A small amount of cocaine that was found in the body of Ted Demme (Blow) might have triggered the director’s recent fatal heart attack, according to the Los Angeles coroner’s office. Demme suffered the stroke while participating in a charity basketball game and died soon after. He was 38 years old.
Actress and accused shoplifter Winona Ryder is facing steep charges for the $4,760 worth of clothes she reportedly try to sneak out of a Saks Fifth Avenue, along with unprescribed painkillers police found in her purse. If convicted on all four charges sought against her, Ryder could face up over three years in state prison.
Seven years after he mysteriously vanished, Richard James Edwards of the Manic Street Preachers has been officially declared dead by the British government. Edwards is the subject of much debate, leaving many skeptics and fans to site the musician’s affinity for reclusive author J.D. Salinger and the numerous ATM withdrawls from his account shortly before his disappearance as evidence that he is still alive.
Black Hawk Down continued its surveillance at the top of the box office, taking in $11.5 million in its third weekend. No one with a life went to see the film Slackers, starring cult hero Jason Schwartzman, and the older Pete from Pete and Pete, which opened with a pitiful $3 million gross.
Mary J. Blige, who performed at last Sunday’s Super Bowl, is getting married to her boyfriend, whose identity she declined to mention. This will be the 31-year old singer’s first marriage and the catalyst for a hundred more songs about the female spirit.
Beck is in the studio working with kitschy cool producer Dan “The Automator” Nakamura on his next untitled album. Nakamura is known on the college radio circuit for his indulgent musical blueprint projects like Gorillaz, Deltron 3030, and Handsome Boy Modeling School.