Ex-reality star hopes to survive election
Former reality TV star Rupert Boneham said he thinks he has a real shot at becoming Indiana’s next governor after being nominated as a third-party choice Saturday.
The fan favorite from 2004’s “Survivor: All-Stars” was unopposed for the Libertarian Party’s nomination, which came during the party’s state convention in Indianapolis.
“My aim, honestly, is to win governor,” Boneham said in a phone interview afterward. “I really feel I have a strong chance of pulling not just the Libertarian vote, but the independent vote, the undecided vote, and maybe even some votes from Democrats and Republicans.”
He will face Republican Mike Pence and Democrat John Gregg in November’s gubernatorial election. Current Indiana Gov. Mitch Daniels is limited to two terms and cannot run again.
Boneham won $1 million on the “Survivor” series and donated some of the prize to his Rupert’s Kids charity, which provides mentoring and job training to at-risk youths.
Newlyweds receive royal congrats
Britain’s Queen Elizabeth II has become a wedding crasher.
The monarch dropped in moments after the nuptials of John and Frances Canning at Manchester Town Hall in northern England on Friday.
The newlyweds said Saturday the queen chatted and posed for wedding photographs. The queen and her husband Prince Philip, the Duke of Edinburgh, were visiting the venue for lunch at the same time the wedding took place.
“It was very special – it was so lovely that she took the trouble to speak to us,” bride Frances Canning, 44, told the Sun newspaper.
The 48-year-old groom knew beforehand that the queen would be visiting the town hall and jokingly wrote to Buckingham Palace to invite the monarch, the tabloid reported. He received a polite reply declining the invitation, but palace officials secretly arranged the meeting, the paper said.
“We’re going to have to get a bigger wedding album now,” the bride was quoted as saying. “Not many people will have pictures like that.”
The queen is celebrating six decades since she ascended to the throne in 1952.
The birthday bunch
Movie critic Gene Shalit is 86. Singer Aretha Franklin is 70. Musician Elton John is 65. Actress Bonnie Bedelia is 64. Actor James McDaniel (“NYPD Blue”) is 54. Actress Marcia Cross is 50. Actress Lisa Gay Hamilton is 48. Actress Sarah Jessica Parker is 47. Actor Lee Pace (“Pushing Daisies”) is 33.