Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie
Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie's current residence in Namibia is being seen as a boon to the local tourist economy – not just for what couple are spending at a luxury resort there, but for the visitors they are likely to attract to the remote African nation. As Jolie herself revealed on Thursday's Today show, she's not ruling out having the couple's baby in the country.
"We just don't know where it's going to happen or where it's going to be," Jolie told interviewer Ann Curry, who asked if this week's PEOPLE cover girl had a doctor nearby. "We've been smart about it," replied Jolie. "Things will be as they will be. I'm ready for anything." Namibian officials are viewing Jolie's statements as really good news, reports Reuters.
"If Angelina Jolie gives birth in Namibia, she would have done for our tourism sector what our tourism board budget cannot do in a year," Namibian Ambassador to the United States Hopelong Iipinge said in a statement Thursday. I
ipinge said that the Namibian embassy in Washington has been "inundated with calls from the media and individuals inquiring about Namibia," including requests from major media outlets for video footage of the country's chief attractions, which include lush sand dunes.
"It would be an honor for Namibia to become the birthplace of the Pitts' first biological child," Iipinge said, saying privacy was one thing the remote African country could offer the Hollywood pair.
"Never before have we had so much publicity. Angelina Jolie is not only a movie star, she is also the U.N. goodwill gmbassador and this is the combination which makes her the draw card," he said.
Source
Halle Berry: 'I Will Definitely Adopt'
Halle Berry
Add another Hollywood beauty to the new mom club – or, at least, the group of wannabe moms: Halle Berry. "I will adopt if it doesn't happen for me naturally," the Monster's Ball Oscar winner, 39, tells TV's Extra.
"I will definitely adopt. And I probably will adopt even if it does happen naturally." Since November, when they met shooting a Versace ad in Los Angeles, Berry's boyfriend has been 30-year-old Gabriel Aubry, a 6'2" blond Canadian model.
Says Nadia Canova, whose Montreal-based Montage Models Inc. discovered Aubry, then a cook, in 1997 at a Quebec ski resort: "He's a very quiet person, with good values." As a friend of his told PEOPLE in February about Berry and Aubry: "They are so smitten." Yet when asked about the romance by PEOPLE, Berry playfully zipped her lips.
But Aubry is clear about his feelings, says his dad: "He told me he was in love." Berry, who next month is reprising her role as Storm in the new movie X-Men: The Last Stand, has been married and divorced twice, to baseball player David Justice (the two were wed from 1992-97) and to singer Eric Benet (2001-05).
Source
Rosie O'Donnell to Join The View
Rosie O'Donnell
Rosie O'Donnell is joining the current game of TV musical chairs. She's heading to The View as a replacement for Meredith Vieira, it was announced at the Daytime Emmy Awards after a day of speculation. O'Donnell made the announcement onstage with The View's co-creator, Barbara Walters.
Earlier, ABC officials declined comment on the prospect of O'Donnell's hiring, which was first reported on TV's Extra.Friday's edition of The View, which is usually broadcast live, was taped, because its cast and crew are in Los Angeles for the Daytime Emmys ceremony.
A source told PEOPLE that several of those who work on The View had no idea that O'Donnell was coming aboard. The Rosie O'Donnell Show debuted in 1996 and was an instant hit, earning its star, now 44, six Daytime Emmy Awards as best talk-show host.
In 2002, O'Donnell called it quits to help raise four children with her partner, Kelli Carpenter O'Donnell, as well as launch Rosie magazine. The now-defunct publication quickly fell victim to warring factions and then matching multi-million-dollar lawsuits between O'Donnell and the magazine's parent company, Ultimately, neither side was the victor. Rosie and Kelli recently appeared together front and center on the HBO special All Aboard!
Rosie's Family Cruise, a documentary about the maiden voyage of R Family Vacations, the travel company founded by the two of them and which specializes in gay family vacations. T
he View, which debuted in 1997, currently stars Walters, Joy Behar, Star Jones Reynolds and the newest addition, Elisabeth Hasselbeck. Set to leave The View at the end of next month, Vieira will take Katie Couric's chair opposite Matt Lauer on NBC's Today show this fall, when Couric heads over to the CBS Evening News, where she'll be the show's first solo female anchor.
