newsmakers

newsmakers

Lea Michele breaks silence on Monteith

LOS ANGELES

Lea Michele is breaking her silence online after her “Glee” co-star and real-life boyfriend Cory Monteith died of an overdose earlier this month.

The actress posted a photo of her and Monteith on Twitter on Monday, along with a message thanking her followers for “helping me through this time with your enormous love & support.”

“Cory will forever be in my heart,” Michele wrote.

Monteith was found dead July 13 in Vancouver, British Columbia. An autopsy revealed the 31-year-old actor died of an overdose of heroin and alcohol.

He and Michele played an on-again, off-again couple in the popular Fox series and were an off-screen couple for about a year.

‘Housewives’ stars charged with fraud

NEWARK, N.J.

Two stars of the “Real Housewives of New Jersey” were indicted Monday on federal fraud charges, accused of exaggerating their income while applying for loans before their TV show debuted in 2009, then hiding their improving fortunes in a bankruptcy filing after their first season aired.

Teresa Giudice, 41, and her husband, Giuseppe “Joe” Giudice, 43, of Montville Township, were charged in a 39-count indictment with conspiracy to commit mail and wire fraud, bank fraud, making false statements on loan applications and bankruptcy fraud.

The reality-TV stars submitted fraudulent mortgage and other loan applications from 2001 through 2008, a year before their show debuted on Bravo, making phony claims about their employment status and salaries, the indictment said.

Joe Giudice also failed to file tax returns for the years 2004 through 2008, when he is alleged to have earned nearly $1 million, the government said.

Miss America, parade return to NJ

The Miss America parade is getting a television-friendly makeover as the tradition returns to Atlantic City in September for the first time in nine years.

The Sept. 14 parade will be televised live for the first time, Miss America Organization CEO Sam Haskell told The Associated Press on Monday. It’s scheduled to air live on WPVI-TV, the ABC affiliate in Philadelphia, and again the next day as part of the lead-in for the Sept. 15 pageant finals, which will be shown on ABC nationally.

“We’re supersizing the parade,” Haskell said. “We’re supersizing the telecast.”

Some local groups have complained about the cost of getting a float in the parade this year — at least $2,000 compared with $200 in 2004, the last time it was held.

Haskell said higher fees will help pay for a more- spectacular event designed to show off Atlantic City.

The parade on the boardwalk harks back to the roots of Miss America, when the pageant launched in 1921 as a way to drum up business for the shore resort after Labor Day.

Vindicator wire services