NEWS MAKERS

August 7, 2010 at 12:00a.m.

NEWS MAKERS

Bernsen in bar brawl

NEW FRANKLIN, Ohio

Actor-director Corbin Bernsen has told police he was thrown to the ground during a bar brawl in Ohio, where he’s making a movie.

According to a police report, the star of TV’s “Psych” and “L.A. Law” says he scraped a knee in the fight July 27 in the Akron area, where Bernsen is filming “25 Hill” about the All-American Soap Box Derby.

A spokeswoman for the movie claims the scuffle began when a local man made unwanted advances to a woman on Bernsen’s film crew while the moviemakers were having dinner.

The man told New Franklin police that he knew the woman from high school and was merely saying hello.

Punches were thrown, and “25 Hill” co-producer James Greilick was treated for a black eye.

No one is pressing charges.

Bernie Mac’s widow sues

CHICAGO

Comedian Bernie Mac’s widow has filed a wrongful death lawsuit in Chicago against the late comedian’s longtime doctor.

Rhonda McCullough alleges that a few weeks before Mac’s 2008 death, dermatologist Rene M. Earles didn’t recognize indications of respiratory failure and kept the 50-year-old Chicago native at the clinic for several hours rather than call an ambulance.

Earles tells the Chicago Sun-Times he treated Mac that day. He says Mac appeared weak, had a low-grade fever and a rash. He says after Mac told him another doctor had given him an injection for a cold, he called Mac’s doctor and was told Mac had been diagnosed with pneumonia in both lungs. He says he immediately advised Mac to go to a hospital and that Mac was taken to one in a chauffer-driven vehicle.

Visit to Graceland

MEMPHIS, Tenn.

Prince Albert of Monaco and his fiancee visited the home of the “King of Rock ’N’ Roll” and sampled some barbecue during a vacation stop in Memphis.

The couple took a tour Thursday of Graceland, the 38-room mansion where Elvis Presley died in 1977 and is buried.

The prince says he always wanted to visit Graceland and calls Elvis an “extraordinary figure.”

He says: “Elvis touched our lives as well and the lives of so many people. We wanted to pay our respects and see what this place was all about.”

Prince Albert and fiancee Charlene Wittstock are on a vacation tour of the United States. They came just before “Elvis Week,” a series of events to mark the anniversary of Presley’s death on Aug. 16.

Bring cash

SADDLE RIVER, N.J.

Buyers checking out the contents of a New Jersey estate once owned by Russell and Kimora Lee Simmons should bring a lot of cash.

The Saddle River mansion was featured on MTV’s “Cribs” and Style Network’s “Kimora: Life in the Fab Lane.”

Inside, a bed once owned by slain clothing designer Gianni Versace is selling for $200,000. The pillow is $2,000.

The nearly 4-acre estate is on the market for $13.9 million, down from the original asking price of $23.8 million. The couple divorced in 2008.

Princess is pregnant

COPENHAGEN, Denmark

The Danish royal court says Denmark’s Crown Princess Mary is pregnant and expecting twins.

The court said in a statement Friday that the 38-year-old princess is due in January 2011. She is expected to give birth at Rigshospitalet, the national hospital, in Copenhagen.

The announcement follows weeks of intense media speculation that the princess is pregnant.

The Tasmanian-born princess married Crown Prince Frederik in 2004. The couple already has two children, 4-year-old Christian and 3-year-old Isabella.

Crown Princess Mary was named one of the top 10 best-dressed women of 2010 in the September edition of Vanity Fair.

Advocacy hurt career

BEVERLY HILLS, Calif.

Sacheen Littlefeather says she paid a price when she decried Hollywood’s stereotyped portrayal of American Indians at the 1973 Oscars.

Littlefeather, who was sent by Marlon Brando to decline his best-actor award for “The Godfather,” says her high-profile advocacy put her life at risk and cut her acting career short.

She says when she visited Brando after the ceremony, bullets were fired at his front door. No one was injured.

Littlefeather, who went on to appear in just a handful of films, also claims the U.S. government encouraged the entertainment industry to avoid hiring her as part of its effort to quash American Indian activism.