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Madonna Gets Mercy! Court Allows Second Adoption

Fri., Jun. 12, 2009 8:16 AM PDT by Natalie Finn and Breanne L. Heldman

Franzisla Krug/Action Press/ Zuma, BARM/Fame Pictures

Madonna fought the law and the law bent under her material might.

Malawi's High Court on Friday approved the pop icon's petition to adopt 4-year-old Chifundo "Mercy" James, despite the fact she hadn't fulfilled the country's 18-month residency requirement.

Reading from the three-judge panel's ruling, Chief Justice Lovemore Munlo said Madonna's interest in helping Malawi orphans—she founded Raising Malawi, a charity that helps feed, educate and provide medical care for them—should have been taken into account when the lower court made its decision.

"We find the judge in the lower court to have dwelled so much on media reports on the issue of residence, and to us this was not evidence enough to deny Madonna a chance to adopt Mercy James," Munlo said, according to Reuters. "We therefore grant Madonna the adoption order."

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Update

No Plow Punishment for Mercury Man Jeremy Piven...for Now

Thu., Feb. 26, 2009 2:46 PM PST by Natalie Finn and Breanne L. Heldman

Slaven Vlasic/Getty Images

Mercury poisoning has not made Jeremy Piven toxic on Broadway.

A grievance committee did not rule against the actor Thursday after considering a formal complaint brought against him by the producers of Speed-the-Plow, the show he prematurely left in December after being diagnosed with a high mercury count.

"The Producers, who initiated the proceeding, did not prevail in their attempt to convince the Grievance Committee that Mr. Piven should not have dropped out of the play on the instruction of his doctors," Piven's rep, Samantha Mast, said in a statement to E! News.

"Although the Producers might have expected to receive the support of Actors' Equity, they did not; the union sided with Mr. Piven."

A committee of 10—five Actors' Equity members and five from the Broadway League—were on hand to hear the case and were unable to reach what needs to be a unanimous decision for further action.

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filed under top stories, controversy, jeremy piven, broadway

Morgan Freeman's "Just Friends" Companion Sues Over Crash

Wed., Feb. 25, 2009 4:12 PM PST by Natalie Finn and Breanne L. Heldman

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Morgan Freeman is still feeling the heat from last summer's rollover car crash.

Freeman's passenger that dark night, Demaris Meyer, has sued the Oscar winner for negligence—and is also taking the opportunity to set the record straight on why she was in the actor's car that night.

In the suit filed Wednesday in Mississippi federal court, Meyer alleges that Freeman consumed a few alcoholic beverages before getting behind the wheel of the Nissan Maxima. (View the lawsuit.)

She and the actor met at a dinner party where, the suit states, "throughout the course of dinner and afterward drinks were consumed by Freeman." They later met up at her friend's home, where she claims she saw him have "at least one more drink."

Meyer alleges that Freeman—whom she was "just friends" with—then invited her to stay overnight in one of the three houses on his property to avoid a long drive back to her place.

And at a news conference today, Meyer stressed the "just friends" part.

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