Ben Affleck pays tribute to teen friend at graduation

Fairfax, Va. – Ben Affleck cracked jokes about his film career during a high school commencement speech Friday while giving a heartfelt tribute to a graduating student he befriended years ago.

Students at Falls Church High School and family members gave a standing ovation to Affleck following his commencement speech, in which he praised 19-year-old Joe Kindregan, a disabled student he met in 1998 on a film shoot. The two built a close friendship.

“Everything I learned about life that really matters … I learned from Joe,” Affleck told the audience.

Kindregan suffers from ataxia-telengiectasia, a rare, degenerative genetic disease. Over the past decade, Affleck has helped Kindregan raise money to develop a cure for the disease.

The close nature of the pair’s friendship was evident at Friday’s ceremony; Affleck planted a kiss on Kindregan’s forehead after being introduced and later playfully swatted him with a rolled-up program.

The two met in 1998 when the Kindregans came to Dulles International Airport to watch a crew shoot the film “Forces of Nature,” which starred Affleck. The actor noticed Kindregan, then 10 years old, in his wheelchair and struck up a conversation.

Kidney donation reality TV show revealed as a hoax

Amsterdam, Netherlands – A television show in which a woman would donate a kidney to a contestant was revealed as a hoax Friday, with presenters saying they were trying to pressure the government into reforming organ donation laws.

Shortly before the controversial program was to air, Patrick Lodiers of the “Big Donor Show” said the woman was not actually dying of a brain tumor and the entire exercise was intended to put pressure on the government and raise awareness of the need for organs.

The three prospective recipients were real patients in need of transplants and had been in on the hoax, the show said.

The program concept had received widespread criticism for being tasteless and unethical.

But Lodiers said that it was “reality that was shocking” because about 200 people die annually in the Netherlands while waiting for a kidney, and the average waiting time is more than four years. Under Dutch rules, donors must be friends, or preferably, family of the recipient. Meeting on a TV show wouldn’t qualify.

Police drummer takes blast at band’s reunion concert

New York – The crowds have been ecstatic, but Police drummer Stewart Copeland has been anything but impressed so far by the band’s reunion concerts.

Copeland trashed Wednesday’s concert in Vancouver, British Columbia, in a posting on his Web site the morning after. “This is … lame. We are the mighty Police and we are totally at sea.”

His recollection of events – or, rather, band bloopers – is both scathing and comical. For one thing, Copeland noted, he failed to strike a gong at the right time, ruining “the big pompous opening to the show.”

The rock trio of Copeland, singer-bassist Sting and guitarist Andy Summers flubbed their performance of the song “Message in a Bottle,” said Copeland, who didn’t hear Summers’ opening guitar riff. Sting then missed his cue from Copeland – “so we are half a bar out of sync with each other. Andy is in Idaho,” he wrote.

That misfortune extended into the second song, “Synchronicity II.” They couldn’t “get on the good foot,” said Copeland, before going on to criticize Sting’s footwork during the set.

“The mighty Sting momentarily looks like a petulant pansy instead of the god of rock,” he wrote. The disorder continued “for song after song.” But afterward, he said, they fell “into each other’s arms laughing hysterically.”

“It usually takes about four or five shows in a tour before you get to the disaster gig. But we’re The Police so we are a little ahead of schedule,” he said.

Jolie’s son Pax Thien now has Jolie-Pitt family name

Los Angeles – Angelina Jolie’s son Pax Thien now has the Jolie-Pitt family name.

Jolie traveled to Vietnam in March to adopt Pax from a Ho Chi Minh City orphanage. The 31-year-old actress filed adoption papers as a single parent because she and partner Brad Pitt aren’t married.

The 3-year-old boy is now Pax Thien Jolie-Pitt, according to a decree signed Thursday by Superior Court Judge Gerald Rosenberg.