Jolie happy to focus on new son, growing family

Superstar mom Angelina Jolie is happy to have a chance to focus on her growing family and its newest member, Pax Thien Jolie, according to an interview published in a Vietnamese newspaper Friday."I will stay at home to help Pax adjust to his new life," Jolie told the Ho Chi Minh City Law newspaper. "I have four children and caring for them is the most important thing for me at the moment. I'm very proud and happy to be their mother."Jolie adopted the 3-year-old Vietnamese boy on Thursday, during a ceremony at the Ho Chi Minh City Justice Department, which publishes the newspaper.Since she arrived in Vietnam on Wednesday night, Jolie has been hounded by a jostling horde of photographers and reporters, who followed her from the orphanage to the Ministry of Justice for Thursday's ceremony.Jolie said she was sorry that her new son had to be exposed to such a media frenzy and expressed concern about how it would affect him."Photographs and press coverage will make him upset," Jolie said in the interview, which was published in Vietnamese. "I'm very worried about that. I would like to say I'm sorry for bringing this into Pax's life."Jolie's oldest son, five-year-old Maddox, came with her to Vietnam, where she is expected to stay until next week. Her other children are 2-year-old Zahara, adopted from Ethiopia, and another sister, Shiloh, born to Jolie and her superstar partner Brad Pitt in May.Ever since she was young, Jolie said, she has wanted to adopt children."Everyone would agree that children need to have a family," the paper quoted her as saying. "I have the ability to help children fulfill that desire. Why should I say no?"A nurse at the orphanage where Jolie adopted the boy said staff there didn't realize she and Pitt were superstars when they first visited last year."They looked very much like ordinary people," said Bui Thi Bich Tuyen. "We thought that they were just an ordinary couple that wanted to play with the kids and give them presents. They brought lots of toys."Jolie shared crayons and drew pictures with the kids. "We could already see that she had a heart for children," said Tuyen, the nurse who had been in charge of raising Pax ever since he was brought to the orphanage as an infant.

Naomi Campbell's Cleanup Act

In order to clean up her legal troubles, Naomi Campbell will be cleaning up a whole lot of other stuff this week.

The supermodel traded her stilettos for work boots Monday, as she reported for duty at the sanitation garage where she'll spend the next five days mopping floors as part of her sentence for throwing a cell phone at her maid over a missing pair of jeans.

Campbell made a punctual entrance to the Manhattan District 3 Garage at Pier 36, pulling up in a black SUV, from which she emerged nattily dressed in beige pants, a short coat with a flared bottom, high-heeled boots, a newsboy cap and sunglasses.

She did not acknowledge the media awaiting her arrival as she made her way to the building's doors, escorted by a garage official.

In addition to requisite cleaning supplies, she was issued a uniform consisting of protective gloves, an orange safety vest and a dust mask.

"Miss Campbell arrived on time to work. She came ready to work," Albert Durrell, deputy chief of the Department of Sanitation, told reporters assembled outside the facility.

"We have plenty of work for her to do over the next five days," he added.

As for what that work might entail, according to one of Campbell's new coworkers at the sanitation facility, it won't be pretty.

"She'll be on her feet most of the day, with a big broom, sweeping inside the garage—dust, dirt, dirty liquids and things that fall off the trucks in there," the unnamed worker told the New York Post.

"She'll do that for hours—and if there's nothing to sweep, she'll have to look busy, walk around with the broom."

Earlier this month, Campbell's rep told the New York Daily News that the model was fully prepared to get her hands dirty.

"Naomi is ready to report and complete her community service, no matter where or what she will be assigned," the rep said.

Campbell, 36, will be spared the indignities suffered by Boy George, who was sentenced to serve community service at the same facility last summer, but was forced to work outside in front of crowds of paparazzi.

Because of the catwalker's high-profile status, sanitation police will guard the garage's entrances as she toils, Durrell said.

Campbell pleaded guilty to misdemeanor assault in January, acknowledging that a cell phone had left her hand and connected with maid Ana Scolavino's noggin, but stopping short of admitting that had been her intent.

"I threw a cell phone in the apartment. The cell phone hit Ana," Campbell said at the time. "This was an accident, because I did not intend to hit her."

In addition to the five days of community service, she was ordered to pay Scolavino's medical expenses of $363 and to attend anger management counseling.

At the first of her court-ordered anger management classes earlier this month, the notoriously fiery-tempered Campbell reportedly expressed remorse for her phone-tossing outburst.

"I do honestly feel very sorry. I don't know if people will believe that. I mean I cannot believe I am sitting here," she said, according to the New York Post.

"And, I have said it before, but this time I truly mean it. I feel sorry and I am really going to learn from my mistakes."

At the very least, she's sure to pick up some new cleaning techniques.

