-
-
Jessica Simpson Donates Minivan to Mexican Orphanage
Jessica Simpson was in a giving mood Sunday when she donated a brand new minivan to the Mexican orphanage she supports, PEOPLE has learned.
The pop star, 26, drew cheers when she drove through the gates of the Casa Hogar Elim orphanage in Nuevo Laredo, Mexico, in a white 2007 Chrysler Town & Country and handed the keys to Mama Lupita, who runs the home.
"The kids were cheering when she pulled up," Simpson's rep tells PEOPLE. "They surrounded the car and were so excited to see her. They kept saying, 'Muchas gracias! Muchas gracias!' A few of them spoke English and said, 'We love you, Jessica!' "
Mama Lupita, who speaks little English, was the first to give Simpson a big hug.
"I'm so honored and happy to be able to help," said Simpson, who hugged Mama Lupita and the throng of kids who had waited anxiously to see her and presented her with gifts, including an engraved plaque with a photo of the kids and a beaded necklace they'd made for her.
Simpson laughed when a mariachi band burst onto the scene to serenade her (the kids had saved up to hire the group by selling jewelry they crafted themselves).
"What an amazing surprise!" Simpson said, putting her hand on her heart.
Simpson was there with her mother Tina (who rode in the passenger seat when her daughter drove the minivan onto the orphanage's grounds), her manager father Joe and a few others. Boyfriend John Mayer stayed in L.A.
Last fall, Simpson won a Chrysler Crossfire sports car at a swag suite at the MTV's Video Music Awards, but asked Chrysler to exchange it for a minivan so she could help out the orphanage.
A spokesperson for Chrysler confirmed: "Instead of the Chrysler Crossfire, she decided to get a minivan for the orphanage instead. She went for the Chrysler Town & Country."
The van Mama Lupita had been using for the orphanage broke down last year. She borrowed an old truck from a friend, but that broke down too, leaving her with no transportation for the children.
The seven-passenger minivan even has a DVD player so the kids can watch their favorite movies when Mama Lupita drives them around.
Comment
-
Comment
-
Scott Weiland's Wife: 'I Just Lost It'
Rock musician Scott Weiland's wife blamed an imbalance in her medication to treat a bipolar disorder for a weekend blowout that led to her arrest.
"For lack of a better expression I was unstable and just 'lost it,' " Mary Weiland, 41, said in a statement Wednesday.
Mary Weiland was arrested and booked for investigation of felony arson vandalism after allegedly torching $10,000 worth of Scott's prized menswear outside their Southern California home on Saturday.
"The weekend's difficulties were brought on by a reaction to an imbalance in medications used to treat my bipolar disorder," Mary Weiland says. "Scott was simply trying to help calm me down. I want to make it very clear that he did not hurt me in any way."
Weiland, the lead singer for Velvet Revolver and Stone Temple Pilots, and his wife have returned home as a couple, and are taking care of the their two children, Noah, 6, and Lucy, 4, who were staying with family when Weiland was arrested night and did not witness to the fight.
"Scott and I are very involved in our children's lives on a daily basis and we love them unconditionally," says Mary Weiland.
The Weilands were in the process of moving from their Toluca Lake home when the incident took place and still hope to be moving into their new Los Angeles home together.
"After nearly seven years of marriage," says Mary Weiland, "I am truly grateful to have a loving husband, drug-free for 3 1/2 years now, who is able to care for me during this challenging time."
Comment
-
Comment
-
Comment
-
Comment
-
Ashlee Simpson & Pete Wentz Cozy Up
They must be really close friends: Ashlee Simpson and Fall Out Boy bassist Pete Wentz spent Saturday night kissing and cuddling at the new L.A. hot spot Parc.
At the club for a pal's birthday, Simpson, 22, and Wentz, 27, got cozy in a semi-hidden booth, holding hands, gazing into each other's eyes and smooching in between Simpson's dance sessions with a group of girlfriends.
"They definitely weren't hiding the fact that they were together," said one onlooker. "They were making out a lot and they were pretty intense."
Wentz told PEOPLE in November that although "Ashlee is the sweetest girl ever," they were "just friends." And in February he told Rolling Stone: "Maybe in a different universe, we'd be some hot couple, but not in this one."
Perhaps Parc is a different universe. After their PDA-filled evening in front of clubgoers including The O.C.'s Adam Brody and Benjamin McKenzie (who at one point gathered with other friends around Simpson and Wentz's booth to sing "Happy Birthday" to the guest of honor), the pop star and the rocker left together, hand-in-hand.
Comment
-
Comment
-
Snoop Dogg Faces Felony Gun and Drug Charges
Snoop Dogg was charged Tuesday with felony gun and marijuana charges, the Los Angeles County District Attorney announced.
The 35-year-old rapper, whose real name is Calvin Broadus, faces up to four years in state prison if convicted. His arraignment was set for Wednesday.
