Taking Names

Simon says ’I’m so erased’

Carly Simon didn’t find it easy reading “Girls Like Us,” the nonfiction best-seller which interweaves her life story with those of fellow singer-songwriters Joni Mitchell and Carole King.

Miss Simon was the only one of the three who agreed to speak to writer Sheila Weller, who relied heavily on interviews with friends and family to tell their life stories.

“I think Sheila did a terrific job, and the book is extremely interesting, but it brought back things that I didn’t want to remember and from other people’s voices,” Miss Simon tells Associated Press.

The book offers a behind-the-scenes look at Miss Simon’s 1972-83 life-in-a-fishbowl marriage to James Taylor, when they were pop music’s reigning royal couple, as she struggled to get him to break his drug habit while raising their two children, Sally and Ben.

“I know he had a really tough time with drugs and I had a tough time with his drugs,” Miss Simon recalls. “But I was terribly in love and I got a great deal out of that relationship and … I don’t think I would have changed anything except that I wish that James would have been happier with himself obviously. The breakup of that marriage was incredibly sad and difficult for me.”

Now 60, Mr. Taylor, who kicked his drug habit shortly after their marriage ended, lives in the Berkshires with his third wife and two young sons. Miss Simon, 62, whose 20-year marriage to writer-businessman Jim Hart ended in divorce last year, lives in the house that Mr. Taylor built on a 40-acre spread in Martha’s Vineyard.

Mr. Taylor, also known as Sweet Baby James, does not keep in contact with his former wife and made no mention of their years together in his autobiographical “One Man Band” show released as a CD-DVD last year.

“I’m so erased, so erased,” says Miss Simon. “I don’t think James has forgotten in any way. If he had forgotten, he wouldn’t be behaving in the way he is.”

Last of the line

Paul McCartney is weeks away from becoming the last of the Beatles to be divorced.

Justice Hugh Bennett yesterday granted a preliminary divorce decree for Mr. McCartney and Heather Mills. The decree could become final in six weeks and one day if no one objects.

Mr.McCartney, 65 and Miss Mills, 40, were not in court for the brief proceeding, AP reports.

Unlike fellow Beatles John Lennon, George Harrison and Ringo Starr, Mr. McCartney had an enduring first marriage to the former Linda Eastman. They were together for 19 years before she died in 1998.

Mr. Lennon left his first wife, Cynthia, for Yoko Ono. Mr. Starr and his first wife, Maureen, divorced after 10 years of marriage. Mr. Harrison’s marriage to Pattie Boyd ended after 11 years.

Repo man skips Neverland

Pop star Michael Jackson said Sunday that a foreclosure sale on his Neverland Ranch set for this week was averted after a loan on the California property was sold to Colony Capital, a large real estate investment firm. According to Reuters news agency, the loan — reportedly about $23.5 million — had been held by Fortress Investment Group, a New York-based private equity and hedge fund group.

The 2,700-acre Neverland Ranch in Santa Barbara County was slated to be auctioned off tomorrow after Mr. Jackson defaulted on loan payments.

Knight KO’ed in L.A. row

Rotund rap mogul Marion “Suge” Knight was reportedly knocked out cold in a wild Los Angeles melee, says the New York Daily News.

“I want my money,” Mr. Knight yelled at an unidentified man before rushing him with his posse and grabbing him in a headlock, it was reported. When the guy slipped out, he clocked the Death Row Records founder with a right hook to the chin. Mr. Knight lay flat on the ground for three minutes without waking. He was taken to a hospital but when Los Angeles police arrived, he refused to file a report. Photos posted online by TMZ.com show Mr. Knight’s yellow jacket covered with blood spots as he slowly got up.

Mr. Knight — who served a five-year term that ended in 2001 for parole violations — was probed in connection with the 1997 murder of rival rapper Christopher Wallace (aka Biggie Smalls/the Notorious B.I.G.).

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