Whoa there Taye Taye! It’s not what you were thinking though. Taye Diggs says he credits Tyson Beckford’s success for helping him love his own dark complexion. Diggs made this revelation in a recent interview with MyBrownBaby.com about his children’s book “Chocolate Me!”

Check out some excerpts below:

MYBROWNBABY: The scenes in the book, especially early on in the book, sound pretty brutal. When did you feel like your self-esteem had recovered from all of those early experiences?

TAYE DIGGS:

When I got into high school I started to hear, just from the black community, everybody is more attracted to the light skin girls and the light skin dudes with the light eyes. And from within the race the light skin black people and lighter brown people would make fun of the darker people. So then it was a completely different kind of struggle. And then funnily enough it was when dark skinned men, and this was just from my perspective, there seemed to be a shift where all of a sudden we saw Denzel Washington, Wesley Snipes, Tyson Beckford. I’m still trying to figure out how this came to be. For me, when I saw Tyson Beckford hailed as this beautiful man by all people, that caused a shift in my being. And I remember literally waking up and walking the streets feeling a little bit more proud. And then after the movie “How Stella Got Her Groove Back,” when I had my own personal moments of weakness, I just had to remind myself of all the people that really enjoyed that movie and just kind of lean on that.

TAYE ON COLORISM:

At five-years-old, none of us knew the can of worms we were opening… the little white kids who were making fun of me, they didn’t know. Their whole questioning was coming from the fact that I was different. None of them ever used the N word or negro. They just knew, “ok, his skin is brown, my skin is white, his skin is white, his skin is white, let’s make fun of him.” It wasn’t even in a nasty way at 5. But I obviously didn’t take it well. And then the older you get, once that understanding came, then that was a whole different issue. Then you have to deal with serious self-reflection. My mother was very fair skin and my dad was dark. And back in my mother’s day, she was seeking out the dark men because she didn’t feel black enough. So it’s a continuing issue. We’ve come a long way, but I don’t think we’re fully over it as a society.

Continue for more quotes from Taye Diggs…

All that “Blade” money and you still ain’t paid you bills bruh???

According to TMZ reports:

Wesley Snipes never left home without his American Express card — problem is, he never paid his $30,000 bill before he went to prison … this according to a new lawsuit.

The credit card company filed legal docs in Florida last week, insisting the imprisoned actor racked up a massive credit card bill as a free man, totaling $29,343.03 … and now AmEx is out for payback, plus interest.

But it doesn’t end there — AmEx also wants Snipes to cover their attorney fees for the legal shakedown.

As we previously reported, Snipes is currently serving a 3-year sentence for tax evasion — after allegedly failing to file tax returns for millions of dollars worth of income. He’s expected to be released in 2013.

Hilarious sidenote: Snipes famously promoted AMEX in a commercial featured in “Major League” — when his character, Willie Mays Hayes, reminded fans “Don’t steal home without it.”

How ironic…

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This guy can’t win for losing…

The Supreme Court has turned away the latest attempt by actor Wesley Snipes to get his conviction and prison sentence on tax charges overturned.

The high court refused Monday to hear an appeal from Snipes, convicted in 2008 on three misdemeanor counts of willful failure to file income tax returns.

Snipes started a three-year term in a federal minimum security prison in December. He has appeared in dozens of films, from “White Men Can’t Jump” and “Demolition Man” in the early 1990s to the blockbuster Blade trilogy.

Snipes wanted his trial held in New York City, where he says he lived, but the government brought charges against him in Florida, where Snipes held a driver’s license. The lower courts refused to let him have an evidentiary hearing on this issue.

But for what it’s worth he HAD to know he wasn’t gonna win this appeal. If didn’t pay your taxes…you’re guilty! SMH

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Bet yo a** will find a real accountant when you get out won’t you?!?!

Wesley Snipes has been hurting for cash while serving time for tax evasion. The “Blade” star is seeking advice from a lawyer on how to refinance his Alpine, NJ, mansion for $1.6 million, a source tells us. “All of Wesley’s bank accounts are wiped out. His four kids have nothing to live on,” the source said. Snipes’ attorney is said to be reaching out to a mortgage company that would be willing to refinance the house. Sources say the loan would have balloon interest payments that Snipes would have to pay in full when he gets out of jail in 2013. Snipes is working to land an advance on a movie deal, while his lawyer is trying to pin down the income Snipes makes from film and TV residuals and merchandising. Snipes’ rep told us, “As you can imagine, it is true that his family is having financial challenges, mainly due to his current situation,” but didn’t get back to us specifically about the Alpine home.

