With the Olympics fast approaching, let’s take a look at some Olympic gold medalists from the past. Everyone remembers the original Dream Team from the 1992 Olympics, right?

After the brouhaha that surrounded the New Yorker’s cover of Barack and Michelle Obama, pundits and journalists alike said that Barack Obama, perhaps unfairly, was nearly impossibly to turn into a caricature or a political cartoon without negative consequences. A quick google image search of “Obama caricatures” and “Obama cartoons” proves otherwise.

Remember when Mr. T was larger than life, pitying fools all over the place? Now he’s on a promotional tour in Australia with Snickers Bars strapped to camo vest, trying to intimidate Aussies into consuming mass quantities of chocolate, caramel and peanuts. Hey, at least he’s working.

So often in Darkroom, I post photo retrospectives of stars going from busted to beautiful (ashy to classy, if you will) or vice versa, but it’s a rare star who, despite some troubling fashion moments, remains so consistently gorgeous throughout her entire career. This rare star is Halle Berry. This is her life in Hollywood.

Photographical evidence of Barack Obama’s trip to the Middle East, which began this weekend, is few and far between, since pictures are being released by the military. But he has met with Hamid Karzai, President of Afghanistan, and this morning he arrived in Baghdad on a fact-finding mission about the current state of our favorite war. Details have been closely guarded in order to protect the presumptive nominee. [WP]

In the many, many years that Kimora Lee Simmons has been on the scene (to the left, that’s her as a teen in 1993 with Russell Simmons), she’s changed from skinny-model armcandy to a boisterous, over-the-top, diamond-crusted “mom/mogul/media personality.” What a difference a decade makes.

The Rock & Roll Hall of Fame is paying homage to hip hop with an exhibit of new hip hop artifacts. The goods include Slick Rick’s eye patch, Adidas from Run DMC, Salt n’ Pepa clothing, and, as seen below, one of Flavor Flav’s infamous clocks, a leather Biggie jersey, a Queen Latifah performance outfit, and a Grandmaster Flash mixer.

After the announcement that Mattel was producing a collector’s edition AKA Barbie for the sorority’s centennial, I went to the Barbie site to check some other brown-hued collector dolls that have been released recently (that’s Disco Barbie to your left). Fully expecting to scoff at the ridiculous Barbies with their unrealistic straight and long hair and their self-esteem-killing, impossibly-tiny waists, I found my internal seven-year old oohing and aahing at page after page instead. The Byron Lars Collection was especially compelling. Mad at myself.

Around the middle portion of the year, and at this time in my life, I have about a million and one weddings to attend. It all sort of leaves a girl with weddings on the brain. As a result, here we have a post filled with photos of black celeb weddings. Thank my marriage-minded friends.

Eddie Murphy’s Meet Dave crashed and burned at the box office this weekend, which is something the critics who saw it before its release surely would have predicted. The sci-fi comedy had just a $5.3 million opening, which is at least better than his other sci-fi comedy, Pluto Nash, which only made $4.4 million. Eddie Murphy has made tons of movies, some of which were monster hits, and rightfully so. So of them were total garbage. See if you can recognize some of his wide variety of movies.

1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8.
9. 10. 11.

Michael Jackson might think he’s fooling paparazzi and passers-by with his odd public costumes, but really he’s just disguising himself in eccentric, dramatic ways that make it clear he couldn’t be anyone but Michael Jackson. We saw it in yesterday’s photo and we see it in these. Although, on second thought, MJ might not be trying to disguise himself from the public as much as he’s just trying to cover up his falling-apart face. Out of necessity. Perhaps we should look at it as a public service.

Toccara Jones, former America’s Next Top Model and current BET-employed “television personality,” quite possibly has the most annoying voice I’ve ever heard. When her mouth is closed, one can better appreciate her great beauty, which is on display here in her spread in the infamous July Vogue Italia. How angry are Danielle, Naima, Saleisha and Eva right now?

Jay-Z likes to do things a little differently, which is why, unlike most married rappers (of which there are few), he married an extremely famous, high-profile woman who was not either his high school sweetheart from the old neighborhood or a low-profile woman he met post-fame. Ice-T’s Coco falls into another category all together. But should we even consider Law & Order’s Ice-T a rapper anymore?

Donyale Luna, a Detroit-born model originally named Peggy Ann Freeman, became the first black woman to grace a Vogue cover when she appeared on the cover of British Vogue in 1966. It would be 8 more years until Beverly Johnson would similarly segregate the cover of American Vogue. Below, check out some (not all) American Vogue covers featuring black models, actresses, and female (y’all have seen that LeBron cover more than enough) athletes. Who do you think will be next?

Sports columnists are touting the men’s and women’s Wimbledon’s finals this weekend as “instant classics.” Rafael Nadal broke Roger Federer’s winning streak in an epic battle, and Venus Williams beat her sister Serena, making this her fifth Wimbledon win. The two later went on to win the doubles championship.