Stone gets a Shanghai surprise
China to Sharon Stone: Shut the hell up.
That’s the feeling across the Asian country following Stone’s remarks, given during a red-carpet interview at the recent Cannes Film Festival, suggesting that the recent earthquake in Sichuan province may have been the result of bad “karma” due to Beijing’s rule in Tibet.
Stone, 50, had walked the carpet of last year’s Shanghai International Film Festival. But festival officials made it clear that she would not be invited to this year’s event, which will run June 14-22.
Shanghai International Film Festival spokeswoman Tang Bing said festival organizers sent Stone a letter protesting her remarks and demanding an apology.
Stone has said she was “deeply sorry” for causing anguish and anger among Chinese people and offered to take part in quake relief efforts. The death toll from the May 12 earthquake in China has passed 69,100.
Lohan parents in spotlight
Lindsay Lohan‘s parents, divorced for a year, were in a Long Island courtroom Tuesday. Michael Lohan complained that his ex-wife, Dina, wasn’t living up to a visitation agreement involving their two youngest children, Aliana, 14, and Dakota, 11. Both Lohans claimed they intended to stop speaking to reporters during the case. Of course, there’s no need. She has her own reality TV show on E! and he writes a blog for OK! magazine.
He’s still a solitary man
The plot involving Hulk Hogan‘s jailed 17-year-old son, Nick Bollea, thickens. A Tampa, Fla., judge on Tuesday denied Nick Bollea’s request to change the conditions of his jail sentence because solitary confinement is causing him “unbearable anxiety.” Bollea is serving eight months after pleading no contest to causing a serious car crash.
Sheen is on No. 3
Charlie Sheen tied the knot with fiancée Brooke Mueller Friday night, said publicist Stan Rosenfield. The 42-year-old actor (star of “Two and a Half Men”) was divorced from Denise Richards in 2002 and was briefly married to model Donna Peele in 1995.
Here’s how to get free tickets
The University of Houston is naming its school of communication in honor of LBJ adviser and film industry lobbyist Jack Valenti, who instituted the modern movie ratings system. Valenti, a World War II aviator and 1946 UH graduate, died last year. He was 85.
Baby’s nickname? Bunny, natch
Rascal Flatts guitarist Joe Don Rooney and his wife, Tiffany Fallon, have welcomed their first child, a son named Jagger Donovan Rooney. Rooney, 32, and Fallon, a former Playboy Playmate, were married in April 2006.
The birthday bunch
Country singer Don Reid of the Statler Brothers is 63. Guitarist Fred Stone of Sly and the Family Stone is 62. Singer Laurie Anderson is 61. Country singer Gail Davies is 60. Drummer Nicko McBrain of Iron Maiden is 56. Saxophonist Kenny G is 52. Singer Richard Butler of Psychedelic Furs is 52. Actor Ron Livingston (“Office Space”) is 41. Singer Brian McKnight is 39. Musician Claus Norreen of Aqua is 38. Actor-singer Mark Wahlberg is 37. Actor Chad Allen (“Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman”) is 34. Bassist P-Nut of 311 is 34.