Kate Henshaw Is Good At What She Does

Not many people can do the things delectable Nollywood actress  Kate Henshaw does and gets away with. If you think I'm just blabbing (without any hard feelings) ask the likes of Tonto Dike, Omotola Jalade and even my ever beautiful Genevieve Nnaji.

I've seen Kate Henshaw do a lot of things from being an actress, presenter, dancer, singer (yeah singer and a good one at that) and more. Lest I forget, she's also delved into politics. The beautiful part of all is that she is done really well in every one of them. Oops! *tongue in cheek* Did I say 'all'?

Hmm! Okay. Let's leave it at 99% success of most things she's delved into as she did not make it in politics when she contested for House of reps under the People's Democratic Party earlier this year in 2015.

You may be wondering why I picked ever-smiling Kate Henshaw today. I'll tell you why.

A short while ago, I just walked into the office to see her in the new video of the song "See Us Now" a track from JJC's newly released album 'Skillz' where he featured Kate Henshaw who of course delivered as expected just as she delivered a few years back when she featured in JJC's 'Skank'. I felt her in that Video just like I did the first time I heard the song. 

Kate in 'Skank' Video

In 'See Us Now' Video

JJC and Katie sure do have some kind of FRIENDSHIP/bond as seen in the jobs they've done together. No wonder tongues started wagging about 'an affair' when pictures of the new video shoot (of the duo as though they were having romantic moments) were all over the social media. 

And of course, JJC, the father of three cleared the air of any 'affair' allegations when asked if he had a crush on Kate. He said he liked her uniqueness and actually saw Kate Henshaw's performance once at a banquet and I thought she would be perfect to pass the message which had an emotional and uplifting video to the people.

“I actually saw Kate Henshaw’s performance once at a banquet and I thought she would be perfect to pass the message to the people. I like her uniqueness. I have been looking forward to a chance for the Nigerian music industry and Nollywood to come together for the common good of the masses. With Kate, I have made that happen. People have been saying I have a crush on her, but it is far from the truth”, he said. - See more at: http://www.nollywoodfreaks.com/i-dont-have-a-crush-on-kate-henshaw-jjc-says/#sthash.pAO1Z0No.dpuf

“I actually saw Kate Henshaw’s performance once at a banquet and I thought she would be perfect to pass the message to the people. I like her uniqueness. I have been looking forward to a chance for the Nigerian music industry and Nollywood to come together for the common good of the masses. With Kate, I have made that happen. People have been saying I have a crush on her, but it is far from the truth”, he said. - See more at: http://www.nollywoodfreaks.com/i-dont-have-a-crush-on-kate-henshaw-jjc-says/#sthash.pAO1Z0No.dpuf

And by the way (take a moment and forget what JJC said), which guy wouldn't have a crush on Katie? Those her infectious smiles can NEVER be ignored by any one. 

Now, if those 'make-believe' shots fooled a lot of people then 'DAMN! (forgive my language) you will agree with me without any doubts that Kate Henshaw is by far one great act that cannot be ignored in the entertainment industry as she's good at what she does.

Here's to my delectable Nollywood 'Pick' of today, Kate Henshaw "WELL DONE". 
*Smiling like her right now*.

Retired Bankers Vs Real Tired Bankers

My friends were having a discussion the other day. At first I wasn’t interested in the topic until the word “retired” was mentioned and I quickly recalled a scenario which transpired a few years back between a trio of bank marketers and a potential client/depositor.

The said bank marketers had gone to this businessman who supposedly had a huge account with another bank that was of course making a great turnover in return.

When these marketers approached the man in his office, he took a good look at them without uttering a word for a while and then, like an afterthought, asked them their mission - as if he didn't know it already.

The first of the trio, a young man who appeared to  lead  the pack of two females went  thus; “Sir, we are marketers from so-and-so bank, we were wondering how we could be of any help to your great organization”.

While the young man spoke the potential client who was listening keenly had this smirk on his face which he eventually turned into a scornful laugh after a few minutes.

As soon as the potential client started  laughing, the young man stopped talking and with an embarrassed look on his face, turned towards his colleagues with an expression which said “Did I just do or say anything funny”?

While the young man was pondering on that, the potential client looked at the trio seated in front of him and said “Hey! Forgive my manners. I forgot to offer you drinks and, looking at you, you sure do need the offer." Ignoring their protests declining his offer, the man turned  towards a fridge behind him) and brought out three bottles of malt drinks which he placed of his visitor.

