Kirstie Alley splits from Jenny Craig

Kirstie Alley splits
from Jenny Craig

LOS ANGELES — Kirstie Alley and Jenny Craig may have gone their separate ways, but the one-time “Fat Actress” isn’t giving up on the weight loss industry. “After lengthy negotiations, regretfully the Jenny Craig Company and I did not come to an agreement to continue as their spokesperson,” Alley said in a statement posted on People Magazine’s Web site Tuesday. Alley, 57, told People that while her experience with Jenny Craig was “extraordinary,” she wants “to create something new that will help millions of people end the seemingly never ending fatty-roller coaster ride.” Alley said she intends to develop her own weight-loss brand with plans to launch in 2009.

China puts squeeze
on SpongeBob

BEIJING — SpongeBob SquarePants, Mickey Mouse and Pokemon are officially persona non grata on Chinese prime time. China is extending a ban that virtually locks out all foreign cartoons from airing between 5 p.m. to 9 p.m. in a bid to protect its fledgling domestic cartoon industry. According to a new ruling Wednesday by the State Administration of Radio, Film and Television, no foreign cartoons or programs introducing foreign cartoons can be shown during “the golden hours” on all domestic cartoon channels and children channels starting May 1. The move is intended to help “spur the domestic cartoon industry,” the agency said.

‘Rare’ photo was
Madonna, not Marilyn

LAS VEGAS — Imitation can be the sincerest form of confusion. So learned a Las Vegas man who alerted the media this week that he thought he had his hands on a rare photo of Marilyn Monroe posing nude as a hitchhiker. What he had was a famous photo of Madonna. The image of the Material Girl, who often cast herself as a sort of latter-day Monroe, appeared in “Sex,” her 1992 book of risque photography. In it, she posed in heels and handbag, with a cigarette in her mouth. Lawrence Nicastro, 73, said he found the grainy, poster-size photo last year while going through storage items at his home in Las Vegas. He believed it had been left by a customer at his service station in the Bronx in 1962. Nicastro and his wife, Phyllis, said they had spent about four months researching the origin of the photograph and called in Chris Harris, a publicist and Monroe expert, for help authenticating it. Harris said it was a dead ringer for Monroe and scheduled a Wednesday news conference to unveil the image to reporters. The two men gave The Associated Press a sneak peak Tuesday. “You’re right; it’s Madonna,” Harris said after being told of the mix-up. Harris said he believed someone had slipped the poster into Nicastro’s storage as a prank.

Owen Wilson to co-star
with Anniston in film

LOS ANGELES — Owen Wilson is going back to work for the first time since his reported suicide attempt last summer. Wilson, 39, and co-star Jennifer Aniston begin shooting March 10 on 20th Century Fox’s “Marley & Me,” the studio said. It tells the tale of a couple who adopt a dog to give parenthood a trial run, then find the mischievous pooch more than they bargained for. After he was hospitalized last August, Wilson dropped out of this summer’s comedy “Tropic Thunder,” which already had been in production. He was replaced by Matthew McConaughey. Due out Christmas Day, “Marley & Me” is directed by David Frankel and based on the book by John Grogan. Alan Arkin co-stars.

Today’s birthdays

Fashion designer Hubert de Givenchy is 81. Actress Rue McClanahan is 73. Film/music company executive David Geffen is 65. Actor Alan Rickman is 62. Actress Tyne Daly is 62. Tricia Nixon Cox is 62. Actor William Petersen is 55. Actor Kelsey Grammer is 53. Country singer Mary Chapin Carpenter is 50. Rock singer Ranking Roger is 47. Actor William Baldwin is 45. Country singer Eric Heatherly is 38. Actress Jennifer Love Hewitt is 29. Singer Charlotte Church is 22. Actress Ellen Page (Film: “Juno”) is 21. Actor Corbin Bleu is 19.