Names and faces

— The newly built Barclays Center is the home of the Brooklyn Nets, and Jay-Z, an investor in theteam, christened the venue Friday night in uniform, sporting a Nets hat and jersey as he rapped two dozen jamsonstage in front of thousands. Jay-Z performed for an excited and rowdy crowd of 18,000, wearing a jersey that featured his last name, Carter, and the number four. It was his first of eight shows at the venue. As he emerged onstage, a video highlighting some of Brooklyn’s historical moments - such as when it was named an official borough of New York City - played in the background. There were also pictures of famous faces who were born in Brooklyn, from Michael Jordan to Al Capone to Aaliyah to Adam Yauch of Beastie Boys. Jay-Z opened the show with the hometown anthems “Where I’m From,” a song about his upbringing in Brooklyn’s Marcy projects complex, and “Brooklyn Go Hard.” He followed that with a tribute to one of Brooklyn’s icons, the late Notorious B.I.G. He performed some of the rap veteran’s hit “Juicy” as the crowd joined in. “Sing loud so he can hear you in heaven,” said Jay-Z.

Arnold Schwarzenegger says his wife, MariaShriver, was told to “snap out of it” by her mother for her attempts to persuade him againstrunning for California governor in 2003, a conversation that ultimately opened the door to his successful candidacy. Eunice Shriver told her daughter that her husband would be “angry for the rest of his life” if she stopped his ambitions, Schwarzenegger wrote in his new autobiography, Total Recall: My Unbelievably True Life Story. The former governor says in the book that he had decided against running to recall Gov. Gray Davis after his wife implored him not to for the sake of their family. But he wrote that when Maria Shriver told her mother about her efforts to thwart Schwarzenegger’s political ambitions, Eunice told her daughter that women in their family “always support the men when they want to do something.” Schwarzenegger left office with a mixed record andrevelations about a fling he had with the family’s housekeeper. Schwarzenegger, who fathered a son with the housekeeper, says he let the boy down. Maria Shriver filed for divorce in July.

Front Section, Pages 2 on 09/30/2012

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