Bieber's mom produces anti-abortion film

Bieber's mom produces anti-abortion film

Jeffrey Mayer/WireImage

Justin Bieber (R) with his mom Pattie Mallette at the 40th Anniversary American Music Awards held at Nokia Theatre L.A. in November.

LOS ANGELES â€" Justin Bieber's mother, Pattie Mallette, is an executive producer on an upcoming anti-abortion short film.

The makers of "Crescendo" hope to raise $ 10 million for pregnancy centers at screenings worldwide starting Feb. 28. Mallette herself will appear at some of these, said production company Movie to Movement on Friday.

The pop star's mother has written and spoken extensively about the addiction and abuse that led to her teenage pregnancy.

Mallette said in a statement she hopes her involvement with "Crescendo" will "encourage young women all over the world, just like me, to let them know that there is a place to go, people who will take care of you and a safe home to live in if you are pregnant and think you have nowhere else to turn."

Robert Chew, actor on 'The Wire', dies at 52

Robert Chew, actor on 'The Wire', dies at 52

Barbara Haddock Taylor/Baltimore Sun

Robert Chew, 52, an actor from HBO's "The Wire," died Thursday from a heart attack at his home.   

Robert Chew, who played Proposition Joe on the HBO series "The Wire," has died. He was 52.

His sister, Clarice Chew, said he suffered a heart attack and died at his Baltimore home Thursday.

Robert Chew grew up in Baltimore and studied music at Morgan State University for two years. His sister said he worked as music director for the Arena Players community theater.

The character Prop Joe was a highly intelligent and ruthless yet polite and diplomatic Baltimore drug lord. Another sister, Maureen Brown, said strangers would approach Chew on the street in Baltimore and tell him what a great job he did in that role.

He also appeared in TV shows "The Corner" and "Homicide: Life on the Street" and the 2004 TV movie "Something the Lord Made."

After Sandy, Vogue dresses up a storm

After Sandy, Vogue dresses up a storm

AP

Jennifer Lawrence is ready to start acting up on ‘Saturday Night Live.’

Getty

It’s dog days for Casper Smart and Jennifer Lopez, above, who now have a little puppy, Bear.

AP

Tony Danza's 24-hour bug made for a tough transcontinental flight.

Getty

John Mayer put together a benefit concert with the Zac Brown Band to help firefighters in his ranch town in Montana.

Vogue magazine’s odd Hurricane Sandy fashion spread is the object of major backlash, with readers calling it tasteless, awful and done so soon after the storm (which hit the city Oct. 29) that it resembles something out of “Zoolander.”

The 12-page spread is jarring to flip through, with models Chanel Iman, Kasia Struss and Karlie Kloss inappropriately posing on a U.S. Coast Guard boat in billowing white Ralph Lauren, Vera Wang and Donna Karan gowns, standing inside Con Ed’s East River Generating Station in Oscar de la Renta, mingling with nurses in Bellevue while clad in Michael Kors and Marc Jacobs, and strutting with the NYPD and the FDNY in Far Rockaway in Narciso Rodriguez and Carolina Herrera dresses.

The supermodels seem so out of place it’s as if they’ve been photoshopped in by famed photog Annie Leibovitz.

“'When Hurricane Sandy hit, the city’s bravest and brightest punched back,” the intro to the piece reads. “With the area now on the mend, we paid these stalwart souls a visit, dressed up in the best of the New York collections. Call them New York’s other finest.”

A Vogue insider tells Confidenti@l that they’re not apologizing and that the goal of the shoot was to honor the first responders. The fashion bible also raised $ 1.7 million for Sandy relief immediately after of the disaster.

“This shoot was done well after the emergency situation in the city was over. We shot in December,” the source told us. “Every person and organization who participated had made it clear that if they were needed elsewhere, duty took precedent over our shoot, and all were happy to participate and are happy with the results.”

Our source adds that most of the shoots took place in an hour or two, and that there was a misconception that the assignments were day-long endeavors.

Vogue senior editor Corey Seymour is standing behind the effort, saying it was done with the best interests of New York City residents in mind.

“Like others in the city, Vogue responded to Hurricane Sandy by showing our support for those affected and our gratitude to the rescue workers,” Seymour said.

“In addition to spearheading a Charitybuzz auction and a designer sale, which jointly raised over $ 1.7 million in relief funds, we dedicated our February issue to New York City,” he said. “We chose to celebrate the hard work of the teams who responded to the crisis in a way appropriate to the context of a fashion magazine,” Seymour said.

LAWRENCE WILL BE FOOLING AROUND

Jennifer Lawrence will host “Saturday Night Live” this evening, and says she’s not afraid to act like a fool. The “Silver Linings Playbook” star, who won a Golden Globe for her role, saying “I beat Meryl” in her speech, told “Access Hollywood” she is ready to bring it. “They’ve just said it’s going to be the most amazing experience of my life, which they were right about.” She promised fans can get excited about watching her be “an idiot.”

