STARS
NEWS FLASH BY VALERIE CONSTAND
Julia Roberts tops
list of highest-paid actresses
Photo: Actress Julia
Roberts.
Julia Roberts, who didn't star in a film this year,
is again at the top of Hollywood's highest-paid actresses - at $20
million US per movie - according to an annual power list. The
38-year-old star tops The Hollywood Reporter's annual list of the
highest-paid actresses for the second straight year.
Nicole Kidman is second, with a $16 million to
$17 million per-film price tag, followed by Walk the Line star Reese
Witherspoon and actress-producer Drew Barrymore, who each command $15
million per project. Renee Zellweger, Angelina Jolie and Cameron Diaz
each have a $10 million to $15 million asking price, followed by Jodie
Foster ($10 million to $12 million), Charlize Theron ($10 million) and
Jennifer Aniston ($9 million). "These are bankable women," said Bob
Dowling, editor and publisher of The Hollywood Reporter, which has
compiled the highest-paid actresses list for four years. "They represent
something quite positive and they're being paid for it." Even actresses
who dropped off this year's list - including Halle Berry, Sandra Bullock
and Jennifer Lopez - earn salaries comparable to male actors, Dowling
said. The "biggest surprise" is Roberts, who retained the top spot after
taking time off following the birth of her twins, Hazel and Phinnaeus,
last year, he said. The list, which was released Wednesday on The
Hollywood Reporter's website, will appear in its Women in Entertainment
Power 100 issue on Dec.
Pop Singer Susan Barth's Big
Buzz
Photo: CD's cover of Susan
Barth's "Wonderland". A lovely and enchanting album.
Photo: Pop singer, Susan
Barth.
Yep! Californian pop singer Susan Barth made
headlines recently in the United States and Europe. What's the deal? The
release of her third CD "Wonderland" which was well-welcomed by critics.
Barth's nonchalant and vivacious style attracted the attention of
American and European music lovers. She is witty, stormy and yes, very
affectionate. "Wonderland" is a good musical and vocal product. Grab a
copy or two.
______________________
|
RALPH LAUREN
 
Tom Cruise
indoctrinated in Scientology at secret desert compound: report
 Photo:
Tom Cruise and
Katie Holmes ride down the red carpet on a motorcycle in this June
27, 2005 file photo taken in Los Angeles.
LOS ANGELES, California- Tom
Cruise's faith in Scientology was nurtured at a secretive southern
California desert compound that catered to his needs around the
clock, it was reported Saturday. Long before Cruise sprang onto
Oprah's couch or blasted Brooke Shields for taking
antidepressants, the Hollywood superstar participated in intensive
study and counselling at the compound in the late 1980s and early
1990s, current and former Scientologists told the Los Angeles
Times newspaper. Cruise also trained at the church's better-known
facilities, including those in Hollywood, Calif., and Clearwater,
Fla. But much of his time was spent at the compound 145 kilometres
east of Los Angeles, the Times reported on its website. Behind the
guarded gates of the 200-hectare compound near Hemet, Cruise had a
personal supervisor to oversee his studies in a private course
room, ex-members said. "I was there for eight years and nobody
stayed long at all, except for Tom Cruise and Nicole Kidman during
that period," said Bruce Hines, who left Scientology in 2001 after
three decades in the church. Cruise stayed at the resort for weeks
at a time, arriving by car or helicopter, the Times said, citing
ex-Scientologists who claimed they saw him there. Ex-church
members contend while staying in a bungalow near a golf course,
Cruise had a special staff to prepare his meals, do his laundry
and handle other tasks around the clock. Fifteen years ago,
two-dozen members worked through dawn to plant a meadow of
wildflowers in which Cruise and Kidman could romp, alleged Maureen
Bolstad, a former Scientologist who said she was at the base for
17 years. Cruise declined a request for an interview, the
newspaper said. Mike Rinder, head of Scientology International's
Office of Special Affairs, said such accounts were fabricated by
"apostates." The wildflower planting might be a confused version
of repairs done after a 1990 mudslide, he said. Cruise has made no
extended visits to the complex since the early 1990s and has
performed virtually all of his religious training elsewhere,
Rinder said. Public records show since 1998, Scientology has
poured at least $45 million into expanding the facility, which is
on the site of a dilapidated Gilman Hot Springs resort the church
purchased nearly 30 years ago. It has quietly grown to include
video and recording studios, elaborate offices and an empty,
multimillion-dollar mansion former members contend was built for
the eventual return of Scientology founder L. Ron Hubbard, who
died in 1986. However, Rinder said it is simply a museum
containing Hubbard's belongings. The property is largely concealed
from outsiders by tall hedges and high walls. Security includes, a
barbed-wired perimeter, video cameras and motion sensors,
ex-members said. Founded in 1954, Scientology teaches "spiritual
release and freedom" from life's problems can be achieved through
one-on-one counselling called auditing, during which members'
responses are monitored on an "e-meter," similar to a polygraph.
