From wire reports
LOS ANGELES — Sandra Bullock is on a career high. America’s Sweetheart and “Miss Congeniality” was repeatedly anointed as Hollywood royalty this year, sweeping awards season and capping it off with an Oscar for her role as a devoted mom in “The Blind Side.”
But as this Tinseltown fairy-tale played out on camera, real-life drama may have been brewing behind the scenes.
With worldwide attention on the brand-new Oscar winner, Bullock is being dogged by tabloid reports of problems with her husband of nearly five years.
Internet rumors surfaced Wednesday that the 45-year-old actress’ husband, celebrity motorcycle builder and reality-TV star Jesse James, had been unfaithful while she was making her Oscar-winning film. Bullock subsequently canceled a planned appearance next week at the London premiere of “The Blind Side,” citing “unforeseen personal reasons.”
On Thursday, James apologized to his wife and three children from previous relationships through a statement issued to People magazine.
“It’s because of my poor judgment that I deserve everything bad that is coming my way,” he said. “This has caused my wife and kids pain and embarrassment beyond comprehension and I am extremely saddened to have brought this on them.”
Suit: Squeezed out by Lady Gaga
NEW YORK — A songwriter and music producer who claims he helped launch pop star Lady Gaga says she squeezed him out of her lucrative career after he co-wrote some of her songs, came up with her stage name and helped get her record deal.
Rob Fusari filed a $30.5 million lawsuit against the Grammy Award-winning performer, saying his protégé and former girlfriend ditched him as her career soared.
“All business is personal,” said the lawsuit, filed Wednesday in Manhattan.
Fusari had credits on such hits as Will Smith’s “Wild, Wild West” and Destiny’s Child’s “Bootylicious” when a friend steered the piano-playing singer — then known by her real name, Stefani Germanotta — to him in March 2006, according to his lawsuit.
Though he initially dismissed her, he realized she had star potential after hearing her play in his Livingston, N.J., studio, the suit said. He spent the next several months working with her every day and “radically reshaping her approach,” persuading her to drop rock riffs for dance beats, it said.
As they co-wrote songs such as “Paparazzi” and “Beautiful, Dirty, Rich,” which appeared on her debut album, “The Fame,” he transformed Germanotta into Lady Gaga, a name adapted from Queen’s “Radio Ga Ga,” the suit said.
ABC hires CNN reporter
NEW YORK — ABC News said it has hired Christiane Amanpour, one of CNN’s best-known personalities for her international reporting over the past two decades, to host its Sunday morning political talk show.
Amanpour, who will start in August, replaces George Stephanopoulos. She left the show in December to take over as co-host of ABC’s “Good Morning America.”
Amanpour’s hiring indicates a change in direction for a show that is concerned primarily with politics and domestic issues — like other Washington-based counterparts “Meet the Press” on NBC and “Face the Nation” on CBS.
“With Christiane, we have the opportunity to provide our audiences with something different on Sunday mornings,” said ABC News President David Westin. “We will continue to provide the best in interviews about domestic politics and policies. But now we will add to that an international perspective.”
Amanpour is currently host of a weekday show that airs on the CNN International network. Highlights run as the half-hour “Amanpour” show on CNN’s domestic network on Sunday.
After being based in London for many years, Amanpour moved to the United States three years ago to be with her husband, former U.S. State Department spokesman James Rubin.
