Barack and Michelle come across as very open and honest about their family and the things they go through to make it work day to day, and you can tell that they instill good values in their daughters. Whatever your political beliefs, you can see that they have a strong family and really care about their daughters and giving them a stable life. I also like the last part about how Barack is honest that he didn’t help as much as he could have when the girls were little. He said they worked through that rough stage, though, and have reached a better understanding of each other and what they need to do for Sasha and Malia.

You can read more of the interview and see exclusive photos on People.com and in their upcoming issue.

Picture note by JayBird: Here’s Senator Barack Obama speaking at the ‘Women for Obama’ breakfast at the Hilton Hotel in New York on July 10th. Images thanks to WENN.

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Kelsey Grammar, 53, was hanging out in Hawaii paddle boating with his wife when he suffered a heart attack. It’s been nearly three months and he’s talking about his health crisis and why he thinks he had a heart attack at a relatively young age. Although Grammar’s representative told the press at the time that his heart attack was mild, he admitted to Entertainment Tonight a few weeks afterward that he had almost died and that his heart had stopped entirely. [via Wikipedia]

Grammar explains that he thinks he suffered the health crisis due to stress over his television series, Back to You with Patricia Heaton, being canceled. As for how he’s coping now, he said he’s taking it easy and is eating better and taking medication:

Kelsey Grammer, who suffered a mild heart attack seven weeks ago, says pressure from his canceled sitcom Back to You contributed to his health problems.

“It was a very stressful time for me, and a surprise to me [that it was canceled],” Grammer, 53, said Wednesday while promoting his drama-comedy, Swing Vote, in L.A. “But you know, everything that doesn’t kill us – which it almost did – makes us stronger.”

Back to You, costarring Patricia Heaton, was canceled in May by Fox after one year, despite respectable ratings.

“Not happy about it,” says Grammer. “I had a heart attack, maybe you heard. I was not happy about it.”

But now, he says, “I think things are going to be fine, thank you. I’m doing fine. It’s OK.”

Asked if the health scare changed his lifestyle, Grammer said, “Oh, not a ton. Just watch your diet a little bit, take some pills.”

A sitcom veteran who has Cheers and Frasier to his credit, Grammer plans to take more time out for family, and is thinking about films.

“Oh gosh, I hope so,” he said. “You can only do so many a year. I have other things that matter to me, like my wife and family.”

[From People.com]

Grammar and Heaton were widely reported to be feuding on the set of Back to You, and that may have contributed to the demise of the series. He is not my favorite actor and seems like he has a stick up his butt most of the time, but there’s a valuable lesson in his comments about why he had a heart attack. Tim Russert died at 58 from a heart attack at a time when he was eating better and exercising and had just returned from a vacation to Italy with his family.

Heart attacks are “are the leading cause of death for both men and women all over the world” according to the World Health Organization. You can prevent a heart attack through regular exercise, a healthy diet, and by keeping stress at a minimum. It’s important to keep perspective about what’s important in life and not worry too much about work and the things you can’t change. Years of stress can really take a toll on your heart and no matter how old you are or if you’re a man or a woman you should try to reach a healthy balance in life. I know that’s a lesson I need to learn too.

Picture note by JayBird: Here’s Kelsey Grammer and his wife Camille out shopping at Cross Creek in Malibu, last Thursday. The funny man can still put a smile on his wife’s face. CR: Mike/Fame Pictures Images thanks to Fame.

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I have to admit, I really love election season. Not just for the politics – in fact I’d be making myself sound much deeper than I really am if I said that was a big part of it. I like that it adds a new layer to celebrity news. Instead of hearing about Paris Hilton’s shoe collection, we can write about Paris’ political leanings. Alright that particular example doesn’t work, as Paris only recently learned that we’ve been in a war for the past couple years.

But some celebs use their fame to promote good causes. And that’s something I’m a big fan of. Actress Rosario Dawson is taking a season off from working in order to get voters to the polling booths. Rosario is currently working on two films but will be wrapped by the fall, and has passed on all other projects until after the election.

“I decided I’m not going to be working at all through the fall,” the actress – who’ll be seen in Eagle Eye with Shia LaBoeuf and Seven Pounds with Will Smith – told PEOPLE. Instead, she plans to work at voter drives across the country sponsored by her non-profit Voto Latino.

“We’re targeting the Latin youth vote,” said Dawson, 28. “There’s 18 million [people who] are eligible. But we are not showing that up in votes. So our numbers aren’t counting. When you actually … work with local organizations – that makes the biggest impact, and that’s what I want to be a part of.”

