04:14 PM EDT 05/31/2012
Scandals & Feuds
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Kevin Costner's Hatfield: Meet the Man Behind the Feud
Originally posted 05/30/2012 05:25PM
Fourteen million cable TV watchers can't be wrong. As the dust settles on the History Channel dramatization of the great American feud – the network's ratings record-setter Hatfields & McCoys airs its third and final installment Wednesday night – perhaps it's time to step back and look at the real-life patriarchs being portrayed by Kevin Costner and Bill Paxton.
The series tells the tale of West Virginia's Devil Anse Hatfield (Costner) and Kentucky's Randall McCoy (Paxton), close friends until the end of the Civil War. Once home, simmering tensions and resentments soon explode into an all-out rivalry that encompasses years of land disputes, kidnappings, even murder.
While artistic liberties were admittedly taken by the makers of the TV drama, several facts remain, according to a Blue Ridge Country magazine account. Devil Anse, whose full name was Capt. William Anderson Hatfield, was "tall, gray-eyed and bearded" and looked remarkably like Stonewall Jackson.
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Tyler Perry Jumps to Bobbi Kristina Brown's Defense
Originally posted 05/30/2012 04:45PM
Bobbi Kristina Brown is grieving the loss of her mother Whitney Houston – but the young aspiring actress didn't walk out on Tyler Perry's For Better or Worse and, in fact, did "great" work, according to the director.
On Wednesday a report surfaced that Bobbi Kristina quit the TBS comedy and walked out of the show because she is dealing with the death of her mom.
But Perry posted an adamant defense of Houston's daughter on his website saying, "Yes she was grieving, but grief aside, she managed to finish her obligation and did a great job at the same time."
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Hatfields & McCoys: Whose Side Are You On?
Originally posted 05/30/2012 11:00AM
Hatfields & McCoys, the History Channel's epic miniseries starring Kevin Costner and Bill Paxton as the heads of the famous feuding families in the post-Civil War South, comes to an end Wednesday after the trilogy's first installment Monday registered nearly 14 million viewers – a ratings record for cable.
Costner and Paxton play close friends Devil Anse Hatfield and Randall McCoy, whose personal conflict escalated into a decades-long rivalry between their families in Kentucky and West Virginia, and nearly led to war between the two states in the post-war years.
"Costner comes as close to a hero as this piece gets," opined the Los Angeles Times TV critic. "It is a truly brilliant performance, worthy of an Emmy for the pipe-smoking alone."
Meanwhile, The Washington Post said, "Paxton takes full advantage of his juicier role as Randall McCoy, a war camp survivor with a taste for vengeance and hellfire religion."
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Loretta Lynn Married Just Shy of 16, Not at 13, as Long Claimed
Originally posted 05/22/2012 07:30AM
One of country's greatest legends – that Loretta Lynn was married at 13 – has been shot down by a new report that the Coal Miner's Daughter, believed to be 77, is really three years older than she claims to be.
Combing through the records at the state Office of Vital Statistics in Frankfort, Ky., and checking the records of relatives', the Associated Press reports that Lynn was born April 14, 1932, in the Bluegrass State's Johnson County and is actually 80.
As was memorably told in her bestselling 1976 autobiography Coal Miner's Daughter, which then became a 1980 box-office hit that won a Best Actress Oscar for leading lady Sissy Spacek, Lynn wed husband Doolittle "Doo" Lynn at 13, moved with him to Washington State at 16 and was mother to four (of their eventual six kids) by 18.
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Robert F. Kennedy and Late Wife Mary's Relatives Fight over Memorials
Originally posted 05/21/2012 12:40PM
A bitter feud has erupted in the wake of Mary Kennedy's suicide last week, with her family and her estranged husband Robert F. Kennedy battling over funeral and memorial arrangements.
Mary's relatives did not invite Robert to a private memorial held Monday in New York City.
This follows acrimony over Mary's funeral on Saturday, which only one of her siblings reportedly attended. Both sides had wanted to take custody of her body, but they let the couple's four children decide.
They chose to have her buried her on Cape Cod, near the Kennedy family's Hyannis Port compound.
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John Travolta's Second Accuser Is Revealed
Originally posted 05/19/2012 02:15PM
The second man who filed a now-retracted $2 million sexual battery lawsuit against John Travolta has been unmasked.
The identity of John Truesdale, 40, an Atlanta, Ga., massage therapist, was revealed Saturday by the New York Daily News, whose reporters tracked down the burly, 250-pound employee of the boutique hotel Mandarin Oriental.
"I thought I was supposed to be anonymous," Truesdale was quoted as saying as he posed for a photograph near his Smyrna, Ga., home. Truesdale, a former high school football player and onetime U.S. Army medic, is a certified nail technician, a licensed massage therapist and a married father, the Daily News reports. "I can't talk about [the case]," he told the paper.
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'Tanning Mom' Patricia Krentcil Banned from New Jersey Salons
Originally posted 05/10/2012 07:45AM
Patricia Krentcil is feeling the burn from tanning salons near her northern New Jersey home, with Planet Sun's eight locations reportedly banning the tanning mom from their premises.
"It's 100 percent true. She's banned," an employee at Planet Sun's Ridgefield, N.J., headquarters tells New York's Daily News.
But Krentcil, 44, who has pleaded not guilty to charges of child endangerment after allegedly taking her 6-year-old daughter tanning, says the ban doesn't matter – because she's on a tanning break.
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Tony Lucca & Christina Aguilera Clash Over B-Word on The Voice
Originally posted 05/08/2012 11:00AM
When Tony Lucca sang "I got 99 problems but a b–– ain't one" while covering Jay-Z's "99 Problems" during his final competitive performance on The Voice Monday night, did Christina Aguilera believe he was directing the line at her?
"I thought it was a little derogatory toward women," she told Lucca during her critique.
Sure, the song choice had been that of Lucca's coach Adam Levine, but Lucca fully supported the suggestion.
"I'm not going to let one person bring me down," he told PEOPLE after the show. "Clearly that seems like part of her strategy."
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Ashton Kutcher & Miranda Lambert Bury the Hatchet at Pre-Kentucky Derby Party
Originally posted 05/05/2012 01:00PM
A little horseplay before Saturday's big race at the Kentucky Derby?
With no sign of his recent companion, Mila Kunis, at his side, Ashton Kutcher made it a boys' night out at Friday's Barnstable Brown Party, Louisville's most elite and swanky Derby Eve celebration – where he also patched up a simmering feud with Miranda Lambert.
Having formerly accused the Two and a Half Men star of making fun of country music when he presented her with the Female Vocalist of the Year award at last month's Academy of Country Music Awards, Lambert posed for a friendly picture with Kutcher at Friday night's soiree, then Tweeted, along with the photo: "here it is y’all. He is sweet and lives country music! For real!:)"
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Linda Evangelista Child-Support Case Grows Ugly
Originally posted 05/04/2012 11:30AM
And the claims are flying.
The lawyer for supermodel Linda Evangelista, who is seeking $46,000 in monthly child-support payments for her 5-year-old son Augie with French billionaire Francois-Henri Pinault, reportedly asserted in a Manhattan family courtroom Thursday that Pinault "suggested she terminate the pregnancy."
Speaking in court, Pinault – since 2009 the husband of Salma Hayek – said he was "not involved in the decision" to have the child, but assured Evangelista he would "recognize the baby," reports New York's Daily News.
His lawyer later denied the claim that Pinault suggested the pregnancy be terminated.
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