CELEBRITY WATCH
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March 9, 2000
Web posted at: 5:42 p.m. EST (2242 GMT)

From staff and wire reports

Today's buzz stories:

• 'Multimillionaire' bride files for annulment, loses job
• Taylor lobbies for music education
• 'South Park' song baffles ABC censors, Oscar organizers
• Ali takes light-hearted jab at Smith
• Political-religious rift widens over hometown honor for Neeson

'Multimillionaire' bride files for annulment, loses job

Conger

LOS ANGELES -- Darva Conger, who married Rick Rockwell on "Who Wants to Marry a Multimillionaire," is looking for a new start as a single gal again. She's also looking for a new job.

The bride, whose marriage to the stand-up comic lasted about as long as the applause that followed their vows on national TV, filed an annulment petition Tuesday in Las Vegas District Court. Calling the marriage a fraud, Conger maintains she was unaware of accusations that the 42-year-old had beaten a former girlfriend and "was the subject of at least one restraining order for threatening and dangerous behavior."

Rockwell says he's "disappointed" that Conger would dredge up such unpleasantries, which he denies. "She's already said that she wanted out after 36 hours," he says. "I don't understand why she would need to cite these 10- and 20-year-old accusations. I'm at a loss here."

Conger also found herself at a loss last week when she was booted from her job as an emergency-room nurse, says her spokesman, Kevin Allyn.

"(S)he was absolutely shocked to find out she was fired," he says. "There were no grounds, so she is very agitated and exploring legal grounds."

Taylor lobbies for music education

Taylor

WASHINGTON -- Recording artists James Taylor and Michael McDonald are trying to keep lawmakers in tune with the importance of music education in schools.

They joined Rep. David McIntosh at a news conference on Capitol Hill Wednesday to push a resolution recognizing the value of music education in schools and how it can enhance academic performance. McIntosh, an Indiana Republican, is sponsoring the resolution.

Besides McDonald and Taylor, inducted this week into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, VH1 President John Sykes participated in the news conference. His music channel runs a nonprofit organization dedicated to improving the quality of education in U.S. public schools.

VH1's Save The Music program has created 350 school music programs in 30 cities and donated $100 million worth of musical instruments to 200,000 children since 1997, Sykes says.

'South Park' song baffles ABC censors, Oscar organizers

"South Park"

LOS ANGELES -- ABC censors have a simple message for Academy Award organizers: Clean up the language in the "South Park" song "Blame Canada" or clear out before the March 26 Oscars telecast.

Network officials say the song cannot be performed with the other best-song nominees as it's written. That leaves the song's creators searching for the right thing to say.

"We'll figure out a creative way to make light of the whole situation," says composer Marc Shaiman, who wrote the song with "South Park" co-creator Trey Parker. "It's a song about censorship from a movie about censorship, so the irony is not lost on any of us that we're being asked to censor the song."

In the tune, furious parents and community leaders in the United States accuse their neighbor to the north of corrupting children by exporting an obscenity-laced kids' movie.

"I never thought I'd grow up to be the person who is fighting the good fight so that 'fart' could be said on the Academy Awards," Shaiman says. "But if that is my mission in life, so be it."

Ali takes light-hearted jab at Smith

Ali

LAS VEGAS -- Will Smith may have to do more than float like a butterfly, sting like a bee to impress Muhammad Ali in his portrayal of the former heavyweight boxer in a feature film biography due out next year.

Ali's advice? Give it your best shot.

"Some guy named Will Smith will have tough shoes to fill," a soft-spoken Ali told showbiz notables at a luncheon Wednesday. "He's supposed to be playing me. It's impossible."

The film is to cover the boxer's early career as Cassius Clay and his later years as Ali, including comeback fights with Joe Frazier and George Foreman. Ali, once called The Greatest, now suffers from Parkinson's disease, which impairs his speech, slows his walk and makes his hands tremble.

"Ali" is scheduled to hit theaters in the United States in summer 2001.

Political-religious rift widens over hometown honor for Neeson

Neeson

BELFAST, Northern Ireland -- Liam Neeson, who portrayed an Irish Republican Army leader in the Republic of Ireland's founding, has rubbed some of his former neighbors the wrong way. They accuse the actor of bad-mouthing the place where he grew up.

The Ballymeena city council voted late Tuesday to grant the freedom of the city to Neeson, 48, who has appeared in "Star Wars: Phantom Menace" (1999) and "Schindler's List." (1993) Winning the "freedom" honor is Ireland's equivalent to receiving a key to a city in the United States.

Neeson also starred in "Michael Collins," a 1996 film detailing the Irish Republican Army's fight against British rule and the founding of the Republic of Ireland in 1921.

The pro-British Democratic Unionist Party has come out against Neeson's honor, citing an interview he gave to a U.S. magazine. In it, says the party, Neeson said he felt "second class" as a Roman Catholic growing up in the mainly Protestant town. Neeson reportedly also had harsh words for the annual July 12 celebration in which Protestants observe the 1690 victory of King William of Orange over the English Catholic King James II at the Battle of the Boyne.

Neeson, according to the magazine, called the celebration a reminder of "some bloody obscure war where some bloody Catholic king was defeated by some bloody Dutch king who was Protestant."

The Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report.