Madonna hails British ale, not London mayor

LONDON -- Madonna is tired of reading newspaper articles saying that she doesn't like England anymore. She insists she still loves the place, especially its ale and London's nightlife.

But that doesn't mean she likes the capital's mayor, whom she condemned as "Red Ken" on Friday. As far as she's concerned, the new road toll he's imposed in the city is undermining her privacy.

The $8 daily congestion charge is imposed on drivers in central London during business hours on Monday through Friday. The toll, the brainchild of London Mayor Ken Livingstone, has been widely praised for reducing heavy traffic in the city.

But the wealthy 44-year-old pop star, who primarily lives in a posh area of London and drives a Mini Cooper car, said she can't get the 90 percent discount local residents are entitled to because she refused to meet the requirement of giving city officials her unlisted home phone number.

Appearing on a British Broadcasting Corp. TV talk show, Madonna said she has to pay the full congestion charge "because I don't have a listed phone number. And you have to prove where you live to the mayor -- Red Ken. I have a bone to pick with him. ... It's annoying. It's the principle."

City officials said Madonna misunderstood the rule, saying they only need a contact number, not her private home one.

Duchess puts number to dropping of pounds

NEW YORK -- Sarah Ferguson rarely talks about her own weight -- usually referring to it in terms of dress size rather than pounds -- but as a longtime spokeswoman for Weight Watchers, she is a model of success.

The 43-year-old Duchess of York is now down to a trim 140 pounds.

"Two hundred and twenty pounds" is what she weighed 10 years ago, the 5-foot-7 1/2-inch Ferguson told The New York Times in an interview published Friday.

By the time she joined Weight Watchers as its public face worldwide seven years ago, she had already shed some of her bulk, said Jerry Cassanova, a company spokesman.

On Friday, she was helping Weight Watchers celebrate its 40th anniversary at an event on Long Island.

"Now I'm down to a size 8," said Ferguson, the former wife of England's Prince Andrew. "I've still got fat-lady syndrome, when clearly I'm not overweight. Once you have a weight problem, you believe you'll always have a problem."

Ex-skater Harding pulls out of boxing match

DES MOINES, Iowa -- Former figure skating champion Tonya Harding pulled out of a boxing match in central Iowa next week under a doctor's orders.

Harding broke her nose while sparring last week, Paul Scienszinski of Des Moines-based Capital Promotions, said Thursday. She lost her pro boxing debut to Samantha Browning in February.

Christy Martin, one of the pioneers of women's boxing, will take Harding's place on the May 9 ticket scheduled at Osceola's Lakeside Casino Resort.

The 32-year-old Harding has been an outcast from figure skating because of her role in the 1994 attack on rival Nancy Kerrigan.

--From wire reports