BITS AND PIECES...02/11
PUSSSYKATT
--STAY AWAY! Brad Pitt wins a court order to keep his hex-making, alleged house
guest away from him for three years.
--WHO'S THE BOSS? Bruce Springsteen suing a New Jersey record company that sued
him over the rights to records he cut in the early 1970s.
--OH, BABY! Monday's Very Special Episode of 7th Heaven gave birth to the WB's
highest-ever ratings. The 12.5 million-strong audience topped everything on the
Big Three, plus Fox.
--IF YOU CAN'T BEAT 'EM... Tab-hounded Madonna to play a tab TV reporter in the
romantic comedy, Ton 80. For more casting news, see Dotted Line.
--ROCK HEADS: Michigan officials crediting a Ted Nugent "buckle up" campaign
with getting growing numbers of pickup truck drivers to wear safety belts.
--YEAH, BABY! A new study shows 56 percent of all TV shows contain "sexual
content," with an average of three sex scenes per hour.
RUSH AND MOLLOY....
--Warren Beatty and Annette Bening double-dating with Sean Penn and Robin
Wright Penn at Eartha Kitt's show at Cafe Carlyle on Tuesday night …
--Billy Joel left the waitresses at Miami's Tuscan Steak restaurant a tip
they'll never forget — $300 and a pair of tickets to his concert last week.
Elsewhere in the steakhouse, Al Pacino, Harrison Ford and Sidney Pollack formed
a power huddle … .
--Member of Wu-Tang Clan, the Sugar Hill Gang and metal band Gwar helped
body-paint models Tuesday night at the China Club for Ivy Supersonic's "Feather
Hat Naked Wedding" — a charity auction for Lifebeat and Warchild USA.
Glass-eaters and contortionists at the bacchanlia didn't bother the club's
managers, but the fire-eaters caused some momentary concern when they left
flaming sticks on the stage.
USA TODAY....
--Athena Marie Rolando, 19, who broke into Brad Pitt's home and was found
sleeping there in his clothes, was ordered Wednesday to stay 100 yards away
from him. She also can't contact him. . . .
--"Woman to woman, what is so great about Bill Clinton that he has all these
chicks?" Roseanne asks Gennifer Flowers on Thursday's The Roseanne Show. "He
plays your mind like a finely tuned Stradivarius; he can seduce your mind as
well as your body," Flowers says.
--Whoopi Goldberg wins the Vanguard Award from the Gay & Lesbian Alliance
Against Defamation (GLAAD) April 17 in Los Angeles. Films such as The Color
Purple and Boys on the Side allowed her to "educate millions about the
experiences of African-American lesbians," GLAAD says. "On the big screen, this
is an almost invisible part of our diverse community.
USA TODAY...JEANNIE WILLIAMS...
--The Gregory Peck family looks forward to a blessed event. Peck was a
presenter at Monday's National Board of Review of Motion Pictures awards. With
him were wife Veronique and daughter Cecilia, whose baby with Daniel Voll is
due in "a couple of weeks," Cecilia said. Her dad beamed that he's "over the
moon" about this grandchild. .
DAILY DISH....
--PLAYING DEAD IS EASY FOR GREGSON WAGNER: Another Day in Paradise star Natasha
Gregson Wagner says there's a certain appeal to being killed off in the first
few minutes of a flick. The rising starlet tells the Philadelphia Inquirer that
she thinks, "it would be fun to just open a movie and then not have to stick
around to pay the consequences. To just do it, get my head cut off and then say
goodbye." And she speaks from experience— Gregson Wagner appeared, briefly, as
the first victim in last summer's Urban Legend.
--TRAINSPOTTING AUTHOR GETS SPOTTED TWICE: Irvine Welsh was arrested on a train
platform in Devon, England, last Friday for being drunk and disorderly,
according to the Glasgow Herald. After sobering up enough to be released, the
Trainspotting scribe headed to a nightclub where he again stood out in the
crowd. David Goodchild, owner of Exeter's Cavern Club, tells the Herald, "A few
of the bar staff recognized him because they are fans of his work, and he is
quite distinctive, being bald, Scottish and ugly." — Karen Burns
NY POST...PAGE SIX...
--JOHN McEnroe has closed his SoHo gallery and gotten out of the business of
dealing art. Just 18 months after he was featured on the cover of ArtNews
magazine, the tennis champ, tired of losing money on the venture, has cleaned
out his Greene Street space and laid off his three employees. ''He really
tried, but he couldn't create any buzz. He couldn't get other galleries to do
deals with him. He got frozen out,'' said one art world insider. McEnroe, who
is playing a tournament in Uruguay, couldn't be reached. But he couldn't have
had much time for art-dealing given the increasing demands of his broadcasting
career.
--Christopher Lambert, who fathered a child with Diane Lane before they
divorced, secretly remarried Saturday at the Beverly Hills Hotel. The bride was
described as ''a script girl.''
--MORE prestigious than an Emmy, rarer than a Nobel or Pulitzer, the Nightlife
Award - honoring cultural icons who will agree to show up in person to collect
their prize - goes to Mother Love tonight at Life. The hostess of daytime's
"Forgive or Forget" beat out Dr. Joyce Brothers and Dr. Ruth Westheimer for the
campy honor, and joins such past winners as Jocelyn Wildenstein, Don Knotts,
Barbara Feldon, Shirley Jones, Isabelle Sanford and Joyce DeWitt. The zaftig
advice maven will be the "surprise" date for one of three bachelors in a parody
of "The Dating Game."
--PLAYBOY scouts just finished scouring the globe for personable and buxom
babes to staff the Playboy Casino & Beach Hotel opening this spring on the
Grecian island of Rhodes. The recruiting team took along New York-born Playmate
Ava Fabian to demonstrate the Bunny aesthetic. The 30 lucky recruits from
London, Munich and Amsterdam are being sent to a Bunny training camp on Rhodes
to prep for opening night.
NY POST...NEAL TRAVIS...
--THE Garden won't confirm this, but I hear it used an unconventional marketing
tactic for next month's sold-out heavyweight reunification title bout between
Evander Holyfield and Lennox Lewis. Sources say the top-tier, $1,500 seats were
all gone within days, but the second-tier, $1,000 ducats were moving somewhat
slowly. I'm told that someone had the bright idea of repricing the $1,000 seats
to $1,500 - and they went like hot cakes. I guess high rollers like to brag
they buy only the best.
--NFL stars aren't the only sports figures represented at the New York Toy
Fair. Planet Toys' Steve Rosenthal is today launching a new line of electronic
games inspired by the already-cartoonish World Wrestling Federation. He'll have
WWF competitors The Boss Man and the voluptuous China throwing themselves
around his showroom and threatening the buyers.