It was business as usual for Catherine Zeta-Jones, as she headed to the golf course in China for a celebrity golfing tournament, leaving husband Michael Douglas back in New York, where he’s been battling cancer.
The trip appeared to indicate that Douglas’ recovery from cancer treatment is progressing, in sharp contrast to last month, when Zeta-Jones cut short a trip to Wales, raising fears for his health.
The 41-year-old actress looked thrilled to be back enjoying the sport she loves, and smiled widely for photographers as she teed off, according to London’s Daily Mail.
Meanwhile, Douglas, who has been battling advanced throat cancer, was back in New York looking after the couple’s two children, Dylan, 10, and 7-year-old Carys.
Last week it was reported that Douglas also has been making the three-hour trip from Manhattan to Pennsylvania to visit his jailed son Cameron despite his illness, a further indication of good news about the actor.
Even though he is recuperating from the side effects of chemotherapy and radiation, the “Wall Street 2″ star is determined to support his drug-dealing son, who is serving a five-year prison term,” radaronline reported.
In a press conference before the event, Zeta-Jones remained tight-lipped on her husband’s illness, but said: ‘It’s business as usual in our family.’
The mother-of-two also revealed she has been using her free time in recent months to work on her own one-woman show, which comes after she won a Tony award for her performance in A Little Night Music.
Shia LaBeouf, who stars alongside Douglas in Oliver Stone‘s film sequel, said the 66-year-old actor is ‘doing well’.
He added to Entertainment Tonight: ‘Michael is the epitome of strength. I mean, he’s stoic, and I don’t think he would want any kind of sympathy call or check-up at all.
‘In fact, I think he’s the exact opposite.’
Other celebrities who will be playing in the tournament include Matthew McConaughey and Hugh Grant, who said it’s his first visit to China.
Paul Abdul must be happy. It looks like her new CBS series “Live to Dance” will be direct competition for her alma mater “American Idol” on Wednesdays and Tuesdays starting in January. In addition, Paula’s dance show upped the ante by offering the winner a $500,000 jackpot, according to the celebrity website janetcharltonshollywood.
Meanwhile, Abdul, speaking with Las Vegas radio show Mark and Mercedes in the Morning recently, revealed a bizarre Hollywood connection: it turns out Michael Bolton used to babysit Paula when she was a kid.
“He never paid attention to me because he was too busy jamming and aspiring to be a great singer song writer and hanging out with other musicians in our neighborhood,” Abdul said of Bolton’s abilities as a babysitter.
“I’ll just put it this way… we did not get along very well… I was seven,” she said. “We had an L-shaped couch, and every time he would go out of the room, I would run on my knees to lock the door and I ran over a sharp pencil that was stuck between the cushions.
“Let’s just that I still have a scar because Michael Bolton was not a good babysitter,” Abdul said, adding that much later in life, they reunited with no hard feelings, and Bolton even asked if Abdul could choreograph his tour.
Guests at the GQ Gentlemen’s Ball, which celebrates outstanding charitable men and their causes, raised their eyebrows as they watched Chris Brown chat up honoree Jimmie Briggs in the Edison Ballroom, the New York Post reports.
The pairing drew stares because former journalist Briggs founded Man Up Campaign, a nonprofit to combat violence against women, and Brown last year pleaded guilty to assault against ex-girlfriend Rihanna.
“I found Chris to be very humble, sincere, honest and clear about expressing an interest in working with Man Up or an organization like ours,” Briggs told the Post’s Page Six.
“Chris is a young man, and he made a mistake. Some people may feel or not feel he hasn’t paid his dues, but he’s on a journey. We have to be supportive. My parting words to him were ‘Keep your head up.’ “
Demi Moore, Ashton Kutcher and Jimmy Fallon were also reportedly friendly to Brown at the event. Fallon even asked him to return to his late-night talk show, saying, “You can play with the Roots,” referring to his house band, the Post said.
Rocker and celebrity hunter Ted Nugent may have run afoul of South Dakota game laws by shooting pheasants after some of his hunting privileges were revoked in California.
South Dakota honors other states’ license revocations through the Interstate Wildlife Violator Compact, and a state law doesn’t differentiate between large game, such as deer, and small game, such as pheasant.
California revoked Nugent’s deer hunting license on Aug. 13 after he pleaded no contest to two misdemeanor charges.
According to Nugent’s online Twitter posts, the 61-year-old was hunting pheasants Oct. 16 in southwest South Dakota.
— The Associated Press also contributed to this report
lsmith@denverpost.com
