Restaurant group objects to planned ad starring Federline

Columbus, Ohio – A restaurant trade group says it is insulted by an insurance company’s planned Super Bowl ad that stars Kevin Federline as a fast-food worker.

Nationwide Mutual Insurance Co.’s 30-second spot shows Federline, who is estranged from pop princess Britney Spears, performing in a glitzy music video. However, the punch line is that he’s daydreaming – while cooking french fries at a fast-food joint.

The ad amounts to a “strong and direct insult to the 12.8 million Americans who work in the restaurant industry,” wrote National Restaurant Association president and chief executive officer Steven Anderson in a letter to Nationwide CEO Jerry Jurgensen.

Trump’s ex-wife says battle of words is for publicity

Paris – Donald Trump’s ex-wife Ivana has weighed in on the feud between the billionaire developer and TV co-host Rosie O’Donnell, accusing them of milking their war of words for publicity value.

Ivana Trump, who is attending the Paris haute couture shows this week with her partner, Rossano Rubicondi, said she recently advised Trump and O’Donnell to make peace in her advice column for the National Enquirer and Globe tabloids.

“I was very diplomatic and at the end of the day, I said, ‘You know, guys, just take the high road, it is so ridiculous,'” she said.

She said the feud is just for show.

“Donald and Rosie, they’re getting fantastic ratings, they’re getting publicity, they’re really using it as a marketing tool, not because they are enemies, and I understand that only too well.”

Tyra Banks upset by reaction to unflattering pictures

New York – Tyra Banks, who has gained weight since her days strutting the catwalk, says she was upset when unflattering photos showing her in a one-piece bathing suit were mocked on the Internet.

“It was such a strange meanness and rejoicing that people had when thinking that was what my body looked like. It was really hurtful to me,” the 33-year-old talk-show host says in an interview in the Feb. 5 issue of People magazine.

The photos show Banks on a beach during a recent trip to Sydney, Australia. They had popped up earlier this month on a celebrity gossip Web site with the not-so-nice headline “Tyra Banks is Fat.”

Banks, who hosts the syndicated “The Tyra Banks Show” and the CW network’s “America’s Next Top Model,” tells the magazine she weighs 161 pounds and has fluctuated from 148 pounds to 162 pounds since retiring from modeling in 2005.

“I don’t want to sit in front of you and be soap-boxy and fake and say, ‘I love myself, I’m beautiful, it’s great,'” says Banks, who is 5 feet 10 inches tall. “I still feel hot, but every day is different. It’s when I put on the jeans that used to fit a year ago and don’t fit now and give me the muffin top, that’s when I say, ‘Damn!”‘

Anti-war actress Sarandon bored by Bush’s Iraq pitch

Washington – Actress Susan Sarandon says she was bored by President Bush’s State of the Union address asking Americans to give his troop buildup in Iraq a chance.

“He didn’t talk to me about anything new,” she said Wednesday.

Sarandon appeared with a group of lawmakers in support of a measure to withdraw U.S. forces from Iraq within six months. The place to start building support is with the 2008 presidential candidates, she said.

Sarandon said she will appear with fellow Hollywood war critics Sean Penn and Tim Robbins at an Iraq war protest this weekend in Washington.

Singer-actress Brandy involved in fatal traffic crash

Los Angeles – R&B singer Brandy was involved in a four-car freeway crash last month that left a 38-year-old woman dead, authorities said Wednesday.

The cause of the mishap was under investigation, and no arrests have been made.

The 27-year-old actress-singer (full name Brandy Norwood) was driving a 2007 Land Rover on the 405 Freeway on Dec. 30, when the collision occurred.

She failed to slow down and struck the back of a 2005 Honda going about 65 mph, according to a California Highway Patrol report.

The Honda driven by Awatef Aboudihaj, 38, hit another vehicle and then slid sideways before it struck a center divider, the report said. Aboudihaj’s car was then hit by an oncoming car driven by 50-year-old Mallory Ham, the report said.

Aboudihaj was taken to a hospital, where she died of blunt-force injuries, said county coroner’s spokesman Craig Harvey. The coroner’s office ruled her death an accident.