Die Hard director John McTiernan (R) is seen with French actor Jean Reno (L) in this May 15 2000 file photo
LOS ANGELES - Celebrity private eye Anthony Pellicano conspired with mobsters to place a "hit" on an associate who authorities say was hired to threaten a Los Angeles Times reporter, federal prosecutors said in court documents.
Investigators working a sweeping wiretapping probe obtained "corroborated information" that Pellicano recently sought a hit on Alexander Proctor, who is charged alongside Pellicano with threatening reporter Anita Busch in 2002, according to the documents.
Prosecutors allege Pellicano wanted to prevent Proctor from testifying against him in the Busch case. The reporter was working on a story about actor Steven Seagal and possible links to the Mafia in 2002 when she found a dead fish on her car and a note reading: stop.
The timing and nature of the alleged hit on Proctor were not revealed in the court documents filed Monday, and Pellicano has not been charged in connection with it.
In the court documents, however, prosecutors noted the recent allegations were "the subject of an ongoing investigation that might result in additional criminal charges."
The documents were filed in opposition to a demand by Pellicano's lawyers that prosecutors hand over additional evidence in the wiretapping case. Assistant U.S. Attorney Daniel Saunders complained to a judge last week about leaks and said he would delay filing grand jury transcripts and other crucial documents to prevent the details from getting out.
Pellicano has pleaded not guilty to charges he wiretapped dozens of people, including actor Sylvester Stallone and comedian Garry Shandling, to gain legal advantage for his clients.
Pellicano's attorney, Steven Gruel, said he learned about the new allegations Friday but has not received any specific evidence from the government.
"This seems to be a common thread for the prosecution, that Mr. Pellicano is making threats against witnesses," Gruel told the Los Angeles Times. "And yet I have not seen any evidence of it whatsoever.
Fourteen people have been charged so far in the wiretapping probe, which began when an FBI informant turned over a tape on which Proctor boasted of working for Pellicano. Federal authorities used the recording to obtain a warrant to search Pellicano's office in November 2002.
That search led investigators to "Die Hard" director John McTiernan, who pleaded guilty in April to making false statements to an FBI agent, and former Hollywood Records president Robert Pfeifer, who admitted hiring Pellicano to wiretap the phone of his former girlfriend as part of a legal dispute.
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Actor Robert Blake, right , and his attorney Gerald Schwartzbach arrive at the Los Angeles Superior Court Wednesday, Jan. 5, 2005, in the Van Nuys section of Los Angeles
Noted Italian cuisine enthusiast and non-wife-murderer Robert Blake still has the matter of that civil suit weighing heavily on him, which awarded his slain spouse's family $30 million in damages--a sum Blake will likely have trouble coming up with no matter how many of his "dozens" of post-acquittal job offers he accepts. Today, Blake's lawyer filed an appeal, claiming, among other things, "juror misconduct."
[Blake's Attorney M. Gerald] Schwartzbach presented documents in which jurors said they discussed the Michael Jackson and O.J. Simpson cases during deliberations and talked of setting damages at a level that would "send a message to the world."
The documents also claimed the jurors arrived at the number by consulting a well-worn copy of the Kelley Blue Book: Celebrity Crime Edition, which valued the construction a pederasty-themed amusement park at roughly $20 million, while a cold-blooded wife murder in good condition should net at least $10 million more.
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British soldiers load the body of a comrade into a military ambulance following the crash of a British helicopter in the southern city of Basra
Having quickly admitted defeat in their last attempt at launching a hit comedy series with The Comeback, HBO has abandoned the treacherous terrain of the has-been actress psyche for the relatively upbeat milieu of the war in Iraq:
The premium network is developing "Hotel Palestine," a half-hour comedy about a group of wartime journalists living in a Baghdad hotel.
The Palestine Hotel is the real-life residence of dozens of journalists covering the war and has been attacked several times by insurgents. "Hotel Palestine" was sold by ICM and produced by Peter Baynham, a writer on the upcoming Ali G movie "Borat."
HBO was reportedly sold on the strength of the pitch alone: a delicious, semi-improvised romp in which a neurotic, balding and combative reporter brings his three horny best friends along for the ride when he's assigned to cover the war, and the four of them sit around a Baghdad bar sipping Cosmos bemoaning the lack of decent dating material among the local insurgents.
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Lillian Gertrud Asplund, the last American survivor of the sinking of the Titanic in 1912, seen in this undated family photo, died Saturday, May 6, 2006, in Shrewsbury, Mass
BOSTON (Reuters) - The last American to remember seeing hundreds of fellow passengers drown in the icy North Atlantic when the Titanic sank 94 years ago has died at age 99, a funeral home spokesman said Sunday.
Lillian Gertrud Asplund was returning home to the United States from Sweden with her parents and four brothers when the ship, believed to be "unsinkable," struck an iceberg on April 12, 1912. A U.S. Senate report said 1,523 people were killed.
Asplund died at home, a spokesman for the Nordgren Memorial Chapel, in Worcester, Massachusetts confirmed.
A lifetime resident of Massachusetts, Asplund was an intensely private person who shunned all publicity surrounding the disaster, one of the worst peacetime maritime accidents.
The funeral home spokesman said she instructed relatives to keep quiet about what she saw and even asked that the disaster not be mentioned in her obituary.
The two last Titanic survivors are said to be living in England but both women were infants when they were rescued and have no memories of that night, Titanic experts say.
Asplund lost more than half her family in the accident when her father and three brothers stayed behind as crewmen rushed the young girl, her younger brother and their mother into a lifeboat.
"We went to the upper deck. I could see the icebergs for a great distance around ... It was cold and the little ones were cuddling close to one another and trying to keep from under the feet of the many excited people ...," Asplund's mother told the Worcester Telegram & Gazette in an interview decades ago.
"My little girl, Lillie, accompanied me, and my husband said 'Go ahead, we will get into one of the other boats.' He smiled as he said it."
Asplund's mother, younger brother and uncle returned to the United States five days after the Titanic sank, the newspaper reported at the time.
Asplund never married, worked as a clerk at an insurance company and spent her life caring for her mother, reported the Worcester Telegram & Gazette, which republished her mother's recollections of the disaster Sunday.
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Keith Richards of the Rolling Stones sits in a bus upon his arrival at the Pudong international airport in Shanghai, China, in this April 6, 2006 file photo
LONDON - Keith Richards had surgery Monday in New Zealand to relieve pressure in his head following a fall, his representative said.
The Rolling Stones guitarist was "up and talking" soon after surgery at The Ascot Hospital in Auckland, but was expected to take several weeks to recuperate, LD Communications said Monday in a statement issued in London.
"Last week Keith was under observation in Auckland following a fall in Fiji and was feeling well after being examined by doctors last week," the statement said. "However after complaining of headaches yesterday, doctors thought it prudent to move ahead with a small operation to remove the pressure."
The Stones' "A Bigger Bang European" tour, which was scheduled to start in Barcelona, Spain, later this month, will be postponed until June, the agency said.
Richards, 62, suffered the injury April 27, but details have not been confirmed. News reports have variously claimed that he fell out of a palm tree or from a jet ski.
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Tom Cruise helps fiancee Katie Holmes out of a Bugatti automobile as they arrive to the Los Angeles premiere of Mission Impossible 3 in Hollywood Thursday, May 4, 2006
LOS ANGELES - Fewer people chose to accept Tom Cruise's latest mission, a possible sign that the odd behavior of Hollywood's biggest star may have taken a toll on his box-office charm.
Paramount's "Mission: Impossible III" debuted with $48.025 million, a solid opening yet well below industry expectations and almost $10 million lower than the franchise's previous installment, according to studio estimates Sunday.
Industry analysts had expected the movie to open in the range of "Mission: Impossible II," which debuted with $57.8 million from Friday to Sunday over Memorial Day weekend in 2000, and Cruise's "War of the Worlds," which premiered with $64.9 million from Friday to Sunday over Fourth of July weekend last year.
Rob Moore, Paramount's head of worldwide marketing and distribution, said he did not believe Cruise's private life had any impact on "Mission: Impossible III," directed by "Lost" creator J.J. Abrams.
"I don't think so. There's no question it concerns us if the press is writing about things other than the movie," Moore said. "If people are writing about his personal life, then by definition, they're not writing about the movie."
Cruise's antics in the past year or so, publicity over his romance with Katie Holmes and the tabloid blitz regarding their daughter's birth in April may have left some movie-goers burned out or disenchanted with the actor.
Traditionally reserved about his private life, Cruise abruptly became an open book, jumping up and down on a couch while professing his love for Holmes in an interview with Oprah Winfrey and spouting his Scientology beliefs, including rants against psychiatry.
"Expectations were really high for this film. I think it's a good number, but people were obviously expecting better numbers," said Paul Dergarabedian, president of box-office tracker Exhibitor Relations. "There's a lot to be said for how a star's public persona can affect a movie's box office."
"Mission: Impossible III" earned generally favorable reviews, some critics calling it the best in the franchise and many offering high praise for Academy Award winner Philip Seymour Hoffman, who plays Cruise's nemesis.
Along with potential Cruise backlash, the long six-year interval since "Mission: Impossible II" may have dulled audience appetites.
Head-to-head comparisons are difficult, since the previous "Mission: Impossible" movies and "War of the Worlds" opened over long holiday weekends, when Sunday grosses typically are much stronger than during a regular weekend.
Debuting in about 55 other countries, "Mission: Impossible III" took in $70 million, for a worldwide total of $118 million. Paramount noted that the new movie beat the $115 million worldwide debut of "Mission: Impossible II" in those same countries.
Factoring in higher ticket prices, the debut for "Mission: Impossible III" looks worse. About 7.3 million people saw the new movie, compared with 10.7 million over the opening weekend for "Mission: Impossible II" and 10.3 million for "Mission: Impossible," which opened with $45.4 million over Memorial Day weekend in 1996.
The weekend's other wide releases had fair to poor openings. Freestyle Releasing's "An American Haunting," starring Sissy Spacek and Donald Sutherland in a 19th century supernatural tale, debuted at No. 3 with $6.4 million.
New Line's family film "Hoot," adapted from Carl Hiaasen's novel about teenagers trying to save endangered owls, flopped with $3.4 million, tied for No. 9.
"Mission: Impossible III' led Hollywood to its seventh-straight weekend of rising revenues. The top-12 movies took in $99.4 million, up 27 percent compared to the same weekend last year, when "Kingdom of Heaven" led the box office with an anemic $19.6 million.
Estimated ticket sales for Friday through Sunday at U.S. and Canadian theaters, according to Exhibitor Relations Co. Inc. Final figures will be released Monday.
Kevin Federline, aspiring recording artist and husband to Britney Spears
The procreative drama unfolding within the proscenium arches of Britney Spears' uteral walls has kept much of the world guessing with giddy anticipation: Is the celebrity baby-dropper indeed with child, or merely experiencing some extended Twinkie-bulge? Would she, as IMDB notes, be making a definitive announcement on the contents of her belly today? And to further complicate nursery matter, In Touch Weekly, the world's most trusted authority on fishy-smelling Britney Spears stories, is reporting that Spears has painted a room in her mansion pink, and has added a new, full-time babysitter to the payroll. This one, however, is for her husband:
"The last thing Britney wants to do is accompany Kevin on all his club dates," an "insider" told the mag. "That's why she hired a babysitter -- a person who will keep Kevin from misbehaving and report directly back to her."
The move reportedly came after one of Spears' most trusted security guys, an ex-CIA agent named Richard, quit because of Federline's partying.
Spears has clearly learned from her previous mistakes and is taking every precaution to avoid repeating them--whether that means hiring a dedicated staff of specially trained, baby-catching nannies, or a 300-lb ex-Hell's Angel, who answers only to the name "Nanna," to trail Federline and prevent any extramarital baby makin' in the restroom of his "Playing With Fire"-branded Silver Eagle Touring Coach.
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We think we finally have some clue as to why Ryan Seacrest closes every Tuesday night episode of American Idol with a hearty endorsement for the Fox reality series immediately following it, Unan1mous. reality blurred notes that one of the show's "contestants" (we use scare quotes because of rampant rumors that everyone is planted except for sad sack bear pin-up boy Steve), "self-described womanizer" Jonathan, is featured [pictures VERY NSFW] getting frisky with an SUV on a gay porn site.
We imagine life must become that much harder for an old fashioned, God-fearin' womanizer to go about his womanizing duties once the world has seen you doing the proctologist's spread over a driver's seat. For that reason alone, we think Jonathan should get the million dollars, or whatever the hell it is they're arguing about in that bunker.
