Gossip/Celebrity News

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Shirley Temple Black injured in a fall

Child actress-turned-international diplomat Shirley Temple Black broke her wrist in a fall "a few weeks ago," her publicist said Wednesday.

Black, 78, is still wearing a cast on her right arm, said Rick Ross.

"She's fine," he said. "She's doing great."

The accident happened at Black's Northern California home, Ross said.

Black, who retired from acting when she was 21, was recognized in January by the Screen Actors Guild with a lifetime achievement award.

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Stardust casino sees last roll of dice

The Stardust, the neon-wrapped casino with a mobbed-up past whose 1,065 rooms once set the standard for size on the Las Vegas Strip, witnessed its last roll of the dice Wednesday.

Wistful longtime employees and loyal gamblers gathered for a last farewell to the iconic 48-year-old institution, which is to be razed early next year to make way for Boyd Gaming Corp.'s planned $4 billion Echelon Place resort.

The Stardust opened July 2, 1958, as the world's largest hotel and catered to middle America with $6-a-night rooms and low-minimum stakes gambling.

But as bigger, classier casinos sprung up around it in the late 1980s and '90s and patrons began shelling out more for rooms, food and drinks, its luster began to fade.

"I'm really going to miss this place," said Jimmy Kunihiro, a 60-year-old Honolulu resident, as he took a last pass at the craps table. "It's a home away from home."

The resort became as famous for its familiar friendliness as its mob connections. In the 1995 movie "Casino," Robert De Niro played a character inspired by the finely tailored Frank "Lefty" Rosenthal, who ran the hotel-casino in the mid-1970s.

"He truly was Cadillac sharp all the time," said Mickey Jones, a drummer and actor who appeared as a guest on Rosenthal's television broadcast from the hotel. "When the mob ran this town, everything functioned like clockwork."

Cocktail waitress Emma Houston remembered how Rosenthal sent money to make her mortgage payment when she was hospitalized for surgery in 1974.

"They knew everybody by name, not by badge," she said. "It was different back in that day."

In its heyday in the 1970s and 1980s, Elvis Presley would drop by. Football Hall of Famer Jim Brown co-hosted a radio show from the sports book.

One night, Frank Sinatra, Sammy Davis Jr. and Dean Martin showed up at the "Moby Dick" restaurant in the Stardust, just as chef Frank Perkins, now 60, was closing. He reopened in a hurry.

"Sinatra said, `You can cook for me anytime,'" Perkins said. "So I will never forget that."

With the 1980s came a crackdown by Nevada regulators on organized skimming from the casino cages. Boyd was brought in as an operator in 1983, and bought the Stardust in 1985 when the mobbed-up owners lost their gambling license.

While the explosion of upscale resorts — starting with The Mirage in 1989 — reinvigorated Las Vegas, it wasn't long before Boyd chairman Bill Boyd realized Stardust's best days were behind it.

"We saw a new wave of Las Vegas reinventing itself," he said. "We saw many new properties with new amenities that we didn't have. We started to realize before too many years that we would have to implode the Stardust and start over."

The property's decline could be charted in more ways than one.

In its last throes, Boyd signed crooner Wayne Newton in 2000 to a five-year deal to become its headline performer as the company focused its marketing on the older, nostalgic crowd.

But even its frequent players list was losing steam as the clients simply aged. For the past several years, the Stardust has resorted to a swinging couples convention, "Lifestyles," to fill its rooms for a week in the summer.

The new resort, Echelon Place, is expected to open in mid-2010 with more than 5,000 hotel rooms, two theaters, a shopping mall and more than 1 million square feet of meeting space.

Stardust memorabilia will not be lost.

The company is auctioning off equipment, photos and other mementoes beginning Nov. 17. And its famous 18-story Stardust sign is being donated to the Neon Museum, a local nonprofit group that hopes to restore it.

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Christopher Reeve's take up his cause

Christopher Reeve's children are carrying on their dad's crusade: finding a cure for paralysis.

Alexandra and Matthew Reeve both serve on the board of the Christopher Reeve Paralysis Foundation, which Reeve established to fund research for therapies and a cure, People magazine reports in its Nov. 13 issue.

