He’d rather be the silent partner
Luciano Pavarotti, battling pancreatic cancer, says he can’t stand to hear himself sing.
After reminiscing fondly in an Italian newspaper interview about his performances alongside Placido Domingo and Jose Carreras as the Three Tenors, Pavarotti added: “It was a great beautiful season that we had. But I don’t listen to myself anymore.”
“If you invite me to dinner, and to please me, you put on one of my own recordings, I would walk out on you,” he said. “If you want me to stay, make me hear Placido’s voice.”
Pavarotti, 70, was preparing to resume a farewell tour last month when doctors discovered a malignant pancreatic mass.
“I was a fortunate and happy man,” he told the interviewer. “After that, this blow arrived. And now I am paying the penalty for this fortune and happiness.
“But I find nourishment in my childhood, which was poor and happy, and I view things with serenity. Illnesses haven’t left me anguished.”
Gathering some moss?
The Rolling Stones have canceled a second concert in Spain while Mick Jagger recovers from laryngitis.
Last week, Jagger, 63, told a British radio station that he has hired a vocal coach for the first time to help him preserve his voice.
Still in heat
A Little Rock, Ark., concert by the Rev. Al Green, scheduled to help celebrate Bill Clinton‘s 60th birthday Saturday, has been postponed because of hot weather.
Temperatures have been topping 100 degrees for the past month and are predicted to reach the mid-90s on Saturday.
One cool customer
Jennifer Garner was hospitalized overnight for heat exhaustion on the set of her upcoming movie “The Kingdom” in the Arizona desert.
“She’s great. Absolutely fabulous,” said hubby Ben Affleck, who flew to be by her side.
“Today she’s in the desert, upside-down spinning around in a car that’s pretending to have been blown up in 110-degree heat in Phoenix. That’s my wife.”
Diddy does it again
Rap mogul Sean “Diddy” Combs and gal pal Kim Porter reportedly are having a second baby – and are considering marriage.
Diddy already has two sons: Christian, 9, with Porter, and Justin, 12, by an ex-girlfriend.
Gathering a stone
Supermodel Kate Moss and perpetually drug-battling British rocker Pete Doherty appear to have reconciled.
Moss is sporting a vintage diamond ring, and Doherty was overheard saying, “It’s going to be me next” at a fellow rocker’s recent wedding.
The birthday bunch
Actor Fess Parker is 82. Actor Robert Culp is 76. Sportscaster Frank Gifford is 76. Actress Julie Newmar is 73. Actress Lesley Ann Warren is 60. TV personality Kathie Lee Gifford is 53. Director James Cameron (“Titanic”) is 52. Actress Angela Bassett is 48. Singer Madonna is 48. Actress Laura Innes (“ER”) is 47. Actor Timothy Hutton is 46. Actor Steve Carell is 43. Country musician Emily Robison (The Dixie Chicks) is 34. Singer Vanessa Carlton is 26. Actor Shawn Pyfrom (“Desperate Housewives”) is 20.