Source
Ellen DeGeneres Tops Daytime Emmys
Ellen DeGeneres
Ellen DeGeneres proved the darling of Friday night's 33rd annual Daytime Emmy ceremony, taking home the award for best talk-show host for the second time and the top prize for best talk show for the third year running.
"This means a lot of me," DeGeneres said on the stage of Hollywood's Kodak Theater (this year's three-hour show marked the first time ever the event was held out West). She also addressed her partner, actress Portia de Rossi, sitting in the audience and said, "I love you."
Backstage, DeGeneres said, "I feel lucky. I found something that I feel comfortable doing and people seem to like what I do," the Associated Press reports. Also lucky: Rosie O'Donnell, who, as expected, was named to the enviable job as Meredith Vieira's replacement on The View when Vieira becomes Today co-host in September (while Katie Couric moves to the CBS Evening News).
The View's co-creator and star Barbara Walters made the announcement with Rosie standing beside her. "Well, thank God," cracked O'Donnell, "because it was either that or Celebrity Fit Club." Added Walters, "We're so lucky to have her."
Former '80s teen idol Rick Springfield, who recently returned to General Hospital after 23 years, opened the show in an outdoor fan zone singing a medley of his hits before moving inside and concluded with "Jessie's Girl."
Other winners included Jeopardy!'s Alex Trebek, who beat Who Wants to Be a Millionaire's Vieira for the Emmy as best game-show host, and Caroll Spinney (a.k.a. Big Bird), who won a lifetime achievement award for his work on Sesame Street – which was also named best pre-school children's series. In terms of the awards for soap operas, Guiding Light won four Daytime Emmys, including actress Kim Zimmer as lead actress (her fourth career trophy).
The show also had three first-time winners: Gina Tognoni (supporting actress), Tom Pelphrey (younger actor) and Jordan Clarke (supporting actor). General Hospital was named best drama and directing, bringing the ABC soap a record nine trophies in the drama category. The show's Tony Geary (who plays Luke Spencer) won his fifth Daytime Emmy as lead actor. His first was in 1982.
Source
Don Johnson a Father for Fifth Time
Don Johnson
Don Johnson and his wife Kelley celebrated their seventh anniversary with the birth of their third child, a son, a rep for the Miami Vice and Nash Bridges star announced Sunday. The 27 1/2" long, 7 lb. baby boy, who is yet to be named, arrived Saturday morning at a Los Angeles hospital, according to spokesman Elliot Mintz, who quoted Johnson as saying he was "over the moon times six." Mother and baby were both doing well, reports the Associated Press.
The couple also have two other children: daughter Grace, 6, and son Jasper, who turns 4 in June. In addition, Johnson has two children from his previous marriages: a 23-year-old son, Jesse, with actress Patti D'Arbanville, and a 16-year-old daughter, Dakota, with actress Melanie Griffith.
Johnson, 56, was also recently in the news for staving off last-minute foreclosure over a delinquent debt to D.A. Shaw Laminar Lending Inc. and paying $14.5 million to save his 17-acre Woody Creek ranch in Aspen, Colo. Johnson had to fork over some $544,584 in interest and $7,175 in attorneys' fees, among other charges, according to documents obtained by the Aspen Daily News. Papers filed in Pitkin County District Court by D.A. Shaw earlier this year claimed Johnson's two companies failed to make timely payments on a $10.6 million loan, given to Johnson's companies in August 2004 as they emerged from Chapter 11 bankruptcy.
Source
Madonna Thrills Fans at Music Festival
Madonna performs at the 2006 Coachella Valley Music Festival in Indio, Calif., on Sunday, April 30, 2006.
Madonna thrilled thousands of fans at the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival Sunday, even as she brought a mainstream feel to the traditionally edgy event.
A swollen outdoor crowd erupted in cheers after the Material Girl made her entrance inside a glittering disco ball that split in two and launched into "Hung Up" for her opening number. She performed an abbreviated set of five songs in less than a half hour.
Not everyone was excited to see the pop star at the musical extravaganza best known for its lineup of indie-rock bands and dance-oriented DJs.