MAYER’S GOT GOOD RANGE

After John Mayer’s Montana ranch was almost burned to the ground due to a wildfire, the singer performed live for the first time in two years to raise money for the firefighters who came to the rescue. Mayer, who also organized the concert, appeared in Bozeman, Mont., Wednesday with the Zac Brown Band, and raised over $ 100,000 for his local firefighters. The blaze occurred in August, while Mayer was in Los Angeles undergoing surgery for a growth near his vocal cords.

SIMMONS STILL ON THE BAWL

Richard Simmons â€" still working out, still an emotional mess. The 64-year-old fitness guru was on hand to teach the Old Navy Active Cardio Class Thursday at Aerospace, where he had “emotional crying fits” three times during the class, one guest tells Confidenti@l. “He is much weirder than even anticipated,” says our spy. “30 Rock” star Katrina Bowden attended the 5 p.m. class and got way into it.

PUPPY LOVE FOR J.LO AND CASPER

Jennifer Lopez and her boytoy Casper Smart are playing house. The duo have adopted a puppy together, a Boxer they have named Bear. On Thursday, J.Lo retweeted a picture of the pup that Smart had posted earlier that day. “Introducing the new addition to the family. “BEAR” So Happy! LilBabyBear.” She even brought Bear to her taping of the “Jimmy Kimmel Live” show on Thursday.

ROUGH DANZA FLIGHT

When Tony Danza got sick on a flight from L.A. to New York last weekend, IMG agent Lisa Benson tweeted that her seatmate, the 61-year-old “Who’s the Boss” star, was unwell. This prompted model Kate Upton to tweet “I don’t want to laugh but it is kind of funny the guy next to [Benson] is hung over.” Sources close to Danza say it was a 24-hour bug â€" not booze â€" that had him yacking. Danza seems to be feeling better now. Our spies spotted him downing absinthe shots with “Sex and the City” actor Mario Cantone at Cafe Tallulah.

Manti Te’o speaks: 'I wasn't faking it. I wasn’t part of this'

Manti Te’o speaks: 'I wasn't faking it. I wasn’t part of this'

Manti Te'o admits he misled people about having met the girlfriend who never existed, but says he was the victim of a cruel hoax and denies turned out to be an imaginary girlfriend, but says he was a victim of a cruel hoax and denied any involvement in the creation of the online phantom his fictitious online girlfriend.

Speaking for the first time since the bizarre story broke, the Notre Dame linebacker told ESPN’s Jeremy Schaap he never duped anyone about his Internet beau and believed Lennay Kekua was real.

WEISS: TE'O TELLING TRUTH OR JUST ANOTHER BIZARRE STORY IN THE GREATEST HOAX IN SPORTS HISTORY?

“No. Never,” he told Schapp at the IMG Training Academy in Bradenton, Fla., where he is preparing for the NFL draft.

“I wasn't faking it,” he added. “I wasn’t part of this.”

MANTI TE'O GIRLFRIEND HOAX: RONAIAH TUIASOSOPO, MAN AT CENTER OF SCANDAL, AUDITIONED ON 'THE VOICE' - WITH BIZARRE SOB STORY

In a 2 1/2-hour interview boiled down to a few riveting broadcast moments, Schaap described Te’o as incredibly believable.

“He had a full command of everything I posed,” Schaap said. “He seemed very comfortable in the chair.”

Te’o “met” Kekua on FaceBook in 2010, according to Schaap, and their relationship was casual until she told the star that she been in a car accident and a coma. From April until September, when the imaginary woman faked her death, the two “were inseparable by phone,” Schaap reported.

Te’o told Schapp he “tailored” his story give people, including his father, the impression he had met his girlfriend. That, he said, was his only fabrication.

Te’o also shot down allegations he used the news that his internet love died to help win his Heisman Trophy candidacy.

“When (people) hear the facts, they’ll know,” he said. “They’ll know that there is no way that I could be part of this.”

The denial came as it emerged Te’o’s imaginary girlfriend haunted the Notre Dame linebacker from beyond her nonexistent grave.

NO CHANCE FOR TRUTH FROM NOTRE DAME'S MANTI TE'O AS HANDLERS CALL PLAYS

The woman who provided the voice of the too-good-to-be-true gal pal called Te’o three months after her purported death to claim she had to fake her demise because she was hiding from drug dealers, Hawaiian news organizations reported Friday.

According to Schaap, until two days ago Te’o was still not sure he had been duped. Reality finally set in when the hoaxster, Ronaiah Tuiasosopo, called Te’o and apologized.

