Even though no one, and I mean no one, seemed to particularly care about a story Terrence Howard told recently about shooting a scene for the Cosby Show and then getting blackballed by Bill Cosby himself for years, Bill Cosby is upset enough that he's putting in phone calls. First, he called Howard, who said, according to Cosby:

"The young man said to me on the phone, 'Mr. Cosby, [in] the conversation we had, you gave me information that was valuable,' recalls Cosby, adding that Howard said he "tells people this."

Then he put in a call to EUR.

CONTINUED »

• Josephine Baker, who died in 1975, has just gotten her very own commemorative stamp. It's an attempt to "reclaim America for her." [STLB]

• If Bill Cosby had been more thorough with his blacklisting of Terrence Howard, we might never have gotten to know the baby wipe bandit. Perish the thought. [EUR]

• I know it's been said so many times, but the Cindy McCain vs. Michelle Obama thing still gets me. [RR]

• From Gs to Gents premieres tonight! Uh, who's going to watch Fonzworth Bentley attempt to reform a bunch of Gs who tried out for a reality show? [NB]

• The Florida Immigration Advocacy Center is calling for an investigation of a Haitian immigrant who died in the custody of ICE. [NYT]

Despite getting a good amount of press, the eBay auction of Bill Cosby's old Cosby Show sweaters, the proceeds from which will go to the Hello Friend/Ennis Cosby Foundation (a good cause!), was without a single bidder as of 8:45 this morning. It is because they are unspeakably ugly? Or maybe it's that $5 grand minimum bid? Its a small price to pay for a piece of television history. The bidless auction gets put out of its misery on June 12. [NYM]

You might not want one of Bill Cosby's infamous(ly ugly) sweaters to wear, but you might like to collect a bit of television memorabilia. If you do, a bunch of the sweaters he wore on the Cosby Show are being sold on eBay to benefit the Hello Friend/Ennis Cosby Foundation, the family's education foundation named after Cosby's son who was killed. Evin Cosby, Bill's daughter, said her parents found the sweaters while they were cleaning. "I pounced on these sweaters," she told the AP Thursday, adding she though they could bring a substantial amount of money to the charity. [AP]

The Cosby Show played a pretty big role in the life of most people who were alive and watched television during the 80s. It's hard to believe that there are 16-year-old kids out there who have never seen a first-run episode, but it gets easier to believe when you see how old/grown the cast is now.

KINDRED SPIRITS It's a collaboration that should surprise absolutely no one: Bill Cosby and Judge Marvin Arrington — the now infamous judge who kicked whites out of his courtroom to give some tough love to blacks — are both speaking at a forum for at-risk youth in Atlanta tonight. Whites are allowed this time. [Ledger]

• Nelson Mandela's 90th birthday is coming up. What to get the man who had something, then was imprisoned and had nothing and now has everything? [AA]

• How 'bout something we don't know: "Biased system packs prisons with young black men" [PB]

• Police are searching for anyone with information about the "improvised explosive device" that ripped through a Times Square military recruiting station early this morning. [CR]

• "Lesson of Defeat: Obama Comes Out Punching" [NYT]

• Bill Cosby keeps the pressure on in Ohio. [WTOL]

• Even after the contests in Texas, Ohio, Rhode Island, and Vermont are decided tonight, Hillary Clinton warns of a long, long road to the nomination. Oh. Yay. [NYT]

• How to present Bill Cosby with special Black History Month Air Force Ones. [KATC]

• 50 Cent, Floyd Mayweather, Wrestlemania, whatever, whatever, and whatever. [XXL]

• She who giveth (big) shall taketh away viewers from other shows. [SP]

• Oops! Police officers should really turn the camera's off before letting loose with the death threats and racial epithets. [GN]

• Bill Cosby and Hugh Hefner bond over jazz. And nothing else, I'm sure. [AP]

• Everyone OJ Simpson comes in contact with writes a book. That says a lot about the both Simpson and the company he keeps. [TMZ]

• Ladies, if any of you have friends who subscribe to "Baller Alert," please sit them down and give them a good talking to. [NB]

• The internet is buzzing with Kelly-Rowland-posing-in-Playboy-rumors. Since the internet is also buzzing with Kelly-Rowland-got-implants-rumors, I'm happy that Miss Kelly will be putting her new boobs to good use. In the fictional rumor world, at least. [C&D]

• Mystikal, who's been locked up for sexual battery since 2003, was just denied parole. I barely remember who that is. [RWS]

News of Bill Cosby's impending rap album and a a reader's comment have me unable to get this classic scene ( let's call it, "JUSTINE, JUSTINE") out of my head. Hopefully, YouTube will purge the Malcolm-Jamal Warner demon. And then pass it along to you guys!

STATE OF EMERGENCY IS RIGHT Bill Cosby, the increasingly un-lovable curmudgeon who has dedicated his latter years to grouchily attempting to uplift the race, is releasing a rap album called State of Emergency. According to All Hip Hop, "Cosby's album will not contain any profane language, nor will it offer any denigrating comments towards women." But what will it offer, exactly? No word on whether the album will feature songs by (positive, of course) rappers or the lyrical stylings of Cosby himself.

• Not that we needed her validation or anything, but Whoopi Goldberg was pissed about this, too. [NB]

• "Clarence Thomas is not a sellout." Okay. But what is he, exactly? [Salon]

• The WGA decided it has bigger fish to fry than the Grammys and members will not picket. [E!]

• On MLK Day, Bill Cosby ripped into poor blacks for irresponsible behavior. What else is new? [CST]

• Barack Obama gets the endorsement of South Carolina's largest newspaper, the State. [LAT]

A guy like Beanie Sigel is the type Bill Cosby's usually complaining about in his speeches and books, but yesterday the two teamed up for an anti-violence march in Philadelphia. And the Cos had nice things to say about Sigel, who released an album last week.

“Here is a young man from the streets who came back to the streets as a man,” Cosby said of the rapper. “This is what we want from our young boys, to go from boys to men.” Beans, who shot an anti-violence public service announcement with Philly’s Fox 29 last week, believes that, as an artist who hails from the same mean streets that are now under siege, he is uniquely suited to reach at-risk youth. “I come from these things, the streets,” Beans told the crowd outside of M. Hall Stanton School. “I’m at a time in my life where I’m trying to make the transition from something negative to something positive.”

And despite the occasional passive theft of rental cars, Beans is making that transition quite nicely.

Admit it. You have just been dying to put an actual voice to these words you read everyday. Good news: I was a guest on NPR today. Bad news: it's not such a great voice, and I'm going to need to retire "you know" from my repertoire.

I was joined on News & Notes' weekly blogger's roundtable by Shay Riley of Booker Rising and Brandon Whitney of Homeland Colors. Today's topics were the Jena Six's BET Hip Hop Awards cameo, Bill Cosby's Meet the Press appearance, and the acquittal of the defendants in the boot camp death case, all of which are things you pretty much know my opinions (which I'm much better at expressing in written form, unfortunately) on if you read the blog. Still, it's fun to listen. Click here to check it out.