Top Story: Osbourne Admits To Being Sexually Abused
As if he hasn’t had it hard enough, rocker and TV star Ozzy Osbourne told London’s Daily Mirror he was sexually abused as a child, Reuters reports. The former Black Sabbath frontman said the abuse happened when he was a schoolboy in central England. “I was sexually abused as a kid,” Osbourne, 54, said in the Daily Mirror interview. “Two boys used to wait for me to come home after school. They felt me and touched me. It became a regular thing on the way home from school–it seemed to go on forever.” Osbourne admitted he was too scared to tell his parents and that he needed counseling later in life to come to terms with it. “When I was a kid, people did not talk about these things like they do know,” he said. “I worked it out with a therapist.”
Actress Adams Arrested
Joey Lauren Adams, best known for her roles in Chasing Amy and Big Daddy, was arrested early Friday in San Diego, Calif., on suspicion of drunk driving, The Associated Press reports. Police told AP she was picked up after an officer saw the 38-year-old actress pull into a gas station and stop after hitting the curb a few times. She was later released on her own recognizance, AP reports. No other details were immediately available.
The Vatican Interested in Passion
The Vatican has requested a private screening of Mel Gibson‘s controversial The Passion of Christ, which they want to screen during a conference on theology and cinema to be held next week in Rome, Variety reports. Gibson, who has aligned himself with an ultraconservative Catholic movement that does not recognize the pope as the authority over the Roman Catholic church, has reportedly not yet fully committed. “We will very probably hold a closed-door screening for [theological] experts,” Andrea Piersanti, head of the Catholic entertainment entity Ente dello Spettacolo and president of Italy’s government film body, Istituto Luce, told Variety. “This way, we will be able to form our own serene and detached opinion of the film.” Passion has been accused in the press of anti-Semitism.
Bowie Headlines Two UK Festivals
Rock icon David Bowie has agreed to headline two of Britain’s biggest music festivals next year–the Isle of Wight festival and T in the Park at Balado. Reuters reports Bowie‘s Web site said he was thrilled to play the Isle of Wight festival. The event, revived in 2002, was originally held from 1968 to 1970 when it hosted acts like The Who, Bob Dylan and Jimi Hendrix. “I was so envious of other acts that got to do the other Isle of Wight Festivals–it is really coming back,” Bowie said.
Beyonce, Bono Top African AIDS Benefit
Beyonce Knowles, Bono and Peter Gabriel were among the artists who took to the stage Saturday in Cape Town, South Africa, for an AIDS benefit concert hosted by that country’s former president, Nelson Mandela. AP reports more than 30,000 people attended, including Oprah Winfrey and other celebrities, to generate funds and awareness to fight the AIDS epidemic currently ravaging the continent. Earlier, Beyonce and Bono, who has long championed better treatment of HIV victims in Africa, visited a maternity unit and a childrens’ home caring for HIV sufferers in Cape Town’s impoverished township of Khayelitsha, AP reports. “This is an obscenity,” Bono said. “This is like watching the Jews being put on trains.”
Gere Campaigns for AIDS Awareness in India
Meanwhile, doing his part to make the world aware of AIDS, actor Richard Gere traveled to India Monday to visit AIDS clinics and launch a campaign to get the country’s movie and sports stars to join AIDS awareness programs, AP reports. About 4 million adults in India have HIV, according to government statistics. Children are not included in the count.
Screenwriter Hartmann Dies
Screenwriter Edmund L. Hartmann, best known for writing comedies for Bob Hope, Dean Martin, Jerry Lewis and the Three Stooges, died of natural causes at his home in Santa Fe, New Mexico. He was 92.
Role Call: Paxton Gets Ready for the Game
Actor-director Bill Paxton is in final negotiations to direct his second feature, The Greatest Game Ever Played, following his 2001 directorial debut Frailty. According to The Hollywood Reporter, Game revolves around the 1913 U.S. Open in which Francis Ouimet, a 20-year-old amateur from Massachusetts, shocked the genteel golf world by defeating British champion Harry Vardon, the most famous pro golfer of his time and the inventor of what is considered the modern grip and swing.
