Cute and smart just adds up
Danica McKellar has a message for girls: Cute and smart is better than cute and dumb.
McKellar, who played Winnie on the 1990s television show “The Wonder Years,” is coming out with a book, “Math Doesn’t Suck,” to encourage girls to get into math.
“When girls see the antics of Paris Hilton and Lindsay Lohan, they think that being fun and glamorous also means being dumb and irresponsible,” the 32-year-old McKellar told Newsweek. “But I want to show them that being smart is cool.”
“Being good at math is cool,” she said. “And not only that, it can help them get what they want out of life.”
McKellar should know. The actress struggled with the subject during the seventh grade, but a teacher helped her through. McKellar eventually majored in math in college.
Maybe ‘Dukes of Hazzard II’?
Jessica Simpson‘s father, Joe Simpson, has his daughter’s best interests at heart. Don’t believe us? Well, he just turned down an offer for the shapely actress to perform in a porn film. “We were promised we would win an Oscar with that,” Simpson, a 49-year-old former preacher, said. “I was like, ‘Eh, we’ll just buy a (statue of a) little man and keep our clothes on,’ ” he said.
Fighting with the stars
Rod Stewart‘s son, Sean Stewart, has been sued by a man who claims the rock star’s son beat him up. The lawsuit was filed Tuesday in Los Angeles by Daniel Refoua. Refoua’s lawyer, Sean Bral, said his client was beaten Jan. 5, 2006, by several people after accidentally bumping into Stewart at Hollywood’s LAX nightclub. “The next thing you know, he gets punched in the face, and he’s getting punched by Stewart and his bodyguard and whoever it was who was with him,” Bral said.
Chan’s anti-Chinese?
Jackie Chan‘s new action comedy, “Rush Hour 3,” will be a no-show in China. The Chinese government allows only about 20 foreign films a year to be shown, and several Hollywood blockbusters, including “Transformers,” “Spider-Man 3” and “Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End,” already have been imported. But reports are that Chinese officials believe “Rush Hour 3,” which stars Chan and Chris Tucker as buddy cops taking on a Chinese crime family in Paris, is “fundamentally anti-Chinese.”
It has to do with bird, bees
When asked about the forthcoming birth of his fifth child with his wife, Caroline Fentress, 37-year-old actor Chris O’Donnell seemed a bit confused by human biology. “We’re just starting to figure out how it works,” he said Wednesday. “I think I know why this is happening, but we’re gonna figure it out. Very excited, though. We’re really excited about it.”
The birthday bunch
Singer Tony Bennett is 81. Actor Martin Sheen is 67. Lifestyle guru Martha Stewart is 66. Movie director John Landis is 57. Actor Jay North (“Dennis the Menace”) is 56. Actor John C. McGinley (“Scrubs”) is 48. Singer-guitarist James Hetfield of Metallica is 44. Singer Ed Roland of Collective Soul is 44. Actor Isaiah Washington (“Grey’s Anatomy”) is 44. Musician Spinderella of Salt-N-Pepa is 36. Actress Evangeline Lilly (“Lost”) is 28.