Gossip
Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa admited that he is having an affair with a television reporter who was once assigned to cover him.Telemundo's Mirthala Salinas reported on Villaraigosa's administration until 11 months ago;the mayor said their relationship 'evolved over time" but wouldn't say whether they were intimate before Salinas' reassignment.Villaraigosa and his wife separated in June after months of public discord.
Miss New Jersey will keep her crown and her spot in the next Miss America pageant despite appearing in risque photos, pageant officials anounced last week.Pictures of Amy Polumbo included one of her boyfriends biting her breast through her shirt,appeared on the internet after being sent anonymously to pageant officials."it;s not in a lady-like manner," Polumbo conceded,adding,"I'm not a robot.I'm a human being."
Since his career-ending racial tirade last march Michael Richards has sought solace in the teachings of a 29-year-old Hindu monk, said the Los Angeles Times last week.Richards says he has quit stand-up comedy to travel extensively in Cambodia and Thailand,while spending time studying the teachings of the Nithyananda sect.'I'm taking time off to feel myself out,get to know myself,and appreciate other people," Richards said.But he said his Cambodia trip was not "karmic rehab."
Oprah Winfrey is distraught over the recent death of her golden retriever,Gracie. An assistant was out with Winfrey's three dogs when Gracie began choking on a ball belonging to one of the smaller dogs."I ran barefoot out of my house and found the dog walker and one of my security pumping her chest," Winfrey said. "just as I reached them,the security guard looked up..."She's gone." Winfrey described her reaction as "tears and stabbing pain and disbelief and wonder and questions about how and why this happened."
Travelers at Hawaii's Kauai Airport two weeks ago were shocked to see actor Nick Nolte passed out on the floor for more than two hours.Witnesses said Nolte drifted in and out of consciousness,and was very friendly, if not very coherent, when awake.He smiled for photographers and attempted conversation. "At one point we helped him put a dollar in the wending machine,"said one passenger.
An interview that Britney Spears arranged with the celebrity-friendly magazine OK! turned into a disaster when she had "a Meltdown" and became "completely out of it" sources told TMZ. During the interview,the singer took frequent bathroom breaks and exhibited rapid mood swings and paranoia.at one point worrying that the ceiling was about to cave in. A photo shoot was even worse,sources told ,with Spears using her expensive gowns to wipe fried chicken grease off her hands and clean up after her dogs.The pictures would "kill her career' if published,said a source.
Steve Martin surprised 75 friends he'd invited to a party at his home last week by announcing that they had actually come to a wedding.Martin's fiancee,journalist Anne Stringfield,then appeared in her wedding dress and the couple were married by former Sen. Bob Kerrey, a friend of the groom's. Saturday Night Live creator Lorne Michaels was the best man.it is the second marriage for Martin,61 and the first for Stringfield,35,
Two weeks ago R&B star Usher surprised 70 to 100 friends he'd invited to his wedding by announcing that the ceremony was off.Usher,28, and 37-year-old stylist Tameka Foster had fought over whether to have a catered meal or barbecue at the wedding, said People. The singer's mother was another source of tension: She objected to the marriage,and was disinvited.The couple's first child is due in the fall.
Brian May,the lead guitarist of Queen is on track to earn a PH.D in astrophysics from Imperial College London. May recently finished his thesis,Radial Velocities in the Zodiacal Dust Cloud, and will defend it after completing some final observation at an observatory in Spain.May 60,had been a serious student in the 1970s,but abandoned his studies of astrophysics when Queen hit the big time.He returned to school after being awarded an honorary doctorate in 2002. "It was unfinished business," he said."I didn't want an honorary Ph.D. I wanted the real thing that I worked for."
the three young men who were with Lindsay Lohan when she was arrested last week have threatened to sue her if she doesn't address their concerns "privately," said their lawyer.Dante Nigro,Jakon Sutter,and Ronnie Blake met the actress for the first time at a party the night of the incident.They say Lohan commandeered Nigro's SUV in order to chase her personal assistant' mother; Blake jumped out when Lohan sped off,leaving the other two as unwilling passengers.Lohan says that she is innocent of druckin driving and that the cocaine allegedly found in her pants pocket was not hers.
Madonna,describing herself as "an anbassador for Judaism," celebrated the Jewish New Year at a Kabbalah conference in Israel two weeks ago and met with Israeli President Shimon Peres.She presented the Israeli president with a copy of the Book of Splendor,a Kabbalah text."You don't know how popular"The Book of Splendor" is amoung Hollywood actors," she told him. "Everyone I meet talks to me only about that." Madonna,whose Los Angeles-based Kabbalah sect is denounced as heretical by Orthodox Jews, was accompanied to the event in Israel by her husband,film director Guy Ritchie,and actors Demi Moore and Ashton Kutcher.
George Clooney ended up in a New jersey hospital last week after a joy ride left him with a broken rib. Clooney and his latest girlfriend,Sarah Larson,were cruising on a motorcycle down a road in Weehawken when,police said,he tried to pass a car on the right just as it turned right,smashing into him.Clooney,who is currently in New York to film Burn After Reading with Brad Pitt,is said to be in a lot of pain but likely to recover without interrupting production.