Taking Names

Diaz warns Timberlake

Internet Movie Database

Cameron Diaz has issued an ultimatum to boyfriend Justin Timberlake to cool his relationship with Elisha Cuthbert or face losing her.

The demand was issued by Miss Diaz, 31, amid reports that Mr. Timberlake, 22, and Miss Cuthbert, 21, have become inseparable on the movie set of “Edison,” the Internet Movie Database reports.

“The final straw was when Cameron saw pictures of Justin and Elisha together looking very friendly. She’s told him to cool it, even though he’s told her they’re just friends,” the IMDB quotes an unnamed friend of Miss Diaz’s as saying.

Case dismissed

Associated Press

Two musicians who claim they have been cheated by rocker Ozzy Osbourne got no sympathy yesterday from the Supreme Court.

Justices refused to consider the appeal of bassist Robert Daisley and drummer Lee Kerslake, who sued in 1998 seeking royalties for their work on the Osbourne albums “Blizzard of Ozz” and “Diary of a Madman.”

Los Angeles attorney Nate Kraut said his musician clients have been denied credit for writing songs that are used in television commercials and during NFL games.

A California judge had dismissed the lawsuit, which named Mr. Osbourne and his wife, Sharon, as well as several music companies.

Historic home burned

New York Times

Fire has heavily damaged the single-story wooden house outside Moscow that was once home to Peter Ilich Tchaikovsky (1840-93), the legendary composer of such ballet scores as “The Nutcracker” and “Swan Lake,” according to the German news agency Deutsche Press-Agentur (DPA).

The blaze in the house, now a museum, broke out in the attic late Friday night, but Tatyana Pavlova, an employee, said, “The rooms that Tchaikovsky lived in were not damaged.”

Workers at the museum braved the flames to carry out valuable items, and although the grand piano used by Tchaikovsky could not be removed, it survived without damage, Miss Pavlova said.

“Only there is water everywhere,” she added.

Pricey painting

Agence France Presse

A 1905 masterpiece by Pablo Picasso is widely expected to become the most expensive work of art in history tomorrow when it goes on sale at Sotheby’s auction house in New York.

Conservatively estimated at $70 million, “Garcon a la Pipe” (“Boy With a Pipe”) could, according to art dealers, fetch as much as $100 million.

Even if it fails to breach that historic mark, the experts are confident it will surpass the current record of $82.5 million, paid for Vincent Van Gogh’s “Portrait of Doctor Gachet” at a Christie’s auction in 1990.

The current record for a Picasso painting stands at $55 million.

Mr. Picasso painted “Garcon a la Pipe” when he was 24, shortly after he settled in Paris. The painting was bought for $30,000 in 1950 by John Whitney, a former U.S. ambassador to Britain. It is being sold by the Greentree Foundation, a philanthropic body created in 1982 by Mr. Whitney’s wife, Betsey, following the death of her husband.

Dueling divas

Internet Movie Database

Grammy-winners Beyonce Knowles and Alicia Keys reportedly are on bad terms on their current Ladies First Tour — because both are grappling for star billing.

The Destiny’s Child star apparently is furious many critics have said Miss Keys “steals the show,” while the latter reportedly is unhappy that Miss Knowles is featured more prominently on the promotional posters for the extravaganza.

“There’s barely a word exchanged between the two of them, and their entourages are purposely kept separate,” an anonymous source told Britain’s Heat magazine.

“Beyonce is the tour headliner, and Alicia feels as if she’s being treated like a second-class citizen,” the source said, adding that disputes between the two have grown increasingly petty.

“One argument between the two camps was whose bus was going to be closer to the backstage door, a distance of 40 feet at most,” the source said.

Compiled by Robyn-Denise Yourse from Web and wire reports.