People: From ‘Baywatch’ to dry-watch
Recovering alcoholic David Hasselhoff admits that a videotape made by one of his daughters shows him falling off the wagon, but says he’s doing much better since it was made.
The video, which aired Thursday on several syndicated entertainment shows, depicts an apparently hammered Hasselhoff, clad only in blue jeans, lying on the floor of a room and clumsily eating a hamburger.
It reportedly was made about three months ago by Hasselhoff’s 16-year-old daughter, Taylor-Ann, in his home in Las Vegas, where the former “Baywatch” star has been appearing in a stage version of “The Producers.”
On the tape, a girl’s voice says, “Dad, you need to promise me you’re not gonna get alcohol tonight, OK? If you get alcohol tonight you’re fired from your show tomorrow.”
“OK,” Hasselhoff replies in a slurred voice.
In a press statement, Hasselhoff said: “Because of my honest and positive relationship with my daughters, who were concerned for my well-being, there was a tape made that night to show me what I was like. I have seen the tape. I have learned from it and I am back on my game.”
Lush life
Elsewhere on the celebrity inebriation beat, Los Angeles city prosecutors filed misdemeanor DUI charges Friday against rapper-actress Eve stemming from an accident last week where her car hit a raised concrete center median on Hollywood Boulevard.
And rapper Busta Rhymes was arrested on a drunken driving charge early Thursday in New York, the latest in a series of legal troubles.
Rhymes is tentatively scheduled to go to trial Tuesday on two assault charges, involving his former driver and a fan.
What about English, eh?
Canadian pop star Avril Lavigne recorded the chorus to her new single “Girlfriend” in eight languages: English, French, Portuguese, German, Italian, Spanish, Japanese and Mandarin – which she says was the hardest.
“Japanese was easy, sort of. French was easy, but German was difficult,” says Lavigne, 22. “But it was cool to record it in different languages because I have so many fans worldwide that speak all these languages.”
Cultural learnings, indeed
The West Kazakhstan Philharmonic Orchestra chose an unusual composer to headline its London performance Friday: Erran Baron Cohen, the brother of actor Sacha Baron Cohen – star of the irreverent “Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan.”
Says Erran, who composed the score for the film: “After I’d got over the initial shock of being rung up by someone from Kazakhstan, I thought it was a great accolade if they liked the music in the film so much that they asked me to write for a symphony orchestra.”
The Kazakh premiere of the piece is scheduled for Monday.
The birthday bunch
Actor Lance Henriksen (“Millennium”) is 67. Comedian-actor Michael Palin (Monty Python) is 64. Actor John Rhys-Davies (“Lord of the Rings”) is 63. MTV News correspondent Kurt Loder is 62. NBC newsman Brian Williams is 48. Actress Tina Yothers (“Family Ties”) is 34. Actress Danielle Fishel (“Boy Meets World”) is 26. Singer Chris Brown is 18.