Fondling allegations are no laughing matter for Cosby
PROSECUTORS WANT TO INTERVIEW Bill Cosby after meeting with a woman who claims the comedian fondled her in his suburban Philadelphia home. Cosby, 67, was a close friend and mentor to the 31-year-old former Temple University employee, her parents told The Toronto Sun.
Earlier this month, she went to authorities in Canada, where she now attends massage school, and said Cosby, a Temple alumnus and booster, gave her some medication and later fondled her last January.
Cosby’s attorney has called the allegations “pointedly bizarre” and questioned why the woman waited a year to contact authorities. Her parents said she filed the report after becoming more aware of ethical boundaries during her massage training.
The long-married Cosby, best known as a warm, wisecracking TV dad, postponed several appearances after the allegations surfaced last week but has resumed his regular schedule.
Someone had their ears wide open
Detectives are investigating an electronic listening device that was allegedly planted outside Nicole Kidman‘s mansion in her native Australia.
The device was found near a security car that was monitoring Kidman’s Sydney home from the street, her chief bodyguard said, and surveillance footage taken from the house provided “conclusive evidence” that it had been intentionally planted.
It apparently was intended to intercept conversations among the actress and her bodyguards.
‘Trading Spaces’ turns a page
Perky Paige Davis is moving out of TLC’s “Trading Spaces,” the popular cable show about couples who redecorate each other’s homes.
The network said Davis’ departure in March is part of a transition to a host-less format, adding: “We believe that this new creative direction will enable the show to be more spontaneous, focus more on the homeowners and designers, and create alternative home trades in different cities and on opposite coasts.”
Davis began hosting “Trading Spaces” in its second season in 2001.
Another princess for Rowling
“Harry Potter” author J.K. Rowling gave birth to a baby girl at a Scottish hospital on Sunday. Rowling, 39, and her husband, Neil Murray, have a 22-month-old son, David. The author also has an 11-year-old daughter, Jessica, from a previous marriage.
Rowling’s sixth and next-to-last novel in the “Harry Potter” series, “Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince,” will be released July 16.
Like a rolling scribe
Bob Dylan, whose memoir “Chronicles, Vol. I” has been nominated for a National Book Critics Circle prize, will likely be too busy to attend the March 18 ceremony.
“Bob Dylan is honored by the NBCC nomination, however, he’ll be on a concert tour in March,” said a spokeswoman for his publisher, Simon & Schuster, adding that they would work with Dylan’s office to see if something can be worked out.
Dylan’s book, published last fall, also has enjoyed commercial success. Two more volumes are planned.
The birthday bunch
Actor Paul Newman is 80. Sports announcer-actor Bob Uecker is 70. Actor Scott Glenn is 63. Actor David Strathairn is 56. Singer Lucinda Williams is 52. Guitarist Eddie Van Halen is 50. Comedian Ellen DeGeneres is 47. Gospel singer Kirk Franklin is 35.