Attorney: Delay could have kept Imus’ comment off air

New York – An attorney for Don Imus said Friday that the former radio host’s bosses could have edited the on-air comments that got him fired – and the fact that they didn’t meant they saw his remarks as routine for his often-provocative show.

Attorney Martin Garbus told ABC-TV’s “Good Morning America” that CBS Radio and MSNBC had delay buttons but didn’t use them when Imus made racist and sexist comments about the Rutgers women’s basketball team last month.

“That means CBS and MSNBC both knew the language that was going out, and both knew the language complied with (Imus’) contract. … It was consistent with many of the things he had done,” Garbus said.

CBS Radio owns Imus’ former home radio station, WFAN-AM, and MSNBC simulcast the program on cable television.

Imus, 66, was dismissed April 12 after describing the Rutgers women’s basketball team as “nappy-headed hos” on his nationally syndicated radio program.

He was barely three months into a five-year, $40 million contract with CBS, and his attorney has said Imus would sue for the contract’s unpaid portion.

Garbus has suggested that a settlement is possible but said Friday that no discussions for a deal were planned. Imus will seek $120 million in unpaid salary and damages from CBS, he said.

Actress Biel says she still struggles to get respect

New York – Jessica Biel says she still struggles to get respect in Hollywood.

“Parts that I really want aren’t going to me,” the 25-year-old actress says in Elle magazine’s June issue, on newsstands Tuesday. “Like ‘The Other Boleyn Girl’ with Scarlett Johansson and Natalie Portman. I don’t want to say that there’s nothing I love that I can have. But there’s still the occasional script that the director doesn’t want to see you for. They want that top tier of girls.”

Biel, who began her career on the family-friendly TV series “7th Heaven,” has starred in such movies as “The Illusionist,” “Home of the Brave” and “Next.” In July, she can be seen with Adam Sandler and Kevin James in “I Now Pronounce You Chuck and Larry.”

Court moves to quiet dispute between Baldwin, Basinger

Los Angeles – A bitter custody feud that saw Alec Baldwin lash out at his 11-year-old daughter in a leaked voicemail got quiet Friday when a court commissioner ordered lawyers not to talk about the case and closed a hearing to the public moments after it began.

Superior Court Commissioner Maren Nelson said media coverage of the dispute between Baldwin and Kim Basinger had been “emotionally traumatic” for their daughter, Ireland.

“This is only about the well-being of the child and nothing else,” Nelson said.

After the daylong hearing, Neal Hersh, an attorney for Basinger, said the commissioner reached a decision, but the attorney would not disclose details.

“We are very, very pleased with the judge’s thoughtful decision about what happened here today,” Hersh said outside court.

Attorney Vicki Greene, who represents Baldwin, declined to comment about the ruling. Earlier, she refused to discuss reports that the hearing dealt with a change in Baldwin’s visitation rights after he left the phone message for his daughter.

She did say a June 5 hearing would look at who leaked the tape to the media.

“It’s not appropriate, and it’s not in Ireland’s best interest, and it will be with her for the rest of her life,” Greene said, referring to the leaking of the voicemail.

Marilyn Monroe heirs lose fight over famous photos

New York – The children of a photographer who took famous pictures of Marilyn Monroe did not violate the star’s rights by selling pictures without her heirs’ consent, a federal judge has ruled.

U.S. District Judge Colleen McMahon said in a decision dated Wednesday and made public Friday that a company led by three children of the late photographer, Sam Shaw, did not violate the rights of Monroe’s estate by using pictures of her on T-shirts marketed and sold in Indiana.

Millions of dollars were believed to be at stake, in part because Shaw’s photographs include some of the most famous pictures of Monroe, including ones of her standing over a subway grate, her skirt blowing upward, for the 1955 film “The Seven Year Itch.”

The Shaw Family Archives Ltd. had asked the court to rule that a 1994 law did not create post-mortem publicity rights for Marilyn Monroe LLC. The latter company is led by Anna Strasberg, the wife of Monroe’s producer, Lee Strasberg, who received the bulk of the star’s estate. He died in 1982.