All jokes aside, this is kind of sad. Wesley has 5 kids and they are most definitely suffering more than he is without a father and a reliable source of income. Get your life together sir, this sh*t ain’t cool.

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SMH. Who would have thought, after all those bad a** roles, that Wesley Snipes was such a b*tch??

After serving just eight days of his three-year federal prison sentence, Wesley Snipes is hoping to be set free — temporarily, at least.

Convicted of tax-related crimes in November, the 48-year-old actor checked in to the McKean Federal Correctional Institute in Lewis Run, Pennsylvania on December 9; his request for a new trial was denied by Judge William Terrell.

According to TMZ, the Snipes’ lawyers filed an appeal Friday asking the court to let the Blade trilogy star leave prison so he can take his tax evasion case all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court.

Snipes’ attorneys asked the U.S. Court of Appeals to overturn the decision that denied the actor a second trial, alleging that there was juror bias.

This n***a here. Just give it up and do your time, man!

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Before y’all get mad that we called your crazy Uncle Wesley a coon, let’s remember that he has been acting a straight donkey for the past two years and nine months, trying to duck his three year sentence. And that less than 48 hours ago, he was on his “Nah son! I ain’t going to jail” shizz!

He probably would have been getting out right now, instead of spending this Christmas away from his babies.

Actor Wesley Snipes reported to a medium-security Pennsylvania prison Thursday to begin a three-year sentence for failing to file tax returns.

The 48-year-old actor is now incarcerated in McKean Federal Correctional Institution in Lewis Run, officials said.

Snipes’ attorney said he is appealing his client’s misdemeanor convictions for not filing tax returns in 1999, 2000 and 2001.

Snipes was acquitted of felony charges.

Snipes is nervous, he said, but hopeful that his prayers will be answered.

I think any man would be nervous if his liberty is at stake,” Snipes said. “I’m disappointed that the system seems not to be working for me in this situation.”

Prosecutors said Snipes earned $40 million since 1999 but had filed no returns and had been involved in a tax resisters group.

Wait. Wesley Snipes made $40 million??? At least we know his residuals will keep his pretty wife and those five swirly babies of his straight.

And why is Wesley Snipes, the tax evading millionaire, in a higher security prison than T.I., the “seven time felon” who got popped for buy illegal firearms by the dozen???

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C’mon son! Wesley Snipes has spent almost as long as his sentence trying to duck jail!! And he’s still not tryna hear that pen sh*t.

We know you’re thinking, “But Bossip, we thought you said he was in custody three weeks ago, when he was ordered to turn himself in?” Nope, this n***a’s STILL out in the world coping pleas.

Two days before he is due to begin serving a three year prison sentence on tax charges, actor Wesley Snipes and his attorney argued his case before the sympathetic court of Larry King Live.

“There have been egregious and very malicious efforts to misreport the facts of this case,’’ Snipes told the soon-to-retire CNN talk show host Tuesday night. “I want to set the record straight for the sake of my family…for the sake of the communities I contribute to,’’ added the 48-year-old star of the Blade trilogy.

Among those misconceptions, according to Snipes: “I’ve never been a tax protester. I never took the position of being a tax protester and the press has continued to report that is exactly what I was doing.” Snipes acknowledged no wrongdoing and said that he had “relied on the advice of those who I considered professionals.”

During the King interview, Snipes attorney Daniel R. Meachum invoked the case of billionaire California real estate developer Igor Olenicoff to argue that Snipes has been given an unfairly stiff sentence. Olenicoff got probation after pleading to a felony charge of lying on his tax return about his offshore accounts at UBS and other banks. As part of his plea deal, Olenicoff paid $52 million in back taxes, penalties and civil fraud penalties and agreed to bring hundreds of millions of dollars of offshore money back home.

“The problem with that is the inconsistency of the punishment,’’ Meachum said. “My client is found guilty of a misdemeanor…and is given 36 months.”

The courts pretty much handed Wesley that particular plea.

Prosecutors made no bones about the fact that they wanted the Snipes prosecution to serve as a high-profile example to other potential tax protesters. Before his sentencing, they argued he should get the max not only because of the amount of money involved–$14 million in gross unreported income in 1999, 2000 and 2001 alone–but also because “tax defiers” (the government’s term for tax protesters) were treating the split decision in his case “as a vindication of anti-tax theories and a ‘win’ that will attract additional converts into their movement.”

The Federal Bureau of Prisons has ordered Snipes to report to the Federal Correctional Institution-McKean in Lewis Run, Pa. by noon on Thursday, Dec. 9th. He will presumably be assigned to the prison camp there. On Monday, in rejecting Snipes’ latest bid to delay his prison term, Hodges suggested that it was time for him to get on with it. “The sooner he begins his sentence, the sooner it will end,’’ the judge observed.

