Celebrity News Headlines - Yahoo! News

Lawyer says John Travolta vindicated by dropped sex lawsuit

2012-05-16T01:15:02Z

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - One of the two male masseurs who accused actor John Travolta of sexual assault dropped his $2 million lawsuit on Tuesday, but the lawyer for the second man said he was going ahead with that case and was confident of success. The unidentified man, referred to as John Doe No. 1, who claimed that the Hollywood star groped him during a massage session in Beverly Hills in January, filed a notice dismissing his lawsuit with federal court in Los Angeles. ...

Okada bets to win with fine dining and casinos

2012-05-15T21:43:51Z

HONG KONG (Reuters) - Kazuo Okada, the Japanese billionaire engaged in a fierce legal battle with Las Vegas casino tycoon Steve Wynn, is diversifying his pachinko company with a string of his own restaurants and is negotiating to build a casino resort in South Korea. On Tuesday, Okada opened a 25,000-square-foot fine dining complex in Hong Kong, the first step in an expansion plan that includes an Okada restaurant in Shanghai scheduled to open in September, and a dining complex in Tokyo due to open in December. ...

Booker T. & the MGs bassist Donald "Duck" Dunn dies at 70

2012-05-14T09:29:27Z

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Bassist Donald "Duck" Dunn, a member of Booker T. & the MGs whose thick bottom grooves anchored many of the classic soul hits from the 1960s, has died on tour in Japan, his friend and bandmate Steve Cropper said on Sunday. Dunn was 70. Dunn, an integral part of the Memphis soul sound as bassist for the MGs, the house band for Stax and Volt records, died Sunday morning after finishing two shows at the Blue Note Night Club in Tokyo, Cropper said in a posting on his Facebook page. ...

Venezuela challenger woos Chavez's rural heartland

2012-05-14T18:00:38Z

SOCOPO, Venezuela (Reuters) - Deep in the rural home state of Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez that has for years been off limits for opposition politicians, rival candidate Henrique Capriles struggled to push through a throng of screaming supporters. Small-time ranchers and farmers swarmed the muddy streets of Socopo, where the Venezuelan plains meet the Andes mountains, jostling to catch a glimpse of the candidate in a chaotic tumult reminiscent of the cattle herding typical of the region. ...

Celebrity hair stylist Vidal Sassoon dead at 84

2012-05-10T02:02:42Z

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Vidal Sassoon, hair stylist and fashion world pioneer who created a natural look in the 1960s and built a multimillion-dollar business on his name, died on Wednesday after a long battle with leukemia. He was 84. Sassoon died at his home in Los Angeles surrounded by loved ones and his wife of 20 years, Ronnie, his family said in a statement. "He will be greatly missed," they said. ...

Obama-Clooney fundraiser rakes in celebrity dollars

2012-05-09T18:27:03Z

LOS ANGELES (The Wrap.com) - If President Obama has ever acted cool in courting celebrities, on Thursday he'll be dropping that act and heading for the mother lode. In what's shaping up to be one of the biggest one-off fundraisers in the history of the presidency, Obama will pitch to a houseful of boosters from Hollywood's inner circles at a sold-out event in Studio City. And it's not just any house - it's George Clooney's 7,354-square-foot crib. ...

Dustin Hoffman joins roll-call of celebrity heroes

2012-05-08T19:51:46Z

(Reuters) - A London lawyer has credited actor Dustin Hoffman for saving his life when he suffered a heart attack while jogging in the city's Hyde Park, becoming the latest celebrity in recent weeks to help rescue a person in crisis. Sam Dempster, 27, told Britain's Sun newspaper on Tuesday that Hoffman came to his aid when he collapsed in the park 10 days ago, and called emergency services. "I have no memory of what happened. The paramedics told me I had been saved by Dustin Hoffman. It's unbelievable," Dempster was quoted as saying. ...

