By Steven Roberts

Working on Sunday sucks. For one, it's supposedly a day of rest. You should be out at the park, enjoying Sunday brunch or lying in your bed watching sports while you recover from your hangover. Worst of all is that you know the next day is Monday — the official start of the work week — and you have five more days of this. So as I stood in a torrential downpour in the middle of the Wall Township Speedway in South Belmar, New Jersey yesterday, I thought to myself, "This could be worse."

I'll backtrack a little. I was asked on Thursday if I wanted to interview Queen Latifah, and I said "Yeah," because it's Queen Latifah. I just didn't hear the part where my boss said "… interview Queen Latifah this weekend."

But I thought "Whatever, it's Queen Latifah." And then I found out the interview would take place at her video set in south Jersey, and I thought I should really stop saying yes to everything so quickly. But once my cameraman Joel and I arrived, it was actually pretty awesome.

As we drove up to the set, we saw it was a racetrack with Ford Mustangs racing around. We made our way to the center of the track, and Robin Thicke walked past us to go hop in to drive a blood red car. Common arrived a little while later to drive a cobalt blue one. We grabbed interviews with both guys, who spoke excitedly about getting the opportunity to drive on the track. They were just there to show love to Latifah, whom they described as good friend.

The day was going smoothly. Video set visits can take forever because artists have a commitment shoot their video, and we grab them when can, in between takes or during breaks. But after Queen Latifah finished shooting her first scene, she came over to us for her interview. However, just as she was getting her makeup touched up, the sky opened up.

News reports all weekend had said that Hurricane Bill wouldn't hit the Northeast all that badly, but an hour later we were huddled up under Latifah's tent with about 10 of her people as the water continued to rise. They sang, danced and joked around, which helped pass time, and she even went out of her way to make sure we grabbed an interview later on.

The racetrack was below sea level, so the more it rained the more we became worried about all the electrical cords that surrounded us. I didn't get electrocuted, so it could've been much worse. Thankfully, I'm here to write about it ... on a Monday.

By Melanie Wolfson

There's a lot going on in the world that doesn't necessarily get addressed in our Newsroom blog. Here's a look at some top stories making headlines today.

The progress of certain "American Idol" contestants — we're looking at you, Bikini Girl, and not for the reasons you might hope — has some wondering why they're making it to Hollywood.

Joaquin Phoenix literally threw away — as in crumpled them up and threw them over his shoulder — any hopes celebrity DJ/ former Fall Out Boy tour manager Dan Suh had of being his DJ. Check out Dan's response!
Read more...

By Steven Roberts

Traditional glasses aren't viewed as something "cool." If years of consuming pop-culture have taught us anything, it's that glasses are worn by the socially awkward, the inept: dweebs, dorks and nerds!

While spectacles are worn by people with less-than-perfect vision who are willing to deal with ridicule in order to see well, the cool and beautiful are willing to sacrifice bumping into a small child or two for the sake of vanity. A startling trend has emerged, however: Rappers are wearing glasses.

Rappers are known for being boisterous, braggadocios and badass — they can't walk around looking like Lewis and Gilbert from "Revenge of the Nerds," can they? Sure, artists like DMC and E-40 have worn glasses throughout the years, but they had their own individual style. DMC had Cazal frames, a gold dookie-rope chain and a leather jacket, and E-40 makes up words that sound silly at first, but ultimately catch on and everyone says them. Read more...

Crimes and courts edition

· Ex-Phish frontman Trey Anastasio caught a break on Wednesday, when a judge reduced his sentence to three years' probation after the singer successfully completed a drug-court program.

· Kanye West, Method Man, Redman, Common and their record labels were sued Thursday by the estate of late jazz musician Joe Farrell, for allegedly sampling "Upon This Rock" without permission.

· Good news for troubled rapper DMX: A judge vacated a $1.5 million judgment that was brought against him in January after a jury sided with a woman who claimed the MC defamed her in a magazine interview.

· Phil Spector will suit up again on September 29 when his retrial on murder charges begins.

· Poison drummer Rikki Rockett has been exonerated on a felony rape charge in Mississippi. Turns out he wasn't even in the state when the incident took place.

· Common has reportedly been recruited to play a freedom fighter in the fourth installment of the “Terminator” movie series.

· LC, Audrina, Heidi, etc will return with yet another brain-melting season of “The Hills.”

· Sebastian Bach apparently didn’t understand that Scott Weiland was kidding when he suggested he replace him as the frontman for Velvet Revolver.

· A woman who attended a private NY party with Lindsay Lohan a few months back claims that the actress/singer/something walked off with her $11,000 mink. Lawyers were called, and the coat was returned -- smelling of a few too many parties.