Beatty sues Tribune Media
Beatty sues Tribune Media
ORLANDO, Fla. -- It's war, baby. Warren Beatty is suing Tribune Media Services. The damsel they're fighting over? Dick Tracy. Beatty wants to make a sequel to his 1990 Disney film about the comic-book hero, which made more than $100 million and birthed the catch phrase, "I'm on my way." Tribune won't let him, claiming it owns all rights to Dick Tracy. Seems the rights to Dick Tracy went from Tribune to Beatty to Disney and back to Tribune. But Disney rejected that last move and gave Dick Tracy back to Beatty. Beatty, who would probably make a very different Dick Tracy now that he's 68, beats his chest. "Tribune is a big, powerful company," he says. But "they picked the wrong guy." A Tribune representative says he hasn't taken a look at the lawsuit.
Brenner, Babilonia to wed
NEW YORK -- Comedian David Brenner, 60, and former Olympic figure skater Tai Babilonia are engaged, the New York Post says. Brenner popped the question without any fuss: "I just said 'Let's go for it.'" The 45-year-old five-time U.S. pairs figure-skating champion knew she wanted the comic. She sent an e-mail to his fan Web site after having met him just once. "Tai and I have our hearts set on Baghdad," Brenner said via e-mail about the wedding site. "But it is so noisy, dirty and disorderly now, we are going to wait until it is oozing democracy and bubbling as the vacation gem of the Middle East."
Metcalf refurbishes home
LOS ANGELES -- Jesse Metcalf, 26, who stars as the handsome gardener on the ABC-TV series "Desperate Housewives," has finished some refurbishing on the Hollywood Hills home he bought recently for about $1.1 million. The Mediterranean-style home, built in 1990, has five bedrooms, five bathrooms and a game or billiards room with a wet bar in just under 3,000 square feet. The four-story home has city, mountain and canyon views.
Jason Priestley marries
NEW YORK -- Former "Beverly Hills, 90210" star Jason Priestley has married longtime girlfriend Naomi Lowde, the actor's publicist, Marla Weinstein, said Tuesday. Priestley and Lowde wed Saturday on Paradise Island in the Bahamas, Weinstein said. No further details were available. After several years together, the 35-year-old actor and Lowde, a makeup artist, became engaged last May. It is the second marriage for Priestley, who was married to Ashlee Peterson, also a makeup artist, for less than a year before divorcing in early 2000. Priestley, who played Brandon Walsh on the long-running teen drama, was seriously injured in an August 2002 car crash. The avid race car driver spun out of control at 180 mph and hit a wall nearly head-on during practice at the Kentucky Speedway. More recently, Priestley appeared in the campy independent film "Die Mommie Die!" He also directed the 1999 documentary "Barenaked in America," about his fellow Canadians, the band Barenaked Ladies.
Duvalls buy in Hollywood
LOS ANGELES -- Oscar-winning actor Robert Duvall and his wife, Luciana, have purchased a home in West Hollywood for slightly less than $1 million. The couple will use the gated property as a pied-a-terre when working in Los Angeles. They live primarily on their Revolutionary War-era estate in rural Virginia. The West Hollywood house has two bedrooms and two bathrooms in about 1,300 square feet. The Spanish-style home was built in the 1920s. The Duvalls plan to renovate it.
Notable death
ROME -- Piero Dorazio, considered one of the fathers of Italian abstract painting, died Tuesday in Perugia after being treated for kidney problems that were a consequence of diabetes, hospital officials said. He was 77. A painter and a sculptor who had studied architecture in Rome and in Paris, Dorazio joined various avant-garde movements and attracted attention in the late 1950s for the way he represented space using the vibration of light through a transparent structure. Among his first works in the 1950s was a collective mural painting in Milan.
Today's birthdays
PBS newscaster Jim Lehrer is 71. TV personality David Hartman is 70. Actor James Fox is 66. Actress Nancy Kwan is 66. Author-director Nora Ephron is 64. Rock singer-composer Pete Townshend (The Who) is 60. Concert pianist David Helfgott is 58. Rock singer-musician Dusty Hill (ZZ Top) is 56. Singer-actress Grace Jones is 53. Rock musician Phil Rudd (AC-DC) is 51. Baseball catcher Rick Cerone is 51. Actor Steven Ford is 49. Rock musician Iain Harvie (Del Amitri) is 43.