Madonna Keeps Baby David from African Dad
Madonna wouldn't let her adopted baby David see his biological father on Saturday, even though she'd reportedly agreed to a meeting.
A source at the Home of Hope orphanage in Malawi, where Madonna first met David, tells People that David's dad, Yohane Banda, had expected to see his 1-year-old son on Saturday for a visit, but was told on his way that the meeting was off, with no reason given. Madonna's rep said she didn't know whether the meeting had actually taken place.
Looks like the Material Mama got a little of her own back: She was supposed to see Nelson Mandela in South Africa after her visit to Malawi, but Mandela's people told her last week that Mandela was too busy to see her.
J.Lo Gets $50,000 a Minute for Bday Party
Jennifer Lopez is saying da to a Russian tycoon's big bucks, after he agreed to pay her $2 million for a 40-minute gig for his wife's 30th birthday party – or $50,000 a minute, according to the London Daily Mail. Andrei Melnichenko, a 35-year-old banker, is jetting J.Lo to London to play for his wife's bash, and is shelling out $1.2 mil in appeareance fees and $800K in expenses – but that's just under-the-cushions money for Melnichenko, who's net worth is a reported $5 billion.
Sheryl Crow Can't Touch Karl Rove
The jabs flew at the White House Correspondents' Dinner on Saturday night – but not at the dais, apparently. According to several sources, including Rush & Molloy, Sheryl Crow and White House advisor Karl Rove got into it when Crow tried to talk green policy along with Laurie David. And when Sheryl reached out to touch Rove's arm, recalls David, Rove recoiled, "Don't touch me." Crow crowed, "You can't speak to us like that, you work for us," to which Rove, ever the clever one, shot back: "I don't work for you, I work for the American people." Rove's recollection, in the Washington Post, was that David "came over to insult me and she succeeded."
Party Favors: New York Gov. Hearts Sanjaya ... Spider-Man 3: $500 Million Movie? ... Century City Food Court – The New Deal-Making Hotspot?
Sanjaya Malakar was the star attraction at the White House Correspondents' Dinner, and no pol was more smitten than New York Governor Eliot Spitzer, who wedged his way through the tight security around Sanjy to get an autograph – for his daughters – and, he joked, a hair transplant, say R&M. ... "Spider-Man 3" could be the most expensive movie ever made, and a report in Radar magazine claims that the budget could be more than $500 million. ... The Los Angeles Times reports that bigshot agents in Tinseltown are power-lunching over plastic trays of Fuddruckers in the food court at the Century City mall, rather than in the red banquettes of The Grill, now that ICM and CAA have moved into the neighborhood.