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.
In late October of 1873 the government of Japan decided against sending a military expedition to Korea to force that nation to open trade relations. Across the government supporters of the expedition resigned immediately. The spectacle of revolt by disaffected samurai began to loom over Japanese politics. In January of 1874 disaffected samurai attacked a senior minister in Tokyo. A month later, a group of pro-Korea expedition and anti-foreign elements from Saga prefecture in Kyushu revolted, driven in part by high food prices stemming from poor harvests. Their leader, according to Edward Drea’s classic Japan’s Imperial Army, was a samurai
Located down a sideroad in old Wanhua District (萬華區), Waley Art (水谷藝術) has an established reputation for curating some of the more provocative indie art exhibitions in Taipei. And this month is no exception. Beyond the innocuous facade of a shophouse, the full three stories of the gallery space (including the basement) have been taken over by photographs, installation videos and abstract images courtesy of two creatives who hail from the opposite ends of the earth, Taiwan’s Hsu Yi-ting (許懿婷) and Germany’s Benjamin Janzen. “In 2019, I had an art residency in Europe,” Hsu says. “I met Benjamin in the lobby
April 22 to April 28 The true identity of the mastermind behind the Demon Gang (魔鬼黨) was undoubtedly on the minds of countless schoolchildren in late 1958. In the days leading up to the big reveal, more than 10,000 guesses were sent to Ta Hwa Publishing Co (大華文化社) for a chance to win prizes. The smash success of the comic series Great Battle Against the Demon Gang (大戰魔鬼黨) came as a surprise to author Yeh Hung-chia (葉宏甲), who had long given up on his dream after being jailed for 10 months in 1947 over political cartoons. Protagonist
Peter Brighton was amazed when he found the giant jackfruit. He had been watching it grow on his farm in far north Queensland, and when it came time to pick it from the tree, it was so heavy it needed two people to do the job. “I was surprised when we cut it off and felt how heavy it was,” he says. “I grabbed it and my wife cut it — couldn’t do it by myself, it took two of us.” Weighing in at 45 kilograms, it is the heaviest jackfruit that Brighton has ever grown on his tropical fruit farm, located