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  • Kerry Washington & Craig Robinson Star In New Posters For Tyler Perry-Produced Comedy

    Kerry Washington and Craig Robinson star in the upcoming film "Peeples," a new comedy from producer Tyler Perry.

    Written and directed by Tina Gordon Chism ("Drumline"), "Tyler Perry Presents Peeples" focuses on the Peeples, a well-off East Coast family celebrating a reunion weekend in the Hamptons. The idyllic retreat is interrupted when Wade (Craig Robinson) shows up looking to propose to Grace (Kerry Washington). Perry, the acclaimed writer, director, producer and star, is presenting the film.

    "I worked with Tyler on a movie he did called 'Daddy's Little Girls,'" Robinson told Movieline in 2011. "I can't say enough good things about him. He was way cool and down to earth. He put me in a scene, and the scene didn't make it into the final cut. But we were having so much fun on the scene that I did -- it was so funny -- that when I got to the set the next day, he had them put me in an outfit and add an additional scene. That's the kind of dude he is. He sees something and he goes with it. That's what makes him great."

    HuffPost Entertainment is happy to debut two exclusive new posters for "Peeples," one featuring Robinson ("The Office") and one featuring Washington ("Django Unchained"). Check them out below.

    Kelly Clarkson: Clive Davis 'Spreading False Information About Me And My Music'

    Kelly Clarkson has come out swinging at Clive Davis, whom she accuses of "spreading false information about me and my music" and bullying.

    Davis is currently making the media rounds in support of "The Soundtrack of My Life," a new memoir in which he reveals he is bisexual and had "loving relationships and sexual intimacy" with both men and women. Clarkson took issue with a very different passage, in which the music mogul apparently writes that she broke into "hysterical sobbing" when he demanded that smash hit "Since U Been Gone" would be included on Clarkson's album.

    "Not true at all," Clarkson wrote in a WhoSay post on Tuesday. "His stories and songs are mixed up. I did want more guitars added to the original demo and Clive did not. [Producers Max Martin and Łukasz "Dr. Luke" Gottwald] and I still fought for the bigger sound and we prevailed and I couldn't be more proud of the life of that song. I resent him dampening that song in any way."

    UPDATE: Davis' team has responded to Clarkson's note with a statement of his own:

        As anyone who has read "The Soundtrack of My Life" knows, I think Kelly Clarkson is a tremendous vocal talent and performer. In the book, I provide an in-depth look at our years together during which we shared major multi-platinum success, as well as a few creative differences. I am truly very sorry that she has decided to take issue with what I know to be an accurate depiction of our time together. Before the book was published, I had every fact checked with five independent individuals who were present on a daily basis throughout it all. The chapter as it is written was thoroughly verified by each and every one of them. I stand by the chapter as written in my book. At the same time I wish, and will always wish, Kelly's talent and her career to soar to ever new heights.

    The original article continues below.

    The "American Idol" winner goes further, alleging that Davis berated her after she played him "Because of You." "I cried because he hated it and told me verbatim that I was a 'sh-tty writer who should be grateful for the gifts that he bestows upon me,'" Clarkson writes. "He continued on about how the song didn't rhyme and how I should just shut up and sing. This was devastating coming from a man who I, as a young girl, considered a musical hero and was so honored to work with."

    Eventually, the label placed "Because of You" on the album, and it went on to be a smash hit. Clarkson goes on to say that she's since found fulfillment in all her professional relationships, thanking Davis "for teaching me to know the difference" -- presumably between ill-wishers and supportive partners.

    In 2007, Clarkson took to her website (via People) to address reports that a feud had emerged between her and Davis:

    Biotech Industry Ups Propaganda Efforts with Undercover Ambassadors?


        For years now I’ve warned of the many potential dangers of genetically engineered (GE) foods, pointing out that such crops might have wholly unforeseen consequences.

        In recent years, such suspicions have increasingly proven correct, forcing the biotech industry to up the ante of their propaganda campaign.

