Keifer Sutherland doubts hit show’s clout. The actor whose popular action and suspense show featured television’s first Black president denies influencing Barack Obama’s election. “24″ star Keifer Sutherland disagrees with his former co-star Dennis Haysbert, who played President David Palmer and said his character helped open “the public’s minds.” “You don’t honestly believe that our show helped get the first African-American into the White House, do you?” Sutherland asks. “All we simply did is look into the future. You have a huge African-American population and it was just a matter of time before they were represented politically by a president.” Sutherland, whose two-hour preview of the new “24″ season was shown this past weekend, points out that a woman president is featured in coming episodes.

Jill Scott is expecting, engaged. R&B singer Jill Scott is sporting a new neck tattoo – one with the name of Atlanta drummer Lil’ John, not to be confused with the gold-mouthed rapper. Scott is reportedly pregnant and engaged to the musician, who’s said to be the dad of three other children by different moms. Baby-momma-to-be Jill was quite public about her romance with her ex, Lyzell Williams, until their marriage and eventual divorce. Maybe neck tats make relationships divorce-proof.

 Beyoncé tells Oprah she’s not pregnant. Oprah Winfrey got singer Beyoncé to open up Thursday about her worst-kept-secret marriage to rap-trepreneur Jay-Z, which Be says “feels great.” The performer also discussed her role as the soulful Etta James in the forthcoming film Cadillac Records. In the movie part, Beyoncé sings James’ timeless hit “At Last.” Other topics during the exclusive interview included the singer’s role in preparing Thanksgiving dinner this month. “Usually, I make the ice water,” Beyoncé joked. And last, but not least, the sexy performer put a lingering rumor about her to rest. “Are you pregnant?” Oprah asked. “No,” Be answered. “Everybody wants me to be pregnant. …Maybe in a couple years.”

It’s Baby Number Three for “Cosby Show” Kid

. It’s about to be baby number three for Lisa Bonet. The 40-year-old “Cosby Show” star is seven months pregnant, and she tells People magazine that she feels “great.”  Bonet says she has “a tremendous amount of energy” and says she needs every bit of it because she also has a 14-month-old child. Bonet currently stars in the ABC show “Life On Mars” – and has a 19-year-old daughter, Zoe, with rock star Lenny Kravitz.

His fellow Democrats and the news media wasted no time pouncing

With many die-hard Democrats poised to pounce on Sen. John McCain’s running mate, Sarah Palin, because her 17-year-old daughter is pregnant, Sen. Barack Obama reminded that he was born to an 18-year-old mother.  ”Let me be as clear as possible,” Obama said. “I think people’s families are off-limits, and people’s children are especially off-limits. This shouldn’t be part of our politics. It has no relevance to Gov. Palin’s performance as governor or her potential performance as a vice president. How a family deals with issues and teenage children, that shouldn’t be the topic of our politics, and I hope that anybody who is supporting me understands that’s off-limits.” The news broke Monday that Bristol Palin, a high school senior, is about five-months pregnant, and immediately the anti-McCain forces were making sure the public knew about inherent hypocrisy given Palin’s stance against contraceptives, school-based sex-education programs and abortion. CNN reported Monday that an aide to the 44-year-old Alaska governor said that she decided to reveal the pregnancy to quell Internet rumors that her 4-month-old baby, who has Down syndrome, was actually Bristol’s child. Some had reported that the Obama camp was responsible for the leaked information, but Obama denounced the charge. “We don’t go after people’s families; we don’t get them involved in the politics. It’s not appropriate, and it’s not relevant,” Obama told a Reuters News reporter, who had suggested Obama’s campaign was tied to the report. “Our people were not involved in any way in this, and they will not be. And if I ever thought that there was somebody in my campaign that was involved in something like that, they’d be fired.”