Singer Alicia Keys has been cast as music icon Lena Horne in the Oprah Winfrey produced biopic, reports the New York Post. Apparently, the stars had been aligning themselves for this outcome for some time now. In 2005, Oprah told Keys she would like to see her play the legendary role. Like  Horne, Keys is a Grammy-winning, singer/actress/philanthropist from New York. During an interview for the movie "The Great Debaters" directed by Denzel Washington, who also stars, producer Winfrey told the NYP, “We’re going to start filming [the Lena Horne biopic] next year… And we’ve got Alicia.”
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Hip-hop executive Jermaine Dupri announced his latest shrewd business move: to reunite the Jackson 5. Michael, Marlon, Jermaine, Tito and Jackie will join Dupri and his lady, Janet Jackson at the Studio 72 club in Atlanta, GA for “A Jackson 5 New Year’s Eve.” According to HHNLive.com, the rumor is that the group will make a grand entrance involving a helicopter. To purchase tickets, visit www.ticketannex.com.

After much online buzzing (including interview clips and leaked music), rapper Joe Budden’s Mood Muzik 3: For Better or For Worse mixtape is finally available for purchase at www.MixtapeKings.com. The mixtape is Budden's first recording since his widely publicized release from Def Jam Records in October. After his self-titled debut dropped in 2003, Budden was vocal about not getting the support he thought he deserved. He kept his name and lyrical prowess in the streets with the two-part Mood Muzik series with DJ OnPoint “We’re showcasing what quality really represents and putting out underground music that is better then anything being released nationally,” Budden said in a statement. “We always have fun making music, which is un-heard of once politics becomes involved. We’re changing the format, stepping outside the box, and exceeding expectations.”

Singer John Legend along with actors Danny Glover and Kerry Washington are among the stars performing in the upcoming four-hour documentary miniseries “The People Speak” based on historian and activist Howard Zinn’s 1980 book, “A People’s History of The United States.” The book offers a historical perspective that Zinn felt was missing from text books on the struggles between slaves and slavery, Native Americans and European/U.S. expansionism, women and patriarchy, and workers and capitalism. Performances will include musical interpretations and passages from the book. “This project is about Howard Zinn, his books and using that body of work to remind and inspire us all that this is a country built on dissidence,” producer Chris Moore told Variety. “Howard’s work deserves to be on film, and it is time that we paid tribute and captured the struggles of the people.”