Will Smith and Jada Pinkett Smith splitting up?

According to InTouch Weekly, their online publication is reporting that Will Smith and Jada Pinkett Smith are splitting up.

There has not been any comment from their reps at this time.

The celebrity couple were recently featured in “Architectural Digest” for the September issue.

UPDATE: The Smith’s have released the following statement:

“Although we are reluctant to respond to these types of press reports, the rumors circulating about our relationship are completely false. We are still together, and our marriage is intact.”

Willow Smith’s musical debut with “Whip My Hair”

Will Smith and Jada Pinkett Smith have seen their son Jaden’s acting career blossom but this time their 9-year-old daughter is going to get some of that spotlight as she debuts with song “Whip My Hair”. Pretty cool track! Here is the music video!

The Smith’s promote “The Karate Kid” in Berlin

U.S. actor and producer Will Smith poses for photographers with his wife Jada Pinkett Smith (L) and their children Jaden (R) and Willow as they arrive for the premiere of The Karate Kid in Berlin, July 19, 2010. The movie opens in German cinemas on July 22. REUTERS/Tobias Schwarz (GERMANY – Tags: ENTERTAINMENT). Content © 2010 Reuters All rights reserved.

The Smith family at the UK premiere of “The Karate Kid” in London

Jayden Smith, Jada Pinkett Smith, Will Smith and Willow Smith attend the UK gala premiere of The Karate Kid held at The Odeon Leicester Square on July 15, 2010 in London, England. (Photo by Dave Hogan/Getty Images). Content © 2010 Getty Images All rights reserved.

Essence Music Festival Update: Mary J. Blige Twitter Giveaway & Festival Schedules Go Live!

The Essence Music Festival Schedules are now live on the Essence Music Festival <http://essencemusicfestival.com> website!  The schedules include all the latest information on when and where to see musical performances and FREE empowerment seminars!  Experience Steve Harvey’s Love and Relationship Super Fest and see your favorite speakers including Jada Pinkett Smith, Dr. Juanita Bynum, Sherri Shephard, Bill Cosby and our All-Star Sunday Gospel Tribute.

Also… @ESSENCEMUSIC is at it again with another great Twitter giveaway! For 25 lucky winners, Essence Music Festival is giving away a special limited edition signed photograph of Mary J. Blige!

To enter:
- Follow @essencemusic <http://twitter.com/essencemusic> on Twitter
- ReTweet “For a chance 2 win a signed photo of Mary J. Blige, RT #EMF2010, I want to see Mary J. Blige, http://bit.ly/a3ORd3”

The contest page can be found @ http://www.essencemusicfestival.com/maryjbligetwitter.php

The sweepstakes starts today, June 8th and will run through June 9th @ 11pm EST.  The winner will be announced on Twitter @essencemusic <http://twitter.com/essencemusic> and posted on the EMF website.  Good Luck!!

HawthoRNe: The Complete First Season Arrives on DVD June 15, 2010

Culver City, CA (April 8, 2010) – TNT’s new hit series, starring Jada Pinkett Smith, comes to DVD June 15th when Sony Pictures Home Entertainment debuts HawthoRNe: The Complete First Season.  Pinkett Smith (Madagascar, Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa, The Matrix trilogy), leads this inspiring drama as Christina Hawthorne, a take-no-prisoners Chief Nursing Officer.  She is a recently widowed single mother who puts everyone’s needs before her own, in order to achieve professional success.  When principles are at stake, Christina is ready to challenge hospital administrators, heartless doctors, apathetic colleagues and even the whole medical establishment.

Additionally, the series stars Michael Vartan (Alias) as the straight-laced, by-the-book Chief of Surgery who often challenges Hawthorne.  All 10 episodes are included in a three disc set that boasts eight exclusive featurettes that go behind the scenes, providing a closer look at the cast and crew.  HawthoRNe: The Complete First Season will be available for $34.95 SLP.

Pinkett Smith also executive-produced the series along with creator John Masius (Emmy® winning writer for St. Elsewhere), Glen Mazzara (The Shield) and Jamie Tarses (My Boys).

SYNOPSIS:
Christina Hawthorne (Pinkett Smith) is Richmond Trinity Hospital’s compassionate and headstrong Chief Nursing Officer, in charge of a staff who spends long days and nights on the hospital’s front lines.  Hawthorne will do everything in her power to help her patients.  When a patient’s care is at risk, she doesn’t hesitate to violate protocol, defend her staff or stand up to administrators who seem to have forgotten the hospital’s true purpose.  The long days on duty combined with Hawthorne’s intensity cannot help but take a toll on her personal life.   Christina is still coming to terms with losing her husband, while struggling to balance her career with her equally important role as a parent, as well as to find the time to take care of someone else who always seems to fall through the cracks – herself.

