Watercooler Stories

Man soaks Tom Cruise at film premiere

LONDON, June 20 (UPI) -- Four men have been arrested for allegedly soaking Hollywood actor Tom Cruise with water at the London premiere of his new movie "War of the Worlds."

Cruise, who was greeting some of the 5,000 fans outside the theater with his fiancée actress Katie Holmes, reacted angrily to the prank and repeatedly called the man responsible a "jerk," the IrishExaminer.com reported Sunday.

Cruise was answering questions from a reporter when a man pretending to be a reporter held a joke microphone to the actor's face and used it to squirt water. The bogus reporter along with three others members of his freelance camera crew were working on a new British TV comedy show.

"The incident was for a new Channel 4 entertainment show part of which involves playing comedy pranks on celebrities and on members of the public," said a spokesman for the show. "The water squirting was not intended to cause offense and was very much in a spirit of fun."

Jolie's lawyers wanted interview agreement

LOS ANGELES, June 20 (UPI) -- Lawyers for actress Angelina Jolie asked journalists to sign an agreement limiting what they can do in an interview that journalists believe went too far.

Jolie's law firm -- Sloane, Offer, Webster & Dern -- wanted to condition interviews with the actress on journalists' consent to not ask any questions about "personal relationships." The journalists were also asked to agree that the interviews "only be used to promote the picture," and "not be used in a manner that is disparaging, demeaning and derogatory," Daily Variety reported.

"Many of the people who covered the junket felt it was an example of the publicists taking it one step too far," says Mark Coleman, executive news director of Star Magazine. "You can't really say it's an interview when you're so constrained as to what you can ask that you might as well be talking to a studio executive."

Allan Mayer, managing director of the public relations firm Sitrick & Company, said "This wasn't so much a take-it-or-leave-it proposition as a shot across the bow."

Disney, Viacom go after fake piñatas

LOS ANGELES, June 20 (UPI) -- The Walt Disney Co. and four other entertainment companies are cracking down on Los Angeles produce vendors for allegedly selling counterfeit piñatas.

The Los Angeles Times said Disney and the other companies filed copyright and trademark infringement lawsuits against two downtown produce vendors for allegedly selling the counterfeit piñatas, featuring the likenesses of such characters as Cinderella and Dora the Explorer.

Piñata makers, known as piñateros, are a cottage industry in Los Angeles. Their piñatas, which look much different than the piñatas found in chain stores, are generally sold in small shops in Latino neighborhoods.

Many of those piñatas are illegal because they resemble licensed characters and are sold without the owner's permission, Disney Enterprises Inc., Sanrio Co., Cartoon Network, Viacom International Inc. and Hanna-Barbera Productions alleged in a lawsuit filed last month.

"Our characters and our brands are the lifeblood of our business and we are vigilant about protecting our intellectual property against illegal usage," Viacom spokeswoman Julia Phelps told the LA Times.

More brides may be taking husband's name

LEXINGTON, Ky., June 20 (UPI) -- Twenty years ago, many U.S. women chose not to take her husband's name, but more brides may be opting to take their spouse's name again.

A Harvard study on name-changing, based on information from wedding announcements in the New York Times, found only 2 percent of brides kept their names in 1975. However, By 1998, some 33 percent had decided to keep their maiden names.

However, a survey by the wedding Web site theknot.com found about 71 percent of women took their husbands' names last year, reported the Lexington (Ky.) Herald-Leader.

Claudia Goldin, who conducted the Harvard study, said brides featured in the Times tend to be college educated and therefore more likely to retain their names.

Carley Roney, editor of theknot.com, thinks a woman keeping her own name has taken on a hint of a negative connotation lately.