Barker, DJ AM's tale of survival

September 25, 2008

One of the first responders to the South Carolina plane crash that killed four people Friday said yesterday that the two musicians who survived slid down the wing to safety. "Once it went down, they were able to slide down the wing of the plane, and they jumped on each other to put fires on each other out and rolled around on the ground," said Lieutenant Jason Shumpert of the South Congaree Police Department. Shumpert said he didn't know until later that the two badly burned men were former blink-182 drummer Travis Barker and celebrity disc jockey DJ AM, whose real name is Adam Goldstein. A video of the crash scene shot from Shumpert's police car shows an inferno next to the road, with screams ringing out above the din of sirens of ambulances and fire trucks. Shumpert said the screaming voice belonged to Barker, who was in intense pain as he sat on the sidewalk, waiting for medical help to arrive. "Travis, you could tell he was in pain," Shumpert said. "He just kept saying: 'That's my friends in the plane, that's my friends in the plane.' " (AP)

Clay Aiken appears on the cover of the latest People magazine holding his infant son, Parker Foster Aiken, with the headline: "Yes, I'm Gay." The 29-year-old former "American Idol" runner-up, multiplatinum recording artist, and Broadway star credits his son, conceived by in-vitro fertilization with friend and producer Jaymes Foster, with making him realize that he could no longer hide his homosexuality from the world. "It was the first decision I made as a father," Aiken told the magazine, which arrives on newsstands tomorrow. "I cannot raise a child to lie or to hide things. I wasn't raised that way, and I'm not going to raise a child to do that." (AP)

Actress Sharon Stone has lost another round of custody proceedings over her oldest son. A San Francisco judge denied her request for primary custody of 8-year-old Roan, who's been living with his father, newspaper executive Phil Bronstein. The couple divorced in 2004 after six years of marriage. The judge ruled Sept. 12 that Bronstein's home is more stable and structured, reaffirming a 2007 court order that the executive vice president of the San Francisco Chronicle has permanent sole custody of Roan. Stone retains visitation rights. (AP)

Aerosmith frontman Steven Tyler yesterday sued unknown bloggers who the singer said impersonated him on the Web, writing about the death of his mother and other "intimate details" from his life. In a lawsuit filed in Los Angeles, Tyler said he didn't know the real names of those who have impersonated him and girlfriend Erin Brady on the Web, but he believes the same group was responsible for similar postings last year. At that time, Tyler asked Google to remove the blogs, and the Internet company complied. (Reuters)

Paul McCartney said yesterday he's carrying a message of peace for Israel and the Palestinians, rejecting criticism of his planned concert in Tel Aviv. McCartney toured the West Bank town of Bethlehem, visiting the Church of the Nativity, built over the traditional birthplace of Jesus. The ex-Beatle ducked into the fourth-century church through its low, narrow entrance, taking pictures with a small camera. He lit two candles in different parts of the church, saying each time they were "for peace." "I'm here to highlight the situation and to say that what we need is peace in this region, a two-state solution. I'm bringing a message of peace, and I think that's what the region needs." (AP)

"I'm not saying that. And my name is not Gordon. He's a character I played 20 years ago." - Michael Douglas, whose character Gordon Gekko uttered the infamous line "Greed is good" in the film "Wall Street," when asked yesterday if he thinks greed is not good, in light of the current financial crisis