Painting returned to Jewish art dealer

Painting returned to Jewish art dealer

PROVIDENCE, R.I. — A painting forcibly auctioned by Germany’s Nazi government should remain with the estate of a late Jewish art dealer who lost it when his gallery was liquidated, a federal appeals court ruled Wednesday.

The ruling by the 1st U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Boston blocks an attempt by German baroness Maria-Luise Bissonnette to recoup the painting “Girl from the Sabine Mountains,” which has been valued by appraisers between $67,000 and $94,000.

The painting is believed to be a work of Franz Xaver Winterhalter, a 19th-century artist famous for painting Queen Victoria, the czar of Russia and other European nobles.

Last year, a federal judge in Providence ordered Bissonnette to give the painting to the estate of Max Stern, who lost his family’s Dusselldorf art gallery when the Nazis forced its closure in 1937. Bissonnette then sought to overturn the lower court’s ruling and win the painting back.

In Wednesday’s three-judge ruling, Judge Bruce Selya said the court was righting a wrong committed during one of history’s bleakest periods, the Holocaust.

Hugh Jackman named ‘Sexiest Man Alive’

NEW YORK — Hugh Jackman says wife Deborra-Lee Furness teased him after finding out he’d been named People magazine’s “Sexiest Man Alive.”

Recalling Furness’ reaction, Jackman says: “God bless her, she said, ‘I could’ve told them that years ago! And then she said, ‘Obviously Brad (Pitt) wasn’t available this year.’ And I said, ‘That was a joke, right?”’

The magazine’s executive editor, Jess Cagle, said Wednesday on NBC’s “Today” show that Jackman is a “surprising choice,” but he’d been on the editors’ minds “for a long time and it seemed like this was the year to do him.”

Cagle pointed out that not only is Jackman’s career at its peak, with the “X-Men” movies and his upcoming epic with Nicole Kidman “Australia,” but he’s “built like a tank.”

Van Der Beek back creekside in N.C.

RALEIGH, N.C. — James Van Der Beek is back creekside.

Five years after his star-making turn as the center of “Dawson’s Creek” came to an end, Van Der Beek is back on one of Wilmington’s sound stages — working with some of his former crew colleagues — for a guest appearance on the CW’s teen drama “One Tree Hill.” The episode airs Monday night.

“This is just a real nice homecoming for me,” he said.

Van Der Beek has tried to distance himself from his days as Dawson Leery, a film-crazed teen with aspirations of becoming a director.

He returned to North Carolina to play a director on “One Tree Hill” who is interested in turning a book written by Chad Michael Murray’s character into a film.

Van Der Beek will appear in three episodes, with the rest airing in January after the show returns from a holiday break.

Today’s birthdays

Actress-comedian Kaye Ballard is 83. Actress Estelle Parsons is 81. TV personality Richard Dawson is 76. Comedian Dick Smothers is 70. Singer Norman Greenbaum is 66. Musician Joe Walsh is 61. Actor Richard Masur (“One Day at a Time”) is 60. Actress Bo Derek is 52. Actress Sean Young is 49. Pianist Jim Brickman is 47. Actress Ming-Na (“ER”) is 45. Rapper Mike D of the Beastie Boys is 43. Country singer Dierks Bentley is 33. Actor Joshua Gomez (“Chuck”) is 33. Country singer Josh Turner is 31. Actress Nadine Velazquez (“My Name Is Earl”) is 30.