Pop artist who created LOVE sued for renouncing artwork

2012-05-08T13:53:46Z

(Reuters) - An 83-year-old artist known for his block letter "LOVE" design that became a symbol of the anti-war movement in the 1960s is being sued by a Monaco-based art dealer for renouncing the authenticity of sculptures once valued as high as $1 million. Beginning in 2008, art buyer Joao Tovar paid $481,625 for 10 sculptures of the word PREM, a Sanskrit term meaning "love," from a one-time business partner of renowned pop artist Robert Indiana, Tovar said in the lawsuit filed in superior court in Rockland, Maine. ...

Masseur drops sex assault claim against John Travolta

2012-05-15T20:13:19Z

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - One of the two male masseurs who accused actor John Travolta of sexual assault dropped his $2 million lawsuit on Tuesday, but the lawyer for the second masseur said he was going ahead with that case and was confident of success. The unidentified man, referred to as John Doe No. 1, who claimed that the Hollywood star groped him during a massage session in Beverly Hills in January, filed a notice dismissing his lawsuit with federal court in Los Angeles. ...

Second masseur accuses John Travolta of sexual battery

2012-05-10T09:27:34Z

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - A second unidentified masseur has joined a $2 million lawsuit against John Travolta claiming the actor sexually assaulted the men in two separate incidents during private massages, according to amended court documents filed on Tuesday. The second unnamed man, a resident of Georgia referred to as John Doe No. 2 in court papers obtained by Reuters, claimed that Travolta rubbed his legs, touched his genitals and tried to initiate sex at a private appointment at the actor's room inside an Atlanta hotel on January 28. The allegations echo those of John Doe No. ...

Chavez shows strength after Cuba cancer treatment

2012-05-12T16:52:57Z

CARACAS (Reuters) - Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez strode, sang and gave a rousing speech on Friday in a careful show of vigor after his latest cancer treatment in Cuba fanned rumors he was dying five months before an election. The socialist Chavez, who had only been seen live in public once in the previous month, addressed the nation after flying back from Havana where he has completed six rounds of radiation therapy. ...

Supermodel, billionaire settle child-support dispute

2012-05-07T20:18:03Z

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Canadian supermodel Linda Evangelista and French billionaire Francois-Henri Pinault reached a child-support settlement on Monday following two days of tense, often personal court testimony last week in Manhattan. Lawyers for both parties declined to disclose the settlement. A lawyer for Evangelista called media reports that she sought $46,000 a month as a misunderstanding, but acknowledged she was seeking a "substantial" sum to raise their 5-year-old son. Both parties agreed to return to court on Tuesday to finalize the agreement. ...

Celebrity hair stylist Vidal Sassoon dead at 84

2012-05-09T22:34:20Z

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Vidal Sassoon, hair stylist and fashion world icon who created a natural look in the 1960s and built a multi-million dollar business on his name, has died of apparent natural causes at his home in Los Angeles. He was 84. The British stylist's scissors spelled the end of the 1950s-era beehive and the bouffant - untouchable hairstyles that owed their existence to lacquer and hair pins - and brought him international fame and fortune. ...

Demi Moore (finally) changes her Twitter name

2012-05-04T04:44:53Z

LOS ANGELES (TheWrap.com) - Demi Moore is finally ready to move on from her failed marriage to Ashton Kutcher. At least in the Twitterverse. The "G.I. Jane" actress ended months of speculation Thursday, finally answering the question: "When is she going to change her Twitter handle?" Moore had been going by @MrsKutcher, a handle that grew more awkward with each passing day since November, when she announced plans to divorce "Two and a Half Men" star Kutcher. Moore now goes by @JustDemi. According to her account, the actress chose the new moniker because it's "playful. ...

