LITTLE ROCK — Movie producer and actor Tyler Perry says he is taking his sharp-tongued character “Madea” back on tour. Perry posted a message on his Web site Saturday that said he had taken some timeoff in the past few months “so I could spend my mother’s final days at her side.” His mother, Willie Maxine Perry, died Dec. 8 at age 64. Perry says he will begin touring with his new play, Madea’s Big Happy Family, the iron-willed Southern matriarch he portrays in a wig and padded suit. She is the central character of many of his films, including Tyler Perry’s Madea Goes to Jail. The actor says he is eager to have Madea on stage for the first time in five years.
Police said Ivana Trump was escorted off a plane in Florida after she became belligerent when children were running and screaming in the aisles. Authorities say the first ex-wife of billionaire Donald Trump cursed at the children Saturday, and when flight attendants on the New York bound plane tried to calmher, she became even more aggravated. Her spokesman, Catherine Saxton, did not immediately return a telephone message. Trump filed for divorce from her fourth husband earlier this month. She has not been charged in the incident at Palm Beach International Airport. Palm Beach County sheriff’s deputies asked Trump to voluntarily exit the plane, but they said she refused. She was then escorted off.
Jon Gosselin’s lawyer said someone slashed, stole and smashed furniture and other items in the reality star’s New York City apartment while he spent Christmas with his children in Pennsylvania. Attorney Mark Jay Heller said Gosselin returned home Saturday to find the destruction - and a note “speared” to his dresser with a butcher knife. Heller wouldn’t disclose who signed the note or what it said. He said electronics, pots and dishes were stolen, a family-heirloom vase was shattered, and Gosselin’s clothes and furnishings were cut. Police declined to comment. Gosselin, 32, rose to fame on TLC’s Jon & Kate Plus 8 before splitting with wife Kate this year.
Front Section, Pages 2 on 12/28/2009