Beyonce has signed a $50 million deal with Pepsi, The New York Times reports. The agreement includes traditional promotional appearances and a new commercial, but also the beverage company's investment in a number of the singer's creative projects.

Pepsi's move is in line with a trend toward content creation as advertisers seek new inroads into the music business and labels' marketing budgets continue to decline. Red Bull -- through its Red Bull Music Academy and Red Bull Media House -- has been funding original content for some time now, as have Scion and Converse.

Beyonce will appear in a new TV spot for Pepsi, a brand she has been involved with since 2002. Her previous ads have included Britney Spears, P!NK, Jennifer Lopez and David Beckham. She's also performing at the Super Bowl halftime show, which is sponsored by Pepsi.

Billboard notes that Pepsi and rival Coca-Cola are the biggest players in advertisements that touch on music. The two companies have spent over $330 million on campaigns involving entertainment and sports figures. The Times notes that both brands each spent $148 million on domestic advertising in the first six months of 2012.

Jay-Z and Beyonce were the highest-paid celebrity couple of the year. Beyonce earned $40 million to Jay-Z's $38 million.

The "Love on Top" singer's face will also appear on a limited edition run of Pepsi cans. Other artist recently featured by the brand include One Direction and Nicki Minaj.

Guys, have you ever worried you don’t have that elusive something that women crave? Perhaps you think you lack a devil-may-care attitude that the ladies love, or that you don’t have a Jon Stewart-esque wit that would win someone’s heart. Relax! We spoke to relationship experts and women across the country and learned that those attributes men believe are impressive just don’t cut it. In fact, the qualities that attract women may surprise you... and, chances are, you possess at least one of them. Learn how to embrace these six traits for dating success.

1. She loves that you’re a man of few words
It’s no secret that women love to communicate with the men in their lives. “Women like to connect, and when that happens, they will melt,” says Emerson E. Eggerichs, Ph.D., author of Love and Respect: The Love She Most Desires, The Respect He Desperately Needs. Of course, when most men hear that, they cringe, thinking it means long, drawn-out talks about every feeling either of you has ever had since you met. Wrong! According to Dr. Eggerichs, women don’t need lots of verbiage from men. The truth is, your lady can get the same communication from you via eye contact — without a single word being uttered. Simply stand face-to-face with her, look into her eyes, and show your affection with a simple physical gesture — say, holding her arm or caressing her face. “It’s in their very nature for women to want you to look at them,” Dr. Eggerichs explains. “Infant girls make eye contact with adults who are around them, while boys make eye contact but look away if there’s a mobile, ceiling fan or anything else to distract them overhead.” Cultivate your connection with a little unabashed eye contact, and you’ll be on the fast track to winning her heart.

2. She loves your hairy body — really!
Wait, she likes your what?! That’s right, go ahead and cancel that back-waxing appointment. A study at the Zoological Society of San Diego (of people, not animals) revealed that women are more attracted to men with furry bodies, regardless of the silhouette. Scientists theorize that body hair advertises good health and active hormones, making it a positive sign in the selection of a mate. For further proof, just listen to Laura McNeely of Spring, TX: “I always love noticing that a guy, especially a clean-cut one, has a little bit of chest hair sticking up out of his Oxford shirt. It’s like saying, ‘I may have an uptight job, but there’s a caveman lurking inside.’”

3. She loves your unnatural emotional attachment to your favorite sports team
Most men learn by their teens to downplay their obsession with professional sports in front of the ladies. But dating coach David Wygant says that revealing certain elements of your big-league insanity to a woman will make her feel more connected to you. “Men try to hide when our eyes get all wet during the last 30 seconds of a game or when we see our fellow men get all emotional on the sidelines, but after a long season, we need that emotional release,” Wygant says. And the truth is, women would rather see you get sappy over sports than never see you act mushy at all — it lets them know there’s a sensitive guy underneath. And if you are prone to hugging your friends after your team wins? You just added some bonus points!

