Underwater on your home? You are not alone!

The foreclosure crisis has hit 4.2 million Americans, according to LPS Applied Analytics, and two-thirds of those haven’t made mortgage payments in a year.

Joining those ranks: Grammy-award winner and multi-platinum R&B artist R. Kelly who has not paid the mortgage on his 11,140-square-foot mansion since June 2010.  Built by Kelly 11 years ago, the huge home–with six full bathrooms, seven half bathrooms and a four-car garage on 3.7 acres, located in a Chicago suburb–was valued at $5.2 million in 2009, and carried a $3.8 million mortgage, issued in 1999.

Now JP Morgan has filed a $2.9 million foreclosure suit. Kelly reportedly hasn’t lived in the home  for over a year, and he reportedly

stopped making payments on the mortgage in an attempt to force the bank to negotiate a loan modification.

Ah, strategic default!

Kelly’s current tour ends tomorrow.  His most recent album Love Letter, went gold, though 2009′s release Untitled missed that mark, selling fewer than 500,000 copies. His last platinum disc was in 2007, and the the singer/songwriter/producer has been plagued with a number of expensive legal problems–civil and criminal–for the past 15 years.

Thursday Prop 19 got endorsements from Danny Glover, Melissa Etheridge and Hal Sparks joined by LAPD Deputy Chief Steve Downing, former New Mexico Gov. Gary Johnson and activist Sarah Lovering at a news conference to show support for Prop 19 which would legalize marijuana possession for those over 21.

Currently marijuana use for 18 and older is decriminalized, and medical marijuana use is legal statewide.

If Prop 19 passes, the Feds have said they will crack down on pot in CA, making for an interesting series of legal challenges and states’ rights arguments.

Melissa Etheridge said that she had used pot to help nausea during her breast cancer chemo and says she favors legalization and while she uses marijuana medicinally she said

I don’t want to look like a criminal to my children anymore. I want them to know this is a choice that you make as a responsible adult.

Today–after offering up a team of deep sea experts to BP which they refused, and meeting with reps form government agencies, but not the EPA which couldn’t be bothered– Academy Award winning director James Cameron called British Petroleum

morons..They could not have been more gracious but they basically said, ‘We’ve got this,’

Meanwhile, nothing seems to be happening with Kevin Costner’s amazing centrifuges which can separate oil from water. And can they spin out the dispersants which are banned in the UK? Thanks EPA!)

But Victoria Principal donated $200,000 to Oceana (which has Ted Danson as a board member) and the National Resources Defense Council to help clean up the spill.

Let’s do it without a union!

Teen millionaire star sensation Miley Cyrus is readying to shoot a new movie called Last Song. Miley, who rocketed to fame as the ever pure and perky Hannah Montana, says:

I’ve always been lucky to play parts that relate to me, and this doesn’t at all. I have my issues, but not as bad as this chick. So I’m happy to play someone that’s just kind of out there and not someone that I’m like.

But what is interesting many people is not who Miley’s playing, but where the movie–produced by Offspring Entertainment and distributed by Walt Disney Company–will shoot. Yesterday North Carolina Gov. Beverly Perdue canceled a new conference at EUE/Screen Gems Studios in Wilmington about Last Song coming to that state. North Carolina’s Commerce Department later said more time was needed to work out the project’s details.

Last Song could generate hundreds of jobs for the so-called “right-to-work” state from production crews to extras, plus generate revenue from catering, hotels, transportation and related expenses. In a right-to-work state, no union membership is required to work on film productions, so a greater number of certain positions can be filled from outside of unions, unlike in Hollywood. However, right-to-work does not include actors for studio productions.

Gov. Perdue says Georgia, also a right-to-work state, is eager for the production:

Nobody knows what’s going to happen. … I don’t know what figures they got from Georgia, but Georgia wants them badly, and we want them badly. And by Monday, there’ ll be four or five other states that want them badly.

Many states will offer tax credits and other incentives to lure productions. North Carolina has a 15 percent film incentive package, while Georgia’s can be as much 30 percent. Meanwhile California Gov. Schwarzenegger, himself an actor, has resisted film incentive programs for the state. This year, Hollywood has only three major films scheduled to shoot there (plus California just raised sales and income taxes).

In related news, yesterday, the two actors’ unions which cover the majority of film, television, and radio programs (SAG/AFTRA) came to terms with producers over contracts covering commercials, hopefully paving the way to resolve the looming film and television strike.