Oscar-winning actor Morgan Freeman was in a hospital in Memphis, Tenn., on Monday after being seriously injured in a car accident near his home in Mississippi.
Regional Medical Center spokeswoman Kathy Stringer said Freeman, 71, is in serious condition. The hospital is about 90 miles north of the accident scene in rural Tallahatchie County in the Mississippi Delta.
Mississippi Highway Patrol spokesman Sgt. Ben Williams said Freeman was driving a 1997 Nissan Maxima belonging to Demaris Meyer of Memphis when the car left a rural highway and flipped several times.
“There’s no indication that either alcohol or drugs were involved,” Williams said. He said both Freeman and Meyer were wearing seat belts. The woman’s condition was not immediately available.
Freeman was airlifted to the hospital in Tennessee.
Robert Novak retiring after tumor diagnosis
Conservative political commentator Robert Novak announced his immediate retirement Monday because of his diagnosis of a malignant brain tumor.
Novak told the editor and publisher of the Chicago Sun-Times that he plans to focus on his treatment and recovery, said Sun-Times spokeswoman Tammy Chase.
Novak told the newspaper his prognosis is “dire,” the Sun-Times reported on its Web site.
“The details are being worked out with the doctors this week, but the tentative plan is for radiation and chemotherapy,” Novak said.
Chase confirmed Monday that Novak’s tumor is malignant.
Chef sorry for poison plant suggestions
A British celebrity chef says he’s sorry for mistakenly recommending a deadly plant as a tasty salad ingredient.
Anthony Worrall Thompson says he meant to suggest using the weed fat hen, a member of the spinach family whose leaves are edible. He instead told Healthy and Organic Living magazine for its July edition that henbane could be used in salads.
Henbane, whose name means “killer of hens,” is a toxic plant that can cause hallucinations, drowsiness and disorientation if ingested. Large doses can kill.
The magazine issued a correction Monday on its Web site. Worrall Thompson told reporters he’s sorry for the mix-up, which he called “a bit embarrassing.”
Mary-Kate Olsen silent on Ledger’s death
Federal investigators want to question actress Mary-Kate Olsen about how Heath Ledger got two powerful painkillers that contributed to his accidental overdose death, but she wants immunity or she won’t talk, a law enforcement official said Monday.
Olsen’s lawyer has twice refused requests to have her sit down with investigators probing the death of the scene-stealing star of “The Dark Knight” earlier this year in a Manhattan apartment, said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because the investigation has not been concluded.
The official confirmed a report that Olsen — a close friend of Ledger who learned about the 28-year-old actor’s death in a frantic phone call from a masseuse — wants a promise of immunity before she speaks to the Drug Enforcement Administration.
The activity demonstrates that federal authorities are still actively trying to figure out how Ledger got some of the drugs that killed him.
Authorities have obtained a subpoena that could force Olsen to appear before a grand jury if negotiations with her lawyer fail, the official said.
Associated Press
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