"Our dad's accident really did connect us to this community: 4 million people in the U.S. who are suffering from paralysis," Alexandra Reeve tells the magazine. "We understand how important it is not only to find a cure but also to improve quality of life."

She and brother Matthew will join their stepbrother, Will Reeve, 14, at the foundation's annual gala on Nov. 6 in New York.

Christopher Reeve was paralyzed in 1995 in a horse-riding accident. He died in 2004 at age 52. His wife, Dana Reeve, died of lung cancer earlier this year.

Asked about how her stepbrother, Alexandra responds, "Wills doing well. He loves school. He is playing hockey and football and keeping busy with friends."

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More Drugs Found In Daniel Smith's System

Anna Nicole Smith's son Daniel had at least seven drugs in his system when he died on Sept. 10, toxicology reports indicate.

Dr. Cyril Wecht, a private pathologist hired by the Smith family, confirms to PEOPLE that the antidepressant Amitriptyline, as well as two over-the-counter cold medicines, were found in Daniel's body along with methadone and the antidepressants Lexapro and Zoloft. Sources also tell PEOPLE that a mild over-the-counter sedative was found in the 20-year-old's system.

However, Wecht said the other medications played no role in Daniel's death, and reiterated his assertion that Daniel was killed by the combination of Lexapro, Zoloft and methadone. Of the other medications, he said, "The levels are insignificant and they don't mean a thing. They're of no consequence."

Meanwhile, Anna Nicole Smith's Bahamian attorney, Wayne R. Munroe, tells PEOPLE Smith has sued South Carolina developer G. Ben Thompson in Bahamas Supreme Court over ownership of her Nassau residence.
He is going around claiming that the house is his. So we have sued him in the Bahamas Supreme Court for declaration that he is wrong," says Munroe, who alleges that Smith has a signed and sealed deed giving the house to her.

Thompson tells PEOPLE about this legal challenge, "I won't take it lightly. I'm certainly not going to roll over."

At issue is the nearly $1 million home where Smith, her newborn daughter Dannielynn Hope and Smith's partner Howard K. Stern have been living.

Thompson says he offered Smith financial help to buy the house. Smith was then supposed to sign a mortgage to buy the home from him, and a deed in her name would be filed in court. Instead, he says, she refused, so he had a new deed drawn up in his name.

Last week, a letter was delivered to the house telling Smith she would have to move out by Oct. 31. Thompson said that if she failed to leave, he would begin formal eviction proceedings. However, Munroe claims that Smith purchased the home for $900,000 from two men, neither of whom is Thompson.

According to Thompson's attorney, Michael Scott, there has been no registration of the deed for the property.

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Soul Food Stars Have a Son

Nicole Parker and husband Boris Kodjoe, who met on the television series Soul Food, have welcomed their second child, son Nicolas Neruda Kodjoe, PEOPLE has learned.

The boy was born on Tuesday in Atlanta at 11:13 a.m. Parker, 36, and Kodjoe, 33, already have a 1-year-old daughter, Sophie.

The couple, who also starred together in the UPN series Second Time Around, were married in Gundelfingen, Kodjoe's hometown in Germany's Black Forest, in May 2005.

"Our kids are going to be bilingual," Kodjoe told PEOPLE at the time. "So that's going to be a whole other tradition that I'm going to try to uphold."

While discussing his relationship with Parker and their successful careers, Kodjoe, told PEOPLE in 2004: "I count my blessings every day. I really have to pinch myself every once in a while. It's like, 'Wow! This is really my life.'"

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Britney Spears Goes Incognito to Kevin's Party

Britney Spears made sure not to steal the spotlight from husband Kevin Federline as he celebrated the release of his debut album, Playing With Fire, on Tuesday.

Spears donned a pink wig and oversized white sunglasses at the after-party in Hollywood, where she blended in perfectly with the Halloween night revelers, the rapper's rep confirms to PEOPLE.

Earlier in the evening, Federline performed his song "Privilege" on L.A.'s KIIS 102.7 FM stage at the West Hollywood Halloween Carnaval to kick off his promotional tour. But before going onstage, he admitted that the demands of his fledging career mean he's spending less time with his family – but, he says, his pop star wife is understanding.

