The greatest cultural honor!
Mattel, that force for all good things in culture, is celebrating Misty Copeland the only way it knows: The toy giant has released a Barbie doll based on the ballerina, named Misty Barbie. Copeland, 33, a Broadway star and a muse for the late Prince, made history last year when she became the first black woman named a principal dancer with the renowned American Ballet Theatre.
Copeland helped design the doll. "She has muscles and calves and thighs and a bust," she said on Good Morning America. "That was important to me."
Oprah lands another role
Oprah Winfrey, who has a recurring role on her network OWN's forthcoming scripted drama Greenleaf, has lined up another dramatic part.
People mag says she'll play the lead in the new HBO movie The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks. Based on the 2010 book by Rebecca Skloot, the film tells the true story of an African American woman whose cervical cancer cells helped scientists make several major medical breakthroughs.
Lacks, who died in 1951, never gave permission for her tissue to be harvested.
Researchers led by Johns Hopkins University's George Otto Gey used the cells to create the first known human immortal cell line, now known as the HeLa cell line.
Don't know what that means? Me neither. Hope Oprah gets a really good screenwriter.
Spears & Lufti tango
Britney Spears and Sam Lufti faced off against each other in a conference room Monday as his lawyers deposed her about her relationship with her former friend in the mid-2000s.
Lufti, who was Brit's manager for about five minutes, is suing her for back pay and for pain and suffering he says he suffered at the hands of the superstar and her dad, James, says TMZ. The Spears clan says Lufti was a bad influence who plied Brit with drugs.
Celebrating Britney Spears
In more positive news, producers of the Billboard Music Awards on Monday announced that Brit will be presented with the Millennium Award at the May 22 kudosfest. That most honorable of honors has previously gone to Beyoncé and Whitney Houston.
Brit, who has 24 Top 40 singles, will perform a medley of her hits and her new tune, "Make Me (Oooh)."
Hosted by Ludacris and Ciara, the show also will feature performances by Justin Bieber, P!nk, and Nick Jonas.
Another bairn for Kerry?
Scandal goddess Kerry Washington, 39, and her hub, former Eagles cornerback Nnamdi Asomugha, 34, are expecting their second child, say E! News and Us Weekly.
The couple wed in June 2013 and welcomed a daughter, Isabelle Amarachi Asomugha, the following April. They have yet to confirm or deny the reports.
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