"I'm here for anything but Madonna," said Alessandra Ambrosio, a Brazilian model. "Madonna is too pop to be here."
More than 100,000 people came to the inland desert for two sold-out days of sun and sound. With 47 acts on Sunday's bill alone, fans had so many choices they had to miss some bands to catch others.
Theresa Hioki, 20, sat next to her bother on a large expanse of grass, contemplating the rest of the day's music ahead of them. Sunday's lineup also included the up-and-coming Matisyahu, a Hasidic reggae and hip-hop artist.
Hours before Madonna, the San Francisco-based Mates of State, a husband and wife duo, performed their unique blend of alt-pop drum and organ music.
Jason Hammel, a former cancer researcher, bounced in his seat as he beat his drums furiously, while his wife, Kori Gardner, a former school teacher, swayed in her red summer dress and played complex passages on her organ. The couple has grown from Oakland party gigs to receive a wave of attention for their smart, singable tunes.
British chart favorite James Blunt drew a large crowds, playing to a wedged-in audience in the Mojave Tent. Near the tent openings, the crowd stood 20 deep to catch a glimpse of the singer as he crooned mellifluous tunes, capping his performance with the hit "You're Beautiful" from his album "Back to Bedlam."
Source
Dean of Hollywood Lawyers Faces Legal Woes
Larry Feldman, left, attorney for a boy accusing Michael Jackson of molestation, and Bert Fields, an attorney for Jackson, take part in a pretrial hearing in a Santa Monica, Calif., court in this Nov. 23, 1993 file photo. When A-list stars have legal troubles or need to negotiate seven-figure movie deals, they often turn to powerhouse attorney Fields. The 77-year-old legal legend has built a reputation as one of the most feared litigators in Hollywood while working for Jackson, Tom Cruise, Steven Spielberg and other celebrities. Now, it's Fields who may need help.
When A-list stars have legal troubles or need to negotiate seven-figure movie deals, they often turn to powerhouse attorney Bert Fields.
The 77-year-old legal legend has built a reputation as one of the most feared litigators in Hollywood while working for Michael Jackson, Tom Cruise, Steven Spielberg and other celebrities.
Now, it's Fields who may need help.
In recent months, prosecutors have been investigating his involvement with private investigator Anthony Pellicano, the suspected kingpin of a wiretapping ring accused in a federal indictment of threats and blackmail while digging up dirt to help clients in legal disputes.
Prosecutors believe actor Sylvester Stallone was among the celebrities wiretapped by Pellicano.
Fields began working with Pellicano in the early 1990s and has acknowledged being a subject of the ongoing investigation. He denies knowing about any questionable tactics by the private detective and is now waiting for prosecutors to decide whether to charge him.
Fields declined a request from The Associated Press for an interview.
"We have acknowledged in the past that Mr. Fields and the firm engaged Mr. Pellicano on a number of matters," said attorney Brian Sun, who represents the law firm where Fields works.
"We maintain that neither the firm nor any of its attorneys were involved in any illegal activity," he said.
To charge Fields, prosecutors would likely need taped conversations between the two men or testimony by Pellicano against Fields.
Pellicano, 62, has insisted he will not cooperate with authorities. Prosecutors have said they seized recordings of conversations between Pellicano and clients but have not named them or revealed the content.
"The government has a couple of hoops to jump through to prove wrongdoing," said Heidi Rummel, a former federal prosecutor and professor at the University of Southern California.
"They have to show that Pellicano got his information illegally and that Fields knew he got it illegally," she said.
Fourteen people have been charged so far in the case.
Among the most notable, "Die Hard" director John McTiernan pleaded guilty in April to making false statements to an FBI agent, and former Hollywood Records president Robert Pfeifer admitted hiring Pellicano to wiretap the phone of his former girlfriend as part of a legal dispute.
Pellicano and Fields have worked together for a number of celebrities.
In 1993, they helped defend singer Michael Jackson against molestation allegations involving a 13-year-old boy. Pellicano tried to discredit the boy's father by claiming he was trying to extort money from the pop star.
Both parted ways with Jackson before the entertainer reached a reported $25 million settlement with the boy's family.
