Bristol Palin’s fiance talks about campaign

Wasilla, Alaska – Levi Johnston, who’s having a baby with Gov. Sarah Palin’s daughter, can’t believe all the things he’s hearing.

No, he wasn’t held against his will on the campaign trail. No, he’s not being forced into a shotgun wedding with 17-year-old Bristol Palin.

“None of that’s true,” Johnston, 18, said in a rare interview with The Associated Press. “We both love each other. We both want to marry each other. And that’s what we are going to do.”

Standing in the driveway of his family home in this small Alaska town, Johnston spoke about the rumors swirling around him.

The soft-spoken teenager discussed his relationship with Palin and how life has changed with fatherhood fast approaching. He agreed to talk despite the presidential campaign’s advice in the days following Gov. Sarah Palin’s nomination to avoid the media.

Johnston was a little shocked when he learned about Bristol’s pregnancy, but he says he quickly embraced the prospects of fatherhood. The baby is due Dec. 18. Johnston has dropped out of high school to take a job on the North Slope oil fields as an apprentice electrician.

Johnston said he has dated Palin since his freshman year in high school.

“We were planning on getting married a long time ago with or without the kid,” he said. “That was the plan from the start.”

Dennis Hopper receives France’s Legion of Honor

Paris – Dennis Hopper has been named a commander in the French Legion of Honor.

The 72-year-old actor was visibly moved as he received France’s most prestigious prize at a ceremony Monday in Paris.

The Cinematique Francaise in Paris is opening an exhibit on Hopper this week that will run through Jan. 19.

Hopper’s screen credits include “Apocalypse Now,” ”Blue Velvet” and 1969’s “Easy Rider,” which he also directed.

Janet Jackson decides to cancel more concerts

Los Angeles – The doctor has again ordered Janet Jackson to postpone a return to her “Rock Witchu” tour.

Jackson was scheduled to resume her tour Monday night at the Turning Stone Resort in New York after canceling a show over the weekend in Connecticut. A message posted on the resort and casino’s Web site stated the show had been canceled at the advice of Jackson’s doctor.

She has since postponed several shows, including Thursday night’s show at Madison Square Garden in New York. Promoters say the dates will be rescheduled.

No one is saying what is ailing Jackson, who was rushed to a hospital in Montreal before a concert in late September.

Jackson is on her first North American tour in seven years.

‘Brady Bunch’ star tells about drug addiction

New York – As Marcia Brady on “The Brady Bunch,” Maureen McCormick projected an image of the wholesome girl next door. But off camera, she spiraled downward into drug addiction and depression.

Now 52, McCormick writes about her struggles in a new memoir, “Here’s the Story: Surviving Marcia Brady and Finding My True Voice,” hitting stores today. She discusses her romance with TV sibling Barry Williams, her dates with Michael Jackson and Steve Martin, cocaine binges and parties at the Playboy Mansion and the home of Sammy Davis Jr., an unwanted pregnancy and trading sex for drugs.

McCormick was 14 when “The Brady Bunch” debuted on ABC, running from 1969 to 1974. Despite her role as a sunny Miss Perfect, she struggled privately with anxiety and insecurity, the youngest of four children born to a mercurial father who abused and cheated on their mother.

After interventions, stints in rehab and experimental therapies, McCormick began getting sober in 1985 when she married actor Michael Cummings, with whom she has a daughter, Natalie. She continued to fight depression through therapy, medication and the help of “Brady” cast mates.

Bond girl rises from humble childhood

Berdyansk, Ukraine – Olga Kurylenko, the model and actress who stars in the upcoming James Bond movie, began acting by playing Santa Claus’ young wife in a school play in her Ukrainian hometown.

Teachers remember Kurylenko, the 28-year-old brunette who charms 007 in “Quantum of Solace,” for the determination, drive and luck that turned her into a Bond Girl.

Kurylenko grew up in this city of 140,000 on the Azov Sea in southeastern Ukraine.

Raised by her mother and her grandmother, Kurylenko and her family lived in a three-room apartment not far from the city center. That was a luxury by Soviet standards, when many lived in communal flats, sharing the kitchen and bathroom with several families.

In Moscow on Monday to promote the film, Kurylenko expressed incredulity over being a Bond Girl. “I still don’t believe it and don’t think that I realize it yet,” she told Associated Press Television News.

In the movie, Bond (Daniel Craig) and Kurylenko’s character, Camille, try to save Bolivia’s water supplies.