Boy to the rescue
E! Online
Backstreet Boy A.J. McLean was all man this week when he reportedly helped chase down a jewel thief in the parking lot of the Hard Rock Hotel in Las Vegas.
The boy bander was trying on watches in Rocks, the hotel’s jewelry store, last Monday when a man entered the store and asked to try on several bracelets and rings.
After trying on a $40,000 diamond ring the suspect bolted for the door, reports the Las Vegas Sun.
A friend of Mr. McLean’s told the paper, “The girl at the counter screamed that she could not leave the store so A.J. just shot out of there like a rocket.”
Mr. McLean and a hotel security guard tackled the man in the parking lot and recovered the stolen bling-bling.
A call to Mr. McLean’s rep was not returned and attempts to confirm the story with Sin City’s finest were unsuccessful.
It’s a triumphant footnote for Mr. McLean, who’s previously made headlines for his battles with alcoholism and depression, which are detailed in a new book co-written by his mother titled “Backstreet Mom: A Mother’s Tale of Backstreet Boy A.J. McLean’s Rise To Fame, Struggle With Addiction and Ultimate Triumph.”
His well-publicized crash and subsequent rehab stint contributed to a scrapped 2001 tour and were factors in delaying the group’s follow-up album to 2000’s “Black and Blue” but the Backstreeters are purportedly working on a new album for early 2004.
Birthday forecast
New York Post
Howard Stern will wear mismatched shoes in public this year, predicts The Amazing Kreskin, who shares a Jan. 12 birthday with both the King of All Media and the embattled Rush Limbaugh.
In honor of today’s big day, Mr. Kreskin, who turns 69, sent his 2004 forecasts to both men. Among his other prophecies: Mr. Stern, who turns 50, will host a same-sex wedding on his show and will be considered to emcee the 2005 Oscars. Mr. Limbaugh, who turns 53, will become a health nut, will coin a phrase, and will dine in an Italian restaurant at the same time as Al Sharpton.
Too bad Mr. Kreskin didn’t give Mr. Limbaugh a 2003 forecast.
Blast from the past
Associated Press
Actress Kim Novak, the blond bombshell who was a top box office draw in the 1950s, says she stopped acting because she was disillusioned by Hollywood typecasting.
“I didn’t want to stagnate as a person. I wanted to keep developing,” said Miss Novak, who is the subject of a three-day retrospective by the nonprofit American Cinematheque starting Friday.
“I got more into my painting and artwork. I felt that at least I was growing … rather than sitting around Hollywood and waiting for a good script,” she said.
Miss Novak, 70, who lives on an Oregon ranch with her veterinarian husband, last appeared on screen in 1991 in Mike Figgis’ “Liebestraum.”
She worked with the industry’s top directors in the 1950s and ’60s, including Alfred Hitchcock (“Vertigo”), Billy Wilder (“Kiss Me, Stupid”), George Sidney (“Pal Joey”) and Phil Karlson (“Five Against the House”).
Miss Novak is scheduled to attend Saturday’s screening of her most popular film, “Vertigo,” at the Egyptian Theatre in Los Angele.
Bickering beauties<
San Francisco Chronicle
Catwalk queen Tyra Banks was shocked by the contestants in the second series of her hit reality TV show “America’s Next Top Model” because of the constant back-biting.
The supermodel snagged a ratings success with her show last year, as viewers saw a long line of hopefuls compete for a full-time job in the world of modeling but the soon-to-debut follow-up series promises to showcase much harsher levels of rivalry.
“There was none of the willingness to help each other that we saw with the first group,” the San Francisco Chronicle quotes Miss Banks as saying. “A lot of them came in immediately ready to attack each other. It was kind of shocking.”
Scent of a woman
New York Post
Cashing in on her 15 minutes, ditzy bombshell Jessica Simpson is not afraid to do deals by the truckload. The most recent contract is with Randi Shinder, the founder of soapy smelling Clean perfume, to create a line of lickable fragrances, the New York Post reports.
The perfume and lotion will be called Dessert, but there’s no word on whether it will come in “Buffalo wings” or “Chicken of the Sea” flavor. We hear the new fragrance will be sold exclusively at Sephora.
Compiled by Robyn-Denise Yourse from Web and wire reports.
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