Top Story
A crowd of about 10,000 fans, music professionals and relatives filled the New Birth Missionary Baptist Church in Lithonia, Ga., to bid farewell to TLC member Lisa Lopes. Reuters reported that before the service, the TLC hit song “Waterfalls” played softly in the background while images of Lopes played on two monitors. Among those in attendance were singers Whitney Houston, Janet Jackson, Keith Sweat, producer Kenneth “Baby Face” Edmonds and Marion “Suge” Knight, founder of Death Row Records.
Celebs
Teen People magazine announced its 25 hottest stars under 25. Those who made the cut include those Attack of the Clones lovebirds Natalie Portman and Hayden Christensen, Spider-Man‘s Kirsten Dunst, songster Alicia Keys, cutie boys Josh Hartnett and Orlando Bloom, and martial arts butt-kicker Zhang Ziyi.
Britney Spears smokes! NewYorkPost.com reported the pop princess was caught by a cameraman with an offending butt in her hand as she sat on the balcony of her hotel room in Sydney, Australia. Now you might ask, who the heck cares? Well, two years ago she told the Knoxville, Tenn., News-Sentinel that she doesn’t believe in drugs or even smoking. Only God. Ah, the hypocrisy of it all.
Sometimes it doesn’t pay to get your face on television. Joseph Bakley, the brother of Robert Blake‘s slain wife, learned that the hard way when the state of Florida came after him for probation violation after seeing him on ABC’s 20/20, talking about his sister’s death. D’oh!
Angel‘s David Boreanaz and his wife, actress Jaime Bergman, welcomed their first child on May 1, boy Jaden Rayne Boreanaz, weighing in at 8 lbs., 9 oz. Mother and baby are doing fine.
Movies
Daily Variety‘s columnist Army Archerd reported the final scene being shot for Mike Myers‘ new Austin Powers film, Austin Powers in Goldmember, is set in the home of Ozzy Osbourne. Myers and director Jay Roach are big fans of the MTV show about the Osbourne family. Myers told Archerd that it will be only one of the “many surprises” in the movie.
Tube News
Will Smith may enter back into the television arena. His company Overbrook Entertainment is looking to develop a syndicated half-hour newsmagazine pilot, Good News, to roll out in fall 2003. It will focus on inspirational individuals, including celebrities, public figures and everyday heroes.
Fox’s Dark Angel may be no more. Series creator James Cameron told the New York Daily News that the show is on the verge of cancellation, but Fox will announce its final decision in the next two weeks. The finale of season two will air this Friday night, marking Cameron’s TV directing debut.
Music News
Legendary rockers The Rolling Stones plan to announce their first tour in three years Tuesday in New York. The tour will coincide with the band’s 40th anniversary of its first public appearance. They just don’t know when to quit, do they?
Eminem donned a turban and played Osama bin Laden in his latest music video, for his single “Without Me.” He also parodies the Survivor TV show, Elvis Presley and singer Moby. It premiered Wednesday on MTV’s Making the Video.
Don’t confuse the shock rock group Slipknot with the knitters’ quarterly journal Slipknot. Apparently, irate fans of the American group sent threatening e-mails to the British knitters’ Web site, telling the club not to call its publication Slipknot because it made their idols look bad.
Honored
Audrey Hepburn will be honored with a sculpture outside the UNICEF headquarters in New York. Called “Spirit of Audrey,” the artwork of a tall, slender woman holding a child will commemorate Hepburn’s years of tireless support of the children’s organization before she died in 1993.
In Memoriam
John Nathan-Turner, a producer of the British cult show Dr. Who, died in England at the Brighton’s Hove Hospital on Wednesday following a short illness. He was 54.