4. She loves when you act tough
While women often want an evolved, emotionally available man these days, putting a little “wild man” demeanor into your repertoire can equal popularity on the dating scene. “Most women want bad-boy qualities so they don’t have to act perfect all the time,” says Nancy Slotnick, author of Turn Your Cablight On: Get Your Dream Man in 6 Months or Less. After all, if a woman is afraid to be anything less than perfect in front of you, your relationship will be stifled and you’ll both end up bored. Anne Giddens of Wilmington, NC, adds: “A lot of guys are total gentlemen on dates, so being with someone who mouths off a bit shows that he’ll protect me if something happens. And that, in turn, makes me feel girlie and taken care of. It’s a total turn-on.” Hint at your bad-boy side by being slightly protective of your girl when someone else talks to her, suggesting thrill-type dates — which can increase adrenaline production and promote physical attraction — or simply planning a date without consulting her (spontaneity in general is a good thing). Of course, don’t do anything that’s actually disrespectful or dangerous — that’s not the kind of bad-boy behavior anyone wants.

5. She loves your artistic side
You don’t need a massive paycheck to appeal to the ladies. They actually find the “I’m working on a screenplay” lifestyle alluring. One study found that artists and poets had experienced a total of 4-10 romantic partners, while people with less creative jobs had three. According to the study’s author, Daniel Nettle, Ph.D., a psychology lecturer at Newcastle University in the UK, creative people tend to be charismatic and their artistic pursuits are particularly interesting to others. The study also found that the number of romantic partners an artsy type had increased when he spent more time on creative, right-brained pursuits. And you don’t have to be a starving artist to appeal to women. Even if you’re an investment analyst, you might play the saxophone on the side. So flaunt that hobby — women dig guys with creativity.

With the 12-12-12 benefit concert for Hurricane Sandy just around the corner, controversy is stirring about ticket sales for the event.

All profits from the concert, which features performances by The Rolling Stones, Kanye West, Billy Joel, Eric Clapton, and Alicia Keys, among others, are supposed to benefit victims of the superstorm. However, when tickets to the event sold out in minutes, scalpers saw an opportunity for a quick profit of their own.


While even the standard fee that Ticketmaster collects will be going to the concert beneficiary, the Robin Hood Foundation, there is no way to force the ticket scalpers to fork over their personal profits to the charity as well.

New York's U.S. Senator Charles Schumer spoke out against the scalping and urged ticketing sites to keep scalpers from turning a profit on resales.

“Every dollar spent for these concert tickets should go to help the victims of Superstorm Sandy – not to line the pocket of unscrupulous scalpers,” Senator Schumer said in an statement. “Ticket resale websites have the opportunity to make it much more difficult for scalpers to make money of this charitable event, and they should seize it.”

Currently, tickets are listed on StubHub for as much as $27,175. With the highest face-value price of a ticket reaching $2,500, scalpers are in a position to make an enormous profit. While StubHub is donating its service fees and commissions to the Robin Hood Foundation, it isn't regulating the reselling of tickets. NYT reports that StubHub's spokesman, Glenn Lehrman, said about the company's decision, “This is going to take place regardless of whether we enable it or somebody else does, and at least by us enabling it, we can give a good portion to charity.”

Ticketmaster's resale sites, however, are not allowing tickets for 12-12-12 to be sold.

"We proactively blocked all posts for 12-12-12 as is our policy for charitable events," a representative for TicketsNow and TicketExchange said in an email.

Police believe he was from Africa, probably from Angola, but they don't know his identity.

The mystery began in September when residents of a suburban street in the Mortlake neighborhood of West London woke up on a quiet Sunday morning to find the crumpled body of a black man on the sidewalk of Portman Avenue, near a convenience store, an upscale lingerie shop and a storefront offering Chinese medical cures.

Detectives believed at first the man was a murder victim and cordoned off the area. Within a day, however, police concluded the man — probably already dead — had fallen to the ground when a jet passing overhead lowered its landing gear as it neared the runway at nearby Heathrow Airport.

The apparent stowaway had no identification papers — just some currency from Angola, leading police to surmise that he was from that African nation, especially as inquiries showed that a plane from Angola was beginning its descent into Heathrow at about that time.

