Archive for November, 2008

Giants star wideout Plaxico Burress will surrender tomorrow morning to NYPD detectives, who will charge him with felony criminal possession of a weapon, authorities said today.

Burress, 31, accidentally shot himself in the right thigh early Saturday morning at Midtown nightclub Latin Quarter with a gun he was not legally permitted to carry, police sources said.

He also faces a possible charge of reckless endangerment.

“We will make arrangements for Mr. Burress to be present when required,” defense lawyer Benjamin Brafman said after spending an hour at the troubled player’s Totowa, N.J., home. “He’s not running away from this.

“He intends to deal with this responsibly, and we hope it works out in the end. I would ask that the public, the Giants, the media and everybody else withhold judgment.

“He’s presumed innocent, hasn’t been convicted of anything, and we have a long road ahead of us.”

Police had yet to recover the gun Burress brought into the Lexington Avenue club.

Burress arrived at the club with teammates Antonio Pierce and Derrick Ward around midnight, and was allowed to bring his weapon inside after going through a metal detector and being frisked, sources said.

A short time later, as he was being escorted upstairs to the VIP area, the gun became loose in his waistband and a round went off. He was shot through the same injured thigh which had already kept him out of today’s 23-7 victory over the Washington Redskins.

Burress refused medical care at the club and left with his teammates, turning up two hours later at New York Hospital, where he spent the next 12 hours. The hospital and club never reported the shooting to the police.

New York Hospital continued to deny that Buress was a patient there.

When asked about the hospital’s policy on reporting gunshot victims to the police - as the law requires - spokesman Bryan Dotson said, “I don’t know what the policy and protocal is on that.”

(source)

Leonardo DiCaprio has put his Malibu estate up for sale at the king-of-the-world price of just under $9 million.

Featuring a two-bedroom, two-bath main house and a guesthouse with two one-bedroom suites, the private paparazzi-proof bluff-top property offers a stairway-to-the-sea to a secluded cove, the Los Angeles Times reports.

Other amenities include a steam shower in the bathroom, a four-car garage and a big yard. The exact listing price is $8,999,000.

DiCaprio, 34, next appears in Revolutionary Road, a holiday film that reunites him with Titanic costar Kate Winslet.

(source)

Ricki Lake has trimmed 140 lbs. from her all-time top weight of 270 pounds – and says she is holding steady.

“I can’t believe I was a fat person for most of my life,” the former talk show host, rocking a sexy black Herve Leger dress (size small), told PEOPLE at a recent benefit for the New Space for Women’s Health, a New York City birthing center slated to open in 2010.

“I didn’t have surgery and I worked hard. There’s no secret. I’m active. I watch what I eat,” Lake, 40, adds.

But she’s certainly not immune to the pressure to stay thin. “According to Hollywood standards, I’m not a thin girl. I’m a normal girl,” says the mom of two boys, Milo, 11, and Owen, 6. “I don’t want to perpetuate that obsession but yet I am also guilty of wanting … to lose weight.”

“I’m just grateful that I have sons and not daughters because it’s that much harder,” she says.

Lake sticks to meals delivered by a service called Fresh Dining (”It’s organic, it’s fresh, and I still love it,” she says) but admits unpredictable factors in life could one day interfere.

“With the weight stuff I don’t have any answers,” she says. “Something tragic in my life could happen and I could balloon and gain weight. I can’t promise I will be like this forever.”

Recently, Lake has been focusing on making a sequel to her 2007 documentary The Business of Being Born, and is working on a guide to pregnancy, due out in May.

And with the holidays in full swing? “I will be really conscious because I have this book coming out and I want to look great,” she says. “I don’t need to lose anymore weight. [But] I don’t want to go backwards. So I’m not going to pig out this Christmas.”

(source)

Britney Spears made her first UK television performance in four years Saturday on Simon Cowell’s talent show X Factor.

She performed her new single “Womanizer,” while the show’s five remaining contestants each sang a song of hers.

Asked to give advice to the aspiring singers, Spears said, “Just keep doing it.”

She also said her time in London was going great.

“I met so many different people,” she said. “I love being here in London - it’s awesome.”

On Thursday, Spears performed “Womanizer” at a German awards show. She hit the stage again on Friday for French TV show Star Academy.

Next week, she returns to the United States, where she will celebrate the release of her sixth studio album, Circus, on Dec. 2 — her 27th birthday.

She also plans to throw a party that same night at NYC hot spot Tenjune.

(source)

DIRTY Dancing star Patrick Swayze has reportedly taken a turn for the worse and started saying goodbye to loved ones after learning his cancer has spread.

