Andrea Williams

Happy Birthday to the actress that made the Southern Belle character Whitley famous and fun to imitate! Check out Jasmine in this 1980 Burger King commercial…Relax, Relate, Release!

Ron Banks, 58 of the Dramatics died of a heart attack yesterday at Detroit’s Sinai Hospital. He was a founding member of the group back in the 60’s.

The Dramatics

1971 Flashback from The Honey Cone!

He’s worked with Beyonce (picked up MTV and VMA awards for his work on “Single Ladies”). You may not know it, but this superstar is from Milwaukee and a graduate of North Division High School! He’s also worked with Michael Jackson (was a dancer in Smooth Criminal), Destiny’s Child, Maxwell, En Vogue, Mary J. and Mariah Carey just to name a few. He’s a baaaaad man, check out some of his work!

Don’t forget to watch Tyler Perry’s House of Payne at 6 pm on WMLW Digital Channel 41 or Time Warner Cable Channel 7 for clues about characters from the show. For the rest of this week at 10:30 am, we’ll be giving away tickets for you to see Tyler Perry’s Stage Play “Madea’s Big Happy Family” on March 16th at the U.S. Cellular Arena as well as a House Of Payne apron. Check out this Behind the Scene Footage from the show:

Tuesday, February 23rd marks National Pancake Day across America. IHOP is once again celebrating by serving millions of free pancakes to benefit Children’s Miracle Network. The newly crowned Miss America Caressa Cameron will join Andrea at 11:30 am on National Pancake Day to discuss the initiative. For more information go to www.ihoppancakeday.com

In the meantime, check out the crowning of this beauty queen!

We all remember the cute little chubby cheeked kid who played Arnold on "Different Strokes", right?  Well, he's not so cute anymore.  Gary Coleman appeared on 'The Insider' to defend allegations that he abused his wife.  A bit of advice: DON'T MAKE THIS GUY MAD!

I’m so excited for Actresses Gaborey Sidibe and Mo’Nique!  They are both nominees at the 82nd Annual Academy Awards taking place on Sunday, March 7th.  Gabby is nominated for Best Actress in the film “Precious” and Mo’Nique who has already snagged a Golden Globe and a SAG Award is nominated for Best Supporting Actress.  My trivia question today was about the Oscars.  I wanted to know who was the first African American to win an Academy Award.  It was Hattie McDaniel, she won Best Supporting Actress for her role as “Mammy” in “Gone With The Wind” in 1939.  Check out this historic acceptance speech…enough to bring tears to your eyes!

My trivia question today was about Nancy Green, the former slave who signed a lifetime contract to have her image used for packaging and billboards for Aunt Jemima Pancake Mix.  Sadly Nancy Green died in 1923 after being hit by a car in downtown Chicago.  Check out this video below to see how race was used in marketing back in the day.