People talk 7/9/03

Britney confesses all to W magazine

NEW YORK -- After years of saying she'd wait until she was married to lose her virginity, Britney Spears is acknowledging that she had sex with her ex-boyfriend, Justin Timberlake.

"I've only slept with one person my whole life," the pop star tells W magazine for its August issue.

"It was two years into my relationship with Justin, and I thought he was the one," she pauses, then adds, "But I was wrong! I didn't think he was gonna go on Barbara Walters and sell me out."

Spears, 21, and Timberlake, the 22-year-old 'N Sync singer, were pop's high-profile power couple for three years before breaking up in spring 2002.

Eminem buys mansion of former Kmart exec

ROCHESTER HILLS, Mich. -- Eminem has bought a 29-room, 15,000-square-foot mansion last owned by former Kmart Corp. chairman Chuck Conaway.

The rapper, born Marshall Mathers III, paid nearly $4.8 million for the home, which has six bedrooms, nine bathrooms, heated marble floors and Honduras mahogany paneling.

It's located on six acres near Rochester Hills in northeast Oakland County, nearly 20 miles from Detroit and the neighboring blue-collar suburbs where Eminem grew up. Madonna grew up in nearby Rochester.

The mansion sold in February for about $1 million less than the asking price, according to real estate records The Detroit News cited in a story Tuesday.

The mansion was built in 1988 by former industrialist Rick Bellestri, who was sentenced to five years in prison in 1997 after pleading guilty to tax fraud, racketeering and other charges.-- From wire reports

Public memorial planned for late Barry Whte

LOS ANGELES -- A public memorial for R&B great Barry White has been planned for early August, his family said.

The event will combine a celebration of the singer's life with the dedication of a public recreation center in his name. The exact date has not been set.

A private memorial service was set for Tuesday in Los Angeles.

"We wish to extend our thanks to everyone who has offered expressions of sympathy and love for our father, husband and brother," his family said in a written statement Monday. "Your kind words of support and encouragement mean more than we can say and have helped to sustain the family during this difficult time."

The family said the South Park Recreation Center will be renamed after White, who grew up in that section of Los Angeles.

The singer, who had kidney failure from years of high blood pressure, died July 4 at 58. He'd been undergoing dialysis and had been hospitalized since a September stroke.

White's popularity reached a peak in the 1970s, but he enjoyed a resurgence in the late '90s when his songs were featured on the Fox series "Ally McBeal."

ABC to throw wedding bash for bachelorette

LOS ANGELES -- "The Bachelorette's" Trista Rehn and fiance Ryan Sutter will be paid $1 million for the TV rights to their wedding this fall.

But they had to give the ABC reality show's producers final say on everything from the bridal gown to the flowers, according to The Smoking Gun Web site, which posted the contract between the show's producers and Rehn and Sutter on Monday.

The televised nuptials "shall be a first-class, high-end" affair for which the couple will be "provided meaningful consultation" with respect to all aspects of the wedding, including Rehn's dress, bridesmaid dresses, tuxedos, flowers, cake and music. However, if there is a disagreement, AND Syndicated Productions, the show's producer, "shall make all final decisions."

ABC will broadcast the two-hour wedding as a special in the fall, with a two-hour preamble.

Rehn and Sutter received $100,000 upon signing the contract in May, The Smoking Gun reported. They'll receive another $500,000 after exchanging vows, with the balance of the $1 million paid out in equal installments during the show's production.

However, if Rehn and Sutter don't get married, they'll have to return the $100,000 down payment, according to the contract. The producers also could hold the couple legally liable for breaching the contract.

Rehn, a 30-year-old physical therapist, received $15,000 for living expenses and personal trainer fees during her stint on "The Bachelorette," which ended in February when she chose Sutter, a poetry-writing firefighter from Vail, Colo., from among 25 suitors.

According to a separate contract Rehn signed for the reality series, she and the show's final four male contestants also were promised another payment in an amount to be determined at the producer's sole discretion, though the figure wasn't specified in the 17-page contract.

Kevin Allyn, the agent for Rehn and Sutter, declined to discuss the contract with The Smoking Gun, citing a confidentiality and nondisclosure agreement between the couple and the producers.

Darva Conger weds again -- no millionaire this time

LOS ANGELES -- Darva Conger, who married a man she'd never met on live television, has found wedded bliss the second time around.

Conger, a nurse who works in Ventura County, married a paramedic named Jim six months ago.

"He brought me a patient into the emergency room and six weeks later he proposed and less than a year after that we got married," she said Monday. "Life is much more mellow and happy and good."

Her new husband said he never saw the Fox television show "Who Wants to Marry a Multimillionaire," where Conger wed comedian Rick Rockwell three years ago. Within weeks, she had the union annulled and said repeatedly that she wanted her privacy back. Later, she posed for Playboy magazine.

Conger still has a Hollywood agent, although she said she only accepts projects that interest her. She'll appear with Evan Marriott of "Joe Millionaire" fame in an episode of "National Lampoon's Funny Money" airing Aug. 10 on the Game Show Network.

"This is not an industry or a career you can do halfway unless you have something else that pays the bills," she said. "I don't want it enough to devote myself to it full-time and never wanted it."

Conger and Rockwell's television nuptials helped launch the reality craze that has spawned such shows as "The Bachelor," "The Bachelorette," "Joe Millionaire" and "Temptation Island."

Family of Ted Nugent leave Michigan home due to mold

JACKSON, Mich. -- Ted Nugent's family has moved to one of his northern Michigan cabins because their home near Jackson is contaminated with mold, the rocker's wife said.

Shemane Nugent said the contamination apparently stems from a water leak in the roof of the house, where the family lived for more than a decade.

"It's been an absolute nightmare," she told The Macomb Daily of Mount Clemens. "We've been told that we can't go back in there, that there's mold ... throughout the house."

She told the newspaper the family left the house in March.

Nugent has been touring this summer. A message seeking comment was left Monday for a representative of the 54-year-old singer.

The house is located on 2,000 acres where the family has a preserve filled with imported animals and domestic deer.

The couple have a 12-year-old son, Rocco.

XXXXXX XXXXXX

NEW YORK -- Leon Botstein will become music director of the Jerusalem Symphony Orchestra this fall.

Botstein, 56, has been music director of the American Symphony Orchestra since 1992 and founded the Bard Music Festival in 1990.

"I look forward to the opportunity to make a contribution to the future of this historic and significant orchestra at a crucial moment in the history of Jerusalem and Israel," Botstein said in a statement for release Tuesday.

"Jerusalem is an international city of unparalleled historic and cultural importance to people of all faiths. Its musical life must realize the potential that Jerusalem represents," he said.

Botstein has been president of Bard College at Annandale-on-Hudson since 1975.

The orchestra had been without a music director in recent seasons, with Lawrence Foster serving as musical adviser and Gary Bertini as laureate conductor.

XXXXX XXXXXXX

KINGSTON, Jamaica -- Promoters of the annual Reggae Sumfest are hoping the growing popularity of dancehall music will attract American fans to this year's festival, which begins July 20 in Montego Bay.

Destiny's Child is the only American pop act on this year's bill, organizers said last week. They'll perform on July 26, the festival's closing night.

Jamaican singers Sean Paul, Elephant Man and Wayne Wonder are also scheduled to perform at the festival.

"Several of these dancehall artists are making waves on American radio, so it wasn't necessary for us to go for a lot of hip-hop acts this time," said Reggae Sumfest director Johnny Gourzong.

An estimated 5,000 tourists visit Montego Bay each year for Reggae Sumfest, according to figures from the Caribbean country's tourist board.

-- From wire reports