George Michael moves to softer prison
LONDON, Sept. 18 (UPI) -- British pop icon George Michael has been moved to a lower-security prison to serve the rest of his sentence for crashing his vehicle while on drugs.
Michael was moved Friday out of London's Pentonville Prison, which also once held Oscar Wilde and Boy George, and transferred to Highpoint Prison in Suffolk after Michael called off plans to seek bail, the BBC reported.
Michael, 47, pleaded guilty in August to driving under the influence of marijuana. Police found him in his Range Rover after he crashed it into a Snappy Snaps photo store in Hampstead, England, in July.
The singer was jailed Tuesday to serve an eight-week sentence. Half of that time will be suspended and he will serve the rest on probation.
Lindsay Lohan fails drug test
HOLLYWOOD, Sept. 18 (UPI) -- U.S. actress Lindsay Lohan admitted via Twitter that she failed her most recent court-ordered drug test.
"Regrettably, I did in fact fail my most recent drug test and if I am asked, I am prepared to appear before judge Fox next week as a result," Lohan said Friday on her Twitter page. "I am so thankful for the support of my fans, loved ones and immediate family, who understand that i am trying hard, but also that I am a work in progress, just as anyone else. I am keeping my faith, and I am hopeful....Thank you all!!!"
The 24-year-old actress initially denied a report from gossip Web site TMZ.com indicating she failed the drug test, telling US magazine, "They're all nuts."
Lohan spent 23 days in rehab treatment at the UCLA Medical Center last month after serving 13 days of a 90-day sentence for probation violation.
Beverly Hills Judge Elden Fox ordered Lohan to undergo weekly therapy sessions and submit to mandatory drug tests, warning her she could go back to jail for 30 days if she was found to violate those terms.
Writer: Letterman was in on Phoenix joke
HOLLYWOOD, Sept. 18 (UPI) -- David Letterman knew Joaquin Phoenix's bizarre behavior during an interview last year was an act, a writer for "The Late Show" host says.
Phoenix was a guest on "The Late Show" on Feb. 11, 2009, purportedly to promote his film "Two Lovers," but he made headlines for a bizarre and largely incoherent appearance in which he announced his retirement from acting and aspirations to become a hip-hop artist.
It turns out the affectation was designed to promote the upcoming Casey Affleck-directed flick "I'm Still Here," Affleck revealed Thursday, claiming no one else knew the plot, including Letterman.
The Hollywood Reporter Friday discovered an interview Letterman writer Bill Scheft gave to independent newspaper Nuvo last year in which Scheft claimed Letterman was in on the gag.
"It was great television," Scheft told Nuvo. "But I will take credit for the line, 'I think I owe Farrah Fawcett an apology.' That line was mine. I gave that to him during the break." (Fawcett famously appeared on the show in 1997, delivering a similarly awkward and incoherent performance.)
"I've told people that (everyone was in on the joke), and not only don't people believe me, they tell me that I'm wrong and that (Phoenix) is a schizophrenic and he needs help and he's going to end up like his brother (River, who died of a drug overdose in 1993). I said no. I saw the segment notes. It's an act. I saw Ben Affleck's brother taping the whole thing from offstage," Scheft said in the interview.
Letterman famously ended the segment with Phoenix with the line, "Joaquin, I'm sorry you couldn't be here tonight."
Reality TV crew filmed Fantasia in hospital
HOLLYWOOD, Sept. 18 (UPI) -- "American Idol" winner Fantasia Barrino allowed a film crew for her VH1 reality show to videotape her in her hospital bed following her August suicide attempt.
The Season 3 Idol winner "is seen crying with tubes in her arm, and also being pushed in a wheelchair" in a video clip posted Friday by The Hollywood Reporter.
The clip shows Fantasia saying, "I was tired," while her manager tells the camera the star was "broken" over her affair with a married but "separated" man, Antwaun Cook.
"I have not fulfilled my destiny. It's not time for me to go anywhere. … I'm back," Fantasia says in the promo for "Fantasia For Real Season 2," which premieres Sunday.
