After reports that employees at Flavor Flav's Chicken restaurant in Clinton, IA, were not getting paid, the reality star is pulling his name from the establishment, and claims that his business partner, Nick Cimino, "mismanaged" the business and now he has a "bad reputation!"
He explains:
"I had a licensing agreement with Nick Cimino and that's all we had. It was his business to run from there and the business was not run right. Let me be straight up with you, I went up inside there on April 2 and I found potato salad that expired on February 28. And it's then when I realized I can't do business with this man and I really hope no one ate those potatoes."
GEESH! We hope they didn't, either!
What the hell? That's effing disgusting!
We're glad to hear that he's pulling out of this mess! Hopefully, this will be enough of an incentive for the management to get their shiz together - OR they'll just shut it down!
Sounds like a disaster! Ugh.
[Image via WENN.]
Tags: Business Blitz, business partner, Celebrity Gossip, Celebs, flavor flav, flavor flav chicken restaurant, Food, Gross, Icky Icky Poo, nick cimino, Perez Hilton, quality
Posted inCelebrity Gossip Inspirationally Perez Hilton Posted by Perez Hilton
Pemo Theodore, a Startup Coach & Australian origin online entrepreneur, video interviews venture capitalists & women entrepreneurs on the shortfall in funding for women @EZebis: Winning theVenture Game for Women.
Video Interview with Elizabeth Hodgson, CEO & Founder Civicboom UK which is a crowdsourcing information platform: Prototype live - full version (with API) released early 2011.
Built from standing start, Civicboom is an innovative platform that enables organisations to crowdsource news and insight via their own communities through open or invite-only targeted online environments. Previously, she had over 14 years media and communications experience ranging from award-winning online travel journalist and editor to speech writer and communications consultant. You can find CivicBoom @civicboom
Pemo: Could you tell me briefly about your past history in raising angel investment?
Elizabeth: We started the usual way, the hard way. We came up with an idea & we had the friends, family & fools involved. We did it really from the ground up. We were quite fortunate, in so much as where we are here in the UK, we're based in a city called Canterbury which is in the South East County of Kent. Kent University has an enterprise hub that gives facilities to potentially high growth companies/startups very,very cheap office space. The environment that they can actually be on campus. On campus we're able to hire developers straight from graduation. It was quite a neat little space to come to. I only found out about it accidentally. I think this is something that I want to touch upon later about how we don't know what's going on.
We fitted the criteria & as a result other institutions that are suited to our needs came to know about us.
We were then approached by an organization called Innovation & Growth. It's part of a government backed initiative that helps potentially high growth startups to reach the right angel investors initially.
We went on the radar of these guys back in September/October & then we got angel investment earlier this year, round 1 really. So we're now gearing up for round 2 because part of the process is we push forward. We've got our pilots going, our systems are being tested & we're now going out into market which now makes us right for round 2. Eventually we are going to vc. But if I hadn't found this particular little hub & been approached, I think that we would have been dead in the water by now, really.
Pemo: You would have slipped through the cracks, isn't that interesting?
Elizabeth: Yes it doesn't matter how great your idea is, this is something I feel quite passionately about here in the UK, we do not have the infrastructure. We don't have the startup mentality. I'm going to say something quite sacrilegious, as much as we think we do we are set up for this. Even down to the investors that you're meeting with, they don't understand the startup environment really.
Pemo: I agree because I was doing all of that years ago in London. Totally agree & particularly the 'woman' piece in those days was definitely a detriment to me.
Elizabeth: Well interesting, because even now there are a couple of other startups that are associated with the hub down here that are driven by women. I look around, in the nicest possible way & all my developers are guys, all my customers are guys.
People I'm meeting are guys & I'm just thinking I want to be a successful person in what I'm doing. But I do wonder where are the other women?
Pemo: It's a good question. We are combing the undergrowth now & trying to get them to all come out & show their faces.
Elizabeth: It would be good. It would be good. I do think that there are different pressures on women in business. I'm not trying to sound like a victim, because I don't believe in that victim mentality but I do think we have to prove ourselves that little bit more.
Pemo: Yes I agree & many people say the same thing.
Pemo: What attitudes towards you being female have you noted from angel investors when you have been raising capital?
