Patti LaBelle News

Walton Arts Center officials hired Portland-based architecture firm Boora this week to create a broad sketch of what a downtown parking deck would look like at each of the remaining site options; the WAC Lot, and the Theater Lot.

Will Smith told Dave Letterman that when a reporter tried to kiss him on the face at a Men in Black III red carpet in Moscow Friday, it was "just awkward.'' Brand Nubians, the hugely influential New York alt-hip-hop group from the '90s featuring Grand Puba, Sadat X and Lord Jamar, performs alongside Blenda, Y-Not and Sounds By Sven.

The female trio responsible for the proto-disco funk classic "Lady Marmalade," LaBelle's outlandish space-age costumes and brash incorporation of rock & roll were a far cry from their early days as a typical '60s girl group, not to mention the later solo career of frontwoman Patti LaBelle.

Sean "Diddy" Combs has been known for a lot of things over the years-launching Notorious B.I.G.'s career, starting the Sean John clothing line, making Ciroc a household name, becoming hip-hop's richest mogul -but singing isn't usually first on the list.

Where is that Soul Music? You know the kind of music that you feel in your heart; the kind of music that takes you to a place that you can't explain; and where the lyrics MEAN something! That's what's' missing from today's music- that feeling.

Also this summer she'll be headlining the first ever POPTRONIK Music Festival in Sitges, Spain.

Yvonne S. Jones of Urban Solutions Inc., a health-care nonprofit and a United customer:"Our bank has been the only stable supporter we have." United Bank - the city's only black-owned bank - was founded in 1992 with modest capital and big dreams, as a path to economic success for the city's African American community.

The former West Point cadet who's suing singer Patti LaBelle's entourage for allegedly assaulting him at Bush Intercontinental Airport last March has added an airport operations worker to the list of defendants.