ENGAGED
Nicole Kidman, 38, finally announced on May 13 that she will marry Aussie country star
Keith Urban, 38.
SOLD
A 1962 Andy Warhol painting of a Campbell's soup can sold for $11.7
million at Christie's on May 9. Or the buyer could've just peeled the
label off a can of pepper pot for, like, $2.05.
CHARGED
Christopher Langham,
57, the British actor who won a BAFTA award (the U.K. equivalent of an
Emmy) for his role in the BBC series The Thick of It, was charged on May
10 with 15 counts of possessing child pornography. ''I am anxious to
clear my name,'' the father of five said in a statement.
COURTS
On May 14, Richard Pryor's daughter Elizabeth initiated proceedings in
L.A. to remove stepmom Jennifer Lee, 53, from her dad's will. Her
petition claims Lee mentally abused the comedian in his last years of
life. Says Lee: ''We'll deal with this in court.''... Richard Hatch, 45,
who won $1 million in the debut season of Survivor, was sentenced on May
16 in Rhode Island to four years and three months in prison for failing
to pay income taxes on his prize money and other earnings.... Daniel M.
Biechele, 29, the tour manager for heavy metal band Great White, was
sentenced on May 10 to four years in prison and three years' probation.
Biechele set off the pyrotechnics that started a Rhode Island nightclub
fire that killed 100 people three years ago.... Nick Nolte, 65,
unsuccessfully tried to quash a suit on May 11 by a now 18-year-old who
alleges she was dosed with the date-rape drug GHB and molested three
years ago while attending a party at his Malibu house. (The actor wasn't
home.) The suit will go to trial in June. Nolte's lawyer could not be
reached for comment.... Ex-teen idol Leif Garrett, 44, was sentenced to
90 days in jail and three years' probation on May 11 in L.A. stemming
from a heroin bust in January 2006 and a cocaine-related charge in
2005.... Aston ''Family Man'' Barrett (his nickname a nod to the fact that
he fathered 52 children), 60, the Bob Marley and the Wailers bassist,
lost a £60 million ($113.6 million) lawsuit on May 15 in London. He
claimed Island Records and the Marley family owed him royalties and
songwriting credits.... On May 9, Roy Sciacca, a rock memorabilia
collector from Florida, filed suit against the Beach Boys for preventing
him from selling sheet music he contends he bought more than 20 years
ago at auctions in California. A lawyer for the Beach Boys says the band
has evidence proving the items were stolen.
DEATHS
Latin-music singer-songwriter Soraya, 37, of breast cancer, May 10, in
Miami.... Land surveyor George Lee Lutz, 59, who lived in the
Amityville, N.Y., house that inspired the 1977 Amityville Horror novel
and 1979 and 2005 films, of heart disease, May 8, in Las Vegas.... Jazz
pianist John Hicks, 64, of internal bleeding, May 10, in NYC.
LEGACY
STANLEY KUNITZ
1905-2006
Former American poet laureate Kunitz died May 14 of pneumonia. In his
100 years, he won a Pulitzer Prize, a Bollingen prize, a National Medal
of Arts, and a National Book Award. In one of his most famous works,
''The Portrait,'' he reflected upon the suicide of his father, a subject
emotionally paralyzing for both Kunitz and his mother: She locked his
name/in her deepest cabinet/and would not let him out/though I could
hear him thumping.