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NEW YORK (Reuters) - Long criticized by conservative Christians for profiting from violent or sexually graphic films that corrupt the young, Hollywood is starting to see there is money to be made catering to those critics.
"On Sunday, 43 percent of America was in church," Jonathan Bock, head of a movie marketing company that specializes in religious audiences, said at a panel discussion on "What Would Jesus Direct?" at the Tribeca Film Festival this week.
"For studios to not recognize that's an audience is like them saying, 'We're not marketing movies to men,"' Bock said.
He and others on the panel, including a 20th Century Fox executive, said the turning point was Mel Gibson's 2004 movie "The Passion of the Christ," which surprised many in Hollywood by grossing more than $370 million in the United States.
"Until two months before it was released, it was pretty much known as the least commercial property in Hollywood," said Michael Flaherty, whose production company was behind "The Chronicles of Narnia" and "Because of Winn-Dixie," both with strong spiritual or moral messages.
"There's a lot of people in the faith community who are looking for these films that are uplifting," Flaherty said.
While "The Passion" is credited with knocking down the door for religious-themed films in Hollywood, Bock said the growing interest was clearly linked to politics. He noted President George W. Bush, a born-again Christian, was elected twice with solid backing from conservative Christians.
'Godsploitation'
Ralph Winter, a producer at 20th Century Fox Films, said Fox's home video department was leading the way in pushing for films for religious audiences.
"They're very interested in opening up that market so we have been making $2 million or $3 million movies based on (Christian) books," he said.
Winter said studios are looking for projects based on good stories likely to make entertaining movies, without being obvious efforts to proselytize and convert people.
"No one wants to be preached to in a movie theater," Winter said. "Movies that raise issues are more interesting than movies that try to give answers," Winter said.
Bock predicted religious movies would see a growth pattern similar to that of movies made by and about African-Americans.
"There were these 'blaxploitation' films made for very small budgets, then (it went) through maybe you can make a buddy comedy, and (then you) get to the point where stories of African-Americans could be out there," Bock said.
"There have been movies made that were low budget, lets call them 'Godsploitation films.' If they make money, they'll try more," he said, noting that New Line Cinema was working on a film called "Nativity" about the birth of Jesus with "a pretty significant budget."
Bock said that even the upcoming "The Da Vinci Code," condemned by many Christians for undermining their religion by saying Jesus was married and had children, was a movie that would probably be seen by a lot of Christians who realize it is better to see it and argue back than to boycott it.
"What they've come to believe is if the whole world wants to talk about Jesus, then let's be ready to have that conversation," he said.
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Huh, that's a good question. Thanks for asking Hollywood! Uh, I think he'd just film himself traveling across the land attracting followers. Maybe some video diaries. Why?
Posted on May 5, 2006, 10:34 AM from IP address 216.205.224.10
Actor Tom Cruise rides on a New York City fire truck through Times Square on his way to the premiere of his new movie' Mission Impossible III,' Wednesday, May 3, 2006 in New York
Tom Cruise's decision to import an at-home sonogram machine to check out baby Suri's every move before she made her worldly debut may have seemed a little wacky to people. But one California lawmaker thinks it was a downright dangerous maneuver.
Democratic Assemblyman Ted Lieu has introduced a bill that would prohibit the selling, leasing or distributing of an ultrasound machine by California manufacturers to anyone other than licensed medical professionals. The state assembly is scheduled to debate the bill Thursday.
"If someone sees Tom Cruise buy one, they think this is the thing to do," Lieu said. "This is a public safety measure. There's really no medical reason for an untrained person to use this machine."
Although it seems difficult to believe that too many people are jumping on this particular Cruise bandwagon, as of Wednesday there was just such a device listed on eBay for $5,500. Hopefully whoever buys that also has the money to employ a fulltime doctor.
Doctors, nurses and medical technicians undergo years of training, not just to become licensed professionals but also to figure out all the knobs, switches and doodads on an ultrasound machine, which provides expectant parents with their first glimpse of a fetus's shape. Having a number of sonograms over the course of a pregnancy is recommended to monitor the baby's health in utero.
Ultrasounds are also used to check out adult's organs for irregularities and other problems and the machine needs to be set on a higher wave frequency to get the best view.
At the time Cruise announced his purchase, doctors and radiologists slammed the move.
"This is a patient safety issue. Untrained people, even if they have the financial means, should not buy, or be allowed to buy and operate, ultrasound machines which are, in fact, medical devices and should not be used without a medical indication," said Dr. Carol M. Rumack, chair of the American College of Radiology's Ultrasound Commission.
Well, lucky for Suri she's out of the womb, because Cruise couldn't be more enamored of his baby girl. He appeared on CBS's The Late Show with David Letterman Tuesday night gushing, as usual, about the lovely ladies in his life.
"She's a beauty--it's crazy," Cruise told his host. "Kate and I can't take our eyes off of her." He added that his mother and Holmes' mom, who reportedly was by her daughter's side throughout the later days of her pregnancy, are dishing out lots of childrearing advice to the happy couple.
Regarding his fiancee, Cruise sang his usual song. "She's magnificent," he told Letterman. "She has done so well?an incredible woman."
Meanwhile, with his ultrasounding days behind him for the time being, Cruise probably doesn't feel the need to concern himself with the California Assembly, especially since he's currently speeding through New York.
His whirlwind promotional tour of the Big Apple to promote Mission: Impossible III's Friday release jumpstarted Wednesday afternoon, with Cruise traversing the town by fire truck, helicopter, motorcycle, speedboat, sports car and subway train.
What, no hang gliders or horses were available?
After appearances on Live with Regis and Kelly and Good Morning America Cruise kicked off the six-hour-long "Mission: NYC" surrounded by hundreds of fans in Times Square for a taping of MTV's Total Request Live, where he was told by host Vanessa Minnillo that he was "a wonder of the world."
When the fire engines arrived to pick him up, Cruise referred to the firefighters as his buddies. "These are my heroes," he said.
Somewhere along the line he switched his mode of transport to a motorcycle, on which he pulled up at the TriBeCa Performing Arts Center to greet the crowd assembled for the movie's first showing at the Tribeca Film Festival.
After signing autographs and posing for pictures, he was off again behind the wheel of an orange sports car. Cruise was also scheduled to swing through Harlem and motorboat up the Hudson River before ending up at the Ziegfeld Theatre for Mission: Impossible III's official U.S. premiere, also in association with the TriBeCa fest.
?Tom has always enjoyed finding new ways to connect with the fans and we?re both excited to be sharing the movie with [the festival] on this incredible stage,? Paula Wagner, one of the film's producers, said in a statement.
While that itinerary is enough to get anyone's heart pumping, we can only assume that Cruise is mostly excited for the plane ride he's set to take following his publicity jaunt, which will take him back to L.A. for a Thursday premiere at Grauman's Chinese Theater and, most importantly, back into the arms of Kate and Suri.
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File photo shows Jim Carrey as he attends the Los Angeles premiere of Columbia pictures' 'Fun with Dick and Jane' at the Mann Village theatre in Los Angeles December 14, 2005
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Poor Jim Carrey. His movies have raked in nearly $2 billion at box offices, but now a leading entertainment magazine says the comedian's asking price of $25 million a film has become "a bit of a gamble."
In its issue out this week, Entertainment Weekly rates top stars on whether they are worth the money.
Among those whose asking prices have become too high are Carrey, Nicole Kidman, Will Ferrell and Eddie Murphy, the magazine said.
It added that after years of ever-rising star salaries, the prices for top talent are now coming down because the cost of making movies is going up, among other issues. "It's long overdue," former Twentieth Century Fox Chairman Bill Mechanic told the magazine.
Entertainment Weekly quoted several studio executives as saying the rising cost of production has led many stars to take large parts of their fees from revenue and profit participation that may never materialize if films flop at box offices.
Carrey, star of hits like "Bruce Almighty," had been a big beneficiary of the 1990s' salary run-up during which he saw his paycheck hit the $25 million mark.
However, his recent big-budget movies like "Fun with Dick and Jane" barely topped $100 million in domestic ticket sales, leaving his star tarnished, the magazine said.
Carrey's not the only one. Kidman is considered a risky bet after the box office failure of "Bewitched" and "The Stepford Wives" among other recent films.
Will Ferrell's $20 million also made the list of risky bets given recent box office disappointments and Eddie Murphy's $20 million was considered downright "too pricey."
But Tom Hanks' $25 million was thought to be "worth every penny" because he remains "one of the most bankable brand names in the world." Oscar nominee Jake Gyllenhaal, at $5 million to $7 million a picture, and Rachel McAdams at $3 million to $4 million, were bargains.
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Star Wars creator George Lucas (2nd-R) poses with Storm Troopers, characters in the Star Wars movies, during a gala held to celebrate the 'Star Wars: Where Science Meets the Imagination' exhibition at the Museum of Science in Boston, Massachusetts in this October 22, 2005 file photo
Die-hard Star Wars fans soon can see the original theatrical versions of the first three Star Wars films on DVD.
Even though George Lucas adamantly declared 2004's digitally restored Star Wars Trilogy DVDs the definitive versions of his movies, fans have held out hope for DVDs of the originals.
Their wishes will be granted Sept. 12 when Fox releases new two-disc DVDs ($30 each) of Star Wars (since retitled as Episode IV: A New Hope), The Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi that include the films as they first appeared in theaters, along with the new, restored versions (now available in the four-disc $70 Star Wars Trilogy).
The individual DVDs will be taken off the market on Dec. 31, a strategy that Disney uses on many of its classic releases.
Lucas re-released his original three Star Wars films in theaters in 1997 with inserted scenes and improved special effects. Those "special editions" were further enhanced for the four-disc DVD set. With the original versions coming to DVD, here's what you'll see again:
• In Star Wars, Han Solo shoots a bounty hunter named Greedo. Lucas changed the scene later so it seemed that Greedo draws first, and changed it again for the DVD so that they appear to shoot simultaneously.
• In Empire Strikes Back, the ice creature that captures Luke Skywalker gets less screen time.
• In Jedi, Sebastian Shaw returns as Anakin in the movie's final scene. Lucas substituted Hayden Christiansen, who plays Anakin in the more recent films, for the 2004 DVD.
Back in 2004, Lucas told the New York Post, "The special edition is the one I wanted out there."
This new set of DVDs does not constitute "George changing his mind," says Lucasfilm's Jim Ward. "What we've always said is George viewed the revised versions of the films as the definitive versions."
Fan attachment to the originals is strong. The movies topped entertainment website IGN.com's recent chart of Top 25 Most Wanted DVDs.
"People want the option of having the movies that they remember and people are opposed to George Lucas' revisionist tendencies," says the site's Chris Carle.
The original films' video quality will not match up to that of the restored versions. "It is state of the art, as of 1993, and that's not as good as state of the art 2006," Ward says.
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Musician Pete Doherty, frontman of British rock band Babyshambles, leaves Thames Magistrates Court in London after being convicted of drug offences, in this file photo from April 20, 2006
The Babyshambles rocker has opted for the it-was-only-a-joke defense in light of his most recent charges, claiming photos that recently surfaced in Britain's Sun tabloid, featuring Doherty appearing to inject drugs into an unconscious female's arm, were staged and nothing more than a bit of good, clean fun. Well, fun, anyway.
The photos, which ran under the headline "You Sick Idiot" and also included a picture of Doherty stabbing himself with a hypodermic needle, ran on the front page of the U.K. paper last Friday and led to the rocker's arrest--his third for the month of April--the following day. He was charged on suspicion of administering noxious substances, released on bail after questioning and ordered to return to the police station in July.
But Doherty isn't waiting until then to clear up what went down.
"Just a note to note the unjust Sun's disturbing and ridiculously offensive 'story,' " he wrote in a posting to his band's official Website. "Firstly, the photos are stolen from my flat so...upsetting and personally catastrophic...how rude, secondly it's a staged shot and what a f--king liberty to suggest I'd bang up a sleeping lass. Darkness."
Yes, what nerve.
The woman in the picture, 21-year-old Laura McEvoy, has also stepped up in support of the singer.
McEvoy, who is seen in the photo lying on the floor of Doherty's squalid kitchen with her eyes shut, claims she was fully conscious when the pictures were snapped. Six of the rocker's friends have made similar official statements to that effect, claiming there were no drugs involved in the scene and that there was nothing untoward going on.
Relatively speaking.
Doherty claims that rather than injecting a substance into the girl's arm, he was actually extracting one.
Following his arrest, he told police he was drawing McEvoy's blood to make a "blood painting," several of which have been posted on the 27-year-old rocker's personal Website, http://www.balachadha.com . The most recent sanguine masterpiece was posted Monday, though there's no word on whether McEvoy's generously donated materials were used.