Dawson (who admits she didn’t vote for president until 2004, the same year she started Voto Latino) will be at both Democratic and Republican conventions as part of her efforts to reach young Latinos.

“The reason why I co-founded Voto Latino is because of my mom,” she told the crowd in D.C. “It’s because of my grandmother. It’s because I was raised to do it yourself. You want that to be better? You do it yourself.”

[From People]

My first reaction to the part about Rosario not voting the same year she started Voto Latino was that it wasn’t all that smart to admit to it. But I think it actually makes her more accessible to the people she’s trying to target. She’s aiming for those that haven’t been voting, and it lets her honestly say “Look, I know where you’re coming from, I didn’t think one vote mattered either.” Presumably she’ll be setting a great example by voting in a few months. Good for her for really getting out there, seeing a problem, and actively doing something to combat it.

Here’s Rosario introducing Voto Latino’s ‘Crash the Parties ‘08′ campaign in Washington DC on Tuesday. Images thanks to WENN.

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Christian Bale and his wife at the premiere of The Dark Knight in Spain last night. Credit: WENN
A lot of you speculated that the assault charges against Christian Bale were brought by his mother and sister after he refused to give them money or otherwise snubbed their requests for assistance. You may be right - and they may have had a secondary reason for reporting the non-assault to the police and making the story bigger than it needed to be. TMZ reports that his mother and sister are planning on selling their side of the story to news outlets for a lot of money. Just because Bale won’t hand money over to them doesn’t mean they can’t cash in on their famous family member. All of this bad blood is said to stem from Bale choosing to live with his father after his parents divorced over 15 years ago:

Sources tell TMZ Christian Bale has had a long-standing difficult relationship with his mom and Bale’s camp believes the motivation for the whole assault charge may be $$$.

We’re told when Christian’s mom and dad divorced nearly two decades ago, his mom forced him to choose between the two. Christian picked his dad, and father and son moved out to L.A. in 1992, where his dad became his manager.

Somehow Bale’s relationship with the mom has been “bitter” ever since. Bale has told friends his mother was extremely jealous of both his and his dad’s success.

Last Sunday, Bale let his mom and sis into his hotel suite, though it was by no means an olive branch. As we first reported, there was physical contact, but somewhere in between a push and a brush. No one fell and no one was hurt.

Christian’s camp thinks this could be nothing more than a shakedown. We’re told some newspapers and mags have already been throwing around “insane” amounts of money for the story, so mom and sis could score big.

But our sources say the cops are starting to see the whole thing Christian’s way, and the charges could disappear faster than Batman.

[From TMZ]

That’s pretty deplorable if it’s all true. TMZ talks a lot of crap about people but they have solid information and they had exclusives in the Heath Ledger story ahead of the rest of the press. So it seems accurate and that would explain how Bale got arrested for what should have been a private family argument. We’ll have to see who has his mother and sister’s “exclusive!” story about Batman’s raging temper and what kind of lies they spin in their attempt to get some money and revenge on Bale for not paying them the boatload of cash they feel they’re owed.

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In January Dr. Phil received a lot of well-deserved flack for visiting Britney Spears in the hospital when she was on a mental health hold, and planning a special on his show around her, which was ultimately canceled. Phil was lambasted in the media for revealing details of Britney’s medical condition to the press, a clear violation of patient confidentiality, and Britney’s own family said that although they did ask Phil to get involved they didn’t give him permission to make public statements about her.

Then in April Dr. Phil and his producers showed incredibly poor judgment again by bailing out the ringleader in a brutal YouTube beating in which six teen girls in Florida lured a classmate to one of their homes and beat her unconscious, recording it all and posting it online. The Dr. Phil show paid over $30,000 to free the girl in order to secure an exclusive interview with her and her family. Instead of admitting their gross error in judgment, producers at the Dr. Phil show blamed the guy they sent down to Florida with the money, saying it was all his idea and he somehow went down there on his own with a lot of cash. That special was also scrapped due to media backlash.

Phil found yet another personal tragedy to exploit - his people arranged for Mindy McCready to go to rehab in exchange for all the salacious details of her breakdown. The 32 year-old country singer has faced a string of personal problems in the past few years including an addiction to painkillers that led her to forge prescriptions, abuse by an ex boyfriend, and multiple arrests. She was jailed from September to December of last year for violating probation and most recently overdosed on Ambien and vodka in an apparent suicide attempt. But Dr. Phil planned to fix everything for McCready by paying for her to go to rehab and putting her on his show to dish out his unique brand of homespun sound bites of wisdom. Luckily that’s not going to happen, though:

Mindy McCready is going back to rehab after trying to do herself in with her favorite swiggable and pharmaceutical — vodka and Ambien — and we hear Dr. Phil’s inserting himself in the whole she-bang.

