2008: Not an Exceptional Year, but Interesting in Some Respects

Summary

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There was "entertainment" during the long campaign. What could have been more "entertaining" than the bizarre and unentionally comical Sarah Palin? Tina Fey repeatedly lampooning Palin on "Saturday Night Live" was on target.

Ending months of speculation, rumors, gossip and blog entries, Beyonce Knowles and Jay-Z were married in April. However, talk continued, focused on Beyonce supposedly expecting. The megastar was not and is not "with child." She recently said on national television that "people want me to be pregnant." She chalked it up to being the type of thing celebrities have to deal with. As for advising women on getting married, she said, "Have a life of your own before you get married."

ARETHA FRANKLIN overreacted when Beyonce introduced Tina Turner as "the queen" on a televised awards tribute. (Beyonce had just included Franklin in a salute to some of the greatest ladies in Black music history.) Aretha, who was in the audience, felt this was a dilberate insult. Beyonce never said "queen of soul." If she had, that would have been something entirely different. Tina Turner is indeed a queen, as are Diana Ross, Gladys Knight, Lena Horne, Dionne Warwick, [Patti LaBelle], Nancy Wilson and a select few others. Aretha Franklin is much too intelligent a woman to engage in such wasteful negativity. Clearly, no harm was intended.

Unfortunately, we had to say goodbye to a lot of people, including Eartha Kitt, Isaac Hayes, Bo Diddley, Heath Ledger, record producer Jerry Wexler, Bernie Mac, Levi Stubbs, Detroit vocalist Nathaniel Mayer, Odetta, Dee Dee Warwick, George Carlin, Ivan Dixon, Pervis Jackson of the Spinners, Sean Levert, Miriam Makeba, Buddy Miles, Paul Newman, former Motown president Jheryl Busby, producer/ songwriter Norman Whitfield and Fantastic Four member Joseph Pruitt. Deborah Smith Pollard, educator and Detroit radio personality, wrote an intriguing book about gospel music with an unusual title, "When the Church Becomes Your Party."

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2008: Not an Exceptional Year, but Interesting in Some Respects

Certain years leap out at you because so many significant, and in some cases history-making, things happened during those 12 months. 2008 was not one of those years, at least not in show business. It is, in fact, most noteworthy for the downturn in the economy which, direc...

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