Faces & Names: A split coming for Sandra Bullock?

Bullock blind-sided by rumor of affair
Sandra Bullock has pulled out of the London premiere of “The Blind Side,” set for next Tuesday, according to UsMagazine.com. The film will still be screened.

In a statement from Warner Brothers UK, Bullock, 45, tells Us:

“Due to unforeseen personal reasons, a trip abroad to support 'The Blind Side' has been deemed impossible at this time. I apologize for any inconvenience this may have caused and thank you for your continued support of the film.”

The cancellation comes as a new tabloid report claims that her husband Jesse James has cheated on her with a model.

Fox, Conan cozy up
Fox Broadcasting is inching closer to bringing Conan O’Brien back to late night.

Key Fox executives, including Rupert Murdoch, are on board with the plan and would like to finalize a deal in coming weeks so they can make a splash on May 17 when the network unveils its new fall line-up. Several significant issues remain and the Fox talks could fall apart, according to people close to the negotiations who asked not to be identified because the discussions were meant to be private.

But people close to O’Brien are cautiously optimistic.

“We’ll get there,” one of them said Tuesday.

Fox executives have been huddling to figure out how much it will cost to mount a late-night talk show that would be profitable for Fox stations and affiliates. Stations, hammered by the advertising recession, rely on the profits generated by syndicated reruns such as “The Simpsons” and “The Office,” and it’s unclear how many stations would be willing to substitute those shows for a risky venture — even one starring a big-name host.

Fox realizes that if it ever wants to get into the late-night game, this is the time.

Ely winning ‘coolest town’ contest
There’s a national contest going on to determine which is the coolest small town in America and, at last check, Ely was winning it.

Furthermore, the town could stand to win much more financially this summer and it’s all because of a black bear named Lily who’s had worldwide attention since a Webcam in her den documented the birth of her cubs at www.bear.org.

“The Lily den cam brought people out of the woodwork,” said bear researcher Lynn Rogers. “88,000 Facebook fans.”

Many of those fans also found the Coolest Small Town contest at www.budgettravel.com and got behind Ely.

Ely was in first place by about 2,600 votes Wednesday evening.

Rogers said the fans on Facebook have fallen so deeply in love with the bears in Ely that, after the Coolest Small Town contest ends, some are planning to come to Ely to meet the bears and each other.

Mayor Roger Skraba said city leaders are on board with the idea.

“Ely is the coolest small town,” he said, excited about the economic boost of such an event, even if it is all because of a bear named Lily.

The coolest town contest goes until May 9.

Hot tickets in Duluth
A couple of Twin Ports residents won pretty nice chunks of cash recently from the Minnesota Lottery.

First, Amy Wise of Superior won $21,000 off a Triple Cash Crossword scratch ticket from the M&H station at 1230 W. Michigan St. She claimed her prize March 5.

Then Nicholas Palmisano of Duluth won the top $77,777 prize playing the Sizzlin’ 7s scratch game. He bought his ticket at Pike Lake SuperAmerica on Miller Trunk Highway and claimed his prize last week.

The media mogul and the headmistress
Media mogul Oprah Winfrey is expected to spend two weeks defending herself at trial in a defamation case linked to the sex-abuse scandal at her girls school in South Africa.

A federal judge this week refused to dismiss the suit filed by Winfrey’s ex-headmistress, paving the way for a March 29 trial in Philadelphia.

The billionaire talk show host, as a named defendant, must be in court and has rearranged her TV production schedule to do so, her lawyers said in a recent court filing. She also appears likely to be called as a witness.

After the abuse complaints surfaced in 2007, Winfrey said she had “lost confidence” in headmistress Nomvuyo Mzamane and was “cleaning house from top to bottom.”

A dorm matron who worked under Mzamane was later charged in South Africa with abusing six students.

The judge found that Winfrey made both Mzamane and the dorm parents appear “culpable” by telling parents, “I’m going to find a new head of the academy for the school. … Dorm parents are gone, [Mzamane] is gone.”

Simpson probes looks-obsessed society
Singer and sometime actress Jessica Simpson has paid the price of beauty, and now she’s examining people’s obsession with looking good.

She made headlines last year when photos of her performing suggested she might have gained a few pounds. That sparked a national debate on TV news channels, talk shows and in print asking if Simpson was, indeed, fat.

