Actor Kyle MacLachlan is engaged to his girlfriend of two years, fashion publicist Desiree Gruber, the Associated Press reports. The two will tie the knot April 20 in Miami, Gruber’s hometown. The couple met at a chiropractor’s office. MacLachlan, 42, currently stars in HBO’s hit series Sex and the City as the husband of Kristin Davis’s character Charlotte.
Honored
Singer Jill Scott won three awards at Tuesday night’s Seventh Annual Soul Train Lady of Soul Awards, including Entertainer of the Year, AP reports. Destiny’s Child took home an award for best single for their hit “Survivor” while 3LW captured Album of the Year with 3LW. Singer Aaliyah, who was killed in a plane crash on Saturday, was nominated for rhythm and blues, soul or rap song of the year but lost to Yolanda Adams. The Lena Horne Award for outstanding career achievement went to Patti LaBelle.
Deaths
Morris the Cat handler Bob Martwick died Sunday at the age of 75, according to AP. Martwick found the original Morris, famous for his star appearances in Starkist Seafood TV ads, at an animal shelter in Hinsdale, Illinois, in the ’60s. Though the original Morris died in 1970, Martwick served as a handler for the second Morris. He also helped discover and worked with Spuds MacKenzie, the onetime bull terrier mascot for Anheuser-Busch.
In Court
Trouble looms for HBO’s hit mob drama The Sopranos. Makers of the series are heading to a Chicago court on Wednesday to ask a judge to dismiss a claim that the series is offensive to Italian-Americans. According to the BCC, the move follows a suit brought on by the American Italian Defense Association (AIDA), claiming the show’s depiction of Italian Americans in murders and extortion is “racist.” The BBC also reports the network will argue that the claim infringes on their rights to free speech and that the judge will make his ruling based on an obscure Illinois state law that protects individual dignity.
In other Sopranos news, 70-year-old singer and actor Dominic Chianese, who plays Uncle Junior on the show, has canceled a Sept. 19 concert with real soprano Cynthia Lawrence. The concert was called off after civil rights groups complained that The Sopranos perpetuates all the wrong stereotypes about Italian Americans.
Former NBA forward Dennis Rodman is in trouble with the law again. Rodman allegedly sprayed patrons at a Newport Beach, Calif., Hooters restaurant with a fire extinguisher after someone said something to him he didn’t like. Police told AP that Rodman got into a shoving match with the customer before leaving the restaurant. He then headed to his boat, which was docked near the restaurant, where police questioned him. Rodman has not been arrested but the case is under investigation. According to AP, the police have visited Rodman’s oceanfront home more than 70 times for noise complaints.
In General
PageSix.com has apparently obtained a copy of a Sex and the City script entitled “I Heart NY” set to air in February. The script reveals that Sarah Jessica Parker‘s character Carrie breaks up with her fiancé Aidan. In another story line, Cynthia Nixon‘s character Miranda fakes going into labor to stop Carrie from having sex with Mr. Big (Christopher Noth). The show is on hiatus until January, when HBO will air the season’s final six episodes.
Sandra Bullock and Hugh Grant will be starring in a Castle Rock/Warner Bros. romantic comedy due out in December 2002, Variety reports. Bullock will reportedly play a neurotic attorney with Grant as her wealthy boss. The film will be produced by Bullock‘s Fortis Films and directed by Marc Lawrence.
Michael Jackson will be presiding over the opening of Nasdaq trading on Thursday, Reuters reports. Media coverage is being restricted to giant video screens outside of the Nasdaq in New York. Jackson, who went on a private tour of the New York Stock Exchanges in January, is currently in New York for a concert honoring his 30 years as a solo performer.
David Bowie and Sean Combs have paired up for a remake of Bowie‘s song “This is Not America,” ABC News reports. The project will be included in the soundtrack to the upcoming film Training Day starring Denzel Washington and Ethan Hawke. Combs described the song as a fusion of techno, hip-hop, funk and soul rock.
A syndicated TV series based on the online auction site eBay is set to launch in fall 2002, Variety reports. Columbia TriStar Television Distribution and LMNO Prods. will partner on the series, which would take a magazine-style look at the stories behind eBay users. The half-hour episodes would be a cross betweenAntiques Roadshow and Real People. No pilot has been shot yet.
British tabloids are ridiculing Victoria “Posh Spice” Beckham’s plans to create a new image for herself. Posh was pictured on the cover of British papers Tuesday sporting a ring in her lower lip, causing legions of avid Posh fans to do the same. By Wednesday, however, the ring was gone. According to Reuters, fans were furious after discovering that the piercing was a clip-on. “She is a real cow,” one fan was quoted as saying after she spent $43 on a piercing. Posh apparently had no idea the ring would cause such a fuss.
Sara Evans leads the list of Country Music Assn. Awards nominees which were announced in Nashville Tuesday, according to People magazine. Other nominees include Brooks & Dunn, Alan Jackson and the soundtrack to the film O Brother, Where Art Thou?. The 35th annual CMA ceremony will be hosted by Vince Gill at Nashville’s Grand Ole Opry House Nov.7. CBS will air the live broadcast of the event from 8-11 p.m. ET.
