Playboy founder Hugh Hefner dumped at the altar

LOS ANGELES | Tue Jun 14, 2011 10:35pm EDT

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Heartbroken Playboy founder Hugh Hefner said on Tuesday his wedding this weekend was canceled because his 25-year-old fiancee, a Playmate from his magazine, changed her mind.

Hefner, 85, and Crystal Harris were due to tie the knot in front of more than 300 guests at the Playboy Mansion in Los Angeles on Saturday. It would have been Hefner's third marriage.

"The wedding is off. Crystal has had a change of heart," Hefner wrote on Twitter.

"The breakup is a heart breaker, but better now than after the marriage," he added later.

He also denied a report on celebrity website TMZ.com that the couple had had "a nasty argument" on the phone.

Adding insult to injury, he said Harris took his favorite pet, a cocker spaniel named Charlie, when she moved out of the mansion.

On the other hand, Hefner said he has been consoled by his coterie of old pals and his former wife Kimberley Conrad, and announced he would be hosting a screening of "Runaway Bride."

Hefner proposed to Harris on Christmas Eve, he announced on Twitter at the time. Since then Hefner has been planning the nuptials in between serving as hands-on editor of Playboy and entertaining family and friends at movie screenings and backgammon games.

A two-hour TV special featuring wedding highlights was due to air July 13 on the women's cable channel Lifetime.

Hefner and second wife Conrad, a former Playmate now 48, divorced in 2010 after a lengthy separation. His first marriage to Mildred Williams ended in divorce in 1959. He has two children from each marriage.

Hefner, known around the world by his nickname, Hef, has championed sexual freedom and civil rights, published stories challenging McCarthyism and the Vietnam War, and backed gay causes and the legalization of marijuana.

With a cover featuring a calendar photo of Marilyn Monroe, Hefner put together the first issue of Playboy on the kitchen table in his Chicago apartment in 1953 at a cost of $600. It sold 51,000 copies -- enough to finance a second issue -- and led to a multimillion dollar international corporation, which Hefner recently took private.

Raised in San Diego by British parents, Harris met Hefner at his annual Halloween party in 2008.

She moved in to the mansion after a few weeks and became Playboy's Playmate of the Month in December 2009. She will be on the cover of the magazine's upcoming July issue.

(Reporting by Dean Goodman; Editing by David Lawder)

Powered By WizardRSS.com | Full Text RSS Feed | Amazon Plugin | Settlement Statement | WordPress Tutorials

Springsteen says Clemons' health signs are "encouraging"

By Ellen Wulfhorst

NEW YORK | Tue Jun 14, 2011 5:06pm EDT

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Rock star Bruce Springsteen confirmed on Tuesday that saxophonist Clarence Clemons of his E Street Band has suffered a serious stroke, saying Clemons' "initial signs are encouraging" but he faces a long recovery.

Clemons, 69, who lives in Florida, fell ill over the weekend, according to sources on gossip and fan websites and Rolling Stone magazine. But representatives for the horn player known as "Big Man" had declined to disclose any information as to his condition.

Springsteen, in a statement issued through his publicist, said: "By now, many of you have heard that our beloved comrade and sax player Clarence Clemons has suffered a serious stroke.

"While all initial signs are encouraging, Clarence will need much care and support to achieve his potential once again," Springsteen said. "He has his wonderfully supportive wife, Victoria, excellent doctors and health care professionals, and is surrounded by friends and family.

"I thank you all for your prayers and positive energy and concern. This is a time for us all to share in a hopeful spirit that can ultimately inspire Clarence to greater heights," Springsteen said in the statement issued by publicist Marilyn Laverty.

Clemons underwent double knee-replacement surgery in 2008 and walked for the first time in three months when Springsteen and the E Street Band played the Super Bowl in 2009.

Springsteen's statement said fans could send email messages to Clemons at notestoclarence@clarenceclemons.com.

Clemons started playing with Springsteen in 1971 as a charter member of his E Street Band. His gritty, haunting solos power such hits as "Born to Run," "Jungleland," "Prove It All Night," "Tenth Avenue Freeze Out" and "Badlands."

Away from the E Street Band, Clemons enjoyed a hit single in 1985 with "You're a Friend of Mine," a duet with Jackson Browne. He has dabbled in acting and worked with other artists including Ringo Starr, Aretha Franklin and Lady Gaga.

