People: Faux wedding waxes and wanes
While all the buzz these days is about the upcoming Tom Cruise-Katie Holmes nuptials in Italy, another would-be celebrity wedding has quietly been canceled.
The Madame Tussauds wax museum in Las Vegas has backed off its plan to stage a depiction of Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt tying the knot after a Pitt rep protested.
“I personally found it a little odd that they were re-creating a wedding that never really happened,” said Pitt’s spokeswoman, Cindy Guagenti. “As Brad’s representative, I found it disturbing.”
The Brangelina wedding had been scheduled for today to mark the unveiling of a new Jolie wax figure.
The scene would have had wax figures of George Clooney as best man and the Rev. Robert Schuller officiating.
Wax witnesses would have included likenesses of Elvis Presley, Liberace, John Wayne, Bugsy Siegel, Frank Sinatra, Ben Affleck and Luciano Pavarotti.
K-Fed off the gravy train
Speaking of weddings gone bad, Britney Spears‘ net worth these days reportedly is less than half what it was two years ago when she married Kevin Federine, having dropped from $100 million to somewhere between $35 and $50 mil.
And – surprise! – it’s aspiring rapper Federline, whom Spears is divorcing, who’s said to have squandered the dough.
On the B-listings
Anna Nicole Smith is taking a “leisurely look” at other dwellings in the Bahamas now that a former boyfriend is seeking to evict her from the waterfront home where she has taken refuge since her son’s death.
Smith, who gave birth to a daughter in the Bahamas in September – and saw her grown son die while visiting her in the hospital three days later – has been using the house in Nassau as the basis for her application for permanent residency.
Listing to the left
“Daily Show” host Jon Stewart, who “may have done more to turn public opinion against the Iraq war … than any other media figure in America today,” tops Forward magazine’s list of the 50 most influential American Jews.
Other celebs on the list include Barbra Streisand, Scarlett Johansson, actor Jeremy Piven (“Entourage”) and “Borat” star Sacha Baron Cohen – who, though British, qualifies for the list since he’s buying a house in L.A.
Rainy-day checks
Media mogul Ted Turner told a roomful of fellow philanthropists to “give until it hurts” – but recommended that they keep a little spare change on hand.
“Keep a few hundred million at least, because you never know,” Turner told a crowd of about 300 people Monday at the Clinton Presidential Library in Little Rock, Ark. “Things could get really tough.”
The birthday bunch
“People’s Court” judge Joseph Wapner is 87. Actor Ed Asner is 77. Actor John Kerr (“South Pacific”) is 75. Singer Petula Clark is 74. Actor Sam Waterston (“Law and Order”) is 66. Singer Anni-Frid Lyngstad (ABBA) is 61. Actress Beverly D’Angelo is 52. “Tonight Show” bandleader Kevin Eubanks is 49. Singer Chad Kroeger (Nickelback) is 32.