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SPORNO: Footballer Jermain Defoe Scores, Jumps Into Kabou's Arms

PHOTOS:GETTY

Jermain Defoe scored his team's second goal during the Barclays Premier League match between Newcastle and Tottenham. The game ended in a 2-2 draw. Then some sporno-rific celebrations with teammate Younes Kabou.

This is becoming a regular habit after Defoe previously jumped into the arms of Kabou and other teammates after scoring. Defoe shows more cheek WHEN YOU JUMP ...

Kardashian Destroys the "Sanctity of Marriage", Divorce After 72 Days

So much for the "sanctity" of marriage ...

Kim Kardashian and Kris Humphries are divorcing after only 72 days of marriage, amidst claims that theirs was "a marriage of convenience" arranged by E! for ratings.

TMZ: "[Kardashian] cites 'irreconcilable differences.' The date of separation is listed as today, Oct. 31, 2011. According to the docs, Kim wants Kris to foot his own lawyers' fees and she'll pay hers. And, she wants the court to reject any move by Kris to get spousal support. ... The couple has a prenuptial agreement."

"The pair's $10 million wedding cost approximately $138,888 a day as of October 31," adds MTV.

Kardashian's marriage was  "arranged", according to new reports. "E! and Kim were interested in having her date a big New York athlete for the debut season of Kourtney & Kim Take New York, which premiered in January 2011," RadarOnline reported last week. "Kris wasn’t Kim’s first choice. In fact ... Kim was so eager to date a basketball player that E! were calling around teams to matchmake with NBA athletes."

So much for the Defense of Marriage Act banning "sham" marriages that will "mock" the institution ...

When will E! launch a spin-off focusing on the divorce?

Anti-Gay Graffiti Written at Home of Slain NYC HS Basketball Star

"Derogatory" and "threatening" anti-gay messages left in the stairwell where a star New York City high school basketball player was killed in September are being investigated as possible hate crimes, according several reports.

Watch ABC 7's report AFTER THE JUMP ...

Eighteen-year-old Tayshana "Chicken" Murphy was gunned down on September 11 in the Harlem public housing building where she lived. "Murphy was one of the top girls basketball players in the city. She was ranked as the 16th best point guard in the nation for her class by ESPN," reported CBS News. Murphy was reportedly lesbian.

Twenty-year-old Robert Cartagena and and 21-year-old Tyshawn Brockington were captured in South Carolina. Both pleaded not guilty to second degree murder charges on October 19. "Surveillance video showed the two men at the scene of the crime with guns in their waistbands,"  according the NYPD. Police believe she was involved in a dispute between gang members and possibly trying to protect her brother.

Threatening messages have been found in the building, reports ABC 7. "[H]ateful, threatening and anti-gay comments and pictures according to sources were written about Murphy. They are all so derogatory that Eyewitness News can't air any of it. One resident was flat out scared and doesn't want to be identified."

A third suspect has been arrested and charged with criminal possession of a weapon "for allegedly providing Brockington and Cartagena with the gun that killed the tragic teen," reports NY Post.

Watch ABC 7's report AFTER THE JUMP ...

ZIMBABWE: PM Morgan Tsvangirai Continues Calling for Gay Rights

PHOTO: Reuters

More promising developments to report from Zimbabwe. Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai says he will continue to call out for gay rights despite an onslaught of criticism after his remarks last week, reports New Zimbabwe.

Despite his party’s best attempts to explain away his remarks as his personal views and kill the debate, Tsvangirai thrust the matter back into the top of the news agenda at a rally in Pashu, Binga, on Friday. "I am not gay," Tsvangirai said. "I’m not going to prosecute anyone who is gay. I will protect their rights. I will not persecute them."

Tsvangirai said that President Robert Mugabe's harsh anti-gay rhetoric is a diversion, reports Zimbabwe Metro.

[Mugabe's party] ZANU PF has gone on overdrive, attacking the Prime Minister for his remarks during an interview with the BBC over the rights of gays. "It is shocking that [ruling party] ZANU PF want to pursue issues which are not useful which do not bring bread and butter to the table," said Tsvangirai.

The premier who has been holding rallies countrywide ahead of the general elections which are likely to be held next year, castigated ZANU PF big wigs whom he said were busy looting national resources at the expense of millions of impoverished Zimbabweans. "Almost three quarters of the country is poor because ZANU PF is looting the diamonds," said Tsvangirai.

