John Travolta’s son, Jett, 16, dies

Nassau, Bahamas — John Travolta’s teenage son, Jett, died in the Bahamas after apparently suffering a seizure and hitting his head at his family’s vacation home, authorities said Friday.

A house caretaker found Jett, 16, unconscious in a bathroom late Friday morning. He was taken by ambulance to a Freeport hospital, where he was pronounced dead, Police Superintendent Basil Rahming said in a statement.

The teenager had last been seen entering the bathroom on Thursday and had a history of seizures, according to the statement. An autopsy is planned.

Family attorney Michael Ossi said in a statement that Jett died suddenly on Friday. Publicists Samantha Mast and Paul Block released the statement but could not be reached for additional comment.

A local police source said Jett apparently hit his head on the bathtub.

Jett was the oldest child of Travolta, 54, and his wife, actress Kelly Preston, 46, who also have an 8-year-old daughter, Ella Bleu.

Preston has said that Jett became very sick when he was 2 years old and was diagnosed with Kawasaki disease, an illness that leads to inflammation of the blood vessels in young children. She blamed household cleaners and fertilizers, and said that a detoxification program based on teachings from the Church of Scientology helped improve his health, according to People magazine.

It is unclear whether Jett was taking any medications for his seizures.

The Scientology Celebrity Center in Los Angeles declined to comment. Both Travolta and Preston are practicing Scientologists.

A spokeswoman for Rand Memorial Hospital in Freeport said she could not release any information because of privacy concerns.

The family had arrived in the Bahamas on a private plane Tuesday. They were vacationing at their home in the Old Bahama Bay resort community.

“The Travolta family has become like family to us at Old Bahama Bay and we extend our deepest sympathies to them,” said Robert Gidel, president of Ginn Resorts, the property’s owner.

Will Smith voted top moneymaking star

New York — No name on the marquee was more pleasing to theater owners in 2008 than Will Smith, according to a survey of movie exhibitors.

Smith, star of “Hancock” and “Seven Pounds,” was voted the star who generated the most box office revenue for theaters in an annual survey by Quigley Publishing Co.

Smith is only the second black actor to be chosen in the Quigley poll, which since 1932 has asked movie exhibitors to vote on the 10 stars who brought in the most business. Sidney Poitier topped the poll in 1968.

Smith’s superhero summer blockbuster, “Hancock,” grossed $228 million. “Seven Pounds,” currently in theaters, has pulled in a somewhat lackluster $39 million in two weeks.

Following Smith, in order, were Robert Downey Jr. (“Iron Man,” “Tropic Thunder”), Christian Bale (“The Dark Knight”), Shia LaBeouf (“Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull”) and LaBeouf’s “Indiana Jones” co-star Harrison Ford.

Anne Hathaway (“Rachel Getting Married”) was voted the top “star of tomorrow” along with Chris Pine of “Bottle Shock.”

Heather Locklear gets probation in DUI case

Santa Barbara, Calif. — Heather Locklear has evaded DUI charges by pleading to a lesser offense.

A court official in Santa Barbara says an attorney for the actress entered a no contest plea to a misdemeanor reckless driving charge in court Friday.

Locklear was given three years of informal probation, will pay a fine and attend a driver’s education program, said Lee Carter, Santa Barbara senior deputy district attorney.

Tests revealed no alcohol in Locklear’s system following her September arrest, but prosecutors charged her in November with driving under the influence of prescription drugs.

Locklear’s attorney, Blair Berk, declined comment Friday.

Charlie Rose mistakenly declares friend dead

New York — Filmmaker George Butler wants his friends to know he’s very much alive, despite a premature obituary on “The Charlie Rose Show” this week.

During Rose’s annual New Year’s Eve tribute on PBS to notable figures who during the year, he included Butler, whose 1977 film “Pumping Iron” featured a then-unknown bodybuilder named Arnold Schwarzenegger. The screen even flashed a Butler tombstone, 1943-2008.

The PBS show had confused him with another George Butler, a longtime jazz record executive who signed Wynton Marsalis, who died April 9.

What’s odd about the mistake is that Rose and Butler are old friends through Rose’s first wife, meeting shortly after they graduated from college in North Carolina.

Butler, who lives in Holderness, N.H. and is making a film on Iraq and Afghanistan war veterans, didn’t see his obit but learned about it when a fellow filmmaker called. He found out that some friends in New York were even planning a wake.

“I am bemused,” he said. “Charlie did a great job in retracting the huge error. Still, it’s very disconcerting.”

At least he was in good company, Butler said, noting that he was featured with Paul Newman, Tim Russert and William F. Buckley. A contrite Rose was on the phone with him three times on New Year’s Day to apologize, he said.