Rumors that D'Angelo is back in the studio and ready to release an album have been swirling for a few months now! This is great news after some troubling reports about the R&B singers decline since 2000's Voodoo.

But New York Magazine says we shouldn't get too excited about these reports, because "the corroborating evidence" is kind of fishy: "First there's the recent online leak of 'I Believe,' a song D'Angelo recorded with Q-Tip a few years back — like, maybe before his 2005 drunk-driving arrest? And then there's the iTunes release of 'buzz single' 'I Found My Smile Again,' a song that originally appeared on the, uh, Space Jam soundtrack in 1996; it's been rerecorded with new music but has the same vocals — this 'buzz single,' we should point out, could very well have been created without D'Angelo's knowing anything about it."

Xerox president Ursula Burns and Oprah Winfrey, Queen of the Universe, took the 10th and 8th spots, respectively, on Fortune's list of the 50 Most Powerful Women (in American business). Burns, 50, has been with Xerox for 28 years and sits on the board of American Express. Oprah…well, you all know what Oprah does. No. 1 on the list is Indra Nooyi, Chairman and CEO of PepsiCo. [Fortune]

Have you ever wondered where Ne-Yo came from, what his pre-fame life was like, and why he used to dye his hair blond? No? Well, you're going to find out anyway. Ne-Yo recently told Rap-Up that he is in the midst of putting together a semi-autobiographical movie called Venice Beach — his own personal 8 Mile.

“We are putting together the next [film] right now as we speak, as a matter of fact. The name of the movie is Venice Beach and basically it’s going to be my 8 Mile, loosely based on [my] life, but not really,” says the 28-year-old singer/songwriter.

Ne-Yo is aiming for perfection with his first feature film since 2007’s Stomp the Yard. “There’s a lot of room for it to be either really good or really corny. We gotta make sure the script is right, so that’s why we ain’t start shooting yet. We gotta get it right.”

• It's tough being a child star and a college freshman. So far, Lil Romeo has had three high-priced bikes stolen at USC. [EUR]

• Tsk tsk tsk. Jermaine Dupri didn't exactly rush to Montreal when Janet Jackson got sick Monday. [E!]

• By the way, that "illness" that sent Jackson to the hospital and is causing her to cancel shows is rumored to be pregnancy. You're not really famous if someone, at some point, doesn't start a rumor that you're pregnant. [NB]

• The court will forgive Game for his involvement in a post-funeral brawl with his cousin if he will take 36 hours of anger-management classes. Good call. [TMZ]

Sometime last night, link factory and cable news talking point shaper Matt Drudge posted a link to an article about Gwen Ifill, the PBS vet and broken legged moderator of tomorrow's VP debate, claiming she was coming out with a pro-Obama book on Inauguration Day. If true, an obvious favoring of Obama could jeopardize Ifill's plans for tomorrow night's session, since moderators are supposed to remain objective; any harsh questions aimed at Palin could then "justly" be labeled by the right wing as unfair and bias.

Except Drudge, to be sure, is not the nonpartisan link factory Fox News would have you believe. So it makes sense that the news outlet he linked to for the story would be the right-wing zealot website WorldNetDaily, a place where, much like Drudge, ordinary news topics get twisted ever so slightly to become slanted in such a way that the reader would be forgiven for realizing he bought into the spin. (For instance, an article about how Americans can relate to Obama is headlined, "Do Americans have anything in common with Obama?" See the twist?)

So is Ifill's book even about Obama? And if it is, is it really pro-Obama? You can take a guess.

CONTINUED »

Due to her mystery illness, which an anonymous source called "getting old" yesterday, Janet Jackson has postponed two more of her shows.

The 42-year-old singer fell ill during a sound check in Montreal Monday and was rushed to the hospital. The Montreal gig that night was canceled, and now Jackson's reps have announced that tonight's Boston show and tomorrow's performance in Philly will be postponed while she recuperates. So far, her Greensboro stop on Saturday will go on as scheduled. [Us]

It's no secret that Jay-Z loves Barack Obama. He's putting his money — or time, at least — where his mouth is this weekend. He's throwing two free concerts in support of the presidential candidate. He'll perform in Detroit this Saturday, and then he's flying to Miami to do another show Sunday. The tickets will be available at the local Obama campaign office.

Recently on MTV, Barack Obama expressed admiration for the entrepreneurial spirit of rappers like Jay-Z, “In the past, musicians oftentimes were commodities.” Obama told MTV News. “They were just shuffled around…they did well, but they didn't have the vision to say, 'I'm going to build a business. I'm going to build my own studio. I'm going to create my own production operations.' I think they're a lot more sophisticated than in the past, and that is a wonderful thing." Considering that well-known entrepreneurial spirit, it's a pretty big deal that Jay-Z is doing two shows without getting paid a dime. [AHH]

The debate did her in. Famed journalist — and moderator of tomorrow's Vice-Presidential Debate — Gwen Ifill, was carrying some heavy debate-prep materials up the stairs at her house when she stumbled and broke her ankle. Just the out John McCain's campaign was looking for? Not exactly. Ifill says the show will go on.

As for Sarah Palin and Joe Biden, they are knee deep in debate prep right about now. After viewing some footage of Palin debating in Alaska, many are saying we shouldn't underestimate her skills. Plus, you might not know this, but she reads every single magazine and newspaper! [TN]

Jermaine Dupri, infamous record producer/exec, sometimes rapper, and boyfriend of Janet Jackson, actually grew up in the music industry — his father was a concert promoter and managed rap and R&B groups. That probably explains why he got a (little-known?) three-year gig as a dancer for Whodini, and why a 12-year-old Dupri appears in the "Freaks Come Out At Night" video. Check for the Jheri-curled child around 00:35 and 1:55.

Aaron Douglas, born in Kansas in 1899, became one of the leading visual artists of the Harlem Renaissance and is often referred to as the "father of African-American Art." Douglas was known for his murals, landscapes, black & white drawings, and portraits. His illustrations also appeared in books by Countee Cullen, James Weldon Johnson, Alain Locke, and Langston Hughes, and on the covers of Vanity Fair. Artist and African-American art scholar David C. Driskell said of Douglas: "Douglas is the leading painter of the [Harlem] Renaissance movement. A pioneering Africanist, he accepted the legacy of the ancestral arts of Africa and developed his own original style, geometric symbolism. At a time when it was unpopular to dignify the black image in white America, Douglas refused to compromise and see blacks as anything less than a proud and majestic people." Douglas would later become the head of the art department at Fisk University. He died in 1979.

Wherein you, the readers, talk amongst yourselves.

With disastrous quote after disastrous quote coming from the lips of Sarah Palin, the Vice-Presidential Debate coming up, John McCain's plummet in the polls, and conservatives calling for Palin to step down, what are the odds that John McCain boots her from his campaign?