Damien of 'Omen' fame now dad in suburbia
KENT, England, March 15 (UPI) -- The devilish 6-year-old Damien in "The Omen" dumped the movie business and has grown up to become a successful businessman in suburban England.
"I'll always be associated with Damien, spawn of Satan," Harvey Stephens, now 33, told the Mirror in an exclusive interview. "It was just three or four months out of my life, but I can't forget it."
In the 1976 movie, the black-haired Damien runs down his mother with a tricycle. The mom, played by Lee Remick, loses her balance and falls down one story in the family mansion.
Stephens has the tricycle, and he hopes his baby daughter will someday get to ride it.
"It is in the attic and probably worth a few quid," Stephens told the Mirror. "I was offered £10,000 ($18,000) for it once, but couldn't part with it."
Stephens, a property developer, says he and his wife, Emma, plan to show the DVD of "The Omen" to their daughter, Gracie-Mae, when she is older.
"It won't be the scary bits, but I'm sure she'd like to see what her daddy looked like when he was little," Stephens says.
World hasn't heard the last of Pavarotti
NEW YORK, March 15 (UPI) -- The world may not have heard the last of Italian tenor Luciano Pavarotti, who is not excluding concerts from his future.
Pavarotti sang his farewell performance at the Metropolitan Opera on Saturday and has told associates that "only a miracle" could bring him back to the stage. But he has not ruled out concert appearances as a way of continuing his career.
The 68-year-old tenor star received a 15-minute ovation Saturday from adoring fans who reluctantly accepted the long anticipated closure of a great singing career with tumultuous applause, shouted bravos, and tears. He made his exit in the role of Cavaradossi in Giacomo Puccini's "Tosca" in what was his 459th performance at the Met since his debut at the house as Rodolfo in Puccini's "La Boheme" in the 1968, three years after making his U.S. debut in Miami.
Cavaradossi was his only role at the Met this season, and he sang it only three times.
In recent years Pavarotti has been plagued by bad health that has forced him to cancel many performances at the Met and abroad. He moved slowly and sometimes painfully through his last performance and needed the occasional physical support of other cast members, but vocally he was able to show why he has been the most popular lyric tenor on the operatic stage since Enrico Caruso.
Backstage associates told UPI that Pavarotti told them he was considering concert offers and may even do some recording in the near future.
Alanis drops obscene word from song
NEW YORK, March 15 (UPI) -- Pop singer Alanis Morissette has deleted an obscenity from her new song "Everything" to increase chances the tune would be played on U.S. radio.
The offensive noun has been replaced by the term "nightmare," Rolling Stone reported on its Web site Monday.
The change came as U.S. broadcasting officials raise the bar on decency standards after Janet Jackson's infamous "wardrobe malfunction" at the Super Bowl earlier this year.
"It got to the point, post-nipplegate Janet Jackson, where they were basically saying that they wouldn't play the song," Morissette said.
"People not hearing the song, based on my shooting myself in the foot by taking a stance of 'my artistic integrity will not be (expletive) with' wasn't worth it. And I understand some parents not wanting their seven-year-old son or daughter hearing the word (expletive) even though they probably use it already."
Morissette initially resisted the change, and her forthcoming album, "So-Called Chaos," due May 18, will contain the original version of the song.
Don Rickles extends Las Vegas record
LOS ANGELES, March 15 (UPI) -- Don Rickles has signed on for another year at the Stardust Resort and Casino, extending his record as the longest-running act on the Las Vegas Strip.
Rickles has performed on the Strip every year since 1959, making him the only entertainer to appear in the legendary entertainment district in each of the last 45 years. His new deal calls for three engagements during the coming year, his fourth consecutive year at the Stardust.
His first appearance under the new contract will be March 25-28 at the resort's Wayne Newton Theater.
Rickles cracked a joke about getting the new deal.
"This way I'll have enough money to be able to afford to take my wife to see Wayne Newton's show," he said.
Rickles is in Montreal filming his first-ever TV movie, "The Wool Cap," starring William H. Macy.
