'Titanic' fame came at sad time for actress

'Titanic' fame cameat sad time for actress
NEW YORK -- The release of the blockbuster that made her a household name, "Titanic," should have been a happy time for Kate Winslet. Instead, she was mourning the loss of her first love, Stephen Tredre.
"Looking back, I see what I was dealing with when 'Titanic' came out," the 31-year-old actress says in Sunday's Parade magazine. "I had a lot of pain, and I was confused about who I was."
The Britain-born Winslet, who's married to director Sam Mendes, met Tredre in London when she was 15 and he was 28. "He was the most important person in my life, next to my family," she says of Tredre, who worked as a TV writer and actor.
"I was very shy," she says. "I was vulnerable ... other girls teased me horribly. I was bullied. I'd just put my head down and get on with it. That was my means of survival. Stephen made me feel secure and embraced."
Tredre was diagnosed with bone cancer in 1994, and died three years later during the opening week of "Titanic." The two had ended their relationship but "talked every day," she says. "This was not somebody I'd turn my back on."
His death was "unbelievably heartbreaking," says Winslet, who went on to star in such movies as "Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind" and "Finding Neverland."
She found love anew with Mendes, 41, whom she wed in 2003. The two have a 2-year-old son, Joe, and Winslet has a 6-year-old daughter, Mia, from her first marriage (to James Threapleton).
Rapper's phone chatlands him in hot water
NEW YORK -- Trouble has found Busta Rhymes again.
The rapper, who's had other run-ins with the law, was caught talking on his cell phone while driving past a Manhattan police station, police said Friday.
Rhymes, whose legal name is Trevor Smith, was cruising past the police station about 7 p.m. Thursday when police say they spotted him on the cell phone.
He was pulled over and issued a summons for the moving violation. His management office declined to comment Friday.
Last month, the best-selling rap star appeared in court on an assault charge after being accused of attacking a man who spit on his car in August. He is due back in court in that case Dec. 11.
In another case involving the unsolved shooting death of his bodyguard Israel Ramirez in February, Rhymes has refused to be questioned by police as a potential witness. Police say Rhymes, 34, has made no effort to help identify the killer. The shooting occurred outside a music video taping in Brooklyn.
Hero of the year
CASTALIA, Ohio -- An Ohio woman has been named Animal Planet's first "Hero of the Year" for her work running a wildlife rehabilitation and nature education center.
Since 1990, Mona Rutger has been rehabilitating animals -- from bald eagles to deer to foxes -- at the nonprofit Back to the Wild center she founded in this community about 50 miles southeast of Toledo. The center also offers educational tours in which groups can learn about some of the animals that live permanently at the 30-acre complex.
Officials at the television station said Rutger stood out from the other 4,000 nominations because of her impressive success rate.
"The reach of her program, and the fact that she is getting 60 percent of the 2,000 injured animals she gets each year returned to the wild, just blew us away," said Victoria Lowell, senior vice president of marketing for the channel.
Ten finalists were selected from the nominations, and people were asked to decide the winner by voting on the channel's Web site. The final announcement was broadcast Wednesday night.
Both the nomination and award were a surprise, Rutger said.
"I thought that was nice, but I never though I'd win," she said. "There must have been hundreds of people nominated. Who would know me out in the middle of Ohio?"
The award includes a trip to Hawaii and a $10,000 prize, which Rutger said she will donate back to the center, which costs about $150,000 a year to operate.
Today's birthdays
Former CBS news anchorman Walter Cronkite is 90. Actress Doris Roberts is 76. Actress Loretta Swit is 69. Rhythm-and-blues singer Harry Elston (Friends of Distinction) is 68. Blues singer Delbert McClinton is 66. First Lady Laura Bush is 60. Actress Markie Post is 56. Rock singer-musician Chris Difford (Squeeze) is 52. Country singer Kim Forester (The Forester Sisters) is 46. Actor Ralph Macchio is 45. "Survivor" host Jeff Probst is 45. Actor Matthew McConaughey is 37. Rapper-producer Sean "Diddy" Combs is 37. Rhythm-and-blues singer Shawn Rivera (Az Yet) is 35. Actress Heather Tom is 31. Rhythm-and-blues/gospel singer George Huff is 26.