Elizabeth: I think I'm very much I'm an unknown, as it were, because I don't think the people who invest in companies in this area, it's usually a male run company. I genuinely think that I'm a rare creature, a CEO of a technology company that's got angel investment in the UK. I think that the percentage of companies that actually reach the stage that we're at, & if you strip away the fact that it's run by a woman, I think that I'm quite unusual. I'm very lucky in the fact that my investors don't see it any differently. But I think that I am unusual in this environment. I certainly feel it when I'm looking at other companies. You do background checks on other companies that are coming up & you just see that it's men, men, men, men.
Pemo: What qualities do you think women entrepreneurs need specifically for sourcing angel investment then after your hard won experience?
Elizabeth: I would like to say the same as a male. I would like to say they have the passion, the drive, the commitment, the idea, the tenacity. I do think that there's a difference in, without trying to get too much Men are from Mars & Women are from Venus all of that, but I do think that women do have a particularly different approach to business.
I don't want to play by the men's rules because it doesn't suit me to play by the men's rules. I want to play by my rules.
But I think that women unfortunately are still judged by the mere fact that they're a woman. I think you've got to not play that card. I think actually you've got to be even more professional. So I would say be absolutely focused on what you're doing. Also it's something, I forget where I read it, (actually I think it was something you wrote) women tend not to focus so much on the hard sale. We'll try & make something as perfect as possible. This is what I'm finding with my peers as well, the small number of peers that I have. Whereas I'm trying really hard to get my head around the fact that you just get it out there, speed, speed, speed. Get it out there & worry about whether it's got the shiny corners later. Just get something out there & do it & lead & don't be afraid. But I think that there are constraints on women, in particular women who actually find that they're in a position to actually start something of their own. Usually it's later on in their life. It's not the twenty somethings! I came to this later on, after many years experience of working in the field. I thought this is what I want to do. So I think that there are constraints & conditions put on women that will stop them from doing this anyway. They might have families. They might not be in the financial position because financially you've got to be able to do this.
Pemo: You've got to be able to run lean a lot of the time, haven't you?
Elizabeth: Be prepared to lose everything.
Pemo: What I'm hearing is that it's really important to focus on the business per se, rather than the fact that you're a woman & any of those considerations. And also to be a little bit more bold!
Elizabeth: Yeah I do think that. Again I don't want to say that women are victims. However I think that there are perceptions about women in business. I would like to challenge those perceptions. I think that women do need to collaborate & work together in proving that there is a different way to work than just I think that we all perceive are the only rules.
Pemo: And the great thing about women if we're going to generalize is that usually we're good at collaborating & supporting each other. So that will certainly stand us in good stead!
Pemo: In your opinion what percentage of women would qualify then as regards having these qualities? Could they be developed? If so what are your ideas about how this could happen?
Elizabeth: Looking at my peer group & my friends as well, I am a firm believer (like everyone's got a book inside them) everyone's got the ability to do something. I'm the kind of person that if you're going to do something do it big! There's no in between. But then I've got other peers, one of my friends has set up a bookkeeping company. That's very small, but she's done that off her own bat. She's trained herself, she's doing it! I think that the startup mentality doesn't have to be massive. It's just I'm going to do something & I'm going to do something for myself. I'm going to create something from scratch. We started literally from an A4 piece of paper, an idea on a bit of paper.
It's having that confidence to say yeah I'm going to give this a go, I'm going to push this forward.
So I think that most women have got it in them.I think it goes in our favor, that you go through your 20s you are establishing who you are, you're working out what your talents are. You're getting some experience under your belt. I think that the age at which women finaally realize that they can do something, is actually a really good age because they've got that confidence & they've got the connections. I would encourage any woman really, not necessarily take the risks that I've been prepared to take (& to get to this point it's been a very, very hairy journey but we're here). I would like to have had a little bit more support, not around hand holding but just this is where you can go with this, this is what you can do. The legal aspects, how to set up a company. Here in the UK the same rules apply to us as they do to Google & it's ridiculous. Personally we don't get the breaks. We don't get any kinds of breaks at all. We have the same tax rules,the same everything, the structure of the companies. But I would like to impart this information. I would like to be able to turn around & say to somebody this is what you need to do. These are the support mechanisms that are in place for you already. Genuinely I think anyone could do this. But I just think it's having the tenacity & the commitment & a little bit of a door opening for you. Because we've got to pull each other through.
Pemo: So what I'm hearing is that the mentoring & sharing with your colleagues, all of that's really helpful to encourage & to build that confidence in women to give it a shot!
