Buzz Briefs: Spice Girls, Eva Longoria
Spice Girls Take On The Sky
That's one Spicy plane.
The Spice Girls on Wednesday unveiled the new name of a Virgin Atlantic jumbo jet: Spice One.
As part of a promotion for their reunion tour, the Spice Girls selected three names and let e-voters decide which one would grace the Boeing 747.
The losing names were Spice Girl and Girl Power.
Voter Diogo Yomane from Brazil won a contest and joined the Spice Girls at the ceremony at Los Angeles International Airport.
The Spice Girls got their start with Virgin's record label, which released their single "Wannabe" in 1996. They broke up in 2001 after selling more than 55 million records but reunited earlier this month for their first tour since 1999.
Eva Longoria And Tony Parker Deny His Romp With French Model
The San Antonio Spurs star and his wife, Eva Longoria, issued a statement Wednesday night defending their marriage against claims by a French model that she had an affair with Parker in September.
"I love my wife," Parker, 25, said in the statement from Longoria's spokeswoman, Liza Anderson. "She's the best thing in my life, and I have never been happier."
"Tony has been nothing short of the perfect husband," said the 32-year-old actress, who stars on ABC's "Desperate Housewives."
Alexandra Paressant made the allegations in an interview with celebrity gossip Web site X17.
Anderson said in a separate statement Wednesday the claims were "completely, 100 percent false and untrue. All high-profile couples fall victim to these sorts of things in the course of their relationships."
Parker and Longoria were married in a civil ceremony July 6 in Paris. The next day, a priest married them in a church across from the Louvre Museum, followed by an exclusive bash at a storied French chateau.
Clooney And Cheadle Receive Darfur Award
The actors were presented with a bronze statue by Italian sculptor Oliviero Rainaldi for "their efforts in favor of pacifying the tormented region of Darfur and for helping save lives," organizers said.
"We're part of a tiny group of people fighting for peace," Clooney, 46, said in a speech during a ceremony marking the opening of a yearly meeting of Nobel Peace Prize laureates organized at Rome's city hall by a foundation headed by former Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev.
Besides Gorbachev and other Nobel winners, the Dalai Lama also took part in the ceremony on the Capitoline Hill.
Clooney, who has raised money and campaigned for increased international attention for Darfur, called on the international community to increase efforts and support peace talks.
More than 200,000 people have died and 2.5 million have been uprooted since ethnic African rebels in Darfur took up arms against the Arab-dominated Sudanese government in 2003. Sudan's regime is accused of retaliating by unleashing a militia of Arab nomads known as the "janjaweed," an allegation Khartoum denies.
Clooney and Cheadle co-founded a humanitarian organization called Not on Our Watch together with other stars including Brad Pitt and Matt Damon to focus global attention on the plight of Darfur's people. They have raised more than $9.3 million for humanitarian efforts in the region.
Madonna To Be Inducted Into Rock Hall Of Fame
Madonna was announced as a Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductee on Thursday along with John Mellencamp, The Ventures, Leonard Cohen and The Dave Clark Five.
A panel of 600 industry figures selected the five acts to be inducted at the annual ceremony, to be held March 10 in New York. To be eligible, artists must have issued a first single or album at least 25 years before nomination.
Madonna Louise Ciccone signed with Sire Records in 1982 and became one of MTV's first stars two years later with "Like A Virgin." She has constantly altered her image ever since, showing staying power that few '80s stars could muster.
Indiana native Mellencamp became a voice of America's heartland with hits like "Pink Houses"; and Cohen's "Suzanne" and "Dress Rehearsal Rag" made him a folk rock icon in the late 1960s.
The Ventures defined instrumental guitar rock in the '60s with surfer anthems like "Walk Don't Run" and "Hawaii Five-O," and The Dave Clark Five were one of the most successful British invasion bands with "Glad All Over."
