Springsteen pays tribute to Madam Marie

Springsteen pays tribute to Madam Marie

ASBURY PARK, N.J. — Bruce Springsteen is paying tribute to a boardwalk fortuneteller he made famous in a song.

Madam Marie Castello, who told fortunes on the Asbury Park Boardwalk in New Jersey, died recently. She was 93. Springsteen wrote about her in his 1973 song “4th of July, Asbury Park [Sandy].”

In a posting on his Web site, Springsteen remembers Castello as a boardwalk fixture at the Temple of Knowledge.

“I’d sit across from her on the metal guard rail bordering the beach, and watched as she led the day-trippers into the small back room where she would unlock a few of the mysteries of their future,” he writes. “She always told me mine looked pretty good — she was right.”

Springsteen adds: “Over here on E Street, we will miss her.”

Brinkley tells of learning of her husband’s affair

CENTRAL ISLIP, N.Y. — Christie Brinkley testified at her divorce trial Thursday that the day she learned her husband was having an affair with a teenager was the day her world was “completely shattered.”

The former Sports Illustrated model took the stand in state Supreme Court, a day after testimony by her architect husband, Peter Cook, and his former mistress.

Brian Platt, a police officer and the stepfather of the 18-year-old, informed Brinkley of the affair at a 2006 graduation at Southampton High School where the model was a speaker.

He tapped her on the shoulder, she tearfully recalled, and said, “That husband of yours won’t knock it off. He’s having an affair with my teenage daughter.”

Brinkley said she looked at Cook, sitting in the front row of the graduation ceremony, and when he shook his head in denial, she thought: “My God, it’s true. He did do that.”

“That was also the day that my world was completely shattered,” said Brinkley.

Kylie Minogue honored at Buckingham Palace

LONDON — Britain has honored Australian singer Kylie Minogue for her services to music.

The 40-year-old pop star received an Officer of the Order of the British Empire, or OBE, from Prince Charles during a ceremony Thursday at Buckingham Palace in London.

She was lauded for a career that spans more than two decades.

Minogue first appeared on British television in the mid-1980s soap opera “Neighbors.” She has since sold millions of albums. Her hits include “I Should Be So Lucky” and “Je Ne Sais Pas Pourquoi.”

Student sleuths get show

STATE COLLEGE, Pa. — Student sleuths from Penn State University and their professor will star in a new cable TV reality show about forensic science.

The four-part “Crime Scene University,” which will air on the Investigation Discovery channel starting July 10, follows professor Robert Shaler as he teaches 12 students his popular hands-on crime scene investigation course.

Shaler came to Penn State after retiring in 2005 as chief forensic biologist at the New York City medical examiner’s office.

The TV show followed an intensive two-month class that ended in June 2007. In each episode, two teams of students investigate a “case” and then present their findings to Shaler.

Shaler said he hopes that viewers will learn how the realities of crime scene work differ from TV dramas like “CSI.”

Today’s birthdays

Conductor Mitch Miller is 97. Advice columnist Abigail Van Buren is 90. Actress Eva Marie Saint is 84. Actress Gina Lollobrigida is 81. Playwright Neil Simon is 81. Singer Bill Withers is 70. TV talk-show host Geraldo Rivera is 65. Steel guitarist Teddy Carr (Ricochet) is 48. Bassist Matt Malley of Counting Crows is 45. Singer Stephen “Ste” McNally of BBMak is 30.