Simone says she’s never coming back to the States
EASY RIDER Lauren Hutton still has to take it easy, but the model-actress was released from a Las Vegas hospital Monday after an Oct. 21 motorcycle accident. Hutton, featured in this Oct. 18 file photo, suffered multiple fractures in one leg, a broken wrist and cuts and scrapes after she crashed near Las Vegas while on a 100-mile ride with the Guggenheim Motorcycle Club.
COURTNEY LOVE, pictured in this 1997 file photo, was putting fires in the belly at a women’s rock conference last weekend in Seattle. More in today’s People Column.
SIMONE SAYS: When expatriate jazz-R&B vocal legend Nina Simone speaks, everybody better listen up and take cover. The French resident, who will be performing at the Herbst Theatre on Nov. 13, told a Miami press conference that she won’t be coming back to the United States. Furthermore Simone, born Eunice Waymon 67 years ago in South Carolina, is here for two reasons, and two reasons only. “For a concert and the money, that’s the only reason I come back to the United States, for concerts and money.”
The outspoken singer did reveal some personal history and her sensitive side. Her name change came about because she didn’t want her minister mother to find out about her pop music performances. “I went with this Puerto Rican guy who called me Nina. I liked that. And Simone was from Simone Signoret because I admired foreign films, so I took that.” As for the sensitivity, she confided, “In my personal life I have to grow; I don’t have enough love in my personal life.”
TOUGH LOVE: Sell, sell, sell, but forget taking your measurements. That’s the get-tough message from Courtney Love, who dropped in for a surprise question-and-answer session last Saturday night at the Rockrgrl Music Conference. According to Newsday, Love urged the audience, “Don’t be passive,” and advised aspiring female rockers to “Pitch yourself! This is America! You live in a capitalist society!”
She noted many women who want to get into the music business concentrate on their looks, like the female bassists who sent in their measurements to be considered for her band. Love said she had that attitude, too. “I remember thinking that no one as pretty as Nancy Wilson could play guitar that well,” Love recalls thinking when Heart came out with the album “Dreamboat Annie” in 1976. She did have to concede to image, though. “Fat is OK” and “crazy-looking is good,” she said, but to boost her album sales, “I had to get a nose job.”
As for fighting lyrical misogyny propagated by the likes of rapper Eminem, she responded, “My answer is, where is the female one?” Besides career tips, she talked about dates with Limp Bizkit frontman Fred Durst, a rock-rapper many women love to hate. No sex, Love said. “I just wanted to do some anthropology on this force called Fred Durst.” At one point, he asked her, “What am I supposed to do to prove I respect women?”
“Well, Fred,” Love said she responded, “having a big party at Playboy doesn’t help.”
OUR EFFICIENT PRISON SYSTEM: After John Clark celebrated his birthday in divorce court with estranged wife Lynn Redgrave, he continued the party in a Los Angeles jail for a contempt citation. Redgrave filed for divorce last year after nearly 32 years of marriage when she found out that he fathered a child by a woman who then married the couple’s oldest son. Someone hit the gong of surprise: The younger twosome have since separated. Good thing, too, otherwise that would be one gnarled family tree.
JUST DON’T OVERHEAT THE SEARCH ENGINE: Eagles fans will be playing cyberspace hide-and-seek to download the free songs from the band. Set to coincide with the Nov. 16 sale date of the $60 four-disc “The Eagles: Selected Works 1972-1999,” the band will put 12 songs from the fourth CD recorded live at a Los Angeles New Year’s Eve concert online that same day. The MP3 downloads, though, are scattered among eight online retailers: amazon.com, barnesandnoble.com, twec.com, cdnow.com, borders.com, checkout.com, towerrecords.com and www.musicland.com. Since the Eagles own the live recording, unlike the more leery major record labels, the MP3 format was a go.
COMINGS AND GOINGS: With the holidays coming, some people get paired off just to have a date for the parties. Claudia Schiffer, though, has dumped her boyfriend of 14 months, internationally renowned love machine Tim Jeffries. Before you applaud her for not being afraid to go to the New Year’s Eve bashes stag, the New York Daily News’ sources say the breakup was a matter of the purse i.e., that Schiffer was getting a little tired of Jeffries not paying for every little thing her heart desires, something Schiffer’s last beau, magic man David Copperfield, did without pause. Apparently, Jeffries, 37, heir to Brit Green Stamps money, has frittered away his inheritance by dating a procession of beautiful-if-a-tad-challenging women, including Elizabeth Hurley, Elle Macpherson and ex-porn star Koo Stark. One might argue that it was money well-spent, but now it’s gone, and so is Schiffer. Maybe she can consult her little blue PalmPilot for the next sugar daddy, er, beau.
More successful celebrity love nips: Sony Music head Tommy Mottola, the ex-Mr. Mariah Carey, will wed one-named Mexican TV soap star Thalia the first weekend in December. Kirsten Dunst (“Bring It On”) and Ben Foster (“Liberty Heights”) have kindled off-screen sparks on the set of their new movie, “Get Over It.” “It’s hard for me to truly connect with people,” says she. “So when it clicks, it’s amazing.”
Milestones
Birthdays: Sportscaster Charlie Jones (70), baseball executive Whitey Herzog (69), Sen. Bob Graham, D-Fla., (64), movie director Bille August (52), actor Lou Ferrigno (48), rock musician Dee Plakas of L7 (40), rhythm-and-blues singers Mike and Ike Owensby of Twice (32), rapper Pepa of Salt-N-Pepa (31), rapper Scarface of Geto Boys (31), blues singer Susan Tedeschi (30), rhythm-and-blues singer Nick Lachey of 98 Degrees (27), rhythm-and-blues singer Sisqo of Dru Hill (22).
Today’s People Column was compiled by Vera H-C Chan from staff and wire reports. Comments? Write to us c/o the Times, P.O. Box 8099, Walnut Creek, CA 94596-8099. Or call 925-943-8262, fax 925-943-8362, or e-mail spin@cctimes.com.