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News Briefs TV, movie and music news

Archive: June 2011 (51-60 of 88)

Jun 15 2011 09:09 AM ET

Two nabbed in Joss Stone murder plot

Categories: Crime, Music

Two men were arrested Tuesday for suspicion of conspiracy to rob and murder singer Joss Stone in England, the BBC has reported, after they were discovered near her home in Devon with swords, a map of the singer’s home, and a body bag.

“Police attended an address in Cullompton after alert residents notified officers about a suspicious-looking vehicle,” said the Devon and Cornwall police. “Officers attended the area at around 10 a.m. and subsequently arrested the occupants of a red Fiat Punto. Major crime detectives are continuing to investigate.” It remains unclear whether Stone was home at the time of the arrest of the two men, who remain unidentified but are aged 33 and 30.

“Joss is aware of the arrests and police are keeping her updated with developments,” a spokesperson for Stone said in a statement.

Jun 14 2011 09:00 PM ET

Natalie Portman gives birth to baby boy

by Adam B. Vary

Categories: Celebrity Babies!, Movies

Natalie Portman has given birth to a baby boy, People is reporting. The Oscar-winning actress is engaged to the baby’s father, choreographer Benjamin Millepied. The two met while working together on Black Swan. No other details about the baby or the birth have been released.

Jun 14 2011 04:50 PM ET

Mildred Baena, Arnold Schwarzenegger's mistress, gives first interview to 'Hello!' magazine

by Hillary Busis

Categories: Breaking up is hard to do, Misc., Politics

Though it’s been nearly a month since the world learned that Arnold Schwarzenegger fathered a child with a member of his household staff, the housekeeper in question hasn’t given her side of the story — until now. Mildred Baena, who worked for the Schwarzeneggers for more than 20 years, has given an interview to British magazine Hello! In it, the Guatemalan-born woman – whom the family called “Patty” — explains that she realized her son’s paternity as the boy got older. “It was as Joseph grew and I started to see the resemblance that I wondered — but it became more apparent as time went on,” she says. “I knew Arnold was the father, and maybe as Joseph got older and began to look like him, he [Arnold] wondered. But he never said anything to me.” READ FULL STORY »

Jun 14 2011 03:52 PM ET

Hugh Hefner wedding cancelled

by Jeff Labrecque

Categories: Weddings

Hugh Hefner is officially back on the market. His 25-year-old fiancée, Crystal Harris, who he was planning to marry this Saturday, has broken their engagement. ”The wedding is off,” the 85-year-old Playboy founder tweeted today. “Crystal has had a change of heart.”

It would’ve been the third marriage for Hefner. Harris, who reportedly has moved out of the Playboy mansion, according to TMZ, was the magazine’s Playmate of the Month in December 2009.

Jun 14 2011 01:39 PM ET

Sean Bean stabbed in bar brawl, doesn't let it ruin his evening

by Jeff Labrecque

Categories: Television

EW has confirmed that Game of Thrones‘ Sean Bean was injured in a brawl that took place at a London pub Sunday night. (The incident was first reported in London’s Daily Mail.) Bean was smoking a cigarette outside with 22-year-old model April Summers when a passerby made suggestive comments. The British actor confronted the heckler, who left at first. But he returned later and a scuffle erupted, leaving Bean with a facial bruise and a stabbing wound from broken glass. Bean, most famous for playing Boromir in the first Lord of the Rings, opted against a trip to the hospital and patched himself with a first aid kit before reportedly ordering another drink.

Jun 14 2011 08:57 AM ET

The Coasters' Carl Gardner dies

by Jeff Labrecque

Categories: Legacy, Music

Carl Gardner, the lead singer of the Coasters, died Sunday after a long battle with congestive heart failure and vascular dementia in Florida, according to the Associated Press. He was 83. The Coasters had a string of hits in the late 1950s, including “Searchin’,” “Poison Ivy,” “Young Blood, ” and “Yakety Yak,” which hit No. 1 on the Billboard chart in 1958. A founding member of the Coasters in 1955, Garner retained the rights to the band’s name. While the band’s makeup changed over the years, he remained the group’s lead singer until 2005, when his son, Carl Jr., took his place.

Jun 13 2011 05:39 PM ET

Tori Spelling crashes car while attempting to flee paparazzi

by Jeff Labrecque

Categories: Misc., Television

Tori Spelling was in a car accident at her child’s school on Monday, an accident that was caused, she tweeted, by an aggressive photographer. “Paparazzi chased me w/the kids 2school,” she wrote. “I was trying to get away from him and had a pretty big accident. Took down whole wall of school.”

Fortunately, the pregnant actress/reality TV star and her two young children were unhurt.

Jun 13 2011 12:54 AM ET

'Spider-Man' movie franchise producer Laura Ziskin dies at 61

by Thom Geier

Categories: In Memoriam, Industry News, Movie Biz, Movies

Laura Ziskin, one of the most successful female movie producers in history, died Sunday at her home in Santa Monica, Calif., after a seven-year battle with breast cancer, Variety reported. She was 61. In addition to overseeing Sony’s Spider-Man franchise, whose three films have grossed nearly $1.2 billion domestically, Ziskin produced or exec produced such movies as Pretty Woman, To Die For, and As Good As It Gets. The president of Fox 2000 from 1994 to 2000, Ziskin also exec produced the Academy Awards in 2002 and 2007.

“Laura was my closest friend,” Amy Pascal, co-chairman of Sony Pictures Entertainment, said in a statement. “She was an inspiring warrior who fought every battle, whether it was business or personal, with her trademark brains, guts, and class. She was the creative guiding light for all of us who loved and worked with her. She was also a frustrating perfectionist and that’s why she was simply the best. We are heartbroken and miss her terribly already — as a producer, as an advocate for cancer research, but most importantly, as an irreplaceable friend.”

Jun 12 2011 02:13 PM ET

QVC mainstay Jeanne Bice dies at 71

by Keith Staskiewicz

Categories: In Memoriam

Sweater queen and home-shopping doyenne Jeanne Bice died on Friday at age 71. Bice was known for her Quacker Factory clothing line, which she sold on her QVC show of the same name, usually while wearing her trademark headband. There wasn’t an article of clothing in the world she couldn’t spruce up with a cascade of sequins, beads, fabric Christmas trees, and cartoon ducks. Her personality was often as colorful as her products, which led to her being often featured on E!’s The Soup.

QVC posted a eulogy on its website that reads, in part, “Jeanne chose to love. She loved what she did — creating Quacker Factory clothes, with ‘sparkle and shine’. Clothes that made people Happy. She loved QVC. Everything about it. She loved the people: the executives who ran it, and the production people who worked so hard to make every show perfect. She loved the famous stars who appeared there, and had to pinch herself when others considered her one.”

Jun 12 2011 02:15 AM ET

Lily Allen gets married, reveals pregnancy

by Dan Snierson

Categories: Celebrity Babies!, Music, Weddings

Lily Allen and decorator Sam Cooper reportedly tied the knot in Gloucestershire, England on Saturday. The 26-year-old singer-songwriter and 33-year-old Cooper also relayed news that she was pregnant at a wedding breakfast, according to the Daily Mail. The couple were engaged in December, and their wedding invitation was leaked to the British press in March.