Wed
U.S. State Department spokesman James Rubin, 38, and CNN international correspondent Christiane Amanpour, 40, formalized a matrimonial accord on Aug. 8 at a medieval castle on the shores of Lake Braciano, Italy. The couple met last year in a decidedly unromantic locale—Bosnia—where Amanpour was on assignment and Rubin was on a diplomatic mission with Secretary of State Madeleine Albright.
Deaths
Star-spangling designer Fabrice Simon, whose beaded, bejeweled and often beyond-the-pale evening-gown creations (worn by Ivana Trump and Kathleen Turner, among others) symbolized '80s excess at its glitziest, died of AIDS on July 29 in New York City. He was 47.
Law and Order
On Aug. 5 a judge in Tucson sentenced a homeless man accused of menacing Linda Ronstadt, 52, to 10 months in jail. In June Bernard A. Ortiz pleaded guilty to attempted stalking. Three weeks later he violated his probation by sending a birthday gift to the singer in care of her kin-folks....
In New York City the district attorney's office revealed earlier this month that ex-Clinton adviser George Stephanopoulos, 37, was pursued by an ex-White House intern, Tangela Burkhart, 30, for almost six months until her arrest in July. She denies the harassment charge.
Royals
On Aug. 4 prosecutors in Germany dropped assault charges against Prince Ernst August of Hanover, 44, swain of Monaco's Princess Caroline, after he consented to hand over $50,800 to two charities and the state in lieu of a fine. Prosecutors said that in January the prince clobbered a cameraman who had hoped to film the couple. The lensman suffered a badly broken nose and a concussion.
Suing
A caddie filed a $155 million lawsuit on Aug. 6 in Manhattan against Michael Douglas, 53, alleging that the actor permanently injured him. James Parker, 48, says that last October in Westchester County, N.Y., Douglas hit a ball that struck him in the groin; the wound, Parker says, required surgery to remove a testicle. In a statement, Douglas said the claims are "totally false and slanderous."
Behind Bars
On Aug. 10 in Beverly Hills, Arnelle Simpson, 29, O. J. Simpson's elder daughter, pleaded no contest to drunken driving charges stemming from an April car accident. She was sentenced to 48 hours in jail, given five years' probation and ordered to pay a $2,810 fine....
A jury in Santa Monica sentenced Mikail Markhasev, the 19-year-old who killed Ennis Cosby in January 1997, to life in prison on Aug. 11. Cosby was 27 and the only son of comedian Bill Cosby.
In Court
While complimenting actor Charlie Sheen on his improved appearance at an Aug. 10 hearing, a Malibu judge nevertheless extended his probation for an extra year—through june 6, 2000. Sheen, 32, admitted he had violated a provision imposed in a 1997 misdemeanor battery case by possessing and using illegal drugs.
Resolved
The Boston Globe decided on Aug. 11 to suspend its popular columnist Mike Barnicle, 54, for two months without pay rather than fire him. The controversy centered on Barnicle's Aug. 2 column, which contained jokes by George Carlin that Barnicle failed to credit to the comic.
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