Michaels, girlfriend call off engagement
NEW YORK — Bret Michaels and longtime girlfriend Kristi Gibson have called off their engagement.
Michaels’ publicist, Joanna Mignano, said in a statement Monday the couple have separated.
Michaels and Gibson have dated on and off for about 18 years. They got engaged in 2010. They have two daughters, Raine Elizabeth and Jorja Bleu.
The statement says Michaels and Gibson will “remain great friends and are committed to jointly raising” their daughters.
Michaels was the vocalist for the band Poison. He also appeared in his own VH1 reality show.
Michaels was treated in 2010 for a brain hemorrhage. Last year he underwent a procedure to close a hole in his heart.
Jackson commits to ‘The Hobbit’ trilogy
BURBANK, Calif . — Peter Jackson is adding a third film to what was planned to be the two-part series “The Hobbit.”
The director of the Oscar-winning “The Lord of the Rings” movies said Monday that after viewing a cut of the first film and part of the second that there was room for a third.
Jackson says in a statement that a lot of J.R.R. Tolkien’s tale of Bilbo Baggins would remain untold if a third film wasn’t made. The films are set in the fictional world of Middle-earth 60 years before “The Lord of the Rings.”
“We recognized that the richness of the story of ‘The Hobbit,’ as well as some of the related material in the appendices of ‘The Lord of the Rings,’ gave rise to a simple question: do we tell more of the tale?” Jackson said in a statement. “And the answer from our perspective as filmmakers and fans was an unreserved ‘yes.’ “
“We know how much of the tale of Bilbo Baggins, the Dwarves of Erebor, the rise of the Necromancer, and the Battle of Dol Guldur would remain untold if we did not fully realize this complex and wonderful adventure,” he said.
Warner Bros. and MGM will continue their partnership to make the trilogy.
The first film, “The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey,” hits theaters Dec. 14, while the second, “The Hobbit: There and Back Again” is set for release on Dec. 13, 2013.
The third film will come out in the summer of 2014.
All three movies are being shot in digital 3-D in New Zealand, which is home to Jackson’s Weta Digital special effects house. Principal photography recently finished on the first two films.
Jackson, his wife Fran Walsh, Philippa Boyens and Guillermo del Toro are listed as co-writers of the first two films.
Douglas donating $5 million to college
CANTON, N.Y. — Actor Kirk Douglas and his wife have announced that they’ll donate $5 million to the northern New York college he graduated from 73 years ago.
Kirk and Anne Douglas and St. Lawrence University in Canton announced Sunday that the funds will go to the scholarship fund he began in 1999.
The 95-year-old actor has contributed nearly $7.5 million to the scholarship at the private college near the Canadian border. The awards go to minority students who demonstrate excellence in academics and leadership and show a financial need.
Douglas has appeared in about 90 movies, including “Spartacus” and “Lust for Life.”
He’s a native of Amsterdam in the Mohawk Valley. He graduated from St. Lawrence in 1939 as an English major.
Compiled from
The Associated Press