Mugabe "wants elections as early as March" to end its "forced marriage" with rival Tsvangirai's MDC party, reports Al Jazeera English. Mugabe entered into a coalition government with Tsvangirai in 2008.

Tsvangirai had previously called for more tolerance of gays. But in March 2010 he joined Mugabe and said that gay rights would not be considered in the new constitution. Tsvangirai's remarks last week to the BBC were a total reversal.

Tsvangirai's remarks come the same week as the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting in Australia. British, Canadian and Australian leaders asked African, Asian and Caribbean nations to decriminalize same-sex relations in an effort to fight soaring HIV rates.

Same-sex acts are currently illegal in Zimbabwe, as they are in most African countries. Two LGBT activists were arrested and tortured last year.  Both were acquitted of all charges. Neighboring South Africa is the only nation on the continent that guarantees gay rights and marriage equality.

Some Background:
ZIM: Tsvangirai Slammed Over Support for Gay Rights
ZIMBABWE: PM Tsvangirai Now Calls for Gay Rights
ZIM Service Chiefs "Demand" Mugabe's Resignation?
Mugabe Denounces "Filthy Gays" of Europe
UN Votes to Condemn Anti-Gay Violence
Zimbabwe: Gay Activist Trial Delayed
Zimbabwe: Gay Activist Acquitted
Mugabe Apologizes to Dogs for Gay Comparison
Zimbabwe Vows to Outlaw Homosexuality in Constitution

Perry "Praises" Efforts to Repeal Marriage Equality in New Hampshire

PHOTO: AP

Not that he has a chance of winning the state: Texas Gov. Rick Perry burnished his social conservative street cred and "praised" the recent legislative push to repeal marriage equality in New Hampshire, reports the Concord Monitor.

"As conservatives we believe in the sanctity of life. We believe in the sanctity of traditional marriage," Perry said. "And I applaud those legislators in New Hampshire who are working to defend marriage as an institution between one man and one woman, realizing that children need to be raised in a loving home by a mother and a father."

As he spoke at the annual banquet for Cornerstone Action, a conservative advocacy group, Perry sought to set himself apart from others in the field as a candidate with an unwavering pro-life background. "For some candidates . . . the issue of life is a slogan for the campaign. It's how to get some votes," he said. "To me it's about an enduring principal that innocent human life should be protected in all forms and at all stages of life."

The "pro-life" Perry who believes in the "sanctity of life" ... but has "overseen more executions than any governor" in modern history. Including juvenile and disabled offenders.

Perry's remarks come only days after the New Hampshire House Judiciary Committee voted 11-6 to advance marriage equality repeal. The House will debate the bill in 2012.

More than 60 percent of state residents oppose repeal, according to recent polling by the WMUR/UNH Survey Center.

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VIDEO: WH Adviser David Plouffe Says "Romney Has No Core"

Republican presidential candidate Mitt "Multiple Choice" Romney has "no core" and has flip flopped on countless important issues, said White House Senior Adviser David Plouffe on Meet the Press. "If he thought ... it was good to say the sky was green and the grass was blue to win an election, he'd say it."

Said Plouffe: "He was supportive of doing things like cap and trade agreement, now he doesn't think that climate change is real. He was to the left of [the late Senator] Ted Kennedy on gay rights issues, now he wants to amend the constitution to prohibit gay marriage. He was an extremely pro-choice governor, now he believes that life begins at conception and would ban Roe v. Wade."

Plouffe referenced the former Massachusetts governor's 1994 campaign for Senate, when he tried to tell voters that he was more pro-choice and pro-gay than Kennedy. That campaign didn't work out so well for Mittens.

"Plouffe ... join[ed] the growing chorus of Obama aides to offer an on-the-record attack of the Republican presidential frontrunner.," reports Politico. Plouffe's attack that "Romney 'has no core', repeat[s] a description  used by Obama senior strategist David Axelrod earlier this month."

Via OnTopMag, watch the video AFTER THE JUMP ...

VV Brown Talks "Children", Socially Conscious Music and Politics to R20

PHOTOS: Paul Kalirai for EMI

Catching up with the fabulous VV Brown, one of the UK's most captivating new voices: The 27-year-old has songwriter-fashion model has returned with new music and is about to embark on an American tour.

