Oprah, look out! You’re not the only one opening women’s centers and schools anymore. Mary J. Blige is following suit in her old hometown of Yonkers.  The singer visited Roosevelt High on Friday to announce the the new outreach facility—The Mary J. Blige Center for Women—which will be run as a partnership between her (and partner Steve Stoute’s) Foundation for the Advancement of Women Now and the Westchester Jewish Community Services.

According to The Journal News, Blige and Stoute are planning to raise $500,000 for the Foundation. “Please get your education,” she told the students at the press conference.

“Education is key. Education is power. I saw the challenges women go through as a child. If I can rise from a cesspool, these women can, too.”

“It’s about women that desire to give themselves a second chance. They have not given up. They don’t want to die. Mentally, spiritually, physically, they want to live.

I’m not saying don’t be afraid, but know that we’re all a little afraid but you’re not by yourself, so push thru the fear,”

(Stuart Bayer / The Journal News)

It’s already a well-known fact: George digs Barack. His support for Obama has been widely reported, everywhere from ABC to the Washington Post to TMZ. Even BarackObama.com seems to take pride in Clooney’s reference to Obama being “like a rock star.”

So why, then, hasn’t Clooney campaigned for the Illinois senator? If Oprah and Bruce Springsteen are happy to hit the campaign trail, why not Dr. Doug Ross?

That was one of the topics Clooney addressed Wednesday night in Pelham, during his talk with Peter Travers at the Picture House. In a nutshell, he thinks it helps Obama more by not publically endorsing him, by not making stump speeches. What’s more, this isn’t he first time Clooney has boycotted a campaign because he felt his image would do more harm than good.

Shockingly, he took the exact same tack with his own father’s campaign for Congress back in 2004. Nick Clooney ultimately lost anyway, but George said that public appearances by him would have only made matter worse. Clooney explains the dilemma in his own words—and discusses whether he’d ever run for office himself—after the break.

Mount Vernon native Sean “Diddy” Combs has had a busy month so far. First, on May 2, he got his star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame and, according to People, proclaimed himself the black Bruce Willis. (Actually, the full quote was: “I’m trying to get my Black Bruce Willis on.”)

And on that same day, he was reportedly spotted having lunch with his ex, Kim Porter, at Italian restaurant Trilussa in Beverly Hills. You may recall, Diddy and Porter split a month ago, after Porter gave birth to the couple’s twin girls, D’Lila Star and Jessie James. Including son Christian, that’s three kids the couple has.

Could this lunch mean the couple’s giving it another go? BlogXilla certainly hopes so. Here, they share “13 reasons to get back with your baby mama.”

Thanks to Amy Vernon for the tip!

(AP Photos/Reed Saxon)

Continued coverage of George Clooney’s visit to Pelham last night. First, better photos of the event, courtesy Jay Ackerman and the Picture House:

More photos, quotes from Clooney, and my thoughts on the event after the break. Many thanks to the Picture House for inviting me to the Q&A, which was a fundraiser for their planned expansion project.

The only thing harder than pushing a ‘66 Chevy to 114 mph on a suburban Phoenix freeway? Trying to keep track of how many times rapper/actor DMX has been arrested for pulling such stunts.

His latest run-in with the law took place on Tuesday, when police took him into custody at his north Phoenix home on charges of criminal speeding, public endangerment, reckless driving and driving on a suspended license. Apparently the Arizona po-po uses remote cameras to speeders on the Loop 101 freeway in Scottsdale, and the nabbed DMX—also known to the law by his given name, Earl Simmons—driving at 100, 101 and 114 mph. In a Chevy Nova II, no less. Complete with “DMX” decal on the windshield.

Here, shots of the offending incidents, which were actually recorded back on January 21, 2008:

DMX driving 114 mph on January 21, 2008.

DMX going 100 mph on the same day. In a Chevy Nova!

Remember, DMX, who grew up in Yonkers and still owns a house on the Bedford/Mount Kisco border, also has two outstanding bench warrants in Westchester for prior moving violations (which he failed to show up in court for). And last April, police raided his Arizona house, finding abused pit bulls, a weapons cache and cocaine. The rapper hasn’t been charged with any crimes there, though.

“DMX arrested for speeding, reckless driving in Ariz” [Excite]

MORE: Suburbarazzi’s previous DMX coverage

(Mug shot and speeding camera stills: AP Photo/Arizona Department of Public Safety)

Keep in mind: I’m attempting to do this on an iPhone. Excuse the typos and hurried language. Ok, here goes.

6:42 Just arrived. I’m guessing the audience is 80-90 percent women. No Clooney. Yet.

7:00 Packed house. Standing room only. The Picture House officials tell me the event sold out in 1 minute.

7:11 Roll tape. New Picture House documentary. Very slick.

7:15 New Picture House motto: “Life Art Popcorn”

Catchy, no?

Jennifer Christman now giving fundraising speech.

7:25 Movie just began. Woman to my right is complaining about the bright iPhone screen. Gotta stop typing. (Besides, what do you really care what I think about “Leatherheads”?) See you in a couple hours.

8:30 Quick visit to lobby to pick up Sour Patch Kids. Throngs of young kids assembled outside, behind police barricades, waiting for Clooney to show. Still no sign of the man.

9:10 Movie over.

Christian introduces Travers.

Travers calls down Clooney.

Standing o

9:15 Clooney tried out for Cincy Reds. Who knew?