TMZ has learned the troubled McCready went off the deep end late last week after getting dumped by her boyfriend and collapsed while on the phone with her mother. She downed a bottle of vods and pills in what we’re told was a “suicide attempt.”

She’s headed to Arizona for treatment, and a source says that was all Phil’s idea. We’re told he’s taken Mindy under his wing as a “personal project.” As for whether or not she’ll be on the show, time will tell.

[From TMZ]

Like his other attempts to use stories of personal tragedy to boost ratings, Dr. Phil has backed down from putting Mindy on his show. TMZ reports that reps for the show say Mindy won’t be on and state that “Dr. Phil has not treated patients one-on-one since his show went on air. Ms. McCready’s situation is private and we respect her right to privacy in a difficult time.” It’s been a while since I saw the Dr. Phil show, but he usually treats patients in groups and by dragging their families in too. It’s likely he planned to do something like that here so the defense is pretty weak.

TMZ doesn’t pull stories out of thin air like the gossip rags and they seem to have solid sources before they run with something. I would bet this was true and that Phil’s people realized they were about to enter another PR quagmire and backed down. At least McCready got free rehab out of it.

How much longer is Dr. Phil going to stay on the air? There were all sorts of stories after the Britney debacle that he was about to get canned because he had pissed off his boss, the all mighty Oprah.

Mindy McCready is shown below at “The Queen of Hearts Team participates in the 2008 WSOP Ladies Event at the Rio Hotel and Casino” on 6/8/08. She’s also shown the day before on 6/7/08. Credit: Judy Eddy / WENN. Dr. Phil is shown on 3/20/08. Credit: WENN

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Brooke Hogan really is a daddy’s girl. Even though both of her parents are dating massively younger people since their split, Brooke is pretty much alright with the Hulk but isn’t even on speaking terms with her mom. Yesterday Brooke confirmed to Chelsea Handler that she and mom Linda aren’t talking anymore. Which you can’t really blame Brooke for – it’s super weird to have your mother dating your younger brother’s friend.

Brooke Hogan’s been pretty vocal about her mom’s much younger lover. (Linda Hogan, 48, is dating someone 29 years her junior.) But now the Hulkster’s daughter says the two are no longer even speaking.

Not at all, she tells Chelsea Handler, host of E!’s Chelsea Lately. “The more time that goes on now that she doesn’t call, she doesn’t confront me, she doesn’t tell me the truth, I’m like, all right, it’s just time that’s pulling us apart.”

But what about dad’s young twinkie, why doesn’t that bother Brooke? “She’s not even that young…she’s grown.”

The girl in question, she is all of 34 years old. Meanwhile, pop celebrates his 55th birthday next month.

[From E! News]

Brooke gave an interview two weeks ago to the Associated Press in which she went into a bit more detail about the awkwardness and frustration of her relationship with her mom.

AP: How did you and your mother get so far apart?

Hogan: My mother and I naturally have a tremendous bond, there’s like a bond that you just can’t break with us. … Right now I’m just really disappointed with her and I feel like I wish I could talk to her, but you just can’t. It’s one of those kind of things where, I am a very straight-laced person and maybe that makes it even harder for me to see the path that she’s going down as being right, but I look at her now and I’m like, “You were my hero at one point. Why are you making these weird choices?” I don’t understand it. I definitely don’t condone what’s going on. I definitely don’t think it’s cool who she’s dating. I think it’s ridiculous but at the end of the day she’s my mother and I will still respect her and love her but right now … I just have to love her from a distance for now.

[From FOX News]

Brooke admits that she had a spat with the Hulk earlier this year, but that they were able to work past it because she ultimately respects her dad and believes he’s a good person. Her phrasing implies that she doesn’t think the same of her mother.

Here’s Brooke on Chelsea Lately.

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Michelle Williams, Heath Ledger’s ex-fiancé and mother of his child, is dating again, according to the Daily Mail. Michelle and Heath broke up last September, and he passed away four months later in January.

Michelle didn’t seem to date publicly after the breakup, and definitely hasn’t been seen dating since Heath’s death. Which makes perfect sense. Most people would need a good deal of time to get over the ending of an engagement, especially when the couple has a child together. I cannot even imagine what it must take to move on after your former fiancé dies tragically.

But it seems Michelle may finally be finding some happiness in life again, in the form of director Spike Jonze. The pair have known each other since 2006, and seem to have become an item recently.

