People: Who’ll break it? Don’t hold your …
David Blaine set a new world record Wednesday for breath-holding – 17 minutes and 4 seconds – fulfilling what he said was “a lifelong dream.”
The feat was broadcast live during “The Oprah Winfrey Show,” and the studio audience cheered as divers pulled the 35-year-old magician from a water-filled sphere.
Less than two years ago, Blaine went into convulsions during a similar attempt.
“I can’t believe that I did that,” a relaxed-looking Blaine told Winfrey.
The previous record was 16 minutes and 32 seconds, set Feb. 10 by Switzerland’s Peter Colat, according to Guinness World Records.
Before he entered the sphere, Blaine inhaled pure oxygen to saturate his blood.
In May 2006, Blaine tried to break the record of 8 minutes, 58 seconds for breath-holding without inhaling oxygen first, but had to be rescued shortly after 7 minutes.
He previously spent more than a month suspended in a glass box by the River Thames in London, was buried alive for a week in a see-through coffin in New York City, and was encased in a block of ice for 63 hours.
Someone got cold feet
Florida authorities have decided against prosecuting Vanilla Ice for domestic battery charge after his wife recanted her statement.
Laura Van Winkle originally said the rapper kicked and hit her during an argument over buying a bedroom set, but now says any physical contact was accidental.
Umm … don’t break a leg?
Singer/actress Mya, who was to have made her Broadway debut next month as Velma Kelly in “Chicago,” has bowed out because of a broken left foot.
She had called the role “probably the ultimate complete dream for me.”
It takes two arms to samba
Chilean soap star Cristian de la Fuente survived the elimination voting this week on ABC’s “Dancing With the Stars” despite suffering a left forearm cramp while performing the samba on Monday.
He hung in until almost the very end, when he could no longer hold on to partner Cheryl Burke and she fell to the floor.
The judges praised de la Fuente for carrying on despite his injury.
Something sure seems empty
In what Simon Cowell proclaimed “officially the strangest show we’ve ever done,” fellow “American Idol” judge Paula Abdul on Tuesday criticized a contestant’s performance of his second song – after he’d sung only one.
After the five finalists each did a Neil Diamond number, the often-spacy Abdul told Jason Castro: “The second song, I felt like your usual charm wasn’t – it was missing for me. It kind of left me a little empty.”
After some nervous laughter, host Ryan Seacrest tried to smooth things over by telling Abdul, “You’re seeing the future, baby!”
The birthday bunch
Singer Judy Collins is 69. Singer Rita Coolidge is 63. Actor Dann Florek (“Law and Order: SVU”) is 57. Actress Maia Morgenstern (“The Passion of the Christ”) is 46. Actor Charlie Schlatter (“Diagnosis Murder”) is 42. Country singer Tim McGraw is 41. Actor Darius McCrary (“Family Matters”) is 32.