Fans want Knotts statue

Fans want Knotts statue
MOUNT AIRY, N.C. -- Fans of Don Knotts, who played bumbling Deputy Barney Fife on "The Andy Griffith Show," still want a statue to honor him, despite legal problems that appear to have killed the project.
Tom Hellebrand and Neal Shelton, two fans of the '60s family comedy, were trying to raise $35,000 for a statue of Knotts in Mount Airy, model for the fictional town of Mayberry.
Paramount/CBS, which owns the rights to the series and its characters, initially granted permission for the statue. The company said recently it didn't have the authority to do so. Network lawyers said the Knotts estate doesn't want the statue to be built.
Shelton and Hellebrand say other Knotts fans have been encouraging them to move forward with the project, including organizing a letter-writing campaign to the actor's survivors.
Hoffman is 200th guest
NEW YORK -- Dustin Hoffman is a lucky guy. He got his big break in 1967's "The Graduate" -- despite his audition.
In a two-hour edition of Bravo's "Inside the Actors Studio," set to air June 25 (9 p.m. EDT), Hoffman recalls the experience: "I went to shake the prop guy's hand and all my subway tokens fell out [of my pocket]. And he picked them up and handed them back to me saying, 'Here kid, you're gonna need these."'
The 68-year-old Hoffman, who won Oscars for 1988's "Rain Man" and 1979's "Kramer vs. Kramer," is the 200th guest on the program, hosted by James Lipton.
"A friend told me to take acting, and I asked him, 'Why? I don't want to act,"' Hoffman recalls. "And he said, 'Because no one failed acting."'
Tax bill likely to double
LONDON -- When Princess Margaret's children decided to sell off many of her possessions to raise money to pay Britain's strict inheritance tax, they probably didn't expect to double their tax bill.
Viscount David Linley and Lady Sarah Chatto planned to use some of the proceeds to pay an estimated $5.5 million in inheritance taxes.
But with most items selling for far more than their estimated worth, the two-day auction at Christie's last week earned far more than anticipated -- raising $24.6 million.
Linley and Chatto now face a separate capital gains tax from the sale that experts believe will likely equal the inheritance tax bill.
Bob Rothenberg of the London-based firm Blick Rothenberg said the two would be subject to capital gains tax charged at up to 40 percent of the increase in the value of Margaret's possessions between when they inherited them and when they were sold.
Margaret, the younger sister of Queen Elizabeth II, died of a stroke in February 2002 at age 71.
Today's birthdays
Actor Ian Carmichael is 86. Movie critic Roger Ebert is 64. Actress Constance McCashin is 59. Actress Isabella Rossellini is 54. Actress Carol Kane is 54. Rock singer Alison Moyet is 45. Country singer-musician Tim Hunt is 39. Actress Mara Hobel is 35. Rapper Silkk the Shocker is 31. Country singer Blake Shelton is 30. Actress Renee Olstead ("Still Standing") is 17.