        A recent article in the Wall Street Journal titled, “Monsanto: Battered, Bruised, and Still Growing”1 sets the stage for the discussion that follows. The dark heart of Monsanto has been exposed in recent years, and they’re in dire need of an image makeover.

        I bet they probably have the best and brightest propaganda experts on speed dial these days. In the featured article, the company is lauded for “fending off” California Proposition 37 last November, as labeling foods containing genetically engineered ingredients would be “befuddling” to consumers.

            “I'd be up for the dialogue around labeling. Maybe we'll look back and say [Prop 37] was the start of a more reasonable debate. But it was a confusing proposition,” Monsanto Chief Executive Hugh Grant tells the Wall Street Journal.

        Grant goes on to talk about how the company is now going “back to the basics of reconnecting” with their  customers, and how consistency in messaging and predictable pricing is helping turn the tide that has threatened to engulf them over the past three years.

    Biotech Industry Ups Propaganda Efforts with Undercover Ambassadors

        Part of this makeover program appears to be the recruitment of seemingly independent “ambassadors” to covertly lobby the GE agenda. The appearance of being an independent voice is imperative for the role to be effective, SpinWatch2 said in a recent article.

        According to an October 2011 article in the Guardian, leaked emails from a PR company working with EuropaBio listed potential candidates for the role3, including Lord Patten, chancellor of Oxford University and BBC Trust chairman; Sir Bob Geldof; former Irish EU commissioner and attorney general David Byrne; former UN secretary general Kofi Annan; and Mark Lynas, an environmentalist and writer who claims to have helped create the anti-GE movement back in the mid-1990’s. According to the Guardian:

            “The 10 or more ambassadors will not be paid directly, but the lobbyists have offered to write, research and place articles in their names, arrange interviews and speaking engagements with the Financial Times and other international media, and secure for them what could be lucrative speaking slots at major conferences.

            In addition, EuropaBio says it will introduce them to the highest-level European bureaucrats and MEPs in order for them to make the case for GM within EU institutions.”

        In 2011, Green Party MP Caroline Lucas responded to the news by saying:

            "This brazen attempt by EuropaBio to recruit covert 'ambassadors' to 'change the debate' on GM is yet further proof that the powerful GM lobby will stop at nothing to push its hugely unpopular and unnecessary products onto European citizens. We need far stronger regulation on corporate lobbyists across the EU to prevent this kind of insidious behind-the-scenes maneuvering from seriously undermining our democratic system."

    The Art of Spin, and the World of “War Craft”

        When confronted, the above named candidates denied knowledge of EuropaBio4, known as “the voice for the biotech industry at the EU level.” Most, including Mark Lynas, also claimed they’d reject the offer to peddle GMO policy should they be asked.

        What a difference a year makes. While Lynas suddenly began writing about his “conversion” in 2010, he recently took to the stage as a veritable born-again proselytizer of genetically engineered crops at the January 3 Oxford Farming Conference5.

        What better ambassador for the tattered and bruised Monsanto than a “former foe” having “seen the light of science” and, of his own free will (supposedly), deciding to mend his ways and right the wrongs he’s done against the biotech industry?

    Octomom Nadya Suleman checks into rehab for stress-related drug addiction

    Octomom Nadya Suleman has checked herself into a 28-day rehab program for an addiction to the anxiety drug Xanax, reports TMZ.

    Suleman, 37, will undergo treatment at the Chapman House Drug Rehabilitation Center in Southern California. Her three nannies and two friends will watch over her 14 young children during that time.

    "Nadya wanted to get off the Xanax she was prescribed by her doctor and learn to deal with her stress, exhaustion and anxiety with professional help with a team of doctors," says her rep. "Nadya wanted to deal with her issues and make sure she is the best mother she can be.”

    Suleman, a single mom, previously revealed she regrets having so many children and has considered suicide.

    "Some days I have thought about killing myself," said Octomom. "I cannot cope. Obviously I love them, but I absolutely wish I had not had them."