Snoop was arrested Oct. 26 at Burbank's airport after a handgun and marijuana were found in his car, police say.
Police executing a search warrant at his suburban Los Angeles home in November allegedly discovered another gun.
Because Snoop is a convicted felon from a 1990 cocaine trafficking bust, he is forbidden from possessing a gun for life.
His attorney, Donald Etra, tells PEOPLE: "These are the charges that were fully expected, and they will be dealt with in court."
The musician also has a standing case in Orange County for a felony charge of knowingly possessing a dangerous weapon. On Sept. 27, Snoop tried to board a plane in Santa Ana, Calif., while carrying a 20-inch collapsible baton in a computer bag, police say. He faces up to three years in prison if convicted.
"Snoop's not guilty plea (in that case) says it all," Etra previously told PEOPLE. "The item he's charged with was a movie prop, not a weapon. Snoop never intended it to be used as anything other than a prop."
This was the latest trouble for Snoop, who last month canceled his British tour with rapper Diddy after Snoop was denied a visa into the country.
Comment
-
Marc Anthony to Pay $2.5 Million in Back Taxes
Marc Anthony has agreed to pay $2.5 million in back taxes and penalties after failing to file returns for five years, New York prosecutors said Wednesday.
Anthony, 38, the husband of Jennifer Lopez, wasn't prosecuted because an accountant handled his returns and Anthony thought the taxes had been paid, according to Manhattan District Attorney Robert Morgenthau.
Lopez, 37, wasn't implicated in the investigation because the couple didn't file jointly, the Associated Press reports.
Morgenthau said Anthony didn't file returns for 2000 through 2004 on $15.5 million in income, according to AP.
Two of Anthony's associates, including his brother, who managed Anthony's businesses, have pleaded guilty to tax felonies and will pay back taxes and fines, AP reports.
Comment
-
Comment
-
Comment
-
Prince William, Kate Middleton Split Up
Prince William has split from his girlfriend Kate Middleton, PEOPLE has confirmed.
The breakup was "amicable," according to a friend of the couple.
The prince, 24, and Middleton, 25, have been dating for nearly five years, after meeting at St. Andrews University in Scotland.
A spokesman at the prince's office at Clarence House says they will not be commenting. "We don't comment on Prince William's private life," the rep says. Britain's The Sun newspaper first reported Saturday that the pair had reached an "amicable agreement" to separate.
The pair are said to have grown increasingly independent of each other since their university days. William is currently taking an armored corps commander course in Dorset, around 125 miles west of London, and it has kept him from Middleton and her new life in London.
Middleton, who is an accessories buyer for the British fashion chain Jigsaw, also was having difficulties with the media pressure that came with being his long-term girlfriend. (Speculation continued over whether the couple would get engaged.)
Although she has been "brave," as one friend tells PEOPLE, the attention was an ongoing source of trouble. Earlier this month she won a public apology from a British newspaper after it printed a photograph of her heading to work.
The engagement talk peaked in December, when she appeared at his graduation from military college, sitting in a prominent seat along with her parents and two of his closest friends.
Comment
-
Meg Ryan Says She's 'So Compatible' With Adopted Daughter
Meg Ryan believes it was fate that brought her together with her 2-year-old adopted daughter, Daisy.
"I am convinced, completely convinced that there was nothing random about [the adoption]," the actress, 45, tells Redbook in its May issue. "She is the daughter I should have."
Months after applying to adopt a child in China, Ryan flew there to bring her baby daughter home to Los Angeles, PEOPLE reported in January 2006. Ryan initially named the girl Charlotte, but quickly realized that name didn't fit her and changed it.
"I thought she was Charlotte, and she's just not," Ryan said on The Oprah Winfrey Show in March of last year. "She's a Daisy. She's got the most open, beautiful, honest face you'll just ever see."
Of the adoption, Ryan tells Redbook, "I never felt like I was on a rescue mission or anything like that. I just really wanted a baby; I was on a mission to connect with somebody, and Daisy and I got to meet each other in this way at this time. We are so compatible."
Ryan also has a son who turns 15 this month, Jack Henry, whose father is her ex-husband, Dennis Quaid.
"This is the best time in my whole life," says Ryan, who is back on the screen in In the Land of Women after an absence of a few years. "I'm happy in my skin, I'm happy in my home, I'm happy in my career. I'm just very satisfied all around. I don't feel like I'm living anybody else's life, or anybody else's idea of what I should be doing, and it just feels very good."
She adds: "I know I'm very lucky. I feel that I've positioned myself in this way, to have a full life, and I'm doing it."
Things were not so easy when she began her career. "When I first because famous, it was kind of traumatizing, actually. You just constantly feel like you're getting hit, you know?" she says. "I would say there's no real upside to fame. No really measurable one. There's money, but that doesn't necessarily come along with fame.
"People always say that they can get dinner reservations, but c'mon. You could always figure out some other way to dinner reservations."
Comment
Tweet
Comment