Ghanaian Movies Banned In Nigeria

Several news reports from Nigeria suggest that there is a pending ban on the sale and distribution of Ghanaian movies in that country.

The reports also state that a group of Nigerian movie producers is lacing its boots to storm Ghana to demand royalty payments from all television stations that air Nigerian films without obtaining permission from the original producers.
“Starting from the first week of August (2012), no Ghanaian film will be allowed to enter the Nigerian market again. We have resolved that no Ghanaian film will be distributed within our controlled market.
Our Ghanaian counterparts have long stopped distributing our films in their country, and given this development, we have no choice than to reciprocate the gesture,” the reports quoted the Onitsha branch chairman of the Film, Video Producers and Marketers Association of Nigeria (FVPMAN), Uzo Godson Nwosu.
The reports said FVPMAN had also resolved that any of its members who failed to comply with this new order would either be prosecuted or have their goods confiscated by the association.
Uzo Godson Nwosu said this position was taken after the association’s general meeting last weekend in Onitsha.
What is not certain is how this development would affect Ghanaian based movie production firms that are owned and controlled by Nigerians; and whether movies from such Nigerian producers based in Ghana would be allowed into the Nigerian market, especially when they mostly have a mixed cast of actors from both countries.
This may also affect the fortunes of Ghanaian actors who get roles in Nigeria.
The likes of Jackie Appiah, Majid Michel, John Dumelo, Kalsum Sinare, Nadia Buari and several others may have a challenge getting roles from Nigerian-based producers.
Interestingly, Ghanaian movie producers and distributors are yet to comment about the development publicly.
A few of them who decided to speak with NEWS-ONE said they did not care much because they hardly sold their movies in Nigeria.
“We should rather be the ones who are angry because most of us do not sell in Nigeria so if this happens they would be losers and not us,” they noted.
Meanwhile, the Film Distributors Association in Ghana, based in Opera, Accra, is already facing a difficult challenge, with various members openly refusing to obey the association’s rules of releasing movies into the market.
Several movie producers from Kumasi and Brong Ahafo for instance have decided to break away from the association and set their own rules and regulations for releasing movies into the market.
The breakaway group has accordingly formed a new association which regulates the release of their movies.
Award-winning producer Leila Djansi is also leading another group of producers to boycott the Opera Square-based association which she has described as a “wicked mafia with an empty importance”.
The Film Producers Association of Ghana (FIPAG), led by veteran actor Augustine Abbey aka Idikoko, is also almost on its knees with deep disagreements among its executive members.
Reports said its spokesperson and Public Relations Officer, Socrates Safo of Movie Africa already had a leg outside the association, though he was yet to officially tender in his resignation letter.
The complaints have generally bordered on alleged dictatorial tendencies on the part of Idikoko and lack of transparency in handling the association’s funds.

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Nigeria: Chris Okotie Divorces Wife Number Two

Glamour pastor, Reverend Chris Okotie, once again, is hitting the waves on yet another controversial note. He seems to have blended sufficiently well with controversies that whenever such social storms blow, he manages to emerge unruffled, and soon trudges on in life, as if he was never fazed by life's little hiccups.
But rather than get flustered, the worry this time, seems more from the members of his congregation at the Household of God Church, Oregun, Lagos, whom he openly told last Sunday, during church service, that "the union is not working," as a passing explanation for the absence of his now separated wife, Stephanie, from the church.
Not a few of the members of his church were shell-shocked and speechless when the funky pastor, who has over time been known for his controversial lifestyle, announced that he has broken up with Stephanie Henshaw, his second wife of four years.
According to him, "Stephanie and I are no longer married. We have separated. You can see she's not in church today. It's due to irreconcilable differences and you should please respect our wishes at this time", stressing that, "because there is no going back."
The congregation was bemused. Although unvoiced, many must have exclaimed in their minds, "again?" Controversy had precipitated Okotie's attempt to get married to Stephanie, a widow and mother of three, after he had divorced his first wife, Tina, who now lives in the United States of America.
The General Overseer of the Lagos-based church came to the attention of the public as a student with his I Need Someone track in the 80s, which became a monster hit. The single held night clubs spellbound for years. Ever since, the funky pop star-turned-pastor has remained a permanent feature on celebrity circuit in the country.
His claim to fame stepped up a notch when he joined partisan politics, seeking to become the president of the country under a party he formed - Fresh Democratic Party (FDP). As a politician, he served mostly as an entertainer, with his lofty and grandiloquent English at party conventions and campaigns, an idiosyncracy that earned him as much laughter as applause. Although he has never made an appreciable showing in the two presidential elections he has contested, his party (the FDP) won a seat in the Delta State House of Assembly a few years ago.
Just like his failed presidential bids, the entries on his marital life report have equally not been cheering. Given his charm, elan and panache, Okotie is generally believed to be a ladies' man, an attribute that some might conclude conflicts with the Pentecostal genre. But he had managed to beat down (not very successfully though) scandals and rumours surrounding his private life.
So when he chose to "separate" from his campus lover and eventual wife, Tina, in 1998, many sympathised with him especially as the story pushed out was that there was a conflict over the choice on running the ministry here in Nigeria with relocating to the US, as allegedly preferred by Tina. Eventually, Tina moved to the US while Chris continued to pastor his flock in Lagos. That effectively brought down the curtain on the 16-year-old marriage to his first wife.
Ten years later, August 2008, to be precise, he remarried, this time to Stephanie at a colourful ceremony in Lagos. In telling fanfare, the socialite pastor was decked out in a regal Urhobo outfit on that day, all in a bid to express his joy over his marriage to Stephanie.
Despite the protestation from church and family members against a cleric of Okotie's standing marrying a divorcee or widow, Okotie was purported to have said he was doing God's bidding, who had directed him into the marriage with Stephanie. Who could controvert the declaration of a MoG (Man of God)? Okotie had his way and married Stephanie.
  While justifying his marriage to Stephanie at the time as against Biblical injunctions forbidding divorcees from re-marrying, he had argued, "There is a difference between a man abandoned by his wife and the one that divorces. The only thing that breaks a relationship is a divorce and even when there's a divorce, the Bible says you can re-marry."
 According to reports, Okotie had during a press conference, said his new bride was destined to marry him from birth and that people really did not appreciate what love is. He said he began 'walking closely' with Stephanie in 1999, a year after his divorce and he had asked her to marry him many times. "She was not particularly certain whether it was what God wanted for her. So I had a situation where I had to get the Lord to persuade her that he is part of this agreement," he had said
But last Sunday, the cookie, once again, crumbled as the clergyman himself announced that things had fallen apart and that the centre could no longer hold. He followed this with a plea that the decision should be respected because they had mutually crossed the rubicon.
Besides, the divorce is now raising questions as to whether Okotie actually heard from God or if it was God that misled him. Now saddled with the reputation of not being able to keep his home together, his ability to serve as a good marriage counsellor to younger and intending couples is being called to question.
While Okotie is divorcing for the second time, Stephanie has now been married three times and has three children from her first two marriages. The breakup also puts an end to the dream twin babies that Okotie had expected her to deliver someday.
Now that Okotie has established himself as a man who flirted with marriage twice, will he someday remarry again? And what will happen to his claims of hearing from God. That perhaps is the harder part in this drama of reconciling a reverend pastor and a man no different from the rest of his congregation.

