From the Los Angeles Times’ Ministry of Gossip blog:
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RUMORS THAT ADELE WILL PERFORM AT THE GRAMMYS HAVE BEGUN
It’s already started. The will she/won’t she perform at the Grammy Awards rumors. Expect it to continue for the next month.
Adele has been sidelined since early October after vocal hemorrhaging forced the star to cancel her 10-city, sold-out U.S. tour; soon after, her sophomore album, “21,” received six nominations for the 2012 Grammy Awards, including one for album of the year.
Wednesday, VH1 has picked up a rumor that the British soul scorcher “might” be performing at the Grammy Awards, and with this here post by Pop & Hiss, the Los Angeles Times has joined in on the SEO-baiting fun. It all stems from a Radar Online story that Adele is planning to attend the Feb. 12 Grammys, and “producers of the show are hoping the singer’s doctors will allow her to perform.”
But let’s take a deep breath for a moment. Of course, producers are hoping Adele will perform. It’s par for the course for every album of the year nominee to perform at the Grammys. Unless a nominated party has passed on, chances are the album of the year crop will strut for Grammy.
No doubt, Grammy producers will happily wait till early February, as Radar reports they must, to see if Adele will be able to sing. It’s not uncommon, in fact, for the Grammys to unveil performers in the days just before the ceremony.
As the Los Angeles Times previously reported, Adele had surgery to repair her vocal damage in early November, and it remains unknown when she’ll be given the green light to sing again. All accounts, however, are that she is expected to make a full recovery. She posted on her official website that the operation was a success and that she was “chilling out now” until she got the “all-clear” from her doctors.
Without knowing the particulars of Adele’s case, Dr. Lee Akst, a laryngologist and director of the Johns Hopkins Voice Center in Baltimore, said performers typically could fully recover from the surgery, although it could take two or three months, possibly more depending on the damage before surgery. Once cleared to sing, Adele will probably need a three-week rehearsal period, Akst said.
All of that indeed makes it possible that Adele could perform at the Grammy Awards. The head of her record label even went so far as to promise that Adele would treat the Grammys with respect. “Musicians everywhere have heard of the Grammys, and they’re taken seriously, and it’s very few musicians who can honestly say they wouldn’t be honored,” said Richard Russell, whose London-based XL Recordings signed Adele. “They are an honor.”
A spokesman for Adele could not be reached for comment.
—Todd Martens
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HALLE BERRY ENGAGED TO FRENCH ACTOR OLIVIER MARTINEZ
Halle Berry is reportedly engaged to French actor Olivier Martinez, whom she met while filming the movie “Dark Tide,” a thriller slated for release this year.
The engagement took place over the holidays, a source told Us Weekly, which broke the news, and involved a diamond and emerald ring, according to a rep for jewelry designer Gurhan, speaking to People.
Berry, 45, and Martinez, 46, met during “Dark Tide” production in mid-2010, shortly after Berry’s breakup with Gabriel Aubry, and went public as a couple in October of that year. Berry has a 3-year-old daughter, Nahla, from her relationship with Aubry.
It will be a third marriage for Berry, who was previously wed to R&B singer Eric Benet and then baseball player David Justice. She’s been unmarried since the divorce from Justice was finalized in 2005, though she dated Aubry for five years. The two wrestled over custody of Nahla.
—Christie D’Zurilla
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QUEEN LATIFAH HAS UNLIKELY BODYGUARD AT ‘JOYFUL NOISE’ PREMIERE
For an actress as popular as Queen Latifah, we’d expect nothing less than a full security detail for an event like Monday’s premiere of her film “Joyful Noise.”
We would not expect Leigh Anne Tuohy on standby.
Yet that’s just who Latifah had in her corner should she need the backup. The Ministry ran into the charitable wife and mom Tuohy, the real-life woman who Sandra Bullock played in her Oscar-winning turn in “The Blind Side.”
Following “Joyful’s” screening at Grauman’s Chinese in Hollywood, also attended by Latifah’s costar Dolly Parton, Tuohy scooted to West Hollywood’s House of Blues for some gospel music and fried food.
As “The Blind Side” tells us, Tuohy is always packing heat. So we were curious — did she have a gun in her clutch?
“Not tonight,” she said and laughed. “It’s too small to fit in my clutch.” Tuohy did indicate that she’d still have Latifah’s back, and that she was impressed with the choir-singing mom the Queen portrays in “Noise.”
—Matt Donnelly
