Aniston gets Walk of Fame star
Jennifer Aniston was honoured with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame on Wednesday.
Her Just Go With It co-star Adam Sandler and Wanderlust castmates Malin Akerman and Kathryn Hahn were among those saluting the former Friends star at the ceremony as her boyfriend and Wanderlust co-star Justin Theroux and father, actor John Aniston, looked on.
Unveiling her star, the actress said, “It feels very surreal to be honest. I was born here and it’s sort of something you went and saw as a kid and got excited about just walking and seeing the names. To imagine that you’re going to be there is really special. It’s fun.”
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Stress killed Michael Jackson: Murray
Michael Jackson’s former physicist Dr. Conrad Murray has filed new legal papers he hopes will help land him back in court to prove his tragic patient died from financial stress.
Murray claims his manslaughter conviction should be overturned on the grounds that the judge should have allowed him to prove the King of Pop was so stressed out he recklessly gambled on his life by self-administering a fatal dose of anaesthetic Propofol.
The doctor has been fighting for his freedom ever since he was jailed last year.
In his new documents, obtained by TMZ.com, he states, “Mr. Jackson was in debt approximately $ 440 million and desperately needed to fulfill a contractual commitment at the O2 arena in London.”
His lawyers continue, “He (Jackson) was on the verge of losing his entire estate to foreclosure. The pressure to fight through his insomnia, to rehearse and be the entertainer he was in his earlier years was overwhelming.
“His motivation and resulting desperation were relevant to show a likelihood or reason to act in a manner inconsistent with good judgment.”
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Cross snorted cocaine near Obama
David Cross opened up to Playboy about his cocaine use at a White House Correspondents’ Dinner, telling the magazine that he only snorted a small amount of the drug — and did it more for the principle than the high.
“It wasn’t even that much cocaine,” the actor/comedian recalled of the 2009 incident, which has been, um, buzzed about in the rumor mill over the past few years.
Cross estimates that he was some 65 feet away from Obama when he hoovered up the go-go powder.
“It was literally the size of, I don’t know, a tick. It was a tiny granule of coke that I put on my wrist and said, ‘Watch this. I need a witness.’ And then I ducked under the table and did it. It wasn’t like I got high. The jolt was similar to licking an empty espresso cup.”
According to Cross, “It was just about being able to say that I did it, that I did cocaine in the same room as the president,” Cross said. “I’m not proud of it, nor am I ashamed of it.”
Cross — who’s gearing up to reprise his role as Tobias Funke in the “Arrested Development” revival set first as a series for Netflix, then a theatrical movie — has admitted to the incident in the past, though he hasn’t previously addressed it in as much detail.
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Cross attended the dinner as a guest of his girlfriend, actress Amber Tamblyn.
Cross’s only regret from the incident, he told Playboy, was that Tamblyn got “in trouble by association.
“I was her date, her plus-one, and she got dragged through the mud because of what I did,” Cross laments. “She had nothing to do with it. She didn’t know I was going to do it. And because of that she’ll never be invited to the White House again. That’s not cool.”
Cross and Obama would seem to have a bit in common, aside from proximity at the Correspondents’ Dinner; in his 1995 book “Dreams From My Father,” the president admitted to using marijuana and cocaine, saying that he did “maybe a little blow.”
Ruby slippers find a new home
LOS ANGELES – Judy Garland’s ruby red slippers from “The Wizard of Oz” have found their way home.
The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences said on Wednesday it had acquired one of the four known surviving pairs of the iconic shoes made for the 1939 movie, with the help of Leonardo DiCaprio and Steven Spielberg.
The shoes, regarded as one of the world’s best-known film props, are believed to have been worn by Garland’s character Dorothy when she clicked her heels three times to return to Kansas from the fantasy land of Oz near the end of the movie.
The slippers were previously due to be sold by Los Angeles auction house Profiles in History in December, with an estimated selling price of $ 2-$ 3 million. But auction house officials said they did not sell at that time.
The academy, which organizes the annual Oscar awards, said that DiCaprio and Spielberg had headed a group of “angel donors“ to purchase the shoes for a museum planned by the academy.
Academy officials declined to say how much was paid. A pair of red test slippers for “The Wizard of Oz” from the Hollywood collection of actress Debbie Reynolds sold for $ 612,000 in May 2011.
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“Leo’s passionate leadership has helped us bring home this legendary piece of movie history,” added academy chief executive officer Dawn Hudson. “It’s a wonderful gift to the Academy museum project, and a perfect representation of the work we do year-round to preserve and share our film heritage.”
DiCaprio, star of “Titanic” and “Inception”, donated money from his own foundation. Other donors included Spielberg and former Warner Bros. and Yahoo! Chairman Terry Semel.
The shoes, marked #7 Judy Garland, are said to be the most pristine of the four pairs of slippers known to exist. One pair is in the Smithsonian Museum in Washington D.C., one is in private hands and another was stolen from the Judy Garland museum in Minnesota.
The academy and the Los Angeles County Museum of Arts announced plans in October to establish a museum to display movie-related treasures.
Kodak out of picture at Oscars
Bankrupt Eastman Kodak Co is having its named yanked from Sunday’s telecast of the Oscars, the president of the group that gives out the awards said on Wednesday.
“It will be live from the Hollywood and Highland Center in Hollywood, California. That’s what the landlord has asked us to do and we’re going to do it,” said Tom Sherak, president of the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences, in an interview with a Los Angeles television station.
The announcement comes after much speculation as to whether the once-dominant film manufacturing and photography company would keep its name on the Oscar theater after filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy reorganization earlier this year.
Kodak signed a $ 74 million deal in 2000 for naming rights the 3,400-seat theater in Hollywood that is home to the Academy Awards and also houses a production of Cirque du Soleil.
The Oscar deal was an enormous marketing opportunity for Kodak’s brand because the Academy Awards annually is the second most-watched event on TV behind football’s Super Bowl. Last year’s telecast was viewed by 37.6 million people.
But under bankruptcy law, the company was able to reject the remainder of its 20-year commitment, and sought to have its name removed from the theater immediately. The building’s owner, CIM Group, objected initially, saying it was unfair for Kodak to remove its sign before the Oscars.
The CIM Group declined to comment Wednesday on the Academy’s decision to not include the Kodak name in this year’s awards.
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