After a tumultuous three-year celebrity marriage, actress and singer Jessica Simpson filed for divorce on Friday from her husband, former pop star Nick Lachey, citing irreconcilable differences. The 25-year-old Dukes of Hazzard star, whose split with Lachey, 32, late last month triggered a tabloid frenzy, filed divorce papers in Los Angeles Superior Court under her married name, Jessica Simpson Lachey, and asked that her name be changed back to Simpson.
Grammy-winning singer Lou Rawls has been diagnosed with cancer and was being treated at a Los Angeles hospital, his spokesman said on Friday. "He was diagnosed with cancer a while back and he's undergone various treatments," Paul Shefrin said, adding that the illness became public in an Arizona court where the 70-year-old crooner was seeking an annulment of his marriage.
Actress Teri Hatcher won substantial libel damages on Friday from a British newspaper that alleged she used a camper van outside her home to have sex with a series of men. The Desperate Housewives star, 41, who first found fame as Lois Lane in the 1990s television show The New Adventures of Superman, will also receive a public apology from Britain's Daily Sport tabloid which published the story.
Echoing their song You Never Give Me Your Money, The Beatles have sued record company EMI Group, claiming that they are owed $53.1 million in royalties after negotiations broke down. Apple, the company owned by Paul McCartney, Ringo Starr, and the families of John Lennon and George Harrison, said on Friday that an audit determined that EMI had not been fulfilling the terms of its contract.
Rock 'n' roll iconoclast Prince, who spent years clashing with the music establishment, has signed a recording deal with the world's largest record company, proudly noting last week that he wrote up his own agreement without legal advice. Universal Music Group will release his next album, 3121, sometime next year through its Universal Records imprint, the parties said.
Celebrity hotel heiress Paris Hilton has won the worst-dressed woman of the year award given out annually to fur-loving celebrities by the animal rights group People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals.
"Now we know what happens to all of Paris Hilton's cast-off pets," the animal-rights group said of the fur-wearing, partying heiress in its annual worst-dressed list.
Hilton's little dog, a Chihuahua called Tinkerbell, went missing last year for a week.
Other celebrities on the list included Kimberly Stewart, Tara Reid and reality-show stars Lisa Gastineau and Victoria Gotti.
George Michael said Thursday he will attend next week's wedding of fellow gay pop icon Elton John and will probably tie the knot himself in June under Britain's new civil partnership law.
In a new gesture of conciliation since a public spat, the British singer said he and his fiance Kenny Goss will take part in Wednesday's small wedding reception in Windsor, west of London, between John and David Furnish.
As for his own marriage plans, Michael said he and Goss had not set a date.
"I don't want a wedding as such but I think we will probably sign the papers on our 10th anniversary which is in June," Michael, 42, told a news conference in Tokyo with Goss watching on.
John last year openly criticized Michael for not performing more, leading to a testy feud between two of the world's most prominent gay entertainers.
Under the Civil Partnership Act, British gays and lesbians can enter civil partnerships from December 21 that give them the same rights as heterosexual couples.
Michael saluted both the law and the growing number of openly gay entertainers as a sign of greater tolerance in Britain.
Filipino superstar Nora Aunor, who was arrested in Los Angeles earlier this year for methamphetamine possession, has asked to enter a drug diversion program to clear the charges, prosecutors said on Thursday.
Aunor sought permission from a judge earlier this week to enter the one-year program, which calls for a judge to dismiss the charges if a defendant fulfills certain requirements, which typically include substance abuse treatment.
A few weeks ago I found myself at a Family Mart talking with the morning shift worker there, who has become my coffee guy. Both of us were in a funk over the “unseasonable” warm weather, a state of mind known as “solastalgia” — distress produced by environmental change. In fact, the weather was not that out of the ordinary in boiling Central Taiwan, and likely cooler than the temperatures we will experience in the near-future. According to the Taiwan Adaptation Platform, between 1957 and 2006, summer lengthened by 27.8 days, while winter shrunk by 29.7 days. Winter is not
Taiwan’s post-World War II architecture, “practical, cheap and temporary,” not to mention “rather forgettable.” This was a characterization recently given by Taiwan-based historian John Ross on his Formosa Files podcast. Yet the 1960s and 1970s were, in fact, the period of Taiwan’s foundational building boom, which, to a great extent, defined the look of Taiwan’s cities, determining the way denizens live today. During this period, functionalist concrete blocks and Chinese nostalgia gave way to new interpretations of modernism, large planned communities and high-rise skyscrapers. It is currently the subject of a new exhibition at the Taipei Fine Arts Museum, Modern
March 25 to March 31 A 56-year-old Wu Li Yu-ke (吳李玉哥) was straightening out her artist son’s piles of drawings when she inadvertently flipped one over, revealing the blank backside of the paper. Absent-mindedly, she picked up a pencil and recalled how she used to sketch embroidery designs for her clothing business. Without clients and budget or labor constraints to worry about, Wu Li drew freely whatever image came to her mind. With much more free time now that her son had found a job, she found herself missing her home village in China, where she
In recent years, Slovakia has been seen as a highly democratic and Western-oriented Central European country. This image was reinforced by the election of the country’s first female president in 2019, efforts to provide extensive assistance to Ukraine and the strengthening of relations with Taiwan, all of which strengthened Slovakia’s position within the European Union. However, the latest developments in the country suggest that the situation is changing rapidly. As such, the presidential elections to be held on March 23 will be an indicator of whether Slovakia remains in the Western sphere of influence or moves eastward, notably towards Russia and