The Entertation Index: November 10

D, Heavy — Always-clever and pretty much universally-loved 90’s rapper Heavy D died Tuesday in a Los Angeles hospital after collapsing in front of his condominium building. Born Dwight Arrington Myers, D was a stalwart of an earlier era of rap, known for brightening up any hip-hop album with a few stanzas of guest artistry and remembered alternately for both finding love and not knowing what to do with it. Our thoughts go out to his family.

Link: Heavy D Dies at 44 (Yahoo)

Grace, Nancy — Tuesday’s episode of reality dance competition Dancing with the Stars saw the departure of Headline News talking head Nancy Grace, whose performance with partner Tristan MacManus failed to grab the voters’ attention and led to the pundit’s exit from the show. Grace has avowed, at all costs, to find the people responsible for her ousting and will not rest until the appropriate parties have been punished.

Link: Fall From Grace (LA Times)

Lohan, Lindsay — On the heels of her recent jail stint, a spokesman for Playboy Magazine has confirmed that nude pics of actress Lindsay Lohan will be featured in next month’s January/February issue, which hits newsstands in December. This is why you would want to get a find a bail bond agent immediately and early. “The photoshoot is absolutely fantastic and tasteful,” assured the spokesman, also reminding readers that “there is nothing wrong or ill-manufactured in the issue you will see; many of the staples and discolorations in the pictorial are not blemishes of the magazine, but rather part of Lohan’s body.”

Link: Playboy – Lohan Will Appear in Magazine Next Month (MSNBC)

Murphy, Eddie — In the wake of director Brett Ratner’s resignation from directing the upcoming Oscar telecast after catching fire for using a gay slur on a panel discussion, actor Eddie Murphy has also announced that he will be dropping out as the awards show’s host. What that means for you is that between Murphy dropping the Oscars and the current cinema offering Tower Heist, it is all but assured that we will all continue to not see Eddie Murphy anywhere.

Link: Eddie Murphy Exits as Oscar Host (EW)

Tournier, Nicholas — The painting Le Christ Portant La Croix, a 1632 piece by famed painter Nicholar Tournier, has been recovered a whopping two-hundred years after it mysteriously vanished from a French museum and is expected to be turned over to French authorities. Why the two-hundred year delay in finding the painting? “We were going to start looking for it,” said French Museum Department director Marie-Christine Labourdette, “right after we finished our cigarette.”

Link: 200 Years Later, France Claims a Missing Artwork (NY Times)

Wal-Mart — Alice Walton, the billionaire heiress and 62 year-old daughter of Wal-Mart founder Sam Walton, has announced the opening this week of a 217,000 square foot art museum in rural Bentonville, Arkansas. The Crystal Bridges Museum of American art is expected to be one of the largest collections of art in Arkansas and the surrounding areas, with examples of abstract Expressionism, pop art, minimalism and New American realism will be reflected in the over 400 museum pieces. The announcement came as a huge disappointment to the citizens of Bentonville, who were keeping their fingers crossed that the land would be used for a new potato chip factory.

Link: U.S. Heiress Brings Art to Middle America (Reuters)