FLASH LITES: RIP ‘N’ READ POP CULTURE RECAP
FLASH LITES: RIP ‘N’ READ POP CULTURE RECAP
LOS ANGELES (Wireless Flash) – Is Ben Affleck pining for former flame Gwyneth Paltrow? Star magazine reports the Good Will Hunting hunk recently called up Paltrow and begged her to take him back now that he’s clean and sober. Word is Paltrow – who’s been dating Luke Wilson – turned him down.
PLAINVILLE, Conn. – Police in Plainville, Connecticut, busted a senior citizen who was sitting on his porch in the buff. Residents called cops to complain that the 62-year-old man was lounging in the nude in full view of an elementary school.
BALTIMORE – A Baltimore developer has scrapped his plans to open a disaster-themed restaurant called “Crash Cafe.” The place would have featured a forest of twisted metal, airplane tails and video monitors playing clips of train wrecks and collapsing buildings.
NEW YORK – Folks who go to see tapings of David Letterman’s late-night talk show in New York will have to pass through a metal detector before entering the theater. A spokeswoman says the security measure seemed “prudent” in light of recent terrorist events.
DUBLIN – Crooks in Ireland have a taste of the good life. Burglars who broke into the English Market in Cork, Ireland, quaffed vintage champagne worth $233 a bottle and sampled fancy cheeses before fleeing – without any money.
KARACHI, Pakistan – Pakistan International Airlines has stopped doing business with a travel agency which booked a passenger named Osama bin Laden on a flight from Karachi to Islamabad on Friday (Sep. 21). Officials say they don’t know if it was the real bin Laden or an imposter.
MOSCOW – Five workers died in a soap factory in Russia when they fell to their death into vats of fat. The men had been making repairs on equipment when they slipped and fell.
NEW YORK – Paul McCartney says he will put on a benefit concert to honor the firefighters and emergency workers who died rescuing the victims of the World Trade Center collapse. McCartney says he’s personally touched because his father was a fireman in WWII.
NEW YORK – “I’m A Slave 4 U,” “I’m Not A Girl, Not Yet A Woman,” and “Overprotected” may sound like porn titles to you but they’re actually songs from Britney Spears’ upcoming CD, Britney. “I’m A Slave 4 U” hits radio today and the CD – which includes a remake of “I Love Rock And Roll” – hits stores November 6.
BEVERLY HILLS, Calif. – The revival of patriotism is a boon to Pat Boone’s career. In the past two weeks, Boone’s been bombarded with requests to re-release American Glory, an album of patriotic songs he recorded more than 30 years ago. Boone hopes the new era of flag-waving lasts long enough for the Senate to make flag-burning unconstitutional.