4 min read

CHARLESTON, W.Va. (AP) – More than 400 items donated by baseball fans at a mock shower for mom-to-be Jennifer Garner and husband Ben Affleck are going to a “baby pantry” that helps low-income parents in southern West Virginia.

Garner and Affleck didn’t attend the “Jen and Ben Baby Shower Night” held earlier this month at a West Virginia Power minor league baseball game in Charleston, where Garner grew up.

Donations included denim coveralls, pink and frilly dresses, dozens of snuggly outfits, a stroller, a walker, diapers, shampoo, powder and lotion.

Nancy Thomas, who runs the Starting Points center at Falls View Presbyterian Church, about 33 miles east of Charleston, said the items will keep the pantry going for a long time.

Thomas said she has written a letter to Garner to thank her, too.

“She may not have appreciated the shower or felt good about people using her name. But I want her to know what a difference this will make in the lives of so many people.”

Garner, 33, star of the TV series “Alias,” and Affleck, 32, tied the knot last month at the Parrot Cay resort in the Caribbean islands of Turks and Caicos.

The actress has been filming the drama “Catch and Release” in Vancouver, Canada. Affleck will star as George Reeves, television’s Superman, in the upcoming movie “Truth, Justice, and the American Way.”



LOS ANGELES (AP) – Fox Searchlight says it has secured the rights to a film about slain rapper Notorious B.I.G. that is to be produced by the artist’s mother and his former managers.

The studio is in negotiations with Antoine Fuqua (“Training Day”) to direct the biopic. Cheo Hodari Coker, who wrote the biography “Unbelievable: The Life, Death, and Afterlife of the Notorious B.I.G., ” has been tapped to write the script, Fox Searchlight announced Tuesday.

The studio’s president, Peter Rice, called B.I.G.’s life “a unique human story.”

The rapper, whose real name was Christopher Wallace, was also known to fans as Biggie Smalls. He was gunned down March 9, 1997, after a music-industry party in Los Angeles. The case remains unsolved.

His mother, Voletta, said in a statement that while several documentaries have been made “about Biggie the rapper … nobody knows Christopher the human being.”

“He was somebody with feelings, somebody with a heart. Christopher was a son, a father and a good friend. It’s time for people to know the real him,” his mother said.

B.I.G.’s former managers Wayne Barrow and Mark Pitts will produce the movie.

“Searchlight gave us the opportunity to really be able to come in and tell the story the way it was supposed to be told,” Barrow said. “It’s not just a hip-hop film, it’s a film of life and a film of love.”

While plans for the movie are moving along, a Hollywood ending has yet to be reached in the legal case surrounding Wallace’s death. Earlier this month, a federal judge declared a mistrial in the wrongful death lawsuit that his family filed against the city of Los Angeles. The family alleges police officials covered up officers’ involvement in the murder.

Wallace family lawyer Perry Sanders Jr. has said the lawsuit will likely be refiled.



LEWISBURG, Pa. (AP) – Linda Blair has been turning heads in this small central Pennsylvania town.

Blair, best known for her role as a demonically possessed 12-year-old in 1973’s “The Exorcist,” is working on an independent film written, produced and directed by Lewisburg natives Todd G. Beiber and Juliana Brafa.

She plays a social worker who is helping a young woman escape from her violent boyfriend in the psychological thriller titled, “All Is Normal.”

Beiber and Brafa, who have collaborated on several short films, sent Blair a copy of the screenplay after meeting her at a film festival last year.

“They were very persistent,” Blair said, laughing. “They didn’t stop writing or calling.”

The 46-year-old actress said she was proud of appearing in “The Exorcist,” but had little to do with how it turned out.

“I didn’t create it,” she said. “I’m proud, but I have so much left to accomplish in my life.”

Beiber and Brafa said they were thrilled to work with Blair on their first full-length movie.

“I didn’t think we expected to grow as much as we have in the last five days,” Beiber said Tuesday. “It’s going to benefit us for the rest of lives to have the experience working with Linda.”



OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) – “American Idol” winner Carrie Underwood will sing classic jingles in a new television ad campaign for the Hershey Co.

Underwood, a native of Checotah, will sing “sometimes you feel like a nut … sometimes you don’t” for Almond Joy and Mounds. She also will sing “give me a break” for Kit Kat and “Hershey’s is … the great American chocolate bar.”

Having Underwood sing the jingles gives a modern twist to the candy, Jay Cooper, Hershey’s vice president of U.S. chocolate brands, said recently.

Underwood, 22, also will be a spokeswoman for Skechers, a California sneaker maker, in an ad campaign.

Comments are no longer available on this story