SICK BAY: Country legend Johnny Cash has disclosed he is ailing from Parkinson's disease. The 65-year-old original Man in Black is canceling a current book tour for his autobiography and all other appearances through December. A spokesperson says Cash has been afflicted for a while, but now requires medication.
CASH ADD: Willie Nelson and Kris Kristofferson are among those who have sent out best regards to the ailing Johnny Cash. That trio banded together for the 1985 album Highwayman.
OL' MONEY BAGS: That could be the new nickname for the erstwhile Ziggy Stardust. A new survey of British rock stars shows that David Bowie is the richest of all--ex-Beatles, included. Bowie's fortune weighs in an estimated $917 million. Paul McCartney ranks No. 2 in the survey, with an estimated $868 million in career earnings. But No. 3 may be the biggest eye-raiser of all: It's Tom Jones and his $459 mil.
BLOWN OUT: Elton John's ubiquitous "Candle in the Wind 1997" will not be included in that double-CD tribute to Princess Diana, as previously reported. But plenty of other tracks will be--35, to be exact. Among the now-confirmed list of contributors to the charity effort: U2, Rod Stewart and the holy trinity of divas--Barbra Streisand, Celine Dion and Mariah Carey. The album is due in stores on December 1.
SPLIT CITY: Add Ralph Fiennes and ER's Alex Kingston to the list of kaput Hollywood couples. The two have been living apart for two years, and now their divorce is final. The couple married in 1993. Fiennes left Kingston for his stage mother--Francesca Annis, who played Gertrude to the English Patient's Hamlet in a Broadway production.
TUG OF WAR: Actor Harvey Keitel was due in a New York appeals court Tuesday, continuing a messy custody battle with ex-wife Lorraine Bracco, over their 12-year-old daughter. Last year, Bracco was awarded full-time custody after a judge cited Keitel's "destructive conduct." Keitel maintains its Edward James Olmos--Bracco's new husband--who is the bad influence.
TALKING HEAD: Jenny Jones says she doesn't think she "ambushed" a guest on an infamous installment of her daytime talk show that some blame for provoking a murder. She says she'd do the same show--about "secret crushes"--again. Jones' statements come from an interview to be broadcast tonight on Dateline NBC.
NOT LAUGHING: ABC's branding another episode of Ellen with a parental advisory, and that's got gay activists steamed (again). Tomorrow night's show features Ellen Morgan's first girlfriend. The last time the network broke out the warning label, Ellen puckered up for a platonic kiss with her roommate.
REEL LIFE: Carroll O'Connor will revisit a painful chapter of his life, starring in and directing a TV-movie about the suicide of his drug-addicted son, Hugh. Anti-drug public-service ads will air during the telepic, set for cable's USA network.
FAIR BALL: It wasn't a home run, but the 1997 World Series wasn't the strike out it was made out to be. Ratings rallied for the two concluding games over the weekend--likely saving the Florida Marlins-Cleveland Indians matchup from being the lowest-rated ever.
IT'S A HIT: Overall, World Series games claimed the top five spots for the ratings period ended Sunday, and helped NBC to its fifth straight weekly victory. Touched by an Angel was the top-rated series, at No. 7. For all the latest industry stats, see By The Numbers.
FAIR-WEATHER FAN: Filmmaker and famed New York Knicks fan Spike Lee is changing teams--directing a series of promo spots for the Los Angeles Lakers. Lee says he has "no qualms" about defecting to the Knicks' West Coast-based hoops rival. He says he's even planning to helm commercials for heated Knicks' foe, the Miami Heat.
GETTING RELIGION: Actor John Travolta addressed a Scientologist rally in Berlin, via a video screen, on Monday--adding his voice to a protest against the German government over alleged religious discrimination. Actress Anne Archer and composer Issac Hayes were among the U.S. celebrity Scientologists on hand for the march through Berlin...Stateside, Scientologists are keeping a close eye this week on an in-the-works episode of Millennium. Members of the organization are said to be concerned that a character in the show espouses beliefs too close to that of Scientology.
DIS-BAND: A couple members of R&B band Jamiroquai mixed it up backstage at the VH1 Fashion Awards last Friday. The band's spokesperson terms the incident a "verbal disagreement;" an eyewitness says the two guys "were really going at it."
SILENT NO MORE: Pop star Linda Rondstadt is "tattling" on a man who slapped her as a teenager. The abuser was a husband of a family member, the singer told a conference on domestic violence in Arizona. Rondstadt says she's angry that she didn't go public before about a man who raged against his spouse and beat his kids.
UNKIND CUT? State medical authorities in California are reportedly investigating a plastic surgeon to the stars for alleged abuses of power. Dr. Steven Hoefflin, who has nipped and tucked the likes of Michael Jackson, Liz Taylor and Joan Rivers, is accused by a former employee of disrobing, ridiculing and fondling patients, an L.A. TV station reports. Hoefflin, 51, says the charges simply are not true.
SECOND CHOICE: If things had worked out differently, it could have been Chris Rock chatting up guests on Vibe this week. According to a published report, producers of the late-night talk show really wanted the hot, Emmy-winning comic to take the gig when they canned Chris Spencer. But Rock passed, and Sinbad got the call.
JACKIE NO: "Total hearsay" is how Jackie Onassis' former social secretary dimisses a steamy tidbit from that new Frank Sinatra biography that alleges the legendary ladies' man once bedded the former first lady.
I.O.U. Freelance journalist Victor Gutierrez who lost a slander lawsuit brought by Michael Jackson has filed for bankruptcy protection. The move automatically puts on hold a trial to determine how much Gutierrez owes Jackson in damages. Gutierrez said he saw a video showing Jackson having sex with a 13-year-old boy. When he refused to reveal the tape's source, a judge found him liable for damages.
BOB BREW: A Panamanian brewing company has less than one week to get the beer off Bob Marley. The producers of De Primera beer put its logo on a Marley mural in Jamaica. Marley's relatives complained, because the reggae king was a Rastafarian and didn't drink.