Liz Taylor celebrates 75th birthday in Las Vegas
Film legend Elizabeth Taylor celebrated her 75th birthday this week with a New Orleans-themed party flanked by her four children and famous friends spanning the generations from model Kathy Ireland to former rival Debbie Reynolds.
Ms Taylor, who suffers chronic back pain, made a cheerful entrance to the Ritz-Carlton Lake Las Vegas Hotel in a wheelchair escorted by her sons, Michael and Christopher Wilding, and daughters, Maria Burton and Liza Todd, en route to her party at a restaurant in the property.
The two-time Academy Award winner and dame of the British Empire was adorned by a white fur and satin robe and resplendent in an icicle-design pearl and diamond necklace from her jewellery line called Frost.
Ms Taylor's voice was soft and she seemed frail as she chatted briefly with reporters, telling them her secret to making it to 75 was "just living a very healthy, clean life".
The guest list of about 70 people was an eclectic variety of stars like Reynolds and cohorts like Los Angeles dermatologist Arnold Klein, with whom she has worked for decades to raise money for and awareness of HIV/AIDS. The theme of the party, arranged by her children, was New Orleans, a hotel spokesman said, but no other details were being made available.
"We're friends since Elizabeth and I were 17, so that's just two years ago," quipped Ms Reynolds, who turns 75 herself on April 1 and was accompanied at the party by her daughter, actress Carrie Fisher.
Ms Reynolds and Ms Taylor had a falling out after Ms Reynolds's then-husband dumped her for Ms Taylor in 1959 to become the fourth of Taylor's eight husbands. The women later reconciled. "Elizabeth Taylor is a great American star, a great American beauty just like Ava Gardner and Marilyn Monroe."
Her celebrants also included Vegas personalities such as hotel-casino mogul Steve Wynn and former headliners Siegfried Fischbacher and Roy Horn of the illusionist duo Siegfried and Roy. Pop singer Michael Jackson, a longtime friend of Ms Taylor's who recently moved to Las Vegas, did not attend the party.
One of Ms Taylor's younger guests was Ms Ireland, who gushed about the philanthropy of the woman who was named the seventh greatest film actress of all time by the American Film Institute.
"She's absolutely gorgeous, but more important than that, she's my hero," Ms Ireland said. "She's an amazing person who really demonstrates what one person can do to accomplish positive change. She's so courageous, so heroic, so wise and so giving and generous."
Ms Taylor first achieved stardom at age 12 in National Velvet and went on to win two Academy Awards for her role as a call girl in the 1960 film Butterfield 8 and for playing an alcoholic wife opposite her real-life husband at the time, Richard Burton, in Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?
Her last screen appearance was in the 2001 television movie These Old Broads, co-starring Ms Reynolds. She's been beset by a variety of health problems in recent years, including a hip replacement in 1995 and surgery to remove a brain tumour in 1997.
McCartneys face-to-face in London courtroom
Ex-Beatle Paul McCartney and his estranged wife Heather faced off in court on Thursday in what has become one of show business's most publicised divorces.
Journalists swarmed to the High Court in London after it was learned the two were meeting for a second day at a hearing. The names of the parties were not listed on the courtroom door in an attempt to keep the media away.
At stake is a share of McCartney's fortune, estimated at up to £825 million, and custody of their daughter Beatrice.
Mr McCartney gave a two fingered "victory" salute as he was driven away in a black 4x4 with tinted windows. Former model Mills McCartney also appeared briefly outside the courtroom.
Neither spoke to reporters and the details of the hearing were not made public. Lawyers for both released a statement asking for the media to respect the confidentiality of the proceedings.
Their divorce battle has become increasingly bitter and played out in Britain's scandal-hungry tabloids.
Some newspapers accuse Ms Mills of trying to get her hands on Mr McCartney's fortune and printed the contents of leaked court documents, apparently prepared by Ms Mills's lawyers, accusing him of mistreating her.
The couple, more than 25 years apart in age, have hired the same law firms that represented Prince Charles and Princess Diana in their divorce in the 1990s.
Sean 'Diddy' Combs breached name deal - court
A British court ruled that US rap star Sean "Diddy" Combs had breached an agreement with a London-based record producer not to use the alias "Diddy" in Britain.
But the judgment did not take the potentially more serious decision to order the performer to change his alias or stop using the hugely popular MySpace and YouTube internet sites, where his pages attract millions of viewers worldwide.
In a written ruling from London's High Court, judge David Kitchin said Mr Combs had advertised himself as Diddy in a song on his latest album "Press Play", violating a deal reached last year with London-based Richard "Diddy" Dearlove.
Mr Combs has promised that the offending lyric, "mainline this Diddy heroin", will be removed from the song The Future when it is performed in Britain from now on.
However, Judge Kitchin found that it was record companies, not Mr Combs himself, who controlled the content of his pages on popular websites, and those companies were not party to the agreement.
Mr Dearlove had argued that Mr Combs broke their agreement because people in Britain could see his pages on international sites MySpace and YouTube, where he appears under the "Diddy" alias.
"We want him either to use a neutral name like P. Diddy or to shut them down," Iain Purvis, Dearlove's lawyer, told the court earlier this year.
Mr Combs has undergone several name changes, including "Puff Daddy" and "P. Diddy".
The extent of Mr Combs's control over the content of the MySpace and YouTube sites will now be the subject of a full High Court trial scheduled for October, unless attempts at a compromise between the two sides are successful.
In July, 2006, an agreement was reached settling Mr Dearlove's initial legal claim in the name battle, with Mr Combs paying £10,000 in lieu of damages and Mr Dearlove's legal costs and undertaking not to use the Diddy name on its own in Britain.
