People

New Year’s guest of honor

New York — Secretary of State Colin Powell will celebrate New Year’s Eve in Times Square as the guest of honor at the 100th anniversary of the world-famous festivities.

Powell, a native New Yorker, will push the button to begin the New Year’s Eve ball’s descent as an expected 750,000 people swarm Times Square and more than a billion people worldwide watch on television.

“I could not imagine a better way to ring in the new year than surrounded by the energy and enthusiasm of the American people and those watching on television together in the hopes of a brighter tomorrow,” Powell said in a statement.

Powell announced plans last month to resign from the Bush administration and plans to leave early next year.

“Colin Powell is as New York as you could possibly be,” said Mayor Michael Bloomberg, who made the announcement Tuesday.

Wedding DVD proceeds to help bombing victims

Madrid, Spain — Proceeds from DVD sales of Prince Felipe’s wedding have been donated to the families and victims of the Madrid train bombings.

A palace spokesman said Friday that $230,375 had been sent to the Foundation for the Victims of Terrorism to be given to the victims of the March 11 attacks. Bombs tore through four early morning commuter trains in Madrid, killing 191 people and injuring some 1,800.

Prince Felipe and former TV anchorwoman Letizia Ortiz were married May 22. The wedding was filmed by Spanish Television with an agreement that proceeds from video sales be given to victims of the attack.

The family of King Juan Carlos and Queen Sofia have taken part in fund-raising events to benefit the victims.

The foundation also represents victims of attacks by the armed Basque separatists group ETA, which has killed more than 800 people since 1968.

Smooth talker

New York — Cate Blanchett comes on strong when she first appears as Katharine Hepburn in Martin Scorsese’s new Howard Hughes biopic, “The Aviator.” She’s talking a mile-a-minute in that Hepburn accent.

Blanchett said Scorsese wanted it that way.

“He wanted Hepburn to come into the film with a bang. And so the scene is constructed with her talking her head off,” she told AP Radio in an interview. “It’s quite an assault on the senses.”

Blanchett says Scorsese wanted the audience to ask themselves: “Oh, my God. Is that her? Is that Katharine Hepburn?”

“The Aviator” has received six Golden Globe nominations, including best supporting actress for Blanchett.

Learning to act

New York — Teen screen star Ashley Olsen, seeking to expand her acting skills, has signed up for drama classes, reports IMDB.com.

Olsen, 18, has been acting with twin sister Mary-Kate since she was a baby, and they have both accumulated fortunes totaling $300 million from TV and movie careers.

But Ashley, currently studying at New York University, accepts that she still has much to learn. She is said to have been secretly attending a drama class two days a week at the prestigious William Esper Studio on New York’s West Side.

The class, which costs $295 a month, teaches the Meisner Acting Technique, which centers around students’ exploration of spontaneity and improvisation.

Colin Farrell overpaid

Colin Farrell has admitted what producers of “Alexander” probably already knew, reports MSNBC.com: He’s overpaid.

The bad-boy Irish actor scored $15 million for playing the lead in the box office flop, and now the star is saying he gets more money than he should.

“You couldn’t do enough work in a lifetime to get paid the money that I got paid for certain gigs when I shoot for four or five months,” Farrell said.

“Alexander” was estimated to cost $150 million and took in less than $15 million on its opening weekend.

Farrell admitted that he was angst-filled and lonely while shooting the flick, and missed his son.

“I was in tears, in the desert in Morocco, but I don’t know which that was,” he said. “It was happiness, but it was also sadness, and I wanted to be with my son, who was born in September and there was disgust that I wasn’t there. Happiness is a strange idea. It’s a dream.”

John Mayer gets detention

Fairfield, Conn.– Grammy Award-winner John Mayer returned to his alma mater to be inducted into its Hall of Fame — and wound up in the headmaster’s office.

The 27-year-old guitarist and singer, a 1995 graduate of Fairfield Warde High School, decided to attend the induction ceremony but was barred because of what school officials said were security concerns. They said they had not expected the pop star to attend.

“We were not ready for John Mayer,” said Jim Conley, chairman of the school’s Hall of Fame committee.

Mayer said he was taken to the headmaster’s office, where officials stalled him until the ceremony was under way and then walked him to his car.

“It was hurtful,” he said Thursday.

Headmaster James Coyne said he explained to Mayer that he was “concerned for his welfare and for the welfare of the students.”

“I’m sorry he felt that way,” Coyne said, adding that the star wasn’t escorted from the premises. “We accompanied him to his car.”