    Nadya, who has 14 children under age 10 (including her two-year-old octuplets), admits she made a mistake undergoing in-vitro fertilization and feels desperate many days.

    "The only way I can cope is to lock myself in the bathroom and cry," said the unemployed Suleman. "Sometimes I sit there for hours and even eat my lunch sitting on the toilet floor. Anything to get peace and quiet."

    Nadya, who has received countless death threats over the years, has struggled with financial problems and public hatred and says she deserves more credit than she's given.

    “I’ve trained them so well, they can brush their own teeth, dress themselves and scrub each other’s backs – they’re so independent,” she said. “It’s not chaotic. They’re very quiet and obedient and they’re well-behaved and smart. The kids have structure and discipline and only eat healthily – they don’t know what candy is! I’ve done a really great job with them – I don’t get any credit.”

    In fact, Octomom insists her children could not have a better mom. "They could never have a better home," she said. "A better home, physically, yes; we’re going to be moving. But they could never have a better mother."

    Makeup Looks Men Love

    Ever wonder what makeup look your guy likes but are too timid to ask? We tracked down some hotties who gave us their opinions on what turns them on when it comes to the makeup you wear. Get ready, girls, here are the answers to your burning cosmetics questions...so take notes!

    By Carly Cardellino

    1. Au Naturel
    "I like it when a girl doesn't wear any makeup at all. I know it sounds cliché, but it lets me know that she takes care of her skin and is confident in herself because she doesn't need to cover her complexion up with foundation or anything like that." - Dawson S.

    2. Smoky Eye
    "I love it when my wife wears a smoky eye. It's very sexy and mysterious." - Nick R.


    3. Light Eyes, Light Lips
    "When a woman wears light sparkly shadow around her eyes that makes them glow and minimal lip color, I think that's the perfect makeup look. If her lipstick is too bright, I'm afraid to get in there and really kiss her if the opportunity arises." - Brandon E.

    4. Rocker-Chic Eyes
    "I'm into either the all-natural style or punk rocker eyes, where there's dark eye shadow and mascara, but not too much. I think it's sexy and rebellious and gives off an "FU" attitude." - Nick H.

    Related: The Best Long-Lasting Party Makeup

    5. Minimal Makeup
    "I don't like when a girl wears a lot of makeup, because if she has too much on then it's not really her. A light amount of foundation that matches her skin tone is the best-when it doesn't match the rest of her skin, it looks too fake and not attractive." - Tony C.

    6. A Bit of Blush
    "The tiniest amount of pink color on a woman's cheeks is really sexy. The more natural, the better. I like it because it looks like she just came in from outside on a cold day or just finished running." - Jeff D.

    Smoking bans lead to fewer pre-term births, study finds

    Banning smoking in enclosed public places can lead to lower rates of preterm birth, according to Belgian researchers who say the findings point to health benefits of smoke-free laws even in very early life.

    It is well known that smoking during pregnancy can stunt the growth of unborn babies and shorten gestation, and that second-hand smoke exposure can also effect births, but little was known about the impact of smoking bans on preterm birth rates.

    So a team of researchers led by Tim Nawrot of Belgium's Hasselt University investigated trends in preterm births - before 37 weeks gestation - from 2002 to 2011 covering a period before, during and after the introduction of smoke-free laws.

    They found the risk of preterm birth after the introduction of each phase of Belgium's smoking ban, which was implemented in three phases - in public places and most workplaces in January 2006, in restaurants in January 2007, and in bars serving food in January 2010.

    No decreasing trend in preterm was evident in the years or months before the bans, the researchers said in their study in the British Medical Journal on Friday.

    "Our study shows a consistent pattern of reduction in the risk of preterm delivery with successive population interventions to restrict smoking," the researchers wrote.

    "It supports the notion that smoking bans have public health benefits even from early life."

    Smoking causes lung cancer, often fatal, and other chronic respiratory diseases. It is also a major risk factor for cardiovascular diseases, the world's number one killers.

