People: Hiding his crocodile tears?
Late “Crocodile Hunter” Steve Irwin concealed pain and suffering behind his enthusiastic public persona, his father says.
In an Australian Broadcasting Corp. interview Monday, Bob Irwin said audiences failed to realize how much pain his khaki-clad son masked during his public performances.
He gave no details of the reasons for his son’s private suffering.
“People don’t realize just how much he gave of himself,” the elder Irwin said. “He was always very good in front of the media, and a lot of the pain and the suffering didn’t show through.”
Last month, Bob Irwin left Australia Zoo, which he founded 36 years ago in Australia’s northeastern Queensland state, amid rumors that he had fallen out with his son’s American widow, Terri.
He said he was leaving the family-run zoo because he had become a “disruptive influence,” adding “the problem I had was that the management and I didn’t agree on certain aspects of Australia Zoo after Steve’s passing.”
Steve Irwin is buried at a secret location on the property.
Father, forgive him
A priest accused of stalking Conan O’Brien pleaded guilty Tuesday to disorderly conduct.
The Rev. David Ajemian admitted in Manhattan Criminal Court that he sent letters and DVDs to the NBC talk-show host’s home and office, and to his parents’ home.
Ajemian, who attended Harvard University at the same time as O’Brien, was ordered to stay away from him for two years.
How low can you go?
Rob Lowe is suing two former nannies and a former chef for breach of contract, defamation and intentional infliction of emotional distress.
One of the nannies threatened to spread “malicious lies” about Lowe and his wife, Sheryl, unless she was paid $1.5 million, according to legal papers, while the other claims he had an affair with her.
As for the chef, Lowe claims he stole prescription drugs and shared them with his friends, broke several security cameras, overcharged the couple for food and had sex on their bed while they were out of town.
Sleeping dog lies
Nicolas Cage has settled a libel suit against Kathleen Turner, who falsely claimed in her autobiography that he was arrested for drunken driving and stole a dog.
Turner wrote that her “Peggy Sue Got Married” co-star was “arrested twice for drunk-driving and, I think, for stealing a dog. He’d come across a Chihuahua he liked and stuck it in his jacket.”
Turner, her publisher and the London Daily Mail, which ran an excerpt, agreed to pay Cage’s legal costs and make a substantial donation to a charity of his choice.
The birthday bunch
Playboy founder Hugh Hefner is 82. Naturalist Jim Fowler (“Mutual of Omaha’s Wild Kingdom”) is 76. Actress Michael Learned (“The Waltons”) is 69. Actor Dennis Quaid is 54. Actress-model Paulina Porizkova is 43. Actress Cynthia Nixon (“Sex and the City”) is 42. Actress Keshia Knight Pulliam (“The Cosby Show”) is 29. Actor Jesse McCartney is 21. Actress Kristen Stewart is 18. Actress Elle Fanning (“Because of Winn-Dixie”) is 10.