Keith Richards denies snorting his father’s ashes

London – Off the cuff or up the nose? That was the question Wednesday as Keith Richards said he was joking when he described snorting his father’s ashes along with a hit of cocaine.

“It was an off-the-cuff remark, a joke, and it is not true. File under April Fool’s joke,” said Bernard Doherty, a Rolling Stones spokesman, about Richards’ quote in NME magazine.

But the magazine said on its Web site that the remark was “no quip, but came about after much thinking” by the 63-year-old guitarist.

“He didn’t offer the information, I had to ask him a couple of questions to get the information out of him,” said interviewer Mark Beaumont. “He didn’t come straight out with that.”

In the interview, Richards was quoted as saying: “The strangest thing I’ve tried to snort? My father. I snorted my father.”

“He was cremated and I couldn’t resist grinding him up with a little bit of blow. My dad wouldn’t have cared … It went down pretty well, and I’m still alive.”

Richards’ father, Bert, died in 2002, at 84.

In a statement posted on the Rolling Stones Web site, Richards said:

“The complete story is lost in the usual slanting! The truth of the matter is that I planted a sturdy English Oak. I took the lid off the box of ashes and he is now growing oak trees and would love me for it!!! I was trying to say how tight Bert and I were. That tight!!! I wouldn’t take cocaine at this point in my life unless I wished to commit suicide.”

One doctor prescribed all 11 drugs for Smith

Miami – One doctor authorized all 11 prescription medications found in Anna Nicole Smith’s hotel room the day the Playboy Playmate died of a drug overdose, according to documents released by the medical examiner’s office Wednesday.

More than 600 pills – including about 450 muscle relaxants – were missing from prescriptions that were no more than five weeks old, according to information obtained by The Associated Press through a public records request.

It was unclear whether Smith took all of them.

Dr. Khristine Eroshevich, a psychiatrist and friend of the starlet’s, authorized all the prescription medications in the Hollywood, Fla., hotel room where Smith was found unresponsive shortly before her death Feb. 8, the medical examiner’s office said. Eroshevich had traveled with Smith to Florida.

Calls to Eroshevich in Los Angeles were not immediately returned Wednesday. Candis Cohen, a spokeswoman for the California Medical Board, would not comment on any probe into Eroshevich; she said investigations of doctors are not public record.

Dr. Joshua Perper, Broward County’s medical examiner, said two other doctors also prescribed Smith drugs, but those medications were not found in her hotel room.

‘Christmas Story’ director killed in head-on crash

Los Angeles – Film director Bob Clark, best known for the holiday classic “A Christmas Story,” was killed with his son Wednesday in a head-on crash with a vehicle that a drunken driver steered into the wrong lane, police and the filmmaker’s assistant said.

Clark, 67, and son Ariel Hanrath-Clark, 22, were killed in the accident in Pacific Palisades, said Lyne Leavy, Clark’s personal assistant.

The two men were in an Infiniti that collided head-on with a GMC Yukon around 2:30 a.m. PDT, said Lt. Paul Vernon, a police spokesman. The driver of the other car was under the influence of alcohol and was driving without a license, Vernon said.

The driver, Hector Velazquez-Nava, 24, of Los Angeles, remained hospitalized and will be booked for investigation of gross vehicular manslaughter after being treated, Vernon said.

Clark specialized in horror movies and thrillers early in his career, directing such 1970s flicks as “Children Shouldn’t Play With Dead Things,” “Murder by Decree,” “Breaking Point” and “Black Christmas,” which was remade last year.

His breakout success came with 1981’s sex farce “Porky’s,” a coming-of-age romp that he followed two years later with “Porky’s II: The Next Day.” 1983 also brought “A Christmas Story,” starring Darrin McGavin, Melinda Dillon and Peter Billingsley in the adaptation of Jean Shepard’s childhood memoir of a boy in the 1940s.