DVD Special Features Include:
All in a Day’s Work – A Conversation with Jada Pinkett Smith
Inside Richmond Trinity
Get to Know the Cast of HawthoRNe
HawthoRNe Medical School
Male Nurses
Shooting a Scene – Visual Effects
HawthoRNe’s Heroes

Trey Smith, actor Jackie Chan, actor Will Smith, actress Jada Pinkett Smith, actor Jaden Smith and Willow Smith arrive at Nickelodeon’s 23rd Annual Kid’s Choice Awards

Trey Smith, actor Jackie Chan, actor Will Smith, actress Jada Pinkett Smith, actor Jaden Smith and Willow Smith arrive at Nickelodeon’s 23rd Annual Kid’s Choice Awards held at UCLA’s Pauley Pavilion on March 27, 2010 in Los Angeles, California. (Photo by Michael Buckner/Getty Images). Content © 2010 Getty Images All rights reserved.

THE HUMAN CONTRACT (a J!-ENT DVD Review)

“A captivating film that is sexy and seductive.  Jason Clarke and Paz Vega are just red hot in this film! Overall, ‘THE HUMAN CONTRACT’ is a solid directorial debut for actress Jada Pinkett Smith!”

Images courtesy of © 2008 Human Contract LLC. All Rights Reserved.

DVD TITLE: THE HUMAN CONTRACT

DURATION: 107 Minutes

DVD INFORMATION: English 5.1 and French 5.1 (Dolby Digital), 2:40:1 (Anamorphic Widescreen), English and French Subtitles

COMPANY: TICOON/OVERBROOK/Sony Pictures Home Entertainment

RATED: R (Strong Sexual Content, Language and Violence)

RELEASE DATE:  June 30, 2009

Written and Directed by Jada Pinkett Smith

Executive Producer:  David Dinenberg, David Grasso, David Koplan, James Lassiter, Will Smith

Produced by Mike Jackson, Miguel Melendez, Dawn Thomas

Music by Antony Marinelli

Director of Photography: Darren Genet

Editing by Michael Trent

Casting by Matthew Barry and Nancy Green-Keyes

Production Design by Carlos Barbosa

Set Decoration by Joanne Baker

Costume Design by Rhona Meyers

Starring:

Jason Clarke as Julian Wright

Paz Vega as Michael

Idris Elba as Larry

Steven Brand as Boyd

Joanna Cassidy as Rose

Jada Pinkett Smith as Rita

T.J. Thyne as Greg

Ted Danson as E.J. Winters

Anne Ramsay as Cheryl

Tava Smiley as Brenda

Corporate player Julian Wright (Jason Clarke) stands on the verge of the deal of his career but his life just crossed paths with a woman (Paz Vega) who will turn his world upside down triggering emotions Julian never knew he had. As he pursues her in a dangerous game of seduction, he is forced to confront his past. Ultimately, Julian must face the dark family secrets that continue to haunt him and his troubled sister (Jada Pinkett Smith). Jada Pinkett Smith makes her directorial debut with this sophisticated, stylish and suspenseful film.

Actress Jada Pinkett Smith (“The Matrix Reloaded”, “Kingdom Come” and “Ali”) and her friend/producer Dawn Thomas (wrote and produced segments for “I Am Legend: Awakening”) came up with an idea of producing, writing and directing their own film.  Thomas has never produced, Smith has never written a screenplay or directed before but the two had a lot of enthusiasm after coming up with the idea for “THE HUMAN CONTRACT”.

The duo tapped into bringing in talent such as composer Anthony Marinelli (“Payback”, “Young Guns” and “The Runner”), cinematographer Darren Genet (“All the Boys Love Mandy Lane”, “South of Heaven” and the TV series “Kings”) and production designer Carlos Barbosa (“LOST”, “Coach Carter” and “CSI Miami”).

And hiring talents such as Jason Clarke (“Death Race”, “Farscape” and the TV series “Brotherhood”) and Spanish actress Paz Vega (“Fade to Black”, “The Spirit” and “10 Items or Less”), Idris Elba (“American Gangster”, “28 Weeks Later”, “Obsessed” and the TV series “The Office”), Ted Danson (TV shows “Cheers”, “Damages” and “Becker”) and Joanna Cassidy (“Six Feet Under”, “The Grudge 2″ and “Boston Legal”).

The film revolves around Julian Wright (Jason Clarke) who is an advertising director for a successful advertising firm who is being merged into a larger corporation (that happens to be conservative and about family values) and the firm been selected among the top two who must prove to the parent corporation that they are worthy of handling several of their top accounts.  Julian’s boss E.J. Winters (Ted Danson) and the firm’s lawyer Larry (Idris Elba) are putting their trust into Julian to win the over the parent corporation and win the account which is worth $5 billion.