"She's really supportive of what I'm doing, she knows I've been working on this for a long time," Federline told PEOPLE. "It's going to be tough because I'm not going to see my family as much as I want to, but I mean, those are the sacrifices you make as an artist."

Spears is busy taking off the baby weight, and has been especially supportive of his CD promotion, Federline said. "She's good, man. She's getting back in shape. Hopefully she'll come meet up with me tonight over at my album release party," he told PEOPLE before the event.

Though there have been reports that Federline's concerts have suffered from low ticket sales, the rapper says he's not expecting to sell out stadium shows like his megastar wife.

"I don't care if it's a room full of nine, five, nine people. I don't care if there's one person. I'll perform for you," he said. "I'm a rookie artist, you can't expect because of my name to sell out a show. People don't know me as Kevin Federline, the artist. They know me as Kevin Federline, the dude that's married to Britney Spears."

He added, "Eventually that will change. Once I start building up, doing events like this, showing crowds of people that I can get them turned on and hype, that's what I do."

Granted, he said, that may take time, but "it's all worth it. This is like my pet project. I've been working on it for a year and a half. Just to put it out there and not do anything about it would not be acceptable to me. … I'm just another artist that's having to pay his dues."

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Michael J. Fox: 'I'm So Blessed'

Diagnosed with Parkinson's 15 years ago, Michael J. Fox hasn't let the ravages of the disease take his attention from what's really important: His wife, kids and quest for a cure.

"I'm so blessed with a great family, and I've had success in my career," the actor, who's been campaigning for candidates who support embryonic stem-cell research, tells PEOPLE in its new issue. "I feel this is a really unique opportunity for me to help out and try to effect change."

Fox, 45, says his condition is now so much a part of his life that even his kids with wife Tracy Pollan – Sam, 17; twins Aquinnah and Schuyler, 11; and Esme, 5 – barely mention it anymore. "They know it so intimately," he says. "It would be like asking your mother what it's like to be that tall."

The disease is also a learning experience for his children. "I think the thing it has taught my kids is resilience," he says. "And that's a great lesson and a great gift I've been able to give them just by example."

Although he first revealed his illness publicly in 1998, he's been in the public eye more than ever recently, in political ads and TV interviews that showcase the involuntary movements often associated with Parkinson's.

"I have less control over the way my body moves," he says. "The thing that gets tougher as you go along is that the medication gets less effective and has more side effects. So it's a lot more challenging."

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Christopher Reeve's Kids Carry on Dad's Fight

Two years after Christopher Reeve's death, his children are carrying on the cause that meant so much to him – finding a cure for paralysis, PEOPLE reports in its upcoming issue.

"Our dad's accident really did connect us to this community: 4 million people in the U.S. who are suffering from paralysis," Reeve's daughter Alexandra tells PEOPLE in its upcoming issue. "We understand how important it is not only to find a cure but also to improve quality of life."

Both Alexandra, 22, and her older brother Matthew, 26, serve on the board of the Christopher Reeve Foundation, founded by their father after his devastating 1995 horse-riding accident to fund research for cures and therapies for paralysis.

On Monday the pair will join their half-brother Will Reeve, now 14, onstage at the foundation’s annual gala in Manhattan. According to Alexandra, "Will's doing well. He loves school. He is playing hockey and football and keeping busy with friends."

Though all three Reeve children are involved in the work their father started, Christopher Reeve's wife, Dana, who died from lung cancer last March, was careful to make sure the kids were not burdened with their father's legacy. For that reason, she asked her longtime friend Peter Kiernan to take over as chairman of the foundation.

"I do not want Will's teenage years to be usurped by this," Kiernan recalls Dana saying. "It's fine to help, but I want him to have a teenage boy's life." Similarly she said of the older kids, who were from Reeve's previous relationship with Gae Exton, "I do not want them to feel like their sole mission in life is to carry on their father’s legacy."

Now Dana's wishes are being fulfilled. Alexandra is in her second year in law school in New York City, and her older brother Matthew, a filmmaker, is working on a documentary. Will is an accomplished athlete who started a new school this fall.

Still, the defining moment of life with their dad – an avid outdoorsman before his injury – was the accident 11 years ago that left him paralyzed from the neck down.
After that finding a cure and new treatments for paralysis became a family obsession. Today, keeping that excitement alive is just one way of remembering Christopher and Dana.

