Posted: Thu 16 Aug 2007 14:54 Post subject: Mel B aka Melanie Brown
Melanie Janine Brown (born May 29, 1975 in Leeds) (aka Mel B) is an English pop singer and songwriter turned actress and television personality best known as one of the members of the girl band the Spice Girls, one of the most successful female groups of all time.[1] She was given the nickname "Scary Spice" by the British media because of her outrageous, "in-your-face" attitude, 'loud' Leeds accent, throaty laugh, manner of dress (which often consisted of leopard-print outfits) and her voluminously curly hair.
Biography
Brown is of mixed race parentage, born to a English mother, Andrea, and a Nevisian-African father, Martin. She has a younger sister named Danielle who is an actress. She studied performing arts at the now famous Intake High School in her home city of Leeds, before entering the entertainment industry. For a time she worked as a dancer in Blackpool.
After seeing an advertisement for an audition in a newspaper, Brown started her music career in a band known as Touch. The group left the original management team and eventually teamed up with music manager Simon Fuller. Here, she and the other girls were launched on the world as the Spice Girls. After worldwide success in the group she embarked on a solo music career in 1998. Her first solo album, with Virgin Records, was a success, including a No.1 hit. In 2005 she released a second solo album which did not attract much attention.
Spice Girl Mel B & former husband Jimmy Gulzar.
The couple, who have a 20-month-old daughter, Phoenix Chi, divorced in January 2000.
Mel B met Gulzar, 33, in 1998 after they met on the group's Spice World tour.
The pair were inseparable, and after a matter of weeks Mel B discovered she was pregnant and Jimmy proposed.
They married in a secret ceremony as part of an exclusive magazine deal in September 1998.
As Mel B enjoys a vacation in Miami with her new husband, her ex-husband Jimmy Gulzar is in Los Angeles with their daughter, Phoenix Chi, 8. They headed out for a short bike ride and they stopped off for some cold drinks in West Hollywood.
Last edited by gemini072 on Tue 03 Jun 2008 19:23; edited 5 times in total
in April 2007, Brown's friend Christa Parker revealed in British magazine Closer that she and Brown had had a sexual relationship, and also that Brown had a two year relationship with a film executive named Christine. At the time Brown said, "people can call me lesbian, bisexual or heterosexual, but I know who's in my bed and that's it - I have a huge libido and a great sex life."
Parker gives details of the couple's break-up (Murphy refused to accompany Brown to a doctor's appointment, instead opting to turn up to a film premiere with another woman) before casually mentioning that she herself was seduced by Mel, 'enjoying' a night of lesbian clam-lapping after the singer plied her with booze until her knickers and bra came off.
Angel Iris Murphy Brown
Angel Iris got to meet her half-sister, five-year-old Bella Zahra - Mitchell youngest child with Eddie
Eddie finally admits 'I'm the daddy' as his exes unite
Last updated at 13:29pm on 4th August 2007
Comments
Eddie Murphy has publicly acknowledged he's the father Spice Girls singer Melanie Brown's baby.
A brief statement issued by Murphy's publicist said the 46-year-old star of "Dreamgirls" and the "Beverly Hills Cop" movies "always has and will continue to honor his responsibilities as a father."
The admission comes after Mel B brought a paternity suit against Murphy earlier this week and she was thought to be 'teaming up' with his ex-wife.
The Spice Girl and Murphy's other ex Nicole Mitchell, who divorced the Hollywood superstar in 2006, spent the afternoon enjoying a "really friendly" lunch - in a scene which would no doubt send shivers down Murphy's spine.
Last edited by gemini072 on Tue 03 Jun 2008 19:12; edited 2 times in total
Posted: Thu 16 Aug 2007 15:18 Post subject: MEL B ALREADY MARRIED; CANCELS LARRY KING INTERVIEW
MEL B ALREADY MARRIED; CANCELS LARRY KING INTERVIEW
Wednesday, August 8, 2007
Looks like Mel B pulled Janet and kept her marriage to music producer Stephen Belafonte under wraps for months. Ok, maybe not a Janet but no one knew she was married. Read on:
Scary Spice, aka Melanie Brown wed her boyfriend Stephen Belafonte in June, her rep confirmed to Access Hollywood. It is the bride’s second marriage. Mel previously was married to Jimmy Gulzar, a former backup dancer for the Spice Girls. Gulzar is the father of Mel’s oldest daughter, Phoenix Chi.
In related news, earlier today, Brown canceled her appearance on CNN’s “Larry King Live” which was set for broadcast this evening. She cited sickness on the part of herself and her baby Angel Iris as the reason for pulling out of the show. A rep for the curly-haired singer told Access, Brown is attempting to reschedule her interview with Larry King.