Elizabeth: To interject, I think also that women work in a different way to men. I don't think it's a bad way. As I'm looking across my not vast office, the 3 developers here are 3 guys. I think I'm fortunate in that we're all in this together. I think that there could be some issues around some men don't like taking leadership from women. I've had that said to me & to still hear that kind of stuff is really quite negative.
Pemo: Disappointing, disappointing, yes. Obviously in the UK & Ireland where I was based before London that definitely still seems to be much more prevalent. It's a slower move to the current trend where we're actually all equal.
Elizabeth: I think we will get there but there's still a lot of work. Education, education, it starts from being a 5 year old in school, that's where it starts.
In this May 1991 file photo, former president and chairman of Sony, Norio Ohga, holds a Sony Mini Disc in New York. Sony says Ohga, credited with developing the compact disc, has died Saturday, April 23, 2011. He was 81. Sony Corp. Chairman Howard Stringer said Ohga helped redefine the Japanese manufacturer not only as an electronic hardware company but helped it also expand into software or entertainment. (AP Photo/Richard Drew, File)
MUSIC: Former opera singer transformed electronics maker.
TOKYO - Opera singer Norio Ohga complained about the quality of Sony tape recorders before he was hired by the company, developed the compact disc and championed its superior sound. Love of music steered the former Sony chairman's career and in turn, he transformed the Japanese electronics maker into a global software and entertainment empire.
The company president and chairman from 1982 to 1995, Ohga died Saturday in Tokyo of multiple organ failure, Sony said. He was 81.
The flamboyant music connoisseur steered his work through his love of music. A former opera singer, Ohga insisted the CD be designed at 12 centimeters (4.8 inches) in diameter - or 75 minutes worth of music - to store Beethoven's Ninth Symphony in its entirety.
From the start, Ohga recognized the potential of the CD's superior sound quality. In the 1970s, when Ohga insisted CDs would eventually replace record albums, skeptics scoffed. Herbert von Karajan, Stevie Wonder and Herbie Hancock spoke up in defense of Sony's digital sound.
Sony sold the world's first CD in 1982 and CDs overtook LP record sales in Japan five years later. The specifications are still used today and fostered the devices developed since.
"It is no exaggeration to attribute Sony's evolution beyond audio and video products into music, movies and game, and subsequent transformation into a global entertainment leader to Ohga-san's
foresight and vision," Sony Corp. Chairman and Chief Executive Howard Stringer said Saturday, using the Japanese honorific.
Ohga's focus on music, films and video games as a way to enrich the electronics business helped create Sony's success in his era.
"We are always chasing after things that other companies won't touch," Ohga said in a 1998 interview with The Associated Press. "That is a big secret to our success."
Ohga is survived by his wife, Midori. Sony said a private wake will be held later.
Darren Criss attends a signing for his new CD, Glee: The Music Presents The Warblers, at Barnes & Noble on Friday (April 22) at L.A.?s The Grove.
Also pictured: the 24-year-old singer and Glee actor performed a surprise concert at Santa Monica?s 3rd Street Promenade on Wednesday (April 20) for Cambio?s ?On the Spot? series.
Darren and the Warblers have been on a busy promo tour, stopping by the Today show earlier in the week and performing their version of Katy Perry?s ?Teenage Dream? on The Ellen DeGeneres Show.
During his sit-down interview with Ellen, Darren made her an honorary Warbler by presenting her with her very own Warbler blazer!
Photos: Jonathan Leibson/Film Magic, John Shearer/Wire Image Posted to: Darren Criss
In the latest casting news regarding the big screen adaption of The Hunger Games, Irish actress Paula Malcomson has landed the role of Katniss' mother. The character is constantly worried about the future of her daughters.
Malcomson is a veteran of the small screen, most recently appearing on Private Practice, Fringe and Sons of Anarchy.
The actress joins a young cast that includes Liam Hemsworth, Josh Hutcherson, Willow Shield, Jack Quaid, Leven Rembin, Dayo Okeniyi, Amandla Stenberg and, of course, Jennifer Lawrence in the main role.
Elizabeth Banks has also been rumored for the part of Effie.
An off-duty Los Angeles police officer was thrown out of his pickup truck in an early-morning crash on the Ventura (101) Freeway on Saturday and died two hours later at a Westwood hospital.
Jose Diance-Cruz, 23, of Sylmar died at Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center at 5:34 a.m., two hours after the wreck on the eastbound freeway at Van Nuys Boulevard, according to the coroner's office.
