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The Spokesman-Review Newspaper
Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

That’ll teach her to be all Hightower and mighty


Grace Hightower
 (The Spokesman-Review)
The Spokesman-Review

A HOUSEKEEPER CHARGED with looting the homes of Manhattan’s rich and famous claimed she targeted Robert De Niro‘s wife, Grace Hightower, because she was a bad employer. “If she treated me better, with more respect, I probably wouldn’t have done this,” Lucyna Turyk-Wawrynowicz told police following her arrest.

Turyk-Wawrynowicz, 35, pleaded not guilty last month to charges including grand larceny and possession of stolen property. Other victims included Candice Bergen and socialite Renee Rockefeller.

“I didn’t steal from Isabella Rossellini because she treated me well. I only stole from people who didn’t treat me with respect,” Turyk-Wawrynowicz said, according to court documents.

While searching her home in June, investigators found a set of $96,000 diamond earrings belonging to Hightower.

Turyk-Wawrynowicz told officers she had tried to contact Hightower after the theft. “I feel horrible, but she wouldn’t take my phone calls anymore,” she said.

Was he trying to get off the hook?

Olivia Newton-John‘s missing boyfriend filed for bankruptcy in 2000 and was recently embroiled in a legal dispute over late child support payments, according to court documents.

Patrick Kim McDermott, 48, failed to return from an overnight fishing trip off the California coast on June 30. He was reported missing a week later by his ex-wife when he didn’t show up for a family event.

The Coast Guard has been handling it as a missing person case. A spokesman said investigators were looking into all possibilities, including that McDermott had staged his disappearance.

Call off the Scout party

Scout Taylor-Compton, star of the 2004 teen comedy “Sleepover,” was reunited with her family Thursday, two weeks after she went missing.

Taylor-Compton, who’s also appeared in “Gilmore Girls,” had last been seen Aug. 12 at her family’s home in San Bernardino County and apparently left following an argument. School officials learned that she was staying at a friend’s house and notified police.

Poet? Just a little punk

Soleil Moon Frye, best known for her starring role on the ‘80s TV series “Punky Brewster,” and her husband have welcomed their first child – a daughter, Poet Sienna Rose Goldberg, born Wednesday.

Frye, 29, and Jason Goldberg, 34, who produces MTV’s prank show, “Punk’d,” were married in 1998.

Mama, dada, yada

Jerry Seinfeld and his wife, Jessica, also have a new addition to the family: a son, Shepherd Kellen Seinfeld, born Monday morning.

The couple, who were married in 1999, have a 2-year-old son, Julian, and a 4-year-old daughter, Sascha.

We’ll soon be seeing less of Moore

Maverick filmmaker Michael Moore has enrolled in a crash course at a $3,800-a-week celebrity fat farm.

The “Fahrenheit 9/11” director booked himself into the Pritikin Longevity Center and Spa in Aventura, Fla., where he is learning to cook healthful meals and will undergo “life re-education.”

His first goal: losing 12 pounds in the first three weeks.

The birthday bunch

Singer Valerie Simpson (Ashford and Simpson) is 59. Singer Bob Cowsill (The Cowsills) is 56. Bandleader Branford Marsalis is 45. Actor Chris Burke (“Life Goes On”) is 40. Actress Melissa McCarthy (“Gilmore Girls”) is 35. Actor Macaulay Culkin is 25.