Seven months after the sudden death of her ex-fiancé Heath Ledger, Michelle Williams appears to have found happiness again. A U.S. magazine reports the former Dawson’s Creek actress, 27, has started dating film director Spike Jonze, ex-husband of Lost In Translation director Sofia Coppola.

Williams and Jonze, 38, have been spotted together several times near the film-maker’s £1.5million New York apartment in recent weeks. … now it appears she finally has something to smile about again, thanks to a burgeoning romance with Jonze. American magazine Star reports Williams was seen kissing Jonze outside his Lower East Side Manhattan apartment on July 2nd.

An onlooker told the publication: ‘Michelle kissed Spike with a closed mouth on the corner of his lips. There was definitely a bit of caressing going on. She was clutching his arm. The body language was very romantic.’

Williams first met Jonze in 2006 when she auditioned for his film adaptation of the Maurice Sendak children’s book Where The Wild Things Are. She was offered a part, but later withdrew from the film. But last year, the pair finally worked together on Synecdoche, New York in summer 2007 and struck up a friendship.

[From the Daily Mail]

It’s good Michelle is moving forward with her life. I don’t think you can ever really get past what she’s gone through, but she certainly deserves happiness. It seems like she’s done a good job of focusing on Matilda and creating a supportive, stable environment in which she’ll grow up. It’s heartbreaking to think it won’t happen with Heath around, but it seems like he’d probably be proud of how everyone in his life is handling it.

Here’s Michelle at the photocall for the ‘Synedoche, New York’ Premiere in Cannes on May 23rd, along with Samantha Morton, Philip Seymour Hoffman and Catherine Keener. Images thanks to WENN. Spike Jonze is shown at a Fahrenheit 9/11 screening in 2004. Credit: Lee Roth / RothStock / PR Photos

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Never let it be said that 50 Cent is a man of idle threats. Though he’s got some major legal drama going on with the mother of his son (the traditional child support/housing/visitation/arson stuff), he’s still a good enough multi-tasker to be able to sue more than one person at a time.

Last month Taco Bell royally pissed off Fiddy after they used him for a stupid publicity stunt – offering to donate $10,000 to the charity of his choice if he’d legally change his name to 79 Cent, 89 Cent, or 99 Cent – to correspond with the prices on their value menu.

They didn’t make the offer privately to him as a business deal, but through a publicly disseminated press release. It was clear that Taco Bell was just doing it for free press and using 50 Cent in the process. He was pretty pissed and threatened legal action – but for some reason I didn’t think he’d actually do it. Maybe because the whole thing was so stupid, and suing Taco Bell would just get them more of what they wanted – press. Though if Fiddy wins, that press sure won’t be free for the fast food chain.

50 Cent, whose real name is Curtis Jackson, accuses the Mexican-style fast food chain of “diluting the value of his good name” and employing a guerrilla advertising campaign to fool consumers into thinking he had endorsed the chain, said the lawsuit, filed in Manhattan federal court.

“Without seeking or obtaining Jackson’s authorization, defendant Taco Bell made him the star and focus of its nation-wide advertising campaign by using his name, persona and trademark to promote Taco Bell’s business and products,” court papers said. The lawsuit accuses the chain of disseminating a letter, addressed to 50 Cent, that encourages the rapper to change his name to “79 Cent,” “89 Cent” or “99 Cent,” the lawsuit said.

The letter was designed to promote the company’s “79-89-99 Cent Why Pay More” campaign, while avoiding the multimillion dollar fee the rapper might have charged to use his name, the lawsuit said. The letter was eventually sent to the rapper, but only after it had been circulated to reporters, the lawsuit said.

[From Yahoo! News]

The lawsuit also notes that customers believed that 50 Cent was in a partnership with Taco Bell, and he got a good deal of bad press for it on the internet. He was accused of selling out to a tacky fast food chain, and he believes his reputation was damaged as a result.

I have no idea why this relatively trivial thing bugged me so much, but it did. I really want 50 to sue the crap out of Taco Bell. Come to think of it, it bothers me because Taco Bell was just being cheap, and they were doing it under the guise of a good cause. They knew a famous rapper wouldn’t agree to change his name. It’s his brand – and no one knows more about branding than a fast food restaurant. They were trying to promote their own brand.

Instead of making Fiddy a legitimate offer (which would have been millions), they pretended they were good enough to donate a piddly $10,000 to charity. Ten grand is nothing to Taco Bell – their parent company owns KFC, Pepsi, etc. What they did was cheap and tacky, and I hope they lose a hell of a lot of money on it.

Here’s 50 Cent at the Vitamin Water ‘Celebrates in Style’ with The Best of Baseball and Music in New York on July 14th. Images thanks to WENN.

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