Anne Hathaway’s ex-boyfriend, Italian businessman Raffaello Follieri, has been arrested on charges of wire fraud conspiracy and money laundering, according to the Associated Press.

He is due in Manhattan federal court Tuesday.

Follieri, 29, is accused of falsely telling an investor that he had been appointed as the chief financial officer of the Vatican so he could obtain properties of the Catholic church in the U.S. at a discount to fair market value, the AP reports.

The Daily Mail of London recently reported that Hathaway, 25, broke it off with Follieri because she feared that his recent legal woes could hurt her career.

An additional source confirmed the split to Usmagazine.com: “Yes, they’re taking a break. All the shady stuff was too much.”

Follieri is also under investigation by the New York State Attorney General’s office for failing to file tax-disclosure forms for his charity, the Follieri Foundation.

He was arrested in April for allegedly writing a $215,000 bad check.

During an appearance on The View that aired last Thursday, Hathaway admitted she wasn’t feeling her “girlish, bubbly” self.

She told Joy Behar, “I’m kind of somber today.”

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DMX has once again been arrested for driving offences in Miami, this time for driving without a valid driver’s licence.

As reported by MTV.co.uk, it was only last month that DMX was arrested in Arizona for allegedly driving his Chevy at over 100MPH whilst his licence was suspended.

Miami-Dade Police say the 37-year-old rapper, real name is Earl Simmons, was picked up about 1:30 p.m. Monday on an arrest warrant for having no valid driver’s license.

DMX is no stranger to brushes with the law. In January the rapper was forced to pay the mother of his child $1 million dollars in punitive damages and $518,000 in compensatory damages for defamatory remarks he made in Sister 2 Sister magazine.

Last month he was arrested for animal cruelty and felony drug possession charges for which he pleaded not guilty in court.

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Oscar-winning actress Tatum O’Neal has been arrested in New York after allegedly buying crack cocaine.

The 44-year-old was seen purchasing the drug from a dealer in the Lower East Side district of the city at around 7:30 local time, police said.

She has been given a misdemeanour charge of criminal possession of a controlled substance and will be arraigned at court on Monday.

The suspected dealer, named as Alan Garcia, 33, was also arrested and thought to have spent the night in custody.

It is alleged that O’Neal asked approaching police officers: “Do you know who I am?”

She is then said to have claimed: “I’m researching a part – I’m doing this for a part as a junkie,” according to the New York Post newspaper.

O’Neal, who won an best supporting actress Oscar when she was only ten for her role in 1973’s Paper Moon, chroncicled her battles with substance abuse in her memoir A Paper Life.

The former wife of John McEnroe had claimed that addiction was in her DNA as her mother, the late actress Joanna Moore, was an amphetamine-abusing alcoholic.

Though O’Neal, daughter of actor Ryan O’Neal, had seen her career in tatters after completing a rehab course in 1996, she had recently made a comeback of sorts, starring in TV series Rescue Me.

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Jurors in the R. Kelly child pornography trial viewed the notorious 27-minute sex tape on Tuesday (May 20), which prosecutors claim shows the R&B singer engaging in ”vile, disturbing, and disgusting sex acts” with an underage girl. The prosecution told the court that the tape, shown just hours after opening statements, depicts Kelly having sex with a girl who was as young as 13 years old when it was made between Jan. 1, 1998, and Nov. 1, 2000. Defense attorney Sam Adam Jr. used his opening statements to tell jurors that Kelly was not the man on the tape, calling into question the video’s origins as well as the identity of the girl depicted. The 23-year-old woman prosecutors say was a minor at the time of the taping also denies that she’s the person on the video. Prosecutor Shauna Boliker told the court that she would not be calling the alleged victim to the stand, but did not explain why. Adam told jurors the woman is not being called to testify because she isn’t the person prosecutors say is shown in the tape. Kelly has pleaded not guilty and faces up to 15 years if convicted.

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Boy band svengali LOU PEARLMAN has been sentenced to 25 years in jail after pleading guilty to cheating investors and U.S. banks out of more than $300 million (£150 million).

The man behind the Backstreet Boys and N’ Sync was charged with conspiracy, money laundering and making false statements during a bankruptcy proceeding.

He reached a plea deal with prosecutors in March (08), which left him facing up to 25 years behind bars and a $1 million (£500,000) fine.

As part of the agreement, he agreed to work with federal agents to recover as much of the $300 million (£150 million) he is accused of stealing.

Pearlman also acknowledged setting up a fake accounting firm to create business documents and tax returns for himself and his companies and he admitted using the signature of a deceased former associate to stall repayment bids.

The shamed businessman is suspected of defrauding another $100 million (£50 million) from banks.

Pearlman appeared in a Florida court on Wednesday (21May08) morning, when he was handed the full prison term by U.S. Judge G. Kendall Sharp.

Delivering the sentence, Sharp held up a book of letters from Pearlman’s victims, noting that his targets included “his family, his close friends and people in their 70s and 80s who have lost their life savings”.

He added, “So the sympathy factor doesn’t run high with the court.”

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Rapper-turned-reality TV star Vanilla Ice has been arrested for domestic battery.

The star, real name Robert Van Winkle, and his wife Laura had been arguing since Wednesday. It is believed Laura called police to report her husband was hitting and kicking her at their Palm Beach County, Florida home on Thursday evening.

According to the arrest report, Laura Van Winkle appeared uninjured, but told cops she wanted a divorce from the star. But she is reported to have reneged on her earlier allegations, insisting her husband had not hit or kicked her, but had pushed her.

She is alleged to have told a police officer, “He started yelling at me for going out to buy a bedroom set. In front of my daughter. I’m sorry I can’t say any more until I talk to an attorney.”

Robert, 40, told cops about the couple’s two-day fight, admitting he called his wife “nuts”, and said his wife is bipolar and takes medication but still has ‘irrational episodes’. He denied the allegations he pushed his wife.
Van Winkle was arrested in 2004 over similar domestic battery charges.

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L.A. cops arrested Rikki Rockett, drummer for the glam rock band Poison, on a rape warrant out of Mississippi after he touched the ground at Los Angeles Airport after a flight from New Zealand, reports the Los Angeles Daily News.

Officers from the LAPD’s Airport Division seized the 46-year-old former hairdresser and lifeguard (real name: Richard Ream) as he was going through customs on Monday and then transported him to L.A. County Jail.

Officials there booked him on a felony fugitive sexual assault warrant out of Neshoba County, Miss. Information about the warrant and specific charges was not immediately available. Neither were details of Rockett’s current whereabouts.

The drummer had been in New Zealand to reunite and perform with other original members of the band at Rock2Wellington, a heavy metal show. He formed the group in the ’80s with high school pal Bret Michaels.

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