An unnamed friend reportedly sold the photos to the newspaper, claiming they had been snapped within the past five weeks. Should it come to light that drugs were involved in the incident, Doherty could be found--once again--in violation of any one of several probations, for which he receives monthly drug testing and, supposedly, drug counseling.
As of yet, the rocker has received no jail time, though plenty of slaps on the wrist, for his seemingly endless string of arrests, all of which have revolved around class A drug possession--the category that includes such hard-core substances as cocaine and heroin.
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Actor David Spade arrives at the US Weekly Hot Hollywood Awards party in Los Angeles, California April 26, 2006
The accusations of violence, drugs, gay porn, whoremongering, lying, bad mothering, and publicity-whoring in the Great Charlie Sheen/Denise Richards Divorce War (please assign the preceding transgressions to either party as you see fit) were already damaging enough. But if you doubted for even a second that Sheen and Richards were hurtling toward mutually assured tabloid destruction, consider the gossip Apocalypse that Team Richards is calling down from the heavens by invoking David Spade's love life. (Quick recap: Richards is angered that Spade--who is seeing Richards ex-bff Heather Locklear, we think--called the gay divorcée a backstabber for dating Richie Sambora, who is divorcing Locklear. Got it? Good. We're shooting ourselves in the gut with a nail gun for typing that out.) Says Page Six:
A source very close to Richards tattled to Page Six: "David is notorious for preying on married women like Heather Locklear and Rebecca Romijn and Krista Allen, who goes back and forth between David and George Clooney . . . And Heather was seeing David last year." (While we didn't want to interrupt our source, we should point out that Allen is not married.)
By way of comparison, our Richards intimate insisted that the "Wild Things" actress only began dating Sambora in March, after both of their marriages had fallen apart.
Spade's spokeswoman, Meredith O'Sullivan, said of our source's claims: "These remarks are completely false and unfounded. It is unfortunate that anyone would feel the need to attack the character of someone who has done nothing wrong and isn't involved in this situation."
Perhaps the only thing less savory than being forced to contemplate Spade's Hollywood sexual history is having to contemplate it a second time, scrubbed up and filtered through a publicist's denial. But as long as we're on the subject, they may have missed some easy PR points by not going with a more honest and straightforward, "David Spade is shocked and saddened that he's being punished for finally having sex with a woman that can't be impressed by his career."
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An upcoming trial in Los Angeles may give Hollywood screenwriters the upper hand in disputes over whether their ideas have been stolen.
The case stems from Miramax's 1998 film "Rounders" and Jeff Grosso's suit alleging the mini-major ripped off his ideas about the world of underground poker from his 1995 script "Shell Game."
Key issue in the Grosso suit, which goes to trial in July, is whether a contract is created when an executive hears a pitch or reads a screenplay -- and there's the expectation that if the idea gets used, the writer will be paid.
Grosso's case could be a landmark because it differs significantly from typical screenwriter suits alleging copyright infringement. Usually, when writers convinced their work has been stolen face a more difficult task in proving copyright infringement by establishing that the film was taken from the script's actual plot, dialogue, setting or characters.
But Grosso achieved a key breakthrough in a 2004 federal court ruling. The 9th Circuit Court of Appeals turned down Miramax's motion to dismiss Grosso's claim that it violated its implied contract with Grosso -- even though a federal court had dismissed the suit's copyright infringement allegations.
"A contract sometimes may be implied even in the absence of an express promise to pay," wrote Judge Mary M. Schroeder in the ruling for the three-judge panel.
Ruling meant that Grosso could proceed in state court with his lawsuit alleging Miramax breached his implied contract.
Grosso, a freelance writer and poker player, submitted the "Shell Game" script to Gotham Entertainment in 1996 after Gotham, which had a first-look deal at Miramax, announced it accepted unsolicited scripts. He filed suit three years later against Miramax, producers Ted Demme and Joel Stillerman and writers Brian Koppelman and David Levien.
Studios asserted in an amicus brief that the ruling could have a negative impact by discouraging the exchange of ideas and lead to "unnecessary litigation and inconsistent results." But the appeals court and the U.S. Supreme Court refused last year to rehear Miramax's appeal.
Daniel H. Black of the Greenberg Traurig law firm said the Grosso ruling has altered how studios and nets conduct their business with screenwriters, noting it's more likely for writers to be required to sign a release to make it clear that there's no implied-in-fact contract.
Black explained the implied-in-fact contract's created under three conditions -- the plaintiff has to perform the work, has to disclose that it's for sale and has to make the disclosure under such circumstances that a studio would accept the work knowing there would be terms and conditions with a value attached to the work.
"In other words, the defendants clearly had to know that if they used it, they would have to pay for it," he explained. "And this is a totally different avenue from copyright protection."
Koppelman, who received screenplay credit for "Rounders" with Levien, told Daily Variety that Grosso's suit is baseless.
"David and I wrote every single word of that screenplay except for the parts that Edward Norton ad-libbed," he added. "And we wrote it as a spec, not a studio assignment."
Miramax has filed for a dismissal of the Grosso's claim in state court, and a spokeswoman pointed out that he's testified he had no contact with the mini-major or the creators.
The concept of an implied contract protection for screenwriters is a potentially powerful new tool, reflected in a pair of recent federal lawsuits filed in Los Angeles. Scribes have alleged the screenplays for Warner's "The Last Samurai" and Focus' "Broken Flowers" not only infringe on the writers' copyrights but also are in breach of implied-in-fact contracts.
The writers -- brothers Aaron and Matthew Benay in the "Samurai" case, Reed Martin in the "Flowers" case -- are contending that after they pitched their ideas to producers, they weren't paid even though the producers went ahead and used those ideas to make a film. Attorneys for defendants deny the allegations.
"This always happens after successful motion pictures are released," said George Hedges, who's repping defendants in the "Samurai" suit.
Los Angeles attorney John Marder -- who represents Grosso, Martin and the Benays -- agrees that studios have become more cautious in dealing with writer submissions. He asserts the Grosso ruling is a milestone in protecting writers because federal copyright law excludes ideas.
"Thus, networks and studios have felt free to use these ideas to their great financial benefit without compensating or crediting the owner," he said. "This grave injustice has now been cured."
In the "Last Samurai" case, the Benay brothers sued Warner Bros., Radar Pictures, Bedford Falls and producers Marshall Herskovitz and Ed Zwick in December. The duo alleged they had orally pitched Zwick and Herskovitz in 2000, submitted their screenplay and were told there was no interest in it.
The Benays then sold the screenplay to New Regency, but that deal ended when Warner and Bedford Falls announced in 2002 that production would commence on "Last Samurai" with Tom Cruise starring.
The brothers allege their "Last Samurai" submission resulted in the transformation of the Bedford Falls project "West of the Rising Sun" from a story about Japanese cattle ranching to one about a Civil War vet commissioned by Japan's emperor to train a newly formed imperial army.
In the "Broken Flowers" case, Martin filed suit in March against Universal, director Jim Jarmusch and manager Glenn Rigberg, alleging Martin's screenplay "Heart Copy" was identical to that of the film. Suit alleges Martin's screenplay and the film both center on a taciturn and presumably childless protagonist who receives pink envelopes in the mail and tracks down five former girlfriends.
Martin's suit said Rigberg agreed in 2003 to submit the screenplay to studios and that Martin recommended that Bill Murray play the lead.
Jarmusch began work on "Broken Flowers" in 2004, and the film debuted in May 2005 at Cannes, with Jarmusch asserting he had written the screenplay. Martin seeks more than $40 million in damages plus restitution.
The "Samurai" suit is the second such action over the authorship of the screenplay. In 2004, Michael Alan Eddy filed suit against Warners, the producers and the Writers Guild of America West, alleging the WGA had failed to properly represent him by refusing to allow Eddy to participate in the credits arbitration.
A federal court judge dismissed Eddy's suit in October 2004, and the case is now on appeal.
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British 'glam rocker' Gary Glitter (C) is surrounded by Vietnamese policemen as he leaves a communist People's Court in Vung Tau southeast of Ho Chi Minh City March 2, 2006
LONDON - Gary Glitter, who is jailed in Vietnam for child molestation, says he hopes to win his appeal and restore some honor and dignity to his family and supporters.
Glitter, 61, whose real name is Paul Francis Gadd, was convicted and sentenced to three years in prison by a Vietnamese court March 3. He was charged with committing obscene acts with two girls, ages 10 and 11, at his rented seaside villa and at a hotel.
The People's Supreme Court of Appeals in Ho Chi Minh City will hear his case May 19, the Thanh Nien (Young People) newspaper said Sunday.
"I haven't done anything," Glitter said Tuesday in an interview with British Broadcasting Corp. television.
"It was only till recently that I found out that underage is 18 in this country ... but I don't believe that I slept with anybody under 18 in this country," he said.
Glitter, who served four months in prison in Britain in 1999 for possessing child pornography, said he would not condone sexual relations with an 11-year-old.
Asked whether he envisioned his future in Britain, Glitter said, "I don't think about the future, I'm in prison."
"The only thing I think about is trying to win the appeal, and trying to put some honor and dignity back to my family, my friends and the fans who have supported me all this time," he said.
Glitter's crowd-pleasing "Rock and Roll" anthem is still played at sporting events.
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I love that he says that he just found out that a legal adult is 18 (even though that is a common standard worldwide), AND that he doesn't BELIEVE he slept with anyone under 18 in Vietnam...
Posted on May 2, 2006, 9:44 AM from IP address 216.205.224.10
The success of "Deal or No Deal" has sparked a case of gameshow fever at the networks, with new quizzers now in the works at each of the Big Four.
Capitalizing on the craze: "Deal" producer Endemol USA, which late Friday snagged series commitments from ABC and Fox for new hourlong gameshow concepts.
Alphabet has ordered "For the Rest of Your Life," a skein in which players compete to win a monthly stipend that lasts as long as they live.
Over at Fox, net has greenlit "Show Me the Money," in which prize coin rises and falls dramatically based on a sometimes cruel mechanism not in the player's control.
Both shows have also been bought by Blighty's ITV, insiders said.
Add in CBS' previously ordered "Gameshow Marathon" -- scheduled for a summer bow -- and production of primetime quizzers will soon be at its highest levels since "Who Wants to Be a Millionaire" ushered in a slew of copycats in 2000.
Deals at ABC and Fox cap a busy frame for Endemol, which just a few days earlier sold "1 vs. 100" to "Deal" home NBC (Daily Variety, April 25) -- allowing the U.S. arm of the Dutch conglom to claim the extremely rare feat of landing series deals at three nets in the course of one week.
Endemol USA topper David Goldberg said that shortly after "Deal" hit it big in December, the company crafted a plan to take advantage of what it knew would be a hunger for new gameshow concepts.
"I suspected that after 'Deal or No Deal' became a hit, every company in the world would be gathering up formats and pitching shows to the networks," Goldberg said. "We felt we had a limited window of opportunity. So rather than wait for a show to be created in Holland or another country and slowly make its way around the world, we wanted to specifically develop shows for the United States."
Goldberg said he's actually surprised more gamers haven't been announced by the networks since "Deal or No Deal" emerged in December.
"They've heard hundreds of pitches, but (until last week) they just haven't jumped on anything," he said.
Goldberg's strategy centered on flying in "Deal" creator Dick de Rijk from overseas to lead the Endemol team in fleshing out literally hundreds of ideas. Producer flew back and forth between L.A. and Holland over the last few months to tweak potential concepts and stage run-throughs of promising ideas.
Endemol narrowed the list down and set up pitch meetings last week.
NBC quickly snapped up "1 vs. 100" with a preemptive bid Monday. On Wednesday, Endemol met with all the major broadcasters to pitch two other concepts, and by late Friday, it had deals in place for both.
As part of its pitch to networks, Endemol stages mock versions of its ideas for execs so that they can actually play the game and see how it works. In separate meetings, ABC Entertainment prexy Steve McPherson and Alphabet alternative topper Andrea Wong played for ABC, while Fox reality guru Mike Darnell repped his network.
Endemol and the nets aren't saying too much about the concepts, in part for fear of idea theft from competitors.
The monthly stipend for which contestants on ABC's "For the Rest of Your Life" will vie elevates the potential prize money into the millions. How much a player wins is determined not by knowledge or physical abilities but rather gut instinct and an ability to control one's greed.
There's also a twist at the end of each game that can radically alter just how much coin players take home.
"It really adds to the fun of the show and taps into something about human relationships," McPherson said of the twist.