All the marketers did was mutter a /hushed “thank you” even though they made no move to touch the bottles.

The potential client sat back in his chair, cleared his throat and began, “You know what, I remember when this business started just a few years ago. I approached your bank for a loan, and you know what your bank said to me?"

The marketers shook their heads in the negative.

"Of course not,|" the man continued."Well, they told me that they don’t assist new businesses  and that even this same business that all your colleagues have been coming from different branches to solicit for account opening now, did not look promising to them at the time so could not put a dime in it”.

The marketers exchanged surprised looks - though that didn't fool the man one bit. They knew for a fact that it was the bank’s policy not to give loans to new or fresh businesses.

The man ignored their pretended surprise and continued, “So I went to another bank with the same proposal your bank had rejected and without much hassle, I got a loan, even more than what I requested from your bank after I was convinced by my then account officer to go for more than what I initially had in mind.  It is that money which was used to grow my business that has transformed into this huge business that you all are running after now."

“We, we ...” this time one of the ladies spoke “...understand your plight, sir, and  apologise on behalf of the bank for making you go through all that. But we would still like to know how we can…"

“Point of correction” the potential client cut in “I do not have a plight. It is you marketers who are in some kind of plight at the moment because I am way up beyond that now by the grace of God. And lest I forget, I'm not bitter anymore because at the end of the day, it was a good thing your bank turned me

down, otherwise I wouldn't have gone to my present bank and most importantly met my then account officer who today is a friend and like a brother in my family."

After a brief silence, the second lady, trying so hard to be as seductive as possible, said, "so since you are no longer angry with the bank, we still need to know how we can be of any help."

While she spoke, a man who looked in his early forties walked into the office and the potential client's face  immediately lit up with a smile and an outstretched hand for a handshake towards the man and said "speaking of which, this is the man-of-the-moment, Eugene my then account officer who's now retired from the bank and doing this same business of mine."

 After exchanging pleasantries with the others, the man sat down on a single settee at one end of the large office away from the rest and said "I learnt from the best you know." Turning while laughing towards the marketers, he added jokingly "don't believe anything he says o! If he says I am the-man-of-the-moment, he is the-MAN-OF-ALL-MOMENTS" and humbly picked up a magazine from the stack of papers on a table by the settee.

Well, my 'dears' I do not have any need for a new bank now as I'm fine with my present bank and most importantly you don't expect me to leave a bank that helped me for yours, would you? I give nearly every one of your bank marketers drinks whenever they show up here  because I sympathise with them because I know how hard you work knowing full well that up until now as we speak, your bank still does not help new business thereby making marketing difficult for you thereafter turn you all into 'REAL TIRED' bankers until you eventually take the bull by the horns and quietly Retire like my man over there who did not wait to become 'really tired' before retiring" pointing towards the man on the settee now reading a magazine. 

And so, it ended a case of RETIRED versus REAL TIRED bankers.

Here is my cup filled with so much love for all those 'REAL TIRED' bankers who are yet to 'RETIRE'.

Wishing YOU ALL THE BEST!

Basketmouth And His Basket Of 'Lovelies' To Wife Elsie

Basketmouth and Wife, Elsie

While a lot of celebrities are busy having a war of words on social media and packing up the remains of their troubled marriages which at one time or the other were highly celebrated as 'heaven-made-on-earth' kind of marriages, Nigerian Comedian Bright Okpocha who is popularly known as Basketmouth was busy celebrating his wife Elsie Uzoma Okpocha as they marked their fifth year wedding anniversary.

On Wednesday the 28th of October 2015, Basketmouth sent a lovely message to his wife thanking her for being a source of blessing to him and for giving him a beautiful family. His exact words were " “Elsie, thank you for letting me come into your life, for giving me a beautiful family, for blessing me with your love, affection and care. Happy wedding anniversary.” Hmmm! How lovely!!

Basket and Wife on their wedding day

You sure agree with me that those are heartfelt words from an appreciative husband who no doubts has been having a blissfully peaceful marriage, isn't it? For me, that equals or even more than a basket of tangible 'lovelies' any day. Yeah, sometimes, words are just ENOUGH! I meant SOMETIMES!! Okay?