(Additional reporting by Dean Goodman. Editing by Peter Bohan)

Powered By WizardRSS.com | Full Text RSS Feed | Amazon Plugin | Settlement Statement | WordPress Tutorials

Hugh Hefner dumped at the altar

Thomson Reuters is the world's largest international multimedia news agency, providing investing news, world news, business news, technology news, headline news, small business news, news alerts, personal finance, stock market, and mutual funds information available on Reuters.com, video, mobile, and interactive television platforms. Thomson Reuters journalists are subject to an Editorial Handbook which requires fair presentation and disclosure of relevant interests.

NYSE and AMEX quotes delayed by at least 20 minutes. Nasdaq delayed by at least 15 minutes. For a complete list of exchanges and delays, please click here.

Powered By WizardRSS.com | Full Text RSS Feed | Amazon Plugin | Settlement Statement | WordPress Tutorials

Art market buzzes ahead of Basel, London sales

By Mike Collett-White

LONDON | Tue Jun 14, 2011 9:22am EDT

LONDON (Reuters) - Billions of dollars of art will be on show in Basel at the annual fair this week and in London ahead of a big series of sales, with experts cautiously optimistic that buyers are set to snap up rare treasures.

Art Basel, described as the world's top fair for modern and contemporary works, opens on Wednesday with 300 galleries displaying works with a combined total worth of around $1.75 billion, according to specialist insurer Hiscox.

"We didn't do a calculation last year, but my guess is that this year is up about 15 percent (on 2010)," said Hiscox fine art specialist Robert Read.

He added that the mood in the market was generally confident, with the sharp contraction in global sales in 2009 already a fading memory.

"I think we're further away from the bad news," he told Reuters. "People forget things so quickly. Buying art is fun and sexy, and people were never going to give it up forever, were they?"

Once the wheeling and dealing in Basel is done by its close on June 19, the focus shifts to London where rivals Christie's and Sotheby's hold sales where the strength or otherwise of the market will be more visible.

Christie's described its upcoming season as "one of the company's richest and most exciting," and expects to raise more than 250 million pounds ($410 million) over four weeks.

The company has opened an exhibition in London this week of more than 100 works to be offered to super-rich collectors and investors, including a drawing by Michelangelo and paintings by George Stubbs, Claude Monet and Pablo Picasso.

Also on display will be a sculpture by Dutch artist Adriaen de Vries discovered during a routine Christie's valuation at a European castle and expected to fetch 5-8 million pounds.

Christie's starts its main sales of the season on June 21 with an impressionist and modern art evening sale.

CHINESE BUBBLE?

Sotheby's expects its equivalent series to raise in excess of around 215 million pounds, including what it said could be a record auction price for Austrian artist Egon Schiele, whose cityscape goes under the hammer on June 22.

The painting is being sold by the Leopold Museum and is estimated to be worth up to 30 million pounds ($50 million) which would comfortably surpass the current Schiele record of $22.4 million.

A Venetian view by Francesco Guardi has been valued at around 20 million pounds and is the highlight of the Old Masters sale on July 6.

Experts said the art market has yet to regain the giddy heights of the boom that preceded the 2009 slump, although Chinese art has soared in value as wealthy new buyers compete for the top lots.

Recent examples include the $65 million paid last month for a work by Qi Baishi and the $69 million price tag on a Chinese vase dated from the 1740s, 40 times its estimate, at a sale in London in November.

Chinese collectors have also branched out into Western art and could be a major factor in the market over the coming month, although some analysts have warned of the risk of an unsustainable art rush developing.

Vikram Mansharamani, a lecturer at Yale University, recently drew comparisons between China's influence on the art market and that of Japan in the late 1980s and early 1990s, when buyers there smashed auction records only for the boom to turn to bust.

"It reflects a national overconfidence that has been a consistent ingredient in financial bubbles," he wrote.

"Prudent investors would take great pride in selling at world record prices. Wanting to buy at world record prices is a spectacular reflection of hubris in action."

(Reporting by Mike Collett-White; Editing by Steve Addison)

Powered By WizardRSS.com | Full Text RSS Feed | Amazon Plugin | Settlement Statement | WordPress Tutorials