    5 healthy trip tips from frequent travelers

    With long flights, decadent foods, and little time for the gym, traveling can take its toll. How can you avoid the nasty flu going around and stick to your New Year's Resolution even when you're in and out of airports or on the road? We asked three guys who travel for a living for tips for staying fit while still enjoying your trip.

    Andrew Evans, National Geographic's Digital Nomad, gets paid to travel the world exploring and to share his experiences through social media and blogging. He traveled 276 days in 2012, and expects to hit the same number this year. He averages one airplane and one new country per week.

    Unplug to unwind. Shut off all your gadgets, turn off the TV screen, drink a glass of water, put on a face mask, stick in ear plugs, breathe deeply, meditate, and then go to sleep, he suggests. "I rarely use any sleep aids because I don't like feeling groggy," he says. "I find if I've done some intense exercise before a flight, it helps me sleep."

    Improvise. When there's no gym at his disposal, Evans takes advantage of what's around. In hotel rooms he does dips with the chair and bed, arm curls with his packed suitcase, and pushups and situps daily. (Try this Hotel Room Workout you can do with your carry-on luggage.)

    "When all else fails, you have to be inventive and determined," he says. "I do pull-ups on tree branches or on the exposed water pipes in the hotel basement. You can do box jumps on a concrete barrier, or run intervals in a parking lot." Constantly traveling also forced him to become a runner. "You can run anywhere in the world--and I have, on all seven continents."

    Make "less bad" food decisions. Travel tends to favor quick junk food or heavy luxury food. Evans allows himself one splurge meal per week, and otherwise steers clear of sweets and takes the bread basket off the table.

    "When you don't have a choice about what you're eating, then it comes down to making bad options less bad," he says. "For example, get the fish, skip the chips, and pull off the breading." For more eating out tips, sign up for the Eat This, Not That! newsletter to learn how to make healthy swaps at hundreds of restaurants.

    Ironman athlete and marketing professional Peter Shankman travels 250,000 miles per year. He answers the majority of his emails on a plane and eats at home a tenth of the time he outs out, usually in another city or country.

    Don't be shy. "Bellhops, receptionists, and shuttle-bus drivers usually know the best jogging routes in a new city, as do flight attendants," says Shankman. "Ask them. You might even wind up with a new running partner."

    Drink, drink, drink. Flying, changing time zones, switching weather patterns, and sitting in airports or hotels are dehydrating. The more water you drink, the easier the trip is, he says.

    Pack your own snacks. Airline food is filled with fats and oils. Shankman packs TSA-approved baggies of almonds, beef jerky, and other healthy foods that don't take up too much room. (Save money and Make Your Own Healthy Beef Jerky.)

    BMW recalls nearly 570,000 cars to fix cables

    BMW is recalling almost 570,000 cars in the U.S. and Canada because a battery cable connector can fail and cause the engines to stall.

    The recall affects popular 3-Series sedans, wagons, convertibles and coupes from the 2007 through 2011 model years. Also included are 1-Series coupes and convertibles from 2008 through 2012, and the Z4 sports car from 2009 through 2011.

    The cable connectors and a fuse box terminal in the cars can degrade over time, and that can break the electrical connection between the trunk-mounted battery and the fuse box at the front. If that happens, the cars could lose electrical power, causing the engines to stall unexpectedly, the U.S. National Highway Traffic Safety Administration said in documents posted on its website Saturday.

    The company says in documents sent to NHTSA that the problem stems from movement between the battery cable and the fuse box.

    BMW says it knows of one minor collision in Canada due to the problem, but no injuries.

    The German automaker says dealers will replace the battery cable connector and secure it for free. It will start notifying owners in March.

    The 3-Series is BMW's most popular car in the U.S., dominating the small luxury car market. The company sold nearly 100,000 of them in the U.S. last year.

    The recall affects more than 504,000 cars in the U.S. and another 65,000 in Canada.

    Suicide bomber devastates Shiite enclave in Pakistan, killing 83

    Pakistani police have revised the cause of a blast that killed 83 people on Saturday, saying a suicide bomber was behind the attack that pulverized a busy marketplace.

