John offers lip-synch apology

New York — Elton John is ready to apologize to Madonna after recently accusing the pop star of lip-synching.

“I don’t want to escalate it because I like Madonna,” the 57-year-old singer-songwriter tells Entertainment Weekly. “She’s been to my house for dinner. It was something that was said in the heat of the moment, and probably should not have been said.”

John made the comment when presenting the Best Live Act award during the Q awards earlier this month in London. In EW’s Nov. 6 issue, John described the event as “a very drunken lunch.”

“The reaction to it was so hysterical,” he said. “It was like I said, ‘I think all gays should be killed’ or ‘I think Hitler was right.’ I just said someone was lip-synching. I’m not afraid to speak my mind. I’m not going to mellow with age. I get more enraged about things as I get older because you see that these injustices go on.”

Gibson among stem-cell objectors

New York — Mel Gibson has an “ethical problem” with a ballot measure in California that would promote embryonic stem-cell research and has tried to talk to the governor about it, but hasn’t gotten a call back.

“I called Gov. Schwarzenegger last night to talk about this very issue,” the actor-director said Thursday on ABC’s “Good Morning America.” But when Gibson raised the issue, he said the governor told him he had to make a speech and would call him back.

“Well, Arnold, I’m still waiting for your call,” Gibson said.

Schwarzenegger recently broke ranks with President Bush to announce his support for Proposition 71, which would sell $3 billion in state bonds to pay for human embryonic stem-cell research.

Mitterrand auction a success

Paris — A favored reading chair and a dozen other pieces of furniture once belonging to former French President Francois Mitterrand were sold at an auction in Paris, grossing a far-higher-than expected $105,300.

The auction of about 15 pieces by his widow, Danielle, was Tuesday — the day that would have been Mitterrand’s 88th birthday. The former Socialist leader died in 1996 of prostate cancer, after serving as president from 1981 to 1995.

More than 3,000 people turned out for four days of viewing that preceded the sale of the former first couple’s collection