As for the overall show, "It's just a concept you immediately get," he said. "Part of our alternative brand is fun and wish fulfillment, and this fits right in with that."
As for "Show Me the Money," set up at Fox, game has players answering trivia questions and taking chances to rack up prize money. The twist: what Endemol calls "a never-before-seen mechanism" that can reduce a contestant's winnings to zero or multiply it into the millions.
"The show is full of cruel fates," Darnell said. "It's a constant roller coaster where one minute you think you're winning hundreds of thousands of dollars and the next minute, you've got nothing."
Other than "Millionaire" -- which still lives on in syndication -- none of the quizzers that emerged during TV's last gameshow craze lasted more than a couple seasons. Coming up with primetime-worthy concepts is tough, and nets also tend to run the sprocket.
Endemol is repped by Jeanne Newman.
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This photo, supplied by Fox Television on Thursday, April 27, 2006, shows the final five 'American Idol television talent show contestants posing in Los Angeles
'Idol' tricks: quick clicks
"American Idol" could finally be coming to a computer near you.
After months of speculation over such plans, Fox is close to announcing it will sell digital downloads from the massively popular show.
Under the proposed arrangement, individual contestant perfs from Tuesday's performance show will be available on the program's official site, AmericanIdol.com, shortly after they air. Downloads will be for both desktop and iPod platforms, in both audio and video formats. Video downloads will sell for $1.99, audio downloads for 99¢. The entire episode will not be available.
The downloads could go live on the site as soon as tonight's episode, but it's more likely they'll become available beginning May 9, when the final six episodes of the show kick off.
Insiders noted there are still rights issues that could delay the deal, though they remained optimistic that the pact will be completed shortly.
Execs at Fox Interactive Media, the News Corp. division handling the deal and distributing the show to digital platforms, and FremantleMedia, which produces the show, declined to comment.
Coin from the deal, which is likely to be significant, will be shared among Fox, Fremantle and co-producer 19 Entertainment. The three share revenue on all online and wireless properties spun off from the series.
Fox recently sealed a deal with affiliates in which net will share revenue from iTunes, online and other digital services, likely paving the way for the "Idol" agreement.
Move would be the boldest step yet to make the blockbuster show available on a new platform. "Idol" already has a number of programming elements repackaged for digital venues, including cell-phone ringtones and a VIP club, which allows subscribers who pay $30 to access additional material.
But it will continue to shy away from making entire episodes available -- largely because getting rights clearances for the many pieces of music featured on the program would prove too onerous.
"Idol" has long been thought an ideal candidate for digital distribution; after all, the show's results are decided by interactive cell-phone voting. But rights issues, affiliate resistance and the fact that the franchise has been so lucrative have all prevented Fox from attempting a bolder offering.
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Anna Nicole Smith leaves the U.S. Supreme Court in Washington this file photo Tuesday, Feb. 28, 2006
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Former Playmate of the Year Anna Nicole Smith won a unanimous U.S. Supreme Court ruling on Monday and gets a new chance to collect millions of dollars she says her late Texas oil tycoon husband promised her.
The justices overturned an appeals court ruling that the former topless dancer was entitled to nothing because federal courts lacked jurisdiction to hear claims that are also involved in state probate hearings.
Smith was 26 when she married oil tycoon J. Howard Marshall, then 89, in 1994. They met three years earlier when she was dancing in a Houston bar.
Marshall was one of the wealthiest men in Texas, worth more than an estimated $1.6 billion. His death after 14 months of marriage triggered a legal battle between his son, E. Pierce Marshall and Smith, who also had a reality show.
"This case concerns the claims of petitioner Vickie Lynn Marshall, also known as Anna Nicole Smith, to share in the large fortune of her deceased husband," Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg said in announcing the ruling from the bench.
Smith said that her husband promised her half of his estate. The son said the more than $6 million in gifts she received in 1994 was all his father wanted her to get.
In Texas, a state probate court ruled that E. Pierce Marshall was entitled to his father's estate.
But in California, a federal bankruptcy judge ruled for Smith and awarded her $474 million because of her claims the son had interfered with the inheritance she was supposed to receive.
Smith Awarded $88 Million
A federal district court judge then cut Smith's award to $88 million. But the appeals court ruled she was entitled to nothing because federal courts lack jurisdiction in probate disputes.
Ginsburg concluded in the 18-page opinion that the appeals court was wrong and that the district court properly asserted jurisdiction over Smith's claims against the son.
"Vickie Marshall's claim ... qualifies for adjudication in federal court," Ginsburg said from the bench. She said the appeals court incorrectly ruled that the Texas probate court had exclusive jurisdiction to resolve the dispute.
The Supreme Court's ruling only addressed whether federal courts can decide Smith's claims, and not the merits of her arguments that she should get the money.
E. Pierce Marshall said the ruling involved a "technical issue" and does not validate Smith's claims. He said his lawyers would ask the appeals court to overturn on various grounds the district court's ruling in Smith's favor.
"I will continue to fight to clear my name in California federal court. That is a promise that Vickie and her lawyers can take to the bank," he said in a statement issued in Texas. "I will continue to fight to uphold my father's estate plan and clear my name."
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Conservative radio commentator Rush Limbaugh is seen here in this photo provided by the Palm Beach County Sheriff's Office
WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. - Rush Limbaugh cannot own a gun and must submit to random drug tests under an agreement filed Monday that will dismiss a prescription fraud charge against the conservative commentator after 18 months if he complies with the terms.
He must also continue treatment for his admitted addiction to painkillers. The agreement did not call for Limbaugh to admit guilt to the charge that he sought a prescription from a physician in 2003 without revealing that he had received medications from another practitioner within 30 days. He pleaded not guilty Friday.
"This is a common sense resolution and the appropriate way the state should treat people who have admitted an addiction to prescription pain medication and voluntarily sought treatment," Limbaugh's attorney, Roy Black, said in a statement Monday to The Associated Press.
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Keith Richards of the Rolling Stones is seen here sitting in a bus upon his arrival at the Pudong international airport in Shanghai, China on April 6, 2006
WELLINGTON, New Zealand - Keith Richards fans gathered outside a hospital Sunday where the Rolling Stones guitarist was believed to be undergoing treatment for a mild concussion reportedly suffered when he fell out of a palm tree on vacation in Fiji.
One newspaper also reported that Richards, 62, got on a Jet Ski after the fall and had another accident. Several Australian and New Zealand media outlets reported the fall from the tree.
Band spokeswoman Fran Curtis has said only that Richards was injured earlier this week and flown to New Zealand with his wife, Patti, for observation. Her statement Saturday did not comment on Richards' condition or how he was injured.
New Zealand's Sunday Star-Times provided no details on the Jet Ski crash, but quoted Dr. Uzzel Kanti Dhar as saying that Richards was admitted to Suva Private Hospital spokesman hospital in the Fijian capital on Thursday, the same day he was said to have fallen from the tree.
Richards reportedly was airlifted to Auckland's Ascot Hospital later that day. Duty manager Steve Kirby refused to confirm early Sunday that Richards was a patient there, citing the hospital's privacy policy.
Fans gathered outside the hospital Sunday, and New Zealand's TV3 reported that Richards' wife arrived carrying clothes while a security guard carried in three guitar cases.
"Nobody likes falling from a height like that, but he's never fallen from grace for me," fan Dave Buchanan told TV3 News.
Richards and his wife were staying at the exclusive Wakaya Club resort on a small Fijian island when he reportedly was injured.
Salesi Finau of the resort told The Associated Press that Richards and his wife recently stayed there for about a week but would not say when they left or comment on reports that Richards had an accident.
On Monday, a basket of fruit — no coconut included — was delivered for the 62-year-old rocker but there was little other activity outside the hospital.
Richards' wife carried clothes and an overnight bag into the hospital Sunday afternoon.
The Rolling Stones played a concert in Wellington, New Zealand, on April 18 as part of their "A Bigger Bang" world tour.
According to the band's Web site, the Stones' next scheduled concert is late May at the Olympic Stadium in Barcelona, Spain, followed by 34 more dates across Europe.
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Actor Charlie Sheen, star of the new comedy film 'The Big Bounce' and wife, actress Denise Richards who is pregnant with the couple's first child, pose as they arrive for the film's premiere in this Los Angeles January 29, 2004 file photo
The actor, in the midst of a messy divorce from Denise Richards, has been sued by a reputed former flame who alleges Sheen ripped off her life for a "crazy" female neighbor on his CBS sitcom, Two and a Half Men.
The lawsuit by Ursula Auburn was filed Wednesday in Los Angeles.
In it, Auburn claims she had a "series of romantic encounters" with Sheen from 1992-98. Of the two parties, the complaint says, Auburn was more into Sheen than vice versa. Later, the suit alleges, Auburn's devotion was used as the basis for Two and a Half Men's Rose, a "crazy female with no life except for stalking [Sheen's character] every day of her life." (CBS' description of the character isn't much more flattering: "a brilliantly manipulative and vaguely crazy neighbor who had a brief fling with Charlie, is obsessed with him and is determined to stay in his life by whatever means necessary.")
According to the lawsuit, Rose and Auburn, like The Patty Duke Show's identical cousins before them, talk alike, dress alike, look alike and date alike (Rose went out with a man named Baldwin; Auburn went out with a Baldwin named Daniel). Actress Melanie Lynskey, who plays Auburn's alleged doppelgänger, is not named as a defendant.
"It is undeniable that Rose is based on Auburn, and people who watch the show and know Auburn can see the resemblance," the lawsuit says. "It is also clear that the events based on Auburn's own experiences as depicted through Rose are clearly meant to serve as some warped and twisted joke between Sheen and those who know Auburn."
The lawsuit cites three specific instances where Auburn's life allegedly was repurposed for Two and a Half Men gags, including an episode where Rose created a Website calling out the womanizing ways of Sheen's character, Charlie Harper, much as Auburn says she once created a Website tattling on Sheen.
Describing Auburn as "highly offended and mortified" by her alleged TV self, the lawsuit alleges invasion of privacy, negligence and intentional and negligent infliction of emotional distress. It seeks "not less than" $1 million in damages.
There was no comment from Sheen's camp. In a statement, Warner Bros. Television, which produces Two and a Half Men, essentially denied Sheen had any hand in the development of the show, currently TV's most-watched comedy series.
"The character of Rose...was conceived and created by executive producers Chuck Lorre and Lee Aronsohn," the statement said. "Any similarities to any actual person or any actual events is coincidental and unintentional."
CBS, which has already renewed Two and a Half Men for next fall, issued a statement, too, but it seemed more concerned with bucking up its embattled star than responding to the Auburn lawsuit. The network called Sheen "a true professional and a valued friend" and offered its "continued support during this very difficult time."
A call seeking comment from Auburn's attorney was not returned Thursday.
An Internet search of Auburn reveals a few references to a late 1990s Web venture in which she posed nude and dished on reputed dalliances with the likes of Jack Nicholson, Nicolas Cage, Beverly Hills, 90210's Ian Ziering and Sheen.
Last week, Sheen, 40, was accused by Richards in a court declaration of ogling "very young girls" and "very young men" on the Internet and threatening to harm the actress and her parents. Sheen blasted the allegations as a "transparent smear campaign."
Richards, 35, filed for divorce from Sheen in March 2005 after not quite three years of marriage. Following a brief détente, following the birth of the couple's second child, the war was revived last January.
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British rock singer Pete Doherty leaves Thames Magistrates Court in east London April 20, 2006, following sentencing for charges of possessing heroin, crack cocaine and cannabis
LONDON - London's Metropolitan Police force said Friday it would investigate tabloid newspaper photos that allegedly show troubled rocker Pete Doherty injecting himself and a woman with drugs.
The Sun ran a photograph Friday that appears to show Doherty holding a syringe to the arm of a woman lying on the floor. Another shows him with a needle to his arm.
The newspaper said the pictures were taken at Doherty's London home within the past five weeks.
Officers from the Specialist Crime Directorate were investigating the newspaper's allegations, police said.
Doherty spokesman Tony Linkin said he could not comment.
Doherty, 27, has a well-documented history of drug use. He was most recently arrested for suspected drug possession on April 20, hours after a judge placed him on probation over separate drug charges.
Police found marijuana, heroin and crack cocaine in Doherty's car and clothing when he was arrested Dec. 18, one of a long line of run-ins with the law.
Doherty's drug problems gained international attention last year after a newspaper published pictures of then-girlfriend Kate Moss allegedly taking cocaine at a music studio where Doherty and his band, Babyshambles, were recording.
