The BBC’s best-paid star said on Thursday he was quitting after 13 years, having decided not to re-negotiate his high-salary contract, which had attracted criticism.
Jonathan Ross, 49, got into hot water in 2008 for on-air lewd prank phone calls made to a veteran actor, which then drew attention to his reported US$28.6 million, three-year deal.
It was expected that Ross would have been asked to follow other top presenters at the license-fee funded British Broadcasting Corporation and accept a pay cut.
Ross presents a chat show and the BBC’s film review program on television, a Saturday radio show and occasional television specials. His contract runs out in July.
“Over the last two weeks I have decided not to re-negotiate when my current contract comes to an end,” he said in a statement. “No negotiations ever took place and ... my decision is not financially motivated.”
He said he would happily have stayed with the BBC “for any fee they cared to offer, but there were other considerations.”
The broadcaster suspended Ross for 12 weeks without pay over the prank calls affair, triggered when he and comedian Russell Brand left messages on the answerphone of Andrew Sachs, a star of the cult comedy series Fawlty Towers, about Brand’s liaisons with the actor’s granddaughter.
In other job-related news, Charlie Sheen is back at work on Two and a Half Men, and his producer said on Saturday that the audience at the actor’s first show taping since his arrest was “incredibly supportive.’’ Sheen taped an episode of the top-rated CBS comedy on Friday. He was arrested Christmas Day in Aspen, Colorado, on suspicion of domestic violence and other charges. Sheen’s wife, Brooke, told police he put a knife to her throat, an accusation the actor denies.
Attorneys say the couple wants
to reconcile.
Sheen showed up at work on Monday last week and rehearsals went well, said Chuck Lorre, the show’s creator and executive producer. He said the incident wasn’t ignored, but wouldn’t say how it came up backstage.
Lorre said Sheen seems to be doing as well as he can under the circumstances.
“We did a live show in front of a studio audience and it was a big success for us,” Lorre said. “We just came back to work.” A day before the taping, Pitkin County Chief Deputy District Attorney Arnold Mordkin said that a Colorado judge ruled that Sheen must appear in person on Feb. 8 for an Aspen hearing on suspicion of felony menacing, domestic violence and other charges.
Socialite Casey Johnson was already dead when an ambulance was called to her Los Angeles home, according to the woman who made the emergency call.
A recording of the call was posted on TMZ.com on Saturday.
The woman, who was not identified, described the Johnson & Johnson heiress as “ice cold” and said Johnson’s hands were turning blue. The woman also said there are two other people at the home, and they all believed that Johnson was dead.
Johnson, 30, whose father is New York Jets owner Robert “Woody’’ Johnson, was found dead in her Los Angeles home on Monday last week.
A dispatcher asked the woman if she thought the death was a suicide.
“I don’t know if it’s a suicide,” the caller said. “Very often, her medication gets all screwed up. It’s probably because of that.’’ Johnson had been an insulin-dependent diabetic since childhood but it was not immediately clear whether that contributed to her death. An autopsy on Tuesday was inconclusive and the results of toxicology tests aren’t expected for weeks.
Johnson, dubbed the “baby-oil heiress” by the New York Post, lived her life on the tabloid pages. She partied with high school friend and fellow heiress Paris Hilton and announced last month that she was “engaged’’ to bisexual reality TV star Tila Tequila.
Johnson was charged last month with burglary and receiving stolen property for allegedly taking US$22,000 in clothing, jewelry and other items from a friend’s home. She pleaded not guilty and faced a hearing next month.— Agencies
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