Matthew recalls attending a foundation meeting at which a 3-year-old boy burst into the room; he had recovered the ability to walk with a walker with treadmill therapy funded by the group. Christopher Reeve, Matthew says, would have been proud. "It just really drove home what we are all trying to do."

To learn more about the work of the Christopher Reeve Foundation, which offers extensive resources to those dealing with paralysis, go to: www.christopherreeve.org

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Justin Timberlake Big Winner at MTV Europe Awards

Justin Timberlake brought sexy back to Copenhagen on Thursday night, as the pop star picked up the awards for best male and best pop act – in between hosting duties – at the MTV Europe Music Awards 2006.

Timberlake kicked off the night in spectacular fashion, bursting through a giant exploding speaker to perform a medley of his hits, including "SexyBack," while giant glitter balls lit up the intimate auditorium.

"It's nice to pick up the most prestigious award tonight," said Timberlake, after winning his best pop trophy. "I'm convinced that you guys gave me this because you talked me into hosting the show."

The other big winners on the night were Atlanta-based hip-hop duo Gnarls Barkley, who walked away with the award for best song as well as the new Futuresounds award, voted on by other artists for best newcomer of the year.

"All of us – this is our song," singer Cee-Lo Green told the audience, as he received the award for the group's massive hit "Crazy."

Stand-out performers of the night included Muse, winners of best alternative, who rocked the Bella Centre with their performance of "Starlight," accompanied by a dazzling laser show, and Nelly Furtado, who set the venue alight with a sizzling performance of "Maneater."

Outside in freezing cold temperatures, The Killers, Snoop Dogg and Keane wowed thousands of fans in Copenhagen's main square with a 30-minute set. Back in the main venue, the star-studded show ended with a theatrical performance from Finnish goth rockers, Lordi.

The night was not without controversy, though, as Kanye West took to the stage to protest, after losing out in the best video category to Justice Vs Simian. "I had the best video," West said later. "Touch the Sky was a great moment in TV."

West did walk away with the award for best hip-hop, while Depeche Mode won best group, and The Killers won best rock.

Christina Aguilera beat out strong competition from Madonna and Furtado to win best female artist. Red Hot Chili Peppers won best album for Stadium Arcadium, and Rihanna took home laurels for best R&B artist.

Madonna, meanwhile, was on the receiving end of several jokes, including a spoof of her performance of "Hung Up" at last year's awards, by British comedian Avid Merrion, who sported an ill-fitting pink leotard and was accompanied by a troupe of dancing dwarves.

Earlier in the night, Kazakhstan's most famous TV reporter, Borat, alter ego of British comedian Sacha Baron Cohen, also asked after the queen of pop, whose recent adoption of a baby from Malawi has been hugely controversial. "My only concern is that the singing transvestite will not a be good farther," joked Borat.

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Actress Adrienne Shelly Dead in New York

Adrienne Shelly, an actress best known for her roles in the Hal Hartley films "Trust" and "The Unbelievable Truth," was found dead in her office by her husband, her agent said Thursday.

Shelly was found about 6 p.m. Wednesday. Police said Thursday night that they are awaiting autopsy results before deciding whether to investigate the case as foul play.

An autopsy was performed Thursday, but the medical examiner's office did not have a cause of death.

Shelly, who was 40, appeared as Jerry in the 2005 film "Factotum" with Matt Dillon. She starred as Audry Hugo in the 1989 film "The Unbelievable Truth" and as Maria Coughlin in the 1990 film "Trust." She worked steadily during her career in film, theater and television but later turned to writing and directing, making her directorial debut with "Sudden Manhattan" in 1996.

Shelly was married to Andy Ostroy and had a 3-year-old named Sophie, according to her agent of about a decade, Rachel Sheedy. Ostroy is not in the movie business.

Born Adrienne Levine in Queens and raised on Long Island, Shelly lived in lower Manhattan with her family and had been focusing more lately on writing, directing and caring for her daughter, Sheedy said.

Shelly recently wrote and directed a film called "Waitress," which starred Keri Russell and Nathan Fillion.

