Eminem meltdown

Volatile rapper's wife: "If I were to cheat on him ..."; Jim Carrey blows off protest by National Alliance for the Mentally Ill. Plus: Top cop calls Springsteen a "@#!$%! dirtbag" among other things!

Published June 13, 2000 6:00PM (EDT)

Maybe Eminem really stands for more and more trouble?

John Guerra, the guy the rapper allegedly clonked over the head with an unloaded gun in a jealous rage, filed a lawsuit against the artist born as Marshall Mathers on Friday.

"It was the scariest moment of my life," Guerra said of the scuffle. He and Eminem's wife, Kimberly Mathers, who he says is just a friend, "were embracing," he recalled. "She gave me a kiss and the next thing I hear is 'Gun, gun, gun!'"

But if I were Guerra, I might not call Mathers as a witness.

In an open letter to the Detroit Free Press last week, Mathers explained that she has no idea why her husband suspected her of cheating. After all, she said, "if I was to cheat on him it wouldn't be in a neighborhood bar where he knows I am."

Now if that's not convincing testimony ...

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Ready, aim, Frasier ...

"Certainly I do feel as though I may be the largest target to present itself in quite some time."

-- Kelsey Grammer on his fear of going before the New York critics in his Broadway turn as Macbeth.

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Crazy and crazier

It's official: Jim Carrey is the anti-Tipper Gore.

Last Friday, the National Alliance for the Mentally Ill launched a national protest against Carrey's new flick, "Me, Myself and Irene," in which he plays a state trooper with a split personality.

In a letter to the suits over at 20th Century Fox, the organization says the film flies in the face of Tipper's work to overcome the stigma of the mentally ill. The producers, it maintains, are guilty of "gross ignorance and insensitivity" to the mentally ill as well as "tastelessness and cruelty."

Fox is "seeking to dismiss such concerns with claims that the film is 'only a comedy,' but for millions of Americans, schizophrenia and other mental illnesses are no laughing matter," says the group's executive director, Laurie Flynn.

So what has Carrey had to say for himself? "We had a lot of dumb people complaining about 'Dumb and Dumber,' too."

Nice.

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Beauty backlash

Don't hate Freddie Prinze Jr. because he's beautiful. But if you do, it seems you're not alone -- a fact the actor discovered after People magazine named him one of its 50 Most Beautiful People.

"All that does is get you hate messages on your answering machine," he ruefully admitted to Hollywood.com. "It's so embarrassing. All you get is [in teasing voice] 'What's up, Beauty, this is your friend who's not as beautiful as you are. You're so beautiful, BEEP.' And then it's, 'Hey, Gorgeous, how you doin', Princess, you're so pretty.' I'm never doing that again."

Might I suggest an unlisted number?

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Juicy bits

Perhaps you've wondered how Richard Roundtree feels about Samuel L. Jackson nudging him aside as the black private dick who's a sex machine to all the chicks? Not at all shafted. "I've been trying to distance myself from it for years," Roundtree tells the Toronto Sun. "I like this new Shaft. It meant I was handing off the baton to someone else."

Not only are the New York police calling for fans to boycott Bruce Springsteen's run of shows at Madison Square Garden in reaction to the Boss' song about the murder of Amadou Diallo, "American Skin," they're also giving out sound bites that could melt a bulletproof vest. Springsteen has "turned into some type of f***ing dirtbag," Bob Lucente, president of the New York state chapter of the Fraternal Order of Police, told Q Online. "He has all these good songs and everything, American flag songs and all that stuff, and now he's a floating fag. You can quote me on that." And you might remember it when their fundraisers interrupt your dinner, too.


By Amy Reiter

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