Last edited by gemini072 on Tue 03 Jun 2008 19:14; edited 1 time in total
My mum's white and my dad's black and they used to get a lot of stick about being together, so they knew that I might have problems when they brought me into the world. Even when I was born, somebody asked my mum: "If the world was split in two parts, strictly black or strictly white, where would your daughter be?" I was lucky that my mum and dad were so cool when I was growing up. They respected each other's cultures and mixed them and were happy about it, which is rare. You find that a lot of mixed race kids feel quite lost if their parents sway one way or the other and are prejudiced against white or black. That's where the confusion starts - you get mixed race kids hating black or white people, or just not knowing whether to turn to their mum or to their dad for an answer to any questions. I think people blend either to the black side or to the white side because they have a real fear of standing strong and saying: "This is me. I'm mixed race." I didn't see colour for a long time because it wasn't an issue at home.
Then, as I started growing up, I sometimes saw a difference in the way people acted towards me. When I was in primary school, I used to get called 'Paki', because they didn't know what else to call me. It was like, "Well, what is she, then?" The teachers didn't seem to know how to deal with the mixed race thing, either. Sometimes I'd go to my parents and say: "I'm being called this or that-and why am I this colour?" They'd just say: "Because you are." They didn't give me any intense explanations or advice. They just let me get on with it. So I worked on myself and made myself happy. I used to write a lot if I had a problem, and that helped. I realised that you have to create your own thing. You have to realise that you're in the middle, and respect both sides. In a way, it's a fairer outlook on life because you can't have a problem with colour if you're in the middle! But then you find people who will create a problem because they just can't accept that they're two colours blended.
It's difficult because it often seems like there isn't a place for mixed race people to fit in. You get your black communities and your white communities. You get your black churches, your white churches, your mixed churches, your Indian and your Muslim places of worship, but you don't get anything for mixed race people. I'm not saying being mixed race is a defined culture and has a history - It hasn't because society has always been so separate. But, now in the 1990s we're more mixed than ever. You get people who are a half this, a quarter that and a quarter of something else, which is great. the only problem is that there are a lot of kids growing up who don't feel they belong anywhere.
I'd say to them that you have to listen to yourself and not take sides with any colour. When you're mixed race, you're living proof that society has changed, that barriers have broken down and people are coming together a lot more, so you should be standing proud and saying: "Yes, I'm mixed race."
But a lot of kids don't see it that way-they see it as not really fitting in anywhere. I think you don't have to fit in. You create your own thing.
But when I was younger, I did have problems knowing where I fitted in. I had black friends and I also had white friends and some of my black friends would be completely on the black side dissing the whites, while some of my white friends were completely on the white side and didn't quite understand what was going on on the black side. They would ask: "What's the big problem about it all?" They didn't know about the history of black culture, all the suffering and everything.
I was different to my mixed race friends at school because I respected both black and white and I didn't hang around with any one specific colour. I didn't speak the black ghetto language, but then again I wasn't stuffy and snobby and so-called white. I got on with everyone, so I got called 'Bounty', meaning someone who's black on the outside and white on the inside. I used to think: "Why are they calling me that?" I couldn't understand it.
A lot of mixed race people have different features to black and white people and sometimes it's hard for them to know if someone's being racist to them because of their colour or because they're jealous of their complexion, looks or hair. White girls always used to say to me: "I've had so many perms to get my hair like yours." And black girls would ask: "How can I get my hair like yours?" and I'd say, "Well, I don't know. This is just how it is."
I've come across racism from white and black people, but I never let it affect me. The way I see it, well, it's their problem, not mine. I know who I am. At one time I had a black boyfriend and went to a lot of black gospel churches with him and his parents, but a lot of the black girls didn't like me at all. I used to get spat at on my way into college, in the black area of Leeds. I just got used to it. It was like the norm-oh , a black girl's being funny with me, that's fair enough. But, I think it's changed now. I really saw a difference when I went out clubbing in Leeds over Christmas and I got black girls coming up to me and saying: "Well done!"
Maybe that's because I've done a couple of interviews-one for Pride magazine and one for 'Black Britain' on TV. I'd always wanted to be on 'Black Britain' and it was really, really good to get the chance to talk about mixed race issues. Times are really
changing-all the stereotypes are breaking down. for instance, I spoke to Tricky in New York and he told me that people thought he was weird at school because he wasn't into the so-called black music. But, now he's broken down barriers in a brilliant way by making his own kind of left-field music. Although there are always going to be problems with colour, mixing up the races diffuses the situation. I think that once people see that you're alright with yourself, it breaks down the barriers and there isn't a problem. The answer is to be yourself. "Be proud of who you are and where you come from. Whoever you are."
'
FAQ
Search
Register
Log in