Fields also hired Pellicano to investigate a lawsuit filed in 1999 against then-talent manager Brad Grey by comedian Garry Shandling, who accused Grey of taking excessive commissions from his HBO series, "The Larry Sanders Show." Grey now heads Paramount Pictures.
The federal indictment accuses Pellicano of paying a Los Angeles police officer to run Shandling's name through government databases.
Grey, who has been interviewed by FBI agents, has said he had no knowledge of any illegal activity by Pellicano. The legal dispute with Shandling was settled out of court.
Fields also represented talent manager Kenneth Starr in a lawsuit filed by Stallone in February 2002. The action star claimed he was advised by Starr to keep his investment in Planet Hollywood restaurants even though Starr told others the chain was headed for bankruptcy. The suit was eventually settled.
Fields built his reputation as a civil litigator and says he's never lost a trial in which he was lead counsel.
Cruise recruited Fields to file a lawsuit against a publication that claimed to have a videotape showing the actor engaged in a homosexual act. The publication eventually printed a retraction. Fields also beat back a plagiarism claim against director Steven Spielberg involving his 1997 slave story "Amistad."
In a 1989 interview with American Film magazine, Fields issued a warning to his legal opponents.
"When somebody does something to one of my clients, I tend to become very angry and turn it into what I call a 'holy war,'" Fields said.
His intensity doesn't ease outside the courtroom. He has written a book questioning the identity of William Shakespeare and another about the life of Richard III.
His two novels, written under the pen name D. Kincaid, feature a high-profile Los Angeles lawyer named Harry Cain.
Fields created another character private investigator Skip Corrigan before meeting Pellicano.
In one passage of "The Lawyer's Tale," the private eye tells Cain that a man they're investigating calls a suspected prostitute several times a day.
"Don't ask me how I know," Corrigan says. "You don't wanna know."
Source
Network Newsmagazines Struggle to Survive
This photo, released by NBC News April 25, 2006, shows NBC News' Ann Curry, left, posing with actress Angelina Jolie in Namibia, following an interview with Jolie for the newsmagazine "Dateline NBC." The interview with Jolie, who is awaiting the birth of the baby she is having with actor Brad Pitt, was slated for broadcast on "Dateline," Sunday, April 30.
The point was so important that Diane Sawyer was compelled to make it twice during a "Primetime" episode on battling stepfamilies.
"You want reality TV?" she asked. "Tonight, you get it. Starting now."
The appeal couldn't be any more plain, or plaintive. Broadcast network newsmagazines are at a low ebb with likely even fewer hours on the air next season and the popularity of reality television is chiefly to blame.
The struggle at newsmagazines to compete with this threat seems ultimately what's behind some stories that drew unwanted attention during the past month. "Dateline NBC" raised ethical questions by paying an outside organization to set up a sting operation for pedophiles. Its producers also angered NASCAR officials by trying to send Muslim-looking men to an auto race to illustrate a story about increased anti-Muslim sentiments.
Sawyer's April 21 "Primetime" featured a stepfamily so abusive it seemed like "Supernanny" spun out of control, with tape of a father punching his teenage daughter. ABC was criticized for not alerting authorities where the family lives in upstate New York about the potentially dangerous behavior.
Newsmagazines have "morphed into something that is farther away from news and much closer to entertainment," said Joe Foote, acting dean of the University of Oklahoma's journalism school. "They're a long way from their roots."
They're also a long way from their peak. "60 Minutes" is the only newsmagazine to routinely draw more than 10 million viewers a week; four separate newsmagazine hours accomplished that just five years ago.
"Dateline NBC," on for five hours a week in the late 1990s, will lose its Sunday edition during football season next fall. Its only other regularly scheduled episode was moved a few months ago to Saturday, considered broadcast television's dead zone.
There's a very real chance that either "Primetime" or "20/20" won't be included when ABC announces its fall schedule in two weeks. What may save them is ABC's need to fill several struggling time slots.
