People: Their love was so in vain
Carly Simon didn’t find it easy reading “Girls Like Us,” the nonfiction best-seller which interweaves her life story with those of fellow singers Joni Mitchell and Carole King.
It offers a behind-the-scenes look at her 1970s marriage to James Taylor as she struggled to get him to break his drug habit while raising their two children, Sally and Ben.
“I don’t think I would have changed anything except that I wish that James would have been happier with himself, obviously,” Simon says. “The breakup of that marriage was incredibly sad and difficult for me.”
Taylor, 60, who kicked his drug habit shortly after the split, lives in the Berkshires with his third wife and two young sons.
Simon, 62, whose 20-year second marriage ended in divorce last year, lives in the house that Taylor built on a 40-acre spread in Martha’s Vineyard, full of flowers and animals.
Taylor does not keep in contact and made no mention of their years together in his autobiographical “One Man Band” show.
Still, Simon insists, “I don’t think James has forgotten in any way. If he had forgotten, he wouldn’t be behaving in the way he is.”
No more living in sin city
Jessica Alba is officially off the market.
The 27-year-old cinema sexpot quietly wed producer Cash Warren on Monday.
They met on the set of 2005’s “The Fantastic Four” and got engaged in late December after Alba revealed she was carrying his child.
The boys are back in town
On the flip side, Keifer Sutherland and Jermaine Jackson are officially free men.
Both of their divorces were finalized this week – in Sutherland’s case, nine years after he and his ex-wife separated, and four years after they filed their paperwork.
And Dylan McDermott, star of TV’s “The Practice,” has filed for divorce from actress Shiva Rose after 12 years of marriage.
He’s no Boy Scout
Lou Pearlman, the man who created the Backstreet Boys and ‘N Sync, was sentenced Wednesday to 25 years in federal prison for engineering a scam that allegedly swindled some $300 million from investors and banks.
A Florida judge noted that many victims were Pearlman’s relatives, friends and retirees in their 70s or 80s who lost everything, adding: “The sympathy factor just doesn’t run very high with the court.”
However, the judge said he would reduce Pearlman’s sentence by one month for every $1 million returned to investors.
A link to his past
Sausage king Jimmy Dean has donated $1 million to Texas’ tiny Wayland Baptist University to fund a scholarship in his late mother’s memory.
“I’ve been so blessed, and it makes me proud to give back, especially to my hometown,” said Dean, 79, who also made a name in country music as well as acting in TV and movies.
The birthday bunch
Actor Michael Constantine is 81. Actor-director Richard Benjamin is 70. Actor Michael Sarrazin is 68. Actress Barbara Parkins is 66. Songwriter Bernie Taupin is 58. Singer Morrissey is 49. Actress Ann Cusack is 47. Model Naomi Campbell is 38. Actress Anna Belknap (“CSI: NY”) is 36.