9:17 Rosanne Barr memories

Time mag article

Happy belated birthday to Clooney (he turned 47 yesterday)

9:20 Clooney: “This movie bombed. Bombed badly”

9:25 Clooney on the recent Time mag cover: “the ‘Last Movie Star’ … well, it’s better than being last reality TV star”

9:28 Clooney on batman: “the nipples on the suit were for feeding little bats”

9:30 Remember, “Out of Sight” and “O Brother” bombed too

9:35 Clooney thankful for “Ladykillers”—the only Coen bros. movies considered more of a bomb than his

9:38 Stories on growing up clooney (I’ll post quotes later. Can’t type fast enough)

9:45 “Oscar campaigns are like Hillary-Barack”

More Darfur stories

9:56 Questions from audience

Clooney not psyched to mediate with pipeline terrorists

9:59 Q: boxers or briefs?
A: when acting, I like to go commando

10:02 Darfur—”It gnaws at me”

Clooney NOT running for political office

10:25 Last question

Crowd sings Clooney Happy Birthday

Clooney signs autographs for screaming Pelham teenage girls

Clooney and I hop into Chevy Suburban to go booze it up with Danny DeVito and a bottle of Limoncello

Kidding

Thanks for reading

More quotes and pics from the event tomorrow

UPDATE: Success! I was able to email a few photos from the event into a Flickr pool. It’s a brave new world here on Suburbarazzi.

In addition to the photos from Pelham, you can also view a few photos of Clooney shooting “Burn After Reading” in New Rochelle last fall. These shots were taken by Robert Cox.

Created with Admarket’s flickrSLiDR.

Did any of you catch Barbara Walters on Oprah yesterday? In an hour-long interview, she discussed all the revelations from her new memoir, Audition—a book that I couldn’t have imagined being at all interested in reading a day ago and is now already on my Amazon wish list. I kid you not. It honestly sounds that good.

Who knew Walters had such a fascinating, and at times sordid, personal life? An affair with a married senator—and a black senator at that! A father who attempted suicide! Three failed marriages and a mentally disabled sister! For more on the details of the memoir, check out this USA Today story.

Of course, the first questions on everyone’s mind—including Oprah’s—revolved around The View. Specifically, the tumultuous two-year period beginning with Irvington resident Meredith Vieira’s departure, then the Star Jones saga, and finally Rosie O’Donnell. Walters spent the longest period on Oprah’s couch discussing Rosie, and how the South Nyack often seemed to give their relationship a mother-daughter dynamic.

Rosie used her Ask Ro message board to respond to a lot of the questions raised by Babwa. We’ll recap the key points, along with Ro’s trademark haiku-ish thoughts, after the break.

On the podcast this week: Clooney coming to Pelham, Denzel doling out neuroscience dollars in Mount Vernon, and Panettiere on FunnyorDie.

Podcast file:

Flash video:

And, of course, the quiz:

As the Clooney event suggests, the Pelham Picture House has been on a roll lately, luring in some of Hollywood’s biggest megawatt celebs. Can you guess which of the following has NOT appeared at the tiny theater in the past year?

A. Michael Douglass
B. Tom Cruise
C. Sean Penn
D. Steve Carell

Some bloggers like to liveblog the Oscars? Other tackle shareholder reports? Well, here in suburbia, we don’t have too many celebrity events worth covering live. But, well, I’m figuring George Clooney’s visit to Pelham tonight is about as close as we’ll get. And thanks to the good folks at the Picture House, who invited me to cover the event, I’ll be there to do the honors.

I’m not sure exactly what a blow-by-blow of the Leatherheads screening and subsequent Q&A tonight will look like. But if you’re even the slightest bit curious about what Clooney has to say about Obama, the Time 100, Gawker, and the rest of the blogarazzi—a few of the things I’m hoping to ask about—tune in here tonight around 9 p.m.

(AP Photo/Francois Mori)

We’ve now confirmed what I’ve always suspected: If you want a televised small claims court show, you better have a first name that begins with the letter “J.” Judge Judy. Judge Joe Brown. And now, Judge Jeanine Pirro. For TV execs—like overworked magazine editors—the temptation of an alliterative show title is just too good to pass up.

Pirro’s new show will begin on September 22, according to Shawn Cohen’s story on LoHud today. It’ll be an hour-long program on the CW, in which the former Westchester County DA will “mete out justice with her own ‘go for the jugular’ style.”

Note to all prospective litigants: If your case isn’t going well, just bring up Hillary Clinton and/or Al Pirro. A surefire way to bring Judge Jeanine to tears and invoke a mistrial.

“Look out, Judge Judy: Pirro gets TV show” [LoHud]

(AP Photo/Warner Bros Ent. Inc., Mark Harmel)

Yet another of our beloved LoHud celebs is pulling a Rodney Dangerfield. Remember how last summer Sneden’s Landing’s Bill Murray finally got his degree from Regis University, oh, about 30 years after he dropped out? Well, now Chappaqua’s Vanessa Williams has followed suit, returning to Syracuse this weekend nearly 25 years after she left the university to pursue singing, beauty pagenting, and looking dead sexy.

According to the AP story, Williams, who grew up in Millwood, was a musical theater major from 1981 to 1983 at ‘Cuse and  “earned the remaining credits for her degree through industry experience and her substantial performances on stage and screen.” She’ll also be delivering the school’s convocation speech.

We can only hope that she has as much fashion sense at the graduation ceremony as Murray did.

(Williams: AP Photo/Jim Cooper; Murray Photo: Regis University)