West Words

Gangsta rapper 50 Cent cancelled a free show he had planned in the Queens, New York, neighbourhood where he grew up because of security concerns.
The 34-year-old rapper, whose real name is Curtis Jackson, had planned Family Day in a schoolyard near where he was shot nine times in 2000.
The event was to be sponsored by his charity, G-Unity, which supports low-income communities, and the New York Restoration Project, a charity founded by his unlikely friend, singer Bette Midler, to encourage gardens in the city.
After police said they were worried they could not protect him he said he would not perform but simply make an appearance at Sunday's show.
But when authorities said just his appearance could spark violence he cancelled the whole event.

David Beckham may be longing to leave California to return to Europe – but he wants to persuade the rest of us to head to the West Coast.
Becks, 34, has filmed an advert promoting California tourism, reportedly at the request of Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger.
He shot the ad, due to start running next month in Great Britain, Canada and other parts of the United States, on Santa Monica beach.
“They were filming him kicking soccer balls into the ocean,” a witness told E! News.
After the shoot he signed autographs and posed for photographers with thrilled onlookers.
The new campaign from the California Travel and Tourism Commission also features Rob Lowe, Vanessa Williams and Dog Whisperer star Cesar Millan.

British actress Emily Blunt is engaged to John Krasinski, star of the American version of The Office.
Blunt, 26, who starred in The Devil Wears Prada and The Jane Austen Book Club, have kept their relationship low key and arrived separately at the Screen Actors Guild awards.
A spokesman for Krasinski, 29, told People magazine: “We can confirm that John and Emily are engaged.
Blunt, 26, who dated Canadian singer Michael Buble for three years, has said she does not like talking about her love life
She told USA Today: “Unfortunately, when you invite those questions in, then when things go south, people still have the assumption that you want to talk about it. And unfortunately, I don't.

Disc jockey DJ AM has been found dead in his New York flat, nearly a year after surviving a fiery plane crash which killed four others. He was 36.
The celebrity spinner, whose real name was Adam Goldstein, was found by police on Friday afternoon after a worried friend reported he had not been seen for two days.
The cause of death has not been determined but New York Police Department Deputy Commissioner Paul Browne said there were no signs of foul play.
Police sources said prescription drugs were found in the flat.
Goldstein's publicist said in a statement: “The circumstances surrounding his death are unclear. Out of respect to his family and loved ones, please respect their privacy at this time.”

Denis Leary will hang up his fireman's helmet on Rescue Me in 2011, to mark the 10th anniversary of the September 11 terror attacks.
The firefighting drama has always focused on the New York City force in the aftermath of the attacks which levelled the World Trade Center and killed nearly 3,000 people, more than 300 of them firefighters.
Peter Tolan, co-creator and executive producer of the show said: “Within the next couple of weeks we're going to begin shooting the last 19 episodes, which will be the final two season of the show.”
While the shows will be shot together, he told TV Guide: “I think they're stretching the airing of it out until the 10th anniversary.

Ocean's Eleven star George Clooney has broken his hand by slamming a car door on it.
The 48-year-old hunk was rumoured to have been injured in a motorcycle accident with girlfriend Elisabetta Canalis, riding his Harley Davidson around Lake Lugano on the Italian and Swiss border.
But his spokesman Stan Rosenfield told People magazine: “There was an accident and he did break his hand. He was not riding a motorcycle. It was not in Switzerland.
“He was on his property in Italy and he shut the car door on his hand.”
Clooney was treated at the Ars Medica clinic in Gravesano, Switzerland, about a 40 minute drive from his lakeside mansion near Bellagio, on Lake Como.

Actress Mischa Barton has denied it was a mental breakdown that sent her to a psychiatric ward last month.
But she admits she was “down in the dumps” thanks to a combination of stress, work – and wisdom tooth surgery that went wrong.
Barton, whose new television show The Beautiful Life starts in the United States next month told Time Out New York: “It was a nightmare. I've never had surgery before – it all went wrong and I had to have a second surgery and it almost delayed shooting.
“So with the travel and surgery and prep for the show, it was hell.”
She said a combination of factors made her place a non-emergency call to police from her Los Angeles house on July 15.

