Polanski wins libel lawsuit against Vanity Fair magazine

London – Filmmaker Roman Polanski on Friday won his libel suit against Vanity Fair magazine over an article that accused him of propositioning a woman while on the way to the funeral of his murdered wife, Sharon Tate.

The Academy Award-winning director was awarded 50,000 pounds, equal to about $87,000, in damages.

The jury of nine men and three women took 4 1/2 hours to reach their unanimous verdict at London’s High Court.

“It goes without saying that, whilst the whole episode is a sad one, I am obviously pleased with the jury’s verdict today,” Polanski said in a statement.

Polanski, director of “Rosemary’s Baby,” “Chinatown” and “The Pianist,” sued Vanity Fair’s publisher over a 2002 article that accused him of propositioning a woman while on the way to the funeral of Tate, who was killed by followers of Charles Manson in 1969.

The article alleged that Polanski put his hand on the woman’s thigh and promised her: “I will make another Sharon Tate out of you.”

Polanski, who won an Oscar in 2003 for the Holocaust drama “The Pianist,” has lived in France since fleeing child-sex charges in the United States in 1978. He was unwilling to come to Britain for fear of extradition, but he was allowed to testify by video.

The magazine’s publisher, Conde Nast, accepted that the incident did not happen before Tate’s funeral, but rather about two weeks later. It maintained that the article was substantially true.

Actress not desperate for Emmy nomination

New York – “Desperate Housewives” star Eva Longoria has shrugged off being snubbed by the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences in this year’s Emmy nominations.

“I’m new. I just arrived. I didn’t expect at all to be in the minds of the Academy,” she tells syndicated TV show “Extra” in an interview Friday night.

Three of the ABC show’s stars, Teri Hatcher, Marcia Cross and Felicity Huffman, were nominated for best comedy series actress. (Also overlooked was Nicollette Sheridan, who had gotten a Golden Globe supporting-actress nomination for the show.)

“I was disconnected from newspapers,” says Longoria, who was in China when the nominations were announced last week. “I didn’t experience the hoopla.”

“Desperate Housewives,” a dark satire about life in suburbia, cleaned up with 15 nominations. The show asked to be considered in the comedy series category, usually home to half-hour sitcoms.

On her budding romance with Tony Parker of the San Antonio Spurs, Longoria says: “They (the press) got it right … it’s so hard to keep things private because then you compromise your own lifestyle. It’s like I don’t want to hide, I don’t want to eat in every day … we have a good time and we don’t care what is written.”

J.Lo. moves to State Street

Chicago – State Street, meet J.Lo.

Jennifer Lopez has selected Marshall Field’s store on State Street as the first U.S. store to house a boutique for her JLo line of products. The first JLo boutique opened in Moscow last year.

Electric-pink cargo pocket knit pants, a faux crocodile leather clutch purse and a wild rose camisole with a removable garter belt are among items likely to be featured at the singer-actress’ store within a store.

Planning with the Minneapolis-based Field’s began in March.

Lopez, who began her design career in 2001, is set to open the Field’s boutique on Sept. 22, when she’ll also attend a fashion show highlighting her clothing. The event will benefit Children’s Memorial Hospital.

Songwriter sentenced for $4M in tax evasion

Los Angeles – Norman Whitfield, who co-wrote a slew of R&B hits such as “Papa Was a Rollin’ Stone” and “I Heard it Through the Grapevine,” has been sentenced to six months of home detention and fined $25,000 for failing to report more than $4 million in income to the U.S. government.

The Grammy-winning songwriter and producer, credited with helping shape the Motown Records’ sound of acts such as the Temptations, also was sentenced to one year probation, said Robert Kwan, an assistant U.S. attorney in Los Angeles.

Whitfield, 65, pleaded guilty in January to one count of tax evasion.

A call to Whitfield’s lawyer, Chad Hummel, wasn’t immediately returned Thursday.

The Internal Revenue Service initially charged Whitfield with five misdemeanor counts of willful failure to file income tax returns between 1995 and 1999.

The unreported income exceeded $4 million, of which Whitfield owed the government $956,000 in taxes, Kwan said.

U.S. District Court Judge Stephen Wilson, who handed down the sentence Monday, opted not to order prison time for Whitfield after considering the producer’s health problems, Kwan said.

Amazon.com offers repeats of stars’ surprise deliveries

New York – Clay Aiken lurked outside a house, Emmylou Harris stopped by a university, Nick Lachey dropped in on a stranger’s workplace and Moby played with dogs while making special deliveries in honor of online retailer Amazon.com’s 10th anniversary.

Over 10 days, 23 Amazon customers received a surprise visit from a celebrity associated with their order. The moments were captured on tape and the videos are available to view on Amazon.com.

Birthdays

Actor Daniel Radcliffe is 16. Supreme Court Justice Anthony M. Kennedy is 69. Actor Woody Harrelson is 44. Rock musician Slash is 40. Country singer Alison Krauss is 34. Actor-comedian Marlon Wayans is 33.