If there is one thing that Julian is very good at, it’s his dedication to work and while waiting at the bar for his ex-wife, he meets the beautiful and carefree Spanish woman named Michael (Paz Vega).  Julian is surprised with his discussion with her of how attractive she is and definitely catches his attention for the night.  That is until his girlfriend Brenda comes to join him.

We then get a glimpse of Julian’s personal life and that learning of his successful work life but knowing that his personal life is not exactly the greatest.  His relationship with his very conservative mother Rose (Joanna Cassidy) is strong but has signs of frailty, he is undergoing a divorce, his sister Rita (Jada Pinkett Smith) is a woman who is involved in an abusive relationship and that things are just a bit messy.  We learn that Julian has put too much of a value on career than be there for his family and its pushed away his wife, any relationships he has with family or other women.  But we also learn of an unusual hobby of Michael’s of taking photos of people in pain and then keeping the images inside a locked room (that requires a pin code to enter).

But when he hooks up with Michael, his life starts to change.  His life full of negativity becomes alive when she enters his life.  But Michael may be too free.  A married woman who has this “understanding” with her husband that they can be with other people and not abiding to contracts that many people tend to follow.  At first, this puts Julian off but the more he spends time with her and the more she tries to persist in learning more about him (and getting into his locked room), Julian struggles as his negative side that wants to be in pain conflicts with his side that wants to find happiness.

But when his personal life starts to interfere with his career, can Julian continue to lead this double life of being a professional and a man who may have found the perfect person for him?

VIDEO & AUDIO:

“THE HUMAN CONTRACT” is a film that is seductively stylish and featured in anamorphic widescreen (aspect ratio of 2:40:1).  Each scene between Julian and Michael is sexually riveting, each scene with Julian’s dark side is filled with darkness and overall, Director of Photography Darren Genet did a fine job in capturing the variety of shots in the film that is able to capture the sexuality, the despair but also the life in the big city.

For the DVD, there are some scenes that I’ve caught a few dust but overall, when the scenes feature a lot of light, colors take on a bluish but brightly color haze.  When Julian and Michael are in engaged in something sexual, there is a good use of red and amber lighting and then when Julian is featured in his darker moments, a good use of blacks and darker colors.

Audio is presented in Dolby Digital 5.1 (English and French) and the film is dialog and music-driven.  For the most part, the dialog is understandable but some may have a hard time understanding Paz Vega’s Spanish accent but overall, audio is quite clear.

SPECIAL FEATURES:

“THE HUMAN CONTRACT” features the following special features:

• Commentary by Writer/Director Jada Pinkett Smith and Cinematographer Darren Genet - The commentary was very lively.  Jada Pinkett Smith talked about the film, the challenges, hiring certain cast members and certain shots and locations that she wanted to get.  Genet’s commentary focuses more on the shots and talks about his favorite shots and how he was able to capture the shot, especially the challenges of getting the shot.
• The Human Experience - (21:34) The following featurette is about how the film came to be.  From Jada Pinkett Smith and Dawn Johnson working on an idea and Jada Pinkett Smith taking on the reign and the challenge of how hard it was to be a director, writer and actress in the film.  Also, how Jada selected the talents for the film.  How Jada’s husband Will Smith came to the set and encouraged her because acting and directing was a difficult task.  Interviews with the talents and how they felt with working with Jada as a director and more.
  
• Roll of Film – (4:01) This featurette includes an interview with Director Jada Pinkett Smith and the main talents as they talk about life and the human contract and how they define what a “human contract” is.
  
• Previews – Previews for upcoming Sony Pictures Home Entertainment releases.
  

“THE HUMAN CONTRACT” is actually an entertaining film!  The storyline to capture the complexity of the character of Julian Wright was pretty well-done and the sexiness and seductiveness of Michael really does turn things up a notch for the film.

Jada Pinkett Smith did a solid job in her first screenplay and directorial debut.  First of all, finding a talented crew and talented actors to become part of this film was essential.   Both Jason Clark and Paz Vega heat up the screen with a lot of passion but Clark is able to show the volatility of his character.  Despite the success he may have had in his career, the man has been damaged psychologically by some event that relates to the house he once lived in.  And has affected him since.

The film captures the city life, the city landscape quite nicely but also very good cinematography with cameras shot in a variety of directions in order to capture the various moods and sensuality of the film.

And finally to see these lives of these individuals start to crash down like a roller coaster, these emotions find some redemption and sort of closure at the end of the film.  For Jada Pinkett Smith’s first screenplay and directorial debut, I was very impressed and I would mind seeing more work from her in the near future.

