Hometown girl Shakira makes good on promise

Latin Grammy winner Shakira is looking out for her hometown. The Colombian star performed in her hometown of Barranquilla last night in an effort to raise money to build an art school there for 1,800 children forced to flee their homes by Colombia's civil war. The bilingual arts education school will be built in the Colombian port city's suburb of La Playa using funds from last night's concert. Tickets for the concert in Barranquilla started at under $7 each, a far cry from the up to $200 being charged at two more Colombian dates in Bogota and the southern city of Cali.

"Education is not a luxury; it is a right everyone should have," Shakira told Reuters yesterday. The school project is one of several Shakira has taken on over the years through her Fundacion Pies Descalzos (Spanish for "bare feet"). Shakira dominated the Latin Grammys in New York earlier this month by winning four awards and delivering a scorching performance.

Whitney reportedly owes $1 million in taxes

In the midst of divorcing husband Bobby Brown, Whitney Houston reportedly has other troubles on the mind. The singer's $6 million New Jersey estate is slated to be put on a sheriff's auction block January 4 because of more than $1 million owed in back taxes and other charges, according to a report in the Daily Record of Parsippany, New Jersey. The Morris County Sheriff's Office scheduled the sale, the paper reported, following a lawsuit filed against Houston by mortgage holder Chevy Chase Bank in June. Neither the mortgage nor the taxes have been paid this year, according to county tax records.

Houston purchased the estate, which encompasses two lots, nine years ago for $2.7 million. To pay off the mortgage, Houston was to shell out $4,711.18 per month from June 2004 until May 2034, for a total of about $1.7 million, the paper reports. Houston also has homes in California and Georgia.

Game serves as Playboy guest photographer

The Game has added soft-core porn photographer to his resume. The rapper, whose sophomore album, The Doctor's Advocate, hit stores this week, served as Playboy's celebrity guest photographer this month, according to a post on the magazine's Web site. The Game photographed model Cidney Carson and assured her he would give her career a boost. "If she doesn't become a Playmate after this," he told the mag. "I'm gonna have to see someone."

At one point, the rapper had to scold a member of his posse for chatting on his cell phone during the shoot. "We're at the motherf***ing Playboy photo studio and you're sitting there talking to your mother?"

TLC's Chilli prepping solo debut

TLC's Rozanda "Chilli" Thomas has signed with Akon's Konvict Muzik imprint through Interscope to release her solo debut in mid-2007. Akon will produce at least half of the album, which will also include producers Missy Elliott, the Black Eyed Peas' will.i.am, and Timbaland. "This will be totally opposite from when she was with the multiplatinum group," Akon told Billboard.com. "She's an incredible artist and I want people to reconnect with her." Chilli has kept a low profile since the release of TLC's final album, 2002's 3D, which came out in the wake of TLC member Lisa "Left Eye" Lopes' death in a car accident.

Motorhead sponsors UK boys soccer team

Forget the local Quickie Mart or snack shack. When the Greenbank under-10s B soccer team needed a sponsor for its current season, it got heavy metal giant Motorhead. The North Hykeham connected with Lemmy Kilminster and the boys through team manager Gary Weight, who used to know the frontman. The team now sports the band's name and logo--a skull named Snaggletooth--and runs out on the field to the band's "Ace of Spades" track. "It was from a bizarre idea one evening," Weight told BBC News. "I sent an e-mail off to them and they came back and said it was a great idea. I knew Lemmy years ago and for him, I think the thought of a football team running out with the Motorhead logo made him chuckle a bit, so that's where it's come from." The boys will have a team photograph taken with the band ahead of their Rock City gig in Nottingham on November 19.