 Jessica
Simpson files for divorce
Photo: Jessica
Simpson, left, and husband Nick Lachey.
LOS ANGELES, California- There
will be no romantic reunion -- Jessica Simpson filed for divorce
Friday from former boy band star Nick Lachey. The couple jointly
announced their separation Nov. 23 following months of rumours
their tabloid-friendly relationship had soured. Simpson cited
irreconcilable differences in a divorce petition filed in Los
Angeles Superior Court. The couple had no prenuptial agreement and
in the petition, Simpson asked the court not to grant Lachey
spousal support. They have no children. Lachey, 32, had more
earning power when the couple wed in October 2002. However,
Simpson's star power skyrocketed during her three-year marriage.
The 25-year-old singer-actress earned more than $30 million last
year. Simpson's publicist, Rob Shuter, confirmed the filing but
declined further comment. An after-hours call for comment to
Lachey's publicist was not immediately returned. The photogenic
pair starred in their own MTV reality show, Newlyweds. They also
hosted a 2004 television special, The Nick & Jessica Variety Hour.
Simpson's 2004 album, In This Skin, went platinum and she released
a Christmas album last year titled ReJoyce The Christmas Album.
She made her big-screen debut this year, playing Daisy Duke in The
Dukes of Hazzard. She also lent her name to a line of cosmetics
and fragrances. Lachey gained fame as a member of the boy band 98
Degrees. He released his solo album SoulO in 2003. Lachey also
appeared in episodes of Charmed on the WB and is scheduled to star
in a pilot for the network next year.
 Saxophonist
Paul Winter says solstice concert celebration for all faiths
Photo:
Jazz musician Paul
Winter performs with the entire Paul Winter Consort at the
first-annual Berkshire Jazz Festival on in a Aug. 26, 2001 photo,
in Great Barrington, Mass.
NEW YORK- When Grammy-winning
new age artist Paul Winter started his winter solstice celebration
more than two decades ago, he was looking for something all faiths
could take part in during the holiday season. "It inspired me to
look at the big picture and I wanted to find the most universal
milestone in the year that we could celebrate," Winter said
recently. "And it struck me that winter solstice has been for
northern people the turning point of the year for tens of
thousands of years." The saxophonist's winter solstice
extravaganza marks the shortest day of the year with music, dance
and other theatrics. It has been a fixture at the Cathedral of St.
John the Divine for 26 years. Winter said many holiday traditions
can be traced to past celebrations of the solstice. "This is where
these traditions began to grow, of bringing green things into the
house," Winter said. "Most of the symbols that we see from
Christmas all came from solstice celebrations...all of these
holidays are about the return of the light, regeneration." This
year's celebration ends Saturday but last year's event can be
heard on various National Public Radio stations through the new
year. Highlights from the celebration are also available this year
with the release of the three-disc box set, Solstice: The Paul
Winter Consort & Friends. The actual winter solstice will occur
Dec. 21.
 Ashlee
Simpson hospitalized. Singer collapses following TV performance in
Tokyo
Photo:
Ashlee Simpson
(pictured here in Toronto last June) was rushed to a Tokyo
hospital after collapsing following a TV appearance.
Singer Ashlee Simpson has been
hospitalized in Tokyo after collapsing during an appearance on MTV
Japan. The singer, who is in Asia to promote her new album, I
Am Me, was performing her single Boyfriend when she told the
audience that she felt sick. Simpson, 21, later collapsed in an
elevator and was rushed by ambulance to a nearby hospital. MTV is
reporting that her father/manager confirmed Friday that Simpson
remains in hospital. “She's on an I.V.” said Joe Simpson. The
nature of her illness has not be revealed. The singer has
cancelled her appearance on Monday’s Radio Music Awards in Las
Vegas.
 Hatcher
clears her name. Desperate Housewives star did not have sex romps in
her VW van
Photo: Teri
Hatcher has settled with a British tabloid that claimed she had sex
romps in her VW van. The Desperate Housewives star also got an
apology from the National Enquirer.
LONDON – Desperate Housewives
star Teri Hatcher has accepted libel damages from a British tabloid
which claimed she regularly had sex with men in a van outside her
home, her lawyer told a court Friday. The Daily Sport,
which published the story in July and repeated it in August, agreed
to pay “very substantial damages” and her legal costs, to print a
front-page apology and promised not to repeat the allegations,
lawyer Simon Smith said. The amount of damages was not disclosed.
