Top five celebrity stories of the week

By LINDSEY JOHNSTONE
Published on 21/06/2012 16:40

Harmonious splits, tax avoidance and dreaming up ways to torture paparazzi have been keeping celebrities busy this week.

Johnny Depp and Vanessa Paradis in apparently civilised and amicable split shocker

Johnny Depp and girlfriend Vanessa Paradis have announced that they are parting ways after 14 years together. Depp denied rumours of a split as recently as last month, in a move that seems to suggest he believes himself entitled to have a private life and to announce decisions regarding it when he’s good and ready.

In what’s being reported as an amicable split, Depp is reported to have offered to pay Paradis $100 million, which is half of his estimated worth (a refreshing move in the world of celebrity break-ups), to avoid having to go to court over the decision.

Jack Osbourne diagnosed with MS

Jack Osbourne, son of Sharon and Ozzy Osbourne, has been diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis, which he revealed in Hello! magazine this week. Osbourne was diagnosed with the degenerative auto-immune disease, three weeks after his fiancée Lisa Stelly gave birth to daughter Pearl, after losing 60 per cent of the vision in his right eye.

Osbourne, who has said “Adapt and overcome is my new motto” (and has tweeted his thanks for the good wishes he has received with that phrase as the hashtag), appeared this morning on mother Sharon’s US chat show The Talk. He revealed that he had been suffering MS symptoms for three or four years but had not realised they were significant, but assured viewers: “Honestly, I’m fine” and urged fans and media not to “sensationalise” his illness, adding; “I’m not dying.”

Jimmy Carr apologises for tax avoidance

Comedian Jimmy Carr has tweeted an apology for taking part in the Jersey-based K2 tax avoidance scheme calling his actions ‘a terrible error of judgement’, after his involvement was condemned by Prime Minister David Cameron as ‘morally wrong’. Carr’s statement to his 2.3 million followers continued: ‘I appreciate as a comedian, people will expect me to ‘make light’ of this situation, but I’m not going to in this statement, as this is obviously a serious matter.

‘Although I’ve been advised the K2 Tax scheme is entirely legal, and has been fully disclosed to HMRC (Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs), I’m no longer involved in it and will in future conduct my financial affairs much more responsibly. Apologies to everyone.’

Labour MP Stephen Pound and Lib Dem deputy leader Simon Hughes have called for Take That mastermind and Jubilee poster boy Gary Barlow to be stripped of his recently-bestowed OBE, after it was revealed that Barlow has been making use of a similar scheme.

The suggestion that hard-working tax-paying UK citizens who paid money to see Carr and Barlow perform had only themselves to blame for the pair amassing a fortune that would prompt such a move has not yet been made.

Zayn Malik accused of promoting Islam by being Muslim

One Direction member Zayn Malik has been accused of “pimping” Islam to his fans and waging an “enticing jihad” through his Twitter posts by a US blogger.

Debbie Schlussel, who describes herself as a conservative political commentator, said Malik was trying to convert his teenage fans to Islam with actions including the tweeting of well wishes to those fasting for Ramadan and the wearing of a traditional Middle Eastern keffiyah, which is according to Schlussel ‘the official garb of Islamic terrorism’.

Schlussel, whose own site carries adverts directing users to Jewish interest sites, and describes her as an expert on ‘radical Islam/Islamic terrorism’, if not on irony, wrote: ‘The scary thing is that millions of girls in America and around the world are infatuated with the members of One Direction, including Malik. He’s no dummy. He knows the power he has over these mindless girls and is using that influence to preach the Islamic faith to them and try to convert them. It’s dangerous.

‘Keep your daughters away from Zayn Malik’s enticing jihad. With the boy band One Direction, it’s all about pimping Islam amid the deceptive visage of angelic, effeminate boys in a band. Yup, for them there is definitely One Direction: facing Mecca.’

Alec Baldwin accused of hitting photographer, but apparently wants to do much worse

30 Rock star and Baldwin clan member Alec has taken to Twitter to call for the torture of paparazzi, after his alleged assault of a photographer on Tuesday.

Baldwin had been obtaining a marriage licence with fiancée Hilaria Thomas at the Manhattan city clerk’s office when New York Daily News photographer Marcus Santos attempted to take a picture of the pair.

Santos told the Daily News: “He comes after me, starts shoving and punching me. One time, right in the chin. And then he started shoving me, and pushing me.”

Baldwin’s take on the incident was: ‘A “photographer” almost hit me in the face with his camera this morning #allpaparazzishouldbewaterboarded’.

The usually shy and retiring Baldwin has previously live-tweeted an argument with a flight attendant who asked him to stop playing a game on his phone before takeoff, the conclusion of which was his removal from the plane, and famously referred to his 11-year-old daughter as a “rude, thoughtless little pig” in a voicemail message for her.