But Snipes, who is pursuing yet another appeal before the 11th Circuit, as well as to the U.S. Supreme Court, told King he’s still hoping to avoid jail. Said Snipes: “We still have prayers out there, Larry, and we believe in miracles. Don’t send me up the river, yet.”

WHAT?!?! Dude: Martha Stewart was more of a man about doing her time! So was Lil’ Kim!

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We know we said that in July. But they actually have him in custody now. No more dodging the clink for Nino Brown.

TMZ reports Wesley Snipes turned himself in to federal authorities earlier this afternoon, and is on his way to a federal prison, where he’ll start a 3-year bid. Which he was sentenced to in April 2008.

For the past two years plus, Wesley Snipes has been fighting three charges of failing to file Federal income tax returns. Today, an Orlando judge shut him down by not only denying his appeal, but ordering him to turn himself in.

A federal judge today rejected movie star Wesley Snipes’ demand for a new trial and ordered the actor to surrender to the U.S. Bureau of Prisons to begin serving a 36-month prison sentence for tax-related crimes.

In a 17-page order, U.S. District Court Judge William Terrell Hodges said, “The Defendant Snipes had a fair trial; he has had a full, fair and thorough review of his conviction and sentence by the Court of Appeals; and he has had a full, fair and thorough review of his present claims, during all of which he has remained at liberty. The time has come for the judgment to be enforced.”

“It is just shocking,” Snipes’ Atlanta-based lawyer Daniel Meachum said in an e-mail to the Orlando Sentinel. “Wesley is very disappointed but staying strong and positive.”

The actor’s defense team had hoped the judge would grant Snipes a new trial after receiving e-mails from two jurors who claimed that other members of the panel had concluded the actor was guilty before the trial began.

Meachum also argued that a key government witness, Kenneth Starr, provided “tainted” testimony against Snipes. Starr, a New York financial adviser with a stable of celebrity clients, pleaded guilty recently to fraud.

“We were hopeful that we had convinced Judge Hodges that the government’s witness, Ken Starr, had perjured himself and that the government knew of his criminal activities and the predetermined minds of three jurors, but we obviously fell short in accomplishing that,” Meachum said.

You better hope nobody at the jail house remembers Noxeema Jackson.

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Nearly twenty five years had passed since Sidney Poitier shocked Katharine Hepburn by coming home for dinner by the time Spike Lee released Jungle Fever and another fifteen and change has gone by since then. At this point Something New should be the farthest thing from new and to prove our point, we chose twenty of our favorite films (in no particular order) that featured mixed race pairings front and center.

Now let’s begin.

If Wesley Snipes thought this b*tch was gonna help his shiny black azz, he’s got another thing coming. The wife of controversy laden lawyer Ken Starr says Wesley sent some private d*cks to uncover evidence that might help exonerate him from the tax evasion charges that will likely send him to the bing for 3 years.

The pole-dancer wife of accused Ponzi schemer Ken Starr claims private eyes for Wesley Snipes have been stalking her in a bid to find evidence to clear the actor of tax charges.

Diane Passage tells us that two detectives working for Snipes — a former client of Starr, who testified against the actor — followed her from her Upper East Side building dubbed “The Ponzi Palace,” also home to Andrew Madoff.

The buxom brunette said the investigators contacted her lawyer saying they wanted her to help clear Snipes, who faces a three-year prison sentence for tax evasion.

Passage told us, “I was leaving, and I noticed two men trailing behind me. They stood out because they were wearing dark suits on a 90-degree day. They followed me for a block and a half, then I lost them because they were sweating so much.

“They contacted my doorman and my attorney, and said they wanted information that might help Snipes. He was a client [of Starr] in 2000 but before I met my husband. I have nothing to do with his taxes.”

Passage said she was “very worried” about Starr, who was busted for allegedly running a $60 million Ponzi scheme on clients like Uma Thurman and Martin Scorsese.

“Ken’s health is not great at all,” Passage said, adding that Starr had suffered after his brothers failed to bail him out by offering their houses as collateral. “One brother agreed and the other one didn’t. It has been very frustrating,” she said.

“My bank accounts have been frozen, so it is difficult. I’m talking with pay-per-view TV about a pole-dancing competition. I ran one last year and it will soon be screened on a Romanian sports network.”

Snipes is appealing a 2008 conviction for failing to pay $12 million in taxes. He wants a retrial arguing the jury should have been told Starr, a prosecution witness against him, was being investigated.

Sounds to me like someone is using Wesley’s misfortune as an opportunity to get back on the pole and make some money. She hit him with the Ponzi scheme… damn, shorty just made-off.

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