    The explosion targeted Shiite Muslims in Hazara, on the outskirts of the southwestern city of Quetta, authorities said.

    Police now say a suicide bomber, driving an explosive-laden water tanker, rammed the vehicle into buildings at the crowded marketplace.

    The water tanker carried between 800 and 1,000 kilograms (1,760 to 2,200 pounds) of explosive material, Quetta police official Wazir Khan Nasir said.

    Previously, police said explosives were packed in a parked water tanker and were remotely detonated.

    The blast demolished four buildings of the marketplace, leaving dozens dead and 180 injured.

    As of Sunday morning, no group had claimed responsibility for the attack.

    The assault left some wondering what could stop the bloodshed in Quetta.

    Zulfiqar Ali Magsi, the governor and chief executive of Balochistan province, told reporters Saturday that law enforcement agencies were incapable of stopping such attacks and had failed to maintain law and order in Quetta.

    Pakistan, which is overwhelmingly Sunni, has been plagued by sectarian strife and attacks for years.

    Comeback cod lessens gloom over emptying oceans

     It was hours before dawn on a heaving Arctic sea, and snow showers were making it hard for Kurt Ludvigsen to find his fishing buoys with the trawler's powerful searchlight.

    But the 49-year-old Norwegian was less bothered by the conditions than by the large numbers of cod flailing in the nets he and his younger brother, Trond, winched aboard.

    "It's paradoxical but we have too many fish this year," the older Ludvigsen said. "Prices have fallen 30 percent ... We're having to work far harder."

    Just over six years ago, an article in the U.S. journal Science projected that all fish and seafood species, on current trends, would collapse by 2048.

    A cod bonanza off north Norway and Russia, and recovery of some fish stocks off the coasts of developed nations from the United States to Australia, have led many scientists to say the future for overfished world stocks is a bit less bleak.

    Stocks off the coasts of developing nations — from the Pacific to the Caribbean — are still in sharp decline, but the recoveries give hope that the problems are not irreversible.

    "The outlook is improving relative to what we saw in 2006," said Boris Worm, a professor of biology at Dalhousie University in Canada and lead author of the 2006 study in Science.

    "It's more than isolated examples — it's a substantial number" of successes, he said.

    A lot is at stake. Fisheries, both marine and farmed, provide livelihoods for up to 820 million people, according to the U.N.'s Food and Agriculture Organization, which emphasizes that globally, overfishing is still on the rise.

    Cod, the 11th most-caught fish species on the FAO list (behind the Peruvian anchovy, skipjack tuna and Atlantic herring), has had a mixed fate.

    While a 1990s fishing moratorium off eastern Canada is still in place, and European Union quotas are unchanged this year, the quota off northern Norway and Russia is a record 1.1 million tons, up a third from 2012, and six times as high as in 1990.

    Part of the reason is that global warming has expanded the cod's habitat northwards. And strict management of quotas by Oslo and Moscow have played a role, fisheries experts say.

    Among other encouraging examples: Fish landings off the United States rose to a 14-year-high in 2011, "thanks in part to rebuilding fish populations," according to the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

    U.S. successes include Atlantic swordfish, summer flounder, New England scallops, Pacific lingcod and mid-Atlantic bluefish, the Washington-based Pew Environment Group said.

    In September, another study in the journal Science said catches of the best-studied stocks off the coasts of developed nations were shifting towards sustainable levels.

    "We now know that we can make fisheries recover," said Christopher Costello, lead author of that study, and a professor at the University of California, Santa Barbara.

    "That sounds obvious, but even 10 years ago many people would have disagreed, saying 'we've already decimated them to a point of no return.'"

    Many experts are now dropping a belief that overfished stocks, like cod off Canada, can never revive. Closing fishing grounds, or cracking down on illegal catches, usually gives stocks a needed respite, he said.

    That is much harder for developing nations, from the Philippines to Ecuador, to enforce, with the result that better conservation in one area may simply shift problems elsewhere.

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