People in the news

Goldberg takes Rosie’s spot on ‘The View’

New York – Whoopi Goldberg will bring no celebrity feuds with her when she joins “The View” – at least none that she’s aware of.

“Who knows?” she said. “Anybody could say ‘I don’t like her.’ That’s OK. I just won’t come to your home.”

That already sets Goldberg apart from her predecessor. “The View,” putting Rosie O’Donnell in its rearview mirror, officially introduced Goldberg to the show’s audience as its moderator Wednesday. She’ll start full time the day after Labor Day.

The show is on the lookout for another cast member to join Goldberg, Joy Behar, Elisabeth Hasselbeck and creator Barbara Walters. That person won’t be named until the fall, Walters said.

O’Donnell announced this spring she was leaving ABC’s daytime talk show after less than a year filled with controversy and feuds with Donald Trump and co-star Hasselbeck, among others.

Goldberg, 51, gives “The View” a genuinely big name and distinct personality in her own right. She’s among the select few performers to win an Oscar, Emmy, Tony and Grammy award.

Italy, museum agree on return of antiquities

Rome – The Italian Culture Ministry and the J. Paul Getty Museum have reached an agreement for the return of 40 artifacts to Italy – including a prized statue of the goddess Aphrodite.

It was the latest victory in Italy’s efforts to recover antiquities it says were looted from the country and sold to museums worldwide.

Italy and the Getty also agreed on widespread cultural cooperation, which will include loans of other treasures to the Los Angeles museum, the two sides said Wednesday.

The Getty has denied knowingly buying illegally obtained objects.

The agreement includes one of the most disputed works, a fifth-century B.C. statue of the goddess Aphrodite, which will remain on display at the Getty until 2010, the ministry said. Italian authorities think the 7-foot statue, bought by the Getty for $18 million in 1988, was looted from an ancient Greek settlement in Sicily.

The ministry had threatened to suspend all collaboration with the Getty if a deal was not reached by the end of July.

Scary Spice seeks ruling on Murphy paternity

Los Angeles – Scary Spice went to court Wednesday to try to scare some child support from Eddie Murphy.

The 32-year-old singer, whose real name is Melanie Brown, filed a petition in Superior Court that seeks to legally establish Murphy as the father of her 4-month-old daughter, Angel Iris Murphy Brown.

Brown also will seek sole custody and reasonable child support, attorney Gloria Allred said at a news conference.

“I am here today for one reason and one reason only; her name is Angel,” Brown said. “Angel is my baby and Eddie’s. She will always know that she was planned and wanted by both of us.”

Arnold Robinson, a spokesman for the 46-year-old actor, declined comment.

Allred said Murphy took a DNA test in June.

The test “established paternity but paternity has not been legally acknowledged,” she said in a statement.

Brown, who dated Murphy last year, gave birth to her daughter April 3. She listed Murphy as the father on the birth certificate.

Murphy has five children from his marriage to Nicole Mitchell Murphy, who filed for divorce in 2005.

Florida’s Harry Potter weathers Pottermania

Bradenton, Fla. – Sometimes it’s a hassle being Harry Potter.

Especially when you’re a 78-year-old man who happens to share the name of a certain fictional boy wizard who is famous the world over.

Each time a new Harry Potter book or movie comes out, Bradenton resident Harry Potter starts getting phone calls from children, interview requests from the TV networks and autograph requests.

“The kids want to know if I’m Harry Potter,” he said with a chuckle. “I tell them I’ve been Harry Potter for darn near 80 years!”

The real Harry Potter said he hasn’t had time to read any of the J.K. Rowling books or see the five hit movies.

But late-night crank calls aside, the retired Defense Department employee from Zaleski, Ohio, gets his mileage out of Pottermania.

“When Harry talks to the kids, they’ll ask about the owl and he’ll say, ‘Oh, he came by and brought the mail,'” said his wife, Jan. “Then, when they’re done, the mothers come on and say ‘thank you’ for talking to the kids. He gets a big kick out of it.”