Sideshow: The president and the doll
The president and the doll French president Nicolas Sarkozy, who last appeared in these columns when he wed sexy model-turned-singer Carla Bruni (now Bruni-Sarkozy), is having trouble with another sort of doll - the sort used in voodoo.
French president
Nicolas Sarkozy
, who last appeared in these columns when he wed sexy model-turned-singer
Carla Bruni
(now
Bruni-Sarkozy
), is having trouble with another sort of doll - the sort used in voodoo.
The president is none too happy about a voodoo-related novelty item that's selling like hotcakes. Nicolas Sarkozy: The Voodoo Manual is a kit that includes a blue Sarkozyish doll, 12 pins (to stick into the doll), and a handbook that ostensibly teaches one just how to do the sticking.
Sarkozy's lawyers Friday petitioned a Paris judge to order the toy's maker, K&B Editions, to yank the doll from stores. They argued that the prez owns the rights to his image. K&B's attorneys say the company is exercising its freedom of expression.
The judge will render his decision Wednesday.
Obama's celebrity cabinet?
TimesOnline.com, the Web site for the London Times, reports that if elected,
Barack Obama
might pick a bona fide TV star to rep our nation as ambassador to Britain.
Yep, Oprah may end up serving us at the Court of St. James's.
Oprah at high tea with Elizabeth II? The TV guru wouldn't let the queen leave until they had explored every one of her emotional conflicts.
But anything could happen: Caroline Kennedy is also rumored to be a top contender for the job.
Damon wants wise kids
Matt Damon
says he's not going to let his kids lead a sheltered existence shut away from the harsh realities of life, such as poverty, People reports.
"It's a hard thing to explain to a kid," Damon said Thursday at a fund-raiser for children's charity OneXOne, "and it is also unbelievable the way other kids are forced to live."
Matt and wife Luciana are raising three girls: Alexia, 10; Isabella, 2; and Gia, who was born in August. Matt said he wanted them to accompany him on some of his charity missions around the world.
"The way you have to parent them is to show them the world. Explaining the world can only go so far," he said.
Cronenberg the scrivener
Iconoclastic Canadian filmmaker
David Cronenberg
, the mild-mannered creator of cinematic freak-outs
Videodrome
,
Naked Lunch
,
Spider
and
A History of Violence
, told reporters at the Rome Film Festival on Thursday that he was fulfilling a 50-year-old ambition - to write a novel. And, no, it's not horror or sci-fi.
"Based on the pages I have written, we found publishers all over the world, which is very terrifying to me," said Cronenberg, 65, who is 60 pages into the tome.
"It's at a very delicate phase right now, so I can't really talk about it. It's not like Stephen King. I don't know what it's like, but you wouldn't call it a horror or science-fiction novel at all. But what it is exactly, well, I don't know yet."
(Cronenberg talks like that a lot. It's endearing.)
Was Lohan charming or evil?
So was
Lindsay Lohan
insufferable on the set of
Ugly Betty
? (LiLo will appear in four episodes.)
Yes, says the New York Post, which reports that star America Ferrera couldn't stand the girl.
But costar Vanessa Williams has a different story. "She was a hard worker. She showed up on time. . . . She was completely prepared," V.W. tells Entertainment Tonight. "She was great with me."
Make-A-Wish honors Lopez
The Make-A-Wish Foundation of America honored actor-comedian
George Lopez
with the Chris Greicius Celebrity Award "for his dedicated wish-granting efforts" at a gala event Thursday night at the Arizona Country Club in Phoenix.
The dot.org was most impressed when Lopez gave up Easter weekend to spend a day with the family of a wish kid named Isaiah.
"George delighted Isaiah and also the other wish kids he's met," foundation prez David Williams said.
Previous honorees include Donald Trump, Orlando Bloom and Johnny Depp.