People

Mambo creator gets star of fame

Los Angeles — Israel Lopez, the 84-year-old Cuban bass player credited with helping to create the mambo, was honored with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

Lopez, better known as “Cachao,” received the walk’s 2,219th star Friday in front of the King King nightclub, where a Cuban band performed in his honor after the ceremony.

On hand for the star’s unveiling were actors Edward James Olmos and Andy Garcia. Garcia, who is Cuban-born, produced and directed a 1993 documentary on Lopez that helped revitalize his career.

“He is the greatest living example of music in that country,” Garcia said. “To me, he is a star in my life for the past 40 years.”

Lopez has won several Grammy Awards — including one this year — for his own work and his contributions on albums by Latin music stars, including Gloria Estefan.

Britney, company on bad footing

Los Angeles — Lawyers for Britney Spears and the footwear company Skechers are dismissing each other’s lawsuits as “ludicrous” and “bogus.”

Spears filed a $1.5 million breach of agreement lawsuit against Skechers in December, claiming the company failed to adequately pay her for marketing a line of roller skates and accessories.

Skechers responded Wednesday with a $10 million lawsuit, accusing the pop diva of fraud and breach of contract. According to Skechers, Spears refused to cooperate with designers and marketers in bringing out the products.

Spears signed a three-year worldwide licensing agreement with Skechers in January 2002.

Fonda, film composer to wed

New York — Bridget Fonda won’t be a single white female much longer — she’s engaged to film composer Danny Elfman.

It will be the first marriage for the 39-year-old star of such films as “Single White Female” and “A Simple Plan,” and the second for Elfman, People magazine reported in its March 24 issue.

Fonda has been recovering from a back injury she suffered when her car went over an embankment last month on rain-slicked Pacific Coast Highway in Malibu, Calif.

Elfman, 49, the former lead singer for Oingo Boingo, has created music for films including “Batman,” “Beetlejuice,” “Pee-wee’s Big Adventure” and “Sleepy Hollow,” as well as the theme song for the Fox series “The Simpsons.”

Model may be mystery mom

New York — Actor Colin Farrell isn’t saying who’s carrying his baby, but a magazine says model Kim Bordenave is the expectant mother.

A source quoted in this week’s US Weekly said Bordenave had been “going around telling friends she’s pregnant” and that it is “one hundred percent (Farrell’s) baby.”

A representative of Los Angeles-based M Models, which books Bordenave, said the model was “not working for a while,” but declined to comment on whether she was pregnant.

The Dublin-born Farrell, 27, star of “The Recruit,” confirmed his impending fatherhood in an interview Friday on England’s ITV1.