Sir Elton trying marriage

Elton John intends to marry his long-term partner David Furnish sometime this year or in 2006, reports ABC News.

The British pop star told the Mirror tabloid that he and Furnish wanted to hold a civil partnership ceremony in Windsor, near London, in mid-December, although publicist Gary Farrow said John had added it could take place sometime next year.

“John said that it may be by Christmas and it may be next year,” said Farrow.

He added that one of John’s main motivations for the ceremony was financial. Civil partnerships between gay couples will be allowed in Britain starting Dec. 5 and will give partners tax breaks available to married couples.

John, 58, and Furnish, 42, have been partners for more than 11 years. A Web site recently speculated the couple was splitting up, prompting Furnish to say that they had “never been happier.”

John told the Mirror that Furnish should not expect some of the trappings of a regular marriage.

“There will be no honeymoon. I’m on tour,” he said.

John has sold tens of millions of records worldwide and is best known for classic tracks including “Goodbye Yellow Brick Road,” “Candle in the Wind” and “Rocket Man.”

He has signed an agreement to perform 75 shows over three years in Las Vegas and is also touring the United States, Europe and Canada over the coming months.

John, born Reginald Kenneth Dwight, previously married German music engineer Renate Blauel in 1984. She and John divorced four years later.

– Knight Ridder Newspapers
‘Will & Grace’ make more

The four stars of “Will & Grace” can buy that seventh summer home after all. Despite talk that Eric McCormack, Debra Messing, Sean Hayes and Megan Mullally would likely take a pay cut to return next fall, The Hollywood Reporter says the quartet have secured “significant salary bumps” for an eighth season.

According to the trade paper, each of the actors will pocket $600,000 per episode, compared to $400,000 per episode this season.

This marks the first time Mullally and Hayes will be brought up to full paycheck parity with Messing and McCormack.

– Knight Ridder Newspapers
Shakira fixates on music

After months of buzz about Shakira’s upcoming album and conflicting reports concerning its language – the record has finally been set straight by the Colombian singer’s label, reports Latin Heat.com.

According to reps at Sony, Shakira is in the Bahamas recording two separate albums for release later this year.

“Fijacion oral 1” (“Oral Fixation 1”) is in Spanish and will drop June 7 in the United States and June 6 internationally, while “Oral Fixation 2” will drop in the United States this fall in English.

The Spanish album’s first single “La tortura” (“The Torture”) was released on the airwaves April 11.

– Knight Ridder Newspapers
The Crue helps in search

ROSEDALE, Md. (AP) – Motley Crue is joining efforts to find a Baltimore area woman missing since March 6, when she failed to meet friends for the band’s concert in Washington.

Tracey Gardner-Tetso, 32, of Rosedale, was reported missing by her husband after she didn’t meet friends at the “Red, White & Crue Tour 2005” show at the MCI Center.

The band will match an earlier reward of up to $10,000 to increase publicity about the woman’s disappearance, said Katie McNeil of 10th Street Entertainment, Motley Crue’s management company.

“We hope our involvement helps bring more attention to this case, and anyone with information will step forward,” Nikki Sixx, the group’s bass player, said in a recent statement.

The earlier reward was offered by the Victims’ Rights Foundation of Gaithersburg, Metro Crime Stoppers and Aggregate Industries, where Gardner-Tetso worked as a dispatcher.

On the Web:

http://www.motley.com/index.php

Copy the Story Link