The daily dish... a spicy serving of celebrity news
Protest solidarity…
Musicians JoanBaez and Jon BonJovi are using videos carried on YouTube to support Iranian protesters, performing songs that call for peace and use a few lines in Farsi.
New Jersey’s Bon Jovi sings “Stand By Me” with Armenian-Iranian pop star Andy Madadian. He adds in Farsi: “Hand in hand, with one voice, you and me, countryman, your pain, my pain, be with me.” The June 24-dated video opens with an image of Bon Jovi holding a sign that reads “We are all one” in Farsi.
Activist Baez’s version of “We Shall Overcome” includes a portion in Farsi. Strumming an acoustic guitar, the 68-year-old singer offered the anthem of the American civil-rights movement.
Sweet 13…
“Little Miss Sunshine” star Abigail Breslin just got a raise, reports People online.
The Oscarnominated actress recently became a teenager and got a $1 raise in her weekly allowance.
“I get $13 [a week] now, because I’m 13,” she said at last week’s Manhattan premiere of her new film, “My Sister’s Keeper.”
With the extra allowance comes more responsibility, she said. “My chores have gotten a little heavier,” she says. “My brother used to always feed the cat and now I feed the cat, which isn’t a big deal, but it kind of is, because my cat eats tons. It’s like an all-day long cycle.”
Breslin has been in show business since she was 5 and makes an estimated $2 million per movie. She ranked eighth in Forbes magazine’s list of “Young Hollywood’s Top-Earning Stars” in 2007.
Goblin cast…
Scottish actor Alan Cumming has joined the cast of “Spider-Man Turn Off the Dark,” the upcoming Broadway musical about the comic book hero, reports the BBC online.
Cumming, 44, will take on the role of Norman Osborn, also known as the villainous Green Goblin, played by Willem Dafoe in the 2002 film.
Evan Rachel Wood has also signed on to play Peter Parker’s girlfriend, Mary Jane Watson.
The musical features a score by Bono and The Edge from rock band U2.
It will be directed by Julie Tay-mor, the creative force behind Disney’s long-running “Lion King,” who has worked with both Cumming and Wood before.
“Evan is unique: she is a young actress with incredible depth for both serious and comic drama in films and theatre, and on top of that, she has an extraordinary lyrical
voice,” Taymor said. As for Cumming, the director added: “He has such range and such charisma as a performer that I feel his Green Goblin will bring many surprises that will move and entertain us.”
An opening date will be announced later, as will the actor to be cast as Spider-Man.
The queen’s tab…
Buckingham Palace says public funding for Queen Elizabeth II and the royal family cost British taxpayers the equivalent of 69 pence (US $1.14) each last year.
The Queen’s office published her latest accounts on Monday. It showed that the costs incurred by the royal family were 41.5 million pounds ($68.6 million) in the year to March 31, an increase of 1.5 million pounds ($2.48 million) on the previous year. Public money is used to pay the costs of travel and homes used by the royal family, including the Queen’s Buckingham Palace residence.
Figures showed that travel costs rose to 6.5 million pounds ($10.76 million) from 6.2 million pounds ($10.26 million).
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