Sideshow: SideShow: Jay Z's mom keeps giving back

For more than a decade, Gloria Carter, proud mother of superstar Jay Z, has given back to the community as the cofounder and CEO of the Shawn Carter Foundation, which helps youngsters facing financial or social hardship gain access to higher education.

"The underserved," Carter tells USA Today, "sometimes . . . need someone to give them a hand."

To date, the dot.org has helped 176 students at 130 institutions with donations of more than $2.4 mil.

Don't think of the money as a handout, but as an investment in hardworking men and women, says Carter. She helps folks who have a healthy sense of responsibility.

"I'm an old-school person. I believe that you work for what you want - you don't sit around and wait for someone to give it to you," she says. "But once you give them motivation, they need support."

George Lopez is cleaning up the embarrassing mess he made last month, when he was arrested for public intoxication after passing out on the floor in a Canadian casino.

"You know, I was on my way to my room - I just missed it by 35 floors," the comic told Ellen DeGeneres Thursday on her show. "Guys were betting on whether I'd get up."

Ever wily, Ellen didn't exactly ask G.Lo whether he had a drinking problem, but merely said she was glad he was "stopping . . . or taking a break or whatever you're doing."

Said G.Lo, "I'm stopping."

Taylor Swift tops Billboard's list of music's top earners for the second time in three years, with an income of $39.7 million. She's followed by Kenny Chesney ($33 mil) and Justin Timberlake ($31.5 mil). Local heroes Bon Jovi are at No. 4, with $29.4 million, while Pink takes ninth place with $20.1 mil.

Want to be just like Game of Thrones author George R.R. Martin? Read what he reads! Right now, that's Maurice Druon's Accursed Kings, a series of historical novels about seven notable French kings. The series "has all the good stuff that's in my books, minus the fantasy," Martin tells Entertainment Weekly, "but it actually happened."