So, another great actor is gone from us, one who deserved but never won the Academy Award. Richard Widmark died yesterday at 93 at his home in Connecticut. The man who smirked and laughed as he pushed an old lady in a wheelchair down the stairs in the 1947 film, “Kiss of Death,” was on the top of our list to be given an honorary Oscar. Now it’s too late.

And, in Los Angeles, the trial of private eye Anthony Pellicano dragged on after three weeks of grueling testimony that has some of the biggest names in moviedom on the griddle. Did people actually hire Pellicano to bully and threaten others? It seems so. Pellicano and four co-defendants are charged with illegal wiretapping and racketeering.

Now they are predicting that this horrid exercise in arm-twisting will go on for two more weeks.


READING THE EUROPEAN NEWSPAPERS:

Some British lawmakers want to reduce speed limits in Great Britain to 15 mph in small, newly designed eco-towns in order to encourage residents to stay out of their cars. The intent is to fight global warming. This would encourage more use of public transport, walking and biking. There is a lot of opposition to this, as you can imagine.

In Venice, they have not only declared speeding laws for all boats, gondolas and water vehicles but the City Council is considering how to control the flood of visitors who block streets and overwhelm services. Venice sees over 100,000 people arriving every day. Only 50,000 people live in La Serenissima. A “city pass” will likely be introduced for people wanting to enter Venice within the next year.

Rome is aghast. The Vatican has always maintained that St. Peter was martyred and buried in Rome — his bones residing in St. Peter’s. He was the first of all the popes that have succeeded him. But a coming documentary says he never reached Rome and accuses the Church of ignoring the discovery of a tomb in Jerusalem, which some archaeologists believe contain Peter’s bones. Critics of the film are accusing an Oxford Brookes theologian, Dr. Robert Beckford, of attacking the Church with his “Da Vinci-like” theory titled, “The Secrets of the Twelve Disciples.”

Paul McCartney is sifting through boxes of photographs to select 28 photos for a coming exhibition at the James Hyman Gallery in London, to mark the 10th anniversary of his first wife, Linda’s, death. This has distracted him from the recent unpleasantness with his second wife, Heather Mills, and their oh-too-public divorce settlement.

Friends say Sir Paul feels vindicated by the way the Judge subjected Heather to a public humiliation, publishing his 58-page judgment in full. But he wants things to settle down for the sake of their little daughter, Beatrice.

Those close to the most popular of the Beatles feel he’ll soon embark on a world tour. “Music and the message of his songs are what he is about,” says his advisor and publicist Geoff Baker.

“He is too good a man and too big a star not to survive this.” The verdict seems to be that he emerged from the bitterness battle with Heather with his estimated $700,000 million fortune mostly untouched — his reputation and dignity intact.

The Daily Telegraph of London’s gossip maestro, Mandrake, says, nonetheless, the McCartney-Mills divorce has led to a “sea change” in the matter of divorce cases being settled out of court. Now attorneys are urging clients to settle things in a quiet and more dignified fashion. Their new slogan to battling clients?

“Stay out of court. ‘Least said, soonest mended.’”