Now I know a lot of people would give me 'the eye' if I stood right in front of them at this very moment with expressions or statements such as "it's not the first time, we've heard this before, tomorrow now they will start fighting, give them another five years, they are just starting, blah blah blah, and many more pessimistic statements.

I understand to a large extent why some people would make such remarks because nearly 80% of celebrities who have praised/eulogise their spouses in interviews and on social media platforms in the past and even very recently, have turned around to say the opposites when the tides change.

However, for Basketmouth and his wife, I perceive that at the rate they are going, we may have more 'Olu Jacobs and Joke Silva's' kind of marriages reenacted in the marriages of younger couples such as Basketmouth's. I bet you'll all agree with me on that, wouldn't you? *winks*
 
Now (while pondering)  speaking of Uncle' Olu Jacobs and 'Aunty' Joke's stable marriage of many years, I would suggest they start a school on "how to sustain your marriage". We CANNOT rule out the fact that they have their own share of marital issues at one point or the other, but at least they've being able to resolve and sustain their marriage without sending themselves to the 'cleaners' at any time by taking their problems to social media for their fans to take sides. I'm sure there's a lot to learn from that couple.

Before you go on to ask if this (Olu and Joke) is the best couple around, let me beat you to it by saying "NO". We've got many more great couples around (celebrities and others like my parents) but I deemed it fit to use this very popular celebrity couple who have really touched lives in many ways than you can count just by being TOGETHER  and strong all these years and most importantly because this article is focused on marriages of celebrities.

Before I sign out, I would like to get back to what inspired this topic by wishing Basketmouth and his lovely wife a HAPPY anniversary and many more beautiful years ahead TOGETHER hoping that in the next forty five years when they celebrate fifty years together, we will all be there to say 'WELL DONE'!

ISN'T JAMIE FOXX THE 'MASTER OF EVERYTHING'?

Now if you ask me, I wonder why Jamie Foxx and Katie Holmes are still trying so hard to keep their romance ‘hush, hush’ when it seems none of the party is cheating on anybody or a third party. Us Weekly reported exclusively about 3 days ago that for a recent L.A. rendezvous with boyfriend Jamie whom she’s being dating for about two years now, the beautiful 36 year old actress and formerly Tom Cruise’s partner had to put on a wig and hat to avoid the ‘paparazzi’ while meeting with him at a hotel.

Now, enough of Katie Holmes; let’s focus on the man-of-the-moment Jamie Foxx.  Jamie Foxx who was born as Eric Marlon Bishop, is an American actor, singer, comedian, writer, and producer and many more. I guess a lot of people would be wondering why I’m writing on him today. And my bold response would be ‘who wouldn’t want to write about Jamie Foxx any day’?

If you ask me again, I would say he’s a real ‘Hollywood story’. Who would have thought this 47 year old ‘master of everything’ would turn out this way many years ago? God bless the star, moon, sun or whatever that witnessed the day he was born. It sure must have been a lucky star, moon and again whatever.

Interestingly, I was never a fan while he was on that movie with Vivica Fox (someone please remind me the name of that movie again), aha! Booty Call!! And then onto his Jamie Foxx sitcom/show, I still wasn’t a fan of his for I thought he wasn’t really funny until 2004 when he starred as Ray Charles in the biographical film Ray which earned him the Academy and BAFTA Awards for best actor as well as a Golden Globe Award also for Best Actor in a musical comedy. Wow! That was the year I fell in love with his acts. It was whoop! Whoop!! Whoop!!! All the way for Jamie for in that same year, he got nominated for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for his role in the action film Collateral and even though he didn’t win that, it still has been a story filled with successful points.

 

His outing in the still-talked-about movie Django Unchained which was released in 2012 blew me away  and while I was still trying to get outta the wind of Django Unchained, I got sucked-up again into this  amazing character when I saw what he did with his role as William Stacks in yet another great movie ‘Annie’ the 2014 version. His roles in other movies such as Electro in The Amazing Spider Man leave you with that longing-for-more feeling. I had to go search for his sitcom The Jamie Foxx show to watch all over again just in case I missed out something which didn’t make him appear funny or talented to me at the initial stage of his career. 

My admiration for him grew when I started taking time out to listen to him sing and gbam! That guy can sing to save his life and yours *smiles*. Between 2005 and 2008 he produced three albums; ‘Unpredictable’, ‘Intuition’ and the ‘Best Night of My Life’ all of which charted tops on the US Billboard 200 and today he stands tall as one of the great Grammy Award winning artists which is another feather to many of the feathers on his successful hat. He surely is now living up to his name as ‘Jamie King’ which he played in his sitcom between 1996 and 2001.

