The daily dish... a spicy serving of celebrity news
Under the influence ...
Brad Paisley says he got to mark a biggie off his wish list when Andy Griffith agreed to be in the video for his new single, “Waitin’ On a Woman.”
“He has influenced my life more than most people that I grew up with, more than most people that I actually knew my whole life,” Paisley said recently. “I wrote Andy a letter telling him what he has meant to me over the years and asked him to be in the video.”
In the video, the 82-year-old star of the long-running TV series “Matlock” and “The Andy Griffith Show” plays a kindly gentleman who advises Paisley’s character to be patient when waiting for a woman.
“Andy heard the song and wanted to commit to working the long hours necessary to get the video right, and he really adopted this music video as if it was his own,” said Paisley.
Country ways ...
Jason Priestley says he got a crash course on the Nashville music industry while directing a reality series about the Canadian band the Road Hammers.
Priestley, 38, followed the group to Nashville as they sought a record deal.
“I got there as an outsider following this band who had a lot of autonomy in Canada and were basically left alone by their record label and did things how they wanted to do them and were successful,” the former “Beverly Hills, 90210” star told Associated Press recently. “And here I am following them around in Nashville and they get greeted a lot with ‘That’s not the way we do it here’ or ‘Let me tell you how we do it in Nashville.’ It was very interesting.”
The series, “The Road Hammers,” premiered last month on the Great American Country channel.
“I have a lot friends who are musicians. I think I’m just fascinated by that industry,” Priestley said. “It’s just amazing that it works at all. It’s a mess, but it works.”
Dangerous waters ...
“Crocodile Dundee” star Paul Hogan challenged Australian tax authorities Friday to track him down in the United States after a newspaper report that he was under investigation for tax evasion.
The 68-year-old actor has repeatedly denied that he dodged taxes.
The Australian national newspaper reported that Australian tax authorities had asked for help from the U. S. Internal Revenue Service in obtaining Hogan’s banking records.
“Come and get me,” Hogan said with a grin, He spoke to Australia’s Ten Network television outside his Santa Barbara, Calif., mansion, delivering an obscenity-laced statement addressed to the Australian Taxation Office Hogan said he was returning to Australia in September to make a movie.
Celebrity birthdays
Sunday: Actor Sylvester Stallone is 62. Rapper 50 Cent is 32.
Monday:
Blues pianist
Pinetop Perkins
is 95. Bandleader Doc Severinsen is 81. Drummer Ringo Starr is 68.
Tuesday: Actor Kevin Bacon is
50. Country singer Toby Keith is 47. Wednesday: Actor Tom
Hanks is 52. Singer Courtney Love is 44. Actor Fred Savage is 32.
Thursday: Folk singer Arlo Guthrie is 61. Singer Jessica Simpson is 28.
Friday: Actor Tab Hunter is 77. Actress Sela Ward is 52. Guitarist Richie Sambora of Bon Jovi is 49.
Next Saturday: Actor-comedian Bill Cosby is 71. Fitness guru Richard Simmons is 60.
