Alleged stalker arrested outside John Cusack’s home

Published 10:55 pm Monday, March 31, 2008

A woman who showed up Sunday outside John Cusack’s Malibu home — despite a restraining order barring her approaching the actor — was arrested on suspicion of stalking, Los Angeles sheriff’s officials said Monday.

Deputies were called to 24000 block of Malibu Road about 7 p.m. Sunday after a cab driver reported that a passenger was refusing to pay a fare for a ride to that area.

As deputies approached the scene, they were flagged down by Cusack, who told them he recognized the woman in the cab and that she had been stalking him.

Emily Leatherman, 33, was booked on suspicion of felony stalking, violating a restraining order and petty theft. Leatherman was booked and is being held in lieu of $150,000 bail, said sheriff’s spokesman Steve Whitmore.

“She was arrested and had violated a previous restraining order taken out against her by Mr. Cusack,” Whitmore said.

Cusack, the star of “Runaway Jury,” “High Fidelity,” “Grosse Pointe Blank” and “The Grifters,” told authorities that to his knowledge the woman had not been on his property on Sunday.

“Apparently, Mr. Cusack flagged down one of our deputies and told him that this woman had been stalking him,” Whitmore said. He said deputies recovered evidence at the scene that led to the arrest, but he declined to elaborate, citing the investigation.

Gifford joins ‘Today’

Kathie Lee Gifford will soon be back on TV’s early shift.

The former co-star of the syndicated “Live” talk show will join NBC’s “Today” next Monday. She will be teamed with Hoda Kotb (pronounced HO-dah COT-bee), a current anchor of the program’s seven-month-old fourth hour, which airs live at 10 a.m. EDT.

The announcement was made during Monday’s broadcast, with Gifford seated alongside the program’s established stars, including Matt Lauer and Meredith Vieira, co-hosts of the first two hours.

Gifford, 54, who left Regis Philbin and “Live” in 2000, joked that the timing of her TV return “couldn’t be worse” in certain ways: “I’m eight years older, 10 pounds heavier, a half-inch shorter, and just in time for HD television.”

From Herald news services