LOS ANGELES – Charlie Sheen was fired Monday from “Two and a Half Men” by Warner Bros. Television following the actor’s bouts of wild partying, repeated hospitalizations and a bitter media campaign against his studio bosses.
The action was taken after “careful consideration” and is effective immediately, the studio said in a statement. No decision has been made on the show’s future without its star, Warner spokesman Paul McGuire said.
Sheen, 45, who has used TV, radio and social media to create a big megaphone for himself, was not silent for long.
In a text to The Associated Press, he responded with the F-word and, “They lose,” followed by the word “Trolls.” Asked if he planned to sue, Sheen texted back, “Big.” As for his next move, Sheen texted, “A big one.”
Teen star thanks fans
NEW YORK – Demi Lovato says she’s ready to go back to work and is thanking fans for lifting her up during what she calls “probably the darkest time in my life.”
The 18-year-old Disney TV star entered a treatment facility last November to deal with “emotional and physical issues.” Lovato, who starred in “Sonny With a Chance,” had to drop out of a tour with the Jonas Brothers and it was revealed that she had fought with a backup dancer.
In a cheery video released on Cambio.com on Monday, Lovato told fans she’s back home.
Lovato says she was dealing with issues that teen girls face but didn’t say what they were. In the past, she has acknowledged cutting herself.
Duchess ‘so contrite’ over financial aid from sex offender
LONDON — Prince Andrew and his ex-wife Sarah are in the spotlight for their ties to a wealthy U.S. sex offender — he for being pictured with an underage masseuse at the man’s home and she for accepting money from the American to help pay off her massive debts.
Sarah Ferguson, Duchess of York, confirmed in an interview Monday in the Evening Standard newspaper that she did receive financial help from convicted U.S. sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. But she claimed to have known nothing about his background and vowed to repay the $24,500 he advanced to settle a debt to her former personal assistant, Johnny O’Sullivan.
“I am just so contrite I cannot say,” the duchess was quoted as saying. “Whenever I can, I will repay the money and will have nothing ever to do with Jeffrey Epstein ever again.”
Andrew has also been under fire for hosting the son of Tunisia’s dictator shortly before a popular uprising overthrew the leader and his relationship with Seif al-Islam Gadhafi, one of Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi’s sons.
Epstein pleaded guilty in 2008 to two prostitution offenses in Florida, and was sentenced to 18 months in prison and a further year under house arrest.
Prosecutors said Epstein paid several girls younger than 18 for naked massages that sometimes became sexual encounters.
“I have made another huge error in my life in order to get debt free,” the Evening Standard quoted Ferguson as saying. She said Andrew, “my girls and I are a unit who will always stick together even though we live separate lives.”
Lohan’s jewelry store video gets airtime
LOS ANGELES — Lindsay Lohan is shown in surveillance video broadcast Monday texting and trying on multiple pieces of jewelry in front of a clerk in a store that has accused her of stealing a $2,500 necklace.
Snippets of the footage taken by four cameras in the Venice store of Kamofie & Co. were aired by “Entertainment Tonight” along with analysis by attorneys not handling the case.
Lohan returns to court on Thursday, when her attorney will tell a judge whether the actress will accept a plea deal in the felony grand theft case that guarantees a jail sentence.
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