BV Entertainment Newswire June 9

Something About Mary

Queen of hip-hop soul Mary J. Blige will hit the road this summer for a nationwide trek -- but not in some of the cities that mainstream media outlets jumped the gun and reported earlier this week.

A spokesperson for Geffen Records (Blige's label) confirmed to Black Voices that some of the dates and cities were erroneously reported and have not been routed on the 30-city-plus tour, which was finalized yesterday.

Blige, who topped the charts with last December's release of 'The Breakthrough,' will officially kick off what is titled "The Breakthrough Experience" June 29 in Atlanta at the Chastain Park Amphitheatre.

The three-time Grammy Award winning diva will also perform a special concert during the 'Essence' Music Festival on July 1 at Houston's Reliant Stadium.

The tour will feature R&B newcomers LaToya and Jaheim (who collaborated with Blige on his 2002 album, 'Still Ghetto').

Other stops include Milwaukee (July 3), St. Louis (July 14), New York (July 21), Washington DC (July 30), San Antonio (August 9), Ft. Lauderdale (Aug. 25) and Oakland (Sept. 8). For more cities, venues and dates, click on AOL Tickets.

'The Breakthrough's' enormous first week sales of 727,163 earned it the honor of being the best opening week for a solo R&B female artist in Nielsen SoundScan history. The CD, which has currently sold over 2.2 million copies, had the distinction of being the fourth-best debut of all of 2005.

The album's first single, 'Be Without You,' remained on the Billboard Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs chart for 15 weeks, which established Blige as having the longest running No. 1 song on the chart since it was reintroduced in 1965, confirmed a spokesperson.

Open 'House'

MTV’s hugely successful series 'Run's House' returns to the airwaves for a second season June 15 at 9:30 p.m. (ET/PT). On the network's first hip-hop reality show, Rev Run (born Joey Simmons) of Run D.M.C. must balance producing music and running a sneaker company while raising five spirited children ages 9-22.

According to a spokesperson, the Russell Simmons, Stan Lathan, and Sean "Diddy" Combs-produced series ranked number one in its time period and reached over 32 million viewers during its first season.

"The new season will teach, it will be funny," Run told Black Voices. "My wife is pregnant. That will be different. She’s due in October. That’s a big deal on the show. It’s just me trying to balance this house. It will be real interesting to see me pulling my hair out trying to get everyone together."

MTV will air a 'Run's House' marathon June 13 beginning at 10 am (ET/PT) and on Father's Day beginning at noon (ET/PT). Full Episodes with extra scenes will be available via MTV On Demand starting July 7.

Ailey For Free

'Beyond the Steps: Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater' will premiere on PBS June 21 as a Dance in America special on Thirteen/WNET New York’s Great Performances on PBS (check local listings).

The performance documentary shines a spotlight on the company's famed Artistic Director Judith Jamison along with company dancers, choreographers and staff members. "I’m always telling dancers that you’re not defined by the end of your fingertips, or the top of your head, or the bottom of your feet," Jamison says in the film. "You are the expanse. You are the infinity."

Produced and directed by Phil Bertelsen, an award-winning filmmaker best known for co-producing 'Chisholm '72: Unbought and Unbossed', the hour-long program follows the dancers to Russia after an absence of nearly 20 years, observes as the company moves into a state-of-the-art custom-built facility on Manhattan’s West Side, and is on hand for the creation of a new ballet, 'Love Stories,' choreographed by Jamison, with hip-hop dance pioneer Rennie Harris and modern dance maverick Robert Battle.

'Easy' Does It

Jeffrey Wright and Mos Def, who starred on Broadway in Suzan-Lori Parks' play, 'Topdog/Underdog,' are reportedly teaming up again for an upcoming HBO film based on the Walter Mosley novel 'Little Scarlet.'

'Variety' reports that Wright and Def haven't decided who'll play which role of detective Easy Rawlins and his thuggish sidekick Mouse. The two heroes (of Mosley's long-running literary series) were previously played by Denzel Washington and Don Cheadle, respectively, in the 1995 thriller 'Devil in a Blue Dress.'

''Little Scarlet' takes place in L.A. right after the 1965 Watts riots and centers on a murder of a white man suspected of killing a black woman.

Mosley will reportedly pen the script, with Hollywood powerhouse Debra Martin Chase serving as a producer.