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Rosie O'Donnell To Replace Meredith Vieira On 'The View'
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Rosie ODonnell performs at the Toys R Us Childrens Fund Benefit gala in New York on Thursday, April 27, 2006
NEW YORK - Rosie O'Donnell is expected to make a surprise return to daytime television by taking over exiting Meredith Vieira's slot on the talk show "The View."
O'Donnell's appointment was reported Thursday by the newsmagazine "Extra." It was confirmed by a person close to the show who spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity because "The View" wanted to make the announcement on Friday's show.
ABC officials declined comment on the report on Thursday.
Dubbed "The Queen of Nice" when her syndicated talk show went on the air in 1996 and became an instant hit, O'Donnell won six Daytime Emmy Awards in six years as best talk-show host. She left the show to help raise four children with her partner, Kelli Carpenter O'Donnell.
It's an important appointment for "The View," which was created by Barbara Walters. Vieira's news background helped make her the solid center of the program on the days Walters didn't appear on air.
But Vieira joined the game of musical anchor chairs that began when Katie Couric chose to move to the "CBS Evening News." NBC quickly named Vieira as her replacement on the "Today" show, where she will begin work in September.
Joy Behar and Star Jones Reynolds, who have been bickering at each other lately, are also members of "The View" round-table, along with Elisabeth Hasselbeck. They're nominated together in the best talk-show host category at Friday's Daytime Emmy Awards.
"I think every agent in America is calling," Walters told The Associated Press shortly after Vieira's departure was announced on April 6.
O'Donnell has acted in a variety of movie, TV and stage shows, including the films "A League of Their Own" and "Sleepless in Seattle," and "Grease" on Broadway.
She should have no problem holding her own with the other ladies on "The View." Since leaving daytime television, O'Donnell has become a strong advocate of gay and lesbian marriage and adoption. With her partner, she operates a cruise line for gay and lesbian families that was recently featured in an HBO movie.
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So are the other three going to have discussions while she does her dance numbers? How much confetti will be dumped on the audience per day? During interviews, will she interrupt the others to probe into a star's affiliation with gun control? Will she get the cameraman to do closeups on her chin hair? Um...will her magazine/glue collages make it to the discussion forum? Yeah, this was a good idea.
Posted on Apr 28, 2006, 9:23 AM from IP address 216.205.224.10
Snoop Dogg arrives at the Hip Hop Honors awards show in New York in this September 22, 2005 file photo
LONDON - Rapper Snoop Dogg and five associates were arrested after a fracas at Heathrow Airport that injured seven police officers, British media reported Thursday.
The Press Association news agency said members of the star's entourage had hurled bottles of whisky and argued with staff at a duty free shop after being refused entry to a first-class lounge.
London's Metropolitan Police said officers were called to "reports of a disturbance involving 30 people in a business lounge" at Terminal 1 of the busy airport on Wednesday.
When police told the group that they would not be allowed to board their flight, "a number of the group became abusive and pushed officers," a spokeswoman said on the force's customary condition of anonymity.
Six men were arrested on charges of violent disorder and affray and spent the night at London police stations. Police did not name the men, but said all were U.S. citizens in their 30s.
Seven officers received cuts, bruises and other minor injuries, the force said.
Snoop Dogg — real name Calvin Broadus, 34 — had been due to perform in Johannesburg, South Africa, on Thursday.
A former associate of Los Angeles gang the Crips, Snoop Dogg built his early career on recordings offering gritty details of gang life.
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The Honolulu Star Bulletin was on hand at yesterday's sentencing of repeat offender Michelle "The Drunk and The Furious" Rodriguez, who opted for a five-day prison sentence (she has four days left to serve) over 240 hours of community service. The report notes several bizarre comments made by the actress, including a plea for leniency on the grounds that she only got her driver's license seven years earlier for a "car racing movie" and that all of her driving experience "started and was acquired from car racing school." Even stranger was her explanation of her wild belligerence upon her arrest, during which she dared the cops to "put a gun to my head and shoot me!":
During the Dec. 1 arrest on Kalanianaole Highway, Rodriguez screamed and yelled at officers. She had to be carried into the Kailua police station because she sat down in the station garage and refused to stand up, according to a police source.
In court, Rodriguez apologized for her behavior but also blamed it on steroid injections she had been taking twice a month to treat allergies to "dust and cockroach resin" which began when she arrived in Hawaii last year. She said the effects of the steroids made her "manic," kept her up late at night and caused her to have "menstrual cycles three times" a month.
We had no idea there were allergy medications so powerful their side effects could cause Jet Ski-powered rides along the crimson tide. And yet despite her serious immune reaction to Hawaiian cockroach droppings, why are we left with the sense that the only insect responsible for Rodriguez's cantankerous behavior was the worm that slid down her throat after she polished off a 64-ounce bottle of premium tequila?
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A worker cuts a duck to extract the liver at a foie gras canning plant in Samatan, France
CHICAGO (AFP) - Chicago has banned the sale of foie gras in its restaurants because city officials think the French delicacy is cruel to ducks and geese.
Under a city ordinance the ban will be imposed by September. Fines will range from 250 to 500 dollars for every day that a restaurant is caught serving the dish.
"It's terrible!" chef Didier Durand, proprietor of Cyrano's Bistro and a spokesman for the Illinois Restaurant Association, told AFP.
"In Chicago they banned smoking (in restaurants) now foie gras - what's next? Sex?"
The ban is an attack on personal freedom and will lower the "gastronomic level" of the city, Didier said.
Foie gras aficionados will now be forced to dine at home if they wish to indulge. A situation which could lead to a new type of Chicago speakeasy as fans find ways around the prohibition.
But proponents of the ban say that it is the city's job to prevent animal abuse.
"The laws that we adopt embody the values and mores of our constituents," said alderman Joe Moore who sponsored the ordinance and fought for months to gain its near-unanimous passage.
"They define what's right and wrong and they are a reflection of our culture and our culture does not condone cruelty and torture," he said in a telephone interview.
To convince his colleges, the alderman showed them graphic photographs and a video narrated by movie star Roger Moore that depicted how metal pipes are forced down the throats of geese and ducks so that their livers become engorged by up to 10 times the normal size.
"Foie gras, which means fatty liver, is a painful liver disease that should be treated by a veterinarian, but is instead cruelly and intentionally induced on foie gras factory farms throughout the world," the former James Bond actor said in the video.
"As revolting as it is to eat an animal's diseased organ, the cruel treatment of the birds is even more disturbing."
Chicago's city council has joined a growing animal rights crusade against the a dish that has been granted cultural heritage status by the French parliament.
The ban in Chicago -- which is known as 'Hogtown' because of its sprawling slaughter houses -- follows a bill introduced in California in 2004 that will impose a ban on the sale and production of foie gras in 2012.
Force-feeding birds has also been banned in 15 countries, including Germany, Italy, Israel and Britain, according to animal rights group Farm Sanctuary which runs the nofoiegras.org website.
Similar bans have been introduced in several other US states and Farm Sanctuary hopes Wednesday's victory will help grant the movement more credibility.
"This will legitimize it in the minds of other legislative bodies and it will hopefully get some traction," said Farm Sanctuary president Gene Bauston.
The Chicago city ordinance cited a number of reasons for banning the rich livers.
It called the practice "inhumane", cited media reports showing the "unethical practice" of producers, noted that a famous local chef had stopped serving it in his restaurants and cited a poll in which nearly 80 percent of Americans support a ban on force feeding birds.
There are only a dozen or so restaurants in Chicago that serve the pricey delicacy.
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Michelle Rodriguez, star of ABC's 'Lost,' arrives at Kaneohe District Court to surrender to authorities after pleading guilty to drunk driving earlier in the day, Tuesday, April 25, 2006, in Kaneohe, Hawaii
HONOLULU - "Lost" star Michelle Rodriguez has surrendered to begin a five-day jail sentence for drunken driving.
Rodriguez, who portrays police officer Ana Lucia, opted for jail time and a $500 fine rather than 240 hours of community service.
"I kind of have to get back to my life, go back to making some money," Rodriguez said outside the courtroom after pleading guilty to driving under the influence. "It kind of gave me a hard hit. ... I'm human."
The 27-year-old Rodriguez and cast member Cynthia Watros were both charged with drunken driving after they were pulled over Dec. 1 in separate cars within 15 minutes of each other.
On Tuesday, the judge gave Rodriguez the option of jail time or community service. Carrying three books and dressed casually in a tank top and sweats, she surrendered to authorities at the Kaneohe District Court later in the day.
Choosing jail over community service was a "personal choice," said her attorney, Steve Barta.
"I would suspect that because she has a hard time even going out for a meal without being intruded upon for an autograph or photograph, it's really difficult for her to do community service," he said.
Watros, who plays Libby on the ABC castaway drama, pleaded guilty to drunken driving in January and was fined $312, ordered to undergo an alcohol assessment and 14 hours of counseling. She also had her license suspended for 90 days.
Both Rodriguez and Watros were spotted weaving on a road in Kailua, on the island of Oahu, where "Lost" is filmed. Both failed field sobriety tests.
Rodriguez recorded a blood-alcohol level of 0.145 percent, nearly twice the legal limit of 0.08. Watros had a blood-alcohol level of 0.10.
Soon after, Rodriguez spent two weeks in a rehab clinic, her lawyer said. "She did recognize there was an issue to be dealt with. She, on her own, took care of it," he said.
In 2004, Rodriguez pleaded no contest in Los Angeles to three traffic violations, including drunken driving. She completed a three-month alcohol program and is serving a three-year probation term.
ABC spokesman Jeff Fordis said there would be no disruptions for "Lost." The season finale is being filmed this week and production is scheduled to be completed by May 5.
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Actor Kevin Costner looks at the course map during the first round of the Dunhill Links championship at the Kingsbarns course near St. Andrews, Scotland , on Oct. 7, 2004
LONDON - Kevin Costner was accused of performing an indecent act as he received a massage at a Scottish hotel, in a claim by a former spa worker filed with a British employment tribunal.
The 34-year-old woman claimed the actor exposed himself and carried out a sex act as she gave him the massage at the Old Course Hotel in Fife, Scotland, in October 2004, said papers filed with the tribunal.
Her allegations were not taken seriously by hotel staff, papers said.
Tribunal chairman Nicol Hosie said the woman, who cannot be named for legal reasons, had agreed to settle her claim of unfair dismissal and sexual discrimination out of court.
The tribunal, sitting in Dundee, Scotland, on Tuesday, did not consider whether her allegations were true.
"This was never about Kevin Costner. It is a dispute between a hotel and an ex-employee," the 51-year-old actor-director's spokesman, Paul Bloch, told reporters.
Hosie lifted a restriction that had been imposed to prevent Costner's identity from being revealed, saying there was no reason for it to be withheld from reporting.
An earlier hearing had been told Costner and his wife were staying at the hotel at the time of the alleged incident.
"It is the company's position not to comment on matters of litigation," said an Old Course Hotel spokesman, speaking on condition of anonymity, in a written statement. "The parties have settled this matter. The terms are confidential and undisclosed."
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Undated Publicity photo of Howie Day released by Sony
BOSTON - Pop singer Howie Day won't face any jail time for his rowdy behavior on a Boston-bound American Airlines flight in December.
Day, 25, was ordered on Wednesday to serve one year of probation on a charge of interfering with a flight crew for his behavior on a Dec. 21 flight from Dallas to Boston.
Day, of Brewer, Maine, was returning home for the holidays on American Airlines Flight 2250 when prosecutors say he became verbally abusive to the flight crew.
As conditions of his probation, Day must write letters of apology to American Airlines, as well as the passengers, captain and an attendant aboard the flight. He must also complete an alcohol counseling program, said David Procopio, a spokesman for Suffolk District Attorney Dan Conley.
Day's attorney, Paul V. Kelly, said Day took a sleeping pill to help him fall asleep aboard the flight, then had a couple of alcoholic drinks.
He disputed prosecutors' description of what happened on the plane, saying it was "inaccurate and overblown."
Prosecutors said he smoked a cigarette, kicked the backs of chairs and was verbally abusive to the flight crew. Kelly said he did not smoke and had a loud altercation with a passenger, not the flight crew.
If Day complies with the conditions of the probation, the charge of interfering with a flight crew will be dismissed.
"There were no injuries, the operation of the flight itself was not disturbed, so we feel this is an appropriate punishment," Procopio said.
It wasn't Day's first brush with the law.
In March 2004, Day was arrested in Madison, Wis., for allegedly locking a woman in the bathroom of a tour bus after she refused his sexual advances. He then broke the cell phone of another woman who tried to call police, according to the criminal complaint.
The singer-songwriter received critical acclaim for his 2003 album, "Stop All the World Now," which featured the hit song, "Collide."
