Jackson spotlight shifts

Beverly Hills, Calif. – Janet Jackson was in no mood for jokes when she got a cheeky introduction from actor Alan Cummings as she received a humanitarian award from a gay rights group.

After Cummings referred to her Super Bowl breast-baring incident, Jackson apologized for her own lack of humor in her first public appearance since brother Michael Jackson’s acquittal on child molestation charges.

“My family and I have just gone through the least humorous chapter of our lives,” she explained in accepting the award Saturday night from the Human Rights Campaign. “I’m going to leave the jokes to the late-night (comics), if that’s OK.”

Michael Jackson was acquitted June 13 following a four-month trial on charges he molested a 13-year-old cancer survivor at his Neverland ranch in 2003.

Janet Jackson was honored for the millions of dollars she has both raised and donated for humanitarian causes.

She received a standing ovation from the hundreds of $250-$375-a-plate contributors who crammed the Beverly Hilton Hotel ballroom.

Exhibition of father’s works brings De Niro to tears

Roubaix, France – Robert De Niro got choked up at an exhibit of paintings by his father in northeastern France.

“This is a magnificent exhibit,” said De Niro, whose father, Robert De Niro Sr., passed away more than a decade ago.

“I’m sad that my father is not here,” De Niro said Saturday, dabbing his eyes.

The 56-painting exhibit, in the recently opened La Piscine Museum in the town of Roubaix, is the first European retrospective of the elder De Niro’s paintings. Hundreds gathered outside the museum, housed in a renovated Art Deco poolhouse, hoping to spot the actor.

In the 60s, the elder De Niro spent several years living in France, studying Matisse, Manet, Gaugin, Bonnard and other painters who influenced his work.

Former Greek king’s grandson christened in Athens

Athens, Greece – The youngest grandson of Greece’s former king, Constantine, was christened in Athens, surrounded by European royalty.

Odysseas Kimon, the 9-month-old fourth child of Constantine’s son, Pavlos, was baptized Saturday at the Church of the Convent of St. John the Baptist. The service was attended by Queen Sophia of Spain, Crown Princess Mette-Marit of Norway and Denmark’s Princess Alexandra Sayn Wittgenstein.

Pavlos, 38, the eldest son of the former king, lives in London with his 36-year-old wife, Marie Chantal, the daughter of business tycoon Robert Miller.

Constantine fled Greece in 1967, shortly after a military coup. The monarchy was abolished by referendum after the dictatorship collapsed in 1974, and most former royal property was taken over by the state.

In 2003, the Council of Europe’s Human Rights Court ended a decades-old legal battle and ordered Greece to pay Constantine $13 million for seized palaces, estates and property.

Actor wants to see more roles portraying culture spectrum

Fort Worth, Texas – Actor John Leguizamo said he’s become disillusioned with the stereotypical handymen and gang member roles Hollywood offered to Latino actors.

“We have to tell the whole plethora of our stories,” Leguizamo said Friday during the 23rd annual National Association of Hispanic Journalists Convention. “We have the whole spectrum … in our culture.”

In the upcoming movie “Cronicas,” Leguizamo stars as a tabloid TV reporter covering a string of serial killings in Ecuador. The film, written and directed by Sebastian Cordero, hits theaters July 8.

Stephen King faces misery of lawsuit

Hackensack, N.J. – In the chilling book-turned-movie “Misery,” a famous author is held hostage by a psychotic nurse who tortures him into writing one more novel, whacking his feet with a sledgehammer when he doesn’t write it the way she wants.

In reality, a New Jersey woman claiming to be the psycho nurse wants Stephen King to stop writing about her.

Anne Hiltner, a Hightstown, N.J., freelance writer, says she is the inspiration for King’s sadistic nurse, Annie Wilkes, a character that netted an Oscar for actress Kathy Bates in 1991. Hiltner, 58, filed a $500 million federal lawsuit this month against the author, his publishers and several movie studios, accusing them of violating her privacy.

The lawsuit also accuses King and his distributors of defamation, copyright infringement and violation of antitrust laws for using her private diaries to create psychic Sally Druse, a similarly frightening character in King’s television miniseries “The Journals of Eleanor Druse: The Kingdom Hospital Incident,” which aired last year. The jumbled lawsuit doesn’t detail how King allegedly pilfered the diaries or what was in them.

It’s not the first time Hiltner has sued King for privacy or copyright infringement. In a similar 1991 suit that was dismissed, Hiltner accused King of breaking into her home numerous times and stealing several manuscripts.

“We’re aware of her suit, and steps are being made to dismiss everything she’s done,” said King’s longtime agent, Arthur B. Greene.

Hiltner declined to comment.

Security upgrade considered for Beach Boys’ landmark

Hawthorne, Calif. – The new state historical landmark dedicated to the Beach Boys last month has already been the target of graffiti vandals.

The city quickly removed paint scrawled on the 119th Street monument and officials were considering a variety of security measures, including surveillance cameras, a fence or sealing it with a graffiti-resistant coating.

“I’m disappointed but not surprised. We knew (vandalism) would be an issue,” said Harry Jarnagan, the Tracy construction engineer who led the drive to build the memorial dedicated May 21.

Beach Boys Brian, Carl and Dennis Wilson grew up in Hawthorne. The Wilson home was demolished in the 1980s to make way for the Century Freeway.