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What we’re gonna do here is go back. Here are some of the most notable events in entertainment for the week of December 23.
Foxy Brown Is Handcuffed for Sticking Tongue out at a Judge (December 24, 2005)
While most people were cozy at home preparing for Christmas with their families, Foxy Brown was handcuffed and threatened with jail after she reportedly stuck her tongue out at judge who asked her to stop chewing gum.
A misunderstanding? While Brown—who was pleading guilty to a misdemeanor stemming a nail salon incident—denied she was chewing anything, Judge Melissa Jackson believed she was.
“I don’t like her attitude,” Jackson said to Brown’s lawyer. Brown later apologized.
Michael Jackson Reaches out to Paul McCartney for Thriller Collab (December 25, 1981)
It was on Christmas day in 1981 that Michael Jackson hit up Paul McCartney so they could work together. The first song to be birthed from the union, “The Girl Is Mine” was met with lukewarm reception.
“Listeners were not impressed by ‘The Girl Is Mine,’ and thought that Jackson’s Thriller would also be a disappointment,” as cited from J Randy Taraborrelli by Wikipedia. “The public felt that Jackson and the producer, Quincy Jones, had created a song for the white pop audience.”
But the single went on to skyrocket toward No. 2 on the Billboard Hot 100 and No. 8 eight in the UK. And by 1985, it sold 1.3 million copies.
Amy Winehouse’s Back to Black Named Biggest-Selling Album (December 26, 2007)
A little over a year after the release of Amy Winehouse’s acclaimed sophomore album, Back to Black was named the biggest-selling album of the year.
“Winehouse has been blessed by a brassy voice that can transform even mundane sentiments into powerful statements,” Pitchfork wrote in their review that year. “She may be heartbroken, but she uses that ache, twisting the emotional scars to suit her songs– and if she often seems like the masochistic recipient of each knife twist, so be it.”
The title track was number 98 on Rolling Stone’s list of the 100 best Songs of the ’00s.
