Buzz Briefs: Hulk Hogan, Robert Giroux
Divorce Papers Reveal Dispute Over Hulk Hogan's Net Worth
Hulk Hogan and his estranged wife are wrangling over how much money the celebrity wrestler is worth.
According to financial affidavits filed in divorce court near Tampa, Florida, Hogan claims his net worth is $32 million; his wife claims it's $26.7 million.
Hogan, whose real name is Terry Bollea, reports that he's spending $38,000 a month on legal fees. Linda Bollea reports spending $7,000 on clothing, $7,500 on maid service and about $1,700 on jewelry each month.
The couple's quarreling over money comes as their son, Nick, is serving an eight-month jail sentence for causing a traffic crash that left a passenger permanently disabled.
Robert Giroux, Publishing Giant, Dies At 94
Robert Giroux, a distinguished giant of U.S. publishing who guided and supported dozens of great writers from T.S. Eliot and Jack Kerouac to Bernard Malamud and Susan Sontag, died in his sleep early Friday morning. He was 94.
Giroux, who helped create one of the most notable publishing houses - Farrar, Straus & Giroux - had been in failing health for a couple of months and died at an assisted living facility in Tinton Falls, New Jersey, said Jeff Seroy, a Farrar, Straus spokesman.
Known throughout the industry for his taste and discretion, he began in 1940 as an editor at Harcourt, Brace & Company and had so great a reputation that when he left in 1955 to join what was then Farrar, Straus, more than a dozen writers joined him, including Flannery O'Connor, Malamud and Eliot, a close friend.
Olmi Wins Achievement Award At Venice
Italian film director Ermanno Olmi received the Venice Film Festival's 2008 Golden Lion for Lifetime Achievement on Friday.
The 77-year-old film director won the Golden Lion at Venice in 1988 for "La Leggenda Del Santo Bevitore" ("The Legend of the Holy Drinker") and the Palme D'Or at Cannes in 1979 for "The Tree of Wooden Clogs" ("L'Albero Degli Zoccoli").
Olmi recalled during a news conference being inspired by the Italian neorealism of Robert Rossellini and Vittorio De Sica.
He said audiences didn't know how to react to Rossellini's postwar masterpieces "Roma Citta' Aperta" ("Open City") and "Germania Anno Zero" (Germany Year Zero), because the films made them so uncomfortable.
"The cinema of Rossellini, of Di Sica ... is a cinema of the honest men of neorealism, one that has the value of allowing you to recognize yourself on the screen," Olmi said.
Olmi also said he has seen signs of a renaissance in Italian filmmaking in the last couple of years, citing films like "il Divo," a lively portrait of former Premier Giulio Andreotti by Paolo Sorrentino, which was honored at Cannes this year.
"Cinema is beginning again to be aware of being an instrument of civility," Olmi said.
Jacksons Reunite Sans The King Of Pop
The Jacksons were crowned icons at the BMI Urban Awards, but the King of Pop was an absentee.
Janet Jackson presented her music-making brothers - Michael, Tito, Jackie, Marlon, Jermaine and Randy - with the lifetime achievement BMI Icon award following a musical tribute at the awards show celebrating R&B and hip-hop's top hitmakers. While Tito, Jackie, Marlon and Randy reunited Thursday to accept the award, Jermaine and Michael didn't attend the Wilshire Theatre ceremony.
Where was the Moonwalker?
"I don't know," Marlon told The Associated Press before the show. "I think he's in Egypt riding a camel or something."
The Jackson Five - Michael, Marlon, Jackie, Tito and Jermaine - was a groundbreaking, best-selling act that debuted on the 1969 album "Diana Ross Presents The Jackson 5." The group simply became the Jacksons after leaving Motown in 1976, replacing Jermaine with Randy. They continued their multiplatinum success with such hits as "ABC" and "I Want You Back."
Before presenting her brothers with the award, Janet said her family was her greatest commodity and that she was proud to salute her siblings for their accomplishments in the music industry.
Following the acceptance of the icon award, the Jackson brothers posed on stage for photos with father Joseph, mother Katherine and sisters Janet, LaToya and Rebbie. The Jacksons did not perform.
Sally Field Joins AARP's 50th Anniversary Celebration
Actress Sally Field had some advice for the mature crowd celebrating AARP's 50th anniversary on a sunny Thursday at the Lincoln Memorial: Don't get burned.
"I'm worried about you all," she said. "I hope you put some sun block on!"
Field joined tennis star Martina Navratilova, astronaut Buzz Aldrin, NASCAR champion Richard Petty and Elder Bernice King - daughter of Martin Luther King Jr. - to honor the advocacy group for people 50 years old and above.
Leeza Gibbons was the master of ceremonies and Patti Austin and Wynonna Judd sang.
The celebrities encouraged people over 50 to live their dreams, demand affordable health care, be each other's keeper and remember that age is just a number.
AARP has taken pains to show that celebrities age just like everyone else. Earlier this year, its magazine ran a cover with a shirtless Jamie Lee Curtis, the actress who turns 50 this year. She was shown with gray hair, wading in water up to her chest.
Pavarotti's Widow Misses His Zest For Life
Luciano Pavarotti's widow says the celebrated tenor had a great love for life and she is missing his joy and cheerfulness.
Nicoletta Mantovani said the maestro was able to "thrill everyone in the world." She spoke at a meeting Friday to announce plans to mark the first anniversary of his death.
Pavarotti died Sept. 6, 2007, after a battle with cancer. He married Mantovani in 2003 and they had a daughter. He also had three daughters from a previous marriage.
Pavarotti's charismatic persona and powerful voice made him the most beloved tenor since the great Caruso and one of the few opera singers to win crossover fame as a popular superstar.
A concert will be held at New York's Metropolitan Opera House on Sept. 18 and an exhibit will open in Rome on Oct. 17.