The macabre explanation made perfect sense to residents, who are familiar not only with the roar of the jets descending, but are also able to see the planes lower their landing gears as they pass overhead, said Catherine Lambert, who lives a few doors down from the spot where the man landed.

"You could see him, his body was contorted," she said. "It was a beautiful blue day, really sunny, but we had to keep the children inside. I didn't want the children to see, and to have to explain to them and put fear into them every time a plane goes over."

A post mortem conducted two days after the body landed listed the cause of death as "multiple injuries."

In the days afterward, some neighbors put flowers on the spot where the stowaway was found, and a small group of Angolans who live in the London area came to place more flowers and to pray. Lambert, 41, said there is lingering sadness, since the man has not been identified and there has been no way to tell his family he is gone.

"I felt, what was he running away from? What made him think he could he could? And how will his family ever know? He's a lost soul now; his father and mother are probably waiting for him to make contact," she said.

A London police spokesman, who wasn't authorized to speak on the record because of force policy, said Sunday that police are appealing to the public for help identifying the man based on a composite image of his face and a photo of a tattoo on his left arm. The tattoo showed the letters "Z'' and "G'' inked on his upper arm, with a horizontal line through the "Z''.

Police also said attempts to identify the man with the help of Angolan authorities had been unsuccessful. They stressed there is only "circumstantial" evidence linking the stowaway to that country.

Sudan and South Sudan have asked the African Union to help hammer out details of a proposed withdrawal of troops from their disputed border, defense ministers from both countries said on Monday, as stalled talks continued to delay oil exports.

Week-long negotiations in Khartoum failed to reach an agreement on how to withdraw their armies, a step both sides had said was necessary to resume oil exports from landlocked South Sudan through Sudan.

"We will meet in Addis Ababa on the 15th to continue our meeting and dialogue on how to implement the cooperation deals signed by Sudan and South Sudan in Addis Ababa," Sudan's defense minister, Abdel Raheem Mohammed Hussein, told reporters.

His southern counterpart, John Kong Nyuon, said some "issues" remained unresolved. The talks in the Ethiopian capital will be brokered by AU mediator Thabo Mbeki.

In September, the former civil war foes agreed to end hostilities and restart oil exports after coming close to war in April, the worst violence since South Sudan seceded from Sudan last year after decades of civil war.

South Sudan's top negotiator Pagan Amum had raised hopes for the Khartoum talks by saying oil exports could restart this month. But Juba has delayed turning on oil wells, originally scheduled for November 15.

South Sudan, which inherited three-quarters of oil production when it broke away, shut down its output of 350,000 barrels a day in January after tensions over pipeline fees escalated.

Lingering disputes have continued to fuel conflict between the neighboring countries.

Sudan said last week it will not allow South Sudan's oil exports to flow through its territory until Juba cuts ties with anti-Khartoum rebels and expels their leaders, dampening hopes bilateral tensions were over.

 While the name of the play may not indicate it’s a holiday tale, Theatre Macon Director Jim Crisp deliberately chose “Meet Me In St. Louis” for the holidays.

“We have to do something really happy and I love this because of the sweetness of the story. It’s about a family and it is openly and unabashedly nostalgic. It harks back to an era or eras in our past lives when things seemed a little simpler and easier and Christmas was about family and spending those times together,” he said.

While most people may be familiar with the film, featuring Judy Garland, Crisp is certain that the story translates to the stage wonderfully.

“This show is so lovely to do on stage. It features a family in St. Louis looking forward to the World’s Fair next summer. Suddenly, the father announces that they will move to New York City and the family is shattered,” Crisp said. “The family is rooted in St. Louis and it was a time when people felt a stronger connection to the places where they lived.”

The show takes place over the better part of a year, but the highlight is undeniably the Christmas Ball.

“This year, as they prepare to move to New York, the ball is bittersweet for the Smith family, who believe they are spending their last Christmas in their childhood home. This feeling still resonates strongly with people. We live in a world now where people lose connections to hometowns and the places where their families are from and families struggle with these issues. But the song ‘Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas’ remains a favorite for a reason,” he said.

