Let’s just hope that Peck’s new star doesn’t walk away
Gregory Peck has a new star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame to replace one stolen by a thief. Peck’s original star had been part of the Hollywood Boulevard celebrity shrine for more than four decades until someone with a cement saw cut the bronze-and-terrazzo marker out of the pavement.
In a ceremony Wednesday to unveil the new star, Hollywood’s “honorary mayor,” Johnny Grant, offered the thief a deal:
“You know now you can’t sell it. This has become a worldwide story and if you’ll just bring it back and leave it right here I’ll forget the whole thing happened.”
Peck, who died in 2003 at age 87, won an Academy Award for his portrayal of lawyer Atticus Finch in 1962’s “To Kill a Mockingbird.”
His star, one of the original 1,500 set into Hollywood sidewalks, was the fourth to be stolen since the Walk of Fame was inaugurated in 1960.
Stars honoring Jimmy Stewart, Kirk Douglas and Gene Autry all vanished during construction projects. Stewart’s and Douglas’ stars were soon found, but Autry’s was never recovered.
Special delivery for Mariska
Mariska Hargitay is adding a third generation to her Hollywood family.
The “Law & Order: Special Victims Unit” star and daughter of the late Jayne Mansfield is pregnant, according to her agent.
It will be the first child for Hargitay, 41, and her husband, Peter Hermann, 38, a frequent “SVU” guest star.
As a child, Hargitay was in the same car crash that killed her mother, Hollywood icon Mansfield, in 1967.
There’s something about Maria
Julie Andrews says Cameron Diaz would be the perfect choice to play Maria if “The Sound of Music” is ever remade.
Andrews starred in the 1966 best-picture Academy Award winner about a nun who leaves the convent behind to wed an Austrian widower and spread the “Do-Re-Mi” spirit to his seven kids.
She will voice Queen Lillian in the upcoming “Shrek 3” movie, with Diaz returning as the voice of Princess Fiona.
Jabba the Hott, perhaps?
At age 59, Diane Keaton says she isn’t surprised by the lack of sexy movie roles for women over 50 – despite the success of “Something’s Gotta Give,” for which she was nominated for an Oscar.
“It requires somebody who’s a good writer who wants to write about that subject,” says Keaton, who next plays a mother in the upcoming “The Family Stone.”
“Who is gonna do that? George Lucas? I don’t think so. I’d have to be an alien, a sexy, older alien.”
Sounds like he ate more than enough
Former “Eight Is Enough” patriarch Dick Van Patten is lending his name to a new dog food formula that claims to be as good as a home-cooked meal for humans.
To prove his point, he recently sampled the “Irish stew” recipe at a media luncheon.
“Not too bad,” the 76-year-old actor said before offering a bite to his canine dining companion.
“Dick Van Patten’s Natural Balance Eatables for Dogs” also comes in such flavors as spaghetti and meatballs, hobo chili and Chinese takeout.
The birthday bunch
Actress Julie Harris is 80. Actress Cathy Lee Crosby is 61. Actor Dan Butler (“Frasier”) is 51. Actor Dennis Christopher (“Breaking Away,” “Chariots of Fire”) is 50. Actor Steven Bauer is 49. Bassist Nate Mendel (Foo Fighters) is 37. Actress Lucy Liu is 37. Actress Rena Sofer (“Just Shoot Me”) is 37. Rapper Treach (Naughty by Nature) is 35. Singer Nelly Furtado is 27. Singer Britney Spears is 24.