West Words

Four more creditors are going after Michael Jackson's estate, days after his dermatologist presented a bill for nearly $50,000.
Leonard Rowe, who claims he signed a deal with the King of Pop in March to “oversee and supervise his finances and the shows at the 02 Concert Hall in London,” has filed a creditor's claim for $51,218.
In court papers he claims he spent the money on expenses including hotels, car rental, air travel and food.
Filmmaker John Landis, who wrote and directed Jackson's breakthrough Thriller video in 1983, claims the singer owed him more than $40,000 for a deal he made for a Broadway musical version of Thriller.

Chelsea owner Roman Abramaovich took nine people for lunch in New York – and paid more than $52,000.
The staggering bill at Nello's on Madison Avenue included two magnums of Cristal rose champagne, three bottles of La Tache Romanee Conti burgundy and two Chateau Petrus claret, each at $5,000.
According to a bill obtained by celebrity site TMZ Friday's blowout also included two truffle carpaccios at $100 each and three truffle tagliolini, totalling $585.
More modest items were an artichoke salad and a minestrone at just $18 each, a bottle of water for $12 and two cups of espresso for $7.50 each.
With tax and an automatic 20 per cent service charge the total bill was $47,221.09 – and the group threw in an extra $5,000 tip.

A man claiming to be engaged to teen singing sensation Miley Cyrus who tried to reach her on a film set has pleaded guilty to resisting police.
But stalking charges were dropped against Mark McLeod, 53, who told police the 16-year-old Hannah Montana star sent him secret messages though her television show, stored thousands of pictures of her, and letters to her on his computer, and was saving to buy her a diamond ring.
A grand jury in Georgia refused to indict him on felony stalking charges, saying there was not enough evidence to show he had malicious intent.
He admitted the lesser charges in a plea bargain which saw him sentenced to 24 months probation, with three months credit for jail time served.

Teen country sensation Taylor Swift has shocked her fans by being photographed with a boy wearing a swastika tee-shirt.
The squeaky-clean 19-year old was at Katy Perry's 25th birthday in Hollywood when she was snapped arm-in-arm with the guest.
Partygoers at the Willy Wonka-themed bash were told to wear all white and had their clothes decorated with neon paint.
It was posted on the Internet by someone claiming to be the boy – and to be Taylor's new boyfriend.
“Taylor and I are officially dating,” the poster wrote.

The elder child of superstar Cher has spoken for the first time about loving life as a man.
Chaz Bono, whose father was Cher's first husband, singer-turned-politician Sonny Bono, has been going through a sex change since March and says his body has gone through significant changes.
“It lowered my voice,” said Chaz, 40, who was called Chastity as a woman. “Fat redistributes, muscle growth, hair growth, sex drive increases.”
He told Entertainment Tonight: “It's a long process going back almost a decade. I got clean and sober in 2004 and I couldn't have done this before that.”

Golf great Greg Norman has put his Colorado ranch on the market for $55 million, five years after buying it for $18.5 million.
No reason for the sale was announced, but according to columnist Jose Lambiet, he is still paying off his $103 million divorce settlement.
Norman, 54, married tennis star Chris Evert shortly after his divorce was finalised, but they separated earlier this month after just 15 months.
His Colorado property, Seven Lakes Ranch, is in the White River National Forest, and has 11,600 acres of rivers, mountains, valleys, lakes and forests, and is perfect for fly fishing and hunting.
The main lodge is 13,600 square feet, and has a separate ball room.
 

Lost star Henry Ian Cusick has settled a sexual harassment suit brought by a crew member who claimed he groped her.
Chelsea Stone claimed the 42-year-old Scot touched her up and kissed her despite her protests, and caused her so much stress she had a miscarriage.
And when she complained to her employers, ABC Entertainment, whom she also sued, along with production company Grass Skirt Entertainment, they did nothing to keep him away from her and fired her a few days later.
In her Los Angeles Superior Court lawsuit she claims the harassment started in October 2007.
The suit said: “Cusick placed his hand on plaintiff's buttocks. Cusick then began to caress the back of plaintiff's body while making moaning sounds.

Megan Fox has been named as another victim of the Hollywood Hills celebrity burglary gang.
But she did not realise she had been robbed until police found a handgun owned by her boyfriend, Brian Austin Green, at the home of one of the suspects.
Former Beverly Hills 90210 star Green, 36, then discovered his Rolex Submariner watch had been stolen.
High School Musical star Ashley Tisdale, 24, was also named as one of the teenage gang's victims, joining Lindsay Lohan, 23,Paris Hilton, 28, Rachel Bilson, 23, Audrina Partridge, 24, and Orlando Bloom, 32.
Six people have been arrested in connection with the string of heists, which Los Angeles police say netted millions of dollars worth of property.

Michael Lohan could be set to air tapes of phone calls with his ex-wife to prove she is covering up daughter Lindsay's addictions.
Lohan has been making public claims for the last few weeks that the 23-year-old Mean Girls star is facing addiction to prescription drugs and is wasting away, while his ex, Dina, claims he is lying and has no contact with his daughter.
Lindsay herself has called on him to stop talking about her, but he shows no sign of letting up.
“Dina is saying that I'm lying – that Lindsay doesn't have a problem and that she's okay,” he told the New York Daily News.
“But I have proof that Dina has told me Lindsay is on death's doorstep, that she doesn't have much time left.

