Buzz Briefs: Ritter Suit, Kirsten Dunst
Trial Starts In Lawsuit Against Ritter Docs
A lawyer representing John Ritter's family is telling a Glendale jury he will show that doctors caused the actor's death by improper diagnosis and substandard treatment.
Attorney Moses Lebovits said Monday in opening statements that the doctors did everything wrong.
Ritter died from a torn aorta in September 2003 at Providence St. Joseph Medical Center in Burbank.
Central to the case is the claim that a cardiologist failed to have a chest X-ray done before treating Ritter for what appeared to be a heart attack.
The lawsuit seeks $67 million in damages.
combined.
Spider-Man Star Kirsten Dunst Enters Rehab
The Spider-Man star is being treated at the exclusive Cirque Lodge Treatment Center in Utah, the same facility where Lindsay Lohan spent nearly two months and where Eva Mendes recently checked in, according to the source.
"She's not doing well," the source says. "People were pushing her to go in there but there was no intervention… She has been partying hard for a while and I'm sure the Heath Ledger thing put people over the edge."
Dunst, 25, who is a regular on the party scene in Los Angeles, was recently seen partying at the Sundance Film Festival where she hung out with Josh Hartnett at Hyde Lounge. Despite reports of erratic behavior at the festival, sources say Dunst was just displaying her usual "care free party girl antics."
However, the following day Dunst failed show up to her own Glamour magazine party. A source at the time said the actress "wasn't feeling well."
Hilton's Film Takes In Paltry $25K
An estimate from box-office tracker Media By Numbers shows her comedy "The Hottie and the Nottie" took in around $25,000 in 111 theaters over the weekend. That's an average of about $225 per theater.
The movie stars Hilton as a bombshell who refuses to date until her ugly best friend finds love.
By contrast, the nation's number-one movie at the box office over the weekend, "Fool's Gold," took in $22 million.
Ron Leavitt, Co-Creator Of "Married With Children," Dies At 60
Ron Leavitt, who co-created the sitcom "Married With Children," died Sunday. He was 60.
Leavitt died of lung cancer at his home in Los Angeles, said his publicist Larry Winokur.
Leavitt was best known for teaming up with Michael G. Moye to create "Married With Children," the sitcom about the luckless shoe salesman Al Bundy and his dysfunctional family.
"Married With Children" ran on the Fox network from 1987 to 1997 and became the network's second-longest running sitcom behind "The Simpsons."
Leavitt served as executive producer of the show and helped write nearly 150 episodes.
"He created that show to make people laugh and show life isn't perfect," said the model and actress Jessica Hahn, with whom he had a relationship. "I know he's going to make God laugh, but Jesus I miss him."
A native of Brooklyn, N.Y., Leavitt broke into television in the 1970s writing episodes of "Busting Loose," "Happy Days," "Laverne & Shirley" and "The Bad News Bears." In the 1980s, Leavitt had a stint as a producer of "The Jeffersons."
Leavitt is survived by two children, Matt and Samantha. The family plans a private service.
McCartney-Mills Divorce Back In Court
The fight over the wealth of the former Beatle, who is estimated to have as much as $1.6 billion, could produce Britain's largest ever divorce settlement.
Mills was the first to arrive at the court for the hearing.
The hearing before Justice Hugh Bennett will proceed behind closed doors, and the terms of any settlement would not become public record unless it moved to the Court of Appeal, or either of the parties chooses to reveal details.
"Current estimates suggest that Heather is likely to receive anything from 50 million to 100 million pounds ($100-200 million) as her final settlement," said Suzanne Kingston, a family law expert.
Mills intends to represent herself. She fired her lawyers in November after a series of interviews in which she accused McCartney of failing to protect her and their child from abuse, which she says ranges from lies and slander to death threats.
"We've had death threats, I've been close to suicide. I'm so upset about this," she said in one of her November interviews. "I've had worse press than a pedophile or a murderer, and I've done nothing but charity for 20 years."
"I have protected Paul for this long and I am trying to protect him but I am being pushed to the edge and I don't want my daughter when she is 12 going on the Internet and reading this totally one-sided story."
Mills' left leg was amputated below the knee after a motorcycle accident in 1993, and she became active in campaigning against land mines, as patron of Adopt-A-Minefield.
The couple married in June 2002, and their daughter, Beatrice, was born in October the following year. They announced their separation in 2006.