Singer and Actress Lena Horne died on May 9,2010

Lena Horne, the silky-voiced singing legend who shattered Hollywood stereotypes of African Americans on screen in the 1940s as a symbol of glamour whose signature song was "Stormy Weather," died on May 9. She was 92

She was 92 and lived in Manhattan. Her death was announced by her son-in-law, Kevin Buckley. Ms. Horne might have become a major movie star, but she was born 50 years too early, and languished at MGM in the 1940s because of the color of her skin, although she was so light-skinned that, when she was a child, other black children had taunted her, accusing her of having a “white daddy.”

Ms. Horne was stuffed into one “all-star” musical after another — “Thousands Cheer” (1943), “Broadway Rhythm” (1944), “Two Girls and a Sailor” (1944), “Ziegfeld Follies” (1946), “Words and Music” (1948) — to sing a song or two that could easily be snipped from the movie when it played in the South, where the idea of an African-American performer in anything but a subservient role in a movie with an otherwise all-white cast was unthinkable.

“The only time I ever said a word to another actor who was white was Kathryn Grayson in a little segment of ‘Show Boat’ ” included in “Till the Clouds Roll By” (1946), a movie about the life of Jerome Kern, Ms. Horne said in an interview in 1990. In that sequence she played Julie, a mulatto forced to flee the showboat because she has married a white man.

So far, there's no immediate statement when Lena Horne funeral will be held.

Ellin Barkin Gains $4.3 Of That Revlon Money

You watched many victories of female celebrities, whatever she is known or unknown, claiming  against their husbands by the help of law. The unknown actress, Ellen Barkin, who had an almost unrecognizable role as a sullen drug-addict mother in "Chameleon," which recently premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival just won a tidy $4.3 million lawsuit against her Revlon billionaire ex-husband Ron Perelman. The Manhattan Supreme court ordered Ron to pay up with interest.

 

Ellenn Barkin and Ron were only married for five reportedly tumultuous years. In 2006, Perelman conveniently filed for and quickly got a divorce, just days before the prenup would have kicked in, giving Ellen Barkin more alimony. Despite that, Ellen Barkin still got a decent chunk, some $2-3 million a year. And after the divorce, she also sold all the jewelry Ron had given her for an estimated $16-20 million. 

But Ron had also signed an agreement to make four capital contributions to her film production company, for a total of $3.4 million. 

But when Ellen Barkin talked to the press about not taking legal steps to obtain a "get," which is a Jewish religious divorce, he reneged on the deal, saying she'd not heeded the confidentiality restrictions of the divorce contract.

 

The Manhattan Supreme court didn't like that and Thursday Ron was ordered to pay up with interest, making it $4.3 million to Ellen Barkin - that's big pimpin'. Now Ron surely got a shocked and not to think of divorce next time!