Madonna says she was raped at knifepoint as youngster
Madonna dares to reveal one very personal truth in an essay for “The Daring Issue” of Harper’s Bazaar: When she was young and trying to make it in New York City, she was raped at knifepoint.
“New York wasn’t everything I thought it would be,” she writes. “It did not welcome me with open arms. The first year, I was held up at gunpoint. Raped on the roof of a building I was dragged up to with a knife in my back, and had my apartment broken into three times. I don’t know why; I had nothing of value after they took my radio the first time.”
The essay itself is a rundown of key “daring” decisions in Madonna’s life. Among them: moving to New York from Michigan, moving to a foreign country, adopting children internationally, studying Kabbalah and deciding as a teen not to shave her legs or under her arms.
Singer Lauryn Hill released from prison
Grammy-winning singer Lauryn Hill was released from federal prison Friday and will spend three months under home confinement under terms of her guilty plea to failing to pay taxes.
Hill’s attorney, Nathan Hochman, said the former Fugees singer left the prison in Danbury, Conn., on Friday. She was sentenced in July to serve three months in prison.
Hill, who started singing with the Fugees as a teenager in the 1990s before releasing her multiplatinum 1998 album “The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill,” pleaded guilty last year in New Jersey to failing to pay taxes on more than $1.8 million earned from 2005 to 2007. Her sentence also took into account unpaid state and federal taxes in 2008 and 2009 that brought the total earnings to about $2.3 million.
Letterman, CBS extend deal into 2015
David Letterman, already the longest-tenured talk show host on late-night television, has agreed to extend his contract with CBS to remain on the “Late Show” into 2015.
The deal means Letterman will compete directly for at least a year with the two Jimmys – Kimmel, on ABC’s “Jimmy Kimmel Live,” and Fallon, who’s taking over at NBC’s “Tonight Show” this winter.
Letterman joked on Friday that he had a lengthy discussion with CBS Corp. President Leslie Moonves “and we both agreed that I needed a little more time to fully run the show into the ground.”
Letterman, 66, has been on the air for 31 years since beginning at NBC in the time slot following Johnny Carson in 1982. His contract was set to expire next summer.
The birthday bunch
Comedian Bill Dana is 89. Singer-guitarist Steve Miller is 70. Singer Brian Johnson (AC/DC) is 66. Actress Karen Allen is 62. Singer Bob Geldof is 59. Actress Kate Winslet is 38. Guitarist James Valentine (Maroon 5) is 35. Actor Jesse Eisenberg is 30.