James Brown Finally Buried at Ceremony Presided by Al Sharpton

"The Godfather of soul," James Brown, was finally laid to rest in a crypt at the Beech Island, SC, home of one his daughters, Deanna Brown Thomas, pending the completion of a public mausoleum in an as-yet undisclosed location. He was buried at a private ceremony presided over by Rev. Al Sharpton.

His last partner Tomi Rae Hynie wants to build a mausoleum and transform their marital home in a museum, copying the Graceland enterprise.

"This is what James wanted, for the family to come together. Everyone really felt like James was there with us," Brown's partner, Tomi Rae Hynie, told AP.

"He was very private," said Sharpton, a longtime Brown confidant, according to AP. "Where he is now has nothing to do with court proceedings," Sharpton said.

"The children used their own funds to pay for their father's entombment so that their father could be put to rest without further delay," Sharpton, said a statement.

Brown left "a substantial estate and substantial holdings ... which are currently being disputed in court," and Brown's children "wanted to see their father entombed in a resting place without delay, rather than await court decisions," he added.

There was also criticism of the Saturday service. Buddy Dallas told the AP the trustees had made arrangements for Brown to be laid to rest at no cost at a "very prominent memorial garden in Augusta." "Mr. Brown's not deserving of anyone's backyard," said Dallas, who, in disapproval, was not at Saturday's service.

About two weeks ago, attorneys in South Carolina agreed to take a DNA sample from the late singer James Brown to preserve for a possible paternity challenge. "This is just to preserve the sample," Tomi Rae Hynie's attorney Robert Rosen told the Charleston (S.C.) Post and Courier. "The court hasn't ruled as to whether anybody is entitled to do a DNA test."

Brown died Christmas Day last year at age 73. His will does not mention Hynie or her son.

James Brown's body has moved around at least as much as when he was alive. First it was his triple funeral when his body was carried around for everyone to pay their goodbyes, from New York at the Apollo Theater in Harlem, to his hometown at Augusta’s James Brown Arena.

His body was then put to rest in his Long Beech Island home where it was locked in a temperature-controlled room and was kept under surveillance, Charles Reid, manger of the C.A. Reid Funeral Home in Augusta, Ga., which handled the services, said at that time.

A movie about the life of singer James Brown is reportedly in the works with Spike Lee signed on to direct. Daily Variety reported last December that the picture, which was already in development when Brown Died, was on a track to begin production in 2008, or possibly late 2007.

Somewhere over the rainbow, Billy can hear this

It began with a minute's silence for a man renowned for amplified live shows, but the volume of yesterday's memorial service would not have disappointed Billy Thorpe.

A crowd of 7000 family, friends and fans gathered at the Entertainment Centre for Over the Rainbow, a tribute that ran over time and overflowed with the memories and music of the rocker who died on Wednesday after a heart attack.

Outside the service generations of Australian entertainers - from Stevie Wright, Billy Birmingham and John Paul Young to the Midnight Oil frontman turned Labor MP, Peter Garrett, and the country singer Melinda Schneider - shared their memories of Thorpe.

"More than anyone he believed in me," said Schneider, who wrote several songs with Thorpe. "I can't believe he is gone."

Inside on the stage his coffin was covered with flowers and flanked by seven guitars, while the Reverend Bill Crews led the crowd in a prayer for Thorpe's widow, Lynn, and his daughters Rusty and Lauren.

Speeches and bittersweet yarns followed from the musician's friends, the actors Bryan Brown and Jack Thompson, the journalist George Negus and the singer Little Pattie, who each paid tribute to Thorpe's larrikin humour and generosity, and his music.

"It started loud and it got louder," Thompson said, before summarising the feeling of most in the room.

"Fortunately for us, a lot of it is recorded and what isn't recorded is in our hearts ... but in my heart a desolate howl still echoes, we have lost a loved one."

The music promoter Michael Chugg, who was Thorpe's manager, read tributes from Yothu Yindi and Angry Anderson. He finished his tear-choked speech with: "Don't be too hard on Elvis, Lennon and Hendrix when you tell them you have arrived to take over the band."

Musical tributes came from Max Merritt, with a rendition of Slipping Away from Me and Olivia Newton-John with Over the Rainbow.

But it was the clips of Thorpe's live performances that had the crowd on their feet, clapping their hands to Most People I Know (Think That I'm Crazy), cheering the tickertape shower during a clip from the "Long Way to the Top" tour and wiping away tears to a song from his yet-to-be-released album Tangiers.

Lyrics from the song Thorpe had dedicated to his mother, "since you've been gone, I really miss you ..." took on new meaning for the mourners.

As the coffin was carried off the stage, the silence was broken by shouts from the fans: "We will miss you Bill"; and "Give 'em hell".

Earlier in the week, Chugg emphasised the service would not be a rock concert. But with a venue full of rock musicians and fans, the send-off for a "pioneer rocker" who spent four decades making music was never going to be quiet.