We assume Al Sharpton was relieved:

“It’s going to be a royal day in Harlem,” the Rev. Al Sharpton, Brown’s close friend, said by cell phone Wednesday as he accompanied the singer’s casket in a van. … “We’re determined to make sure he makes the Apollo,” Sharpton said around 9:30 p.m., shortly after the approximately 12-hour trip began from a Georgia funeral parlor. “He never missed the Apollo. If we ride all night, that’s fine.”

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WHILE THE great James Brown is getting on the good foot with God, his longtime partner (when they weren’t fighting), Tomi Rae Hynie, 36, has been literally barred from his home on earth.

The headline of the Gensler’s gem?: “Brown estate has her bewildered, in a cold sweat.”

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Meanwhile, Spike Lee has signed on to direct a biopic on the Godfather of Soul, Variety reports.

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Did the “hardest working man in show business” literally “do it to death”?

That’s one theory being floated by some of James Brown‘s friends and doctors, who say Brown’s Christmas death at the age of 73 is linked to overwork. Via UPI:

Brown also had recent dental surgery. The dentist who treated him told the Atlanta Journal-Constitution that he had advised Brown to slow his schedule down to heal from the surgery, but Brown insisted on appearing at several upcoming shows.

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