Ashes to ashes, dust to disgust
Keith Richards has acknowledged consuming a raft of illegal substances in his time, but this may top them all.
In comments published Tuesday, the 63-year-old Rolling Stones guitarist said he had snorted his father’s ashes mixed with cocaine.
“The strangest thing I’ve tried to snort? My father. I snorted my father,” Richards was quoted in the British music magazine NME.
“He was cremated, and I couldn’t resist grinding him up with a little bit of blow. My dad wouldn’t have cared,” he said.
“It went down pretty well, and I’m still alive.”
Bert Richards died in 2002 at age 84.
Richards, one of rock’s legendary wild men, said he’s been lucky to survive and advised younger musicians not to imitate him.
“I did it because that was the way I did it,” he said. “Now people think it’s a way of life …
“I was No. 1 on the ‘who’s likely to die’ list for 10 years. I mean, I was really disappointed when I fell off the list.”
Hey, he’s not shallow
Justin Timberlake says he refuses to play the tabloid game.
“I despise what they do,” the 26-year-old singer tells Details magazine. “They create soap operas out of people’s lives. … It’s a spin game, and I choose not to take part in it.”
That includes not dishing dirt about former girlfriends Britney Spears and Cameron Diaz.
“I would never say anything bad about anyone,” he says. “I love a lot of those people.”
Keeping her dignity
Ditto for teen queen Hilary Duff, whose new album, “Dignity,” was released Tuesday.
Several of the songs are about her relationship with her now ex-boyfriend, Good Charlotte singer Joel Madden. But she denies slamming his new flame, Nicole Richie, in her tune “Gypsy Woman.”
“It’s not my job to talk about my relationship,” Duff tells People magazine. “But the more you try to keep it quiet, the more people want to know about it.”
Paternity? Now that’s scary
Former Spice Girl Melanie Brown gave birth to a baby girl Tuesday, and insists that Eddie Murphy is the father.
Brown, aka Scary Spice, has said there’s “absolutely no question that Eddie is the father,” but he says he’s not so sure.
In the meantime, Brown’s publicist says, “No name has been decided on as yet, and (she) is purely known as Baby Brown!”
Lullabye, and enter Sandman
Metallica may work as a name for a heavy metal band, but a Swedish couple is struggling to convince authorities it’s OK for a baby girl.
Sweden’s tax agency rejected Michael and Karolina Tomaro‘s application to name their 6-month-old daughter after the hard rockers.
“It suits her,” Karolina says. “She’s decisive and she knows what she wants.”
The birthday bunch
Author-poet Maya Angelou is 79. Actor Craig T. Nelson is 63. Actress Christine Lahti is 57. Writer-producer David E. Kelley (“Ally McBeal,” “The Practice”) is 51. Actor Hugo Weaving is 47. Comedian David Cross is 43. Actor Robert Downey Jr. is 42. Magician David Blaine is 34. Actor Heath Ledger is 28. Actress Natasha Lyonne is 28. Actress Jamie Lynn Spears is 16.