People: Yeah, that’s a real rip-snorter
Rolling Stones guitarist Keith Richards now says he was just joking when he told a British music magazine that he snorted his father’s ashes along with a hit of cocaine.
“It was an off-the-cuff remark, a joke, and it is not true. File under April Fool’s joke,” a Rolling Stones spokesman said of Richards’ quotes in NME magazine.
But the magazine said on its Web site that the remark was “no quip, but came about after much thinking” by the 63-year-old rocker.
Richards’ father, Bert, died in 2002 at age 84.
In a posting on the Stones’ Web site, Richards said:
“The complete story is lost in the usual slanting! The truth of the matter is that I planted a sturdy English Oak. I took the lid off the box of ashes, and he (Bert) is now growing oak trees and would love me for it!!!
“I was trying to say how tight Bert and I were. That tight!!! I wouldn’t take cocaine at this point in my life unless I wished to commit suicide.”
Better watch your step
Former Miss USA Shandi Finnessey may have become the second contestant eliminated from this season’s “Dancing With the Stars” on Tuesday, but the other bottom-dwellers in the voting sounded more shaken up.
“The elimination is nerve-racking,” said TV/radio talk host Leeza Gibbons. “It’s insane.”
Country singer Billy Ray Cyrus called results night “a real freak show,” adding that all the dancing has given him “an achy, breaky butt.”
Godfather, or daddy?
The woman claiming to be the late James Brown‘s fourth wife has selected a special guardian she wants appointed for her son, the first step toward determining paternity.
Last month, Brown’s trustees filed a court motion asking a judge to order DNA taken from Tomi Rae Hynie‘s son, James Brown II.
Hynie, who was a backup singer for Brown, and the boy were not included in Brown’s will.
We’re horribly sorry
“Scary Movie” actress Anna Faris has filed for divorce from her husband of nearly three years, actor Ben Indra. They have no children.
Faris, who appeared in the original film and all three sequels, was last seen alongside Uma Thurman in “My Super Ex-Girlfriend.”
The miter is running
John Goodman has been sued by a German production company that claims he backed out of a deal to star in a movie titled “Pope Joan.”
His rep called the $3 million suit “frivolous,” saying no agreement had been reached.
One thumb up
Film critic Roger Ebert, still recovering from cancer surgery and its complications, says he plans to attend his ninth annual Overlooked Film Festival later this month.
“I think of the festival as the first step on my return to action,” Ebert wrote on his Web site.
He still cannot speak due to a tracheostomy, a procedure that opens an airway through an incision in the windpipe.
The birthday bunch
Actress Gail Storm (“My Little Margie”) is 85. Actor Michael Moriarty (“Law and Order”) is 66. Actor Max Gail (“Barney Miller”) is 64. Singer Agnetha Faltskog (ABBA) is 57. Country singer Troy Gentry (Montgomery Gentry) is 40. Rapper-producer Pharrell Williams is 34.