Tattle: Carrie loses her Miss Calif. crown
CARRIE PREJEAN, one of 2009's trio of more-famous runner-ups (with Adam Lambert and Susan Boyle), has been stripped of her Miss California crown by Miss USA pageant boss Donald Trump.
CARRIE PREJEAN, one of 2009's trio of more-famous runner-ups (with Adam Lambert and Susan Boyle), has been stripped of her Miss California crown by Miss USA pageant boss Donald Trump.
Trump issued a statement yesterday saying Carrie had gotten the boot, not because of her views on gay marriage (she's opposed, in case you've been living under a rock), but because she didn't do the legwork the Miss California job requires.
Trump told TMZ.com that Carrie was a no-show at about 30 events in which she was contractually bound to appear, so now Miss California runner-up Tami Farrell can appear instead.
Trump also told TMZ that Carrie had been canned because she, uh, wasn't nice.
"To me she was the sweetest thing," the Donald said. "Everyone else - she treated like s---."
* One person happy to see Carrie go
is Shanna Moakler, who resigned as Miss California pageant director over L'affaire Prejean.
"First and foremost, my faith has been restored in the Miss Universe Organization and with Donald Trump," Shanna told Usmagazine. com.
Brad and Angelina update
When it comes to Brad Pitt, Angelina Jolie and other A-list stars, the competition for stories is fierce. Too fierce. Thus we have this Associated Press news from Basel, Switzerland:
Brad Pitt has purchased a painting titled "Etappe" by German artist Neo Rauch.
The David Zwirner Gallery in New York advertised the work as an "enigmatic and dreamlike" representation of a race car being serviced mid-competition. It's listed for about $960,000.
Whoa! A rich guy bought an expensive painting.
* But that's probably better, and cer-
tainly more accurate, than the continuing speculation over the demise of the Brad and Angelina relationship.
Here's a brief recap:
_ May 6: National Enquirer - "Brangie $250 Mil Breakup!"
_ May 18: In Touch - "Jen & Brad Together Again!"
_ June 1: In Touch - "Brad's Intimate Texts to Jen"
_ June 3: National Enquirer - "It's Over! Brangie Split"
_ June 8: People - "Brad & Angelina's Big Night Out"
_ This week: In Touch - "Angie & Brad Meet with Lawyers"
_ This week; Life & Style - "Brad Confirms Another Baby!"
_ This week: OK! - "Left Alone, Where's Brad?"
In Touch fired another salvo yesterday reporting that Angelina's surprise 34th-birthday party (the surprise perhaps being that Brad flew in for it from L.A.) ended "in tears."
Brad gave Angie a specially commissioned painting of their family, as well as Agent Provocateur lingerie, but then the two began fighting over - who else - Jennifer Aniston.
"Things were going fine, and then Angie started accusing Brad of meeting Jen in L.A.," said an anonymous source. "It turned into a massive blowup, which left Brad more disillusioned than ever."
"[Brad] told her straight out that he's had enough and was out of there," another pal said.
"This split has been simmering for months," said a third anonymous yente, "and unless something drastic happens, it is going to boil over very soon. The only thing keeping Brad from officially walking out is their six kids."
Tattbits
* The makers of "Slumdog Million-
aire" have bought a home for one of the two child stars discovered in Mumbai's slums.
The purchase of a 250-square-foot 1BR apartment for the family of Azharuddin Mohammed Ismail, 10, was completed Monday, said Nirja Mattoo, who helps oversee the Jai Ho trust set up by the filmmakers to help Azharuddin and his 9-year-old co-star, Rubina Ali.
The tiny apartment, in the Mumbai suburb of Santa Cruz West, cost about $50,000, and will be transferred from the trust to Azhar when he turns 18, provided he completes school.
We hope it's nice. 50G for an apartment the size of a small studio sure isn't an Indian slum price.
* After a year of nasty infighting, 78
percent of voting members of the Screen Actors Guild (including 86 percent of the New York membership) said yes to a two-year contract covering movies and prime-time TV shows made by the major Hollywood studios.
The vote repudiated the strategy of replaced union leaders who had once called for a strike.
The contract immediately raises actors' minimum pay by 3 percent and grants another 3.5 percent raise in the second year of the deal, which, along with better pension benefits and some Internet compensation, gives them $105 million in overall gains, the union said.
Pension benefits? Internet compensation? Raises? Who voted against that?
Yes, actors are getting hosed on Web royalties. Join the club.
* New Jersey concert promoter All-
good Entertainment has sued Michael Jackson for $40 million for allegedly breaching a contract to play a reunion concert with other family members.
In a suit filed yesterday in Manhattan, Allgood says it made a deal with Jackson's then-manager to produce a reunion concert with the Jackson family this summer and possibly a pay-per-view Jackson family-reunion event.
The deal called for Jackson not to perform elsewhere before the event or for at least three months after it. The suit charges that Jacko manager Frank DiLeo and promoter AEG broke the contract by signing to do a series of concerts in London this summer, which may also include a pay-per-view event.
"We've given Michael Jackson and AEG every opportunity, publicly and privately, to resolve this matter, and to date we have not heard from anyone," said Allgood's Patrick Allocco.
* TMZ.com says Britney Spears is
dating her agent, Jason Trawick, of William Morris.
He'll earn his commisions one way or another. *
Daily News wire services contributed to this report.
Send e-mail to gensleh@phillynews.com.