People talk 3/19

Minnelli, hubby plan to adopt four children

LONDON -- Liza Minnelli and producer David Gest are wasting no time in starting a family.

After marrying on Saturday, they're already planning to adopt four children, a British newspaper reported Monday.

Minnelli, 56, and Gest, 48, married in a celebrity-filled ceremony at New York's Marble Collegiate Church. The wedding was Minnelli's fourth and Gest's first.

Britain's Daily Express newspaper quoted the couple as saying they were going to adopt four children "of all races."

"Liza is going to be the best mother in the world," Gest was quoted as saying. "She has the greatest heart of anyone I've ever met."

The bride and groom met last year when Minnelli appeared in Gest's television production of "Michael Jackson: 30th Anniversary Special."

Billy Joel's becomes sick, postpones dates

NEW YORK -- Billy Joel and Elton John have postponed the rest of their U.S. concert dates together to allow Joel to recover from an illness.

The two were scheduled to play at Madison Square Garden on Monday night; at the Nassau Coliseum in Uniondale, N.Y., on March 20, 22, 28 and 30; and at the Continental Airlines Arena in East Rutherford, N.J., on April 4, 8 and 11.

Joel's spokeswoman, Claire Merucuri, said Monday that the "Face to Face" tour shows will be rescheduled in the next day or so.

"He's being treated for an inflamed vocal cord and an upper respiratory infection," Merucuri said. "We expect him to make a 100 percent complete recovery."

Sept. 11 attacks jar 'Embassy' actress

WASHINGTON -- The Sept. 11 attacks offered a jarring lesson to actress Arija Bareikis, who was filming the TV pilot for "The American Embassy" in London when she learned of the horror back home.

Bareikis, who's from Bloomington, Ind., plays 26-year-old vice consul Emma Brady in the Fox series that focuses on the lives of U.S. Foreign Service workers in London.

After the attacks, Bareikis went into action.

"There was a wonderful memorial set up at the U.S. Embassy, but I ended up making up about 1,600 flyers encouraging Londoners to light their candles as well," she told The Washington Post in Sunday's editions.

"I got such a mixed reaction -- it was fascinating. One guy crumpled up his flyer and threw it on the ground. I was confused at first -- I didn't quite get it. You find out that not everybody is crazy about Americans."

SHeDAISY singer files for divorce

NASHVILLE, Tenn. -- Singer-songwriter Kristyn Osborn of the country group SHeDAISY has filed for divorce, her attorney said.

Osborn, part of the SHeDAISY trio with her sisters Kelsi and Kassidy Osborn, seeks to end her nearly eight-year marriage to Joel Stevenett, attorney Rose Palermo said Friday.

"Because of the personal nature of this matter, she asks that you respect her privacy during this time," Palermo said.

The couple was married in Magna, Utah, in 1994. They have no children.

SHeDAISY's hits include "Little Goodbyes" and "This Woman Needs."

Osborn, 31, co-writes much of the music for the group, which takes its name from an American Indian word meaning "my sister."

R.E.M. guitarist on trial for behavior on flight

LONDON -- R.E.M. guitarist Peter Buck overturned a breakfast trolley, mistook a stranger for his wife and scuffled with crew members after getting drunk aboard a trans-Atlantic flight, prosecutors said at his trial Monday.

Prosecution lawyer David Bate said Buck behaved like a "drunken lout" aboard the Seattle-to-London flight last April.

The 45-year-old guitarist denies charges of being drunk on an aircraft, committing assault and damaging British Airways crockery.

Bate said Buck, who was traveling to Britain to promote the Georgia band's album "Reveal," drank about 15 glasses of wine in the first three hours of the flight. He became increasingly unruly, staggering up the aisle of the Boeing 747 and at one point becoming lodged between two seats, the prosecutor charged.

-- From wire reports