Who says being adopted does not come with a lot more goodies than has been told in the past? Having been raised by his mother's adoptive parents in a black quarter in Terrell, Texas which at that time was a racially segregated community, he nevertheless had a strict Baptist upbringing as he took part in the choir and started playing the piano at five even as his natural talent for jokes became obvious as a very young teenager.

After completing Terrell High School, he received a scholarship to study classical music at the United States International University and the rest is history.

Need I say more about this wonderful man? He is no doubts ‘unpredictable’ because I know for a fact that at the rate he’s moving, we’ve only seen a little of the stuff he’s really made of,  for I strongly presume there’s so much more to come from ‘Jamie’ Foxx the ‘King’.

So until then, let’s keep our fingers crossed as we await more mind-blowing acts from JAMIE FOXX. And Hey Katie! You go on girl!! Keep loving this great-man-of-the-moment who has very often acknowledged that one of the greatest reasons for his success is the influence of his grandmother in his life!!!

Now, you be the judge! Who wouldn't want to write about Jamie Foxx? I bet you would, having come to the end of this write-up.  He is THE MAN!! Well done JAMIE!!!

CHECK OUT DADDY MOURINHO AND DAUGHTER ON THE RED CARPET

A few days ago at the GQ Men of the year Awards ceremony held  at the Royal Opera House in London's Covent Garden guess who was among the host of famous faces invited to grace the event?

It was Chelsea's 'chosen one' Jose Mourinho. He was pictured on the red carpet with his teenage daughter Matilda clothed in a black dress complementing her father who was also cutely dressed in a lovely black suit with a white shirt. He sure looked good.

Now away from Jose Mourinho, let us focus on Matilda. Like the popular saying ‘pictures speak volumes’.  I could deduce from the way she looked in the pictures that she wasn’t really comfortable, could it be the red carpet or perhaps the dress or perhaps daddy Mourinho gives her the creeps?  

 I presume the dress because as seen in the picture on the right (below), she was trying to pull the dress lapel to cover up the revealed bust but alas! No luck.

If it was the dress, then my question is, didn't she take some time off to try the dress earlier on and then a look on the mirror before the 'D' day and before stepping out of the house with daddy Mourinho? 

And hey! Why was Mourinho (left: below) pulling that strained mien as Matilda looks towards the ground as if listening to the father say  "hey Maty don’t look at these people or else they''ll ruin your life” *laughs*. 

I guess Mourinho's facial expression on the field as Coach is almost if not the same outta field.

The Portuguese boss and super Coach kept a straight face on the red carpet with Matilda in all of the shots as seen here. Anyhow enjoy these pictures as the next time you'll see 'daddy' Jose will definitely be on the field of play. 

On this note, I'll like to say 'chao' for now!

When you raise a 17-year old versus when you manage a 17-year old

Michelle Obama and Kris Jenner with daughters

Going through Facebook a short while ago, I stumbled on the pictures (insert) of Michelle Obama and Kris 'Kardashian' Jenner with their respective 17-year old daughters with the caption “When you raise a 17-year old, versus when you manage a 17 year old.” This got me thinking on how a lot of women, especially mothers, are letting down their guard when it comes to raising kids (specifically the girl-child) these days.

Attending a children’s party sometime last year, I was amazed to see a young child dancing suggestively and with abandon. The mother was watching with a wide smile, unabashed in the least by her daughter’s unedifying performance. She kept clapping excitedly, blissfully unaware – or uncaring – of the disapproving glares of other mothers, because the little girl’s dance moves depicted nothing other than VULGARITY – twerking/twirling/wriggling around her wire-like waist, with dance moves which would make Beyonce and Shakira green with envy.

Back to the picture above, about “raising vs. managing a child,” what is your opinion of this picture? Teen Kardashian is trying to be a diva *already* and a celeb in front of the camera – and barely looking at her mum, while teenage Malia Obama is being a child, as she laughs sweet-naturedly into her mother’s ear, as if sharing a girls-only secret, and giving the impression of a happy and properly raised child than a ‘managed’ one. Thus for some people, raising a child could be either a motherly calling or simply a business or a chore. 

In the end, motherhood is a matter of choice – not a matter of chance.