PRINCETON, N.J. — The four years Brooke Shields spent hitting the books at Princeton University gave her the skills to survive the tribulations of show business, the actress told students at her alma mater Monday.
Urging them to live life to the fullest and take nothing for granted, Shields teared up as she delivered the keynote speech at the annual Class Day to honor graduating seniors.
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“My education enabled me to survive this industry – one that predicates itself on eating its young,” she said.
Shields, who was a prominent Calvin Klein model when she enrolled at Princeton, reminisced about her college experiences, such as having her entire academic record printed in Life magazine.
“Or when George Michael tells you he doesn’t want to date you because he wants to focus on his solo career – then you find out he’s gay,” she said.
She jokingly reminded the a capella group that rejected her decades ago that she’ll be starring in her fifth Broadway musical later this year. And she questioned how far down she was on the list of preferred headliners for the ceremony.
“Who couldn’t they get? Why, did Snooki pass?” she asked.
Blanchett backs plan to tax polluters in Australia
CANBERRA, Australia — Actress Cate Blanchett and former conservative Prime Minister Malcolm Fraser are among prominent Australians who threw their support Monday behind the unpopular government plan to tax major polluters for the carbon gas they emit.
Blanchett and Fraser were among 140 personalities and organizations who signed a petition distributed to federal lawmakers supporting the center-left government’s plan to make polluters pay for every ton of carbon gas they produce in a bid to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
The petition is part of a $1 million national newspaper and television advertising campaign funded by environmental groups and unionists.
Newlyweds will visit several Canadian cities
LONDON — Prince William and his bride will travel thousands of miles from Canada’s north to Southern California on their first official overseas trip, royal officials said Monday.
William and the former Kate Middleton will visit several cities in Canada from June 30 to July 8, taking in the country’s north, south, east and west. It will be their first overseas trip as a married couple.
Palace officials said the couple will visit Canada’s capital, Ottawa and the surrounding region; Montreal and Quebec City in the francophone province of Quebec; Charlottetown and Summerside on Prince Edward Island; the Northwest Territories capital of Yellowknife and the oil boom town of Calgary, Alberta. Their Alberta visit coincides with the opening of the city’s world-famous rodeo event, the Calgary Stampede.
The couple, now known as the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge, married April 29.
Sean Kingston in intensive care
MIAMI — Miami-born hip-hop and reggae singer Sean Kingston is in the intensive-care unit at Jackson Memorial Hospital a day after he crashed his personal watercraft into a Miami Beach bridge Sunday, authorities said.
Kingston, 21, was driving with a female passenger aboard when the accident occurred, said Jorge Pino of the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission.
He slammed into the Palm Island Bridge about 6 p.m. Both he and the passenger were thrown into the water, Pino said.
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