Are they saying P. Diddy isn’t in Bush’s league?

Thu., Aug. 26, 2004

The Spokesman-Review

Did the first lady diss the reigning king of New York’s hip-hop world? Sean “P. Diddy” Combs reportedly snubbed Monday’s dedication ceremony at Cincinnati’s National Underground Railroad Freedom Center because Laura Bush refused to be in a photo with him.

The $100 million museum on the banks of the Ohio River memorializes the harrowing trip to freedom taken by countless slaves during the 1800s.

According to the New York Post, His Diddyness was supposed to join Bush, Angela Bassett, Bono and other dignitaries for the ribbon-cutting ceremony, but Bush’s office said no to the photo-op with Combs.

An unidentified Combs aide told the New York Daily News: “We don’t understand why she wouldn’t want to stand with him. He hasn’t been partisan at all.”

Replied a White House rep: “I attribute any of this stuff to rumor hearsay.

“We don’t have anything to do with who is in the show or not. Mrs. Bush is happy to be here and be part of a historic occasion.”

The real WMD: Wardrobe malfunction diversion

Janet Jackson, meawhile, tells Genre magazine that the Bush administration used her infamous Super Bowl halftime show “wardrobe malfunction” as part of a conspiracy to distract the country from the war in Iraq.

“I truly feel in my heart that the President wanted to take the focus off of him at that time, and I was the perfect vehicle to do so,” Jackson says.

Then we’d all have to pay our respects

Comedian Rodney Dangerfield was back in the hospital for heart valve replacement surgery on Wednesday.

Dangerfield, 82, underwent brain surgery last year to reduce his chances of a stroke during the heart operation.

Asked how long he would remain in the hospital after Wednesday’s operation, he said: “If things go right, I’ll be there about a week, and if things don’t go right, I’ll be there about an hour and a half.”

Heche cheat? Why, she never would

First Ellen DeGeneres gets tabbed to play the supreme being in a movie remake of “Oh, God!” Now her former partner, actress Anne Heche, is joining the cast of “Everwood,” the WB drama about a Manhattan brain surgeon who relocates in a Colorado mountain town.

Heche will play the role of Amanda Carver, the patron saint of the town of Everwood, the network announced. The show’s main character, played by Treat Williams, becomes involved with Heche’s character while helping her cope with her husband’s paralysis.

There are no ‘Friends’ of her family

“Sopranos” star Drea de Matteo, pictured in the September issue of Esquire in her undies cooking pasta, makes an even more shocking revelation: she had never seen NBC’s monster hit “Friends” before she was cast in its spin-off, “Joey.”

“Joey,” starring Matt LeBlanc as the title character, premieres Sept. 9.

They come, of course, with a rubber soul

Beatles fans will soon be able to buy John Lennon sneakers after Yoko Ono agreed to a deal with Nike.

The shoe, which is being manufactured by Nike’s subsidiary Converse, is in the same style as those worn by Lennon on the cover of the “Abbey Road” LP. It features a self-portrait of him on the side and the words “Imagine All The People Living Life In Peace” emblazoned across the toe. A percentage of the profits will go to nonprofit organizations working to promote world peace.

The birthday bunch

Singer Vic Dana is 62. Bandleader Branford Marsalis is 44. Actor Chris Burke (“Life Goes On”) is 39. Actor Macaulay Culkin is 24.

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