David Hirst, representing the Daily Sport, said the
newspaper accepted that the articles were entirely false. “The
defendant received the story from a source who it trusted, who in
turn read the allegation elsewhere,” Hirst said. Smith said Hatcher
“is a proud single mother to her seven-year-old daughter and
naturally finds extremely insulting the lurid suggestion that she
neglects her daughter in order to have regular sex with a series of
men in a van parked outside her home. “Such allegations are without
any substance at all,” Smith said. “Although the claimant does have
such a VW van, which she keeps for nostalgic reasons, and which she
occasionally uses to take her daughter on family trips and holidays,
that is where the similarity ends.” Hatcher, who was not in court,
issued a statement saying she had “tolerated many ridiculous and
fabricated lies and gossip in the tabloids” as something that “just
comes with the territory of fame.“But when a story appeared about
me, insinuating that I am an irresponsible and neglectful parent, I
had to draw the line,” she added. On Thursday, Hatcher
accepted an apology from the National Enquirer after it
published a similar report as a “world exclusive” by freelance
reporter Patricia Nolan. The Enquirer statement reads: “We
withdraw and retract the statements in that article. In particular,
Ms. Hatcher has never engaged in sexual relations with men in a van
parked on her property, nor does she leave her child alone in her
house while having ‘steamy romps’ with men in a ‘passion wagon.’ Ms
Hatcher only uses her van for camping trips with her daughter.”
Photo:
Actor John Spencer displays his Emmy in 2002.
'West Wing' actor
John Spencer dies.
LOS ANGELES,
California- John Spencer is being remembered as a caring, giving
actor. "The West Wing'' co-star Allison Janney says Spencer was a
consummate professional and everyone adored him. The show's
creator, Aaron Sorkin, says Spencer was "an uncommonly good man,
an exceptional role model and a brilliant actor.'' Spencer died of
a heart attack at a Los Angeles hospital today. He was 58. Spencer
played presidential staffer turned vice-presidential candidate Leo
McGarry. In 2002, he won an Emmy Award for the role, and was
nominated four other times for the series. NBC and Warner Brothers
Television have issued a statement calling Spencer a "remarkable
man with enormous talent.'' They didn't say how his loss would
affect the Emmy Award-winning series, which is in its seventh
season. In the early 1990's, Spencer starred on "L.A. Law'' as
attorney Tommy Mullaney. His movies included, "Sea of Love,''
"Black Rain,'' "Presumed Innocent,'' "The Rock'' and "The
Negotiator.''
|
|
ARCHIVES:
Comedian Richard Pryor dead at 65
Pryor was the comic voice of black America.
Groundbreaking US comedian Richard Pryor has
died at the age of 65 after a long illness. He died of a heart
attack at his home in California's San Fernando Valley, according
to his ex-wife, Flyn Pryor. He had been ill for years with
multiple sclerosis, a degenerative disease of the nervous system.
A series of hit comedies in the 1970s and 1980s - including Stir
Crazy and Silver Streak - helped make him one of Hollywood's
highest-paid stars. Peter
Sarsgaard lives with one Gyllenhaal to prepare for Gulf War drama
Photo: Actor Peter Sarsgaard poses
for a portrait in New York in this Oct. 31, 2004.
Peter Sarsgaard got a new roommate to prepare
for his role as a marine in the Gulf War drama Jarhead. The
34-year-old actor plays Jake Gyllenhaal's sniper partner in the
film adaptation of Anthony Swofford's memoir, so he decided to
spend as much time as possible with him in real life, he told The
New York Times Magazine in Sunday's issue. "I figured if I
couldn't be around my girlfriend, I would settle for her brother,"
said Sarsgaard, who's dating Maggie Gyllenhaal. Sarsgaard and Jake
Gyllenhaal lived together for about five months during filming,
mostly in a hotel in Mexico. "The idea was to simulate the
military experience: what happens if you're forced to be with
someone every minute of the day and night," Sarsgaard told the
magazine. "And we fought. We'd have a fight and then we'd still
have to be together. For a while, I would just wear headphones.
All the time. That lasted for 10 days." Order was eventually
restored, he said. Sarsgaard said he hurt his knee and ribs during
filming, but shrugged off the injuries as part of the "endurance
test." "It's hard to complain because I'm an actor and not an
actual soldier," he said. "I want to be very careful and respect
the fact that there's really a war going on."