French fashion designer Yves Saint Laurent has toppled Elvis Presley as the king of dead rich celebrities.
Saint Laurent, who died of brain cancer in June last year, was named the biggest earner from beyond the grave by Forbes magazine.
His posthumous earnings for the year were a staggering $350 million thanks to a Christie's auction of his possessions, including art, antiques and furniture, which was split between two charities.

A perfume company is kicking up a stink over supermodel Naomi Campbell.
Moodform Mission is suing the fiery fashionista for allegedly failing to pay the company a cut of her profits from her perfume line.
The 39-year-old catwalk queen is accused of reneging on a contract she signed in 1998 agreeing to give Moodform Mission a portion of her profits for developing her line.
According to the lawsuit, filed in Manhattan Supreme Court, Campbell paid the Miami-based firm from 2001 when her five cosmetic ranges, with names like Cat Deluxe and Seductive Elixir, started going on the market.

Patrick Swayze's widow Lisa Niemi has spoke publicly about his death six weeks ago for the first time.
Niemi, who was married to the Dirty Dancing and Ghost star for 34 years, talked about her heartbreak that he lost his courageous battle against pancreatic cancer, aged 57.
“When the grief takes you, it's like your body's not your own,” she a discussion called Grief, Healing and Resilience at a women's conference hosted by California first lady Maria Shriver.
Calling the loss “like an animal all of its own” and that her sorrow is “on a cellular level,” she said: “I'm just going with the flow. I know I have to go through it.”

Michael Jackson's former dermatologist is suing his estate for nearly $50,000 in unpaid bills – including $7,500 for one Saturday visit.
Dr Arnold Klein wants $48,522.89 for treatment from March this year, including four treatments performed just four days before the singer's death on June 25, aged 50.
The treatments include Botox under his eyes and on his forehead, a glaucoma treatment called Latanoprost, acne surgery, sunscreen, a lip treatment and Restalyne, a wrinkle-filler.
There were 51 references to an IM injection, which another dermatologist told celebrity site TMZ, which obtained a copy of the lawsuit, is often used as a billing code for the powerful opiate painkiller Demerol.

Oscar-winning actor George Clooney is returning to his television roots – but on the other side of the camera.
The 48-year-old star, who made his name as Dr Doug Ross in ER, is executive producing a new police drama, Delta Blues.
The American TNT channel has given the go-ahead for a pilot episode from Smokehouse Pictures, run by Clooney and Grant Heslov.
According to The Hollywood Reporter Delta Blues centres on a an unusual Memphis cop who is outstanding in his work but who moonlights as an Elvis Presley impersonator and still lives with his mum.

The woman raped by director Roman Polanski when she was 13 wants the 32-year-old case dropped because it is making her ill.
Samantha Geimer also says her job is a risk because of the pressure she has been under since the 76-year-old Oscar winner was arrested in Switzerland facing possible extradition.
In a court filing asking a California appeals court to dismiss the case, her lawyer, Lawrence Silver, said she has received nearly 500 requests for interviews, including calls from Larry King and Oprah Winfrey, and is being “stalked by journalists.”

Tom Cruise's 1988 film Cocktail is heading to Broadway as a musical – and his wife, Katie Holmes, could play the Elizabeth Shue role.
It is being brought to the stage by legendary producer Marty Richards, whose hits include both the stage and film versions of Chicago, musicals Sweeney Todd and La Cage aux Folles and films Fort Apache: The Bronx and The Shining.
Heywood Gould, who wrote the original book and film script, told the New York Post: “I am writing it as we speak. Marty Richards is on board and he's working on the score.
“It's far too early to talk about casting. We haven't approached anybody yet. But I do like Katie Holmes.”

Rocker Courtney Love has moved back to New York, claiming she has been hounded out of Los Angeles by manipulative employees.
The 45-year-old widow of grunge pioneer Kurt Cobain claims her staff hired gun-waving off-duty policemen to raid her Malibu home trying to take her husband's fortune.
She told the New York Daily News the officers “tried to take me to the loony bin.”
Love, who had a well-publicised meltdown in 2002 and 2003 and lost custody of her daughter, Frances Bean, now 17, amid court cases for drugs and assault, explained: “A flood of guys, at least 10, came to my house.
“They said there was an ambulance outside, even though we never saw one. I tried to be charming.

Some of the gang alleged to be behind a string of celebrity burglaries have been revealed as a group of school classmates.
Three suspects in burglaries at the homes of Lindsay Lohan, Audrina Partidge, Orlando Bloom and Paris Hilton went Indian Hills High School in Agoura Hills, west of Los Angeles, including Nicholas Prugo, 18, who last week was formally charged with break-in at Lohan's and Partridge's home.
His classmate and alleged ringleader Rachel J Lee, 19, is said to have an obsessive fascination with celebrity fashion.

Actor Brad Pitt has been involved in a minor motorbike accident when he lost control of his new machine and fell to the ground.
Varying reports of the mishap have the Ocean's Eleven star clipping the wing mirror of a parked car, being cut off by a photographer or being rear-ended by a photographer.
After the accident on Saturday afternoon Pitt, 45, could not start the bike and called for his security team to pick him up and arrange to have the bike towed.
Police were not involved and Pitt exchanged insurance details with the other driver.
 

U2 frontman and political activist Bono has revealed he has been in touch with US President Barack Obama about Aids funding.
He said he is confident Obama will follow through on his campaign promises, while noting that America feels less optimistic than when he and the band performed City of Blinding Lights at his inauguration in January.
“I didn't think it would come to this so quickly after the joyous occasion of that election,” he said. “I thought America was looking good. Things are getting a little rough now.”
But he said he believes Obama will come through for a cause close to his heart – fighting Aids in Africa.