Perez Hilton sued over Angelina Jolie ring claim

2012-05-04T04:51:39Z

LOS ANGELES (TheWrap.com) - Angelina Jolie's engagement ring reportedly set Brad Pitt back a cool $500,000, and it could end up costing Perez Hilton the same. Gossip blogger Hilton (real name: Mario Armando Lavandeira) has been slapped with a lawsuit after reporting that the man who designed Jolie's ring had previously been found guilty of fraud. Hilton's report, published April 17 on his Coco Perez offshoot site, claimed that jeweler Robert Procop, who designed the ring with Pitt, had previously been successfully sued for fraud by a customer named Roy Allenstein. ...

Greek resistance hero fights for Left at age of 89

2012-05-04T12:30:28Z

ATHENS (Reuters) - Manolis Glezos takes to the podium with the spry step of a young man, lifts his arms in the air and tells thousands of flag-waving supporters the time has come for the Greek Left to unite and rule. At 89, the former wartime fighter against Nazi occupation, who is running for the Left Coalition party, hopes Sunday's election will fulfill his lifetime dream. ...

Murdochs face tough week over scandal

2012-04-30T07:02:29Z

LONDON (Reuters) - Rupert Murdoch's tetchy and uncompromising appearance at a British inquiry into phone hacking could come back to haunt him this week when politicians give their verdict on the scandal at his defunct News of the World newspaper. Three days of grilling at the Leveson judicial press inquiry last week extracted few new facts from Rupert and his son James as the 81-year-old casually threw out insults at politicians and described himself as a victim of a corporate cover-up. ...

Jethro Tull's Anderson "Thick As A Brick" and dapper

2012-05-03T11:54:08Z

LONDON (Reuters) - A chat with Ian Anderson - flautist, multi-instrumentalist, founder and wild face of British rock group Jethro Tull - does not go quite as expected. Yes, there is discussion of his music, the 40th anniversary world tour of the progressive rock classic "Thick As A Brick", and of its 2012 follow up. But there is also a lot more about flutes in space, an unlikely link with the George W. Bush White House - and the importance of prostate examinations. Anderson, now 64 and dapper rather than the frenzied druid-cum-warlock of yore, is quite clear and animated about the latter. ...

Australian billionaire says to build nickel freight fleet

2012-05-04T02:30:07Z

SYDNEY (Reuters) - Australian businessman Clive Palmer on Friday said he plans to build and operate a fleet of four freighters to import nickel ore to a nickel refining plant purchased from BHP Billiton. The decision by the billionaire, who made much of his fortune buying and selling coastal real estate, comes days after announcing he would build an "unsinkable" version of the Titanic to mark the 100th anniversary of the sinking of the original ocean liner. ...

"Octomom" files for bankruptcy in California

2012-05-01T02:48:55Z

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - The California mother of octuplets, dubbed "Octomom," filed for bankruptcy on Monday, after previously admitting she was on public assistance to support herself and her 14 children. Nadya Suleman, 36, gave birth to eight babies as a single mother in 2009. But goodwill turned to anger in the media after it was revealed Suleman had undergone fertility treatments when she already had six children, and questions were raised about her ability to provide for her family. Her children became only the second set of octuplets known to have survived birth in the United States. ...

Obama, Kimmel target Kardashian at Correspondents dinner

2012-04-30T02:03:45Z

April 29 (TheWrap.com) - Lindsay Lohan may have gotten more attention than any other guest before Saturday night's White House Correspondents Dinner, but Kim Kardashian was the celebrity who took the most hits from the dais during the annual event. Host Jimmy Kimmel, for instance, remembered last year's dinner, which took place after President Obama had dispatched a team that would track down and kill Osama bin Laden. "If you're looking for the greatest threat to America right now, she's right there," he said, pointing into the audience. "She's Kim Kardashian. ...

Johnson biographer Caro says political genius is his subject

2012-04-30T04:13:47Z

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Robert Caro has spent almost 40 years writing his monumental prize-winning biography of President Lyndon Johnson, but says it is not the 1960s leader that held his fascination for so long, but how political power works in America. With the long-awaited fourth volume of his Johnson biography "The Passage of Power" due out on Tuesday, Caro said he never wanted to write just about the life of the president who rammed through civil rights and welfare laws that transformed the nation but then was destroyed by the Vietnam War. ...