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Maury Povich appears in this Friday, Nov. 24, 1995 file photo in New York
NEW YORK (Reuters) - TV talk show host Maury Povich was hit with a $100 million lawsuit on Monday by a producer who alleges she was forced to expose herself in the studio for crude videos that were shown to guests of the show.
Bianca Nardi, 28, also alleged that Povich's relationship with a female producer created a hostile workplace that was abusive to women, and that a male producer asked her to secretly videotape her attempts to seduce married men.
The sexual harassment suit was filed in state Supreme Court, naming NBC Universal Television Inc., the Maury Povich Show and three fellow producers as defendants.
Povich is married to television news anchor Connie Chung.
"We do not believe that Ms. Nardi was a victim of unlawful sexual harassment and intend to defend this lawsuit vigorously. NBC Universal is committed to maintaining a workplace that is free of discrimination and harassment," a NBC spokeswoman said.
The suit alleges that executive producer Paul Faulhaber ordered Nardi to dress in short skirts and low-cut blouses, wear hidden television cameras microphones, and "secretly videotape married men agreeing to have sex with her."
Faulhaber also ordered her to be videotaped topless for scenes that were shown in bars and for guests of the Maury Povich Show, the suit alleges.
Nardi, who recently left the show, said a sexually hostile workplace was the result of Povich's "longtime, intimate and sexual relationship" with co-defendant Donna Benner Ingber, another producer.
Because Ingber "used her position and relationship" with Povich, other producers were openly resentful and hostile in the workplace, the suit said. Nardi said she was forced to do part of Ingber's job or be fired.
On one occasion, the suit alleges, to celebrate a successful interview with Michael Jackson, producer Faulhaber asked Nardi whether she had arranged a hotel room so that "Donna" and "Maury" could have sexual relations.
NBC Universal is majority owned by General Electric Co.
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Comedian Chris Rock and his family arrive at the Nickelodeon Kids' Choice Awards held in Los Angeles, California April 1, 2006
LOS ANGELES - A spokesman for Chris Rock said the comedian hired celebrity private eye Anthony Pellicano to investigate a model who claimed he was the father of her unborn child, according to a published report.
Rock's representative, Matt Labov, confirmed that the comedian's representatives hired Pellicano after Hungarian model Monika Zsibrita made the allegation in 1999, the Los Angeles Times reported on Tuesday.
Zsibrita, 33, was named in a February indictment as a victim of an alleged wiretapping and racketeering conspiracy on behalf of A-list Hollywood attorneys and other prominent clients. An indictment accuses Pellicano of using his connections with a police detective to illegally run a background check on Zsibrita on July 30, 1999.
Pellicano has pleaded not guilty to all charges.
Rock was separated from his wife when he met Zsibrita. The outcome of the paternity case was unclear because it was sealed by a private judge. Labov said that no one associated with Rock had any idea the private investigator would illegally access police files, as federal authorities have alleged.
Authorities claim Pellicano tapped the phone of actor Sylvester Stallone and had police run the names of comedians Garry Shandling and Kevin Nealon through a government database.
Barbra Streisand is seen here at last year's Acadamy Awards in the pressroom February 27, 2005
LOS ANGELES - Here's one sure way to incite Barbra Streisand's wrath: Write a book about her.
Christopher Anderson has learned that with his recently published biography, "Barbra: The Way She Is." Streisand has retaliated not with interviews or public statements, but by way of the Internet. On her Web site ( http://www.barbrastreisand.com ), she has issued a response she titles "Does the Truth Matter These Days?"
"Normally, I would not dignify vicious, mean-spirited mythology masquerading as biography," she begins. "But it seems this latest rehash of other unauthorized biographies is getting a lot of attention.
"Who is the person described in this book? From what has been told to me, certainly not anyone I know. This stereotypic image bears little resemblance to me or anything about me."
Streisand adds that none of her close friends or professional co-workers had been sources for the book. Indeed, her intimates, co-stars and major directors are missing from the author's account of contributors.
"A few of them spoke off the record," Anderson responded, talking from his Connecticut home. "Karl Malden and Estelle Parsons offered interesting insights, as did people who worked with her — singers, musicians, composers."
Streisand branded as "a lie" the book's allegation that she refused to attend her sister's wedding even though she was in the same city. "I was in London filming `Yentl,'" she declared.
The Web site also includes a letter from her sister Roslyn's ex-husband, Randy Stone, who said that Streisand provided her Malibu ranch for the wedding and gave the couple "a large gift of money" to start their married life.
Anderson remarked that the criticism concerned "one small detail."
"Barbra: The Way She Is" adds to the stream of unauthorized biographies about Streisand. In his list of sources, Anderson includes 27 biographies and other books relating to Streisand.
His book hit No. 15 on The New York Times list of best sellers on April 16. "That was after only four days on the market," says Anderson's public relations representative, Camille McDuffie.
Anderson has been a prolific biographer of celebrities. His 13 previous books include such titles as "American Evita: Hilary Clinton's Path to Power," "Sweet Caroline: Last Child of Camelot," "George and Laura: Portrait of an American Marriage" and "Citizen Jane."
The author, who devoted two years to the Streisand book, said he wasn't surprised by her reaction. "She made a statement years ago, `If God wrote my biography, I wouldn't like it.'
"I'd like people to know that I am a fan of Barbra's," he said. "The first gift I gave my wife when we were students at UC Berkeley in the 1960s was the soundtrack album of `Funny Girl.'"
Streisand concludes her message by saying, "I will not dignify any other untruths (beside her sister's wedding) by responding any further. Maybe it's finally time for an AUTHORIZED biography."
Dick Guttman, Streisand's publicist, said that she would have no further comment.
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Capricorn Records Founder Phil Walden is seen here in an undated photo
ATLANTA - Phil Walden, the Capricorn Records founder who launched the careers of Otis Redding and the Allman Brothers Band, has died after a long battle with cancer, a family friend said Monday. He was 66.
Walden died at his home Sunday, said Leon Jones, law partner of Walden's son, Philip Walden Jr.
The Macon, Ga.-based record label was influential in creating the Southern rock sound of the 1970s.
"Phil was a visionary," said Chuck Leavell, who joined the Allman Brothers on keyboards in 1972 and now plays with the Rolling Stones. "He just had a great vision and a true, deep passion for the music."
Over a long career, Walden also promoted groups including the Charlie Daniels Band and Wet Willie.
Walden's two most famous artists, Redding and guitarist Duane Allman, both died tragically, Redding in a plane crash in 1967 at 26 and Allman in a motorcycle accident in 1971 at age 24.
The Allman Brothers Band, the quintessential Southern rock band which the guitarist founded with brother Gregg and others, continued after Duane Allman's death.
"They weren't trendy," Walden said in a 1996 interview with The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
"You had all these British groups dressed up in Edwardian finery," Walden continued. "But there was never any attempt by the Allmans to be a show band. They played music. On occasions, when they were allowed to, for hours."
Earlier, Walden met Redding in Macon in the 1950s, when both were teenagers. Redding became a top rhythm and blues star in the 1960s and was on the brink of wider acclaim when he died.
He had recorded his "(Sittin' On) The Dock Of The Bay" just days earlier. It became a smash hit in 1968.
"His legend is really sans-hype," Walden said in a 1997 Associated Press interview. "It has made it to this point purely on the magnificence of his music."
During the 1970s, Walden was an early backer of then-Georgia Gov. Jimmy Carter. He helped Carter's upstart bid for the presidency financially, as did the Allmans and other Capricorn groups, who played benefit shows.
Carter said Monday in a statement that he and wife Rosalynn were sad to hear of Walden's death. "Phil was one of the pre-eminent producers of great music in America," Carter said. "His many performing partners, including Otis Redding and the Allman Brothers, helped to put Macon and Georgia on the musical map of the world."
Redding and Walden's close friendship made them outcasts in the segregated South, Redding's widow, Zelma Redding, recalled in 1997. She said Walden's passion for black music made him "the little white boy who everybody was wanting to beat up on."
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This file photo shows actor Charlie Sheen and wife actress Denise Richards arriving at the 11th annual Screen Actors Guild awards in Los Angeles, February 5, 2005
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Actor Charlie Sheen was ordered on Friday to keep at least 300 feet away from his estranged wife, actress Denise Richards, and their two young daughters after Richards said in court papers he had been abusive and had threatened to kill her.
Sheen, star of the hit CBS television series "Two and a Half Men," denied the charge and the judge agreed to his request that all telephone conversations between the couple be tape recorded.
Sheen was also granted one-day-a-week visitation with his daughters, Sam, 2, and Lola, 10 months, provided it was done under supervision.
The restraining order is the latest chapter in the stormy marriage between Sheen, a one-time playboy, and model/actress Richards, 35, who filed for divorce from him last December, after less than three years of marriage.
According to a written declaration to the court, Richards said she had considered asking for restraining orders against the 40-year-old actor several times but was talked out of it because she was told that "by my doing so, I would impact (Sheen's) image and cause others to lose their jobs.
"I am filing this now because I can no longer accept (his) abusive and threatening manner and must stop him from the cycle of his abuse toward me and our children and his continued threats of violence and statements that he is going to kill me."
Richards said Sheen, the son of actor Martin Sheen, abused prescription drugs, gambled compulsively, frequented prostitutes and liked to look at pornography on the Internet.
Sheen, in court papers, denied Richards' claims. In a statement on the entertainment Web site http://www.TMZ.com, Sheen's publicist, Stan Rosenfield said, "For the last year, Charlie Sheen has been hit with these ridiculous charges over and over and over again and has chosen to be a respectful gentleman and just respond with no comment."
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Miss USA Chelsea Cooley is seen here competing on the last 'Celebrity Cooking Showdown' show on NBC
Once NBC saw that viewers didn't have a taste for Celebrity Cooking Showdown, the network immediately lost its appetite.
NBC yanked the remaining two episodes of its culinary boot camp for celebs from its prime-time schedule and made what was supposed to be Thursday's show available for Web viewing on NBC.com instead. The wait to find out whose souffle rose the highest will continue until Saturday--which hasn't been the greatest night for television since The Golden Girls retired--when NBC will air the last two shows back to back.
The promising pair-a-celeb-with-an-expert premise has worked out to better effect on shows such as ABC's Dancing with the Stars, which picked up a loyal audience of 18.6 million this season, and Fox's Skating with Celebrities, which netted 11.4 million viewers on average.
But the weeklong cooking series failed to hold on to the 8.2 million-strong epicureans who took it for a taste test Monday. By Tuesday the ratings were in the garbage along with the eggshells, as viewership dipped to 3.3 million. Another handful (in ratings world) tuned in Wednesday, but the 4.8 million viewers were not enough to entice the network to stick to its original plan.
We're not exactly sure why this recipe failed. Prominent foodies Wolfgang Puck, Govind Armstrong and Cat Cora played the role of said experts, so that half was squared away. The only piece of advice we can offer to make NBC's next venture as successful as the dancing and skating on other networks: More sequins! Cindy Margolis, Miss USA 2005 Chelsea Cooley and former O-Town member Ashley Parker Angel are still in the running to hoist the golden spatula after beating competitors such as Tom Arnold, Patti LaBelle and beach volleyball babe Gabrielle Reece. Viewers of Thursday's Webisode were asked to vote online for their favorite.
Reruns of Will & Grace and My Name Is Earl filled NBC's vacant 8-9 p.m. spot Thursday and a repeat of Deal or No Deal will anchor that same time slot Friday.
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Actor John Travolta appears backstage at the Academy Awards March 5, 2006, in Los Angeles
LONDON - Gurinder Chadha will direct John Travolta and Jennifer Lopez in a big-screen version of the prime-time soap opera "Dallas."
The British filmmaker, who directed 2002's "Bend it Like Beckham," said Friday she had signed a deal with 20th Century Fox. Travolta will star as the conniving Texas oil baron J.R. Ewing and Lopez will play his wife, Sue Ellen.
Filming is set to begin in October, with the movie slated for a late 2007 release.
"Dallas" aired from 1978 to 1991. In 1980, an estimated 83 million TV viewers tuned in to find out who shot J.R., played by Larry Hagman, who had been blasted within an inch of his life in the previous season's cliffhanger finale. (The shooter turned out to be Ewing's sister-in-law Kristin.)
Chadha, who gave Jane Austen a Bollywood twist in "Bride & Prejudice," is also involved in adapting another TV hit, the '60s sitcom "I Dream of Jeannie." She said that film "is still in the pipeline, but there is still some way to go on the script."
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British rock singer Pete Doherty (L) leaves Thames Magistrates Court in east London April 20, 2006, following sentencing for charges of possessing heroin, crack cocaine and cannabis
LONDON - Pete Doherty was released on bail Friday, a day after his latest arrest for suspected drug possession.
