People: So sweet, it’s almost syrupy
Kid Rock replaced his signature fedora with a paper Waffle House hat on Tuesday.
The singer/actor came to sling hash browns and sign autographs for hundreds of fans during a fundraiser at a suburban Atlanta store.
It came just a week after Rock, whose real name is Robert James Ritchie, pleaded not guilty to a charge of battery from a fight last fall at another Waffle House.
A Waffle House spokeswoman said the company wanted to “take a negative situation and turn it into a positive situation.”
Proceeds from the fundraiser will go to a homeless shelter for families in DeKalb County, Ga., where Rock was arrested last October following a fight with another customer.
He was met Tuesday by enthusiastic fans, some of whom drove hundreds of miles.
First in line: Ashley Miles, 21, a nurse from Morgantown, W.Va., and her mother, Terri Miles, from Maryland.
They arrived at 8:30 p.m. Monday, set up chairs and waited all night for a chance to see Rock in person.
“I love him; he is gorgeous,” the younger Miles said.
Mary Ann, meet Mary Jane
Dawn Wells, who played good girl Mary Ann on “Gilligan’s Island,” is serving six months’ probation after being caught with marijuana in her car.
Police in her hometown of Driggs, Idaho, stopped the 69-year-old actress as she was driving home from her surprise birthday party in October, saying she was speeding up, slowing down and swerving. They smelled marijuana and found half-smoked joints.
Wells, who blamed the pot on hitchhikers she had picked up, pleaded guilty to reckless driving and was sentenced to five days in jail.
Britney meets world
A rebounding Britney Spears will guest star on the sitcom “How I Met Your Mother,” about twentysomethings living in New York City.
In the March 24 episode, Spears will play a receptionist in a dermatologist’s office who becomes “smitten” with Ted (Josh Radnor).
Series creator Craig Thomas said Spears’ reps approached CBS because “she was looking for a small part on a funny show.”
Spears previously appeared on a 2006 episode of “Will and Grace.”
Ozzy and Marie?
Donny Osmond says he might follow sister Marie‘s example and compete on next season’s “Dancing With the Stars.”
Asked if he’s been offered reality shows, he says: “The one that comes to mind was a concept of the Osbournes and the Osmonds in the same house.”
He turned it down.
Quoteworthy
Julio Iglesias Jr., on winning the music reality show “Gone Country”: “The whole experience was amazing, especially trying to lasso horses and clean out horse stalls at Gretchen Wilson‘s house.”
The birthday bunch
Singer Al Jarreau is 68. Singer-actress Liza Minnelli is 62. Singer James Taylor is 60. Actor Jon Provost (“Lassie”) is 58. Singer Marlon Jackson (The Jacksons) is 51. Actor Titus Welliver (“Deadwood”) is 47. Actor Samm Levine (“Freaks and Geeks”) is 26.