Back to home cooking

PEOPLE

First lady Laura Bush said Thursday that her husband, President Bush, teases her about her cooking because she hasn't banged pots around for more than a decade. "I haven't cooked in 14 years," she said in an interview with Fox News Channel's "On the Record." "He can't even remember what it was like, and neither can I. This will be interesting."

Illness sidelines Piven

Actor Jeremy Piven has withdrawn from the current Broadway revival of the David Mamet comedy "Speed-the-Plow" after he was diagnosed with highly elevated levels of mercury that may have been the result of the large amounts of fish in his diet. Norbert Leo Butz and William H. Macy will replace "Entourage" star Piven. "We have been advised by Jeremy Piven's medical representatives that he is seriously ill," said producer Jeffrey Richards, who said Piven had collapsed Monday at his home.

French TV fracas

French President Nicolas Sarkozy has ordered public television networks to drop advertising as part of a major shake-up that critics say will give him virtual control of the airwaves. Sarkozy says he wants to restore quality to from France's four public channels, which have increasingly had to compete with the sometimes lower-brow programming of private channels. Also under the plan, Sarkozy would handpick the chief of public broadcasting company, France Televisions.

... and a cover-up

A French court has ordered a clothing firm to pay $56,200 in damages for distributing bags bearing a nude image of France's first lady, Carla Bruni-Sarkozy. The photo dates from Bruni-Sarkozy's modeling days. She was seeking $180,000 in damages from clothing vendor Pardon, which distributed the bags to its clients. Pardon says it will appeal Thursday's ruling, handed down by a court on the French Indian Ocean island of Reunion, where the company is based.

PASSAGES

Conor Cruise O'Brien, 91, an Irish iconoclast who led several lives as a U.N. diplomat, government minister, author and newspaper editor, has died.

Majel Barrett Roddenberry, 76, the widow of "Star Trek" creator Gene Roddenberry and actress who appeared in numerous "Star Trek" TV shows and movies, died Thursday of leukemia at her home in Bel-Air, Calif.

Davey Graham, 68, a trailblazing British guitarist of folk and blues whose guitar instrumental "Anji" became a standard among the coffeehouse guitarists of the 1960s. died Monday at his home in London. He had lung cancer.

Today in History

1777: Gen. George Washington led his army of about 11,000 men to Valley Forge, Pa., to camp for the winter.

1843: "A Christmas Carol," by Charles Dickens, was first published in England.

1946: War broke out in Indochina as troops under Ho Chi Minh launched widespread attacks against the French.

1998: President Clinton was impeached by the Republican-controlled House for perjury and obstruction of justice (he was later acquitted by the Senate).

Today's Birthdays

Actress Cicely Tyson, 75. Actor Tim Reid, 64. Rock singer Alvin Lee (Ten Years After), 64. Actor Mike Lookinland, 48. Actress Jennifer Beals, 45. Actor Scott Cohen, 44. Magician Criss Angel, 41. Model Tyson Beckford, 38. Actress Alyssa Milano, 36. Actor Jake Gyllenhaal, 28. Actress Marla Sokoloff, 28. Rapper Lady Sovereign, 23.

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