Another one of those stories where it’s agony that there has to be a loser: Stella McCartney and Bono’s wife Ali Hewson are squaring up for a legal battle.
Aside from being a tax-avoiding philanthropist’s wife, Hewson has a sideline. She is apparently “investor and muse” to a firm called Nude Skincare, and is so angry that fashion designer Stella wishes to launch a perfume called StellaNude that she is taking her all the way to the high court. For use of the word “nude.”
In other courtroom drama, a Massachusetts judge has issued an arrest warrant for Grammy Award-winning
R ’n’ B singer Bobby Brown for failure to pay child support, local media reported on Friday. Family court judge Christina Harms ordered Brown, 40, arrested next time he is in the state and brought to her court after he failed to appear at a court appointment, the reports said.
Want to spend eternity next to Marilyn Monroe? Now you can, because the burial spot located just above the ill-fated starlet is going on sale for a cool US$500,000 on auction Web site eBay.
The tomb in the Westwood Village Memorial Park in Los Angeles is currently occupied by one Richard Poncher, who died 23 years ago aged 81, the Los Angeles Times reported.
But his widow is having his body moved over one spot and auctioning the site above Monroe’s, hoping to earn enough to pay off her US$1.6 million Beverly Hills home.
“Here is a once in a lifetime and into eternity opportunity to spend your eternal days directly above Marilyn Monroe,” the sale advertisement on the site says. Bidding starts at US$500,000.
Elsie Poncher, who prefers not to give her age but says she is over 70, told the Times that her husband, a successful businessman, bought the crypt from baseball player Joe DiMaggio, Monroe’s ex-husband, in 1954.
Richard Poncher also bought the spot one space over, which is where Elsie plans to relocate him to open up the crypt above Monroe. For her part, the widower wants to be cremated when she dies.
Being buried close to Monroe has already proved a draw for some, with Playboy magazine founder Hugh Hefner purchasing a spot to the side of the sex-symbol’s for US$75,000 in 1992.
For those who do not have US$500,000 to spend on the space at the cemetery, which is also the final resting place for Natalie Wood, Truman Capote and Farrah Fawcett, there is still a free crypt space two spots above Monroe to the left.
The going price for that spot is a mere US$250,000.
For the uber-flashy, there is the option of going to the grave next to Monroe wearing the shiny glove Michael Jackson wore during his first performance of the moonwalk, which goes on auction this November — with the current owner hoping to earn US$40,000 to US$60,000.
The left-handed glove was part of Jackson’s outfit for the 1983 performance of Billie Jean during a television special marking the 25th anniversary of Motown.
It goes on the block on Nov. 21, five months after Jackson’s death, at a Music Icons sale run by Julien’s Auctions at the Hard Rock Cafe in New York’s Times Square.
Julien’s estimates fans will bid as high as US$60,000 for an item that started life as a regular leather golf glove labeled “Made in Korea.”
Unlike Jackson’s usual single gloves, which he wore on the right hand, this is for the left and was hurriedly decorated with rhinestones instead of the characteristic hand-sewn crystals.
What the glove lacks in artisanal quality, it makes up for in pop history.
Jackson wore it along with a fedora during his first performance of the legendary backwards dance known as the moonwalk.
The owner, Walter “Clyde” Orange, was a member of the Commodores group when Jackson gave him the glove at the Motown tribute.
The glove headlines an auction featuring other Jackson memorabilia and items once belonging to Madonna, Bob Dylan, Elvis Presley, The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, and other music big names.
In news of the living, one of Asia’s top film festivals will pay tribute to veteran Hong Kong director Johnnie To (杜琪峰), known for his stylish action thrillers like Election (黑社會) and Exiled (放逐). South Korea’s Pusan International Film Festival said in a statement on Friday it will show 10 of To’s films and host a master class led by the 54-year-old Hong Kong filmmaker during the Oct. 8 to Oct. 16 event in the southern beach resort city. Hong Kong and South Korean film critics will also take part in a panel discussion about To’s works.
To is best known for his crafty action films, but his versatile 29-year career also includes romance, comedies and lighthearted crime movies.
This year will go down in the history books. Taiwan faces enormous turmoil and uncertainty in the coming months. Which political parties are in a good position to handle big changes? All of the main parties are beset with challenges. Taking stock, this column examined the Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) (“Huang Kuo-chang’s choking the life out of the TPP,” May 28, page 12), the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) (“Challenges amid choppy waters for the DPP,” June 14, page 12) and the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) (“KMT struggles to seize opportunities as ‘interesting times’ loom,” June 20, page 11). Times like these can
June 23 to June 29 After capturing the walled city of Hsinchu on June 22, 1895, the Japanese hoped to quickly push south and seize control of Taiwan’s entire west coast — but their advance was stalled for more than a month. Not only did local Hakka fighters continue to cause them headaches, resistance forces even attempted to retake the city three times. “We had planned to occupy Anping (Tainan) and Takao (Kaohsiung) as soon as possible, but ever since we took Hsinchu, nearby bandits proclaiming to be ‘righteous people’ (義民) have been destroying train tracks and electrical cables, and gathering in villages
Dr. Y. Tony Yang, Associate Dean of Health Policy and Population Science at George Washington University, argued last week in a piece for the Taipei Times about former president Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) leading a student delegation to the People’s Republic of China (PRC) that, “The real question is not whether Ma’s visit helps or hurts Taiwan — it is why Taiwan lacks a sophisticated, multi-track approach to one of the most complex geopolitical relationships in the world” (“Ma’s Visit, DPP’s Blind Spot,” June 18, page 8). Yang contends that the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) has a blind spot: “By treating any
Swooping low over the banks of a Nile River tributary, an aid flight run by retired American military officers released a stream of food-stuffed sacks over a town emptied by fighting in South Sudan, a country wracked by conflict. Last week’s air drop was the latest in a controversial development — private contracting firms led by former US intelligence officers and military veterans delivering aid to some of the world’s deadliest conflict zones, in operations organized with governments that are combatants in the conflicts. The moves are roiling the global aid community, which warns of a more militarized, politicized and profit-seeking trend
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