Top Story
Elle Macpherson and fiance Arpad Busson are expecting their second child in early February, the supermodel announced Monday. The couple has a 4-year-old son, Flynn.
Celebs
Virgin Records skipping out on the bill? According to an article in Time magazine, the funeral home in the Bahamas that transported the bodies of singer Aaliyah and eight others killed in an August 2001 plane crash hasn’t been paid by the record company for its services–a bill to the tune of $68,000. Aaliyah‘s family also told Time that they were to be reimbursed for funeral expenses and have not received anything. Apparently, the two Virgin executives who made the verbal agreements with the funeral home and with Aaliyah‘s family are no longer with the company.
Sky News reports Ben Affleck, on a recent shopping spree with new love Jennifer Lopez, test drove a metallic blue Ferrari 360 Spider in Coral Gables, Fla. It’s important to be able to drive your girlfriend around in a cool car.
Television and film actress Sally Field will make her Broadway debut Sept. 13 in Edward Albee’s Tony-winning play The Goat. She and actor Bill Irwin will replace Mercedes Ruehl and Bill Pullman in the comedy about a man who has an affair with a four-legged creature.
Movies
Joel Zwick, director of the indie hit My Big Fat Greek Wedding, will direct Centerfold, an offbeat comedy about a college guy who submits his girlfriend’s picture to a calendar contest in an attempt to show up his high school nemesis. Instead, a national men’s magazine gets the picture and offers the girl the chance of a lifetime–as a centerfold pinup. And the conflict would be…?
Director Roger Donaldson (Thirteen Days) plans to develop Abyssinia, a historical drama set against the backdrop of Italy’s invasion of Ethiopia during World War II. The story follows a man who must get his ex-girlfriend and her husband to Egypt after they witness the destruction of a Red Cross camp.
Tube News
NBC has reversed its decision to delete scenes featuring Josh Ryan Evans, the 20-year-old diminutive star of the soap opera Passions, who died last week from complications during a medical procedure. Instead, Passions will air scenes of Evans playing Timmy, the living doll, who, coincidentally, also “died” on the show but who was to return as a spirit in further episodes (only on a soap). The network stated it believed the additional scenes “will provide a sense of closure for [Evans’] fans,” The Associated Press reports.
Music News
For the first time, the legendary Rolling Stones will release an album of their greatest hits that covers the band’s entire career. The two-CD compilation will be entitled Forty Licks and will be released Sept. 23 in Japan and Oct. 1 in North America. The band is also preparing a two-year world tour beginning in Boston next month.
