Thursday, April 22, 2004
Report: Basinger's jewelsfrom Baldwin sell big
NEW YORK -- The engagement ring that Alec Baldwin gave his now ex-wife, Kim Basinger, has sold for nearly double its estimated auction price, Hello! magazine reports. The 3.7-carat Tiffany diamond, sold along with other gems from Basinger's jewelry collection, fetched $59,750. The simple but elegant piece had been estimated to reach $30,000 to $40,000 before the Christie's auction.
Another gift from Baldwin, a multigem necklace with a butterfly motif, also went for twice its predicted price, selling for $20,315.
Basinger, who split with Baldwin in 2000 after nine years, sold the gems for charity to raise funds for the Performing Animal Welfare Society, which runs a refuge for abused and retired captive wildlife.
Meanwhile, Baldwin is considering turning the messy divorce into a new guide for warring dads.
He tells the New York magazine Gotham: "It's going to be a compilation of essays from people who have been through the divorce experience from every aspect to share their hope and strength about how they got through that situation."
Chases' celebrity auctionwill help education center
NEW YORK -- Chevy Chase and his wife, Jayni, are auctioning items donated by their famous friends to raise funds for the Center for Environmental Education's Web site.
The online auction at www.charityfolks.com starts today and continues through May 6. Among the top items up for bid are backstage passes and tickets to a David Bowie concert, a two-week internship at Rolling Stone magazine and lunch with former President Clinton and Chase, a former "Saturday Night Live" star. They hope to raise at least $250,000. "One of the fortuitous things about this is that I'm a movie star," Chase said. "And I have a lot of friends who are rock stars and movie stars, so I wrote to them personally and told them about the auction and asked for their help." Chase and his wife founded the nonprofit education center in 1989 in California. The center has since moved to the Environmental Studies Department at Antioch New England Graduate School in Keene, N.H. They plan to upgrade the center's Web site with the funds so resources are more available to elementary school teachers and pupils can share their environmental work and ideas online.
Ex-singer is attacked
LONDON -- Shane MacGowan, former singer with Irish folk-rockers The Pogues, suffered facial injuries during a beating in a central London pub, a British newspaper reported Wednesday.
Today's Birthdays
Actor Eddie Albert is 96. TV producer Aaron Spelling is 81. Actor George Cole is 79. Actress Charlotte Rae is 78. Actress Estelle Harris ("Seinfeld") is 72. Singer Glen Campbell is 68. Actor Jack Nicholson is 67. Singer Mel Carter is 61. Country singer Cleve Francis is 59. Movie director John Waters is 58. Singer Peter Frampton is 54. Rock singer-musician Paul Carrack (Mike and the Mechanics; Squeeze) is 53. Actor Joseph Bottoms is 50. Actor Ryan Stiles is 45. Comedian Byron Allen is 43. Actor Chris Makepeace is 40. Actress Sheryl Lee is 37. Country singer-musician Heath Wright (Ricochet) is 37. Country singer Kellie Coffey is 33. Actor Ingo Rademacher is 33. Rock singer-musician Daniel Johns (Silverchair) is 25.