24 de março de 2008

Pamela Anderson's brief marriage ends


The "Baywatch" star's nuptials with Rick Salomon were officially annulled Monday, according to documents filed in Superior Court.

The documents listed fraud as the reason for the annulment but did not include further details.

Salomon and Anderson, 40, were married Oct. 6 in Las Vegas then separated Dec. 13.

Messages left for Anderson's attorney Larry Ginsberg were not immediately returned. The documents did not name a lawyer for Salomon, and he could not be reached.

Court papers entered Friday showed that Salomon agreed to a filing by Anderson in late February requesting that the marriage should be voided. No spousal support was included.

Anderson was previously married to Motley Crue drummer Tommy Lee and rocker Kid Rock. Rock and Anderson each filed for divorce in 2006 after less than four months of marriage.

Salomon, known for making a sex videotape with then-girlfriend Paris Hilton, was previously married to actress Shannen Doherty for nine months.

Spears goes for laughs on CBS' `Mother'

Britney Spears made her much-hyped guest appearance Monday night's "How I Met Your Mother," submersing her tumultuous personal life and portraying a sweet-natured receptionist, Abby, with a crush on unlucky-in-love Ted (Josh Radnor).


Problem is: Ted only has eyes for Abby's boss Stella (Sarah Chalke), a dermatologist. Ted's goal: to win a date by his 10th session with Stella. Nothing's working.


Finally, he figures: "The receptionist — that's my way in."


So he brings Abby coffee in a bid to impress Stella, but it charms Abby even more. During one visit, Abby trails him and Stella into an office to deliver a book — a self-help tome called "The Power of Me" — that he left behind in the waiting room.


The 26-year-old pop star, who previously was on a 2006 episode of "Will and Grace," appeared fresh-faced and relaxed, capably filling the small role. She was also the host and musical guest on "Saturday Night Live" in 2000.


Of course, she's made news in recent months not for being Britney the Performer but for her split with ex-husband Kevin Federline in late 2006, their subseqent custody battle, Spears' bizarre behavior and two hospitalizations.


Spears' cameo on the CBS sitcom may mark the beginnings of a more successful comeback attempt than last September's MTV Video Music Awards.

Madonna, Mellencamp Head to Rock Hall


Madonna, pop music's quick-change artist, was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame on Monday and paid tribute to people who encouraged her and even critics who panned her for helping drive her career.

Heartland hitmaker John Mellencamp, with his son Speck playing guitar and his parents watching from a balcony above the Waldorf Astoria Hotel ballroom, joined the rock-kicking with a rumbling version of "Authority Song."

"I wrote this song, and I still feel the same way today as I did when I wrote it 25 years ago," Mellencamp said.

Philly soul producers Kenny Gamble and Leon Huff, literate songwriter Leonard Cohen, British rockers the Dave Clark Five, and surf instrumentalists the Ventures were among the other inductees.

Madonna recalled key moments of her career, from playing her demo tape for record company president Seymour Stein when he was in a hospital bed hooked up to an IV, to her shock at looking out from the stage at thousands of girls dressed like her. "It freaked me out," she said.

She fondly remembered a teacher who encouraged her to follow her dreams when she was only 14, and said she's lucky to have people around her that are still doing that.

'The Hills': A Beginner's Guide

Get Up to Speed With MTV's Hit Reality Show

Actresses Audrina Patridge, Lauren Conrad, and Whitney Port arrive at a special MTV taping of "Legally Blonde" the musical at the Palace Theater September 18, 2007 in New York City. (Scott Gries/Getty Images)

Britney Spears' TV Wardrobe Up for Sale


This photo released by CBS Broadcasting shows actor Josh Radnor as Ted, right, and guest star Britney Spears as Abby, in a scene from "How I met Your Mother." Spears' wardrobe from her guest-starring stint on the show will be sold at an online auction beginning Monday, March 24, 2008, the same day the episode featuring the pop star is set to air. (AP Photo/CBS Broadcasting, Monty Brinton) (AP)

Dolly Parton hungry for hits

Parton, whose business portfolio includes a theme park and an entertainment production company, says she's spending a lot of her own money trying to get back on country radio with her new CD, "Backwoods Barbie."

"I'm looking at it like an investment," she told The Associated Press. "I thought, 'I've made enough money. I can afford to invest a little in myself.' "

She has self-released the disc on her own label, Dolly Records, and hired a seven-member promotions team.

"I purposely tailor-made this to try to get some hits," Parton explained.
The album reached No. 2 on Billboard in its second week, her best showing in 17 years.

Icahn Steps Up Pressure on Motorola

The billionaire investor Carl C. Icahn said Monday that he was suing Motorola to force it to hand over documents related to its mobile devices business, and he urged investors to elect his slate of candidates to the Motorola board.

“Over the past 12 months, the statements and predictions of Motorola’s management and the board about mobile devices business have too often proven to be wrong,” Mr. Icahn wrote in a letter to Motorola shareholders. “We want to ascertain what the board could have done in the exercise of its fiduciary duty to assure Motorola stockholders that Motorola’s statements and
predictions were not incorrect.”

The Icahn Group wants documents about the mobile devices business, as well as records on corporate aircraft use by senior management, the boards and their families.

“We demanded these materials for the purposes of enabling us to investigate whether and to what extent the board of directors of Motorola failed in their duties as directors in supervising management and setting policy and direction of Motorola,” Mr. Icahn wrote.

Mr. Icahn said he planned to share the information with Motorola’s stockholders, but added that Motorola has said it would not comply. A Motorola spokeswoman was not immediately available for comment.

Motorola shares rose 36 cents, to $9.61.

A New Tool From Google Alarms Sites

Retailers and publishers have fought hard to work their way up in the ranking of Google’s search results and refine the search features of their own Web sites to help users once they arrive. Now, Google is taking a greater role in helping users search within particular sites. And some of the same retailers and publishers are not happy about it.

This month, the company introduced a search-within-search feature that lets users stay on Google to find pages on popular sites like those of The Washington Post, Wikipedia, The New York Times, Wal-Mart and others. The search box appears when someone enters the name of certain Web addresses or company names — say, “Best Buy” — rather than entering a request like “cellphones.”


The results of the search are almost all individual company pages. Google tops those results with a link to the home page of the Web site in question, adds another search box, and offers users the chance to let Google search for certain things within that site.


The problem, for some in the industry, is that when someone enters a term into that secondary search box, Google will display ads for competing sites, thereby profiting from ads it sells against the brand. The feature also keeps users searching on Google pages and not pages of the destination Web site.