People news 10/14/03

'The Bachelorette' readies for wedding

NEW YORK -- Trista Rehn will wear a strapless Badgley Mischka wedding gown with a full skirt when she abandons her status as "The Bachelorette" for married life with her made-for-TV honey, Ryan Sutter.

Rehn, the cover model for the December/January issue of Modern Bride, tells the magazine she's been doing Pilates, tanning and getting frequent facials in preparation for her nuptials, which ABC will broadcast in November. She's also letting her blonde hair gradually go brunette.

"I'm in change mode!" says Rehn, the magazine's first-ever engaged celebrity cover bride. "I obviously want to look good for Ryan."

Rehn says Sutter, the Vail, Colo., firefighter she chose from 25 suitors on the ABC reality show, initially showed interest in planning the wedding.

"He wanted to be all involved at first but then we did the guest list together and it was hard! So then (Ryan) said, 'No more!"'

But Rehn says her fiance still has opinions about the wedding cake: "He's a big dessert freak."

MTV follows wealthy pair on BigApple visit

NEW YORK -- Two wealthy young women dash around New York City, mindlessly spending money while TV cameras follow them.

But they're not the notorious Hilton sisters. They're Ally Hilfiger and Jamie Gleicher, the teenage stars of MTV's latest reality series, "Rich Girls."

"We just prance around this damn city like it's, like, our shopping haven," Hilfiger, the daughter of designer Tommy Hilfiger, says in the first episode, scheduled to air at 9:30 p.m. Oct. 28.

But she adds, "Just because we're rich doesn't mean that we're not good people."

And her pal Gleicher says she's learned from her privileged life that "money does not buy happiness."

In the premiere, cameras capture them riding in a limousine to shop for prom dresses and going to the upscale Frederic Fekkai salon to have their hair and nails done. Gleicher also debates whether to lose her virginity on prom night.

Tennessee lawmaker plays cable series role

MEMPHIS, Tenn. -- Rep. Harold Ford Jr. is in the HBO series "K Street."

But he's not following in the footsteps of former Tennessee Sen. Fred Thompson, who has a recurring role on NBC's "Law & Order."

Ford, D-Memphis, played himself in the series about political consultants in Washington, D.C. The episode was taped Wednesday and aired Sunday night.

In the scene, Ford has lunch with an old friend, Francisco Dupre (played by actor Roger G. Smith), who recently was hired by a lobbying firm that includes James Carville and Mary Matalin, the real-life consulting couple from opposite political parties.

A theme of the episode is the investigation into the leak to a columnist that the wife of former ambassador Joe Wilson was a CIA operative. Matalin wonders whether she needs an attorney. Dupre sounds out Ford.

Ford said he gave the same advice as he had on talk shows last week: that President Bush give his chief of staff 48 hours to turn over names.

The congressman said he didn't pursue acting beyond elementary school and has no plans for it in the future. "I'm not anticipating any nominations for my performance, so I'm going to stay right where I am," he said.

Val Kilmer shares his love for New Mexico

SANTA FE, N.M. -- Val Kilmer has taken out a newspaper ad thanking friends from New Mexico for standing by him in a controversy over an article he says inaccurately depicted him as being anti-New Mexico.

The 43-year-old actor, who lives in Pecos -- a village of about 1,400 in the Sangre de Cristo Mountains east of Santa Fe -- denies telling Rolling Stone magazine he lives in the "homicide capital of the United States," and says he doesn't carry a gun.

"I love my state and Pecos where I live," he says in the advertisement in The Santa Fe New Mexican, which featured two open letters -- one to his friends and the other to the editors of Rolling Stone.

Kilmer has been promoting the film "Wonderland," in which he plays porn star John Holmes in the story of a 1981 quadruple homicide at a Los Angeles apartment.

Rolling Stone spokeswoman Claudia Diromauldo said the magazine stands by its article.

Kilmer, a member of the state Film Commission, had dinner last week with Gov. Bill Richardson at the governor's mansion. Richardson said afterward that Kilmer loves the state and "is a great New Mexican."

Fashion sense evolves with actress Jessica Biel

NEW YORK -- As Jessica Biel has evolved as an actress, so has her fashion sense.

At 14, when she landed the role of Mary Camden on the wholesome WB series "7th Heaven," the self-proclaimed tomboy opted for a wardrobe of baggy jeans and T-shirts.

"It was definitely a conscious choice," Biel told Seventeen magazine for its November issue, "because a lot of the girls that I knew were dressing in tight jeans and really cute things. I was like, 'I'm tougher and cooler than you, I'm going to wear baggy pants!"'

Now, at 21, she's starring in a remake of the 1974 horror classic "The Texas Chainsaw Massacre," opening Friday, and she's interested in designer dresses.

Former governor ordered to pay damages to critic

MINNEAPOLIS -- Former Gov. Jesse Ventura has been ordered to pay frequent critic Leslie Davis $258.40 for damaging Davis' sign.

Davis was awarded the amount -- the cost of the sign -- last week for an incident that happened outside the St. Paul studios of Twin Cities Public Television in July.

Davis, a frequent irritant of Ventura's who has written a book critical of the former governor, said Ventura took his sign and destroyed it.

A long-standing feud between the two now includes a restraining order against Davis prohibiting him and fellow Ventura critic Bill Dahn from having any contact with Ventura or being within a block of the Twin Cities Public Television studio for the next year while Ventura works there.

Ventura has until Oct. 29 to appeal the sign ruling.

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MELBOURNE, Australia -- Britain's Princess Anne will travel to Australia this week to attend a conference for potential future leaders from Commonwealth countries, organizers said.

The Princess Royal will represent her father, the Duke of Edinburgh, at the Ninth Commonwealth Study Conference, said executive director Brian Pickett.

Nearly 200 people from 30 Commonwealth countries were expected at the conference, which opens in the eastern Australia city of Melbourne on Thursday.

The Commonwealth, a grouping of Britain and its former colonies, is made up of 54 countries.

Pickett said delegates had been selected based on their potential to become leaders in commerce, trade unions, government and community services.

"There is enormous potential for these young people to return home and make a difference," Pickett told reporters.

Princess Anne is Queen Elizabeth II's only daughter.