Top Story
Ozzy and Sharon Osbourne renewed their wedding vows during a New Year’s Eve party at the Beverly Hills Hotel. Hundreds of guests were on hand to watch the couple tie the knot again, including Justin Timberlake and Chris Rock. Sharon and Ozzy were first married on July 4, 1982, and had originally planned to renew their vows on their 20th anniversary but plans were delayed because of Sharon‘s battle with colon cancer. According to People.com, Sharon‘s father and former Black Sabbath manager, Don Arden, escorted her down the aisle while daughter Kelly served as a flower girl. The 1970s group The Village People provided the music for the celebration.
Celebs
Singer Diana Ross, who was arrested Monday for allegedly driving under the influence, said she was trying to rent a video and got lost when police stopped her, The Associated Press reports. Tucson Police stopped the singer at a Blockbuster video store, where she had pulled into a handicapped space, after someone reported seeing a vehicle swerving on the road. She twice denied she had been drinking and insisted she had gotten lost trying to rent a video.
A man who found Robert Redford‘s credit card near a convenience store in Orem, Utah, close to the actor’s home and his Sundance resort, tried to extort signed memorabilia in exchange for the plastic, the AP reports. The man called the resort to report he’d found the card and was offered free ski lift passes and dinner for two to return it. When he insisted on signed memorabilia instead, the staff balked and called the police, who then traced the call and went to the man’s home to retrieve it. Ah, the wonders of *69.
Movies
Twentieth Century Fox has postponed the release of the Heath Ledger starrer The Sin Eater because of some unintentionally funny special effects. The film revolves around a young conflicted New York priest (Ledger) investigating the case of the murdered French ambassador whose corpse is covered with mysterious Aramaic symbols. A post-production insider, who spoke to Variety on condition of anonymity, said the effects depicting sins flying out of the human body looked “like calamari.” The occult thriller, which was slated for release Jan. 17, will now get a possible late-summer debut under its new title, The Order.
Industry
Screen Actors Guild president Melissa Gilbert said in her end-of-the-year message to the 98,000 SAG members that the union will make nice in 2003. According to Variety, Gilbert emphasized nonconfrontational, conciliatory approaches to key issues and a smooth relationship with other Hollywood guilds. Gilbert recapped the outlook for upcoming negotiations of commercial contracts by saying, “Negotiating fair wages and working conditions is the primary commitment of SAG.” The current pact expires Oct. 30.
Tube
A Montana man who legally changed his name to “Jack Ass” in 1997 as a crusade against drunk driving has sued media giant Viacom Inc., claiming its MTV show and feature pic, Jackass: The Movie, defamed his character. The suit, filed in November in Montana, claimed Viacom was “liable for injury to my reputation that I have built and defamation of my character which I have worked so hard to create.” Mr. Ass, born Bob Craft, changed his name six years ago after his brother and a friend were killed in a car crash–theirs being the only vehicle involved. The suit, according to Reuters, asks for $10 million in damages.
Cable news networks CNN, Headline News, MSNBC and CNBC suffered double-digit drops in their year-end ratings compared to last year, according to Nielsen Media Research. In 2001, viewers depended on the television for updates on post 9/11 events–making a possible war with Iraq an enticing thing for the networks. Variety reports the only news cable network to experience growth last year was Fox News, which has become the prime peacetime network cable news destination.
Music
Tom Hanks made a surprise stage appearance at Vermont jam band Phish’s sold-out concert at Madison Square Garden on New Year’s Eve, which had fans shelling out more than $1,000 to get into the show, the AP reports. The band formed in the early 1980s and built a fan base through constant touring, becoming a top-grossing concert act by the mid-1990s. In 2000, exhausted from 17 years on the road, Phish announced they were calling it quits for awhile. The concert ended their two-year hiatus and kicked off a run of winter shows.
