newsmakers

newsmakers

Melanie Griffith files to divorce Banderas

LOS ANGELES

Melanie Griffith and Antonio Banderas are ending their 18-year marriage.

Griffith filed for divorce Friday in Los Angeles, citing irreconcilable differences for the split.

The actors were married in May 1996 and have a 17-year-old daughter together. Griffith, 55, is seeking spousal support from Banderas but is willing to pay her own attorneys’ fees, her filing shows.

Griffith, who has a tattoo of Banderas’ first name in a heart on her right shoulder, signed the divorce petition May 30 but did not specify the date of the couple’s separation.

The pair first worked together on the set of the 1995 romantic comedy “Two Much,” and the 52-year-old actor directed his wife in the 1999 film “Crazy in Alabama.”

Banderas in recent years has served as the voice of the animated character Puss in Boots in the “Shrek” films and starred in Pedro Almodovar’s two most recent films, “The Skin I Live In” and “I’m So Excited!”

Griffith was nominated for an Oscar for her performance in the 1998 film “Working Girl.” She recently has turned to television work, guest-starring in the series “Hawaii Five-0,” “Hot in Cleveland” and “Raising Hope.”

An email sent to the couple’s publicist, Robin Baum, was not immediately returned.

Judge: Casey Kasem’s daughter in charge of medical care

PORT ORCHARD, Wash.

A Washington state judge on Friday said Casey Kasem’s daughter, not her stepmother, is in charge of the medical care for the 82-year-old radio personality, who remains in critical condition with an infected bedsore.

However, all members of Kasem’s family can visit him at the hospital — just not at the same time, Kitsap County Superior Court Judge Jennifer Forbes ruled.

Kasem has been receiving intravenous antibiotics and other care at St. Anthony Hospital in Gig Harbor, Wash., for a serious pressure ulcer he had when he was admitted Sunday, according to a hospital statement.

Hospital spokesman Scott Thompson said Friday he would make no comment beyond the statement that was issued Thursday.

“Right now, Casey Kasem’s health is declining, and [he] won’t be with us much longer,” daughter Kerri Kasem’s spokesman, Danny Deraney, said in a statement.

“I want to be there for my dad,” Kerri Kasem said outside court Friday, KOMO-TV reported. “All of us. So if he does happen to open his eyes and look up, his entire family is there.”

The former radio-show host is suffering from a form of dementia called Lewy Body Disease, according to court records.

His daughter said she is considering putting her father in hospice care at St. Anthony, the Kitsap Sun reported.

Kasem gained fame with his radio music countdown shows “American Top 40” and “Casey’s Top 40.” He also was the voice of Shaggy in the cartoon “Scooby Doo.”

Wife Jean Kasem has been in control of her husband’s medical care and has controlled access to him as his children from an earlier marriage contested who should make those decisions. The couple have been staying for about a month at the home of friends in Kitsap County, west of Seattle.

Associated Press