McCartney's fans
in space treated to concert that's out of this world
Photo: Paul
McCartney gestures during a concert in Anaheim, Ca. Saturday night
It was Good Day Sunshine for the international
space station crew Sunday morning. NASA astronaut Bill McArthur
and Russian cosmonaut Valery Tokarev were treated to a live
wake-up call of the Beatles classic in a first-ever concert linkup
to the space station. On Earth, former Beatle Sir Paul McCartney
performed the hit and another song, English Tea, on Saturday night
before a cheering crowd as part of his 11-week U.S. tour. The
performance was beamed from the West Coast to the space station
crew 335 kilometres above Earth and broadcast on NASA television,
which showed live feeds from space. McArthur and Tokarev bobbed up
and down and sipped from squeeze pouches through the show, getting
a rousing cheer from the audience. "I can't believe that we're
actually transmitting to space!" McCartney said. "This is
sensational. I love it." McArthur, who did a couple flips, noted
McCartney's creative achievements and thanked him for playing the
songs. "That was simply magnificent," McArthur said. "We consider
you an explorer just as we are." It is a tradition to wake
astronauts up with recorded songs, but this marked the first time
astronauts listened to live music from space. The rock icon came
up with the idea after learning that NASA's Mission Control used
Good Day Sunshine to wake up the Space Shuttle Discovery
astronauts in August with word that conditions were favorable to
return to Earth. The wake-up call marked the space station crew's
44th day of a planned six month mission in space.
Arab-American
comedians find the funny in time of fear
Photo: Maysoon
Zayid, co-founder of the Arab-American Comedy Festival, in New
York, Nov. 4, 2005.
Four years after the Sept. 11 terrorist
attacks, a cadre of Arab-American actors and comedians is finding
growing success mining personal experiences for material. Perhaps
nowhere is this more evident than in New York, where the third
annual Arab-American Comedy Festival begins this week. The show,
which runs through Thursday, consists primarily of separate nights
of standup comedy and theatrical pieces. Co-founder Dean
Obeidallah says no topic is off limits, certainly not U.S.
President George W. Bush or terrorism. But contributors this year
are more willing to make fun of the Arab-American community and
how it has been treated by others. "In the past, we may have been
resistant to mock ourselves a little," said Obeidallah, 35, a
lawyer-turned-comedian. Co-founder Maysoon Zayid, an actress and
comedian, said the show essentially uses stereotypes to shatter
them. "We're not scary, we're not the enemy," she said. "We're
really funny." In many ways, Zayid said, the Arab-American
entertainers are following the path blazed by black and Hispanic
Americans who have channeled their communities' frustrations into
success on stage. Arab Americans have certainly had no shortage of
material since Sept. 11, even though it wasn't obvious to them at
first. "Immediately after, I was concerned about talking about
being Arab on stage in New York City," said Obeidallah, who is
half-Sicilian, half-Palestinian. "The first time I went on stage I
didn't even use my last name. A club owner said, 'Don't talk about
being Arab for a while.' That evolved over time to where I talk
about it much, much more." Sometimes it's just too easy,
especially now that the heightened sense of alert among Arab
Americans has become an almost normal, often absurd state, he
said. Obeidallah said he once listed the cell phone number of his
friend Osama (not bin Laden) under "Osama cell" on his own phone.
A friend expressed concern when he saw the reference. "I was like,
are you kidding?" Obeidallah said. The festival attempts to
carefully blend the political and the personal. References to
Palestinian suicide bombers are in, as are jabs at nosy,
matchmaking mothers. There are jokes about Arabs worrying about
Arab terrorists, and even a musical. "The fact that we are
commenting on ourselves is important instead of other people
commenting on us," said actor Waleed Zuaiter, an associate
producer for the festival. Zayid, for instance, bills herself as
"a 30-year-old Palestinian Muslim virgin from New Jersey with
cerebral palsy." "I'm a virgin by choice," Zayid often says. "My
father's choice." Zayid said she doesn't make fun of Jews, but she
considers Zionism and Israel legitimate targets. One of her jokes
involves Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, boxer Mike Tyson and
a pink negligee. That's all she'll reveal. The performers come
from a variety of religious and professional backgrounds, and many
different countries. Organizers hope the show attracts an audience
well beyond Arab Americans. "We respect where we live, we respect
our community at large," said actress Jana Zenadeen. "We're here
to bring people in and share our culture with them."-By N Toosi
|
|
Ms.
Peggy Judy, entertainment celebrity on the cover of SHOWBIZ, PIONEERS,
BEST SINGERS, MUSICIANS AND ENTERTAINERS FROM 1606 TO THE PRESENT.
Divas
appearing on the cover of Volume IV of the World Who's Who in Jazz,
Cabaret, Music and Entertainment; Antoinette Montague, Maria Gentile,
Zola, Irene Soderberg, Stephanie Jordan, Nichaud Fitzgibbon, Katie
Bull.