Chris Gardner skips opening of ‘The Pursuit of Happyness’

Milwaukee – Maybe it was home-state spirit. The man whose rags-to-riches story is told in the movie “The Pursuit of Happyness” spent its opening night speaking at a company party in Wisconsin.

Michael Riggs, the CEO of JHT Holdings Inc., in Kenosha, said he arranged through a talent agency for Chris Gardner to be the inspirational speaker at the company’s Christmas party on Dec. 15.

But with all the recent attention on Gardner and the new film starring Will Smith, Riggs doubted Gardner would make it, especially because the movie was premiering the same night.

He was wrong.

“He said, ‘I could have been in Rome or with the world’s biggest star, Will Smith. But I heard there was a company in Kenosha that had been doing great things, and I’d rather be here with fellow Wisconsinites,'” Riggs said.

Gardner, a Milwaukee native, was a homeless, single father in California before becoming a millionaire business executive – the story told in the film based on his autobiography.

He told the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel his recent fame hasn’t changed him much, and that he still keeps his “day job” heading a Chicago-based brokerage firm.

Judi Dench says she fears being out of work

Los Angeles – Dame Judi Dench may be one of the world’s most acclaimed actresses, but she still worries about getting work.

The 72-year-old film and stage actress says she takes on many roles partly out of fear that her latest one could be her last.

“It’s just wanting to be employed in my case,” she tells the Los Angeles Times in Sunday’s editions. “Trevor Nunn once said to me: ‘You’re always in tears on the first night.’ And I said, ‘I’m so frightened that nobody’s going to ask me to do the next thing.’ I get so fearful about that kind of thing.”

Dench currently stars in the psychological drama “Notes on a Scandal” as a lonely, churlish teacher preying on a colleague played by Cate Blanchett. The role landed her a Golden Globe nomination this month for best actress.

Dench has been nominated for five Academy Awards. She won for best supporting actress in 1998 for her turn as Queen Elizabeth I in “Shakespeare in Love.”

Other credits include “Casino Royale,” “Mrs. Henderson Presents” and “Chocolat.”

Marilu Henner breaks ‘girlfriend code’ to marry

New York – Actress Marilu Henner, best known for her role in the hit TV series “Taxi,” has married a former college classmate who proposed from his hospital bed after surgery for cancer.

Henner, 54, married Michael Brown, also 54, before 100 people in Henner’s home in Los Angeles on Thursday, The New York Times reported in Sunday editions.

Henner, who made her Broadway debut in the musical “Over Here!” in 1974, wore a pale peach Escada gown and was given away by her sons Nicky, 12, and Joey, 11.

The two met when they were students at the University of Chicago. He had dated her roommate, and even after the couple broke up Henner didn’t pursue him because she didn’t want to break the “girlfriend code,” she told the Times.