"She was so psyched about the film," Sheedy said. "She gathered an amazing cast, and she was really happy and excited to hear back from Sundance about it."

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Actor Neil Patrick Harris says he’s gay

Former ‘Doogie Howser,’ star, 33, tells People he wants to quell rumors. Neil Patrick Harris is gay and wants to quell any rumors to the contrary.

“(I) am quite proud to say that I am a very content gay man living my life to the fullest,” Harris tells People magazine’s Web site.

The 33-year-old actor said he was motivated to disclose his sexuality because of recent “speculation and interest in my private life and relationships.”

Harris stars on the CBS comedy “How I Met Your Mother.” He started on TV as a teen, playing the namesake doctor on the series “Doogie Howser, M.D.”

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Seventh child on the way for Flavor Flav

Flavor Flav, who’s dating “Flavor of Love” winner Deelishis, is expecting a child — his seventh — with another woman, his manager, Clifton Johnson, confirmed Thursday.

When things didn’t work out with Nicole “Hoopz” Alexander, who won the first season of his hit VH1 reality show, Flav resumed an “on and off” relationship with the baby-to-be’s mother — “hence, the conception,” Johnson said. The baby is due in early January, he said.

Johnson would not reveal the mother’s identity.

Deelishis (real name London Charles), whom Flav chose in the recent second-season finale of “Flavor of Love,” is reportedly standing by her man.

“She understands that this is definitely something prior to her involvement on the show and her involvement with Flav, and she says she supports him regardless,” Johnson said.

Flavor Flav (real name William Drayton Jr.), 47, founded the hip-hop group Public Enemy in the ‘80s. He found fame anew in 2004 on the third season of VH1’s “The Surreal Life.” He has since starred in the network’s “Strange Love” and “Flavor of Love.”

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New Job For Chelsea Clinton

Former first daughter Chelsea Clinton has taken a job with Avenue Capital Group, a $12 billion hedge fund based in New York City, according to the New York Daily News.

Clinton, 26, the only child of former President Bill Clinton and U.S. Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-N.Y.), was previously a consultant at McKinsey & Co., which she joined in 2003.

Avenue Capital Group was co-founded by Marc Lasry, who has contributed to campaigns for Democratic politicians including Hillary Clinton, Al Gore, Bill Bradley and John Kerry, Reuters reports.

Lasry has also contributed lesser amounts to campaigns for President George W. Bush, federal election records show.

Clinton, who graduated from Stanford University in 2001 and studied philosophy at Oxford University, could not be reached by Reuters for comment. A spokeswoman for Avenue said the company "does not comment on issues of company personnel."

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EXCLUSIVE: Neil Patrick Harris Tells PEOPLE He Is Gay

Neil Patrick Harris is gay – and wants to quell recent reports that he had denied it. The actor tells PEOPLE exclusively:

"The public eye has always been kind to me, and until recently I have been able to live a pretty normal life. Now it seems there is speculation and interest in my private life and relationships.

"So, rather than ignore those who choose to publish their opinions without actually talking to me, I am happy to dispel any rumors or misconceptions and am quite proud to say that I am a very content gay man living my life to the fullest and feel most fortunate to be working with wonderful people in the business I love."

Harris, 33, currently stars in the CBS comedy How I Met Your Mother. He shot to fame in 1989 at age 16 when he played a teen-prodigy doctor on the hit Doogie Howser, M.D. "It was a very fast but wonderful education," he told PEOPLE in 1998.

After the show went off the air in 1993, he shook off his teen image with roles in the musicals Rent and Assassins and a wild turn as an unhinged version himself in the 2004 movie Harold & Kumar Go to White Castle.

"I'm enjoying my 30s," he told PEOPLE in 2004. "I feel like I know where I'm going. And I like where I'm going."

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Hilary Swank Injured on Movie Set

Hilary Swank was injured Thursday on the set of her new film, P.S. I Love You in New York.

During a scene with costar Gerard Butler, in which the actor performs a striptease for Swank, Butler's suspenders became snagged and hit the actress on her forehead, a source tells PEOPLE. Swank received medical treatment, which included sutures for the cut, and filming was halted.

Per the source, Swank is recovering and in good spirits, and production will resume on Monday.