The 27-year-old Babyshambles singer was detained in a car in east London on Thursday, hours after a judge placed him on probation on separate drug charges.
A disheveled-looking Doherty was accompanied by a lawyer as he left a police station where he had spent the night. His only comment to the knot of reporters and photographers who shadow his every appearance: "I feel like smacking you in the face, mate, stay away from me."
Doherty was ordered to return to the station in June pending police inquiries. The 21-year-old driver of the car, who was not identified, also was freed on bail.
On Thursday, a judge placed Doherty on probation for two years and banned him from driving for six months. Police found marijuana, heroin and crack cocaine in Doherty's car and clothing when he was arrested on Dec. 18, one of a long line of run-ins with police.
Judge Jane McIvor said Doherty — a former boyfriend of supermodel Kate Moss — was making progress on his court-ordered drug rehabilitation program.
"It's a long, slow process, but you are showing sufficient signs of compliance and effort," she said.
Doherty's drug problems gained international attention after a newspaper published pictures of Moss allegedly taking cocaine at a music studio where Doherty and Babyshambles were recording.
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Donald Trump, host of the NBC television reality series The Apprentice, says the show's catch line, 'You're Fired!' as he arrives at a casting call for the show in Los Angeles March 10, 2006
MOSCOW (Reuters) - If contestants on the hit U.S. television show "The Apprentice" were unnerved by Donald Trump's billions, their Russian counterparts have more to worry about, as the host of the Russian version is three times as rich.
Vladimir Potanin, a name as well known to Russians as Trump is to Americans, will deliver the punchline "You're fired" to corporate wannabes on "The Candidate," to be shown on Russia's TNT channel, Kommersant newspaper reported on Friday.
The winner of the game show, Potanin's chosen "employee," will get an annual salary of 3 million roubles ($109,100), around 30 times the average annual wage but still some way off Potanin's own pay packet.
According to Forbes magazine, which last month published a list of the world's richest people, Potanin's empire of nickel mining, banking and property was worth $6.4 billion compared to the $2.6 billion of Trump.
However, in a new survey of the richest Russians published this week, Forbes bumped Potanin's wealth up to $7.6 billion, making him Russia's ninth richest person.
A former Soviet foreign trade official, Potanin served as deputy prime minister in the 1990s while building a portfolio which ranges from media to metals.
Critics say he was a driving force behind the murky and speedy privatization of much of Russia's wealth under President Boris Yeltsin, in which a few well-placed "oligarchs" snapped up huge oil and mineral assets at a fraction of their true value.
Potanin and his partners paid a few hundred million dollars for control of the world's biggest nickel producer, Norilsk Nickel, which is now worth close to $22 billion.
Under President Vladimir Putin, he has stayed clear of politics, but adopts a high profile in the arts and philanthropy.
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This undated photo provided by FX Networks shows Emmy-winning producer-director Scott Brazil at work on the set of a television show
LOS ANGELES - Emmy-winning producer-director Scott Brazil, whose television shows included "The Shield" and "Hill Street Blues," has died. He was 50.
Brazil died Monday of respiratory failure due to Lou Gehrig's disease and lyme disease complications, FX Networks spokesman John Solberg said Wednesday.
Brazil was executive producer of "The Shield," the first original drama series on FX Networks, and he directed 11 episodes. Brazil and "Shield" creator and executive producer Shawn Ryan won the 2002 Golden Globe for drama series.
Although his condition had worsened, Brazil used a motorized wheelchair to go about his duties as "The Shield" producer-director, Ryan said.
"He worked (last) Thursday, working to the very last day, talking to the writers, doing casting and prepping our next episode," Ryan said Wednesday. "That's what made all this so stunning for us. We're kind of shocked."
Shooting on the set of "The Shield" continued on schedule Tuesday in tribute to Brazil.
"I think everyone would have felt lost if they went home and had to deal with this and had nothing to do," Ryan said.
"This was really one of the great guys of Hollywood," he added.
Brazil also directed episodes of "Nip/Tuck," "Grey's Anatomy," "CSI: Miami," "NCIS," "JAG," "Nash Bridges" and "Buffy the Vampire Slayer." He also directed the pilot of "Playmakers" for ESPN.
As a producer on NBC's "Hill Street Blues," Brazil won two Emmys for drama series in 1983 and 1984, and a Golden Globe in 1983 for TV drama series.
Brazil graduated from the University of Southern California's Annenberg School of Journalism and was a member of the Directors Guild and the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences.
He is survived by his wife, Marie; daughter Lindsay, 15; son Mark, 11; his father David; his mother Barbara; and brother Griff. A memorial service will be held at 11 a.m. Friday at the television academy's Leonard H. Goldenson Theatre in North Hollywood.
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Actress Julia Roberts (C) holds hands with her co-stars Paul Rudd (L) and Bradley Cooper during a curtain call at the conclusion of the opening night performance of the Broadway play 'Three Days of Rain' at the Bernard B. Jacobs Theater in New York April 19, 2006
NEW YORK (Reuters) - Julia Roberts is still Hollywood's ultimate "Pretty Woman" but her first venture onto a Broadway stage failed to convince the critics whose verdict was "modest," "flat" and "lackluster."
Hundreds of fans gathered outside the theater for Wednesday's opening night of "Three Days of Rain" and stars who turned up for the hottest ticket on Broadway included Oprah Winfrey, Tim Robbins and Mayor Michael Bloomberg.
The play is the first professional stage role for the Oscar-winning Roberts, 38. She remains Hollywood's highest-paid actress, commanding $20 million a film, according to The Hollywood Reporter's list of the movie industry's top players.
"For the record, Roberts does not deliver a train wreck of a performance," the Toronto Star said in a review on Thursday headlined "Pretty Woman pretty flat." It said she failed to bring her Oscar-winning screen charisma to the stage.
"Her face, so luminous on screen, barely registers onstage," the review said.
New York Times critic Ben Brantley, whose reviews can make or break a play, confessed to be a "Juliaholic" and said he was nervous on entering the theater "as if a relative or a close friend were about to do something foolish in public."
"Your heart goes out to her when she makes her entrance in the first act and freezes with the unyielding stiffness of an industrial lamppost," Brantley wrote.
Richard Greenberg's play is a drama about a brother and sister who meet up with a childhood friend for the reading of a will. Roberts plays Nan in the first act and then her mother in the second, which takes place a generation earlier.
"She's stiff with self-consciousness (especially in the first act), only glancingly acquainted with the two characters she plays and so deeply, disturbingly beautiful that you don't want to let her out of your sight," Brantley wrote.
"On the few occasions when she smiles, it's with a sunniness that could dispel even 40 days and 40 nights of rain," he added.
Run Almost Sold Out
USA Today critic Elysa Gardner was more generous, saying the two roles played to a Broadway newcomer's strengths and potential weaknesses. "In the end, Roberts makes both women credible, compelling and sweetly funny," Gardner wrote.
New York tabloid Newsday's critic Linda Winer was also a fan, saying: "Julia Roberts gives a lean, intelligent, altogether honorable performance."
But good reviews were in the minority.
The Boston Globe said the play was a lackluster "One hundred and fifty minutes of tedium," and added: "Roberts, a cinematic ball of fire, wanders around the stage in the first act as if she's looking for the Prozac."
"Mostly cloudy," was the Washington Post's verdict. "As if marooned on an unfamiliar shore, Julia Roberts staggers hesitantly through 'Three Days of Rain,"' it said.
Roberts' 12-week run is almost entirely sold out. In recent weeks tickets were listed on eBay for as much as $999 for a front-row pair of seats on opening weekend.
Roberts co-stars with Paul Rudd and Bradley Cooper, both also familiar from the screen -- Rudd's credits include "The 40 Year Old Virgin," "Friends" and "Clueless," while Cooper is currently in "Failure to Launch" with Matthew McConaughey.
"It's weird because we are under the microscope in a way that other shows might not be," Rudd told NY1 television.
Roberts won an Oscar for "Erin Brockovich" in 2001 and was nominated for one in 1991 for "Pretty Woman."
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Musician Pete Doherty, frontman of British rock band Babyshambles, arrives at Thames Magistrates Court in London to face charges on drugs offences, Thursday, April 20, 2006
LONDON - A judge ordered rocker Pete Doherty to attend an 18-month drug rehabilitation program Thursday and placed him on two years' probation.
Judge Jane McIvor also banned the 27-year-old Babyshambles frontman from driving for six months because of drug possession.
Doherty had pleaded guilty last month to seven charges of possessing drugs including heroin, crack cocaine and marijuana, which police said they found when he was stopped once in December and once in January.
Prosecutors noted the rocker's flippant — yet open — demeanor when he was arrested Dec. 18, one of a long line of run-ins with police.
Court documents said that when police found plastic bags of crack cocaine in his right sock, Doherty told officers: "I didn't think I had it in there."
McIvor told Doherty she would adhere to his pre-planned drug rehabilitation regimen, choosing the dates of his court-ordered drug tests around his lengthy tour schedule.
"It's a long, slow process, but you are showing sufficient signs of compliance and effort," McIvor said. She noted that Doherty hadn't been arrested for drugs since Jan. 14.
Doherty arrived at Thames Magistrates' Court in a leather jacket, blue jeans and white sneakers instead of his customary wrinkled suit and matching fedora. He was mobbed by reporters and fans when he left court, and police hurried him into a taxi.
His drug problems gained international attention after a newspaper published pictures last year of then-girlfriend Kate Moss allegedly using cocaine at a music studio where Doherty and Babyshambles were recording.
In early February, another judge imposed a 12-month community service order and required Doherty to submit to regular drug tests.
Doherty missed a separate, court-ordered drug review April 12 after he was unable to return from Paris, where Babyshambles had played a concert, his representatives said. That case was adjourned until May.
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Dancing Queens all over the world will no doubt rejoice.
"Mamma Mia!" -- the tuner that made theater snobs cringe but that worldwide auds embraced -- has fueled the bigscreen interest of Playtone partners Tom Hanks and Gary Goetzman.
They closed a deal with Littlestar -- the company run by the show's producer, Judy Craymer -- and Abba songwriters Benny Andersson and Bjorn Ulvaeus, and they are in talks with Universal to finance and distribute.
The filmmakers are eyeing release by late 2007. The show's book writer, Catherine Johnson, is penning the screenplay, which will stick closely to the crowd-pleasing musical's plot. Raised on a Greek island by a formerly rebellious mom who never disclosed the identity of her father, a bride-to-be locates three men who might be her father and invites them to her wedding. The resulting conflict triggers 22 Abba hits like "Dancing Queen," "Take a Chance on Me" and "The Winner Takes It All."
Craymer, who has opened the jukebox musical in 130 cities around the globe, will produce with Goetzman. Hanks, Rita Wilson, Andersson and Ulvaeus exec produce.
Craymer had rebuffed film offers for years but liked the Playtone pitch and what Hanks, Goetzman and Wilson had done to turn Nia Vardalos' one-woman stage show into "My Big Fat Greek Wedding." Craymer will be as closely involved in the film as she is in the 11 productions of the show currently playing worldwide.
Craymer and Johnson were broke when they first tried to put the show together and were even snubbed by the Swedish pop group whose music formed the basis for the show. They are now two of the wealthiest women in England.
Craymer's marriage of plot and Abba tunes is a global juggernaut that has grossed $1.6 billion since its London opening in 1999. It has been steadily among Broadway's top five grossing shows since opening five years ago and averages over $1 million a week in ticket sales.
"The time felt right. The partnership with Gary and Tom helped everything to fall into place," Craymer said. "We've never had stars in the show, the music has always been the star, but we are certainly thinking about names as we take this from the stage to the screen."
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This undated photo, supplied by Paramount Pictures, shows Tom Cruise and Michelle Monaghan in a scene from 'Mission Impossible III,' an action thriller set for summer 2006 release
Blame it on the baby
Tom Cruise's newborn daughter is already changing his plans.
The thesp, whose child with Katie Holmes was born Tuesday, was to begin a worldwide publicity blitz today for Paramount's upcoming "Mission: Impossible III."
He has canceled a junket scheduled for today in Los Angeles, a Par spokesman confirmed.
Pic is skedded for preems in Rome Monday, in London Tuesday, in Paris April 26 and Mexico City May 1. Actioner will make its U.S. bow at the Tribeca Film Festival May 3 and open wide domestically May 5.
Decision as to which events Cruise will attend will be made on a day-to-day basis, the spokesman said.