Mick Jagger's Ex Evicted From Her NYC Apartment
Bianca Jagger has been evicted from her rent-stabilized Park Avenue apartment after several years of quarreling with her landlord over claims of toxic mold and questions about her residency, her lawyer said.
After a recent appeals court ruling against her, Jagger knew the eviction was coming. She found out from a neighbor's phone call that a sheriff had arrived Wednesday to move her possessions to storage, lawyer Daniel Bryson said.
"This is an absolute travesty," he said.
A lawyer for landlord Katz Park Avenue Corp. didn't immediately return a telephone call early Thursday.
Lawyers for the 62-year-old Jagger, who was married to rocker Mick Jagger, have maintained that Katz evicted her as payback. She sued the landlord in 2003, claiming mold had made her sick and the apartment unlivable.
But Katz argued that the 18th-floor apartment couldn't be Jagger's primary residence - a requirement for occupying a rent-stabilized unit - since she was in the U.S. on a tourist visa that required her to show that she intended to leave after a temporary stay. The state Supreme Court's Appellate Division agreed in October, noting that Jagger, who is a British citizen, keeps at least one luxury apartment in London.
The actress-turned-activist has been a tenant in the Upper East Side apartment for 20 years. Under the complex rent regulation laws, evicting her may allow the landlord to raise the $4,600-a-month rent substantially.
Pimp C Funeral Set For Today
The rapper, one-half of the trailblazing rap duo Underground Kingz, was found dead Dec. 4 in the Mondrian Hotel in Los Angeles. He was 33.
Officials said Pimp C, whose real name was Chad Butler, apparently died in bed and there were no signs of foul play. Autopsy and toxicology results weren't yet available.
UGK laid the groundwork for the unprecedented success of Southern rap in this decade, and countless rap superstars name the group as a major influence.
It wasn't clear who would attend the memorial, but C-Murder wouldn't be among them. He is on house arrest in Louisiana while awaiting retrial on a murder charge, and on Tuesday, a judge denied his request to attend the services. C-Murder is a brother of Master P, who had collaborated with Pimp C.
Nancy Byron, Pimp C's publicist, said the funeral was open to the public, but the burial would be limited to family and close friends.
Liza Minnelli Collapses After Performance
Liza Minnelli collapsed after finishing a song during a performance in Sweden, and she was seen by a doctor at her hotel and then flew Thursday to the United States for medical treatment, a concert spokesman said.
Minnelli, 61, was performing in a Christmas show Wednesday in Goteborg, Sweden's second-biggest city, when she collapsed while walking offstage, said Zlakto Nedanovski, a spokesman for the concert organizers said.
"As she walked down the steps, she passed out," Nedanovski told The Associated Press, adding that she did not return for the rest of the show.
"She was taken immediately to her hotel, where a doctor was waiting," he said.
He said Minnelli was flown to the United States on Thursday on the advice of doctors there.
"They decided together with her management that it's best for Liza to go to the U.S. right away," Nedanovski said, adding that he did not know the medical diagnosis.
"She had felt a bit dizzy before she got up onstage," but decided to proceed with the show anyway, he said.
J.K. Rowling Auctions Handwritten Book For Charity
A book of fairy tales created, handwritten and illustrated by J.K. Rowling was being auctioned by Sotheby's on Thursday and was expected to sell for more than $100,000.
The buyer will get one of only seven copies of "The Tales of Beedle the Bard," which is leather bound with silver mounts.
Rowling, whose Harry Potter books have sold nearly 400 million copies and been translated into 64 languages, wrote the Beedle tales after finishing the seventh and final work in her famous series: "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows."
"'The Tales of Beedle the Bard' is really a distillation of the themes found in the Harry Potter books, and writing it has been the most wonderful way to say goodbye to a world I have loved and lived in for 17 years," Rowling said in a statement.
The auction will benefit The Children's Voice, a charity co-founded in 2005 by Rowling and Emma Nicholson, a member of Britain's House of Lords. It campaigns for children's rights cross Europe, especially in Eastern Europe.