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61-year-old Nick Nolte, who was arrested Wednesday on suspicion of drunk
driving in Malibu, Calif., may now also be facing drug charges. “We have
strong reason to believe there were drugs involved,” California Highway
Patrol spokesman Leland Tang told Reuters. Nolte, 61, was described by highway police as “drooling” and “completely out of it” when he was pulled over in Malibu for driving erratically in his black Mercedes. The Oscar-nominated actor was arrested after failing a field sobriety test. He is currently out on $2,500 bail.
Celebs
Brad Pitt, whom we reported yesterday had pulled out of director Darren Aronofsky‘s The Fountain seven weeks before shooting was set to start in Australia, said he also is disheartened about the project not moving forward. “Given my friendship and respect for Darren and the year and a half we’ve dedicated to working on this project, I too am disappointed,” he said in a statement released by Warner Bros. Pictures. “Still, I remain encouraged that The Fountain will still have its day.” Pitt is in final negotiations to star as Achilles in the studio’s epic adventure Troy instead. The news that Pitt was opting out of The Fountain angered many crew workers who had worked on the film’s sets, prompting some of them to write an open letter to the Web site Ain’t It Cool News that accused Pitt of “Hollywood prima donna antics.”
Actor Jude Law and his wife, actress and fashion designer Sadie Frost, had their third child Tuesday night, People.com reports. Frost gave birth to Rudy Law at a north London hospital. The couple has two children together, Iris, 22 months, and Rafferty, 7. Frost also has an 11-year old son, Finley, from her first marriage to Spandau Ballet’s Gary Kemp.
Actress Jamie Lynn Sigler, better know as Meadow Soprano on the HBO mob drama The Sopranos is engaged to her manager and boyfriend of one year, A.J. Discala, People.com reports. Discala, 31, proposed to Sigler, 21, while the two were on a Mexican cruise.
Late Nirvana frontman Kurt Cobain‘s childhood home, which was put up for sale on eBay last Thursday, received a high offer of $210,000 from a serious bidder–$10,000 over the minimum set by Ed and Jennifer McKee of Oregon City, Ore, The Associated Press reports. The couple, unaware Cobain had once lived there, bought the nondescript house located 70 miles southwest of Seattle for $42,500 last month. An attorney for Cobain‘s widow, Courtney Love, and their daughter said the Cobain estate had not authorized the auction. “The estate will not be authorizing any commercial use of Mr. Cobain‘s name or likeness at the property,” he said in a statement.
Tube
The Matrix star Laurence Fishburne is taking a serious interest in the small screen. The Oscar-nominated actor will produce a primetime series for Paramount Network Television. According to The Hollywood Reporter, the action drama, tentatively titled Sleepwalker, is a high-concept show following the adventures of a next-generation superhero. Spawn scribe Alan McElroy will write the project, which has received a script commitment from CBS.
Comedian Jay Mohr has been chosen to host a new NBC series titled The Funniest Person in America, the AP reports. Producers of the show, described as a cross between American Idol and The Real World, will pick 10 comedians and follow them as they live together and compete for development deals with NBC. The series will debut sometime in spring or summer 2003.
Music
Canadian singer Celine Dion‘s manager-husband Rene Angelil sent a notice of claim to Montreal-based radio station CKMF demanding it stop playing a parody of the song “I’m Alive,” The Canadian Press reports. The song played for about six weeks before Angelil complained. He also asked that all of Dion‘s songs be removed from the station’s play list. “I was ashamed that Celine is played on a radio station that, in my opinion, displays a vulgar and disturbing tone,” he said. The station agreed to pull the song, in large part because it had run its course, but refused to pull all of the singer’s songs from its play list.
Singer-songwriter Warren Zevon, 55, whose hit song “Werewolves in London” had fans howling throughout the ’70s, was diagnosed with inoperable lung cancer last month, spokeswoman Diana Baron announced today. “I’m OK with it,” Zevon said in a statement. “But it’ll be a drag if I don’t make it until the next James Bond movies comes out.”
