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Sideshow: USA Today: Taraji Henson is entertainer of the year!

Henson entertainer of year Empire star Taraji P. Henson has won the coveted title of USA Today's entertainer of the year. Henson, 45, whose films include Hustle & Flow and The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, which garnered her an Oscar nomination, plays eminently quotable matriarch Cookie Lyon on Fox's hip-hop soaper. She marvels at how quickly she's gained name recognition.

Henson entertainer of year

Empire star Taraji P. Henson has won the coveted title of USA Today's entertainer of the year. Henson, 45, whose films include Hustle & Flow and The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, which garnered her an Oscar nomination, plays eminently quotable matriarch Cookie Lyon on Fox's hip-hop soaper. She marvels at how quickly she's gained name recognition.

Last Christmas, life "was kind of normal still," she tells USA Today. "Like, I could still go to Target and the grocery store without being harassed. It's different now. . . . I can't really go anywhere."

Henson is even more stunned that her character, who isn't exactly a model citizen, has so many fans.

"Who thought Cookie would bring me this kind of notoriety? This is the type of character that people judge - she went to jail, she sold drugs. But what happens? [People] run to her?" she says. "Blows me away every time. That goes to show people like real."

San Francisco v. Bieber

The city of San Francisco is peeved at Canadian singer Justin Bieber over an eruption of sidewalk graffiti throughout the city promoting His Biebership's latest record, Purpose. City attorney Dennis Herrera on Monday demanded Universal Music Group find out who is responsible. Spray paint was used for the art, and that's costly to remove, Herrera said.

Hope this doesn't lead to the first Canadian-American war.

Adele dominates chart

British singer Adele's latest album, 25, was at No. 1 on Billboard's album charts for a fifth week, selling 1.5 million copies last week, according to Nielsen SoundScan. It has sold 7.13 mil to date. Bieber's graffiti-propelled Purpose is at No. 2, with 229,000, and Chris Brown's Royalty debuted at No. 3, with 184,000.

Jackson takes sick time

Janet Jackson, 49, has called out sick. The singer, who is on tour to promote her 11th studio LP, Unbreakable, says she's postponing the winter leg of her world tour due to an (undisclosed) illness, including her scheduled Feb. 24 show at the Wells Fargo Center. (Tix will be honored at new dates, yet to be set.) "I learned today from my doctors that I must have surgery soon," Jackson says. "It breaks my heart to tell you that I am forced to postpone the . . . [tour] until the spring."

'Star Wars' greatest film . . .

The seventh Star Wars picture made $149.2 mil over the weekend domestically and $288 mil globally, according to studio estimates. This has no bearing on its aesthetic quality as an objet d'art or its historical significance as a sociopolitically situated text, but I'm impressed.

The Harrison Ford-powered picture has been out all of 12 days but it's already the fifth-highest domestic grossing film in recorded human history. It's also the fastest movie to reach $1 billion, with a total global gross of $1.09 bil.

She misses her Spawn

"I miss you so much already beautiful boy," Demi Lovato, 23, says on Instagram on the death of her pet dog, Spawn. Her bf, Wilmer Valderrama, writes that he's also in mourning.

tirdad@phillynews.com

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