And he thinks it’s going to last a long, long time
Britain’s showbiz royalty – Elton John and David Furnish – exchanged vows and diamond wedding bands Wednesday in a ceremony capping the first week of legalized civil unions in the United Kingdom.
At Windsor’s 17th-century Town Hall where Prince Charles and Camilla Parker Bowles got married in April, John and Furnish sealed their union with a kiss before facing hundreds of photographers and fans on the cobbled streets outside.
John, 58, and Furnish, 43, were among hundreds of same-sex couples tying the knot in England and Wales on Wednesday, the first day such ceremonies were possible. Others wed earlier this week in Northern Ireland and Scotland.
Furnish, a Canadian-born filmmaker, and John have been together for 12 years.
“I’m doing this first and foremost because I want to do it for David and I want to be with David for the rest of my life, but I also want to do it to say that (the civil union law) shouldn’t be something that just sits there in law,” John was quoted as saying by Attitude magazine. “It should be embraced.”
Oprah, Uma, Colleen
A woman who claims David Letterman has been using code words to say he wants to marry her and make her as his co-host has won a restraining order against him.
Colleen Nestler of Santa Fe, N.M., says Letterman has forced her to go bankrupt and caused her “mental cruelty” and “sleep deprivation” since May 1994.
A state judge granted Nestler’s request for a temporary restraining order requiring Letterman to stay at least 3 yards away from her and not “think of me, and release me from his mental harassment and hammering.”
Letterman’s lawyers filed a motion to quash the order, calling it “an unfortunate abuse of the judicial process.”
Free as a bird?
Ethan Hawke has asked New Jersey’s governor to grant clemency to a 65-year-old woman imprisoned for more than 16 years for murdering her police officer boyfriend.
The 35-year-old actor said in an e-mail that his mother knows Melvina McClain, who is serving a 30-year sentence, and that she “believes in her entirely.”
Hawke asked that McClain’s sentence be commuted “so she can live the last years of her life helping her children, her grandchildren and many others learn from her example of redemption.”
McClain, a former parking violations officer, claims she was assaulted and threatened during the relationship.
She’s really lost it
Michelle Rodriguez, one of the stars of the ABC hit series “Lost,” apparently did not take kindly to being arrested for drunken driving on Dec. 1 in Hawaii, where the show is filmed.
Rodriguez was “very argumentative,” according to Hawaiian police, telling them: “Why don’t you just put a gun to my head and shoot me? You’ve already taken my freedom! You might as well take my life too!”
Officers arrested another “Lost” co-star, Cynthia Watros, for drunk driving on the same road 15 minutes later. Both are scheduled for court appearances Dec. 29.
Quoteworthy
Woody Allen, on making his new movie, “Match Point,” in London’s dreary weather: “Filming in New York can be so hot in the summer, but here it was perfect for my melancholy spirit.”
The birthday bunch
Actor Hector Elizondo is 69. TV anchor Diane Sawyer is 60. Singer Robin Gibb (The Bee Gees) is 56. Actor Ralph Fiennes is 43. Actress Lauralee Bell (“The Young and the Restless”) is 37. Actor Chris Carmack (“The O.C.”) is 25.