Overall, “THE HUMAN CONTRACT” is sexy, seductive and an emotion-driven film that is well-balanced with the imagery through well-done shots and cinematography with a pretty good screenplay.

“THE HUMAN CONTRACT” is simply a beautiful and sexy film to watch and a film that happens to be a very solid directorial debut for Jada Pinkett Smith.

reign over me (a J!-ENT DVD Review)

BUY THIS DVD

MOVIE COMPANY: SONY PICTURES
CAST: Adam Sandler, Don Cheadle, Jada Pinkett Smith, Liv Tyler, Donald Sutherland
DIRECTED & WRITTEN BY: Mike Binder
RATING: Rated R
INTERNET MOVIE DATABASE URL: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0490204/
TYPE OF MOVIE: Drama
DURATION: 124 minutes

Adam Sandler Don Cheadle Jada Pinkett Smith and Liv Tyler star in this heart-rending story about Charlie Fineman (Sandler) who has slipped away from reality after the sudden loss of his wife and children. But Charlie s life takes a turn for the better when he runs into his old college roommate Alan Johnson (Cheadle) whose life is torn between the demands of career and family. Their renewed friendship rekindles their long-forgotten bond and both men emerge enriched and enlightened.

DVD EXTRAS:

• Behind the reign: the making of reign over me
• Extended jam session with Adam Sandler and Don Cheadle
• A still reign: photographic montage.

DVD REVIEW:

An emotional and power film about a physician named Alan Johnson (Don Cheadle) who runs into his college roommate, Charlie Fineman (Adam Sandler), who has changed for the worse since Sept. 11.

Alan feels the need to help his friend who seems to be emotionally unstable and all he does is play video games, redoes the kitchen over and over and plays music.  Literally unemployed and has isolated himself from everyone.

As for Alan, he owns his own medical practice but his fellow physicians tend to keep him out of the circle and because of work and obligations to family, hasn’t really enjoyed his life.

That is until he meets Charlie and wants to connect with him and to see why he has become the way he is and possibly rekindle the friendship.

I have to admit that I was not sure about the film.  Don Cheadle is a fine actor but to have Adam Sandler play a serious role, after watching all his comedy films, wasn’t sure where this one would be going.  But amazingly, Sandler does a good job playing Charlie Fineman, who is reminscent of Dustin Hoffmany’s character of Raymond Babbitt of “Rain Man” but with much more paranoia, depression and anger.  But more strongly, his guilt over the loss of his wife and daughter that constantly replays in his mind over and over again.

Charlie is literally paranoid that Alan is spying on him and it comes to the point where Charlie almost becomes an annoyance to Alan and his family because he keeps showing up and wanting to do things that Alan is not used to doing.  Even in one scene where Charlie just loses it and destroys Alan’s waiting room.

But what I found most touching about the film is that there are many documentaries but not many films that deal with the families or love ones left behind after their significant other or family was killed on Sept. 11th.

Once Charlie finally opens up to Alan about the feelings he has kept suppressed within himself, you can’t just help but cry and know that probably in reality, there are many more people like him who are unable to let go or not ready to talk about their emotions.

Jada Pinkett Smith who plays Janeane Johnson plays a concerned wife of Alan.  Especially when he is spending all nighters playing videogames or doing something and not coming home.  And it definitely leads to a breaking point between Alan and Janeane where Alan, who also has emotions bottled up inside, has to let his emotions out.

Liv Tyler plays the character of Angela Oakhurst, a psychiatrist and friend of Alan who tries to help Charlie with his emotions.

The DVD comes with a few special features that include the two having to learn to play instruments and a behind-the-scenes featurette on the making of the film.  Also, included is a photo montage.

I think Binder & staff did a good job in covering the New York landscape in their scouting locations.  Not showing too many things that are happy but keeping within the confines of the overall atmosphere of the movie.

As for the overall film, it’s touching, very emotional but it’s far from perfect.  We understand Charlie and why he is so emotional but for Alan’s character, he’s a doctor with a beautiful wife and good family, obviously making good money… but is his dilemma overwork?  Not satisfied about his life or his working partners?

Also, the things that Charlie does to Alan and how Alan just remains patient with him and forgives for everything, no matter how bad the situation maybe, definitely Alan has a good heart but how many people would be friends with a man who destroys your place of work or tries to pick a fight with you?

But nevertheless, despite its minimal problems, the movie comes together quite fine and in the end, I felt entertained, quite touched by the overall message in the film of how life so fragile.  All in all, a DVD worth checking out!

THE MOVIE:  A
THE DVD EXTRAS:  B-
THE DVD OVERALL: B+