newsmakers

newsmakers

‘Girls Gone Wild’ files bankruptcy over debts

LOS ANGELES

“Girls Gone Wild” has filed for bankruptcy in a move it says is an effort to restructure its legal affairs after several disputed court judgments.

The company filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy Wednesday in Los Angeles, listing more than $16 million in disputed claims.

The largest claim is $10.3 million that Wynn Resorts is seeking from the company for judgments entered against “Girls Gone Wild” founder Joe Francis over a gambling debt and statements he has made about the casino and its founder, Steve Wynn.

Francis no longer owns the company, which has made a fortune selling videos and magazines of young women flashing their breasts.

“Girls Gone Wild” issued a statement that it is financially strong but needed to “restructure its frivolous and burdensome legal affairs.”

Menzel of ‘Wicked’ to return to Broadway

NEW YORK

Idina Menzel, who won a Tony Award as the green witch in “Wicked,” is planning a return to Broadway.

Producers of a new musical by the creators of the Pulitzer Prize-winning “Next to Normal” announced Thursday that Menzel will star in their “I/Then,” a Broadway-bound musical that first takes a stop this fall in Washington, D.C.

Tom Kitt will supply the music, Brian Yorkey will write the story and lyrics, and Michael Greif will direct. All three did the same jobs for “Next to Normal.”

The new show will make its world premiere this November at the National Theatre in Washington, D.C., and then go on to open on Broadway in March 2014.

Producers said the musical will center on the character of Elizabeth, who on the verge of turning 40, moves to New York.

Glamorous Diana dresses up for auction

LONDON

If dresses could talk, this dark navy, figure-hugging velvet number would have the best stories to tell.

Princess Diana wore it on state visits, at royal banquets and, most memorably, to a gala dinner at the White House in 1985 when she took to the dance floor with Hollywood star John Travolta.

The Victor Edelstein gown will go under the hammer at a vintage fashion auction in London in March, along with nine other of Diana’s lavish evening dresses. In total, Kerry Taylor Auctions says the sale is expected to raise more than $1.2 million.

The dresses, all in the signature 1980s look — padded shoulders, puffed sleeves, crushed velvet — are snapshots in the princess’s glamorous, jet-setting life.

Associated Press