newsmakers

March 20, 2010 at 12:00a.m.

newsmakers

DeGeneres gives scholarship to student

JACKSON, Miss.

A lesbian high school student embroiled in a legal flap over her school’s prom policy has received a $30,000 scholarship on “The Ellen DeGeneres Show.” Constance McMillen was speechless Friday when Ellen DeGeneres pulled out an oversized check from the Web site Tonic.Com, a digital media company.

DeGeneres says she admires McMillen for challenging Itawamba County School District rules that would prevent her from escorting her girlfriend to the prom. The school district canceled the April 2 prom after McMillen’s request.

A hearing is scheduled Monday in federal court in Aberdeen on American Civil Liberties Union efforts to force the district to have the prom.

Actresses linked to suicide threat

CASSELBERRY, Fla.

Actresses Demi Moore and Nia Vardalos were linked to an online chain of Twitter posts that ultimately led to Florida authorities intervening Friday when an 18-year-old man threatened to commit suicide.

Moore’s Twitter account, mrskutcher, was among those responding to a message from a young man threatening to hang himself in his front yard in Casselberry, north of Orlando. Moore — with more than 2.5 million followers — and her husband, Ashton Kutcher, are both active on the social network.

Vardalos’ eponymous account included a message that she had called a suicide hot line and been connected to Florida police. “I gave his name+city. They went to home, helped him,” one message read. The Seminole County Sheriff’s Office said authorities received two calls around 2:30 a.m., one from California and one from Vancouver, British Columbia. Both callers reported the suicide threat on Twitter. There was no record of the callers’ names, Lt. Sonia Pisano said.

Deputies went to a home and took the man to a hospital, Pisano said.

Court: Smith estate gets none of oil fortune

SAN FRANCISCO

A federal appeals court says Anna Nicole Smith’s estate will receive none of the more than $300 million that she claimed her late billionaire husband had promised her.

The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals is the latest stop in the 15-year legal battle over the $1.6 billion estate that oil magnate J. Howard Marshall left after his 1995 death at age 90. Smith had married Marshall the previous year and argued that he meant to leave her more than $300 million.