"Children" —listen and download at iTunes—is the deliciously catchy first single from Lollipops & Politics, the eagerly-anticipated second album from the singer-songwriter-fashion model VV Brown. The track was released digitally in the U.S. last month. Lollipops & Politics is due early next year

"Children" begins with an ice cream truck hook and builds into a message of youth empowerment and justice. "I was outside in a car park and an ice cream truck drove by," VV Brown tells Rod 2.0. "I took out my iPhone and we sampled it. I ran to the studio, put in the computer and [we] wrote a song around the sample."

Listen to the interview:

VV Brown Interview with Rod McCullom by RodMcCullom

Watch the videos AFTER THE JUMP ...

"Children" is perfect first course for a track listing of pop ballads and mid-tempo songs that emphasize politics and social justice.

"It was important that we wrote a song that had a message, the questions of the youth and what’s going on in the world at the moment," VV tells R20. "It's about having hope despite the economy falling. And I liked the idea of the ice cream truck. I’s fun and youthful, but twisted and has a dark meaning. “

"Children" debuted at around the same time of the London riots and became an anthem. "There was so much going on, and the youth on the street were talking, especially where I live in Hackney," she tells R20. "You could feel it in the air. When the riots happened, you could hear the song. The youth are frustrated."

Lollipops & Politics is the follow-up to VV's 2009 debut Travelling Like the Light. The third single "Shark in the Water" which also focused on social justice sold 500,000 singles in the U.S. and was featured on several commercials and the soundtrack to The Backup Plan. That's an incredible debut.

"We were lucky," VV tells R20. "It was just ridiculous. But I’m very grateful the first album received so much critical success."

Watch the videos AFTER THE JUMP ...

HOT: Deric Mickens' Bulging Muscles by Gregory Vaughan

Model super hotness Deric Mickens demonstrates his well-engineered packaging for beefcake photographer Gregory Vaughan.  Peek at Deric's assets AFTER THE JUMP ...

 

Dwyane Wade on Fashion, Style and Painting His Toenails

Basketball superstar, sporno fashion model and baby-daddylicious Dwyane Wade glams it up for GQ and shares his love of "flamboyant" fashion ... and painting his toenails.

[Wade's] style especially has grown more experimental, flamboyant even. Still, I never saw this revelation coming:

"Three years ago I was like, 'Man, I kind of want to paint my toenails black,' " Wade tells me. We're on-set at a Manhattan photo studio right now his feet are covered by striped Paul Smith socks and size 14 Jordans. "At first I thought, 'Nah, I can't do that. They're going to kill me.' But eventually I decided to try it." He went to Miami's Mondrian hotel and asked a shocked pedicurist to give him the Marilyn Manson treatment. "Later I was on vacation in the Bahamas with LeBron," Wade says, laughing, "and when he saw my toes he was like, 'Something is seriously wrong with you.' But eventually Bron was like, 'You know what? You're crazy, but that's just you.' When I first got into the league, I tried to fit in. Now I don't care."

DWade models Gucci's Circuit Boy FW 2011 collection WHEN YOU JUMP ...

Cuomo Calls for End of DOMA, Marriage Equality in All States

New York Governor Andrew Cuomo delivered the keynote address last night at the Empire State Pride Agenda's annual gala dinner in New York City. The governor "passionately" called for the repeal of Defense of Marriage Act, reports the New York Times.

Mr. Cuomo, who choreographed the successful push this year to win legalization of same-sex marriage, received a standing ovation that lasted for more than a minute from supporters.

And in his most forceful terms to date, Mr. Cuomo called for his counterparts across the country to embrace what he framed as an issue of equal rights and to push for the legalization of same-sex marriage in their own statehouses. "We need marriage equality in every state in this nation," Mr. Cuomo said. "Otherwise, no state really has marriage equality, and we will not rest until it is a reality."

Julie Bolcer at The Advocate adds:

Cuomo received a leadership award presented by New York City Council Speaker Christine Quinn, who said his commitment to passing marriage equality in his first year in office represented a new model for politicians to follow. The governor in turn praised Quinn, an out lesbian and 2013 mayoral frontrunner, saying, "She’s not just a great person. She’s a great leader. And the best is yet to be for Christine Quinn."

The New York Senate passed the historic marriage equality bill on June 24 by a 33-29 vote. New York became the sixth and most populous state granting such rights, joining Connecticut, Iowa, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Vermont, and the District of Columbia.