newsmakers

newsmakers

Lohan plays Liz in Lifetime film

NEW YORK

Lindsay Lohan will portray Elizabeth Taylor in a Lifetime film about her love affair with actor Richard Burton.

Lifetime on Monday made official a casting decision rumored for months. The network says Lohan will star in “Liz & Dick,” with production set to begin in early June.

There was no mention of who will play Burton or when the film will air.

Taylor and Burton met as co-stars of the 1963 epic “Cleopatra.” They fell in love as the world looked on, left their respective spouses and got married. Then they divorced, only to remarry and divorce again.

In recent years, the 25-year-old Lohan has gained her own measure of notoriety. “Liz & Dick” represents a step in her attempted career comeback.

Man questioned in art heist faces charges

HARTFORD, Conn.

A reputed Connecticut mobster suspected of having information related to the largest art theft in history has been arraigned on weapons charges.

Seventy-five-year-old Robert Gentile of Manchester leaned on a cane Monday as he slowly rose before a judge in federal court in Hartford to plead not guilty to three charges.

The Manchester man has been detained since his February arrest on a charge of selling illegally obtained prescription painkillers.

Authorities believe Gentile “had some involvement in connection with stolen property” related to the unsolved 1990 heist at the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in Boston. Masterworks worth a half-billion dollars were stolen.

Gentile’s lawyer says he had nothing to do with the art theft. He said after the arraignment that prosecutors are “piling on” with the gun charges.

Hefner says thanks as Playboy moves

CHICAGO

Playboy magazine founder Hugh Hefner officially is bidding Chicago goodbye.

Hefner penned a column for the Chicago Tribune thanking the city where he began the magazine in the early 1950s. Playboy closed its Chicago offices as part of a plan to consolidate in Los Angeles, where Hefner has lived for decades.

Hefner reminisces in the column about his early life in Chicago, including his college and Army years and the magazine’s beginnings. He makes frequent references to Chicago landmarks and says the city shaped Playboy in ways he didn’t realize, calling Chicago “the most significant representation of true, post-war America.”

The 86-year-old says it’s bittersweet to watch the Playboy offices close in a city that he loves.

Nugent set for court in illegal-kill case

ANCHORAGE, Alaska

Rocker Ted Nugent is scheduled for a court hearing today in Alaska and is expected to plead guilty to transporting a black bear he illegally killed.

The conservative activist signed a plea agreement with federal prosecutors that was filed Friday in U.S. District Court.

The plea agreement says Nugent illegally shot and killed the bear in May 2009 on Alaska’s Sukkwan Island after wounding a bear in a bow hunt, which counted toward a state seasonal limit of one bear.

Nugent’s Anchorage attorney, Wayne Anthony Ross, says his client didn’t know he was breaking the law.

According to the agreement, the hunt was filmed for Nugent’s Outdoor Channel television show “Spirit of the Wild.”

The agreement says Nugent knowingly possessed and transported the bear in misdemeanor violation of the Lacey Act.

Giuliana, Bill Rancic expecting a baby

NEW YORK

Giuliana and Bill Rancic are having a baby.

The child will be born later this summer via a gestational surrogate, meaning the baby will be genetically theirs but carried by another woman.

“E! News” first reported the news that they are expecting.

Last fall, 37-year-old Giuliana announced she had breast cancer and later underwent a double mastectomy. She did not need chemotherapy.

Giuliana is the host of “E! News.” Bill is a 40-year-old entrepreneur and motivational speaker who won the first season of Donald Trump’s “The Apprentice.”

Together, they co-star in a reality show on the Style Network called “Giuliana & Bill.” Much of the show has been devoted to their fertility issues.

Vindicator wire services