Songwriter Ellie Greenwich, who wrote or co-wrote a string of 1960s hits, including Da Doo Ron Ron, Be My Baby, River Deep, Mountain High and Then He Kissed Me, has died, aged 68.
Greenwich died of a heart attack in a New York hospital where she was being treated for pneumonia.
She had many collaborations with Wall of Sound creator Phil Spector, as well as with her ex-husband Jeff Barry, with whom she wrote leader of the Pack.
Other hits included Baby, I Love You, Christmas (Baby Please Come Home), Chapel of Love and Sunshine After the Rain.

Singer Chris Brown may have broken his probation just hours after being sentenced for assaulting his ex-girlfriend Rihanna by going to a nightclub.
Even though he was only seen drinking water at trendy Guys & Dolls, at 20 he is too young to be there legally unless he was hired as a performer.
And under-age performers are required to stay in an area where no booze is being sold or drunk. Brown's table ordered 10 bottles of Champagne.
Under the terms of his five-year probation he is required to “abstain from the use of all alcoholic beverages and stay out of places where they are the chief item of sale.”
Guys & Dolls has a licence which makes it a bar or nightclub, not a restaurant.

Sexy Jessica Biel has been named the most dangerous celebrity in cyberspace.
The 27-year-old star of The Illusionist and 7th Heaven poses a serious risk to fans looking for information about her on the Internet.
Security technology company McAfee says they have a one in five chance of clicking a link which could take them to spyware or viruses which could damage their computers.
“Cyber criminals are star watchers too,” said Jeff Green, senior vice president of McAfee's product development.
“They latch onto popular celebrities to encourage the download of malicious software in disguise.”
After Biel came Beyonce, Jennifer Aniston, American football player Tom Brady and Jessica Simpson.

Actor Jerry O'Connell has revealed he and his Ugly Betty star wife Rebecca Romjin are not having any more children – because of nasty nappies.
Romjin, 36, had twin daughters Dolly and Charlie last December, and Crossing Jordan actor O'Connell, 35, said they are as much as they can handle.
“The hardest thing is being in a public place like a store or a restaurant – or on your wife's TV show set – and smelling number two and knowing it's one of your children,” he told E! News.
“Those situations are always embarrassing.”
He said the girls have also embarrassed him when he visited Romjin on the set of her new series, Eastwick.

The troubled son of Ryan O'Neal and the late Charlie's Angels star Farrah Fawcett is turning his battle with drugs into a reality television show.
Redmond O'Neal, 24, is currently in jail undergoing an intense rehab programme after pleading guilty to breaching his probation on a drugs conviction by possessing methamphetamines.
He was expected to spend at least a year in the programme but could now be released by Christmas.
“Redmond has signed the deal that was brokered for him by his dad,” a friend told In Touch Weekly. “Ryan will be on the show too.
“Redmond wants to do this to honour his mother. He really wants to get better to honour her memory.”

The Irish priest at Senator Edward Kennedy’s bedside as he died has revealed that the veteran politician was welcoming death.
“Teddy wanted to go, he went in peace and it was beautiful,” disclosed Cork-born Monsignor Patrick Tarrant.
Mgr Tarrant has spoken out to reveal the true depth of the prominent Irish American Catholic's faith in his religion.
It was such a deep faith in God that it allowed the legendary politician to slip away happy and peacefully.
The priest was called to Kennedy's home on Tuesday evening from the nearby Our Lady of Victory Parish in Hyannisport when the 77-year-old senator took a turn for the worse.

