On the 20th anniversary of John Lennon‘s death, his widow Yoko Ono made a vow that she would never leave the Manhattan apartment the couple lived in.
Lennon was gunned down by crazed fan Mark Chapman in front of the Dakota apartment building after arriving from a studio session with his wife on Dec. 8, 1980. Since then, Ono says she hasn’t removed any of the ex-Beatle’s clothes from his closet and hasn’t remodeled, Reuters reports.
“Because his things are still there and he lived there, I feel his spirit very strongly,” Ono said. “All the memories of John are here, and I don’t want to leave the place we created and things that he touched.”
Ono also said it would have made Lennon smile to know that the Beatles were still topping the charts 30 years after the band split. The band’s latest release, “1,” a compilation of all the Beatle’s No. 1 hits, has reached No. 1 in 28 countries and is the fastest-selling album in history, having moved 12 million copies in less than a month.
In other Lennon news, a controversy is brewing over a 1 a.m. ET curfew imposed by New York City officials, which would limit Beatles fans’ annual vigil to Lennon in Central Park.
Last year, police were able to disperse the crowd peacefully as the curfew time neared; however, this year they’re expecting more than 1,000 people to pay tribute to Lennon in a small area of Central Park named “Strawberry Fields” and marked with a mosaic reading “Imagine” in Lennon‘s honor, Reuters reports.
Fans want the curfew lifted, but Mayor Rudolph Giuliani isn’t budging.
“We don’t keep the park open at night,” Giuliani said at a news conference Thursday. “It’s a dangerous precedent to set. They can have their memorial until the park closes, and then when the park closes, the memorial is over.”
A BUDDHIST WEDDING FOR MADONNA? Why not? She’s already done the Hindu look. Reuters is reporting that Madonna and director-boyfriend Guy Ritchie will have a Buddhist ceremony when they tie the knot in a Scottish castle on Dec. 22.
The wedding site at Dornoch Cathedral near is a favorite wedding spot for the rich and famous.
Word is that Madonna, 42, wants a very peaceful ceremony without the glitz and helicopters that buzzed overhead at her first wedding in 1985 to actor Sean Penn.
So this time, the glitzy presence of white stretch limos are out, so are hats. The pop singer thinks they’re old-fashioned. Uh, OK.
ZAPPA DAUGHTER THREATENED: A man who allegedly threatened to kill singer Moon Unit Zappa was arrested, The Associated Press reports. Mark Brownfield, 40, alleges that Zappa and her father, the late Frank Zappa, stole his lyrics for Zappa’s 1980s hit “Valley Girl.”
Brownfield mailed a package to the FBI’s Santa Ana, Calif., office with documents on Oct. 30 in which he made the threat. He remains held without bail and awaits arraignment on Monday.