Film legend Elizabeth Taylor celebrated her 75th birthday this week with a New Orleans-themed party flanked by her four children and famous friends spanning the generations from model Kathy Ireland to former rival Debbie Reynolds.Ms Taylor, who suffers chronic back pain, made a cheerful entrance to the Ritz-Carlton Lake Las Vegas Hotel in a wheelchair escorted by her sons, Michael and Christopher Wilding, and daughters, Maria Burton and Liza Todd, en route to her party at a restaurant in the property.
The two-time Academy Award winner and dame of the British Empire was adorned by a white fur and satin robe and resplendent in an icicle-design pearl and diamond necklace from her jewellery line called Frost.
Ms Taylor's voice was soft and she seemed frail as she chatted briefly with reporters, telling them her secret to making it to 75 was "just living a very healthy, clean life".
The guest list of about 70 people was an eclectic variety of stars like Reynolds and cohorts like Los Angeles dermatologist Arnold Klein, with whom she has worked for decades to raise money for and awareness of HIV/AIDS. The theme of the party, arranged by her children, was New Orleans, a hotel spokesman said, but no other details were being made available.
"We're friends since Elizabeth and I were 17, so that's just two years ago," quipped Ms Reynolds, who turns 75 herself on April 1 and was accompanied at the party by her daughter, actress Carrie Fisher.
Ms Reynolds and Ms Taylor had a falling out after Ms Reynolds's then-husband dumped her for Ms Taylor in 1959 to become the fourth of Taylor's eight husbands. The women later reconciled. "Elizabeth Taylor is a great American star, a great American beauty just like Ava Gardner and Marilyn Monroe."
Her celebrants also included Vegas personalities such as hotel-casino mogul Steve Wynn and former headliners Siegfried Fischbacher and Roy Horn of the illusionist duo Siegfried and Roy. Pop singer Michael Jackson, a longtime friend of Ms Taylor's who recently moved to Las Vegas, did not attend the party.
One of Ms Taylor's younger guests was Ms Ireland, who gushed about the philanthropy of the woman who was named the seventh greatest film actress of all time by the American Film Institute.
"She's absolutely gorgeous, but more important than that, she's my hero," Ms Ireland said. "She's an amazing person who really demonstrates what one person can do to accomplish positive change. She's so courageous, so heroic, so wise and so giving and generous."
Ms Taylor first achieved stardom at age 12 in National Velvet and went on to win two Academy Awards for her role as a call girl in the 1960 film Butterfield 8 and for playing an alcoholic wife opposite her real-life husband at the time, Richard Burton, in Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?
Her last screen appearance was in the 2001 television movie These Old Broads, co-starring Ms Reynolds. She's been beset by a variety of health problems in recent years, including a hip replacement in 1995 and surgery to remove a brain tumour in 1997.
McCartneys face-to-face in London courtroom
Ex-Beatle Paul McCartney and his estranged wife Heather faced off in court on Thursday in what has become one of show business's most publicised divorces.Journalists swarmed to the High Court in London after it was learned the two were meeting for a second day at a hearing. The names of the parties were not listed on the courtroom door in an attempt to keep the media away.
At stake is a share of McCartney's fortune, estimated at up to £825 million, and custody of their daughter Beatrice.
Mr McCartney gave a two fingered "victory" salute as he was driven away in a black 4x4 with tinted windows. Former model Mills McCartney also appeared briefly outside the courtroom.
Neither spoke to reporters and the details of the hearing were not made public. Lawyers for both released a statement asking for the media to respect the confidentiality of the proceedings.
Their divorce battle has become increasingly bitter and played out in Britain's scandal-hungry tabloids.
Some newspapers accuse Ms Mills of trying to get her hands on Mr McCartney's fortune and printed the contents of leaked court documents, apparently prepared by Ms Mills's lawyers, accusing him of mistreating her.
The couple, more than 25 years apart in age, have hired the same law firms that represented Prince Charles and Princess Diana in their divorce in the 1990s.
Sean 'Diddy' Combs breached name deal - court
A British court ruled that US rap star Sean "Diddy" Combs had breached an agreement with a London-based record producer not to use the alias "Diddy" in Britain.But the judgment did not take the potentially more serious decision to order the performer to change his alias or stop using the hugely popular MySpace and YouTube internet sites, where his pages attract millions of viewers worldwide.
In a written ruling from London's High Court, judge David Kitchin said Mr Combs had advertised himself as Diddy in a song on his latest album "Press Play", violating a deal reached last year with London-based Richard "Diddy" Dearlove.
Mr Combs has promised that the offending lyric, "mainline this Diddy heroin", will be removed from the song The Future when it is performed in Britain from now on.
However, Judge Kitchin found that it was record companies, not Mr Combs himself, who controlled the content of his pages on popular websites, and those companies were not party to the agreement.
Mr Dearlove had argued that Mr Combs broke their agreement because people in Britain could see his pages on international sites MySpace and YouTube, where he appears under the "Diddy" alias.
"We want him either to use a neutral name like P. Diddy or to shut them down," Iain Purvis, Dearlove's lawyer, told the court earlier this year.
Mr Combs has undergone several name changes, including "Puff Daddy" and "P. Diddy".
The extent of Mr Combs's control over the content of the MySpace and YouTube sites will now be the subject of a full High Court trial scheduled for October, unless attempts at a compromise between the two sides are successful.
In July, 2006, an agreement was reached settling Mr Dearlove's initial legal claim in the name battle, with Mr Combs paying £10,000 in lieu of damages and Mr Dearlove's legal costs and undertaking not to use the Diddy name on its own in Britain.