About 1:15 p.m. a motorcade of 10 LAPD units with lights and sirens activated transported his body from the hospital to the coroner's office.
According to Los Angeles police officer Gregory Baek, the fallen officer worked at the LAPD's Southwest Station.
Diance-Cruz was found gravely injured and still belted into the driver's seat, which had been pushed out of the vehicle by part of a guardrail that the pickup hit at the Van Nuys Boulevard offramp at 3:21 a.m., said LAPD Sgt. Carl Taylor.
A California Highway Patrol statement said he "drifted off the main travel portion of the roadway'' and into a metal guardrail at the exit.
"The guardrail penetrated the interior of the pickup,'' the CHP officer said, pushing both the driver's seat and its occupant out the rear window.
The surprise wedding on Friday night was a small, intimate ceremony in California, witnessed by approximately 40 friends and relatives, according to People.com.
"LeAnn and Eddie were happily married...surrounded by their closest family and friends," said a spokesman for the bride. "They thank everyone for their well wishes."
The day after her wedding, Rimes tweeted: "Eddie and I are overwhelmed by the amount of lovely well wishes. We are blessed and.... I'm Mrs. Cibrian!!!!! So wonderful to wake up as husband and wife. Love to all of you."
Cibrian's sons from his first marriage (Mason, 7, and Jake, 4) were among the guests, who had all been invited to a party on the premise of celebrating the couple's engagement. Instead, on a private Malibu property overlooking the Pacific, the country singer and the actor exchanged marriage vows and wedding bands.
Their engagement happened in December when Cibrian popped the question with a five-carat diamond ring. About her fiance, Rimes tweeted, "The ring is beautiful, man is better :)"
Earlier, this month, Rimes was spotted looking thinner than usual, but she fired back against allegations of an eating disorder.
Another thing she has staunchly defended is her relationship, even though it began in 2008 as an extramarital affair on a TV movie set, while both were still wed to their previous spouses. "I didn't have the tools to know how to do it the right way, how to let go the right way," Rimes recently said of ending her marriage to Dean Sheremet, who's now engaged to his new love. "I'd never been taught that."
Cibrian was married to Brandi Glanville, the mother of his two sons, when he first fell for the Grammy-winning singer and fledgling actress. In January, Glanville said, "There is still a lot of animosity, but hopefully, one day, we can move through that and get to a better place."
Nearly a year ago, audiences and critics alike were concerned for Kirsten Dunst when she announced her acceptance of a female role in the Lars von Trier movie, Melancholia. Lars von Trier, a legendary Danish filmmaker, is infamously known for putting his characters, and ultimately their actresses, through reenactments of genital mutilation, rape, and other provocative escapades.
PHOTOS: Check out Kirsten Dunst beautifully pictured in Blackbook magazine!
Fortunately for Dunst, Lars von Trier said,
?I think that Kirsten got off far too easy. She was not dragged through any masturbation. She has a very smooth ride, I would say.?
The sci-fi drama features two sisters, played by Kirsten Dunst and Charlotte Gainsbourg. Because the neighboring planet, Melancholia, is set to collide with Earth, the duo is faced with the trials and tribulations of the world?s end. The movie also stars Keifer Sutherland, Charlotte Rampling, Alexander Skarsgard, Stellan Skarsgard, Udo Kier, and John Hurt.
Melancholia, one of the most anticipated films of 2011, will debut at the Cannes Film Festival in May and will be released to theaters in the following months.
Check out the photos above of Kirsten Dunst and boyfriend Jason Boesel as they leave a Paul Simon concert at the Pantages Theater.
Amy Smart is now sporting an engagement ring after boyfriend Carter Oosterhouse proposed.
As it turns out, hunky handyman Carter Oosterhouse is familiar with all kinds of rocks, not just the ones found lying outside the home.
That much was proven Thursday, when Amy Smart stepped out wearing a sparkly diamond ring on her left hand.
The couple's engagement, confirmed that same day, comes five months after they began dating.
Oosterhouse, an HGTV personality, asked Smart, 35, to marry him just four days ago.
"It was a very big surprise but she is thrilled and is very excited," a source told Us Weekly. "They are a good pair and very in sync with each other."
And the actress looked proud to wear the hefty bling at the Body Shop Three-Minute Shower Challenge in Manhattan, where it seemed the only thing that matched the shine of the ring was Smart's bright smile.