It was a big day for Lil’ Kim
Federal inmate No. 56198-054 stepped out of the Philadelphia Federal Detention Center on Monday and into a silver Rolls Royce Phantom.
Not every ex-con has such a nice ride waiting to whisk them home. But not every inmate is Kimberly Jones, 30, aka rap star Lil’ Kim.
The 4-foot-11 rapper, who was sent to prison for lying about a 2001 shootout outside a New York radio station, walked out of the joint looking glamorous in sunglasses and an all-white, cleavage-baring outfit.
Carrying a balloon and a bouquet of white roses, she waved and blew kisses to dozens of cheering onlookers, some carrying signs that said, “Welcome Home, Queen Bee.”
Kim was sentenced to a year and a day in prison for falsely claiming she hadn’t noticed two of her close friends – who later pleaded guilty to gun charges – at the scene. She began serving her time Sept. 19, but was released early for good behavior.
She will remain under house arrest for 30 days at her home in Alpine, N.J., and be under supervised release for three years.
Thumbs up for Ebert?
Film critic Roger Ebert‘s wife reported he was doing well Monday after an emergency operation to repair complications from a previous cancer surgery.
Ebert, famous for his “thumbs up” or “thumbs down” critiques, was in serious but stable condition at a Chicago hospital.
He had surgery June 16 to remove a cancerous growth on his salivary gland. On Saturday, a blood vessel burst near the site of the operation, the Chicago Sun-Times reported.
Ebert, 64, has undergone cancer surgery three times before — once in 2002 to remove a malignant tumor on his thyroid gland and twice on his salivary gland the next year.
Newly single: Nick and Jessica
It’s official: Former “Newlyweds” reality TV stars Jessica Simpson and Nick Lachey are available again.
Final divorce papers filed last week declare that the pop stars “are restored to the status of single, unmarried persons.”
It’s about national pastime
Forget the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame – Bob Dylan has made it to the Baseball Hall of Fame.
A baseball-themed episode of the music legend’s XM Satellite Radio show, featuring him singing an a cappella version of “Take Me Out to the Ball Game,” has been added to the archives in Cooperstown, N.Y.
Oh, say can you speed …
Singing the national anthem is nothing new for 15-year-old actress/singer Joanna “JoJo” Levesque, but doing it in front of a TV audience of 500,000 people is.
“There might possibly be tears in my eyes,” says Levesque, who will perform the song at today’s annual July Fourth concert at the U.S. Capitol. “I’m an American first and foremost.”
Still, the biggest event on her calendar this year is her 16th birthday in December: “It’s a huge year for me. I get a car.”
The birthday bunch
Actress Gloria Stuart is 96. Conductor Mitch Miller is 95. Advice columnist Abigail Van Buren is 88. Actress Eva Marie Saint is 82. Playwright Neil Simon is 79. Singer Bill Withers is 68. Actress Karolyn Grimes (Zuzu in “It’s A Wonderful Life”) is 66. Talk host Geraldo Rivera is 63. Singer Stephen “Ste” McNally (BBMak) is 28.