Top Story
A judge has ruled that Courtney Love won’t have to undergo a psychiatric evaluation in the ongoing legal dispute with the Nirvana bandmates of her late husband, Kurt Cobain, The Associated Press reports. Last May, Love asked that Nirvana LLC, the business partnership she formed with Krist Novoselic and Dave Grohl in 1997, be dissolved on the grounds that she signed the agreement at a time when her judgment had been impaired. The judge commented that granting the request for a psychiatric evaluation would “serve no other purpose than to contribute to a circus-like atmosphere” to the legal proceedings, but added that if Love tries to claim she was incapacitated again, the issue of a mental examination could be revisited.
Celebs
The latest Madonna buzz is that she will indeed make a cameo appearance in the new James Bond film. According to Ananova.com, director Lee Tamahori told Entertainment Tonight that Madonna will spend two days filming the cameo role in Die Another Day, wearing an outfit specially designed for her.
Diet guru Dr. Robert Atkins, who promotes a high-fat, low-carbohydrate diet, is recovering from a cardiac arrest he suffered at his Manhattan home on April 18, which he said is not related to diet. A spokeswoman for Atkins, 71, issued a statement saying: “This was not a heart attack but a cardiac arrest related to an infection of the heart he has been suffering from for a few years, ” the AP reports.
Tube News
Following ABC’s two-hour finale of the reality series The Bachelor yesterday, Alex Michel is still single. Of the 25 women who competed for a chance to marry the bachelor, Michel chose Amanda Marsh, but he asked the 23-year-old event planner to first move to California to live with him before they walked down the aisle. She said yes.
HBO is developing a reality series tentatively dubbed General Manager for summer 2003. The series, a cross between Bull Durham and The Real World, would allow viewers to track the progress of a minor league baseball team, and then control its destiny through the Internet, Variety reports.
The editors at TV Guide have selected Seinfeld as the greatest television show of all time, the AP reports. Shows included in the top 10 on the magazine’s list of the top 50 television shows are All in the Family, The Sopranos, The Simpsons and Saturday Night Live.
In her talk show’s final farewell, Sally Jessy Raphael smashed her trademark red-framed glasses but didn’t shed a tear, the AP reports. “They belong to the [production] company,” she explained later about the glasses. The show was canceled after it sank to ninth in the ratings among talk shows.
Henry Winkler, better known as the Fonz from Happy Days, will executively produce Hollywood Squares alongside Michael Levitt, Reuters reports. They will replace John Moffit and Pat Lee Tourk, who were let go after Whoopi Goldberg revealed she was leaving the show’s center square.
Music News
Dr. Dre has been named as one of the defendants in a lawsuit filed by five former and current Detroit, Mich., city officials, claiming their privacy was invaded. According to the AP, the lawsuit alleges that hidden cameras and microphones were secretly used to “intercept, eavesdrop upon and record” exchanges between city officials and Up In Smoke tour organizers. Also named in the suit are Magic Johnson, AOL Time Warner, Best Buy and Panavision.
Looks like White Zombie rocker Rob Zombie will finally get his day in court. Two years ago, Zombie filed a copyright lawsuit against Mazda Motor Corp. for using music from his 1998 album Hellbilly Deluxe for a television truck commercial without his permission.
Honored
Adventure sailor and author Thor Heyerdahl, who died of brain cancer at a family home in Italy on April 18, was honored by some 1,000 mourners–including Norwegian royals King Harald and Queen Sonja at his funeral Friday in Oslo Cathedral. He was 87.