The Dirty Dancing and Ghost star, who in January was told he had pancreatic cancer, has started preparing himself for death, reports say

“Patrick recently got word that the cancer had spread to his liver and that is what his doctors said would begin the countdown to the end,” a source told National Enquirer magazine.

“Patrick knew it was coming because he was suffering increased weakness.

“At times, he was so weak that he could barely walk without feeling faint. Sometimes he feels out of breath and has to sit down.”

Swayze, 56, told Lisa, his wife of 33 years, and his brother Donny that he doesn’t have long to live.

“Lisa phoned Donny in Los Angeles and told him he need to come to Chicago, where Patrick has been filming TV show The Beast. She was crying and scared Donny to death,” the source told National Enquirer.

“Donny got the impression his brother was already on his deathbed because Lisa was saying Patrick wanted to say goodbye. She couldn’t stop crying.”

Swayze has been undergoing pioneering Cyberknife radiotherapy at California’s Stamford University Medical Centre, and had been making a steady recovery from the illness.

He has finished filming The Beast in Chicago, where he has been putting in 12-hour days. He went to a party earlier this week to celebrate with Lisa and Donny.

He stayed for one-and-a-quarter hours sitting on a couch the entire time, happily talking to people.

Swayze’s wife “mingled a little more than Patrick did, leaving the couch to grab a drink or talk to people, but mostly she remained at his side” a source told the US magazine.

“Patrick let the party-goers come to him, never circulating around the room and rarely even standing up, but when others did come to him, he chatted at length with many of them.”

In October, his production team reported Swayze had missed only a day and a half of work.

“I’m still fine to work, I haven’t changed - oh, I have changed, what am I saying? It’s a battle zone I go through. Chemo, no matter how you cut it, is hell on wheels,” he told The New York Times.

(source)

It looks as though genetically-blessed duo Nick Lachey and Vanessa Minnillo are going stronger than ever, but is Miss Minnillo ready to take the next step? The Tinseltown twosome snuck into Christina Aguilera’s Target Terrace AMAs party at and stood by each other’s side throughout the evening. According to an inside source, Ness did some hinting while hitting the dancefloor during Beyonce’s “Single Ladies.”

“Vanessa was dancing and joking about putting a ring on her finger,” said the eyewitness. “She was pointing to her ring finger! The two were very happy and sipping champagne together.” Awww.

Other guests included rekindled romancers Jimmy Kimmel and Sarah Silverman as well as Xtina herself, Sarah McLachlan, David Archuleta, Tyrese Gibson and JC

JON Peters has been hit with a shocking new barrage of sex charges - this time by a male staffer who claims the powerful Hollywood producer of “Superman Returns” and “Ali” sexually roughed him up and threatened to break his legs.

In a lawsuit filed this week in Los Angeles Superior Court, Brian Quintana - a co-producer with Peters on the upcoming “Superman: Man of Steel” - alleges that Peters subjected him to “continuous and pervasive sexual harassment.”

The suit states there were “multiple instances where he was physically, sexually harassed by Peters, including being groped by male individuals at Peters’ behest.” Peters would “wrestle and rough up [Quintana] in a sexual manner . . . fondle himself in front of [Quintana] . . . often place his hand on [Quintana’s] leg in a sexual manner,” as well as “touch” his buttocks, the suit alleges.

In addition, according to the suit, Peters demanded that Quintana “drive male individuals onto the set for the purposes of granting sexual favors for members of the cast and crew [and] cover up allegations that . . . Peters engaged in sexually inappropriate acts in front of children.”

Quintana, in the court papers, also charges that Peters threatened to “break his legs” and fired him after he refused to “perjure himself” by signing documents stating that Peters had completed community service for a DUI conviction.

Peters, a one-time boyfriend of Barbra Streisand, is already being sued by two female former staffers who claim that he sexually harassed them. One, Blanca Hernandez, claims that Peters touched her breasts and buttocks, tried to push her onto his bed when he was naked, tried to kiss her breasts and offered her money for sex.

Peters’ office number has been disconnected. His lawyer, Stephen Kolodny, did not return calls yesterday.

(source)

Whitney Houston has issued a statement denying the rumors of a reunion with Bobby Brown.

Acting on behalf of Houston, the singer’s publicist Nancy Seltzer calls speculation that the exes are getting back together “a complete fabrication.”

Seltzer pinpoints the rumors to a report in Wednesday’s Chicago Sun-Times that said Houston and Brown had been spotted out and about in Georgia looking romantic.

Houston and Brown divorced in April 2007 after 14 years of marriage. During their tumultuous union, Brown was arrested on drug and alcohol charges, and Houston twice entered drug rehabilitation programs. Houston has custody of their teenage daughter, Bobbi Kristina.