TWITTER USERS UNLEASH MANTI TE'O JOKES AND (SOME) DEFENSES FOR FAKE GIRLFRIEND HOAX

The bizarre December call was an apparent attempt to rekindle the relationship but finally convinced Te’o that his cyber romance was merely an embarrassing fraud, the Honolulu Star Advertiser reported.

A source close to the Te’o family told the Hawaiian paper about the latest grotesque twist in the increasingly strange case of the All-American and his bogus belle.

The call apparently came while the Heisman Trophy finalist was in Florida for an ESPN awards show, the paper said.

NFL SCOUT SAYS MANTI TE'O GIRLFRIEND HOAX COULD HURT NOTRE DAME LINEBACKER IN DRAFT

The revelation of the second scam try came as ESPN reported the suspected mastermind behind the Kekua persona delivered a teary confession of the cruel hoax to a friend in December.

Tuiasosopo admitted to a friend in December that he created the fictional Kekua to dupe the naive Golden Domer, a source close to the the friend told ESPN’s “Outside The Lines.”

“He told me that Manti was not involved at all; he was a victim,” the female friend told ESPN. “The girlfriend was a lie, the accident was a lie, the leukemia was a lie.”

The woman described Tuiasosopo as crying during their December conversation before conceding that he needed to come clean - though he still hasn't spoken publicly.

Fighting Irish captain Te’o, ignoring an increasing clamor, remained silent for a third day. But his Te’o’s irate uncle ripped Tuiasosopo as more details about the case leaked out:

• The All-American linebacker fell into the arms of an attractive, dark-haired student at another Indiana college in the weeks after Kekua’s “death,” according to TMZ.com. Alexandra del Pilar, 21, received leis from Te’o and hung them in her car.

• Te’o and his family planned to reveal the hoax this coming Monday, but were instead thunderstruck by the Wednesday exposé on Deadpsin.com.

• Tuiasosopo’s dad delivered a conciliatory Facebook message to the Te’o family, calling the athlete “an amazing role model for our youth.”

• Two people told ESPN that Tuiasosopo similarly scammed their cousin five years ago, posing online as a woman also named Lennay Kekua.

• Neighbors of Diane O’Meara, the California woman whose identity was stolen as part of the scam, expressed shock at her unwitting role in the mess.

• Alema Te’o, the linebacker’s uncle, blasted Ronaiah Tuiasosopo as a “sick shady character.”

TEOING TREND EXPLODES ON SOCIAL MEDIA AFTER MANTI TE’O GIRLFRIEND HOAX STORY BREAKS

Former high school football star Tuiasosopo, 22, should face criminal charges for his lies, raged Alema Te’o during a Thursday radio interview on The Zone Sports Network.

Te’o’s uncle, Alema Te’o, said he met with Tuiasosopo before the Notre Dame-USC game in November and “smelled him as a bad rat from the get-go â€" and I’m not afraid to come out and say that.”

Tuiasosopo â€" who once tried out for “The Voice” â€" showed his high school acting chops as president of the drama club.

A photo surfaced on Deadpsin.com showing Manti Te’o with Tuiasosopo’s kid sister, Pookah, on the eve of the game against the Trojans.

Alema Te’o said his nephew remains badly shaken by the avalanche of bad publicity following Deadspin’s revelation that Kekua did not exist.

“Ronaiah Tuiasosopo is a liar, he concocted the whole thing,” said Teo. “He’s been lying every step of the way.”

Notre Dame Athletic Director Jack Swarbrick said the university is urging Te’o to publicly address the issue.

“We are certainly encouraging it to happen,” he said Friday on his weekly radio show. “We think it’s important, and we’d like to see it happen sooner than later.”

Notre Dame officials said their investigation of the case showed Te’o was a gullible victim of a perverse plot.

But the Irish say Te’o is now on his own after graduating early from the university in December. He has since signed with the high-powered Creative Artists Agency heading into the upcoming NFL draft.

It was unclear how the bizarre tale would affect Te’o’s NFL career, but the father of his suspected tormentor wished the 20-year-old star nothing but the best.

Titus Tuiasosopo, on his Facebook page, urged people to avoid judging anyone until all the facts are known.

“It is my hope and prayer that we allow the truth to take its course, wherever that may lead,” wrote the elder Tuiasosopo.

“My heart goes out to Manti ... Please allow this young man to pursue his dream without judgment,“ he said. A Palmdale, Calif., neighbor of the Tuiasosopo clan said the whole controversy was “just ridiculous.”

“I bet when you were a kid you made a phony phone call,” said Joe Pizzo, 50, who lives next-door. “He’s a great kid from a great family.”

In Lancaster, Calif., neighbors were amazed to see local girl O’Meara, 23, emerge as the “face” of the phon y girlfriend. A Facebook photo of O’Meara was used during the scam.