Chris Brown hit a trendy Los Angeles club hours after being sentenced to probation and community service for assaulting ex-girlfriend Rihanna.
The 20-year-old singer went to Guys & Dolls with a group of friends and did not seem to have a care in the world as put on an impromptu show, to the delight of other patrons.
Clubgoer Cory Honickman told Us magazine that when Michael Jackson's song Dirty Diana was played: “He stood up on the back of the booth when the song came on, got a mic and not only sung, but dances his a** off.
“It was insane and no one could look away. He is incredibly talented.”
When the song ended Brown shouted to the crowd: “There was only one King of Pop. We love you, Michael.”

Actor Liam Neeson has given his first interview since the death of his wife, Natasha Richardson, last March.
The 59-year-old Schindler's List star talked to television presenter Diane Sawyer to promote Five Minutes of Heaven, his film about the Northern Ireland troubles, which has just opened in the United States.
And he spoke about how he and sons Daniel, 13, and Micheal, 12, have been coping since Richardson's death at 45, after a skiing accident.
He said they are “taking each day as it comes.”
Neeson, who is filming The Clash of the Titans, said: “I'm still getting extraordinary condolence letters from American people that's deeply touching.”

Hunky actor Gerard Butler is in the doghouse with a New York couple who claim he hit their greyhound in the head and slammed her against a fence.
But the PS I Love You star claims he was acting to defend his pug, Lolita, after the bigger dog attacked her and bit her on the neck.
Retired banker Fred Varecka, 67, claims Lolita was off the leash when she ran up to the two greyhounds he and his wife Maria were walking near the set of Butler's new film, The Bounty, in Long Island City.
Lolita touched noses with one of them, Mayfly, then, according to Mrs Varecka, Scottish-born Butler: “Went on this rampage, shouting, 'That dog should be put down!'

Former wild child Kelly Osbourne was so zonked out by drugs that her teenage friends nicknamed her “Noddy.”
The now 24-year-old has admitted that her drug addiction often caused her to be only half conscious.
Kelly confesses that she was a pill-popping teen drug addict who downed so many pain-killers she is surprised she did not overdose in her new book.
The daughter of rock icon Ozzy Osbourne and his TV talent show judge wife Sharon says she was prescribed Vicodin as a youngster.
Kelly soon began taking up to 50 a day to help her cope with her sky-rocketing stardom during the taping of the MTV reality series The Osbournes, according to her new book Fierce.

American singer Patrick Stump, a member of the Fall Out Boys who are scheduled to appear at the Reading Festival in England later on Friday, has been arrested for driving without a valid licence.
The 25-year-old star was arrested around by police on a two-year-old warrant just before midnight on Tuesday in Hollywood.
Sheriff's spokesman Steve Whitmore says Stump was taken into custody during a traffic stop by Los Angeles police.
He was booked on an outstanding warrant for driving without a licence and released early Wednesday around 4.30 am after posting US$15,000 bail.

The Jackson family decision to switch the funeral date for the Thriller singer will cost them dearly.
Michael Jackson's family, who have agreed to pay the security costs, decided to move the date of the burial from Saturday, which would have been his 51st birthday, to Thursday.
But the switch from a weekend to a weekday has shot up the security costs.
It has upped the security costs of the funeral to take place in the Glendale suburb of Los Angeles by at least three times the original price, it has emerged.
The cost to provide police and other city services for the weekend private memorial at Forest Lawn Memorial Park in Glendale would have topped US$50,000, according to Glendale police.

Michael Jackson's 11-year-old daughter Paris has just had her first haircut – and security made sure all the trimmings were carefully swept up.
Paris had her hair and nails done on Sunday at the Amp salon in the Palms Hotel in Las Vegas, arriving with her aunt, Jackie Jackson's wife, and a woman believed to be the Jackson children's private tutor.
Television reporter Alicia Jacobs happened to be sitting in the next chair, and overheard security to sweep up all her long hair and put it in a plastic bag.
“Can you imagine the value of Paris' hair?” she e-mail columnist Norm Clarke. “DNA...the truth, finally.”