"I think the audience feels that the real-life drama that was the bread-and-butter of magazine shows was supplanted by the artificial reality of reality television," said Susan Zirinsky, executive producer of "48 Hours Mystery" on CBS. "It's as if the audience is sated. A&E's `Intervention,' `Survivor,' `Nanny 911,' they all have elements of humanity in a crisis point."
Newsmagazines once filled the networks' need for relatively cheap prime-time programming to counter expensive comedies and dramas. Reality now does this, with the added advantage of having the potential to become a big hit if all the stars align.
With the notion of public service all but gone, newsmagazines feel the pressure of having to compete with entertainment programming.
Zirinsky's "48 Hours Mystery," which has bucked the trend by showing higher ratings on Saturday nights, is usually a one-hour crime drama, sort of like a real-life "CSI: Crime Scene Investigation."
She doesn't even call it a newsmagazine anymore.
"I consider ourselves a reality drama that has the ability to jump if news warrants," she said.
"60 Minutes" is considered the gold standard, but it's not immune to pressure to make a show that has the oldest prime-time audience more attractive to young people. "60 Minutes" has also lost nearly 2 million viewers over the last five years, and there's some nervousness at CBS about whether NBC's new Sunday night football franchise will reduce that audience further in the fall.
Newsmagazines still mix in some quality reporting, Foote said. These stories are almost secondary to the need for glitzy material that can be highly promoted like a "20/20" interview with Tom Cruise from the set of his latest movie, for instance.
And the humanitarian crisis in Darfur is more likely to be seen in prime-time through Angelina Jolie's eyes (Ann Curry's March interview on "Dateline NBC") than in enterprise reporting.
Just like with prime time, if an idea emerges that seems to work, networks run hard with it. "Dateline NBC" drew its highest ratings this year with its "To Catch a Predator" series, the stings that lure pedophiles online, producing cringe-worthy TV with elements of "COPS." NBC is in the midst of airing four separate hours of this, three of them in the crucial May ratings sweeps period.
"The predator hours are pretty interesting," Zirinsky said. "Do I want 17 of them? I don't know."
Chris Hansen, the veteran "Dateline NBC" reporter who has worked on the predator series, said there's no doubt they make compelling television. "The challenge for us is also to make it journalistically solid," he said.
Even people within the business admit newsmagazines are in the midst of an identity crisis. Hansen said he'd like to see the hidden cameras and other technology used in the predator series applied to other stories, like the immigration debate and the price of prescription drugs.
"It's incumbent upon us to continue to do good enterprise reporting and figure out what our personality is going to be and stick with it," he said.
David Sloan, executive producer of both "Primetime" and "20/20," was reluctant to discuss those programs' futures. "I think there's always good reporting to do and that's what we aim to do every week," he said.
Oddly, the most traditional, high-end broadcast newsmagazine on the air right now aside from "60 Minutes" isn't in prime time. It is what ABC's "Nightline" has evolved into in the post-Ted Koppel era.
Even as regular newsmagazine hours dwindle, a new niche for their staffs as a journalistic SWAT team has emerged. The staffs, particularly at "Dateline NBC," are on call to quickly produce compelling long-form programming for prime time when a big news event warrants, like in the wake of Hurricane Katrina last year.
"The advantage that a network has by maintaining a magazine show is that you are there to take on larger subjects," Zirinsky said. "The week-in and the week-out? That's the challenge."
Source
'Lost' Star Out of Jail
MICHELLE RODRIGUEZ
MICHELLE RODRIGUEZ is already out of jail after completing her five-day sentence for driving under the influence. The "Lost" actress was released Friday from the Oahu Community Correctional Center, where she bunked with about 60 other female inmates.
Last Tuesday, she pleaded guilty to one count of driving under the influence and opted to do jail time rather than perform 240 hours of community service. She also paid a $500 fine.
On December 1 of last year, Rodriguez and her "Lost" co-star CYNTHIA WATROS were in Hawaii driving separate vehicles when they were stopped by police on Pali Highway, which connects Kailua and Honolulu. Upon allegedly failing sobriety tests, both were arrested and later released on $500 bail each.
Watros pleaded guilty to drunken driving and was fined $312 and ordered to undergo an alcohol assessment with 14 hours of counseling. She also had her license suspended for 90 days.
Source