Crisp called the show’s cast “superb. ... Jim Penndorf is our musical director, as always, and is doing a marvelous job getting the cast prepared. We have 27 people in the cast, including an incredibly strong group as the family and romance interests.”

Mother and father are being played by Matt Astin and Gail Johnson. Esther, the Judy Garland role, is being played by Kailey Rhodes, whose husband, Matt Hlavity, plays Warren Sheffield, the young heir of the Sheffield fortune from New York. The boy next door is being played by Tayler Darnell. Rose is played by Lauren Paris.

Given that the show is a period piece, special attention has been given to the set and costumes.

“It’s set in 1904 and it is a beautiful period for costumes for both men and women. Shelley Kuhen is designing a beautiful set of costumes for this show. While the opening number sets up the location very well as being in St. Louis, so much of the play takes place inside the home and on their front porch that it really is about this family’s life in their home,” he said. “The main goal was to create a period look inside the home. I want people to have the sense that they are looking through a window back in time to this wonderful era and into the family’s life. ... This play is really just perfect for the holiday season. Everyone will enjoy it.”

 Congress and the White House can significantly soften the initial impact of the "fiscal cliff" even if they fail to reach a compromise by Dec. 31. One thing they cannot control, however, is the financial markets' reaction, which possibly could be a panicky sell-off that triggers economic reversals worldwide.

The stock market's unpredictability is perhaps the biggest wild card in the political showdown over the fiscal cliff.

President Barack Obama's re-election gives him a strong negotiating hand, as Republicans are increasingly acknowledging. And some Democrats are willing to let the Dec. 31 deadline pass, because a rash of broad-based tax hikes would pressure Republicans to give more ground in renewed deficit-reduction negotiations.

A chief fear for Obama's supporters, however, is that Wall Street would be so disgusted or dismayed that stocks would plummet before lawmakers could prove their newfound willingness to mitigate the fiscal cliff's harshest measures, including deep, across-the-board spending cuts that Defense Secretary Leon Panetta says could significantly damage the nation's military posture. Some Republicans believe that fear will temper the president's insistence on a hard bargain this month. Obama and GOP House Speaker John Boehner on Sunday held their first meeting between just the two of them since the election, and spokesmen for both emphasized afterward their lines of communication remain open.

The so-called cliff's recipe of major tax hikes and spending cuts can actually be a gentle slope, because the policy changes would be phased in over time. Washington insiders say Congress and the White House would move quickly in January or February to undo many, but not all, of the tax hikes and spending cuts.

Financial markets, however, respond to emotion as well as to research, reason and promises. If New Year's headlines scream "Negotiations Collapse," an emotional sell-off could threaten the president's hopes for continued economic recovery in his second term, even if Republicans receive most of the blame for the impasse.

"Nobody can predict the markets' reaction," said Rep. Jim Cooper, D-Tenn.

Some Republicans are surprised that the White House has not made clearer efforts to reassure Wall Street that if the Dec. 31 deadline is breached, the worrisome pile of tax increases and spending cuts would not hit all at once.

A few liberal commentators are making just that case.

"If we go past the so-called fiscal cliff deadlines and all the resulting budget cuts and tax increases come into force, the administration can minimize the damage," Washington Post columnist E.J. Dionne wrote last week. "Obama can publicly announce he is delaying any cuts, on the theory that Congress will eventually vitiate some of them. And he can make sure the bond markets know of his plans well in advance. ... Everyone (especially Wall Street) should calm down."

Some financial bloggers agree. "Although it would be bad to let the spending cuts and tax hikes fully go into effect, if this thing is addressed in early January, things will be okay," wrote Business Insider's Joe Weisenthal.

So far, the stock markets have stayed calm. The S&P 500 index is up 12 percent for the year.

That might be because investors agree that a temporary trip over the cliff wouldn't be too harmful. Chastened lawmakers, the thinking goes, would quickly minimize the economic damage with a deficit-reduction compromise that eluded them in December.

Many on the Arizona Cardinals must have been thinking about that old cliche during  a soggy Sunday afternoon at CenturyLink field, where the Seattle Seahawks defeated — or some would say destroyed — the Cardinals, 58-0.

