ESSENCE: Public backlash is one thing, but has there been personal backlash?
MONTGOMERY: I had already called and reached out all my family about it beforehand. My mother was caught off-guard when her co-workers told her about the image, after hearing the ad was on CNN. Of course, initially she wasn’t for it, but she, like the rest of my family, respects the decisions I have to make day-to-day as a model, and supports them. My whole family knows, including my four-year-old son, who has seen the image.

BBC Worldwide has agreed a new long-term deal to distribute the television content of Universal Music as part of its growing music sales operation.

“We have already recorded some songs, but we are still in the process of collecting better songs from songwriters. We will decide on the title song of the album after completing all of the songs for the album.”

Beginning on February 22, one 20 second short film that creatively explores the idea of “the balance” will post live each morning to NewBalance365.com for consumers to view, ponder and engage with the New Balance brand each and every day of 2010.

Ford Fiesta and the “If I Can Dream” aspiring artists are trekking across the country to promote the show, a new genre of programming that will stream live 24/7 on www.ificandream.com and will be broadcast weekly on Hulu.

Special congrats to DJ Spinna on the birth of his second daughter this morning! As he puts it: “What a V-day gift!”

Model-actress-singer Vivian Hsu, 34, held a press conference in Tokyo this week to announce that she is back in Japan to perform. Hsu was all the rage in Japan in the mid-to-late 90s after appearing on the cover of Penthouse Japan and then on several variety shows.