MALIBU, Calif. – A sheriff’s detective will be assigned to investigate the BB gun shooting of a photographer who was staking out Britney Spears over the weekend.
Such incidents usually draw little attention from the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department, but authorities say they were swamped with phone calls.
“Because of the media attention, we’ll probably put this on the front burner to settle the whole thing,” said sheriff’s Sgt. Robert Knudson.
A detective was to be assigned to the case Monday, authorities said.
The photographer, Brad Diaz, was shot in the leg while standing in the street 150 feet to 200 feet from a home where Spears was believed to be attending a baby shower in her honor, authorities said.
Diaz claimed the BB came from the direction of the home, Knudson said. Spears’ bodyguards told authorities they weren’t involved in the incident.
‘Walking in Memphis’ singer shot after show
Marc Cohn, who had a hit with the song “Walking in Memphis” and won the Grammy for best new artist in 1992, was treated at a Denver hospital and released Monday after being shot in the head during an attempted carjacking following a performance at Botanic Gardens.
Cohn was struck in the temple Sunday night when a man fired into his band’s van in a parking garage. No arrests were made.
Michael Jackson’s attorney indicts media
Subject: the Michael Jackson trial. From: Tom Mesereau, defense attorney. Conclusions: The media did a lousy job and the jury did a good job.
That’s how Michael Jackson’s lawyer sees things now that nearly two months have passed since the pop star was acquitted of child molestation charges.
“I truly believe the media thought they could spin their way to a verdict,” Mesereau told more than 350 people Saturday at Hilton Head Island, S.C., at the South Carolina Trial Lawyers Association’s annual conference.
Richard Pryor’s MS is blessing in disguise
Instead of packed arenas, comedian Richard Pryor now tours medical clinics. Instead of applause, he gets eight checkups a month in what his wife jokingly calls “the round-robin of doctors.”
Still, Jennifer Lee Pryor says her husband’s crippling multiple sclerosis is a blessing that stripped away his taste for the drugs and alcohol she was convinced would have left him dead. Today, he’s just months shy of his 65th birthday.
Nearly two decades with the disease has left Pryor in a wheelchair and out of the public eye, long after his expletive-laced standup act spawned dozens of movies and made the Peoria, Ill., native box-office magic through much of the late 1970s and early ’80s.
Entertainers from Bob Newhart to Chris Rock cite Pryor as one of the most influential comedians ever.
“As productive and brilliant as he was, he was also self-destructive,” Jennifer Pryor said. “He said God gave him MS to slow him down. This disease saved his life.”
From Herald news services
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