Glitter claims heart attack
BANGKOK, Aug. 20 (UPI) -- Former rocker Gary Glitter claimed he was having a heart attack while at the Bangkok airport and refused to board a flight to Britain, the BBC reports.
Glitter was on his way from Vietnam, where he spent nearly three years in prison for sexually abusing two girls.
Vietnam deported Glitter, 64, whose real name is Paul Francis Gadd, after releasing him from jail.
While Glitter demanded he be allowed to remain in Thailand or elsewhere in Asia, Thai immigration officials have labeled him "persona non grata" and threatened to return him to Vietnam, the British network said.
His attorney, Le Thanh Kinh, told The Times of London the 1970s glam rocker was released from Vietnam's Thu Duc prison and was driven to the Ho Chi Minh City airport.
Glitter in his heyday had topped the music charts numerous times, CNN reported. He was convicted in 2006 in Vietnam of sexually abusing two Vietnamese girls, ages 9 and 11, the U.S. network reported.
A children's advocate, who wants Glitter sent back to London, was quoted as saying, "It's important that we stop him traveling overseas again where he is a known risk of abusing children."
Publicist: Liz Taylor out of hospital
LOS ANGELES, Aug. 20 (UPI) -- U.S. actress Elizabeth Taylor is back home in Los Angeles after spending several weeks in a hospital, her publicist says.
Taylor, 76, is "living her life" and "having dinner with friends," spokesman Dick Guttman told the BBC. Guttman dismissed reports that Taylor had been seriously ill but wouldn't give details about Taylor's condition or where she was hospitalized.
The broadcaster says Taylor uses a wheelchair after breaking her back five times while suffering from osteoporosis. She also underwent hip replacement surgery in 1995 and had a brain tumor removed in 1997.
Taylor denied speculation that she was gravely ill or being treated for Alzheimer's disease during a 2006 interview with CNN, saying, "Oh come on, do I look like I'm dying?"
Applegate 'cancer free' after mastectomy
LOS ANGELES, Aug. 20 (UPI) -- U.S. actress Christina Applegate says she's "100 percent" free of breast cancer after undergoing a double mastectomy.
Applegate, star of ABC comedy "Samantha Who?" told the network's "Good Morning America" Tuesday, "I'm clear. Absolutely 100 percent clear and clean. It did not spread -- they got everything out, so I'm definitely not going to die from breast cancer."
Applegate said she faced a hard choice in dealing with her breast cancer. Because she wanted to make sure there would be no chance of a recurrence, and since she tested positive for the BRCA1 breast cancer gene, the actress said she opted to have both her breasts removed even though cancerous lumps were found in only one of them, ABC reported.
"My decision, after looking at all the treatment plans that were possibilities for me, the only one that seemed the most logical and the one that was going to work for me was to have a bilateral mastectomy," Applegate told the network.
It's all Jonas Bros. on album charts
LOS ANGELES, Aug. 20 (UPI) -- U.S. "tween" sensations the Jonas Brothers have scored their first No. 1 album with "A Little Bit Longer," Billboard.com reported Wednesday.
Even though the brothers' top ranking on the weekly Billboard 200 chart was expected, the numbers still impressed industry analysts, with 517,000 copies sold last week in the United States, as measured by Nielsen SoundScan.
Billboard also pointed out the Jonas Brothers have pulled off a rare feat of having two albums simultaneously in the top tier of the chart. Their self-titled second album rose to 10th with 31,000 copies sold in its 54th chart week. The newspaper said that hasn't happened since since 'N Sync did it in 1999 with "Home for Christmas" at No. 10 and "'N Sync" at No. 2.
And as if that weren't enough, the young trio make a third Top 10 album chart appearance with the soundtrack to the Disney film "Camp Rock," in which they star. The soundtrack maintained its No. 8 for a second week with 50,000 copies sold, Billboard said.
Billboard said the soundtrack to "Mamma Mia!," last week's chart-topper, slid to No. 2 with 110,000, and Kid Rock's "Rock N Roll Jesus" climbed to third.