‘Lost’ star finds her freedom
She once was “Lost” but now’s unbound.
She being actress Michelle Rodriguez, that is. The former cast member of the hit ABC show “Lost” was released from a Los Angeles County women’s jail Wednesday after serving 18 days of a 180-day sentence for violating probation in a drunken driving case.
Rodriguez was released early under a program that allows nonviolent female inmates to serve as little as 10 percent of their sentence. As many as 50 women a day are released early, sheriff’s spokesman Steve Whitmore said, adding, “She was treated the same way we do with all females because of the extent of overcrowding.”
Rodriguez was sentenced in October for failing to prove she had done community service and for drinking while wearing an alcohol monitoring device. Besides appearing in one season of “Lost,” Rodriguez’s film credits include “The Fast and The Furious,” “Blue Crush” and “Girlfight.
Say that five times real fast
Toni Collette has given birth to her first child on Wednesday, Australian media reported. And what name did the Sydney-born actress and her husband, musician Dave Galafassi, give their baby girl? Sage Florence Galafassi?
Collette, 35, was nominated for a best supporting-actress Oscar for her role in 1999’s “The Sixth Sense.” Her screen credits also include “Little Miss Sunshine,” “The Night Listener” and “Muriel’s Wedding.”
Can’t we all just get along?
G-Unit rapper Tony Yayo wants us to know that he’s a peacemaker, not a child abuser. Accused of slapping a 14-year-old boy on a Manhattan street, Yayo wants the charges dropped after prosecutors revealed another man has confessed.
A Yayo acquaintance, Lowell Fletcher, told police during an unrelated jailhouse interview that he had slapped the youth in March and Yayo pulled him away, said the rapper’s attorney, Scott Leemon.
And here’s today’s good news
As spokeswoman for the “One PackOne Vaccine” program, actress/mother Salma Hayek is doing what she can for needy mothers and their infants in Africa and Asia. The program ensures that for every pack of Pampers diapers sold in the United States and Canada between April 1 and June 30 the company will donate funding to UNICEF for one maternal or neonatal tetanus vaccine.
“In our own small way, this is an opportunity for moms like me here in North America to help other mothers on a global level,” Hayek, 41, said. Hayek’s daughter, Valentina Paloma Pinault, was born in September.
The birthday bunch
Country singer William Lee Golden of the Oak Ridge Boys is 69. Actress Kirstie Alley is 57. Political commentator Rush Limbaugh is 57. Country singer Ricky Van Shelton is 56. Radio personality Howard Stern is 54. News correspondent Christiane Amanpour is 50. Keyboardist Charlie Gillingham of Counting Crows is 48. Actor Oliver Platt is 48. Singer-filmmaker Rob Zombie is 42. Singer Zack de la Rocha of Rage Against The Machine is 38. Raekwon of Wu Tang Clan is 38. Singer Dan Haseltine of Jars of Clay is 35. Bassist Matt Wong of Reel Big Fish is 35. Melanie Chisholm (Sporty Spice) of the Spice Girls is 34.