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Jay-Z and Beyonce reportedly hip-hopped down the aisle. PHOTO: AP

ip-hop mogul Jay-Z and singer-actress Beyonce Knowles married on Friday in New York, People magazine reported on its Web site, citing an unidentified friend of the couple.

The report quoted the friend as saying, “It happened earlier this evening. Jay wanted it to be a really private affair — close friends and family.”

The ceremony was followed by a party at the rapper’s TriBeCa apartment, the report added.

People touched off the celebrity wedding watch this week when it reported the couple, who have been dating for several years, had taken out a wedding license in Scarsdale Village, New York, valid for 60 days.

Gossip blogger Perez Hilton fanned the flames when he reported the wedding would take place on Friday, then followed up by posting the address of Jay-Z’s apartment as the location.

Matrimonial union between Jay-Z, 37, whose real name is Shawn Carter, and Beyonce, 26, also known by her full name Beyonce Knowles, would mark one of the highest-profile celebrity unions in recent years.

Naomi Campbell threw a tantrum at Heathrow airport. PHOTO: EPA

The two have been romantically linked since September 2002, and they performed together in music videos for two of her hit singles, Crazy in Love and Deja Vu.

Jay-Z is currently in talks with concert promoter Live Nation for a deal reported to be worth about US$150 million, rivaling the biggest music contracts ever.

They may be pushing 40, but the New Kids are returning to the block. The boy band, which sold 70 million albums in the 1980s and early 1990s, has reunited and plans to release a new album and go on tour. The reunion comes 20 years after the release of the group’s multiplatinum album, Hanging Tough. “The fan response to this has been incredible,” band member Donnie Wahlberg told the Boston Herald.

Wahlberg said he was persuaded to get back together with his former bandmates — Joey McIntyre, brothers Jordan and Jonathan Knight and Danny Wood — when they decided to record new music.

Wahlberg said he wrote 80 percent of the new material with McIntyre and Jordan Knight.

Producer Maurice Starr formed the group in Boston in the 1980s, hoping to recreate the success he had with another teen group from Boston, New Edition.

At the height of their popularity, New Kids sold out world tours and marketed millions of US dollars in merchandise.

The group disbanded in 1994. Wahlberg has acted on television and in movies, while Jordan Knight, McIntyre and Wood released solo albums. Jonathan Knight became a real estate developer.

Another celebrity who peaked in the early 1990s, UK supermodel Naomi Campbell, was released on bail early Friday after being arrested on suspicion of assaulting a police officer at London’s Heathrow airport, officials and her spokeswoman said.

The incident happened after she boarded a plane Thursday at the airport’s new Terminal 5 — which is struggling to get on track after its trouble-hit opening last week — only to be told one of her bags was missing.

“We can confirm that a passenger was removed by police from a BA flight,” an airport spokeswoman said, while a police spokeswoman said “a 37-year-old woman has been released on bail to return on a date in late May pending further inquiries.”

The 37-year-old Londoner, who is known for her quick temper, was aggressive and abusive to staff, passengers alleged. Witnesses said she was handcuffed on board the aircraft, which had not taken off.

A police source cited by the Sun daily said: “She was going nuts, spitting, punching, and lashing out. BA staff were genuinely concerned about her well-being.”

After being taken to a police station at the airport, the supermodel left Heathrow shortly after midnight.

Campbell’s spokeswoman blamed the incident on the chaos that has engulfed the new terminal since its disastrous opening.

Last year Campbell was ordered to spend a week mopping floors at a New York City warehouse for hitting her maid with a mobile phone.

She was sentenced in January 2007 after pleading guilty to reckless assault, and also ordered to attend a two-day anger management course and pay more than US$350 to cover her victim’s medical expenses.
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