Showbuzz
Web posted on:
Friday, August 14, 1998 6:12:12 PM
Today's buzz stories:
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Harrelson
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SAN ANTONIO (CNN) -- The judge who presided at the hearing into whether actor Woody Harrelson's father should get a new trial on murder charges withdrew from the case Friday, saying he erred in judgement on a different court. U.S. District Judge Fred Biery wrote in a recusal motion that his mistake in playing a one-on-one basketball game with Harrelson during the hearing last week in Denver was "a lollapalooza."
Biery said there were 20 other people in the hotel gym where the 30-minute game occurred, and that he and the actor did not talk about the case. Still, the actor is paying for for his father's appeal and attended the full hearing. Charles Harrelson is serving two life prison terms for the 1979 murder of John Wood Jr., who was a federal judge in San Antonio. A new judge was appointed and will decide whether to have a re-hearing.
Biery, a basketball player in college, said the star of "White Men Can't Jump" is "a very good athlete in great condition."
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ODB of rap group Wu-Tang Clan
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VIRGINIA BEACH, Virginia (CNN) -- OBD, the founder of rap group Wu-Tang Clan, has problems beyond a demanding tour schedule and poor airline bookings. General District Judge Robert L. Simpson Jr. issued three arrest warrants for ODB, aka Russell Tyrone Jones, when he failed to show up in court for a third time Thursday. Failure-to-appear charges carry a maximum penalty of a year in jail and a $2,500 fine -- the same as the original charge ODB faced, that of shoplifting a $50 pair of Nikes on July 4. ODB's lawyer said the rapper was touring at the time of his first court hearing and was bumped from flights from New York twice.
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Streep
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LONDON (CNN) -- Madonna was taking violin lessons for the part, but then she had a falling out in July with Wes Craven, the director of "50 Violins." Now Meryl Streep will try to increase her virtuosity by playing Roberta Tzavaras, a violin teacher whose training helped a number of East Harlem hopefuls achieve Carneigie Hall standards. The movie, based on the Oscar-nominated documentary "Small Wonders," is tentatively scheduled to begin production in New York in mid-October.
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Stiller
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NEW YORK (CNN) -- In dark-night-of-the-soul remarks to W Magazine, Ben Stiller wonders about those "loser guy" roles he gets -- the geek in "There's Something About Mary," for instance. He doesn't talk about sex in real life, he says -- and then confesses that being a workaholic on "Permanent Midnight" helped him get over his break-up with longtime girlfriend Jeanne Tripplehorn. What does he do for an encore? He says he jumped at the chance to do "Your Friends and Neighbors," a dark tale of unhappy couples.
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Prince Charles
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LONDON (CNN) -- Geri Halliwell, who quit the chart-topping Spice Girls on
May 31, got a chuummy little note from her friend Prince Charles, the tabloid Mirror reported Friday. "The group certainly will not be the same without your wonderfully friendly greeting in the future," wrote the man who perhaps will one day be the king of England. He also thanked Halliwell for the Spice Girls' help with the charity which bears his name. Halliwell made a habit of giving strait-laced Charles a kiss and a pinch on the royal bottom when them met at charity concerts. The group had earlier been invited to tea with his younger son, Harry.
Reuters contributed to this report.
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