Lawyer: Store’s videotape unlikely to affect Ryder case

Beverly Hills, Calif. The lawyer defending Winona Ryder against shoplifting charges got a new 10-second snippet of a department store videotape but said he doubts it will affect the case.

The clip apparently shows the moment when the 30-year-old actress first was spotted inside the Saks Fifth Avenue store in Beverly Hills, attorney Mark Geragos said Thursday.

“I don’t think it’s anything of any great moment,” he said.

Ryder, who was arrested Dec. 12, could face up to four years in prison if convicted of felony theft, burglary, vandalism and possession of a pain reliever without a prescription.

When charges were filed, the district attorney’s office quoted police as saying Ryder was visible on a closed-circuit camera using scissors to clip security tags from merchandise.

However, Geragos repeated previous comments that a 90-minute surveillance tape that was leaked to the media earlier this month exonerates her.

Ryder, whose films include “Girl, Interrupted,” “Edward Scissorhands” and “Heathers,” is free on $20,000 bail.

Ono saves Lennon home for trust

London Yoko Ono has bought the childhood home of her late husband, John Lennon.

Ono said she purchased the Liverpool house at 251 Menlove Ave., where Lennon lived with his Aunt Mimi and where The Quarry Men and the Beatles rehearsed.

The house is to go to The National Trust, which already owns former Beatle Paul McCartney’s childhood home at 20 Forthlin Road in Liverpool’s Allerton district.

On Friday, Ono joined Prime Minister Tony Blair’s wife, Cherie Booth, at the northwestern city’s airport to introduce a statue of Lennon at the renamed Liverpool John Lennon Airport.

Justice, late publisher honored

Rochester, N.Y. Ruth Bader Ginsburg, only the second woman appointed to the U.S. Supreme Court, and Katharine Graham, who built The Washington Post into a leading force in American journalism, will be inducted into the National Women’s Hall of Fame this fall.

The honor roll of 19 women named Thursday includes 13 whose enshrinement in 2001 was postponed by the Sept. 11 terror attacks. Among them are Lucille Ball, former first lady Rosalynn Carter and Althea Gibson, the first black female tennis champion at Wimbledon.

The women will be inducted Oct. 5.