Prince William fell from his horse as he and his younger brother, Prince Harry, took to the polo field for a charity match Saturday in aid of victims of the Asian tsunami.
The princes, who organized the charity match, led opposing teams onto the field at the Longdole Polo Club in western England. Afterward, players and guests were invited to join William, 22, and Harry, 20, for tea.
Prince William wasn’t hurt by his fall and quickly remounted and plunged back into action. But his team lost 12 goals to 7.
“It was just a bit of a slip and he was fine,” said Matt Cudmore, one of Prince William’s teammates. “We had a bit of a joke about it, and he got back on.”
The sons of Prince Charles and Princess Diana said they were moved by the plight of victims of the Dec. 26 natural disaster that killed more than 170,000 people.
Ticket sales for the match raised about $50,000 for the Tsunami Earthquake Appeal. Both princes have made private donations for relief efforts.
ROD POPS THE QUESTION
Rod Stewart proposed to his longtime girlfriend at the top of the Eiffel Tower in Paris, reports The Associated Press.
Record label BMG said Stewart, 60, went down on one knee and proposed to 33-year-old Penny Lancaster at the French landmark on Wednesday. She accepted.
“I left it this long because I wanted to get it right this time,” Stewart said in a statement. “I’ve never been happier and more in love than I am today.”
BMG said the couple, who have dated for more than five years, plan to marry later this year.
Lancaster’s agent, Nicholas Young, said the couple would make wedding plans once Stewart’s divorce from model Rachel Hunter is finalized. “Rod’s preference is to get married in Scotland,” Young said.
The raspy-voiced rock star was previously married to Alana Stewart.
FROM “SIDEWAYS’ TO PARTING WAYS
“Sideways” director Alexander Payne and actress-wife Sandra Oh have “have mutually decided to separate,” a spokeswoman told People magazine on Saturday. She said the Hollywood couple “will remain friends.”
The couple met five years ago and married in 2003.
Payne wrote and directed “Sideways,” the comedy about two friends on a wine-tasting road trip through California, and Oh co-starred in the film.
The film was nominated for five Oscars, and Payne shared the Academy Award with his writing partner for Best Adapted Screenplay.
SWANK FIGHTS FRUIT FINE
Hilary Swank, the Oscar-winning star of “Million Dollar Baby,” is going toe-to-toe with New Zealand authorities over a $150 fine customs officials slapped on her for bringing fruit into the country, local media reported Sunday.
Swank, who won a best-actress Academy Award for her role as a boxer in the acclaimed Clint Eastwood-directed movie, was fined 200 New Zealand dollars ($150) on Jan. 15 for failing to declare an apple and an orange in her luggage when she arrived at Auckland International Airport, The Sunday Star-Times newspaper said in a front-page story.
She has instructed lawyers to appear in the northern city’s Manukau District Court next week to contest the fine, the newspaper reported.
Thousands of visitors arriving in New Zealand each year are hit with on-the-spot fines for not declaring products like fruit which are subject to import bans. Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry spokesman William Minchin told the Star-Times that hundreds of people contest the fine.
Like neighboring Australia, New Zealand is largely free of pests that cause billions of dollars in damage to crops and livestock in other parts of the world. The country has extremely strict quarantine guidelines to keep such pests from entering the country.
“It’s a pretty standard practice to issue an instant fine for a biosecurity risk,” Minchin told the newspaper. “The only thing that’s unusual in this case is that it’s Hilary Swank and she’s famous.”
HAYEK’S KILLER ROLE
Salma Hayek is in a thieving-killing mood it seems, for the Mexican actress has landed a role in “Lonely Hearts” where she plays a 1940s serial killer, Variety reports.
Shooting for the film, which includes an all-star cast of John Travolta and James Gandolfini, is set to begin in April, the report said.
Hayek recently wrapped “Banditas” with Penelope Cruz where the two play a couple of bank robbers, the report said, the Mexican actress will also star alongside Colin Farrell in the upcoming flick “Ask the Dust.”
—
MONDAY’S BIRTHDAYS
Actor Michael Caine is 72. Composer-conductor Quincy Jones is 72. Comedian Billy Crystal is 57. Actress Penny Johnson Jerald (“24”) is 44. Actress Elise Neal (“The Hughleys”) is 35. Actor Chris Klein is 26.
—
(Compiled from staff and wire reports.)
—
(c) 2005, The Miami Herald.
Visit The Miami Herald Web edition on the World Wide Web at http://www.herald.com/
Distributed by Knight Ridder/Tribune Information Services.
AP-NY-03-13-05 1707EST
Comments are no longer available on this story