Another AIDS assist from Liz
Elizabeth Taylor will celebrate her 74th birthday Monday with a gift worth several hundred thousand dollars – but it’s not for her.
The two-time Oscar winner and longtime AIDS activist is donating a mobile medical unit to the New Orleans AIDS Task Force.
It’s “like a large recreational vehicle, about 40 feet long, with two examination rooms and X-ray facilities,” said Martin Delaney of Project Inform, a national AIDS organization.
It will be staffed by doctors who worked in AIDS clinics shuttered by Hurricane Katrina.
Taylor helped establish the American Foundation for AIDS Research in 1985 and created the Elizabeth Taylor AIDS Foundation in 1991.
Tamahori, indeed
Film director Lee Tamahori has pleaded no contest to criminal trespass in return for two prostitution charges being dropped.
The 55-year-old Tamahori (“Die Another Day,” “xXx: State of the Union”) allegedly approached a Hollywood police officer last month, wearing an off-the-shoulder dress and black wig, and offered to perform a sex act for money.
Talkin’ smack
Brad Renfro pleaded guilty to attempted possession of heroin in a case stemming from his December arrest during a sting in Los Angeles’ Skid Row area.
The 23-year-old actor, whose films include “Ghost World,” “The Jacket” and “The Client,” was given three years’ probation and must enter a drug rehabilitation program.
Godfather of Seoul
James Brown made his mainland China debut this week, belting out such classics as “Get Up Offa That Thing” in a drafty People’s Liberation Army acrobatics theater in Shanghai.
The Wednesday concert by the 72-year-old Godfather of Soul was part of an Asian tour that also included a Friday night stop in South Korea’s capital.
‘Idol’ away
Finally, in case you hadn’t already heard: Becky O’Dohohue, the “American Idol” contestant who appeared in sexy photos on Maxim magazine’s Web site along with her twin sister, was one of the first four singers cut from the competition Thursday night.
While judge Paula Abdul‘s eyes welled with tears, fellow judge Simon Cowell told the 25-year-old O’Donohue: “I think you’re going to be a very successful model.”
The birthday bunch
Country singer Ralph Stanley is 79. Talk-show host Sally Jessy Raphael is 63. Actress Tea Leoni is 40. Actor Sean Astin is 35. Singer Justin Jeffre (98 Degrees) is 33. Actress Rashida Jones (“Boston Public”) is 30. Actor Justin Berfield (“Malcolm in the Middle”) is 20. Actors James and Oliver Phelps (“Harry Potter”) are 20.