THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
THURSDAY NOVEMBER 1, 2007
ENTERTAINMENT
7A
MUSIC
Britney Spears defends parenting skills discusses album during radio interview
Brief over-the-phone interview leaves questions unanswered regarding rumors, court decisions
BY SANDY COHEN ASSOCIATED PRESS
LOS ANGELES — Brittney Spears defended her parenting and chastised her critics, lamenting "how cruel our world can be," in a brief interview on Ryan Seacrest's radio show Wednesday.
Spears, always photographed but rarely interviewed these days, also spoke about her new album "Blackout" during the seven-minute talk, during which she giggled frequently as her assistant, Alli Sims, and friend, Sam Lufti, laughed and shouted in the background.
When "American Idol" host, who
has a morning radio show on KIIS-FM in Los Angeles, asked Spears if she was doing all she could for her children, Spears replied, "Oh God yeah."
"People say what they want and do what they do and it's sad how people, how cruel our world can be," she said. "At the end of the day ... you've just got to know in your heart that you're doing the best you can and that's basically it."
weekly drug and alcohol tests.
Spears' ex-husband, Kevin Federline, has primary custody of her two sons, Sean Preston, 2, and Jaden James, 1. A judge on Tuesday granted Spears' three monitored visits a week. She must also take parenting classes and submit to random
Spears was unclear when Seacrest asked how often she would see the boys.
"That's, like, all in the court," she said. "Stuff like that, my lawyers know all that stuff."
However, she then said: "People talk and they say what they want at the end of the day, you know in the
Seacrest apparently woke Spears up when he called her for the interview, and at times she didn't seem to understand his questions. When Seacrest asked Spears if the intense coverage of her recent troubles has been "overwhelming," she said, "Wait, what?"
tabloids and in the magazines," she said. "But you just try to keep on doing what you do, like, you know, and as long as you know what's up and you know what's true, that's all that really matters, you know?"
Spears" "Blackout," her first studio album in four years, was released Tuesday. Besides a video for "Gimme More" and a widely panned performance at the MTV Video Music Awards, she hasn't promoted the record.
As for rumors that she was dating Dallas Cowboys quarterback Tony Romo, Spears said: "Who?"
The interview ended abruptly when Sims took the phone, saying Spears had left to take a shower.
DIVORCE
Paul McCartney's ex-wife speaks out
BY ROBERT BARR ASSOCIATED PRESS
LONDON — Heather Mills
McCartney accused Paul
McCartney of failing to protect
her and their 3-year-old daughter
Beatrice from abuse, which she says ranges from lies and slander to death threats.
Breaking her recent silence about issues surrounding their divorce case, Mills McCartney gave two television interviews Wednesday. She also announced that she would seek European legislation to compel newspapers to apologize for untruthful stories.
"Do you fear for your life?" she was asked in a British Broadcasting Corp. television interview.
"Yes I do, yes I do," she said.
"And you are saying that Paul McCartney does not protect you and your child?"
She also appeared earlier in the day on an ITV television morning show, saying she had taken precau
"I'm afraid not," Mills McCartney said.
tions because of death threats.
"I have a box of evidence that's going to a certain person, should anything happen to me, so if you top me off it's still going to that person, and the truth will come out," she said.
"There is so much fear from a certain party of the truth coming out that lots of things have been put out and done, so the police came 'round and said, 'You have had serious death threats from an underground movement."
On the BBC, she was asked if the tabloid newspapers were at fault.
"It's the tabloids and a certain party, but it is so extreme and so abusive ... I mean, I've been called monster, whore, gold digger, fantasist, liar."
"When you say certain party, do you mean someone from Paul McCartney's camp?" BBC reporter Maxine Mawhinney asked.
Heather Mills McCartney, estranged wife of former Beattie Paul McCartney, broke her silence Wednesday about her divorce from Paul McCartney. In TV interviews she said that she feared for her life because of death threats and blamed taboos for her problems.
"I'm not allowed to talk about Paul and the court case and all that kind of stuff, because we are in court," Mills McCartney said.
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Paul McCartney, 65, declined to
CRIME
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Actor Lane Garrison was sentenced Wednesday to three years and four months in prison for a drunken driving crash that killed a teenager last December. This sentence is down from the possible 7-year sentence.
Court sentences Lane Garrison to three years, four months in jail
BY RAQUEL MARIA DILLON
ASSOCIATED PRESS
LOS ANGELES — Lane Garrison was sentenced to three years and four months in prison Wednesday for a drunken driving crash that killed a 17-year-old Beverly Hills High student last December.
"The public has the right to know that conduct such as this, causing devastation such as this" will have consequences, Superior Court Judge Elden S. Fox, said.
"Unfortunately, in this case, you have to be the messenger," he told the former "Prison Break" actor.
Garrison, 27 could have received nearly seven years in prison. He had no reaction to the sentencing and was taken away in handcuffs.
Before the sentencing, he apologized to the family of Vahagn Setian.
"I'm sick of my own behavior that night," he said. "This remorse is genuine. I feel it every day."
ing T-shirts that had Setian's photograph and the motto: "The梦 as if you live forever. Live as if you'll die today"
After the hearing, defense attorney Harland Braun said his client was hopeful but that someone was dead and he was alive.
About 30 teenagers, many of them Beverly Hills High students, packed the courtroom, some wear-
Braun said Garrison told him, "I'm the lucky one."
Setian was a passenger in the 2001 Land Rover that Garrison rammed into a tree on Dec. 2. Two 15-year-old girls who also were in the vehicle survived.
respond. "There's no comment from our side," said his spokesman, Stuart Bell.
Garrison met the teens at a grocery store and accompanied them to a party. At the time of the crash, Garrison had a blood-alcohol level of 0.20 percent, more than twice the legal limit for driving, and was under the influence of cocaine, according to police.
Mills McCartney, who is still negotiating a financial settlement in the divorce case, urged the public to stop buying sensationalist newspapers.
Garrison pleaded guilty in May to one count of vehicular manslaughter without gross negligence, one count of driving under the influence with a blood-alcohol level of 0.15 percent or higher and a misdemeanor of providing alcohol to a minor.
HOLLYWOOD
BY GARY GENTILE ASSOCIATED PRESS
New contract ready for TV, movie producers
LOS ANGELES — Hollywood writers have a revision ready for TV and movie producers.
Contract talks resumed on Wednesday, with the Writers Guild of America ready to submit a revamped contract proposal with the hope of avoiding a strike after the current pact expired at midnight.
Details of the proposal were not released.
Producers said they would consider the revision but wouldn't agree to anything that would restrict their
ability to experiment with new Internet and other digital delivery options for films and TV shows.
"We will not ignore the challenges of today's economic realities, the shifts in audience taste and viewing habits, and the unpredictability of still-evolving technology" the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers said in a prepared statement.
A key issue in negotiations involves giving writers more money from the sale of DVDs and the distribution of shows via the Internet, cell phones and other digital platforms.
A federal mediator joined the
talks for a second day.
It was unclear when writers might walk off the job if a new deal isn't reached. More than 5,000 guild members recently voted, with 90 percent authorizing negotiators to call the first strike since 1988, if necessary.
The union set a meeting of its 12,000 members for Thursday night at the Los Angeles Convention Center.
Jonathan Handel, an entertainment lawyer who served in the 1990s as an associate counsel for the writers guild, said it was in the union's interest to delay a walkout, perhaps by five days or more.
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