Green palms abound as celebrities and celebrity wannabes dig deep for charities, cars, and court appearances:
PAUL NEWMAN
The charitable actor is donating $10 million to his alma mater to help start a scholarship fund. Paul Newman says Kenyon College is a place he holds near to his heart. The actor graduated from the private liberal arts school located in central Ohio in 1949 with a degree in drama and economics and now wants to help others further their education there.
“My days there were among the happiest and most formative of my life,” Newman said last week. “I believe strongly that we should be doing whatever we can to make all higher education opportunities available to deserving students. I hope others will support Kenyon in this manner.”
The donation will help to pay for about 20 scholarships with money raised from the sale of Newman’s Own brand of salad dressings, pasta sauces, popcorn (our family’s favorites… hmm… I guess I had a part in donating to the scholarships). According to college administrators, Newman has donated privately to Kenyon in the past, but went public with this contribution in hopes it will spur donations from other alumni.
A FLYING CAR
Remember the classic red-and-yellow winged roadster that starred in the film “Chitty Chitty Bang Bang?” Someone just shelled out more than a half a million dollars for it.
According to news reports, a Florida man forked over $505,000 a couple of days ago to earn the honor of being the famous car’s new owner. Movie buff and car collector Ralph Spencer already owns a 1966 Batmobile and says he has had his eyes on the famous winged car for years.
The car, which was previously displayed in a Chicago restaurant formerly known as JR’s, will now share space at Spencer’s home… when he’s not flying it around town.
LARRY’S LAWSUIT
As if the drama surrounding the revelation that Larry Birkhead fathered Anna Nicole Smith’s baby wasn’t enough, now the photographer is back in the news as a litigant in yet another lawsuit. Birkhead is countersuing his former attorney, claiming she defrauded him out of hundreds of thousands of dollars.
According to court documents, Birkhead claims his former attorney, Debra Opri offered to represent him for free during his high profile paternity dispute with the belief the publicity would benefit her career. Apparently things didn’t pan out the way she wanted because last week Opri filed her own suit claiming that Birkhead didn’t pay his bills for her legal services.
Birkhead’s lawsuit alleges that Opri deposited close to $1 million into an attorney client trust account against his wishes. When Opri refused to turn over the money, Birkhead fired her.
Opri responded to the lawsuit by saying that Birkhead can now pay his legal bills having “received over $1 million in a media deal.” She added: “This does not include the untold millions he has received for selling photos of his daughter.”
In this sue happy world are you surprised the courts are still entertaining Anna Nicole Smith related lawsuits?