People: Merry Christmas, the furor is over
Looks like rumors of John Lennon‘s threat to the free world were greatly exaggerated.
The FBI has released its final surveillance documents on the late Beatle to a university historian who waged a 25-year legal battle to obtain the secret files.
The 10 pages contain new details about Lennon’s ties to leftist and anti-war groups in London in the early 1970s, but nothing indicating government officials considered him a serious threat, historian Jon Wiener says.
The FBI had unsuccessfully argued that an unnamed foreign government secretly provided the information, and releasing the documents could lead to diplomatic, political or economic retaliation against the United States.
“I doubt that Tony Blair‘s (British) government will launch a military strike on the U.S. in retaliation for the release of these documents,” says Wiener.
“Today, we can see that the national security claims that the FBI has been making for 25 years were absurd from the beginning.”
Practice makes perfect
Eminem and his high school sweetheart are officially divorced for a second time, less than a year after they remarried.
The rap megastar (real name: Marshall Mathers) and Kim Mathers agreed to divide property and to share custody of their 10-year-old daughter, Hailie Jade Scott.
They “conducted themselves with dignity and respect,” the judge in the case said. “All in all, they are a very fine couple to deal with.”
Howdy, Slim
Lara Flynn Boyle, known for her superskinny figure, has gotten married in Texas.
The 36-year-old actress recently married Donald Ray Thomas in San Antonio, her publicist confirmed Wednesday.
Boyle, who once dated Jack Nicholson and David Spade, received an Emmy nomination in 1999 for her role on “The Practice.”
He just snapped
Hilary Duff and her boyfriend, Good Charlotte singer Joel Madden, have dropped a request for a restraining order against a celebrity photographer after he apologized.
Charges remain pending against a second man, Maksim Myaskovskiy, who allegedly called a private security firm employed by Duff last month and threatened her and Madden.
Myaskovkiy’s former roommate, photographer David Joseph Klein, reportedly relayed messages from him to Duff.
A whiter shade of Christmas
A London judge has awarded a 40 percent share in the copyright of “A Whiter Shade of Pale,” one of the most famous pop songs of all time, to a former organist for Procol Harum.
Lead singer Gary Brooker and lyricist Keith Reid always claimed credit for the hit, but the court ruled that Matthew Fisher, who contributed the song’s organ solo, was entitled to both credit and royalties.
The birthday bunch
Talk show host Phil Donahue is 71. Actress Jane Fonda is 69. Actor Samuel L. Jackson is 58. Actress Jane Kaczmarek (“Malcolm in the Middle”) is 51. Country singer Lee Roy Parnell is 50. Actor-comedian Ray Romano (“Everybody Loves Raymond”) is 49. Actor-comedian Andy Dick is 41. Actor Kiefer Sutherland is 40. Actress Karri Turner (“JAG”) is 40. Actress Julie Delpy is 37.