Taking Names

Knife girls finish last?

The mystery brunette posing sexily while holding a knife to Lindsay Lohan’s throat in photos that ran in Monday’s New York Post is Vanessa Minnillo — and she may have a hard time getting a new job because of the risque party pics.

Miss Minnillo, 26, was host of MTV’s “TRL” and a correspondent for “Entertainment Tonight” until her contract expired in April. The former flame of New York Yankees’ shortstop Derek Jeter and current girlfriend of Nick Lachey did not renew her ties with either show.

Though friends of Miss Minnillo’s insist it was she who decided not to renew the contract, insiders say her bosses soured on her when she covered the Grammys in February. When producers flew her to Los Angeles to cover the ceremony, “she was extremely high-maintenance” one source said. “She only flew first class and stayed at the Four Seasons, and then she didn’t want to work. Vanessa wants to be a celebrity, not interview them.”

A rep for Miss Minnillo denied any “diva behavior.”

No more fun and Game

West Coast rapper The Game (nee Jayceon Terrell Taylor) was charged Monday with making a criminal threat and possessing a firearm in a school zone, authorities told Associated Press.

According to Los Angeles police, the felony charges stem from a Feb. 24 pickup basketball game during which the rapper, 27, pulled a gun from his red Cadillac Escalade after punching a player on the opposing team and threatened to shoot him.

The hip-hop star was arrested May 11 at his home by police executing a search warrant and later released on $50,000 bail. He faces more than five years in state prison if convicted.

State of denial?

John Travolta, 53, and his wife, Kelly Preston, 44, just announced they want to try for their third child — despite increasing pressure to acknowledge the disability of their son, Jett.

“Travolta sits there in interviews talking about how Jett loves to read or play sports, but it is clear that the boy can barely do either,” an unnamed editor — who claims to have interviewed Mr. Travolta more than once — told the New York Post.

Mr. Travolta, a member of the Church of Scientology, has said in the past that his son’s condition is Kawasaki syndrome, a disease characterized by high fever, skin rash and swelling of the lymph nodes.

“Scientology is keeping him from acknowledging his son’s autism. They see it as a weakness,” said Tim Kenny, the father of a 4-year-old autistic girl. He says he introduced himself to the actor in February at a restaurant “as one autistic child’s father to another” but that Mr. Travolta was in denial.

According to Scientology teachings, people with mental illnesses are “degraded” and capable of curing themselves by working harder on the church’s teachings.

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