Fat Joe gets 88 lbs.leaner...

Fat Joe "Drops a Body" -- literally! The rapper (real name Joseph Antonio Cartagena) is flaunting a slimmer figure in his new music video, "Drop a Body."

Joe, whose single "Lean Back" with Remy Ma was a number-one hit back in the summer of 2004, is now 40 and 88 pounds lighter.

"I can't leave my daughter behind," he told New York's Daily News of 5-year-old Azaryah. "I want to be here for her; I don't want to die on her."

Joe says he dropped the weight over the past nine months by working out two hours a day with a trainer, and by sticking to healthier foods. After seven of his friends in their 30s passed away last year due to heart attacks, Fat Joe tells the paper he had a wake-up call: "Health doesn't discriminate just because I'm famous"

Rapper Ja Rule to turn himself in for prison sentence..

 Hip-hop artist Ja Rule is expected to turn himself in for a two-year prison sentence Wednesday afternoon in New York, his publicist said in a statement.

The rapper, whose real names is Jeffrey Atkins, pleaded guilty in December to attempted criminal possession of a weapon after police found a loaded semi-automatic firearm -- with the serial number scratched off -- hidden in the backseat of his luxury Maybach sedan, according to a statement from the Manhattan's district attorney. The incident occurred on New York's Upper West Side in July 2007, the statement said.


Atkins is expected to surrender at about 2 p.m. ET Wednesday. He will be sent to New York's Rikers Island before being assigned to another facility in upstate New York, said his publicist, Courtney Barnes.

 In the months leading up to his surrender date, Atkins has been putting the finishing touches on a new album -- his first in six years -- that is scheduled to be released later this summer, Barnes said.

Atkins has won MTV Video Music Awards, Source Awards, a BET Award, a GQ Man Of The Year Award, an NAACP Image Award, a World Music Award and a Teen Choice Award, according to the publicist's statement. He was also nominated for a Grammy Award in 2001.

In an interview on the TV show "Good Day New York" this month, Atkins said growing up in Queens, he felt almost groomed for prison and knew "a lot" of friends who were locked up

In the interview, he said he regrets what his imprisonment will mean for his family.

"I've got three kids," he said. "If there was anything that I regret, I regret that they have to go through this with me, and I'm not going to be there for them."

'Gunsmoke' actor James Arness dies at age 88...

Former "Gunsmoke" actor James Arness, who played Marshal Matt Dillon in the western TV series for 20 years, died Friday from natural causes, according to his website. He was 88.

Over the two decades of "Gunsmoke" episodes from 1955 to 1975, Arness worked with hundreds of actors, some of them just up-and-comers such as Harrison Ford, Burt Reynolds and Charles Bronson. He also worked with Bette Davis.

Arness left behind a letter to his fans, which was posted on his website after his death:

"I had a wonderful life and was blessed with some many loving people and great friends. The best part of my life was my family, especially my wife, Janet. Many of you met her at Dodge City so you understand what a special person she is," Arness wrote.

"I wanted to take this time to thank all of you for the many years of being a fan of 'Gunsmoke,' 'The Thing,' 'How the West Was Won' and all the other fun projects I was lucky enough to have been allowed to be a part of. I had the privilege of working with so many great actors over the years.

Shaquille O'Neal atangaza kustaafu NBA baada ya miaka 19.

BAADA ya miaka 19 ndani ya NBA, Shaquille O'Neal (pichani) mwenye umri wa miaka 39, ametangaza rasmi kustaafu mchezo wa Kikapu
Shaq amefikia uamuzi huo baada ya kukaa sana benchi la timu ya Boston Celtics kutokana na majeruhi ya mguu.

Shaq anasema ... "Tumekuwa pamoja kwa miaka 19. Napenda kuwashukuru sana, na ndiyo maana nimeamua kuwaambieni kuwa nakaribia kustaafu. Asante, nitawataarifu zadi hivi karibuni."