A bitter custody feud that saw Alec Baldwin lash out at his 11-year-old daughter in a leaked voicemail got quiet when a court commissioner ordered lawyers not to talk about the case and closed a hearing to the public moments after it began.
Superior Court Commissioner Maren Nelson said media coverage of the dispute between Baldwin and Kim Basinger had been "emotionally traumatic" for their daughter, Ireland.
Attorney Vicki Greene, who represents Baldwin, declined comment about the ruling. Earlier, she refused to discuss reports that the hearing dealt with a change in Baldwin's visitation rights after he left the phone message for his daughter.
PHOTO: AP
Nelson suspended Baldwin's visitation rights after listening to the message two weeks ago. A tape of the message was obtained by celebrity Web site TMZ.com and broadcast worldwide.
In his message, Baldwin, 49, can be heard berating his daughter as a "rude, thoughtless little pig" for missing his call. Shouting in a rambling, angry voice mail, Baldwin said he was furious at not being able to reach his daughter for a prearranged telephone call and threatened to fly to Los Angeles from New York to "straighten your ass out."
Baldwin has spent the past few weeks trying to explain why he lashed out. He issued an apology on his Web site, sat down with TV talk show hosts Barbara Walters and Rosie O'Donnell and asked NBC to let him out of his 30 Rock contract to devote time to the issue of "parental alienation."
Meanwhile, popular Spanish singer Isabel Pantoja, 50, has been released on a bail of US$122,000 dollars after spending a night in jail on charges of money laundering and tax evasion, press reports said Friday.
Pantoja is suspected of purchasing cattle, a villa and apartment with bribe money received by her boyfriend Julian Munoz, former mayor of the seaside resort of Marbella, who has been in jail for 10 months on corruption-related charges.
Spain's most popular folk-style singer, Pantoja was arrested in her Marbella home late Wednesday. She was released on bail after being questioned for three hours on Thursday. Her lawyer said she had protested her "absolute innocence."
Pantoja's detention aroused enormous interest, with Marbella residents booing her outside the court house while many fans saw her as Munoz' victim.
Marbella has become known as a hotbed of corruption. Nearly 100 people have been arrested on such charges, including Munoz, another former mayor, officials and entrepreneurs who allegedly obtained illegal building permits in exchange for bribes.
The Spanish government dissolved the Marbella city council and appointed a caretaker authority until the May 27 local elections.
Also famous throughout Latin America, Pantoja's flamboyant career and love life have provided fodder for Spain's gossip magazines for decades. She was widowed when Francisco Rivera "Paquirri," one of Spain's top bullfighters, was gored to death in the ring in 1984.
Also on Friday, UK singer Des'ree gained the dubious distinction of being responsible for the worst pop lyric of all time in the world ... ever.
In a fiercely fought BBC Radio poll, she took the prize for: "I don't want to see a ghost/ It's the sight that I fear most/ I'd rather have a piece of toast/ Watch the evening news."
She secured almost 30 percent of the vote in the listener poll conducted by BBC DJ Marc Riley.
The runner-up prize went to Snap for "I'm as serious as cancer/ When I say rhythm is a dancer."
Third place went to Razorlight for the lyric "And I met a girl/ She asked me my name/ I told her what it was."
Michael Fry, lead singer of ABC, had been hoping to land the prize with his lyric "Can't complain, mustn't grumble/ Help yourself to another piece of apple crumble."
"I have been waiting for this kind of accolade for years," Fry told BBC Radio before the result dashed his hopes of dubious immortality.
"I would say to anyone writing songs that you shouldn't really put food in song lyrics," he said before finishing in a disappointing fourth place.
Bad lyrics can also just be a case of churning it out.
"Sometimes you reach verse three and the car is running outside so you have got to get the thing finished," Fry said.
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