Pitt spearheads effort to rebuild New Orleans

Pitt spearheads effort
to rebuild New Orleans

NEW YORK — Brad Pitt expects the foundations to be built for at least 150 eco-friendly homes in New Orleans’ Lower 9th Ward by the end of next summer.

“I’m hoping we can expand here and expand over into the rest of New Orleans,” the 43-year-old actor said Monday morning in an interview on NBC’s “Today” show as he walked through the devastated neighborhood.

The initiative, called Make It Right, is Pitt’s latest effort to help the area recover from Hurricane Katrina. Pitt has also worked with the environmental organization Global Green USA to build five single-family homes and an 18-unit apartment complex and community center; earlier this year, he and Angelina Jolie purchased a mansion in the city’s French Quarter for $3.5 million. Pitt has pledged $5 million of his own money toward the project and — calling himself “not much of a salesman” — was campaigning for more donations for the cause.

“I mean, this is really an adopt-a-house campaign,” he said. “I’m asking for foundations, for high net-worth individuals, for church groups, for corporations to come in and adopt a house — basically, $150,000 will get a family back in their home.”

Knievel assault victim
seeks $13M in damages

LOS ANGELES — Of all the bones Evel Knievel broke over the years, the costliest may have been the left arm of a PR man by the name of Shelly Saltman.

Saltman won $12.75 million in damages against Knievel after the motorcycle daredevil attacked him with a baseball bat in 1977 in a rage over a book Saltman had written about the showman.

With interest, the still-uncollected sum has grown to more than $100 million by Saltman’s estimate, and he intends to try to collect it.

Knievel died Friday at 69.

Although little remembered today, the incident made headlines worldwide when the death-defying motorcyclist approached Saltman in the parking lot of 20th Century Fox on Sept. 21, 1977, and suddenly started swinging a bat.

Saltman, then a studio executive, raised his arm to protect his head, a move he says doctors told him probably saved his life.

His arm was shattered and is held together to this day with a steel plate and screws.

Knievel served six months in jail.

Today’s birthdays

Actress-singer Deanna Durbin is 86. Game show host Wink Martindale is 73. Actor-producer Max Baer Jr. is 70. Actress Gemma Jones is 65. Rock musician Bob Mosley (Moby Grape) is 65. Singer-musician Chris Hillman is 63. Musician Terry Woods (The Pogues) is 60. Rock singer Southside Johnny Lyon is 59. Actor Jeff Bridges is 58. Rock musician Gary Rossington (Lynyrd Skynyrd; the Rossington Collins Band) is 56. Actress Patricia Wettig is 56. Jazz singer Cassandra Wilson is 52. Country musician Brian Prout (Diamond Rio) is 52. Rock musician Bob Griffin (The BoDeans) is 48. Rock singer Vinnie Dombroski (Sponge) is 45. Actress Marisa Tomei is 43. Actress Chelsea Noble is 43. Actor-comedian Fred Armisen is 41. Rapper Jay-Z is 38. Actor Kevin Sussman (“Ugly Betty”) is 37. Actress-model Tyra Banks is 34. Country singer Lila McCann is 26. Actress Lindsay Felton is 23. Actor Orlando Brown is 20.