Sheriff: DMX dogs had serious wounds

September 24, 2007

Two dogs found buried at a Phoenix home belonging to rapper DMX had serious wounds, authorities investigating animal neglect allegations said Saturday. One of the dogs had serious bite wounds and another had trauma to its abdomen, but exact causes of death were not determined, Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio said. A third dog carcass had been burned so badly an exam was inconclusive. The remains were dug up on Aug. 24. No charges were filed against anyone, but Arpaio said that may change. "We have 12 dogs who were abused and three dogs buried in the yard - someone's going to have to pay," he said. A lawyer for the 36-year-old rapper, whose real name is Earl Simmons, has said DMX was not at the home during the raid, hadn't been there for months, and was paying caretakers to care for his animals. (AP)

Tom Cruise and the crew of his new movie, "Valkyrie," held a minute of silence Friday for German anti-Nazi heroes as the team prepared to film at the site where they were executed, a fellow cast member said in comments published yesterday. In the movie, Cruise plays Colonel Claus Graf Schenk von Stauffenberg, the aristocratic army officer who was among those executed after a failed attempt to assassinate Adolf Hitler in July 1944. The German government initially declined permission to film at the so-called Bendlerblock - part of the Defense Ministry grounds and now a memorial to the anti-Nazi resistance - citing concerns over "the dignity of the place," but reversed course this month. (AP)

Salma Hayek and her businessman fiance, François Henri Pinault, are the parents of a baby girl, Valentina Paloma Pinault. The daughter is the first child for Hayek, 41. Pinault, 45, has two children from a previous marriage that ended in divorce in 2004. . . . In other baby news, Oasis songwriter Noel Gallagher has become a father for a second time. His partner, Sara MacDonald, 40, gave birth in London on Saturday to a boy named Donovan Rory MacDonald Gallagher, his publicist said. It is the first child for the couple, but the second for Gallagher, who has a 7-year-old daughter, Anais, with ex-wife Meg Mathews. . . . And "Voice of An Angel" singer Charlotte Church has a little angel of her own. The 21-year-old has given birth to a baby girl. Rugby player boyfriend Gavin Henson, 25, was present at the birth. (People.com)

Rodney Dangerfield's widow says that even in death the comedian can't get any respect. Joan Dangerfield filed a lawsuit Thursday in Los Angeles County Superior Court to stop the airing of a videotape of Dangerfield in his later years that she says was never intended for the public. The comedian was 82 when he died in October 2004. The suit claimed that producer David Permut, a former friend, has more than 200 hours of video footage of Dangerfield taken at his home during the last few years of his life, and is editing the material into a documentary called "Respect." (AP)