She is watched round the clock by photographers, chased at high speed and friends fear for her mental stability. After a year of erratic behavior in the glare of the press spotlight she both shuns and invites, pop star Britney Spears has some observers comparing the celebrity media frenzy surrounding her with what Britain's Princess Diana faced and some voice concern about her safety.
Four photographers were arrested for reckless driving after a late night car chase of pop star Spears on the outskirts of Los Angeles, police said on Thursday. Los Angeles police spokeswoman Sara Faden said the four were among a group of paparazzi seen driving at high speed in the Mission Hills area of the city around 11:30pm on Wednesday on the trail of the troubled singer.
Young US actress Lindsay Lohan is to carry out part of her community service sentence imposed last year for drunk-driving in a morgue, court officials said Friday.
PHOTO: AP
Lohan, 21, was sentenced in August to one day in jail, 10 days of community service and given a three-year suspended sentence after twice being arrested and pleading guilty to driving over the limit.
During a hearing in a Beverly Hills court late Thursday, Lohan's lawyer Blair Berk revealed she would spend two days working in a morgue and two in a hospital emergency room.
Lohan, who starred in The Last Show, Mean Girls and Freaky Friday, was arrested July 24 in Santa Monica, California. She later checked into the exclusive Cirque Lodge Treatment Center in the state of Utah for a two-month detoxification program.
PHOTO: AP
"It was a sobering experience," Lohan told OK! magazine in October in her first interview after leaving the center.
Across the globe, a popular Malaysian rock singer has been banned from appearing on television entertainment programs for three months after he sparked an uproar by baring his chest during a live TV concert, reports said yesterday.
Faizal Tahir - one of Malaysia's most exuberant stage performers - stripped off his jacket, undershirt and belt and flung them into the audience at a Jan. 13 concert in Kuala Lumpur. The moves revealed a bright red Superman logo painted on his chest.
PHOTO: AP
The Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission slammed Faizal's premeditated stunt as "insensitive'' to viewers and Malaysian culture, the New Straits Times said.
"It is a serious offense in a live entertainment program,'' the commission was quoted as saying in a statement.
Malaysia's government has strict guidelines for entertainers, who must cover up from chest to knee onstage. Jumping, hugging, kissing and throwing objects at the audience are prohibited.
Comic actor Eddie Murphy and his new wife Tracey Edmonds have split up just two weeks after their romantic wedding in French Polynesia, People magazine reported on Wednesday. The star of Shrek and Dreamgirls and Edmonds, a film producer, exchanged their vows on a private island off Bora Bora on Jan. 1.
Allan Melvin, a character actor known for appearances in such TV staples as The Phil Silvers Show, All in the Family and The Brady Bunch, has died, the Los Angeles Times reported on Saturday. Melvin succumbed to cancer on Thursday at his home in Los Angeles, the paper said, quoting his wife, Amalia. He was 84.
Suzanne Pleshette, the beautiful, husky-voiced film and Broadway theater star best known for her role as Bob Newhart's sardonic wife on television's long-running The Bob Newhart Show, has died, said her attorney Robert Finkelstein. She was 70.
Pleshette, who underwent chemotherapy for lung cancer in 2006, died of respiratory failure yesterday evening at her Los Angeles home, said attorney and family friend Robert Finkelstein. She was 70.
"The Bob Newhart Show, a hit throughout its six-year run, starred comedian Newhart as a Chicago psychiatrist surrounded by eccentric patients. Pleshette provided the voice of reason.
That US assistance was a model for Taiwan’s spectacular development success was early recognized by policymakers and analysts. In a report to the US Congress for the fiscal year 1962, former President John F. Kennedy noted Taiwan’s “rapid economic growth,” was “producing a substantial net gain in living.” Kennedy had a stake in Taiwan’s achievements and the US’ official development assistance (ODA) in general: In September 1961, his entreaty to make the 1960s a “decade of development,” and an accompanying proposal for dedicated legislation to this end, had been formalized by congressional passage of the Foreign Assistance Act. Two
March 31 to April 6 On May 13, 1950, National Taiwan University Hospital otolaryngologist Su You-peng (蘇友鵬) was summoned to the director’s office. He thought someone had complained about him practicing the violin at night, but when he entered the room, he knew something was terribly wrong. He saw several burly men who appeared to be government secret agents, and three other resident doctors: internist Hsu Chiang (許強), dermatologist Hu Pao-chen (胡寶珍) and ophthalmologist Hu Hsin-lin (胡鑫麟). They were handcuffed, herded onto two jeeps and taken to the Secrecy Bureau (保密局) for questioning. Su was still in his doctor’s robes at
Last week the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) said that the budget cuts voted for by the China-aligned parties in the legislature, are intended to force the DPP to hike electricity rates. The public would then blame it for the rate hike. It’s fairly clear that the first part of that is correct. Slashing the budget of state-run Taiwan Power Co (Taipower, 台電) is a move intended to cause discontent with the DPP when electricity rates go up. Taipower’s debt, NT$422.9 billion (US$12.78 billion), is one of the numerous permanent crises created by the nation’s construction-industrial state and the developmentalist mentality it
Experts say that the devastating earthquake in Myanmar on Friday was likely the strongest to hit the country in decades, with disaster modeling suggesting thousands could be dead. Automatic assessments from the US Geological Survey (USGS) said the shallow 7.7-magnitude quake northwest of the central Myanmar city of Sagaing triggered a red alert for shaking-related fatalities and economic losses. “High casualties and extensive damage are probable and the disaster is likely widespread,” it said, locating the epicentre near the central Myanmar city of Mandalay, home to more than a million people. Myanmar’s ruling junta said on Saturday morning that the number killed had
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