“She’s a really good girl from a good family,” said Joseph Straw, 58.

“It’s a shock she got dragged into this.”

O’Meara is considering possible legal action.

Teo’s tale of his girlfriend’s tragic death last year became a touchstone of the team’s undefeated regular season and showdown in the national championship game against Alabama.

But speculation about the unreal romance remained rampant without any word from Te’o or Tuiasosopo.

The suspect’s friend told ESPN that she and Tuiasosopo last spoke Wednesday as the scam became public knowledge â€" and tried fruitlessly to convince him to come clean.

lmcshane@nydailynews.com

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TV review: 'Kourtney and Kim Take Miami'

TV review: 'Kourtney and Kim Take Miami'

Splash News

Kim Kardashian is back on familiar ground in Miami with sister Khloe for their show’s new season.

They’re not so klueless after all.

If nothing else the Kardashian sisters â€" Kim, Kourtney and Khloe â€" have proven that being famous for no real reason can not only make you more famous, it offers the opportunity to mint your own money.

It’s a lesson lost on none of the girls when they return Sunday for the latest cycle of Kardashian drama on “Kourtney and Kim Take Miami” (9 p.m. on E!), where the three return to Miami almost two years after their last foray through the South Florida celeb mecca before Kim’s marriage to NBA player Kris Humphries imploded after 72 days.

This season, Kim has shifted her attention to Kanye West, whose appearance on the episode is limited to a phone call and still pictures of the loving couple (she’s now pregnant) holding hands. He also sends her a white Persian kitten named Mercy to keep her company, but that quickly turns into a disaster when the little fluff ball starts pooping on the carpet of their expensive hotel room.

The premise for the trip is for Kim and Kourtney to focus their attention on the sisters’ South Beach boutique, Dash, but the real action comes every time Khloe brings up Kim’s failed marriage to Humphries â€" which seems to irritate Kim to no end.

Kanye “is so much better than Humphries,” Khloe says. “Like, seriously, what a waste of your time. I just feel like it was a dream that never really happened.”

Kim replies: “It was a very expensive dream that won’t leave me alone.”

As a way of catching viewers up on the whole tabloid-friendly fiasco, Khloe reminds us that Humphries is asking for an annulment, and that requires one partner’s admission that the marriage was a fraud.

“If you wanted to marry someone just for press, wouldn’t you have picked somebody who was actually popular?” Khloe sniffs.

Like, ugh.

With the exception of the family’s sniping about Humphries, it just feels like something we’ve all seen before, and maybe it’s time to move on. Or maybe not â€" imagine the ratings if Kim decides to broadcast her impending birth on live TV.

TGIF! Check out the HOTTEST celebrity photos of the week

TGIF! Check out the HOTTEST celebrity photos of the week

Joseph Gordon-Levitt kicks things off at Sundance with his drama "Don Jon's Addiction," co-starring Scarlett Johansson in a dramedy about a modern Don Juan.

What really happened at the world's most famous nightclub, Studio 54? Behind-the-scenes photos show wild parties and intimate celebrity moments from the A-listers who flocked there.

Check out all the movie premieres, A-list celebrities and Hollywood heavyweights who flocked to the 2013 Sundance Film Festival.

the right reasons. Check out the WORST beach bods of 2012 ...

Kids usually like to play dress-up, but one New York City-based artist took it to a whole other level when she recreated her favorite looks from the 2013 Golden Globes -- with toddler models!

For the 12th year in a row, thousands flocked to New York City subways to ride the rails without pants.

See what all the stars were up to this week ...

'Paranoid' teen confronts mother's killer

'Paranoid' teen confronts mother's killer

Jesse Ward/for New York Daily News

Sabrina Mannino, 14, (front) daughter of Daniella Mannino, 34, who was stabbed to death on April of 2011, by her then boyfriend Brian Sohtz, gives her victim impact statement at his sentencing hearing.

A 14-YEAR-OLD girl on Friday stared down the man who admitted stabbing her mother to death.

At the killer’s sentencing, the teen blasted the callous killer for destroying her life, too.

JUDGE TOSSES OUT MURDER CONVICTION OF MAN WHO SERVED 22 YEARS

“I’m paranoid that something like this will happen to me someday,” Sabrina Mannino told Brian Sohtz, before he was sentenced to 22 years in prison for slaying Daniella Mannino in April 2011.

“I can never forgive someone who did this horrible thing,” the daughter said in Brooklyn Supreme Court â€" filled with some 50 anguished relatives and friends â€" calling Sohtz “a total monster and murderer.”

Sohtz, 38, confessed to stabbing the woman in the bathtub of his Bensonhurst apartment. He struck a plea deal for first-degree manslaughter after claiming extreme emotional disturbance.