Supermodel Evangelista: French billionaire wanted abortion

2012-05-04T17:09:30Z

NEW YORK (Reuters) - When supermodel Linda Evangelista told French billionaire Francois-Henri Pinault in 2006 she was pregnant with his child, he asked her to get an abortion, her attorney charged Thursday on the first day of a child-support trial in Manhattan. Pinault, 49, who is currently married to actress Salma Hayek, denied that charge but testified he told Evangelista that "if she were to have a child (they) might not have a relationship." With that a four-month relationship, in which he said the couple only actually saw each other seven days, came to an end. ...

Nobel winner Pamuk opens novel museum in Istanbul

2012-04-27T20:17:18Z

ISTANBUL (Reuters Life!) - Nobel prize-winning Turkish writer Orhan Pamuk realizes a long-nurtured dream on Saturday with the opening of an actual "Museum of Innocence" - a collection of relics of a half-century of ordinary life - as depicted in his 2008 novel of the same name. Pamuk set out "not to do a spectacular or monumental museum but something in the backstreets, something that represents the daily life of the city," he told a news conference after a press preview. ...

Artist Lucian Freud leaves $156 million in will: paper

2012-04-30T19:24:08Z

LONDON (Reuters) - Portrait painter Lucian Freud left a record 96 million pounds ($156 million) in his will, the largest sum bequeathed by a British artist, the Mail on Sunday newspaper reported. Freud died in July last year aged 88, by which time his uncompromising, fleshy portraits had made him one of the world's most revered and coveted artists, whose subjects ranged from England's Queen Elizabeth II to the supermodel Kate Moss. His "Benefits Supervisor Sleeping", a 1995 portrait of an obese woman asleep in the nude on a sofa, fetched $33. ...

Strauss-Kahn suspects "political enemies" in sex scandal: paper

2012-04-27T23:02:53Z

LONDON (Reuters) - The Guardian newspaper said on its website on Friday that former International Monetary Fund boss Dominique Strauss-Kahn believes his French presidential bid was scuppered last year by "political enemies" who made sure his sexual encounter with a New York maid was made public. It is the first time Strauss-Kahn has spoken publicly about the events surrounding a sexual encounter with a maid in a Sofitel hotel in New York last May, which put an end to his political ambitions. ...

Music fans hanker for Ray Charles hologram: poll

2012-04-27T21:52:23Z

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - When a hologram of late rapper Tupac Shakur appeared on stage with Snoop Dogg at the recent Coachella music festival, it stunned audiences by literally bringing the performer back to life - technologically, anyway. Reuters asked Los Angeles-based E-Poll Market Research, which surveys consumers about celebrities for Hollywood's major studios and TV networks, to pull together a list of dead celebrities who remain popular and, like Tupac, might still be big draws at a concert if only as a hologram. ...

Ex-president George H.W. Bush opens up for HBO film

2012-04-26T18:45:33Z

(Reuters) - Former President George H.W. Bush, who has never written a memoir, has told his story in his own words for an HBO documentary to be broadcast on television in June. HBO said on Thursday that the documentary, called "41" to reflect Bush's position as the United State's 41st president, sees Bush reflecting on his childhood, family and a life that took him from World War Two navy aviator to CIA director, vice-president and the White House. ...

Actor Lane Garrison charged with domestic violence

2012-04-26T22:05:17Z

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Former "Prison Break" star Lane Garrison was charged on Thursday with misdemeanor battery against his ex-girlfriend, which could violate his parole over a conviction for vehicular manslaughter. Since his arrest on Sunday, Garrison, 31, has been held in jail without bail. His probation for the 2007 manslaughter conviction was set to expire in one week, his attorney said. Security cameras at his ex-girlfriend's Beverly Hills apartment show a dispute on Saturday between Garrison and Ashley Mattingly in the lobby of the building. ...