Small Talk

Newcastle Herald

Tuesday March 25, 2008

with Amy Edwards and Anita Beaumont

BRITISH supermodel Kate Moss has bought one of London's famous black taxis for about 45,000 euros ($74,600).The top model is the latest of a series of celebrities to buy one of London's 20,000 black cabs. In 2003, US actor and California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger had one shipped to California. The late US director Stanley Kubrick used to be seen behind the wheel of one of the famous cars, while British actor Stephen Fry allegedly used his in order to avoid paying parking tickets. Owning one of London's taxis does not mean Moss will be able to save on the city's congestion charge or use the designated bus and taxi lanes in the crowded city: the drivers of privately owned cabs have to follow the same traffic rules as ordinary car owners.

DOLLY Parton, whose business portfolio includes a theme park and an entertainment production company, says she is spending a lot of her own money trying to get back on country radio with her new CD, Backwoods Barbie. She has self-released the disc on her own label, Dolly Records, and hired a seven-member promotions team. "I purposely tailor-made this to try to get some hits," Parton explained. The album reached no 2 on Billboard in the US in its second week, her best showing in 17 years.

SINGER Amy Winehouse has caused a stir for posing nude save for two bits of black tape and a guitar for the cover of the British magazine Easy Living. The picture is part of a campaign to raise breast cancer awareness.

IT seems almost everybody wants a piece of Britney Spears, and at least six pieces are officially for sale. Spears's wardrobe from her guest-starring stint on the American television comedy How I Met Your Mother will be sold at an online auction to benefit the Natural Resources Defense Council, an environmental organisation. Spears plays a flirty receptionist who falls for the show's main character in the episode.

AUTHORITIES are investigating the apparent suicide of a construction worker found hanged inside a house being built on a piece of property owned by Oscar-winner Mel Gibson. The victim was found on Wednesday morning by the foreman of the job site, in the Agoura Hills north-west of Los Angeles, according to the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department.