The 58-point spread set a Seattle Seahawks franchise record for the biggest point differential in team history. It also set a Cardinals record for worst loss in franchise history.

And for an Arizona Cardinals team that came into the game 0-8 in the team’s last eight games, the Seahawks didn’t let up from the moment Steven Hauschka booted a 31-yard field goal to put the Hawks up 3-0 in the first quarter.

The Seahawks dominated in nearly every category. The team had 22 first downs to the Cardinals 10. Marshawn Lynch rushed for 128 yards and three touchdowns, compared to Arizona runningback William Powell’s 20 yards on five carries. Rookie quarterback Russell Wilson went 7-for-13 with a passer rating of 88 compared to John Skelton’s passer rating of 18.

But most stunning was the difference in turnover ratio. Skelton threw 4 interceptions, including a pick-6 to cornerback Richard Sherman in the second quarter, and the team lost four fumbles in a game were the ball certainly never bounced the Cardinals’ way. The Hawks NFC West division rivals never even made it into the Red-Zone.

After Sherman’s interception return for a touchdown, the Seahawks hardly looked threatened. The Hawks scored 28 points in the second quarter alone, including a Malcolm Smith fumble recovery for a touchdown, a Wilson TD pass and a Marshawn Lynch TD run.

Hawks fans even got their first taste of off-season free-agent signing Matt Flynn after Russell Wilson was pulled out of the game in the third quarter. Flynn went 5-for-9, passing for 68 yards and no touchdowns.

The Brazilian supermodel - who has a two-year-old son Benjamin with husband Tom Brady - gave birth to daughter Vivian Lake at home on Wednesday (05.12.12) and says the little girl is doing well.

She wrote on her Facebook page alongside a picture of Vivian holding her hand: "We feel so lucky to have been able to experience the miracle of birth once again and are forever grateful for the opportunity to be the parents of another little angel.

"Vivian Lake was born at home on December 5. She is healthy and full of life."

The 32-year-old beauty went on to thank her fans on behalf of her and her family for all their congratulatory messages.

She added: "Thank you all for your support and well wishes. We wish you and your families many blessings."

Tom - who plays football for the New England Patriots, who are based in the Greater Boston area - also has a five-year-old son, John, with ex-girlfriend Bridget Moynahan.

Gisele never officially confirmed her pregnancy, but showed off her changing shape last month, donning a leopard print bikini on the beach in Miami.

Mexican-American singer Jenni Rivera died in a plane crash Saturday night, her father and brother confirmed on Telemundo.

"She never gave up and she was good to everyone," said her father, Pedro, about his daughter’s legacy outside of his home in Lakewood, Calif.

The wreckage of the plane was found Sunday in northern Mexico with no apparent survivors, authorities said.

The wreckage was found in the Ejido La Colorada, Municipality of  Nuevo Leon. Gerardo Ruiz Esparza, secretary of communications and transport, said that the plane was not recognizable, but the evidence suggested it was the aircraft carrying the singer, Telemundo reported.

Officials said Rivera's Learjet went off the radar about 62 miles from Monterrey after taking off at 3:15 a.m. local time.

Singer Jenni Rivera, seen here during the Sundance Film Festival in Park City, Utah, in January, was aboard a plane that went missing shortly after leaving the northern Mexican city of Monterrey early Sunday.

Rivera was heading for the city of Toluca in central Mexico after a concert in Monterrey on Saturday night. The singer, two pilots and four other passengers were aboard, Mexican officials said.

Jorge Domene, spokesman for Nuevo Leon's government told Milenio television that civilian agency helicopters flew over the state searching for the plane. The missing included her publicist, lawyer, makeup artist and the flight crew, the ministry of transportation and communication said in a statement.

In a photo posted on her Twitter account on Friday, Jenni Rivera can be seen referencing her concert in Monterrey. In the photo she is seen holding up a sign with the words, "Nos Vemos este 7 en Colima, 8-en Monterrey. I love you!"  Translation: "See you this 7th in Colima, 8 in Monterrey."