SALON

Tuesday, Jul 24, 2001 4:34 PM UTC

What’s all this racket?

Kournikova's dad swears daughter isn't married; Bonham-Carter discusses ape urination. Plus: Jermaine Jackson stands up for the little guy; Travolta attempts mid-air insemination; U2's Bono induces labor.

By

Topics: Michael Jackson, Celebrity, Bono,

Anna Kournikova, another bride in tennis whites?

If so, her father didn’t give her away. Or if he did, he’s not giving anything away now.

Sergei Kournikov is vehemently denying reports that his 20-year-old tennis pro offspring got herself hitched to hockey player Sergei Fedorov in a secret ceremony in Moscow earlier this month. According to Kournikov, the report, like last year’s tabloid rumor that she married hockey player Pavel Bure, is about as true as that story about Jennifer Aniston and Brad Pitt expecting their first child.

“To be honest with you, I am sick and tired with the calls about her marriage,” Kournikov told BBC News. “Last year it was Bure; now it’s Fedorov.”

Anna is busy training in Florida and hasn’t been in Moscow for months, he says. “Only yesterday I spoke with her on the phone and I think she would be very surprised to hear about this latest rumor.”

Anyone like to return the volley?

- – - – - – - – - – - -

Confessions of a screamer

“You grow up and your mom and dad tell you to close your legs, and you’re in high school and you can’t scream too loud ’cause your mom is downstairs. So you grow up and you have all these limits on sex.”

– Macy Gray, explaining the motives behind the song “Sexual Revolution” on her upcoming album, “The Id,” on Sonicnet.com.

- – - – - – - – - – - -

Longing to pee free

Pity poor Helena Bonham-Carter. Though the actress, who’s made a career of the period drama, calls taking the lead simian role in “Planet of the Apes” her “ultimate attempt to try to put the corset to bed,” things got a little hairier in that ape costume than she expected.

“I think I’ve got a bit of a sado-masochistic streak in me,” she tells the Calgary Sun, “because if I’m not going to be restricted by corsets, then I still have this constriction around my head and face.”

And … um … other parts.

“We had rubber hands,” she says. “Going to the toilet was a nightmare because you had to take your hands off and you had to rummage around. One developed an amazing amount of stoicism throughout.”

Not to mention good aim and a mighty strong bladder.

- – - – - – - – - – - -

Man of action

“The action figure for Dr. Grant has clearly been abusing steroids for years. I tell people it’s what I used to look like before I became a man of leisure.”

– Sam Neill on the “Jurassic Park III” action figure made in his image.

- – - – - – - – - – - -

Juicy bits

Trouble in Neverland … The Associated Press reports that Jermaine Jackson has dropped out of the Jackson 5 reunion concert at New York’s Madison Square Garden because he objected to the “endless list of celebrities” on the bill and the “exorbitant ticket prices” (up to $2,500) that would “prevent some of our most loyal and true fans from attending.” Brother Randy may drop out for the same reasons. What’s more, Fox News Online reports that Michael Jackson’s upcoming album “Invincible” is far from finished, as Jackson races to spruce it up for its September release date. In fact, a source tells the site, “Michael definitely turned in an album to Sony last year that was rejected,” an unnamed source told columnist Roger Friedman. “They were like, ‘What? You can’t put this out.’” Funny, they never said that before …

Birthing advice from Bono: Pop a slasher movie in the VCR to induce labor. That’s what the singer says he and his wife did several months ago to make sure she gave birth to their son before he set out on tour. “She thought if we put on ‘Chopper,’ it might do the trick,” Bono tells Q magazine. “And it did. We got to the hospital 20 minutes before the birth.” With this simple trick, U2 can have a quick and easy labor …

Which is something John Travolta and his wife Kelly Preston are reportedly longing for. The Scottish Daily Record reports that Travolta and Preston are so anxious to have another baby, they’re gettin’ it on in the strangest places. One blabby “close friend” tells the tabloid, “John has even put his big private jet on autopilot — with a co-pilot in charge — to make love because they don’t want to miss a single opportunity” to conceive. Fasten your seatbelts.

- – - – - – - – - – - -

Miss something? Read yesterday’s Nothing Personal.

More Amy Reiter.

Next Article

Related Stories

More Related Stories

Featured Slide Shows

The week in 10 pics

close X
  • Share on Twitter
  • Share on Facebook
  • Thumbnails
  • Fullscreen
  • 1 of 11
  • Lisa Montgomery embraces her nephew Thursday after a tornado tore apart her home in Cleburne, Texas. The twister killed six people and destroyed entire swaths of the North Texas town.
    Credit: AP/LM Otero

  • Jack McMahon, the defense attorney for abortion doctor Kermit Gosnell, speaks outside the Criminal Justice Center in Philadelphia Tuesday. His client was convicted of killing three babies in his clinic, and will serve multiple life sentences.
    Credit: AP/Matt Rourke

  • A photo taken Monday captures Vice President Joe Biden's response to a Milwaukee second-grader's innovative proposal to end America's epidemic of gun violence. This guy!
    Credit: AP/Jenny Aicher

  • Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., flanked by a grouper-eyed Michele Bachmann, addresses the IRS' admission that it targeted Tea Party groups in advance of the 2012 election. In an op-ed for CNN Thursday, the Kentucky senator slammed the president for his faux outrage.
    Credit: AP/Molly Riley

  • Ousted IRS chief Steven Miller is sworn in on Capitol Hill Friday. Miller testified before the House Ways and Means Committee on the extra scrutiny the agency gave conservative groups applying for tax-exempt status.
    Credit: AP/J. Scott Applewhite

  • Attorney General Eric Holder pauses as he testifies on Capitol Hill before the House Judiciary Committee Wednesday. Holder is under fire, among other things, for the Justice Department's gathering of phone records at the Associated Press.
    Credit: AP/Carolyn Kaster

  • O.J. Simpson sits during an evidentiary hearing at Clark County District Court in Las Vegas, Nev., Thursday. Simpson, who is currently serving a nine-to-33-year sentence in state prison for armed robbery and kidnapping, is using a writ of habeas corpus to seek a new trial.
    Credit: AP/Las Vegas Review-Journal/Jeff Scheid

  • Major Tom to ground control: On Sunday astronaut Chris Hadfield recorded the first music video from space, a cover of David Bowie's "Space Oddity."
    Credit: AP/NASA/Chris Hadfield

  • When it rains it pours. President Barack Obama speaks during a news conference Thursday with Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, inexplicably inspiring an #umbrellagate Twitter meme.
    Credit: AP/Jacquelyn Martin

  • A smoke plume rises high above a road block at the intersection of County A and Ross Road east of Solon Springs, Wis., Tuesday. No injuries were reported, but the the wildfire caused evacuations across northwestern Wisconsin.
    Credit: AP/The Duluth News-Tribune/Clint Austin

  • Recent Slide Shows

  • Share on Twitter
  • Share on Facebook
  • Thumbnails
  • Fullscreen
  • 1 of 11

Related Videos

Comments

 0 Comments

Comment Preview

Your name will appear as username

You may use these HTML tags and attributes: <a href=""> <b> <em> <strong> <i> <blockquote>

follow salon

Most Read

Popular on Reddit

links from salon.com

From Around the Web

Presented by Scribol
listener_new_rect The Listener: So long, Sookie Stackhouse

Recommendations