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Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes are seen in this June 27, 2005 file photo -- Tourists and celebrity photographers gather in front of actor Tom Cruise's house in Beverly Hills, Calif., Tuesday, April 18, 2006
LOS ANGELES - Word of the world's most famous silent birth has finally been heard.
Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes, the public lovebirds dubbed TomKat by the media, "joyously welcomed the arrival" of a baby girl Tuesday, said Cruise spokesman Arnold Robinson.
The girl, named Suri, came into the world at 7 pounds, 7 ounces and 20 inches long. Her name has its origins in Hebrew, meaning "princess," or in Persian, meaning "red rose," Robinson said in a statement.
"Both mother and daughter are doing well," the publicist said.
Details about the birth weren't disclosed, but it had been planned to take place as a silent procedure under the tenets of the Church of Scientology, to which both Cruise and Holmes belong.
Scientologists believe words spoken during times of pain are recorded by the "reactive mind" and can cause potential problems for both mother and child.
Suri's birth, which happened in Los Angeles although the exact location was not disclosed, generated a huge noise among the world of Cruise-Holmes watchers.
"Yay, yay, yay," said actress and fellow Scientologist Kirstie Alley. "Bring her over so I can meet her."
"Tonight Show" host Jay Leno announced the birth to his studio audience.
"I just got a phone call that Tom Cruise had a baby girl about two minutes ago. No joke," he said.
Suri is the 27-year-old actress' first child. Cruise, 43, has an adopted daughter and son — Isabella, 13, and Connor, 11 — with ex-wife Nicole Kidman.
In a strange twist of fate, Suri was born on the same day Brooke Shields gave birth to her daughter, Grier Hammond Henchy. Shields and Cruise had a public spat last year after he criticized the actress for taking antidepressants following the birth of her first child.
Cruise, echoing the position of Scientology, said depression can be treated with exercise and vitamins rather than drugs. Shields dismissed the actor's remarks as a "ridiculous rant."
At the Beverly Hills home of Cruise and Holmes on Tuesday, about a dozen reporters and photographers stood outside the gates and a steady stream of tourists and curious passers-by stopped to take a look. Some visitors left baby gifts outside the gate, which was shrouded in black to keep anyone from peering inside.
A police motorcycle officer stopped in the late afternoon to watch the goings-on. The patrolman, who identified himself as Officer Chase, said he was making a routine check because there had been heightened activity around the area.
He asked if Holmes had given birth yet and, told she had, he drove off.
Meanwhile, a publicity blitz for the new Cruise movie "Mission: Impossible III," which was to begin Wednesday, has been put on hold. The actor has canceled all press appearances, according to Paramount Studios.
It was just about a year ago that Cruise's romance with Holmes became a worldwide sensation.
The actor hopped up and down on a couch during an interview with Oprah Winfrey as he professed his love.
"I can't be cool. I can't be laid-back," Cruise declared at the time. "Something happened and I want to celebrate it."
The antics were widely mocked but Cruise was unfazed and continued to display his affection for the star of TV's "Dawson's Creek."
The couple were first photographed together in Rome in April 2005. Two months later, Cruise announced he had proposed to Holmes atop the Eiffel Tower.
"Today is a magnificent day for me, I'm engaged to a magnificent woman," he said.
No wedding date has been disclosed.
Holmes was previously engaged to actor Chris Klein. Cruise, previously married to Mimi Rogers and Kidman, also had a high-profile romance with Penelope Cruz.
The birth further whetted the appetite for Hollywood's next high-profile pregnancy: Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt, who have been staying in the southwest African country of Namibia, are expecting the birth of their first child.
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Keith Bender is shown in an undated image from video, provided by Fox2 on Wednesday, April 12, 2006
DETROIT - A man who police say was shot by rapper Proof, just before Proof himself was killed, died of his wounds early Tuesday, a hospital spokeswoman said.
Keith Bender had been in critical condition since being shot in the head a week ago at the CCC, a nightclub on Eight Mile Road, the boundary between Detroit and the northern suburbs.
Bender, 35, died early Tuesday, said Wende Berry, a spokeswoman for St. John Hospital and Medical Center.
Police have said witnesses told them that Proof, a hip-hop artist and friend of Eminem, shot Bender during a dispute at the after-hours club. Bender's cousin, Mario Etheridge, then shot and killed Proof, whose real name was Deshaun Holton, they said.
Etheridge, 28, has pleaded not guilty to charges of carrying a concealed weapon and discharge of a firearm in a building. His attorney, Randall Upshaw, said the shooting was in self-defense.
Proof, 32, was a member of the rap group D12 and was the best man in Eminem's January wedding. His funeral is scheduled for Wednesday.
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John McTiernan, left, director of such hit movies as 'Die Hard' and 'The Thomas Crown Affair,' departs federal court Monday, April 17, 2006 in Los Angeles with his attorney John Carlton
LOS ANGELES - A somber "Die Hard" director John McTiernan stood before a federal judge and said he made "knowingly false" statements to an FBI agent about Anthony Pellicano, the celebrity private eye he admitted hiring to wiretap a business associate.
McTiernan, who pleaded guilty Monday to making false statements, faces up to five years in prison when he is sentenced July 31.
He is the highest-profile figure yet to plead guilty in the investigation of Pellicano, who is accused of bugging phones and bribing police to get information on celebrities and others. Pellicano has pleaded not guilty.
Asked by U.S. District Judge Dale Fischer on Monday if the statements he made to the FBI agent were false, McTiernan replied: "They were knowingly false, your honor."
McTiernan, director of "The Thomas Crown Affair," "The Last Action Hero" and other films, sketched out a scenario that began with a phone call to his home on Feb. 13 from a person identifying himself as an FBI agent.
He said he told the agent the only time he used Pellicano's services was in his divorce.
"He asked me if I had hired him in any other area, and I said, `No, I didn't,'" McTiernan told the judge.
Actually, McTiernan added, "I had hired Anthony Pellicano to wiretap Charles Roven in the summer of 2000. ... But I never received a report or specific information."
Roven worked with McTiernan on the 2002 box-office flop "Rollerball." Roven was a credited producer and McTiernan directed and produced the film.
McTiernan said he paid Pellicano $50,000 for the illegal wiretap, and in the end, "I paid him off and fired him."
Assistant U.S. Attorney Dan Saunders asked the judge to seal the plea agreement documents, and he refused to answer questions outside court about whether the government had agreed to make a recommendation for leniency in sentencing.
Fischer allowed McTiernan to remain free on bond until sentencing.
The speed with which McTiernan entered his guilty plea came as a surprise after an arraignment earlier in the day in which his attorney told another judge there was a plea agreement. No details were announced and another hearing was scheduled for next week.
But McTiernan's lawyers sought a speedy resolution, and Fischer, who is presiding over other Pellicano-related cases, agreed to take the case.
Allegations against Pellicano, 62, include tapping the phone of actor Sylvester Stallone and having police run the names of comedians Garry Shandling and Kevin Nealon through a government database.
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Aaron Spelling is seen here arriving at a charity gala on April 22, 2005, in Los Angeles
LOS ANGELES - A judge has dismissed the defamation portion of a lawsuit filed by Aaron Spelling against his former nurse, but allowed the TV producer to pursue a breach-of-contract accusation.
Spelling, 83, and his wife in November sued the nurse, Charlene Richards, and her attorney for $5 million for allegedly violating a confidentiality agreement and spreading rumors that Spelling sexually harassed her.
Richards, 56, later filed a sexual harassment suit against the producer that alleged he asked her to have sex with him and "dress like a hooker."
Richards and her attorney sent letters to more than 600 actresses as well as their agents and managers, inquiring whether Spelling had sexually harassed them. Spelling argued that the letter titled, "Survey on sexual harassment by Aaron Spelling," defamed him.
Superior Court Judge William Highberger ruled that Richards was within her right to pursue litigation when she sent the letter. Highberger, however, dismissed the defamation portion of Spelling's suit.
Lawyers for Spelling and Richards said they planned to appeal the judge's decision.
Richards signed a confidentiality agreement when she began working as a home nurse for Spelling in November 2004. She was fired in April 2005.
Spelling's TV hits include "Charlie's Angels," "Beverly Hills 90210," "Dynasty" and "Fantasy Island."
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Supa MC, left, and Mike Eckstein grieve during a news conference at Iron Fist Records on the death of recording artist Proof in Detroit, Friday, April 14, 2006 -- A woman walks past the C.C.C. nightclub, where rapper Proof was shot dead, in Detroit, Michigan April 11, 2006
Days after his slaying in a nightclub shootout police claim he instigated, Proof is being defended by both his lawyer and longtime pal Eminem.
Speaking for the first time since Proof's killing early Tuesday, Eminem released a statement on his Website Friday calling the fallen rapper the driving force behind Detroit hip-hop.
"You don't know where to begin when you lose somebody who's been such a big part of your life for so long. Proof and I were brothers," Eminem, who rapped alongside Proof in the group D12, said in the statement. "He pushed me to become who I am. Without Proof's guidance and encouragement, there would have been a Marshall Mathers, but probably not an Eminem and certainly never a Slim Shady.
"Right now, there's a lot of people focusing on the way he died. I want to remember the way he lived. Proof was funny, he was smart, he was charming. He inspired everyone around him. He can never, ever be replaced. He was, and always, will be, my best friend."
Now, about the way he died. The 32-year-old Proof (whose real name was Deshaun Holton) was shot in the head about 4:30 a.m. Tuesday at C.C.C., a bar on Eight Mile Road, the street along Detroit's northern edge immortalized in Eminem's semiautobiographical movie of the same name. Investigators say Proof got into a heated argument--some unconfirmed reports say it was over a pool game--and pistol-whipped 35-year-old Keith Bender Jr.
Then, according to police and some witnesses, Proof shot Bender in the head. At that point, Bender's cousin, 28-year-old Mario Etheridge, reportedly a bouncer at the bar, gunned down Proof, shooting him three times in the head and chest.
Proof was pronounced dead on arrival at a nearby hospital. Bender remains in critical condition at a separate facility.
Etheridge, meanwhile, surrendered and was charged Friday with carrying a concealed weapon and discharge of a firearm in a building, according to the Wayne County prosecutor's office.
The charge was filed to keep Etheridge in custody.
His lawyer, Randall Upshaw, contends that Etheridge shot Proof in self-defense and to protect another person from bodily harm and should not face any serious charges, but the D.A. and detectives aren't so sure.
"Our investigation in this case is far from over," prosecutor Kym Worthy said in a statement. Likewise, a Detroit police spokewoman says investigators are still probing the shooting.
Proof's lawyer, meanwhile, has rejected the contention that the rapper shot first.
"To indicate that Proof pulled the trigger is reckless and, quite frankly, it will be proved to be untrue," he told the Detroit Free Press Thursday.
"It's disingenuous to speak to the media to try and suggest that Proof shot first. There are ways to determine what shots were fired and by whom," he continued. "There's an ongoing investigation. Until all of the factual evidence has been evaluated, an opinion by the Detroit Police Department is premature."
Funeral arrangements for Proof have not been announced, but a memorial service is reportedly in the works.
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In this March 8, 2006, file photo, singer Ashanti is seen at the Reebok 'Now Playing' promotional event highlighting several recording artists and the sneakers designed specifically for them in New York
JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) - International R&B singer Ashanti will escort to the United States on Monday the body of her cousin who was killed in a car crash in South Africa caused by a drunk 17-year old, a newspaper said.
The hit vocalist canceled a performance in Johannesburg on Saturday after her cousin Quinshae Snead, 20, died in an accident caused by a teenager who had stolen his mother's car and was driving drunk without a license.
Johannesburg metro police spokesman, Chief Superintendent Wayne Minaar, told SAFM radio on Monday that the 17-year-old had been arrested and charged with drunk driving and would appear in court soon. He said a charge of culpable homicide was also being investigated.
Snead was flung from a car and run over after the teenager hit the vehicle from behind, he said.
The Star newspaper quoted concert promoter Morris Roda as saying 25-year-old Ashanti would escort the body of her cousin, with whom she was reportedly very close, back to the United States on Monday evening.
The singer is in South Africa with her parents, sister and brother. Roda could not immediately be reached for comment.
"It has been very traumatic. They are not coping at all," Roda was quoted as saying.
Snead had been backstage with Ashanti ahead of the concert, where the singer was due to perform with international songstress Lauryn Hill and local female artists. She offered to return to the family's hotel to collect some forgotten items Ashanti wanted for the concert, the Star reported.
Ashanti, whose full name is Ashanti Douglas, has worked with Jennifer Lopez and rappers Ja Rule and Fat Joe, and scored a major hit with solo single "Foolish."
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