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Jay-Z’s surprise for sister-in-law

Jay-Z showered Solange Knowles with birthday surprises in the early hours of Sunday morning (24.06.12).

The '99 Problems' hitmaker had been celebrating his headline set at the BBC Radio 1 Hackney Weekend music event backstage on Saturday (23.06.12) with friends and family including Solange, his wife Beyonce Knowles, Rihanna and M.I.A. but he made sure his sister-in-law's special day didn't go unnoticed as soon as the clock struck midnight.

He presented her with cake and champagne and led a chorus of 'Happy Birthday', much to Solange's shock.

A source told the Daily Mirror newspaper: "It was really sweet. Solange hadn't even noticed that it had turned 12am when Jay got everybody singing together. She was really touched."

Earlier in the day, Solange and her sibling Beyonce had enjoyed a relaxing day at the festival before watching Jay-Z take to the stage.

Alongside a picture of herself and her sister with beaming smiles, Solange tweeted: "We. Are. Family."

The birthday celebrations will have come as light relief following an incident earlier in the evening when Jay-Z's bodyguards were allegedly involved in a "ruckus" at BBC Radio 1's Hackney Weekend after someone insulted Beyonce.

The rapper's entourage reportedly "piled in" on a man after he upset the rapper's wife backstage at the London music event.

A source said "Someone in the entourage said something to Beyonce to really upset her.

"Jay-Z's bouncers moved in and there was a massive ruckus. Things really kicked off as his heavies all piled in on the guy." - Bang Showbiz

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Brown: I didn’t start the brawl

Chris Brown feels “really sorry” for the people who were injured in his fight with Drake.

The 23-year-old singer was involved in a brawl with Drake at a nightclub in New York on June 14 and while he wishes to pass on his regret about the incident – in which sports star Tony Parker sustained an injury to his eye - he claims he did not start it.

A source said: “Chris is really sorry and feels bad for the people who were injured at the club when all that s**t went down and wishes he could apologise to everyone that was injured there, even homeboy Tony Parker.

“He’s upset and feels bad for everyone but at the end of the day people need to remember that he was injured too and beyond that, he didn’t even instigate or start any of the bulls**t.”

Drake is believed to have started the fight when his entourage sent a note to Chris about his ex-girlfriend Rihanna.

The source added to HollywoodLife.com: “You see what happens when you let some ignorant asses in a club with new money. Some bulls**t always pops off and regular people, innocent people, who had nothing to do with anything, who just came to the club for a good time, end up getting hurt. So damn sad.”

As a result of the crawl, both Chris and Drake have been offered $1-million to continue their feud in a boxing ring.

Celebrity boxing promoter Damon Feldman claims billionaire Alki David wants to see the pair settle the differences in a public fight. - Bang Showbiz

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Jackson brothers honour Michael

Michael Jackson's brothers Tito and Jackie held a dinner on the third anniversary of his death.

The musicians held the event for 25 close friends and band members at Italian restaurant Canaletto in New York, before heading to the Apollo Theater to rehearse for a sold out show with brothers Marlon and Jermaine.

A source told the New York Post newspaper: "Most of the guests were band members who will perform at the Apollo.

"They a had big, glorious dinner before heading to Harlem to rehearse for the sold-out performance."

The third anniversary of Michael's death came on June 25, and fans sent 10,000 roses to Forest Lawn Memorial Park where he is buried with $30,000 being collected for the gift from fans using social media sites.

The Jackson brothers - who were originally known as The Jackson 5 - are preparing to perform for the first time without Michael, and admit they can "feel the sorrow" performing their old songs without him.

Tito said: "There's certain songs that make you feel the sorrow.

"Then again, there are other songs that bring so much joy and happiness, such as 'ABC' and 'I Want You Back' and the up-tempo stuff like 'This Place Hotel.'

"I just imagine how he used to walk and spin and do all these things. You can feel his presence here."

Michael died from acute Propofol intoxication on June 25, 2009 at the age of 50. - Bang Showbiz

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