The 29-year-old has decided to turn the tables on questions about how she looked. The result is a new show called, “Jessica Simpson’s The Price of Beauty.” The show will air weekly on VH1.

Simpson travels the globe with two friends, hair stylist Ken Paves and former assistant Cacee Cobb, to examine people’s efforts to measure up to standard of beauty.

Pinched nerve sidelines royal wife
Prince Charles’ wife, Camilla, canceled plans to visit a Polish forest and a mosque with him because of back pain, his office said Tuesday.

Camilla has a pinched nerve in her back, Clarence House said. It said that, on medical advice, she canceled plans to travel with her husband from Warsaw to eastern Poland, where the prince was to visit a bison reserve in a primeval forest and a mosque belonging to Poland’s tiny Muslim Tatar community.

Sheen pleads not guilty
Actor Charlie Sheen has pleaded not guilty in Colorado to domestic violence charges stemming from a Christmas Day incident with his wife.

Sheen entered his plea Monday to counts of menacing, criminal mischief and assault. A trial is scheduled July 21.

The star of “Two and a Half Men” on CBS is accused of putting a knife to the throat of Brooke Mueller Sheen while they vacationed in Aspen.

The maximum penalty for the most serious charge of menacing is one to three years in prison.

ESPN reporter’s stalker sentenced
An Illinois insurance executive who secretly shot nude videos of ESPN reporter Erin Andrews was sentenced Monday to 2½ years in prison after giving a tearful apology that was harshly rebuked by his victim.

Michael David Barrett, 48, of suburban Chicago pleaded guilty in December to interstate stalking after prosecutors accused him of following the reporter to at least three cities and shooting the videos through hotel peepholes.

Andrews urged the judge at the hearing for a harsher sentence and said she fears for her life every time she enters a hotel.

U.S. District Judge Manuel Real said he gave Barrett the maximum sentence under the law.

Turtles without the crowd
Fans of Duluth’s favorite bluegrass band, Trampled by Turtles, know you have to move fast to score a ticket when they play to the home crowd at Pizza Luce.

This week for once you can sit back and watch them play in your living room without anyone stepping on your toes or spilling beer on your flannel shirt.

The local public television station recorded a recent Turtles show at the Looch as the band returned from a coast-to-coast tour. That show will be broadcast at 9 p.m. Thursday on WDSE-TV Channel 8.

Streep honors ex-hostage Betancourt
It was hard to tell who was more impressed when film star Meryl Streep presented a leadership award to Ingrid Betancourt, the former Colombian presidential candidate who endured years of captivity in jungle camps.

Betancourt was one of four women honored Saturday night at the inaugural DVF Awards, created by fashion designer Diane von Furstenberg to honor women working for change in their countries.

Betancourt, a French-Colombian who was running for president of Colombia when she was kidnapped in 2002 by leftist FARC guerrillas, quipped that she didn’t know who was more impressive, the presenters or the women being honored.

Betancourt, 48, was freed in 2008 in a dramatic rescue operation and now lives in France, where she was raised.

Tween romance alert
In what might be considered a major tween romance faux pas, Demi Lovato has actually come clean about her relationship status.

And the lucky lad according to eonline.com is … Joe Jonas!

The always tweeting companions and Camp Rock costars are a real-life couple, Lovato spilled to Billy Bush on his radio program, The Billy Bush Show, when asked if she’s ever dated one of the Jonas Brothers.

“Maybe,” she responded coyly, and it only got better from there …

The Access Hollywood host continued to pry, asking, “Which one? Joe?” to which Lovato simply confessed, “Yeah. He’s my best friend.”

Former ‘Friend’ getting hitched
David Schwimmer, 43, and photographer girlfriend Zoe Buckman, 24, are engaged, his publicist confirms to EW.com.

Schwimmer’s current project, the play Trust, is being produced at Chicago’s Lookingglass Theatre through April 25. He co-wrote the screenplay and is co-director.

Have an event that just happened that you’d like to share? Pictures, perhaps, or other goings-on from the Northland to Hollywoodland? Send them to facesandnames@duluthnews.com

Tags: arts and entertainment, faces and names, charlie sheen, erin andrews, meryl streep, david schwimmer, oprah winfrey, jessica simpson, sandra bullock, news, entertainment, ely