Janet Jackson’s emotional performance in her latest film was influenced by her brother’s premature death, according to the director.

Tyler Perry, who directs and costars in Why Did I Get Married Too? with Janet, said she channelled her pain at her brother’s death into her performance on set.

The film, which has just been released in the US, was mid-production in June last year when Michael Jackson died after being given a lethal cocktail of drugs.

In the trailer a distressed Janet is shown sobbing, with tears streaming down her face. In one scene she even loses her temper, screaming and smashing up a house with a golf club.

In a very open interview with US chat show queen Oprah, the veteran singer also publicly talked of her brother’s refusal to accept his problems with prescription drugs despite interventions from his family.

Due to the sensitive timing of filming Perry, 40, even changed the ending of the movie so Janet did not have to endure a funeral scene during which her character was supposed to speak.

Smouldering Scarlett Johansson steals the limelight as Black Widow in Iron Man 2

Last summer, insiders on the set of Iron Man 2 let slip that Gwyneth Paltrow was upset that new co-star Scarlett Johansson had been given higher billing in the movie’s promotional posters.

And no wonder Gwyneth was smarting — the latest set of stills from the upcoming sequel show Scarlett as a smouldering Natasha Romanoff, aka the Black Widow, in a figure-hugging Lara Croft-style black catsuit.

The 25-year-old’s character joins the cast as an undercover spy, even sexy in her secretarial guise as a new assistant to Tony Stark (aka Iron Man), played by Robert Downey Jr.

Meanwhile Gwyneth, who at 37, is 12 years older than the new cast member, reprises her role as Pepper Potts, Stark’s closest friend and budding love interest.

The original 2008 film based on the classic Marvel comic, and directed by actor Jon Favreau, told the story of Stark, an industrialist and master engineer who builds a powered exoskeleton to become the superhero Iron Man.

A source from the set last year told the Daily Mail on Sunday rumours of a rift between the female stars after Gwyneth was absent from the film’s promotional material.

— Daily Mail

Erykah Badu charged over nude music video shoot at site of JFK assassination

Erykah Badu has been charged for stripping off in a music video in downtown Dallas, officials said.

The singer has been charged with disorderly conduct for taking her clothes off on a street full of pedestrians during the filming of her new single Window Seat in Dealey Plaza.

The performance ended with a totally naked Badu, who is from Dallas, pretending to receive a fatal bullet to the head at the spot where President John F Kennedy was assassinated in 1963.

The guerilla video was shot in just one take in the famous Dealey Plaza in Dallas, Texas on March 13 without any filming permits.

The beginning of the video features Badu driving a white car with the famous radio commentary of Kennedy’s fateful visit to Dallas.

Sergeant Warren Mitchell said on Friday the decision to cite Badu for disorderly conduct punishable by a fine of up to $500 — came after witness Ida Espinosa, 32, of Vernon, offered a sworn statement to police. Mitchell said Badu can either contest the charge or pay the fine. He said a citation would be mailed to the singer.

— Daily Mail